Do Not Gaze Directly Upon the Heavenly Dao

Having passed the second round of testing and even been praised by the examiner for having a will of steel, Zhou Bai instantly became someone many candidates admired and watched closely.

With Jing Xiu supporting him, Zhou Bai headed toward the examination hall for the third round, calling out to Christina in his mind along the way. "Hey, you damn cat, did you know something from the moment the test began?"

"I'm just a little kitty." Christina protested. "What would I know about cultivating the Dao?"

"Then why were you laughing back then?" Zhou Bai said. "And didn't you say this place felt familiar?"

"It does feel familiar." Christina muttered. "I feel like I might have lived here before. Look, turn right up ahead. There should be a cafeteria there, and I think the food was pretty good."

Turning right and seeing the garbage collection station before them, Christina said awkwardly, "That's not right. Did I remember wrong?"

Zhou Bai curled his lip. It was hardly the first time this dumb cat had been unreliable. He had better take her words with a grain of salt.

Jing Xiu asked curiously, "Big Brother Zhou, are you looking for something?"

"No, no, no. Let's hurry up. We don't want to be late."

The site of the third round was an enormous indoor classroom, with a total of twelve hundred seats arranged in neat rows.

At the very front of those twelve hundred seats, five examiners sat cross-legged, floating in midair. One of the young men was Lü Chongyang, the examiner from Zhou Bai's previous test.

The elderly man at the center stroked his beard and smiled at the twelve hundred candidates before him. "Everyone, I'm very glad to see you here. I am Zhao Shouyi, vice principal of Donghua Dao School, and one of the five judges for this third examination."

Zhao Shouyi gazed kindly at the twelve hundred candidates present. In his eyes, these people were humanity's future, the backbone of society decades from now.

With a wave of his hand, a scroll slowly unfurled in the void.

The instant they saw what was inside the scroll, all twelve hundred candidates present fell into a daze.

At that moment, they felt as though they had seen something in the scroll, yet also as though they had seen nothing at all.

A mysterious, indescribable sensation exploded in their hearts, making their scalps tingle even as countless flashes of inspiration seemed to gush forth.

At the same time, Zhao Shouyi said loudly, "The previous test was a review of the three great laws of cultivating the Dao. The first of them is: do not gaze directly upon the Heavenly Dao. Does anyone know why?"

A bald young man said, "One hundred and twenty years ago, the Heavenly Dao became distorted, and the Spiritual Machine was polluted.

The Heavenly Dao, which had originally been impossible to summarize or describe with words and could only be described indirectly, began releasing vast amounts of information. That information could be read directly and understood directly.

The Heavenly Dao was no longer so elusive. It became endless knowledge that could be described word by word, in concrete and exact terms."

"But within that knowledge was a vast amount of distorted, evil, corrupt information. Merely reading it could drive ordinary people mad."

"Even cultivators faced immense danger from reading it directly. Thus, the major sects jointly established Dao Schools and suppressed all information pouring forth from the Heavenly Dao, compiling it into texts ordinary people could safely understand and read.

"Then Pure Hermit proposed the three great rules of cultivating the Dao, the first of which was: do not gaze directly upon the Heavenly Dao."

Hearing the bald man's words, Zhou Bai revealed a thoughtful expression.

Onstage, Zhao Shouyi nodded. "Very good. Precisely because of the danger of facing the Heavenly Dao directly, every sect and school created different methods to preserve and interpret the information within it. This Heaven-Stealing Diagram of mine records the interpretations of the distorted Heavenly Dao left behind by generations of predecessors."

At this point, Zhao Shouyi smiled. "But it is still far too dangerous for you. So I will not let you see its actual contents directly. What you see will be the Heavenly Dao's original state—elusive, indescribable, incomprehensible, and wondrous beyond all words."

As Zhou Bai looked at the Heaven-Stealing Diagram, he felt as though he had understood something, as though something had flashed through his mind, yet he could not put it into words or describe it with any particular term.

If he had to put it into words, it was wondrous beyond all words—impossible to describe.

Pointing at the Heaven-Stealing Diagram, Zhao Shouyi said, "The third round tests your insight into cultivating the Dao. Next, each of you will find a seat, gaze at this Heaven-Stealing Diagram, and write down on your answer sheet what you have seen. The five of us will judge and score your answers personally."

As he spoke, a large screen lit up behind Zhao Shouyi. It displayed the names of countless candidates, along with their relevant data constantly shifting.

"Besides this score, your performances in the first two rounds will also be scored. This includes Primordial Spirit Value, running distance, speed, and changes in acceleration and deceleration. All of them will be converted into different scores according to a set of rules.

"The scores from these three rounds will be added together to form your final result. The top six hundred students will pass the entrance examination and become the new intake of Donghua Dao School."

"So... begin."

The candidates each took their seats. Jing Xiu looked quite relaxed. She glanced at Zhou Bai beside her and said, "Big Brother Zhou, you don't need to worry. With your results in the first two rounds, even if you do poorly this round, you'll definitely be admitted."

Zhou Bai looked troubledly at the Heaven-Stealing Diagram above, then turned to look around. He found that some of the candidates beside him were writing furiously, while others were deep in thought. Only he wore an expression like he was severely constipated.

Christina burst into laughter. "Everyone else earned their Primordial Spirit Value through diligent study and hard training, cultivating by drawing in and exhaling the Spiritual Machine. During cultivation, even without Daoization, they naturally formed some personal understanding of the Heavenly Dao.

"And this Heaven-Stealing Diagram encompasses all things. More or less, they can all make something of it. Every person sees different information. Maybe it's a breathing technique, maybe a method of tempering the body, maybe unarmed combat, maybe the principles of purity and turbidity, the division between yin and yang...

"But you got yours by adding points. What could you possibly understand? The thirty-six ways to lounge on a sofa? Hahahahaha..."

Listening to Christina's laughter at his ear, Zhou Bai frowned. "Shut up. You're disturbing my enlightenment."

"Enlightenment?" Christina laughed even more smugly. "What Dao are you going to comprehend? Want me to tell you something? I've gained a little insight from this Heaven-Stealing Diagram. Beg me, and I'll tell you."

"Beg you?" Zhou Bai's eyes lit up as he suddenly said, "Watch carefully. I'll show you what the Great Dao is."

Zhou Bai thought that his results in the first two rounds were so good that even if he scribbled down nonsense, with twelve hundred people competing and six hundred eliminated this round, his luck could not possibly be so bad that he would end up among those six hundred.

And they had said that anything could be comprehended from it. Didn't that mean that no matter what he wrote, he ought to get some base points?

With that thought, Zhou Bai steeled himself, picked up his pen, and began to write.

Christina watched Zhou Bai write with a smile, but in the next moment, she was stunned.

"Smells good?"

Zhou Bai said proudly, "Nothing in human society can escape the Law of 'Smells Good.' It is the ultimate law encompassing the entire history of human development. With just those two words, the human Dao has been explained in its entirety. Well? Can I take first place now?"

Christina snapped, "First place, my ass! What the hell did you write?! Change it, now! This is humiliating!"

"Hmph." Zhou Bai shook his head. "Stupid cat. Then I'll do another one."