Chapter 332

Chapter 332: Entering the Dao!

Xiao Hun suddenly said, “Young master, you’ve changed.”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “How so?”

　　Xiao Hun said, “You used to say whatever was on your mind, so why have you suddenly become like this?”

　　Ye Tianming thought for a moment, then said, “It’s not that I’ve changed, it’s that this world doesn’t allow for the truth.”

　　Xiao Hun said, “Then change this world, and if you can’t change it, smash it to pieces.”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Do you want a beating?”

　　Xiao Hun: “…….”

　　Ye Tianming continued, “We’re as weak as chickens right now, if we go around saying things like that… who else would they come after if not us?”

　　As he spoke, he smiled faintly, “So there’s no need to rush. The path to awakening may be long, but it will come. I not only need to grow stronger, I also need to wait for those who walk behind me.”

　　Xiao Hun smiled and said, “Young master, you’ve matured.”

　　Ye Tianming shook his head, “The Yang family beat the sense into me.”

　　Xiao Hun: “…….”

　　In the time that followed, Ye Tianming began to focus on organizing the ancient texts. Not only organizing them, he also read through them carefully. Although the ancient texts here contained no cultivation methods, they were filled with the history of this divine cosmos and boundless wisdom.

　　The senior sister’s notes in particular left him deeply astonished. She had remarkably unique insights into certain questions, and her annotations also contained some reflections on cultivation.

　　Cultivating the Dao actually requires wisdom.

　　And books are what allow a person to gain wisdom.

　　The Tower Ancestor had also said that reading makes one wise, which was why he had persisted in reading all these years.

　　Before he knew it, it was already late at night. He felt a little hungry, and only then did he remember that his cultivation was now useless, essentially making him an ordinary person.

　　Ye Tianming set down the ancient texts and notes in his hands, then rose and walked outside. But he forgot to return the jade hairpin to the ancient text it had come from, and carried it out with him.

　　Not long after Ye Tianming left, a young woman walked into the scripture hall. She was dressed in a plain, elegant cyan robe, her long hair draped over her shoulders, her features strikingly beautiful, carrying an air of otherworldly grace untouched by the mundane world.

　　She walked slowly to a bookshelf and picked up an ancient text, but soon her delicate brows furrowed. “Who touched my book.”

　　Her voice was like cold spring water dripping onto stone, piercing to the bone.

　　At that moment, an elderly man hurried in and bowed respectfully. “Senior Sister, this…….”

　　The woman slowly turned to look at the elder. His expression immediately changed, as though a great mountain had been pressed against his chest. He quickly bowed again and said respectfully, “Senior Sister, here is the situation. The instructors wanted the students to study some of your insights, so we issued a task for someone to come and organize the ancient texts you had read along with your notes. You had agreed…….”

　　The woman fixed her gaze on the elder. “Who took my jade hairpin.”

　　The elder froze, completely bewildered, but he dared not ask too many questions and immediately said, “Senior Sister, it was a newly arrived outer court student. I will go and bring him back at once for you to deal with……”

　　With that, he turned to leave.

　　The woman lowered her head and looked at the book. Not knowing what she saw, she suddenly said, “Wait.”

　　The elder stopped in his tracks and turned around, looking at the woman with a puzzled expression.

　　After gazing at the ancient text for a long while, the woman suddenly looked at the notes Ye Tianming had left beside it. She opened the notes, and when she saw the crossed-out content, a look of puzzlement crossed her face. She flicked her sleeve, and the crossed-out content instantly restored itself to its original state.

　　After looking for a moment, her eyes narrowed. “You may withdraw.”

　　The elder was thoroughly confused. He hesitated, then quietly asked, “And these notes…….”

　　The woman said, “Let him continue.”

　　The elder felt a wave of relief wash over him. He bowed deeply, then withdrew.

　　The woman looked at the notes, lost in thought.

　　Ye Tianming arrived at the outer court cafeteria of the Divine Academy. The cafeteria was enormous and lavishly appointed. The food, of course, was equally extravagant, with over ten thousand dishes to choose from. Naturally, all of them required credits to obtain, one credit per dish.

　　Ye Tianming looked at all the dishes, his mouth watering.

　　He really was hungry.

　　He loaded up over a dozen dishes in one go, and only when he started eating did he notice that the food carried a spiritual energy of incense and faith.

　　It could increase one’s cultivation, though not by much.

　　”Brother Ye?”

　　Just then, a familiar voice came from nearby.

　　Ye Tianming turned to look. The person was none other than Qing Yuan.

　　Qing Yuan was holding a tray with nothing on it but two large coarse flatbreads.

　　Qing Yuan sat down across from Ye Tianming and grinned. “What a coincidence.”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Indeed! How did your task go?”

　　Qing Yuan took a fierce bite of his flatbread and said, “Pretty well, I earned twenty credits today……”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Impressive. I took on a task today too, but I haven’t finished it yet.”

　　As he spoke, he pushed the dishes in front of him over to Qing Yuan. “Brother Qing, let’s eat together.”

　　Qing Yuan quickly said, “No need, no need, I have enough.”

　　As he said so, he held up the flatbread in his hand.

　　Ye Tianming said, “I can’t finish it all anyway.”

　　Qing Yuan refused again, “Brother Ye, really, it’s fine, truly…….”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Brother Qing, would you say we’re friends?”

　　Qing Yuan nodded quickly, “Of course!”

　　Ye Tianming said earnestly, “Since we’re friends, we should be casual with each other. It’s just a meal. When you make it big someday, you can treat me. How about that?”

　　Qing Yuan still hesitated a little.

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Come on, come on! I don’t know what kind of meat this is, but it’s incredibly good, come on……”

　　As he spoke, he picked up a large meat leg and placed it directly into the bowl in front of Qing Yuan.

　　Qing Yuan stopped resisting. He looked at Ye Tianming and said earnestly, “Brother Ye, just you wait. I’m going to work really hard to earn money, and when the time comes I’ll treat you to a big feast!”

　　Ye Tianming laughed heartily, “Then it’s a deal.”

　　Qing Yuan also smiled and said, “It’s a deal.”

　　After that, the two of them began to devour everything in sight.

　　They were both starving.

　　After a while, Qing Yuan said, “Brother Ye, what kind of task did you take on?”

　　Ye Tianming said, “An advanced task!”

　　Qing Yuan’s eyes went wide instantly. “What? An advanced task?”

　　Ye Tianming nodded.

　　Qing Yuan quickly asked, “What kind of advanced task?”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Just helping someone organize some notes.”

　　Qing Yuan asked again, “How many credits?”

　　Ye Tianming said, “Over three thousand credits.”

　　”Wow!”

　　Qing Yuan’s face was filled with disbelief.

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Don’t be shocked, I’m not even sure I can finish it.”

　　Qing Yuan asked curiously, “What does organizing notes require?”

　　Ye Tianming said, “Probably having read a lot of books.”

　　Qing Yuan immediately gave a wry smile, “That won’t work for me, I can’t get into reading, I can only do physical labor……”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Brother Qing Yuan, you work so hard, is it for your little sister?”

　　Qing Yuan nodded. “She’s the only family I have. Our parents died early, and we grew up depending on each other. She is everything to me. Even though she’s joined the Divine Academy now, cultivation and everything else is bound to cost a lot of money in the future, so I need to work hard and save up to support her cultivation.”

　　Ye Tianming thought for a moment, then said, “Don’t wear yourself out. Your sister is so talented, the academy will surely give her special support when it comes to cultivation.”

　　Qing Yuan grinned, his face full of pride. “Hopefully! Either way, I’d rather be prepared.”

　　Looking at the full-of-drive Qing Yuan, Ye Tianming smiled. He felt like there was nothing wrong with that, so he said nothing more.

　　Qing Yuan swept the dishes clean in no time, then said, “Brother Ye, I’m off to do more tasks. Let’s meet again another day!”

　　With that, he turned and ran off.

　　Ye Tianming smiled. He rose and left as well. Once outside, from where he stood, the sky was blanketed with stars and the Milky Way shimmered brilliantly.

　　Ye Tianming walked slowly toward the scripture pavilion. Along the way, he also saw some students of the Divine Academy, all of them busy.

　　Ye Tianming raised his head and gazed into the depths of the star river. In that moment, he thought of Zhan Taizhan, wondering how that girl was doing now.

　　And there was Brother Jiding, whom he had promised to protect on his path of cultivation!

　　And the Yang family.

　　And the new god of the Divine Realm. He certainly wouldn’t underestimate that new god, since the other party had descended from this very world.

　　He still hadn’t met them to this day!

　　Truth be told, he kind of missed having Yang Jia as an opponent.

　　If Yang Jia had remained his opponent all along, the pressure on him would have been so much lighter.

　　Ye Tianming pulled his thoughts back and looked down at his own body. His reason for coming here was also to find a way to further strengthen his physical body. Otherwise, even if he returned to the universe below, he would have no way to use the Myriad Beings Rankings.

　　But how could he strengthen his physical body again?

　　For him right now, this was a very serious problem.

　　Because he was already an ordinary person.

　　Ye Tianming decided to start by trying the physical cultivation methods of this world, to see if he could find a way to break through.

　　But to cultivate in this world, he first needed to earn credits.

　　Within the Divine Academy, there were higher-level cultivation methods and many divine arts and techniques, but all of them required credits to obtain.

　　Credits!

　　Ye Tianming smiled and quickened his pace.

　　Before long, Ye Tianming arrived at the scripture pavilion. Outsiders could also come to read here, but visitors were few, especially at this hour, when there were almost none at all.

　　After entering the scripture pavilion, Ye Tianming made his way to the bookshelf from before. As if sensing something, he suddenly turned his head to the right. Not far away in the corner to his right stood a young woman in a cyan long dress.

　　The woman was very beautiful. She was holding a book and reading.

　　At that moment, the woman suddenly looked over at him.

　　Ye Tianming was slightly taken aback, then smiled faintly as a form of greeting.

　　The woman looked at him without any reaction.

　　Ye Tianming didn’t look at her again. He lowered his head and looked at the ancient text in his hands, falling silent for a long, long time over a particular passage.

　　What is the essence of the Dao?

　　This was a question posed by the original author.

　　And beneath this line, there was only a single word: name.

　　This was clearly left by the senior sister.

　　Only now did Ye Tianming understand why this task was classified as an advanced one.

　　This senior sister would often write down some of her insights, but she never elaborated. Many times it was just a single sentence, or even a single word.

　　Just like now!

　　What is the essence of the Dao?

　　Name!

　　Clearly, this senior sister knew what the essence of the Dao truly was.

　　After a long silence, Ye Tianming picked up his brush and wrote down four characters.

　　Not far away, when the senior sister saw the four characters Ye Tianming had written, her eyes instantly narrowed.