“The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. What a marvelous book—who would have thought such a wondrous classic could exist in this world!” This mysterious classic from a distant realm shook William Clark to his core from the very first lines, making him lose himself in awe.

If the first chapter at the beginning gave William Clark a tremendous shock, then the following fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters made William Clark gasp for breath, almost suffocating—

“Heaven and earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs. The sage is not benevolent; he treats the people as straw dogs. Is not the space between heaven and earth like a bellows? Empty yet inexhaustible, the more it moves, the more it produces. Too many words lead to exhaustion; better to hold to the center.”

“Chapter Six: The spirit of the valley never dies; it is called the mysterious female. The gateway of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth. It is continuous, seemingly existing, and its use is inexhaustible.”

“Chapter Seven: Heaven is everlasting and earth endures. The reason heaven and earth can last so long is that they do not live for themselves; thus they can endure. Therefore, the sage puts himself last and finds himself in the foremost place; he regards his person as extraneous and yet it is preserved. Is it not because he is selfless that he can fulfill himself?”

“Chapter Eight: The highest good is like water. Water benefits all things and does not compete. It dwells in places that all disdain, and thus is close to the Dao. In dwelling, value the earth; in heart, value depth; in giving, value kindness; in words, value trustworthiness; in governance, value order; in work, value competence; in action, value timing. Because it does not compete, it is without reproach.”

……

Marvelous!

So exquisite!

Truly exquisite!

Even in his wildest dreams, William Clark could not have imagined that such profound discourse could exist in this world! Although the wild and primitive world he lived in also had many so-called classics, compared to this mysterious “Dao De Jing,” those so-called masterpieces were simply not worth mentioning!

After reading just eight short chapters, William Clark’s mind was surging, with waves crashing in his head. He could no longer lie in bed; he jumped up and began pacing back and forth in his room, savoring the words of the “Dao De Jing.” The more he pondered, the more he sensed its depth and mystery, as if a mysterious, untestable door was slowly opening before him, and an ancient aura of the Dao was rushing toward him, making the wonders of heaven and earth seem within reach!

William Clark paced in his room, his whole being immersed in the “Dao De Jing.” Unconsciously, he spent the entire night walking in his room, and it was not until the morning sun rose that William Clark finally awoke from that marvelous state of savoring the “Dao De Jing.”

William Clark’s cultivation was shallow, and a night of contemplation did not grant him any profound understanding of the mysteries of heaven and earth. But the discourse in the first eight chapters of the “Dao De Jing” deeply impacted William Clark’s soul, giving him a brand new understanding of the essence of cultivation, and even some martial arts problems were solved during this period of reflection.

For the next two days, William Clark was almost in a state of neither eating nor sleeping, repeatedly reciting and savoring this extremely mysterious “Dao De Jing.” On the third day, when William Clark reached Chapter Twenty-Five of the “Dao De Jing,” he was completely stunned.

“There is a thing confusedly formed, born before heaven and earth. Silent and void, it stands alone and does not change, goes round and does not weary. It may be regarded as the mother of the world. I do not know its name; I style it ‘the Dao,’ and, in the absence of a better word, call it ‘great.’ Being great, it passes on; passing on, it becomes remote; having become remote, it returns. Therefore, the Dao is great; heaven is great; earth is great; and the king is also great. Within the realm there are four greats, and the king is one of them. Man follows the earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Dao, the Dao follows what is natural.”

After reading Chapter Twenty-Five of the “Dao De Jing,” William Clark felt as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. The thirteen characters “Man follows the earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Dao, the Dao follows what is natural” kept swirling in his mind. Suddenly, he seemed to comprehend something, and the true qi in his body began to circulate on its own, lively and vigorous.

True qi flowed continuously from his dantian, entering the various meridians throughout his body. This qi, lively and full of vitality, nourished William Clark’s entire body as it passed through the meridians, slowly permeating each of William Clark’s acupoints, constantly tempering his physique.

No one knows how much time passed before William Clark suddenly felt all his acupoints tremble, and the true qi slowly flowed back to his dantian, bringing him back to full awareness.

William Clark instinctively checked his body and suddenly noticed black, foul-smelling substances oozing from his arms and cheeks, his whole body reeking. Startled, William Clark circulated his true qi, and was instantly stunned. He had just discovered that he had broken through the first level of martial cultivation—true qi entering the body—and entered the second level—true qi tempering the body!

On the Wild Continent, the cultivation of martial artists is divided into nine levels according to true qi, known as the Nine Heavens of Martial Dao. Each level of the Nine Heavens of Martial Dao has its own standard: the first is true qi entering the body, the second is true qi tempering the body, the third is true qi leaving the body, the fourth is true qi transforming into flow, the fifth is flow transforming into staff, the sixth is gathering qi into a wall, the seventh is binding qi into thunder, the eighth is refining qi into liquid, and the ninth is refining liquid to return to the true.

Each advancement in the Nine Heavens of Martial Dao is extremely difficult. Even those regarded as geniuses of the The Clark Family are only at the peak of the second level. As for the head of the The Clark Family, Edward Clark, after more than forty years of cultivation, he is only at the late stage of the fifth level. The difficulty of cultivation can thus be imagined.