The jade stele drew ever closer.
It was not closing the physical distance. Rather, some rule that transcended space was actively approaching Li Xiang's consciousness.
After the soul-rending agony reached its peak, it instead gave rise to a sense of clarity.
Li Xiang did not retreat a single step. He straightened his spine and let the vast intent, powerful enough to assimilate an ordinary person a thousand times over, scour his sea of consciousness like a waterfall.
The blood and qi in his body had long since stopped boiling. In their place, the humanoid dragon force coiled within his dantian was undergoing an earth-shattering transformation.
The humanoid phantom had originally been nothing more than an aggregation of pure dragon force, an empty shell of energy with nothing inside.
But now, beneath the crushing pressure of the vast energy radiating from the jade stele, the phantom began to solidify.
Strip away falsehood, preserve what agrees, reject what differs.
Li Xiang's eyes were unfocused. His entire mind was immersed in the boundless information conveyed by the jade stele.
Understanding dawned on him.
"In the lineage of heart cultivation, thought can reach the heavens."
This was no hollow slogan, but a truth that touched the underlying logic of the world.
Through the eyes of heart cultivation, everything in the world arose from the projection of thoughts.
Towering mountains and mighty rivers, the sun, moon, and stars were merely concrete expressions of the original heart of heaven and earth.
The laws of heaven and earth were not cold, rigid physical rules either, but pathways that could be perceived through the mind, then communicated with, and ultimately mastered.
Where the heart pointed, the void could become reality.
Only this was the supreme power to turn decay into wonder, create things from nothing, and reverse life