Free Web NovelChapter 437: 437: One second is infinite.
"Spatial Cut."
What did that even mean? Cutting space?
Was such a thing truly possible?
Fang Yuan stood alone within an endless void.
There was no heaven above him.
No earth beneath him.
No distinction between left and right, front and back.
Every direction appeared identical. Every point in existence seemed no different from any other.
Silence reigned supreme.
What exactly was space?
In his previous life, the answer had seemed obvious.
Space was the heaven above the Earth.
The endless darkness where stars drifted.
The place where spacecraft traveled.
Whenever someone mentioned "space," that was what naturally came to mind.
But now...
Standing within this boundless emptiness, he realized how shallow that understanding had been.
If space was merely the heavens above the world, then where was he now?
There were no stars.
No planets.
No sky.
No ground.
Only an endless expanse that seemed to stretch beyond the limits of comprehension.
Fang Yuan slowly closed his eyes.
What was space?
Was it distance?
Was it direction?
Was it a container that held all things?
Or was it something even more fundamental?
A fish living in the ocean would call water its world.
A mortal standing upon the earth would point toward the heavens and call it space.
Yet both were merely assigning names to what they perceived.
Neither understood the true nature of the thing itself.
Everything occupied space.
Everything moved through space.
Everything existed within space.
And yet...
No one could touch it.
No one could see it.
No one could grasp it.
It seemed to be everywhere.
And nowhere.
Everything was space.
And nothing was space.
The thought lingered within Fang Yuan’s mind.
Like a daoist mantra, it repeated itself endlessly.
Everything was space.
Nothing was space.
If space truly existed everywhere...
Then why did cultivators speak of traversing it?
Why did teleportation formations exist?
Why could a spatial ring possess an "inside" larger than its "outside"?
Why could secret realms exist separately from the main world?
And most importantly...
Why could he sever it?
Fang Yuan raised his hand.
A thread of spiritual qi condensed upon his fingertip.
Without hesitation, he swept it forward.
The strand drifted into the void.
Nothing happened.
The emptiness remained unchanged.
The qi simply continued forward until it vanished beyond perception.
Fang Yuan wasn’t surprised.
A sword could cut flesh because flesh possessed form.
An axe could split wood because wood possessed substance.
A spear could pierce armor because armor possessed resistance.
But what form did space possess?
What substance did it contain?
If it possessed neither form nor substance, then what exactly was being severed whenever a spatial technique was used?
The question echoed through his mind.
Time lost all meaning.
Perhaps moments passed.
Perhaps centuries.
Within the void, there was no difference.
Fang Yuan simply stood there thinking and contemplating.
The more he contemplated, the more he felt something was fundamentally wrong with how cultivators understood space.
Including himself.
Everyone treated space as though it were a wall.
A barrier.
A distance separating two locations.
Yet was that truly the case?
Fang Yuan recalled the countless teleportation formations he had encountered throughout his cultivation journey.
A person stepped into one location.
An instant later, they appeared thousands of li away.
The distance had not vanished.
The mountains and rivers remained.
The world between those two points still existed.
Yet the traveler had crossed it instantly.
Why?
Because distance itself had become meaningless.
Fang Yuan’s eyes narrowed.
"No..." freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
A new thought emerged.
Perhaps space was never distance.
Distance was merely something created by space.
Just as waves were not water.
Distance was not space.
The moment the thought appeared, countless insights connected together like stars forming a constellation.
A spatial ring, a secret realm, a teleportation formation of a spatial crack.
Though their functions differed, they all shared a common characteristic.
They manipulated relationships.
Inside and outside.
Near and far.
Connected and separated.
The realization caused Fang Yuan’s breathing to slow.
Perhaps he had been asking the wrong question from the very beginning.
When he used Spatial Cut...
Was it truly cutting space?
Or was it cutting the relationship between spaces?
The moment the thought surfaced, Fang Yuan felt his dao heart tremble.
His gaze lifted and the void before him changed conceptually.
The boundless darkness was no longer empty.
Countless invisible threads stretched throughout existence.
Every point was connected to every other point.
Every location possessed relationships with countless others.
These were not absolute truths.
They were merely ways living beings interpreted relationships between locations.
The universe itself did not recognize "left" or "right."
It did not recognize "near" or "far."
Those concepts existed only because observers existed.
The moment Fang Yuan realized this, his perception transformed.
The countless threads before him became clearer.
And for the first time, he understood.
Space was not a thing.
Space was a framework of relationships.
The position of one thing relative to another.
The connection between points.
The continuity that allowed existence to remain whole.
His pupils contracted.
If relationships could be established...
Then they could also be severed.
At that moment, the void trembled and a faint thin silver line appeared before him.
Yet it radiated a terrifying aura.
Fang Yuan stared at it and the longer he observed, the more puzzled he became.
Because despite its appearance...
Nothing had actually been cut.
There was no wound nor fracture.
Both sides remained exactly where they had always been.
Then why did it appear severed?
Suddenly his eyes widened.
"The cut..."
His voice barely escaped his lips.
"The cut does not exist."
The silver line trembled.
Countless insights erupted within his consciousness.
A sword cut flesh because flesh could be divided.
A blade cut wood because wood possessed structure.
But space was not flesh nor was it wood.
Space possessed no body to split, no substance to divide.
The very notion of cutting space was flawed.
The silver line before him was not a cut, but a seam where continuity had ceased to exist in a sudden dislocation.
A boundary where two regions of existence no longer acknowledged one another.
The so-called "cut" was merely a dislocation seam where two volumes of space no longer met.
The moment this realization appeared, the silver line transformed within Fang Yuan’s perception.
It was no longer a blade mark.
It was a missing connection.
It was a place where reality had been instructed that these two regions were no longer adjacent, continuous, or part of the same whole.
Fang Yuan’s heartbeat quickened.
A mortal would see the seam and believe space itself had been split apart. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
But that was merely the appearance.
The truth was far deeper.
Space had never been cut.
Its continuity had simply been denied.
Just as a bridge could collapse without destroying either shore.
Just as a road could disappear without harming the cities it once connected.
Neither side had changed.
Only the relationship between them had vanished.
And the moment that relationship disappeared an uncrossable abyss was born.
The silver seam quivered.
For a brief moment, Fang Yuan felt as though he was gazing directly at one of the fundamental principles underlying all existence.
Separation.
The Dao of Space was not the Dao of distance or emptiness, but the Dao of relationships, connection, and continuity, meaning space was not the void between things but the very reason they could possess a relationship at all and his Spatial Cut was merely one expression of that truth.
The realization shook Fang Yuan’s entire being.
Because if relationships could be severed...
Then they could also be created.
If two locations could be made separate...
Could they not also be made adjacent?
If continuity could be denied...
Could continuity not also be granted?
A thousand insights exploded within his mind.
At that moment, the silver seam twisted and the dislocation vanished.
Two regions of space that should never have touched suddenly became neighbors.
Fang Yuan watched in silence.
His dao heart trembled.
Before him, an entirely new path slowly unfolded.
The Dao of Space.
