Gou Dao and Cultivation of Immortals, Start from Farming

The moon-shaped puppet patterns flowed and covered the fine Dao patterns, gradually lighting up inch by inch under the puppet light, winding and intertwining, slowly outlining a vast picture. In the depths of the void, dozens of light points floated and rose, connected by thin lines, marking the distance and direction.

“It’s a map of the vast domain.” Mingyue’s silver eyes lit up as she looked at Li Mu and gestured.

Mingyue formed hand seals, and in the next moment, the puppet-patterned light screen rapidly expanded, completely capturing the scene and presenting light spots of varying sizes and colors.

Mingyue raised her finger and tapped lightly, enlarging a spot of light and introducing it: "The Blazing Vast Domain is seven trillion miles from here!"

The bright moon was dotted with dozens of points of light, marked in detail—Zixiao, Lengyou, and Chihuang were all among them, their locations exactly as Li Mu knew.

"The vast domains explored by the Primordial Dao Lord in his lifetime." The Moon Puppet Pattern flowed, lighting up one by one, and the translation appeared: "Silent Abyss Domain, a dead domain, not to be entered; Profound Yellow Domain, the Dao Lord perished, the source veins dried up; Heavenly Ruins Domain, the Dao Lord slumbers, enter with caution..."

……

Suddenly, Mingyue's finger stopped. At the edge of the image, three points of light flickered, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, and the markings were completely different from the others.

Li Mu's gaze sharpened as it fell upon the three vast domains.

The bright moonlight probed the three points of light, and the translation appeared, introducing: "The southern end, five trillion miles from here, is close to the Heavenly Path Vast Domain, and is dangerous; the southeastern region, the Profound Domain, is nine trillion miles from here, with strong source veins, close to three death domains, and the power of Dao Destruction permeates; it is twelve billion miles from here, with the richest source veins, but one must cross three void rifts and two Devouring Source Beast lairs, a perilous journey with nine deaths and one life."

The bright moon looked up and said, "Master."

Li Mu stared intently at the three shimmering points of light, his gaze deep and thoughtful.

The three newly formed vast domains are all outside the exploration range of the Origin Dao Lord. They are the virgin lands of the source veins that he wanted to occupy but failed to do so in the past. Even Dao Lord-level beings are afraid of the nests of the Devouring Source Beasts, the void rifts, and the dead domains permeated with the power of Dao Fall.

"Write down the location," Li Mu said.

Mingyue nodded, and the puppet-patterned light screen contracted, completely imprinting the map of the vast void into her sea of ​​consciousness.

Li Mu's gaze fell on the Dao patterns at the corner of the hall. He raised his hand and pressed down, and a hazy Dao light covered the stone wall, peeling off the entire stone wall and putting it into his sleeve.

"Walk."

As soon as he finished speaking, chaotic Dao energy surged from Li Mu's body, and a hazy Dao light enveloped the bright moon as he withdrew from the stone hall.

Beyond the wreckage, the void was utterly silent.

Li Mu's chaotic will spread out, sensed for a moment, locked onto a certain location, and sped away.

The turbulent currents in the void grew denser, the shattered stars became sparser, and a fierce aura faintly emanated from ahead, like a giant beast lying in wait, breathing heavily.

Li Mu unleashed his Chaos Dao Domain, enveloping the two in a hazy, gray light, his aura completely concealed.

After traveling thousands of miles, the void ahead suddenly changed.

The void, hundreds of millions of feet wide, cracked like a net, with eerie light flowing deep within the rifts. Countless gigantic phantom beasts roamed among them—the Devouring Beasts, their bodies pitch black, their mouths like abysses, devouring all the source energy wherever they went, causing the void to collapse.

Mingyue held his breath as the puppet-patterned light screen swirled, illuminating the distribution of the beast horde: "Master, the Devouring Source Beast's lair ahead stretches for tens of millions of miles. A detour would require traveling hundreds of millions of miles further."

Li Mu stared at the beast's den, his chaotic will probing deep into the rift.

A moment later, Li Mu withdrew his will: "The Beast King is asleep, and the beast horde is wandering aimlessly. Just pass through."

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Mu raised his hand, and the gray Dao light suddenly intensified, enveloping the bright moon and transforming into a stream of light that plunged straight into the shattered void.

Deep within the crevice, a faint light flowed.

The Devouring Beasts roamed around, their mouths opening and closing, swallowing the void's source energy. There were tens of thousands of them, densely packed together. Li Mu, carrying the bright moon, moved among them, his gray Dao light weaving like a fish between the gaps in the beast horde.

A gigantic Devouring Beast, ten thousand feet tall, swam by, its mandibles brushing against the edge of the Dao Light. Mingyue held her breath, her silver eyes fixed on the giant beast.

Li Mu's expression remained unchanged. With a flick of his Dao light, he bypassed the giant beast.

Take a breath.

Ten breaths.

One hundred breaths.

……

After a thousand breaths, the rift ahead gradually thinned, the beast horde dwindled, and the gray light broke through the dark light, bursting out of the Devouring Beast's lair.

Looking back, Mingyue saw that the shattered void was already behind her, and she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Mu kept his head down and sped forward at breakneck speed.

The void was dark and gloomy, the turbulent currents gradually subsided, and a faint aura of deathly stillness emanated from ahead, as deep and imprisoned as a bottomless abyss.

Li Mu stopped, and the chaotic will extended out.

After a moment, Li Mu said in a deep voice, "Ahead lies the Death Domain, permeated with the power of Dao Annihilation."

The bright moonlight shone out, touching that deathly silence, and the puppet patterns crumbled inch by inch.

"Let's go around!" Li Mu turned around and, with Mingyue in tow, hurried off in another direction.

After bypassing the dead zone, another void rift appeared ahead, pitch black as ink, with spacetime disordered. Li Mu enveloped the bright moon in a hazy Dao light and plunged into it.

In the pitch black, there was no light or sound.

After an unknown amount of time, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

Before the bright moon, a vast void appeared—the turbulent currents were thin, the scattered stars were few, and in the distance, a milky white light flowed faintly, like a nebula floating.

Li Mu's eyes narrowed: "We've arrived."

The two continued on their way.

The milky white light gradually brightened and grew larger, eventually revealing its outline—a vast primordial vein stretching for hundreds of millions of miles, like a nebula suspended in the void, its milky white light flowing and dazzling.

Mingyue's silver eyes lit up: "It's the newly formed Vast Domain!"

Li Mu stared at that primordial vein, his chaotic will spreading.

Deep within the source vein, the source energy is so rich it forms a paste, and the Daoist rhyme flows freely. There is not a trace of ferocity, nor any remnant of the Dao Lord's will—a truly virgin land, where the source vein is newly formed, without any intelligence, and untouched by human hands.

Li Mu's gaze swept over it; the source vein was thick and stretched for countless billions of miles, more than ten times thicker than the giant vein he had previously hunted.

The moonlight shimmered, reflecting the structure of the source veins: "Master, if this domain were incorporated into the Vast Land, the source could increase more than fivefold."

“Hmm!” Li Mu nodded, his gaze falling into the depths of the source vein, indicating, “Let’s probe its true nature first.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Mu, enveloped in a hazy, gray light, entered the milky-white radiance and stepped into that vast realm.

The scene before them was extraordinary. Trillions of phantom images of living beings appeared in the vast domain, densely packed together. There were human figures, animal figures, plant figures, mountain figures, and the sun and moon figures. All living beings were born and continued to thrive.

The bright moon's silver eyes darted around, and the puppet-patterned light screen reflected these illusory figures, but no Dao patterns could be deciphered. When the puppet patterns touched the illusory figures, they vanished instantly, like water entering sand.

“Master, there’s something wrong with this vast domain!” Mingyue’s voice trembled slightly.

Li Mu remained silent, his chaotic will spreading outwards. Wherever his will passed, the illusory figures continued to play out as usual, with birth, aging, sickness, and death, endlessly reincarnating, completely ignoring him.

Li Mu frowned slightly, as if he had realized something.

These phantoms are neither illusion nor reality, neither soul nor thought, but rather a kind of Dao imprint. Since the birth of this realm, the Dao imprints of all living beings have been extracted, condensed, and interpreted by a certain power, like living history.

Li Mu stepped forward, and the surrounding phantoms automatically moved aside, making way for him.

At the end of the passage, deep within the source vein, a rich, milky-white light shone. Li Mu strode forward, with Mingyue closely following.

The illusory figures on both sides continued to unfold: human tribes hunting giant beasts, demon races vying for supremacy in the mountains, cultivators undergoing tribulations to ascend to immortality, people proving their Dao and condensing trees, calamities descending and causing widespread destruction, and new life rising and all things reviving...

Scene after scene unfolded, like a fleeting glimpse of a flower.

The more Mingyue looked, the more uneasy she felt. The puppet-patterned light screen spun wildly, trying to record everything she saw. However, the puppet pattern quickly collapsed as if this realm forbade any recording.

"Don't bother remembering them, none of these are real," Li Mu said, gesturing to Mingyue.

Mingyue solemnly obeyed the order, her silver eyes fixed on the front.

Traveling thousands of miles.

The illusory figures on both sides gradually thinned, while the milky white light ahead grew stronger. The primordial energy was so dense it resembled a syrup, and the Daoist aura flowed through it, making it more than ten times purer than any primordial vein they had seen before. Mingyue couldn't help but say, "Master, there seems to be something wrong with this realm..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Mu suddenly raised his hand, stopping Mingyue, and stared in a certain direction.

Deep within the core of the source vein, where the milky white light is most intense, there is a gaze.

That gaze was extremely subtle and faint; if Li Mu's will hadn't been sharp enough for his mid-stage Dao Transformation realm cultivation, he would have had no chance of detecting it. It was hidden within the flow of Origin Qi and concealed beneath the fluctuations of Daoist aura, seemingly there yet not there, but undeniably present.

Her gaze was fixed on him.

Icy.

Dead silence.

greedy.

Like a hunter eyeing his prey that has fallen into his trap.

Li Mu's expression remained unchanged, and his chaotic will continued to spread as usual, seemingly unaware of that gaze, as he continued to probe towards the core.

The deeper you go, the denser the primordial energy becomes, and the more profound the Daoist principles become.

Her gaze remained fixed on him, following him like a shadow, never leaving his side.

Mingyue seemed to sense something, her silver eyes scanning the surroundings. The puppet-patterned light screen swirled, but it couldn't reveal anything unusual.

"Master?" Mingyue whispered.

"Okay, be careful!" Li Mu said, then continued on with Mingyue.

Before long, a milky white light shone brightly in front of them, the source energy was as rich as the sea, and the Daoist rhyme flowed like the tide. A source pool with a diameter of ten thousand feet stretched out in front of them. The source liquid in the pool was as white as jade, and the starlight inside was dazzling.

At the center of the pool, a hundred-foot-long source core floats, its entire body pure white, its surface flowing with scenes of the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, and the birth and death of all living things, its Daoist charm profound and unfathomable.

"It's the core of the source vein." Mingyue's silver eyes lit up, and she said excitedly.

Li Mu stared at the source core with a playful expression, as if he had discovered something interesting, and his chaotic will reached out.

The next moment, with a "boom!" the scene before their eyes changed drastically.

The source pool disappeared, the milky white radiance disappeared, and the vast domain disappeared.

Instead, there was a strange white expanse.

Endless, eerie white.

Heaven and earth are eerily white, the void is eerily white, the ground beneath our feet is eerily white, the sky above our heads is eerily white, and everything in all directions is eerily white.

Amidst the eerie whiteness, countless pale white roots floated, like billions of venomous pythons coiled around, and on the roots hung fruits—each fruit being a head.

Human head. Animal head. Bird head. Fish head. Insect head. Head of plants and trees. Head of mountains and rivers. Head of the sun and moon. Head of stars...

Densely packed, covering the sky and the earth, millions of heads with their eyes closed, deathly silent.

At the end of the roots, a towering tree stands tall.

The tree trunk was eerily white, like amber, flowing with viscous sap. Where the sap dripped, the void corroded and collapsed. The canopy blocked out the sky, and every leaf was a distorted human face, with expressions of crying, laughing, anger, or sorrow, all frozen in time. At the heart of the tree, a gigantic, pale eye opened, staring intently at him.

Li Mu's image was reflected in the giant eye's pupil.

The gaze is precisely this eye.

Mingyue looked at Li Mu, her voice filled with worry and warning, "Master!"

Before the words were even finished, billions of heads around them opened their eyes simultaneously.

Qi Qi looked at her.

A million gazes, cold and lifeless, greedy and vicious, pierced the soul like a million poisonous needles.

Li Mu quickly activated his Chaotic Dao Domain, the gray Dao light enveloping the bright moon and blocking those eyes.

The giant tree's canopy swayed, and the leaves, with their human-shaped faces, opened their mouths and emitted sharp whistles.

The shriek was silent, yet it shook the very soul.

Li Mu's soul trembled violently, as if being cut by billions of sharp blades. His chaotic Dao Domain fluctuated violently, and the gray Dao Light flickered uncertainly.

Mingyue let out a muffled groan, her silver eyes dimmed, and the puppet-patterned light screen shattered inch by inch, as if struck by lightning.

Li Mu raised his hand, and the Chaos Dao Yuan surged forth, instantly stabilizing the Chaos Dao Domain.

The shrieking gradually subsided.

In the giant eye, Li Mu's reflection gradually became clear, and a cruel, twisted killing intent emerged deep within its pupils.

The next moment, the eerie white scene suddenly collapsed.

The source pool reappeared, its milky white light flowing, the source core suspended in the center of the pool, everything as usual.

It was as if everything I had just seen was an illusion.

Mingyue's face was pale, her silver eyes fixed on her surroundings: "Master, was that a ghost just now?"

“You’re not mistaken, it is indeed the Ghost Clan, and this domain belongs to them.” Li Mu was not surprised but delighted, and confirmed with a smile.

Mingyue was stunned. It was actually the Ghost Clan. They had come to the Ghost Clan's vast domain.

Li Mu's gaze fell on the source core, and his chaotic will once again reached out, directly piercing into the depths of the source core.

The moment the will entered the core, the giant eye reappeared.

The giant eye stared at him, its pupils filled with increasing mockery, conveying the message—I've been waiting for you for a long time.

The moment the thought landed, the surrounding scenery changed again: the source pool disappeared, the source core disappeared, and the vast domain disappeared.

Instead, there remained an endless expanse of eerie white, within which billions of roots took hold of the void, densely packed, layer upon layer, extending into the endless depths. The roots were covered with corpses.

Human corpses. Demon corpses, corpses of all races, billions of corpses, suspended among the roots, densely packed, covering the sky and the earth.

Each of the corpses was a Dao Ancestor in life.

The bright moon's silver eyes trembled violently, and the puppet-patterned light screen spun wildly, unable to reflect any scene.

“It is the Ancestral Forest of the Ghost Clan,” Li Mu said in a deep voice.

As soon as Li Mu finished speaking, deep within the roots, the giant tree reappeared, with ten thousand ancestral trees of the Ghost Clan standing tall. The trunks were eerily white like corpse wax, flowing with viscous sap. The canopies blocked out the sky and sun, with human faces and leaves swaying. Hundreds of millions of corpses hung between the roots like abundant fruits.

In the center of the thousands of strange trees, the thickest, tallest, and oldest strange tree stands.

The tree trunk is over a hundred million feet thick, its canopy covers hundreds of millions of miles of territory, and its roots penetrate into the deepest part of the void. Every leaf with a human face is the face of a Dao Ancestor. At the heart of the trunk, a giant eye opens, and deep within its pupil is reflected the endless void, the endless vast domain, the endless living beings, and the endless death.

The Eye of the Ghost Clan locked its gaze on Li Mu, and a vast, twisted, and eerie aura descended upon him.

As the eerie thought descended, ten thousand strange trees swayed in unison, human faces and leaves opened their mouths, and billions of corpses opened their eyes.

A sharp whistling sound rang out, ignoring time and space, ignoring the Dao domain, and directly pierced into Li Mu's soul.

The moment the shriek rang out, a gray light exploded behind Li Mu.

A giant tree manifested, its trunk shrouded in gray, resembling the scene of the primordial chaos. Its canopy covered the sky, with the sun, moon, and stars revolving among its branches and leaves. Its roots, like dragons, plunged into the depths of the eerie white void, spreading wildly.

The Chaos Dao Tree.

The myriad trees of the Ghost Clan roared in unison, their human-faced leaves opening their mouths to spew forth curses and Dao traces, pitch black as ink, emitting a pungent stench that corroded and collapsed the void wherever they passed. Billions of curses and Dao traces surged forth like a tidal wave, layer upon layer, covering the sky and the earth.

Li Mu stood motionless beneath the tree, his blue robe still.

The roots of the Chaos Dao Tree surged, their gray tendrils resembling countless writhing dragons, meeting the cursed tide of the Ghost Clan. (End of Chapter)