ARK SPIRIT

Hao Nhien paused.

“What is it?”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao looked at him, a trace of helplessness mixed with amusement in his eyes.

“Judging by your expression, you clearly still have many things you want to ask.”

Hao Nhien was silent for a moment.

Then he nodded honestly.

“Actually… yes, I do.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao gave a soft laugh.

“Then ask.”

“This lingering obsession of mine is about to fade anyway. If I know the answer, I’ll tell you. If even I don’t know, then asking me will accomplish nothing.”

He paused.

“Consider it my way of opening a few more doors for you before I leave.”

Hao Nhien looked up.

“You’re leaving?”

“That’s right.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao looked at the extremely faint pale-blue Spirit Sword within Hao Nhien’s consciousness, and his voice softened.

“I have seen that someone has begun to comprehend my Sword Intent. Even if it is only a little, that is already enough.”

“This remnant of mine can finally leave.”

Hao Nhien felt a slight heaviness in his heart.

This was not a senior returning to life.

Nor was it an opportunity that could remain with him forever.

It was only an unwilling obsession that had slumbered within the White Ape’s soul for countless years.

Today, it had awakened for one brief moment long enough to see that the Sword Intent it had left behind had finally found someone to receive it.

And then it would fade.

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao looked toward the mountains and rivers beyond, even though no mountains or rivers actually existed within Hao Nhien’s consciousness.

“The Fading Cloud Continent is vast.”

“Tieu Dao Sword Intent may become one part of what helps you explore that vastness.”

“As for what I can say and what I can do… I’ve already done almost all of it.”

Hao Nhien hurriedly said,

“Senior, this junior’s ability is limited. I have only managed to receive the first move of your Sword Art. I truly feel ashamed.”

“There is nothing to be ashamed of.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao smiled.

“As your strength increases and your soul grows stronger, the later portions will naturally reveal themselves.”

“Take your time comprehending them.”

“I have no desire to tell you too much in advance.”

He looked at Hao Nhien, his expression becoming slightly more serious.

“That Sword Intent is only a hint.”

“Not a chain.”

“You may use that experience to create Sword Intent of your own.”

“If all you do is imitate me, then in the end you will merely become my shadow.”

“That would not be worth much.”

Hao Nhien lowered his head.

“This junior will remember.”

Outside, Tieu Lan only saw Hao Nhien fall silent from time to time, occasionally answering in a low voice.

She did not know what was happening within his consciousness, but she could guess that Senior Tieu Dao was speaking with him.

She did not interrupt.

She simply continued tending to Hao Nhien’s injuries, occasionally checking his expression to make sure his mind was not being strained too severely.

Within his consciousness, Hao Nhien’s thoughts moved quickly.

There were many things he wanted to ask.

About Tieu Dao Sword Intent.

About the Remnant Cloud Continent.

About the realms beyond.

About the Firmament.

About the man in black.

About the Time Disk.

But the remnant soul of Tieu Dao clearly did not have much time left.

He could not waste it on scattered questions.

After thinking for a moment, Hao Nhien asked,

“Senior, you spent hundreds of years observing heaven and earth and comprehending the Great Dao.”

“What does that truly mean?”

The question caused the remnant soul of Tieu Dao to fall silent.

The white-robed figure seemed to be brushed by an invisible wind, becoming slightly more indistinct.

Only after a while did he slowly speak.

“Perhaps when you reach the peak of Tribulation Transformation, you will be able to answer that question yourself.”

“But if I were to give you a general direction…”

He looked at Hao Nhien.

“Cultivators like us are always pursuing strength.”

“Some cultivate bitterly their entire lives.”

“Some spend their entire lives fighting and seizing.”

“Some spend their entire lives killing.”

“In the end, all of it is merely to possess more power.”

“But this world cannot allow you to increase that power without limit.”

“At least according to my own understanding, if the strength of a living being exceeds what the laws of heaven and earth can contain, that strength will begin to conflict with the laws of the world itself.”

“The greater the conflict, the stronger the response from heaven and earth.”

Hao Nhien listened carefully.

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao continued,

“That is why whenever a cultivator breaks through a major realm, heaven and earth naturally produce forces that obstruct, suppress, or test that transformation.”

“Some call it a tribulation.”

“Some call it a lightning tribulation.”

“What it is called does not matter.”

“At its core, it is heaven and earth reacting to a living being attempting to exceed its existing limits.”

“But there are always geniuses who survive those tribulations.”

“They pass Nascent Soul.”

“They pass Void Transformation.”

“They pass Tribulation Transformation.”

“By then, their strength has already begun to approach the power of heaven and earth itself.”

“To approach the very laws that sustain the world.”

At this point, the remnant soul of Tieu Dao’s voice grew more distant.

“One step further…”

“If they continue to do nothing but increase raw power, then the existing laws of the world will become less and less capable of restraining them in the old way.”

“But if all they know how to do is break without replacing anything…”

“Then in the end, that is merely destruction.”

He paused.

“So, according to my own understanding…”

“To enter Divine Transformation, it is not enough merely to break old laws.”

“You must create new ones.”

Hao Nhien drew a deep breath.

“Create new laws?”

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“That’s right.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao nodded.

“In other words, if you wish to enter Divine Transformation, you must create a kind of law that the world itself must acknowledge—or at the very least, cannot deny.”

“The way you merge that law into the world and make the world accept it…”

He looked at Hao Nhien.

“At least, that was how I once understood the Dao.”

Hao Nhien’s heart trembled.

The Dao.

Not a slogan.

Not a handful of mysterious-sounding words.

It was a way of bringing one’s own law into the world—

until the world itself had to acknowledge it.

He immediately asked,

“How do you make the world—and other Divine Transformation cultivators—accept your law?”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao looked at him with a hint of approval.

“You’ve asked the right question.”

He said,

“You are able to rise within this world because you learn, understand, and use the laws that already exist.”

“The deeper your understanding of those laws, the stronger you become.”

“For example, the more deeply you understand space, the better you become at increasing your speed, evading attacks, and perhaps one day even crossing distances that others cannot comprehend.”

“But no matter how skillfully you use it, you are still accepting the world’s law of space.”

“So what is Divine Transformation?”

“It is when you remain within this world, yet the existing laws can no longer interfere with you in the same way.”

“You have not completely escaped the world.”

“But you possess a law of your own that the world itself must acknowledge.”

Hao Nhien felt as though a distant door had opened somewhere in his heart.

He thought of the man in black.

He thought of the Time Disk.

He thought of the way the fate of the entire Earth had been placed on a table with cold indifference.

If that person had been at Divine Transformation—

or even higher—

then what kind of law did he possess?

Hao Nhien asked again,

“Then is there anything above Divine Transformation?”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao was silent for a moment.

“Perhaps.”

Hao Nhien held his breath.

“If such a realm truly exists…”

“I once speculated that perhaps the law of such a being would have to be strong enough to suppress, or even rise above, the other laws within the world.”

He paused, then shook his head with a smile.

“But that is only my speculation.”

“Something above Divine Transformation may not even be able to exist within this world.”

“If one absolute law were able to suppress all other laws, the balance of the world itself might be broken.”

Hao Nhien felt a faint pressure in his chest.

This information was too distant.

So distant that someone like him, only at the fourth layer of Qi Condensation, had no business thinking about it.

And yet he still had to listen.

Because the road he needed to walk might not end on the Remnant Cloud Continent.

He took a deep breath and asked,

“Senior, have you ever heard of the Firmament World?”

“The Firmament World?”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao frowned in thought.

After a while, he shook his head.

“Never.”

Hao Nhien felt a trace of disappointment, but quickly suppressed it.

“Thank you, Senior.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao smiled faintly.

“It seems you carry no small secret.”

“But I won’t ask.”

“A remnant soul that is about to disappear has little use for knowing too much.”

He looked at Hao Nhien.

“All right.”

“Then I can leave as well.”

“I hope you will come to appreciate Tieu Dao Sword Intent.”

At the words “leave,” something stirred in Hao Nhien’s heart.

Almost unconsciously, he hurriedly asked,

“Senior, where will you go?”

“Does this world have a law of Reincarnation?”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao stopped.

“Reincarnation?”

The word seemed unfamiliar to him.

“I have never heard of it.”

Hao Nhien froze.

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao looked at him meaningfully.

“Boy, you need to understand something.”

“I am only one of Tieu Dao’s obsessions concerning Sword Intent.”

“I am not his complete soul, so I do not possess all of his memories.”

“What does Reincarnation mean to you?”

Hao Nhien felt slightly embarrassed.

The question had come almost entirely from instinct.

Ever since arriving in this world, he had repeatedly felt that life and death, memory, soul, and the ties between people were all far more complicated than they appeared.

The fact that he had entered the body of Quan Hao Nhien.

The matter of Anh Nhien.

The strange things Tieu Lan sometimes said.

The way Tieu Dao Sword Intent seemed unusually compatible with his soul.

All of it had caused the word Reincarnation to surface naturally in his mind.

He cupped his hands.

“My apologies, Senior.”

“It was only a passing thought.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao laughed.

“Then tell me.”

“For a remnant soul about to disappear, hearing something interesting before leaving is not a bad thing.”

Hao Nhien thought for a moment before speaking.

“To me, Reincarnation is a kind of law that compels us to return to the world in some form…”

“So that we may complete what was left unfinished.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao fell silent.

Hao Nhien continued, his voice becoming slightly distant.

“No matter where I am, I feel that there must be some kind of law that preserves completion.”

“If no such law exists, then everything becomes distorted and unbalanced.”

“If a person dies and every obsession, every thread of cause and effect, every unfinished matter simply disappears completely…”

“Then perhaps the world would be a very cold place.”

“But if all things can return somehow, in another form, to continue completing what was left unfinished…”

“Then perhaps life and death are not simply endings.”

He paused, then gave a bitter smile.

“I don’t fully understand it myself.”

“It was only an impulsive thought.”

“Senior need not take it seriously.”

But the remnant soul of Tieu Dao did not laugh.

He looked at Hao Nhien for a very long time.

“Even though I am only an obsession, and my soul is incomplete, I can still sense something interesting in your thoughts, boy.”

His voice became more distant.

“Reincarnation…”

“To return in some form and complete what was left unfinished.”

“Interesting.”

“Very interesting.”

He seemed to mutter to himself.

“If that were true, it could explain a few things…”

A bad feeling suddenly rose in Hao Nhien’s heart.

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao looked at him, his expression becoming increasingly strange.

“Could it be…”

“That you are Tieu Dao after a cycle of Reincarnation?”

He paused.

Then burst out laughing at his own thought.

“If so, wouldn’t that mean I’m speaking to another part of myself?”

“Wait!”

Hao Nhien was so startled that he nearly shouted aloud in the real world.

“Senior is thinking far too much.”

“How could I possibly be you?”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao laughed.

“I already told you.”

“I’m not much of a senior anymore.”

“I am only a remnant soul, one fragment separated from Tieu Dao’s soul.”

He looked at Hao Nhien with clear interest.

“Then why, when I first encountered you, did I feel a connection I had never felt before?”

“Even then, you did not yet possess the Spirit Sword.”

“Why is your soul so compatible with Tieu Dao Sword Intent?”

Hao Nhien was momentarily speechless.

He hesitated, intending to explain.

But the words stopped before leaving his mouth.

Had he truly come from another world?

His soul came from Earth.

But this body belonged to Quan Hao Nhien of the Remnant Cloud Continent.

Quan Hao Nhien’s memories now existed within him.

Perhaps the answer was not as simple as any explanation he could give at this moment.

If he himself was uncertain, speaking would only make things more confusing.

Hao Nhien cupped his hands.

“I don’t think so, Senior.”

“There may be another reason.”

“It’s just that even I do not understand it yet.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao smiled.

“Then understand it slowly.”

Hao Nhien suddenly remembered the message carved into the stone tablet.

Follow the heart and act.

He drew in a breath.

“That’s right.”

“Follow the heart and act.”

“What is meant to come will come.”

He looked at the remnant soul of Tieu Dao, his voice becoming more serious.

“If Reincarnation exists, then Senior Tieu Dao will one day complete what you left unfinished.”

“If Reincarnation does not exist, then I will use your Sword Intent to complete part of that unfinished wish.”

“At the very least, I will carry the Tieu Dao Sword and let it see a wider world.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao looked at him.

After a while, he laughed loudly.

“Good boy.”

The laughter echoed through Hao Nhien’s consciousness, far more carefree than before.

“The more I hear, the more I begin to believe that Reincarnation may truly be some kind of law.”

“Perhaps we will meet again one day.”

Hao Nhien had been speaking seriously, but after hearing that, he rested his chin on one hand and began thinking again.

“Unless there is another possibility…”

“Reincarnation is a law that extends across multiple worlds.”

“If that were true, then maybe I really could be Tieu Dao returned…”

He shuddered at his own thought.

“That’s far too unbelievable.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao laughed even harder.

His laughter echoed—

then gradually faded.

When Hao Nhien looked again, the remnant image of Tieu Dao was already beginning to blur within his consciousness.

The silver-white light around the white-robed figure dispersed little by little, like thin clouds meeting the wind.

Hao Nhien hurriedly called,

“Senior…”

The figure grew fainter.

“Boy, remember this.”

“My Sword Intent is only a hint.”

“Do not turn it into a cage.”

“My Great Dao was incomplete.”

“Do not follow my footsteps too deeply.”

“You have your own road.”

“Tieu Dao may also have a meaning that belongs only to you.”

Hao Nhien bowed deeply within his consciousness.

“This junior will remember.”

The remnant soul of Tieu Dao smiled faintly.

“Good.”

His laughter grew softer.

At last, the illusion dissolved within Hao Nhien’s consciousness.

But this time, it did not merge whole into his soul.

Most of the silver-white light simply scattered like dust within the mental space.

It left behind no memories.

No cultivation.

No complete insights belonging to a Tribulation Transformation expert.

Only one pure trace of Sword Intent remained.

It lingered for a long moment before the pale-blue Spirit Sword within Hao Nhien’s perception.

Then, as though it had finally found where it belonged—

it quietly merged into it.

At that moment, Hao Nhien felt his soul tremble.

It was not spiritual qi.

Not medicinal power.

Nor was it the wood energy from the Cosmic Ark.

It was lighter.

Deeper.

Like a fragment of Sword Intent that had slept for far too long, finally turning into dust-like light and settling into the still-young seed within him.

The pale-blue Spirit Sword suddenly became clearer than before.

Previously, it had been little more than a faint thread of light, something he had to carefully preserve every time he condensed it.

But now, after receiving that final pure trace of Sword Intent, it had become far more stable.

Sharper.

Quieter.

Like a seed that had finally sent out its first shallow root.

Outside, Tieu Lan saw the change in Hao Nhien’s expression and hurriedly called,

“Young Master?”

This time, Hao Nhien opened his eyes.

A very faint glimmer flashed within them, then quickly disappeared.

He let out a long breath.

“I’m fine.”

Tieu Lan immediately frowned.

Hao Nhien looked at her.

Then corrected himself.

“There was some fluctuation.”

“But I’ve stabilized it.”

Only then did Tieu Lan relax slightly, though she still looked worried.

“Senior has gone?”

Hao Nhien looked toward the cave entrance.

The Great White Ape had still not returned.

The waterfall continued to thunder.

Mountain wind continued to sweep across the sandy ground.

Everything looked as though no one had ever spoken to him at all.

But within him, the Spirit Sword was different now.

And the words concerning Divine Transformation, the Dao, and Reincarnation had all remained in his heart.

Hao Nhien nodded slightly.

“He’s gone.”

Tieu Lan was silent for a moment.

Then she turned toward the cave entrance, cupped her hands, and bowed very seriously.

“Tieu Lan thanks Senior Tieu Dao for looking after Young Master.”

Hao Nhien watched her.

For some reason, something in his heart softened.

He stood as well.

The wound on his shoulder still hurt, but the medicinal liquid had brought it under control.

Holding the Tieu Dao Sword, he and Tieu Lan passed through the old cave entrance and followed the dark stone path toward the rocky ledge halfway up the mountain.

This time, the Great White Ape did not stop them.

The cave remained damp.

The medicinal herb lamp in Tieu Lan’s hand gave off a faint green glow.

The two walked slowly.

Neither spoke much.

By the time they reached the rocky ledge, evening light had already settled across the Thanh Van Mountains.

The great stone slab was still there.

The two footprints deeply impressed into the rock still faced the mountains and rivers ahead.

The old message Hao Nhien had cleaned before was still clearly visible.

Hao Nhien bent forward.

He bowed three times.

“Senior, this junior does not dare claim to understand you.”

“Nor do I dare say that I will follow your Dao.”

“But this sword, this Sword Intent, and the words ‘follow the heart and act’…”

“I will remember.”

Mountain wind swept past.

There was no answer.

No remnant soul appeared again.

Only the sound of the waterfall echoed from below, steady and unchanging, like time continuing to flow.

Tieu Lan bowed as well.

Then she looked around the rocky ledge.

A few medicinal herbs were growing near a crack in the stone.

Her eyes lit up.

But this time, she did not immediately harvest them.

Instead, she asked softly,

“Young Master, may I pick a few?”

Hao Nhien turned toward her.

“Why are you asking me?”

“Because this is Senior Tieu Dao’s place.”

Hao Nhien looked at her for a moment.

Then smiled faintly.

“Mm.”

“We’ll only take a little.”

“Only what we need.”

“Leave the roots whenever possible.”

“Consider it borrowing a little life from this place.”

“If we get the chance later, we’ll return it.”

Tieu Lan nodded very seriously.

“I understand.”

She crouched beside the stone crack and used a small knife to carefully dig out the herbs one by one.

Her movements were gentle.

As she worked, she quietly muttered the name of each herb as though afraid the plants might feel pain.

Hao Nhien stood beside the stone slab and watched her.

Then he looked toward the distant mountains and rivers.

Thanh Van Town looked tiny beside the river.

Their old boat was moored far below, reduced to little more than a small speck against the water.

They would be leaving soon.

Toward Thanh Van City.

Toward Quan Hao Nhien’s parents.

Toward the sect recruitment.

Toward a world far greater than anything they had seen so far.