Sitting cross-legged at the top was none other than Dao Ji Shenwang, whom Lu Qi and the others dared not speak against. He was also Yuan Lian’s biological father.
A gentle yet aged voice slowly echoed, “Come over and sit,” Dao Ji Shenwang said.
Yuan Lian stood up and walked forward. With each step she took, her body underwent a peculiar transformation. With every step, Yuan Lian’s height decreased by a few inches. By the time she reached the steps, she was only as tall as an adult’s thigh. Her face was chubby with baby fat that hadn’t yet disappeared, her large gray eyes were dusty, and her small nose and mouth were adorable. Her hair was styled into little pigtails similar to Dong Dong’s, but hers were larger due to her thick hair, hanging heavily and cutely askew on her head.
The little girl stood in front of the cloud platform and naturally and skillfully opened her arms. The elderly man, with white hair and beard, reached out to pick her up and placed her on his knee.
The tiny Yuan Lian looked up at her father. His face emerged clearly from the mist, revealing an old man whose age was evident at a glance. He had flowing silver-white long whiskers, and his drooping eyes and brows were filled with warmth and affection. The years and experiences were etched deeply into his wrinkles.
In truth, once one reaches a certain level of cultivation, their appearance can remain unchanged. Therefore, in the Divine Realm, except for immortals nearing the end of their lifespan, it’s rare to see someone who truly looks old. However, as the supreme God King, Dao Ji was an exception. He appeared to be in his seventies or eighties, rather than his true form.
But Yuan Lian didn’t find it strange. Since she was born, her father had always looked like this, never changing.
Strangely, though Dao Ji Shenwang appeared to be an elderly man well past seventy, he didn’t give off the impression of being frail or on the brink of death. Instead, anyone could sense the vigorous vitality emanating from him.
Without encountering a great calamity, a God King could truly live as long as the heavens and earth. Moreover, Dao Ji Shenwang was the only existing ancient being, not only living as long as the heavens and earth but also born with them, deeply rooted in every inch of the Divine Realm.
Yuan Lian had been in seclusion for a long time. Dao Ji missed his daughter dearly, his fatherly heart filled with longing. Seeing that she had come out of seclusion but hadn’t moved, he urged her several times, even interrupting the siblings’ time together.
He stroked his beard and carefully examined Yuan Lian’s chubby little face, even pinching it. When Yuan Lian shook her head in dissatisfaction, he let go.
Her appearance as a child had its reasons.
Dao Ji was a naturally born deity, the last of the innate divine race. As his daughter, Yuan Lian was naturally not an ordinary person.
However, the growth cycle of the divine race differs from that of humans, often measured in thousands or tens of thousands of years. Yuan Lian was just about to turn a thousand years old, which, according to ancient standards, was equivalent to her current appearance—about five or six years old in human terms. Not just physically, but her temperament should be like that too.
In Dao Ji’s heart, she should be at the age where she could be held in her parents’ arms without any awkwardness.
But times have changed. In ancient times, there were few living beings, and the days and nights were long, allowing the divine race ample time to grow slowly.
Now, with humans as the dominant race, the heavenly dao adjusts the days and nights according to human growth, making their growth seem too slow, as if they would remain naive children even at the end of time.
How could Dao Ji bear this? So he cast a spell to let his daughter grow like a human. Sometimes Dao Ji wondered if Yuan Lian’s flaws were caused by his insistence on changing the natural growth process.
But the change had already happened, and the spell couldn’t be reversed.
This approach resulted in Yuan Lian having two growth patterns, both physically and mentally. One was her usual appearance, but whenever she wanted, she could revert to her divine form. For instance, when she was with Dao Ji, she subconsciously still saw herself as a child, naturally changing her form.
Thus, not only did her body become younger, but her mind also reverted to its appropriate state.
Dao Ji looked at his daughter warmly and said, “You should come by more often. Since you moved out, it’s been much quieter here.”
Yuan Lian sat obediently in her father’s lap and softly replied, “I said I wouldn’t move…”
She didn’t need much space living alone and wasn’t used to moving around. She always felt that living in Buzhou Immortal Mansion was unnecessary.
Dao Ji disagreed, “You’re used to it, but what about your senior brother?”
Yuan Lian fell silent.
Seeing her so easily compromise, Dao Ji felt both gratified and a bit heartbroken. His fatherly heart was truly swaying.
He didn’t bring it up again and instead talked about another concern.
“Xiao Lian, you must listen. The matter of crossing tribulations ends here. Don’t mess around anymore.”
Yuan Lian, now looking like a five or six-year-old child, furrowed her brows in deep thought, looking particularly adorable. She thought for a moment before answering in a child’s voice, “Father, I wasn’t messing around. You saw it too. The method of soul splitting tribulation is effective, just not enough.”
Her appearance could evoke the compassion of everyone under the heavens, let alone her biological father. Dao Ji couldn’t bear to scold her harshly and could only express his concern, “Haven’t you noticed? Xiao Lian, your soul platform is unstable and already damaged.”
Yuan Lian had indeed noticed. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have felt so comforted when Cang Hai soothed her.
The so-called “soul splitting tribulation,” as the name suggests, involves splitting the soul, allowing the split soul to experience the vicissitudes of the world, understand the myriad states of life, and undergo emotional tribulations, naturally gaining enlightenment beneficial to cultivation.
This method is not something ordinary people can use. It was specifically designed to address Yuan Lian’s lack of soul threads. The split soul, compared to Yuan Lian’s own soul, is too small, but compared to the pitifully few soul threads, it’s just right.
Because of this, no matter the temperament of those split souls, their nature is invariably filled with emotions, sensitivity, and thoughtfulness.
For Yuan Lian, a happy and fulfilling fate doesn’t hold the most significant meaning because her own experiences are already happy and fulfilling enough. The reason she’s stuck at this position is not due to a lack of luck. On the contrary, it’s because she’s too fortunate. Although the lack of soul threads makes her feel little joy or happiness, hardships often provide greater tempering for one’s temperament.
As an Immortal Venerable, there are always ways to know the trajectory of a mortal’s fate. Therefore, the split souls thrown into reincarnation are all destined to be entangled in emotional tribulations.
This kind of character combined with such a fate is the key to everything.
In fact, from the Void Return stage and beyond, being able to create an external incarnation isn’t too difficult. But this is fundamentally different from Yuan Lian’s approach.
The normal method involves splitting into two bodies but belonging to one soul. The incarnation and the main body are connected by the divine soul, with the main body providing spiritual energy and true essence. Essentially, it’s one person, with their thoughts connected. Once this connection is severed, the incarnation will dissipate and cease to exist.
But Yuan Lian is different. She tears her soul apart and throws it into reincarnation, entering the womb and experiencing the confusion of the fetus, with a much weaker connection to her true self. Although Yuan Lian can know what “she” is experiencing, the already scarce soul threads are further dispersed, making her true self even colder, so she never reacts.
While this method does have a compensatory effect on her flaw, tearing the soul apart is not a long-term solution. She now feels that although the returning soul threads are becoming more complete, the soul platform where her primordial spirit resides has been damaged at its foundation. Repairing it will take considerable time.
It’s only because Yuan Lian was born in the Supreme Heavenly Palace, where heavenly materials and earthly treasures are inexhaustible and used like mud, and is constantly cherished by Dao Ji, that she doesn’t take the damage to her soul platform seriously. If it were anyone else, they would be on high alert, not daring to leave seclusion for decades without recuperating.
At this moment, Yuan Lian, being stared at by her father, couldn’t help but pout.
When she appears as an adult, she can’t make this expression because her cheeks lack that layer of adorable baby fat. So when she’s displeased, she often slightly raises her chin and lowers her eyelids, giving off an air of aloofness and arrogance.
Dao Ji chuckled, his expression full of affection, “You’ve always been a good child who listens, haven’t you?”
Yuan Lian reluctantly nodded, and her nose was pinched again.
It’s true that her emotional fluctuations have increased, especially with her childlike appearance amplifying this point. So, although she agreed not to try this method again, her displeasure was evident, and she buried herself in her father’s arms, sulking silently.
Dao Ji, feeling helpless, his long beard almost twisting in frustration, could only say, “There are no shortcuts on the path of cultivation. You must understand this.”
“How is it a shortcut?” The little girl raised her head and questioned, “Those split souls are all part of me. What they experience is no different from what I experience.”
Dao Ji patiently explained, “How can it be the same? You must remember every joy, anger, sorrow, and love experienced by each split soul, but Xiao Lian, let me ask you, can you truly understand them now?”
…If she could truly understand, she probably wouldn’t have failed.
Yuan Lian lowered her head and said nothing.
Dao Ji continued, “So, cultivation is not just about refining the body; refining the heart is equally important. You may have been accustomed to smooth sailing before and thought this wasn’t important, but do you understand its significance now?”
“Don’t just stay on Buzhou Mountain. Go out and explore. Anywhere is fine. See the myriad states of the world with your own eyes. If you gain enlightenment, it’s more useful than a hundred split souls experiencing it. Just look at your senior brother.”
Yuan Lian raised her head, “Senior brother?”
Seeing her interested in something she had never cared about before, Dao Ji felt that her reckless method had some merit. He focused inwardly and saw that the soul threads on Yuan Lian’s primordial spirit had indeed grown slowly, possibly indicating that the emotions brought by those split souls had some influence on her true self.
Like Yuan Lian touching Dong Dong, Dao Ji also pinched the little pigtails on his daughter’s head, then placed her on the ground, letting her stand and look at him:
“His talent is only three spiritual roots. Not to mention the Divine Realm, even in the Great Thousand World, it’s not considered good aptitude. He was born in the Middle Thousand World, far removed from cultivation and the Dao. Yet, among trillions of humans, he alone achieved the supreme position. Why is that? Is it just because of good fortune and opportunities?”
Dao Ji looked at his only daughter and shook his head, “Child, while you were still being nurtured, your senior brother had already been struggling in the mud of the mortal world for many years… Criticism, hardship, betrayal, primordial spirit injuries, even the shattering of his spiritual foundation—these were just the tip of the iceberg. It was precisely these experiences that shaped the only God King among humans today.”
Yuan Lian felt unfamiliar emotions surging within her, making her uncomfortable. She pursed her lips and, without warning, grew inch by inch into the form of a young girl.
The newly adult girl knelt in front of her father and asked, “Do I have to experience it too… Is it true that only genuine pain from the heart can lead to further progress?”
Dao Ji looked at her, his gaze compassionate and gentle. After a long while, he reached out to touch his daughter’s hair, adjusting the flowers on her hair bun, and slowly shook his head:
“Good child, how could I bear it… How could I possibly bear it…”