Yang Wanqing stopped when she reached the eleventh disc.
"Siyao, look at this."
Chen Siyao took it. A line of small text stood at the beginning of the Document Disc...
"On the eve of my departure for the Taiyin Realm. Peak Mahayana Stage."
What followed was Chang'e's complete account of her cultivation at the time. She was at the peak of the Mahayana Stage, her spiritual power fully perfected, yet one paper-thin barrier still stood between her and her next transformation.
Chang'e described that state as "gazing at a mountain from the opposite shore."
Chen Siyao set the Document Disc down and picked up the next one.
Its date jumped far ahead, straight to the twelve-hundredth year of Chang'e's posting in the Taiyin Realm.
The tone had changed completely.
Instead of everyday cultivation insights, it contained a passage that had been revised, cut, and rewritten countless times.
Chen Siyao could see traces of repeated inscriptions on the jade disc's surface. New writing covered the old, only to be covered by still newer writing.
The final version read...
"Year twelve hundred. At last, I have touched that barrier. It is not a lack of spiritual power, but a lack of understanding of the 'Dao.' However abundant spiritual power may be, it remains merely quantity. Quantitative change does not bring qualitative change. What qualitative change requires is—enlightenment."
Chen Siyao rubbed her finger along the edge of the Document Disc and continued reading.
"Year fifteen hundred. The barrier remains. While regulating Jade Rabbit One each day, I have found inspiration in the patterns governing the spiritual energy tides."
"The spiritual energy between heaven and earth is not static. It has its own 'will'—or rather, its own 'Dao.'"
"Year two thousand. Three attempts at breaking through the barrier, three failures. Yet each failure has