The intricacies of the Golden Tablet

When Gaofeng finally arrived at the Golden Tablet, he couldn't even wait to catch his breath before he sat down cross-legged in front of it and placed both his palms on the tablet itself. There was either any sign of acceptance, nor rejection for his impudence of daring to lay his hands on it, but instead there was an infinite silence that could be heard throughout these abandoned ruins. Even Gaofeng's breath and the sound of his heartbeat disappeared completely until Gaofeng seemed like nothing more than a statue sitting at the foot of this enormous tablet. Time continued passing like this, but what Gaofeng experienced was far from silence. The moment he touched the Golden Tablet, his mind was pulled into a different world altogether. A world filled with inscrutable laws of heaven and earth, and in the center of this world there was an enormous black hole which slowly rotated, giving out feelings of the greatest of daos. This grand object wasn't the only one, however, as this space seemed as large as a universe completely filled with a myriad of different shapes and forms. Some were in the shape of weapons, like swords, staffs, spears, bows, while others had the shape of gigantic demons, holy sages, and even gigantic constructions he couldn't even begin to describe, others again were vast oceans or immense trees, seas of fire or other divine plants. There was truly no end to these objects, but there were clear differentiations between them. Gaofeng had seemingly achieved a kind of omnipresence in this gigantic spiritual universe, and some superficial knowledge about every single entity in this space was transmitted into his mind. There was a total of about ten trillion different shapes, with each one representing either a combat technique, movement technique, weapon technique, auxiliary technique, special ability, or cultivation technique. Some information was transmitted to him by what he thought of as the consciousness of the Golden Tablet, or at least of this space, which explained that he could choose one of each category, but that the quality of the techniques depended on his ability to comprehend the respective abilities. If he was truly unable to even comprehend the initial ability or technique, how would he be able to cultivate it? So Gaofeng was naturally not unhappy with this development, and instead grew greatly expectant at what was about to come. He had initially only believed to be able to get a single cultivation technique, so being given the opportunity for more greatly pleased him. Some additional information from the consciousness of this space included the fact that the techniques and abilities grew more complicated, as well as profound and powerful, the closer the ability was to the center. The center was naturally that large orb which continuously rotated. The Orb wasn't exactly just a blank sphere, however, but instead there were intricate law-inscriptions on it which rippled and moved as the Orb continued to rotate. These laws represented the true grand dao which existed at a level which could be considered on the same level, or even higher, than the laws of heaven and earth themselves. This Orb was Gaofeng's ultimate goal, but he decided that he should work his way up to it by first attempting to understand the other abilities and techniques in this space.

After considering the enormous pool of options that laid before him, he at least knew a large amount of abilities he didn't find too suitable. There were truly no imperfect techniques here, but there were still differences in their worth based on their quality and difficulty of cultivation, thus he had to make good choices. In the end he decided on a staff technique to be his first attempt at comprehending one of these techniques. The reason he picked the weapon technique first was because this was the ability he cared the least about, as with his physique it was always his own body that was most important, and techniques such as weapon techniques were only external techniques in the end, causing him to put less importance on it compared to improving his own body's power. The technique's name was transmitted to Gaofeng's mind the moment he put his hand on the gigantic staff that was the manifestation of this divine technique. The technique was called "Destroying Heaven" and the manifestation of the technique carried with it a boundlessly forceful aura that seemed to have the intention to even sunder the Heavens apart with a single strike. The essence of the transmission from this gigantic staff to Gaofeng's mind was a series of events in which this exact staff struck down onto a manifestation of Gaofeng's spirit with incomparable force carrying with it a heaven-shaking intent for destruction. The staff instantly shattered Gaofeng's spirit, crushing it into nothingness, and easily split both the earth and the heavens in one single strike.

Gaofeng felt himself being torn apart, but he didn't die. Instead, his spirit was reformed, and he was given some time to digest any insights he might have gained. What Gaofeng chose to focus on first was the intent behind the staff-strike, as this would be the key to understanding the individual strikes of the technique. He tried replicating a similar heaven-shaking aura, but it was too immature to have much of an effect. After a small period, the staff struck down again with the same move. This time Gaofeng was prepared and closely observed how the aura manifested in rebellion against being restrained or inferior to anything in existence, even heaven and earth, and thus he gained a small enlightenment. The core of this staff technique was a rebellious spirit and the mental fortitude to go against every law and norm, whether created by man, nature or Gods. It required an indomitable will and a refusal to ever give up. Gaofeng made a bold attempt, and acted as if he had a heavy staff in his hands to counter this gigantic staff that seemed unstoppable. At the moment he did so, an actual staff manifested in his hands, and his strike carried with it a will to go against even the largest of odds, as it struck against what seemed more like the pillar of a temple for giants rather than a normal staff. Gaofeng's spirit was still destroyed, but this time the damage done to the earth below him was less than before. The Heaven and Earth healed again while Gaofeng's spirit appeared whole. Without having to consider closer, Gaofeng manifested a staff once more, but this time he manifested a staff of equal size to the one striking at him. It didn't matter that it seemed like he couldn't possibly use this gigantic staff because he himself would just increase his own size then. Just as he thought the thought, he became a titanic giant capable of easily wielding this enormous staff. When he again met the other staff in a clash, he still attempted to truly understand this heaven-shaking intent, and while locked in a stalemate with this other staff he realized that he should never let himself or his imagination be controlled by his environment, and instead of maintaining the stalemate he continuously made both himself and his staff larger until the other staff seemed miniscule in relation to him, and thus the stalemate was broken. He managed to push away the other staff. When the other staff once again manifested, he smashed down with his own staff before the manifested staff even had the chance to make a move, and subsequently completely overwhelmed and destroyed it.

At the moment of seeing this staff being destroyed, and himself being responsible for this, as well as the sundering of the heaven and earth, made the heaven-shaking intent truly manifest from Gaofeng. All this time he used the exact same strike as the manifested staff, truly entering into the initial boundary of "Destroying Heaven". Gaofeng's comprehension ability was truly astounding, as even the consciousness of this space who had seen countless heroes and geniuses considered 100 attempts to comprehend even the simplest ability in this space to be mind-blowing, but this ability in particular could be considered to be the single greatest staff technique available in this space and thus the difficulty in comprehending it was immense. The instant Gaofeng entered the initial boundary of Destroying Heaven, he disappeared from the space within the staff and re-appeared in the boundless sea of different abilities. What happened now, however, was truly miraculous, as the majestic staff entered into Gaofeng's mind and settled there. The complete technique of the staff was transmitted directly into his mind to slowly comprehend and utilize once he had the ability to while the staff's constant heaven-shaking intent could be utilized by Gaofeng to slowly truly absorb and use to a greater extent. What Gaofeng had understood was only the initial threshold of learning the first move, as well as the indominable will and intent needed to perform such strikes, but he now learned that this was simply one of ten moves, with each move representing a new level of will and intent. It would be a long path ahead to truly comprehend the power of this weapon technique.