?

After Yang Guanfeng finished speaking, he bowed to Chen Yang three more times before departing the ancestral hall.

Long after his departure, Chen Yang felt a turbulent surge in his heart, unable to calm down for a long while.

"Stride toward the Great Dao... is that it?"

He silently repeated Yang Guanfeng's final words in his mind.

These words struck directly at his heart, prompting Chen Yang to truly begin examining his place in this world.

In the secret realm, he had no choice; he could only lie there in silence.

But ever since Yang Guanfeng and Elder Yu brought him out of the secret realm, his fate had intersected with the Yang family.

This intersection deepened through several crises. Upon the day of the Blood-Burning Spirit Sacrifice, when the Yang family enshrined him as their ultimate protective treasure, Chen Yang felt that profound sense of connection he once knew as a human in his past life.

Simply put, a bond had formed between them.

Because of this, Chen Yang was no longer just a stone that spent its days basking in the sun and sleeping.

To the Yang family, he was like a guardian deity. To Chen Yang himself, he felt a sense of responsibility and purpose.

At least, until tonight, that was what he believed.

But on this night, after hearing Yang Guanfeng's parting words, Chen Yang lost sleep.

Since his transmigration, he had always slept whenever he pleased, and his sleep quality had been absolutely top-tier. Yet tonight, he simply couldn't drift off.

"The Great Dao is merciless... is that really so?"

A thought emerged. Chen Yang wondered what choice he would make if things truly reached that point.

Was Yang Guanfeng's logic truly the foundation of surviving in this realm?

After pondering for half the night, Chen Yang firmly rejected the notion.

"The Great Dao has nothing to do with mercy or mercilessness. The Great Dao is simply the Great Dao!"

If abandoning the Yang family and fleeing far away was his destined end, how could something he himself despised and couldn't even justify be worthy of being called a "Dao"?

"But... what exactly is my Dao?"

Unable to figure it out, Chen Yang began to recall everything that had happened since he arrived in this world, chewing over each event in his mind to seek an answer.

"Just a gambler fighting for his life against heaven. The clan has finally produced a few promising seedlings. For the future of the Yang family, regardless of the danger, I have to take this gamble..."

"In your future cultivation, there can be no carelessness. You must be diligent, you must work hard, and not disappoint the Family Head's painstaking efforts..."

"The path to the Yang family's prosperity is beginning, and I, Yang Lingrui, will be the clan's sharpest blade! If anyone dares to block our path, I will kill them! If ghosts come to disturb us, I will slay them..."

"From now on, I entrust the care of the Strange Stone to you three. Take shifts and use your spiritual power to nourish it continuously every day until the Strange Stone completes its advancement..."

"Good treasure, I know how formidable you are. If a Demon Beast comes later, you must, you absolutely must warn us..."

"Today's Blood-Burning Spirit Sacrifice repays less than a ten-thousandth of the Immortal Venerable's grace. We are truly ashamed. From now on, the Yang family's descendants must do the same year after year to find peace of mind..."

"The Immortal Venerable has labored hard. The Yang family's gratitude is endless..."

"The Immortal Venerable's divine powers are boundless. This old man thanks you on behalf of Wu Tong..."

"If a great calamity truly befalls us, please, Immortal Venerable, do not be burdened by the Yang family. Just stride toward the Great Dao!"

It was not until the next day's sunlight touched Mount Song that Chen Yang's heart was instantly illuminated.

"So that's it... So that's how it is!"

Chen Yang felt an overwhelming sense of clarity, like a blockage being cleared and profound enlightenment pouring into his mind!

The white space, which had still lacked a sliver of spiritual power to be entirely filled, suddenly expanded.

In a single instant, Chen Yang effortlessly crossed that threshold. He even bypassed the usual slumbering phase, smoothly advancing directly to the late stage of Qi Gathering.

"Is this the feeling of an Epiphany? How wondrous, indescribably marvelous."

Feeling the changes within himself, Chen Yang couldn't help but sigh in awe.

"Well played, Old Yang! So you were scheming against me all along!"

"Where lies the Dao? Where lies the Dao? Far beyond the horizon, yet right before my eyes!"

The doubts in Chen Yang's heart vanished like mist, and his state of mind unknowingly ascended to another level.

Make a choice to sacrifice them?

Why would he do something as monumentally stupid as discarding them to avoid a tribulation?

It wasn't that complicated. I'll just use the Yang family to prove my Dao!

Having figured this out, Chen Yang felt a boundless freedom open up in his mind, an unparalleled exhilaration.

"Old Yang, take care of yourself."

He gazed toward the east, where the sun was rising, and spoke in his heart.

Before dawn, Yang Guanfeng had already taken Han Wang toward the eastern border of the Wangchao. Every cultivator in the Yang family, including Wu Tong, had bid him farewell.

Everyone hoped and firmly believed that Yang Guanfeng would return home soon.

But only Chen Yang knew that last night's conversation might truly have been his final meeting with Yang Guanfeng.

Whether Yang Guanfeng's words last night were deliberate or entirely unintentional, Chen Yang had no way of knowing.

But now that the knot in his heart was untied, the truth no longer mattered.

After seeing Yang Guanfeng off, Elder Yu led Yang Lingrui and Yang Lingqing back to the ancestral hall. He now held a piece of cyan-green Treasure Jade in his hand.

The three of them bowed to Chen Yang. Elder Yu then stepped forward and placed the Treasure Jade beside him.

"This item is a treasure our family acquired by chance. Like the Immortal Venerable, it is of the stone element. Before leaving, the Family Head specifically instructed that the Immortal Venerable should examine it first."

Having said this, Elder Yu stepped back.

Chen Yang looked at the small jade stone beside him and extended his spiritual sense.

"Wait, this feeling!"

The very moment his spiritual sense touched the jade, a sudden tremor rippled through his heart.

It was a sensory stimulation he hadn't felt in a very long time!

"Fragrant! So fragrant!"

"Brother, you smell absolutely delicious!"

The aroma wafting from the jade stone directly awakened a hunger Chen Yang had not experienced in over twenty years.

Impatiently, he pushed out his spiritual sense, circulating his spiritual power to pull the jade stone toward him.

At this moment, Chen Yang hadn't even realized that he could now project his spiritual power outward to manipulate objects through the air.

The three Yang family members were severely startled by the sudden movement. It was the first time they had ever seen the Spirit Stone Immortal Venerable react with such intensity.

"Elder Yu, this is..."

"Shh! Keep your voices down. The Immortal Venerable is performing a technique. Do not speak."

Yang Lingqing and Yang Lingrui obediently shut their mouths, quietly watching as the jade stone adhered to Chen Yang's surface before being absorbed into his body bit by bit.

Once the jade stone was completely absorbed, Chen Yang's entire body radiated a cyan-green halo.

The halo flickered for a moment before gradually shrinking, eventually turning into a cyan-green pattern on Chen Yang's surface.

"Delicious. Burp~"

Within his consciousness space, Chen Yang let out an incredibly satisfied burp.

Devouring this jade stone had boosted his cultivation base by a massive margin. The white space, which had just emptied upon his breakthrough, was already twenty percent filled.

Theoretically, if he could devour four more stone-element treasures of the exact same quality, Chen Yang could break through once again, reaching Qi Gathering Perfection.

However, this was practically impossible in the short term. After swallowing the jade stone, his hunger completely vanished, replaced by a drowsy sensation of total fullness. He couldn't eat another bite.

He would need a long period of digestion before he could consume anything else.

Previously in Zhang Chen's hands, this Treasure Jade had displayed five distinct abilities. Unfortunately, it wasn't a true Spiritual Treasure, but a consumable item. Chen Yang couldn't inherit any of those abilities.

Having advanced to the late stage of Qi Gathering, he could now manipulate his spiritual power to fetch objects through the air, and his control over his own consciousness had become far more refined.

"Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy... I can't hold on..."

Having eaten his fill of the jade stone, Chen Yang transmitted a single sleepy thought to the three of them before the overwhelming fullness dragged him down into a deep slumber.