Chapter 24: Five-Colored Heavenly Root
"Since that's the case, let's begin!"
Li Tianwei had always been such a person—once he made a decision, he would act immediately.
He believed in the unity of knowledge and action.
He had already made his plans for how to condense the Three Thousand Daos of Intent.
Those so-called Three Thousand Daos were nothing to him; with his natural aptitude, it was never a problem.
That Immortal Tianyuan could only condense five intents simply because he was too weak.
"Master, master, what do you plan to do then?"
Although the Book Spirit knew how arrogant and conceited Li Tianwei was, its little life was now in his hands, so it still had to provide sufficient emotional value.
"Naturally, I'll practice. According to this cultivation method, the Dao Intent exists in every part of this world—the heavens and earth, the Five Elements, the myriad flavors of life, the Dao of artifacts, the path of duty—all contain Dao Intent."
"Then I'll begin from the most fundamental part of myself."
"And that is—my Spiritual Root."
Li Tianwei revealed his plan, his voice full of vigor and confidence.
Now that he had reached the Foundation Establishment stage, he could already manifest his Spiritual Root.
As he spoke, a five-colored light flickered behind his head—a shrunken, dimly glowing root shimmered faintly in the air. But in the eyes of the Book Spirit, it looked particularly weak and dull.
The Book Spirit fell silent for a moment, staring at the False Spiritual Root that carried the five-elemental attributes, then glanced again at Li Tianwei's serious expression.
"Five-Colored Heavenly Root—condensing the Five Elements. This is the foundation that allowed me to accomplish the Hundred-Day Foundation."
Li Tianwei spoke with great confidence.
"Heavenly Root? That's right—with Master's aptitude, beginning from the Spiritual Root to condense the Dao Intents of the Five Elements, it's absolutely possible to perfect the Five Intentions Converge to Heaven Art."
"After the Five Elements, it'll be the myriad flavors and the Dao of artifacts. With Master's aptitude, you'll definitely complete it."
The Book Spirit didn't dare think about anything else.
In its eyes, the only right thing to do was to flatter him.
Though this so-called Five-Colored Heavenly Root looked suspicious, since Li Tianwei called it a Heavenly Root, then it was a Heavenly Root.
"No need to say more—let's begin now!"
As soon as he finished, Li Tianwei sat cross-legged.
The Book Spirit began circulating the Five Intentions Converge to Heaven Art—no, now it was the Three Thousand Converging Intents of Heaven.
The Book Spirit manipulated the book floating before Li Tianwei, flipping through its pages.
Every now and then, Li Tianwei gestured for it to stop as he made adjustments and refinements.
"This won't do… Gathering Five Intents and summoning heavenly lightning to comprehend the Dao of Thunder, letting gales strike the Spirit Platform to comprehend the Dao of Wind…"
"The flesh and Spirit Platform training is too superficial—it should be a full-body tempering with no dead angles."
"Since we're condensing three thousand Daos of Intent, any conflicting or incompatible relationships must be eliminated."
"Though dangerous, it's no problem for me."
Li Tianwei couldn't help complaining as he looked through those overly cautious cultivation methods.
As for those so-called restrictive relationships—Li Tianwei didn't care at all.
At worst, he could invoke the Undying Body of the Sacrificial Dao to counterattack and see which would fall first—the Dao, or himself.
If the Book Spirit had a physical body, it would probably be swallowing nervously right now, staring at Li Tianwei in despair and terror as he modified the Five Intentions Converge to Heaven Art.
"Can this thing even be practiced like that? You'll get yourself killed!"
But Li Tianwei's willful and domineering attitude made it clear he wouldn't listen to a word of protest.
The Book Spirit could only nod along, pretending to agree.
Fine, change it! No problem at all! Best if you train yourself to death—then I can get a new master!
"Hahaha! Excellent! I didn't expect it to go so smoothly!"
Just as the Book Spirit was thinking that, the System deep within Li Tianwei's consciousness detected its thoughts and couldn't help but feel an urge to laugh.
[Die? Impossible. With that Undying Body of the Sacrificial Dao, this guy can't die from cultivation—at worst, he just won't succeed.]
The System quietly awaited the Book Spirit's reaction once it witnessed Li Tianwei's fearless cultivation.
[How could I be the only one suffering? We're on the same boat here.]
While the System mused, Li Tianwei had already begun cultivating and comprehending Dao Intent.
——
"Elder Bai is at another peak. Right now, Li Tianwei is the only one on Heaven's Gate Peak. This is our chance."
At this moment, a shadowy figure crept up the slopes of Heaven's Gate Peak.
The peak was filled with arrays of various kinds, yet the figure skillfully avoided each one, advancing unhindered.
Clearly, he was intimately familiar with the layout of Heaven's Gate Peak.
"The Hundred-Day Foundation has already produced one Bai Muxu. We can't let the Sacred Land of Lingxu produce another."
The intruder's face bore a cruel smile.
Soon, Liu Muyu peeked around cautiously, scanning the surroundings.
He had once been a disciple under Bai Muxu's tutelage, but after failing to complete the Hundred-Day Foundation, he was forced to descend the mountain and join another peak.
Liu Muyu still held deep resentment over it—but he also knew the reason.
Although the Spirit-Testing Stone had shown he possessed a supreme Golden Metal Root, that root had been disguised through secret techniques.
In truth, it was only an upper-grade Golden Spiritual Root.
As for why it had to be disguised, that led back to the Sacred Land of Baiyuan.
In the Northern Spirit Domain, there were four major Sacred Lands—Baiyuan, Lingxu, Qinglan, and Yincang…
Indeed, Liu Muyu was an undercover agent sent by the Sacred Land of Baiyuan to infiltrate the Sacred Land of Lingxu.
Over the centuries, Lingxu had produced an endless stream of geniuses.
It had even earned the title of the foremost Sacred Land in the Northern Spirit Domain. When Bai Muxu reached the Spirit Transformation stage in just over a hundred years, he completely overshadowed his generation.
Meanwhile, the other Sacred Lands gradually declined, making it seem like Lingxu would soon dominate alone.
Thus, Liu Muyu was sent into Lingxu.
Upon learning that Li Tianwei had achieved the Hundred-Day Foundation, he immediately reported back.
Soon, the elders of Baiyuan instructed him—they would restrain Bai Muxu to buy him time to "handle" Li Tianwei.
"A Hundred-Day Foundation genius—too bad you'll perish at my hands."
Having once stayed at Heaven's Gate Peak, Liu Muyu was well-acquainted with its arrays.
With resources from both the Baiyuan and Lingxu Sacred Lands, he had already reached the Golden Core stage. In terms of strength, Li Tianwei was no match for him.
But Liu Muyu wasn't foolish. If he directly tried to kill Li Tianwei, he'd die too.
The Baiyuan Sacred Land wouldn't waste such a valuable spy.
Rather than kill Li Tianwei, it was better to cripple his Spiritual Root—cutting off his path forever.
They had done this countless times before—disguising it as a cultivation mishap, leaving no trace of foul play.
Soon, Liu Muyu found Li Tianwei's cave residence.
Knowing that the cave was protected by sensory formations, he didn't dare use Divine Sense to probe.
But he came prepared—no, Baiyuan had come prepared.
He drew a small banner from his storage ring and shook it gently toward the cave.
A gust of yin wind swept across the heavens and earth as a gray mist spread outward with his movements.
Liu Muyu's lips curved into a sharp grin, his eyes glinting coldly.
"Let's see how you handle this…"
He chuckled softly, eyes full of venom.
As a spy of Baiyuan, he knew exactly what kind of treasure this banner was.
The Soul-Corrupting Banner was designed specifically for these so-called geniuses of heaven.
It contained the resentment of hundreds of thousands of souls.
When activated, it released those resentments into the surrounding heavens and earth.
Because this was human resentment, it naturally fused with the world's spiritual energy.
Any cultivator absorbing that energy would draw the resentment into their Spirit Platform, tainting it.
The dense spiritual energy, once polluted, would corrupt one's comprehension, sullying the Spirit Platform—and thus crippling their divine talent.
The banner had been crafted by several Spirit Transformation experts of Baiyuan, strong enough to contaminate an entire region.
Liu Muyu watched as the heavy yin energy spread, shrouding the area.
Within it, Li Tianwei's face seemed to twist with pain, as though he were being affected.
Before long, resentment followed the spiritual energy straight into Li Tianwei's body.
With such a method, Liu Muyu didn't even need to enter the cave to ruin Li Tianwei.
"Hahaha! So what if you have the Hundred-Day Foundation? Once your Spirit Platform is tainted and your root defiled, what use is your talent then?"
Liu Muyu snickered, already looking forward to hearing the aftermath.
After completing his task, he slipped away silently, ready to report back to Baiyuan and plan the next steps.
"Phew…"
Before leaving, Liu Muyu glanced toward the cave one last time.
He could sense the surging spiritual energy within—it meant Li Tianwei had already begun cultivating.
No one noticed that within that gathering flow of spiritual energy, faint traces of darkness had begun to intermingle.
Seeing this, Liu Muyu quickened his pace. Since Li Tianwei had started cultivating, he was sure to fall victim soon.
Inside the cave, Li Tianwei was already deeply immersed in cultivation.
To complete the Three Thousand Converging Intents of Heaven, he had to work even harder, with utmost focus.
According to the essence of the Five Intentions Converge to Heaven Art, condensing Dao Intent into spiritual energy would make one's power several times stronger than cultivators of the same realm.
If he gathered five intents, that power would multiply fivefold again.
However, this also meant that his cultivation would take much longer, as his spiritual energy would become far purer and denser than ordinary cultivators'.
Therefore, to condense all Three Thousand Daos of Intent, Li Tianwei would need to invest three thousand times the effort. Though he believed in his own extraordinary talent—
Power did not come without cost. It required true comprehension and dedication.
Li Tianwei had set a small goal for himself—to integrate at least a hundred kinds of Dao Intent before reaching the Golden Core stage, and to complete all three thousand before his ascension.
Having resolved himself, Li Tianwei began to cultivate.
From this point onward, his cultivation was no longer just about absorbing spiritual energy and transforming it into power—but about grasping the Dao within that energy, the intent of the Five Elements themselves.