“Among the vast and nigh-infinite Daos, it is inevitable that there would be disparities between them as if there was a vast chasm in between them.

For example while the Dao of encompassment is meant to embody and summarise the myriad laws and daos it completely pales in comparison to the Dao of Chaos which it is derived from.

Naturally, the different environments of the different worlds led to the strengthening of certain Daos in that world. However, this is not the case for the martial Daos, even in a world where the Dao of blacksmithing is incredibly potent. This would not affect the martial Daos at all.

Needless to say, one’s comprehension of a martial Dao had to be achieved through gruelling training and battling worthy opponents. It is also incredibly important to understand the principles of that Dao and the purpose of it.

Although the comprehension of martial daos were the hardest to attain, it typically brought its users the greatest combat power one could find…huh? This is completely different from what I heard from the cultivators from the nearest village .” Jiang Fei tilted his head slowly to the bookshelf next to him, his eyes still glued to the words on the book in his hands.

After successfully taking his gaze away from the book, he carefully scanned the books on the shelf for an answer.

For 17 years Jiang Fei had been under the impression that his family was just like any other mortal family in the farmlands of the Eternal Flame and Torrent sect, however that all changed 10 minutes ago when he accidentally cut himself in the ancestral shrine and his blood dripped on the floor, revealing a staircase going below the ancestral shrine.

Inside he saw a single bookshelf chock full of cultivation manuals and insights into Sword Dao mostly from his ancestor from 5 generations ago,who was fittingly named, Jiang Hu. There was also a table with a sword stand containing Jiang Hu’s spare sword from before he ascended via the Heaven’s gate.

Immediately after finding the archive Jiang Fei’s brows furrowed as he began to wonder why his family went from prestigious cultivators to,not even nobles, but mortal farmers.

He tried to satiate his curiosity by combing through the bookshelf, but he only learned a few details about cultivation.

He learned that the family heads of each generation would update the technique manuals with their own discoveries and understandings,however they would still keep an original copy in a bag stashed in the right corner. Furthermore, they would also leave behind a scripture containing their understanding of their respective Daos.

Despite searching through all of the books on the shelf he could not find a single book explaining the reason behind them abandoning cultivation, and although he did think of going to the nearby Eternal Flame and Torrent sect to search for records about the environment and settings of the world when his ancestor Jiang Hu did, to explain why his family completely changed their lifestyle.

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He was scared that they would forcibly seize these precious scriptures, after all handwritten scriptures from someone who reached the Immortal Transcendence stage were worth far more than what any mundane sect could afford. If even a mortal like him knew that he knew for sure that a cultivator definitely would.

Jiang Fei clasped the book in his hands shut and gently slid it back into its original place in the bookshelf. After carefully dusting off the books and sword, he walked back up, he now faced an issue.

“Just how do I close this staircase, I cannot have anyone find this.” Jiang Fei quietly muttered to himself, a horrible habit he had never outgrown

Just then the ancestral shrine trembled,the old wooden pillars supporting it groaned under an invisible weight, the tables with the offerings to his ancestors shook vigorously, Grandpa Jiang Lu’s portrait even fell off the wall, the joss sticks placed in the altar fell out of place, this obvert and flashy commotion was quite obviously caused by an ethereal light flashing from the floor.

Jiang Fei shook like a falling leaf in the middle of a tornado, his legs trembled so much they directly gave out and he plopped straight onto the floor. “This is crazy, this is absurd, just how strong were my ancestors?” Jiang Fei thought with a mix of fear and admiration as he stared at the enchanting light shining from the floor.

If Jiang Fei had known more about cultivation, more specifically array formation, he would have realised the light was the result of two Immortal level arrays working in union to conceal and seal the archive.

“Well that’s settled I guess though I do wonder how it closed…Now I should probably tell my parents about this.” Jiang Fei said with a slight tremble in his voice, as he picked himself up from the floor and reached his hands out to place his Grandpa’s portrait back onto the wall.

“Now that the excitement has faded, I wonder what I should do with the archive? Now that I am thinking about it, it is pretty dangerous to open the archive again. Don’t those cultivators have that special sense? What if they sense that light?” Jiang Fei said listlessly as he slowly trudged his feet back to his home, his eyes staring at the azure blue sky.

Jiang Fei was so occupied with these thoughts that he didn’t even realise the fact that his parents had left their farmland to go to the nearby village to trade their crops for some linens to sew new clothes for the upcoming new year festivities.

So upon opening the door to their home and realising that both his mother and father went to the nearby village to run their errands, he went to the dining room and took a seat at the table.

He began to reminisce about all the times he had gotten to interact with cultivators and recalled how everyone,even himself, treated them with respect and admiration. Even though most cultivators did not mistreat mortals as it went against their dao Heart and beliefs, there were always outliers.

For example Jiang Fei remembered an incident where a devil cultivator massacred an entire town just 20km away from them. He recalled the primal,guttural trepidation he experienced when he first heard of this, after all the town had a whopping population of two hundred thousand people, with numerous cultivators among their midst they even had a Nascent Soul powerhouse in their ranks.

However, the thing that shook him the most was the realisation of how utterly powerless he was to these cultivators.

He abhorred this feeling, the mere thought of everything he loved being stripped away from him without him even being able to resist genuinely scared him to his core.

Although this archive gave him the chance to obtain the power he needed to protect everything he loved, it obviously had its own obstacles.

If not, would his ancestors have stopped cultivating? Thinking of this, he became very hesitant to visit the archive again. What if there were high level cultivators nearby who could somehow sense the presence of the archive? His family would be exterminated and his family’s heirlooms stolen.

On the other hand, would it not be worse if that happened and he had no way to resist them? After all, the scriptures down there were his birthright! The only chance he had to escape the confines of mortality and become extraordinary were trapped in those scriptures and only he could liberate them!

Jiang Fei was utterly conflicted and the path ahead for him seemed hazy, he had strong arguments for both starting and evading the path of cultivation.

Sitting at the dining table with his hands on his head, he thoroughly deliberated his choices from here on out. Hours passed and he still had not come to a decision, it was just then that a squeaking sound resounded from his house’s front door.