The old man was skinny, but he had a majestic and imposing air around him. He was soaring in power at an astonishing speed as beams of dazzling dao light shot out from him.

Ahead of him was completely empty as if his journey ended there, and there was no further path for him.

Behind him, the rivers of stars were tumbling and the void of emptiness was quaking, as if they were terrified of being devoured by the aura of the old man.

He was like an abyss, able to devour everything in his way!

So unbelievable!

Lin Xun’s heart was in his throat. He was shocked beyond anything. What kind of terrifying cultivation does one need to achieve that?

Saint level?

Or perhaps Saint-King?

Lin Xun didn’t know.

To his surprise, the old man withdrew his aura, and his straight figure became stooped as though he had lost all his strength. An air of gloom, helplessness, and bitterness hung around him.

He was like a traveler who had been wandering for years, or like a veteran soldier who had fought on the battlefield for a long time.

“I take the universe as a game of chess, regard the past and present as the chess board, the great dao as the chess manual, and my life as a chess piece to play against the sky...”

“But in the end…I still lost…” the old man sighed.

The sigh was filled with indescribable bitterness and unwillingness that touched Lin Xun’s heart.

Amazing! Play against the sky in a game of chess!

“The path has been cut off, where should I go? Is it really impossible to escape from the chess game and break out of its restraint?”

The old man’s voice became deeper and deeper. He looked melancholic as he stood there alone with a large expanse of nothingness in front of him.

“Then…”

All of a sudden, the old man straightened his hunched back again, and his eyes shone with a terrifying divine light. His thin body erupted in a blaze of light like it was flaming.

“Use my body to reconstruct a path!”

“Use my spirit to guide the lost forward!”

Boom!

Suddenly, the figure of the old man transformed into immeasurable light, rushing into the vast nothingness ahead and was no longer seen anywhere...

The scenes ended there, quickly fading.

Lin Xun woke up. The mottled and tilted stone stele was standing right in front of him, and an ancient qi assaulted his face. The stone carvings on the stele were still like scribbles and were still indecipherable.

But Lin Xun was soaked in a cold sweat. All the scenes he just witnessed were unbelievable and terrifying beyond imagination.

An old man was running wildly across the mountains and the rivers, and then soared into the sky, ascended the clouds and then roamed across the void of emptiness and the starry sky. His every step was akin to teleportation!

He did all that because he was playing a game of chess with the sky, trying to break out of the chessboard and be free!

His boldness was awe-inspiring. Even the current generation of Saints would have to look up to him.

However, Lin Xun was most moved by the old man’s final decision to use his own body to reconstruct the broken path and use his own spirit to guide the lost in the future.

Could it be because he was unwilling to fail at that point so he wanted future generations to carry on the path that he persistently pursued?

……

The Steele Forest seemed particularly quiet in the vast world. Several cultivators were standing in front of ancient stone steles, solely focused on comprehending and practicing the dao. A solemn atmosphere pervaded the air.

It took Lin Xun a long time before he could calm down. But when he looked at the scribbles on the stone stele again, the vision he saw just now was gone.

Casting away all the distracting thoughts, Lin Xun activated his spirit sense to investigate the stele.

Suddenly, the scribbled and mottled stone carvings seemed to have become a vast ocean, forming a terrifying vortex about to swallow up the sky.

Immediately, it turned into a storm and raged across the universe.

Before long, another black hole took shape in the void of emptiness and silently inhaled a bright sky of stars…

One after another, magnificent images filled with destructive power were presented in a chaotic manner.

Too many!

Lin Xun almost fainted from the intertwining of the complex aura and the chaotic scenes. Even though his spirit power was tremendous, he still felt a sense of unbearable oppression, chaos, and confusion bearing down on him. He almost coughed up blood.

It was the aura of the grand dao, but it seemed very different.

Before long, he was shaking all over and seemed like he couldn’t hold on much longer. The grand dao power was rife with destruction and raging aura that could swallow up even his spirit and will!

It was at that moment that his burning Origin Aeth Artery produced a peculiar warm current, and it spread throughout his body.

Instantly, Lin Xun regained consciousness, feeling a pure and vast power filling his body and making his mind calmer and stronger than ever.

The grand dao aura rife with destruction and chaos struggled to invade and batter his mind but was no longer able to. Instead, he was able to spot all kinds of wonderful truths within the chaos.

Lin Xun focussed his attention and began to concentrate on deriving the secrets.

Vaguely, he seemed to feel sacred light rising from his Origin Aeth Artery and transforming into a great abyss. Moreover, in the depths of the abyss were the echo of sages chanting scriptures, as illusory as the voice of the dao.

His spirit power was activated to its peak state, and he had performed the secret art of the Qiuniu Heart. His power of perception instantly soared to an unprecedented level.

Little by little, he carefully deciphered all kinds of secrets concealed within the stone carvings and comprehended them.

……

As time went by, the ancient stele forest became more and more quiet and solemn.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

However, some experts had been eliminated!

Pu!

A young man’s body was suddenly twitching all over. He raised his head and spat out a mouthful of blood. “Impossible, my comprehension and derivation can’t be wrong, so how can I not decipher the profound meaning?”

A yell broke the peaceful silence.

Before the young man had time to react, he was teleported away and eliminated from the test.

After that, one expert after another failed. Some had devastated looks on their faces, some were speechless, and some were beating their chest and stamping their feet in frustration.

But they were all eliminated without exception.

This was the fifth test, which tested a cultivator’s comprehension and ability to control grand dao powers. There might not be obvious dangers, but if they failed, they would still be eliminated.

However, some experts had already passed the test.

Buzz!

A stone stele glowed brightly and poured out a gush of dreamy, waterfall-like, silver light.

In front of the stone stele, a woman beamed an excited and brilliant smile. Clenching her beautiful hands, she murmured, “Astral Mysteries! Although it is only a fourth-tier grand dao, it allows me to draw upon the power of stars and unleash unprecedented power in battle!”

Wow—

Another stone stele was shrouded in the spectacular vision of a surging river of blood.

A young man in black stood up and laughed loudly, “The Blood River Grand Dao exists, and it matches perfectly with the grand dao that I am looking for!”

“Obedient Wind Grand Dao!” A gust of wind suddenly rose from the peerless genius Lei Qianjun and swept the world.

Soon after that, Mu Jianting opened his eyes. “The power of extreme yin integrates perfectly with my power of extreme yang, just like yin and yang, my grand dao is now complete!”

Similar scenes happened one after another.

Some people were eliminated, and some passed the test and gained dao blessings.

Only fewer than two hundred people remained in the ancient stele forest. In other words, three hundred people had already been eliminated since the test began.

As for those who passed the test and obtained dao blessings, there were around one hundred people. Another fifty-odd people were still trying to decipher the stone carvings.

……

The outside world was shrouded in a tense atmosphere.

This was the last test and also the most critical hurdle. If they passed, they would not only obtain a dao blessing but be qualified to reach the Ancient Dao Lantern Tree!

During this period, the elimination of every expert attracted nervous gazes, followed by incessant pitying sighs.

“This time, I wonder how many people will reach the Ancient Dao Lantern Tree...”

Many influential figures couldn’t say for sure because the elimination rate was too shockingly high!

Of course, there was also good news, which set off commotions.

“Mu Jianting comprehended the Extreme Yin Grand Dao.”

“Lei Qianjun comprehended the Obedient Wind Grand Dao.”

“Zhongli Wuji comprehended the Moving Mountains Grand Dao.”

“……”

Their respective clansmen beamed with delight and excitement while the other cultivators sighed and looked at them enviously.

……

Meanwhile, the test in the ancient stele forest was in its final stages.

Only a few people were still deriving and comprehendIng the dao.

The others had either been eliminated or had already grasped grand dao power and were waiting outside the Stele Forest.

“Only Fairy Ji, Young Master Yu, Miss Luo Jia and Demon God Lin are left.”

Everyone waited with bated breaths.

They could all tell that the grand dao power within the steles selected by the four was incredible.

“I can agree that Fairy Ji and the others will derive unfathomable grand daos, but Lin Xun is clearly pretending and putting on an act!”

Sha Liuchan couldn’t help remarking. He couldn’t stand watching anymore and had to say something.

Only Lin Xun had chosen a stele in the outermost area of the vast Stele Forest. Moreover, it looked very ordinary. Any other cultivators would have derived the grand dao power within it already.

Unfortunately, Lin Xun had not made any progress.

Although Sha Liuchan hated Lin Xun to the bone, he wouldn’t think that Lin Xun’s comprehension was weaker than the others.

So, he believed that Lin Xun was playing tricks again and pretending.

The other experts also found it baffling. They had carefully studied the stele that Lin Xun had chosen, and it indeed looked very ordinary. Although they couldn’t pry into the stone carvings, the aura around the stele was very mediocre and wasn’t special in any way.

“Don’t speak so early, lest you get slapped in the face again,” Yue Jianming sneered.

His one sentence stabbed Sha Liuchan’s heart like a knife and made his face darken.

Other cultivators’ expressions turned strange.

Sha Liuchan had indeed been tricked by Demon God Lin during the Spirit Lantern Illumination trial and was slapped in the face.

It was precisely because they had witnessed that that they dared not say anything regardless of how puzzled they were, lest they would also be slapped by Lin Xun.

“Who are you? How dare you talk to me like that?” Sha Liuchan’s eyes glowed a menacing light as he scanned Yue Jianming like a sharp knife.

“Who are you then? Your sneak attack on Lin Xun on the Sinking Sea failed and then you were defeated and had to flee in a panic. After that, you again embarrassed yourself during the Spirit Lantern Illumination Test. Why haven’t you learned from your lessons? Don’t you think it's embarrassing?”

Yue Jianming wasn’t afraid because this was the fifth test, where fighting and killing were banned.

Many people stifled a snigger. Sha Liuchan is indeed very unlucky.

Sha Liuchan was so angry that smoke was rising from the top of his head. He felt utmost shame and humiliation with his scars uncovered in public.

“We will soon reach the Ancient Dao Lantern Tree, where I will be the first to kill you, a lackey of Demon God Lin!”

Sha Liuchan’s voice seemed to be squeezed out from between the teeth and was filled with chilling murderous intent.

It was then that another vision shook the world.