Chapter 274: Saints' Words

Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia slowly descended the mountain path with the Dragon Keeper. The vast, circular valley, surrounded by countless towering mountains, resembled a dueling arena.

From the cliff top, the dragons didn't appear huge, but up close, they were like small mountains towering before them. An ordinary human body was no bigger than one of their claws. Ancient dragons lay dormant on the ground, dozing under the cover of the myriad red-clouded mountains.

The Dragon Keeper walked among them, and the dragons watched, seemingly showing respect.

Ning Changjiu looked around.

Several ancient dragons also stared at him curiously, their nictitating membranes constantly sweeping across their pupils, as if their eyes disliked the dry environment.

"Are you of dragon descent, Senior?" Ning Changjiu asked.

The Dragon Keeper shook his head. "No, but my master was a dragon. After he ascended and departed, it was my duty to care for his lineage."

Ning Changjiu nodded slightly. "Senior is truly a person of integrity."

The Dragon Keeper said, "Perhaps you humans enjoy flattery, but I do not. Your words are too many; you are far less composed than your Dao companion."

Ning Changjiu glanced at Lu Jiajia. She smiled helplessly. It wasn't that she didn't want to speak; the method for ascending to the Three Legendary Realms had simply shocked her, and she was still pondering its meaning.

The Dragon Keeper led them for a while.

The path was long, but the Dragon Keeper walked it like an ordinary person.

Ning Changjiu was puzzled. The place the Dragon Keeper was taking them wasn't far by sword flight, but walking would likely take more than an hour.

"I know your doubts," the Dragon Keeper said. "If I were to cross worlds, I would choose sword flight. But this path is too short; sword flight isn't conducive to thinking."

Ning Changjiu thought, *Such words don't sound like a cultivator, but rather an old scholar.*

The Dragon Keeper seemed to read his mind. "Cultivators, in the end, are scholars. Breaking laws with a sword will eventually lead to death. Only truth endures forever."

Ning Changjiu dared not think recklessly, but he still mused that cultivators from five hundred years ago were indeed different now.

Perhaps this was also why fewer and fewer people could reach the Five Paths realm today.

They walked slowly forward.

The Dragon Keeper kept his head down, as if pondering something.

Finally, they reached the end of the path.

It was a massive cube, surfaced with rock, almost the size of a city.

"Your arrival has indeed sparked new ideas in me," the Dragon Keeper said, stopping. "Of course, this is also your fortune. Perhaps today, you will have the chance to witness a true ascension to the Dao."

A large stone door opened.

A young boy emerged from it, looking at the two people behind the Dragon Keeper with slight confusion.

The Dragon Keeper unclasped his sword and handed it to the boy, saying, "From now on, please take care of these old dragons for me."

The boy's expression froze. "Are you finally leaving?"

The Dragon Keeper nodded.

The boy took the ancient sword, saying, "But I can't do it..."

The Dragon Keeper replied, "I was about your age when I received the sword from my master. I managed it then, and you should be able to as well. Just guard this small plot of land. If the general trend is irreversible, it won't be your fault; just do your best."

The boy, trembling, took the sword and said tearfully, "Yes, Master. But... but the Saint clearly said back then..."

"I don't believe his words," the Dragon Keeper interrupted. "I believe the path I'm taking is the only true path for cultivators."

The boy said no more.

The Dragon Keeper turned to Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia. "Come inside with me."

They followed the Dragon Keeper into the city made of giant stones.

Inside the floating stone city, it was brightly lit.

Ning Changjiu looked to both sides.

In the center of the stone city was a river-like dividing line. On both sides were inhabitants and buildings, many tall mountains and large trees, but none of it was real. Everything was meticulously assembled from neat small blocks.

This stone city was a giant sandbox model.

"This is my research," the Dragon Keeper said. "I'm researching the principle of Other Shore Symmetry."

Ning Changjiu's expression faltered.

Other Shore Symmetry was a law observed in small worlds.

Previously, in Madam Bai's shattered Fengdu City, they had confronted her across a river, limited by this very theorem: only when cultivators on both sides of the central axis had similar cultivation realms could the world remain balanced. Otherwise, it would destabilize and collapse.

During the decisive battle in Linhe City, Zhao Xianger, Madam Bai, Ning Xiaoling, and he were all on one side of the city. Just as the world was about to lose balance, he used a small flying formation to move to the other side. The world then sought to maintain its own equilibrium, choosing him as a vessel for self-preservation. The spiritual energy instantly poured into his body, breaking through the threshold and allowing him to enter the Profound Realm in one fell swoop, forming the innate spirit Golden Crow, and tearing open the night of Linhe City.

The Dragon Keeper said, "I didn't expect you had experienced that... It seems you have a deeper understanding of this then."

Ning Changjiu gently shook his head. "At that moment, with life and death hanging in the balance, who would think of such things?"

The three of them stood on the central axis.

The Dragon Keeper said to Ning Changjiu, "Go to the left side."

Ning Changjiu stood on the left side.

The world slowly began to tilt to the left.

The Dragon Keeper said to Lu Jiajia, "You go to the right side."

Lu Jiajia stood on the right side.

Both sides began to balance out again.

The Dragon Keeper himself sometimes walked to the left, sometimes to the right, but it had no significant impact on this world.

"Because I am the creator of this world," the Dragon Keeper offered the first explanation. "The master of a world does not need to abide by this principle."

Ning Changjiu nodded slightly. Madam Bai was also unaffected at first, but later, when the pillar of mythological logic collapsed, she lost control of Fengdu and then became affected.

He began to give a general explanation of the principles of Other Shore Symmetry.

"Firstly, it must be an unowned, enclosed world."

"The larger the world, the weaker the effect of symmetry."

"The cause of symmetry is that small worlds are repelled by larger worlds. Creating a world within a world is like carefully placing a wooden plank on a sharp stone, so its balance is extremely important. What maintains this balance is the cultivators' realm."

"I've performed thousands of calculations. Under this rule, a cultivator's realm has a clear quantitative value."

"If 'Entering the Profound Realm' is one, then 'Reaching Immortality' is two, 'Longevity' is four, 'Purple Court' is eight, and 'Six Paths' is sixteen. This result differs from my initial assumption because its balance only measures the realm. Whether you've just entered the Purple Court or are at its peak, in the eyes of the world, it's the same: eight."

"However, if you advance from Purple Court to the Five Paths, your weight will instantly change from eight to sixteen... This process isn't a gradual increase; it's discontinuous, a leap. The numbers between eight and sixteen are omitted."

"This is what ordinary cultivators refer to as... the earth-shattering change after entering a new realm."

The Dragon Keeper spoke of his research findings from these past years.

Ning Changjiu asked, "Then why can't two cultivators at the Purple Court realm defeat one at the Five Paths realm?"

The Dragon Keeper replied, "Because the numerical values of cultivators don't follow the rules set by the Ancestor of the Artificer sect. It has its own calculation method, which was summarized a thousand years ago by someone deemed a betrayer of their sect and master by the Artificers."

Ning Changjiu nodded slightly, looking at this stone city world, at everything assembled from small blocks. It felt like he had arrived in a completely new world.

A world belonging exclusively to the Three Legendary Realms.

No wonder his senior brother said that the Five Paths was the pinnacle of power; the Three Legendary Realms were not a breakthrough in strength or realm, but rather an enhancement of one's understanding of heaven and earth.

"Of course, these are rather superficial things. This is my true research," the Dragon Keeper said.

The Dragon Keeper extended his hand and formed a complex hand seal.

A stone tablet appeared before their eyes.

The tablet was densely covered with characters.

Ning Changjiu realized that he recognized every individual character and number, but strung together, he couldn't understand them at all.

Lu Jiajia was even more bewildered.

A thought flashed through both their minds at that moment: *If we want to break through this realm in the future, what are we supposed to do?*

Ning Changjiu felt that for his Fifth Senior Brother to be able to write five such research papers, all of them easy to understand, "amazing" was truly an understatement. The Dragon Keeper gazed at the stone tablet, and after a long period of contemplation, he wrote a string of numbers at the end of it.

After writing, as if a long-cherished wish had been fulfilled, a smile appeared on his usually unperturbed face.

"Truly beautiful," he murmured.

The Dragon Keeper gazed at the symbol formed by the string of numbers, full of admiration.

"It's truly beautiful. Even if you cannot understand it, you must be able to feel its beauty, right?"

"It's so beautiful it makes one not doubt any error."

He exclaimed with genuine emotion.

A century of effort was finally coming to an end.

Coincidentally, today was his day of ascension.

"I will ascend with this Celestial Tablet and this simulated stone city, going to the world that existed before your arrival. There, I will become a real person and ascend once more," the Dragon Keeper explained. "If you stand at both ends of this stone city, you can depart with me."

Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia hadn't expected things to progress so smoothly.

*Are we really leaving now?*

Ning Changjiu, however, felt a bit uneasy.

But the Dragon Keeper was far more powerful than them, and they had no other choice but to trust him.

The Dragon Keeper's grey robes billowed. His body floated upwards, passed through the stone wall, and rose above the stone city.

He carried the stone tablet and the entire stone city as he flew towards the sky.

A cultivator at the peak of the Five Paths ascending to the Three Legendary Realms.

Even in this era, it was an extremely rare occurrence.

The Dragon Keeper carried them high into the sky.

It was truly high up, beyond the barrier between the world and the Void Sea.

The Heavenly Dao opened before the Dragon Keeper.

The Heavenly Dao's examination of the Celestial Tablet required a process: first, it had to check if it duplicated any previous cultivators' works, then confirm the content's completeness and authenticity.

This process wasn't long, but waiting was torment.

The Celestial Tablet passed the inspection.

The Dragon Keeper let out a long breath.

He was just one step away from ultimate freedom.

The sky opened.

He stepped into it.

His body entered the Void Sea halfway.

The world suddenly fell silent.

The Dragon Keeper, who had always been calm and composed like an elderly scholar, suddenly began flailing his limbs wildly, like a drowning person grasping for a straw.

This world was land, and the Void Sea was water.

"How can this be... How can this be..."

"It was so beautiful..."

"Impossible... Impossible, why are you also here..."

"Ahhhhhh!"

The Dragon Keeper's agonizing screams echoed from the Void Sea into this world.

He struggled violently, trying to pull himself away from that world.

His face was distorted, like flesh boiled to mush, and the grand gate was absorbing him. Despite reaching the pinnacle of his realm, he had no power to resist.

Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia did not know what was happening outside.

They only heard the Dragon Keeper's heart-wrenching screams.

The cries sounded desolate and empty in the freezing high-altitude air.

"Don't ascend! Don't ascend! Don't... ah!"

At this moment, the Dragon Keeper finally recalled the most important words the Saint had spoken to both demons and humans.

Those four short words were the sternest warning.

He had previously scoffed at them, but in the last moments of his life, he repeated those four words incessantly.

His words were mournful.

Then, they abruptly ceased.

Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia both heard it.

They sensed that something was terribly wrong.

But it was too late to escape.

"Don't ascend, don't ascend..." The Dragon Keeper's words still echoed hallucinatory in the heavens, but the stone city had already instantly shattered from its center. An immense force flung its fragments in two entirely different directions, like meteors hurtling across the sky on divergent paths.