A female cultivator whose Dao focused on the Wind Sword attacked Liu Feng. Her sword blade was as sharp as a gust of frozen air, but Liu Feng only smiled calmly. He did not use brute force. He allowed her Wind Law to touch him, then the Water Law around him resonated, absorbing and reversing the momentum of the attack back to the attacker without damaging the opponent's sword.

  Liu Feng is the best defense, a levee that redirects energy, Zhi Xuan thought. He will drain his opponent's essence rather than destroy it. A slow but deadly Dao. Before long, Liu Feng stood as the winner without shedding a single drop of sweat. He merely clasped his hands and paid respect to his exhausted opponent.

  In the honorary tribune of the Ancient Zhu Clan, Zhu Qinglan gave a vague nod. Her analysis of Liu Feng had proven correct.

  "Liu Feng is a troublesome opponent, yet he is not the decider," Zhu Qinglan said, her tone cold. "He seeks a graceful victory. Truly a Daoist elegance that could shake even the Heavens."

  Zhi Xuan, sensing the eyes of the Ancient Clan upon him, paid them no mind. He knew every move he made was now a riddle. He only opened his eyes slightly, then channeled the remaining spiritual essence into the Three Ages Divine Cauldron in his palm. He did not want to rush into showing his next card. Shi Xing had shown his directed destruction, and the Eighth Prince had shown his Imperial foundation.

  Now was the time for Zhi Xuan to let them and the other geniuses waste their spiritual essence. He was a Devil from the Wilderness; he understood how to conserve energy in the middle of a long battlefield. Suddenly, he felt a familiar weight approaching him. It was not an aggressive weight like Shi Xing's, but a calm and respectful one.

  Ye Ming, the Young King of the Central Star, whose black robes were shrouded in shadows and gold runes, walked slowly toward the corner of the Plaza where Zhi Xuan sat. Ye Ming was the most mysterious figure; his Dao was a fusion of Ice and Earth that created absolute stability. He stopped a few zhang in front of Zhi Xuan, not greeting him, but standing silently, allowing the Earth aura they both possessed to resonate in that quiet Plaza. The weight radiated by Ye Ming felt dense, like an ancient mountain that had stood for thousands of years.

  Zhi Xuan opened his sapphire blue eyes fully. He did not rise; he only looked at Ye Ming, acknowledging his presence. He felt Ye Ming's Earth weight—a stable weight forged through silence and isolation. However, he also felt a slight stiffness, as if that Dao were a prison for the soul.

  "Young King of the Central Star," Zhi Xuan greeted, his voice calm, carrying an Earth weight resonance friendlier than when he spoke with the Eighth Prince. "Your Dao is the most solid among the Five Element geniuses. A foundation that is difficult to forge at a young age."

  Ye Ming remained shrouded in shadows, his face only vaguely visible. He clasped his hands, a brief and formal greeting. "Daoist Zhi Xuan, the honor is mine to see your unique Dao. The weight you radiate surpasses any mountain weight I have ever encountered."

  "You defeated Daoist Tie Shan with one finger and silenced the Plaza with the recognition of your Four Seasons Dao," Ye Ming continued, his voice quiet and hoarse, as if the words were carried by a heavy burden. "I have come not to challenge, but to understand."

  Zhi Xuan smiled thinly, a rare and nearly invisible smile. He liked Ye Ming's honesty. There was no Ancient Clan intrigue in his eyes, only the thirst of a cultivator to understand a higher path. He moved his hand, and a bottle of wine appeared in his hand; he floated one jar of that wine to Ye Ming with a subtle wave of his hand.

  "Weight is something carried not with strength or burning rage," Zhi Xuan began calmly, raising his hand to invite Ye Ming. "Only by accepting oneself, accepting the past as a Path, not a burden to be avoided. Karma always finds its way, and the Earth supports all that exists. Life always begins from the earth. Death, too, will return to the earth."

  Ye Ming caught the wine jar made of ordinary mortal wood. He opened the stopper, inhaling the aroma of the wine that radiated from it, full of the scent of mortality that surprised him slightly. His hidden eyes blinked. The wine bottle felt cold, yet its contents radiated a contrasting warmth.

  "A wine so fragrant and smelling of mortality," Ye Ming murmured, acknowledgment surfacing in his tone. "Mortality truly creates a fine wine."

  Ye Ming took a sip of the wine, allowing the spiritual essence contained within to purify his stiff Sea of Consciousness. He felt a shock. The wine was not just pure; it carried a soothing touch and a taste that reminded him of a place, like peace and a thousand years accompanied by a single jar of wine.

  "My Dao has indeed been forged in isolation," Ye Ming admitted, his voice containing a hint of hidden bitterness. "I sought silence from the Earth. I wanted my Dao to be unshakable by emotion or ambition. But every time I master a new layer, the weight feels increasingly suffocating, as if I am imprisoning my own Soul."

  Zhi Xuan nodded, shifting his gaze as if looking at a distant horizon where thick mist shrouded the mountain peaks. He spoke with a hoarse voice, like the voice of one who bears thousands of karmas and distant life experiences.

  "A pure Dao is a Dao that is honest with itself. You imitate the silence of the Sky, but that silence must be the silence that comes after the storm, not a silence forced by isolation. The Earth that supports is never silent," Zhi Xuan explained, channeling a bit of Earth essence from his body.

  The Earth essence coming out of Zhi Xuan felt warm, dense, and strangely, pulsing with life. It was the weight of Primal Earth that had absorbed destruction and rebirth, the Cycle of the Four Seasons, not an Earth that was merely passive and rigid.

  "The Earth receives seeds, receives water, and receives carcasses. It is the receiver of all karma, both good and bad," Zhi Xuan concluded. He looked back at Ye Ming, his sapphire blue eyes radiating deep wisdom. "Your weight is a prison because you reject destruction. You want your Earth to only be a shield, not a source of life."

  Ye Ming, listening intently, felt a tremor in his Sea of Consciousness. His stable Dao now felt shaky. He had always believed that stability must be achieved through the rejection of emotion and isolation from the mortal world. However, Zhi Xuan, whose Dao was clearly filled with blood and destruction, radiated a greater stability—a stability born from the acceptance of everything.

  "Everyone says I walk the Devil's Path," Zhi Xuan continued calmly, leaning his head against the pillar. "Yet who would have thought? I was once just a youth who wanted to protect his village, and the Devil embraced me. But even if Destruction embraces you and you have a Heart firm enough to keep walking. When the Earth falls upon your shoulders, and Hell is in every step you take. Only one question will remain in your mind: can you keep going?"

  A small laugh escaped Zhi Xuan's lips, a laugh that sounded heavy, as if every note carried an untold burden of karma. He took a sip of his wine, allowing the warmth to flow, contrasting with the coldness that always surrounded him. "Even a Devil, if his heart is strong enough, can become a Pillar of the Heavens. And precisely because I have seen hell in every step I take, my Dao is able to withstand more weight."

  Ye Ming stared at the wine in his hand, his hidden fingers trembling slightly. Zhi Xuan's words were not merely a lecture but the resonance of a bitter truth. The weight he had felt all this time, which he thought was a manifestation of strength, turned out to be a reflection of his rejection of the inevitable cycles of nature. He wanted to be an unshakable mountain, but Zhi Xuan showed him that the mountain would, in the end, crumble if he did not learn to accept erosion, growth, and destruction.

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  "Accepting destruction..." Ye Ming murmured, his voice barely audible. He stared at the pulsing Earth essence from Zhi Xuan, which now felt different than before. Warm, dense, and full of soft pulses of life. "Not just a shield... but the source of everything."

  Ye Ming took another sip of his wine, this time with deeper understanding. The bitterness that had previously shrouded his Dao now felt lighter. He began to feel a crack in the prison he had long created for his own soul. Zhi Xuan did not give him a direct answer, but rather gave him the key to open the door that had been locked.

  Ye Ming closed his eyes; all his Laws, from Earth, Fire, Lightning, and Water to Wind, seemed to find the shackles that limited them. His soul felt freer and flowed with the Universe. Ye Ming thought about how a Law comes from Destruction, then returns toward Birth. The Five Elements do not just borrow the power of Nature, but understand that every Law released always carries the weight of Destruction.

  "Destruction, Birth," Ye Ming murmured, tilting his head back to look at the bright Sky. "All this time, I thought the Laws of Nature were to be a shield against Destruction, until I did not know that every Law released always carries the weight of Destruction."

  WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!

  From beneath Ye Ming's feet, the field felt vibrant as a spiritual wave suddenly surged from his body. The weight of the Five Element perfection he possessed felt heavier; his Divine Wheel, perfect with the Five Elements, now seemed to rotate in a melody of grace and acceptance. Ye Ming stretched out his arms, taking a long breath.

  Zhi Xuan smiled thinly, this time his smile carrying sincere acknowledgment. He looked at Ye Ming. A Star Young King who had reached Five Element Perfection had now stepped further, moving from a stable Dao to an unshakable Dao because he understood the true Will of Heaven.

  Ye Ming opened his eyes. His gaze, previously hidden in shadows, now radiated a clearer light. It was not a sharp light like a sword, but a calm and solid light, like a stable core of the earth.

  "Daoist Zhi Xuan," Ye Ming greeted, his voice now more resonant, carrying density and warmth. He clasped his hands, a deeper bow than his formal greeting from before. "This wine, and your words, have opened the eyes of my Dao. I thought weight was rejection; it turns out weight is the acceptance of the karma of Heaven and Earth."

  He took another sip of the mortal wine; its bitterness now felt like a promise. "You are indeed worthy of being called the Devil who bears the Burden. Your Dao is a living Dao, which has passed through unimaginable destruction yet blossoms again with greater weight. I am indebted to you."

  Ye Ming then shifted his gaze, looking at the Plaza still bustling with combat. He no longer saw Zhi Xuan as an anomaly to be understood, but as a path he must aim for.

  "I will fight now," Ye Ming said. "Not to prove stability, but to test the Weight of Acceptance I have just found. I wish to see how far this new Dao of mine can support Order."

  He clasped his hands once more, offering a deep parting respect. Then, he turned away. His steps toward the main arena, though still calm, now felt different. Every footprint on the Heaven Jade left an impression of steady weight, yet not rigid—like the unstoppable movement of tectonic plates, slow but certain.

  Zhi Xuan only watched Ye Ming's back, his thin smile lingering. He had planted a Dao seed in the Sea of Consciousness of the Young King of the Central Star. This exchange gave him two advantages: first, he strengthened his belief in his own Daoist philosophy, and second, he had created a potential ally who understood his Weight.

  "One who is honest with his Dao," Zhi Xuan murmured to himself, sipping his wine. He knew that Ye Ming had now become a far more formidable opponent.

  In the Jade Plaza, Ye Ming had stepped forward. He chose his opponent calmly: a genius known for his agile and turbulent Lightning Dao. The perfect opponent to test the Weight of Acceptance he had just obtained. The battle began. The opponent's lightning surged, darting wildly toward Ye Ming.

  However, Ye Ming no longer built a rigid Earth shield. Instead, he allowed part of the lightning to touch his robes. The Primal Earth weight he had newly discovered resonated, not to repel, but to absorb and suppress the wild nature of the lightning, forcing it to become stable.

  The spiritual waves from the lightning, which had been wild, now subsided into a calm ripple as they touched Ye Ming's weight. His opponent was shocked. Every attack that should have been fast and tearing now felt like a punch into dense, bottomless mud.

  "A different weight," Hua Tianming murmured in the Ancient Hua Clan tribune, his eyes narrowing. "He has released the rigidity. Now he is a mountain that absorbs the storm, not rejects it."

  Ye Ming, with his new Weight of Acceptance, moved slowly. He did not launch rushed attacks. He only walked forward, and every step radiated a suffocating spiritual weight. His opponent's lightning grew increasingly dim. That opponent, accustomed to attacking instability, was now frustrated by facing an unshakable silence.

  With a calm hand movement, Ye Ming summoned an Ice vortex. It was not an ice that was piercingly cold, but an ice that carried weight. The ice coiled around the opponent, not freezing them, but forcing them to stand still. The Earth weight he possessed then pressed from all directions. The opponent's lightning was smothered, and the Lightning genius fell to his knees, exhausted and at his wit's end.

  Ye Ming won without seriously injuring the opponent, but he had destroyed the opponent's will. It was a calm demonstration of strength, a validation of the Dao he had just found. Meanwhile, on the other side, Liu Feng, the Young King of the Eastern Star, had fought and won again. However, this time, he was being targeted by a far more ambitious opponent.

  A cultivator in dark blue robes, Daoist Cang Ming, whose Dao focused on compressed wind blades. This Daoist did not care about elegance. He sought a quick and brutal victory.

  "Young King Liu Feng," Cang Ming roared, his voice containing sharp winds. "Your elegance is a weakness! A Dao that only seeks balance will snap in the face of compressed destruction!"

  Cang Ming launched an attack. Compressed Wind blades, as thin as paper, shot toward Liu Feng. The blades did not tear but targeted vital points, attempting to paralyze Liu Feng quickly. This was a Dao forged in the midst of mortal battle, brutal and efficient.

  Liu Feng smiled thinly. He moved his hand, and his Water Law summoned a thin layer of water around him. The water was not a shield but a filter. Every wind blade that touched it immediately had its momentum absorbed by the flexibility of the water, then directed by Liu Feng's superior Wind to shoot in a different direction.

  The attack did not hit Liu Feng but bounced to the sky and the ground, leaving thin scratches on the Heaven Jade. Cang Ming, whose Dao focused on speed and momentum, became frustrated. He increased the compression of his blades, making them almost invisible, leaving only the hiss of air.

  Selection continued steadily; Five Element perfections clashed their Daos many times over. The bustle of the Imperial Elders, the praise of the Hongmeng Emperor, and the criticism of the Ancient Clans adorned day after day. Finally, exactly on the fifth day of the Three Plains Competition selection, the peak of the battles was about to begin.

  Zhi Xuan, whom no one had dared to challenge since Tie Shan on the first day, only sat cross-legged, feeling the Jade Plaza vibrate with a different anticipation. That vibration was no longer the rumble of random combat but a centralized tension. Five days had passed, and as he had predicted, the Star Young Kings had solidified their dominance, separating the wheat from the chaff.

  He had seen Liu Feng defend with the elegance of his Water and Wind, rejecting destruction. He had witnessed Ye Ming evolve, discarding the rigidity of his Dao for an unshakable Weight of Acceptance. And he had seen the Eighth Prince of the Empire win battles with a solid foundation and the support of an Immortal Artifact that no longer needed to be displayed.

  Now, only one Envoy seat remained. A seat targeted by the final geniuses, but which in truth had become a dueling ground between two very powerful entities in the Plaza. Zhi Xuan, the Silver-Haired Devil who bore the Cycle, and Shi Xing, the Young King of the Western Star who represented directed Destruction.

  Zhi Xuan opened his eyes fully. He rose to his feet, a movement so calm that it felt as if the air around him were also drawn in and solidified. His cold silver hair flowed gently down his back; his black silk robe with red accents did not move even slightly, as if he were a pillar newly emerged from within the earth. He did not channel essence, but the aura surrounding him naturally radiated Earth weight and the cold of Extreme Ice.

  He shifted his gaze, staring at the Young King of the Western Star who had been sitting with closed eyes at his pillar of destruction. Shi Xing, as if having waited for this moment, opened his eyes. His pupils, radiating starlight, met Zhi Xuan's sapphire blue gaze. No words were needed. Hatred, ambition, and the karmic promise bound since the Black Dragon Tomb resonated in their Sea of Consciousness. It was a silent challenge, an acknowledgment that one of them must fall so the other could step into the Second Grand Constellation.