C759 The Void Speaks

Woo Zhengyang found himself lost... Just glancing at the names and annotations of these thirty-six secret formations was enough to make him lose his sense of self. Fortunately, he didn't delve deeper, maintaining a sliver of clarity in his mind; otherwise, he feared he might become hopelessly trapped.

Now, Woo Zhengyang understood why Patriarch Fuxi had repeatedly warned him not to venture too deeply here. The mere names and annotations had such a profound impact that if he had studied them further, his previous beliefs might have been overturned, potentially driving him mad or leaving him a shell of his former self. The consequences were unimaginable.

Holding his breath and resisting the temptation, Woo Zhengyang refrained from examining the other formations and annotations, forcing himself to believe that the world he knew was exactly as he perceived it.

After a long while, he finally calmed himself. However, Woo Zhengyang didn't leave the area because, while looking at the formation names and annotations, he had spotted something he was searching for: the Void!

In Patriarch Fuxi's categorization, the Void was listed right at the forefront. The content wasn't extensive, but it wasn't scant either. Woo Zhengyang hadn't had the chance to look closely before, yet he wasn't ready to leave just yet.

Now that he had regained his composure, Woo Zhengyang prepared to explore what was recorded about the Void in this place. Immersing his mind, words began to appear one by one in his thoughts.

The universe is divided into yin and yang, and all things are governed by the five elements. Yet, everything in the universe relies on the world to exist. But what exactly is the world?

After the tales of gods and demons, beyond the shattered void, there is bliss. But what is this bliss? A new world? Or perhaps an existence beyond the world itself?

What is the void? What does it mean to shatter the void, and how does one achieve it?

The very first sentence of the preface left Woo Zhengyang puzzled. The world, the world—people talk about it all the time, but who has truly delved into what the world really is? Is it the universe and everything within it? The sun, moon, and stars? The intertwining of time and space?

None of these. The world is the sum of everything and also an existence beyond it.

The second sentence mentions gods and demons, the shattered void, and bliss. If the world is the totality of everything and an existence beyond, then is the bliss spoken of by gods and demons an even more transcendent existence?

These concepts didn't shatter Woo Zhengyang's ordinary understanding, yet they were things he had never contemplated. Now that they were brought up, he couldn't help but feel confused.

However, Woo Zhengyang was always cautious. To prevent himself from falling into an endless loop of confusion, he suppressed these thoughts as soon as they arose and refocused on the purpose of his journey.

As he continued reading, grand ideas unfolded before him.

The humble dreams of a poor mountain villager are to have enough to eat and drink. The ambitions of a merchant are to gain more profit. The aspirations of an official are to rise to higher positions. And the ultimate goal of a Martial Dao cultivator is to shatter the void.

Ordinary, impoverished mountain folk, no matter how ambitious, would never dream of shattering the void, simply because they have no idea what it entails. Only at a certain level of achievement do people develop aspirations that align with their capabilities, and they strive to reach them.

Average martial artists might think about shattering the void daily, but few truly study it, as it remains a distant goal. Even martial kings and emperors rarely delve into it. It's only at the level of a Martial Emperor that people begin to explore this concept. However, even today's Martial Emperors aren't researching the true shattering of the void; they're merely investigating the barriers set by the ancient Patriarch of Profound Mountain.

In truth, the only people who genuinely studied the shattering of the void were from ancient times, including the likes of the Patriarch of Profound Mountain. They were the ones closest to achieving it. Fortunately, the founder of array formations, Fuxi, was from that era and closely followed the Patriarch of Profound Mountain.

In those times, there were many theories about the void, bliss, and the world. One belief was that beyond the world lies the void, and beyond the void is the bliss spoken of by gods and demons. The so-called shattering of the void involves breaking through the world's barriers and the shackles of the void to enter this state of bliss.

There’s a notion that beneath the earth lies purgatory, above the heavens is bliss, and the void is the gateway to that bliss. Only by finding this gateway can one enter into ultimate joy. Various theories exist, each with its own logic, but they remain mere speculation, with no one able to confirm their truth.

What piqued Woo Zhengyang's interest was Profound Mountain's perspective on all this, which even Patriarch Fuxi had documented and strongly endorsed. According to Profound Mountain, the nature of ultimate bliss is unknowable until one sees it firsthand. The void, on the other hand, is something that stands in opposition to our current world. Much like the concept of yin and yang, the world should have an opposite.

Profound Mountain illustrated the world and the void with the concept of life and death. Our world, with its heavens, earth, and all living things, represents life. In contrast, the void, which opposes our world, symbolizes death. The world and the void don't encapsulate each other; they coexist. We don't perceive the void because we live in this space. However, if immense power were to destroy this world of life, the world of death would emerge, which is what we refer to as the void.

To reach ultimate bliss, one must transcend life and death, not only breaking through our world but also its opposing, coexisting void. It sounds challenging, yet even the great warriors of ancient times, or today's Martial Emperors, can shatter a piece of space with a single, powerful strike, revealing the void beyond.

Isn't that to say, if he made another attempt, he could break through the void? Naturally, that's not possible. Otherwise, the void where Woo Zhengyang and others reside wouldn't exist; it would have been breached by countless others seeking bliss. The world and the void are opposites, and this applies to everything else as well.

No matter how powerful you are, capable of destroying the world and reducing it to rubble, your strength has no effect on the void. At best, you might expand the void, but it's the world that ends up shattered.

Voids can be temporary or permanent. When a powerful cultivator strikes, a spatial rift appears, revealing a void. However, this rift will soon heal itself, making it temporary. On the other hand, when immense forces completely extinguish the vitality of a world, the resulting void is vast and permanent, like the one separating the thirty-six regions from the central state.