Master of Strange Dao

Yu Ziqing certainly wasn't deceiving Honggaitou; the saint identity hanging on him was real.

Even if it was just in name, without actually cultivating as a saint, he was indeed involved in the cultivation of saints.

The tattoo carried by Fish Bone came from him; to hold the name of a saint wasn't entirely nonsense.

And his research into rituals, sacrificial techniques, and forces to borrow from was all genuine.

At this moment, everything being done was in accordance with the established contract.

No matter how much Honggaitou's mindset exploded, it was already useless.

He was now in a worse state than the force he was being controlled to borrow from; he couldn't even control his own strength, beyond his consciousness.

Yu Ziqing merely experimented with a small ritual, and his mind began to grow interested in another matter.

He wanted to understand what this so-called ancient contract was really about.

In the presence of the Bright Sun, Bright Moon, and Stars, under which the ancient contract was signed, what gave it such strong binding power.

Saying this binding power came from the Three Lights, Yu Ziqing didn't quite believe it.

If the Three Lights truly had such strong compulsive force, then the Moon God wouldn't have consistently been low in power since the era of the deities.

He leaned more towards the idea that such a strong binding power actually had a different source.

Yu Ziqing felt that such a terrifying binding force rooting from the core should only come from people themselves.

The "people" here doesn't specifically refer to humans.

Under the constraint of the contract, all of Yu Ziqing's research was fully supported by Honggaitou, as his power didn't operate in accordance with his own will, but cooperated.

And yet Yu Ziqing himself, and the saints, didn't feel such strong constraints.

Yu Ziqing speculated that perhaps it was characters like Honggaitou, who had authority, who were once deities, that such terrifying binding power applied to.

To surpass the control of consciousness, the restraint must be directly engraved on authority, using authority to override consciousness.

And perhaps the so-called contract is where consciousness actively gives authority permission to follow a predetermined process in a certain matter.

Honggaitou's current cooperation was because he had agreed to it from the beginning, aligning his consciousness actively.

The things the consciousness agreed to back then couldn't be changed now, and his current consciousness wanting to backtrack was futile.

Hence, this draws out another question: what exactly is the authority of the deities?

According to the cultivator's understanding, Yu Ziqing feels that this might be what is already predetermined as truth.

They grasp a certain truth, which allows them to leverage all powers under that truth, while cultivators treat it as knowledge; in the pursuit of truth, they can similarly gain comparable power, though perhaps not as strong, or possibly even stronger in sheer strength.

And this roughly explains another issue: why is it that when the force to be borrowed isn't strong, the person borrowing it can still gain a stronger power.

That isn't simply borrowing its power; it's borrowing power through rituals and sacrificial techniques, leveraging authority to borrow power.

It's not as Yu Ziqing initially thought, about lending my mana to you, extending your mana bar, providing you with mana in such a simple and crude borrowing of power.

Promoters focused on rituals and sacrificial techniques are essentially akin to Dao cultivators, in that their paths converge.

Both are in pursuit of the world's truth.

Only the paths are different.

One directly flips through the reference answers.

One diligently researches, progressing step by step.

The former is quick, not emphasizing talent or aptitude, but its disadvantages are also obvious, confined within a predetermined range, with low ceiling and diversity, greatly influenced by objective circumstances.

For example, the reference answers being torn.

For example, the lack of ritual materials.

The latter is slow, requiring talent, aptitude, and inheritance, but its advantage is a broad future, potentially producing different yet correct answers compared to the reference, and in rare cases, surpassing the reference in height.

The latter is the way of seeking the Dao for eternity.

Only then did Yu Ziqing finally see through his inherent knowledge barrier.

From the beginning, he never quite understood the core logic of Dao cultivation or why knowledge equated to realm.

Yang never advised him to take the path of a Dao cultivator; in leisurely chats, Yang said what's unsuitable is unsuitable, not due to intelligence or ability to learn.

Now he roughly understood that his understanding was different from that of traditional cultivators and traditional Dao cultivators.

In his understanding, those with high knowledge who began cultivation could avoid detours for a smoother path, which was normal.

The higher the knowledge of the Dao cultivator, the greater their potential after entering Dao cultivation; according to Yu Ziqing's understanding, once the theory is perfected, when it comes to actual practice, the ceiling rises.

But the reality is, perhaps it's the literal knowledge is power, rather than it needing to be converted into power.

They've already got the answer, and the answer itself is power.

The process of entering Dao isn't about beginning Qi Refinement or starting Refining God, these superficial things.

Before, hearing it was one thing, but truly understanding revealed how different things really were.

So the realm of a Dao cultivator, considering before entering Dao, has only four.

Dao cultivators, entering Dao, establishing Dao, and another supposedly called achieving Dao, but the last one is not that certain; it was only occasionally heard, and Yang didn't like to discuss it.