392: Daozu

The whisper that resounded in Xiao Shi’s ear was terrifying.

It was not a sound made by a human.

Instead, it was the will of The Primordial Martial Era, questioning Xiao Shi.

In the face of this will, Xiao Shi could clearly feel his own insignificance.

It seemed that if this will harbored ill intent towards him,

He could be instantly obliterated!

He would not have any ability to resist.

Through his previous understanding, Xiao Shi knew that this was an opportunity for everyone who entered The Primordial Martial Era to join it.

If one chose to join, they would be transformed by the will of The Primordial Martial Era, thereby becoming a person of The Primordial Martial Era.

From then on, they would enjoy eternal life in The Primordial Martial Era.

Regarding this,

Xiao Shi directly refused.

After all, he came to The Primordial Martial Era not to treat it as a refuge and lie flat for the rest of his life.

Naturally, he would not join.

With his refusal,

The will of The Primordial Martial Era immediately dissipated, no longer questioning him.

Xiao Shi also began to survey his surroundings.

The valley they were currently in looked unremarkable, with nothing special about it.

Besides Xiao Shi,

The other five people also stood not far from his side.

The six of them stood in a straight line.

Facing a thatched hut in front of them.

Xiao Shi noticed that the expressions of these five people were all filled with reverence.

And this reverence was not a disguise stemming from their roles, but a heartfelt awe.

“You have arrived…”

An aged voice emanated from within the thatched hut.

Immediately following, an old man dressed in gray cloth, with hair like frost and a face covered in wrinkles, appeared before everyone.

The old man looked very unremarkable.

He seemed like an ordinary old man without any cultivation, and no aura fluctuations of a martial artist emanated from him.

No matter how one looked at him,

He was just an ordinary person.

However, the moment they saw the old man,

The reverence in everyone’s eyes instantly grew stronger, accompanied by a sense of respect and fanaticism.

“Greetings, Master!”

They simultaneously bowed to the old man.

Although Xiao Shi did not share the same respect and fanaticism as the others,

An instinct stemming from his identity led him to make the same gesture as the others, bowing to the old man.

At the same time, Xiao Shi felt a strange sense of familiarity from the old man before him, always feeling as if he had seen him somewhere before… but no matter how carefully he thought back, he couldn’t recall.

This left him very perplexed and confused.

However, he knew.

This seemingly ordinary old man before him was their Master in The Primordial Martial Era… the Dao Ancestor!

For him to be the Master of these Saints, and even Dao Lords, he was clearly not as simple as he appeared on the surface.

In fact, the more ordinary he appeared on the surface,

The more terrifying he was!

Up until now,

Xiao Shi had never seen a being of the Upper Three Realms appear as ordinary as a common person.

After all, the more powerful a being was,

The stronger the aura and pressure they exuded would be.

Even if they intentionally restrained it,

They couldn’t be like him, completely indistinguishable from an ordinary person.

No!

Such a person,

He had seen one before!

Xiao Shi suddenly remembered where he had seen him!

When he first entered the territory of the Demonic Path forces in Tian Dou Province, he had encountered an old man in a Rainforest.

To be precise,

What he encountered at that time was a small boat.

On this small boat, there was a mysterious old man wearing a coir raincoat and a bamboo hat. At that time, that old man, just like the current Dao Ancestor, was incredibly powerful, yet no aura fluctuations emanated from him. No matter how one looked at him, he seemed to be just an ordinary person.

At that time, Xiao Shi had already realized that this person must be an extraordinarily powerful figure.

Especially since that old man had invited him aboard and offered him a cup of tea.

And then, for a period of time afterward,

Xiao Shi had incredibly good luck. Every time he made a kill, the highest quality item of that stage would definitely drop.

All along,

Xiao Shi had been very curious about the identity of that mysterious old man.

Because at that time, he was only at the cultivation of the Martial Dao Lower Three Realms and couldn’t access the high-level figures of the Great Wu Dynasty, he had always thought that the old man was a powerful figure at the highest level of the Great Wu Dynasty.

But as his cultivation realm continuously improved,

When he learned that the strongest individuals in the current Great Wu Dynasty were three Demigods, and that old man was not among them, he became even more confused.

It wasn’t until this moment, when he saw the Dao Ancestor of The Primordial Martial Era,

He instantly realized.

He understood that the mysterious old man he had seen back then… was precisely the Dao Ancestor of The Primordial Martial Era before him!!

The reason he didn’t recognize him immediately was because their attire was different.

The old man he had seen at that time had his entire face shrouded in the shadows of his bamboo hat, making his features indistinguishable.

At the same time, there were two children, a boy and a girl, beside the old man.

This was somewhat different from the Dao Ancestor Xiao Shi saw now.

Therefore, Xiao Shi did not recognize him immediately.

He just felt very familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere.

It wasn't until now, after confirmation,

Xiao Shi’s mind exploded!

He had never expected that the mysterious old man he had seen back then,

Would actually be a powerful figure from The Primordial Martial Era!

The Primordial Martial Era and the current Tianwu Continent were clearly like two different timelines.

Xiao Shi had only heard that people from Tianwu Continent could enter The Primordial Martial Era, but never that people from The Primordial Martial Era could travel to Tianwu Continent.

Especially when he learned that The Primordial Martial Era would constantly reset,

He realized that it was impossible for people from The Primordial Martial Era to travel to Tianwu Continent.

But then, how could his encounter at that time be explained?

Xiao Shi was at a loss.

And while his heart was shaken and perplexed,

The Dao Ancestor, standing before them, slowly began to speak.

“The Daos of the world, though divided into Heavenly Dao and The Mortal Dao, possess infinite and unknown potential, regardless of which Dao it is.”

“In fact, most martial artists who grasp a Dao only grasp the most basic form of it, and have not explored these potentials of the Dao.”

“Even though all the Daos of the world were created by me, even I cannot fully discern the maximum potential of each Dao.”

“In my opinion…”

“The potential of the Dao is infinite!”

Among the crowd, besides Xiao Shi,

The others had heard the Dao Ancestor say these words before.

Almost every time after a reset of The Primordial Martial Era, when they first met the Dao Ancestor, he would say the same thing.

But even so,

Everyone listened with utmost seriousness.

Each time they listened to the Dao Ancestor’s words, they would have different insights.

And relative to the others,

When Xiao Shi heard these words from him,

His entire being was once again violently shaken.

He noticed a crucial piece of information revealed in his words.

That is, all the Daos of the world were created by this Dao Ancestor!

And this was also the reason he was called the Dao Ancestor.

Dao Ancestor and Dao Lord.

Though only one character differs,

The meanings of the two are completely different.

Dao Ancestor, meaning the progenitor of Dao!

He is the creator of Dao!

This is definitely not something an ordinary Dao Lord can compare to.

This also made Xiao Shi understand why these people were so respectful to this Dao Ancestor.

He further understood the astonishing value of the nine identities they could choose from before!

Whether it was a disciple of the Dao Ancestor… they all had the opportunity to grasp a Dao under the guidance of the Dao Ancestor!

This was undoubtedly an indescribably immense opportunity!

Enough to drive Saints of any era mad.

No wonder Initial Martial Retrospection Dao was the highest quality Dao Lord Level item!

The opportunities and fortunes contained within Initial Martial Retrospection Dao… were far greater than Xiao Shi had previously imagined!

Amidst the turmoil in Xiao Shi’s mind,

The Dao Ancestor continued to speak.

“I know that your goal is to grasp the Heavenly Dao, but the Heavenly Dao is difficult and cannot be achieved overnight. I hope you all start from The Mortal Dao and ascend to the Heavenly Dao step by step!”

Xiao Shi took a deep breath at this.

He felt that every word the other party said could resolve his doubts while also bringing him an extremely strong shock.

Before this,

He had only known one way for The Mortal Dao to ascend to the Heavenly Dao.

That was to become an era ruler like the Martial Emperor.

But this method was clearly not effective in The Primordial Martial Era.

Or rather,

There existed another method here that allowed The Mortal Dao to ascend to the Heavenly Dao even without becoming an era ruler.

Clearly, this was why the silver-haired, silver-eyed Dao Lord chose to become a Dao Lord through The Mortal Dao.

He intended to use The Mortal Dao to ascend to the Heavenly Dao!

It wasn’t about being able to grasp multiple Daos.

Besides the Dao Ancestor, no one in the world could grasp a second Dao.

“Among you, the fourth one has good talent and has successfully grasped The Dao of Goodness. There are two ways to ascend to the Heavenly Dao from here.”

“One is to continue to unearth the potential of The Dao of Goodness through karma, and ascend to the Heavenly Dao with the Dao of Utmost Goodness.”

“The second is to grasp the Dao of Evil through karma, and merge it with The Dao of Goodness, ascending to the Heavenly Dao with the Dao of Good and Evil.”

The Dao Ancestor looked at the silver-haired, silver-eyed Dao Lord, nodding in approval, and informed him of his path of Dao grasping.

Then he looked at the others.

“As for the rest of you, although you have already touched the aura of Dao, you still have some distance to go in grasping the Dao. You need to speed up your progress.”

Finally,

The Dao Ancestor’s gaze settled on Xiao Shi.

“Seventh one, your progress is the slowest. Although grasping Killing Palm Dao is overly domineering, this Dao is very compatible with you, and it is the most suitable Dao for you. If you can grasp this Dao, your future is boundless.”

The words the Dao Ancestor spoke to Xiao Shi caused a stir of surprise in the hearts of the others.

Although they knew that after each reset, the Dao Ancestor would evaluate them based on their Dao grasping situation,

They never expected the Dao Ancestor to give such a high evaluation to Xiao Shi!

One must know.

Previously, when they first grasped a Dao, the Dao Ancestor’s evaluations for them were always “not bad” or “good.”

There were even cases where he directly shook his head, indicating that their method of Dao grasping was not compatible with themselves.

No one had ever received such high praise as “very compatible” and “boundless future.”

This made all of them look complicated.

They hadn’t expected Xiao Shi to be so lucky as to choose the most compatible method of Dao grasping right from the start.

However, when they thought of the drawbacks of Killing Palm Dao, they felt that even if the method of Killing Palm Dao was very compatible with Xiao Shi, it would be very difficult for Xiao Shi to grasp the Dao with it.

Soon,

After the Dao Ancestor had evaluated each of their Dao grasping situations,

He then proceeded to give guidance based on each person’s method of Dao grasping.

Since the Dao Ancestor gave public guidance,

This also allowed Xiao Shi, through the Dao Ancestor’s guidance to others, to realize that there were significant differences between different methods of Dao grasping.

For example, grasping Dao through karma.

This would require continuously forging karma with people in The Primordial Martial Era over the next three hundred years, especially with powerful individuals.

Whether it was a Fruit of Benevolence or an evil consequence, the deeper the karma between them, the faster the speed of grasping the Dao would be.

However, Dao grasped through karma usually resulted in Daos related to karma.

It was difficult for other types of Daos to appear.

For example, The Dao of Goodness grasped by the silver-haired, silver-eyed Dao Lord was a Dao mastered through karma.

To grasp this Dao,

The silver-haired, silver-eyed Dao Lord did not hesitate to sleep with the ten daughters of a Dao Lord in The Primordial Martial Era.

Thereby forming an extremely deep karma with the other party.

It is worth mentioning that this Dao Lord and his ten daughters were all special corpses similar to the Crimson Refining Corpse, possessing independent consciousness… After Xiao Shi learned of this, he couldn’t help but exclaim in his heart… “He’s a ruthless man!”

Usually, having more Fruit of Benevolence,

Would make it easier to form The Dao of Goodness.

If there were more evil consequences,

It would be the Dao of Evil.

At the same time, not only could the silver-haired, silver-eyed Dao Lord grasp Dao through karma,

Xiao Shi and the others could also choose to grasp Dao through karma.

However, if they grasped Dao through karma, there wouldn’t be too many additional improvements.

Only by grasping Dao in a way that matched their identity was the easiest way to grasp Dao.

Therefore, almost no one among them would choose to grasp Dao in other ways.

And Xiao Shi’s Killing Palm Dao was not complicated; he only needed to continuously kill to gradually grasp the Dao.

However, there were certain requirements regarding killing.

If one killed martial artists below the Saint level, it was almost useless; one had to at least kill Saints.

However, The Primordial Martial Era was different from the Great Martial Era where Xiao Shi was located.

In The Primordial Martial Era, there were no independent territorial lords similar to those in the Great Martial Era.

The Saints in The Primordial Martial Era… were basically all under the protection of those Dao Lords, Demigods, and even Martial Dao Ninth Realm existences.

This was also the most difficult aspect of Killing Palm Dao.

To kill Saints protected by those Dao Lords, Demigods, and even Martial Dao Ninth Realm existences right under their noses, was simply impossible!

And even if one successfully eliminated one or two Saints, it would not be enough to directly grasp the Dao.

To grasp the Dao through killing, the number of Saints that needed to be killed would certainly be extremely numerous.

Of course,

If one could kill a Dao Lord, that would be almost equivalent to sleeping with the ten daughters of that Dao Lord under the karma-based Dao grasping method… it could instantly accelerate progress significantly.

But this was clearly not something these Saints could achieve.

This made Killing Palm Dao almost a dead end for them!

Soon,

After the Dao Ancestor had given guidance to each disciple,

He then commanded,

“I have told you the key to grasping the Dao. Now you may go out and grasp the Dao.”

“Yes!”

Everyone respectfully responded.

However, just as they were about to leave,

The Dao Ancestor suddenly said,

“Seventh one, stay. The others may leave.”