Yan Tian Scripture

The Yan Tian Scripture, according to Father, Mother, and Jin Chong, possessed the ability to glimpse time, see through illusion, and calculate karma.

And the image they had left for him had indeed confirmed this.

When he had first awakened, he had indeed predicted Xi Yu and Luo Ningyue's actions while completely out of control.

But that was precisely the biggest problem now.

He could not control it.

Aside from those two instances just mentioned, he had encountered visions appearing before his eyes many times over the past few days.

Yet every time, it had happened passively.

To a certain extent, this had already affected his actions. He had to solve this problem first.

And the most fundamental step in solving it was understanding where the problem lay—in other words, what exactly the contents recorded in the Yan Tian Scripture meant.

That was what he had been doing these past few days.

And these ancient texts Xi Yu had been asked to borrow from the Luo God Clan's Collection of Books had all been for that purpose.

The borrowed books fell into two categories. One consisted of historical records detailing the Great Thousand World's past, while the other contained miscellaneous theoretical knowledge.

Seeing through illusion in the Yan Tian Scripture was, simply put, the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood.

And as everyone knew, historical records were the most prone to bias.

One should never blindly believe the scattered words written on paper when it came to the truth of history. Most of it was truth mixed with falsehood, and falsehood containing traces of truth.

But because of that, Bai Ye needed these things now.

He wanted to use these texts to test exactly how this so-called ability to See Through Illusion worked.

This testing had continued for quite some time.

He had read through many historical books kept by the Luo God Clan.

The Luo God Clan was an ancient race that had been passed down since the Ancient Era. Setting everything else aside, in terms of historical foundations alone, they were among the very best in the Great Thousand World.

He could even look up some Ancient Secrets.

And as Bai Ye read those books, he felt that same uncontrollable sensation as before.

It was a very peculiar feeling. From that perspective, he could instantly identify where the flaws lay in the records of those historical books.

The sensation was extraordinarily wondrous. It was not a baseless judgment of truth and falsehood, but an extremely rational deduction.

Bai Ye was familiar with such deductions. Whether in the Spirit Skill Hall of the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy or atop snow-swept Daqi Mountain, he had experienced that feeling before.

With a reasonable algorithm combined with known conditions, one could arrive at an incomparably correct answer.

That was the foundation of the Yan Tian Scripture.

Whether Glimpse of Time or Calculate Karma, both essentially relied on this method.

It was merely that, compared to the other two, See Through Illusion was less difficult.

With that in mind, Bai Ye carefully studied every part of this divine art.

And the deeper he delved, the more he could sense the wondrous profundity of this cultivation art and spiritual skill.

For the first time, he felt that possessing such a treasure made it entirely natural for the Yan Tian Sect to be regarded as a thorn in everyone's side.

He began with the most crucial and widely known part: Glimpse of Time.

At first, Bai Ye had simply believed that Glimpse of Time meant predicting the future. But after truly understanding it, he realized it was far more than that.

Time was a great river rolling ever onward, and naturally, that river had an upstream and a downstream.

The history of the past also existed within that river.

Glimpse of Time did not merely peer into the unknown that had yet to occur downstream. Correspondingly, it also peered into the already established past upstream.

Following that endless river, one could see scenes of history emerge one by one in one's mind.

Sometimes, that was even more important than seeing the unknown future.

As for predicting the future, Bai Ye had truly been shaken by it—not because it could predict the future itself, but more because he was astonished by Mother.

Only after truly understanding it could one know how complicated the workings of this spiritual skill were.

As had been said before, this was not a baseless prediction. It was a result obtained through algorithms and conditions.

And aside from certain fundamental elements, the conditions used in Glimpse of Time essentially involved deducing the laws of the Heavenly Dao.

That was the meaning of this spiritual skill's name.

Yan Tian—deducing the secrets of heaven.

From the moment that silver-white orb had entered Bai Ye's brow, he had been able to see things ordinary people could not perceive. Through the operating method of the Yan Tian Scripture, those things entered his senses.

These were the so-called Heaven and Earth Principles, the laws of the Heavenly Dao.

They operated between heaven and earth, yet were as intangible as drifting mist. Without a special spiritual skill like the Yan Tian Scripture, perhaps no one would ever be able to perceive them.

At the very least, those below the Heavenly Supreme realm would absolutely have no chance of coming into contact with them. Even those under a Heavenly Supreme could not glimpse their full form as Bai Ye could now.

Predicting the future essentially required combining the necessary conditions with those ever-changing laws, then carrying out a special deduction to arrive at the final result.

But one had to understand that such a result was not necessarily the final outcome.

In the Yan Tian Scripture Mother had left him, there was a note resembling a personal insight.

"Those of the past cannot be changed, and those of the future are not necessarily accurate."

The meaning of those words was simple. In summary, it came down to one principle.

"Before the predicted future becomes the past, everything can still change."

The result obtained this way could only be considered the most likely outcome. If even the slightest change occurred during the process, or if some condition had been overlooked—

Then the vision was merely a conjecture.

That was why he had been so shocked by Mother's prediction spanning more than twenty years. What an immense amount of calculation that required, and what astonishing planning and foresight.

She had set up a secret realm on the Bei Cang Continent that had served no purpose at the time, then secretly let Jin Chong learn of the Cold Pool secret realm. There was also Luo Tianshen's request that spanned twenty years, along with all the other arrangements. Thinking of it all, even Bai Ye felt his scalp tingle.

She was too formidable.

Only then did he understand what it meant for the Yan Tian Sect's Saintess, once hailed as the greatest strategist among the younger generation of the Great Thousand World.

And this also showed that the Yan Tian Scripture's greatest difficulty did not lie in "cultivation," but in "use."

That was why the Yan Tian Sect had been so strict in choosing its disciples.

Moreover, unlike the Yan Tian Art cultivated by ordinary Yan Tian Sect disciples, the Yan Tian Scripture stood at an unknown number of levels above it.

Mother had written in her note.

Back then, only two people in the Yan Tian Sect had been qualified to cultivate the Yan Tian Scripture.

One was the Saintess, and the other was the Sect Leader.

And the Saintess was the appointed next Sect Leader.

That alone was enough to show how demanding the requirements for cultivating this spiritual skill were.

But according to Mother, he seemed to be even more suited to it than she had been.

He had gone off topic. Back to the contents of the Yan Tian Scripture itself.

He had already discussed See Through Illusion and Glimpse of Time.

The final part was actually the most elusive and unfathomable.

Calculate Karma.

When he had first awakened, aside from predicting Luo Ningyue and Xi Yu's actions, he had also seen countless densely packed threads.

Those threads were connected to every object between heaven and earth. Whether living beings or inanimate objects, everything had threads belonging to it.

And those threads had a unique name.

"Karma Threads."

Karma was truly something vague and intangible.

As for this part, Bai Ye had only grasped a small portion. Roughly speaking, every person's Karma Thread was unique and connected to the laws of the Heavenly Dao.

And those Karma Threads could also be combined with the previous algorithm for deducing the future, creating a separate method of calculation.

To put it plainly... fortune-telling.

It involved deducing the future for only one person, following their Karma Thread to deduce the secrets of heaven, with the result being only that person's future.

He thought... the conclusion that Bing Yan's end was near had been calculated this way.

Following the Karma Thread, combining the laws of the Heavenly Dao, and then testing changes in the conditions.

Then one would derive every possible future, only to discover... that no matter what, the future in which she fell at that point in time could not be changed.

In the end, she had chosen... the most meaningful one.

Bai Ye lowered his gaze and set the papers aside. He leaned over the desk and looked out at the night sky.

Though many days had passed, Bing Yan's carefree smile was still etched into his mind.

It was because she had noticed that possibility at the time that she had later chosen to "accept release," wasn't it?

But whenever he thought of that day, the corners of his lips could not help but rise. He could not stop himself from wanting to smile.

Because that day, someone had locked him down and made him want to stay in this place.

For the first time, he had learned that he was so important. For the first time, he had learned that he was so important in her heart.

And he had learned even more clearly how important she would be in his heart from then on.

"If your life ends tomorrow, then my life will end tomorrow as well. If you continue living today, then no matter what, I will stay with you and live through today."

"I don't know whether I can become your reason to stay, but just as you became my only key many years ago, I also want to become your only lock."

Bai Ye touched his shoulder, feeling the pain left behind from that time, yet he felt incomparably happy.

Really...

"I lose to you."

He shook his head and rested for a while, then turned his gaze back to the pages he had been writing on.

There was still something he had not finished mentioning. After repeated experiments, Bai Ye had discovered several limitations he could not currently overcome.

They were not really limitations. It was simply that his strength was insufficient.

Not every future and past could be seen. Sometimes, when Bai Ye attempted simple deductions, there would be no response.

The conditions were clearly sufficient, yet he still could not see anything.

Though he had no proof yet, he suspected it was related to the depth of his current understanding.

Simply put, he had not yet reached the level where he could see it.

And that level was related to the laws of the Heavenly Dao. However, that was not a problem. As long as he continued researching and comprehending, those problems would all be resolved.

For now, the greatest benefit of these past few days was that he could already control the visions he wished to see on his own. Unless necessary, he would no longer fall into the uncontrolled chaos he had suffered when he had first awakened.

That was good enough.

As for the final part, Calculate Karma, he had not yet fully comprehended it. He still needed to continue studying it.

Of course, as the fundamental reason a superpower had been destroyed, the Yan Tian Scripture could not possibly be so simple. He had discovered that each of its three major sections contained content he still could not see.

That content was likely the higher-level spiritual skills built upon what he currently understood.

It was not deliberately sealed away. Rather, his current understanding of this spiritual skill was still insufficient for him to see those things.

That was also one of this spiritual skill's unique aspects. Its foundation had nothing to do with spiritual energy. Everything required for its operation depended entirely on one's understanding of the spiritual skill itself and one's comprehension of the laws of the Heavenly Dao.

In that sense, it could be considered an advantage that outweighed its drawbacks.

From this, one could also see another reason why its cultivation requirements were so demanding.

"That should be about it."

Bai Ye briefly reviewed what he had written on the paper.

This was all of his understanding and summary of the Yan Tian Scripture over the past few days. Simply put, he had gained a great deal.

After reading the contents of the final page, he folded the papers and held them toward the Candle beside him.

Flames instantly climbed over the plain white paper, spreading rapidly until every sheet was engulfed.

Bai Ye watched calmly as the flames burned toward his fingers. Cold energy condensed in his hand, and as ice crystals scattered, everything vanished without a trace.

He wrote things down to make them easier to organize and summarize, and destroyed them so others would not see them.

It was a habit he had maintained for many years.

After taking one last look at the night outside, he stood and stretched deeply.

Then he leaned forward, intending to close the window before going to sleep.

But just as his fingers touched the window, a small ball of light flew in and landed on his desk.

The light dispersed, revealing a small bamboo tube.

It was a letter.

Bai Ye looked outside but did not spot anyone's shadow.

But it did not matter. None of that mattered.

He picked up the bamboo tube and stared at it for several seconds.

Then...

Crack.

Ice crystals scattered, and the bamboo tube instantly vanished before his eyes. Amid the dispersing ice crystals, faint specks of paper scraps could still be seen.

Whatever had been written inside, he had no interest in opening it.

The person who had sent it had their own purpose. Whether that purpose was good or bad, it had nothing to do with him. He would not involve himself.

He stretched again.

He let out a satisfied groan and shut the window.

"Sleep, sleep. The sun will rise as usual tomorrow."