In Youzhou, to the northeast, deep in the night. Though it was already the beginning of spring, Youzhou in the north remained intensely cold; patches of snow still clung to the sides of the official road.

A bloody melee was unfolding right there on the road. "Brothers, kill!

Kill them all, and we'll have good wine, good meat, and good women!" Those bandits and robbers attacked a small merchant caravan with savage glints in their eyes, while the caravan members fought back desperately. Blood flowed freely, staining the ground crimson.

Not far off, on a barren hill, Teng Qingshan, clad in white robes, stood silently, looking down upon everything. Now, two springs had passed since he left Mount Dayan.

"Robbing and slaughtering?" Teng Qingshan watched the men and women of the caravan being killed, yet his heart remained utterly unmoved. "Why?" "Why is this happening?

How have I become like this?" Teng Qingshan frowned. Over the past year, having witnessed all the joys, angers, sorrows, and pleasures of the human world, coupled with his constant self-admonition to maintain the stance of an 'onlooker,' time had rendered Teng Qingshan numb.

Many infuriating events he observed provoked no feeling in him whatsoever. "How did I become so apathetic?" "Looking at the human world, everything seems like observing bleached skeletons." Originally, Teng Qingshan believed that by observing the Nine Provinces as a mere 'onlooker,' it might benefit his comprehension of the 'Path to Supremacy.' However, by continuously suppressing his true nature and turning himself into an absolute 'onlooker,' Teng Qingshan discovered that his heart could no longer be stirred.

No anger! No surprise!

Naturally, there was no longer any feeling or connection to the Nine Provinces. Having seen thousands upon thousands of sights, everything felt like passing smoke.

... Silence returned to the official road; corpses littered the ground, and the survivors had long since departed.

Teng Qingshan still stood on the adjacent barren hill, ceaselessly questioning himself: "Everything I look at now seems dull. I've traveled for a year—what have I actually grasped?

Nothing at all!" In that year, Teng Qingshan felt no progress in his insights. The only change was that he had become numb, something 'less than human.' Standing on the barren hill.

Teng Qingshan remained stationary for six full days and nights, during which a heavy snow fell. On the morning of the seventh day.

As the sun rose, Teng Qingshan, who had been statue-like, suddenly awoke with a start. "What—what in the world am I doing?" "Ordinary people, Innate realm, Void realm, Void Interpretation realm, Supreme Experts—they are all people!

As people, they possess emotions." "Without various emotions, naturally, there can be no feeling or insight; without insight, how can one grasp the Path to Supremacy?" Teng Qingshan's eyes, previously flat and cold, suddenly brightened. His entire being seemed infused with vitality.

"To understand this Heaven and Earth, to know how this world operates, I must immerse myself deeply and feel it with my own heart!" Once Teng Qingshan understood this, his state of mind seemed to undergo a complete transformation. "Hahaha!" Teng Qingshan burst into laughter, retracting his World Power.

Instantly, the cold wind bit his skin, and his feet sank into the snow. "Feel it with the heart!" Teng Qingshan scooped up a handful of snow, which rapidly melted.

"Hahaha..." Teng Qingshan threw his head back and laughed, then strode forward. ×××××× Lying prone on the dike beside a field, Teng Qingshan, his face dusty, stared intently at a single blade of grass, taking a deep breath: "This is the smell of earth, and the smell of life!" ...

In the middle of a flowing river, Teng Qingshan plunged into the surging water. Moments later, he was on the bank, eating grilled fish.

... "Take this bit of silver and take your mother to see a physician." In a poor household in a small city in Liangzhou, Teng Qingshan handed over a dozen pieces of silver to a young man.

The ailing woman on the bed tried to rise to express her gratitude, and the youth was about to kowtow. Teng Qingshan suddenly vanished.

"An immortal?" Both the youth and the woman were stunned. Miles away, Teng Qingshan, dishevelled like an ascetic, wore a smile, murmuring to himself, "It feels truly good to help people." ...

Across the Nine Provinces, every city, every river, every great mountain bore the imprint of Teng Qingshan's footsteps. He acted entirely on impulse.

Sometimes squatting in the mountains, watching a litter of newborn wolf cubs suckling. Sometimes mixing in with a bandit den, observing the exhilaration and ruthlessness of their lives.

Sometimes lingering in a brothel, witnessing the hidden hardship behind the smiles of the dancing girls. Sometimes serving as a caravan guard, feeling the toil of different people.

Sometimes encountering a youth eager to find a renowned master, offering a word or two of guidance. ...

During this process, Teng Qingshan was sometimes joyful, sometimes furious, sometimes he could only let out a soft sigh, yet other times, a smile would surface for no apparent reason... He fully immersed himself, feeling the lives of others, the instincts of animals, and even the temperaments of plants.

In the blink of an eye, it was late autumn, with just over three months remaining until his duel with Pei San. "Shoes ragged, hat ragged, and my cassock is ragged?

Uh... I don't have a cassock." Alone, his clothes tattered, Teng Qingshan hummed a tune frequently heard in his previous life.

His spirit now was drastically different from when he first left Mount Dayan. It was as if a layer of dust had been washed from a cold heart, melting the surface ice within.

Teng Qingshan's inner self became clear, like flawless jade. A Childlike Heart!

Having experienced both his previous and current lives, following the initial numbness from observing the myriad affairs of the Nine Provinces, and then allowing himself to merge into them... this cycle of withdrawal and engagement had made Teng Qingshan’s spirit more sincere than ever before!

"Only three months left before I face Pei San?" Teng Qingshan smiled faintly. "A pity; in all this time, I haven't had a single breakthrough.

It seems in a little over three months, I'll just have to concede defeat." Thinking of this, Teng Qingshan felt no resentment or unwillingness. After experiencing so much of the mortal world, what did mere surrender matter?

"However, this journey of over a year has been worthwhile." "All these years, I dedicated myself solely to cultivation, but I forgot—what exactly is cultivation for in this life?" "The purpose of cultivation is to protect my loved ones, to establish myself in this world, and to pass on the legacy of Internal Martial Arts." "And now, my strength is more than enough to protect my family, and the lineage of Internal Martial Arts has been passed on. Since I have achieved the goals of my cultivation, I should properly enjoy the pleasures of this world, and spend time with my wife and children." This past year had brought complete realization to Teng Qingshan.

Reaching the Supreme Expert realm was indeed one of his goals. But— Human ambition is infinite, but time is finite.

Spending finite time chasing infinite ambition leads only to bitter regret at the end of life. Contentment brings happiness.

Since he had reached a sufficient height, going forward, he should not make his wife and children worry because of ambition. "This is the border of Chu Prefecture.

I'll just travel back to Mount Dayan this way," Teng Qingshan said with a smile. In Teng Qingshan's eyes, the transformation in his thought process over the past year brought him more joy than any breakthrough in comprehending the 'Way of Heaven.' Suddenly— Teng Qingshan heard the faint sounds of fighting echoing from the official road ahead.

"Bandits and thugs," Teng Qingshan murmured. "Sometimes they have no other path, forced onto this road.

Yet the merchants fight to the death just to earn a living, and they are even more innocent." In the past year, Teng Qingshan had entered bandit lairs and knew that many among them were driven to crime by sheer desperation. Ignoring the ongoing slaughter, Teng Qingshan instead walked quickly toward the noise.

"Mercy!" "Good sirs, spare our lives! We'll give you all the goods and silver—just spare us!" The fighting had stopped, and a prominent merchant from the merchant side was begging fearfully.

Teng Qingshan's eyes lit up: "Huh, isn't that the 'Master Zhou' from before?" Master Zhou had once attempted to brutally assault the Li family's daughter-in-law, only to be stopped by a young man from the Li family—an incident Teng Qingshan had witnessed firsthand: "It’s a pity that 'Master Zhou' secretly ordered men to kill that Li family youth later. My state of mind was corrupted by inner demons then, and I didn't lend a hand." Now, the stout Master Zhou stood there, drenched in cold sweat, begging for his life.

"Old thief Zhou, look who it is?" A sharp cry rang out. Master Zhou looked up, peered closer with confusion, and his face instantly changed: "It's you, Li Liang?

No..." "Heaven did not destroy me back then. Today, old thief Zhou, I'll see you off." This fierce young man, Li Liang, suddenly thrust his sharp dagger deep into Master Zhou’s bloated belly with a thwack.

Master Zhou's eyes widened in disbelief that he would die by the hand of this little thief from the Li family. Thwack!

The dagger was violently withdrawn. Blood instantly spurted out.

"Brothers, I have achieved my vengeance by slaying this enemy, I thank all of you." ... Teng Qingshan flashed forward and was instantly there, but he saw the unresigned gaze of the deceased Master Zhou and the look of grim satisfaction on the face of the youth named Li Liang.

"Truly wondrous and ineffable." "This Master Zhou ultimately met his end at the hands of this Li Liang." Teng Qingshan smiled faintly, then a sudden realization dawned upon him: "Is this what they call the Cycle of Heavenly Dao, where retribution is never missed?" "Cycle of Heavenly Dao?" Whoosh! Teng Qingshan shot into the sky, flying a full thousand zhang before stopping.

Suspended high above, looking down upon the boundless land below, scenes flashed through his mind: the moving events he had personally felt, and the things he had observed during his period of apathy. Teng Qingshan’s state of mind instantly entered a peculiar trance.

He was in a transcendent state; images of myriad flowers, trees, birds, beasts, and countless human affairs streamed through his mind, yet emotions constantly blossomed within his heart. It was as if an invisible 'thread' connected every event, forming a perfect cycle.

"Cycle of Heavenly Dao." Teng Qingshan slowly descended, landing in a patch of open ground beside a tall, ancient Osmanthus tree in a forest. Following the inexplicable intuition in his heart, Teng Qingshan sat down cross-legged.

"Growth, decay." "Everything in existence—all life within Heaven and Earth—has its peak and its trough, its beginning and its end. The old die, and the infant arrives." Sitting beneath the ancient tree, Teng Qingshan closed his eyes.

Impressions and insights continuously surfaced in his mind... And within his Nidan Palace, the previously sharply defined, deathly black, mercury-like substance and the white, vibrant, rain-like substance began to extend tendrils of vital energy.

The black current and the white current gradually intertwined, giving rise to a faint trace of gray...