The world was governed by a myriad of world laws. These laws were so numerous that it was nigh impossible to keep track of them all.
But even though each law differed from another, they were all born from the same grand origin of the world.
And in the end, all of these laws would lead one to the pinnacle of strength.
This meant that no matter which of the world laws a martial artist was proficient in, as long as he managed to reach the absolute peak of this world law, the martial artist would still be able to attain a divine strength capable of matching the heavens!
Yet in spite of this belief, martial artists had still divided the world laws into two different separate tiers.
After all, even though multiple roads could lead a person to his destination, some roads were bound to be better than others.
In the context of world laws, a high tier law could easily suppress a low tier one when they were executed at the same level of comprehension.
But it was easier said than done to gain any comprehensions into a high tier world law.
In fact, there were only a handful of high tier world laws known to the martial artists today.
The Laws of Life and Death.
The Laws of Space and Time.
The Laws of Yin and Yang.
Each of these high tier laws was almost impossible to touch upon, and even the Scarlet Moon Overlord was considered lucky to have gained the slightest of comprehensions into the Law of Yin.
Yet despite all that, a member of the younger generation had managed to replicate such a feat!
Marshal Xianming almost felt like his blood was boiling over in excitement.
Was it Beimu Fei?
Marshal Xianming zoomed in on the beautiful young lady from the Beimu Clan.
With her affiliation to the wood element, it would be no surprise for her to establish an extremely strong connection with the Lifebrand Ancient Tree. Thus, she was certainly the most likely candidate!
Preoccupied with his thoughts, Marshal Xianming failed to notice that with the swaying of the Lifebrand Ancient Tree, an insignificant looking drop of dew fell from one of its leaves, falling towards the ground.
The glistening drop of dew descended lower and lower, until it finally broke into a splash right on top of Lu Tianzi's head.
Lu Tianzi's eyelids trembled in response, but only for a moment before calming down once again.
Of course, no one noticed this subtility, not even Lu Tianzi himself.
After all, his consciousness was still living out the seemingly endless memories of the Lifebrand Ancient Tree. In the absence of any strong stimulant, there was no way that he would be waking up anytime soon.
At this moment, Lu Tianzi was watching a massive earthquake wreak destruction all around him.
It was on such a massive scale that the entire forest that had taken countless years to mature was destroyed in an instant.
The small wooden house beside him that still contained the remains of its two builders was completely overturned, sinking to the bottom of the earth.
Animals desperately fled for their lives, yet salvation was nowhere in sight.
It was a complete disaster.
Only the Lifebrand Ancient Tree stood unmovingly, immune to the horrors around it. It was the only existence unmoved by the natural disaster.
Be it the plants or the animals, all of them were helpless before the overwhelming force of nature.
No matter how much they struggled, no matter how stubbornly they held on to every strand of hope, their lives were still mercilessly reaped away, all by the touch of nature that had granted them their lives in the first place.
How ironic.
Lu Tianzi watched on indifferently from his point of safety.
He was no saint, and his hands had been stained with blood as well. Thus, even though he was watching so many lives come to a simultaneous end, it did not faze him much.
However, what it did was to make Lu Tianzi question the meaning of life, as well as the very comprehensions pertaining to life itself that he had touched upon earlier…
He was wrong.
Perhaps life was not the beginning, and death was not the end.
Perhaps everything was part of a grand cycle, dictated only by fate's hand.
But if so, when was the beginning, and where was the end?
Lu Tianzi sighed in his heart. In the end, even martial artists who managed to obtain incredible individual strength had no choice but to bow down to the gears of fate.
After all, no matter how strong a martial artist was, unless he was capable of standing on par with the heavens, there would be no escaping death.
All lives had a beginning, but that did not mean life had existed since the beginning.
In fact, even the concept of life did not exist at one point.
So there had to be a separate true beginning that belonged solely to the universe itself, at a point where the concept of life was yet to materialise – a true origin of the universe.
Only by tracing back to the true origin would one be able to fully decipher the complex intricacies of the myriad of laws that governed this world.
It was by no means an easy task. But if one truly succeeded in doing so, he would gain the ability to touch upon the truths of this world.
At that point, all secrets would have no choice but to be laid bare before his eyes.
This was what it meant to comprehend the Law of Origin!
Comprehending the Law of Origin was not referring to understanding the universe's single point of beginning. Instead, it was about seeing through the grand cycle of all existences.
Water was the origin of life.
But water in its ordinary state would return to the sky as clouds, fall to the earth as rain, and then return to the sky as clouds once more.
What was the point of origin for water then?
Understanding the Law of Origin was about seeing through the entire cycle of existence, relating each existence to the myriad of laws that were born along with this world.
Controlling the Law of Origin did not mean controlling the birth of all existences, but the life cycles of all existences in this world.
This also meant that when trained to its peak, the wielder of the Law of Origin would become an entity who was capable of wielding the fate of all existences in this world!
Be it life or death, space or time, yin or yang, all of them were nothing but separate points within the grand cycle of existence, birthed from the origin itself.
How, then, would these high tier world laws fare against the absolute Law of Origin?
Just like that, Lu Tianzi managed to stumble upon a world law that surpassed even the high tier world laws that every martial artist dreamed of coming into contact with!
Of course, the stronger it was, the more complex it would be, and thus the more difficult it was to understand.
As of now, Lu Tianzi had only barely managed to touch upon the tiniest fraction of the lowest level. He still had a long journey ahead of him if he wished to have any significant attainments in the absolute Law of Origin!
By the time Lu Tianzi realised, the landscape around him had completely changed once again.
The ravaged forest had regrown, and animals had also repopulated the area, repeating the cycle once again.
Years went by in a flash.
Lu Tianzi stood tall, bearing witness to an endless repetition of life and death.
At some point in time, an old swordsman had arrived by his side. This old swordsman sat beside him in deep meditation, silently taking in the wonders of nature.
Days passed, and the old swordsman finally opened his eyes, gazing out at the newcomer who was slowly approaching.
This newcomer was a young man holding an elegant sword in his hands.
Without a word of warning, the young man pierced forth with his sword, aiming straight for the old swordsman's throat.
The old swordsman drew his sword in response, and the two immediately fell into a perpetual struggle to gain the upper hand.
Their swords were swift and their steps were light. Even though every stroke was aimed at each others' vitals, it still looked as though they were dancing elegantly around the forest.
This was a fight that displayed an extremely high level swordsmanship!
Their swords trembled in excitement, induced by the strength of their wielders!
Taking a front row seat to watch the entire fight, Lu Tianzi could not help but be surprised.
These two swordsmen, one young and one old, were both giving off a very familiar feeling. It was a feeling that Lu Tianzi had personally experienced once before, when he was defeated in a single move under the hands of his senior apprentice brother, Nanhuang Jiansheng.
It was the Law of Swords.
Under the effects of the Law of Swords, each of their sword strikes were crisp and without unnecessary movements. It was as though both of them clearly understood the ideal way to wield their sword, allowing them to display their strengths to the fullest!
Sword lights flashed, and the sound of metal rang.
In this fight between two Origin Core realm martial artists, every sword strike that was deflected sent out an energy shockwave capable of cutting apart the forests around them.
Before long, countless trees had been felled, yet that served little to stop their fight.
The two of them continued for days without break, until they finally came to a tacit understanding and stopped at the exact same moment. After which, both of them turned to leave the area, heading in completely different directions.
Lu Tianzi had no idea who they were, where they came from, or where they were headed.
But what he knew was that they were true masters of the sword!
Being able to watch their fight brought Lu Tianzi far more benefits than he had expected.
Lu Tianzi might have been unable to touch upon the Law of Swords just by watching their fight, but he was at least able to glean new insights into the art of swordsmanship.
He had no doubt that after he managed to internalise these new insights, his swordsmanship would certainly reach a level much higher than before!
After the departure of the two swordsmen, Lu Tianzi was prepared himself to continue living out the memories of the Lifebrand Ancient Tree.
But at this moment, he suddenly felt a strong sense of disturbance, and this was coming from outside of this world.
In other words, it was his real body that was being bothered.
Lu Tianzi frowned internally.
He toyed with the thought of ignoring this sense of disturbance, but the sense of unease within him was rapidly growing stronger.
It seemed like he had no choice but to break the mental connection with the Lifebrand Ancient Tree!
And it was extremely fortunate that he did.
After Lu Tianzi withdrew his consciousness from the Lifebrand Ancient Tree's world of memories, he found himself back in the Lifebrand Courtyard, sitting right under the ancient tree.
Having experienced living as the tree for countless years, Lu Tianzi was finally looking at it from the secondary point of view once again. At this moment, he was almost about to feel a sense of nostalgia when the earlier feeling of unease assaulted his mind once again.
This time, Lu Tianzi instantly realised exactly what was causing this.
At this moment, the rotating ball of Spiritual Essence within his inner world had already been compressed to the limit, threatening to expand at any moment. In other words, he was now on the verge of breaking through to the Intermediate Essence Condensation realm of the Spiritual Essence system!
If it was any other situation, this would have been a cause for celebration.
However, if he were to break through to the Intermediate Essence Condensation realm right now, it would be as good as broadcasting to the world that he was actually a human!
No, after considering his cultivation of the Slaughter Essence system, they might not think that he was a human.
But even if not a human, he was still an abnormality that could pique the interests of the upper echelons of the kingdom!
Should that happen, he would probably have to forfeit his freedom in the future altogether!
At this point, Lu Tianzi not only had to forcefully suppress his cultivation, thereby delaying his breakthrough, he also had no choice but to forgo any further connection with the Lifebrand Ancient Tree.
Otherwise, Spiritual Essence energy from the Lifebrand Ancient Tree would continue to enter his inner world, eventually triggering the breakthrough regardless of his wishes!