With a heaven-shaking roar, the Gigantes Zone dissipated.
Tang Jie discovered that he was back on the soil of Wind Devil Island, and that black pillar of energy had disappeared. Only the chilling fiendish wind in the air reminded Tang Jie of what had transpired here.
“The realm of speak-not, think-not, manifestation of will…” Tang Jie muttered.
This was a manifestation of a supremely high level of cultivation, a realm that only those who had fathomed the Dao could reach.
In this realm, the cultivation world’s principle that “everything has its rule and principle that can be traced down” was finally broken, and many things could not be explained through transformation of spiritual energy.
This was like the difference between Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry—higher levels demanded a higher level of rules.
This rule was the Dao!
If one insisted on having a detailed breakdown of how the Dao differed from the five major cultivation realms, one could use DOTA as an analogy.
The Spirit Platform Realm was like a hero at the beginning of the game, primarily relying on autoattacks (spells) to get by, with the more talented ones being able to use one or two abilities (arts).
The Mortal Shedding Realm was when a hero had more of their abilities, and the more talented ones could even use their ultimates (great arts).
At the Celestial Heart Realm, a hero could more casually use their ultimates, and they could choose from a larger variety of them, with more power and quantity. The stronger ones could even accelerate the cooldowns of their ultimates.
At the Violet Palace Realm, the vast majority of ultimates could be used with no cooldown.
As for Immortal Platform, because spiritual energy was turned into Immortal Essence, this was essentially when a hero reached such a high level that they could no longer upgrade any of their abilities, upon which they would realize, “Oh! There’s a yellow plus sign here. Let me see what pressing it will do. Wow! All my attributes went up by three and my ability power went up by one.”
The Nine Revolutions and Hundred Refinement Periods of Mortal Shedding could be compared to boosting one’s passive abilities, and Immortal Platform could be considered directly adding to one’s attributes, in addition increasing one’s power and reducing one’s mana costs.
Thus, there actually wasn’t any sort of qualitative change at Immortal Platform. Only those at that altitude would know what was past that. If the legendary Immortal Realm existed, then the greatest probability was that it was a class change, keeping one’s attributes while one’s level dropped to zero…
It all sounded very uninteresting.
But regardless of how one leveled, there was a rule and principle that could be followed. There was even a way to defend against, dodge, or even cancel out those terrifying ultimates.
But the Dao was different.
This was because it did not follow any principle at all!
Because the Dao was a cheat!
It couldn’t exist on the rational side of this world!
It couldn’t exist on the rational side of any world in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm.
It couldn’t be reasoned out or explained using the rules of a game!
It had transcended the game, producing a binding power on an even higher plane!
It might only be an acceleration cheat, or a full map cheat, and by relying on this cheat, you might be able to beat a max-leveled Immortal Platform cultivator. But you could also lose because you yourself were not strong enough.
Of course, just like how cheats could differ in nature, Daos also had different levels and categories. The worst of all were those cheats that simply made you invincible.
Fortunately, this level of Dao only existed in fantasies. Not even legends spoke of them.
The only difference from a game was that in this game of cultivating Immortality, the players had a chance of interacting with the higher plane.
As Wang Poguan had said, at the end of the road was the Way.
Only by walking to the end of the road could one jump out of the old framework and enter a higher plane to seek out new laws.
The realm of speak-not, think-not was a realm of the Dao.
It was said that people at this level, no matter where they were, could sense when someone so much as whispered their name. Even if they weren’t in the same world, even if spiritual energy had no means of crossing over, they could still sense it.
There was no reason or law to it.
Or perhaps there was a law, but it was just beyond the understanding of mere mortals.
This was precisely why the cultivation world had developed a custom of referring to people by their titles rather than names. This was not merely out of respect. It was a practical warning.
Someone unwise enough to badmouth some Titan behind their back would be dead meat once found out.
Of course, it wasn’t like just anyone could have this ability. Not even Celestial Sovereigns were guaranteed to reach this level. One had to at least be at Immortal Platform, and even those legendary Titans of Immortal Platform might not be able to do it.
But at least it was better to have the habit than not, and the eons had shaped it into a kind of cultural custom.
As for manifestation of will, it was nothing so mysterious. Anyone who reached the Violet Palace Realm could link their Divine Will to the world and borrow its power to manifest their will.
But the manifestation of will could only work within the domain, and there was also a distance restriction.
Cross-domain will manifestation, completely disregarding distance, was on another level entirely. The difference was like that between the speed of a flying swallow and the speed of light.
As one of the talented students of Basking Moon Academy, Tang Jie understood what would have left other people baffled: in the Gigantes Illusion Zone, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk had achieved cross-domain will manifestation.
To sense one’s name being called was merely a concept. It represented a transfer of information, and only the Dao-Controllers who existed on a higher plane could wield such power.
This information had a specific indicator, and it could be picked up by those possessing receivers that were powerful enough.
Thus, names were not the only way of triggering a reaction. If one was willing, one could pick up the title as well.
It was just that titles were disseminated while taboo names were more concealed. Over the long passage of time, mortals often passed down titles, and the names were only known by one’s close friends. Thus, there was rarely a Titan so foolish that they would even want to pick up their title.
The Primordial Fog Nine Disaster Fiend Monk manifested in the Gigantes Illusion Zone was a detailed information transfer, so it wasn’t at all strange for it to be picked up.
But over hundreds of years, Nine Disaster’s image had probably been manifested countless times in the Gigantes Illusion Zone, and this Archdevil should have been numb to its calls, perhaps even blocked it. Why had he picked it up today, even carrying out a cross-domain will manifestation to appear? This was rather strange.
It wasn’t just him. Even the Gigantes King had arrived using a cross-domain will manifestation. What had ultimately blasted away the will of Nine Disaster was a sliver of the Gigantes King’s Divine Will.
Two slivers of the wills of these superpowers had damaged the Nine Palace Illusion Formation, and the Gigantes Illusion Zone had been annihilated. Tang Jie’s heart trembled in fear.
Even now, he could still clearly recall the sensation of the earth collapsing under the thrust of the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk’s finger.
This was the power of a sliver of will attached to an illusion, so how powerful was the real thing?
But what shocked Tang Jie even more was the Gigantes King.
Why did the Gigantes King know the Parting Classic?
Tang Jie had once believed that he was the only one in the world who had the Parting Classic’s cultivation method, but he now realized that he was gravely mistaken.
In this unfathomably vast world, there was another existence who knew this powerful body-refining spell.
And they even understood it more than him.
That hurricane of a punch that was capable of obliterating the stars in heaven was clearly the cultivation method of the Parting Classic.
Tang Jie’s world had been turned upside down.
It had to be understood that a cultivation method was not a combat method.
Cultivation methods were about “nurture”, and the cycles of energy were beneficial to the body.
Combat methods were about “explosion”, and the energy overflowed to hurt the enemy.
The two of them were completely different things, so how could the Gigantes King use a cultivation method as a combat method, and with such power?
Could this not be the Parting Classic?
No, wait!
When he carefully thought about it again, he was almost certain that it was the movement of the Parting Classic.
While many methods appeared to be largely the same and differ in small ways, when one looked carefully, one would realize that they were completely different, particularly in how energy flowed.
The Parting Classic refined the blood, and its cultivation method was vastly different from normal circulation methods. When it was activated, the finger joints would bulge out, and the fingers did not entirely close together, leaving a cavity in the fist. This was so that energy could circulate.
This was also the greatest difference between cultivation methods and combat methods. Cultivating allowed energy to cycle and nourish, whereas combat had energy erupt from the energy points.
Moreover, when the Gigantes King had punched, his muscles had bulged and flashed with a crimson light. The blood beneath his skin had surged, as thick as paste, wriggling like snakes in his veins.
Tang Jie had cultivated the Eye of Heaven and had dabbled in the Dao of Insight, and with the repetitions from the illusion zone, he had been able to confirm that this was the movement of the Parting Classic!
So where was the problem here?
Tang Jie instinctively began to go through the motions of the Parting Classic, punching at a rock next to him.
The rock shattered under his fist, but Tang Jie knew that this had nothing to do with his technique. It was entirely due to the toughness of his body.
Cultivation methods were meant to bring a person’s strength from 1 to 10, but combat methods brought a person from 10 to 20, or even more.
Tang Jie was deeply disappointed to find that his punch couldn’t even match the level of one of his ordinary attacks.
Alas, no matter how he pondered it, he couldn’t understand it.
Tang Jie tried many different ways, like going from cycling energy to unleashing energy as he punched, switching from cultivation to combat.
Alas, cultivation methods were gentle, emphasizing steady progress that didn’t hurt the body. Combat methods were hard, seeking a fierce explosion that killed the enemy in one strike.
The two of them were as different as heaven and earth, and no matter how Tang Jie unleashed his energy, the most he was able to do was blow around a leaf. In any case, by changing his movement, he was taking a completely different road from the Gigantes King.
After trying it a few more times, he found that his energy was in turmoil, and he knew that messing around with his energy circulation in this way had actually managed to hurt his body. Thankfully, these were just little tests, so a few breathing cycles were enough to calm things down.
His experiments having failed, Tang Jie decided to strengthen the energy circulation and see if that did anything.
In doing so, Tang Jie found that he had a lot more strength, but unfortunately, it seemed to do nothing for his offensive power. On the contrary, after a few more attempts at this, his energy once more became restless, and his arm ached.
After trying out several more things to no result, Tang Jie grew discouraged.
Tang Jie didn’t have the time to mess around too much, so he once more started to sprint toward the Devil Crushing Path.
To Tang Jie’s surprise, perhaps because the shattering of the Gigantes Illusion Zone had wounded Ji Wujiu, Tang Jie encountered no obstructions on his path.
He made breezy progress through Wind Devil Island. Suddenly, with a boom and a flurry of fog, he saw that his surroundings had vanished and been replaced with a narrow and long black road that led into the distance.
At the end of the road, he could see the outline of the massive Nine Palace complex, and a large beam of light shooting into the sky.
“The Devil Crushing Path!” Tang Jie was delighted. He knew that he had broken through all the illusion zones and reached the Devil Crushing Path.