Teaching the Dao

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

Taiyi felt as though he had only just closed his eyes for a brief nap. Before he could even figure out how to use those three flaws in the Heavenly Dao, the golden bell of Zixiao Palace rang again—clang. The sound made his Primordial Spirit tremble and forcibly dragged him out of his half-meditative state.

When he opened his eyes, the hall was already packed.

Hongjun still sat there in his dull gray Daoist robe, his indifferent face unchanged from ten days ago, like a statue. The Dao Ancestor's eyelids hung half-closed. He looked at no one and simply sat in silence, waiting for the hall to settle down.

Taiyi stood beside Di Jun and took a deep breath.

In truth, he had accomplished nothing during those ten days.

He had originally intended to consolidate his cultivation, comprehend Causality Vision, and consider plans for exploiting the flaws... but the moment he closed his eyes, the three fragments of Karma Reversal in his sea of consciousness began making trouble. Like three pieces of red-hot iron, they rolled around inside his mind, scorching him so badly that he could not calm down at all.

He had tried suppressing them with True Sun Fire and pressing them down with the Dao rhythm of the Chaos Bell, but the fragments were incredibly strange—the harder he suppressed them, the more violently they thrashed. If he ignored them, they quieted down instead. In the end, with no other choice, Taiyi let them churn through his sea of consciousness while keeping a thread of his mind on them, as long as they did not cause too much trouble.

As for consolidating his cultivation and planning around the flaws... all of it had gone down the drain.

Now that Hongjun was about to continue his sermon, Taiyi could only force himself to endure it.

The hall fell completely silent.

Hongjun slowly raised his eyelids, his gaze sweeping across the crowd below as he said evenly, "Today, I shall speak of the barriers to severing the corpses."

His voice was still the same—flat and unruffled.

Yet when Taiyi heard it, his heart skipped a beat.

The barriers to severing the corpses... this was the true threshold of a Quasi-Saint. The previous discussion of entrusting the Three Corpses had merely been preparation. Now, they were getting serious.

He hurriedly gathered his mind and prepared to listen closely.

But at that moment, the three fragments in his sea of consciousness suddenly jolted.

They were not making trouble. It was some kind of... resonance?

Taiyi frowned and sent a thread of divine sense into his sea of consciousness to inspect the three fragments. The moment he looked, he froze—

The dark golden patterns on the fragments' surfaces were slowly flowing, as though they had come alive. Between those patterns, the faint outline of something emerged... a map? Or perhaps some kind of formation?

Before he could make it out, Hongjun's voice rang out again.

"The first barrier to severing the corpses is the separation of the Primordial Spirit."

Taiyi quickly pulled his mind back and listened to the sermon in earnest.

"Once the Three Corpses have been entrusted, one must use the Primordial Spirit as a blade to sever benevolence, malice, and obsession from one's origin. This process is exceedingly dangerous. The slightest error may result in a backlash of thoughts; in severe cases, the Primordial Spirit may shatter..."

The atmosphere in the hall instantly grew grave.

Everyone pricked up their ears, afraid of missing even half a word.

Taiyi's heart tightened as well.

Using the Primordial Spirit as a blade... that sounded painful just hearing it. And a slight mistake could shatter the Primordial Spirit? This was not cultivation. It was gambling with one's life.

As he thought this, Hongjun continued, "...The method of separating the Primordial Spirit must be carried out step by step. At first, only the slightest fraction may be separated. Only after adapting may one gradually proceed deeper. Never rush for success..."

Taiyi listened and memorized every word, rapidly deducing the feasibility of the method in his mind.

But at that moment, the three fragments in his sea of consciousness jolted again.

This time, the jolt was even more violent, as though something inside was crashing against them. Taiyi could sense that the forbidden power deep within the fragments was slowly awakening in response to Hongjun's sermon.

Damn it, are you done yet?

Taiyi cursed inwardly, but he did not dare ignore it. If this thing caused a disturbance in his sea of consciousness, he would expose himself on the spot.

Gritting his teeth, he began splitting his attention in two—

One part of his mind continued listening to the sermon, recording every detail Hongjun explained and deducing the corpse-severing method.

The other part sank into his sea of consciousness, watching the three fragments and trying to guide the awakening forbidden power so it would not run wild.

At first, it went well.

Hongjun spoke slowly, sentence by sentence, with pauses in between. During those pauses, Taiyi hurriedly dealt with the fragments; once the Dao Ancestor resumed speaking, he pulled his mind back to listen.

But before long, he realized something was wrong.

As Hongjun reached the crucial points, his pace did not quicken, but the content grew denser and the Dao rhythm within it more profound. As Taiyi listened, he began to feel that his mind was no longer enough—not because he could not understand, but because he could not keep up with two matters at once.

He had barely memorized, "The separation of the Primordial Spirit requires innate qi as its guide," when the fragments suddenly shook, and the forbidden power nearly burst out. He hurriedly suppressed the fragments, only for Hongjun to move on to, "After separation, one must nourish them with one's life essence blood..."

Sweat began forming on Taiyi's forehead.

He felt like an acrobat juggling three balls while walking across a tightrope. One moment of carelessness, and if any ball fell, he would crash down hard.

No, it would be worse than that—if a ball fell, he would lose his life.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He could not panic.

If he panicked, everything would be over.

He tried adjusting his rhythm—when Hongjun's explanations became dense, he devoted seventy percent of his attention to the sermon and thirty percent to the fragments. When the Dao Ancestor paused or discussed less crucial matters, he reversed it, using seventy percent of his attention to handle the fragments and thirty percent to listen.

That barely allowed him to keep up.

But before he could relax, an even greater problem arose.

Just as Hongjun said, "After separation, the Three Corpses must be nourished independently and may no longer retain any connection with the main body," Taiyi suddenly felt the three indistinct phantoms of the Three Corpses within him flash brightly.

It was not the fragments causing it. The phantoms had lit up on their own.

As if resonating with Hongjun's words, they began solidifying and manifesting by themselves.

Taiyi's heart sank.

This was a good thing—it showed that he had gained something from the sermon, and the Three Corpses were developing in the proper direction.

But it was also bad—because as soon as those three phantoms lit up, the power within his body began surging uncontrollably toward them. True Sun Fire, the Dao rhythm of the Chaos Bell, and even the forbidden power he had just suppressed all began converging on the Three Corpses' phantoms.

Under normal circumstances, Taiyi would have been overjoyed. The more solid the Three Corpses' phantoms became, the easier it would be to sever them.

But not now.

He was in Zixiao Palace, right under Hongjun's eyes. If the power in his body stirred like this, his aura would certainly become unstable. If the Dao Ancestor noticed the abnormality on him...

Taiyi gritted his teeth and began dividing his attention three ways—

The first part continued listening to the sermon. It could not stop. This was his foundation. If he missed this sermon, who knew when the next one would come?

The second part watched the fragments and guided the forbidden power. If that thing went berserk now, he would explode on the spot.

The third part... suppressed the phantoms of the Three Corpses and controlled the rampaging power.

Three tasks, carried out simultaneously.

Taiyi felt as though his brain were about to burn.

Like an old computer running three massive programs at once, its processor nearly smoking. Every thought had to be split into three, and every thread of divine sense had to process information from three places at once.

More and more sweat streamed down his forehead, running along his temples and soaking his collar.

His face began to pale, and his lips pressed tightly together as though he were enduring tremendous pain.

Di Jun turned his head and glanced at him, concern in his eyes.

Taiyi barely forced out a smile and shook his head, signaling that he was fine.

But inwardly, he was already close to his limit.

Hongjun continued speaking, his voice calm and distant. "...While the Three Corpses are being nourished independently, outside interference must be cut off. Should stray thoughts intrude, they may contaminate the Three Corpses and render all previous efforts futile..."

Taiyi listened, but his mind was simultaneously dealing with two other matters—

On the fragments' side, the forbidden power had already seeped out, swimming through his sea of consciousness like a venomous snake. He had to carefully guide it, preventing it from touching the Three Corpses' phantoms or the source of his power, making it flow obediently through his meridians...

On the Three Corpses' side, the power rampaged ever more fiercely. True Sun Fire was like a horse breaking free of its reins, while the Chaos Bell's Dao rhythm was like a bursting dam, both rushing into the phantoms. He had to suppress them desperately and pull them back bit by bit, while keeping the phantoms stable so they would not disperse...

And on the sermon's side, Hongjun's teachings grew deeper and more abstruse. Taiyi had to memorize, comprehend, and deduce them with all his strength...

The three tasks were like three mountains pressing down on him until he could barely breathe.

Taiyi felt his Primordial Spirit groaning and wailing, like a rubber band stretched to its limit, ready to snap if pulled any further.

But he knew he could not break.

If he broke, it would all be over.

He clenched his teeth and endured.

Time passed bit by bit.

He did not know how long it had been. Perhaps the time it took for an incense stick to burn, perhaps an hour.

Just when Taiyi felt he was about to collapse, the three fragments in his sea of consciousness suddenly shook at the same time.

They were not making trouble. It was some sort of... rhythmic vibration?

Taiyi paused, then sent a thread of divine sense to inspect them.

The moment he did, he froze.

The dark golden patterns across the fragments' surfaces had now completely come alive. They flowed across the fragments like water, outlining a complex image—an image he had seen ten days ago, when he used Causality Vision to observe the great net of the Heavenly Dao: the locations of those three flaws.

The fissure in Buzhou Mountain's earth vein, the karmic stain in the Blood Sea, the karmic knot in the Netherworld...

Three flaws corresponding to three fragments?

Taiyi's heart jolted.

Before he could think further, the fragments shook again.

This time, the vibration was clearer and more rhythmic—as though they were... breathing?

As the fragments vibrated, the forbidden power's circulation became orderly as well. It no longer darted about like a headless fly. Instead, it slowly circulated through his meridians along a specific path.

And as the forbidden power began circulating in an orderly manner, the rampaging power around the Three Corpses' phantoms gradually settled down too.

True Sun Fire no longer rushed into the phantoms, and the Chaos Bell's Dao rhythm stabilized as well.

The three tasks had suddenly become... coordinated?

Taiyi was somewhat stunned.

He tried adjusting his mind. Rather than forcing himself to endure, he followed this newly emerged "rhythm" and handled all three tasks at once—

As he listened to the sermon, he let his mind rise and fall with the rhythm of Hongjun's teachings.

As he guided the forbidden power, he let his divine sense circulate along with the fragments' vibrations.

As he suppressed the Three Corpses' phantoms, he let his power flow slowly with that new sense of coordination.

The three tasks were like three rivers that had once flowed independently, suddenly finding the same outlet to the sea and beginning to flow in the same direction.

Though he was still dividing his attention three ways, the pressure dropped sharply.

Taiyi let out a long breath, and the sweat on his forehead finally stopped.

He closed his eyes and truly immersed himself in this peculiar "multithreaded" state.

Hongjun's sermon, the sensation of the fragments vibrating, and the rhythm of power circulating... the three intertwined, forming an unprecedented experience.

He could "hear" every fragment of law contained within the Dao Ancestor's words, "feel" every subtle fluctuation of the forbidden power deep within the fragments, and "control" every minute change in the power within his body.

The three did not interfere with one another, yet they faintly resonated.

Like three different melodies played within the same space, they did not create chaos. Instead, they formed a grander, more complex harmony.

A thought suddenly surfaced in Taiyi's mind—

Was this the "multithreaded operational ability" the system had mentioned?

It was not a talent. It could be trained?

He had no time to think further, because Hongjun's sermon had reached its most crucial point.

"...The second barrier to severing the corpses is the purification of thoughts."

At this moment, the Dao Ancestor's voice became especially grave.

"After the Three Corpses are separated, the thoughts still retain traces of the main body. One must repeatedly temper them with one's own Dao fire, removing impurities until the thoughts are pure and flawless. Only then may they be entrusted..."

Everyone in the hall held their breath.

Taiyi also listened intently while sending a thread of divine sense to sense the three Three Corpses' phantoms within him, which were gradually solidifying.

Tempering with Dao fire... removing impurities...

He listened, deduced, and tried following Hongjun's method to simulate the process within his sea of consciousness.

And the three fragments in his sea of consciousness began changing slowly along with his simulation...

The sermon continued.

And Taiyi's multithreaded operation had only just begun.