Chapter 587 Dao Realm

What is Enlightenment?

No one knew. One-tailed didn’t know, Ah Xiong didn’t know, and Jiang Qiu certainly didn’t know. After all, One-tailed and Ah Xiong were natives of this world; in theory, they should have understood it better than anyone. But Jiang Qiu was an outsider, innately lacking certain information, so he couldn’t possibly grasp the meaning behind the Exiled Great Demon’s words.

When Jiang Qiu first arrived in this world, he didn’t even know what the Thirty-Six Celestial Realms were. It was Ah Xiong who had told him back then. If not for Ah Xiong, he would have had no idea what the goal of his journey even was.

And Ah Xiong, at the time, was a member of the Demon Race from the very lowest rungs of society—a native among natives, with no real access to information. Yet even he knew about something as remote as the Thirty-Six Celestial Realms. This suggested that the Demon Race of this world was born with a certain amount of innate knowledge, perhaps even absorbing new information as their Realm increased.

For instance, the Great Dominators who ranked above ordinary Dominators—like the Nine-tailed Fox, one of the Eight Great Dominators under the Golden Eagle Ancestor’s jurisdiction—were beginning to grasp that a great calamity would occur after the First Celestial Realm.

This was the kind of information Jiang Qiu had yet to obtain. It wasn’t that he couldn’t ask about it, but that he could never learn it on his own. The Demon Race of this world, however, could discover such things by themselves, because the information was passed down through their bloodline. At the source of their lineage, someone had engraved this crucial knowledge into their very blood, to be gradually unlocked with the passing of generations.

Jiang Qiu possessed the Dragon Emperor’s bloodline, which was completely different from that of the local Demon Race. It was only natural that he couldn’t receive their bloodline inheritance. From a certain perspective, if someone could transmit information through a bloodline, it meant they could control that bloodline—or at the very least, restrict it.

Therefore, not having this kind of inherited information could be a good thing, though it did lead to some trouble, like being unable to resolve his own doubts. Just like now. When the Exiled Great Demon mentioned “Enlightenment in the First Celestial Realm,” Jiang Qiu fell silent. He had no idea what that meant.

Meanwhile, One-tailed quietly used Telepathy to send him a question: “Master, what is ‘Enlightenment in the First Celestial Realm’?”

In truth, her reply about “Enlightenment in the First Celestial Realm” wasn’t her own idea. She had been completely stumped at the time and had subconsciously asked Jiang Qiu in her mind what to say. He was the one who told her to give that answer.

So, she didn’t understand any of it either.

As for why she had asked her master first, well, of course she would. He was her master, the leader. A question this important had to be answered by him. But there was another, more important reason: she had always suspected her master might be a Celestial Spirit!

In other words, she believed her master was a being who had descended from High Heaven. How else could he possess so much wisdom, master so many forms of Magic, and casually construct an entirely new framework for Cultivation?

Initially, when the Nine-tailed Fox—her original self—first met her master, she had assumed he possessed the Chaos Bloodline, thinking he might be a powerful senior from the Chaos Main City. But as time went on, that possibility seemed less and less likely.

First, beings from the Chaos Main City were supposed to exude a unique oppressive aura from their Chaos Bloodline. Jiang Qiu, however, didn’t have that kind of aura. His was something else—more ancient, proud, and powerful. It was of an exceptionally high level!

Furthermore, when the Nine-tailed Fox was cultivating this second body and chose to resonate with her master, they had exchanged a portion of information. She discovered that, in Jiang Qiu’s presence, she was like an incredibly weak little pet facing its lofty master.

He could decide her life or death with a single thought. It was unbelievable that the master of her second body now held sway over the life and death of her original self, but that was the reality.

The [Nine-tailed Form] Cultivation Technique had failed to establish an encroaching connection with Jiang Qiu’s Soul. He could sever their link unilaterally at any time. He remained the master, not some so-called second body.

When her original self sensed this, she was actually a little disappointed. However, she quickly and willingly submitted. No one would dare try to control a powerful, mysterious being who was so much stronger than themselves.

Even in what seemed to be his juvenile state, he had already surpassed countless geniuses of the Demon Race. He couldn’t possibly be a native of the First Celestial Realm.

From then on, the Nine-tailed Fox held deep respect for Jiang Qiu. This mindset gradually transferred to One-tailed, who also subconsciously believed Jiang Qiu was a Celestial Spirit. That was why, when the Exiled Great Demon had just mentioned the words “Celestial Spirit,” she had instinctively glanced at Jiang Qiu and asked him how to respond.

As for why Jiang Qiu chose to answer with “Enlightenment in the First Celestial Realm,” it was mainly because the First Celestial Realm was all he knew; he had no idea what the other Thirty-Six Celestial Realms were like. He was also completely clueless about what a true Celestial Spirit was. He could only respond with something he understood, and besides, the very concept of “Enlightenment” had piqued his interest.

With his years of Cultivation experience and his previous existence as a Half-Step Unity Realm expert, he naturally understood that a word like “Enlightenment” was of extraordinary significance. Not just anything could be called Enlightenment. For an Exiled Great Demon—who was almost certainly a former supreme expert—to use this word gave it considerable weight.