Chapter 1 A Different World Behind a Door

A door separated two different worlds.

The walls of the imperial city were extremely high, seemingly capable of concealing all prying eyes, but behind the city gate, there were no buildings whatsoever.

No pavilions, terraces, towers, or palace steps.

There was only a vast, ink-black plaza, and upon it stood rows of stone steles.

The steles varied in size and height, some surrounded by admirers, others neglected, scattered like stars, resembling a formation, or perhaps just randomly erected.

Once inside, there was no more inspection or surveillance.

An Qisheng stepped forward, stopping before a stele about thirteen zhang high and four zhang wide. Deep within it were array patterns, and upon it were engraved various martial arts, cultivation methods, and true form diagrams.

From Qi refining to the manifestation of a myriad of dharmas condensing into a Dongtian (a pocket dimension).

This was a true form diagram of considerable level, yet it was casually engraved on this stele.

Before the stele, a young man sat cross-legged, watching intently, muttering to himself from time to time.

"Heaven and earth are formless, but all things have form. Transform the formless into form, transform heaven and earth into oneself. This is the true form... But why is there a difference in the speed of condensation for the same true form diagram? And why can't some people condense it at all?"

The young man muttered, his fingers constantly drawing on the ground.

All buildings in Tianjiao City were shrouded in arrays, impossible to damage unless one possessed the power to shatter the city's formation with a single blow. However, this 'Yan Fa Tai' (Dharma Evolution Platform) was different.

The young man could leave marks with a casual stroke.

And An Qisheng could sense that his insights were being recorded by this ink-black plaza.

An Qisheng stopped and quietly watched the young man talking to himself, drawing. This young man's cultivation was not high, only at the True Form stage, and he was not solely focused on this realm.

It could only be said that his aptitude was not high, but his drawings were not for cultivation but to explore the principles of true form and the speed of true form condensation.

He didn't know how long he had sat, or how many insights he had left behind, seemingly without any gain.

But he persevered.

"Interesting."

An Qisheng didn't disturb him and walked to the next stele.

This stele was much taller, and there were more people around it, but it didn't depict true form diagrams. Instead, it listed the names of various spiritual materials, their medicinal uses, pharmacology, elixir recipes, and the required fire control for alchemy.

"The number of spiritual herbs in the world is as countless as the sands of the Ganges, but many have the same medicinal properties. The 'Ling Cao Jing' (Spiritual Herb Classic) doesn't record enough, and more need to be collected..."

"Refining medicine with fire is inferior. Many great sects have methods of 'Qi refining,' using only their own blood Qi to remove impurities from spiritual herbs, allowing for the creation of tens of millions of pills at once..."

"What are impurities? What is an impurity for this pill may not be an impurity for another. The principle of elixirs is to take the essence and discard the dross, but what is dross cannot yet be determined..."

"All things in heaven and earth contain spiritual energy, and they are all composed of spiritual energy. There is no inherent difference, but we cannot use it flexibly... I've heard that in ancient times, sages discovered the essence of spiritual herbs and could convert one spiritual herb into the medicinal power needed for ten thousand kinds of elixirs. Sadly, it's lost..."

"Thousands of herbs make thousands of pills, but that's far from enough. Elixir refining can be faster. One spiritual herb can refine millions of pills. If the sages could do it, so can we..."

This stele was much more lively, with many people discussing with each other, talking to themselves, or casually leaving behind insights.

In the thirty million years of the Wan Yang Realm, countless supernatural powers and secret methods had been left behind. Naturally, there were also many incredible methods.

Whether it was alchemy, array formations, talismans, magical artifacts, or spiritual treasures, there were countless different methods of refinement.

Refining elixirs with fire had long been eliminated by time.

The so-called 'Qi refining' of elixirs was faster and more effective. An alchemist could refine tens of thousands of elixirs a day if they had enough herbs.

But 'Qi refining' was not the best among the many refining methods. Only the sects and holy lands had those higher-level refining methods.

They were even top secrets in the holy lands, inaccessible to even core disciples like Xuanji, who were at the myriad law realm.

The gap between rogue cultivators and the holy lands was unimaginable to ordinary people.

One was still drinking blood, while the other could interfere with the transformation of matter, using the simplest spiritual herbs to refine most elixirs.

And the difference between magical artifacts, spiritual artifacts, magical treasures, and spiritual treasures was not just about being harder or more powerful.

An Qisheng, who held two marquis-level spiritual treasures, knew very well that magical artifacts and spiritual artifacts were still at the stage of simply hammering minerals, imprinting inscriptions, and channeling magic power.

Spiritual treasures, on the other hand, were already an interweaving of 'law and principle,' capable of changing size at will and transforming between reality and illusion.

The difference between the two was even greater than the difference between stone tools and nuclear weapons.

Fang Lingxu could only use it to smash people, but that didn't mean it could only be used to smash people.

Under the same sky, the secular world and the cultivation world, small cultivators and great cultivators, small sects and great sect holy lands, lived in almost two completely different worlds.

Because of this, An Qisheng was not optimistic about the Tianding Emperor. The path you spent a thousand years walking, others had already walked.

The path you couldn't even imagine, others might have already walked.

If you want to win, you can't take the ordinary path.

An Qisheng still didn't speak, but walked from stele to stele, stopping, watching, and listening to discussions.

This plaza was not small, with forests of steles, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. Among them, besides true form diagrams, battle techniques, and combat skills, there were more array formations, talismans, weapon refinement, and alchemy.

This seemed to be a microcosm of the cultivation world of Dongzhou.

"Mr. Yuan, why haven't you spoken along the way?"

This was a towering stele that reached into the clouds. Before it, there was only one person. The Fourth Prince stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the inscription, and asked softly.

This stele was the tallest and largest, but what was engraved on it were not cultivation methods but many state affairs, insights, difficulties, and various solutions.

Most of them were about the 'Skyfall' incidents.

"The atmosphere is not bad."

An Qisheng said casually.

Along the way, many people hadn't had anything that made his eyes light up. Whether it was speculation or summary, they were all barely satisfactory.

It was not as good as what he saw 'in the dream' of the core disciples and elders of several great sects and holy lands.

"Naturally impossible to walk the road of a million years in a thousand years."

The Fourth Prince nodded: "However, the road must be walked step by step."

He also knew this very well. Unfortunately, the various sects and holy lands strictly prohibited the leakage of similar things. The souls of any disciples who went down the mountain also had the aura of 'king-sealing spiritual treasures' lingering around them.

Even if these disciples betrayed their sects, they could not speak of it.

"This road is difficult."

An Qisheng was not optimistic.

The precious insights left by all the heroes and geniuses of the past thirty million years, except for those lost in the long river of time, were mostly in the hands of the sects.

How could they be easily caught up with?

Individual individuals could surpass sect disciples, but it was extremely difficult to surpass them in all aspects.

An Qisheng knew this very well.

If he didn't have the ability to enter dreams, even if he was a genius with profound foundations, it would not be possible to open up a complete path of cultivation from scratch overnight.

Gu Changfeng opened up eight paths, relying on the experience of his predecessors and the Dayan Heavenly Passage.

The Tianding Emperor didn't have these conditions, so naturally, he couldn't do it.

This could no longer be solved by talent and intelligence.

"Difficult, but not without a way."

The Fourth Prince sighed softly: "Unfortunately, time waits for no one..."

An Qisheng didn't respond. His gaze fell on the 'Skyfall' incidents on the inscription.

'In the third month of the first year of Tianding, seven rogue cultivators fought in the barren mountains, affecting one hundred and thirty-six herbalists... In the sixth month of the first year of Tianding, a disciple of the Dharma Refining Platform pursued a murderer for eighty thousand miles. After the battle, statistics showed that there were thirteen thousand four hundred and twenty-odd dead...

End of the sixth month of the first year of Tianding...

Seventh month of the first year of Tianding...'

The Tianding Kingdom was not originally called the Tianding Kingdom. The Tianding Emperor ascended the throne more than a thousand years ago and changed the country's name to 'Tianding,' setting the calendar year.

The records on this stele were precisely from the first year of Tianding to the present, one thousand two hundred and twelve years.

An Qisheng scanned it and already had a number.

The number of people recorded on it who died in 'Skyfall incidents' was more than two billion.

One thousand years, two billion people.

This was just a string of numbers, but it was more than just a string of numbers.

"My father set the opening of the All Kings Platform as a condition, and used himself as a deterrent to set rules with the sects. He also restrained many rogue cultivators and small sects. In recent years, such things have rarely happened."

The Fourth Prince seemed to know what An Qisheng was looking at and casually explained.

His tone was calm, as if there were no more waves.

"The fault lies not in the cultivators but in the human heart."

An Qisheng shook his head and sighed softly.

The Jiu Fu Realm had been at war for years, with fierce fighting, many casualties, and demons and ghosts plaguing the human realm, causing the people to live in misery.

The land of Dongzhou was suppressed by many great sects who controlled the world, wielding royal power. Even if there were frictions between them, the secular dynasties had no wars.

But there was the 'Skyfall.'

The various things in it made An Qisheng think a lot, and it was no wonder that people often said that the weak were prey to the strong and that there was natural selection.

It seemed that several great realms could not escape this law, even Xuan Xing...

For a time, neither of them was in the mood to talk.

The Fourth Prince had something on his mind, and An Qisheng had no intention of asking. He just walked in the forest of steles, watching the millennial achievements of the Tianding Kingdom.

Although there were no earth-shattering discoveries that made his eyes light up, they all had their own value, and they were also useful to him.

Cultivation was about accumulating bit by bit. What one thought, saw, imagined, and gained were all foundations.

Only with a solid foundation could one erupt.

In the days that followed, An Qisheng still didn't go to see the Tianding Emperor. Every day, he either came to the 'Yan Fa Tai' to listen to the discussions and debates of the many cultivators.

Or he stayed in the deserted pharmacy, either deducing the spiritual image, comprehending the divine body, teasing the little chick, guiding Zhu Dahai, or entering the Dongtian to 'spur' Zheng Longqiu and others to cultivate.

In the blink of an eye, more than a year had passed.

The All Kings Platform was about to open.