The Ancestral God's true form was an innate primordial spirit forged of Indestructible Spiritual Light, but the dragon race's Far Ancestor had also tempered his physical body to the point of reverting to the innate state, turning his flesh into Indestructible Spiritual Light.
Had this been before the Mortal Realm was destroyed, crossing the river would have been effortless for the Ancestral God—a single stride would have sufficed. Now, however, with both the Mortal Realm and the Heavenly Immortal Realm shattered, his cultivation and power had plummeted by sixty to seventy percent.
Furthermore, Daoist Qingxuan and the others had feared him back then, worrying he might intervene when they moved against the Last Lord of Ziwei. They had plotted against him first, wounding him severely, and his injuries had yet to heal to this day.
Plunging into the River of Spiritual Light this time had thoroughly exhausted his old bones. It was truly adding injury to injury, leaving him in a dire state.
"The Ancestral God won't be pissing blood again, will he?" the big bell asked worriedly.
"Stay here and do not wander off," the Ancestral God said. "I will be right back."
He walked into the darkness. A moment later, a trickling sound drifted back.
The big bell and Big Dragon grew all the more worried.
The Dragon Bell floated up and peered into the darkness of the Mortal Realm, only to see the entire realm enveloped in gloom so thick nothing could pierce it.
An air of decay also hung over the place, and the faint, drifting cries of Dao weeping made them distinctly uncomfortable.
Upon entering this place, even their own Great Daos felt as if they were coming undone!
"What on earth happened to the Mortal Realm back then?" the big bell murmured.
"A catastrophe," Big Dragon said.
"What kind of catastrophe?" the big bell asked.
"I don't know," Big Dragon replied. "All I know is that back then, the dragon race's divine diviner calculated the future and discovered that our kind would not survive it."
Back then, when the divine diviner foresaw the looming catastrophe and realized the dragons could not endure it, he had consulted the Far Ancestor. The dragon race's prodigy diviner, Qing Mufeng, had even taught his technique, the Dragon Heaven Dao-Confounding Numerology, to the Far Ancestor, hoping that the Far Ancestor could divine a more distant future and find a glimmer of hope for their people.
Yet time had run short. Before the Far Ancestor could master the Dragon Heaven Dao-Confounding Numerology, Qing Mufeng had already worked himself to death from exhaustion.
Since then, tens of millions of years had passed without a single dragon summoning the Far Ancestor, until the imposter Xu Ying was sacrificed to the Far Ancestor by the dragons resurrected through soul-stealing in the Dragon Court. Only then had Big Dragon been able to return to the mortal world from the Abyss Sea.
As for what had transpired over those ten million years, he knew nothing at all.
"It's so pitch-black. How are we supposed to find Ah Ying?" the big bell asked.
The Ancestral God walked back and said, "If we head toward where the Heavenly Dao is expanding, we will surely find him. Look at the sky—can you see a thread of light?"
The Dragon Bell looked toward the heavens, and indeed, there was a faint thread of light.
"That is my fishing line. I cast the hook and line into the patch of light where Xu Ying is. It is both our lifeline and our guiding lantern."
The Ancestral God stepped into the darkness, saying, "Xu Ying cannot restore the Heavenly Dao of the Mortal Realm because his cultivation and strength are far from enough to contend with the darkness. But once I reach that domain of the Heavenly Dao and claim the Heavenly Dao of the Mortal Realm there, my cultivation will surge. With my power, pulling the entire Mortal Realm back into the light will be child's play!"
The Dragon Bell hurried to follow.
The big bell said quietly, "Master Dragon, do you think that sounds reliable?"
Recalling the Ancestral God's previous performance, Big Dragon said, "The words are true enough, but whether he can pull it off is another matter entirely."
The big bell could not agree more.
"Come closer," the Ancestral God called out. "Enter my Heavenly Dao domain so you do not get lost."
Not long after their departure, Immortal Emperor Supreme slowly emerged from the River of Spiritual Light as if cloaked in the Milky Way. Reaching the shore, he gave his body a shake; tens of thousands of stars scattered down and transformed back into spiritual light, rejoining the river.
Had Big Dragon not stirred up the River of Spiritual Light when they fell into it, someone of his might would have needed only half a day to walk across the water's surface to this shore.
However, when Big Dragon had agitated the river, the raging currents had swept him deep into the surging spiritual light, disorienting him completely. He had also been forced to constantly resist the river's strangling pressure, enduring immense hardship along the way before finally locating the Mortal Realm Ferry.
He bore several wounds and had depleted much of his cultivation, but in the next instant, those wounds healed on their own.
Such was the sheer might of the Supreme realm.
Within the Supreme realm, one cultivated scenes of the Great Dao internally. As a disciple of Qingxuan, Immortal Emperor Supreme had received Qingxuan's teachings and mastered six scenes. Among them was the Chaos Sea Dao scene, which governed physical vitality and kept his body at its absolute peak at all times!
Immortal Emperor Supreme looked into the darkness, hesitated for a moment, and stepped into it.
After he left, Dao Lord Jiugong, Daoist Taiyuan, and Saint Luo emerged from the long river one after another. Covered in wounds and gasping for breath, their cultivation was severely depleted.
"Mingzun isn't here. He most likely hasn't come ashore yet,"
Daoist Taiyuan said. "His cultivation should be a notch inferior to ours. Shall we wait for him?"
Dao Lord Jiugong shook his head. "No need. Mingzun is not of one mind with us, and he certainly won't travel by our side. Gentlemen, this time we must stand united through thick and thin."
His gaze swept over Daoist Taiyuan and Saint Luo as he said with utmost gravity, "Our dear friends from back then very likely faked their deaths and hid in the Mortal Realm. If we continue to scheme against one another, we will surely die at their hands!"
Saint Luo replied, "Rest assured. We are the true Dao companions—bound together in triumph and downfall alike."
The three immediately walked together into the darkness.
Just after they departed, the nearby darkness shifted. A dark silhouette appeared, watching the direction in which they had gone, eyes gleaming with an eerie glint.
"Those three old fogies actually came here. They truly haunt us like vengeful spirits."
His eyes flickered. "When they spoke of their dear friends, did they mean me, or someone else?"
He pondered carefully; it probably was not referring to him.
He had been exiled here, not faked his death. Yet Jiugong and the others had explicitly spoken of faking death and hiding here.
The dark figure's heart skipped a beat. "Could it be them?"
He had indeed encountered a few powerhouses in the dark Mortal Realm, but sensing each other's terrible strength, neither side had dared to confront the other directly, fleeing swiftly instead.
"Could it be that the people those old fogies are looking for are none other than them?"
Meanwhile, in the Earth Immortal Realm at Heavenly Sea Ferry, Liu Guanyi, the Ten Useless Heavenly Monarch, put away the Three Realms Golden Ship and reached out with a grasping hand. The river surged violently as streams of Indestructible Spiritual Light rose from the waters—the nine dragon whiskers.
Stowing the nine dragon whiskers away, Liu Guanyi gave a low chuckle. "Dear friends aboard that ship, you never have to return."
Seeing this, the immortal soldiers and generals guarding the ferry raised their immortal artifacts and activated their immortal formations, charging toward Liu Guanyi in an overwhelming assault.
Liu Guanyi burst into booming laughter, drew himself upright, and tore through the void before the immortals could close in, vanishing without a trace.
The Immortal Realm.
Yantian, the first heaven of the Nine Heavens.
The Changsheng Emperor stood with his hands behind his back, robes fluttering in the wind, and said coolly, "Halt, traveler."
His bodhimanda was spread wide. Behind him, a plum tree bore two green Dao fruits, along with several Dao flowers that had yet to bear fruit.
Liu Guanyi strode forward, looking around in bewilderment. "Are these the heavens of the Immortal Realm built after I was exiled?"
The Changsheng Emperor looked at Liu Guanyi and felt a strange familiarity, yet could not recall where he might have seen him. Although Liu Guanyi had been renowned throughout the world in the ancient era, he had vanished into obscurity after being exiled following the change of dynasties. The Changsheng Emperor had attained the Dao and claimed the imperial title only much later, so he was quite unfamiliar with the man—having only heard the name without ever seeing the person.
"Who are you?"
The Changsheng Emperor demanded haughtily. "State your name. For trespassing into the Nine Heavens, We shall sentence you to death this day."
"Ten Perfection Dao Ancestor, Liu Guanyi," Liu Guanyi replied.
Hearing this, the Changsheng Emperor was slightly taken aback. After pondering for a moment, he smiled faintly. "I wondered who it could be—so it is Liu Guanyi, the Ten Useless Heavenly Monarch. I have heard that you attempted to attain the Dao ten times in those days, and failed ten times, earning the title 'Ten Useless.' Begone. In consideration of your meritorious service to the state of the Immortal Realm, I spare you the death penalty."
Liu Guanyi looked him up and down, full of disdain. "We fought tooth and nail to overthrow the old dynasty, abolish the old Dao, establish a new dynasty, and set up the new Dao. Yet a brat like you is living in reverse, actually picking back up the trash we threw away! Heh, playing around with this decaying junk in such elaborate fashion—what, are you trying to stage a restoration?"
The Changsheng Emperor was infuriated.
Back then, he too had desired to charge into the Supreme realm. But the Supreme realm was simply too difficult: the Dao realms were hard to achieve, the Dao dharmas hard to accomplish, and hardest of all to obtain was a Supreme-grade cave abyss!
Such cave abysses had vanished one by one over the course of the past six hundred thousand years, leaving only the Immortal Court's Supreme Cave Abyss—the Haocang Cave Abyss. As a mere Heavenly Monarch, where could he possibly find a Supreme-grade cave abyss?
If not forced by utter helplessness, who would ever willingly choose the old Dao's path of attaining the Dao through the Great Luo Heaven?
"Ten Useless Heavenly Monarch! You are nothing more than a discarded has-been of a Heavenly Monarch, yet you dare flaunt your seniority before me?"
Suppressing his fury, the Changsheng Emperor said coldly, "It seems you will find it quite difficult to walk out of the Nine Heavens in one piece today."
"Address me as the Ten Perfection Dao Ancestor!"
Liu Guanyi walked forward.
A moment later, the Changsheng Emperor's Dao tree was snapped and shattered, his Dao fruits tumbled, and his Dao flowers withered away. The youthful emperor lay flat on his back upon the ground, bearing two fresh footprints across his face and chest.
Standing beside him, Liu Guanyi said coldly, "We shed blood and toil to conquer this realm so that you lot could walk our path and carry the new Dao forward to greater heights—not so you could bring back the old ways! Useless wretch!"
He spat on the ground and continued on toward the next heaven, Cangtian.
With vacant eyes, the Changsheng Emperor stared blankly up at Cangtian above.
In the darkness of the Mortal Realm, Xu Ying ventured deeper and deeper into the gloom-shrouded domain, searching for the whereabouts of the Emerald Rock.
"Judging by that mural, the Emerald Rock fell from the Heavenly Immortal Realm and crashed into the Mortal Realm. Based on its trajectory of descent, the place where it struck the ground should lie further ahead."
Over these days, he had sprinted millions of li, scaling towering mountains, crossing vast rivers, and even journeying across seas.
The perils along the way went without saying. Some Zang had never seen him nor heard of his fearsome reputation, and inevitably came to provoke him.
Xu Ying fought his way through, stopping and starting, yet he still ran into danger several times.
On one occasion, he passed through a somber and solemn mountain range filled with majestic palaces, surrounded by numerous immortal mountains that had collapsed and fallen to the earth.
This must have been a supremely flourishing site in the Mortal Realm of old. Here, he encountered a Zang.
Upon spotting him, the Zang shifted slightly, revealing seven decaying Dao realms of utter darkness!
Six Dao realms corresponded to the Heavenly Monarch realm, while seven Dao realms corresponded to the Daluo Golden Immortal and Supreme realms!
Shocked to his core, Xu Ying dared not make the slightest movement, freezing where he stood.
Yet that Zang seemed to possess far greater intelligence. After merely sweeping his gaze across Xu Ying a few times, he remained standing amidst the ruins, as if mourning days gone by and those who had long since perished.
His power was so terrifying that it distorted the surrounding space and time. Xu Ying had to walk for a long while before finally stepping out of his Dao realm.
Xu Ying felt a lingering fear, but curiosity burned even hotter in his chest: "The higher a Zang's cultivation and strength, the more intelligent it is. I wonder if this was an isolated case, or if they are all like this? If it holds true for all of them, then the Zang can no longer be called mere corpses—they are an intelligent species."
As he skirted a frigid lake, he suddenly sensed a strange cadence flowing through space and time, unfathomably profound.
Goosebumps immediately rose across his skin, as if prickled by a freezing wind!
At the same time, the Leakless Golden Body groaned under tremendous strain as crushing pressure bore down from every direction, seeking to force its way into his frame!
"The Emerald Rock!"
Xu Ying instantly recognized the source of the cadence, his heart giving a jolt.
The Emerald Rock was still an unknown distance away, yet the cadence radiating from it already exerted a pressure exceeding that of a Zang with six Dao realms!
"The closer I get to the Emerald Rock, the greater the pressure will become. I wonder if my Leakless Golden Body can withstand it?"
He followed the cadence forward.
He ran on for who knew how long. The influence of the Emerald Rock grew stronger and stronger, pushing his Leakless Golden Body to the brink of collapse, threatening to breach it at any moment!
The Emerald Rock's influence had swept across the entirety of the Mortal Realm; one could only imagine how formidable this force of the Great Dao truly was!
"Back then, Daoist Wukong held out before the fissure of the Taishang Cave Abyss for more than six hundred thousand years. I can surely do it too!"
Clenching his teeth, Xu Ying turned the pressure of the Emerald Rock into motivation and pressed onward.
His pace grew slower and slower. To push the Leakless Golden Body to its utmost limit, he sealed his left ear, left eye, left nostril, and mouth, as well as every orifice in his lower body, all to hold out a little longer.
Back then, Daoist Wukong had endured six to seven hundred thousand years precisely because he had sealed away every single one of his senses!
Now, by proactively sealing some of his senses, Xu Ying could travel further.
Just as he was on the verge of giving out, a light suddenly appeared ahead. Xu Ying caught sight of a human-shaped Zang, living like an ordinary man, completely free of the neither-living-nor-dead state typical of ordinary Zang.
The Zang was clad in a Daoist robe, seated within a Daoist temple. Around him were scattered figures of vibrant, living humans sitting below him, listening intently as if to a sermon from the Zang.
The Zang was an old man, and he spoke very slowly.
Arriving here, Xu Ying felt the pressure from the Emerald Rock abruptly lighten. Only then did he notice eight full Dao realms encompassing the Zang, and his heart seized with awe.
"An existence of the Wondrous Realm of Great Luo, or at the peak of the Supreme realm! Even a powerhouse like this was assimilated by the Dao of the Emerald Rock."
Unease gripped him; an existence like this could snuff him out with a mere thought. Reason told him he had to leave immediately, yet he could not bring himself to depart.
For he heard the sermon the Zang was giving. The Dao being preached differed from the Heavenly Dao of the Earth Immortal Realm, differed from the Immortal Dao, differed from the Great Dao of ancient times, and was certainly not the Great Dao of the Mortal Realm.
After listening for a short while, Xu Ying determined that he was speaking of the principles contained within the Emerald Rock—an ultimate Great Dao, principles that reached straight to the very end!
He lingered at the edge of the Dao realm for who knew how long, going from completely baffled to gradually comprehending a portion of the principles preached by the Zang.
The Dao of the Emerald Rock no longer felt so foreign or so terrifying.
At that moment, the Zang ceased his sermon.
Xu Ying bowed deeply. "Thank you for the guidance, Senior."
Rising, he departed the Zang's Dao realm and resumed his trek toward the Emerald Rock. He found the crushing pressure significantly reduced, likely due to the transformation brought about by the Zang's sermon.
Xu Ying looked back, only to see the numerous disciples around the elderly, robed Zang dissolve like dust and sand.
His disciples had not survived.
They were merely projections born of his longing.
He was so powerful that his longing could alter reality itself, yet in the end, it was not reality.
He had survived the catastrophe and turned into a Zang, retaining greater intellect and even a portion of his memories.
Yet everything that belonged to him—his disciples, his sect, his era—had long been deeply buried.
Xu Ying looked up. Ahead, atop a mountain peak, the Emerald Rock came into view.
Chapter 572