Transcending the Nine Heavens

Ning Tianya was puzzled, staring intently.

He seemed to sense some kind of profound meaning, but he couldn't articulate it at the moment.

Moreover, with Ning Tianya's knowledge, he surprisingly didn't recognize the small tree in the pond. He didn't even know what kind of tree it was! He also didn't recognize those tiny pearls and what they were.

To be able to emerge from the water and transform into pearls, it seemed like there were mixed substances within them.

These things were unlike anything Ning Tianya had ever seen!

Where did this little brat get such strange items?

He saw the child, adorned with delicate features, sitting bare-bottomed in the water with a serious expression. His face was solemn, and his chubby little hands made strange gestures, then dazzlingly drew them to his navel.

A mysterious energy surged from his tiny body into the water, causing ripples that sent snow-white waves crashing against the bridge, and once again, round little pearls appeared, urged by the waves, climbing towards the tree.

First layer... second layer... third layer...

Ning Tianya finally counted clearly; the tree had a total of ninety-nine layers of leaves. The higher he looked, the fewer the leaves, with only one leaf at the very top.

Now, many pearls were moving upwards, but most remained stuck on the first and second layers, thickly piled.

Ning Tianya noticed that it wasn't a matter of first come, first served; rather, some pearls that surged to the first layer gradually ascended to the second and third layers...

Meanwhile, many pearls that appeared later also entered the first layer...

Slowly, the pearls danced, and on the sixtieth layer, the first pearl appeared.

The journey of this pearl was incredibly difficult, rolling and crashing along the way, traversing mountains and rivers...

Ning Tianya was left stunned.

A thought suddenly surged in his mind: were there any pearls among these that could reach the ninety-ninth layer?

At this moment, the pearls on the first and second layers began to fall, dripping from the leaves back into the water.

Once they entered the water, the pearls immediately dissolved, transforming into clear streams, which flowed backward to the previous path, where they were tossed by the crashing waves, reforming into pearls. They rolled forward once more...

This cycle continued...

The little one sat seriously amid the rolling waves, as the pearls constantly appeared and disappeared. It seemed he was practicing...

Suddenly, Ning Tianya experienced a moment of enlightenment or a clear realization. This understanding sent a shiver down his spine.

He finally recognized that this tree was equivalent to a world. The ninety-nine layers of leaves represented various levels of humanity.

And those little pearls that appeared from nothing, then disappeared only to reappear, symbolized people.

Wasn't the pond below akin to the river of reincarnation?

And that bridge, was it the bridge of rebirth?

A person transforms from chaos in the river of reincarnation, then becomes the purest soul, entering the bridge of rebirth, starting a new life, a new reincarnation...

When entering this world, every individual starts at the first layer, then struggles and strives. Some reach the second layer, then the third...

Everyone is in struggle; some struggle their whole lives at the lowest level, ultimately falling back down, turning to nothing.

While some strong individuals ascend to the third, fifth... or even tenth layers...

But their lives will eventually come to an end. Once they reach a certain limit and can no longer climb higher, they too will fall back into the river of reincarnation, with no difference.

Only a few particularly persistent individuals keep climbing, constantly surpassing layer after layer...

But, where is the endpoint? Is it at these ninety-nine layers?

Ning Tianya held his breath, watching as the continuous flow of water caused more and more pearls to accumulate, reaching a certain number where they no longer increased. At any given moment, countless pearls fell from the tree and shattered, while countless pearls surged into the tree, leaping forward.