Ruo Xianxue snorted, her voice now back to its usual superior tone. 'Of course I have a way, Monkey. I am the Ancient Devil Monument—I hold cultivation memories that far surpass these mortal continents. Reincarnating an insect is trivial, but it requires the right foundation and essence. You cannot just pour your dirty Taiyin Essence into it. Moreover, she is the fortieth on the list of ancient celestial insects.'

  Zhi Xuan frowned, trying to find shelter behind a large, moss-covered rock. "Then, what is needed?"

  'First, you need a place rich in Yin Essence. The Demon Mist Swamp you are heading to is the perfect location—the thick devil mist is a form of contaminated Yin Essence, but it serves as a foundation,' Ruo Xianxue explained. 'Second, you need a pure spiritual catalyst to cleanse and stabilize that reincarnation seed.'

  'And third, you need an artifact to plant the seed in, like a flower growing in a pot.'

  Zhi Xuan stared into the swan essence jade box. Inside, the small Thousand Feathered Moth seed emitted an extremely weak aura of life essence, like a tiny flame about to go out.

  "A pure spiritual catalyst?" Zhi Xuan repeated. "All my money was spent on this damn Blue Sky Sword, the shattered furnace, and that shabby coffin." He glanced at the flying sword lying beside him.

  Zhi Xuan leaned his back against the rocks, gazing at the starry night. He still had many promises, a promise of reincarnation, a promise to protect the village, and now... He owed a favor to Zhu Qinglan, even if he did not want to deny it.

  "I need the First Ember first, then I will think about this moth's reincarnation."

  Ruo Xianxue scoffed in Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness. 'You always prioritize your physical strength, Monkey. Remember, the debt you owe that Celestial Insect is karma that will burden you on your Dao, even worse than your debt to that crazy fairy from the Eastern Continent. If you want to reach the First Ember quickly, this moth could be the key.'

  Zhi Xuan fell silent. The words 'karma' and 'crazy fairy from the Eastern Continent' were enough to make him flinch. He knew Ruo Xianxue was right. Letting that promise hang would create a flaw in his Dao heart.

  "I have not forgotten the promise. It is just that now I have to survive. If I cannot survive, then I will only destroy my own Dao Heart."

  Zhi Xuan sighed deeply, the coldness of the large rock against his back slightly relieving the throbbing throughout his body. In the star-scattered darkness, the vast Moss Grassland beneath him felt quiet and soothing, a contrast to the vengeful hustle and bustle of Shoutuo City.

  He opened the swan essence jade box. The Thousand Feathered Moth seed inside looked so fragile, curled up as if it could be crushed by just a deep breath, its light, though dim, was still supported by the Taiyin essence within the swan essence jade box.

  "Yunyi Die, I will name you that." Zhi Xuan looked intently at the reincarnation seed. "Xiao Die, I will definitely save you."

  Zhi Xuan closed the jade box, storing it back inside his robe. If he needed a pure spiritual catalyst and a planting artifact, the Demon Mist Swamp might offer the answer. He could not go back to Shoutuo City, and he could not rely on heavenly treasures that cost millions of coins. He had to search among ancient treasures and spiritual trash that others did not value.

  "I will rest for a while, that bastard Gu will not chase me this far. I hope."

  Ruo Xianxue did not reply. The silence of the Ancient Devil Monument itself was an acknowledgment that Zhi Xuan's argument about survival held undeniable weight. However, that silence also left a sense of pressure—the pressure of an unfulfilled promise.

  Zhi Xuan gazed for a moment at the starry sky, the stars twinkling and the sky filled with a light that felt like hope. Zhi Xuan smiled faintly; since childhood, he had always looked up at the night sky, his sapphire blue eyes, even though his left eye was temporarily blind, always stared at the glittering stars.

  Zhi Xuan raised his hand upwards, opening his palm, swinging his arm as if to grasp the stars shining on the horizon. But it all felt distant, almost impossible for him to hold.

  "Will I be able to grasp the stars someday?"

  Zhi Xuan smiled faintly. He lowered his hand, the smile bitter. The distance between him, a Divine Wheel cultivator who had just lost all his wealth, and the dream of being able to pull down the stars, even grasp them, felt further than the distance between the Southern Continent and the Eastern Continent. He knew the distance, but looking at the stars always gave him a cold calmness. It was a reminder that beyond mortal grudges and sect intrigues, there was an infinite Dao to pursue.

  'Stars? They are just the cultivation dust of those who compete with the heavens, Monkey.' Ruo Xianxue responded with a cold laugh echoing in the Sea of Consciousness.

  "Good ambition, but only one worthy, only a Great Emperor is capable of "grasping the stars". You have not even controlled that damn Blue Sky Sword, and you dare to dream of grasping an Emperor's dust?'

  Ruo Xianxue's mockery pierced Zhi Xuan's heart; however, what Ruo said was true. He was still very far, not even knowing the vastness of heaven and earth, not knowing what was coming and what would happen.

  "I never even thought of cultivating, only wanting Divine Wheel, to live two hundred years, and die like a mortal."

  Zhi Xuan smiled faintly, his eyes welling up, which he immediately wiped away roughly with his sleeve. He remembered the moments he was herding, the moments he raced fishing with the youth of Star Village, the moments he ate Aunt Lian's soup meat. But now, he was bound by so many things and promises.

  "When I truly step onto this path, there will be no place for me in the village anymore. I only wanted family and friends, this loneliness is so tormenting."

  Zhi Xuan almost cried, his voice breaking at the end of his sentence. But he immediately bowed his head and sighed deeply, then looked up again, the way Aunt Lian taught him when he was a child. Zhi Xuan closed his eyes, letting his memories drift.

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  He was in the small Star Village, the gentle afternoon sun illuminating the wheat fields. He was about four years old, and his leg was sprained from trying to climb the tallest guava tree. He fell to the ground, the physical pain and shame making him cry loudly.

  In front of him stood Aunt Lian, a woman with a heart of gold and hands rough from work, who always smelled of spices and earth.

  “Zhi Xuan! Do not cry, child,” Aunt Lian said, her voice warm and soft. She crouched down, ignoring the dust on her robe.

  “Look, Auntie. When you fall, do not cry downward. It only makes dust get into your nose.” Aunt Lian wiped the tears and mud from his face with the corner of a cloth.

  “What should I do?” little Zhi Xuan asked, sobbing.

  Aunt Lian smiled, a smile that erased all sadness. She lifted Zhi Xuan's chin with her index finger, forcing him to look up.

  “Lift your head. Take a deep breath. And look up, at the sky,” she said. “The sky is always vast, child. No matter how small your problem is down here, the sky will always be bigger. That is a promise that there is always a vast place for us.”

  Little Zhi Xuan looked up. He saw the boundless blue sky. The stars had not yet appeared, but the vastness of the horizon immediately calmed his small, rapidly beating heart from the pain. He stopped crying.

  Zhi Xuan opened his eyes. He was back in the cold Moss Grassland, far from Star Village and far from Aunt Lian's warmth. He took a deep breath, mimicking his old habit. The cold night air entered his lungs.

  'Loneliness is the price of the supreme Dao, Monkey. Your weakness is mortal bonds. If you do not sever them, those bonds will rot and destroy your cultivation foundation,' Ruo Xianxue countered, her tone suddenly becoming harsh and merciless.

  'Smile. Laugh! Laugh in the face of the fate that has given you this Ancient Devil Monument. You did not want the Dao? The Dao came looking for you. You do not want power? Power will flow into your veins, whether you want it or not.'

  Zhi Xuan closed his eyes. Ruo Xianxue's words felt like cold needles piercing his warm memories. However, he knew Ruo was right. Once he reached the First Ember realm, there was no turning back. He could no longer be the child of Star Village. He was the Black-Haired Devil—a killer in the arena, and now, a fugitive who provoked the Jade Star Sword Sect and the Zhu Clan.

  'The boundless Dao,' he thought, repeating Aunt Lian's and Ruo Xianxue's words in his own way. This power, this ruthlessness, and this loneliness were the price to reach that sky.

  Zhi Xuan suddenly rose, standing tall and staring at the sky. His reddened eyes no longer emitted sadness, but a resolve that emerged, a resolve to compete with the heavens themselves. The coldness of the night and the warmth of his memories clashed within his soul. Ruo Xianxue's mockery had faded, replaced by the echo of Aunt Lian's words, and finally, by the cruel truth about the path of cultivation.

  His rock-solid determination, emerging from his newly formed Dao heart, now hardened, rejecting mortal weakness. His hands clenched tightly, his tattered sleeve raised upward, pointing toward the vast, starry horizon, challenging the millions of years of cultivation that had passed.

  "I, Zhi Xuan. Swear under Heaven and Hell, that I will not submit to any devil or god. That one day, there will be only me on the throne of the Nine Heavens and Hells. My Life and Death are only to surpass the will of heaven, to look down upon all beings and eras."

  As the words left Zhi Xuan's lips, it was not just the cold air that trembled. The Taiyin Essence in his body, which had just recovered from exhaustion, suddenly surged, reacting to the oath that transcended his current realm. In his sea of consciousness, the Ancient Devil Monument, which had been silent all this time, suddenly emitted a cold, dark red flash.

  No god heard, no devil answered. However, the indifferent Heavenly Dao took note. The chaotic energy entwined among the stars above, an energy far greater than the Consciousness Transformation realm, suddenly responded—not as approval, but as a cruel challenge.

  The strong wind blowing across the Moss Grassland suddenly became a small storm, sweeping the moss grass and making Zhi Xuan almost lose his balance. The Blue Sky Sword stuck in the ground trembled violently, as if the artifact was afraid of such an arrogant oath.

  It was a harsh oath, born from past sorrow and the brutal need for survival. Ruo Xianxue was silent. The dark red flash from the Ancient Devil Monument she represented was an undeniable real reaction to that mad oath. Ruo Xianxue never expected that the village boy who only wanted to live two hundred years would take the most extreme path of arrogance.

  'Monkey... you... what did you say?!' Ruo Xianxue's voice, usually cold and mocking, was now filled with a mixture of shock and deep ecstasy. 'The cruel Dao took note! You have just bound your Dao to the heavens! This is something I have never seen!'

  Zhi Xuan, who almost lost his balance due to the sudden small storm, stood firm, letting the strong wind hit his face. His sapphire blue eyes, now clouded with a cold layer, emitted a chilling light of madness. The oath felt right; it was a declaration that he would never again be a slave to fate or a victim of others' vengeance.

  That, the eighteen-year-old youth who carried his village's mission, facing fear and cruelty that he should not have endured, now swore under the nine heavens and hells.

  The small storm disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving a thick and cold silence in the Moss Grassland. The grass swayed slowly, as if it had just witnessed a brief celestial wrath.

  Zhi Xuan closed his eyes. He did not think about the arrogance of his words. He only thought about the cruel truth: to protect the warmth he had, he must become a force that could not be destroyed.

  "I will sleep here," Zhi Xuan said, his voice hoarse but firm. He did not look for a cave or a tree hole. He just sat on the ground, his back leaning against the cold Blue Sky Sword, using the artifact's blade as an uncomfortable backrest.

  Zhi Xuan closed his eyes, exhaustion catching up to him and soon making him fall asleep. The starry sky above him seemed to bow, witnessing a youth who had the desire to surpass the Great Heaven itself.

  From the depths of his sea of consciousness, the Ancient Devil Monument trembled faintly. As if the effect left by the oath was deeply felt, Ruo Xianxue, who was still in the form of the Ancient Devil Monument, laughed coldly, laden with something she did not even do in her glorious era.

  'You, Little Monkey. Even I only wanted to become Heaven in my prime. But you dream of surpassing Heaven!'

  Ruo Xianxue pulled back her surging energy, letting her cold laughter quietly echo within Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness which was now covered in deep serenity. The cosmic noise of Zhi Xuan's oath had just subsided, leaving a residue of tension in the air.

  The Ancient Devil Monument now shone with a more stable intensity, as if the unexpected energy released by Zhi Xuan's emotion had been absorbed and processed.

  'Surpassing Heaven... you truly do not know limits, Monkey,' Ruo Xianxue murmured, her voice now returning to her usual mocking tone, but with a slight new note—a hidden tone of appreciation. 'Your oath, it is no longer a mortal ambition. It is a Foundational Dao Vow. Even without adequate cultivation, the Heavenly Dao has noted your essential intention. Every step you take now, every bond and every killing, will carry multiplied karma according to that vow.'

  Zhi Xuan was lost in a deep sleep, undisturbed by the rumbling of the Ancient Devil Monument. His physical and emotional exhaustion was profound; the oath, though born of pain and anger, had cleansed most of the burden on his heart. It was a brutal, but effective release.

  As Zhi Xuan slept, the Ancient Devil Monument emitted a thin, dark red glow, enveloping the Thousand Feathered Moth seed hidden in Zhi Xuan's robe.

  'He is stupid. So stupid. But the promise that binds him to that Celestial Insect is the only mortal bond that can align his newly formed Dao,' Ruo Xianxue thought. 'The Dao of Surpassing Heaven needs tools and allies capable of fighting the heavens themselves. The Monkey needs that Moth more than he realizes.'

  Ruo Xianxue knew that to achieve the 'First Ember'—the first step in cultivation that truly transformed a cultivator into a Burning Ember—Zhi Xuan needed more than just Taiyin Essence. He needed purification, enlightenment, and a powerful artifact.