Heavenly Dao Core Engine with Performance Maxed Out!

As everyone knew, the Great Dao had fifty, Heaven's derivation had forty-nine, and Humanity's escape from one remained.

Broadly speaking, this meant that the Heavenly Dao was damn impressive, governing all things between heaven and earth—the yin and yang, the five elements, the turning of the four seasons, the cycle of all living beings, and every other foundational law and principle that made up the world.

Yet it was not completely invincible, because it still lacked that tiny sliver of variable it had not fully grasped. As a result, the world's development could not possibly proceed entirely according to the Heavenly Dao's predetermined course.

Put more plainly, the Heavenly Dao was like excellent system-development software, while everything in the world was the corresponding underlying hardware.

For the Heavenly Dao to improve its performance, it had to continuously optimize itself and develop the world, allowing the supporting hardware to unleash greater potential and provide more computing power.

During this process, because variables were uncontrollable, all manner of errors, defects, and malfunctions would inevitably arise. Such problems could cause the Heavenly Dao software to run improperly, or even crash outright.

So, in order not to crash, the Heavenly Dao would apply patches whenever it discovered a problem. In other words, whenever the accounts did not balance, it had to forge some data to plug the holes.

Of course, the Heavenly Dao could not patch those holes whenever it pleased. It needed an extremely stable foundation, one that could keep the world running normally even when problems arose. Only then could the Heavenly Dao free up time to "balance the books."

This was where the importance of a powerful cultivator showed itself. The more outstanding the cultivator, the more badass a component they were!

To Ziwei Heavenly Dao, Chen Yi was exactly that. With Chen Yi around, the foundation of the world's laws stood as steady as Mount Tai. Ziwei Heavenly Dao had endless room for trial and error; no matter how wildly it messed around, no major problems would arise, and no matter how much bad debt piled up, it could slowly deal with it.

But if Chen Yi were gone, Ziwei Heavenly Dao would not survive!

One could even say that Chen Yi vanished one second, Ziwei Heavenly Dao crashed the next, and the apocalypse arrived on the third.

Of course, after going on at such length, this was not to prove how badass Chen Yi was, but to explain that any Heavenly Dao with ambition generally possessed methods of making the fake pass for real.

Yet the Heavenly Dao of this Flying Star Continent did not know how?

Could it be that it lacked ambition and merely developed honestly, step by step?

That was unlikely. Without ambition, the world's aura could not be so shallow while its laws had evolved to the Tribulation Transcendence stage in less than a hundred million years.

Then was it because there had not been much bad debt?

That was even less likely. Its evolutionary direction matched Ziwei Continent's, and both followed the path of cultivation. Such worlds had the most bad debt!

Besides, there was Zhou Zheng, an illegal interloper from another world. If there were not plenty of bad debts and rotten accounts, Chen Yi would eat them!

Could it be that its foundation was sturdy enough that it did not matter if bad debts and rotten accounts went unresolved?

That should not be it either. Although Flying Star Continent had rather a lot of Integration stage cultivators, it did not have a single Tribulation Transcendence stage cultivator. No matter how stable it was, how stable could it really be?

After eliminating every impossibility, only one answer remained.

There was something special about the Heavenly Dao of Flying Star Continent!

"Then let me ask you—let me ask you—when uncontrollable variables appear, causing the karma and fate of a large region to fall into disorder and severely impact the world's foundational laws, how do you, as the Heavenly Dao, handle it?"

"I just... set things right, trace the source, guide matters according to the variable's momentum, and reshape karma to make up for the flaws."

It had to be said, that was pretty damn impressive!

Chen Yi drew in a sharp breath and asked again, "Can you find the source every time?"

"I can. Isn't that a very simple matter?"

Flying Star Heavenly Dao answered as if it were only some trivial little matter.

Chen Yi asked again, "The world is so vast, and variables arise every moment. You cannot possibly grasp them all, can you? Take Zhou Zheng, for instance—if I had not mentioned this variable, could you have discovered him?"

"Indeed, I cannot grasp them all. But minor variables do not affect the overall situation; they can even help propel the world's development. So I generally wait until a variable's sphere of influence expands. Only when it obstructs the world's operation and development do I deal with it."

"You even let them expand?!" Chen Yi's breathing quietly grew heavier as he urgently asked, "Aren't you afraid everything will slip out of control and eventually cause the whole world to collapse?"

Flying Star Heavenly Dao paused, sounding slightly puzzled. "I do not quite understand what you mean. So long as corresponding adjustments are made according to the variable, how could the world collapse?"

"Is there never a time when you cannot deal with it?"

"There is, there is. I cannot handle the current situation, for example. Your power exceeds the scope of my abilities, so I can only avoid your edge and seek peace."

Chen Yi's scalp began to tingle.

No, why did it all seem so natural to you?

Were you even a normal Heavenly Dao?

Other Heavenly Daos derived forty-nine; did you derive forty-nine and a half?

You controlled variables, made use of variables, even toyed with variables... What, was that escape from one your toy?

Chen Yi had originally thought Ziwei Heavenly Dao, which had fallen from the Pseudo-Immortal Realm level, was already bold enough. Who would have thought there was an even greater master?!

The fact that Flying Star Heavenly Dao had evolved Tribulation Transcendence laws simply by honestly following its course was enough to prove that the operational principles of the source it had spawned were superior to Ziwei Heavenly Dao's—more efficient and smoother!

Especially after Ziwei Heavenly Dao had dropped in level, it kept applying false patches at every turn, making its source core cluttered and cumbersome. Other than the heavy sense of historical age it possessed, far surpassing Flying Star Heavenly Dao, it was basically inferior in every other respect!

Put more plainly, Ziwei Heavenly Dao was a software program made of a messy, chaotic mountain of crap code. Aside from its extensive experience and better compatibility with the underlying hardware, it was utterly worthless!

And Flying Star Heavenly Dao? It was a top-tier engine optimized to perfection. Unfortunately, it did not really know how to use itself, and had developed less than a tenth of its own performance.

But if the strengths of both could be combined... Ziwei Heavenly Dao would soon return to the Pseudo-Immortal Realm level. Given a little more time, even evolving complete foundational Immortal Dao laws would not be impossible!

Then would he still need to pitifully knock on the Immortal Realm's gates, only to be chased down and bitten by that barking dog called Tribulation Transcendence?!

Get the ***** out of here, Tribulation Transcendence!

At that thought, Chen Yi's Dao heart, which had not stirred for many years, immediately surged with towering waves. The delight of encountering a priceless treasure flooded his heart after so long.

At the same time, within Phantom Star Grotto-Heaven, Chen Yi's true body immediately called for Ziwei Heavenly Dao.

"Ziwei, come out. I have something to ask you!"

It came fast!

Ziwei Heavenly Dao replied in an instant.

"I'm here. What does Brother Yi want to ask?"

Chen Yi calmly said, "After a variable arises, can you avoid applying false patches and instead conduct a complete review, guide matters according to the source of the variable, reshape karma to make up for the flaws, and restore everything to reason?"

Ziwei Heavenly Dao lagged for a moment, then became agitated.

"Impossible! It is absolutely impossible! The workload involved is so immense that it would make me collapse outright. Even if you suppressed the world's foundational laws and allowed me to recover quickly, it would not work. The instant I touched it, I would still collapse. It is absolutely impossible!"

Chen Yi neither confirmed nor denied it, merely saying with an even expression, "But there is a Heavenly Dao that has done it. Not only is its foundation far less stable than yours, it is even so green that it does not know how to apply false patches."

Ziwei Heavenly Dao lagged again for a long while, then suddenly grew fervent.

"Brother Yi, are you saying you have found a young Heavenly Dao with exceptionally superior source principles?"

"Where is it?!"

"As long as I can obtain its source principles, I will surely be able to clear away the chronic ills accumulated over the years and return to the Pseudo-Immortal Realm rank!"

"Brother Yi, you will help me, right?"

"I want it!"

Seeing his own Heavenly Dao act so pathetic, Chen Yi shook his head with faint disdain.

"Wait there. I'll bring it to you."