Master Sheng paused for a moment, giving time for the moment to settle. They he spoke up,
"So we look inside the animal dao and find life dao which contains the animal dao which contains the life dao and on and on and on... What point am I making?"
He looked towards the tier one group including Hou. And as he did he asked,
"What do you think? What is the reason for me saying this?"
Jin rolled her eyes and muttered,
"To show that daos are just concepts and are just reflections of the eternal Dao; they are not real. The animal dao is no different that the life dao, they are both the Dao and a part of the Dao simultaneously"
"And I'll say it louder for those who couldn't hear. I'm telling you this for one reason, to tell you no matter what you practice, to be a cultivator is to use the Dao not being trapped in a certain dao."
He cut his hand and let out blood which dripped into an orb floating in the air. The blood flew into the sky and became figures. A human and a dragon.
"The dragon abides by the Dao and uses fire laws to breath fire. It uses flight laws to fly. It uses feather laws to have feathers. It uses sight laws to see. Cognition laws to think. The man though... What does he do?"
Master Sheng dimmed the lights and made his blood glow so everyone could easily see and continued,
"The man uses flight laws to make swords fly. Fire laws to stay warm. Sight laws to become invisible. Cognition laws to facilitate it all. To be a cultivator is to see the different application of every dao. Every dao has connections with every other because deep down they are one in the same."
He clapped and the blood fell down, moving in reverse. It warped backwards and flowed back into his hands and stitched back his wound. The lights became brighter and he finished,
"That is what I want you all to focus on. Focus on learning the daos and their connections. But to do that, how do we see the daos, how to experience them? That is where laws come into play."
He drew on the chalkboard. A small box being projected by a larger one.
"Laws are just projections of the Dao, they are like shadows cast by the Dao. The same source, the Dao, creates an infinite amount of shadows yet all are rooted within the light. Each law is a part of a dao which is a part of the Dao."
When Master Sheng said the words "blood dao", Hou felt a piercing gaze. He spun his head and couldn't tell who it was, but he was feeling that someone was watching him. It was an intuitive sense. It wasn't just somebody looking at him; somebody really watching him.
Hou looked around and then Yue spoke,
"Look to your side."
Hou complied and saw Him burning a hole through his soul metaphorically with her look. She was looking at his in an interactive manner, almost causing Hou to exclaim aloud.
But he did not and instead stared at her back which did cause her to squint then look back to the front. As she did though she thought to herself,
'I can only use blood laws, father can only use blood laws. So why can I sense HE can access the blood dao...'
Master Sheng, unaware of this exchange, continued,
"And so every time you use laws, what you are really doing is using that projection of a Dao, which is a projection of the Dao to go through the chain and change the world. Every time you 'use' a dao, the projection is broken and that travels through the chain and changes the world."
Hou disregarded Jon's confusing gaze and focused on Master Sheng's words, ruminating to himself,
'If that's how laws work...then what's the difference with the quasi-Nascent Soul. There is a difference, I can feel it. But how does that work according to Master Sheng's explanation?'
Yue heard Hou speaking to himself and gave a thought,
"Perhaps I might offer my opinion. The quasi-Nascent Soul doesn't use the projection breaking it to go through the specific dao and into the eternal Dao. Instead it weaves the projection into the Dao, keeping it contact."
"Hmmm...maybe. that does make some sense if I think about it but...I'll leave it for later. Maybe we can think of a way to test the quasi-Nascent Soul which would prove how the laws work using it."
Master Sheng continued,
"That is my first lecture. Very brief but I hope what I have told you will make you think. Once you leave this hall you will be sent to a new classroom automatically. This room will have those in the same tier as you and I will do the first real lesson. You may all leave now,"
The Master Sheng that was standing there exploded and his blood turned into a mist that dissipated. A giant scent of iron lingered but Master Sheng was clearly gone.
Fairly soon after, the room erupted. The sound of thousands speaking their own words all merged, turning into a mush of all those noises.
Hou squinted his eyes and covered his ears, thinking it was far too loud. He waited for everyone to filter out as Master Sheng announced them to.
Firstly those at the top left, opening the door and turning into a mist of blood which shot away. Slowly they all filtered out from top to bottom; from the least to most highly ranked in the brief testing.
Then once most of the people cleared Hou stood up and as he did so did the rest of tier one. They all followed Hou, not because he was seen as any leader though, not entirely.
They all had different reasons to follow. Hamar followed as he knew Hou and was his comrade; he confidently strode forward with a feeling of trust. Jin carefully stepped forward but did not do so strongly. Tianmo dragged his feet as he saw Hmar and Jin stand up and walk towards Hou. to not be left out. FInally Lan Qiang jumped up and smiled widely, looking at everyone else and chuckling to himself; he too followed.
No matter what the circumstances, tier one stood up and conglomerate into a single group centred around Hou. Hou felt a little overwhelmed and chuckled but spoke up nonetheless, as an impromptu leader,
"I guess as tier one, we move together. To our first lesson it is!"