Liu Shuang opened her eyes and absorbed the last of the Wood Spirit Qi swirling around her, then allowed the Wood Spirit to transform her body.

「Half an Hour later.」

She stood up and sensed the changes within her body. A confident smile unknowingly appeared on her face. Sensing Wang Ping land, she bowed deeply and said, "Thank you, Master, for being my Guardian."

"Yes. The essence of the Gathering Wood Dao is ’gathering.’ There are countless cultivation paths among the sects, but the core principles never change. First, get the Spirit Vein in your body under control, then slowly find a way to absorb its power. If you have any questions, you can come to me. If I’m in seclusion, you can ask Yu Lian or your grandmaster," Wang Ping instructed.

"Yes." Liu Shuang bowed deeply.

Wang Ping went on to explain some things Entering Cultivators should be mindful of, then smiled and waved his hand. "Go on," he said. "Go experience the changes in your body now that you’ve broken through."

He recalled his own eagerness when he had first broken through.

Liu Shuang gave a slightly embarrassed smile, then hurried away from the Mountain Peak Dojo. She had her own circle of friends and was naturally eager to share the news of her successful breakthrough.

As Wang Ping watched Liu Shuang leave, he found his mind drifting back to the day she and Yang Zhiping were first brought to the Mountain Peak Dojo by the Yu Cheng Taoist.

"Time really flies!"

"It really does. I feel like my first visit to Hu Mountain Country was just yesterday. Oh, and that little fatty... what a shame. He was actually a pretty interesting guy."

Yu Lian was referring to Cheng Ji.

Cheng Ji would have made a good friend, but he never seemed to fit into the Cultivation Realm. He arrived quietly, and he left just as quietly.

Liu Shuang’s breakthrough was a major event for Qianmu Temple. Yang Hou came specifically to ask for Wang Ping’s permission to hold a celebratory rite.

Wang Ping didn’t refuse. A breakthrough using the Gathering Wood Dao might mean being stuck forever in the First Realm. This could be the end of Liu Shuang’s path, so no celebration was too grand.

’Right... I think Master said that fellow, Li Yan, reached the Second Realm with the Gathering Wood Dao...’ Wang Ping muttered under his breath.

"Are you thinking about taking him out and reading his mind to learn how he used the Wood Gathering Skill to advance to the Second Realm?" Yu Lian instantly grasped his train of thought.

"It’s a shortcut, isn’t it?"

"But that’s only if you can find him."

"Master has been setting this up for so long, he’s bound to find a trail. The only question is whether we can take him out in one fell swoop."

"That’s true..." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The celebratory rite for Liu Shuang’s breakthrough lasted for seven days.

Wang Ping merely watched from afar, never attending in person.

Shortly after the rite concluded, Wang Ping informed the acolyte at the garden gate that he was once again entering Death Seclusion to assimilate the memories of the Locust Tree Divine Soul.

「August 7th.」

It was an ordinary day, the one Wang Ping had chosen to begin his meditation. He changed into a Daoist Robe inscribed with Wood Spirit Runes—to prevent his clothes from decaying as they had before—then sat down in front of the locust tree.

The locust tree no longer possessed a Divine Soul, but Wang Ping had grown accustomed to this spot.

CLATTER. The first thing he did upon sitting down was cast a divination. As he had expected: a Holy Trigram.

"Do you need my help this time?" Yu Lian asked.

"Of course, but only for the first few months. During that time, I’ll need to integrate those chaotic memories, and my Divine Soul will likely become very unstable. Whenever that happens, you’ll need to feed me a Sacred Heart Pill to calm it."

Wang Ping reached out to stroke Yu Lian’s head. "After that, I’ll likely fall into a deep slumber, allowing the memories and the Divine Soul to become completely mine, completing a transformation in the very nature of my existence."

"Why do you need to change the nature of your existence?"

"We’re different from the Yuqing Sect. They can develop a cosmos inside their bodies. Our cultivation is about transcending the tiers of existence, undergoing one evolution after another, all to reach the highest state: the Saint Realm," Wang Ping explained softly.

"Oh..."

Yu Lian coiled around Wang Ping’s outstretched arm and climbed onto his shoulder.

They gazed at the beauty of the garden for a little while longer. Then, Yu Lian obediently climbed onto the locust tree behind him to lie down. Wang Ping took out three vials of Sacred Heart Pills, set them beside him, tipped one pill out, and placed it in his mouth.

As the pill’s effects began to spread through him, he connected with the portion of the Locust Tree Divine Soul he had already fused with.

Chaotic and terrifying memories resurfaced. Despite having mentally prepared himself, Wang Ping was still affected by the hatred and rage within them. This time, it felt even more real.

The images in the memories were the same as before: a jumble of fragments.

They were mostly apocalyptic scenes—of some fundamental law of existence shattering. All he could do was watch in despair, awaiting the moment of his own annihilation.

The soul hated something, and that hatred drove it into a frenzy, causing it to destroy all matter in its path. The destruction, in turn, fueled its rage even further. This emotional feedback loop built upon itself, leading to its final madness.

’What is destroying everything? And what is compelling *me* to destroy?’

The question surfaced in Wang Ping’s tranquil mind, and so he began to search through the memories, attempting to find the root cause of all this destruction.

It was a long process. The Divine Soul born from the old locust tree had absorbed an immense volume of memories from the Inspiration Realm—dozens of times more than Wang Ping’s own.

As a result, while reading these memories, Wang Ping would sometimes lose his sense of self, his emotions unknowingly growing agitated. Whenever this happened, a cooling sensation would spread from his own Divine Soul, reminding him who he was.

In his search for answers, he witnessed countless wondrous worlds through the fragmented memories. He was certain they were different worlds, or perhaps planets, except all of them were shattered.

In the final memory, he felt an invisible pull drag his half-crazed Divine Soul into a region filled with blinding light. It seemed to be the core of the Cosmos. The very last memory was of the Cosmos completely collapsing.

The soul uttered the only sentence Wang Ping could understand: "A Saint... is a Saint, after all..."

The memories seemed to end there. Just as Wang Ping was feeling a pang of disappointment, he sensed the benevolent and stable side of the Locust Tree Divine Soul. Within these new memories, he saw a beautiful and serene world...

In this world, the aura of Wood Spirit was everywhere. He himself was a natural Spirit Body, born from an ancient locust tree. His favorite thing to do each day was to gaze at the colossal tree on the horizon that reached into the Cosmos, sharing his happy memories with It and confiding his sorrows.

In his leisure time, he and his friends would care for newborn seedlings, infusing them with Wood Spirit and nurturing their dormant souls, hoping that one day they too would awaken, just as he had.

Until one day, a group of ’beings’ who wielded lightning and reeked of corruption invaded their world...

Upon seeing these invaders, Wang Ping’s emotions inevitably surged. Fortunately, the cooling sensation from his own Divine Soul kept him from descending into madness.

The magic those invaders used was identical to that of the Yuqing Sect and Taiyin Sect Cultivators!

Furthermore, they looked exactly like humans, only far larger, like gods by their very nature.