Guarding Against The Three

"Senior Xue Jian, Senior Hualing, Lihua, we have come back." Zhongming greeted as he approached the camp.

Gao Liang and Xiuying, who were both following closely behind, also greeted everyone in the same manner.

You guys have returned just in time; we have much to discuss." Xue Jian replied.

As the three younger cultivators had arrived in the makeshift camp, they quickly settled and took their seats, readying themselves for discussion that would follow.

"These two days while you three were away. We had a brainstorm session specifically about some potentially problematic characters from The Three Pillars. It's not too likely that we will encounter them. But in case we do, we'll have a contingency in place to deal with them."

As he was speaking, Xue Jian pulled out a small device; with a small application of Qi, the device began hovering in the air, streams of light radiated from the device, their rays forming the images of three people.

"The problematic individuals would specifically be Deng Xianliang, Yin Duyi, and Yu Wenqian."

Xue Jian gestured towards the holographic projection of each individual as he listed out their names.

"Now, the first person to take note of would be Deng Xianliang, as the successor to the Deng Sect and an expert wielder of the Dao of principles. Xianliang is a very troublesome individual to deal with. To make this brief, the Dao of principles gives its user the ability to control the fundamental nature of concepts themselves. This would give the user the potential to create new concepts and to destroy existing concepts."

Xue Jian stretched out his hand.

"Xiuying, why don't you try to see if you can access any information regarding my hand."

Xiuying concentrated for a second; a slight frown marred her face.

"I can't." Was Xiuying's curt reply.

"This is a basic example of how this Dao of Principle can be applied to counter abilities like Xiuying's Dao of Information. By altering the fundamental principles of information itself, I have made all information principally inaccessible by any third-party actor."

One of the significant advantages that Soul Integration realm cultivators held over Nascent Soul realm cultivators was their dominion over every concept.

While Nascent Soul cultivators were bounded by the singular concept that they had reached enlightenment with, the Soul Integration realm could only be achieved when the comprehension of your Dao was deep enough that the mysteries of all other Dao's were revealed to you.

Of course, this additional comprehension was not particularly deep; even talented Nascent Soul cultivators of a particular Dao would have a deeper understanding.

Thus, against other similar level cultivators, the utility of such a thing was drastically reduced.

"Another path that I could have taken to counter Xiuying is to change the fundamental nature of reality and existence itself. By divorcing information itself from existence, nothing would have nor require information to function, and thus there would be no information to change because information simply doesn't exist."

"Against such a power. It is likely that Gao Liang's Dao of karma will be the most effective. Due to karma theoretically being a fundamental law governed by the Supreme Dao itself. Even a cultivator of the Dao of Principles should be helpless against it."

Xue Jian paused for a bit to gather his thoughts; he began before pacing back and forth as he spoke.

"The next person will need to look out for is Yin Duyi, who wields the Dao of Mirage. This ability essentially gives the user control over the duality of true and false. A cultivator who wields the full power of this Dao has the ability to bring his imagination into the world as well as bringing the world into his imagination."

"In other words, he could turn you into a fictional being. Thus, giving him full control over who and what you are. For instance, If he caught me inside this ability, he could turn me into a fictional being. Then, as a fictional being, he could dictate that I was not a Soul Integrated cultivator, but rather a Body Refinement cultivator. Or perhaps, I would just be an ordinary person who was not even a cultivator."

Once again, Xue Jian stretched out his hand; this time, he had willed a single leaf over. Once the leaf was within ten feet, it began morphing. First, the leaf turned into a living breathing horse, then a tiger; finally, it settled on a wolf.

"Because I view this leaf as fictional, I can change it however I like… Xiuying, why don't you try to use your Dao of Information?"

Once again, Xiuying concentrated for a second. However, this time something changed, the leaf turned wolf, once again shifted, this time it turned into a cute puppy.

"As you can see, this ability, while potent, we do have some more avenues of defense against it. Thought itself is comprised of information. And so, when thought becomes reality, there is an opening in which we can inject and override the thought. Thus any changes, in reality, can be infiltrated and overwritten by us. Gao Liang with his Dao of karma could also do something similar by messing around with relationships."

Xue Jian lowered his arm; the leaf reverted to its original form.

"The final person that we need to watch out for is Yu Wenqian, who wields the Dao of consequences. This Dao gives her the ability to determine cause and effect. The Dao of consequences could almost just be as easily called the Dao of Cause and Effect."

"For instance. A user could snap their fingers and cause your head to explode. The snap would be the action. And your head exploding would be the consequence. Or let's say. You stabbed a user of the Dao of Consequence. The action is a stab. The consequence, rather than death or injury of the user. Perhaps it becomes rejuvenation or empowerment, or maybe the consequence is the death of the attacker."

"For this ability, in particular, the most effective counter should be Lihua's Dao of Change. For there to be a consequence, there needs to be an action. For there to be an action, there must be a change. And therefore, if you reject change, you reject action, and if you reject action, you reject consequences."