Fang Tianci was momentarily stunned. He probed more carefully and realized it wasn't his imagination — the bottleneck that had restrained him for so long had truly loosened.
He felt no particular excitement. Years of cultivation had tempered his temperament into something supremely steady. He merely noted inwardly that even an old tree could bloom one day — a marvel he had never heard of before.
Perhaps this had something to do with his resolute decision to travel far. With no attachments weighing on his mind, the knot in his heart had untied itself. For the first time since birth, he felt an exhilarating sense of freedom.
He quietly channeled his true essence, circulated his profound technique, and assaulted his bottleneck.
Everything went smoothly to an unbelievable degree. Before long, clouds gathered across the sky, obscuring the heavens, with flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder rumbling without cease.
The baptism of the Heavenly Dao had arrived.
His expression remained as still as an undisturbed well. With a deafening crack of thunder, a tremendous force of heaven and earth poured into his body, cleansing his aging body and spirit.
Fang Tianci gritted his teeth and endured, silently bearing the indescribable pain as he felt himself growing steadily stronger.
By dawn, the celestial phenomena gradually dissipated. From the mountains and wilderness came a long, jubilant howl. Fang Tianci, who had only been at the Shenyou Realm, felt his aura surge violently, instantly shattering his shackles and vaulting him into the Transcendent Realm.
The advancement in cultivation brought not only an increase in strength — even Fang Tianci's once-aging features had become somewhat younger. His dried, weathered skin had regained more of its luster.
The whole man seemed to have turned back the years overnight, and his white hair had thinned considerably.
He washed his face at a stream and studied his reflection in the water, chuckling softly as his mood grew ever more carefree.
After briefly consolidating his cultivation, he built a simple hut and settled in the mountains.
This sudden breakthrough had not only dramatically increased his strength through the Heavenly Dao's baptism — he had also gained insight into something else entirely.
He needed time to sort through it.
Spring gave way to autumn, flowers bloomed and withered, and ten years passed. When Fang Tianci finally emerged from seclusion, his aura was even more imposing — clearly, he had taken several more steps along the path of the Transcendent Realm. Beyond that, a decade of secluded cultivation had granted him mastery over an entirely different kind of power. It was an extremely profound power, one he had never before touched.
The power of Space!
In truth, within the Void World, there were some warriors who cultivated the power of space. This was thanks to the Dao Lord of this realm.
It was said that the unfathomable Dao Lord had cultivated ten thousand Daos. Across the entire Void World, traces of his comprehension of these various Daos were scattered everywhere — invisible and intangible, yet omnipresent. Only those of exceptional talent could perceive a fraction of them, thereby receiving a measure of the Dao Lord's legacy.
True prodigies of monstrous talent could resonate with the Dao Lord's Dao even before they were born. Once they entered the world and cultivated the Dao that aligned with their nature, their progress would be astonishing, their cultivation advancing by leaps and bounds. They would easily be drawn to the Void Dao Court and become its disciples.
Being born with a natural affinity for the Dao Lord's cultivated Daos was exceedingly rare — often years would pass without a single such individual. It was said that the eldest disciple the Dao Lord had taken at Seven Stars Workshop was precisely such a person, selected and designated by the Dao Lord before even being born.
Such fortune was the envy of all.
This was not something ordinary people could force. However, the Heavenly Dao had not severed humanity's hope of inheriting the Dao Lord's legacy.
Just as, ten years ago, when Fang Tianci had broken through to a major realm, the baptism of the Heavenly Dao had often been interwoven with traces of the Void World's Daos. Those with sufficient karmic fortune might well gain insight from them.
Many people had benefited this way throughout the Void World. After breaking through major realms, they would suddenly find themselves comprehending a particular Dao. It was a gift from the Dao Lord to the entire Void World.
The Dao Lord had cultivated ten thousand Daos, but three among them were the most powerful.
The first was the Dao of Space. The second was the Dao of Time. The third was the Dao of the Spear.
According to rumor, these were the three Daos the Dao Lord himself had primarily cultivated. In the early days of the Void World, these three Daos had been especially prominent — only later had numerous other Daos come into being.
Because these three Daos were the Dao Lord's primary disciplines, anyone within the Void World who could inherit one of them would receive tremendous attention and regard.
Fang Tianci had never imagined that after accomplishing nothing in his youth, he would not only break through to the Transcendent Realm in his old age, but during that very heavenly baptism, comprehend the Dao of Space.
He hardly knew whether to laugh or cry.
Had he possessed such fortune in his youth, he could have roamed the world with sword in hand, laughing proudly beneath the heavens. But after experiencing life's countless sorrows and partings, he had long since lost the temperament of his younger days. In this life, he simply wanted to travel the entirety of the Void World and see the spectacular scenery he had missed during the first half of his existence.
He left the place where he had spent ten years in seclusion and began wandering the world without destination or purpose, going wherever his heart led him.
Perhaps because he had thoroughly severed ties with his past, his state of mind had fundamentally changed. Since leaving the Fang Family Manor, it was as though the sky was his to soar in and the oceans his to leap through.
As he traveled, he aided the weak against the strong, slew demons and evil spirits, visited every sect he passed, and sparred and exchanged insights on the Dao with geniuses both great and small.