The Sages' Great Dao Was Profound; Scientific Thinking Suffered Its First Setback

Zixiao Palace was not a magnificent hall of gold and jade, but an endless void of primordial chaos. There was no boundary in any direction. Only a simple, ancient dais floated at its center, where Dao Ancestor Hongjun sat with his features blurred, as if one with the Great Dao yet also beyond all things. Below him, the powerful figures from across the Primordial World sat scattered according to their cultivation, karma, and destiny. They seemed haphazardly arranged, but in truth, their positions subtly accorded with the workings of Heaven's Dao.

Lin Xuan, under the identity of Xuanyuanzi, sat toward the rear of the Interception Sect's contingent. In his sea of consciousness, the Dao Charm of the Enlightenment Cushion flowed coolly, filtering the vast, surging tide of Daoist sound from outside and making it "audible" and "comprehensible." He calmed his mind and focused, bringing himself into the best possible condition as he prepared to welcome this once-in-an-age opportunity to comprehend the Dao from an entirely new perspective.

"The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name..."

The Dao Ancestor spoke in a calm voice, yet every word rang like a great bell, striking the deepest recesses of each listener's mind. There were no heavenly flowers raining down, no golden lotuses springing from the earth—only the purest, most fundamental explanation of the "Dao."

At first, Lin Xuan could still rely on the Enlightenment Cushion's enhancement and his own powerful logical thinking to try to understand.

"The Dao is a pattern, a law. The 'Dao that can be spoken' is a pattern we can perceive and describe. 'Not the eternal Dao' means the true, fundamental Dao transcends the limits of our understanding and is constantly changing and developing..." He swiftly analyzed the words in his mind, comparing them with philosophical and physical concepts he knew. "This is similar to the dialectical relationship between absolute truth and relative truth..."

He even instinctively tried to construct a model in his mind. "If we treat the 'Dao' as an infinite-dimensional state space, then the part that can be spoken is the low-dimensional projection we can currently observe..."

But as the Dao Ancestor's lecture deepened and shifted from broad principles to the evolution of specific laws of the Great Dao, the mysteries of Heaven and Earth, and the myriad transformations born from Primordial Chaos Qi, Lin Xuan gradually found himself out of his depth.

The Dao Ancestor's words were neither simple linear deductions nor quantifiable formulas and theorems. They contained endless imagery and metaphor, and even directly conveyed the divine resonance of the Great Dao. When Lin Xuan heard a passage about the generation of yin and yang, it was not merely about the conservation and conversion of energy. It also encompassed the creation of life, the entanglement of karma, the breaking of symmetry in space and time, and countless other profound meanings beyond the scope of his existing system of knowledge. The insights were three-dimensional, multidimensional, even beyond the very concept of dimensions.

He tried using mathematical set theory to define the relationship between "Limitless" and "Supreme Ultimate," only to find that the concept of "Limitless" itself seemed to reject any kind of "definition." He tried comparing the creation of primordial chaos to the Big Bang, only to realize that the "chaos" described by the Dao Ancestor was not a singularity, but a "state" containing infinite possibilities. Its "creation" also involved the simultaneous birth of consciousness, karma, and laws—far beyond anything a physical model could describe.

What frustrated him even more was the explanation of "karma" and "fate." Science emphasized reproducible experiments and clear chains of cause and effect. But the workings of Heaven's Dao and karma described by the Dao Ancestor were full of nonlinearity, superposition, and even observer effects—though on a far grander scale than quantum phenomena. It was as if countless rivers of fate flowed in parallel, intertwining, branching, and collapsing... Faced with a system of such extreme complexity, one further shaped by "subjective will"—the will of Heaven's Dao—his logical thinking seemed as powerless as a ruler trying to measure the waves of a vast ocean.

"...Thus being and nonbeing give rise to each other, difficulty and ease complement each other, long and short define each other, high and low incline toward each other, tone and voice harmonize with each other, and front and back follow one another..."

The Daoist sound was ethereal, but a fine sheen of sweat appeared on Lin Xuan's forehead. He realized he was caught in a vicious cycle: the harder he tried to understand through reason, analysis, and dissection, the farther he strayed from the seamless, all-encompassing "state of the Dao." It was like trying to study every pigment molecule in a landscape painting under a microscope. One might learn its material composition, but never experience the painting's mood and spirit.

The Enlightenment Cushion was still working. It had heightened Lin Xuan's comprehension, allowing him to "hear" the Daoist sound more clearly and "feel" the Dao Charm more keenly, but it could not directly "translate" those insights into the scientific language and logical framework he was used to. It was more like a pair of high-fidelity headphones: they let you hear the purest music, but understanding its meaning still depended on your own musical knowledge.

An unprecedented sense of defeat rose in his heart. Since arriving in this world, he had relied on modern scientific knowledge and the system's assistance to advance smoothly along the path of cultivation. He had even begun influencing a colossal force like the Interception Sect. This had fostered a sense of superiority in his subconscious, making him believe that scientific thinking was a more advanced and universally applicable tool for understanding the world.

But now, standing face-to-face with the most fundamental Great Dao of the Primordial World, he realized with shock that the "science" he had prided himself on had enormous—even fundamental—blind spots when it came to explaining supreme laws involving consciousness, fundamental origins, and realms beyond matter! Science excelled at studying objective, reproducible, material laws. But when it came to subjective, idealistic realms involving "spirituality" and "Dao Charm," its methodology fell short.

It wasn't that science was useless; the science he currently understood simply wasn't advanced enough, nor suited to fully deciphering the "Primordial Great Dao"! Just as Newtonian mechanics could not explain relativity and quantum mechanics, his existing framework of knowledge was bound to prove inadequate when faced with the laws of Heaven's Dao on a higher dimension.

"...Profound and mysterious, the gateway to all wonders."

With the Dao Ancestor's final words, that portion of the lecture came to a temporary close. Dao Charm flowed through Zixiao Palace. Many powerful figures closed their eyes in contemplation; some smiled, while others furrowed their brows. Each had gained something, and each had questions.

Lin Xuan let out a long breath, his face somewhat pale. Though he hadn't suffered the mental shock or near-fainting that some undercultivated listeners had, the toll on his mind had been far more severe than a great battle. He felt like a drop of water trying to contain an endless ocean in a finite vessel—not only could it not hold the water, but the vessel itself had nearly been assimilated and dissolved.

Was I... wrong? For the first time, he deeply questioned the path he had chosen. Was Scientific Cultivation really a dead end? Before the supreme Heaven's Dao, was rational analysis ultimately futile?

Yet at the bottom of his self-doubt, the [Pangu's Sky-Opening Imprint (a wisp)] he had obtained from a sign-in at Kunlun Mountain stirred faintly in his sea of consciousness. A primordial, pioneering will, born of splitting Heaven and Earth and breaking apart chaos, surged through his heart. At the same time, the Dao Charm of the Enlightenment Cushion flowed coolly, calming his agitation.

An understanding flashed through the darkness like lightning, illuminating his confusion:

"It's not that science is useless. I simply haven't found the interface between science and the arcane at a higher dimension!"

"Science is a method for exploring truth; the arcane—the Dao—is a different aspect of truth itself! My mistake was trying to use low-dimensional tools to analyze a higher-dimensional existence. Of course I would fail. The true spirit of science is to acknowledge the limits of our understanding and remain open-minded—to learn, adapt, and explore the unknown, rather than cling to established paradigms!"

"The Great Dao explained by the Dao Ancestor is far beyond my current understanding. But that doesn't mean I should abandon scientific thinking. It means I need to elevate science to a higher level, and incorporate variables such as 'spirituality' and 'Dao Charm' into a new framework of study! This isn't failure; it points the way forward!"

Once he understood this, Lin Xuan felt suddenly enlightened. The confusion in his eyes vanished, replaced by an even more resolute light. His sense of defeat turned into an intense thirst for knowledge and a desire to take on the challenge.

The Sages' Great Dao was profound, and scientific thinking had suffered its first setback. But this setback wasn't the end—it was the starting point of his true journey toward integration!