"At three I had already stepped in the foundation realm with purple grade pillars, and at seven I was already in the core formation realm with a purple core.

I could have broken through to the palace realm at eight, however, I spent the next five years deciding on which dao to use as my foundation for the palace realm. I already interacted with countless dao from birth and deciding which to use, ended up being harder than I thought, but after five years, I decided to take an unprecedented move and merged 20 Daos into one and used them to take that leap.

My seniors wanted me to use a superior grand dao as my foundation as it would help me travel further in my cultivation with it being the closest to the origin dao, but because of my physique I could already see it, all roads led to the same place. It didn't matter whether it was a superior grand dao, or a regular dao, if you follow the road to the end, they both lead to the same destination.

The twenty daos I chose were not necessarily weaker than any superior grand dao, and I could even argue that for me they were more powerful as they gave me more versatility and I was intimately more familiar with using them than I would have a superior grand dao, not that I couldn't, as I already had mastery with space, but ultimately, I felt more natural with those daos I grew with me from birth than I did the space dao and my judgment was proven right when I managed to hold my own against a middle stage palace realm expert after just breaking through to the palace realm.

To whoever reading this take heed, just because something has been assumed to be powerful, doesn't mean it would be powerful for you. Choose what is most like you, because ultimately pursuing the Dao is to be at one with ourselves. At least that is what I believe.At nineteen I broke through to the domain realm with a paragon domain and at twenty-three I reached the absolute peak of it. .."

Yang Qing couldn't help but suck in cold air when he read that. The scholar Long Wan turned out to be a more terrifying existence than the sect master of the Bright Lake Dawn Sect.

Even Yang Qing felt he paled in comparison if they were to compare feats. While he matched him in foundations, with him having a purple grade foundation pillars, and core in the core formation realm, the time he took was vastly different to Long Wan. He was twenty-three himself, and he was only at the third stage of the palace realm, and while that could be considered fast even by the standards of peak organizations such as holy lands, and the Order, ultimately it was nothing when compared to someone who at that same age had reached the peak of the domain realm and with a paragon domain at that.

Yang Qing could still remember the depiction of the domains at the dark valley, and the few that stood out to the point that just their representation itself would have taken his life had Lei Weiyuan not been there to help both him and Mao Yunru, with the latter even passing out despite being protected. While he still didn't know much about the domain realms and their divisions, that unique experience was enough to let him know paragon domains were special. As for what it entailed, he was told the information would only be provided to him once he reached the late stages of the palace realm.

"Some people can really make someone feel despair.." said Yang Qing with a bitter smile as his eyes focused on the name Long Wan.

He wondered how many in the entire history of the continent have ever replicated such a feat. A 100-year-old peak domain expert would already send the whole continent into a frenzy let alone a 23-year-old one.

"Long Wan.. If my memory serves correctly, the royal family of the Jade Leaf Empire is surnamed Chen, and among the other aristocratic clans, I don't think there was a Long family among them either. Who is Long Wan?" wondered Yang Qing.

However, when he couldn't place the name, he pushed the matter aside as he focused back on the leaf.

"However, even after ten years passed by I still couldn't find my path to the soul formation realm. It remained as elusive as ever, and despite many seniors helping me and sharing their personal experiences, that door didn't show any signs of appearing before me. Even after spending fifteen years cultivating beneath the ten thousand dao jade tree, I still couldn't sense my path to the soul formation realm.

When that didn't work I spent seven years reading countless experiences of other soul formation experts outside of the empire, and when that didn't help, I started creating and improving all manner of cultivation arts and techniques in the hopes that it would trigger something in me. I created over 100 blue-grade arts, 15 gold-grade arts, and one that was just at the cusp of reaching the purple grade, however, my long-

growing impatience and frustration stifled its evolution. One of my few regrets.

It was then when I was languishing in my frustration, that the royal librarian, Wang Fu,a person I grew to greatly admire helped me. Even though I had long exceeded him in terms of cultivation, his advice and insight are things I grew to value.

He didn't reveal to me some grand mystery or had some secret treasure or writing that suddenly drove me to enlightenment like the bard tales like to say. All he gave me was regular advice, something even with my insight, I had overlooked.

It is better to travel to a thousand places than to read a million books. The experiences the others shared with me while they might help, ultimately the help they could give was limited as it was based on someone else's life, not mine. What I needed was to make some of my own and not use other people's experiences as my own. A simple explanation, really, but one that I had overlooked. 55 years since I was born, not once have I ever stepped outside of the Jade Leaf Empire. The farthest I've moved was from my hometown to the capital, and that was only because the resources I needed were concentrated there, and the persuasion of my master, otherwise I would have never left.

Nothing could ever beat the beauty of the world of the countless daos I saw thanks to my physique, and because of it, anything outside of seemed lackluster to me, and I also needed to vie for resources because of the luxuries my talents afforded me.

At 55, I finally left the Jade Leaf Empire with brush and paper as my companion, and in the next forty five years, I ventured from north to south, east to west. Toured perilous zones, investigated ruins that told the stories of lost eras, ventured into grottos of all kinds, and saw sceneries so rich that I wept, and made friends with all kinds from humans, to spirit beasts, to golems to tree folk, I even gambled with a black tortoise once in a contest of the mastery of differernt daos, I lost to it, but it was a worthwhile and refreshing feeling nonetheless.

Senior Wang Fu was right, those sixteen years became one of my fondest years, and without even realizing it, the door I had worked so bitterly to discover appeared so smoothly during my travels and I become a soul formation expert. If it wasn't for the tribulation that appeared, I would not even have realized it.

I visited countless places, and many left an indelible mark on me, but there were a few that stood out to me prompting me to put them in pen and paper, one of them the Bi Xie Empire, the land of fortune and favor.."