“Not encirclement, but protection.”

Luo Siyuan said frankly, "Once the plan starts, it can never be stopped.

It is precisely because you are still on the ship and have not stayed in Chenzhou City,

that you will be able to see the truth of the world with me later.”

“Chenzhou City…”

General Du Tinghuai suddenly realized something and shouted angrily, "What did you do to Chenzhou City?"

“I haven’t done anything yet,”

Luo Siyuan spread his hands, glanced at the deformed monsters constantly emerging from the river, and said indifferently, "Calculating the time,

these human-faced tadpoles still need two quarters of an hour to reach Chenzhou City along the water.”

Rumble—

Thunder boomed in his ears.

In Du Tinghuai's pupils, the Linghe River water, densely packed with floating tadpoles, was clearly reflected.

His throat bobbed, and he felt a deep chill surge up his spine. “These, these monsters…”

Luo Siyuan said indifferently, “They will submerge Chenzhou City.”

Zheng—

The sound of a saber scraping against its sheath was extremely clear. Everyone felt a flash of cold light.

The Wude Guard Commandant actually drew his saber and unsheathed it in a flash of lightning, using a shrinking-earth-to-an-inch spell to silently slash at Luo Siyuan's shoulder.

Luo Siyuan didn't dodge or evade, smiling as he allowed the saber to strike his body.

Clang,

In the Commandant's unbelievable gaze, the indestructible regulation saber easily shattered into slag. The fragments of the blade flew out, scratching his own face and leaving long bloody marks.

But Luo Siyuan was unscathed, shrouded in a faint white light, without any scars on his body.

“No need to try.”

Luo Siyuan stretched out his finger, slowly pushed away the hilt of the saber, and said gently, “I designed the formation to guide the demonic energy. Even the Sect Leader himself cannot take control of the formation from me.

Senior brothers, you can also put away the secret incantations hidden behind you.

Within this formation, no harm can affect me…”

Before he finished speaking, several Longhu Mountain Taoists roared, their hand seals intertwined, summoning thunder from the sky and smashing it down on Luo Siyuan's head.

Luo Siyuan was completely enveloped in the light of the thunder.

He stood indifferently in the pillar of lightning, looked at the several senior brothers with twisted faces who were pinching their fingers in incantations, and sighed softly, “I told you, it’s useless.”

With a wave of his hand, the Longhu Mountain Taoists flew out, crashing into the railing of the ship.

The uncontrolled thunder pillars twisted and deformed, striking the Linghe River, turning hundreds of tadpole monsters into dust.

“Luo Siyuan!!”

The middle-aged Taoist struggled to stand up and roared, “You’re crazy! Just like your master!”

“Senior brother, don’t worry, my mind is very clear and I won’t repeat my master’s mistakes.”

Luo Siyuan glanced at the bewildered expressions on the faces of the surrounding cultivators and explained with a smile, “My master’s Daoist name is Guangchenzi. He and the current Longhu Mountain Sect Leader were once fellow disciples.

He was eccentric and moody.

Although he was an elder, he was extremely annoyed by contact with internal affairs and often left the mountain gate alone without saying where he was going. Most of the disciples in the sect had never even seen his face.

And his death, well, the official explanation is that his lifespan naturally ran out and he died of old age,

but in reality…”

“In reality, Uncle Guangchenzi died of madness.”

The middle-aged Taoist leaned against the railing and said in a low voice, “More than ten years ago, he returned silently from outside the mountain and sat alone on the top of Longhu Mountain’s main peak, looking up at the sky.

No matter how the Sect Leader and elders questioned him, he didn't speak.

Only after a few days did he suddenly stand up, muttering to himself, ‘I understand,’ and directly summoned thunderclouds, trying to transcend tribulation and become an immortal.

However, how can heavenly tribulation be easily overcome?

Uncle Guangchenzi’s cultivation was far from perfect, and he forcibly triggered the lightning tribulation, enraging the heavens and intensifying the thunderclouds.

Although uncles and granduncles tried their best to protect him, relying on the Liangyi Weichen guarding formation, barely surviving the ninety-nine eighty-one lightning tribulations,

he was still seriously injured and his Dao bones were destroyed.

Even after using the Taiyin Refinement, he only managed to linger for a few days before finally dying in regret.”

Luo Siyuan nodded and said, "After my master died, he ordered me to bring his body back to his hometown for burial,

but in fact, his intention was for me to decompose his body into several pieces and bury them in different regions,

so that even after death, he could help me uncover the truth.”

“Again with the truth.”

The middle-aged Taoist coughed and said with difficulty, “That’s why I said you and your master are both crazy.

For an absurd truth, you waste your talent and don't even care about your own lives.”

“To hear the Dao in the morning, one can die content in the evening.”

Luo Siyuan said indifferently, “If we have to hesitate and hold back even when pursuing the truth, then what Dao are we cultivating, what heart are we refining?”

He paused, looked at the crowd around him, and explained indifferently, “My master Guangchenzi was exceptionally talented, the smartest person in the world.

Unlike those senior brothers around him who only knew how to recite ‘The Dao that can be described is not the eternal Dao,’ he was not satisfied with the canonical interpretations of the Dao.

Where did heaven and earth come from? Why do the sun and moon rise?

In the beginning, who preached the Dao?

Before the upper and lower were formed, how could they be examined?

Some books say that Lao Tzu is the embodiment of the Great Dao.

He was born before the formless, arose before the beginning, and existed before the origin. He floated through the six voids, entered and exited the underworld, observed the unseparated mixture, and spied on the undifferentiated turbidity.

He opened up the heavens and the earth, transformed and descended into the world, assisted monarchs, transmitted scriptures, taught industries, and educated the people.

Some books say that the great god Pangu cleaved the chaotic Xuanhuang, which was shaped like a chicken egg, propped open the heavens and the earth, and transformed into all things with his body.

There are also folk legends that either call the Yuanshi Tianzun to save people from the tribulations, or call the Nuwa Niangniang to open up the heavens and the earth, or say that the heaven and earth are actually a chessboard carried by a turtle.

If it were an ordinary Taoist, they might, under the earnest teachings of their elders, condemn all theories other than Lao Tzu's creation as heresy.

Not only would they angrily scold and refute them, but they would also eliminate those who spread the heresy to correct the public's view.

But Guangchenzi didn't think so. Since there are so many theories of creation, which one is correct?

If evidence cannot be presented to distinguish truth from falsehood,

then what is the difference between Lao Tzu's theory of creation and the creation of turtles or snakes and rats?”

Luo Siyuan said seriously, “Evidence, evidence is everything.

Guangchenzi believed that theories can only be obtained by collecting evidence.

All theories can explain the existing evidence.

The more evidence collected, the more incorrect theories can be eliminated—Guangchenzi dug deep underground, until he could dig no further without seeing a turtle shell, so he temporarily shelved the turtle-carrying theory.

Some theories can explain the existing evidence,

but the more reliable components of the theory, the fewer the fictional assumptions and the less the unfalsifiable parts,

the more likely the theory is to be correct—

for example, the theory that the sun is just a simple big fireball

may be more concise, pure, and closer to the truth

than the theory that the sun is a three-legged golden crow, the son of Dijun, who escaped Houyi's arrows by luck and relied on serving the Queen Mother of the West to save his life.

He was also a seeker of the Dao,

but his Dao was to try to infinitely approach the truth by constantly doubting, repeatedly verifying, and constantly falsifying,

rather than giving up thinking like others and believing that a certain theory is the perfect ‘Dao.’”