Heavens Great and Small, All Born of the Dao

"At an ordinary cultivator's stage, trying to use one box to affect another is extremely difficult."

One wooden box after another shook on the ground, but the boxes on the other side still lay there intact.

No, there were changes, only they were too faint.

Through his True Person's vision, Sun Chen could see the boxes on the left affecting those on the right through vibrations in the air, but the effect was minuscule, almost equivalent to zero.

Ao Ding increased the force, driving the wooden boxes to smash into the other group.

But even those violent blows failed to open the boxes, much less easily damage boxes made of the same material, or even harder material than their own.

Instead, as he exerted force to the limit, quite a few of the boxes doing the smashing broke first.

"You're right. This line of reasoning is how ordinary cultivators understand things."

Controlling heaven and earth was simpler than dealing with living beings.

"But True Persons are different-" Ao Ding activated the True Person's Eye, looking at the hundreds of wooden boxes arranged in the wooden storehouse through the same vision as Sun Chen. "When one cultivator faces another, they're both locked boxes. Even knowing that the other's Dao body is like a small world, they can't control the other's body from a distance. But a True Person can-because... I can see the keyhole."

Ao Ding stared at the wooden box closest to him.

He released an equally faint force, but rather than dispersing into the air or driving a box to smash violently into another, a beam of light pierced through the keyhole.

Click-

A wooden box instantly opened, revealing a little golden boy holding a wooden sign. On the sign were two small words: "A success."

Yes, this was also the House-Building Technique.

Since the House-Building Technique can make wooden boxes-urns for ashes-it's perfectly reasonable for me to count the golden boys and jade maidens placed around those urns as "furniture" inside a house, right?

"Haha-not bad, not bad! For the likes of us, taking a life is as easy as unlocking a lock and pushing open a door, precisely because-we can see!"

Sun Chen burst into laughter.

Although Ao Ding's theory was somewhat bizarre and somewhat specious, its general direction was correct. A cultivator's cultivation had to extend from "observing mountains and waters" to "seeing mountains as not mountains, and waters as not waters." At that level, everything before their eyes was a profound mystery of the Dao.

Ordinary cultivators could not clearly perceive the small worlds inside other cultivators. For them, using the small world within themselves to affect the greater world outside was far simpler than attacking another small world.

But True Persons could see!

True Persons could see where the keyhole was and fashion a key to fit.

Ao Ding finally stated his conclusion. "So I only need to develop an unlocking spell to open a cultivator's body, sealed off by Mysterious Gang. Then all it takes is a connecting Down-Chain spell to disrupt their body and force them to die."

Waving his wooden staff, Ao Ding said earnestly, "This is my creation: a spear that kills whatever it hits. Senior, I have an idea-if those enemies of yours appear, and I attack this way-could I inflict death once more on ghosts who have already died? Or, if my cultivation isn't sufficient, could I inscribe some pure-yang true seals on it, then inject yang energy directly into them after breaching their defenses? No, no, no-I think I could cast the Sweet Rain Spell, the Evil-Breaking Spell, or even the Return-to-Yang Spell directly on them..."

"Yes. The theory is viable." Sun Chen let out a long breath.

A genius. A genius at spellcraft!

He could see that Ao Ding's wooden spear was very crudely made.

The several true seals inscribed on the wooden spear-Insight, Passage, Knockdown, destruction...

These were "three heavens great grotto true seals" parsed and translated from low-level spells such as the Wall-Piercing Technique, the Armor-Breaking Spell, and the Falling-Rock Spell.

Ordinary true seals had been kneaded together in his hands and, paired with the True Person's Eye, had already produced an exceedingly vicious instrument of slaughter.

Being struck by this spear might not directly confer "death," but the disturbance to the qi seed and Mysterious Gang inside the body was equivalent to a sealed wooden box being forced open, with all one's magical power pouring madly out.

-This is worse than being killed in a single strike.

Before dying, they'd have to feel their magical power disappearing and their vital essence dispersing. You could even watch a cultivator skilled at preserving their youthful appearance instantly turn into a dying old person, then breathe their last in terror...

Wait, why can I also see a few true seals related to illusions and entering dreams?

Ah, it can actually make people hallucinate after being struck-showing them visions of their gradual aging and death, to attack their Dao hearts and distract them?

Why are there also seal inscriptions to intensify fear and intimidate the primordial spirit?

Ah-were those dismantled from the Northern Yin Hell Spells? To let people experience the torments of hell in advance, before they die?

How nasty.

Sun Chen also knew too little about Ao Ding. They had only known each other for half a month, and Ao Ding had been acting well-behaved all along.

Just imagine-

Someone who could think of making rabbits strip off their own coating and jump into a pot of oil, someone who used hell spells to grind beans... This was absolutely a peerless Northern Yin Ghost Dao talent applying for the position of "Son of Heaven of the Netherworld" to administer hell.

"Your idea is very good, but I've long since made preparations for my Liberation by Violence in a few days-there's no need for you to arrange anything. Also, there's one point you got wrong," Sun Chen said. "True Persons find killing easy because we can indeed manipulate and destroy small worlds at will. But the fundamental reason controlling nature's myriad manifestations is far easier than controlling living beings is that we can see how worthy of reverence and awe this greater world is."

Ordinary cultivators summoned wind and rain as casually as playing around.

But True Persons could see that, as they drew upon the moisture between heaven and earth, they were moving moisture over from another region. They could even foresee the scarcity of rain in that other region in the future, and could perceive the effects a single casting of theirs would have on a region's environment over the next several years.

Ao Ding looked thoughtful and murmured, "If a butterfly gently flaps its wings on the eastern side of Liyun Continent... can a True Person see the effect it has on the far west of Liyun Continent?"

"Yes, that's exactly it! All beings fear consequences; True Persons fear causes. We can see more of what cannot be seen, so we hold this world itself in greater reverence."

"So that's why you are a True Person, Senior-" At the first part, Sun Chen was still smiling, but when he heard the latter half, his expression changed outright.

"-but it's also why you're only a True Person, isn't it? Because you place too much importance on the 'greater world,' you instead fail to see that the greater world and the small worlds-living beings-are fundamentally one. All come from the true nature of the Dao's source, with no inherent distinction of higher or lower, so how can there be any question of which is easier or harder to manipulate?"

For some inexplicable reason, Ao Ding blurted out those words, vaguely sensing something amiss with the experiment he had just performed. It seemed this experiment, too, was bound to be overturned in the future.

But before he could think it through, Sun Chen interrupted him with a hard smack to the forehead.

Looking up, he found Sun Chen watching him with an exceedingly complicated gaze.

"Don't think about it. You mustn't-those things you want to think about aren't things you should be considering now. They'll only affect your current cultivation." Even as Sun Chen stopped Ao Ding, towering waves surged within his heart.

-It's because you can only see the greater world as superior to the small worlds that you're a True Person...

His master had said something similar.

In other words, if he could regard the greater world and the small worlds as one, without distinguishing higher from lower, one from the other...

Then...

I could become a True Lord!

But although that realm was easily described, how could advancing step by step through the six realms of True Person to become a True Lord be so easy?

"Never mind. Go back and cultivate. That's enough for today-there's no need to come over for the next few days, either. Just properly reflect on what you've learned so far."

Sun Chen's thoughts were rather tangled.

How old was Ao Ding, to already understand such a perspective?

It felt... it felt as though he had squandered his entire life...

Seeing that something was wrong with Sun Chen's expression, Ao Ding quietly left, returning to his room to continue researching his ideas.

He truly did want to help with the Liberation by Violence.

At the very least-he had to be able to protect himself, so he wouldn't hold Sun Chen back.

"The Soul-Destroying Spear, Earth-Escaping Talismans..."

As Ao Ding thought, he set about making brand-new spell implements.

Time soon flew by, bringing them to the night of the full moon...

Wolf howls in the distance startled Ao Ding out of his cultivation.

"They're here!"