"A monkey escaped from the cave abyss behind my head?"
The Indestructible True King slowly rose. His stature was towering, and the Taishang Cave Abyss behind his head swayed faintly. Darkness stretched behind him, where thousands of universes hung suspended in the Chaos Sea, accompanied by tens of thousands of Taishang Cave Abysses.
Without exception, every single one of those cave abysses bore a startling, gruesome fissure!
Though these cracks appeared to lie within the cave abysses, they were in fact carved into his very body. An Immortal held the Great Dao equal to their form; body and Dao were one. Damage to the Great Dao meant damage to oneself.
He was none other than the Grand Dao Sovereign of the Taishang Dao—Indestructible True King Yu Xuantong.
Ever since he had been gravely wounded by Emperor Haotian, he had remained in seclusion nursing his wounds, yet they had never truly healed. For a being of his stature, sustaining an injury was a momentous calamity, extraordinarily difficult to mend.
Fortunately, practitioners from thousands of universes across the Chaos Sea had used their own lives to help him heal, allowing him to recover significantly. Even so, his injuries had caused an oversight: while he was deep in meditative seclusion, a monkey had managed to slip out along a breach in his cave abyss.
"That monkey even wounded you?"
Yu Xuantong summoned his disciples and pupils. Sure enough, Dao injuries marred many of them. What enraged him even more was that every single one of these wounds was located in the exact same spot—the very position where his own Dao injury lay!
Examining them, Yu Xuantong’s expression turned grim. "He used the Taishang Dao to harm you, and struck you all in the exact same place?"
Shamefaced, the disciples bowed their heads, not daring to utter a sound.
Yu Xuantong sneered, "Cultivating my Dao techniques, following my cave abyss, sneaking into my abode, using my Taishang Dao to injure my disciples, and even duplicating my own wound down to the millimeter—what insolence! From which cave abyss did this monkey emerge?"
His eldest disciple, Luan Shizong, hurried to point at one of the cave abysses behind Yu Xuantong’s head. "Disciple saw it—the monkey crawled out from the fissure of that very cave abyss."
Yu Xuantong glanced toward it, his expression shifting slightly. "That cave abyss corresponds to the universe of the Three Realms... Haoyu, who wounded me, hailed from those Three Realms."
The Three Realms had long been a thorn in the side of many an Indestructible True King. First came Daoist Tongtian, who had stirred up a storm of blood and terror across the other shore. Later came Haoyu, ostensibly seeking knowledge, who had abruptly bared his fangs and talons, sweeping across nearly the entirety of the other shore. Several Indestructible True Kings had perished before he was finally slain.
Yet before the aftermath of Haoyu’s rampage could even settle, another cohort of Three Realms natives had flown to the other shore aboard an Emerald Rock, becoming roaming outlaws.
And now, a monkey had escaped from the Three Realms, clambering along his own fractured cave abyss to reach the other shore!
"Of all the myriad universes in the Chaos Sea, none are as troublesome as the Three Realms. Better to track them down soon and wipe that barren wasteland off the map!"
Just as the thought crossed Yu Xuantong’s mind, a colossal wave of divine consciousness rippled through the void, condensing into a voice that echoed directly in his mind:
"Fellow Daoist Yinyuanzi has met with misfortune!"
Yu Xuantong’s heart shook violently. He cried out in disbelief, "Yinyuanzi is dead? How is that possible? As an Indestructible True King of the other shore, his cave abysses connect to thousands of universes spanning the Chaos Sea! Even if he encountered an insurmountable adversary, he could have escaped at any moment through his cave abysses! How could he die? Has calamity fortune truly arrived?"
He strode outside his abode. His dwelling stood high above the clouds; below, the vast, roiling Chaos presented a myriad of grand spectacles. Around him, one Indestructible True King after another was awakening from seclusion, stepping forth from their blessed grottos and cave heavens.
The heavens of the other shore were about to change.
Yu Xuantong thought grimly to himself.
The fall of a True King was no trivial matter. Back then, Haoyu’s slaying of several True Kings had shaken the other shore to its foundations. Now, Yinyuanzi’s demise would only pour oil onto the flames.
***
Xu Ying and Fairy Qingbi departed the Taishang Cave Abyss. Both pondered for a long time, unable to determine whether Daoist Wukong had truly made it to the other shore.
When they returned to Mount Jiuyi, Qingbi smiled and said, "There are still disciples waiting for me at the academy."
Xu Ying bid her farewell and watched her depart before murmuring softly, "It is about time I left the Three Realms to make a trip to the other shore as well."
He turned around, only to find a man dressed in white standing before Zhou Qiyun’s grave. The man looked identical to Zhou Qiyun.
Suspicious, Xu Ying walked forward.
The white-robed man offered a courteous greeting and smiled. "I was unsure of what face I should present before you, so I simply chose the person you are most familiar with."
Xu Ying instinctively gathered his cultivation, preparing to strike at any moment. "Zhou Qiyun and I were never actually close."
The white-robed man replied, "And yet, Zhou Qiyun influenced every choice you made afterward, Dao Ancestor Xu. His death touched you so profoundly that it opened your eyes to the harvesting and the rearing of practitioners. Everything you have fought for your entire life has been to avoid being harvested, to avoid being manipulated by others."
A creeping chill seized Xu Ying. "Who in the world are you?"
Zhou Qiyun’s death had seemed so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Across history, hundreds of millions had died while attempting to transcend their tribulations, and many possessed brilliance and talent far surpassing his. Yet the bloody truth had been thrust before Xu Ying's eyes all at once, shaking him awake, turning him against the harvesting, and instilling in him the resolve to confront those seemingly invincible harvesters. His desire to change all of this had originated with Zhou Qiyun’s demise.
Few people knew of this. Most only knew that Xu Ying had been plotted against by the Immortal Emperor and the Sovereign, sinking into oblivion for forty-eight thousand years before rising through adversity. But this mysterious man had appeared in Zhou Qiyun’s guise and pointed out the root of his heart’s knot with a single phrase. Xu Ying could not help but be on high alert.
The white-robed man smiled. "I am Dao Zongyuan. That volume of the Hundong Indestructible Scripture upon your person was authored by none other than myself."
Xu Ying cried out in shock, "The Grand Dao Master of the Yuan Realm? You’re still alive?"
Dao Zongyuan chuckled. "This is merely a wisp of my consciousness manifested. I am dead, yet not wholly extinguished. I still have three wisps of consciousness remaining: one guards my remains, watching over the remnants of the Yuan Realm universe; one guards my Dao body, resisting calamity fortune; and the last wanders through the Three Realms."
Xu Ying’s expression shifted uncertainly as he calculated internally: since the Grand Dao Master’s skeletal remains were not here, would he be able to eliminate him if he struck right now?
After a moment's thought, he discarded the idea. A being as mighty as Yinyuanzi had been obliterated by this very Grand Dao Master; his own modest skills were clearly insufficient.
"How did you learn of my history with Zhou Qiyun?" Xu Ying asked, letting go of his killing intent.
Xu Ying was deeply moved; a method capable of reversing life and death, and even reversing reincarnation itself, was something he had never witnessed, nor even heard of!
"If you wish to revive Zhou Qiyun, I can bring him back as well," Dao Zongyuan offered.
"No!" Xu Ying refused flatly.
Dao Zongyuan was taken aback.
At the end of the day, Zhou Qiyun was merely a clan patriarch from the era of Yuanshou. Extraordinary though he had been, there was nothing about him worth clinging to. When Xu Ying paid his respects to Zhou Qiyun, he was merely paying homage to every single soul who had been harvested just like him—it was a whip across his own back, driving him forward so he would never forget the tragic fate of those who were harvested.
Xu Ying smiled. "Brother Dao, what brings you to see me?"
Dao Zongyuan smiled back. "Min Bo gifted you the Hundong Indestructible Scripture with ill intent, hoping to derail the cultivation of the Three Realms' talents. I came to resolve this grievance."
Xu Ying cursed Min Bo thoroughly to vent his anger, then turned back with polite composure and smiled at Dao Zongyuan. "Then why has the Grand Dao Master come? If you are here to retrieve the Indestructible Scripture, that will be impossible. Min Bo has already given it to me."
Dao Zongyuan grew solemn. "I have come to decipher and explain the Hundong Indestructible Scripture for you."
Xu Ying was stunned. "Brother Dao, why would you do this? Min Bo acted for the sake of the Yuan Realm—"
Dao Zongyuan raised a hand to invite him to sit. The two hovered in midair, clouds beneath them serving as ethereal meditation cushions.
Dao Zongyuan said, "He used the Indestructible Scripture to delay the talents of the Three Realms for the survival of the Yuan Realm's survivors, fearing that your rise would lead to their extinction. That is why I waited until three years had passed. However, the remnants of the Yuan Realm now reside within the Three Realms; they must join hands with you to confront the other shore and share life and death together. Therefore, I must help you decipher the Indestructible Scripture."
Dao Zongyuan began, "Prior to the Primordial Cavity, Dao Qi had yet to manifest. Amidst the primordial void, form and formlessness coexisted, yet no image could be discerned—this is the Dao Master." He spoke in an unhurried cadence, breaking down the Hundong Indestructible Scripture piece by piece.
The Hundong Indestructible Scripture was an art that led straight to the realm of a Grand Dao Master, laying out clearly and distinctly how one could attain that supreme level. Its absolute core was the Hundong Dao Qi.
This Hundong Dao Qi was akin to the Primordial Qi and Origin Qi that Xu Ying cultivated—possessing form yet lacking visible manifestation, impossible to perceive.
Only by mastering all three Qis could the Taiyi Cave Abyss truly be brought to completion.
At some point, Dao Zongyuan in the guise of Zhou Qiyun vanished without a trace, leaving only Xu Ying sitting amidst the sea of clouds.
Even with a Grand Dao Master personally explaining his own scripture, it had still taken a full ten years to impart it completely! Min Bo’s scheme could not even be called a foul attempt to trap the heroes of the Three Realms; even if they had managed to find a clue on their own, the time required would have been tens of millions of times longer!
Xu Ying slowly stood up and drifted away upon an auspicious cloud.
As the cloud passed near the Jiuyi Academy, Xu Ying glanced toward that elegant beauty from afar, but in the end, he departed.
During these years of comprehending the Primordial Cavity, he had unwittingly formed another Hundong Cave Abyss. Dark Qi was born from the cavity and poured into the Martial Dao Cave Abyss. From that moment on, the three Qis—Primordial Qi, Dark Qi, and Origin Qi—were finally complete.
He arrived at the Immortal Court to visit his father, Xu Jing, and his mother, Lan Suying, to bid them farewell. "Father, Mother, I am going to the other shore to take a look. Once I leave, I do not know when I will return."
Knowing he could not keep him, Immortal Emperor Xu Jing said, "When you go there, you must remember that I am still saving the Crown Prince's seat for you, waiting for you to succeed the throne."
Lan Suying spat in mock disdain. "Your imperial position was won for you by your son! Who cares about your throne? Ying'er, you can go to the other shore, but leave your mother a grandson before you leave! That way, even if you die out there, my heart won't ache!"
Xu Ying offered deferential nods and murmured agreements. After taking his leave from his parents, he traveled to the Ancestral Court to give some pointers to the Little Heavenly Venerable and Xiao Xixian, then went to the Ziwei Ancestral Court to pay his respects.
Over the following days, he visited friends and acquaintances. He drank wine and ate meat with Daoist Xiaotian, chatted about life's dreams with Foolish A'fu, and lounged under the sun side by side in deckchairs with Useless Qingxuan.
He discussed the Dao with Lou Mingyu, reminisced about the past with Yan Kongcheng, and made a trip to the Heavenly Immortal Realm to see the Far Ancestor, who was cultivating diligently. He sparred with him and sent the Far Ancestor tumbling with a simple flick of his finger. He bid farewell to Dragon Emperor Mingman, went down to the Mortal Realm to see Jingming and Ming Wangsun, and visited the Yuan Realm ruins. There, he returned the Hundong Indestructible Scripture to Min Bo and demonstrated two supernatural arts from the scripture before the assembled ruin masters, thoroughly stunning Min Bo and the others.
Yuan Qi now had a family to look after and was not suited for long journeys, while Jin Buyi bore the heavy burden of reviving the demon race and could not accompany him either.
"Lord Bell, Lord Sword, take good care of Ah Ying for me!" Yuan Qi called out, waving his hand.
The great bell chimed resonantly, and the Immortal Slaying Sword rang with a clear, sharp hum as Yuan Qi and Jin Buyi watched Xu Ying depart into the distance.
Xu Ying then went to say goodbye to the Ancestral God. The Ancestral God looked completely unperturbed and said, "Go without worry. I will nurture a few figures as outstanding as you. Once you die, they will storm the other shore to avenge you!"
Xu Ying was overcome with mock sorrow and indignation. Before leaving, he cleaned out the Ancestral God’s entire treasury.
"Ah Ying, do you always leave the person you hate parting with the most until the very end?"
Yuan Weiyang’s voice drifted over. Xu Ying looked back at the woman who had walked beside him through his life, and a torrent of tenderness flooded his heart.
Yuan Weiyang stepped to his side and gently smoothed the collar of his robes. "Must you really go to the other shore?"
"I must," Xu Ying said. "Practitioners cannot merely look at what lies before them. We must look to the future."
Chapter 725