The Terrifying Path of Immortal Cultivation

"Last time you came, I didn't let you see it because it didn't match what you were looking for."

"Since you need it this time, go ahead and take a look."

With that, Mr. Xu got up and tapped the numbers on the wall behind him.

Click, click, click.

Another round of complex mechanical sounds followed, and soon a passage appeared on the left wall.

"There aren't many books, probably only a few hundred."

Li Qing nodded to Mr. Xu, "Thank you, Mr. Xu."

"Alright, no need to thank me, go ahead."

Li Qing entered the room, passed through a passage, and arrived in a small space with only two rows of bookshelves.

One row was labeled "Dragon Path City," and the other was labeled "Human Tribulation Cases."

Li Qing's eyes lit up, and he felt a slight movement in his heart.

He casually picked up a book and began to silently watch.

In his shadow, shadow paper figures were quietly emerging.

There was a bright night pearl on the ceiling of the room, illuminating most of the space.

Li Qing intentionally let his shadow reflect on the bookshelf, and the shadow paper figures touched the books.

Li Qing's spirit attached to the shadow paper figures, reflecting on these books bit by bit.

An idea arose in his mind, "If the shadow paper figures lurk in someone else's shadow, it seems they can infiltrate the library."

As time passed by, almost an hour had passed in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, Li Qing felt a faint ripple.

This ripple permeated from all around the room, sweeping over everything in the room.

Li Qing controlled the shadow paper figures to lurk in the shadows without moving.

The mysterious ripple passed over his shadow, seemingly without detecting anything unusual.

A thought flashed through Li Qing's mind, "If the shadow paper figures stay in my shadow, it seems they can avoid being detected by this ripple."

"Next, I need a control experiment. Will the shadow paper figures existing independently within the shadows of this room be detected by this force?"

"If they are detected, how can it be avoided?"

"This issue must be resolved, as the great chaos is approaching in a year."

"It's hard to say whether Jixia Academy will be destroyed in an instant like it was 300 years ago."

"I must reach the corresponding realm to be able to watch the corresponding techniques."

"This will greatly limit my use of the Jade Tablet, and I cannot violate the rules of the academy."

"While the rules have protected me well, they have also become stumbling blocks to my progress."

"I must find a way to bypass them and come into contact with higher techniques earlier, so that even if something happens to Jixia Academy, I will at least have a path for continued cultivation."

Countless thoughts flashed through Li Qing's mind, and he did not intend to conduct the control experiment himself, but planned to use others.

A day passed in the blink of an eye, and Li Qing had gained a detailed understanding of the entire Dragon Path City.

He also gained a deeper understanding of the Human Tribulation cases.

The Jade Tablet was filled with dense information, and Li Qing left the room.

Back in his own room, he sat cross-legged on the bed and began to read the contents on the Jade Tablet.

Old Version

Travelogue of Dragon Path City

Wild History of Dragon Path City

Official Records of Dragon Path City

...

New Version

"Millennium History of Dragon Path City"

...(Note: Imperfect)

This imperfect millennium history can be traced back to 1000 years ago, involving the three eras of Great Tang, Da Ming, and Da Kun.

It involves various historical events, with a total word count of up to a hundred thousand.

This is a truly revised history, removing all kinds of flowery language and imagination, leaving only pure, dry history.

Several words describe a wealth of information.

"In the 32nd year of Da Kun, there was a great drought in the northern continent, and people in the city resorted to cannibalism."

"In the 78th year of Da Kun, the prince of the northern continent raised an army in rebellion..."

...

Various detailed records condensed into a single sentence or a few sentences.

Li Qing silently watched, and in an hour, he had read through all the content.

He gained a profound understanding of the history of Dragon Path City.

He discovered that almost the entire Dragon Path City had been breached in the final years of the previous two dynasties.

The result of the breach was the massacre of all the people in the city, which in the old version of history was attributed to soldiers.

However, in the revised history, it was clearly attributed to the blood sacrifice by Demon Dao cultivators.

They created some terrifying monsters to attack the various Great Dao sects and cities in the northern continent.

Usually, when attacking the northern continent, Demon Dao cultivators would lay out various terrifying disasters several years to a dozen years in advance.

When the time came, they would detonate them, gradually weakening the entire Dragon Path City.

Seeing these contents, Li Qing pondered.

He continued to observe some other information he had collected today.

Old Version

"Jixia Academy's Military School Human Tribulation Cases"

"Jixia Academy's Mohist School Human Tribulation Cases"

"Jixia Academy's Confucian School Human Tribulation Cases"

...

New Version

"Essence of Jixia Academy's Human Tribulation Cases"

...

It almost included all the cases of Transcending Tribulation of the various schools in Jixia Academy.

There were about hundreds of recorded cases, each one remarkable.

They showcased the wisdom and thoughts of each individual.

However, these cases were only described in the old version, and it was unknown how much was true and how much was false.

Li Qing was carefully reading "Essence of Jixia Academy's Human Tribulation Cases," and as he read, his understanding of Human Tribulation deepened.

The content on the Jade Tablet was very straightforward and easy to understand.

"Human Tribulation, fundamentally, is the influence of cultivation techniques on the stability of the world."

"Human cultivation of techniques grants power, and the excessive condensation of power affects the stability of causality, celestial mechanisms, and the network of fate."

"Because power forms a massive mass, it affects the fate of all mundane things that the cultivator comes into contact with, to a certain extent, the cultivator becomes the master of fate."

"This is a struggle with the heavens and the earth for control of fate, and thus, it will usher in a calamity."

"The changes in celestial mechanisms and the chaos of fate need to be rectified, and the method of elimination is through guiding fellow cultivators who also wield power to mutually kill and eliminate the unstable erroneous existences."

"When the cultivator who influences other fates disappears, the celestial mechanisms, fate, and causality networks corresponding to other lives that had contact with this cultivator will return to normal."

"The existence of cultivators gradually breaks the shackles of their own fate network, becoming transcendent beings, natural enemies of the heavens and the earth, and the cancer of the world."

"The so-called Transcending Tribulation, whether active or passive, is a death for the fellow cultivator, but not for the poor Daoist."