“Qianhua-jie, Qianhua-jie!”
After entering the Heart Realm, Shucao transformed back into Mo Yao’s appearance.
Then he quickly spotted An Qianhua lying asleep on the ground, so he ran over to her side and called out loudly, wanting to wake her up.
“Ugh, Xiaoyao, what is it? What is it?”
Under Mo Yao’s calls, An Qianhua quickly woke up.
At this moment, she looked at the Mo Yao in front of her with some confusion.
“What else could it be? I’ve been calling you this whole time and you didn’t respond at all. I thought something might have gone wrong with your remnant soul. Now that we’ve already returned to Ningzhou City, I finally had the time to enter the Heart Realm and check what happened. But seeing that you were just sleeping, I decided to wake you up.”
“I-is that so? Hahaha, I accidentally overslept. We’ve already returned to Ningzhou City? What happened from the time I fell asleep until now?”
So Mo Yao told An Qianhua about obtaining the Blank Dao Trace from the secret realm, selling some spiritual medicines after leaving, and delivering the Dragon Blood Vine to Hong Wenqing.
“I see. It seems the most important matter is that one about the Blank Dao Trace.”
“Yes. When I obtained this Dao Trace, I wanted to ask Qianhua-jie if you had any thoughts on this thing.”
As Mo Yao spoke, he took out his Heart Seed and held it out in front of An Qianhua.
“M-me? This is also the first time I’ve seen something like this.”
Despite some helplessness, An Qianhua still accepted the Heart Seed that Shucao handed over.
On the originally pink seed were engraved peculiar patterns.
An Qianhua tried to mobilize her magic power to analyze it, but the magic power was like a clay ox entering the sea—it seemed to fall directly into those patterns, leaving An Qianhua sensing nothing at all.
“Can’t analyze it? The feeling it gives me is like a void, as if nothing exists, yet it can be seen with the naked eye. No wonder you call it the Blank Dao Trace.”
Void, blank, unanalyzable.
An Qianhua continuously pondered the peculiarities of this Dao Trace while recalling the effects of comprehending the Innate Dao Rhyme originally.
“Others deepen the influence of the path they walk, while Xiaoyao has the Blank Dao Trace engraved on his Heart Seed… Could it be because Xiaoyao, as a magical girl, has no path that cultivators walk, so he obtained this Dao Trace?”
Thinking of this, An Qianhua immediately asked Mo Yao about the process of obtaining the Blank Dao Trace.
“I threw the Heart Seed into the Innate Dao Rhyme and obtained it, and the Innate Dao Rhyme showed him the process of the birth of the various paths in the small world. The process of birth—that is from nothing to something. And the sense of void on the Blank Dao Trace… could that be this ‘nothing’?!”
Thinking of this, An Qianhua immediately said in surprise.
“Then everything makes sense. What the Heart Seed obtained is not the result of a path, but the process of the birth of a path. Because there is no ‘path,’ it needs to engrave a new ‘path.’ And this Blank Dao Trace is actually a means to let us walk a path that belongs directly to us. And my magic power input having no effect is precisely because the Heart Seed belongs to Xiaoyao, so it should be Xiaoyao who does it!”
Seeing An Qianhua speak so excitedly, Mo Yao couldn’t help but say.
“Um, Qianhua-jie, did you think of something?”
“Mm, I already have some clues. Xiaoyao, try channeling your own magic power into this Dao Trace.”
Hearing An Qianhua’s words, Mo Yao took the Heart Seed back, then input his own magic power into the Blank Dao Trace.
After the magic power entered, he immediately felt that the originally empty Dao Trace suddenly seemed to gain something, acquiring a slight sense of substance in perception.
“My magic power made this Dao Trace change?”
“That’s right. And it looks like it only changes when you actively input magic power. After all, the place it resides is the Heart Seed, which is the core of magic power, yet it doesn’t actively absorb magic power to grow. So I speculate that this Blank Dao Trace shouldn’t be something the Innate Dao Rhyme left on your Heart Seed, but rather after the Heart Seed encountered that Innate Dao Rhyme, it obtained the method of the birth of a ‘path’ from it, and manifested it on the Heart Seed in the form of a Blank Dao Trace, waiting for you to use it to compose a path that belongs to you.”
Hearing An Qianhua’s words, Mo Yao looked at the Blank Dao Trace on the Heart Seed and murmured.
“Because I have no spiritual energy, I can’t enter the path to cultivate, but the Blank Dao Trace of the Heart Seed has given me a method to walk my own path with magic power. A path that belongs to me…”
Suddenly, he thought of the Heart Realm he was in and his own Heart Seed.
This power of a magical girl born from the “heart”—wasn’t this precisely the path that belonged to him?
“Qianhua-jie, what do you think about me engraving the entire Heart Realm into this Blank Dao Trace?”
An Qianhua thought for a moment and said with some excitement.
“Excellent plan! This way, you can walk a ‘Path of the Heart’ that belongs to you. It can also let you understand your own power more deeply. Moreover, this path is definitely something this world doesn’t have—you’d be a pioneering founder the likes of which has never existed before. You could also say this is the ‘path’ most suitable for you.”
After receiving An Qianhua’s support, Mo Yao immediately began attempting it.
He once again input magic power.
Different from before, this time the amount of magic power output was even greater.
At the same time, the moment the magic power filled the Blank Dao Trace, Mo Yao controlled the magic power to construct everything that currently existed in his Heart Realm.
Originally he thought engraving the Dao Trace would be somewhat difficult, but this Blank Dao Trace naturally accepted his action of constructing the Heart Realm within it, allowing him to quickly complete the engraving of the Dao Trace.
“Perhaps this is the advantage of the Blank Dao Trace formed by the Heart Seed.”
When the Heart Realm and the Heart Seed as its core were completely engraved into the Blank Dao Trace, Mo Yao suddenly felt that the Dao Trace and the Heart Realm had gained a more special connection.
At the same time, his most direct sensation was that the moment the Dao Trace engraving was complete, his own Heart Realm seemed to have risen in height.
Although he didn’t know if the Heart Realm itself had the concept of height, in the sensations of Mo Yao and An Qianhua, this feeling was very obvious.
“This must be the change the Dao Trace has brought to the Heart Seed.”
After the engraving was complete, Mo Yao said to An Qianhua beside him.
“It seems like that’s the case. But this change is a bit strange. I’ve never felt that the Heart Realm could grow taller.”
“It seems this is the effect brought by this Dao Trace. Perhaps in the future we can discover more of its peculiar aspects.”
“Mm. Right now it looks like there are some amplification effects on the Heart Realm and Heart Seed. Let’s temporarily call it the Heart Dao Trace, and the path contained within it can just be called the ‘Path of the Heart.’”
“Such a casual name…”
“Ha? You actually dare to say my naming is casual? Xiaoyao, look at this name—the Dao Trace and the Great Path engraved with the ‘Heart.’ How direct, hitting the nail on the head. Do you have a better name than this?”
Mo Yao thought for a moment.
Indeed, he couldn’t think of any other naming method, so he also approved of An Qianhua’s naming.
“Alright, then it’s decided. The Path of the Heart—this is the Great Path that Xiaoyao has engraved in this world, the one that belongs to you.”