When Mo Wuji saw the white bone still there, he was overjoyed, thinking the Karma Sage was remarkably careless. It had been nearly a year since he discovered the bone, and the sage hadn’t returned. If they delayed further, the bone’s karma restrictions wouldn’t even need breaking—they’d be buried by the Burial Dao Plain.
Entering the restriction, Mo Wuji set up a new teleportation array. In just one day, he activated it. To his delight, the process was effortless—the array easily swept the white bone into his Wheel of Time.
Mo Wuji wanted to laugh. It seemed the Karma Sage couldn’t retrieve the bone for two possible reasons. First, the sage’s Karma Dao wasn’t self-created. No matter how powerful, it was a heaven-opening Dao, not a personal one. Whether a heaven-opening Dao trumped a personal Dao was debatable. Second, the sage likely lacked a heaven-opening treasure. Without something like the Wheel of Time, even a heaven-opening Dao was useless.
Regardless, with the bone—untouched by the Burial Dao Plain—in hand, it was time to leave.
…
Deep in the Burial Dao Plain, a brown-robed cultivator halted his search. Initially, he could faintly sense traces of Lan Xiaobu’s presence, following them. But as time passed, he could no longer detect any hint of Lan Xiaobu’s aura.
Kong Yangshan was unwilling to give up. After searching for what felt like ages, he roared in frustration, “Who? Who was it?”
The theft of the Karma Dao Scroll before his eyes had stung, but it hadn’t driven him to this madness. He believed he’d eventually reclaim the scroll. As a cultivator of the Karma Dao, he was confident that anyone attempting to prove the Karma Dao using the scroll would be detected if he encountered them.
But the white bone, guarded for countless years, had been stolen. He was on the verge of insanity. He couldn’t leave any trace of his divine sense on it, making it impossible to track.
Kong Yangshan had believed he could prove the supreme Creation Sage realm in the Burial Dao Plain—not because of the Karma Dao Scroll, the Dao vein, or his decade-long search, but because of the white bone. Meditating within it brought unparalleled Dao insights, known only to him.
Now, he’d not only failed to find Lan Xiaobu, who had taken a heaven-opening treasure and the Time Dao Scroll, but had also lost the Karma Dao Scroll and the white bone.
“It must be that ant. Only he has a heaven-opening treasure,” Kong Yangshan thought, immediately suspecting Lan Xiaobu. Below the Creation Sage realm, no world could contain the bone, but a heaven-opening treasure could.
Yet he quickly calmed down, realising it couldn’t be Lan Xiaobu. Lan Xiaobu couldn’t breach his karma restrictions—unless he had proven the Karma Dao. But Lan Xiaobu had only recently taken the Karma Dao Scroll. Proving the Karma Dao in mere months was impossible; it would take centuries, if not millennia.
Kong Yangshan took a deep breath and decided to return. The Burial Dao Plain consumed Dao veins too heavily. Even with ample resources, he couldn’t sustain it, let alone prove the Creation Sage realm here.
When he returned to the bone’s location, he was stunned. The karma restrictions, aside from parts buried by the plain, showed no signs of tampering—yet the bone was gone.
Even someone who had proven the Karma Dao couldn’t enter his restrictions undetected.
Unbeknownst to him, Lan Xiaobu could have taken it. Having proven the Karma Dao, Lan Xiaobu could bypass his restrictions undetected, especially with a heaven-opening treasure.
Lan Xiaobu, satisfied with the flow of his Dao laws, knew he was ready to prove the Eternal Life Sage realm after forming the Longevity Karma Dao law. Though he’d only just proven the Karma Dao, his Dao charm was solid, ready for the Eternal Life Dao.
He was pleased that no one had disturbed him during the process. Proving the Dao in the Land of Eternal Life’s Burial Dao Plain was far easier than elsewhere.
Suddenly, Lan Xiaobu’s heart stirred. His divine sense fell upon the Longevity Realm, where a sprout was emerging from the soil on a patch of empty ground. He caught the faint cosmic-opening aura of dark Dao laws—immature but unmistakably the Dark Dao.
His Dark Wood had sprouted.
Lan Xiaobu knew he was right. The sprouting Dark Wood, though faint in charm, was clear and carried the cosmic-opening Dao aura.
He had encountered dark rules before, through Ku Cai’s dark Dao charm. But Ku Cai, a mere Seventh Turn Sage, had imparted a mottled dark Dao. Her own dark laws were limited, offering no pure dark Dao, let alone a path to proving it.
By burying mottled Dao laws not aligned with his Longevity Dao in the Burial Dao Plain, Lan Xiaobu had purified his Dao, making it pristine.
He quickly deduced why the Dark Wood sprouted now, despite having the Breath Soil for ages. The sprouting was due to his Dao’s purity, free of mottled charm, combined with the Breath Soil’s nourishment.
If the Dark Wood hadn’t sprouted, so be it. But now that it had, he had to prove the Dark Dao.
As Lan Xiaobu considered proving the Dark Dao, he sensed a new, faint law on his Longevity Dao Tree, carrying the nascent aura of dark rules—the Dark Dao law, infused with Longevity Dao charm. It was his without needing further effort.
Lan Xiaobu understood. The Dark Wood had sprouted in his Longevity Realm, fully aligned with it. The foundational rules of its sprouting were his Longevity Dao’s, so the Dark Dao was his the moment it appeared, as long as he willed it.
Sensing the eleven laws on his Longevity Dao Tree, Lan Xiaobu was content.
From the start of his cultivation, through countless hardships, his Dao was taking shape. With ten laws, he had planned to prove the Eternal Life realm. Now, with eleven, he decided to add one more—twelve, the number of a complete cycle.
The Dao law he’d prove had to be among the cosmos’s finest, like Fate, Karma, Luck, or Time-Space.
Adding a law to his Longevity Dao Tree was simple for Lan Xiaobu. Power, Severing, Destruction, Curse, or even the Five Elements were options.
But these weren’t what he wanted. The Five Elements were inherent in his Longevity Dao’s foundation, needing no proof. Severing, Destruction, and others were divine abilities from heaven-opening scrolls, all top-tier laws. Yet they weren’t what Lan Xiaobu sought. If needed, his Longevity Dao could derive Destruction or Severing laws.
Having proven the Dark Dao, he wondered if there was a Light Dao. Proving a Dao shouldn’t be partial. In the cosmos, yin and yang coexist, often appearing together. He’d proven Space, then Time; Rules, then No-Rules. Now, with the Dark Dao, why not add a Light Dao to his Longevity Dao?
He didn’t know where the Light Dao Scroll was, but he knew someone who might.
…
Creation Market.
If any city in the Land of Eternal Life was the most renowned, thriving with the best treasures, it was the Creation Market. Founded by three Creation Sages, it was a place where no one dared cause trouble, ensuring an abundance of valuable items.
This was Lan Xiaobu’s second visit. Last time, he met Lu Yin here, but he was certain she wouldn’t have waited years for him.
Disguised as Jin Hua, Lan Xiaobu arrived at the market. His first stop was the Sermon Tower. He knew Lu Yin wouldn’t be waiting there after so long, but visiting gave him an excuse if she ever tracked him down.
As expected, Lu Yin wasn’t there. Clearly, she had realised Jin Hua’s intentions weren’t genuine—he’d meant to use her.
With Lu Yin absent, Lan Xiaobu left the Sermon Tower for the Eternal Life Trade Hall.
The Sermon Tower allowed trading, but for truly valuable treasures, the Trade Hall was the place.
Rumour had it that the most valuable item ever traded there was a heaven-opening treasure. No one knew why someone would trade such a treasure or who acquired it, but the event was undeniable.
