As a Puppet Master Grand Artisan, Li Chen commanded a vast and intricate array of skills spanning multiple disciplines and fields, with accomplishments along many paths.
This was also common among High-Rank Cultivators. At lower ranks, they could still speak of a primary pursuit or specialization in a particular path, but at higher ranks, drawing connections between different fields was a basic skill. No cultivator, whatever their Dao path, could tread only one path without understanding others.
As Li Chen demonstrated, he explained, "Only by unifying the Dao paths, theories, and skills you have mastered into a cognitive model that more closely approaches objective reality can you grow further."
"This is the exploration and understanding of the Dao."
"From this perspective, aren't Puppet Masters, cultivators, and even Immortals and Gods, demons and sages, all blind men feeling an elephant?"
His listeners felt a jolt run through their hearts.
"We're also blind men feeling an elephant?"
"Well..."
Li Chen said, "Someone with keen comprehension can imagine an accurate model of the elephant through touch alone. That is attaining the Dao. Someone with poor comprehension understands the elephant as four great pillars, long, sharp tusks, or a monster resembling a python. That, too, is attaining the Dao."
"The Dao that can be spoken is not the constant Dao. To this day, no one has been able to explain the Great Dao clearly or exhaustively."
"For a Grand Artisan such as myself, taking another step means bringing together everything I have learned and understood, achieving mental certification of the 'elephant' in my mind, then turning that into empirical certification."
"Understanding within the mind and understanding of the outside world can then connect, like the yin and yang of the Supreme Ultimate, revolving without end."
"But what, exactly, will the grand unified theory awaiting