Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 186: Comprehending the Dao

Tang Jie stood at the mountain summit, breathing in the wind and exhaling fog.

He closed his eyes and felt the energy of the world surging around him. With each inhalation and exhalation, he controlled the beating of his heart.

Drawn-out and powerful!

Wang Poguan was meeting his son, and as an outsider, Tang Jie didn’t want to disturb them. Thus, he practiced breathing cultivation on his own.

A cultivator had to diligently cultivate at every chance they had.

In the battle at the Student Forest, Tang Jie had felt like he was verging on a breakthrough. Putting aside the boost to his constitution, most importantly, he had an inexplicable feeling that he couldn’t quite describe.

It was like there was a thin membrane in front of him, and he just needed to break through it to reach a vast world, but the membrane refused to break.

This feeling left Tang Jie frustrated and momentarily distracted.

This distraction caused Tang Jie to lose control of his spiritual power somewhat, and his body would occasionally erupt with spiritual light, and a golden character would appear and disappear in his palm. This was none other than the Wuwang Character, “Chase”!

But compared to before, the character had clearly lost much of its luster.

“Oh? What is this?” Wang Poguan’s voice came from behind him.

Looking back, Tang Jie saw one big tiger and two small tigers affectionately gathered together. Bao’er’s older brother had arrived at some point, and the two tigers had quickly begun to play with each other.

“It’s a Wuwang Character,” Tang Jie indifferently said as he looked away. “It’s a treasure left behind by a True Lord of great power. To tell the truth, even I’m not sure what it really is. As a spell art, it’s somehow able to persist for a long time. As an art relic, it’s made purely of spell arts.”

Tang Jie gave a rough summary of how he had obtained the Wuwang Character.

When he heard that Tang Jie had actually gotten the Wuwang Character from a True Lord, Wang Poguan clicked his tongue in wonder.

Getting a lot of nice things became really straightforward when one became this bold, but Tang Jie was unprecedented when it came to this audacity, and even Wang Poguan had to admire his courage.

Only someone with sufficient daring would do such a thing.

But now that he knew what this item was, Wang Poguan stopped being polite.

“Let me take a look!”

Tang Jie opened his hand, and the Chase Character gradually appeared, floating up and down in Tang Jie’s hand.

Wang Poguan’s head bobbed up and down with it. After some time, he sighed, “What an exquisite Dao Will!”

“A Dao Will?” Tang Jie was startled. “Was this Wuwang Character formed from a Dao Will? But isn’t Reverend Wuwang yet to enter the Dao?”

“Idiot!” Wang Poguan said in disdain. “The path of the Dao is profound and boundless. There is observing the Dao, comprehending the Dao, entering the Dao, and grasping the Dao. Only those who have entered the Dao can call themselves Celestial Sovereigns. This Reverend Wuwang might not have entered the Dao, but he has clearly comprehended the Dao. This is precisely why he has such a refined Dao Will and can form it into a Wuwang Character.”

“Then what is the Dao?” Tang Jie couldn’t help but ask.

Wang Poguan froze at this question.

After a long while, he intoned, “Daos are the rules of the world.”

Daos are the rules of the world. Tang Jie had heard this in class before.

To his understanding, the rules of the world were simply the laws, principles, and definitions by which the world operated.

But only understanding this was meaningless, similar to how understanding Newton’s Three Laws didn’t mean you could break free of gravity.

If understanding was comprehending the Dao, then the Dao was just a little too simple.

In reality, over tens of thousands of years, the Rosecloud Domain had never been able to make a good description of the Dao. Even those Dao-Controlling Titans only left behind a few sentences here and there.

All those lofty ones who attained the Dao had only this to say: the Dao was indescribable.

The Dao could not be described, only comprehended!

This was something that could not be described with words, a realm that could only be comprehended on one’s own. This was precisely why it was impossible to record, pass down, or teach.

But today, Wang Poguan had told him that the Wuwang Character in his possession was formed from Dao Will!

The shock to Tang Jie was immense.

He stared at the Wuwang Character and muttered, “Could it be that if I see through this Wuwang Character, I will be able to comprehend the reverend’s Dao Will?”

“‘Comprehend’?” Wang Poguan broke into a smile, which looked savage to behold. “No, if that’s what you’re thinking, then you will never be able to comprehend the Dao.”

“Why?” Tang Jie was confused.

“Because that is not your Dao!” Wang Poguan replied.

“‘Not my Dao’?” Tang Jie shuddered.

He suddenly seemed to understand, blurting out, “One’s nature is a gift, and my Dao is the Great Dao!”

Wang Poguan chuckled. “You finally get it. The Dao isn’t something you can grasp just because you’ve grasped the principle and understood its meaning… It will be a vista you will behold only when you’ve reached a certain level of cultivation and reached the apex. The Dao of the Martial Lord was one of battle, and through constant battle, he succeeded in every endeavor, but even with the Weapon Mantra, you cannot comprehend his Dao. The same is true for the Wuwang Character. That is Reverend Wuwang’s Dao and has nothing to do with you. If you want a Dao, you first need a path! This is the Way! Only when you have reached the end of the path will you find the Way!”

“I see.” Tang Jie breathed in and looked at Wang Poguan. “Do you know all this because of your bloodline legacy?”

Wang Poguan nodded.

Although he was only an upper-grade Spirit Sensing fiend beast, he had the memories of his bloodline, which allowed him to understand many things that not even those of the Mortal Shedding Realm could comprehend.

He could not tell Tang Jie what the Dao was, but he could at least let Tang Jie know how he could possess his own Dao.

“My own path…” Tang Jie looked at the Wuwang Character and muttered, “Then… what is my path? What is my style? How is it that I can see my own Dao?”

That haze in his mind gradually began to clear up, and the memories he had produced since he had come to this world began to flow through his head: his life in Little River Village, his determination to leave home, his chance encounter with Xu Muyang, his entry into the Wei Estate, his counterattack on Godhead Palace, the struggle for True Inheritor… All of these scenes rushed through his mind as if he was watching his life play back. Tang Jie closed his eyes and softly muttered, “Since I’ve come to this world, I’ve experienced many bumps on the road, but while it’s been hard, I’ve never given up. That’s because I believed. I believed that this world would not abandon those who worked hard. I believed that while this world was emotionless, people had emotions. And I believed that while the world had laws, humans also had laws. Laws are like a river, and I am a fish. When I struggle bravely against the current, I cannot forget about what is happening on shore…

“That is precisely why the Dao of the Martial Lord is not suitable for me, for it is only about advancing and never retreating. As for me, I advocate for both advancing and retreating, for sometimes, retreating one step might allow one to advance three steps. The heavens and earth are like a net and the Daos are the laws of the heavens. If that is so, that means that I should advance along the path instead of mindlessly rushing around… Taking the correct path will always be more important than speed. To do this, formidable strength is not enough, nor is astounding courage. Only by clearly understanding the affairs of the world can one see the correct path through the world.

“Thus, my Dao does not seek to be unrivaled throughout the world, only to understand the world. What I seek… is insight!”

As he spoke this final word, Tang Jie felt his entire body relaxing, and that dark shadow over his heart melted away like thawing snow. He felt a light shining in the depths of heart, rising like the sun. Tang Jie felt a hint of enlightenment.

It was a wondrous feeling. Tang Jie had no idea what exactly he had understood, yet he had managed to understand it anyway.

No spoken words could describe it, nor could it be put to writing. There was only that wondrous feeling lingering in his mind. It completely contravened the laws governing spiritual energy, existing in Tang Jie’s mind in an indescribable and incomprehensible fashion.

A moment later, the Wuwang Character in Tang Jie’s hand suddenly cracked apart, dissolving into golden particles of light.

But as Tang Jie watched it disappear, he suddenly sensed something and confidently waved his hand, upon which another “逐” character appeared.

That character radiated light and then struck a nearby tree. The tree was pulled up by the roots and disappeared down the mountain.

“This is…” Wang Poguan was shocked. He had clearly seen the attack just now, and Tang Jie had clearly not used any sort of spell art. He had simply conjured up an attack akin to the Wuwang Character out of thin air.

Even divine connections were just manifestations of spell arts. It was just that the Divine Will could directly commune with spiritual energy and skip the art manifestation phase. But Tang Jie’s action truly had nothing to do with spell arts.

The only explanation was… Dao Will!

“You’ve actually comprehended the Dao!” Wang Poguan didn’t dare to believe his eyes.

Tang Jie had so easily managed to comprehend the Dao.

He did not know that Tang Jie had once observed the Heavenly Dao Stele and observed the Dao.

For him, the Heavenly Dao was no illusion. It was an authentic existence.

It was a shock that couldn’t be described with words, an existence that demanded veneration.

It was precisely because he had seen the Heavenly Dao and because his personality was not one that sought to go against the natural order that he had chosen to follow the will of the Heavenly Dao and embark on the path of insight as his Way.

And the Wuwang Character condensed from a sliver of Reverend Wuwang’s Dao Will just so happened to accelerate the process.

Though it was a different kind of Dao Will, it was still a Dao Will. Tang Jie had made it his own will and comprehended the Dao in a day. Enlightened, he had almost instantly understood a part of the mystery of the Wuwang Character.

With a casual snap of the fingers and the wave of a brush, he had created one.

But this feeling lasted only for a brief moment. As that Chase Character disappeared, Tang Jie’s understanding of the Wuwang Character gradually began to fade. He knew that this was not his own Dao, so he could only copy it, not own it.

Even so, with this sudden breakthrough, Tang Jie had reaped a rather rich harvest.

Tang Jie let out a long breath. Looking at Wang Poguan’s disbelieving gaze, he smiled and said, “It was only a minor comprehension, a glimpse through a crack in the door. I was only able to perform that feat just now thanks to Reverend Wuwang’s Dao Will. I’m still quite far from actually comprehending the Dao. As you said, only when you reach the end of the path can you find the Way… and I’ve only just started on my path.”

“At least you’re on the correct path and won’t be lost or confused any longer,” Wang Poguan said with an emotional sigh. “Some people spend their entire lives cultivating but might ultimately walk into a dead end, but you will never experience this. Different… From now on, you will be different!”

Wang Poguan was correct.

For Tang Jie, comprehending the Dao was now just a question of time, while others would have to depend on luck.

In truth, if he just mentioned this, he wouldn’t need to do any missions to have countless True Persons and True Lords pleading for him to be their disciple.

Geniuses were easy to find, but the Dao realm was difficult to reach!

“This is all thanks to Big Brother Wang’s instruction!” Tang Jie sincerely thanked the tiger.

“You were only able to pull it off through your own ability.”

“But it seems like it hasn’t done much to make me stronger,” Tang Jie said as he looked at himself. The membrane in his heart had disappeared, but he hadn’t gotten any stronger. He just felt an intangible sense of understanding, and the things around him felt somewhat different.

But he couldn’t even say how they were different.

Therefore, while one membrane had disappeared, it had been replaced by many other membranes that made him feel uncomfortable, anxious to see through them.

This just so happened to coincide with another principle he had understood much earlier: the more you understand, the more you don’t understand. The more you can do, the more you need. It was an ever-expanding circle.

Wang Poguan didn’t understand the state he was in, but he did understand something else: breaking through the threshold of the Dao Will did not help one to increase their strength.

He chuckled. “No rush, no rush. Carefully sense the things around you, and you might discover something new. Since you have taken the Dao of Insight, then… try and look into the distance!”

‘Look into the distance’?

After some thought, Tang Jie focused his eyes and peered into the distance.

He had never practiced any long-distance vision spells, but as he looked down from this height, he realized that he could see far into the distance. His vision had gotten several times stronger.

Far off in a clearing, a white and plump figure was running this way. Behind him was a large pack of wolves.

It was Wei Tianchong!