No one knew what
Flocks of birds occasionally crossed the darkened sky, their shrill cries adding an eerie quality to the night. However, these birds were only the size of a palm — a far cry from that enormous flying Demon Beast they had encountered earlier.
"What's that?" Du Ze furrowed his brow and pointed toward the wilderness in the distance.
Nie Li followed Du Ze's gaze. Through the gloom, he could faintly make out a towering stone stele standing silently in the vast emptiness far away.
A thought struck him, and Nie Li said, "Let's go take a look."
The group headed toward the towering stele, gradually closing the distance to only a few hundred meters. A wave of pressure washed over them, making it difficult to even breathe.
"What in the world is that?" Lu Piao asked, full of curiosity. Though the pressure was considerable, they were still able to continue forward.
A handful of Red Ghosts trailed behind Nie Li and the others, but the moment they felt the pressure, they scattered and fled in every direction. The towering stele exerted clearly far greater intimidation over the Red Ghosts than anything else.
"You all stay here. I'll go take a closer look," Nie Li said. To be cautious, he fused with the Shadow Demon Demon Spirit and slowly approached the stele.
"Be careful,"
When he had closed to within just a few meters, Nie Li finally raised his head and took in the full view of the stele. It stood over ten meters tall, constructed entirely from some material that even Nie Li couldn't identify, its surface a dull, ashen hue.
Carved into the stele were six types of ancient script. Nie Li could just barely make out one of them:
"Those who follow me shall be exalted. Those who defy me shall be destroyed. In my lifetime, my talent was extraordinary. At the age of ten, I comprehended the realm of Ultimate Hardness — splitting mountains and breaking stone, with nothing I could not shatter. At thirteen, I comprehended the realm of Ultimate Softness — bending fine steel around my fingers. A single palm strike could sever a river. At sixteen, I comprehended the mysteries of the Demon Spirit and broke through to the Legendary realm. By thirty, no one under heaven could withstand three of my moves; I fought every supreme expert in the world and never tasted defeat. At forty, I comprehended the Way of Heaven and Man, awakening my divine awareness, and only then did I come to know my past and present lives. At fifty, I sensed that a great tribulation was approaching. I abandoned my throne and departed without looking back, leaving behind a formula of ten words to pass on to those who would come after…"
Reading the inscription on the stele, Nie Li's heart tightened. He hadn't expected that this ancient stele had been left by Emperor Kongming. From this inscription, Nie Li could sense that Emperor Kongming had truly been a dazzling, once-in-a-generation figure during his lifetime.
What shocked Nie Li the most was that Emperor Kongming had comprehended the Way of Heaven and Man at forty and come to know his past and present lives. How was one to understand the phrase "past and present lives"?
Nie Li could faintly sense that Emperor Kongming and the Book of Time-Space Demon Spirit were intimately connected. This Emperor Kongming might very well be the key to unlocking every secret.
Emperor Kongming had left behind a formula of ten words?
Nie Li's gaze dropped to the base of the stele. He could see marks where something had been scraped away with a sharp implement, so worn and faded as to be completely illegible.
"This Emperor Kongming — what formula did he leave behind? And why was it scratched off?" Nie Li's brow furrowed deeply. Could it be that someone had already been here before him? That person had read the ten-word formula and then scratched it away to prevent anyone else from obtaining it?
Nie Li fell into deep thought. In both the Ancient Lan City ruins and these ruins, there were things left behind by Emperor Kongming. What exactly was Emperor Kongming's intention?
Nie Li felt that behind this series of clues, there had to be an astonishing secret hidden. What was all of this, really?
He searched around the base of the stele for a long while but found nothing else. With a thought, he extended his fingers and touched the scraped marks. On the surface of the stele, mysterious ripples slowly spread outward.
"I didn't expect that when Emperor Kongming erected this stele, he had already surpassed the Legendary realm. When he carved these characters, he had already imprinted his own realization into the stone. Although a later visitor scratched away the carved text, they could not erase the realization that Emperor Kongming had left within the stele." One image after another flashed through Nie Li's mind.
He seemed to see, in the distant void, a middle-aged man dressed in white, standing silently still.
"Who am I? Where did I truly come from, and where am I going? As far as my gaze can reach, countless lives are constantly perishing, and yet countless more are born. Every species struggles within the cycle of reincarnation, but the blood of our ancestors flows on within us. Humanity ceaselessly pursues the path of the strong — but at the end of that path, what lies waiting?" The white-clad middle-aged man let out a quiet sigh. "What is the Dao?"
"What is the Dao?" Nie Li smiled faintly to himself. It was a question that bewildered countless cultivators when they broke through the Legendary realm toward higher domains. "Existence itself is the Dao."