TDFM Chapter 127

Enlightenment

 

A hand grasped hers.

 

Cultivation power continued to flow into her body in an endless stream.

 

Jiang Baiyu gasped for breath and said, “Yun Qing, I believe in you.”

 

Fu Xue opened her mouth wide, wanting to echo his words, but in the end only let out a very soft “mm” from her nose. She also extended her hand, covering it over her senior sister’s and Baiyu’s hands, sending out a bit of her cultivation power.

 

Cheng Suiyan was a little farther away. He crawled with difficulty, but fortunately his limbs were long, so with just this one crawl, he reached them.

 

He struggled to maintain that thread of consciousness, his broad palm covering their hands, squeezing out a bit of cultivation power and transferring it through those two people’s hands.

 

Finally, a fluffy, round little cat paw covered the very top.

 

The soft paw pad pressed against Cheng Suiyan’s hand, and through him as well as Fu Xue and Baiyu, transferred cultivation power to Yun Qing.

 

Yun Qing stared blankly at the azure sky, feeling the different people’s cultivation power gathering in her body. A clear tear slid down from the corner of her eye.

 

What was compassion?

 

Was it sympathy? Was it pity? Was it giving? Was it charity?

 

No.

 

It was not.

 

None of these at all.

 

All the previous cultivation methods and debates about the meaning of the Way of Compassion had been wrong—completely and utterly wrong!

 

The human race was so weak and vulnerable before the Heavenly Way. Precisely because of this, when Goddess Nuwa created humans, she greatly enhanced their desires.

 

Why?

 

With desires came wishes, and wishes formed wish power.

 

The convergence of countless wish powers could form a mighty force that transcended the individual.

 

This power rivaled immortal power, yet was not limited by spiritual energy. It could be said to be inexhaustible—this was the lifeline that Goddess Nuwa left for the precarious human race.

 

Wish power was collective desire. What it carried was not merit, but trust.

 

So-called faith should more properly be called “trust.” Precisely because I trust you, I entrust my wishes to you.

 

Compassion was obtaining collective trust and managing collective desires. Through this method, all people’s strength was gathered in the hands of one person, forming a powerful force that could protect the entire human race.

 

True compassion was empathy, extending from oneself to others, watching over and helping each other, uniting in common purpose.

 

This was the true Way of Compassion.

 

She had achieved enlightenment.

 

With a point of clarity in her spiritual platform, the vast world rushed past before her eyes. In just an instant, it seemed as if ten thousand years had passed. Her body became lighter, her soul clearer.

 

A strange power appeared in her qi sea, gathering and swirling like a trickling stream.

 

That was the wishes of countless people.

 

From Guangling City, Linglong City, Huayang Mountain, Mengliang City, Shenle Valley, and many places she had never been.

 

Even the dimmest starfire, if there was enough of it, could form a brilliant sun.

 

From people she knew and didn’t know.

 

Each person was insignificant dust, but countless insignificant specks of dust gathered into a force of united will. This force was full of vigorous life, surging with robust power, gently lifting her up from the abyss.

 

Tiny sparks of starfire, a thousand specks of dust carried me across.

 

Yun Qing grasped the Compassion Sword and struggled to stand up.

 

Qiguang Zi was quite surprised. “Enlightenment? What a pity.”

 

Yun Qing said nothing, holding her sword and looking at him coldly, her eyes startlingly bright.

 

Qiguang Zi raised his sword.

 

Yun Qing also raised her sword.

 

Admittedly, wish power was a force qualified to contend with immortal power. Perhaps after a thousand years, they could become worthy opponents. But at this moment, her meager wish power was still like a firefly under the sun—insignificant.

 

To him, there was no difference.

 

No, it wasn’t over yet. What she possessed was far more than this.

 

At least, in her treasure pouch there was still a small flag.

 

However, Yun Qing didn’t take out this small flag.

 

Because she knew that even borrowing the power of wind to amplify this wish power still wouldn’t be enough.

 

Moreover, Qiguang Zi wouldn’t give her the opportunity to set up a formation.

 

In Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book, formations similar to the Wind-Riding Formation were a set of eight: Treading Marsh, Relying on Mountains, Adding Fire, Increasing Water, Riding Wind, Controlling Thunder, Moving Earth, and Equaling Heavens.

 

Among these eight formations, four contained the character “victory.” This was why she had been so excited when she saw the calligraphy with the two characters “Victory over Heaven” that Xi had left at Jade Ring Lake.

 

Currently, Yun Qing had mastered five of the eight formations. The three she hadn’t mastered were Increasing Water, Controlling Thunder, and Moving Earth.

 

Among the five formations she had mastered, four required advance setup, such as the Mountain Reliance Formation and Wind-Riding Formation, while only one formation was most special.

 

Equaling Heavens.

 

Heaven was always there, unchanging since ancient times, the Heavenly Way was constant, so the Equaling Heavens Formation required no materials, only sixteen-character incantations.

 

The Equaling Heavens Formation was the last formation in Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book, and also the formation the author repeatedly warned to use with caution.

 

Because each person could only use this formation once in their lifetime.

 

It used the method of burning one’s life force to make an individual’s way resonate with the Heavenly Way, achieving great way through small way.

 

How much could power be amplified through this method?

 

Unknown. Because so far, no one had ever used this formation, so there was no way to verify it. One could only say that how much it could be amplified depended on how much potential the person actually had. Perhaps a thousand times, perhaps ten thousand times, perhaps millions of times or more.

 

Interestingly, people often didn’t know how much potential they themselves had.

 

Yun Qing raised the Compassion Sword, pointing it toward the sky.

 

At the same time, she mobilized that vigorous power that had newly appeared in her qi sea.

 

She was no longer afraid of “revealing heavenly secrets,” much less worried about Qiguang Zi hearing her incantations. For the first time, and the only time, she spoke aloud from Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book—this mysterious book that had almost accompanied her entire life.

 

“The depths are carefully ordered, hidden and boundless, bestowing virtue.

This ascent seeks audience and pardon, the earth’s constants hope for permanence!”

 

In the earliest times, Yun Qing had thought Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book was truly a very strange book.

 

Its incantations were different from human race incantations. The words were convoluted and difficult to understand, archaic and hard to interpret. Some incantations could still be understood in meaning, while others were difficult to connect to the formation’s content just from the literal text. This was one of the reasons it was difficult to study.

 

But later, Yun Qing gradually understood.

 

The Way was a very vast thing. It encompassed all phenomena and shouldn’t be limited by human thinking. As Shi Feijia had said, the more specific one’s view, the more one-sided it became, and the more distant from the great way.

 

All things in the universe had their inherent connections. Perhaps one of your organs was connected to some star in the sky, perhaps the late-night snack you ate today was connected to some butterfly flapping its wings in the South Sea last year…

 

These kinds of connections were broader, deeper, more subtle—invisible to human eyes, incomprehensible to human brains, which was why people found them impossible to understand.

 

But the Way—it always existed there, constant since ancient times. Even if the universe were destroyed, even at the end of time, it would not change.

 

At this moment, after reciting the incantation, Yun Qing didn’t feel power filling her body as she had when using the Mountain Reliance Formation and Wind-Riding Formation before.

 

She only felt tranquil.

 

As if she were the sky, she were the earth, she were the wind, the clouds, the rain and dew, the flowers and grass. She was part of this world, and she was this world in its entirety.

 

The Compassion Sword was glowing.

 

The world’s affairs were just so marvelous. If at this moment she had been holding any other sword she had used before, it would have long since shattered from being unable to bear such enormous power. But coincidentally, what she was now holding was exactly a divine sword.

 

Qiguang Zi finally realized something was wrong. Though it was incredible, his intuition told him he was now in great danger!

 

This immortal, who had always regarded mortals as ants, had never imagined that these few ants before him could pose any threat to him.

 

Even just a moment ago, his wariness of the divine soul trapped and unable to move in the Heaven Net Soul-Binding Web was far greater than his concern for these few ants before him.

 

They simply weren’t worthy.

 

But it was precisely such an ant whose body suddenly erupted with enormous wish power that he couldn’t understand!

 

This power was so vast and surging, more powerful than all the immortal power he had ever encountered!

 

How was this possible?!

 

But how was it not possible?

 

Mortals were weak, humble, and vulnerable. Precisely because of this, many people overlooked one thing—as continuations of the divine, each mortal possessed inherent divinity.

 

The lofty immortals had long grown accustomed to looking down on mortals, regarding them as ants, so they had gradually forgotten the potential that mortals themselves possessed.

 

Clearly, he himself had emerged from among mortals. The status he had achieved today—didn’t it precisely demonstrate the potential that mortals possessed?

 

That power was still surging wildly. Qiguang Zi’s heart even felt a wave of fear. He had never encountered such a strange thing in his life. At this moment he had thoughts of retreat, wanting to avoid battle first.

 

As long as he moved his mind, he could escape into dreams.

 

However, it was too late!

 

The sword light of the Compassion Sword suddenly expanded to an endless length at an inconceivable speed, as if it wanted to pierce through the heavens.

 

Qiguang Zi actually felt oppressive force—he was being suppressed by an ant! This suppression made him just a little slower, truly just a little, but the sword light had already struck his body!

 

How could it be so fast!

 

The enormous power that could rival heaven and earth, the power that could shatter all things in the world, just passed right through the middle of his body.

 

The lofty immortal was split vertically in two by the sword light.

 

The three protective treasures on his body had some effect, but not much. The sword light only paused briefly within his body, then completed its cut in one smooth motion.

 

Three supreme treasures—even when battling Shen Xi, he hadn’t used them all. Now, they only made her sword light pause slightly.

 

Heaven and earth reversed, yin and yang overturned. Now, it was his turn to be the ant.

 

The world was very quiet. This instant was very long.

 

In the last moment of his life, what he saw was the woman’s cold gaze. Wind swept through her hair, brushing across her blood-stained face.

 

He was unwilling. He clearly had plenty of opportunities to kill her!

 

Even if she had achieved enlightenment, even if she had obtained wish power, he had ways to deal with it! Even if he couldn’t gain the upper hand, he was far from needing to lose his life!

 

But everything had happened too suddenly. He hadn’t made any preparations in advance for a humble ant!

 

Even unto death, he couldn’t believe it, couldn’t accept it.

 

A firefly had killed the sun.