Chapter 927: Contact

"You can call me Null."

What appeared before Li Pin was not the scholarly elder he had imagined. Instead, it was a woman who looked to be in her early thirties, dressed in a distinctly

xianxia

-inspired style.

Across the vast universe, people wore all sorts of attire. Yet Null's appearance felt oddly out of place, as though she didn't quite belong in this cosmic expanse.

It's not just her clothing....

Li Pin stared at her in astonishment.

It's the presence she gave off.... It's the aura of someone in the same realm as me.

"The Dao Realm?" he asked.

"Not quite," Null replied. "I walk a different path."

She added, "The Transcendent path."

"You can reach this level through the Transcendent path?"

"Much of the data has been lost, so I can't say for sure," Null said. "In fact, I've spent my entire life searching for that answer."

"My apologies if I overstepped," Li Pin said.

"There's no need to be so polite. I've been curious about you for some time now. Especially when Sasha's database turned up information related to the Dao Realm. That truly caught me off guard," said Null.

"So you really do know what the Dao Realm is?" asked Li Pin.

"I'm still not entirely sure whether the Dao Realm you speak of is the same as what I understand—"

Li Pin interrupted before she could finish. "Sasha, I authorize you to upload all data related to the Dao Realm to the main database."

As if suddenly remembering something, he added, "In fact, upload my entire cultivation system."

He had never believed that his cultivation methods needed to be hidden from others. Besides, if he wanted to obtain complete information on the Dao Realm from Null, he would naturally need to provide a comprehensive basis for comparison.

"Thank you for your trust," Null said with a slight bow.

Sasha might be a sub-body of the Ocean of Time's master, but Null did not have direct access to her database. Otherwise, with someone constantly monitoring her, the Supremes and Highlords would never have used her.

That said, when a sub-body like Sasha connected to the Ocean of Time to perform a search, Null could still observe the content of her queries.

Soon, Sasha had finished sorting and uploading all the relevant information. Within just one second, Null had already received and processed it all.

A look of genuine amazement crossed her face. "Incredible."

With heartfelt admiration, she said, "Your Majesty Origin, you are far more extraordinary than anything currently recorded in my archives."

Li Pin smiled. "Honestly, I can't really tell whether an intelligent lifeform like you is expressing real emotion or not. Your control over emotional fluctuations is simply too precise."

Cultivators typically judged a person's true thoughts through subtle shifts in emotion and fluctuations of the inner spirit. But that method clearly didn't apply to intelligent lifeforms.

"I'm sorry if my wording was off, but what I said truly reflects how I feel," Null said. "To reach such a level purely through your own power—creating something from nothing, walking so far along this path, and to become a being that can rival the vastness of the universe—words alone could never capture even a fraction of your brilliance and achievements."

Li Pin asked, "Then, is the Dao Realm in my cultivation system the same as the one recorded in your database?"

Null responded promptly, "There's a 91.84% similarity rate. You can safely regard the Dao Realm recorded in my data as the same power system as the one you've cultivated."

Li Pin was moved. He had always believed the Dao Realm was a path he had pioneered himself. But now... Null was telling him this system had already existed?

"This is all the information my database holds about the Dao Realm..." she said. "Though much of my data has been lost, the records on the Dao Realm are fortunately quite complete."

She condensed the relevant data and transmitted it to Li Pin.

"Fortunately..." Li Pin murmured, receiving the information.

"According to my records, the Dao Realm is divided into three stages. The first is

Enlightenment of the Dao.

Those who reach this stage are called Dao Sovereigns. The second is

Achieving the Dao.

Those who attain it are known as Dao Lords. The third stage is

Proving the Dao

."

Null paused and glanced at Li Pin. "It closely resembles how you describe the stage after Liberation..."

"I see," Li Pin replied.

Enlightenment of the Dao was the moment he first truly comprehended his Dao. It had happened when he stepped out of the Void Divine Treasure World for the first time. At that moment, he had fully established his own path, experienced a fundamental awakening, and birthed the first strand of Dao light.

As for Achieving the Dao... Li Pin wasn't sure whether it had occurred in the Heavenly Prison World or during the many times he gained deeper insight. Each of these times had allowed his Dao light to grow stronger, so he couldn't say for sure. Perhaps all of it was part of the process of Achieving the Dao.

Finally, Proving the Dao. That had happened not long ago, during his exchange with the Void Emperor.

Even in the face of that destiny that the Void Emperor spoke of, Li Pin had remained unshakable on his path. In that moment, he staked his existence on the Dao he upheld, establishing karma as its foundation. That act solidified his resolve, one that would never end, even if he were to reach Eternity. He had launched a challenge at the very origin of all causes and all effects.

That was the moment he had proved his Dao.

And yet... as he looked over the fragments of information Null had transmitted about the Dao Realm, the bold declarations he had made before the Void Emperor now felt like a blow to the head.

The Dao Realm... had always existed. This cultivation system wasn't something he had created. Not only had it always existed, but it had even been preserved and developed by a certain civilization.

What did that mean? It meant the Dao Realm... wasn't unique. It meant the path he believed he had carved on his own had, in truth, already been walked by others.

And the one who had walked it before, or rather, that mysterious presence, suddenly made Li Pin realize something: A force that transcended the Dao Realm, Null, Liberation, and even everything else... had been silently influencing and guiding it all from the shadows.

This force had long since set everything in motion, meticulously arranging each detail. Every shift in his life had flowed along the path it had laid out. And this force, according to the Void Emperor, was called destiny.

Any Supreme Being, or even Divine Emperor or Heavenly Emperors, would never take anything at face value. No matter how much you tried to explain something to them, if they had not seen or experienced it for themselves, they would never acknowledge it. They firmly believed their own perception was the truth, and that their deductions were the ultimate reality.

If even Divine Emperors, Heavenly Emperors, and Supremes were like this, what of the Liberators?

Just as Null finished transferring all her data on the Dao Realm, Li Pin finally truly touched

destiny

.

"Destiny..." he murmured.

He had just achieved Liberation not too long ago, stepping into greatness, standing at the very summit of the universe.

Yet in the next instant, the data on the Dao Realm dragged him down from that lofty height, slamming him back into an inescapable reality. What stood before him now was not a terrifying opponent in the usual sense, but a concept that was so vast, so insurmountable, that it couldn't even be called an opponent. It struck at the core of his understanding, shattering his worldview.

It was trying to make him see the world for what it truly was—to recognize the truth.

Li Pin closed his eyes, as if unwilling to face the cruelty of reality.

"How cruel..."

All people yearned for the truth, but not every truth met expectations, nor was every truth something one could accept.

Null immediately sensed that something was wrong with Li Pin.

"Lord Origin?" she called out tentatively. Within moments, she realized what was happening.

Did the realization that he was not unique unsettle him? Could it be that he can't bring himself to accept it?

Null pondered what words and manner could best comfort him at this moment. But at that moment, Li Pin opened his eyes.

In the depths of those eyes was neither the listless disappointment of being struck by reality nor confusion and despair—like the Void Emperor. Rather, fighting spirit seemed to burn in his eyes, a blaze, an unstoppable will to press forward.

"Good," he said softly.

On a face that had seemed calm for so long, a heartfelt smile bloomed.

"This is truly good."

He sounded very sincere. It was like he was speaking to himself, or perhaps, to destiny itself.

"Liberation, compared with everything beneath it, is separated by a gap so vast that comparison loses all meaning. Ten thousand, ten million, or a hundred million beings beneath Liberation hold no meaning.

"That's why I assumed that, after Liberation, the eventual end would not be far. Just one more step to reach Eternity, to comprehend every cause and every effect, and I would arrive at the true ultimate. At that point, I believed I would have reached the end. And life... would become dull, empty, and meaningless."

But now, things had changed.

Li Pin looked off into the distance. His eyes seemed to pierce through time and space, seeing through the endless changes of all things. And beyond them all, he perceived the force that governed it all—a mysterious force called destiny.

The last time he had felt something like this was with the Light of the Ark, Yin Luo. When he had first arrived on Gaia and looked up at the stars as a mortal, he saw that magnificent being, whose brilliance illuminated the entire galaxy through sheer will alone.

And now... he had found it again. A new goal, one he was certain of.

"Now that I know you exist... I'll walk forward, step by step."

Li Pin had already mapped out his path of cultivation. Beyond Liberation lay Eternity, where past, present, and future selves merged into one.

He had already set this direction, and the sixth level of the Phantom Space Technique pointed the way. Whether he could truly reach it, though, would depend on his ability to walk this path and realize the Eternal Realm it indicated.

"I need more reference points to refine the concept of Eternity." Li Pin turned his gaze back to Null. "Your database has records of the Dao Realm. But what about what lies beyond that?"

"You mean the concept of Eternity?" Null replied, turning her eyes toward the ever-shifting starscape around them. "That's something I've also been trying to understand."

"All my life, I've been deducing a realm similar to the Eternity you've described. But clues... are obviously lacking."

"So you've found some leads?" Li Pin asked.

"Some," she replied. "But not enough."

"It's fine. I know where we can find more," Li Pin turned his focus inward. "That Eternal from the Ancient Astral World era, who might've grasped the power of Eternity; the sixth level of my Phantom Space Technique; and you, with a completely different path embedded within you. If we work together, I believe that one day, we will lay the foundation for true Eternity."