Xu Ying awakened in the darkness, gazing around in bewilderment. In the blackness, he saw figures of himself standing alone, one after another. There was no light in this world, only these countless Xu Yings.
Each Xu Ying was an independent individual, clearly reflected in his eyes. In the darkness, they appeared exceptionally solitary.
He walked up to one of them, only to discover that this Xu Ying was dead. The dead Xu Ying stared with wide eyes, standing motionless in the dark, not stirring even as he drew near.
This was Xu Ying's past life—the son of a farmer.
He could perceive this dead Xu Ying's memories: first, a false memory of the great fire in Xujiaping, followed by the daily grind of facing the yellow earth with back turned to the sky.
This Xu Ying's life had been very brief, ending at only ten years old.
He continued walking forward and arrived before another Xu Ying. This one was dead as well, staring blankly, standing there as wooden as a clay chicken.
This Xu Ying was the life before his previous life. He had been the child of a carpenter, likewise bearing the fabricated memory of the Xujiaping blaze, afterward following the carpenter to learn the craft.
His lifespan had also lasted merely ten years.
Xu Ying walked on, finding the incarnation before that one, who was likewise a youth who lived only a decade.
He pressed forward incessantly, discovering even more dead Xu Yings. Not all of them had managed to live out a full ten years. Among those who lived before the Nuo methods of Yuanshou flourished, some were discovered after just a few months; people seized the immortal boy, using him as a medicinal guide to refine Flesh Elixirs of Longevity.
He had been steamed in bamboo baskets and eaten; he had been boiled in bronze cauldrons and eaten; he had been sliced, stir-fried, and prepared into all manner of delicacies.
To the Qi Refiners of that age, the immortal youth was nothing more than an herb capable of granting longevity.
Xu Ying walked continuously onward. He encountered that fortunate Xu Ying who had taken Feng Xue'er as his wife; though losing his beloved had been tragic, compared to the other Xu Yings he could be considered blessed, for at least they had shared a period of happiness.
He also met the Xu Ying who had sailed the seas in search of immortal mountains by Zulong's decree, beholding the scene in his memory where Xu Fu crossed the ocean with him.
He found the Xu Ying who belonged to Yan Bao'er—the luckiest Xu Ying of all, who had lived for over five thousand years, spending a complete lifetime from beginning to end with Yan Bao'er.
He had also nurtured Jin Buyi, leading a band of followers in search of the lost truths of ancient and primordial times.
That Xu Ying's cultivation had halted at the Ascension stage, making him the most powerful among all the Xu Yings.
Xu Ying lingered before this incarnation for a long time, reluctant to depart. This Xu Ying was also dead, yet he was the happiest. For a fleeting period, he seemed to have briefly broken free from the shackles of reincarnation, sharing a lifetime of devotion with Zitong.
In the end, Xu Ying departed, continuing his search.
These Xu Yings in the darkness were his past lives, generation upon generation spanning forty-eight thousand years, numbering fully ten thousand lifetimes. So many Xu Yings had failed to survive ten years before dying prematurely—refined into medicinal herbs and panaceas to prolong lives, or perishing in diverse battles and wars.
Xu Ying walked until he reached the very end, where he found the first consciousness born of the true spirit.
This was the very first consciousness of Xu Ying born after the memories of the first-life Xu Ying were sealed by the Emperor, when a physical body was derived from the true spirit.
This Xu Ying had also died long ago, having lived for only ten years.
Xu Ying examined his memories. Already in that lifetime, he had crossed paths with Zitong in the cycle of reincarnation.
In that life, Zitong had been named Yingxiu. The cycle of reincarnation had begun right here.
Xu Ying continued forward and saw his own back up ahead.
He looked behind him, and the self ahead turned back as well, seeing another self behind him turning to look.
Xu Ying had returned to the beginning, standing all alone in the memories of the first-life Xu Ying. All around was darkness, with only tens of thousands of lonely versions of himself.
Those were the selves who had already died.
He took a different direction and once again encountered one of his past lives; that deceased youth displayed his memories to him.
Xu Ying journeyed onward in silence, continuing forward, encountering the life before that one once more.
He kept walking, passing over ten thousand dead versions of himself, until he saw the back of his own figure ahead once again.
He turned his head and saw himself turning back. All around was blackness.
He chose yet another direction and pressed forward, again meeting his past life, the dead youth presenting his memories.
Xu Ying passed one dead self after another, arriving at the place of the first reincarnation. Walking further, he caught sight of his own back once more.
He repeated this process over and over, trying to walk out of the first-life Xu Ying's memories, yet no matter which direction he took, he inevitably returned to the starting point.
"Why haven't I died yet?"
He felt a trace of panic, looking around and murmuring, "I am merely a fragment of his memories. Why am I not dead?"
"Xu Ying!"
He yelled toward the heavens, "Xu Ying, stop fretting over your Primordial Monarch Zitong! Charge forward! Draw upon my memories! Strike Meng Shanming's vital point! My memories hold his death point!"
"You should charge!"
Xu Ying's expression turned fierce, like a caged lion pacing restlessly back and forth as he muttered to himself, "We are only one step away from victory. Just one step! I have found his death point! Fight to his side, plunge a blade into his back, and tear outward with all your strength—rip out a fissure in the shape of the Taicang cave abyss...!"
He stopped pacing, his gaze like that of a venomous serpent—cold, terrifying.
"As long as you kill Meng Shanming in that instant, killing that arch-culprit, we will win!"
"We must be as calm as a snake catcher, calmer than a viper! Every strike must be fatal!"
"Slay Meng Shanming in a single blow, and no one will have time to save him! Haha, not even the Six Supremes and Twelve Wondrous Ones will make it in time!"
He chuckled triumphantly, his countenance turning sinister as he muttered under his breath, "A dead Immortal Emperor is worse than a dog! To them, a dead Immortal Emperor holds no value whatsoever; he's just a corpse. As long as you kill Immortal Emperor Mingzun right off the bat, the Six Supremes and Twelve Wondrous Ones on the other shore won't avenge him—they'll have to win us over instead... Xu Ying!"
He shouted loudly, "Do you hear me? Stop thinking about Zitong! You have to think about killing the Immortal Emperor! Slay him first, and we can talk afterward... It hurts so much."
He looked up in terror and cried aloud, "Xu Ying, what is going on? Why does it suddenly hurt so much!"
He felt the agonizing pain of his physical body and Primordial Spirit being cleaved apart. The agony penetrated to the marrow of his bones, a hundred times worse than having his flesh carved off blade by blade.
Xu Ying collapsed in anguish, curling into a ball like a boiled shrimp.
He rolled across the ground in torment.
"I haven't lost!"
"I can win!"
Clenching his teeth like a serpent seized by its seven-inch mark, he twisted and thrashed upon the ground.
"It hurts so much..." he whimpered softly.
***
The Immortal Emperor Supreme pinned Xu Ying in midair, peeling away his cultivation realms one after another. He severed them, inspected them for a brief moment, and sent them into his Realm of Xiyi.
He needed to preserve the freshness of these realms, ensuring that none of the truths contained within them were lost.
These were the fruits harvested from his crops.
He would savor their flavor slowly.
Yet the most crucial fruits remained the thirteen Dao scenes.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme's hands trembled slightly, his voice shaking with excitement, raspy and strained: "Six hundred thousand years of cultivation, and I have finally succeeded! Master, I can finally match your realm from back then! No, I have even surpassed you!"
He laughed wildly, tears of joy streaming from his eyes: "Possessing these thirteen Dao scenes, I can finally protect myself!"
Behind him, towering figures stood tall, silently watching him dismember Xu Ying.
High above the Heavenly Abyss, various Wondrous-grade supreme treasures and Supreme-grade treasures clashed. Rampaging Dao energy surged violently, annihilating vast swathes of the Heavenly Sea's waters.
The Last Lord of Ziwei unleashed the Glazed Lamp, rending through spacetime as he fought desperately downward, attempting to rescue Xu Ying before his life was extinguished.
The Demon Ancestor also fought with reckless abandon, manifesting his true body to battle a Supreme.
The Dao Ancestors unleashed their respective treasures to counter two beings of the Wondrous realm, only to be suppressed by them.
Waste Qingxuan watched this spectacle from a distance, taking no part. Behind him, the tall, savage Wei Xu appeared and asked in a low voice, "Master, why don't you intervene? He freed you; didn't he do you a kindness?"
"I tried my best to save him, but I couldn't," Waste Qingxuan said dejectedly.
Puzzled, Wei Xu asked, "Who are you talking about?"
"Your Senior Brother Shanming."
Waste Qingxuan turned to leave, waving his hand. "I'm a good-for-nothing. Why must everyone pin their hopes on me? Isn't being a waste perfectly fine?"
His figure paused, then vanished, his voice drifting from afar: "Wei Xu, do not lose yourself like your senior brother. When that future comes, it will be too late for regrets!"
Wei Xu looked toward the scene where Xu Ying was being harvested and suddenly shuddered, murmuring, "Master, you want to be a waste, but I cannot. I've seen Senior Brother's eyes; they are the eyes of someone looking at prey. If he doesn't harvest Xu Ying, then he will harvest me..."
He hesitated for a moment, then turned and walked away.
"Xu Ying is a cautionary tale. I must become a Supreme, I must! The New Dao is a shortcut. I have no resources, no cave abysses. If I want to become a Supreme, I must walk this path; there is no other way!"
The battle above the Heavenly Abyss raged on, yet none of their attacks could breach the defense of an existence of the Four Wonders.
"Where is the Ancestral God?"
Covered in wounds, the Demon Ancestor roared indignantly, "Where is that old bastard Ancestral God? Whenever he's needed, he's never around!"
The big bell and Big Dragon clanged loudly, assailing the defense of that Four Wonders existence with a fierce, domineering style no weaker than a Supreme treasure, even forcing that Supreme to deal with them in person!
"Is there anyone else to lend a hand?"
Yuan Qi threw the Diamond Snare into the fray, yet he could not shake the Four Wonders existence in the slightest. He burst into anxious tears. "Can anyone else help?"
Within the Realm of Taixu, Heavenly Monarch of Ten Wastes Liu Guanyi gazed down at the scene, shook his head, and whispered, "We can't win. Besides, we share no life-or-death bond. I must preserve this useful life of mine to avenge Qingxuan!"
At the Heavenly Sea ferry, Daoist Yu Ji watched from afar, feeling a touch of emotion, yet that was all.
"Perhaps that vixen from Qiongtai would appreciate such a youth."
His Dao heart grew cold and indifferent. Shrouded in darkness as bursts of Dao weeping echoed around him, he whispered, "How lamentable. Another ghost harvested by the wheel of power."
Beneath the Heavenly Abyss.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme severed one Dao scene after another. He could hardly contain his excitement, especially regarding the Emerald Rock; such an avenue was an achievement beyond his reach in his entire life.
Even if he exhausted a lifetime of wisdom, he could only scratch its surface. Yet now, he could master this Great Dao!
And then there was the Heavenly Dao scene, which was naturally configured in the form of the Three Realms, stacked above and below, connected by the long river of spiritual light. Such a Heavenly Dao scene was more precious than the entire Heavenly Dao world; the Heavenly Dao contained within required an expert bearing unforgivable sins to be tempered thousands of times through Purple Firmament Tribulation Thunder, undergoing numerous tribulations and ascensions to achieve!
Yet all of it now belonged to him—to Mingzun, Meng Shanming!
"Six hundred thousand years of painstaking cultivation have finally brought this day," the Immortal Emperor murmured, weeping with excitement as he harvested the Emerald Rock and Heavenly Dao scenes.
He had already repeated those words more than once.
His gaze fell upon the final scene—the Hongmeng Dao scene.
"Mingzun, that is enough. You cannot harvest this Dao scene," Good Fortune Supreme interjected, stopping him. "The Hongmeng Dao scene embodies the merit of the New Dao's Dao Ancestor. If you could harvest it, you would be the New Dao's Dao Ancestor. However, you cannot. The Great Dao of heaven and earth across the Three Realms has already revived, and the Heavenly Dao granted him Hongmeng Qi in recognition of his merit in pioneering the New Dao. You cannot take it!"
"I can!"
The Immortal Emperor Supreme reached out toward the Hongmeng Dao scene anyway. This was a fruit borne of his crops; of course he would harvest it, refusing to let a single one escape!
His voice boomed like thunder as he gripped the Hongmeng Dao scene, the sound of the Dao rolling from his lips: "I am the Immortal Emperor, proclaiming to all beneath heaven! I founded the New Dao, established its fourteen realms, and bestowed them upon the world to learn! I altered fate against heaven for the people of this world—I am the founding ancestor of the New Dao!"
"Who writes history? Is it not my court historians?"
"Whatever I desire history to become, that is what it shall be!"
Rumble!
Thunder clattered as he forcibly severed the Hongmeng Dao scene, stuffing it behind his head!
"From this day forth, I am the Dao Ancestor of the New Dao! Whoever denies it shall be executed!"
The Immortal Emperor Supreme raised his arm and slashed toward the halo behind Xu Ying's head.
He was so excited that this single strike failed to completely sever the Taiyi cave abyss behind Xu Ying. This cave abyss was formed from two Taiyi cave abysses merged together—one summoned by Xu Ying from the other shore, and one forged through his own cultivation—fused exceptionally tightly.
The Immortal Emperor raised his hand and struck twice more, finally severing both cave abysses.
"My cave abysses are finally in my hands..."
Overcome with uncontrollable ecstasy, the Immortal Emperor immediately sent forth his Primordial Spirit to inspect the Taiyi cave abysses. Like a greedy old landlord inspecting his wealth, he refused to overlook a single copper coin.
Suddenly, his face turned livid.
There, in the void of the Taiyi cave abyss, a glaring crack met his eyes.
The Taiyi cave abyss was fractured.
His expression shifted drastically, and his Primordial Spirit immediately surged into the other Taiyi cave abyss.
Here, there was likewise a fissure!
Seeing his reaction, Good Fortune Supreme and the others felt curious and stepped into the cave abysses themselves. When they saw the fracture, they exchanged knowing smiles.
They had originally harbored some wariness toward the Immortal Emperor, but now they could rest easy.
"Quite the sly rogue, isn't he?" Good Fortune Supreme laughed.
Deep within the memories of the first-life Xu Ying, Xu Ying curled into a ball, engulfed in excruciating pain, trembling like a sieve.
"...Even if I die, no one gets off easy... I'm so cold!"
All around was darkness. More than ten thousand Xu Yings stood in the shadows, yet he was the only one left all alone.
"Is he dead?" Good Fortune Supreme frowned.
"Presumably," Dao Lord Luofu said, somewhat puzzled.
The Immortal Emperor Supreme was immersed in immense joy, not even glancing at Xu Ying's corpse.
Dao Lord Luofu glanced at the smug, ecstatic Immortal Emperor and asked, "Should we use him to plug the sea eye, or bury him?"
"Plug the sea eye with him. It's close by, saving us the trouble of digging a pit."
A figure of the Wondrous realm raised his hand, lifting Xu Ying's corpse. With a gentle flick of his sleeve, the body flew toward the sea eye.
In the past, plugging a sea eye involved binding a person and casting them inside to be tormented to death. But now, Xu Ying possessed not a breath of life, his body harvested until it was riddled with holes. There was no need to bind him; sending him straight into the sea eye was enough.
Xu Ying's corpse reached the air above the sea eye. As the Wondrous-realm figure withdrew his magic power, the corpse began falling into the abyss.
Just then, a beam of dark light dashed forward. It was a slender-waisted black dog, running like the wind. Leaping across the sea eye, it caught Xu Ying's corpse and fled toward the outside of the Heavenly Abyss.
"Second Brother, I've come to save you!" the black dog barked.
The Wondrous-realm existence frowned and casually struck with a palm from afar. As if struck by a massive blow, the big black dog crashed violently against the stone wall with a pitiful yelp, then scrambled away with Xu Ying on its back.
"Oh? A dog whose physical body has been refined to such strength?" The Wondrous-realm figure was astonished. Shaking his body, an external avatar flew out to hunt down the hound.
Carrying Xu Ying's corpse, the Xiaotian Dog fled frantically across heaven and earth, while the Wondrous-realm avatar tracked him relentlessly from behind.
The dog fled into the Earth Immortal Realm. The chase dragged on for over a dozen days until the Xiaotian Dog's old wounds flared up, making it impossible to continue. He placed Xu Ying's corpse on the ground and pressed his ear against his chest, but heard nothing.
He licked Xu Ying's forehead; it was icy cold.
"Second Brother, you had better rest in the earth."
Tears streaming down, the big black dog used his magic power to carve out an earthen pit, laying Xu Ying to rest.
He stood on his hind legs and bowed to Xu Ying. Leaving no tombstone behind, he turned and walked away.
Xu Ying's mound stood solitary and bleak, devoid of any grass or foliage, looking just like the grave of a lonely, wandering ghost.
Months passed, and weeds gradually sprouted atop the mound.
Another two years went by, and several trees grew vigorously beside the grave.
In the darkness, Xu Ying felt himself growing colder and colder, as if he were to be sealed in ice for all eternity.
Around him, the figures of the other Xu Yings gradually blurred, as though those memories were on the verge of fading away.
"Xu Ying the Snake Catcher!" a voice called out, waking him.
Xu Ying opened his eyes to see another Xu Ying walking out of the darkness. This Xu Ying was more mature—a handsome, extraordinary young man.
"I am sorry. I lost."
The young man Xu Ying bowed deeply to him, his expression somber. "This world has no room for a heroic Qingxuan, nor does it have room for an upright and candid Xu Ying. Such a Xu Ying and such a Qingxuan cannot survive. The only one who can survive is Xu Ying the Snake Catcher."
"Therefore, I have come to take my leave of you."
Xu Ying struggled to climb to his feet, studying his youthful self. "Where are you going?"
"I am going to find my Zitong, or perhaps to find the world of my dreams that truly needs a hero."
The young man Xu Ying walked into the darkness, turning to wave at him. "Forgive me for failing to leave you an inheritance, and instead ruining the foundation you built."
His figure gradually melted into the blackness, vanishing without a trace.
Outside the grave, thunder and rain raged. Lightning struck down blow after blow, cleaving the trees atop the desolate mound.
The wood cracked and burst into flames amid the storm, toppling to either side.
Suddenly, a hand thrust through the mud, fingers splayed wide as if trying to grasp the sky.
The earth of the grave split open.
A moment later, a mud-soaked youth staggered out from the desolate mound.
"I'm still alive... I'm still alive—!"
Covered in wounds, he clenched his fists and screamed toward the heavens amid the torrential rain, thirteen realms leaping forth behind him.
Yet these realms held only empty outlines; everything within had been carved away, leaving them hollow, desolate, and riddled with holes!
"But I have nothing left, nothing at all... I lost, hahahaha, I lost!"
He stumbled down the mountain, rambling like a madman.
One day, he arrived at a place called Shendu, passing beneath a large willow tree. Only then did he recall that this place had once been called the Yuanshou world.
He sat muddle-headed under the willow, muttering, "I lost. I lost everything, utterly destitute..."
Bailiffs chased him away, for this was Caishikou, the execution ground.
He walked forward in silence, unknowingly arriving before the Yuan Manor and standing beneath the eaves outside. Gazing upon the courtyard, countless memories came flooding back.
"Heh, I lost. I lost everything..." He hung his head, wallowing in self-pity.
Creak. The door opened.
Uncle Xiao's voice carried out: "Young Lady, be careful."
Hearing the sound, the disheveled youth lifted his eyes. A bright-eyed, fair-toothed maiden stepped out from the Yuan Manor.
The eyes of the youth and the maiden met, and time seemed to stand still.
Chapter 628