Knowing more about the Cultivation Realms after the Soul Transformation Realm helped Mira to realize that one's Dao isn't as simple as she thought it was. It seems like the two were more intertwined than she previously thought.
Throughout most of her cultivation journey so far, Mira hasn't spent that much time focusing on her Dao, the Absolute Ice Dao. For one, she just didn't fully understand the importance and intricacies of her Dao.
She knew that if she used her Absolute Ice Dao properly, it could be a very powerful weapon, but just based on her previous experiences, the amount of power she got in exchange for using it was negligible. She felt like her time was better spent elsewhere.
However, now it seems her thoughts have been incorrect. Her Dao is essentially for breaking through some of the later Realms. Who knows, she might need to reach a certain point in her Dao to ascend to the Immortal Realm!
That leads to the next book Mira started reading after the [Mortal Cultivation Realms] book she had just finished. This book is called [Dao for Dummies].
Mira ignored the name and began reading. It took her several hours to read and comprehend everything contained within the book, but by the end of it, she had a much clearer understanding of what a 'Dao' really is. Of course, most of it is up to interpretation, and different people will have different views, but this is how Mira understood it.
Essentially, one's 'Dao', at its core, is what you want to do. Some people love fighting, while others love sewing, or maybe you like making weapons. At its core, one's Dao is one's way of life.
However, things aren't so simple here in the Cultivation World. In other worlds where there's no concept of a 'Dao'. People's 'way of life' can differ and change throughout their lives. You can be a blacksmith, guard, King, and farmer all in the same life.
Although you can also do that in the Cultivation World, one's Dao, or in other words, their way of life, is, quite frankly, their life.
It's the core of their existence. To not follow the path that you yourself set is the same thing as denying your existence. That's why one's Dao is extremely important! Worst of all, you can only have one Dao.
When Mira read this, she thought: What the fuck? Is this a scam?
But it wasn't without reason.
Life is unpredictable, and a single thought or encounter can change your outlook on life forever. If you're unable to be a bit flexible, aren't you just a slave to your own Dao?
However, it seems that things aren't as bad as she thought. For example, Mira's Dao is the Absolute Ice Dao.
Her 'way of life' is for her ice to become 'absolute'. This doesn't mean she can't use her scythe or fight with her fists. It just means that she wants to use her ice to rule over everything. She's still free to have a family, create a Sect, and live a peaceful life, among other things, should she want to.
However, when her innate desire to have her ice become absolute changes, she'll find it quite difficult to progress any further. Not only that, but all the progress she put into increasing her comprehension of her Dao will be removed, and depending on how far she's gone, she'll probably face a backlash.
This is simply because her desire to get stronger, her reason for cultivating, her path forward, the reason for her existence thus far, has just been denied by none other than herself.
Of course, things aren't so simple. For one, changing a cultivator's innate desire is not easy. This is the reason they are cultivating, for crying out loud! How could their thoughts change so easily?!
Upon reaching this point, although Mira understood what the book was trying to say, she also didn't understand it at all.
Like, what if someone's Dao is 'revenge'? Would that mean that once they get their revenge, they've reached the end of their Dao? That makes no sense!
However, according to the book, that's not the case. One's Dao cannot and will not be something as flimsy and unreliable as 'revenge'. This is the innate desire of a cultivator, not something, and it's based on fragile things like emotions.
This is the path that you, as a cultivator, want to take! Not you as a person!
Take Mira as a prime example. Her entire life, for as long as she can remember, has been a life where nothing other than revenge has been on her mind. By now, it should be something that has been engraved in her mind, body, and soul. Yet, her Dao has nothing to do with revenge.
It's a culmination of Mira's extreme affinity for ice, her innate desire to stand on top, and even her desire to rule. No, it's not necessarily a desire to rule over people or over a kingdom or something like that. It's just that, as someone who wants to stand at the pinnacle, how can she have competitors? Only she can be the best; nobody else can! If someone tries competing with her, then she just has to force them into submission.
The ones she's forcing into submission here are the various other Elements that make up the world.
At least, that's how Mira understood things. Whether or not she was actually right remains to be seen, but she felt like she probably wasn't far off from the truth.
Knowing this stuff is all well and good, but Mira wanted more! She wanted to know if there were various Realms or how a Dao differs from one's affinity. Things of that nature.
Luckily, the book had all this stuff in there.
According to it, in the Mortal Realm, there aren't any specific Realms for one's Dao. This is because, unlike cultivation, it's hard to quantify one's way of life or goal. Well, Mira could probably do it, but her Dao is a bit peculiar.
The book just said that once you've 'hit a wall', that's when you know you've reached the limit of what you can achieve with your Dao in the Mortal Realm. There wasn't anything other than that and Mira was lucky to even get that information!
How many people in the Mortal Realm have actually reached the limit of their Dao before ascending? Mira didn't know, but she's sure that the number is probably staggeringly low.
As for how a Dao differentiates from one's affinity, that should be quite obvious. One is simply how in tune one is with the elements, and the other is one's path. At least for most people, that's the case, but Mira's situation is a bit unique. Her path and her affinities are one and the same.
Her Dao is solely based on the ice element, and since her affinity and Dao essentially come from the same source, i.e. her existence, they can be counted as one. So, whenever Mira increases her comprehension of ice in relation to her Dao, she's also increasing her affinity at the same time. This goes for the other elements as well.
However, this is just what Mira was able to conclude based on her understanding of what the book was trying to say. Even then, she was still a bit confused about some parts.
For one, she didn't quite understand what the book meant when it said, "you can enforce your Dao upon the world with enough willpower!"
Such vague sentences were quite common in the book, but Mira took these words to heart as she figured she might eventually understand their meaning in the future.
By the end of it all, she pretty much got everything she needed to know out of the book, and just from this amount of knowledge, Mira understood the things she needed to improve upon.
There are still plenty of mysteries surrounding her Dao and how to increase her comprehension in it, but those mysteries will eventually reveal themselves in due time, so she wasn't too worried.
However, Mira understood that she should probably start meditating more often to learn more about her path and what it means to be 'absolute'. Besides that, she needs to learn how to control her Dao!
The segment, "...enforce your Dao upon the world…," really struck Mira, and she was eager to learn how to properly enforce her Dao upon the world. She knew that her Dao wasn't so simple and that she should be utilizing it more in battle as it could prove vital, especially against those with the same affinity as her, but again, she just hadn't felt much of a need to use it in battle.
At least, not until now. After almost suffering at the hands of that young man yesterday, she knew she needed to improve in every way possible, or else she'll really die the next time the F.LD.I.L sends someone to kill her.
