Chapter 187: Foundation of Charms

"The heavens?"

Zheng Fa looked up; the golden crow had already sunk westward, the mountains grew ever more serene, and the sky appeared no different from usual.

Yet now this vast, ordinary dome seemed draped in a mysterious veil within his heart.

"Zhang Shijie..." he paused, then asked: "In the records of the Xuanwei Realm, is there any description of what lies beyond the heavens?"

"No," Zhang Shijie shook her head gently: "At least, I've never read any. No one knows how many layers the sky holds, or what lies above."

"Not quite... someone should know." Zheng Fa suddenly recalled something: "The River Heaven Master once tried to break the celestial chains."

When Zheng Fa first discovered the jade pendant in his mind sea, he had seen a figure flying toward the heavens, never to return, leaving behind only this jade pendant.

He had always suspected that man was the River Heaven Master.

Zhang Shijie nodded slightly, seemingly agreeing with Zheng Fa's judgment.

"This..." Zheng Fa frowned and shook his head: "So there may be secrets above the sky—but those secrets killed even the River Heaven Master."

Zhang Shijie's expression grew heavy.

Zheng Fa's heart too grew solemn.

The celestial chains...

What exactly had the River Heaven Master understood at that time?

Was he truly without any other path, so he sought to cleave open heaven and earth?

"You're only at Qi Refining, and I've just reached Nascent Soul," Zhang Shijie said, seeing his puzzled expression: "If even the River Heaven Master couldn't solve this, we're powerless."

Hearing this, Zheng Fa set aside his doubts and asked Zhang Shijie: "You said the Five Elements Sub-charms resonate with the heavens—how so?"

Zhang Shijie frowned, as if recalling the sensation.

"I can't quite describe it... when I formed my Nascent Soul, you saw those twin heavenly tribulation eyes, right?"

"Yes."

"I felt as if it glanced at the Five Elements Sub-charms on my Nascent Soul—those sub-charms even momentarily detached from my Nascent Soul... before settling back down."

After hearing Zhang Shijie's description, Zheng Fa fell into thought.

Seeing he still looked confused, she comforted him: "At least I've proven that the Foundation Establishment via the Dao of Charms is now safe."

"Hmm..."

The two spoke earnestly; beside them, Yuan Shijie had long finished eating the wild fruits and was now plucking at the grass nearby, her expression distant, filled with deep thought.

This unusual look on her face piqued Zheng Fa's curiosity:

"Yuan Shijie, do you have any thoughts?"

"Thoughts?" Yuan Shijie blinked at the two, bewildered: "I don't have any—I don't understand what you're saying."

"... hen what were you thinking about just now?"

"I was thinking about the Heavenly Stele," Yuan Shijie's eyes lit up: "The Heavenly Stele is so fun."

"Fun?"

Zheng Fa glanced at Zhang Shijie; he had been preoccupied with her escape and hadn't cared much about the Heavenly Stele.

But for most people, the most important thing in the Lei Chi was truly the Heavenly Stele.

"Yes, now it's called the Divine Sealing Stele!" Yuan Shijie said.

"Divine Sealing?"

Zheng Fa froze.

The Xuanwei Realm knew no gods.

He had only heard this word in the modern world.

"Yes, that's what everyone calls it," Yuan Shijie explained: "It seems there's a small world inside the Heavenly Stele, and the great beings within it are called gods—anyone who enters the stele... seems to be enshrined as a god."

"Enshrined?" Zhang Shijie frowned: "Like how mortal dynasties enshrine ministers? Can gods even be enshrined?"

"I don't understand either—it's what they say," Yuan Shijie shook her head: "They say the divine ranks have hierarchies; everyone entering the stele starts with different ranks, and those ranks can change after entry—what's even more fun is that the rankings appear atop the stele, visible to all."

"..."

Zheng Fa could already imagine why Yuan Shijie thought this was fun.

A leaderboard!

In the modern world, even billionaire rankings made headlines daily.

"I go to the Heavenly Stele every day just to watch the spectacle—people even place bets on the rankings," Yuan Shijie said excitedly: "Right now, Yan Wushuang is temporarily ranked first, but it's not stable."

Within the Five Dragon Heavenly Palace.

Master Pang's banquet had not yet ended; the grand hall remained noisy.

But Zheng Fa did not join the revelry.

He sat in his room, eyes closed, spiritual sense fixed on the Yin-Yang Fish jade pendant in his mind sea.

His conversation with Zhang Shijie and Yuan Shijie had filled his mind with thoughts.

Zhang Shijie said she knew nothing of what lay beyond the heavens.

But Zheng Fa knew—the River Heaven Master had gone beyond the heavens, yet dropped this very pendant.

And this pendant allowed him to travel back and forth.

So... the things beyond the heavens were likely deeply connected to the modern world.

Especially those two words Yuan Shijie mentioned: "Divine Sealing."

This struck Zheng Fa deeply—

In the modern world, immortals and gods were spoken of as equals.

But in the Xuanwei Realm, only immortal sects existed; he had never heard of gods.

This word's connection to the modern world was even stronger than its connection to the Xuanwei Realm.

After thinking for a while, he smiled and let go of his thoughts—Zhang Shijie was right: problems even the River Heaven Master couldn't fully solve couldn't be understood by mere speculation.

He directed his spiritual sense into his dantian, observing the floating Dao of Charms Foundation.

Yet he still had some thoughts regarding Zhang Shijie's words—

In three-dimensional space, chiral objects cannot be flipped.

But higher dimensions differ—each additional dimension adds a degree of freedom, so chirality in three dimensions can be reversed in higher-dimensional space.

If the mysterious sky were viewed as a higher-dimensional space.

Zheng Fa's heart stirred; his Foundation began to change.

The ring formed by the Five Elements Sub-charms detached from the lotus platform and settled at its center.

"What is a mirror..." Zheng Fa frowned, pondering the old man's question, and began manipulating the ring.

Mirror...

Reflection... ultimately, it's a shadow...

Shadow... projection?

The chirality of the charm diagram is actually a projection of some higher-dimensional object from different angles?

His Foundation... was it itself a mirror?

Zheng Fa suddenly looked up, as if seeing through the roof into the boundless night sky.

With this thought,

The spiritual energy around the Five Elements Sub-charms slowly coalesced, becoming viscous, like jelly; it slowly deformed and hardened, truly resembling a mirror surface—or rather, a ring-shaped double-sided mirror.

Now the sub-charm ring resembled a bracelet with mirrors on both inner and outer surfaces; the Five Elements Sub-charms appeared to drift within the mirrors, becoming ethereal.

Double-sided mirror—one side yin, one side yang?

An idea spontaneously arose in Zheng Fa's mind.

But the essence of yin-yang unity might simply be that it is one single higher-dimensional object.

Yet why does this phenomenon also occur in the dantian...?

Even these two "mirrors" never intersect.

Intersect?

His mind stirred; the "bracelet double mirror" suddenly split in the middle, twisted, then reattached.

A Möbius strip...

The two mirrored surfaces, through this structure, perfectly fused—if one could say so.

Zheng Fa frowned.

If the charm diagrams have different projections because of different "mirror" angles—then these two mirrored surfaces, through this configuration, are indistinguishable, even inseparable as yin and yang.

But... is this really correct?

Zheng Fa felt like scratching his head; his doubts had not diminished.

It felt like a legendary program had started running, and he didn't know why.

The next moment, he felt the "Möbius double mirror" tremble.

Spiritual energy in the void surged wildly toward his dantian.

"Foundation Established?" Zheng Fa's eyes widened; suddenly, his soul felt yanked by something, shooting out of his body, piercing through the roof of the Five Dragon Heavenly Palace, soaring into the heavens.

The sky was already very late.

The sun had long set.

But the sky was bright—

In Zheng Fa's "eyes," a vast, majestic purple qi stretched thousands of li, obscuring the dim stars and blocking the moon's glow.

This commotion... is a bit too big.

Inside the grand hall, Master Pang and several others had been drinking.

"Master Pang, how did you discover that the Black Tortoise Immortal was from the Great Freedom Demon Cult?" someone asked. "I thought you were quite friendly with him at first."

"You underestimate Master Pang," another chuckled. "Master Pang always has a deep plan—he likely saw through that man's deceit from the start and simply played along."

"Exactly! Otherwise, how could he have eliminated the scoundrel in one stroke!"

"Master Pang truly holds wisdom in his grasp, concealing his sharpness..."

Master Pang listened to their flattery, raising his cup with a smile but saying nothing.

The speakers exchanged glances, silently cursing inside—this man is truly deceitful at heart, smiling with a knife behind his teeth!

Yet precisely because of this, they grew even more respectful toward Master Pang, even showing faint traces of awe.

Master Pang watched coldly, his face growing ever gentler, while inwardly he felt a touch of pride.

At that moment, an unusual phenomenon appearing in the sky caught the attention of these Nascent Soul True Persons.

"Purple qi stretching three thousand li... what kind of omen is this?"

Though each of the Nascent Soul True Persons had seen much, they now looked at one another in confusion, unsure what had occurred.

"No! Look!"

Someone pointed to the sky.

In the east, a great sun rose.

On the west, a new moon appeared.

"Sun and moon shining together..."

At this, the group of Nascent Soul True Persons could no longer sit still.

They crowded at the hall's entrance, staring at the sky, their faces bewildered and stunned.

Clearly, even for Nascent Soul True Persons, such an omen still shook them deeply.

"Could this be... someone undergoing Soul Transformation?"

"Soul Transformation brings heavenly tribulation—besides, it would never produce such an omen."

"No, I just felt a disturbance in spiritual energy," one Nascent Soul True Person suddenly spoke. "That disturbance seemed to originate from the Five Dragon Heavenly Palace."

At this, everyone recalled the earlier commotion.

The scale of that spiritual energy had been small; they hadn't paid much attention.

But now, with this disturbance coinciding with the celestial omen, speculation naturally arose.

They all turned to the host—Master Pang, whose face wore a smile.

Under their curious gazes,

he smiled even more brilliantly, refusing to utter a single word, his expression clearly saying: This is our sect's secret.

What are you staring at? I know nothing!

That Zheng Fa kid—why is his Foundation Establishment causing such a racket!