"Cultivation is the process of bringing the Dao back to the body.
But what if the body is not allowed to contain the Dao?
That person... will create the Dao from that very non-containment."
The ash was still there – within a body thought to be crippled.
In the dark stone cave amidst the Ice Bone Spring, Lin Mo sat cross-legged.
His chest was covered in wounds.
His heart palace shattered.
His spirit root completely erased by the Dao Annihilation Decree.
The air around him – not a single wisp of spiritual energy fluctuated.
But... in his blood, something else was coalescing.
The blood ash in his meridians slowly rotated, gathering into a drop of dark gray essence – taking the form of an "incomplete Dao talisman."
He had no spirit root.
Could not sense spiritual energy.
Could not condense his soul.
But...
"I still have... will and blood."
He opened his eyes – in his pupils was a vortex of destruction, not borrowed from heaven and earth, but self-generated.
Based on memories from the Fragmented Heavenly Dao Tome, Lin Mo for the first time used blood essence to replace spiritual power, will to replace spell incantations, and pain to replace sensing karmic destiny.
"If the Dao does not tolerate me,
Then every cell within me... shall be the foundation for a new Dao."
His entire body began to smoke – not from burning spiritual energy, but from burning the blood ash within his body to forge his bones.
"Ash begets – Dao Annihilation."
"Dao Annihilation – Begets Me."
A dark gray vortex gathered at his Dantian.
No spiritual energy, just "Thought-Born Blood" – something born from extreme willpower.
When his thoughts reached their limit, his blood automatically transformed into another form of energy.
This was a state:
Cannot be measured by any magical artifact.
Unaffected by the Spirit Realm or Dharma Realm.
And... cannot be prophesied.
A faint Dao image appeared behind him – the form of an ashen war soul, ethereal as smoke, invisible to ordinary people.
No clear strength.
No magic.
But... when a surge of pressure from a strong cultivator from an upper layer probed down – that Dao soul automatically repelled it.
"Is it... my future self?
Or... something that even the Heavenly Dao dares not touch?"
In a palace hidden deep beneath the bottom of the Primordial Ancient Sea, a hooded figure suddenly looked north:
"One without a spirit root... has stepped into the Dao."
"This... is not within any divination."
"Summon the divine envoys."
"He cannot be allowed to grow."
Lin Mo stood up. The ash meridians in his body were still unstable.
But he knew – this was the first step on a path without a beaten track.
And now, he had to choose a direction.
Before him – three ancient relics appeared, only one could be opened:
Hidden Valley – where hundreds of thousands of fragmented Daoist bodies who defied heaven were buried.
Thoughtless Sea – a dead sea where the will of the world-destroying God Race was once sealed.
Mystical Cauldron Ancient Temple – where everyone who enters sees themselves... but distorted.
He whispered softly:
"I don't choose to follow anyone.
I choose something that... no one has ever dared to step into."