A deep silence hung within the great hall.
But if the Old Order Spacetime existed, then what did the current universe belong to?
The New Cosmic Order Spacetime?
Ling Yuling looked toward Gu Changge, but Gu Changge still had his hands casually clasped behind his back, neither agreeing nor denying the Strength Master's words.
"Great Dao Ancestors, Lesser Dao Ancestors... Only by comprehending a supreme path could a Great Dao Ancestor have the chance to step further and gain insight into the Heavenly Dao Realm…"
"That is to say, if we follow the realm divisions of the Old Order Spacetime, then you, my lord, would now only be called a Great Dao Ancestor and still unable to comprehend the Heavenly Dao?"
"As for how many levels the Heavenly Dao Realm actually has, and how one could achieve perfection—does even someone of your stature not know?"
Fire God Zhu Rong could not help but ask in shock.
Hearing this, even the Strength Master, who had been speaking, now showed a face full of doubt and uncertainty.
He shook his head again and said, "This is the truth I deduced and surveyed from the Authority of the Heavenly Dao. Above Great Dao Ancestor, there must be a realm. Even if there is no realm, there definitely exist beings far, far stronger than a Great Dao Ancestor. This alone is enough to prove that the path ahead exists…"
"In the current Vast Expanse, the Authority of the Heavenly Dao can only be controlled, not comprehended. We lack a crucial medium, and that medium, in my view, is the Creation and Immortal substances that the Alliance Leader has condensed and extracted."
"That medium is the key to unlocking the Authority of the Heavenly Dao. Without the key, we can never, at the step of Great Dao Ancestor, take a single step further."
"Unable to take that step, naturally we cannot know how many levels the Heavenly Dao Realm has…"
As he said this, he could not help but look toward Gu Changge, his gaze blazing, filled with a thirst for the unknown.
Fire God Zhu Rong, Ling Yuling, and the others could not help but subconsciously look toward Gu Changge as well.
Mainly because the secrets and truths they had learned today were simply too earth-shattering for them.
Without the Strength Master's explanation, they might never have encountered these things in their entire lives.
The exploration of and curiosity toward the unknown are always the innate nature of living beings, and they were no exception.
"I beg the Alliance Leader to dispel my doubts."
The Strength Master once again stepped forward, clasped his fists, and spoke earnestly.
"What do you wish to know?"
Gu Changge finally spoke. He smiled, as if neither fully agreeing nor disagreeing with the Strength Master's earlier words.
"I wish to know, did the Old Order Spacetime actually exist? Or was it a piece of past void spacetime that did not exist, merely an order that the original spacetime should have occupied…?"
"If there were no Land of Truth, no Three True Ancestors overlooking everything like vast, blazing suns, then would the current universal spacetime be the same Old spacetime I deduced and surveyed?" the Strength Master asked solemnly.
This feeling was very peculiar and strange, as if he had two different cognitions in his mind.
It was as if today had passed, tomorrow had arrived, and he himself had already personally lived through this period of time.
But when the next day he began to recall yesterday and think about what happened yesterday, he found that the yesterday he experienced was different from the yesterday he had deduced in his memories.
In other words, the Vast Expanse they currently lived in and existed within very likely had two truly existing trajectory spacetimes.
One inner spacetime, one outer spacetime. However, the Strength Master preferred to call it the Old Order Spacetime.
That spacetime was also truly real; it was just that his current cultivation realm could not touch it.
Everyone in the great hall was bewildered by the Strength Master's words, unable to understand what he meant.
The spacetime they lived in must truly exist. Could it be that even they themselves were false?
Could they possibly not exist?
"The Era of Dream's Ashes…"
Suddenly, Ling Yuling spoke in a low voice, recalling an era from the past.
That era seemed to somewhat fit what the Strength Master had just said; all beings lived within an empty grand dream.
However, in a certain sense, all beings were still alive; they were not false. Rather, the dream had altered their cognition, causing them to invert reality and dream.
"Believing makes it real, disbelieving makes it unreal. Both the Old Order and the New Cosmic Order exist, and yet both can also be said not to exist. Fate radiates through all spacetimes, all trajectories, governing all beings, limitless and infinite, across the myriad heavens and countless worlds. If one were to use an analogy, Fate can be considered a river that gives birth to all inconceivable and orderly futures…"
"What you have deduced and observed is merely the River of Fate of the Old order. In the Old Order Spacetime, all beings, all destinies had to operate according to that River of Fate, with no exceptions. If no other River of Fate appeared, then all trajectories would have continued to operate as you deduced and observed."
"And the Heavenly Dao Realm would accordingly have existed." Gu Changge said lightly.
The Strength Master's heart jolted. He already had some guesses and could not help but say in shock, "Besides the River of Fate of the Old order, other Rivers of Fate have mixed and blended into the current Vast Expanse. It is precisely because of this that all true fates have become so ethereal and difficult to survey; no one can know what will appear in the future…"
"The fates that beings can see and touch are all orderly. But if the future were already predetermined, if everything were eternally fixed, then there would be no unknown, and the path ahead you speak of would also have an end."
"The Dao is endless, the path is endless. Only by making the future disordered and unknown can beings grow ever stronger…" Gu Changge said.
"The future is imperceptible, uncontrollable. Only in this way can one continuously open up the path ahead and walk on."
At this moment, the Strength Master had already gained some enlightenment in his heart. He cupped his fists and said, "Many thanks to the Alliance Leader for the guidance. I have already gained some understanding and clarity."
Gu Changge smiled, "If we go by your terms, regarding the current Vast Expanse, I prefer to view it as an unknown, disordered spacetime that emerged after the Old Order Spacetime and the New Cosmic Order Spacetime fused and collided. In the Old Order Spacetime, Great Dao Ancestors existed, corresponding to the Heavenly Dao and Fate governing all things."
"In the New Cosmic Order Spacetime, all old orders were broken, and anomalies outside the Heavenly Dao emerged. Originally, only nine Great Dao Ancestors could appear in the world, but in the New Cosmic Order Spacetime, the Heavenly Dao and Fate became entangled, and anomalies not governed by the Heavenly Dao's Fate appeared. This Dao, I shall call the Heretic Dao."
"The emergence of the Heretic Dao allowed the New Cosmic Order Spacetime, apart from the nine Great Dao Ancestors, to have alternative ways of proving the Dao…"
As he said this, the Strength Master also gained some clarity and said solemnly, "So that is how the path of Supreme Shattering came to be."
With Gu Changge's words, he was directly explaining the origins of the two paths in the current Vast Expanse.
One corresponded to the Old Order Spacetime.
And the other corresponded to the New Cosmic Order Spacetime.
When the Heavenly Dao's Fate governed everything, the Old Order Spacetime was in operation. When the Heretic Dao's fate governed everything, the New Cosmic Order Spacetime was born.
As for whether these two spacetimes had existed before the Vast Expanse restarted, that remained unknown.
But the current Vast Expanse indeed had the trajectories of these two spacetimes fused together, with both the Heavenly Dao and Heretic Dao paths coexisting. Yet whether the Heavenly Dao or the Heretic Dao, neither could be comprehended by them.
"According to the normal trajectory of development, in the New Cosmic Order Spacetime, a King of Anomalies who challenged the Old order would emerge. This King of Anomalies opened up the path of the Heretic Dao, and from then on, the Heavenly Dao and Heretic Dao coexisted…"
"However, in the history that the Vast Expanse has existed through, there is no record of this King of Anomalies. Yet the cultivation methods of the Heretic Dao path were left behind." Gu Changge revealed a thoughtful expression.
The Strength Master's deductions and observations were actually not wrong. The current True Path Realm indeed corresponded to the Great Dao Ancestor of the Old order.
Moreover, this path had already been blocked. The Authority of the Heavenly Dao, divided from the Heavenly Dao's Will, could no longer be comprehended. Some of its characteristics had been cut away by the Three True Ancestors.
As for the King of Anomalies belonging to the New Cosmic Order Spacetime, who could cultivate to the Heretic Dao Realm—comparable to the Heavenly Dao Realm—he had also been erased from the New Cosmic Order Spacetime by the Three True Ancestors and could no longer be born.
Both the Heavenly Dao and the Heretic Dao had been sealed off.
In the current Vast Expanse, existences like the Strength Master at the True Path level, and Supreme Shattering figures comparable to the True Path Realm, were the limit that could appear.
Even if anomalies outside the Heavenly Dao were to reappear, the highest realm would only be Supreme Shattering, unless some unknown opportunities emerged.
For the beings of the Vast Expanse to improve and break this dead knot, they had to shatter the blocked path and extend the path ahead.
And the Heavenly Dao Realm—to this day, no one had ever stepped into it.
The great hall fell into silence. Everyone was digesting and pondering the words just spoken.
The Fourth Sacrificial Priest Qiluo was the first to react, remembering the important matter of this trip.
"Alliance Leader, this is an item that the Lord of the Heavenly Faction sent me to deliver. The entire Heavenly Faction is willing to assist the Heaven-Slaying Alliance in the great undertaking of slaying heaven."
She waved her hand, and the void split open, with billions of rays of multicolored divine radiance swirling.
An ancient, crystalline mirror flew out from within, shrouded in strands of chaotic mist, making the mirror appear even more hazy and mysterious, with an aura of reincarnation lingering around it.
It was none other than the Mirror of Reincarnation, one of The Six Supreme Treasures of the First Civilization.
Gu Changge nodded slightly, not saying much. He simply beckoned casually, and the Mirror of Reincarnation fell into his palm.
"The Six Supreme Treasures of the First Civilization involve immense karma. During the Black Calamity Era, some End of the Path figures wanted to contend for them, but for reasons unknown, they died. Their deaths remain a mystery to this day."
The Strength Master looked at the Mirror of Reincarnation with a hint of complexity in his gaze.
The main reason no End of the Path figures later tried to seize the Supreme Treasures of the First Civilization was largely because of this.
No one knew who had set up the game involving these six Supreme Treasures.
Back then, how the Lord of Heaven's Proxy ended up sealed was also a mystery.
After all, the power of the Lord of Heaven's Proxy was itself an unknown riddle. The leaders who fought against the Black Calamity Catastrophe back then had not even set foot into the End of the Path in their cultivation.
How could they possibly have defeated the Lord of Heaven's Proxy?
"This item may involve a figure from the Land of the Nine Heavens."
The Strength Master said solemnly, "I suspect that within the Land of the Nine Heavens, some existence can also communicate with the Land of Truth. There was once a saying that the blueprints for these six Supreme Treasures of the First Civilization drifted out from the Land of Truth."
"Furthermore, in a certain epoch, the so-called Transcendence Codex also appeared, and some said it too came from the Land of Truth…"
"These several items all have astonishing origins. Even I avoid them at all costs, unwilling to be tainted by them."
Hearing this, Gu Changge smiled and casually said, "The blueprints for the six Supreme Treasures of the First Civilization originated from the depths of the Great Chasm. They did not drift out from some Land of Truth. It was simply someone using that pretext to lay out an earth-shattering grand scheme."
"The Great Chasm?"
The Strength Master was shaken.
He murmured, "When I was deducing and observing the Old Order Spacetime, I learned that three divine trees nurturing supreme profound truths would appear within it. One of them was the Epoch Mother Tree, and at the birthplace of the first Epoch Mother Tree, the first great gully of all time appeared, named the Great Chasm."
"It is said that the Great Chasm can bury all things. Many innate marvels born from the great chaotic explosion sank into it. Even Great Dao Ancestors could not venture deep to retrieve related items."
"In the past, a ruthless figure of the Vast Expanse obtained from it the First Ancient Killing Formation. Once its power erupted, even a Great Dao Ancestor would be wary."
"The Three Pure Ones Three Talents Grand Array that the Three Pure Ones Dao Lord obtained seems to be connected to something within the Great Chasm…"
Gu Changge neither affirmed nor denied this.
In the Old Order Spacetime, the Heavenly Dao emphasized balance and restraint. The Primordial Chaos Mother Tree created all elemental substances and produced countless innate divine objects, among which would naturally appear forces capable of counterbalancing the Heavenly Dao Realm.
The blueprints for the six Supreme Treasures of the First Civilization were produced from the Primordial Chaos Mother Tree.
He himself had previously pondered who in the current Vast Expanse could have retrieved this item from the Great Chasm and spread it about. He too once believed it was likely connected to the Land of Truth.
But later, certain traces intentionally left on Gu Xian'er, Yue Mingkong, and others made it clear to him that after the Primordial Tribulation ended, when the Land of Truth and the Vast Expanse were divided, a very, very large fish had slipped through the net.
That fish not only had a deep understanding of the Land of Truth, but also had a significant connection to the current Vast Expanse.
So much so that it had likely used some method to sneak back from the Land of Truth.
When he established the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, he sensed that the Heavenly Will had cut itself with a single stroke, causing the beings of many True World civilizations to forget about the matter of slaying heaven.
In one respect, this indeed made establishing the Heaven-Slaying Alliance much easier for him.
But thinking on a deeper level, by doing so, he was actually replacing the role that the King of Anomalies of the New Cosmic Order Spacetime was supposed to fulfill.
The other party knew that in the future, a King of Anomalies would appear in the New Cosmic Order Spacetime and had paved the way for this King of Anomalies in advance.
And within the future trajectories Gu Changge had chosen for himself, he had indeed molded himself into an anomaly that leaped beyond the Heavenly Dao.
Whether it was the Demon Lord of Shanhai True World in the past, the Lord of the Heavenly Faction, or his current self, all were permeated with an aura of "anomaly" that could not be surveyed or discerned by the Heavenly Dao.
Unfortunately, the true King of Anomalies had long been erased by the Three True Ancestors and could never be born.
After obtaining the truth he sought, the Strength Master then took his leave.
He did not conceal his existence, nor did he suppress his aura in the slightest. Casually, he demarcated a temporal domain within the Heaven-Slaying Alliance. Infinite chaotic true thunder exploded, layers of spacetime split open, and stars were molded by him, turning into earth. Immortal jade flew in, and chaotic stones emerged.
In no time at all, a Dao arena was established. Starlight cascaded from the sky, and a majestic, boundless pressure of Authority of Strength spread, intimidating all directions.
Since he had chosen to follow Gu Changge, the Strength Master would not go back on his word—moreover, he had already sworn a great vow.
The myriad heavens and countless worlds had all borne witness together.
Upon sensing the Strength Master's aura, the expressions of the leaders within many Super Multiverses in the Vast Expanse changed.
Qiluo the Sacrificial Priest of the Heavenly Faction, after presenting the Mirror of Reincarnation, did not hastily take her leave.
"Alliance Leader, I have one more matter that I wish to report to you alone."
Hearing this, even Ling Yuling was somewhat surprised.
Gu Changge, however, was not surprised. He waved his hand, dismissing Ling Yuling and the others.
In truth, the relationship between the Lord of the Heavenly Faction and him was no longer much of a secret among the various Super Multiverses now. Some End of the Path existences could vaguely guess it.
Yet at present, no one dared to speak of it openly. Even the Strength Master had been evasive when touching upon the subject.
This Qiluo the Sacrificial Priest seemed, on the other hand, not to be too bright.
"Alliance Leader, this is an item I obtained by chance long ago. Perhaps it might help you unravel the secrets of the Lord of the Heavenly Faction…"
After everyone else had left the hall, Qiluo the Sacrificial Priest very cautiously and carefully brought out an item. From the outside, it appeared to be just an ordinary wooden box, but within it contained an infinitely vast, infinitely inconceivable, indescribable great power, as if just a single wisp leaking out could easily shatter countless universes and worlds.
Of course, the material of this wooden box was not simple either. Gu Changge could tell at a glance that it was taken from the main trunk of an Epoch Mother Tree, and naturally, it was not an object of this era.
Just as Qiluo the Sacrificial Priest was about to open her mouth to explain after bringing out this wooden box, she felt the boundless, vast power within it seemingly boil and expand, no longer controllable.
Alarmed, in the next moment, the wooden box was instantly forced open. A streak of blood light shot straight toward Gu Changge and then vanished into his mouth.
"This…" She was completely dumbfounded, instantly frozen on the spot.