It was a gray, hazy space.
There was no heaven or earth, no up or down. It looked like the world at the dawn of creation, yet also like a place above the nine heavens, close to the legendary immortal realm.
Jiang Ding wandered through it without thinking, walking in one direction.
After an unknown length of time, an ancient, weathered stone stele appeared before him. Scenes from history were carved upon it: the coronations of twelve different Human Emperors. Even older history lay there too, but it was hazy and indistinct, impossible to see through the veil of time.
An invisible yet terrifying power of a Heavenly Dao oath dwelled within the ancient stele.
"A Heavenly Dao oath..."
Jiang Ding's expression shifted, and he felt an urge to retreat.
As he saw it, the power of this Heavenly Dao oath had no upper limit. Even Supremes would be bound by it, and perhaps not even true immortals could easily break free.
Handled properly, it might even make servants of Supremes!
If that was the case, he would rather have nothing to do with it.
Humanity was powerful, and its legacy was mighty. But within humanity, things were just as cold and cruel. Those blinded by the warmth of kinship might die without ever knowing how.
Yet the binding force of Heavenly Dao's cause and effect that he had expected did not come.
"Human?"
A thought came from the ancient stele, asking Jiang Ding to repeat the question in his mind.
Are you human?
That was all it asked.
It did not demand submission or loyalty. It did not even demand loyalty to humanity. You could be a spy for another race, and it would not matter.
It asked only:
Are you human?
Existence was everything.
Everything was existence.
It