The final Sanqing’s path to enlightenment was slightly lacking. Ding Yun did not let them continue to occupy slots for merit-based enlightenment. Instead, she provided them with extra tutoring, guiding them to enlightenment through comprehension of the laws. Regardless, they all successively achieved enlightenment within the last millennium of the thirty thousand years Ding Yun lectured.
With that, all of Ding Yun’s disciples had successfully attained enlightenment.
This caused envy among those who had not yet achieved it.
Concurrently, the gates of the Heavenly Dao Palace opened once more. All newly promoted Da Luo cultivators, along with those who had not perished, rushed to attend.
Since the content to be lectured had been covered before, Ding Yun did not elaborate much in this new round of lectures. As soon as everyone was present, she closed the gates of the Heavenly Dao Palace. Then, using herself and the Jade Disc of Creation as a hub, she demonstrated the three thousand laws.
She allowed them to comprehend these laws on their own.
The Sanqing’s reincarnation and Haotian’s creation, even though they had achieved enlightenment, had only mastered one or two, or perhaps three laws. They were still far from fully comprehending the three thousand laws. Panpiao, though enlightened by force, also cultivated the three thousand laws concurrently.
Further comprehension would only be beneficial.
Thus, everyone quickly calmed their minds and began diligently studying the various laws demonstrated by Ding Yun.
Ten thousand years later, people began to achieve enlightenment in succession.
All of them attained enlightenment through the laws.
During the previous lecture, many had been too greedy in their comprehension of too many laws, failing to cultivate any single law to perfection. Naturally, no one was foolish enough to repeat that mistake this time. Everyone focused intently on comprehending their fundamental laws, leading to significantly faster progress.
After achieving enlightenment, they did not leave either. Instead, they continued to study other laws, particularly those connected to their fundamental laws, in pursuit of further advancement.
Another twenty thousand years passed. Out of the twelve thousand and seventy-three people in the Heavenly Dao Palace, only over two thousand six hundred had not yet succeeded in achieving enlightenment. However, these over two thousand six hundred individuals had at least reached an eighty percent comprehension of the laws. It was expected that with another ten thousand years of listening to lectures, they would all smoothly achieve enlightenment.
But Ding Yun had said she would lecture for thirty thousand years, and no more. If they wished to achieve enlightenment, they would have to wait for the next lecture.
“Your ability to achieve enlightenment, while partly due to my contributions, is mainly a boon from the world itself. The sudden appearance of so many enlightened individuals has placed a considerable strain on the world. Because of your enlightenment, the innate spiritual energy has been completely depleted and transformed into post-natal spiritual energy.
This is a debt that you must bear yourselves.
Therefore, for the next thirty thousand years, you are to travel outside the world and integrate more worlds into the Eternal World.
This is the karma of enlightenment, the karma of the world.
You must repay it yourselves.”
In order to cultivate more enlightened cultivators, Ding Yun had indeed pushed the Eternal World to its absolute limit. Any further strain might even cause the Eternal World to downgrade.
Therefore, it was time to make amends.
After saying this, Ding Yun quickly imparted some techniques on how to breathe in sync with the Eternal World, how to assist the world in absorbing chaotic energy, and how to more easily create and integrate worlds into the Eternal World.
Then, she sent everyone away.
She once again closed the Heavenly Dao Palace.
Upon exiting, everyone inspected the world and discovered that the Dao Ancestor had spoken the truth. The innate spiritual energy was now completely depleted, and the world was filled with post-natal energy. Newly born life even consisted of mortals—mortals with no cultivation, so fragile that their lifespans were less than a hundred years. This was their doing.
After all, when they attained enlightenment, the innate spiritual energy they inhaled and exhaled with each breath was an astronomical figure. Over ten thousand enlightened powerhouses breathing in innate spiritual energy – no amount of innate spiritual energy would be enough to sustain them.
The innate spiritual energy that could have supported hundreds of thousands of eons was consumed in less than thirty thousand years.
Upon understanding these circumstances, those who had already attained enlightenment as Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortals, and possessed a shred of self-respect, immediately followed Ding Yun’s instructions. They adjusted their breathing, ceased absorbing spiritual energy, and instead synchronized with the world’s breathing rhythm, inhaling chaotic energy and generating spiritual energy.
In addition to this, they returned to briefly explain the situation before heading to the chaos outside the world to create heavens and earth, bringing worlds into existence. They then either integrated these created worlds into the Eternal World or made them subordinate worlds. Through their relentless efforts, the entire Eternal World finally began to recover, and the concentration of spiritual energy started to increase.
The innate spiritual veins reversed their nature back to innate.
The world’s area even began to expand.
Concurrently, Ding Yun altered her approach. She moved her Heavenly Dao Palace out of the world, intending to conduct the final lecture in the chaos to avoid further burdening the Eternal World. After all, most of the cultivators listening to her lectures had already successfully attained enlightenment, could perfectly adapt to the chaotic environment, and could directly absorb chaotic energy for cultivation. There was no longer a need to disturb the world.
Thirty thousand years, for beings with short lifespans, might be equivalent to countless reincarnations. But for Ding Yun and the others, it was but a fleeting moment.
On average, each person had created fewer than ten worlds.
Regardless, Ding Yun's third lecture commenced in the chaos. The overall process was similar to the second lecture. The difference was that because this lecture was held in the chaos, Ding Yun had to allocate some of her attention to the newly born Da Luo cultivators, specifically converting chaotic energy into innate energy for them to absorb. After all, given their cultivation level, they could not easily absorb chaotic energy.
Since they had come all this way, it was worth expending a little more effort. In any case, after this lecture, she did not intend to lecture any further. After all, there were already over ten thousand Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortal level cultivators. If even these many enlightened cultivators could not withstand the approaching beasts of the Grand Void and the cosmic destruction beasts, then she would accept her fate.
After all, if over ten thousand Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortals could not fend off the beasts of the Grand Void, then likely over twenty thousand would not be able to either. The difference would be negligible, and there would be no need to exert further effort.
Another thirty thousand years passed. Over three thousand more enlightened cultivators were born in the Heavenly Dao Palace. Ding Yun gave them further instructions, hoping they would create more worlds to guard the Eternal World and prepare for future crises. She then declared the end of the three lectures, stating that she would no longer lecture thereafter.
She also announced that she would be venturing into the chaos to investigate the situation.
This was to avoid being completely ignorant of the chaotic beasts.
Then, Ding Yun completely sealed the Heavenly Dao Palace, even putting it away. Following the direction indicated by the General Administration, she sent out a pure information stream clone, heading directly towards the region where the chaotic beasts resided to scout their strength.
She needed to determine if they could be easily defeated, if a desperate struggle was necessary, or if they should simply wait for death and abandon the mission.