Now, Guanyin Bodhisattva had been shocked by the state Ao Tu was in.
So-called transcendent Dao attainment was a state unique to those with great supernatural powers.
It meant transcending the constraints of all rules.
Life and death, for instance.
Golden Immortals could live forever without decaying, but they still could not escape life and death.
Everything in the world had parents. Even Sun Wukong, who had sprung from a stone, had been born of heaven and nurtured by earth. This was birth.
Likewise, everything in the world would die, entering reincarnation or enduring a great tribulation that destroyed both body and Dao. This was death.
Those with great supernatural powers, however, transcended everything and stood above the rules. Once attained, their attainment endured forever. They had neither birth nor death, neither good nor evil, nor even right nor wrong. These rules were merely constraints upon those who had not transcended them, while those with great supernatural powers stood above them all.
Ao Tu had once briefly transcended everything and had possessed the prospect of attaining the Dao as one with great supernatural powers. Although he had ultimately failed, the traces he had left would not change. Within the rules, this trace of something beyond them was like a sun in the night, glaringly obvious to anyone who could see it.
Guanyin Bodhisattva herself could also reach the realm of those with great supernatural powers. It was only because she was unwilling to remain beneath others and wanted to blaze her own trail to Attainment of the Dao that she had not broken through. Under these circumstances, she could perceive Ao Tu's condition all the more clearly.
Ao Tu did not understand these matters as clearly as Guanyin Bodhisattva did. Faced with her question, he answered truthfully, "A little while