There was a Great Dao in this world.
Peerless powerhouses comprehended the Great Dao amid heaven and earth, wielding power that shook the heavens and made ghosts and gods weep.
Others then inherited, studied, and imitated those peerless powerhouses' Daos, but with insufficient cultivation, they could only reproduce a rough likeness.
This was known as an "image."
Yet the great image was the manifestation of the Great Dao.
The great image was formless.
Thus, this too lay beyond the reach of ordinary cultivators.
And so, some gained enlightenment from this and comprehended domains.
Heaven was round, earth was square, and I alone reigned supreme-this was a "domain."
And below that?
There were the "divine abilities" comprehended by cultivators a tier lower.
But divine abilities were powerful. Ordinary people could not unleash even a ten-thousandth of their might. To wield a divine ability, one had to grasp divine intent, also known as "intent."
Then came methods and arts.
In ascending order, then, it was arts, methods, intent, divine abilities, domains, images, and Dao.
"...In other words, if I master a divine intent like my Moon-Jumping Dance Intent until it's as perfectly honed as a furnace's pure flame, I might one day turn it into a divine ability."
"If I then master that divine ability until it flows flawlessly at my will, it might evolve into a 'domain,' or even eventually form a 'heavenly image' and become a Great Dao."
Lin Quan-meng shared what she knew from Hua Wujiang's explanations.
"So that's how it works..." Lin Ke nodded slowly, swiftly committing this knowledge to memory.
He had to admit that with backing and connections, shortcuts hardly even needed to enter the discussion. Those advantages in information alone were a precious fortune.
Lin Ke had never heard any of what Lin Quan-meng had