Chapter 258: The Dao of Reincarnation (First update delivered, seeking monthly vote!)

After Xu Tao left, Wang Lin's life settled back into calm, as if everything that happened before was merely a passing cloud—gone, never to return.

Wang Lin still woke up early every morning, opened his shop door, and waited for Da Niu's child to deliver the fruit wine. He would drink while trying his hand at wood carving. He had lived this life for many years, and it had gradually become ingrained in his bones.

He had distanced himself from slaughter, seeming to split into two people from his former self years ago. On him, there was no trace of slaughter qi; only peace, the understanding of a Mortal.

Wang Lin did not know what Concept he would ultimately comprehend. He was not anxious, but quietly contemplated and experienced.

On the seventh day after Xu Tao left, he came to Wang Lin's shop again. Accompanying him was a middle-aged man whose appearance carried a hint of nobility. This man respectfully entered the shop with Xu Tao, completely disregarding his status, and immediately knelt down with a thud, kowtowing three times to Wang Lin.

Wang Lin glanced at the man but remained silent. He could tell at a glance that this person must be Xu Tao's master, the Prince Consort the Big-Eared Cultivator wanted to kill.

In the eyes of true Mortals, a Prince Consort was already part of the heaven-reaching Imperial Family, but in Wang Lin's view, this person was no different from an ant. Although he had undergone a little bit of cultivation, as long as he had not reached Foundation Establishment, he could not escape Reincarnation.

The middle-aged man seemed to already know Wang Lin's temperament. After kowtowing, he stood up, pulled out a Storage Pouch without a word, respectfully placed it on a nearby table, and then retreated with Xu Tao after bowing.

Wang Lin did not say a single word the entire time. Long after the two had left, he finally looked up from his carving, picked up the Storage Pouch, and swept it with his Divine Sense, seeing a large quantity of Spirit Stones inside.

Casually tossing the Storage Pouch aside, Wang Lin took a deep breath, walked out of the shop, leaned against the longevity chair by the door, and gazed at the blue sky and white clouds, enjoying the warm sunlight. He couldn't help but squint his eyes. He truly enjoyed this life. If his parents were still alive and the family was together in the shop, he would have no regrets in this life.

Time flew by, and another five years passed… On this day, Da Niu's father could not escape the Reincarnation of life and death and passed away. White banners hung from the Ironware Shop, and bursts of profound sorrowful weeping came from within.

Wang Lin stood outside his own shop, staring blankly across the street. He couldn't help but recall how, more than twenty years ago, when he first arrived on this street, that cheerful fellow had invited him home for dinner.

He could never forget how this cheerful fellow had awkwardly stammered and hesitated when asking to borrow silver to expand his shop.

Over these past twenty years, Wang Lin himself couldn't remember how many times he had eaten or drunk wine at this family's home. However, the Reincarnation of the Heavenly Dao was not something Wang Lin, as an individual, could change.

Birth, aging, sickness, and death were part of his comprehension of the Heavenly Dao. Even if he used Heaven-Defying techniques to prolong the man's lifespan by a few years, ultimately, the man still could not escape Reincarnation.

Not only that, but because of such Heaven-Defying techniques, the person would instead fall into a lower tier within the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

After all, Da Niu's father was different from Wang Zhuo. Wang Zhuo was a Dao Cultivator, inherently walking the Heaven-Defying path, which was why Wang Lin could extract his soul and presumptuously carry out the matter of the Six Paths, casting him into the body of a pregnant woman.

But Da Niu's father was different.

Wang Lin stood at the shop entrance, letting out a soft sigh. At some unknown point, a flower with black petals had appeared in his hand. This flower was no ordinary object; it was one of the Materials used to refine the Spirit Expelling Pill.

If a Mortal had died recently and their soul had not completely dissipated, this flower could help solidify their soul, allowing them to possess more Soul Power in the River of Reincarnation and strive to be reborn into a good family.

Wang Lin shuffled his body and walked towards the Ironware Shop. Inside the shop, Da Niu's uncles, aunts, and cousins all wore sorrowful expressions, and an atmosphere of grief enveloped the entire place.

In the mourning hall in the back courtyard of the shop, Da Niu's father lay quietly in the coffin. Da Niu and his wife were kneeling beside him. Da Niu's eyes were bloodshot, clearly having just cried.

Standing nearby was a woman, Da Niu's mother. Her heart was filled with sorrow, and as she gazed at her husband in the coffin, her eyes revealed a look of despair.

As early as twenty years ago, Wang Lin had already seen that the feelings between this husband and wife were very deep.

As soon as Wang Lin entered, the surrounding neighbors and Da Niu's uncles all showed respect. Wang Lin had already become a person of considerable standing on the entire street.

Da Niu's mother saw Wang Lin, nodded gently, performed a bow, and whispered, "The surviving wife, Mrs. Zeng, greets Elder Brother Wang."

Wang Lin sighed softly, stepped forward to help the woman up, then took an incense stick from a bystander, lit it, and paid his respects.

The moment he bowed, the sky outside instantly darkened, though this darkness was invisible to Mortals. A black Qi slowly emerged from the corpse of Da Niu's father. This black Qi gradually clumped together, finally taking the appearance of Da Niu's father. He hugged his body, seeming very cold, his face pale, and his entire form looked as if it could dissipate at any moment. He looked around confusedly, finally settling his gaze on Wang Lin.

This was because none of the people around could detect him; only Wang Lin, whose eyes clearly distinguished black from white, fixed his gaze upon him.

Wang Lin sighed inwardly. The black flower in his right hand immediately turned into dust, slowly dissipating. As it did, it transformed into tiny specks of light, invisible to Mortals, which landed upon the soul of Da Niu's father. He immediately felt the coldness lift, and his gaze towards Wang Lin showed deep gratitude.

At this moment, he completely understood that this neighbor, who had lived next to him for over twenty years, was absolutely no Mortal. His form floated in the Void Realm, and he knelt down, gently kowtowing a few times to Wang Lin. Then, he looked at his wife and Da Niu with deep reluctance, sighed softly, and his entire body slowly ascended as if climbing a Heavenly Ladder, finally vanishing into the Void Realm.

"Dad, Mom, I saw Grandpa!" At this moment, a childish voice came from a corner nearby. It was Da Niu's child, the nine-year-old boy, whose eyes were looking up at the sky with a puzzled expression.

However, no one believed the words of a child. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, the boy wrinkled his nose and stopped talking.

Wang Lin looked around with emotion. The Reincarnation of the Heavenly Dao was inescapable. He looked at the already aged corpse of Da Niu's father in the coffin, and suddenly the changes the man underwent every year over the past twenty years echoed in his mind, transforming from a strong adult, slowly aging over two decades, and finally dying.

He took a deep breath, and his gaze fell upon Da Niu's mother. Back then, this woman was only about thirty years old, but now she was over fifty, and the marks of over twenty years of time were etched upon her.

Wang Lin's gaze shifted again. This time, it landed on Da Niu—the youth who, back then, poked his head in from outside the shop, giving Wang Lin the impression of a sturdy, simple boy. Now, he had completely grown into an adult, not only marrying and having a son but also seeing his father off in death.

He was like a small tree that, under the battering of twenty years of time, slowly grew up to become a large tree capable of weathering storms.

At this moment, Wang Lin suddenly experienced an epiphany deep within his heart. This realization grew deeper and deeper, and in this instant, for the first time in the twenty-plus years since Wang Lin had transformed into a Mortal, he comprehended the elusive Gate of the Heavenly Dao.

He didn't know when he had left the Ironware Shop. Dazed, he found himself sitting by the stove in his own shop, staring blankly at the wall. His mind was blank; the only thing present was a surge of Divine Thought.

The scenes of Da Niu's father, mother, and Da Niu himself interacting with Wang Lin over the past two decades flashed continuously through his mind. The appearances of these three people gradually changed. Slowly, Wang Lin had a feeling that he was seeing an invisible force enveloping the three of them. The presence of this force caused Da Niu's parents to slowly age and Da Niu himself to slowly grow up.

Gradually, Wang Lin felt a boom in his mind. His eyes flashed with unimaginable brilliance. In this instant, he felt his body suddenly drift upward, slowly ascending from the shop, rising higher and higher.

During this ascent, he saw countless Mortals, and that force was present on all of them. Even some flowers, plants, trees, and all things in the world possessed its presence. It was omnipresent.

This force descended from the sky. Wang Lin subconsciously wanted to find the Origin of this force.

Slowly, Wang Lin felt himself getting higher and higher. The Capital City beneath his feet grew smaller and smaller. Eventually, the Capital City disappeared, and what appeared before him was a massive, earth-yellow planet.

Unfortunately, even at this point, he still hadn't found the Origin of that force. He could feel that this force was equally omnipresent, even throughout the entire Starry Sky.

Within Wang Lin's character lay a deep, deep persistence. Otherwise, he couldn't have traveled far from home for four hundred years just to return to the State of Zhao and bathe the Teng Family in blood.

Besides persistence, his character also possessed fortitude. Otherwise, he couldn't have risen from a small Cultivator who had just embarked on the path of cultivation to his current height.

It was this persistence and fortitude that made him want to find the Origin of this force. Currently, he was controlling all his actions purely by instinct.

His body was getting higher and higher, but just as he left the earth-yellow planet, a massive boulder, like a shooting star, suddenly streaked past in the distance. Sitting atop this boulder was a white-haired old man. As the old man passed Wang Lin, he suddenly let out a soft exclamation of surprise, and his eyes showed great interest.

"To think I'd see someone with such profound comprehension on this Abandoned Cultivation Planet. However, with your mere Nascent Soul cultivation, even if you are comprehending Soul Transformation, don't be too greedy. If you continue to pursue this Dao, I fear you won't find the Origin without millions of years, but by then, your Physical Body will likely have long since decayed. Have you considered this carefully?"

Wang Lin trembled, a look of confusion in his eyes. The old man chuckled, took a careful look at Wang Lin, and shouted, "I am Heavenly Fate Child. Let's form a good karma today. If you can leave this Abandoned Planet, you may come to Tian Yun Star to find me. I will take you as a Named Disciple and let you follow me for a century!" As he spoke, he pointed with his right hand. Wang Lin immediately shuddered. He felt as if his body had been violently pushed by a great force, suddenly dropping and rapidly returning to the earth-yellow planet, back within the territory of the Four Sects Alliance.

The Capital City, which was imperceptible to him, became the size of a fingernail and then rapidly expanded. Finally, he returned almost instantly to the street west of the Capital City, landing inside his own shop.

In this instant, Wang Lin fiercely opened his eyes. His entire body was covered in copious sweat, and there was a strong, foul, fishy odor mixed within the sweat.

Since reaching Foundation Establishment, he had rarely expelled such foul-smelling substances through his pores.

At this moment, Wang Lin's eyes shone brightly. He took a deep breath, picked up a wood carving, shaped his right index finger into a knife, and carved rapidly. Wood shavings fell away. This time, Wang Lin persisted for a day and a night!

Finally, the moment he retracted his finger-knife, the statue of the Azure-Robed Old Man of the White Cloud Sect suddenly took shape. On this statue, traces of time emanated.

He looked quietly at the statue. After a long time, Wang Lin placed it on the shelf, alongside the wood carvings of the Middle-Aged Scholar and the Old Woman.

After finishing this, he got up, went to the back courtyard, cleaned himself thoroughly, changed into clean clothes, and returned to the shop.

Through this comprehension of the Heavenly Dao, Wang Lin's cultivation had, in this short period, leaped from Nascent Soul Middle Stage to the Peak of Nascent Soul Late Stage, only a hair's breadth away from Soul Transformation.

However, recalling the scene just now still made Wang Lin feel a sense of lingering fear. If the old man who called himself Heavenly Fate Child hadn't forced his Divine Thought back, he might very well have continued pursuing the mysterious and unpredictable Dao of Reincarnation, thereby getting lost within this Reincarnation.

If that were the case, his fate would likely have been nothing but death.

Comprehending the Heavenly Dao was clearly not a calm process; it contained countless dangers. This time, Wang Lin thoroughly understood this.

Although he still hadn't reached Soul Transformation, Wang Lin's understanding of the Heavenly Dao was many times greater than before. He believed he was not far from Soul Transformation.

He had now carved out the Azure-Robed Old Man's Concept of Time. That old man's Concept was clearly an imitation of the Dao of Reincarnation. However, after Wang Lin truly experienced the Dao of Reincarnation, he felt that the Azure-Robed Old Man's so-called Concept of Time was merely a shortcut, mimicking the Dao of Reincarnation, and not true Reincarnation.

Because the Dao of Reincarnation was absolutely not something a Soul Transformation Cultivator could comprehend.

At this moment, there was also a Star Map in Wang Lin's mind. This Star Map was left by the Heavenly Fate Child old Daoist with a single point of his finger. Within this Star Map was a planet countless times larger than Vermilion Bird Star. That place was the residence of the Heavenly Fate Child old Daoist, Tian Yun Star.

However, going there was simply impossible for the current Wang Lin. He sighed softly, put away his thoughts, adjusted his mindset, and slowly, his entire being transformed back into a Mortal.

However, the scene of him comprehending the Dao of Reincarnation moments ago would remain unforgettable for the rest of his life…—

Three updates today, seeking monthly vote!