Pride.

—

Controlling the formation disk to guide the flying boat to a station not far from Curie's clinic, Tian Xing proceeded to park it in a secluded spot. Walking down the stairs of the boat's plank to the ground, he waved the Golden Branch in his hand, painting the fate of the entire area to avoid detection.

After completing the fate alignment, he tapped a certain spot on the ground to create a Concealment formation around the boat. Now able to create freely without the hindrance of Yin Confusion, the Qi in the air was drawn to the site to keep the formation active.

As usual with any art he dabbled in, the amount of energy Tian Xing used was minimal, almost non-existent. Unlike his fellow cultivators who believed more energy meant more auxiliary capability, he was enlightened enough to harness the Bagua Engine of heaven and earth itself to operate the formation. Unlike in his earlier immortal life, this time, he didn't rely on the readily available intuition of higher beings to create the formation.

Instead, he employed a rigorous Wuxing Cycle, or a mathematical circuit of formation, so the rune glyphs Tian Xing inscribed could make the array a true part of the Bagua Engine of heaven and earth. To him, there was no need to create a more complex array requiring additional energy to activate when the Bagua Engine before his eyes was already available to use—this too being the most powerful force in all creation.

Thus, the formation he finished drawing before him could fool the intuition and perception of cultivators who typically avoided investigating using ordinary mortal methods. This made the array both very powerful and not powerful simultaneously, as for ordinary mortals who relied on their five basic senses, the boat remained visible.

Although he could make the boat truly invisible to the naked eye, the process was different from merely borrowing the power of the Bagua Engine. To perform mystical feats like invisibility, Tian Xing would need an immense amount of energy if he wanted to maintain the current capabilities of the formation.

This also reinforced his belief that an enlightened ant is still an ant at the end of the day, as he knew that to perform more powerful mystical and supernatural feats, one still needed high cultivation levels; without them, his Dao would become mere empty shells of expertise.

After observing the array for a while and confirming no one would make contact with it to establish karma, Tian Xing turned around and said to Ying Yue and Yelena, "Come. Let's meet Yue's friend. And remember, we are here just to say hello. Everything else after that is up to fate."

Nodding her head, Ying Yue replied, "Yes, master."

Walking into a bustling street with many aspects of the city differing from a classic ancient civilization, Tian Xing couldn't help but appreciate the scene for a moment. The first thing he noticed upon entering the street were the many vendors selling trinkets with advanced technological characteristics. The peculiar thing was that, even though the trinkets were created using advanced technology, their design style was still ancient, utilizing materials like cheap spiritual bamboo and spiritual wood to construct circuit boards.

Much like when he himself created a laptop using a simple branch, Tian Xing noticed the citizens also utilized the same ancient formation design methods, even though their technique was already within the realm of advanced technology. He nodded in satisfaction, recognizing that his people, the cultivators, were improving in their comprehension and starting to tap into the hidden potential already provided by the Tao.

This development ensured they would not be condemned as having lesser intellect by futuristic people who lacked any respect for the Tao. It elevated his people, the cultivators, beyond simple brutes who could only fight, to individuals enlightened with comprehension on par with advanced technological societies. Tian Xing understood this progression would dispel any notion that modern or advanced people had deeper comprehension, preventing cultivators from being mocked as simpletons, as his Richard variants had been in the previous world.

Knowing that using the Three Treasures and Three Jewels, which possess mystical wonders, allows cultivators to become supercomputers themselves, Tian Xing chuckled. He imagined that, ultimately, comprehension difficult for modern or advanced people could be easily learned and smoothly adapted by those who possessed many mystical and wondrous capabilities.

Sure enough, Tian Xing's gaze was drawn to someone who had recently been transported to this world. The newcomer, wearing a lab coat, looked at the items with a tongue-tied expression, followed by one of despair. They realized that what their society had achieved by building upon the efforts of their predecessors for millennia could be recreated in minutes by a street vendor. Because of the immense intuition of dormant cultivators, this street vendor then could adjust the technology on the fly without prior knowledge of certain sciences.

Observing this scene, Tian Xing chuckled at the ease with which the pride of advanced people in their scientific achievements was shattered. He couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction, knowing that modern or advanced people often viewed him and other cultivators as country bumpkins who would never understand their comprehension.

Reflecting on his variants named Richard, who were now relatively low in ranks of Dao enlightenment variants, Tian Xing sighed, realizing this was clearly the result of pride guiding their actions. Especially knowing that the Tian Xing variant he embodied now had already surpassed Richard in enlightenment, the moment he comprehended the Taiji symbols at that time.

Looking at the street vendor and the lab scientist with interest, knowing he now embodied characteristics of both, Tian Xing nodded and produced Shen energy in his hands. After creating a cultivation method for the scientist to practice and embedding a fraction of his vast comprehension for the vendor, Tian Xing flicked this Shen energy into their forehead, granting them a legacy.

Simply because, seeing them helped him come to terms with himself, understanding that there is no superior or inferior among all variants. Everyone has their own uniqueness that must be appreciated, for pride in any society always leads to downfall.

Reflecting on the pride he had as a cultivator in the early stages of becoming Tian Xing, his mind was humbled, realizing at that time that anyone from modern or advanced societies could replace him due to his shallow and dull witted comprehension. The same lesson applied to those who took pride in being learned individuals: the comprehension they struggled so hard to achieve could now be easily learned by anyone in just a few seconds, with efforts underway to further improve upon it.

Taking a deep breath, feeling the synchronization of two extreme prides within all his variants, Richard and Tian Xing remained silent, letting his subconscious mind absorb the moment as he watched the street vendor and the lab scientist, seeing reflections of his former self in them.

After observing for quite a while as one of them kowtowed to the heaven and the other made a half-bow to the earth, Tian Xing finally said to Ying Yue and Yelena, "Come, let's meet Curie. Master has finished with my reflection."

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