The Birth of Sword God-Chapter 70 - 68: Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Root [Part 5 Update, Please Vote!]

Chapter 70: Chapter 68: Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Root [Part 5 Update, Please Vote!]

Chu Huaixu was all too familiar with the legends about the Dao Ancestor.

It’s said that there used to be an ordinary Daoist temple atop Wenda Peak, with a very odd name—Junzi Temple.

And the Dao Ancestor was just a little Daoist in that temple.

He once stumbled upon a Nameless Technique for the First Realm and then began cultivating.

Some say that his later techniques were pieced together from all over, while others claim he created them all on his own.

Anyway, this little Daoist worked his way up from Daoist to Daoist Master, and then ultimately became the Dao Ancestor.

The name "Dao Scripture" was given by later generations, or more accurately, as a title of respect.

The Dao Ancestor himself never named his own cultivation technique.

"Dao Scripture is split into nine volumes, corresponding to the First Realm through the Ninth Realm," Chu Huaixu mused.

The cultivation system in the Profound Yellow Realm is quite strange.

Techniques for different realms aren’t actually linked to one another, because the cultivation model for each realm is different.

The First Realm has its own cultivation technique; the Second Realm has another.

So-called cultivation is really just about continuously developing the Spiritual Embryo Secret Collection within the body—by doing so, you can store more spiritual power, strengthen the divine sense in your sea of consciousness, gain more divine techniques...

The nine realms are essentially nine stages of unlocking the Spiritual Embryo Secret Collection, a gradual process.

And techniques are just the various ways and means to develop the Spiritual Embryo Secret Collection.

Once you step into the next realm, the "thing" you’re unlocking changes entirely—it has nothing to do with the previous realm and isn’t exactly an unbroken inheritance.

Take Han Shuangjiang’s choice, Six Celestial True Scripture—it’s also split into three volumes for the First, Second, and Third Realm.

But funnily enough, Six Celestial True Scripture 2 is just an Earth Level technique, and volume 3 is only Profound Level.

All three were created by the same person, which is why they share a name, but honestly, they’re not all that related.

Of course, the creator could’ve just named them differently if they felt like it—totally up to their own mood.

Some folks, realizing their newer techniques are progressively trashier, will just rename them to save the reputation of the earlier volumes...

According to the Profound Yellow Realm’s cultivation system, once Han Shuangjiang reaches the Second Realm, she could skip Six Celestial True Scripture 2 altogether and pick any other Second Realm Celestial Level technique if she wants.

The first three realms don’t matter at all. In player terms: just mess around with whatever!

But once you hit the Fourth Realm, that’s when you need to focus on a cultivation system—every technique you pick needs to be considered for the next one, so you don’t end up with a mess or counteracting effects!

This is when you really want an experienced senior to guide you, a teacher to check your choices.

Hence the division of inner sect and outer sect in the Daoist Sect.

Hit the right level, and you can enter the inner sect and take a master.

In this world, promising loose cultivators are rare, and someone like the Dao Ancestor is a one-in-a-million case!

But the Dao Scripture that Dao Ancestor cultivated was a bit quirky.

Logically, if you can master all nine volumes of Dao Scripture, you’d be perfectly replicating the Dao Ancestor’s path and become an unrivaled expert like him.

"But here’s the weird thing: nobody in history has ever become a great cultivator using Dao Scripture! Not a single person has broken past the Fifth Realm with it!" Chu Huaixu thought.

"Back in the day, Dao Ancestor took 10 true disciples, and he didn’t even have all ten cultivate Dao Scripture."

"Later generations revered the Dao Ancestor—sometimes even blindly. Anyone who got the chance to learn Dao Scripture, of course, grabbed it without hesitation."

"But the result was tons of cultivators ended up regretting it forever—not one person could use volumes 1-4 of Dao Scripture to break through to the Fifth Realm. You’d reach Fourth Realm Great Perfection, but volume 5 just wouldn’t work! And if you try switching to another technique, you wouldn’t be able to learn it either."

"This led to two rumors in the Profound Yellow Realm."

"The first is: to get Dao Scripture to Fifth Realm, you have to be a genius like the Dao Ancestor. People theorize that once you hit Fifth Realm, you’ll see the special magic of Dao Scripture!"

Yeah, the first four volumes of Dao Scripture are the textbook definition of ’central justice and peace’—nothing special about them.

The Daoist Sect’s been around for a thousand years, and honestly, everyone tacitly agrees: volumes 1-4 of Dao Scripture are just average among Celestial Level techniques—and maybe just Earth Level, really.

Fun fact: in these thousand years, plenty of Daoist disciples have gotten creative and only practiced volumes 1-3 of Dao Scripture, skipped volume 4, and learned other techniques for the Fourth Realm—and managed to break through to the Fifth Realm!

"So, the second rumor is kind of both funny and kind of believable: maybe the Dao Ancestor accidentally messed up when writing volume 4..."

So anyone who cultivates volume 4 will forever be stuck before the Fifth Realm, never able to reach great cultivator status.

Keep in mind, in these thousand years, plenty of people with Upper Grade Spiritual Embryos didn’t buy into the curse and insisted on training Dao Scripture all the way—there were even two with Super Grade Embryos who tried, one of them also had a Pure Yang Body just like the Dao Ancestor...

As for volumes 5-9 of Dao Scripture, no one in the Profound Yellow Realm has ever successfully cultivated them.

Plenty of people have tried using other techniques for the first four realms and then switching to Dao Scripture 5 at the Fifth Realm, but it’s like hitting a wall—no entry.

And the rest of the volumes? Same story.

Doesn’t matter what you do. You just can’t learn them!

Makes people wonder if the Dao Ancestor really botched volume 4, and just went off the rails for the later volumes...

But given the Dao Ancestor’s legendary reputation, everyone stubbornly insists that it’s not Dao Scripture that’s the problem—it’s themselves.

—How could the Dao Ancestor be wrong? Must be me who’s lacking.

This has led to lots of scholarly "old academics" in the Daoist Sect who specialize in researching Dao Scripture.

For a thousand years, generation after generation, they’ve studied it—and still haven’t figured out squat.

By all rights, Chu Huaixu shouldn’t actually care about Dao Scripture.

But the thing is, he’s a system cheater.

In his memory, there had been players who cultivated Dao Scripture all the way smoothly to Level 49.

The reason they only stopped at Level 49, and didn’t enter the Fifth Realm, was just because the current game version capped out at Level 49!

This was mentioned earlier—his main account before crossing over also got stuck at Level 49, waiting for an update.

What matters more: the players who cultivated Dao Scripture, their character profile said the same thing as everyone else—’Upgrade available after version update’.

Meaning: players aren’t subject to that restriction!

This made Chu Huaixu, who carried a system, unable to ignore Dao Scripture.

Besides, even though he’d crossed over, he still had a bit of player mentality, and he was bold to boot.

"Damn, I kinda want to learn it!" he thought.

"Instead of stressing over which technique to pick at each realm, worrying about Fourth Realm harmonization, why not just replicate the Dao Ancestor’s path, push Dao Scripture all the way?"

If he really could do that, then what lies before him would be a highway to the heavens—the end of the road is the Dao Ancestor Realm!

After the Dao Ancestor passed away, nobody knew what happened—but becoming a great cultivator through Dao Scripture? Imagine that scene.

...

...

Time passed, but Chu Huaixu was still torn.

At last, he steeled himself and reached out toward the Jade Scroll of the first volume of Dao Scripture.

But just then, his arm was grabbed by a small, cold hand.

"Are you sure you want Dao Scripture?" Han Shuangjiang asked.

Anything about the Dao Ancestor’s legend gets spread far and wide.

The Dao Scripture is no exception.

"I’m sure." Chu Huaixu was the kind who, once he made up his mind, never wavered.

Not a shred of indecisiveness, no wishy-washiness, and totally immune to other people’s opinions.

While I’m still debating, you can give advice. But if I’m done thinking, and you keep giving advice, what—want me to go back and reopen the debate?

Han Shuangjiang furrowed her brows, stared at him for a long while, but in the end didn’t say anything more.

"Anyway, practicing the first three volumes isn’t a problem—it’s the fourth one you have to avoid," she thought.

Still, the frosty-faced girl couldn’t figure out why Chu Huaixu insisted on choosing Dao Scripture.

The Big Ice Cube said, "Since you’ve made up your mind, I won’t say anything more."

Chu Huaixu reverted to his usual self and, eyeing the Six Celestial True Scripture in her hand, grinned, "So you really picked it, huh?"

Han Shuangjiang maintained her pretty, stern expression and said, "I always intended to pick it, actually. Nothing to do with you."

"Yeah? Alright, alright." Chu Huaixu triple-clicked.

The Big Ice Cube’s beautiful brows knit even tighter—she felt that stacking so many casual phrases together sounded particularly grating.

"Since we’ve chosen, let’s go." she said coldly, starting to think this guy was kind of annoying.

But Chu Huaixu smiled again, glancing at her and asking, "You sure? We leaving now?"

"What, you want to reconsider? Fine, I’ll wait. No rush." Han Shuangjiang said right away.

She still felt it was better not to pick Dao Scripture.

"No, I mean... you really aren’t going upstairs to check? We just heading home?" Chu Huaixu stuck out a finger, pointing upward.

The Big Ice Cube followed his gaze up the staircase, glancing a few times.

She said, "Upstairs are Second Realm and Third Realm techniques—nothing to do with us, right?"

"Fourth floor is for techniques, but we haven’t used our Spirit Plates to trade for Sect Contribution Points, so we can’t exchange for techniques yet," she added.

Chu Huaixu gazed into her eyes and replied, "Aren’t you forgetting something?"

He kept going, "Did you know the Dao Ancestor once created a world-shaking Celestial Level Technique—didn’t hoard it, just made it public for all cultivators to study? It’s a shame, after a thousand years, hardly anyone’s ever mastered it."

Han Shuangjiang’s eyes lit up when she heard that, and even her cool, frosty face seemed to thaw, gaining a spark of life.

"You mean..." She looked at Chu Huaixu.

Chu Huaixu nodded, serious: "Exactly. The fourth floor has Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Root!"

...

(ps: Fifth update! Burned out for today, please give me your monthly votes!)