111: Enlightenment and the Line of Cause and Effect

Aura, who had been lost in the spatial turbulence for nearly three months, finally saw an opportunity to escape.

The deeper he went into the spatial turbulence, the more he realized that if it weren't for Spiritual Stealth, which nullified 99.99% of external damage, he would have long been ground into dust by the spatial turbulence.

At this moment, a continental world, hidden deep within the spatial turbulence, suddenly materialized before him.

Without hesitation, Aura immediately pressed himself against the world barrier, and using Spiritual Stealth's passive ability, he permeated the world barrier, squeezing himself into the world.

The barrier of this world was too thick; he estimated it would take a long time to squeeze in and explore the secrets of this world, and he dared not actively attack, lest he provoke resistance from the world itself.

On the other side, God Lin Chen, who had also been trapped, recovered and encountered a spatial rift, allowing him to escape the spatial turbulence region and return to the real starry sky.

"Isn't this the legendary Enlightenment Stele?"

Looking at the half-broken stone stele before him, with the character 'Dao' carved in divine script, only half of it remained in the world.

This was the Enlightenment Stele, a supreme treasure conceived by chance when the universe was first born; later, the Old Gods fought a divine war that spread across half the universe to contend for it.

When the divine war ended, the Enlightenment Stele was shattered.

There were no victors in that divine war.

The upper half of the Enlightenment Stele shattered into countless fragments, scattered throughout the cosmic starry sky, and were obtained by beings blessed with good fortune.

The lower half of the Enlightenment Stele, however, remained hidden, only visible to beings with heaven-defying luck, granting them an opportunity for enlightenment.

"Sure enough, after bad luck, only good luck follows."

"But for me to encounter the Enlightenment Stele, it seems I've overdrawn a lot of good luck, and the bad luck I'll need to consume in the future might be quite a lot."

As soon as this thought arose, Lin Chen immediately cut it off.

When you're happy, don't think about unhappy things; diluting happiness is not advisable; just be happy when you're happy, and that's it.

Lin Chen's main consciousness descended upon God Lin Chen, bringing his true spirit along.

The Fragmented Enlightenment Stele was a pure place of opportunity.

The only danger was the probability of becoming Dao-transformed, degenerating into a Dao-transformed Apostle, but Lin Chen had no such concern; he couldn't reach the threshold for Dao-transformation, as Dao-transformed Apostles were at least Ninth Order Gods who had undergone the transformation.

The higher one's cultivation, the greater the possibility of Dao-transformation, with the threshold being the Ninth Order Gods; as a mere Half-God, he couldn't even perceive the Dao, so Dao-transformation was impossible for him.

Thus, Lin Chen, with a clear conscience, transferred his true spirit to the God Lin Chen clone, temporarily using God Lin Chen as his main body.

Before the Fragmented Enlightenment Stele, there was only Lin Chen.

At any given time, the Fragmented Enlightenment Stele would only receive one person; only after the previous person's enlightenment concluded could the next person see the Fragmented Enlightenment Stele and gain an opportunity for enlightenment.

So-called enlightenment is to directly face the ocean of rules, where the essence of countless rules is presented before the enlighter, allowing the enlighter to observe and comprehend them, transforming them into their own understanding of the Dao.

Generally speaking, the most suitable stages for enlightenment are the Ninth Order Gods and God-level, and secondarily, those Ascension to God who are seeking and climbing towards the Dao; for Half-Gods who haven't seen the Dao, using the Fragmented Enlightenment Stele is somewhat wasteful.

However, since the opportunity had been obtained, Lin Chen naturally wouldn't feel it was a waste; a fortuitous encounter had literally fallen into his lap, and he simply had to accept it.

Adjusting his state, Lin Chen sat cross-legged on the futon on the Fragmented Enlightenment Stele, signifying that he was ready for enlightenment.

At this moment, the 'Dao' character on the Fragmented Enlightenment Stele glowed faintly.

The light spread, enveloping Lin Chen, who was seated on the futon; Lin Chen's consciousness was infinitely elevated, entering the ocean of rules.

Countless rules swam around Lin Chen; the higher his compatibility with a rule, the friendlier it was to him, and the closer it came to him, and vice versa.

Ignoring the laws around him that were preening and trying to attract his attention, his goal was very clear: to comprehend the Causality Dao, and at least grasp a tiny bit of Causality Power.

His compatibility with the Causality Dao was 32%, not far from Lin Chen, and within his perceptible range.

When Lin Chen focused his gaze on the Causality Dao, the active Daos around him disappeared, and only the Causality Dao expanded infinitely, with countless pieces of information belonging to the Causality Dao enveloping Lin Chen.

At this moment, Lin Chen saw his own dense causal lines extending into the distance; through these causal lines, he could see countless scenes.

"Causality, the bond of all things!"

An epiphany arose in Lin Chen's mind, and the first wisp of Causality Power was extracted from countless causes and effects, settling in Lin Chen's heart, becoming his medium for communicating with the Causality Dao.

Before becoming a God, one needed various mediums to perceive the Dao, contacting the Dao through these mediums and then mobilizing the Dao's power.

At the God-level, one could directly mobilize the Dao's power without the need for a medium to facilitate the power mobilization.

Enlightenment, the process of wielding power.

"Ah, it's over already, so short!"

Lin Chen, immersed in the Causality Dao, was suddenly kicked out by the Fragmented Enlightenment Stele; his consciousness returned to his body, Causality Power rooted in his heart, and all the countless insights about causality receded, everything becoming obscure again.

Lin Chen felt a sense of loss and was somewhat unaccustomed, as if he had entered a world full of beauty, experienced some of that beauty, and then was kicked back to reality; this sense of disparity was very uncomfortable.

After a while, Lin Chen adjusted his state and organized the gains from this enlightenment.

Although this enlightenment was brief, the gains were immense.

Lin Chen found the Causality Dao and climbed a few steps towards it.

This meant that he only needed to accumulate divinity, and his cultivation would naturally break through to Ascension to God Seventh Order, a smooth path, not to mention that the hurdle to becoming a God was also slightly weakened.

He also understood some of the essence of the Causality Dao, and it was because of this essence that the difficulty of his God-ascension hurdle was reduced by a few points, and the probability of breaking through to God increased significantly.

Specifically, he had mastered Causality Power and could superficially mobilize some of the Causality Dao's power, forming skills centered around Causality Power.

For example, Lin Chen could now see the causal lines on people and objects, and trace back the people and events represented by these lines through them.

He could also temporarily sever the causal lines on himself or others, achieving the effect of shielding causality and converging causality.

However, his ability was limited; he could only temporarily sever causal lines, and over time, the causal lines would regenerate, and because of this severance, the strength of the causal lines would be even higher.

This was just a simple operation based on causal lines; there were other complex manipulations.

For example, anchoring true causal lines, grafting causal lines, rewriting causal lines, etc.

Anchoring true causal lines specifically refers to choosing and locking one desired causal outcome from the countless 'results' that extend from a 'cause'.

Once anchored, the causal line carries the 'true' attribute, meaning this causal line will become a future that is bound to happen.

Grafting causality specifically means adding a cause or result to an existing causality.

For example, Lin Chen's attack is the cause, and the enemy's injury is the result.

Lin Chen could then, based on the enemy's injury as the result, add another cause of Lin Chen attacking, even though Lin Chen didn't actually perform a second attack.

And when the cause increases, the result will naturally change accordingly; the original result of the enemy being injured would become the result of the enemy being severely injured, or even the enemy's death.

Alternatively, he could add the result of the enemy's death, and then anchor it as a true causal line, and the enemy would also receive the outcome of death.

As for rewriting causal lines, currently, he can only rewrite causal lines from the current timeline onwards; causal lines from previous timelines are protected by powers like time and destiny, and rewriting them would lead to backlash, which the current Lin Chen cannot withstand.

Rewriting causal lines is extremely difficult.

Changing the cause requires immense power to overwrite the original cause.

Changing the result requires overturning the entire causal line.

Currently, Lin Chen can use it, but it consumes a huge amount of energy, and he can at most only rewrite causal lines with very small influence, involving few people or objects, and with an energy level no higher than Fifth Order.

This ability is entirely a late-game ability, completely unusable in the early stages.

Although Lin Chen's cultivation didn't change much after comprehending the Causality Dao and gaining Causality Power, his combat power increased by thousands of times, possessing the power of mechanisms.

As long as causality exists between you and me, then causality is for my use.

By manipulating the causal lines, the enemy, unaware, would already have a fatal outcome.

Making enemies vanish into thin air with a mere flick of the hand, this is truly elegant.

Elegant, extremely elegant.

"Hehehe, my enemies, you are blessed!"