“Order is required to maintain the heritage of formula dao and the establishment of its foundations. I will hold down the fort for you. Lu Yun, teach them formula dao. They’re the wisest four of the Star Sect.” Ah Zhi knew what the young man wanted to do and called him by his real name, not Feng Feifan.
“Teach Xing Lan as well, her capacity for understanding is uncommonly high. Let her listen off to the side.” Her usual sleepiness had dispersed, replaced by an incomparable solemnity.
Xing Lan’s mind was blank; she had no idea what this incredible assembly sought to achieve. The Star Sovereign King and four great sovereigns were all in attendance—this was the strongest compilation of force in the Star Sect.
“Should we invite Sovereign Chen as well? She’s the first Nihil World Sovereign of the sect, after all,” Lu Yun asked.
“No need.” Ah Zhi shook her head. “Xing Chen’s brains are filled with muscle. It’d be one thing if she’s to research how to beat people, but comprehend formula dao? She won’t be as useful as Xing Lan.”
Xing Lan grinned ruefully. She hadn’t thought that her master would be nothing more than a simpleminded henchman in the Star Sovereign King’s eyes.
“Oh, alright then.” Lu Yun nodded and released his formula dao, projecting it into the air.
……
The Star Sect was a lazy sect—a habit that started with their founder, the Star Sovereign King. Its disciples didn’t fight or steal from each other, and there were no counterproductive rankings within the faction. Disciples spent their idle time sharing gossip and starting rumors. If it wasn’t for the senior brothers and sisters being indirectly forced to beat up their juniors, the sect would be a massive retirement home.
Even the elders rarely ventured outside to recruit disciples. New recruits were brought back by the senior disciples from their travels. Anyone who had the ability to pass through the ribbons of worlds and enter the World Star proved themselves worthy of joining the Star Sect.
This faction’s members even rarely put in the effort to fight over zones of danger, secret areas, and treasures out in the realm. When the Tomb of the Hallowed Emperor manifested, only Xing Wuliang had gone to represent the Star Sect—and he’d been forced to go.
There was only one rule in the sect—death to traitors.
That aside, their treatment of disciples ranked among the best in the realm. Treasuries and libraries abounded on the World Star and one could freely take from them, as long as one had the relevant authorization to. Said authorization was a function of the disciple’s powers of comprehension and strength.
This was almost impossible in other sects and clans.
In Lu Yun’s eyes, the Star Sect was as if the universities of Earth. It supplied abundant resources and foundations for its disciples, the masters passed on knowledge, and the rest was up to the disciples themselves.
While disciples walked their master’s path, they did so in their own way.
Of course, there were those who possessed incredibly high potential but were lazy beyond belief. For those, the senior disciples provided all the motivation they needed.
At the same time, Star Sect disciples understood the depths of their good fortune and demonstrated their gratitude when they perfected their craft. They journeyed to the outside world and seized treasure to deliver to the sect’s vaults.
As opposed to lazy, perhaps it would be more accurate to describe the Star Sect as lacking in desire. They wanted for nothing and lacked for nothing. Going with the flow and acceding to nature was the general state of things.
While the sect council would not take revenge or shelter their disciples if the latter made enemies or died in the outside world, that wasn’t a description that could be taken to the extreme.
Who didn’t have a few friends that one could entrust their back with?
Take the Snowsword Sect, for example—it’d once killed a few young Star Sect disciples. Those had been Xing Chen’s senior brothers. When she filled out her wings, she came knocking on Snowsword doors and killed them all.
Though it was true that the sect had been a nest of demons, she wouldn’t have cared if it housed demons or ghosts if they hadn’t killed those Star Sect disciples.
There was no hierarchy in the Star Sect—whoever reached a new level of accomplishment first was the senior. Those who were stronger were senior and those who were weaker, even if they had a longer tenure, were junior. If one became a Nihil World Sovereign, they were an elder even if it’d been less than a hundred years since they joined the sect.
At first, Lu Yun only wanted to borrow the sect as a place to cultivate. He would leave as soon as he was finished and refrain from forming karmic relationships. Thus, he presented himself as a regular disciple and didn’t deploy the strength of a Nihil World Sovereign.
But now, the Tome of Life and Death had resolved the crisis of the withered wood; there was no need to conceal anything about himself. He planned to completely unleash his full cultivation and project formula dao with the strength of a Nihil World Sovereign.
Xing Lan was completely numb. She’d never dreamed that the bizarre young man who’d somehow joined them was a powerful Nihil World Sovereign. While he wasn’t the strongest of world sovereigns, he wasn’t new to the level either.
“Focus on observing formula dao and clear your mind of random thoughts.” Xing Chen suddenly appeared behind Xing Lan and smacked the back of her head.
“Yes, master!” Xing Lan quickly composed herself and studied Lu Yun’s projections.
While Ah Zhi had said that they didn’t need to invite Xing Chen, how would the latter not be present to reaffirm the supplemental dao foundations of the fourth realm, given her status as the first Nihil World Sovereign of the sect?
Just as Lu Yun had said, if he was the only one to understand formula dao in the Boundless Planes, that would only make it a secret art. It wasn’t until multiple people tread the path did it become dao.
Given how marvelous it was, whoever grasped it first would soar ahead of everyone else and see an explosive increase in strength. Lu Yun well knew the saying of keeping the richest water for one's own fields.
Therefore, the first to practice formula dao would be Ah Zhi’s Star Sect.
He spent three years projecting formula dao, completely entrancing those present and initiating them into this new path. Ah Zhi had sealed off Divine Alchemist Mountain, so the new dao that’d yet to take root in the fourth realm didn’t travel elsewhere.
Three years later, Lu Yun slowly withdrew the manifestations of formula dao around him.
“This formula dao… cannot be appraised.” The Formation Sovereign awoke, now a new initiate in formula dao.
Lu Yun looked at his eyes—they were the ones who appeared in Xing Wuliang’s eyes. Though Xing Wuliang hailed Xing Shenzuo as his master, he practiced the Formation Sovereign’s methods.
“Before I came here, I thought that formula dao would become the ninth major supplemental dao, on par with the others. But it seems that I was gravely mistaken,” the sovereign mused.
“Hmm?” Lu Yun blinked. In the world of immortals, that was indeed formula dao’s place, but it was viewed as the foremost of supplemental dao.
“Supplemental dao is just an overall category name, not the name of a tangible dao. It’s a reference to the countless daos that complement cultivation,” the Formation Sovereign murmured.
The Alchemist, Treasure, Formation Sovereigns, and Xing Lan woke as well. Ah Zhi yawned lazily, looking at the Formation Sovereign with interest. Of the four sovereigns, he was by far the strongest in strength and cultivation level.
“With the appearance of formula dao, I see a possibility… a possibility of formula dao.”
“A possibility of formula dao?” Xing Lan blinked, not understanding.
“There is a myriad of supplemental dao out there, of which all returns to formula dao. Do you mean that the great dao that can truly convey supplemental dao is formula dao?” asked the other three sovereigns.
The Formation Sovereign slowly inclined his head.
“Since the time of the original Hongmeng and even earlier, innumerable forebears have exhausted an uncountable number of years to search for a great dao that could bear the weight of supplemental dao. They were yet to succeed even when the original Hongmeng shattered, but to think… that the great dao would appear today.” The Formation Sovereign sighed. “I’d thought that if the Three Thousand Soul Daos could evolve into a great dao, it could possibly become that medium. But it is a cultivation method in the end, not a dao.”
Lu Yun listened quietly to the four sovereigns converse while Xing Chen and Xing Lan both looked at him. The handsome young man was suddenly shrouded in mists of mystery to them.
“I would like to take this moment to remind everyone that this conversation should remain behind closed doors. If formula dao is to take root in the Boundless Planes and grow into a great dao, it must do so with the help of all beings.
“If we are to popularize it, we do indeed need to systemize it,” the Alchemist Sovereign agreed.
“Any formula needs a most basic notation. What is the symbol of formula dao?” Lu Yun finally broke his silence.
The basic notation of math was numbers. Numbers were used to develop a variety of formulas and programs to calculate data, thereby leading science to higher levels. If formula dao was to do the same, it needed a basic symbol with which to undergo calculations and simulations.
