Liu Fuyou was moved to tears and continued kowtowing. He was ready to listen and obey Li Qiye’s orders.

He became filled with hope and enthusiasm again. Without this problem, he would have broken into the manifestation realm already, becoming an Enlightened Being - a big shot at his sect.

Some of his peers have already reached this level and became very influential.

Though he was left behind right now, there was still hope as long as he tried his best.

This opportunity was bestowed upon him by Li Qiye so he was moved to tears.

“Stand up.” Li Qiye said: “No need to cultivate right away since you have just recovered. Just relax, let the dao foundation become firmer or you’ll repeat the same mistake again.”

“I understand.” He bowed towards Li Qiye.

Li Qiye waved his hand then returned to his room, leaving the happy Fuyou behind.

He eventually calmed down and followed Li Qiye’s direction. He didn’t try to break through again but instead worked on stabilizing his dao foundation.

From then on, he reviewed what he had learned back in the sect after teaching the children.

Li Qiye also had free time afterward, just waiting for the sun to rise and set. He had no intention of leaving the village.

Of course, this was a moment of leisure for him. This period was nothing, just the blink of an eye compared to the rest of his life.

Alas, this wouldn’t last forever. He needed to return and couldn’t stay as a mortal.

***

“Time to get started.” One day, he focused and embarked on the cultivation path again.

He had no cultivation to speak of, just an ordinary mortal. He had thrown away all of his merit laws and grand dao, choosing to forget them.

It had nothing to do with his long slumber. He deliberately wanted to start on a clean slate.

Think of it as a work of art. Once finished, even the best work of art had its limits; it wasn"t anything more than itself. However, a blank piece of paper had boundless potential.

This was his epoch so if he were to start again, he would have a new foundation and be able to reach a height greater than before, completely unprecedented.

He wasn’t picky at first either. The beginning didn’t matter since all dao would meet at the apex eventually.

Thus, he simply started with the All-things Mantra found at the village’s entrance - the most basic mantra in Eight Desolaces.

It was one of the seven most well-known mantras and could be found everywhere.

There were numerous beliefs regarding the origin of the seven mantras. One stated that it was pa.s.sed down by an immortal. Another said that after the initial destruction, these methods descended from the heavens as a blessing to the inhabitants.

Most believed in the first because back in the late stage of the chaotic era, a youth received instruction from an immortal who had descended. From then on, he became unstoppable and rampaged across the worlds to stop the chaos.

He earned his golden avatar and proved his dao, becoming a supreme Dao Lord with the t.i.tle of Blessed. [1]

The Dao Lord created a sect and spread mantras that later on were known as the seven.

Because of this, some of the future generations referred to these mantras as Laws of the Blessed.

However, some scoffed at this belief, especially those with sufficient knowledge. They thought that the True Immortal Sect was falsely padding their own reputation.

Why? Because they knew that the seven laws have existed before Blessed Dao Lord. Cultivators and even Dao Lords have trained in these seven arts.

They could be traced back to the first Dao Lord of Eight Desolaces, the “duck’s egg buyer”. [2]

The era of chaos really weakened the cultivation world. Prosperity only returned during Blessed’s era. He then re-compiled and promoted them all over the land. Plus, he himself never claimed to have created the seven laws.

Therefore, those in the know called them the Seven Laws of the Golden Age instead.

Ultimately, Li Qiye didn’t give a d.a.m.n about their origin and names. He knew exactly where they came from already.

The seven were: Chaos, Heavensplit, Divinization, All-things, Society, Devil, and Samsara.

At the start of Blessed Dao Lord’s era, both the mortals and cultivators studied the seven.

As the myriad races found prosperity using the dao, various Dao Lords began creating their own laws and mantras. Thus, people slowly abandoned the seven laws.

The disciples from the bigger sects naturally wouldn’t pick these seven. The seniors didn’t encourage this either.

The seven were too common and ordinary. Anyone could learn it due to its simplicity. Moreover, both the cultivation speed and efficacy left much to be desired.

On the other hand, the new introductory mantras were incredible, especially the ones created by Dao Lords. In fact, just a random low-ranked golden mantra was better than the seven.

As time went on, fewer and fewer people trained with the seven. Eventually, only the mortals who couldn’t join any sect would pick them.

Furthermore, people had different interpretations of the seven. This made them worse because the good and bad have been intermingled. Problems eventually arose.

In other words, a real original source of the seven without a single character changed was virtually impossible to find.

The one carved on the tablet in front of the village wasn’t an original copy either. It has been pa.s.sed down and modified across the generations.

Well, this wasn’t a problem for Li Qiye. He had forgotten all the merit laws but he was still the creator of this epoch. It didn’t take long for him to derive the original version of All-things while reading the tablet.

This original version was special. It appeared simple but contained the profundities of the dao.

Years and years were required in order to derive this mantra to its limit and reach the cores of the grand dao. This statement only applied to others, not Li Qiye.

People would be shocked to find out that he could obtain an unfathomable level of dao comprehension using All-things.

1. This was initially Immortal Observer without context. With this context, I’m changing his t.i.tle to Blessed.

2. Note, since this is an entirely new setting, some translation choices can be difficult. Some t.i.tles and proper names can be hard to tell. For example, a mighty peak can be just a mighty peak or Mighty Peak. As for this duck’s egg buyer line, it’s as literal as possible since I don’t know what’s going on. I’m sure the author will explain this later