"I do not practice Dao cultivation. It is the truth. I am just an Unawakened..."
The words stunned Han Li. But at the sa ti, it made him doubt. His Life Vision had always shown Li Shuanwei to be an Unawakened indeed. What was this?
A long silence stretched between them, and the walkie-talkie walked around. He was thinking to himself, what could have made Li Shuanwei so scarily strong if he was an Unawakened?
What was the reason?
"Elaborate," he said.
Li Shuanwei shook his head. "I am put between a rock and a hard place if you say it like that, Senior Transcendent. Now that I have your interest, why don't you bind that Heart Qi promise? I don't want many benefits, just two things. I don't want to give my thod to everyone in the whole world; I want it to remain a secret between the senior and .
"Even if you train your descendants, just bind them so that only one or two people can do it. This is just a simple request, isn't it? And also another request: you would not harm or my interests unless I harm you after I give it to you. If you can, please also help avoid other Transcendents interrupting my cultivation."
Hmm… If Han Li himself were a Transcendent, he indeed would have agreed to all. A asured level of request. After all, nobody would want a genius to be stolen from them by their opposition or rivals.
Han Li thought for a second and didn't act too stubborn. It was not that ridiculous of a request, anyway. In the first place, had they known his real identity, nothing would have been possible. Greed wasn't going to do it.
He knew that Li Shuanwei saying he would implode if he didn't get a Heart Qi promise was a very intelligent move on the man's part. Han Li would have done the sa because, at that mont, Li Shuanwei himself was the most precious benefit here.
His death would hurt the interests of the opposition, but the man didn't seem to have the staunch heart to follow through with the idea and chose not to go through with that heated bargain with his own life as a price.
Li Shuanwei was not really afraid of death. Han Li could tell as much. It was just that the man could guess his own fate.
Now that he had been noticed by a 'Transcendent,' a greedy one at that, it was ti to bow.
Han Li felt no scorn, though; there was no dishonor in bowing to your betters. Han Li himself could agree with that; he had killed many higher-status n with a knife wrapped in silk clothes.
He could also see the small path Li Shuanwei had left for himself.
Li Shuanwei's promise was an open-ended one; Han Li himself wouldn't be able to harm him as long as he didn't harm Han Li or his interests knowingly… the youth was extrely prideful of himself deep down and knew that if he had ti, he could defeat Han Li.
There was also another thing: Li Shuanwei didn't really give so much importance to the thod he used to fight higher levels. To him, it was not what made him special; it was being himself. In his mind, it was not the power itself but the man.
Han Li could judge many of these details now that he had seen the youth straight up. He felt a bit amused. A genius… huh… what actually made you powerful? Now, I am really curious.
The other party was just a 30-year-old youth, after all; how much could he hide from soone as old as 500 years? To Han Li, he was just a child, but a venomous one.
Calmly, Han Li and Li Shuanwei bound the Heart Qi binding.
Li Shuanwei would teach Han Li the truth about his own strength, and Han Li wouldn't harm him or spread that truth around with abandon. They were bound.
A way to avoid Transcendents? Might as well give it to you. Han Li smiled slightly. He could use this man. But then, his face grew thoughtful.
"Tell , what makes you so strong?"
Filled with relief, Li Shuanwei sat cross-legged instead of bowing. "It is going to be a bit long. I can speak like this, right?"
"I am not one for ceremonies. Speak."
…
"In ancient tis, the creatures of this world didn't have any powers. But then, the Dao Tree and the Sacred Demons brought people from both the Everlasting Human World and Everlasting Demon World here, and people gained powers.
"The people from the Beast World are the Beasts who can evolve to more perfect forms by upgrading their Beast Cores. Humans? Humans didn't really have any powers at the start."
Han Li listened carefully.
He could see Li Shuanwei's indifference to the story. But he himself was reeling slightly inside. He knew of this story since it was part of the Sacred Demon inheritance. Inside the Rust of his sword, all of these things were recorded. But how did the youth know it all so clearly if he had no inheritance?
Was he… another Inheritor?
"Humans got the power by cultivating to beco closer to the 'dead' Dao Tree. The Dao Tree had the greatest Dao, the Origin Dao. The Origin Dao was split into seven Great Daos: Life, Light, Darkness, Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire. The seven Great Daos were then split into a multitude of normal Daos like Starlight, Rock, and similar."
Han Li, in walkie-talkie form, nodded. But he also couldn't tell what made Li Shuanwei different.
"In Cultivation, people are blessed with a small part, an entry ticket to a Dao in the form of the Spark. Starlight Spark, for example. And people awaken to it, becoming Awakening Stage Cultivators.
"In the next stage of Evolution, they truly step into the next level, where they have Minor levels of control over their Dao. For example, Starlight Clan mbers gain a minor level of control over Starlight Dao. That also makes their Spark a Minor Dao Soul of the said Dao.
"In the Power Birth Stage, they gain even more control over the said Dao. They gain Interdiate Dao Souls and Interdiate control over it."
Han Li nodded. He could tell where the conversation was headed.
"But in the Transcendence Stage? We should have gained full control over the said Dao, but we haven't. As senior himself doesn't. Instead, we gain Minor Control over a Great Dao. An Interdiate Starlight Dao Soul would beco a Minor Great Dao of Light Soul."
Han Li nodded. "That's obvious. If a single person gained control over a Dao, what would other people on that Dao beco?"
He himself had been stunned when he learned he could slowly make Lust Dao his own. Maybe even the Great Dao of Life soday.
"Yes, senior." Li Shuanwei calmly spoke. "But after seeing such things, I began to question everything. I beca hateful of cultivation as a whole. I understood at that point sothing that I had been missing.
"The Dao Tree was not dead; its consciousness was the Heavens; when we accumulate the Energy around and make it into Dao Crystals of a said path, we can use it to trade for Magical Powers. It is using us as the root of the tree now."
Han Li didn't need more explanation than that. Indeed, when the Dao Tree was complete, it had its roots in the emptiness around it, and it absorbed the power from the void to create this world. Now, where did it get the power to sustain itself in a new form, as the Heavens?
Of course, from the 'trades' it did with Cultivators. It was all along right before him.
Han Li took a second to nod, but he still nodded. He already knew it, but that was in this life, his second life. He felt ashad.
"We are the root and also the hope for the Dao Tree. It wants to create Sacred Demons who can join together to make it be reborn again. Seven Sacreds joining together would have equal powers as the Heavens, equal powers to the Dao Tree.
"It wants to create Seven Sacred Cultivators and make them help it rebuild itself by combining their forces and absorbing energy from the Void. Only the combined force of the seven can do it."
"What is this all related to you?" Han Li asked calmly.
The youth sighed, his laziness evident. "The sches go deep. These are mostly what I speculated. Everything in this world has already been planned by the Heavens, and we are rely pawns in the way. Seven people should be out sowhere whom it had chosen. Only they matter in the end.
All others are just never going to beco Sacreds.
"They seven are the Heaven's children, we all? Just those seven's fuel. No matter how good we are… we are all destined to be slaves for the seven."
Han Li looked at the man calmly.
"When they gain control over the Great Dao, a Sacred Cultivator for each of the seven Daos… they will probably own all our lives. We are nothing but their Crystal collectors. We would collect Dao Crystals, pay them to the owner of the Dao as if in debt, and when the ti cos, die.
"When I myself realized that, I was just 13. I compiled all this through my observation of the world… I lost hope. Cultivation was aningless; it was not ant for . Not anybody. I never Awakened even though my father asked to do so many tis. I hated cultivation, and I still do.
Thus, I am but a re Unawakened."
Han Li was genuinely awed. If it was true, the person in front of him was probably the most terrifying mind he had ever seen. No wonder the youth had such a big eye bag. It was the mind of a Nihilist. No wonder he was lazy. He found no aning in living.
Han Li wasn't so discouraged. At his age, he had seen many types of geniuses, and even though this one stood out, people better than him existed in this world, but in the end, what mattered the most was how one handled such people.
Circumstances were above n, always. Even now, he wasn't contending against this genius using brute strength after all. He was using conventional beliefs. Maybe, the youth himself would realize he was used so ti later.
"So what did you co to know in the end? Why are you so strong?"
The youth chuckled. A profound aura began to emanate from him. An aura much weaker than the aura of the Heart Qi that Han Li could use but much more exotic.
The aura was pure. Calm. Lazy, almost. But with just that, he felt as if a blade was put on his neck, not only here but even far in the distance; his real body itself felt a shiver go through it… even while it was unconscious.
Han Li's heart tightened. "What is this Power?"
The aura of power receded, and the youth waved his hand. "It's simple, really. Beasts had the Beast Core that they inherited from the Beasts of the Everlasting Beast World. Humans? We are and have always been using the power of this world's Dao Tree, not any power we inherited from the Everlasting Human World. What power… Do the Humans have that they inherited?"
The walkie-talkie form trembled.
Indeed, what was the original Power of the Humans from the Everlasting Human World?
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