Listening to a Sermon, Zhao Gongming's Ten-Thousand-Year Bottleneck Loosened

Several days later.

Beneath the Enlightenment Ancient Tree.

Yunxiao, Qiongxiao, and Bixiao had taken their seats in front early on, while Zhao Gongming chose a spot slightly farther back and sat cross-legged.

He was only there to listen in.

At least, that was what Zhao Gongming himself thought.

Luxuan did not mind the addition of one more person.

Over the years, the Three Cloud Sisters had successively broken through to Taiyi. Much of what he had taught them before needed to be reorganized, so he took this opportunity to explain the Great Dao at the Taiyi level more clearly.

"After reaching Taiyi, the greatest difference from Golden Immortals does not lie in magical power."

Luxuan's voice was calm and unhurried.

"What Golden Immortals seek is immortality and the refinement of themselves."

"Only after Taiyi do cultivators truly begin to move from 'using the Great Dao' toward 'understanding the Great Dao.'"

"Magical power is merely a vessel."

"What truly determines how far you can go in the future is which path you intend to walk."

Yunxiao seemed thoughtful.

By now, she had gradually combined Array Dao with her own Cloud Water Great Dao.

Qiongxiao's direction was even clearer.

The sword.

A sword of pure Slaughter.

Bixiao's situation was comparatively more complicated.

She had dabbled in space, yin and yang, and transformation, yet she had not truly decided which one she would focus on in the future.

Luxuan did not choose for her.

"It is fine if you do not know yet."

"Taiyi is, by nature, a process of constant trial and error."

"As long as you do not see Sword Dao being formidable today and start practicing the sword, then find fire arts cool tomorrow and run off to burn mountains, ultimately cultivating yourself into a pot of Great Dao stew."

Bixiao's little face immediately grew somewhat guilty.

Because just two days ago, she really had thought Qiongxiao looked rather cool wielding a flying sword, and had secretly tried learning it.

The Mystic Origin Sword Codex had barely reached half a page before it gave her a headache.

Cutting things still suited her better.

Luxuan continued his sermon.

There were no flowers raining from the heavens.

Nor were there exaggerated phenomena like golden lotuses of the Great Dao carpeting the ground.

He merely broke down, bit by bit, the most crucial insights he had gained over the years regarding Array Dao, Sword Dao, Space Great Dao, and the transformation from Taiyi to Great Luo.

The Three Cloud Sisters listened attentively.

Zhao Gongming had originally only intended to use it as a reference.

But after listening for an hour.

His expression gradually changed.

"The true difficulty in advancing from Taiyi to Great Luo is not accumulation."

Luxuan casually plucked an Enlightenment Ancient Tree leaf.

"It is whether you can turn the Great Dao you have comprehended from something borrowed from heaven and earth into something that truly belongs to you."

"Taiyi perceives heaven and earth."

"Great Luo, on the other hand, requires one to condense one's own Dao."

"That is why some people have long accumulated magical power to the utmost limit, even surpassing those who have just entered Great Luo, yet they can never take that final step."

"Because their Dao is still scattered."

Zhao Gongming's Primordial Spirit suddenly trembled.

Scattered.

Those two words were like a bolt of lightning, splitting straight into his heart.

He had been stuck at Late Taiyi for far too long.

All these years, he had believed that what he lacked was merely the accumulation of magical power and an opportunity for breakthrough.

Thus, he had searched everywhere for blessed realms.

Refined spiritual treasures.

And continuously tempered his magical power.

Yet no matter how he cultivated, the barrier leading to Great Luo had always remained.

Until Luxuan spoke those words.

For the first time, Zhao Gongming realized.

Perhaps he had been ramming against the door with the wrong method from the very beginning.

His magical power had long been sufficient.

What he truly lacked was a core that could gather all the Great Dao within him into something that belonged to him.

Zhao Gongming's breathing gradually steadied.

Yet within his Primordial Spirit, countless scattered insights from the past seemed to begin surging on their own.

What did he cultivate?

Water?

Not entirely.

Space?

Not quite either.

What Zhao Gongming had loved most over the years was a sense of "suppression."

Mountains could suppress.

Seas could suppress.

Even heaven and earth could be suppressed.

If he could transform boundless magical power into one world after another, using the might of worlds to suppress his enemies...

A thought that had never truly taken shape before appeared in the depths of his Primordial Spirit for the first time.

Halfway through his sermon, Luxuan's gaze suddenly fell upon Zhao Gongming.

"Hmm?"

The Three Cloud Sisters soon noticed the anomaly as well.

The innate spiritual energy around Zhao Gongming had begun rotating on its own at some unknown point.

At first, it only covered a radius of ten zhang.

Then a hundred zhang.

A thousand zhang.

In the end, even the spiritual energy surrounding the entire Enlightenment Ancient Tree was faintly drawn in.

Bixiao's eyes widened slightly.

"Big Brother is..."

Joy had already appeared on Yunxiao's face.

"He has attained enlightenment."

Luxuan was not surprised.

Zhao Gongming had originally been only one step away from Great Luo.

What he had lacked had never been cultivation.

But that final bit of guidance.

Now that his thoughts had become clear, the bottleneck would naturally loosen.

Luxuan did not stop his sermon because of this.

Instead, he deliberately extended the later content further in the direction of Great Luo.

"Dao is not better simply because there is more of it."

"If a cultivator masters ten thousand laws at once, yet they bear no relation to one another, they are nothing more than a heap of loose sand."

"If one can use a single Great Dao to command all laws."

"Then even if one comprehends few laws, one can still travel far."

The changes within Zhao Gongming's Primordial Spirit became increasingly obvious.

His previously scattered insights into water, space, suppression, and other Great Dao slowly began converging in the same direction.

World.

If space were transformed into a world.

If the power of water nourished that world.

And the world itself were then used to suppress all things.

The three paths that had seemed utterly unrelated actually began to reveal a common thread.

For the first time, a clear crack appeared in the bottleneck within Zhao Gongming that had obstructed him for countless years.

Crack.

Only he could hear the sound.

But in that instant.

Zhao Gongming could barely resist letting out a long howl.

It had loosened.

It had really loosened!

That barrier he had struck against who knew how many times without even making it budge.

Simply by listening in on one of Luxuan's sermons.

It had actually loosened.

Zhao Gongming slowly opened his eyes.

The way he looked at Luxuan had completely changed.

Before, he knew Luxuan was strong.

He also knew Luxuan was skilled at teaching his three younger sisters.

But that had only been "knowing."

Only when this sermon truly affected him did he understand for the first time why his three younger sisters had improved so quickly.

Because Luxuan was not stuffing a path he had already completed beneath their feet.

He could directly see what each person truly lacked.

This ability.

Was more terrifying than mere profound cultivation.

"Thank you, Senior, for your guidance."

Zhao Gongming rose and solemnly bowed.

This courtesy was clearly far more earnest than when he had first arrived at Penglai.

Luxuan merely waved his hand.

"That you gained insight is because your own accumulation was sufficient."

"This poor Daoist merely mentioned a few things in passing."

Zhao Gongming felt even more deeply moved.

Mentioned a few things in passing.

And the bottleneck that had trapped him for countless years had loosened.

What if Luxuan gave a serious lecture?

The moment that thought arose.

Even Zhao Gongming gave himself a fright.

What was going on?

Had he not come to inspect his younger sisters' master?

Why was he now already thinking about how to sit in on a few more lessons?

The sermon ended.

The Three Cloud Sisters each returned to digest what they had gained.

Zhao Gongming, however, did not leave.

He sat cross-legged on the other side of the Enlightenment Ancient Tree, repeatedly sorting through the embryonic form of the World Great Dao that had just emerged.

Several decades later.

The first strand of Dao aura that truly belonged to him finally condensed.

Buzz!

The surrounding void trembled gently.

A phantom outline of a world only about one zhang wide briefly appeared.

Although it vanished in an instant.

Zhao Gongming's eyes shone brilliantly.

He had found the path. All that remained was to move forward.

Not far away.

Luxuan was watching him as well.

The expression on his face gradually became somewhat subtle.

Zhao Gongming's comprehension was indeed quite good.

Once the bottleneck loosened, his growth speed visibly accelerated.

The problem was—

He still was not Luxuan's disciple.

In other words.

Every little bit Zhao Gongming improved.

Luxuan could only watch.

There was no hundredfold return.

Luxuan suddenly felt.

This seemed, more or less, like a bit of a waste.