Void Grotto Heaven may not know what big data was, but this didn't stop them from using it.
Their metaphysical technology had sufficient computing power and the means to collect information, so the analysis and organization of such information was a matter of course.
Jiu Po and Daoist Yellow Springs likely also understood this, but they knew the Origin World must be kept a secret, so they didn't want to delegate this part of the work to others.
And it was inevitable for things to slip through the cracks if only one person was trying to analyze big data.
Gu Nan was still checking information on the Snow Mountain Ascetic. He'd always been very patient with people suspected of being transmigrators and refused to overlook any details.
Gu Nan seemed to be the only one left in the entire Daoist temple. It wasn't until he read all the information that he realized Yu Lian was standing in front of him.
At this time, Yu Lian was not wearing her usual Daoist robes. Instead, she had changed into normal clothes, but her eyes were as calm as ever.
Gu Nan stared at her somewhat curiously. It wasn't that he didn't understand Void Grotto Heaven's intentions. Be it a hostage or a trophy, handing over Yu Lian was an inevitable result.
What made Gu Nan curious was that Yu Lian's current aura was very weak. It was far from her normal Tier 14 realm, even having almost fallen below Unified Dao.
This was a very bizarre thing—because even if their astral world was destroyed, the Star Ruler's own realm still wouldn't be greatly affected. They would only lose the source of their power, making it harder to recover.
At the same time, it was almost impossible for a Star Ruler who lost their astral world to advance any further—unless their astral world was rebuilt.
But Void Grotto Heaven was clearly still fine, and Yu Lian was only slightly injured. How could her realm have fallen so much?
As if she saw Gu Nan's question, Yu Lian's lips curled into a faint smile. "My Void Grotto Heaven has been passed down for many generations, and the astral world has always been intact. Do you know where the past Star Rulers went?"
This was indeed quite strange. For a Unified Dao powerhouse, it was almost impossible for the astral world to remain intact while the Star Ruler fell.
Because to kill a Unified Dao cultivator, one must first erase that person's astral world, just like how Austin and the others destroyed God Emperor Heaven before.
Gu Nan thought for a while and guessed, "Could it be that you guys always hand over your Star Ruler every time you can't defeat someone?"
Yu Lian was slightly taken aback, then said speechlessly, "You're the first person in ten thousand years to force the Daoist Sect to hand its sect master over."
As if to prevent Gu Nan from getting any more strange ideas, Yu Lian simply took the initiative to explain, "The Daoist Sect has its own unique inheritance. Since my ancestor, there has never been a Star Ruler who reigned for 100,000 years."
As she spoke, she placed one hand on the bookshelf next to her, and a scroll automatically appeared in her hand in accordance with her will.
Gu Nan took the scroll from Yu Lian and looked down at it. It was actually secured with a golden rope. In the past, this was the highest level of confidentiality, and only the sect master could view it.
Besides the sect master—who had a special method to open it—no one else could open this golden rope.
"Can you open it?" Gu Nan asked Yu Lian, shaking the scroll in his hand.
"I'm no longer the sect master." Yu Lian shook her head.
"Oh," Gu Nan responded, then gave it a casual tug, and the golden rope immediately broke.
Yu Lian was already used to these kinds of situations, but she couldn't help rolling her eyes while subconsciously moving away from Gu Nan.
She was no longer the Star Ruler of Void Grotto Heaven. Perhaps Gu Nan could make her body crumble if he just poked her.
Gu Nan quickly skimmed through the scroll. It was handwritten by one of the Daoist Sect's sect masters, and this sect master was none other than the founder of Void Grotto Heaven.
According to history, this sect master should be the one who took away the Heaven Realm's core when the ancient Three Realms collapsed, which became today's Void Grotto Heaven.
If Gu Nan remembered correctly, his Daoist name should be Miao Xu.
Daoist Miao Xu was a true genius. It only took him two or three hundred years to become a Saint. He also turned the tide of the Myriad Heavens when it was in a crisis and single-handedly created the overall structure of the Myriad Heavens.
From the fragmentation of the Three Realms to the Inner World, to the inheritance of Void Grotto Heaven, his shadow was present in all kinds of events.
But the content in this handwritten scroll was very strange.
He first described in great detail a method of inheritance that could pass on Unified Dao Realm enlightenment, but the price was that this kind of enlightenment would not last long.
It was precisely because of this that every generation of Void Grotto Heaven's sect master couldn't keep that role for longer than a hundred thousand years, and most of them were forced to pass down their positions after ten thousand years.
This method seemed to have quite a few flaws, but considering the difficulty of ascending to Unified Dao, it was already quite good.
It could practically guarantee a Unified Dao cultivator protecting the astral world at all times, unlike some astral worlds that would directly fall out of the ranks of Unified Dao during the inheritance process.
And after such a lengthy explanation came the real content, which was that Daoist Miao Xu himself was going to die soon, and the person who injured him was someone Gu Nan was very familiar with.
It was Jiu Po.
"Jiu Po's destiny is difficult to divine. His fate seems to have appeared out of thin air. He has no past and no future. Future generations must remain wary of him," these were Daoist Miao Xu's exact words.
Gu Nan knew very well how Jiu Po came to be and gradually connected the dots in his head.
He originally thought it would end here, but he didn't expect to see Miao Xu leave such a sentence at the end after a series of emotional laments.
"The loss of the Earth Realm is indeed due to a variable outside of this world. I regret not listening to Junior Martial Brother's words!"
Gu Nan raised his head to look at Yu Lian. "Who's the junior martial brother he's talking about?"
"You know him too." It seemed as if a burden had been taken off of Yu Lian's shoulders, and she fiddled with her hair with a relaxed expression. "Daoist Yin Yang, my great-martial uncle who left the Daoist Sect back then because of the Jiu Po incident. In other words, the current Lu Wen."
Something strange flashed through Gu Nan's eyes, as if he understood something, and he suddenly closed the scroll in his hand.
"Take me to see the small plane where the Snow Mountain Ascetic resided."
...
In a small plane, Gu Nan and Yu Lian walked side by side and stopped in front of a barren mountain.
This was the former stronghold of the Snow Mountain Sect. Of course, it was the same now as well, but there were only small fries left in the sect, which had experienced an extreme decline.
However, although the current Snow Mountain Sect only had a few disciples, there were many tourists. Even the sect's ability to survive for this long was largely thanks to… collecting admission fees.
The strange structure that was still perfectly intact after 20,000 years was very attractive to many cultivators, and some even joined the Snow Mountain Sect just for that fortuitous encounter.
"What kind of fortuitous encounter does that structure provide?" Gu Nan casually asked.
"It varies." Yu Lian clearly also knew a little about this. "Some people received pills, some received weapons or skill manuals, and one person even received a pet spirit beast."