The Steps of Cultivation, a Great Terror in the Unseen
The Steps of Cultivation, a Great Terror in the Unseen
In truth, the moment Gu Changge took out the Celestial Boat of Creation, Xiao Ruoyin had already sensed his intention.
The Celestial Boat of Creation was an innate object, not something forged after the fact. Back then, she had only been able to rely on her own Nihility Destiny Physique, drawing out its resonance from within that ethereal River of Destiny, and only then was she able to make it acknowledge her as its master.
Later, when the Immortal Palace collapsed and she reincarnated through the cycle of rebirth, the Celestial Boat of Creation reincarnated along with her. Its Artifact Spirit was thus born with a physical body, which became the Jiang Chen of later days.
However, over all these years, the Celestial Boat of Creation had remained in Gu Changge’s hands, and Ruoyin had never thought of asking him to return it to her.
“Your Majesty has come this time to ask about matters concerning the Celestial Boat of Creation?” Xiao Ruoyin couldn’t help but guess, her gaze falling upon the Celestial Boat of Creation.
It appeared to be made of bronze, but it was not. Rather, it was made of a rare Immortal Gold called Mother of Fortune Gold, one never recorded in any ancient texts.
For this substance could bear fate itself. Even while traversing the River of Time, it would not be tainted by karma, much less invite heavenly punishment or divine retribution.
It was simply far too difficult to find. Many Cultivators could exhaust their entire lives without ever hearing of Mother Gold, let alone Mother of Fortune Gold.
These were things Xiao Ruoyin had only learned from records back when she had been the High Priestess of Destiny of the Immortal Palace.
Even for her, trying to find another piece of Mother of Fortune Gold would be as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
Gu Changge glanced at Xiao Ruoyin and said, “It is indeed a matter concerning the Celestial Boat of Creation. But right now, what I want to know more is—to what degree has your mastery over the Dao of Fate reached?”
As he spoke, his gaze fell upon the compass behind Xiao Ruoyin. It was a very ancient compass, but if one looked closely, one would discover countless threads of starlight-like substance converging upon it, appearing most wondrous.
Ordinary people naturally could not see it, but having comprehended the Dao of Fate himself, Gu Changge understood that these were the so-called threads of causality.
All things in this world, no matter what, cannot escape the two words “cause and effect.” Even he had once had his past life’s origins seen through by Xiao Ruoyin because of causality.
It had to be said, to truly transcend beyond causality and leap beyond the Five Elements—the difficulty of that was no ordinary feat.
“Mastery over fate?” Ruoyin was astonished. Why would Gu Changge suddenly take an interest in this?
Possessing the Nihility Destiny Physique, she inherently had an extremely powerful sensitivity toward fate and causality, so when comprehending and studying it, she was like a fish in water—effortlessly at ease.
Over these years, after recovering the memories of her past life as the High Priestess of Destiny, Xiao Ruoyin had been trying to restore the Dao Fruit of her previous life.
The most notable aspect of this was her comprehension and mastery of the Dao of Fate.
Just now, she had indeed been performing divination—divining the future changes of the Divine Empire, no less.
Between heaven and earth, a great trend operates in the unseen. Truly powerful beings of great divine ability need only a single glance to perceive a person’s past and present lives.
They could even perceive all the changes and evolutions of billions of living beings across a great world over countless ages.
In this world, there would be no secret they could not know. From the very end of time, they could see through to the other shore in an instant—truly unfathomable and mysterious beyond imagination.
However, with Xiao Ruoyin’s current strength, she was still far too distant from that level. It was practically an unrealistic fantasy.
Gu Changge nodded. “Recently, I’ve suddenly developed quite an interest in the Dao of Fate, and I thought you should understand it quite deeply.”
He wasn’t lying. His reason for coming here to find Ruoyin was precisely because he thought her attainments in the study of fate should be considerable.
Xiao Ruoyin understood now, and then said, “Though this subject has dabbled deeply in this Dao, my cultivation is still far too distant from Your Majesty’s. Even if I could glimpse a sliver of fate, for Your Majesty, I’m afraid it would be of little use.”
Gu Changge’s cultivation was now unfathomably deep, beyond description—he had undoubtedly walked very far upon the path of the Celestial Realm.
In terms of fate, he could absolutely be called an Anomaly never before seen in all eternity.
Even those great beings most proficient in this Dao could never hope to glimpse the future or fate of an Anomaly.
Xiao Ruoyin naturally did not dare to casually peer into Gu Changge’s fate. Failing to see it would be a small matter—suffering backlash would be the true disaster.
Gu Changge knew Ruoyin would say this, which was exactly why he had taken out the Celestial Boat of Creation—to let her borrow this object to glimpse fate.
“With the Celestial Boat of Creation in hand, given your current cultivation, you should be barely able to divine the fate of the Divine Empire, no?” he asked slowly.
Ruoyin was silent for a moment. Before Gu Changge, she dared not conceal anything.
“But the chances are not great.”
“It matters not. If there is danger, you may withdraw at any time. Whatever backlash there is, I will bear it for you,” Gu Changge said, shaking his head. At his level of cultivation, any sudden stirring of the heart had its reason.
Just like what he was about to do now.
In Gu Changge’s view, this was an extremely crucial step concerning his deduction and verification of the path he was to walk next.
At his current realm, Gu Changge had deduced and summarized the paths he had walked. Broadly speaking, the first three steps, when walked to their end, led to the other shore of immortality—that is, the Celestial Realm.
And this fourth step—he had sensed it while studying and comprehending fate—was the step above the Celestial Realm: to push aside the clouds and mist, to reflect one’s true self, and to achieve the Dao Fruit.
Only then would one be untouched by causality, leaping beyond time and space.
And after that—to command the three thousand Great Daos, immortal in a single thought, annihilating myriad universes in a single thought.
Transcending one’s own Dao, past, present, and future, the one and only across all ages, carefree and eternal.
Destroying all heavens with a single hand, eternal across the universe, slaying all and perceiving all with a flick of thought—immortal in nihility, immortal in conception.
These were all the paths that lay ahead. The mist had dispersed and everything was visible, yet Gu Changge still needed to verify them through the deduction of fate.
“This subject understands.”
Ruoyin knew she had no choice. She immediately took the Celestial Boat of Creation. After countless ages, this object had returned to her hands once more, emitting a soft, trembling hum.
Then, layer upon layer of divine and mysterious ripples spread out from this place, and wondrous sounds seemed to bloom between heaven and earth. Even those threads of causality began converging toward this location.
Clad in her priestly robes, Xiao Ruoyin looked holy and otherworldly, her entire body enveloped in boundless celestial light. Before her appeared a great expanse of light, hazy and blurred, within which flashed indistinct fragments.
Within these blurred fragments were the radiance of the Divine Empire, the evolution of all heavens and worlds, and the curling smoke of incense offerings.
Everywhere were the sounds of worship, the grand voices of the world—but afterward, all fell deathly silent and cold.
Some great fog swept in, covering everything.
Within Gu Changge’s gaze, many terrifying scenes evolved. In this moment, he seemed to stand at the end of a vast and boundless void, watching heaven and earth evolve, watching chaos split apart. There were even figures of light emerging, overlooking everything from the end of the River of Time, sitting and watching mountains and rivers change, watching eras come and go.
The Dao of Fate was indeed profound and wondrous.
Seeing that Xiao Ruoyin was about to be unable to hold on, waves of blood-red color surfacing on her crystalline white face, Gu Changge’s expression had already returned to calm.
With a wave of his sleeve, thunder suddenly exploded at the edge of the sky, but it quickly dissipated without a trace.
That suffocating, terrifying pressure vanished into nothingness in an instant.
“You’ve worked hard.”
He caught the tottering Xiao Ruoyin, glanced at her slightly pale face, and said.
Ruoyin had indeed nearly suffered backlash. While divining the fate of the Divine Empire, she had suddenly felt herself enveloped by some great terror in the unseen. Her entire body had gone cold, yet that great terror had no discernible source—it came quickly and left just as quickly.
She suspected that at the very end, it was Gu Changge who had acted, driving that great terror away.
But what exactly was that thing?