Chapter 187: Pillar Foundation

"Above the sky?"

Zheng Fa looked up; the Golden Crow was already setting in the west, the mountains grew ever quieter, and the sky looked no different from any other day.

Yet at this moment, that vast and ordinary dome seemed to him to be veiled in a layer of mystery.

"Zhang Shijie..." He pondered for a moment, 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 have never read any. No one knows how many layers high the sky is, nor what lies above it."

"That's not right... There is someone who should know." Zheng Fa suddenly remembered something: "Tianhe Zunzhe once attempted to break the shackles of heaven and earth."

When Zheng Fa first discovered the jade pendant in his sea of consciousness, he had seen a person fly toward the firmament and never return, leaving behind only a jade pendant.

He had always suspected that person was Tianhe Zunzhe.

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

"This..." Zheng Fa frowned and shook his head: "That means there may be secrets above the sky, yet those secrets caused Tianhe Zunzhe to lose his life."

Zhang Shijie's expression grew heavy.

Zheng Fa's heart also felt somewhat solemn.

The shackles of heaven and earth...

What exactly did Tianhe Zunzhe understand at that time?

Was he truly out of options, which is why he sought to open the heavens and create the earth?

"You are only at the Qi Refining stage now, and I have just advanced to Nascent Soul." Zhang Shijie, seeing his puzzled expression, shook her head and said: "If Tianhe Zunzhe could not solve the problem, neither can the two of us."

Hearing this, Zheng Fa set aside his doubts and turned to ask Zhang Shijie: "Sister, you said the Five Elements Sub-Pillars resonate with the heavens; how is that possible?"

Zhang Shijie frowned, as if recalling her feelings at that time.

"That sensation... I cannot explain it clearly... When I formed my Nascent Soul, did you see those heavenly tribulation eyes?"

"Yes."

"At that time, I had a feeling it seemed to glance at the Five Elements Sub-Pillars on my Nascent Soul; those Five Elements Sub-Pillars even detached from my Nascent Soul for an instant... only to settle down again."

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

Seeing that he still did not understand, Zhang Shijie comforted him: "At least I have proven that forming a Nascent Soul using the 'Pillars of the Dao Foundation Establishment Method' is now assured."

"Hmm..."

While the two spoke seriously, Yuan Shijie nearby had long finished the wild fruits and was now messing with the small grass beside her; she seemed lost in thought, her expression full of contemplation.

This unusual expression on her face made Zheng Fa somewhat curious:

"Yuan Shijie, do you have any thoughts?"

"Thoughts?" Yuan Shijie looked blankly at the two of them, blinked her eyes: "I have no thoughts; I don't understand what you're saying."

"... Then what were you thinking about just now, Sister?"

"I was thinking about the matter of the Heavenly Stele." Yuan Shijie's eyes lit up as she spoke: "The Heavenly Stele is quite fun."

"Fun?"

Zheng Fa glanced at Zhang Shijie; he had been preoccupied with Zhang Shijie's rescue and was not particularly concerned about the Heavenly Stele.

But in truth, for most people, the most important matter in Lei Chi is actually the Heavenly Stele.

"Yes, now the Heavenly Stele is called the God-Sealing Stele!" Yuan Shijie said.

"God-Sealing?"

Zheng Fa was stunned.

The Xuanwei Realm has no gods.

He had only heard this term in the modern world.

"Yes, they all call it that." Yuan Shijie explained: "It seems there is a small world within the Heavenly Stele; the mighty ones in that small world seem to be called gods, and everyone who enters the Heavenly Stele—seems to be enfeoffed as a god."

"Enfeoffed?" Zhang Shijie frowned: "Like the enfeoffment of ministers in mortal dynasties? Can those so-called gods also be enfeoffed?"

"I don't understand either; that's what they say." Yuan Shijie shook her head: "I heard that god-ranks have high and low levels; everyone who enters the Heavenly Stele begins with a different god-rank, and it can change after entering the Heavenly Stele—what's even more fun is that the ranking of these god-ranks is displayed on the Heavenly Stele, visible to everyone."

"..."

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

A leaderboard!

In the modern world, even the rich people's leaderboard makes big news every day.

"I go to the Heavenly Stele every day to watch the spectacle, and some people even hold betting pools on this ranking." Yuan Shijie said with great excitement: "Right now, Yan Wushuang is temporarily ranked first, but it is not stable."

Inside the Five Dragons Tiangong.

Uncle Pang's banquet had not yet ended, and the great hall remained very noisy.

Zheng Fa did not go to join the festivities.

He sat in his room, eyes closed, his spiritual sense focused on the Yin-Yang Fish Jade Pendant in his sea of consciousness.

Today's conversation with Zhang Shijie and Yuan Shijie left him with many thoughts.

Zhang Shijie said she did not know what lies beyond the heavens.

But Zheng Fa knew that Tianhe Zunzhe went beyond the heavens and left behind this very jade pendant.

And this jade pendant allows him to travel back and forth.

Therefore... things beyond the heavens are very likely highly related to the modern world.

Especially the two words "God-Sealing" from Yuan Shijie's mouth.

This also shook Zheng Fa greatly—

In the modern world, immortals and gods are mentioned together in legends.

But in the Xuanwei Realm, there are only lineages of immortal sects; no one has ever heard of gods.

This term is even more related to the modern world than to the Xuanwei Realm.

He thought for a moment, then smiled and withdrew his thoughts—Zhang Shijie was right: if even Tianhe Zunzhe could not fully resolve the issue, it was not something he could understand through mere speculation.

He directed his spiritual sense into his dantian, watching the Yang Yuanfu foundation floating above it.

In truth, he still had some thoughts regarding Zhang Shijie's words—

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

But in higher dimensions, it is different—because each additional dimension adds one more degree of freedom mathematically, so three-dimensional chirality in higher-dimensional space can be flipped.

If one regards the mysterious sky as a higher-dimensional space.

Zheng Fa's heart stirred, and his foundation of talismans began to change.

The ring formed by the Five Elements sub-talismans detached from the lotus platform and fell to its center.

"What is a mirror…?" Zheng Fa frowned, pondering Bai Lao's question, and began manipulating the ring.

Mirror…

Mirror image… ultimately, it is a kind of shadow…

Shadow… projection?

The chirality of the talisman pattern 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 the boundless night sky through the ceiling.

With this thought of his—

The spiritual energy around the Five Elements sub-talismans slowly condensed, becoming like a gel, like jelly; this gel slowly deformed and hardened, truly resembling a mirror surface—or rather, a ring-shaped double-sided mirror.

Now the sub-talisman ring resembled a bracelet with mirrors embedded on both inner and outer surfaces; the Five Elements sub-talismans appeared to glide 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 be because it is the same higher-dimensional object.

But why does this phenomenon also exist in the dantian…

Even these two sides of the "mirror" do not intersect at all.

Intersect?

His heart stirred—the "bracelet double-sided mirror" suddenly split in the middle, twisted its body, then reattached itself.

Möbius ring…

The inner and outer mirror surfaces, through this structure, perfectly fused together—if one were to say so.

Zheng Fa frowned.

If the talisman patterns have different projections because of different "mirror" angles—then these two mirror surfaces indeed merge indistinguishably through this configuration, and one could even say yin and yang are one.

But… is this really correct?

Zheng Fa wanted to scratch his head; he felt his doubts had not diminished much.

It felt like the bewildered sensation of a legendary program starting to run, and he didn't know why.

The next moment, he felt the "Möbius double-sided mirror" shudder.

Spiritual energy in the void surged wildly toward his dantian.

"Foundation Establishment?" Zheng Fa's eyes widened; suddenly, he felt his spiritual soul being yanked by something, shooting straight out of his body, even piercing through the roof of the Five Dragon Celestial Palace, flying up to the heavens.

The sky was already very late.

The sun had long since set behind Luoshan.

But the sky was bright—

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

This commotion… is a bit too big.

…

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

"Master Pang, how did you discover that the Turtle Immortal was from the Zizaimo Sect?" someone asked: "I saw how friendly you were with him at first."

"You underestimate Master Pang, True Person," another laughed: "Master Pang always has a deep plan—he likely saw through that man's deceitful intentions long ago and merely played along."

"Exactly! Otherwise, how could he have eliminated the villain 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 face!

Yet precisely because of this, their outward respect for Master Pang grew even greater, even bordering on awe.

Master Pang watched coldly, his expression growing even gentler, inwardly feeling a touch of pride.

At this moment, the strange 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 all these Nascent Soul True Persons were well-traveled and experienced, they now looked at each other in confusion, unsure what had happened.

"Wrong! Look!"

Someone pointed to the sky.

In the east, a great sun rose.

In the west, a new moon appeared.

"Sun and moon shining together…"

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

They crowded at the entrance of the main hall, looking up at the sky, their faces blank with shock.

Clearly, even for True Persons of the Nascent Soul realm, such an omen still left them stunned.

"This is... someone has reached Soul Transformation?"

"Soul Transformation also has tribulations, let alone that such an omen would never occur."

"No, I just felt a disturbance in the spiritual energy." A True Person of the Nascent Soul suddenly spoke: "That disturbance seems to be within the Five Dragons Tiangong."

Upon hearing this, the crowd began recalling the commotion from just now.

The scale of the spiritual energy was small, and they had not paid much attention to it.

But now, with the disturbance and the omen appearing alternately, it sparked endless speculation.

They all turned their gaze to the master of this place; Uncle Pang wore a smile on his face.

Under their curious stares,

he smiled even more brilliantly, yet said not a single word, wearing an expression that suggested this was a secret of their sect.

What are you looking at? I don't know a damn thing!

That brat Zheng Fa, why does establishing his Foundation cause such a huge commotion!