The Dao Discussion Ends

Withdrawing the Nine Dharma Forms, Meng Chen fused all his cultivation into a single furnace, his presence growing even more formidable. With a single glance, he saw through the past, precisely locating every Alternate Self across countless timelines.

He had a feeling that, if he wished, he could at any moment use these Alternate Selves as anchors to pull all past timelines back into himself.

However, he chose not to do that.

He would let nature take its course, strengthen his Daoist arts, and allow his Great Dao to naturally permeate the past, completing the breakthrough when the time was ripe.

He had already deduced the path of enlightenment best suited to him.

The greater the influence a cultivator exerted on the past and future, the more Dao marks they left behind, and the greater the reward when they gathered their timelines.

Meng Chen was different from other cultivators. He did not see the River of Fate as a shackle. In his eyes, the River of Fate was a cheat left by Pangu for the beings of the Primordial Wilderness.

Other worlds might not even have a River of Fate!

The River of Fate diligently evolved the past and future for cultivators, providing living space for their Alternate Selves, allowing those Alternate Selves to survive and develop.

After all, the cultivation achievements of these Alternate Selves would eventually be reclaimed by the True Self.

With so many Alternate Selves working for him, why would Meng Chen rush to reclaim them? Once his Alternate Selves comprehended their own Daos and grasped more mysteries, he could reclaim them then—wouldn't that be better?

All he had to do was work harder at comprehending the Great Dao, figuring out more cultivation paths and divine abilities. Once he understood them, those Alternate Selves would strive to perfect and elevate those paths and abilities.

For example, if Meng Chen wanted to cultivate the Creation Law, he didn't have to do it himself. He only needed to comprehend a cultivation path. Then, in some time and space, an Alternate Self would walk that path.

In truth, Pangu was very fair.

Those Primordial Saints were born as Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals, breaking through to that realm without any effort. As a result, they never had the chance to use the River of Fate for cultivation.

Conversely, other beings found it harder to attain Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, but they could use the River of Fate as a cheat to cultivate the Three Thousand Great Daos and Three Thousand Laws.

Meng Chen didn't know if other cultivators could grasp this point, but he had understood it.

If he cultivated this way, perhaps by the time he attained Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, he wouldn't need to go through the early, middle, or late stages—he would leap straight to the peak.

Seeing that Meng Chen had reached this level of cultivation without breaking through, the sages and disciples were all puzzled.

They had calculated that Meng Chen's Dharma power was now eighty-one times what it was before the breakthrough. Even a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal, having increased their Dharma power this much, should have advanced to the next stage.

Puzzled as they were, they didn't dwell on it too much. The thoughts of a genius were hard to guess, let alone those of a prodigy.

That Meng Chen wasn't breaking through now was also a good thing for the other sage disciples. If he broke through again, how could they survive?

"Is he afraid of crushing his fellow disciples' confidence? Impossible. Chen'er isn't that kind of person. He's not one to be swayed by emotions; to him, cultivation is the most important thing."

One had to admit, Yuanshi Tianzun read people well.

Meng Chen would never wrong himself just to spare others' feelings. If these people couldn't steady their own Dao hearts, what was that to him? Why should he suffer for them?

The sages' discourse continued. Sage Jieyin and Sage Zhunti treasured this opportunity.

With so many Eastern beings listening to the Dao, they could spread the Western Esoteric Dharma and change the image of the West in Eastern hearts.

Only then could the West attract talent and achieve its great revival.

The only thing the West could offer was the Western Esoteric Dharma. The two sages didn't believe that a sage's Daoist arts couldn't attract Eastern beings.

The Three Pure Ones were fully aware of the Two Sages of the West's intentions, but they didn't interfere.

The Three Pure Ones were the Pangu Sect. They regarded all beings under heaven as their children. As long as these children could achieve something, it didn't matter whether it was in the East or the West.

They weren't so domineering as to refuse to accept those beings as disciples while also forbidding them from joining the Western Church. Among the Pangu Sect, the domineering ones were the Twelve Ancestral Witches, not the Three Pure Ones.

The discourse of the five sages continued—three thousand years, four thousand years...

In the end, the sages discoursed for a full nine thousand years. The Two Sages of the West took this chance to expound the Western Esoteric Dharma from the Celestial Immortal realm all the way to the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm.

After listening to the sages' teachings, the beings of Kunlun Mountain saw their cultivation enter a stage of returning to simplicity.

Before, as scattered cultivators, they had to grope their way through cultivation on their own, leading to many problems. Now, with five sages teaching together, filling in their gaps, every being experienced a qualitative improvement.

The experts of the Plant Spirit Race felt this the most.

Back then, when they fought the True Lord of Clear Void and Virtue, over a dozen of them couldn't beat him alone and were nearly wiped out. After listening to the sages' teachings, their combat power finally rose.

If they fought the True Lord of Clear Void and Virtue again, they wouldn't need a dozen—just five or six would be enough to match him.

If they had cultivated on their own, they might not have reached this level even after ten Yuanhui. With the guidance of a renowned master, their cultivation would grow more stable and powerful.

Thus, the Plant Spirit Race was even more grateful to Meng Chen. They knew that this opportunity was all thanks to him.

"The sages are merciful! We are endlessly grateful for the grace of your Dharma transmission!"

Among the countless peaks of Kunlun, innumerable beings bowed to the five sages. Their voices rose wave after wave, like a tidal surge, even blasting apart the clouds in the sky.

Amid the gratitude of the beings, the five sages nodded slightly.

Seeing the breakthroughs and achievements of the beings, Sage Laozi nodded faintly, a light smile appeared on Yuanshi Tianzun's face, Master Tongtian laughed heartily, and Sage Jieyin and Sage Zhunti wore expressions of compassion.

"This discourse ends here. After returning to your Daoist Temples, be sure to cultivate diligently and continue to ponder what you have learned. Do not waste this opportunity."

Yuanshi Tianzun's voice rang through the nine heavens, his words the most solemn response to the listeners.

Hearing this, the listeners bowed once more to the sages and then departed. Their gains this time were too great; after a short seclusion back home, they would be able to break through.

Sage Jieyin and Sage Zhunti looked at the talent-rich East with envy. They had been watching the listeners' performances closely; some of them were no less gifted than the disciples of the Western Church.