Going to listen to the Dao might bring some insights by analogy, but it was more likely that the dazzling might of the Heavenly Dao would influence him.
It might even leave the imprint of Hongjun's Great Dao in his Dao Heart, planting a hidden danger for his future path to transcendence.
"As far as I'm concerned, I can do without going to Zixiao Palace!"
Ao Chen made up his mind at once.
"My Mythical Grand Unity Method is self-contained and points straight to the Great Dao's origin. Why should I listen to another's teachings and trap myself?"
"Still, even if I won't go listen to the Dao, it's time for me to leave this place. Shut away from the world, I can't make progress forever."
"I'll take Heaven and Earth as my teacher, the sun and moon as my friends, and all living beings as my companions. Only then can I perfect my own Dao."
With that thought, Ao Chen rose to his feet and headed out of the cave.
Now that he had created the Great Dao Origin Scripture and acquired a Dao Protecting Divine Ability, it was time to go out and explore.
Besides, despite having been in the Primordial World for so long, he had yet to experience its splendor for himself.
Ao Chen stepped out of the cave. The restrictions he had casually set up parted like ripples on water, offering him no resistance.
Without a hint of reluctance, he turned into an inconspicuous streak of light and shot straight upward, fleeing in the direction farthest from the Dragon Palace Faction's heartlands.
Although the pressure of Hongjun's achievement of sainthood still enveloped the entire Primordial World, and countless beings were flocking to hear the Sages Preach the Dao, it all seemed to have nothing to do with him.
He could sense several discreet divine thoughts falling on him from the shadows, probing and scrutinizing him. The Dragon Palace's old-timers must have been uneasy and sent spies to keep an eye on him.
Ao Chen's lips curled slightly, but he couldn't be bothered to pay them any mind.
As long as they didn't provoke him, he had no interest in quarreling with these former "kinsmen," who were confined to the Four Seas with bleak prospects.
He sped up, and after several spatial jumps, he left those divine thoughts far behind and entered the truly vast, boundless depths of the East Sea, a place full of the unknown and danger.
Once he had left the relatively "familiar" waters around Dragon Palace, a more desolate, ancient, and primeval aura surged toward him!
The sea here was deeper, and the pressure could easily crush a Golden Immortal!
Light could scarcely reach depths of ten thousand feet. Only certain strange seabed creatures and ores gave off a cold, faint glow.
The Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth was so dense it had nearly liquefied, yet it was intermingled with all kinds of violent energy currents, as well as the baleful and resentful energies left behind from ancient times.
In the distance, underwater volcanoes as massive as the Primordial Divine Mountains stood in silence. Their occasional eruptions unleashed tsunamis that swept across millions of miles.
From the depths of the ravines came heart-chilling roars. Deep Sea Giant Beasts were proclaiming their dominion—creatures that even Taiyi Golden Immortals wouldn't dare provoke lightly.
But Ao Chen felt no fear. Instead, he felt as free and at ease as a fish returning to the sea or a bird taking to the mountains!
"Now this is the kind of world cultivators like us should roam!"
He relaxed and stopped hurrying. Then he activated his Heaven-Defying Comprehension and began to truly "take Heaven and Earth as his teacher."
He came across a terrifying underwater tornado that would kill any ordinary immortal who encountered it.
But he stopped to observe how the water-element and Space Laws clashed and intertwined within it, using the sight to test his understanding of the Great Dao Origin Scripture. Glimmers of insight flashed through his eyes.
He came across a forest of seaweed that exuded a deadly poison, potent enough to corrode even space.
He didn't go around it. Instead, he cautiously ventured inside, analyzed the principles behind the poison, and extrapolated the "Nirvana" true meaning contained in the Grass Extinguishing Sword Art. He even gathered some of the strange poisonous plants as research materials.
He saw a school of peculiar deep-sea fish. They had no powerful magic, yet with clever formations and precise control over the currents, they could hunt sea beasts several times stronger than themselves.
Ao Chen watched with great interest for a long time and gleaned some subtle insights into formations and coordinated attacks.
Along the way, Ao Chen stopped and started as he traveled.
Every sight in the Primordial World, whether grand and magnificent or subtle and strange, became nourishment for his own Great Dao.
His Mythical Earth Immortal Realm grew ever more stable, and his understanding of the Great Dao Origin Scripture and Grass Extinguishing Sword Art deepened with each passing day.
"Hongjun's sermons teach the 'methods' and 'techniques' under the Heavenly Dao, but what I seek is the 'Dao' and 'principles' of Heaven and Earth themselves!"
Ao Chen's resolve grew ever firmer.
"Zixiao Palace may be wonderful, but it isn't where my Dao lies. This vast Primordial Wilderness is my best teacher!"
Just as he was immersed in cultivating by taking Heaven and Earth as his teacher, faint yet highly unusual fluctuations of laws suddenly reached him from a distant stretch of sea ahead.
The fluctuations didn't seem to belong to the ordinary space of the Primordial World. They carried a hint of fragmentation and chaos, yet also held an extremely ancient aura of time!
Ao Chen's mind stirred, and he used his Heaven-Defying Comprehension to analyze them with all his might.
"Could this be... a spacetime fluctuation?"
He had a faint sense that something in that direction resonated with the ideas of "Independent Spacetime" and "Transcendence of Years" in his Mythical Grand Unity Method!
Perhaps that was the key to perfecting his Earth Immortal Realm, or even glimpsing a higher realm!
"Interesting!"
A glint flashed in Ao Chen's eyes. Without another moment's hesitation, he set his sights on that direction and shot off as a streak of light!
Whether the way ahead led to a dragon's lair or a tiger's den didn't matter. In his pursuit of the Dao, he would press on even if it meant certain death!
Besides, he had absolute confidence in his current strength.
Section 7: Fragment of the Jade Butterfly of Creation, the Gate of Zixiao Palace Opens
Ao Chen sped onward. The closer he got to the source of the fluctuations in the laws, the more perilous and bizarre the surroundings became.
There were no longer merely powerful sea beasts and natural hazards. Increasingly, he encountered twisted spatial rifts and chaotic currents of time!
At times, the seawater hung motionless, as if frozen for eternity; at others, it surged like an arrow of time.
Space itself was like shattered glass, riddled with tiny spatial cracks and sudden, unpredictable points of spatial displacement.
If not for his Mythical Earth Immortal abilities and the Star River Universe within him, which formed a self-contained whole and could initially stabilize his own spacetime, and if his Heaven-Defying Comprehension weren't constantly analyzing and helping him avoid danger, he would likely have been lost in this Spacetime Labyrinth long ago and torn to pieces!
"To cause spacetime to fall into such widespread disorder, the opportunity here must be even more precious than I imagined."
Ao Chen grew more expectant, but also more cautious.
After traveling for an unknown length of time, he finally reached the core of the fluctuations in the laws.
What lay before him wasn't the enormous rift or storm's eye he had imagined. Instead, it was the entrance to a secret realm, extremely well hidden beneath layers of shattered Spacetime Laws and natural illusions!
The entrance flickered in and out of sight, and the fluctuations it emitted carried the pure resonance of the Dao of time and space!
"Impressive. It's using fragments of the laws it emits to form a natural Spacetime Grand Formation that appears and vanishes of its own accord, concealing itself!"
Ao Chen exclaimed in admiration. Then he fully engaged his Heaven-Defying Comprehension and began to analyze the Spacetime Grand Formation at the entrance.
The formation was incredibly profound and constantly shifting, with almost no discernible pattern. Even Grand Unity Golden Immortals would be deterred by it.
Yet in Ao Chen's eyes, amid the seemingly chaotic changes in the laws, there was a single truth that remained eternal.
Grasping that truth, Ao Chen cautiously adjusted his aura and followed the formation's cycles of creation and dissolution. He passed through the entrance without a scratch and entered the secret realm.
The secret realm was small, no more than a hundred li across, yet it contained a world of its own.
There was no sun or moon, only a vast expanse of murky Chaos. The flow of time and the structure of space were utterly different from those outside, and both were extremely unstable.
At the very center of the secret realm, a seemingly ordinary fragment of green jade, roughly the size of a palm, floated quietly.
Its surface was smooth, yet it seemed to contain endless mysteries.
Countless Dao Runes, billions of times thinner than a strand of hair, appeared and vanished within it, constantly depicting the rushing River of Time and the infinite changes of spatial dimensions.
Just one glance made Ao Chen feel as though his primordial spirit were about to be drawn inside, immersed in the boundless mysteries of spacetime.
"Could it really be?"
Ao Chen was astonished, then overcome with delight.
A Fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation—and one containing the two major laws of time and space.
Ao Chen's heart surged with excitement, but he forcibly suppressed the urge to rush forward and seize it.
He could sense an extremely terrifying, shattered power of creation lingering around the fragment, originating from the moment Pangu Created the World.
It was the power left behind when the Creation Jade Tablet shattered. Though faint, its essence was incredibly potent—enough to easily erase a Taiyi Golden Immortal and grievously wound a Great Luo.
"I can't force it!"
Ao Chen took a deep breath. The Star River Universe within him began to turn slowly, radiating gentle starlight as he cautiously approached.
He didn't try to touch the fragment directly. Instead, he released the resonance of his Mythical Earth Immortal Dao and tried to communicate with, and harmonize it with, the time and space Dao resonance the fragment emitted.
His Mythical Grand Unity Method already contained the essence of Independent Spacetime and a universe unfolding within himself, so it naturally resonated with the fragment's Great Dao.
Buzz—
As if sensing an aura of the same origin, the fragment of the Jade Butterfly of Creation trembled slightly. The shattered power lingering around it slowly receded.
There was a chance!
Ao Chen was delighted. He continued to guide the fragment with his own Dao resonance, while activating his Heaven-Defying Comprehension to begin studying the Dao Runes that appeared and vanished across its surface.
Boom!
In an instant, it was as if enlightenment had been poured into him!
Supreme, profound, and ineffable truths of the Great Dao—about the passage of time, the structure of space, the changes of dimensions, and the mysteries of the ages—surged into Ao Chen's sea of consciousness like a tide.
Just this initial contact alone raised his understanding of time and space by countless levels.
Before you continue