Chaos Dao Sheng Jue

Chapter 1533 The Stone Gate Where Time Frozen

The stone gate was a hundred feet high, carved entirely from a grayish-white stone that was neither gold nor jade. Its surface was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the flowing silver light of time around it.

The door was tightly closed, and a huge yin-yang symbol was carved in the center, but the symbol was incomplete—the yin part was dull and lifeless, while the yang part was covered with cracks, giving the whole symbol a sense of imminent collapse.

It was the yin-yang symbol again. Lu Chen was no longer surprised, because he had long been used to this world. There must be cultivators from Earth as well; he just hadn't found them yet.

Two lines of ancient characters are engraved on the lintel.

Fang Xinyi stepped forward to identify it and softly read: "Life and death cycle, only by guarding one's original heart; when yin and yang meet, one can see the true path."

“True heart? True path?” Nezha asked weakly, “What kind of riddle is this…”

Lu Chen did not answer; he simply stared quietly at the door and the yin-yang symbol on it.

At this moment, he suddenly felt that the golden world within his body seemed to resonate slightly with this door.

"Huh? What's going on? Why is there such a strange movement in the Golden Pearl World?" Lu Chen wondered to himself. Then, he unconsciously moved closer to the gate.

"Be careful," Fang Xinyi warned upon seeing this. "This door gives me a bad feeling, like... it's guarding something extremely dangerous."

Lu Chen nodded and walked forward slowly. "It's nothing, I'm just taking a look around."

With each step Lu Chen took closer, the agitation within the Golden Pearl World intensified. Simultaneously, the Chaos Dao Life Technique accelerated its operation, as if both excited and issuing a warning.

This change made Lu Chen even more curious about the door.

So he continued to approach, and after a dozen breaths, Lu Chen stood ten feet away from the stone gate.

From this distance, the details on the door are clearly visible. Every line of the yin-yang symbol contains profound laws and mysteries, and the incomplete parts look as if they were forcibly torn off by some kind of violence.

Upon closer inspection, the material of the door was revealed to be not stone, but rather... frozen time.

"Hiss..." Upon seeing this, Lu Chen gasped in shock.

He simply couldn't imagine what kind of method could compress and solidify time to ultimately form this door.

Lu Chen reached out, wanting to touch the patterns on the door so that he could use the Chaos Dao Life Technique to analyze its mysteries.

However, just as his fingertips were about to touch it, the yin-yang symbol on the door suddenly lit up, perhaps because Lu Chen's divine energy fluctuations affected the door.

Although it was only for a moment, Lu Chen still saw that the Yin fish part lit up with a ghostly blue light, while the Yang fish part lit up with a blazing white light. The instant the two lights converged, the stone door suddenly trembled and emitted a deep rumble.

However, the light quickly went out, and the tremors soon stopped.

It was as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

Lu Chen withdrew his hand, lost in thought. He took a few steps back, sat down cross-legged, and closed his eyes.

"What is he doing?" Nezha asked Fang Xinyi with his eyes.

“He must have figured it out,” Fang Xinyi said softly. “The two sentences on the door are the key; he needs to find a way to open the door.”

As time passed by, second by second.

Lu Chen's consciousness sank into the depths of his sea of ​​consciousness. He did not force a deduction, but let his thoughts flow naturally.

"Through the cycle of life and death, one must remain true to one's original heart..."

He thought about his entire life.

Back on Earth, he was an ordinary person, struggling to make ends meet every day, his biggest worries being his mortgage and overtime work. What was his "true desire" back then? A stable life, his family's health, and simple happiness.

Everything changed after I traveled to the Tianyuan Continent and entered the world of cultivation.

In this dog-eat-dog world, where the strong prey on the weak and deceit prevails, a single misstep can lead to certain death. What then is one's "true nature"? It is to survive, to become stronger, and to no longer be at the mercy of others.

Later, as his cultivation improved, Lu Chen encountered the old Taoist priest and accepted the ten-year agreement to repair the Divine Domain. What was his "original intention" then? Was it responsibility? Repaying a debt of gratitude? Or... the helplessness of being pushed along by fate?

Having come this far, with the cultivation of the Transformation Realm, the Chaos Dao Life Technique, the Chaos Tree in hand, and heavy responsibilities on my shoulders, what should my "original heart" be now?

As he was thinking, Lu Chen suddenly smiled.

Because he understood.

One's true nature is never fixed. It changes with experience and with growth. But the essence remains the same—one's true nature is the "why" behind every choice.

Choosing ordinariness is because of a yearning for peace; choosing to become stronger is because of an unwillingness to submit; choosing to take responsibility is because there is still a desire to protect in one's heart.

Life and death are a cycle, and the world is ever-changing, but as long as you follow the truest voice of your heart in every choice, that is "staying true to yourself".

Having figured this out, Lu Chen suddenly felt enlightened, as if some shackles in his consciousness had been broken. His Dao heart became more transparent, and the operation of the Chaos Dao Life Technique became even smoother.

Lu Chen opened his eyes, a flash of enlightenment appearing in them.

"Do you understand?" Fang Xinyi asked.

"I understand the first sentence." Lu Chen stood up. "But it still needs to be verified."

He walked towards the stone gate again, but this time he didn't reach out to touch it. Instead, he sat cross-legged three feet in front of the gate. Then, he closed his eyes and began... to recall.

It wasn't a memory of martial arts techniques, nor a memory of battles, but a memory of life.

When he was working on Earth, he would stay up until 3 a.m. for a few extra dollars, yet still show up at his desk on time the next day. What sustained him then was the responsibility he felt towards life, the promise that "this month's salary will be higher."

When he first entered the sect in Tianyuan Continent, he was bullied by his senior brother Liao Wei and almost died. Fortunately, the Golden Pearl World appeared, which not only saved him but also allowed him to truly embark on the path of cultivation. This was his destiny.

Later, in countless life-or-death battles, he narrowly escaped death time and time again. What sustained Lu Chen was sometimes the will to survive that "I can't die here," and sometimes the concern that "there are still people waiting for me to return."

These emotions, these obsessions, these seemingly insignificant "whys" constitute the trajectory of his journey.

Now, Lu Chen will slowly inject these trajectories, these "original intentions," into the stone gate through the Chaos Dao Life Technique.

It wasn't a forced collision, but rather... resonance.

hum-

The stone gate shook again.

This time, the tremors lasted even longer. The yin-yang symbol on the door glowed with a steady, eerie blue light; although still incomplete, it at least showed some reaction.

As for the Yang fish part, wisps of blazing white light seeped out from the cracks, like a dried-up riverbed finally receiving rain.

However, the light was too weak to make the entire pattern complete.

“Still a little short.” Lu Chen opened his eyes, his brows furrowing slightly. “Only when Yin and Yang converge can the true path be seen… I understand my true nature, but I haven’t found the ‘method’ to bring Yin and Yang together.”

At this moment, the golden bead world within his body automatically emitted a dazzling light, which shone on the door, causing it to emit an even louder buzzing sound.

"Now, open it for me!" Lu Chen barked.