"Since the formation was built on the Three Talents, the way to unravel it must lie in the Three Talents."
Zhenyuanzi's thoughts raced, and he made his decision.
He did not act at once. Instead, he sat cross-legged above the sea again and quieted his mind completely. Rather than trying to "strike" or "probe" the formation, he approached it like a humble student, carefully sensing the Dao resonance it naturally gave off.
The sea breeze brushed his plain ocher Daoist robes, gently stirring their hems.
He closed his eyes and focused, his breathing gradually falling into rhythm with the waves.
In that moment, he was no longer the Da Luo Golden Immortal whose might shook the Primordial Wilderness. He seemed more like a seeker of the Dao, holding the proper reverence before its boundless sea.
His divine sense became countless tiny tendrils that gently approached the formation's invisible barrier. Without triggering its defenses, he simply listened, observed, and traced the flow of its energy, studying how the Dao resonances of Heaven, Earth, and Man alternated, echoed one another, and maintained their delicate balance.
Wherever his divine sense reached, he felt the resonance of Heaven: boundless as the sky, bearing the majesty of order and the depths of space and time;
the resonance of Earth: solid and steady as the ground, holding the vitality that nourished all things and the compassion that bore them;
and the resonance of Man: lively as a leaping spark, filled with creative wisdom, shifting emotion, and infinite possibilities.
He himself was the Essence of Innate Earthen Energy. His understanding of the Dao of Earth had reached its peak.
He could clearly sense every current of Earth's resonance within the formation, as though feeling the pulse of his own blood;
he had climbed to the Summit of Buzhou and perceived the will behind Pangu's World-Opening. He had touched upon Heaven's lofty heights, and its resonance no longer seemed beyond his reach;
and he had preached on Longevity Mountain and taught the beings of the Western Lands. He understood the spirit of Man, karma, and destined affinity deeply, and Man's resonance now struck a profound chord within him.
He compared his own insights into Heaven, Earth, and Man against every movement of the formation before him. Each rise and fall of Dao resonance, each flow of energy, sent ripples across his inner sea.
It was as though he saw the magnificent scene when Heaven, Earth, and Man first took shape at the dawn of creation, and felt the mysterious rhythm of the Great Dao's evolution.
This demanded more of his mind than simply breaking the formation. It was an exchange with the Great Dao itself, and a chance to learn from it.
Zhenyuanzi lost himself completely in the process, forgetting time. A Dao resonance faintly aligned with the formation began to flow naturally from him.
At times he was as boundless as the sky, pale immortal light radiating from him in harmony with Heaven's resonance;
at times he was as still and solid as the earth, seeming to become an ancient divine mountain in harmony with Earth's resonance;
and at times he shifted as nimbly as the thoughts of living beings, wisdom gleaming in his eyes as he answered Man's resonance.
The sun rose and the moon set. The tides ebbed and surged.
Sometimes the sea lay smooth as a mirror, reflecting his figure as he contemplated the Dao. Sometimes fierce winds rose and towering waves crashed, only to calm naturally around him.
The creatures of the sea seemed to sense that mysterious resonance. Schools of fish lingered beneath him and seabirds circled overhead, but none dared approach and disturb him.
Who knew how much time passed? Perhaps no more than an instant, or perhaps decades had gone by in the outside world.
Zhenyuanzi's tightly shut eyes snapped open. For a fleeting moment, shadows of Heaven, Earth, and Man seemed to flash deep within them before fading into calm.
His entire presence had subtly changed. It was deeper and more restrained, as though he had grown more attuned to this world.
He had grasped the core workings of the Innate Three Talents Grand Formation and found the three crucial nodes that maintained its balance and connected it to the Chaos Origin within and without.
Those nodes were not fixed. They shifted constantly with the flow of the Three Talents' resonance. Only by grasping its rhythm could he touch them accurately.
He rose without hesitation. He used no earthshaking treasure or divine ability, merely joining two fingers like a sword. Threads of incomparably pure light flowed at his fingertips, each embodying the essence of Heaven, Earth, or Man.
His first touch landed on a point in empty space. The pale light carried Heaven's lofty reach and order, like a guide showing the lost their way. Space rippled faintly, as though the course of the stars had been quietly nudged.
His second touch landed on the sea below. The light was dense and steady, bearing Earth's strength to support and stabilize all things, as though anchoring the foundation stone of heaven and earth. The moment his fingertips touched the water, the surging waves fell still, and the earth veins beneath the seabed answered with a low hum.
His third touch fell on the emptiness before his brow. The light flickered with Man's wisdom and adaptability, as though linking the thoughts within and without. This touch was the most mysterious of all, seeming to bridge the real and the illusory.
The three touches were not attacks. Like three invisible keys, they slipped precisely into minute gaps in the formation's workings and guided its vast, intricate power into a peaceful flow.
At his fingertips, the forces of Heaven, Earth, and Man came into perfect harmony, forming a delicate point of balance.
When the energies of Heaven, Earth, and Man reached that mysterious balance under Zhenyuanzi's guidance, a sudden change occurred! A stable passage opened for a time, just wide enough for one person to pass through.
Hum—
A soft hum sounded, yet it seemed to come from the Great Dao Ontology itself.
It was not loud, but it rang directly through the depths of the soul, carrying an ancient rhythm from the dawn of creation.
The space before him, once seamless, parted silently to either side like a curtain drawn back by unseen hands, revealing what it had guarded for countless ages—
Myriad rays of rosy clouds shone amid streams of auspicious mist. Rich immortal qi washed over him, carrying the pure breath of creation's dawn. Within the swirling mist stood three immortal islands arranged in a triangle, linked by Seven-Colored Rainbow Bridges. Radiance flowed across the bridges, where Dao patterns could faintly be seen moving.
Purple qi drifted around the island on the left, encircled by auspicious clouds. Jade halls and towers appeared and vanished amid the haze, their upturned eaves bearing an ancient Dao resonance. Immortal cranes gathered on the island and spirit apes played, while strains of immortal music rode the breeze, lifting the heart.
The island on the right gleamed with golden light. Bodhi trees stood throughout it, their branches and leaves shedding the light of wisdom. Kirin wandered through the groves, phoenixes perched in the branches, and many rare birds and exotic beasts he had never heard of moved among the trees. Every one of them radiated pure spirituality.
The central island was the most mysterious, shrouded in Chaos Qi. He could make out only the outlines of towering ancient trees. The Chaos Qi turned slowly, sometimes taking the shape of a dragon, sometimes forming the shadow of a phoenix, and revealed a Dao resonance of unfathomable depth. When it parted slightly, he glimpsed murmuring streams, ribbonlike waterfalls, and flashes of Xiantian Spiritual Light.
Beyond the three immortal islands, countless smaller islands lay scattered like stars, each giving off a distinct Dao resonance.
Some were covered in strange flowers and exotic grasses, including ordinary Innate Spiritual Roots. Others held veins of rare ore, with divine gold and immortal jade glittering in the sunlight. On still others ran streams formed from spiritual energy, their waters home to crystal-clear spirit fish.
The spiritual energy here was far denser than in the outside world, surpassing even Longevity Mountain by a considerable margin.
Rarer still, it held a trace of Chaos Origin from the dawn of creation, with benefits for cultivation beyond words. Every breath felt like drawing in the purest Xiantian Qi.
Zhenyuanzi took a deep breath and felt every pore in his body open. His cultivation, stagnant for so long, even showed the faintest sign of advancing. He was more certain than ever that this place held an opportunity to break through his current realm.
Zhenyuanzi gazed calmly at the paradise unfolding before him. There was little triumph on his face, only a hint of understanding, as though everything had fallen naturally into place.
He stepped into the passage. A moment later, the ripples in space behind him slowly faded, and the East Sea returned to its former "normal" state, as though nothing had happened.
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