Lan Xiaobu didn’t hesitate and directly broke through the formation to enter the Great Burial Dao Plain.
Originally, Lan Xiaobu only knew that the Great Burial Dao Plain was dangerous but didn’t know where the danger lay. It was only after entering that he understood the true nature of the threat.
Upon entering this place, Lan Xiaobu immediately felt his Longevity Domain’s dao principles being stripped away. This stripping started weakly but grew stronger, peeling away his principles one by one. The space here not only stripped his own dao principles but also the fragments of laws he had comprehended. The deeper he went, the stronger this stripping became.
The stripped dao principles and law fragments seemed to seep into the ground, as if being buried.
Lan Xiaobu stopped, his gaze sweeping over the area. This place seemed boundless. Although it stripped away a cultivator’s great dao principles, no trace of any dao aura could be felt—as if they truly vanished after being buried. All that could be sensed was an emptiness, a void in the great dao.
In this place, divine sense couldn’t extend far. The farther it stretched, the more rapidly it was stripped away. The desolate, dark grey landscape seemed to set the tone for this place, and combined with the sense of emptiness, anyone who immersed themselves here would either feel despair or an irrepressible loneliness.
If he didn’t possess his own great dao, he would have retreated by now. With his dao, which had yet to reach the Eternal Life Sage realm, being stripped away here would only weaken him until he eventually perished.
Fortunately, he cultivated his own Star Harmony Great Dao. Though his dao principles were slowly stripped away in the Great Burial Dao Plain, his own great dao could restore the stripped principles.
At the same time, Lan Xiaobu understood why Mo Wuji had sent him here. The emptiness of this place could make his own dao clearer.
This emptiness wasn’t without order. As his dao was stripped away here, it allowed him to understand more clearly where his dao was lacking. The parts that were easily stripped were the weak points of his dao, the parts he didn’t need.
Lan Xiaobu pressed forward. There were no obstacles here—no mountains, rivers, or ravines. Everything seemed to have been flattened by the stripping of dao charm. All that remained was a vast, flat plain and the burial dao space capable of interring all great daos.
The farther he went, the more often Lan Xiaobu spotted scattered bones. From the lingering dao principle auras not yet fully stripped from these bones, he could sense that most belonged to Creation Sages. Perhaps their bones still remained now, but in time, even these remnants would vanish. Beneath his feet, who knew how many cultivators seeking their great dao in the Great Burial Dao Plain had been buried?
Initially, Lan Xiaobu focused on circulating his Longevity Great Dao. As the plain stripped his longevity principles, he restored them through his Longevity Dao Tree. Combined with his efforts to resist the plain’s stripping, he temporarily faced no life-threatening danger.
But a few months later, Lan Xiaobu stopped these futile actions. He felt that while this made his perception of his dao slightly clearer, it was ultimately pointless.
His dao was the Longevity Great Dao, which he had already refined once. He was already extremely clear about his dao and had no need to continue clarifying it through such means.
With this realization, Lan Xiaobu decisively circulated his Longevity Formula, no longer interfering with the plain’s stripping of his dao. As the Longevity Formula activated, boundless dao principle auras swirled around him. With his dao principles now clear and his cessation of resistance, the speed at which his dao charm was stripped away increased.
At this point, Lan Xiaobu didn’t bother restoring the stripped dao charm. Instead, he accelerated the circulation of his Longevity Great Dao technique.
Soon, Lan Xiaobu was overjoyed. As his dao was continuously stripped, the first to go were the dao charms and chaotic rules that didn’t belong to his Longevity principles. Once these were stripped away, his Longevity principles became clearer and purer.
Since he cultivated his own great dao, it wasn’t confined to his dao world, so it was normal for it to incorporate mottled dao auras from the external world.
Now, even if some of his core Longevity principles were stripped away, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.
His dao grew increasingly clear, as if its purity were steadily rising.
At first, Lan Xiaobu remembered he had come to seek the Cause and Effect Sage. Later, he became fully immersed in the process of having the mottled dao principles within his great dao stripped and buried here, making his own dao ever purer. Though his strength didn’t increase, his potential grew by leaps and bounds.
By now, Lan Xiaobu clearly understood that to go further in the Eternal Life Sage realm, one had to come to the Great Burial Dao Plain.
Sometimes, willpower alone wasn’t the key to success. The key lay in one’s starting point and foundation.
Those who perished in the Great Burial Dao Plain had nothing to do with willpower. Except for someone like Lu Yin, a second-generation dao heir, any cultivator who reached the level to enter the Great Burial Dao Plain would have exceptional willpower. But no matter how strong their willpower, if their dao was too mottled, venturing deep into the Great Burial Dao Plain meant they could never leave.
Thus, a cultivator’s dao was crucial here. Having one’s own great dao offered a significant advantage. Even cultivating the Heaven-Opening Great Dao was equally powerful, no weaker than one’s own dao.
Since Lan Xiaobu cultivated his own great dao, once he adapted to the Great Burial Dao Plain, he was like a fish in water.
Mo Wuji hadn’t expected that Zhuang Yongzi’s visit to the Eternal Life City was indeed related to the Wheel of Time. Zhuang Yongzi had arranged to meet the city’s lord, the First Earth Sage.
The First Earth Sage was the lord of Eternal Life City and the first disciple of the Heaven and Earth Sage. Zhuang Yongzi’s visit was at his master’s behest.
Zhuang Yongzi was to hand over the Indestructible Dao Scroll to the Heaven and Earth Sage, asking only for three months to comprehend beneath the Wheel of Time.
However, the First Earth Sage didn’t even consider informing his master, the Heaven and Earth Sage, and outright rejected Zhuang Yongzi’s request. Clearly, while the Indestructible Dao Scroll was enticing, it wasn’t enough to sway the Heaven and Earth Sage.
If Lan Xiaobu were here, he would know Zhuang Yongzi was lying. Both the original and copied versions of the Indestructible Dao Scroll were in his possession. The Indestructible Sage might not be dead, but Lan Xiaobu had certainly destroyed the strongest soul-body of the Indestructible Sage.
When Zhuang Yongzi left Eternal Life City, his expression was visibly sour. Mo Wuji, following behind, suspected that if Zhuang Yongzi weren’t outmatched by the Heaven and Earth Sage, he might have done what Mo Wuji was considering—storming straight into the Heaven and Earth Sage’s stronghold.
Originally, Mo Wuji had planned to orchestrate Zhuang Yongzi’s demise, but after hearing Zhuang Yongzi’s intentions, he abandoned the idea.
The Wheel of Time, a heaven-opening treasure, was something he had to obtain. But he needed time to completely erase the Creation Sage’s mark from it. Otherwise, it would be like carrying a glowing beacon in the dark. Removing the Creation Sage’s mark was no easy task. If the Heaven and Earth Sage tracked him down while he was erasing it, his efforts could be for naught, and he might even lose his life.
Mo Wuji was certain that even if he hid the Wheel of Time in his own world, the Creation Sage could still sense it—unless he left the Eternal Life Land entirely.
So Mo Wuji decided on a risky plan: to use the time differential of teleportation to refine the Wheel of Time.
A month later, Mo Wuji finally located Zhuang Yongzi’s lair—the Indestructible Sea.
The distance between Eternal Life City and the Indestructible Sea was considerable. Mo Wuji set up a teleportation array outside the Indestructible Sea, then returned to Eternal Life City. He traveled over a month in the opposite direction and set up another teleportation array.
To avoid detection, Mo Wuji used void array patterns for all his arrays.
When it came to mastery of void array patterns, Mo Wuji believed he was second to none—not even the Creation Sage could surpass him. This wasn’t about array technique but about his dao. His dao was the Mortal Dao. Since learning void array patterns, he had integrated them into his dao. The void array patterns he now created left no trace in the void.
Before entering the Great Burial Dao Plain, Mo Wuji wouldn’t have dared make such a claim. But after entering, he knew his Mortal Dao had buried all the mottled dao principles that hindered its perfection. It was the Mortal Dao, yet it bore no trace of the mundane.
The pinnacle of the Mortal Dao wasn’t ordinary mediocrity but the ability to blend seamlessly into any dao principle or cosmic rule without the slightest discord or trace. Even in the highest cosmic rules, the Mortal Dao’s principles could merge without a hint of anomaly.
Once his void array patterns integrated into the void, they became one with it. Even if the Creation Sage eventually noticed, they would have already dissipated.
This delay pushed his plan to seize the Wheel of Time back by a few months.
A few months were insignificant to Mo Wuji.
Over three months later, when Mo Wuji returned to Eternal Life City, he had transformed into someone who, from behind, resembled Zhuang Yongzi, but from the front appeared as an ordinary Inquiry Sage.
This time, Mo Wuji naturally stayed on the outskirts of the Heaven and Earth Sage’s dojo, beginning to set up various void array patterns in preparation for seizing the Wheel of Time at the end of the month.
