Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

As if observing flowers while riding on horseback, memories stretched out.

Traversing peaks that touched the heavens.

Gazing at clouds gathering and dispersing.

A towering Daoist stood aloft in the void, looking into the distance, his expression deep and serene.

At his current realm on the path of Pure Yang, advancing even a step further was a challenge akin to pushing a pole up a hundred feet.

Above the sea of clouds, the Daoist stood tall and sighed, as the winds howling through the sky whipped his sleeves into a fierce dance.

"Enough, enough, enough."

"Obsessive thinking is pointless; it's better to travel the world once more."

Seeing no hope ahead, the Daoist rose to his full height and re-entered the mortal world.

The Daoist headed east, observing the divine phoenix under a wutong tree for thirty years, to no avail.

He had also gone west into the great sea, watching the azure dragon make clouds and rain above the clouds for decades, also without gaining anything.

The search for the opportunity for a breakthrough was extremely difficult.

For one who has traveled a hundred miles, nine are halfway, the Daoist once again went west, riding the winds across the vast ocean, wishing to challenge the beings of the world.

After twenty years, surpassing the waters where black mermaids roamed, he saw an enormous island where a certain species astonishingly had ninety-seven genders, a true spectacle to behold.

The Daoist was profoundly shocked, suddenly appreciating the wonders of creation and broadening his horizons.

Yet such a species could deviate from the essential principles of yin and yang, boldly establishing ninety-five sects; however, this realization was detrimental rather than beneficial to the great Dao he sought.

In the depths of his being, he felt a connection with the heavens, and his meticulously cultivated flawless Daoist heart sounded an alarm, making him realize he had strayed onto the wrong path.

In that moment of despair, the towering Daoist no longer pressed forward but instead returned to wander the world, suspending his life to heal and help others.

Moving slowly and deliberatively, advancing and comprehending.

If the way of acquiring exotic and extraordinary objects was not feasible, why not seek from others?

True Dragons and mythical phoenixes, though transformations of the true essence of heaven and earth, were profound and could be assimilated.

Yet humans, as the most intelligent of all beings, were no less exceptional.

Once attachment was cast aside, the heavens and the earth seemed wider all at once.

The Daoist watched worldly affairs with a detached eye.

It was a time of great chaos; the common people struggled to survive.

The central imperial dynasty had collapsed, regional warlords carved up territories, and sects declared independence.

Drought, extreme heat, torrential rain, pestilence.

Loyal officials wept in the autumn breeze, schemers usurped the mandate of heaven, the foundation of the state was as fragile as a stack of eggs, and the people faced extreme urgency.

What led to this situation?

Greed was the only answer.

The heavens and earth are not benevolent, treating all beings as straw dogs.

The human heart is not benevolent, considering others as sacrificial offerings.

The rich possess endless fields, while the poor have no place to stand.

Beneath the scorching sun.

Farmers' hearts boiled like soup, while nobles casually fanned themselves.

Upon the earth, a voice that questioned 'Do princes and generals have a special birthright?' arose, and in a flash, the world was turned upside down.

More extraordinary techniques and powerful war machines emerged in an unending stream.

After blood had flowed like rivers, peace was finally established.

The Daoist immersed in the mortal world, touched by these events, could not help but sigh deeply.

Within a thatched hut, the towering Daoist wrote furiously.

"There are five thieves in heaven, and those who encounter them prosper. The five thieves lie within the heart, exerting their influence on the heavens; the universe is in our hands, and the myriad transformations arise within us."

"Heaven and earth are the thieves of all things; all things are the thieves of mankind; mankind is the thief of all things. When these three thieves are in proper balance, the three talents are at peace."

"Therefore, it is said: eating in season, the body is in harmony; activating the mechanism, all transformations are peaceful."

After a hundred years of ups and downs in the world of mortals, the Daoist vaguely perceived the direction to move forward.

To advance further, there was nothing else but two things:

One was to steal, the other to transform.

In the long history of the world, there will always be historians holding pens as large as rafters, writing the grand chapters of the world.

The Daoist followed historical texts against the current, traveling back a hundred thousand years.

He saw that since ancient times, people ate wild fruits, drank blood, and then used dry wood and branches to cook food, moving on to create tools to better steal from all things, then imitating true spirits and mystical beasts to learn the ways of cultivation, stealing the primordial qi of heaven and earth.

Within the annals of history, the Human Race rose from insignificance to dominate the world; theft and transformation were seen everywhere.

Stealing from nature and the world outside, stealing from their own kin within.

The history of the Human Race was essentially a history of the rise of great thieves – the more they stole, the stronger they became.

Having attained enlightenment, the Daoist traveled the world once more.

It was the time when the world was shifting from chaos to order.

The Daoist saw someone fishing; in a single day, the catch amounted to no more than a hundred or so fish, even for the strongest.

Those who drive the school of fish and then cast the net have no trouble catching thousands in a single haul.

The Daoist saw strong men carrying stones, toiling all day only to accomplish half as much.

Yet the frail utilized oxen and horse carts or even single-wheeled carts for transport, with ease surpassing the strong.

The Daoist saw the ruler of a dynasty, who gathered the soldiers of the world to forge the supreme twelve puppet machines, using the minor to control the major and suppress the era with overwhelming power.

Upon reaching this point, the Daoist felt the fog before him dissipate, and brightness was born from within.

He had an epiphany.

The heavens and the earth are the thief of all things; all things are the thief of man; man is the thief of all things.

If that was the case, he would steal from the heavens and the earth, steal from all things, steal from all beings!

With this thought in mind, the Daoist sat cross-legged atop a mountain peak tens of thousands of feet high, meditating deeply on the technique of energy condensation and stealing mechanisms.

Thirty years passed, and suddenly, a deep red rune appeared in the palm of the Daoist.

No sooner had the rune appeared than it began to attract the surging energies from around it.

One rune after another slowly condensed and emerged in the void, sinking to a radius of twenty meters around the Daoist.

The closer they were to the Daoist's Cultivation Body, the brighter the red glow became.

A hundred years later, when the Daoist's hair and beard had both turned white and he appeared very old,

three loud laughs echo from the top of the cliff.

"This place, established by my humble self, is my Dao domain."

"My Dao is complete!"

The Daoist rose to his feet, and saw that within twenty meters of him, countless tiny red runes were whirling and rising, creating an imposing and extraordinary atmosphere.

Under the summoning and attraction of the red runes, the forces of heaven and earth flocked toward him with a speed more than ten times faster than before.

With a single thought, the Dao domain manifested.

Touching his forehead with one finger, the Pure Yang Holy Seal appeared.

In the frenzied siphoning of various forces of heaven and earth by the Dao domain, the Daoist took great gulps within it.

The bigger the mouth, the more one can consume, and the more one consumes, the stronger one becomes.

If one's capacity to consume is limited, then one must expand oneself, connecting an external field to devour together!

Great power yields miracles!

With the support of the majestic forces, the Daoist ascended towards the heavens with a sigh.

Below him, the swirling forces took the form of a red torrent, helping him ascend higher and higher.

"Let me break through!" he roared fiercely.

With a powerful punch, the clouds parted instantly, as endless daylight poured down through the gap in the clouds.

Who dares to seize the secrets of the universe, tracing back a hundred thousand years?

The heavens and the earth are so vast, yet I only steal a single breath.

In the thunderous sound of ascension, the Daoist's hair fell, scattering through the sky, teeth loose and falling out.

As the old hair and teeth were shed, new ones were already sprouting.

His hair turned glossy black without a hint of white, and within his gums, forty solid and strong teeth sprouted in a moment, reflecting the numbers of heaven and human.

Atop the thick golden energy, a streak of silver-white color appeared, and with the augmentation of the Dao domain, it slowly flowed and spread over his body, reflecting the daylight and dazzling the eyes.

With the buildup of the silver-white energy, the Daoist's True Yang Spirit grew explosively to a height of ten meters before it ceased.

Yet the transformation did not stop there.

The golden Dragon Tiger Divine Patterns encircling his spirit began to resonate with a dragon's roar and a tiger's growl under the brilliant radiance of the silver-white energy, and the sound resounded through heaven and earth.

The ferocious dragon and fierce tiger patterns started to circle wildly over the surface of his spirit.

As the Daoist shot straight up to the highest point of the sky, the sounds of dragons' roars and tigers' growls rose again.

The two Dragon Tiger Divine Patterns struggled and flew off the surface of his spirit.

Two golden dragon and two golden tiger shadows began to circle and dance around the Daoist's Cultivation Body.

It was as if dragons and tigers were accompanying him.

And with that, the transformation ended.

By this time, the Daoist's sagging, wrinkled skin filled out like an inflating balloon, regaining a youthful appearance.

In the vastness of heaven and earth, the tall Daoist managed to breakthrough once again as his lifespan neared its end.

He had come back to life.

His life force burst forth anew.

He lived a second life, powerful enough to make hearts tremble.

The tall Daoist's figure suddenly descended, landing atop the cliff.

He gazed at the mountain ranges in the sky,

watching clouds gather and disperse.

As if traversing layers of time and space, the tall Daoist's gaze met with Yi Chen, who was immersed in this memory.

With that, the scene came to an abrupt end.