All-things Mantra, meaning that everything could become laws. 

From the grass to the pebbles, all of them contained the mysterious grand dao. Each individual path could lead to the rest. 

This choice was as casual as can be. He simply picked it because it was already right there in the village.

He morphed this version into the original one - the purest All-things Mantra that connects straight to the grand dao.

He sat in the meditative pose and began cultivating by reciting the characters.

His fate palace opened and the four symbols emerged - the pillar, tree, spring, and cauldron of life.

In this current epoch, the four symbols had a pivotal role on the same level as the fate palaces.

When using the mantra to absorb the worldly, dao power, and chaos energy, they entered the fate palace to be refined by the four symbols in accordance with the mantra’s guideline. They eventually turned into chaos true energy. This true energy would craft a dao foundation around the true fate.

This process was happening for Li Qiye.

At the beginning of cultivation, regular cultivators’ true fate was only a faint radiance. This was the shape of the soul.

Through the gestation of the grand dao and chaos true energy, the true fate would slowly grow stronger and manifest into a different form.

At the Enlightened Being Manifestation realm, the true fate would look like a miniature copy of the cultivator. This would allow cultivators to control powerful weapons.

All of this didn’t apply to Li Qiye. His true fate was unique in history and far beyond the comprehension of laymen.

It fitted nicely in the fate palace with the four symbols protecting it. It absorbed the energy and mysteries of the world in order to create a dao foundation. All of this was a natural process that happened every time during a channel cycle of his true fate.

He eventually entered a state of zen - something that would frighten the others if they were to find out.

How could a new cultivator reach this level? Even an Enlightened Being with a humanoid-shaped true fate would find this difficult.

They would only reach this state by sheer luck or a great opportunity. Those who could do so whenever needed to be at the Grand Dao Sacred Physique realm. 

Alas, a mortal like Li Qiye could still do so. The world changed before him. The physical characteristics of Eight Desolaces were no longer there.

He only saw grand dao lines and runes before him, constantly deriving great mysteries in the shape of a profound world.

Deep in this profound world was a tree with whirling branches. It could shoulder the entire world along with the myriad dao. This was the source of the grand dao.

He was the only one who could see this world in his zen state. The other masters couldn’t do so regardless of their power. Even a Dao Lord could only see a corner, no different from a frog under the well.

Despite these advantages, he was indeed starting from the beginning again.

The first realm was Mortal Shell where he absorbed the various affinities for cultivation. He didn’t use a single shortcut during this process.

The twelve realms were divided into three levels - minor, intermediate, and grand. 

For the minor Mortal Shell level, using energy to refine the body was the first step. Once he had enough chaos true energy, he would reach the intermediate level.

This consisted of gestating and empowering the four symbols. Normally, the four symbols would create and refine the affinities into chaos true energy. However, after having enough, the true energy would then complement the four symbols.

Today, both mortals and cultivators had four symbols right after birth. Moreover, they were all nine feet long.

Because of this, there was a popular phrase among cultivators - born with nine, perfect with ten. Shed one’s mortal body and exchange one’s bones.

Essentially, during the intermediate level, chaos true energy would make the four symbols grow one extra foot.

At ten feet long, the cultivator would reach the grand level. This was the time to open more fate palaces.

Everyone was born with one and opening more was a requirement for breaking through. One palace, one realm. So, a Dao Lord would have twelve palaces and a golden avatar.

Li Qiye’s cultivation speed was awfully slow. Decent cultivators would definitely look down on him.

First, he picked a “crappy” starting mantra. Moreover, his speed was so slow, meaning that his talents should be worthless, only one step from being called an idiot.

Since Li Qiye has been idle recently, his sudden start surprised Fuyou.

“Young Master, you’re training? May I ask which mantra you’re using?” Fuyou curiously asked after seeing Li Qiye meditating.

“All-things.” Li Qiye answered. Others would be deep in concentration but Li Qiye was leaning back on his chair, looking as lazy as can be.

“Really?” Fuyou found this surprising. In his opinion, someone as mysterious as Li Qiye should cultivate something amazing. Even if it wasn’t the best, it should at least be a high-ranked yellow mantra.

“The, the one in front of the village?” Fuyou hesitated for a bit before asking. He saw Li Qiye looking at it a few days ago.

“That’s the one.” Li Qiye casually responded.

“Young Master, this mantra, it’s quite slow…” Fuyou hesitated again. It was common knowledge that these seven had a slower cultivation speed compared to others, hence their lack of popularity.

Despite the existence of the stone tablet, no one in the current generation at the village was using it.

The reason was very simple, those who became disciples from Divine Black would come back here and teach the children different mantras.

For example, Fuyou was teaching them the South Fence Mantra. Only those with no other option would resort to the seven.

“Young Master, well, you can be considered a member of the village right now, so, if you don’t mind, pay respect to our patriarch and you can also cultivate South Fence.” Fuyou eventually made up his mind.

A prestigious sect normally never let outsiders learn their mantras and merit laws. As for South Fence, it was a great starting mantra but Divine Black wasn’t overly strict about it.

Their disciples could pick anyone in the sect’s territory to teach South Fence, such as the children in the village. They would be considered outer disciples and the successful ones could go on to become official disciples.