The Great Terror of the Mortal Realm

Xu Ying humbly inquired, "Brother Daoist, what terror lurks in the Mortal Realm?" "Follow me." Liu Guanyi drifted upward into the air. "I shall take you to see the terror of the Mortal Realm for yourself." Auspicious clouds spontaneously formed beneath Xu Ying's feet as he followed behind Liu Guanyi. He felt somewhat puzzled. Liu Guanyi clearly was not well versed in the Heavenly Dao of the Mortal Realm, so how was he able to cast Dao methods and divine arts here? Before Xu Ying arrived, the Heavenly Dao of the Mortal Realm had been exceedingly feeble, absent from most places. By all logic, Dao methods and divine arts should have been impossible to employ. For instance, when Xu Ying first arrived, aside from his martial arts and the Taiyi Divine Bridge, all of his other Dao methods and divine arts had fallen completely dormant. It was only after harmonizing with the Grand Dao of this world that he could wield Dao methods again. Liu Guanyi clearly had not mended the Mortal Realm's Heavenly Dao, nor had he harmonized with it. There was only one explanation for his ability to use Dao methods and divine arts. *His cultivation and strength are so immense that he forms a realm of his own!* Xu Ying thought. Only beings with extraordinary cultivation and Dao attainment—such as Daluo Golden Immortals—could retain a portion of their might within a world of an alien Dao! For example, when the Dao weeping erupted back then, countless Heavenly Monarchs perished or were maimed, yet Daluo Golden Immortals managed to survive. True Monarch Erlang and the Great Deity of the Three Altars and Sea Gathering were among those who survived the Dao weeping, though their strength was severely diminished. *Could Brother Liu be a Daluo Golden Immortal?* Xu Ying examined Liu Guanyi, feeling skeptical. A path to attesting the Dao could only be attempted once; if one failed, there was no second chance. Liu Guanyi had attested ten times and failed ten times, essentially exhausting every method of attesting the Dao. It was impossible for him to attest again. *He followed Qingxuan back in the day, and Qingxuan founded the Supreme Realm. Did he cultivate the Supreme Realm as well? Is he a Supreme-level existence?* Xu Ying thought of this, then shook his head. The Supreme Realm was extraordinarily difficult to achieve. Emperor Changsheng, for instance, had turned exclusively to cultivating into a Daluo Golden Immortal precisely because he could not attain the Supreme Realm. Liu Guanyi's aptitudes had not even allowed him to become a Golden Immortal, let alone reach the Supreme Realm. *Then how did he manage to form a realm of his own?* Xu Ying wondered. Just then, Liu Guanyi asked, "When you underwent tribulation earlier, the Purple Firmament Tribulation Thunder shook heaven and earth, illuminating the mortal realm, and afterward the Heavenly Dao expanded. At that time, you were the one completing the Heavenly Dao, were you not?" Xu Ying replied, "It is not that the Mortal Realm lacks a Heavenly Dao, but rather that its Heavenly Dao is too broken. I observed the people here sensing the nature of the Heavenly Dao to mend it, and I was moved. I thought that as long as I mended the Heavenly Dao, I could transcend the tribulation." Liu Guanyi showed a look of admiration. "When I arrived in the Mortal Realm, I carved out my own bodhimanda to shelter the people here and impart supreme arts to them, believing I had performed great merit for this world. I never imagined that what little I accomplished would pale so far in comparison to yours." He shook his head and sighed, "The grand name of my Ten Perfections Dao Sect truly makes me ashamed. Fellow Daoist Xu, you came to the Mortal Realm to face your heavenly tribulation with lofty aspirations. You underwent eighteen tribulations in succession—why did you stop and refrain from continuing?" Xu Ying answered truthfully, "I sensed that as the Heavenly Dao expanded, it met tremendous resistance. Continuing the tribulations would likely yield little effect. Therefore, I intend to venture into the darkness to investigate whether something is obstructing the revival of the Heavenly Dao." They flew to the edge of the Heavenly Dao territory Xu Ying had expanded. Ahead, darkness and light formed a stark, distinct boundary. It was as though an invisible membrane stood between the realm of the Heavenly Dao and the realm of darkness, barring the invasion of darkness while simultaneously halting the expansion of the Heavenly Dao! This was the first time Xu Ying had ever witnessed such a marvel. Liu Guanyi remarked, "You underwent tribulation eighteen times, and I noticed that throughout the process, you merged with the Dao. You are the embodiment of the Mortal Realm's Heavenly Dao." "Merged with the Dao?" Xu Ying paused. That term described his current state quite aptly. Although he had been battered terribly by the Purple Firmament Tribulation Thunder during the tribulation, he had also seized the opportunity to comprehend the Mortal Realm's Heavenly Dao. During his recovery, alongside his insights, he harmonized with the Heavenly Dao, sensing heaven and earth alongside those villagers, mending the Heavenly Dao, and restoring his flesh into a Dao body. This entire journey was the process of merging with the Dao. Of course, he was not the only one who merged with the Dao; it also included Xiaoman and the other villagers. Liu Guanyi said, "Reach out your hand and touch the darkness." Xu Ying followed him to the barrier separating light and darkness, then reached out toward the membrane. *Buzz!* The membrane violently shuddered. Then it rippled, gradually forming facial features—eyes, ears, mouth, and nose—rendered in vivid, exquisite detail! Before Xu Ying's hand could make contact, an immense face materialized directly before him. Those emotionless eyes stared down at him, fixated on his hand. "Roar—" The face abruptly let out a screeching roar. A terrifying sonic wave surged toward Xu Ying accompanied by wisps of darkness, violently fluttering his clothes and skin. The darkness swept in, submerging both Xu Ying and Liu Guanyi in an instant. Everything around them fell pitch-black, leaving only the pristine light of the Dao radiating from around their bodies. Suddenly, an inexplicable surge of fury rose within Xu Ying. A terrifying power erupted from his open palm. "Get... back!" In that split second, the power of the Mortal Realm's Heavenly Dao within his palm surged to its peak. Dao light burst forth, tearing through the darkness and forcing it back. Even the colossal face from before was smoothed away, leaving the membrane pristine and clear once more. At that moment, Xu Ying realized the power he had mobilized did not come solely from himself; most of it stemmed from the heaven and earth he had revived. Before the power of heaven and earth, his individual strength still seemed exceedingly minuscule. Right then, the counterattack of the darkness struck in succession. Massive faces abruptly manifested across the sky—pitch-black yet distinct in their features—either hanging down from the heavens or closing in on Xu Ying from every direction! It was as if giants lurked within the darkness of the Mortal Realm. Enraged by the mighty force of the Heavenly Dao Xu Ying had just summoned, they appeared all at once and opened their gaping maws! "Roar—" The darkness churned, surging from all sides to drown Xu Ying! In its furious wrath, the darkness sought to concentrate its might to obliterate him and the Heavenly Dao together! At that moment, Liu Guanyi gently tapped his foot. Instantly, an exquisite Dao domain resembling a bodhimanda burst forth, sweeping open with a hum to hold back the darkness. That Dao realm shrank rapidly under the crushing weight of the gloom, but simultaneously, another layer of Dao domain erupted from within Liu Guanyi, followed immediately by a third and a fourth! In an instant, ten peculiar Dao domains expanded outward, forcibly resisting the crushing darkness, holding every shred of that immense gloom at bay, and steadily pushing it back! Xu Ying was filled with astonishment and doubt. Liu Guanyi was not a Daluo Golden Immortal, nor was he in the Wondrous Realm of Great Luo, and he certainly was not a Supreme. Yet the power bursting from this scholar gave Xu Ying the impression of being no lesser than a Daluo Golden Immortal, no lesser than a Supreme! His ten layers of Dao domains bore some resemblance to a Golden Immortal's bodhimanda, as well as a Supreme's Dao landscape, yet they were mingled with something else. *Could it be the Dao realms Lord Dragon mentioned?* He suddenly recalled Big Dragon mentioning that the division of cultivation realms in the primordial era was different from both the present and the ancient eras. Big Dragon had said that back then, people cultivated Dao realms; after achieving immortality, the stages were divided into nine realms of the Dao. Could Liu Guanyi, after arriving in the Mortal Realm, have visited the ancient sages and worthy forebears, excavated their cultivation techniques, and mastered the Dao realms? *Yet without sufficient immortal spiritual qi and without the Heavenly Dao, how could he possibly cultivate the Dao realms?* Xu Ying thought. Pushing back the darkness, Liu Guanyi strode forward, leading Xu Ying into the deep gloom, and chuckled. "Stop guessing. My path is different from that of a Daluo Golden Immortal, different from a Supreme, and certainly not the Dao realms of the primordial era. I drew upon the strengths of all three to forge something of my own." He had walked an unconventional path to attesting the Dao, distinct from his predecessors yet absorbing their virtues—wholly unique. His current cultivation and strength were not inferior to a Daluo Golden Immortal, and they conceded nothing to the Supreme Realm of the New Dao! Xu Ying felt boundless admiration and praised, "Brother Daoist's comprehension is so profound that it compensates for any lack of aptitude." Liu Guanyi was quite pleased with himself and smiled. "When you said my aptitude was poor, I was annoyed, but now that you praise my comprehension, I am delighted." Xu Ying laughed. "Brother Daoist's aptitude is exceedingly high as well. If it were not, how could you achieve an alternative attestation of the Dao?" Liu Guanyi broke into hearty laughter, thoroughly delighted. Wherever they passed, the darkness was continuously parted, receding to both sides. Terrifying monsters seemed to lurk within the darkness. Faces repeatedly surfaced on the membrane, hissing and snarling at them, yet terrified by Liu Guanyi's power, none dared draw near. "These things in the darkness—I call them Zang," Liu Guanyi explained. "When I first arrived in the Mortal Realm, seeking out the ancients and querying the worthy, I encountered the Zang within the darkness. They appear and vanish unpredictably and are exceedingly formidable. Had I not possessed a few tricks of my own, I would have perished at their hands long ago. The Zang blend seamlessly with the darkness; the darkness is their living space. Reviving the Heavenly Dao will inevitably provoke their resistance. Come, let me show you the origin of the Zang!" Before long, they arrived before an abandoned, massive tomb. Gazing into the long corridor, Liu Guanyi sighed with emotion. "When I sought out the ancients and queried the worthy, this was my first stop. The geomantic aura here is extraordinary, bearing the countenance of nine dragons. An emperor must surely be buried in this place." His so-called "seeking out the ancients and querying the worthy" was naturally the very craft Xu Ying knew so well: locating primordial tombs and delving inside to loot them. Of course, he did not do it for mere treasure, but to uncover the truth behind the primordial destruction and seek out the arts of primordial powerhouses to understand their methods of attesting the Dao. When Xu Ying had robbed graves in the past, he had held similar motives. Liu Guanyi continued, "When I entered this primordial powerhouse's tomb, I encountered a Zang. It was a bizarre creature whose form and state left me somewhat bewildered. I felt it was dead, yet it still retained vitality; it was alive, yet undeniably dead..." Taking the lead, he walked into the tomb corridor. Xu Ying followed closely behind, examining the murals on both walls. The murals were crafted in a primitive, archaic style, depicting various races traveling to another world to pay homage to dragon immortals. They had arrived in a world of an even higher plane, an extraordinarily rich and bountiful realm where an emperor of the dragon race received them and bestowed numerous treasures upon them. Another mural depicted the colossal Far Ancestor Primordial Spirit descending from the Abyss Sea. Presumably, the contents of these murals recorded what the ancient forebears had witnessed after ascending to the Heavenly Immortal Realm. "For the tomb's owner to ascend to the Heavenly Immortal Realm, their abilities must have been extraordinary." Xu Ying looked around, puzzled. "Yet the tomb owner is not of the dragon race, so why is their cultivation and strength so formidable?" He saw that the tomb owner depicted in the murals possessed six Dao realms, corresponding to the cultivation of a Heavenly Monarch. Six Dao realms was already a tremendous achievement. "I have excavated many tombs and found that the dragon clan was relatively open-minded back then," Liu Guanyi noted. "They were the rulers, but they also permitted humans and other races to cultivate, provided those races acknowledged the dragon clan's supreme rule. Consequently, powerhouses of various races lived in seclusion throughout the Mortal Realm as well." Xu Ying slowed his pace. On the corridor wall ahead was a mural depicting something entirely different. This painting was exceedingly long, unrolling along the corridor wall like an expansive scroll. It portrayed the scene when the catastrophe erupted. The first thing he saw was the tragic plight of the Mortal Realm: suns torn backward, infinite trails of fire dragged behind them with tails of unimaginable length. The scene looked as though someone was striving to blow out a massive fireball. In the lower-left corner of the mural stood a sacred ground ablaze with raging flames. The sacred ground, which should have produced immortal spiritual qi, had grown dim. The spiritual qi looked less like true immortal qi and more like a virulent poison clinging to the disciples of that sacred ground. Terror was etched across the faces of those disciples as some desperately slapped at the black flames consuming their bodies. Others were already fully engulfed, fleeing madly outward. Still others had been burned down to the bone, with several charred humanoid cinders lying on the ground. The sacred ground was in utter chaos, devastated beyond recognition. Yet this was merely a single corner of the mural. As Xu Ying walked forward, more scenes from the day the catastrophe struck met his eyes. It was a panorama of all living beings in the Mortal Realm. At that moment, countless powerhouses possessing formidable cultivation throughout the Mortal Realm suffered an apocalyptic disaster. Their bodies twisted, their faces contorted—they looked neither human nor demon! The Grand Daos they had painstakingly cultivated began to backfire against them. The higher their cultivation, the more devastating the backlash. Soon, those cultivators were reduced to skeletons, and some did not even have bones left behind! Every race, so long as they possessed some degree of cultivation and Dao attainment, met a gruesome death. Seeing the twisted faces of the people in the paintings, Xu Ying felt as though echoes of Dao weeping were once again ringing in his ears! This scene indeed resembled the Dao weeping he had encountered at Wuzhuang Temple and in the Mortal Realm! However, the scale of the Dao weeping recorded in this mural was countless tens of thousands of times greater than what Xu Ying had faced! Across this long mural, the Dao weeping spread like a contagion, passing from one cultivator to another. Those cultivators, dead and dying alike, opened their mouths wide to utter cries of Dao weeping, destroying every Grand Dao in this world. Slaughter raged everywhere in the painting; destruction reigned supreme. Sacred grounds were ruined by flames of war; immortal mountains collapsed, crashing to the earth and submerged in seas of fire. Black rain fell from the sky—rain formed from black cinders. Amidst the black rain, multi-decked ships cleaved the wind and waves, rushing toward the heavens in a desperate bid to break out of the Mortal Realm. Other formidable, extraordinary cultivators unfurled their layers of Dao realms, striving to establish one final bodhimanda amidst the apocalypse to shield the common folk of their regions. Still others used magic treasures to construct pocket dimensions, attempting to hide within the void to evade the catastrophe. In one corner of the mural, Xu Ying even spotted someone summoning their ancestor from another spacetime. Yet the instant that spacetime opened, it too was invaded by the catastrophe, destroyed in a heartbeat. This expansive mural depicted every walk of life when the apocalypse descended—cultivators exhausting every conceivable means in their struggle to survive. They tried every method, yet all proved futile. They perished in the catastrophe, and some were even assimilated by it. Even though it was merely a mural, it left Xu Ying thoroughly shaken. Liu Guanyi also considerately slowed his pace, setting aside the earlier topic so Xu Ying could observe more closely. When Xu Ying reached the end of the mural, he froze in place. At the very conclusion of the mural, a colossal rock blazing with raging flames had smashed through the Heavenly Immortal Realm where the dragon immortals dwelled and was plummeting toward the Mortal Realm! As the burning boulder fell, even before striking the ground, it unleashed a monstrous catastrophe that plunged the Mortal Realm into apocalyptic ruin. The boulder within the flames was shaped like the hull of a stone ship, devoid of masts, sails, pavilions, or any superstructure. Within the fire, it displayed a vibrant, tender emerald hue. An Emerald Rock. The corner of Xu Ying's eye twitched violently. There was more than one Emerald Rock in this world—another lay right here in the Mortal Realm! Liu Guanyi walked up beside him and quietly gazed at the mural. After a long silence, he spoke in a soft voice: "This is the great terror of the Mortal Realm. This Emerald Rock has been influencing the Mortal Realm all along."