"Lia!" Pef exclaimed in surprise as his wife plunged into the Unreal River just beside him.

"Damn that stupid badger!" the new Tier 8 Goddess shouted as her shape was instantly covered by a Tao symbol that kept the Unreal at bay.

Pef blinked, then stared. The symbol was undoubtedly a Formation Array, yet the Unreal seemed powerless against it. Seconds passed, then a whole minute, yet the diagram still endured.

Pef jumped out and dragged Lia on the cliff with him. "Beloved, my heart is strong, but it still trembles when you do things like this..." he muttered while poking the Tao Seal with his gloved hand, and then getting rebounded away painfully.

"Come inside, there is something you need to see." Lia demanded while holding a hand out and returning the seal into her dantian.

"Of course, there is more!" Pef realized and took the offered hand, translating into Lia's inner world.

An imposing mountain stood before him, giving off mixed and even contradictory results to his coresense.

'The thing only looks like a mountain. It's an Artifact...probably spacetime-locked.' the glove said after analyzing the mountain-like object in front.

"Ah, I can see that glove again! Already in Tier 9?" Lia spoke via her inner Avatar, sounding a bit surprised.

Pef glanced at his gloved hand, then nodded towards his wife. "In some aspects, yes. It was an accident, before I came here to really learn Formations." he admitted with a shrug.

"My Tao Seal is probably at Tier 11. The Taotie says he had seen something like this seal in the Higher Heavens, when he was young." Lia said in a dignified voice, while summoning a palm-sized seal in her palm.

The two aspects of Yin and Yang rotated slowly, as if chasing each other in a mesmerizing dance.

Pef tapped a foot, making a copy of that seal into his own palm, then began to approach. But before he could make the two symbols touch, his own low grade symbol cracked, then shattered into motes of Yin and Yang. "Huh? It is not only Yin and Yang, the seal you have..."

Lia nodded cautiously. "The mountain contains a cave, and inside it there was a Dark Heart. The seal killed me a hundred times, until the heart was integrated over my own. A hundred painful lives, full of cruelty and torture...I hope it was a fake." she added in a pained tone, while her chest shook in silent sobs.

Pef scratched his cheek as he raised his blue eyes from the seal towards the hardened eyes of wife. "Do you really think a hundred fake lives could raise someone from the bottom of Tier 7 into the next Realm?"

Lia turned around and wiped her tears. "I guess not." she spoke softly.

"Suffering is a constant of this world, my love. So, the lotus flower is gone?" he asked in a sterner voice.

Lia nodded then turned back. "It was a parasite. Never really liked it, even when I was old and dying. But instead, now I have this Tao Seal...which can kill me and revive me with so much ease. At least, I knew the character of the General. We don't know who made this seal, or why."

"I thought I was strong, with my awesome Formations, but your seal is far stronger. Possibly at the peak of Tier 9, as it is now. I rather not have to fight it." Pef said with a grudging tone.

The Tao Seal twinkled, as if it understood the words. Pef thought it did. The cultivation world was full of sentient artifacts, and this seal was not a simple Formation by any word.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

'Well, we at least have a goal now. This seal will be your aim while we still study the Unreal. I also have a theory...how it relates to the Taotie. The two symbols are not only Yin and Yang, they are also Preservation and Devour, maybe even Creation and Destruction. It is Dao made solid.' the glove sent into Pef's mind.

Pef heard it, but there was something more tangible to play with right now, so he flicked a finger towards the granite mountain, and noticed the mountain-shattering blow vanish before it landed.

"Did you see it? There are Formations all around the thing." He exclaimed with a wry voice.

"I entered it via that Water Array at the bottom. Only it is not truly Water. If you drink it, it converts into Dark qi, and transports you inside." Lia explained in a calmer voice.

Pef turned towards Lia. "You have a theory?"

"Water converts to Dark. It means your Eight Element method is lacking some elements. Am I right?" the Oracle asked with a faint smile.

"I'll have the glove work the fundamentals, for the Ten Element method. Adding Light and Dark elements is not a mere question of numbers. Fire and Lightning generate Light as they flow, and Gravity can collapse and absorb all Light, creating a Dark Star. But the fulcrum is not this. Is speed." Pef said while creating a small scale light-speed experiment.

A plate of adamantine supporting a mirror, then tube of glass with the air inside removed. Then he flashed a small lightning burst at one side, making the mirror light up.

"I see. We can measure the speed of Light by bouncing it back to us. When our eyes see the light in the mirror, it means the Light has returned to us." Lia mused, while taking out more complex spectrographic apparatus and replicating the same experiment in more scientific conditions.

Pef smiled, a bit sad. If only it was that simple.

He waited until the laser-like Light beam emitted by Lia flashed by.

"There! Now we divide the time in two, and we obtain the speed!" Lia announced triumphally.

"Why in two?" Pef asked, feigning ignorance.

"Well...it is the same distance one way and back, and they are equal..." Lia said, a bit hesitant.

"The distance, yes. But why do you assume the speed is equal, one-way and back?" our hero asked curious.

Lia stumbled. "Is is not?"

"I expect the return speed is infinite. Prove me wrong." Pef said with a wide grin.

The Tao Seal twinkled once more, and a Dark Beam traversed the experiment circuit at walking speed, then flashed back into the seal instantly.

"What?" Lia shouted while starring at the seal in her hand.

Pef flashed a wide grin towards the Tao Seal. The higher realm diagram was undoubtedly sentient, and not only that. It understood! Speed was subjective, after all. The universe bent to your will, not the inverse.

"See? Even your mighty seal thinks the same." he commented wryly.

"Damn! Science is out then..." Lia muttered as her eyes gazed lost at her useless apparatus.

"Trying to understand the Dao by science is like cooking without tasting. It may look nice, but it tastes like crap." Pef said with a small smile, while his glove stored the mountain-like Formation in its glove pocket.

He then created a new seal in his palm, looking identical yet containing Preservation and Devour aspects, chasing each other tails.

Then he glanced at the Tao Seal, only to find it unresponsive again.

Oh well. He had a lot more to learn.