Chapter 336

Chapter 336: Yang Jia Summons the Ancestor!

Seeing the woman, Ye Tianming was first startled, then smiled and said, “It’s you.”

　　The woman glanced at him but said nothing.

　　Ye Tianming knew this girl wasn’t much of a talker, so he didn’t say anything more and began annotating his senior sister’s notes.

　　Only the last two volumes left!

　　Several thousand credits would be very useful to him at this point.

　　The woman said nothing either, just silently watching him annotate the whole time.

　　Her expression kept shifting, now furrowing her brows, now looking surprised.

　　Ye Tianming paid her no mind and focused on his annotations.

　　Like this, after a long while, Ye Tianming set down his pen, stretched lazily, and let out a long breath. “Finally done.”

　　The woman suddenly said, “Do you think all living beings can perceive the Dao?”

　　Ye Tianming pondered briefly, then said, “Difficult.”

　　As he spoke, he looked at the ancient texts before him and said, “Recognizing the difference between name and reality is where perceiving the Dao begins. Without that awareness, one is obstructed by names and cannot see reality.”

　　The woman glanced at the notes.

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “These notes are useless to most people. The Dao cannot be conveyed through words — the moment it falls into language, it becomes a concept. Those who truly understand senior sister’s words perceive the Dao without clinging to the teachings. Those who truly grasp her words understand the Dao without being bound by the text. Those who get tangled up in words and concepts are scholars, not the awakened. Scholars interpret the text, the awakened interpret the meaning. Though both are interpreting senior sister, they are actually doing completely different things.”

　　The woman stared at Ye Tianming. “You understand.”

　　Ye Tianming waved his hands repeatedly. “I wouldn’t say I understand. I’ve only caught a glimpse of something by following where senior sister pointed, but I haven’t lived through it myself, so I don’t truly understand. I’m barely a scholar…….”

　　That was no lie.

　　Although he had used the Yang family’s order below to establish theLeaderboard of All Beings, he knew himself that his foundation was far from sufficient, and his knowledge was lacking too — which was also why he had temporarily abandoned the Leaderboard of All Beings.

　　He needed to let himself settle further.

　　As for coming to this world, he had no sense of contempt or arrogance whatsoever, but rather approached everything with a mindset of learning and reverence.

　　He had no grounds for pride at all.

　　As far as he was concerned, now that the Yang family was no longer targeting him, it was the perfect time to quietly grow stronger.

　　As if thinking of something, Ye Tianming suddenly said, “That said, I think senior sister’s Dao still has one flaw.”

　　The woman’s dark brows immediately furrowed, but quickly returned to normal. She stared at Ye Tianming with no sign of displeasure — on the contrary, she was very curious. “Where is the flaw?”

　　Ye Tianming carefully glanced around.

　　Seeing him act this way, the corner of the woman’s mouth briefly curved into a faint smile, which quickly faded back to normal.

　　Seeing no one around, Ye Tianming continued, “The Dao is difficult in two ways: first, it is hard to perceive, and second, it is hard to walk. Without the awareness, it is hard to perceive. With the awareness, one must forge a path where there is none, so it is hard to walk. Looking at the notes senior sister left behind, her Dao should be nearing its end — her own end, that is — meaning she will soon have no road left.”

　　False god!

　　That was the ceiling for cultivators in this world.

　　Because beyond that lay true godhood.

　　To this day, aside from the few true gods left over from the Age of Gods, no living being had ever surpassed false godhood to reach true godhood.

　　Hearing Ye Tianming’s words, the woman fell into silence.

　　She naturally understood what he meant. She looked at him, and in that moment she reassessed him once again.

　　Ye Tianming continued, “The hardest part is undoubtedly forging a path where there is none. Senior sister’s current problem is that her great Dao has reached its end — the question is how she opens a new path, or whether she even dares to.”

　　After a brief silence, the woman suddenly asked, “In your view, how should senior sister proceed?”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “She naturally needs to forge a new path. But people in this world are all bound by various rules and frameworks. Some ideas are carved into their bones from childhood — getting them to change even some of their views and perceptions is already incredibly difficult, let alone breaking the rules and frameworks of this world.”

　　The woman said nothing.

　　Ye Tianming suddenly looked at her. “Are you an outer court disciple?”

　　The woman glanced at him and nodded.

　　Ye Tianming smiled. “I finished my task today and earned several thousand credits. Come on, let me treat you to a meal.”

　　With that, he walked toward the exit.

　　To her own surprise, the woman did not refuse.

　　She followed him out.

　　Outside, when the old man guarding the pavilion saw the woman and Ye Tianming come out together, his expression immediately shifted, though he concealed it well.

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “I’ve finished my task. Do you need to check?”

　　The old guardian said amiably, “No need, no need. Just give me your jade token.”

　　Ye Tianming handed over his jade token. The old man took it and tapped it, and several thousand credits were instantly transferred into Ye Tianming’s token.

　　The old guardian handed the token back to Ye Tianming. As Ye Tianming took it, the old man suddenly asked, “Are you interested in taking on another task? Also organizing books — this time the credits are higher, 6,700 credits.”

　　Ye Tianming shook his head. “I’ll pass for now. I’m a bit tired and need to rest.”

　　The old man seemed about to say more, but Ye Tianming turned to look at the woman beside him and smiled. “Come on, let me treat you to a meal.”

　　The old man: “……”

　　Watching the woman follow Ye Tianming off into the distance, the old man’s expression turned distinctly strange.

　　Along the way, Ye Tianming suddenly asked, “Miss, my name is Ye Tianming. I still don’t know yours.”

　　The woman said, “Dong Qian.”

　　Ye Tianming smiled. “How long have you been in the outer court?”

　　The woman said, “Three years.”

　　Ye Tianming said, “I just arrived at the academy. I actually want to learn about the Cosmic Mansion, but there are no ancient texts in the archive hall that mention it. Do you know where I could find information on it?”

　　The woman turned to look at Ye Tianming. “You want to learn about the Cosmic Mansion?”

　　Ye Tianming nodded.

　　The woman asked, “Why?”

　　Ye Tianming said, “Curiosity!”

　　The woman glanced at him, then said, “If you want to learn about the Cosmic Mansion, you’ll need to enter a divine hall.”

　　Ye Tianming looked puzzled. “A divine hall?”

　　The woman nodded. “All five great divine halls have records on the Cosmic Mansion.”

　　Ye Tianming asked, “Doesn’t the Pantheon Academy have any?”

　　The woman said, “The Pantheon Academy does as well, but it’s in theTheological Pavilion, which ordinary people cannot enter.”

　　Ye Tianming asked, “What are the conditions for entering?”

　　The woman said, “You’d need to be at least a student of the divine academy.”

　　Ye Tianming’s expression darkened.

　　The woman suddenly asked, “Why do you want to learn about the Cosmic Mansion?”

　　Ye Tianming smiled. “Just a bit curious.”

　　The woman glanced at him and said nothing.

　　Soon the two arrived at a place to eat. Even though it was nighttime, there were still quite a few people dining.

　　Ye Tianming decided to indulge himself today and ordered over twenty dishes, filling the entire table.

　　Truth be told, he really liked this kind of life — peaceful days, rare and precious peaceful days.

　　Dong Qian also ordered a few dishes, all paid for by Ye Tianming.

　　The two sat across from each other.

　　Around them, many outer court students were looking over at Ye Tianming and Dong Qian — mainly at Dong Qian, because she was simply stunning.

　　Ye Tianming picked up a piece of some kind of meat and put it in his mouth, then said, “Good, good, delicious.”

　　The woman suddenly said, “You’re at the Human Spirit Realm?”

　　Ye Tianming nodded. “Mm.”

　　The woman nodded and said nothing more.

　　Ye Tianming said, “What does it take to become a divine academy student?”

　　The woman said, “Talent — monstrously exceptional talent.”

　　Ye Tianming smiled bitterly. “I have low-grade talent.”

　　The woman looked puzzled. “Low-grade talent?”

　　Ye Tianming nodded. “The lowest.”

　　The woman looked at him. “Could there have been an error?”

　　Ye Tianming said, “I tested twice.”

　　Truthfully, he was also quite puzzled by that talent assessment. By any logic, there was no way he should have scored that low.

　　Could it be that his abilities from below simply didn’t carry over here?

　　The woman suddenly said, “Your hand.”

　　Ye Tianming looked puzzled.

　　The woman said, “Give me your hand.”

　　Ye Tianming extended his hand toward her. The woman placed her right hand on his wrist, and after a moment, her dark brows furrowed.

　　Ye Tianming asked, “What is it?”

　　The woman said nothing, and instead began feeling her way up along his arm.

　　Ye Tianming: “…….”

　　”Dong Qian!”

　　Just then, a voice suddenly came from nearby.

　　Ye Tianming turned to look. A man was walking toward them, and upon seeing him, Ye Tianming was immediately taken aback.

　　It was Zhou Bai from earlier in the day.

　　Dong Qian completely ignored Zhou Bai and continued feeling along Ye Tianming’s arm.

　　With Zhou Bai’s appearance, the students dining around them began buzzing with discussion.

　　Seeing himself ignored, the smile on Zhou Bai’s face gradually faded, but it returned in an instant. He walked up beside Dong Qian and said warmly, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I never expected you’d be in the outer court……”

　　At that, he suddenly turned to look at Ye Tianming. “And this is?”

　　Ye Tianming glanced at Dong Qian, sensing the other party might have misunderstood, so he proactively explained, “A friend. A purely platonic friend.”

　　Out in the world, there was no need to make enemies — especially since he and this Miss Dong Qian truly had nothing going on — so he took the initiative to explain.

　　”Oh.”

　　Zhou Bai gave Ye Tianming an indifferent look, then turned back to Dong Qian and was about to speak when Dong Qian suddenly looked at Ye Tianming and said, “Your bone structure is very ordinary. So ordinary that……it’s not normal.”

　　Ye Tianming said nothing.

　　Dong Qian’s gaze grew somewhat complex. She suddenly thought of a possibility — that the reason the testing pillar had failed to detect this man’s talent might be because his talent was too high, so high that it exceeded the upper limit of what the testing pillar could measure.

　　There had been a precedent for this.

　　And that precedent was her.

　　Zhou Bai suddenly let out a quiet sigh. “Dong Qian, I know you don’t like me, but you don’t have to go find an outer court disciple just to spite me. And on top of that, a low-grade talent outer court disciple — why do you have to demean yourself like this?”

　　What the hell?

　　Ye Tianming was instantly stunned. He turned to look at Zhou Bai. “Are you an idiot?”

　　Everyone: “…….”

　　Xiao Hun hurriedly said, “Young master, you said it yourself — keep a low profile, grow quietly…….”

　　Ye Tianming thought inwardly, “I said keep a low profile, not be a pushover!”

　　With that, he pointed at Zhou Bai. “Get over here and kowtow to me, and we’ll call it even. Otherwise, I’ll beat you until you’re calling for your ancestors, just like Yang Jia!”

　　When someone messes with you, never turn it inward.

　　Whoever comes at you, you go right back at them!