Memories of a Past Life, Sparks of Wisdom

Despair, like an icy sea, still soaked Wanhua's core consciousness.

That faint glimmer of realization he had just kindled—perhaps things could be different—seemed so pale and powerless before the cruel reality that he could not move.

He was like an insect imprisoned in amber. He could "see" the vast world outside, yet could not so much as flutter a wing.

The Myriad Dao Celestial Tome passively received fragments of information from the Primordial Era: a claw-shadow that tore through the heavens, a roar that shattered mountains, a whirlpool of Innate Spiritual Qi brimming with life...

They were like blurry light and shadows glimpsed through a thick curtain of water, reminding him of the vastness and danger of this world while deepening his sense of helplessness.

"Recording, deducing... is that all I exist for? To be a cold database? A spectator's recorder of Heaven and Earth's evolution?"

His unwillingness accumulated and fermented. He tried to delve deeper into the inheritance of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome, hoping to find even the slightest crack through which he could actively interfere with the outside world.

But the result was discouraging. The inheritance information was vast as an ocean and all-encompassing, ranging from the most basic methods of absorbing spiritual qi to mysterious techniques for wielding laws.

Even supreme divine abilities whose very names made the void tremble... the Celestial Tome could clearly record their principles and trajectories, even deducing their subsequent changes and potential weaknesses.

Yet all these methods shared one prerequisite—they required a subject capable of mobilizing energy and performing divine abilities!

A "being" with limbs and bones, meridians and acupoints—or at the very least, one able to condense a Primordial Spirit and draw upon the power of Heaven and Earth!

And he, Wanhua, was only a book. A book with supreme essence, yet no "hands or feet" to carry out its commands.

"Hands and feet... meridians... energy... If I myself possess none of these, can I... bypass them?"

The thought was like his fingertips accidentally brushing against a rough texture unlike the icy walls while groping through darkness. It was slight, yet it made his entire consciousness shudder.

Amid this utter helplessness and seeking, the memories of his past life, which had once been nothing but background noise and a chaotic heap, seemed to be stirred by an invisible force and began to surge upward.

They were no longer blurry fragments, but exceptionally clear images and words.

He "saw" the crisp printed words in that yellowed copy of the Tao Te Ching in a university library: "The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name... Nonbeing is the name of Heaven and Earth's beginning; Being is the name of the mother of all things..."

He "heard" the impassioned debates of readers on webnovel forums: "The foundation of Shrouding the Heavens is to develop the universe within oneself, seeking nothing outside!"

"The Gate of Eternal Life flows with destiny; the Three Thousand Great Daos are all laws!" "Saint King Yang Qi pushed the power of will to its very limit—My heart is the Heavenly Heart!"

He "felt" the tragic grandeur and determination of defying heaven and striking against the Dao in Grave of the Gods, of pressing onward even if ten million stood against him;

He experienced Shi Hao's unyielding Resilience in Perfect World, using himself as the seed to carve out a new path in an age devoid of spiritual energy;

He even recalled the unbending will contained in that line from Battle Through the Heavens: "Do not bully a young man for being poor..."

This knowledge and these ideas from another universe, seemingly illusory and utterly incompatible with the laws of the Primordial Era—

At this moment, they were like countless stones cast into a still lake, stirring ripple upon ripple.

They were no longer mere memories. They began to undergo a wondrous chemical reaction with the Primordial Era's Great Dao inheritance recorded in the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome!

When the concepts of "Doing nothing, yet nothing is left undone" and "Attain utmost emptiness; preserve profound Stillness" from the Tao Te Ching

Mutually confirmed the inheritance's descriptions of the workings of Heaven's way and natural tranquility, Wanhua gained a hazier yet deeper understanding of a certain essence of the "Dao."

When the wild notion of "Using oneself as the seed, Open up secret realms within the body" collided with the mainstream Primordial Era path of "Draw Qi into the body, Refine Heaven and Earth," new sparks seemed to burst forth from the violent clash!

The Celestial Tome's instinct for deduction was stirred and began simulating on its own: if there were no spiritual qi of Heaven and Earth, or if one did not rely on external spiritual qi, could a living being truly excavate its own potential and evolve an inner universe?

When idealistic notions such as "will changes reality" and "My heart is the Heavenly Heart"

Encountered the objectively existing, powerful, and cold laws of Heaven and Earth in the Primordial Era, an unprecedented sense of paradox arose.

Yet the Celestial Tome was also deducing: if one's "will" were powerful enough and one's understanding of "principles" profound enough, could one truly interfere with—or even redefine—laws in a limited area?

And those bizarre divine ability concepts: "Great Samsara Technique," "Other-Transformation Freedom Art," "Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Strength," "Burning Art"...

Their operational logic and sources of power were utterly different from the Primordial Era's divine abilities and arts.

Like the most advanced supercomputer, the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome frantically absorbed these "parameters from another world," incorporating them into its deduction system as it tried to construct new models.

"No... not like this..."

"Perhaps... they can be combined this way?"

"Could the conflicting laws here be mended with concepts from that world?"

"What if 'writing' is not merely a record, but an entity that carries the Dao?"

"What if 'principles' themselves are a kind of power?"

Countless questions, countless hypotheses, countless paths of deduction unfolded simultaneously within Wanhua's core consciousness and the essence of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome.

The profound Dao patterns upon the chaotic-colored book flickered and flowed at an unprecedented speed, as though a thought-storm capable of opening Heaven and Earth was raging within.

He no longer fixated on the fact that he had "no hands or feet." Instead, he began to consider whether he could use "knowledge" as hands and feet, and "principles" as power!

The vast, seemingly useless miscellany of knowledge from the age of information explosion had now become his only—and most precious—wealth.

And the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome, this Innate Supreme Treasure, was the perfect testing ground and amplifier!

At last, amid this ultimate chaos and deduction, a true spark of inspiration, burning hot, split the fog and blazed to life!

"Primordial Era cultivation borrows the power of Heaven and Earth and accords with Heaven's rules. This is the path of 'external force.'

"In the end, it remains constrained by heaven, and may even become a chess piece beneath Heaven's way at some point in the future..."

"And I, Wanhua, possess the crystallized wisdom of two worlds, as well as a deduction treasure like the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome... Why can't I carve out a path of 'seeking within'?"

"Without relying on innate foundations, without relying solely on the spiritual qi of Heaven and Earth... take the heart as the source, will as the guide, and the understanding and application of 'principles' as the foundation!"

"Turn knowledge into power, forge words into divine abilities! Use the spirit to stir some kind of... 'Righteous Qi' between heaven and earth?

Or create an entirely new form of energy?"

"This path must place people first; Literature carries the Dao, convince people with reason... and perhaps even Control methods with reason!"

A vague yet exhilarating outline slowly took shape in his mind.

It was a direction utterly different from the mainstream cultivation systems of the current Primordial Era.

The embryonic form of a system focused on spiritual cultivation, the exploration of principles, and inner development.

Though it was still only a direction, a concept, Wanhua felt an emotion he had not experienced in a long time: hope.

His consciousness no longer crashed against the invisible cage in despair. Instead, he was like an explorer who had discovered a new continent.

He began to scrutinize the boundless treasures he possessed with fervent passion.

And to plan how he would use the divine weapon in his hands, the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome, to carve out a path unprecedented and uniquely his own.

The spark of wisdom had already been kindled. The next step was to turn this tiny flame into a prairie fire, one that could illuminate himself and perhaps even influence the entire Primordial Era.