Xu Ying respectfully returned Emperor Haotian's corpse to the imperial coffin, offered incense, and bowed in reverence before hurriedly taking his leave.
Yuan Weiyang said, "We must also beware of treachery hidden within their alliance pact."
Useless Qingxuan asked, "Then is there an oath that carries dire consequences should either party break it?"
The others shook their heads in turn.
A thought stirred in Xu Ying's mind, and he summoned Shi Tianyang. Shi Tianyang said, "On the other shore, I do know of such an oath. One can swear before a Grand Dao Master. So long as that Grand Dao Master is still alive, retribution will unfailingly strike anyone who breaks the vow."
Xu Ying inquired, "Why is that?"
Shi Tianyang explained, "Beings at the realm of a Grand Dao Master are the absolute rulers of the Great Dao. When one swears before such a master, the Dao follows one's spoken words. Should someone violate the oath, the Dao within the Grand Dao Master will suffer turbulence, and as the Dao naturally restores its balance, it will spontaneously strike down the oathbreaker. Even an Immortal True King would never dare defy such a vow."
The Ancestral God asked, "Is the Tongtian Sword Master a Grand Dao Master?"
Everyone looked at one another in silence. The Ancestral God continued, "If they swear before the Tongtian Sword Master while we swear before the skeleton of the Yuan Realm's Grand Dao Master, wouldn't that allow them to break the oath with impunity, while any violation from us would mean our deaths and the dissolution of our Dao? This idea won't work."
Xu Ying asked, "Are there Grand Dao Masters on the other shore?"
Shi Tianyang replied, "Rumors say there are, but I have never seen one, nor do I know any names."
Xu Ying frowned slightly. After a pause, he asked, "Are there any other types of oaths?"
"There is also the Karma Oath. Breaking it invites karma to claim one's life, often leading to sudden, violent demise. However, if one encounters someone who cultivates the Great Dao of Karma, the karma can be shifted onto someone else. Moreover, those who have transcended karma entirely need not abide by it, or one can simply leap into the Chaos Sea to wash the karma away."
Shi Tianyang added, "There are also the Primordial Oath, the Samsara Oath, the Life Oath, the Chaos Oath, and so forth. All are bound by their respective Daos. When swearing to a Great Dao, if one encounters someone masterfully versed in it, the oath can easily be dispelled or even transferred."
Xu Ying hesitated. The Tongtian Sword Master had certainly not attained the Grand Dao Master realm. If an oath had no true power, it would exert no binding force over their adversaries. Wouldn't that leave it binding solely on their own side?
Yuan Weiyang inquired, "Does a Dao Master Oath require the Dao Master's physical presence?"
Shi Tianyang shook his head. "No. One only needs to chant the Grand Dao Master's true name, and his Dao will sense it."
Yuan Weiyang turned to Xu Ying and said, "The final chapter of the Hunyuan Cave Abyss Calamity Avoidance Scripture mentions a Chaos Master. Why not have them swear before the Chaos Master?"
Xu Ying hesitated. "Is there truly a Grand Dao Master called the Chaos Master?"
Yuan Weiyang chuckled softly. "We don't know, and neither do they. The less they know, the less they will dare to violate it."
Xu Ying considered her words and found there was much truth to them.
More than ten days later, the Emerald Rock tiered ship carried ten figures—including Xu Ying, the Holy Venerable, the Ancestral God, the Far Ancestor, Emperor Mingdao, Yuan Weiyang, Useless Qingxuan, and Immortal Emperor Xu Jing—to the Mortal Realm, sailing straight into the ruins of the Yuan Realm universe.
Xu Ying presented Shi Tianyang's head. Min Bo opened the box to inspect it, and indeed, it was the severed head of the other shore's envoy, Shi Tianyang, still carrying traces of his vital essence and soul.
"Fellow Daoist Xu is truly a man of his word!" Min Bo praised.
Beneath the towering skeleton of the Yuan Realm's Grand Dao Master, both sides formally swore an oath of alliance. They decreed that the domain of the Yuan Realm's Dao must not exceed its current borders, that the Three Realms would not expel the surviving remnants of the Yuan Realm, and that both realms would jointly stand against the other shore, among other terms.
"Fellow Daoist Xu, the ten of you may swear before our Grand Dao Master's skeleton," Min Bo said to Xu Ying, clearly familiar with the workings of Dao Master Oaths.
Xu Ying smiled and replied, "Min Bo, how about you ten elders swear before the Chaos Master?"
Upon hearing this, Min Bo's expression changed drastically, and the nine elders behind him paled as well.
Seeing this, Xu Ying felt a flicker of doubt. *Could there really be a Chaos Master in the Chaos Sea? Judging by their expressions, they seem to have heard of this name before!*
Min Bo was filled with inner dread. *He truly knows about the sovereign within the chaos!* Thoughts raced frantically through his mind before he suddenly laughed and said, "How about this: you need not swear before our Grand Dao Master. Instead, both sides shall swear together before the Chaos Master. If either party breaks the oath, let them dissolve into chaos, their lives ended and their Dao destroyed! What do you think?"
Xu Ying smiled. "That aligns precisely with my intentions."
Thus, the group parted into two rows. Each person held burning incense, maintaining a solemn posture as they swore their vows to the Chaos Master.
"Chaos Master above, hear your disciples Xu Ying, Min Bo, Yuan Yu, Wuzhenzi..."
As the vows left their lips, a creeping chill seized everyone present, their hair standing on end. An instinctive certainty told them that breaking this oath would bring undeniable death!
Cold sweat soaked through their robes. Just as the incense burned to ashes, a bell's chime suddenly sounded beside their ears, deep, ethereal, and reverberating for a long time before slowly fading away.
*There truly is a Chaos Master in the Chaos Sea!*
With the alliance established, the hostile tension between the two factions finally dispersed. Xu Ying and his party sat down with Min Bo and the elders in harmony.
Min Bo smiled and said, "We are people burdened by calamity fortune, with little time left to live. We never planned on surviving long; our only wish is to preserve the civilization of our Yuan Realm. Could Fellow Daoist Xu do us a favor and select some intelligent young candidates to come to our Yuan Realm? We will surely teach them with all our hearts."
Xu Ying replied, "What difficulty is there in that? Rest assured, Elder, I will arrange for people to come."
Min Bo smiled. "Preferably mortals with no prior cultivation experience."
Xu Ying agreed, then asked, "May we also learn the Dao methods of the Yuan Realm?"
Min Bo hesitated for a moment, then chuckled. "It is not that I am petty, but with calamity fortune looming over us, we must leave behind the Yuan Realm's heritage, lest our entire civilization vanish into nothingness when the disaster strikes."
Xu Ying inquired, "Elder, I have often heard of calamity fortune, but my knowledge is shallow. May I ask what calamity fortune truly is?"
Min Bo explained, "When Hongyuan opens, a universe is born; it has its birth and its destruction, which is destined by fate. When Hongyuan is extinguished, where can the living beings of that universe go? Where do the Great Daos cultivated by people like us go? From common mortals below to Immortal Dao Masters above, no one can escape."
Xu Ying was startled. "Even Grand Dao Masters cannot escape?"
Min Bo said, "Unless one possesses the power to withstand the destruction of an entire universe, or the strength to cleave through the chaos, there is no escape. When our Yuan Realm universe reached its end, all ten thousand Daos perished, heaven and earth were destroyed, and the universe was swallowed by the Chaos Sea, leaving behind only us old, weak, sick, and crippled."
"The Grand Dao Master is dead?"
Xu Ying and the others were stunned. Wuzhenzi, Guo Daozi, and the other elders wore smug expressions and laughed. "You were deceived by us! When we raised the Grand Dao Master's skeleton that day and unleashed that terrifying Dao might, it was not the Grand Dao Master awakening on his own. But now that the Chaos Oath is sealed, there is no going back for you."
Xu Ying, Yuan Weiyang, the Holy Venerable, and the others exchanged glances and couldn't help bursting into laughter.
Xu Ying laughed. "Then we gladly let you have this advantage."
Seeing his magnanimity, Min Bo was filled with profound admiration. "Fellow Daoist Xu possesses an expansive mind; you are destined for great achievements. We only took this advantage out of desperation to secure a place of refuge."
He paused, then continued, "This calamity fortune is determined to obliterate everything belonging to the Yuan Realm. If anything survives, it will return again and again, growing stronger with each resurgence. Relying on the protection of our Grand Dao Lord and the support of the Hongyuan core, we managed to hide away for an entire hundred million years.
"Now that we are sheltered within the Three Realms, we do not know how much longer we can endure. Once the Grand Dao Lord's skeleton is completely worn away, I fear we will be reduced to dust and ashes."
Xu Ying asked, "What are the signs of this calamity fortune?"
Min Bo answered, "First, the stars go dark, and all ten thousand Daos wither and collapse. Next, the universe implodes, and all things return to chaos.
"For cultivators like us, it means our own Dao begins to rot and crumble away. Those who anchored their Dao to heaven and earth are smashed to pieces the moment heaven and earth shatter."
Wuzhenzi added, "Those who anchored their Dao within themselves rot away from within when their personal calamity fortune descends—their Dao decays, their flesh turns putrid, and they vanish like ash. Some attempted to forge powerful treasures to shield themselves and charge out of the universe into the Chaos Sea, but the calamity fortune tracked them straight through the Chaos Sea, destroying the treasures and killing their masters until they dissolved into nothing."
Min Bo said, "Even fleeing to other universes is futile. The calamity fortune will catch up to you, and your death and the dissolution of your Dao will happen in an instant. This is a tremendous karmic retribution. No matter how you try to escape—even if you reincarnate, flee to other universes, undergo samsara hundreds of millions of times, or seize host bodies countless times—the calamity fortune will always find you and obliterate you completely!"
Fortunately, the falling snow of Dao ash did not last long before coming to a stop.
Even so, Xu Ying felt his scalp tingle. This calamity fortune could not be seen, felt, anticipated, or resisted, and no one even knew where it came from!
Guo Daozi remarked, "The Three Realms universe is only a hundred million years old; it is still vast ages away from the eruption of its calamity fortune. There is no need to worry about this for now."
Min Bo replied, "Yet this is a cataclysm that every cultivator is bound to face. For instance, those scoundrels from the other shore came up with various methods to ward off the calamity, establishing different cultivation arts."
A thought stirred within Xu Ying, and he looked toward Yuan Weiyang, just as she glanced back at him.
Both of them thought of the Hunyuan Cave Abyss Calamity Avoidance Scripture at the same moment.
The scripture's final chapter was very likely the deductions of supreme experts from the other shore on how to ward off this very calamity!
*No wonder we couldn't comprehend that final chapter,* Xu Ying thought. *It truly was teaching how to ward off calamity fortune!*
The Holy Venerable asked, "Has anyone ever managed to survive the calamity fortune?"
Emperor Mingdao asked with lingering dissatisfaction, "What is the framework of the other shore like? Can one take a step further there?"
Min Bo sneered, "The other shore is indeed powerful, and they possess beings at the Grand Dao Master realm. But their framework does not necessarily surpass that of the Yuan Realm. Nor have they necessarily comprehended the eleventh layer of the Dao!"
Yuan Weiyang looked at Xu Ying, and Xu Ying understood her intent, giving a gentle nod.
Yuan Weiyang then produced a deciphered copy of the Calamity Avoidance Scripture and placed it before Min Bo and the elders. "This is a cultivation technique of the ninth Dao Realm that originated from the other shore. Its final chapter details how to ward off calamity fortune."
Min Bo received it and flipped through, but the scripture was written entirely in runic script, which was completely incomprehensible to him.
Yuan Weiyang softly recited it aloud in the Dao language. This final chapter was extraordinarily obscure, and even when spoken through the Dao language, its phrasing was so jarring and convoluted that it made the listeners dizzy and disoriented.
Min Bo turned his head and gave a few quiet instructions. Guo Daozi stood up immediately and left in haste.
A moment later, Guo Daozi returned carrying a golden scroll, which he handed to Min Bo.
Min Bo gently unrolled the golden book. The text within was ancient and profound, like birds and insects dancing across the pages.
However, many of the characters were already damaged and impossible to read.
"This is the Undying Golden Book left behind by our Grand Dao Master, recording his Hundong Undying True Scripture," Min Bo said, pushing the golden book toward Xu Ying. "We can no longer protect it. If left here, it will inevitably be destroyed by the calamity fortune. Fellow Daoist Xu, you may take it and study it."
Xu Ying was both surprised and delighted. Putting the Undying Golden Book away, he said, "My thanks to all of you, fellow Daoists."
The Far Ancestor grumbled from the side, "We don't recognize a single word written in your scripture either."
Chapter 723