Dao Lecture From A Distant Starry Sky

The qualified group of five stepped onto the altar. They discovered that their immortal senses were all restricted. They could only use their vision to get a grasp on their situation.

Abruptly, a disturbance occurred and the five ascendants turned around in response. It was Pei Qing who had successfully been summoned by the altar.

There were weird Space-Time fluctuations all around the now group of six. As they all soon came to the realisation that atop the altar was completely different from what could be perceived from its foot.

Absolutely everything atop the altar seemed both real and fuzzy, as if it was existent and illusory at the same time. The group of six could see a vast piece of flat land with 3,000 open seats used for dao-seeking as their vision spread. Each of the immortal seats gleamed with light and had runic patterns on them, exuding a mysterious air. In fact, these 3,000 seats resembled praying mats.

Right in the front of the 3,000 seats, a palace could be seen. There was a long hallway, and a gigantic statue as vivid as life could be seen sitting cross-legged with its eyes closed. This statue was so life-like that it seemed to be alive, and yet also a statue.

In this mirage-like world atop the altar, only this statue seemed to be always real.

"Welcome to the opening of the Dao Sacred Academy mortal from the past." An ethereal voice rang out as the statue opened its eyes.

As they heard the voice, each newly arrived ascendant was forcefully moved into a bowl and submerged into Supreme Being Liquid. Then swiftly dragged onto one of the 3,000 immortal praying mats.

The positioning of the 3,000 immortal seats seemed a little weird. At the first row, there was only one seat; two seats at the second row; three seats at the third row and so on and so forth until the number 3,000 was reached. The latter number rows had the most number of seats.

Pei Qing was moved to the 3,000th immortal seat, Beiming Lengyu was placed onto the 2,999th seat, Beiming Yang was granted the 2,998th seat, Cao Zhan was a little ahead onto the 2,997th seat, Fang Yu was even further ahead onto the 2,996th seat, Ji Bolin was on the 2,995th seat with Xu Nu before him on the 2994th seat whilst the Netherworld Prince beat everyone at the 2,993rd immortal seat.

The scenery changed at the outskirt of the altar and out of nowhere a crowd of supreme demons appeared. They were like mirages on a hot sunny day, visibly not real.

As time went on, more and more of these illusory immortals and demons appeared. They all appeared intrigued as the sacred academy was opening; they were visibly waiting for someone to expound on the great dao.

The eight of the present as well as everyone from the future, numbered more than thousands, had all arrived.

Everyone in the projection of the future quietly stood there, staring at the 3,000 immortal seats seemingly eager to pounce on one. The eight ascendants, who were not yet being blessed with Supreme Being Liquid, could easily guess their state of mind. That crowd of immortals in the future were clearly thinking about who among them would be able to possess the seat in the lead.

The eight ascendants then witnessed more scenes in the mirage, an illusoryscape of the future.

"The expounding of the Great Dao by the sacred academy. There are only 3,000 seats available." The ethereal voice rang out once more. It was unknown where the voice originated from and when everyone irrespective of their position in time glanced at the life-like statue, there were no hints of any movements from it.

"The expounding of the Great Dao by the sacred academy. There are only 3,000 seats available." That voice rang out once more, causing the hearts of the immortals to tremble.

At that moment the eight ascendants gained a better grasp of what was happening. The crowd in the mirage was going to be under some type of trial because of the rules erected. It was obvious what kind of trial it was, sieving the weak from the strong. Despite the number of supreme geniuses present in the mirage, only the top 3,000 would be able to gain an immortal seat.

The many thousand of people in the mirage behind the bathing eight, all looked ravenously at the 3,000 immortal seats.

Cao Zhan who was the most experienced from the later group could spot countless heritages in that translucent crowd.

"Just counting the demon races, there's the Western Sea Dragon Race, White Tiger Race, Sky Roc Race. Then there are the maidens with phoenix blood as well as members of the Beast God Sect." Cao Zhan exclaimed despite not knowing if the others could hear him.

A simple question was all over Cao Zhan's mind; Out of all these geniuses situated an unknown amount of years in the future, who would be qualified enough to sit in the lead seat, listening to the sacred academy expounding on the Great Dao?!

This was when the eight ascendants were once more surprised beyond their wildest imagination.

"Mortals from the past, you are about to participate in a Dao Lecture from 1,000 odd years in the future. The Supreme Being Liquid is meant to offset the great dao so that you can attend despite your low level of cultivation." An ethereal voice rang out of everywhere but this time only the eight ascendants could hear.

As this was happening, the crowd in the mirage sprung into action.

The eight ascendants could see a figure about three metres tall walking out from the crowd of demons and immortals. This person, despite being fuzzy to the eight, exuded an explosive strength; he had thick limbs and a herculean physique, both his eyes were crimson red in colour — terrifying to the extreme.

This staunch fuzzy figure's cultivation base was also exceedingly high even compared to many of the immortals from the crowd, at the eighth-level of the immortal foundation.

"An ape-type demonic beast that hails from the westernmost location of the entire immortal realms - the land of desolation, within the Ten Thousand Mountain Range." Ji Bolin silently thought as he recalled details of events that had not yet occurred.

"This ape-type demonic beast moving first from the crowd should be a Fiery-eyed Berserk Ape from the Ten Thousand Mountain Range" Ji Bolin said out loud.

Immediate responses could be heard, the ascendants could communicate.

"I heard the Ten Thousand Mountain Range is exceedingly vast and is a place akin to the Myriad Devil Islands. It's a place of absolute death for human cultivators if they head into the depths of it. The demons there also seem to live a life separate from the others in the immortal realms, there are rarely conflicts between them and others in the world. However, the information the immortal realms have about that place, is even lesser compared to information about the Myriad Devil Islands. Does that mean that in the future demons from that land of hell will exist their holy lands and enter our human territory because of that sacred academy appearance!!" Cao Zhan responded with shock.

"Indeed. If demons in that place come enmasse, there would surely be a great commotion just like during the few times when the Myriad Devil Islands sent out their forces. Could it be that an Ancient Emperor will be born in the future?!" One of the Beiming Cousins was just as shocked and theorised.

"Look at this greater demon, its eyes are both red and seem to truly match those of the infamous Fiery-eyed Berserk Ape of the legends. Other than the Ten Thousand Mountain Range, there are absolutely no other places where traces of this particular race of greater demons originated." The other Beiming Cousin added.

That greater demon walked to the open immortal seat that was at the forefront passing by the presumably invisible ascendants. Those eights immediately guessed that only them could see that crowd of immortals in such a mirage-like fashion, a one-way screen of sort.

The fiery-eyed berserk ape stomped the ground menacingly and stepped upon it. But at that very instant, the immortal seat shone with a brilliant light that shot up into the sky, painting a scene in the air.

"ROAR!" That illusory expert suddenly howled in rage. An instant later, with a thunderous boom, the demonic ape expanded its form. A towering incomparably violent demonic beast could be seen in the scene, over the height of ten thousand zhangs and formed of astral light. Both its eyes were a scorching red as violent flames sprang into being around it. It looked as though it had entered into a berserk state. The gigantic ape then raised its head and roared, causing the sky and earth to crack apart. But despite its power, an instant later, an overwhelming pressure slammed into it with supreme might from the Great Dao.

"Truly a Fiery-eyed Berserk Ape!" Fang Yu muttered.

Everyone among the crowd from the future had shocked expressions on their faces when they saw the true form of that person who attempted to sit on the lead seat.

"BOOM!" A deafening sound echoed out. The human-form ape was blasted from the immortal seat and slammed ruthlessly onto the ground. The earth in the surroundings rang out with a dull sound. He climbed up with great difficulty, his crimson-red eyes staring at the lead seat as a violent aura erupted from him. It seems that he might enter the berserk state again at any moment.

"Three thousand immortal seats, who can take the lead seat? That lead seat isn't so easy for one to sit upon." The hearts of the eight trembled in the present as they witnessed the future.

The fiery-eyed ape was blasted down so effortlessly. The Fiery-eyed Berserk Ape was from the land of desolation, originating from the Ten Thousand Mountain Range. It is most definitely a greater demon with a very highly-graded bloodline. Yet even so, it could not acquire the rights to sit in the lead seat.

It naturally wouldn't be so easy to obtain that seat, before the multitude of supreme experts from humanity and the demon races!

The eight ascendants then thought of how they were unworthy of even these eight backrow immortal seats without the assistance of Supreme Being Liquid.

Then, not even a few breaths of time later, more and more of the crowd tried all in vain. Ji Bolin in his bowl, on his immortal praying mat could not help but marvel at this sight. Events unfolded just as they were meant to happen.

White-eye, one of the demon kings of the White Tiger Race stepped forth and was blasted down.

Then a handsome-looking and fearsome figure from the Sky Demon Palace stepped forth and was also blasted down.

The experts from the God Beast Sect failed as well, unable to change anything.

A more fearsome greater demon, Jia Nantian, also gambled on the rights to the first seat. He aimed at becoming the king of all demons, conquering the world, subduing the demons of the Dragon Island and the Ten Thousand Mountain Range. Jia Nantian transformed back into his true form. In the mirage, both his eyes contained a supreme pride, gleaming with terrifying light yet he too failed.

Attempts did not stop in the mirage, a greater demon from the Dragon Island stepped forth and revealed his true form, a demonic dragon. As this expert stepped upon the seat, the starry scene appeared once again. A terrifying demonic fire dragon appeared. This fire dragon rushed against the bout of power multiple times, firmly believing in the strength of its body. However, despite his attempts, he still failed to break through the bout of pressure from the Great Dao — failure.

Ji Bolin inside his bowl of Supreme Being Liquid was busy looking out for the true protagonist of the Astral Universe, the Ancient Godly Monarch. As Bolin's vision spread, he finally caught sight of a white puppy — Little Rascal. It was being held by a beauty and next to the puppy was HIM.

But how great was Ji Bolin's surprise when he understood that he could not remember the face of the Ancient Godly Monarch no matter how many times he landed sight on him. Could it be that as someone who transcended his natal universe, laws of that same universe could not reproduce his figure?

Ji Bolin could only sign in defeat, for now unable to witness him.

As Ji Bolin was puzzled, the sacred academy became even more frenzied hearing some truth.

"For the 3,000 seats, after a seat is acquired, no one else is permitted to seize the seats away from the first person to get it." That ethereal voice rang out again, causing the gazes of everyone in the mirage to stiffen.

The consequences to that rule were immediate. A large mayhem unleashed.

In the mirage, the Fiery-eyed Berserk Ape moved towards the white tiger king. When the white tiger saw that, he howled in rage causing an air of balefulness to gush out. The 'king' character appeared on his forehead, wanting to frighten the ape away. However, the Fiery-eyed Berserk Ape transformed into his true form, causing an intense violent chaotic aura to gush out, which caused the hearts of everyone to tremble. The space between the 3,000 seats was very vast, even if the greater demons revert back to their true forms, they wouldn't occupy too large a space.

The auras of the two greater demons collided, shaking the space around them. The white tiger king was enveloped in an air of balefulness, while the Fiery-eyed Berserk Ape was surrounded by crazed flames. Both of them punched out, generating wind storms so powerful that the spectators with lower cultivation bases were flung into the air from the impact of their blows. For those who wanted to take the second row of seats, they had to have powerful bloodlines as well as a sufficiently high level of cultivation. Weaker demons need not even dream about this.

The two greater demons retreated simultaneously. Their eyes bore into each other, no one was willing to concede.

However, over at the other seat in the second row, the demonic fire dragon expert from before, was now on top of it, fighting against the might from the Great Dao. But the greater demons behind him soon discovered that even for the second row of seats, the heavenly might from the Great Dao was still so great that it was apparent that the demonic dragon had difficulty fighting against it. After a few short moments, the demonic fire dragon was knocked off one of the second seats.

The eight ascendants continued to silently watch all of that drama unfold from the comfort of their bowl. The truth was seeing these immortals make use of their attribute energies from that close was of great help to the eight of them. This stood even more true for Fang Yu.

Once more all of the demonic beast failed to seize the second immortal seat until Jia Nantian tried.

From the comfort of his bowl, Cao Zhan was the first to comment, "As expected, the golden-winged great rocs of the Sky Roc Race are even rarer than king white tigers of the White Tiger Race. Their bloodline is definitely of a higher grade. It is of no surprise that a prince of such a race can secure that seat."

Then slowly but surely more seats were won until all were filled by the illusory geniuses. In the mirage of the future, for seats in the second row — one of the seats was already taken by Jia Nantian. The other seat was actually taken by a demonic beast which didn't attract too much attention earlier. This demonic beast was extremely terrifying and was a lion that came from the land of desolation, the Ten Thousand Mountain Range. It was a variant-type demonic beast, a descendant of the Golden Lion King. There were wings on its back and when it reverted to its true form, golden armour enveloped it completely, seemingly indestructible. The pureness of his bloodline was also extremely startling and a roar from this lion could break mountains and rivers, even tear apart the space here.

Many people both in and outside of the mirage signed silently. These demonic beasts from the Ten Thousand Mountain Range were truly extremely rare and exceedingly powerful. This variant lion-type beast had a total of two bloodlines, allowing it to have the power of flight as well as the fearsome defence and devouring ability of lions. It was a truly rarely seen demon king.

There were three seats in the third row, one of the white tiger kings managed to obtain one, a demonic dragon from the Western Sea Dragon Island obtained another, and the third seat was obtained by the Fiery-eyed Berserk Ape from before. He only managed to obtain that seat by entering his berserk state. Even for the third row, the seats are not so easily obtained.

The competition for the fourth and fifth rows grew even more intense as the seats were taken one after the other. The experts from the Battle Saint Tribe and Southern Phoenix Clan all acted and seized some seats for themselves. For the Battle Saint Tribe, because their Saint Lord didn't want to attract too much attention, the experts of the tribe all chose seats from the fifth to tenth row. Although these couldn't be considered the front seats, it was still pretty high quality in comparison to the rest.

The eight ascendants soon discovered that the people in the mirage from the Sky Demon Palace, God Beast Sect, Skymist Immortal Empire, these peak powers of human cultivators, all eventually chose to give up the contest for the front row seats.

These eights understood that compared to demonic beasts, they were more low-profile and weren't as tyrannical. This could only mean that in the future, in this particular sacred academy, the number of demons exceeded humans by many times. If not, then why were the extremely powerful individuals among these powers temporarily enduring patiently?!

At last the dao lecture was about to start for both those in the present and those in the future.

The statue ahead still sat there quietly with no hints of life but everyone believed that this was no statue but was a real life human instead. After all, this place was the Heavenly Dao Sacred Academy, how could a statue give a lecture?

"Close your eyes, focus your spirit." An ethereal voice drifted over from the void. As the sound of this voice faded, everyone felt a state of tranquillity. They quelled the disturbances in their soul and quieted down, following the instructions. At this moment, on the thousands of immortal seats, silence was everywhere.

For those in the present, the Supreme Being Liquid finally entered their body and soothed their spirit.

Gradually, the immortal seats all suddenly flashed with light. Everyone seated on them felt a sense of illusion in their minds. It seemed like the crowd in the mirage were no longer within the academy whilst these eight were no long on the Supreme Ancient Altar. They were all collectively in the vast emptiness of the great void.

"You can open your eyes now." That ethereal voice rang out once more. Everyone opened their eyes and an instant later, their expressions all froze.

Right now, they were actually no longer in neither the sacred academy nor the Darknorth Immortal Gorge, but were in the boundless starry skies instead.

Also, they were still either sitting on their immortal seats or sitting in the depths of their Supreme Being Liquid bowl. Boundless astral light cascaded down from the heavens, the constellations around them seemed akin to constellations within the nine heavenly layers, all of them shining with resplendent light, shining their light upon these 3,008 supreme geniuses.

Before them, that statue seemed to open its eyes. A faint projection covered in mist appeared, emitting no aura. But it was precisely because of this that everyone felt fear in their hearts. The strength of this person was assuredly extremely strong, far surpassing their imaginations.

"This time, the sacred academy is opened as this is the first twelve years cycle to have passed. After this, every twelve years from now, there will be a lecture expounding on the Great Dao." That person slowly spoke. "Mortals from the past can only attend one Dao lecture."

Such an opportunity was extremely rare. All of them in the mirage had to do their best to comprehend and gain insight from the lecture, upgrading themselves. Those eight in the present were obviously disheartened by such a rule.

"For immortal-foundation experts, you guys use the law immortal energy of the heavens and earth to establish your immortal foundation, cultivating various different attributes and upgrading your immortal might. However, do you know where this law energy originates from?" That person continued, issuing a question to everyone.

All of the eight ascendants were nearing that stage of cultivation, they were all ear trying to gain as much insight as possible.

As many times previously, Cao Zhan was the first to try to talk but unfortunately could not. This was when all of them eight realised that they could only passively listen but not intervene.

"I heard that the heavens and earth have their own original source of energy, these law attribute energies are wisps of transformed energy from the original source. My inheritary memories recorded that the first among my ancestors was birthed by this original source of energy, transformed into a golden-winged emperor roc. He wasn't restricted by the heavens and earth and could slash apart heavenly might with a single swipe of his wings. Spreading his wings, he could traverse the world in an instant. No one else could be comparable to him." In the mirage the king among the sky rocs spoke in an incomparably tyrannical tone. Jia Nantian wanted nothing more than to pursue the path of his ancestor, becoming an existence like that.

The lowly ascendants could only listen, eyes full of stars and longing.

"You are partially right. However, even if you are a pure-blooded golden-winged roc king, there's no way for you to directly control that original source of energy. You still have to depend on yourself to gain insight." That misty figure was as though it could sense the arrogance in Jia Nantian's heart and lust in those eight's hearts.

This figure wanted to urge Jia Nantian and all the others to take things a step at a time, solidifying their own foundation. He wanted for him to not vainly pursue some vague past glory due to being blinded by his inherited memories.

"Junior understands senior's intention." The illusory Jia Nantian respectfully replied.

Although that fellow was a king among sky rocs, he didn't dare to peer down on everything with disdain. The senior before them could crush him as well as anyone else here, present or future, to death with a single finger. No matter how strong his ancestor was, Jia Nantian after all, was himself and not his ancestor.

"However, for pure-blooded demonic beast like you, you guys truly have an innate advantage. Your talent and potential is undoubtable, as long as you grow step-by-step, you would easily be able to become an immortal emperor smoothly with no kinks on your path of cultivation. Such talent definitely would cause many demons and humans to be filled with envy but similarly, you have to understand that such talent is also a form of restriction. The path of your growth is basically already set, you have no choice but to walk down the path of your ancestor. Compared to demonic beasts, humans have a much higher moldability factor."

That misty figure spoke, everyone here could clearly understand this point.

Naturally, this referred to humans with extraordinary talent.

For ordinary humans, they could only resign to their fates of staring at the backs of these extraordinary individuals, unable to catch up to them forever.

In the present, the eight ascendants were gobbling down all of these words of wisdom as the Supreme Being Liquid prevented them from going astray in their understanding of these insights.

In the starry space, everyone sat upon the immortal seats and listened quietly.

"Humans are also known as the spirit of everything, they are treated with love from the heaven and earth. Their perception and affinity with the constellations can be increased through cultivation. They are able to seek out constellations that are suitable for them and they are essentially, spoiled for choice. Even if they inherited the powerful bloodlines of their ancestors, they also possessed this inherent advantage as a human. They not only can focus on the path of their ancestor's inheritance, they can also forge their own path, and seek their own dao."

"Demons are different. If you want a golden-winged great roc to comprehend water-attribute energy, is it suitable? The higher grade of bloodline a demonic beast has, the more powerful their inheritance would be. Their paths, are already fixed and on the contrary, for some ordinary demonic beasts that don't have any ancestor's inheritance to depend on, they are the ones who have a chance to forge their own path and seek their dao."

"As the saying goes, you will lose something in return for something you gain. This is a simple logic. No matter who you are, you have to see your worth clearly and not underestimate yourself. Once you envy or admire the strength and talent of those greater demons with inherited memories, you will lose yourself. Those who can sit upon these seats are all extraordinary characters. Even if right now, you have to incline your heads and look up to those imposing golden-winged rocs and demonic dragons, who knows if one day in the future, your mounts would be them instead?"

That expert continued to speak, the voice of this expert was like the morning bell, containing a unique magic that seemed to be reminding them.

With regards to this lecture, although it was common knowledge, it was filled with sufficient weightage when spoken by the expert before their eyes. In the mirage even the golden-winged great rocs and demonic dragons didn't dare to rebut him much less our eight ascendants.

"The law attribute energies are in fact, the techniques and arts of the heavens and earth. They are a kind of rule of the world. In this world where you lived in, among the boundless stars, the constellations in the nine heavenly layers all contain an incredibly profound energy. The stronger you are, the more clearly you can sense them. The countless number of constellations formed the laws of the heaven and earth, which in turn created the various attribute energies. For living things, they can comprehend, cultivate, control and eventually transform into a being of law. This entire process will go on and on until finally one day...where you can create a type of law using your own strength, making your law exist in this world."

The voice drifted into the ears of all the experts inside and outside of the mirage, causing their hearts to tremble. They could faintly sense that the words of this expert resembled the truth of this world. It was a higher logic of the Great Dao.

"Nobody knows what sort of natural laws were born exactly at the instant this universe was created. But even if we can reverse time and head back to that exact moment of creation, the law energies then would definitely not be as perfect as they are today where there are countless variations, leading to countless choices for you all to choose from. I believe all this was calculated at the moment of creation. In our world, the five elements are everywhere, forming the basis of most of the natural laws. But other than these, maybe it's because of the long amount of time living beings cultivated for, these law attribute energies are unceasingly being perfected."

"Have you all thought of this before? In the boundless starry skies, there are some worlds which were formed from unique law energy structures. For example there's only spatial energy existing in some worlds. In those worlds, they are in fact inhabitable by humans or demonic beasts. But supreme experts could make use of this, comprehending the law fluctuations of that world to gain insights. Another perspective; for worlds formed with the energy of metal, everyone in that world would only comprehend and cultivate the law of metal, eventually evolving it to perfection."

Everyone here clearly understood this point. This was like why some major powers only cultivate a certain attribute energy. It was just that this lecture was speaking of a much much broader perspective - that of the entire universe.