"The Heavenly Venerable possesses the true Heavenly Dao, yet uses a false and erroneous Heavenly Dao in the Heavenly Dao world to have the immortals of the myriad worlds undergo tribulation. If I leak this news, what kind of consequences will it bring?"
Xu Ying sank into deep thought. Within his mind, the various thoughts of Huang, Shang, Ai, Li, Bao, and Nue chimed in all at once, helping him analyze the causes and effects of such a move.
"The Heavenly Dao world completely replaced the primordial heavenly gods and Heavenly Dao over sixty thousand years ago," Xu Ai said. "Back then, the Immortal Realm was attempting to take control of the Heavenly Dao, so the immortals the Heavenly Venerable can control are only those from these past sixty-thousand-odd years. In such a short span of time, probably not many powerful immortals could have been born."
Xu Huang said, "All those people have various flaws; they aren't immortals who have transcended the complete Heavenly Dao. Before the Heavenly Venerable, they wouldn't withstand a single blow. So using this method against the Heavenly Venerable offers little hope."
Xu Li chimed in, "However, the powerhouse immortals in the Immortal Realm who pioneered cultivation methods and divine arts based on the Heavenly Dao aren't few! They're the main force that could target the Heavenly Venerable!"
Xu Nue said excitedly, "Take Heavenly Venerable Ning Zhong, for instance—his Jade Hall Grand Method is founded upon the Heavenly Dao. Once this news reaches his ears, he will surely harbor deep resentment toward the Heavenly Venerable!"
Xu Bao snarled viciously, "There must be many such figures! We won't even need to lift a finger—they'll tear the Heavenly Venerable to pieces!"
Xu Shang said timidly, "It could also be the Heavenly Venerable tearing them to pieces..."
Xu Ying delivered the final verdict with a smile. "Regardless of the outcome, it's a good result for us, isn't it?"
Huang, Shang, Ai, Li, Bao, and Nue grew thrilled, babbling excitedly about how Heavenly Venerable, Ning Zhong, Primordial Monarch, Imperial Monarch, and the other titans of the Immortal Realm might die, and what magic treasures could be refined from their corpses.
On the outside, Xu Ying appeared refined and easygoing, chatting and laughing with the Ancestral Court's Earth God and Imperial Monarch Cangtian. Neither of the two could have imagined that if they popped open Xu Ying's skull at this moment, they would see several little figures sitting inside his head, plotting wicked schemes together.
The Earth God led them forward past towering stone statues, finally arriving before the shrine where the Ancestral God resided—a thatched cottage.
Xu Ying had his wish fulfilled and saw the Ancestral God.
A gaunt, white-haired old man walked out of the thatched cottage. Seeing them, he offered a gentle smile.
He was the Ancestral God.
Contrary to everything Xu Ying had previously imagined, he looked far more like an ordinary old man who had lived for a very long time, possessing neither an incomparably grand divine body nor earth-shattering divine power.
Nor did he reside in a palace towering into the clouds, with dragons and phoenixes flanking his every step.
He wore plain, modest clothes of indeterminable era and cut—just the simplest coarse hemp draped over his frame.
Looking at Xu Ying, he seemed to look upon a neighbor's boy, smiling kindly.
Yet when Xu Ying looked at him, he seemed to behold a magnificent Primordial Spirit spanning the starry sky, its divine power blanketing the myriad worlds; wherever mortals dwelled, all were enveloped beneath its divine might.
The sensation vanished in a flash, but the shock was profound.
Imperial Monarch Cangtian stepped forward, bowed, and said, "This disciple pays his respects to the Ancestral God."
He cultivated both immortality and godhood. Though his physical body had died, his Primordial Spirit had been resurrected through the Divine Dao. Anyone who cultivated the Divine Dao had to address themselves as a disciple before the Ancestral God.
Imperial Monarch Cangtian was revered as the Grandmaster, Father of the Nine Heavens, and Ancestor of All Gods, but before the Ancestral God, he was still of the junior generation.
The Ancestral God signaled for him to rise, smiling. "It is truly cause for celebration that Tianpeng could be revived. I am merely a decrepit old relic. All of you come running here one after another to see this old man, pinning your hopes on me, which puts so much pressure on me. Look at me: my teeth are loose, I tremble when I walk, and my breath lacks strength when I speak. I have to get up to piss four or five times a night, and come morning I haven't the strength to lift the chamber pot to empty it, relying on Earth God to help me."
Xu Ying glanced at the Earth God beside him and whispered, "You have to empty the chamber pot every day?"
The Earth God's face darkened, thoroughly annoyed. "What business is that of yours?"
The Ancestral God continued, "Daoist Taiqing came looking for me, saying, 'Brother Daoist, the Dao Ancestor and the others have gone to the other shore. With no one to preside over things, it has to be you.' Daoist Yuxu came looking for me as well, saying, 'Brother Daoist, you must come out.' Great Dao Lord Xuhuang's Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirit also hurried over, saying, 'Brother Daoist, a Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirit is a god too, falling under your jurisdiction. You must come out.' The Ten Halls of Yama came cheerfully running over as well, saying that if I didn't come out, everyone was going to die."
He paused, then said, "I told them that my teeth can no longer chew, I cannot even lift a chamber pot, and I rely on the divine power of juniors just to hang onto my life. Only my tongue can still move. I haven't the strength to fight anymore."
Hearing this, Imperial Monarch Cangtian pondered and said, "Teeth are hard, yet they fall out first; the tongue is soft, yet it survives. Does the Ancestral God mean that the softest under heaven can overcome the hardest?"
A joyful look appeared on his face as he bowed. "Thank you for the guidance, Ancestral God! But what is the meaning behind pissing four or five times a night and the chamber pot?"
The Ancestral God was annoyed to no end. He rolled his eyes and said shakily, "Think whatever you like. I know why you came—nothing more than wanting me to come out of seclusion to serve as window dressing for you all. But how could the Sovereign of the Immortal Realm not know my true state? My injuries were left by them in the first place. Trotting me out won't do any good!"
Imperial Monarch Cangtian stammered, "Ancestral God, so long as immortals do not descend to the lower realm, the mortal world can be preserved. But when the Three Realms tide reaches its peak and the Earth Immortal Realm merges, immortals will appear in the mortal world. When that time comes, the common folk will suffer untold hardships and perils. What should we do?"
The Ancestral God said, "Your life is clutched in someone else's fist, like a toad squeezed in a palm—squeeze a little, and a squirt of piss comes out. Squeeze just a bit harder, and you're crushed to death. Why bother brooding over all these things, useful or not?"
Failing to grasp the meaning, Imperial Monarch Cangtian furrowed his brows in contemplation.
The Ancestral God said, "You were revived by someone using the Returning Dao Jade Platter, so from then on your life and death have not been in your own hands. The Returning Dao Jade Platter could revive you, and it can destroy you just as easily. Don't overthink it; the more you do, the more mistakes you will make. You are already dead, so do not pursue any more pointless endeavors."
Only then did Imperial Monarch Cangtian understand. After a brief silence, he said, "How can I stand by and watch all living beings be plunged into misery? Though dead, I shall fight on—that is all."
A complex look crossed the Ancestral God's face. He shook his head and waved his hand. "Off with you."
Imperial Monarch Cangtian kowtowed to him and said, "I implore the Ancestral God to hold the common masses in your thoughts."
The Ancestral God waved his hand again.
Imperial Monarch Cangtian hesitated, glanced at Xu Ying, and rather than leaving immediately, waited to one side.
The Ancestral God looked up at Xu Ying and said with a smile, "Young Friend Xu has finally returned."
Xu Ying bowed. "Greetings, Ancestral God. This disciple..."
"You do not cultivate the Divine Dao, so there is no need to call yourself a disciple," the Ancestral God said with a chuckle. "You are much more mature and composed than before. When you came here to steal things back then, you were like a monkey—scampering this way and that, rummaging through chests and cupboards, thinking you could pilfer some treasure from me. Earth God wanted to blast you dead with his drum, but I said it was fine, let him rummage."
He gave Xu Ying the impression of an elderly neighbor: advanced in years, and fond of chattering.
"You searched high and low without finding any treasures, and I thought you would leave, yet to my surprise you actually dared to show yourself."
The Ancestral God beamed. "After showing yourself, you obediently studied the Heavenly Dao runes and stayed with me for half a year. I told you to stay a full year before leaving, but you ran off again like a monkey. And now you've finally seen fit to return?"
Xu Ying looked thoroughly sheepish and said, "This disciple does not remember the events of his first life."
The Ancestral God chuckled. "It doesn't matter if you don't remember. Back then, you didn't stay the full year with me, so in this life, you will stay a full year before you leave."
Both surprised and overjoyed, Xu Ying hurriedly agreed.
The Ancestral God glanced at Imperial Monarch Cangtian and frowned. "You're still not leaving? Young Friend Xu, see him out for me."
Xu Ying complied and escorted Imperial Monarch Cangtian toward the exit.
The two walked in silence.
After a moment, Imperial Monarch Cangtian let out a self-deprecating chuckle. "I wondered why the Immortal Realm turned a blind eye to our Four Saints of the Northern Dipper. Could they truly not care that the four of us had been revived? As it turns out, the great figures of the Immortal Realm knew all along that even if the four of us were brought back, we would merely be playthings on someone's platter."
He sounded somewhat despondent.
Xu Ying fell silent for a moment before speaking. "Brother Daoist, I do not know what you have undergone, but I know what happened to me. Forty-eight thousand years ago, after I was defeated, my physical body was slain and severed into fifteen parts, falling into the hands of fifteen experts. I was revived from my Undying True Spirit and placed under surveillance. Every ten years or so, I was forced to drink a bowl of the Soup of Meng Po to wash away my memories and reset me with new ones. Thus passed forty-eight thousand years."
Imperial Monarch Cangtian only knew that Xu Ying had visited the Ancestral Court forty-eight thousand years ago and caused a massive stir, but he had never imagined his subsequent ordeal had been so wretched.
Xu Ying continued, "Yet in this life, I rose again from adversity and broke free of their grasp. Brother Daoist, I was reborn from an Undying True Spirit, and you too possess an unyielding sliver of true spirit; our circumstances are alike. My strength and my horizons were far inferior to yours, yet even I managed to carve out a path for myself—how much more can you achieve, Brother Daoist?"
Imperial Monarch Cangtian was quite moved. Arriving at the entrance of the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court, he said, "Brother Xu, you need go no further. Earth God!"
The Ancestral Court's Earth God hurriedly popped out from underground. Imperial Monarch Cangtian instructed, "When Brother Xu's condition isn't flaring up, you needn't be nervous. But when it strikes, you must be extremely careful. By no means take it lightly."
The Earth God shuddered inwardly and nodded vigorously.
Xu Ying's face darkened. Turning his head aside, he muttered under his breath, "He thinks we're crazy. Heh heh, we've never been clearer-headed."
Imperial Monarch Cangtian smiled. "Fellow Daoist Xu, let us part here."
He waved his hand and turned to walk out of the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court. Xu Ying suddenly recalled something and hurriedly called out, "The Returning Dao Jade Platter is currently in the hands of Ningqing! Ningqing is right inside the Zhenwu Temple!"
Imperial Monarch Cangtian's eyes lit up. He bowed in gratitude and smiled. "Now there is finally a glimmer of hope! Thank you, Fellow Daoist Xu!"
Xu Ying returned the courtesy, and by the time he straightened up, Imperial Monarch Cangtian was already gone.
Xu Ying followed the Ancestral Court's Earth God back to the thatched cottage. The Earth God tidied a room for him and said, "You stay here and attend to the master. The master only needs to get up to relieve himself at night, so keep watch."
Xu Ying assented.
Nothing happened that day. When night fell, while a battle between heaven and humanity raged in Xu Ying's mind, a rumble of thunder suddenly boomed, louder and more chaotic than a tribulation.
Xu Ying was jolted awake. After listening for a moment, a voice called from next door—it was the Ancestral God calling him. Xu Ying went to assist him in relieving himself.
That night, the Ancestral God got up four or five times.
The following morning, Xu Ying took the chamber pot out to empty it. During the day, he ran to the stone-petrified heavenly gods to examine and study the Heavenly Dao runes.
Unwittingly, another day passed. Xu Ying's routine was the same: tending to the Ancestral God when he woke during the night, and studying the Heavenly Dao runes by day.
After more than ten days of this, Xu Ying grew impatient. His savage side flared up, and he muttered to himself, "The old man gets up four or five times a night, making trouble every single day. Why don't I just kill him and become the Ancestral God myself!"
He channeled his sword qi, manifesting a Zhuxian broken sword, and barged into the Ancestral God's room, shouting, "Ancestral God, I've had it with serving you! I played the dutiful son for you for days; surely you won't mind if I kill you now and inherit your seat as the Ancestral God?"
Decrepit and frail, the Ancestral God laughed shakily. "Why would I mind? But if you want to usurp my position, you must show real ability. Wait a moment."
The old man struggled to shift his legs off the bed, inching to the edge, before finally surging his vital blood.
A wild, unbridled aura erupted from his body as divine light surged within him, as though hundreds of millions of suns were blazing inside him, cleansing his marrow and refining his sinews. In an instant, the septuagenarian transformed into a vigorous youth of seventeen or eighteen!
Above this youthful Ancestral God was no longer the thatched roof, but tens of thousands of galaxies, star systems, and nebulae, and countless worlds! Boundless divine power gathered upon him!
The Ancestral God laughed. "Come on, try usurping my throne."
Sword in hand, Xu Ying charged forward. A deafening roar echoed, and after a moment, silence fell.
The next morning, the Ancestral Court's Earth God came trotting up to Xu Ying in a flash. Xu Ying was lying splayed out on his back in a massive crater thousands of li away from the thatched cottage, staring blankly at the sky.
He looked completely stunned, utterly motionless.
"Ah Ying, Ah Ying, you still alive?" the Ancestral Court's Earth God asked hypocritically, wearing a face of deep concern.
Xu Ying raised a trembling hand, pointed toward the sky, and muttered, "The An... Ancestral God wasn't in the thatched cottage. He was up there..."
The previous night, he had witnessed an astonishing sight: that little old man living in the thatched cottage appeared not even as tall as him, frail and feeble, yet his true body spanned the cosmic expanse—countless galaxies and star systems were parts of him!
He was like void, like qi, like light, possessing no true physical form.
He could become a frail old man, or a vigorous youth.
He could turn into a tiny ant, or expand infinitely!
Though he was wounded, the slightest shred of his power still vastly outstripped Xu Ying!
He was the Primordial Spirit of the cosmic void.
The Earth God suppressed a laugh and feigned concern. "Are your injuries all right? Still planning on usurping the throne tonight?"
Xu Ying lay in the crater, unmoving, staring fixedly at the sky of the Heavenly Dao Ancestral Court.
Last night, he had finally seen the Primordial Spirit of the cosmic void!
The Ancestral God's magnificent, heroic form was deeply branded into his mind. So this was what a true Primordial Spirit was!
After a long time, Xu Ying crawled out of the crater, returned to the thatched cottage, and quietly observed the Ancestral God. As for attending to the Ancestral God getting up in the middle of the night to relieve himself, he used One Qi Transforms the Three Pure Ones to dump the chore onto the three brothers Huang, Shang, and Ai. In any case, those three scoundrels wouldn't dare defy him.
About half a year passed like this. Xu Ying's mastery of the Primordial Spirit advanced by leaps and bounds, showing great promise of bathing in the Jade Pool to attain immortal light, and basking in immortal light to ascend the God Bridge!
On this day, a voice suddenly rang out from afar:
"Demon Ancestral Court, Imperial Son Jin Buyi, comes to pay respects to the Ancestral God!"
Chapter 457