The Dao Ancestor's Lecture Was Impossible to Understand? Sorry, Have You Heard of Getting Stronger in Your Sleep?

Inside Purple Sky Palace, the atmosphere had grown downright bizarre.

From the high dais, Old Ancestor Hongjun's indifferent eyes, vast as the heavens, swept lightly across the hall below.

According to the original course of the Heavenly Dao, the two brothers from the Western Lands should have already put their shamelessness to good use. They would have wept beneath the golden steps, thrown the whole gathering into chaos, forced Hong Yun to give up his seat, and then teamed up to push Kunpeng out.

That way, the Western Lands would owe Hong Yun a massive debt of Karma, while Kunpeng would resent Hong Yun for it, laying the groundwork for Hong Yun's death in the future.

That was the perfect script.

But what about now?

Taiyuan had brought the two brothers along, and the three of them were sprawled in a corner at the very back of the hall like three salted fish, drinking tea and crossing their legs. They hadn't even glanced at the six cushions reserved for the Saint positions.

Hong Yun was still sitting foolishly in the fifth seat, cheerfully looking around.

Kunpeng had taken the sixth seat with a sinister expression. Both hands gripped the edge of the cushion as if afraid someone might snatch it away. He looked a little disheveled, but at least he had secured his place.

The gears had jammed.

The Heavenly Dao's carefully linked schemes had fallen apart at the very first step.

The corner of Hongjun's eye twitched slightly. His gaze pierced layers of space and fixed on Taiyuan, who was leisurely sipping his tea.

Who was this person...? What kind of variable was he?

How could he completely ignore the allure of a Saint's position?

Forget it.

Though the general course of the Heavenly Dao had shifted slightly, it could not be reversed. This lecture would have to go on.

As for the three from the Western Lands, since they were already in the game, he could always devise a way to make up for it later.

Hongjun composed himself and stopped worrying about the tangled web of Karma. He raised his hands and pressed them down gently. A boundless pressure, the might of a Saint, instantly enveloped the hall. The slight commotion that had lingered there fell silent in an instant.

"Silence."

His voice was not loud, yet it rang out like a great bell, shaking the soul.

Then the obscure, profound sounds of the Great Dao began to echo through Purple Sky Palace.

"The Great Dao is vast and all-pervading; it may be found on either side. All things rely on it to live, yet it makes no claims. When its work is done, it takes no credit..."

As Hongjun began his lecture, wondrous signs appeared.

Golden lotuses sprang into being in the empty space of the hall, each formed from the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth. They dissolved as soon as they touched the ground, nourishing the souls and bodies of everyone present.

Above them, a colorful rain of flowers drifted down. Every petal bore a tiny fragment of a law.

This was a Saint preaching the Dao.

Words Follow Law; the Dao's resonance took visible form.

This was the greatest opportunity since the Primordial World was created. Even the slightest insight could be worth ten thousand years of arduous cultivation.

On the six cushions in the front row,

Laozi sat with his eyes slightly closed as an Auspicious Cloud churned above his head. He had clearly entered a state of deep understanding.

Primordial Heavenly Lord wore a solemn expression. His brows alternately furrowed and relaxed as he tried to seize the fleeting sparks of inspiration.

Sword energy surged around Sovereign of Heaven, who listened in a state of rapt fascination.

Nuwa's delicate brows were knitted slightly. There seemed to be parts she could not quite understand.

However,

those with deep roots were the only ones having an easy time. The rest of the mighty cultivators were suffering.

What Hongjun taught was the supreme Dao of the Saints—the foundation of the path later called Proving the Dao by Severing Three Corpses. For these cultivators, most of whom were still struggling at the Grand Unity Golden Immortal or Grand Luo Golden Immortal level, it was like elementary school students attending an advanced calculus lecture.

They really couldn't understand a word!

The two brothers Di Jun and Tai Yi were surrounded by wild surges of True Sun Fire. Veins bulged across their faces—the sign of their magic power turning against them after they tried to force themselves to memorize the maxims of the Great Dao.

Houtu and the other Ancestor Witches were even more at a loss. They had no primordial spirits to begin with, and listening to these abstruse teachings was like listening to a heavenly book. They paced about anxiously, yet didn't dare make a sound.

Some had it even worse.

Several mighty rogue cultivators with weaker cultivation tried to force themselves to comprehend the incomprehensible truths of the Great Dao. Their primordial spirits shuddered in their minds, and with a "pfft," they spat out mouthfuls of golden blood. Their faces turned as pale as paper.

Even so, no one dared let their attention wander.

One by one, their bloodshot eyes widened. Even as blood streamed from their orifices, they stubbornly committed every word to memory.

Such was the difficulty of seeking the Dao—harder than ascending to Heaven.

It should have been a solemn, tragic scene of all living beings seeking the Dao and struggling to cross the sea of suffering.

But just then,

the view shifted to the lavish "VIP box" at the very back of the hall.

Taiyuan set down his cup of Enlightenment Tea, stretched languidly, and yawned.

"What kind of nonsense is this? It's making me sleepy."

He muttered under his breath.

It wasn't that he was putting on airs. As a transmigrator with a system, he was following a path completely different from Hongjun's method of severing the Three Corpses.

This dry, tedious theory lesson was practically the perfect lullaby for him.

"Second Brother, Third Brother, take your time listening. If you can't understand it, don't force yourselves. You might hurt your brains. I'm going to catch a few more winks."

With that,

under the watchful eyes of everyone (though no one dared turn around to look), Taiyuan pulled an exquisite eye mask from his robe.

[Supreme Silkworm Silk Eye Mask (Houtian Merit Spirit Treasure)]

It had no special function apart from blocking light exceptionally well. Once worn, it automatically shut out outside noise and gave off a soothing fragrance. You could sleep peacefully even in the middle of a battlefield.

He put on the eye mask.

He adjusted the angle of his Carefree Chair until his body reclined at the most relaxing angle of a hundred and thirty-five degrees.

He folded his hands over his stomach.

In less than three breaths,

Taiyuan's body had completely relaxed, and his breathing had grown slow and even.

Primordial Heavenly Lord, seated in the front row, happened to see it when he turned around in frustration after failing to understand a passage of scripture.

Primordial Heavenly Lord nearly blew a fuse.

He was struggling to keep up, his head spinning. He had even burned his vital essence to force an insight, all for the sake of grasping a sliver of the Dao.

And Taiyuan?

He was wearing an eye mask and sleeping in a Saint's sacred hall, right in front of an unparalleled opportunity!

"Rotten wood cannot be carved!"

Primordial Heavenly Lord sneered inwardly, the contempt in his eyes growing stronger. As expected of those barbarians from the Western Lands. They have no idea how precious the Great Dao is. To waste such an opportunity—he'll surely fade into obscurity in the future.

"Such a person doesn't deserve to stand alongside us in Purple Sky Palace."

Primordial Heavenly Lord wasn't the only one.

Several nearby mighty cultivators who had let their attention wander noticed the scene too. They all showed contempt or schadenfreude.

Sleeping?

Go ahead and sleep!

When you wake up, you'll find that we've left you a hundred and eight thousand miles behind!

The sense of superiority had only just risen in everyone's hearts.

The next moment,

an invisible hand smashed it to pieces.

"Zzz..."

A very soft, yet remarkably penetrating snore rang out without warning.

At first, it was faint, echoing only within the little circle of three.

But soon, something strange happened.

The rhythm of the snoring somehow formed a bizarre, perfect resonance with the cadence of Old Ancestor Hongjun's lecture—the so-called frequency of the Great Dao!

When Hongjun said, "The Dao gives birth to one," the snore rose gently, like the first light of a newborn sun.

When Hongjun said, "One gives birth to two," the snore stretched into a long, rolling note, like yin and yang joining in harmony.

Along with the rhythmic snoring,

layers of dreamlike, seven-colored bubbles began to appear around Taiyuan.

Each bubble seemed to contain a tiny Taiyuan, practicing martial techniques, breathing in spiritual energy, and opening up a world.

[Law of Dreams · Three Thousand Grand Dreams]

This was a cheat-level law that made you stronger just by sleeping!

Boom!

Taiyuan's previously calm aura suddenly surged upward without warning.

Mid-stage Grand Luo Golden Immortal... peak!

Breakthrough!

Late-stage Grand Luo Golden Immortal!

The vortex of spiritual energy from the breakthrough swept up all the celestial flowers and golden lotuses drifting nearby and swallowed them in one gulp.

And the breakthrough was incredibly stable. Unlike Di Jun and Tai Yi, who had forced themselves to comprehend the Dao and ended up with unstable auras and pained expressions, Taiyuan was perfectly at ease.

He slept like a log, even smacking his lips and rolling over.

His cultivation just kept climbing.

Even faster than the Three Pure Ones seated on the cushions at the very front!

Primordial Heavenly Lord had just mocked Taiyuan as "rotten wood." Now he sensed the breakthrough aura behind him, steadier and deeper than his own, and froze.

He stared at the figure wrapped in a halo of seven-colored dreams, eyes wide enough to nearly pop out. His Dao Heart instantly faltered, and he almost spat a mouthful of blood onto the jade steps in front of him.

What kind of logic was this?

They were struggling desperately, spitting up three pints of blood just to barely figure out a fraction of the truth.

And this guy had taken a nap, snored a little, and reached enlightenment and broken through?

Was there no justice?!

Was there no law?!

The slap in the face had come too quickly and too brutally. Every mighty cultivator present who considered themselves a genius felt their cheeks burning.

Meanwhile,

the one suffering most of all was Old Ancestor Hongjun on the dais.

He was lecturing on an exceptionally profound Law of Space, which required precise pacing and pauses to guide the resonance of the Dao.

But

those "Zzz... zzz..." snores wormed their way into his ears with a demonic rhythm.

It was like reciting a poem with heartfelt passion while someone beside you beat time with a deep, rhythmic bass.

And the beat was perfectly on point!

So perfectly that even Hongjun found himself wanting to follow the snores' rhythm when he paused between phrases.

The flowing maxims of the Great Dao began to stumble.

"Heaven and Earth... zzz... are not benevolent... zzz..."

A vein bulged faintly on Hongjun's forehead.

He forced himself to keep his rhythm steady and ignore that maddening sound.

But now he had to fight not only the Heavenly Dao's power of correction, but also the constant noise echoing in his ears.

Finally,

as he reached the key passage, "Profound and mysterious, it is the gateway to all wonders,"

Taiyuan suddenly let out a loud, high-pitched snore, ending in a warbling note—something no one in this era had ever heard before.

"Zzz—HAA!"

That sound was like a stroke of divine inspiration.

It threw Hongjun's rhythm completely off.

Hongjun's lips twitched. He hadn't even spoken the final word, "gateway," when the sudden change in rhythm made his tongue tie itself in a knot.

"The gateway to all wonders... mmph!"

A stifled groan escaped him.

This Dao Ancestor, who had joined with the Heavenly Dao, the first Saint of the Primordial World—

right there, in the solemn and reverent lecture hall—

bit his tongue hard.