Chapter 673: Discourse on the Dao

As these thoughts flashed through Jie Ming’s mind, his hands did not stop moving, though his actions suddenly became much gentler. The replica only hesitated slightly in response to Jie Ming’s words before continuing its attack.

The replica activated the Great Void Step at full power, leaving long afterimages trailing between the mirror surfaces.

However, the replica’s energy level was ultimately insufficient. Every time Jie Ming’s true body appeared behind it, the replica would always be half a beat slower to turn around. With identical knowledge and skills on both sides, the disparity in raw power allowed Jie Ming to handle the replica with exceptional ease—far simpler than dealing with other Catastrophe Grade Stranges.

While countering the replica’s attacks, Jie Ming even had the leisure to block all the aftershocks.

After easily crushing the replica’s resistance once more, Jie Ming raised his right hand with fingers spread. A miniature formation appeared in his palm. Its light shone around the replica as blue rune lines emerged from the void, forming a spiderweb-like net that enveloped the replica at the center. This was not a sealing formation, but a simple binding array.

The replica sensed the change in Jie Ming’s intent. The expression of hatred on its face—identical to Jie Ming’s—grew even more twisted.

Its body moved rapidly around Jie Ming. The mirrors on both sides of the corridor shattered automatically as it passed, their razor-sharp fragments spinning through the air toward Jie Ming.

Jie Ming ignored the fragments. The empowered glass shards slid across his skin without leaving even a white mark. His hands moved rhythmically in the air, releasing streams of binding runes from his fingertips that wove an airtight net within the narrow space of the maze.

The moment it was caught in the net, the replica struggled violently. Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light shot wildly in all directions, blasting apart all the remaining mirrors in the maze.

The fragments danced through the air, each one reflecting the images of Jie Ming and the replica. Countless mirrored figures rotated, overlapped, and intersected, turning the entire space into a shattered kaleidoscope.

Yet faced with such an attack, Jie Ming still had the leisure to block every beam of Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light!

A golden light shone on Jie Ming’s forehead as the Fate Subsystem pushed an important piece of data to the forefront of his consciousness: the replica’s expression had changed. Sure enough, after a dozen or so seconds, the replica’s struggling weakened.

The twisted, ferocious hatred on its face receded like a tide, revealing the same calm expression as Jie Ming’s beneath. Its eyes shifted from wide and hostile to slightly narrowed with irritation.

It looked at the golden binding runes on its body, then at Jie Ming standing before it. Its lips moved, but no words came out. Jie Ming was also looking at it.

The two stood face to face amid the ruins of shattered mirrors. The air was filled with the scent of glass dust and residual energy.

The replica’s breathing gradually calmed from its earlier rapid pace. Jie Ming withdrew his hands from their net-weaving posture and let them hang at his sides.

Silence lasted for several seconds.

Then both of them smiled at the same time, sharing a knowing smile.

No explanation was needed. With completely identical knowledge reserves and ways of thinking, they had both realized the situation at the same moment. It was the effect of the body forging method.

The replica also possessed the body forging method. Although its level was lower than the original, its adaptive evolution could still rapidly generate “resistance.” This naturally included resistance to the state of “consciousness distortion imposed by a Strange.”

The moment it was created, the replica had been implanted with the obsession of “intense hatred toward the original body,” but the body forging method disregarded this and forcibly evolved corresponding resistance.

Jie Ming raised his hand and made a sweeping motion in the void. The binding runes detached from the replica’s body and dispersed like snowflakes in midair. The replica flexed its wrists and shoulders, then sat down cross-legged in front of him.

Jie Ming also sat down cross-legged opposite it.

The two faced each other with a floor of broken glass and dust between them.

“Can you leave this place?” Jie Ming asked directly.

The replica shook its head.

Its voice was identical to Jie Ming’s, except for a slight stiffness: “I exist by relying on the power of this Strange city and the unique laws of this world. Leaving the city, my structure would collapse within seconds. Leaving this world, I could not even maintain the most basic energy circulation. I can only remain here.”

Jie Ming nodded. His expression showed little change, but a faint, almost imperceptible trace of regret appeared in his eyes.

“In your current state, can you be considered to have achieved Dao Integration?”

The replica lowered its head to look at its own hands, clenching them into fists before relaxing them.

There was a brief moment of semi-transparency in its fingers when clenched—a sign that its existence was not fully stable.

Its body was constantly drawing the necessary nutrients from the Strange energy of the city to sustain itself.

“More or less,” the replica said as it raised its head. “But I can only be considered to have achieved Dao Integration at the plane level. It is not the same concept as the Dao Integration you seek. The difference between plane-level Dao Integration and world-level Dao Integration is clearer to you than to me. However…”

It tilted its head slightly and smiled softly. “My experience can serve as a reference for you.”

Jie Ming’s eyes brightened. This was even better than he had expected.

He had originally only wanted to study the characteristics of Strange law beings, but a living Dao Integration reference sample had appeared directly before him.

“If you could leave,” Jie Ming asked from another angle, “what do you think the risk of Dao deviation would be for you?”

The replica sighed.

The sigh was light, but when it came from its mouth, the surrounding air seemed to tremble.

“Although we share the same knowledge, there are still differences. Total power, law mastery, completeness of life form…” It raised a finger and pointed at its own chest, where the core of the dharma form true body resided, though far dimmer than in Jie Ming’s original body.

“My core is not stable enough. If I were to attempt Dao Integration, the probability of deviation would exceed ninety percent.”

Jie Ming frowned slightly, but the replica’s next words relaxed his brows.

“But you don’t need to worry. With your current level, supported by the Mortal Dust Qi provided through the Incense Fire Divine Dao and the faith of all living beings, your success rate in Dao Integration should exceed ninety-five percent,” the replica added.

“Your research on Stranges is indeed very useful. Combined with the ideas from the professor’s notebook and the expansions you made upon them… those things have filled the final gaps in your Dao Integration path. Without them, your success rate would probably be around seventy percent.”

Jie Ming remained silent for two seconds, then uttered a single word.

“Good.”

The replica opposite him nodded slightly, then reached out and drew a line on the ground between them.

“Then let us begin,” the replica’s voice became steady and formal, like a teacher about to start a lecture. “I will begin with the essence of Dao Integration.”

Jie Ming adjusted his cross-legged posture, placing his hands on his knees with palms facing upward.

The replica’s voice echoed within the confined space.

Its tone was steady and its pace moderate, almost identical to when Jie Ming had taught Eric in the bookstore.

“The essence of Dao Integration is not fusion, but confirmation. The relationship between you and the world’s laws is not two different things merging into a new one, but confirming that you were originally the same thing. You do not need to ‘become’ part of the laws; you only need to ‘realize’ that you already are. The reason traditional immortal cultivation paths carry high risks is because they attempt to achieve ‘confirmation’ through ‘merging.’ This is a logical paradox: you are trying to merge into something you were already part of. The process itself acknowledges the illusion that you are ‘not part of it.’ The harder you try to merge, the more you reinforce the cognition that ‘I am not part of it,’ making it easier for the laws to treat you as a foreign object. Dao deviation is not the laws rejecting you, but you denying yourself.”

Jie Ming lowered his head in thought and quickly understood. “Then must one completely forget the self?”

“That won’t work. The most troublesome aspect of Dao Integration is that you cannot completely forget that you are in the process of Dao Integration, or you will also be assimilated…” “The reason the Incense Fire Divine Dao is effective is that it can remind you even when you have completely forgotten. The power of collective faith does not lie in how strong a spiritual defense it provides, but in serving as the final fuse…”

The replica’s voice continued to echo through the ruins of the mirror palace. Jie Ming’s consciousness followed his words, seeking new paths within the familiar framework of knowledge.

The two engaged in a back-and-forth dialogue, forgetting time entirely.

There was no day or night inside the mirror palace, only endless shadows reflected by countless mirrors.

Those shadows silently watched the two identical figures sitting on the ground face to face, eyes closed, lips moving rapidly. Their voices were not loud, but their speed was fast, like two computers exchanging data at high speed.

The energy fluctuations outside grew increasingly intense.

Other wizards were engaged in frequent battles throughout the Hollow City. Explosions and the aftershocks of energy impacts traveled from afar, passing through the mirror palace’s walls and mirrors, turning into continuous low-frequency hums in their ears.

Those hums were like the tides of a distant sea—impossible to tell whether they were rising or falling, only that they rang tirelessly.

Jie Ming and the replica paid no attention to those sounds, fully immersed in their discourse on the Dao.

They discussed from the essence of Dao Integration to models of law cognition, from the mechanisms of Dao deviation to the operating principles of the Incense Fire Divine Dao. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Each topic was like the root system of a great tree, extending downward, branching, and branching again, intertwining with other roots deep in the soil to form an inseparable network.

Time passed unknowingly.

The energy fluctuations outside the maze grew more and more violent. The frequency of explosions and law vibrations from afar increased, with shorter and shorter intervals. After an unknown length of time, Jie Ming finally opened his eyes.

The replica also opened its eyes.

Both of their pupils reflected each other’s faces.

“My Dao… is within reach!”

“Excellent!”