3 **Chapter 3: Path to Walk, or Path to Run**
I will release two chapters today, you can thank Vastoking for that.
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"One should never lose sight of their own goal."
"So let me ask the question, why do I need to choose one path when there are 48 Paths until now alone? And the two answers that come to mind are obvious."
"Firstly, because of the concept of conflicting Dao Marks. If you cultivate two paths that are too different, the Dao Marks will conflict, making both paths weaker. So if you, for example, cultivate all paths, they would not even be as efficient to use for you as for a regular mortal Gu Master who has no Dao Marks."
"Secondly, it is difficult to gain attainment, and doing that in a lot of paths is even more difficult."
"Now that gives me the option to just group together some paths that are very similar."
"The paths that I personally think could just be cultivated together, without or with little conflict of Dao Marks are:"
- Blade Path + Weapon Path + Sword Path
- Shadow Path + Dark Path
- Emotion Path + Wisdom Path
- Soul Path + Killing Path
- Ice Path + Snow Path
- Rule Path + Restriction Path
- Light Path + Illusion Path
- Space Path + Phantom Path
- Moon Path + Star Path
"That leaves me with 38 Paths to choose from."
"Now first let me eliminate some obvious choices."
"Dream Path can be eliminated because there are currently no Dream realms, Dream Gu, or anything related to that path."
"Heaven and Human Paths can be eliminated because Heavens Will has too much influence over whether you can even start to cultivate these Paths. That is, of course, if you are not a Venerable already. So I will not cultivate these as my main Path and probably not make much progress in these until I am rank 9. Still, I will continue to try gaining enlightenment by reading The Legend of Ren Zu."
"Now this leaves us with 35 Paths exactly."
"Now the next Paths that I will disregard are every Path that was the main Path of a Rank 9 up until now. That is just because I would have to have a higher attainment than a person who has lived thousands of years essentially as a god in this world, with access to methods I could barely dream of. And I would have to have a higher attainment than them, all the while being a rank 8 Gu Master, which is very likely not going to happen."
"Also, it would be really bad if I choose one of these paths and they have methods in place to prevent anyone else from reaching Venerable in their path. Which I am scared of because that is exactly what I am going to do when I reach rank 9."
"So that eliminates:"
- Qi Path of Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable
- Emotion Path + Wisdom Path of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable
- Rule Path + Restriction Path of Limitless Demon Venerable
- Transformation Path of Reckless Savage Demon Venerable
- Time Path of Red Lotus Demon Venerable
- Wood Path of Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable
- Theft Path of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable
"Leaving me with 28 Options."
"Now it is getting harder to eliminate the paths. I think the next step is to get rid of paths that do not have mainstream appeal. Because as a Venerable, you refine the Dao Marks that are in the world, so a very popular path is strong and an obscure path is weak."
"This excludes, in my view, certain paths that aren't mainstream enough:"
- Blade Path + Weapon Path + Sword Path
- Bone Path
- Blood Path
- Cloud Path
- Enchantment Path
- Food Path
- Formation Path
- Information Path
- Luck Path
- Moon Path + Star Path
- Painting Path
- Pill Path
- Sound Path
"These choices are ruled out either because they lack breadth, or as in the case of Formation Path, because it is overly expansive."
"Anyways, the elimination of these 13 leaves me with 15 Options."
"That is still a lot, but at this point, I will have to eliminate based on personal preference."
"So the first one out is Enslavement Path, I just don't like it. I want my strength to be mine. Also, good luck finding rank 9 creatures to fight Venerables with."
"Next out are all the boring Elements. In the original story, there were 2 Venerables with these as their Paths, and to be honest Paradise Earth and Genesis Lotus were always my least favorite."
"So out you go:"
- Earth Path
- Fire Path
- Metal Path
- Water Path
- Wind Path
- Wood Path
"The next to go is the Soul Path + Killing Path, just because it is too aggressive and has too few other use cases."
"The last ones I would like to eliminate are the Strength Path and the Space Path + Phantom Path, because they are both secondary paths of venerables, and i just realy do not want to risk it with these old monsters."
"Also the Strength Path because this path can lead to conflicting Dao Marks if it is not cultivated together with the Transformation Path. "
"Now the Paths that I am left with are:
- Lightning Path
- Ice Path + Snow Path
- Light Path + Illusion Path
- Shadow Path + Dark Path
- Poison Path
- Refinement Path
"There is only one path here that has an extremly high number of dao marks in the world, so i will choose the Refinement Path as my main Path. It is a bit generic to just copy the main caracter but whatever."
"Now let me think about the pro's and con's of the refinement path..."
**Refinement Path**
- Advantages
It is the Path my father cultivates, he has resources, Gu, and knowledge of that Path.
It is a Path that has relatively few conflicts with other paths, as each type of Gu needs to be refined.
It is one of the three principles of Gu usage. (Use, Feed, Refine) This makes it inherently useful.
It is a marketable skill that can be used to gain resources.
There are a lot of Refinement Path Dao Marks in the world, so any Venerable of this path will be very strong.
- Disadvantages
For one, it is very weak for a long time.
It is expensive.
It is very hard to gain Supreme Grandmaster Attainment, as it is an old and often-used Path.
There still exists a Supreme Grandmaster of that path right now, who is a powerful and rich rank 8 Gu Master.
"So my secondary Path should be something that complements well with Refinement Path and makes up for it weaknesses."
- Lightning Path
- Ice Path + Snow Path
- Light Path + Illusion Path
- Shadow Path + Dark Path
- Poison Path
"The only one of the ones that are left, that realy clicks with me is the Poison path. It has an inherent connection to the Refinement Path, because Poisons are refined."
"So that will be my choise."
**Poison Path**
- Advantages
Has a very strong use in fighting, relatively useful for medicine as well.
Good for fights against multiple opponents.
Probably very annoying to fight against, so good as a deterrent.
Not a Path that is used a lot, so it is easier to gain Supreme Grandmaster attainment.
- Disadvantages
Is easy to be seen as an evil/demonic path.
Will have a negative impact on humans/variant humans in the Immortal Aperture.
Not as many Dao Marks as refinement.
Does not have an easy way to make money.
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"So this is the plan: learn from my father and develop the poison path on my own. As a long-term option, I will have to find a way to eliminate the conflict of Dao Marks or use something like the Second Aperture Gu. The Refinement Path will be very useful in that."
"Now let me think about external change. I need to define clear rules on how to act in certain situations."
"My main Path of Refinement will only ever change as long as I have an extreme physique of a different path."
"But what if I find, for example, a rank 8 inheritance? Which path will be acceptable for me to switch my secondary path to?"
I think of my four final options; the Ice Path + Snow Path could still be eliminated because it depends too much on the environment. So that leaves me with:
- Lightning Path
- Light Path + Illusion Path
- Shadow Path + Dark Path
Now let me think about which others I would accept….
- Space Path + Phantom Path
- Strength Path
"These two probably, the are risky, but not to the extent that they are unacceptable. Let's also add:"
- Bone Path
- Cloud Path
- Formation Path
- Information Path
"And if I want to start dreaming about something like an immortal inheritance, I might as well add:"
- Heaven Path
"As well as:"
- Human Path
"Now let's bring them in order, of how much I would like to get those for good luck:"
- Heaven Path / Human Path
- Formation Path
- Space Path + Phantom Path
- Shadow Path + Dark Path
- Lightning Path
- Strength Path
- Information Path
- Light Path + Illusion Path
- Cloud Path
- Bone Path
"Eleven second options are not at all bad."
Standing up from my desk, i picked up his notebook.
"Now that I have decided on my path, I will have to get rid of this."
"Because I have absolutely no way to explain how I know most of these things."
With this thought, he descended the stairs. His father was not in the living room, so he tossed the notebook into the fireplace.
"Well, maybe it's a bit hasty to say that I have chosen my path."
"There are still two reasons I could change my path for: one if I get a suitable Immortal Inheritance or two if I awaken an extreme Physique."
"But there's no use worrying about things I cannot control."
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