Chapter 481: Dao Awakening  

= Macho Joshua District, Silver Savior Planet =

Orbiting an inhabitable silver gas planet was an asteroid with a hut.

The devil sat in the hut, chewing popcorns and watching Miaomiao's live stream channel.

As soon as Venti said that he would impart a technique to Miaomiao for taming the dark aura, Devil spat out the popcorns from his gas physique.

He leaned forward and closed his palms.

"Oi. He's supposed to rely on me, not rely on others. Don't open your legs and let others penetrate their karma into your ass like a whore, you dumb cat!"

On Miaomiao's notification panel, his reaction was shown.

[The Anonymous Devil is cursing Venti and Miaomiao for forming a karmic seed.]

Devil ignored the vague message on Miaomiao's screen. He mumbled to himself and pinched his fingers, calculating and predicting the future.

He paused for an hour. The gas that had been covering him dissipated as Devil had consumed all his power to peek into the future.

His face was revealed.

"…"

Fortunately, no one had seen his true face. Otherwise, they might have figured the Devil's identity.

He spat several mouthfuls of transparent blood. Each drop of liquid didn't fly away from Devil, but it gathered into a crystal ball, hovering before him.

Devil frowned as he stared at the transparent crystal, which reflected his real face.

He was a handsome youth, who seemed to be in his early 20s. His toned muscle, sharp eyes, phoenix-like eyebrows, and flawless skin were similar to a certain person.

Staring at his own face, Devil clicked his tongue. He grabbed the crystal ball and absorbed it back into his body.

A few seconds later, the dark gas returned and hid his real appearance.

"Tsk."

"Frustrated by your ill fate?"

A muscular striking man with a thorn circlet on his head entered the Devil's hut and sat on the makeshift bamboo bed. He sat on it.

As soon as Macho Joshua sat on the Devil's bamboo bed, the hut and the bed transformed into a luxurious chamber of western medieval royalty.

Joshua took off his shoes and sat cross-legged, sneering at the Devil.

"Is someone stealing your girlfriend?"

"A dragon prince is sowing a karma with him."

"Isn't that none of your business? Whatever he wants to do, leave him be."

"But I don't want him to be too close to the dragons."

"Asmodeus Bloodline requires many types of Dragon Bloodlines. How can he complete it without making friends with dragons?"

"I have a feeling that the Heavenly Dragon Court will rope him in."

Joshua snickered, "I don't think you need to worry about Divine Dragon Emperor. He's a cool dude, and he has been helping us suppressing Samsara and Yama."

"I'm afraid that things will get a lot complicated from now on. I've deducted that outer gods other than Xie Qingtian will make a move if Mao Miaomiao joins the Heavenly Dragon Court in the future. It won't become a fight between us against Xie Qingtian, Kishin Douji, and Samsara anymore. I will be us against the entire Divine Realms and gods from the other dimensions."

Joshua shrugged, "Change of plans then. Reduce our enemies first. Then, we concentrate on disabling Kishin Douji's regression ability later."

"Yeah. But who will we eliminate first?"

"Let's get rid of either Samsara Palace or Xie Qingtian first. How about we temporarily cease-fire with Kishin Douji?"

"He will instantly kill Mao Miaomiao if he can roam free."

"Then, what are you going to do?"

"…"

Devil sighed. He stretched his back and stood up. Then, he tossed a spatial box, filled with several tons of popcorns to Joshua.

"I'm going to eliminate the threats from the sources. I'll be visiting our neighbors a bit. I might score a few outer god allies or locate the other Primordial Demon Remnants if I'm lucky."

"Don't you have the other timeline's experience? Didn't you brag that you know the future?"

"I do. That's why I'm choosing to visit those geezers."

Joshua gave Devil a meaningful look, "Don't die."

"No problem. I already failed and died 25 million times in other timelines. If I die again, Kishin Douji and I will simply regress one billion years to the past, but that guy won't have the memory of this timeline since I've already destroyed a portion of his providence dao and his regression power. I can fail as many times as I want. All I need is one correct future or one perfect timeline, and I can win forever."

"But my fucking dimension, this universe, and MY TIMELINE will be completely destroyed if you were to die! Take care of yourself a little! Think of the innocent gods, immortals, and mortals in those failed timelines! I don't want to die along with you!"

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry. I won't fail… probably."

"…"

…

= Void Plane =

It took Miaomiao an hour to digest the new knowledge, which Venti had injected into his brain. Even his system couldn't help him since the knowledge was so profound.

"So many techniques… my brain can't handle it."

Blood rained from his nostril like a waterfall. Miaomiao's blood pressure was so high that some of his veins and arteries were burst open. Yet, Miaomiao's self-regeneration ability kept him alive, similar to what a tenacious plot-armor-cladded cockroach-like protagonist could do.

Even Venti had a wry smile on his face when he noticed Miaomiao's health regeneration rate.

"You know, brat. Your life force is already rival immortals. Only a few mortal cultivators have this kind of endurance and vitality. I know that you're walking the Life Essence path, but shit. You're pretty much cultivating everything that relates to life force! It's cheating!"

Uriel puffed his chest in elation, "Have you finally understood the vision of my boss and Devil? Do you understand why we're nurturing him?"

"Meh. I bet he just ate everything you fed him."

"Exactly!"

Miaomiao glared at the two powerhouses and frowned. Once again, he became a puppet for powerful gods and immortals.

It was vexing. Miaomiao thought that he was finally freed from the Devil, but he was still dancing in his palm… THEIR PALMS.

'I guess I can't settle down with my current power. At the very least, I need to be strong enough, stronger than those Dao Gods, stronger than Uriel, STRONGER THAN THE DEVIL!!'

Being motivated, Miaomiao closed his eyes and sat down. He meditated and stabilized his conditions while he digested all the memory.

Venti's knowledge was helpful. The Dragon Prince's memory taught him that he didn't have to condense seven seas, elemental continents, or one thousand elemental continents before he advanced to the 6th-stage.

All Miaomiao had to do was to consolidate his Dao, using his best Compound Element and Holy Element as the core. He had to merge his personality, principle, life experience, and knowledge together. Then, a Dao Pillar would be born.

One Dao was enough to advance to the 6th-stage by the local standard. With just one Dao Pillar, Miaomiao should be able to consolidate his golden core, preparing to hatch his soul embryo and grow a nascent soul.

However, this was where the foundation of nascent soul cultivators differed.

One Dao Pillar could be made from one elemental continent. Therefore, Miaomiao still needed multiple elemental continents to support more Dao Pillars!

Fortunately, Miaomiao didn't need to prepare multiple elemental continents before he reached the 6th-stage. After he solidified his first Dao Pillar, he could come back to review the foundation and create more elemental continents!

Many cultivators didn't know this. Most of them thought that once they advanced, they would lose their golden period of preparing their foundations. As such, some got stuck at the 5th-stage, unnecessarily spending too much time in that realm.

Miaomiao was enlightened. His heart raced, and his blood boiled.

'I can do this!'

Miaomiao ignored the commotion, noises, and worldly matters. His consciousness sank to his dantian, and he entered his Isolation Training Space without sleeping!

He properly cultivated like a normal cultivator for the first time!

While being in the zone, his sense of time was gone. For him at the moment, one second could be one minute, one day, months, or years in the real world. Even when his consciousness entered the dantian world, he didn't pay attention to his surroundings and its time distortion nature.

Even Xu Chu was surprised to see Miaomiao's strand of consciousness in the space. She usually saw his OTHER consciousness with a tinge of strange Time-and-Space Law, Devil's Karma Strand, and Luck Aura of Miaomiao. But this time, Miaomiao came here without their help.

Ding

[You are entering your Soul Dantian Consciousness Sea manually for the first time.]

Despite being in the dantian space, Miaomiao dug deeper into himself. His consciousness vanished from the space, entering his incomplete Soul Dantian.

In the soul dantian, there was nothing but a dark chaotic sea with various powers - Yin Essence, Yang Essence, Twilight Essence, Death Qi, Life Essence, Elemental Essence, and unknown power collided, causing the turbid violent sea to endlessly surge and explode.

Seeing such chaotic power inside him, Miaomiao was astonished. Yet, his heart was filled with motivation and inspiration.

He had an idea.

'Death Qi, Life Qi, Twilight Qi, Demonic Qi, Yin Qi, Yang Qi, Dragon Qi… Whatever you are, you will listen to me! You are inside my body, and I'm the King of my body!'

As Miaomiao attempted to command the sea, another figure showed up in the soul dantian. At the same time, the dark aura around his real body became violent.

…

RUMBLE

The void plane trembled. A vortex torrent emerged with Miaomiao at its center, sucking remnant energy into his soul dantian and physical dantian.

"Oh?"

Uriel and Venti were interested in the phenomenon as it always happened when someone was breaking through from the 5th-stage to the 6th-stage. They knew that Miaomiao was absorbing the plane's Qi to consolidate his Dao.

They wondered which Dao Miaomiao was pursuing.

"I bet it's sex-related Dao," Uriel laughed.

"I bet five thousand 5th-grade soul stones. This brat is consolidating Beelzebub's Dao."

"Nah. Beelzebub is a pest lover. I bet he's walking the path of Asmodeus."

"Meh. It's so obvious that you guys are resurrecting a tamable Asmodeus through this boy. He won't become your tool that easily. I'm sure he wants freedom and the likes, just like other heroes of old."

"I wonder about that."

None of them was afraid that Miaomiao would learn of their hidden agendas or motives. After all, cultivators in a trance rarely paid attention to their surroundings.

This was also their most vulnerable period – A simple touch to the skin could easily cause a cultivator in a trance to suffer from the Qi Deviation!

That was why cultivators had to enter secluded cultivation when they wanted to enter this state.

Uriel and Venti happily speculated for an hour.

But soon, they sensed something amiss.

Miaomiao began absorbing their Soul Qi, Luck, and Divine Providence!

"Uh-oh."

"Wait a minute."

At first, the leaked energy was minuscule and neglectable. They thought of it as a bonus to Miaomiao and didn't mind the loss of energy.

However, every second passed, the leaking energy multiplied. Within a minute, Venti and Uriel sensed the danger of being robbed of their entire Luck Energy, Providence, and Soul Essence.

"THIS BRAT IS FUCKING GREEDY!!"

"SHIT!"

Uriel vanished as he fled from the plane by himself. As for Venti, he opened a massive portal and warped back to his Dragon Palace.

Still, the damage had been done. Miaomiao stole some of their Luck and Qi, and the energies went into his soul dantian.

…

"What is Dao?"

Miaomiao's consciousness hovered over the chaotic sea, gazing at the silhouette before him.

There was a dark silhouette there.

At first, Miaomiao didn't see him. But after Uriel and Venti's power entered his soul dantian, he began to see things.

A shadow of himself floated there, looking back at him and asking him the question. In the sky, flashbacks of old memories were shown, reminding Miaomiao about his past and his past life.

"What is Dao?"

The shadow silhouette seemed to search for the answer. However, someone as smart as Miaomiao wouldn't be able to answer it on the spot.

"What are you looking for?" Asked Miaomiao.

"What is Dao? Can you tell me?"

"That question, I'm trying to find the answer as well. What is MY Dao?"

"Then," The shadow seemed to be interested in Miaomiao, "What am I? What are you?"

"What am I?"

Miaomiao frowned. He almost blurted that "I am me."

Fortunately, he had a second thought. He began pondering about his past life and his current life.

"What am I? What did I do so far?"

"Yeah, what did you do?"

"I bullied people. I killed people for fun."

"Are you evil?"

"I thought of myself as such, but…"

"But…"

Miaomiao's heart suddenly got heavy, teardrops rolled down on his cheeks. He thought of the reasons why he first joined the MMA scenes.

The bitterness experience when he was bullied and robbed, the sadness when his father disowned him, the cruelty of the modern world, the unfairness of society - Miaomiao remembered it all.

He became an MMA fighter to vent his frustration to his opponents. Unfortunately, it was escalated to the point that it turned to murders.

The faces of the sorrowful victims of his fists flashed back. He thought he had forgotten all of that, but he could actually recall them.

"No, I'm really an evil guy. I shouldn't have done that."

For the first time, Miaomiao shed tears of regret for his past life.

The shadow also nodded, "I know that feeling."

Miaomiao bitterly smiled while he continued crying. He sensed a déjà vu.

He felt like he had returned to being Cernun. He still remembered that dragon, crying inside the planet for years.

The sadness and bitterness of regret hit him. He wailed like a baby.

Strangely, the chaotic sea suddenly stopped raging. Everything in the soul dantian ceased its movements as if the time had paused.

BADUMP

"Even after getting the second chance, I'm still an asshole. I bullied others. I killed innocent people. I killed Xie Tian, Ling Tianlong, and many guys to rob their power. I exploited the goodwill of gods and immortals for my personal gain."

The shadow nodded again, "I understand that as well."

BADUMP

"I never wanted to be evil. All I want is a warm family…"

"Yes. I want a warm family, too."

BADUMP

"I just… want…"

"I know."

Miaomiao looked up to face his shadow silhouette. The former already knew that he was the reflection of himself, asking the questions that he wanted to know.

He didn't notice. The soul dantian had stopped moving, but his heart rate spiked.

"I just want to have a warm family, a big family with my beautiful wives."

"Yes. Without sex, the world is dull."

"I know right? I just want to retire in peace."

"But without strength, we can't enjoy peace."

The shadow slowly dissipated and merged with Miaomiao. In the outside world, the dark aura also merged with his light aura, forming a Yin-Yang Taichi Diagram.

"What am I?" Miaomiao asked himself once again, but he already knew the answer.

'Within Light, I am the Villain. Within Darkness, I am the Savior.'

"What do I seek?"

'Peace, Pleasure, Redemption, Salvation… And Freedom!'

"How am I going to attain those?"

'Through Power!'

"What is my Dao, then?"

.

.

.

= Void Plane =

BOOM

Miaomiao snapped open his eyes, and his mouth curved upward. He advanced to the 6th-stage!