Exiled Immortal Revealed 17: Viewing the Future Development of Xiao Hua's Heavenly Dao Clone Through the Three Thousand Great Daos

Overview: The Heavenly Dao in Exiled Immortal was metaphysical, mysterious beyond mystery. In Songning Town, Xiao Hua sensed the Heavenly Dao—his Heart God touched the seemingly ethereal starry sky, and a feeling that could not be spoken, explained, or... described arose from within his Heart God. Exiled Immortal compared this state of cultivation to "contemplating Heaven." Later, in "Forgetting Each Other in the Jianghu, Chapter 353: Evasion," Tan Hua summarized it: "Cultivation techniques, formations and restrictions, pill refinement, artifact refinement, escape techniques, and so on are merely different interpretations of the Heavenly Dao—the ultimate goal pursued by the Immortal Dao." Immediately afterward, in "Light Escape on the Xiaoyu Continent, Chapter 471: Condensing the Treasure of Knowledge," Tan Hua borrowed Qian Diheng's words to summarize: "The Three Thousand Great Daos are a collective term, another name for the Heavenly Dao." Then Tan Hua had Xiao Hua divide his Primordial Spirit into ten parts, with one part entering the starry sky within the space behind his head to comprehend the Heavenly Dao, naming it Heavenly Dao Xiao Hua. It could be said that Heavenly Dao Xiao Hua was the most formidable and most accomplished of Xiao Hua's clones. Thus, this article combined the Three Thousand Great Daos with the future development of Xiao Hua's Heavenly Dao clone in Cultivation of the Godly Manual: Immortal Realm Chapter or the Primordial God Realm Arc of Exiled Immortal.

There had always been considerable disagreement over the Three Thousand Great Daos. One school believed that the Three Thousand Great Daos were a general term for all Daos, with "three thousand" merely emphasizing their vast number; another believed that the Three Thousand Great Daos meant exactly three thousand Daos—not one more, not one less. Here, I agreed with the former view. After all, in ancient tradition, whether it was the "three thousand great chiliocosms," the Four Young Masters' "three thousand retainers," or Confucius's "three thousand disciples," all were approximate numbers meant to convey abundance.

I. What Exactly Did the Three Thousand Great Daos Include?

The Dao of Life and Death, the Dao of Karma, the Dao of Yin and Yang, the Dao of Reincarnation, the Dao of Balance, the Dao of Five Elements, the Dao of Eight Trigrams, the Dao of Time, the Dao of Space, the Dao of Speed, the Dao of Black and White, the Dao of Light and Darkness, and so on. In broad terms, as the collective name for the Heavenly Dao, the Three Thousand Great Daos necessarily possessed Heaven's own balance. In other words, every Dao had an opposing Dao that was born alongside it, coexisted with it, and could transform into it. Where there was life, there was death; where there was cause, there was effect; where there was speed, there was slowness; where there was light, there was darkness. If one side did not exist, neither would the other.

II. What Conditions Did Xiao Hua's Heavenly Dao Clone Need in Order to Reach Great Accomplishment?

When Xiao Hua entered the realm of contemplating Heaven, he attained a strange state: looking down upon all living beings and the mortal world from on high, entering mystery beyond mystery, wonder beyond wonder. As the strongest among Xiao Hua's twelve clones, Heavenly Dao Xiao Hua needed Xiao Hua to fully control every sort of law power before it could reach great accomplishment. He had to comprehend the mysteries and patterns behind the movement of the starry sky, understand the laws of Heaven and Earth, grasp the Dao of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, the secrets of life, death, reincarnation, and transformation, the beginnings of time and space, and more. Xiao Hua would not merely be able to replicate these rules—he could reverse them as well. Of course, to reach great accomplishment, Xiao Hua had to understand the macrocosmic great world while also penetrating the microscopic little world. After all, "one flower, one world; one leaf, one bodhi." Naturally, it was still far too early for Cultivation of the Godly Manual: Immortal Realm Chapter to discuss Heavenly Dao Xiao Hua's great accomplishment.

III. Which of the Three Thousand Great Daos Were Suited for Battle?

1. The Dao of Time

Combined with lifespan limits, the Dao of Time could extend into life and death; combined with speed, it could extend into swiftness and slowness. In battles during the later Immortal Realm or the Primordial Divine Realm, the Law of Time could delay one's opponent while accelerating oneself. It could also wear away the opponent's lifespan, or serve as an art of escape.

2. The Dao of Space: spatial severance, spatial displacement, spatial ripples, and the like. Spatial methods could be used against enemies or to flee for one's life. Combined with the law of gravity, they would make battle techniques endlessly surprising.

3. The Dao of Karma: the River of Karma and the Hand of Karma had already been discussed in "Exiled Immortal Revealed 10."

4. The Dao of Balance: the Dao of Balance was one of the most profound Great Daos. By exploiting the imbalance caused by its principle of one force overcoming another, one could alter an opponent's law power, directly shatter their attack, or inflict harm upon them.

5. The Dao of Five Elements: the Five Elements generated and restrained one another. Strip away one of them, and the Five Elements would fall out of balance. Xiao Hua could comprehend this Dao and create a primordial qi stripping technique.

6. The Dao of Stars: Heavenly Dao Xiao Hua comprehended the mysteries behind the operation of the starry-sky great world. Therefore, the Dao of Stars could control the power of the stars, whether to attack an opponent or predict the enemy's moves before they came.

7. The Dao of Extreme Fire and the Dao of Extreme Ice: either Dao alone could attack an opponent, but reversing them and making them coexist would produce an exceedingly terrifying self-destruction.

8. The Dao of Reality and Illusion: using illusion realms to attack opponents.

9. The Dao of Life, Death, and Reincarnation.

Naturally, there were far too many of the Three Thousand Great Daos that could be used for attack, and Exiled Immortal did not recommend listing every one of them. One could begin with the strongest few.

IV. Xiao Hua's Crisis When the Heavenly Dao Reached Great Accomplishment

When Xiao Hua became a Saint against the light and transformed his body into the Dao, his self-awareness would slowly rise into the vast nebulae and merge with the Heavenly Dao, until not a shred of human emotion remained. This crisis arising from the self might be the most hidden and most distant foreshadowing in Exiled Immortal. Because this layout was cast so far ahead, many readers only thought about how Xiao Hua would use light escape to return home. They did not realize that before Xiao Hua escaped home through light, he would face a crisis related to himself. Tan Hua had already explained the foreshadowing and the way to break this great crisis in the first part, Forgetting Each Other in the Jianghu. The hint of this crisis came from the consciousness that flew when Xiao Hua first comprehended the Heavenly Dao in Songning Town: "Zhang Xiao Hua's consciousness rose higher and higher. He felt as though he were a white cloud floating in the sky, while all things and matters on the earth had nothing whatsoever to do with him." At the Huang family of Tianmen Mountain in Light Escape on the Xiaoyu Continent, Xue Xue watched Xiao Hua cultivate and saw him become a transparent human-shaped figure that one could pass through. For details, see "Forgetting Each Other in the Jianghu, Chapter 348: The Realm of Unity of Man and Heaven."

In short, the Heavenly Dao, collectively known as the Three Thousand Great Daos, was filled with mystery and marvels in Exiled Immortal. It was also the source of every cultivation system. Xiao Hua still had a long road ahead if he wished to trace back to the source, become a Primeval God, and become the first ray of light. Everything done in this article could only be speculation.