Xu Ying stared blankly at the white-haired Daoist. Seeing his reaction, the elderly Daoist clasped his hands in a formal bow once more and said, "Little brother, could you be from the Three Realms? This humble Daoist is Taiyi, and I also hail from the Three Realms..."
"You are Taiyi Heavenly Venerable!"
Xu Ying came to his senses, filled with shock and delight. Looking at the white-haired Daoist, he said, "You have ten Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirits called the Ten Halls of Yama. Your Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirits guard the underworld of the Ancestral Court and dwell upon a pair of ox horns, correct?"
The white-haired elder beamed with joy. "Truly someone from my homeland! Dao friend, do you know me?"
"I do not know you in person," Xu Ying said with a smile. "I know your Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirits. After the Dao weeping, when the celestial catastrophe erupted, your Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirits were slain by the Ten Wastes Heavenly Monarch, Liu Guanyi. It was I who restored the Great Daos in your bodhimanda and revived your Primordial Spirits. You and I share quite a destiny."
The white-haired elder was indeed Taiyi Heavenly Venerable of Salvation. Though not a Dao Ancestor, he had been a Dao Ancestor-level figure during the era of the Ancestral Court. Long ago, alongside Taiqing, Yuqing, Yuxu, Xuhuang, and others, he had ridden an Emerald Rock away from the Three Realms to enter the other shore.
Taiyi Heavenly Venerable possessed an easygoing nature and chuckled heartily. "To think you and I share such a connection! How should I address you, Fellow Daoist?"
"Xu Ying, Dao Ancestor of the New Dao of the Three Realms."
Taiyi Heavenly Venerable chuckled and said, "I heard someone was comprehending near the Chaos Dao scenery and caused an uproar, swallowing more than half of it. When I inquired about the newcomer's appearance, I knew it had to be a visitor from the Earth Immortal Realm. That was why I came to see for myself. Sure enough, an old acquaintance! Fellow Daoist Xu, we ought to depart. If we do not leave now, we will not get away at all."
Seeing Xu Ying's confusion, he added, "Fellow Daoist Xu caused such a massive incident on the other shore, yet on the wanted list of the other shore, you can probably only place outside the top ten. For tenth place happens to be me."
Xu Ying hurriedly said, "I still have two friends in Qiongdu."
"Too late!"
A voice sneered coldly, "Ant of the other shore, instead of keeping your head pulled into your shell like a turtle, you dare show yourself! Taiyi, let us see if you can escape karma this time!"
Standing beside Taiyi Heavenly Venerable, Xu Ying suddenly saw himself and Taiyi traversing cycles of reincarnation. Each time the two passed through a cycle, their forms altered. At times even their gender shifted, changing from male to female. At other times, even their species shifted, turning them into flowers, birds, insects, and fish. They even plunged into reincarnation as inanimate objects such as crude stones and stars. Xu Ying had never experienced such a marvelous thing before.
The seventh method of his Eight Immortality Methods was the Reincarnation Method, which could create a cycle of reincarnation that pitted an opponent against different versions of themselves until death. Yet his own reincarnation technique was completely dwarfed by that of Taiyi Heavenly Venerable.
The two even shuttled through time and space. At one point, Xu Ying saw himself become different figures throughout the history of the other shore, as though he had traveled back into the past! Then, they shuttled into the future, undergoing reincarnation across space and time!
Yet no matter how they fled, an immense shadow relentlessly pursued them from behind.
"The Great Dao of Reincarnation cannot shake off the entanglement of the Great Dao of Karma! Dao Lord Hong, who cultivates the Great Dao of Karma, truly possesses considerable skill!" Taiyi Heavenly Venerable said gravely. "Fellow Daoist Xu, this Dao Lord Hong is an Immortal realm powerhouse who cultivates the Great Dao of Karma. His Dao methods counter mine. Now that we cannot shake him off, we must fight him! I will hold him off while you leave first and head for the Tianjing Ruins!"
Upon hearing this, Xu Ying said, "I possess a treasure that might sever karma."
He summoned the big bell. With a resonant toll, it blasted backward. Layers of space and time severed in its wake, and Chaos qi billowed forth. The colossal pursuing shadow was blocked by the Chaos qi. By the time the Chaos qi dispersed, no trace of Xu Ying and Taiyi Heavenly Venerable remained!
"Taiyi, you cannot run!"
Dao Lord Hong's figure appeared in the sky above a mountain foothill. With a slight shake of his body, tens of thousands of karmic threads pierced through the reincarnations of countless people. So long as anyone bore the slightest thread of karma connected to Taiyi Heavenly Venerable, he would find them! This Dao Lord's methods were truly consummate and his strength formidable; before long, he relocated Taiyi Heavenly Venerable's trail and sped away in hot pursuit.
At the same time, Taiyi Heavenly Venerable sensed he had been locked onto once more. His heart sank. "Dao Lord Hong clings like a ghost. I cannot lead him to the Tianjing Ruins, or else these Dao Lords and Grand Dao Lords will swarm there. When that happens, our fellow Daoists from the Three Realms who arrived on the other shore will all meet with disaster!"
"The Tianjing Ruins? Where is that place?"
Before Xu Ying could ask, Taiyi Heavenly Venerable spread his fingers and thrust his hand forward. Xu Ying was swept up by a ring of reincarnation. This ring was a reincarnation of space, rolling up layers of space and cutting across unimaginable distances! Countless expanses of space spun within the reincarnation, with galaxies and star rivers flashing past in an instant. It was astonishingly fast! Such a divine power was utterly unheard of!
"Brother Taiyi must have attained immortality," Xu Ying marveled inwardly. This divine power was far beyond what beings like the Far Ancestor or Emperor Mingdao could display. Even an ordinary Immortal True King whose Great Dao was commensurate with his body could not wield it with such effortless mastery. Taiyi Heavenly Venerable's prowess, even among the Immortals of Daoji Heaven, could likely earn him the title of Dao Lord.
"I wonder how they survived after arriving on the other shore, and how they acquired such abilities," Xu Ying mused.
Just then, the reincarnation ring suddenly hitched and shattered. Dao Lord Hong had likely caught up to Taiyi Heavenly Venerable, leaving the latter unable to sustain the power and forced to drop Xu Ying here.
Xu Ying looked around. He was suspended in boundless starry space, touching neither heaven nor earth. He could not even see where the continent of the other shore or Daoji Heaven lay. Still, once a cultivator reached the Wonderful Realm, the Supreme Realm, or the eighth layer of the Dao Realm, the subsequent levels were the Immortal realm and the Grand Dao Master realm—or perhaps they could be called the ninth and tenth layers of the Dao Realm.
"Brother Taiyi used spatial-temporal reincarnation to send me here. If I continue in this direction, I should be able to reach the Tianjing Ruins," Xu Ying thought as he flew forward. "The Tianjing Ruins must be the ruins and relics of a place named Tianjing. That was how Seventh Master taught it, so it should not be wrong..."
He flew on for more than ten days without catching sight of where the Tianjing Ruins might be. He did not even spot a single luminous star. Xu Ying could not help but grow anxious. Before him lay nothing but pure void; what if he could never fly out?
Thinking back to Taiyi Heavenly Venerable's spatial reincarnation, an idea struck him. "I too have studied the Great Dao of Reincarnation. Though I have not received the true teachings, executing a spatial reincarnation divine power should still be feasible."
Xu Ying activated his Reincarnation cave abyss, carefully contemplating the Great Dao of Reincarnation and recalling how Taiyi Heavenly Venerable had wielded it. After a long while, a spatial reincarnation suddenly took shape. Space in the distance was folded up and brought beneath his feet.
Xu Ying stepped forward. His pace was not rapid, but his speed increased tremendously.
Traveling through the starry space for another seven days, a dim glow finally entered his sight. Xu Ying walked toward the light. Before long, the glow expanded steadily, and another region of the other shore appeared before him.
The other shore he had seen previously was rich in spiritual energy and flourishing in Dao power, filled with immortal mountains, blessed lands, and Dao sceneries at every turn, with scarcely a single hazardous place to be found. Yet this part of the other shore that met his eyes was shrouded in billowing smoke and gloom, with only the fires of volcanoes illuminating patches of the land.
Hazards lay everywhere. The closer Xu Ying drew, the less spiritual energy or Dao power he could sense. The region felt utterly desolate and dead, without a single blessed land to set foot upon. He could also see will-o'-the-wisps drifting about and the faint outlines of colossal skeletons strewn among the mountains and rivers.
"Could this be the Tianjing Ruins?"
Xu Ying's eyelid twitched, and he felt a strong urge to turn back. The difference between the two parts of the other shore was simply too vast to mention in the same breath!
"Wait, back when I first ascended to the other shore, the Buddha Ancestor and the various Buddhas seemed to receive me at that very mountain and send me back to the Three Realms."
As Xu Ying drew closer, the contours of the mountain range behind one of the volcanoes seemed faintly familiar. Looking from afar, he could even see a gigantic handprint larger than the mountains themselves!
Xu Ying flew toward it. Before he could draw near, a multistoried ship sailed up from behind him. Xu Ying sidestepped to make way. The ship was crafted from an unknown wood, and as it sailed through the empty starry space, a river of stars actually flowed beneath its hull, extending into the distance.
Xu Ying marveled inwardly and looked toward the vessel. On board were many cultivators of the other shore, all bearing the appearance of the Holy Race. Xu Ying now knew that true Holy Venerables were few; most were people from other universes who had undergone burial transformation into the Holy Race's form.
The cultivators aboard the ship were equally astonished to see Xu Ying.
"Who are you?" an Immortal True King demanded from above, pushing open the window of a pavilion.
Xu Ying hurriedly bowed. "This disciple is a disciple of Grand Dao Lord Taiyi."
The Immortal True King looked quite surprised. "Since you are a disciple of the Grand Dao Lord, come aboard the Dao ship! The Tianjing Ruins are exceedingly perilous. For a mere disciple to try venturing here alone is utterly reckless!"
Xu Ying offered his thanks and flew aboard.
On the ship was a group of young talents, each possessing an extraordinary aura that signaled illustrious backgrounds. Hearing that he was a disciple of Grand Dao Lord Taiyi, they all cast friendly gazes toward him.
The Immortal figure by the pavilion turned toward the interior and chuckled, "Brother Zhuo, it seems your master was not entirely at ease sending you to the Tianjing Ruins, so he sent another of your fellow disciples. Hey, what is your name?"
Xu Ying's heart skipped a beat, feeling as though he had boarded a pirate ship. Steeling himself, he began, "This humble one is Xu..."
Just then, another voice spoke indifferently from within the pavilion. "His name is Xu Ying, a newly accepted disciple of my master."
Xu Ying braced himself and looked up, only to see an alien youth step out of the pavilion into view. This youth was none other than the master of the Taiyi Great Dao whom he had encountered in Emperor Haotian's grounds of enlightenment: Zhuo Daochun!
Xu Ying raised an eyebrow. Zhuo Daochun had previously fought four opponents at once—Xu Ying, Daoist Wukong, Shi Tianyang, and the Zhuxian broken sword—without yielding an inch of ground. Even when the three of them combined their might to strike him using the patterns on the surface of the big bell, he had still managed to withstand it. His strength was formidable indeed!
Only...
"Why is he helping me cover up my lie?" Xu Ying wondered in bewilderment. "And how does he know my name is Xu Ying?"
Zhuo Daochun met his gaze, gave a slight nod, and offered a faint smile. His eyes rested on Xu Ying, observing the shifts in his expression.
Xu Ying remained calm and composed on the surface, while internally he was in utter turmoil.
Zhuo Daochun said with a smile, "That Xu Ying has nothing to do with my junior brother Xu Ying. If Martial Uncle Daoji does not believe it, you may ask my master upon our return."
"How would I dare doubt it?"
Once the multistoried ship entered the Tianjing Ruins, Zhuo Daochun walked out onto the deck. Xu Ying stepped forward and expressed his gratitude. "Thank you, Brother Zhuo, for covering for me."
Zhuo Daochun smiled faintly. "I merely did not want you to expose the fact that I visited the forbidden zone. What is more, you truly are my junior brother."
Xu Ying froze.
Zhuo Daochun looked ahead and said, "Master has already informed us disciples that he will take you as his student. His word carries the weight of law; it will surely come to pass."
Zhuo Daochun's eyes gleamed. "Among the visitors from the Three Realms, who on the other shore does not possess a resounding reputation? First came Daoist Tongtian, then Grand Dao Lord Haoyu, and later Immortal powerhouses like Xuhuang and the Buddha Ancestor. Are you truly resigned to being a mere disciple of Taiyi? Have you never thought of rebelling?"
"Never!" Xu Ying replied resolutely. "I came to the other shore to study, to learn the Dao methods of the other shore, not to be a rebel! What would I rebel against? With the status of Grand Dao Lord Taiyi's disciple, I can do whatever I please!"
The sharp light in Zhuo Daochun's eyes receded.
Xu Ying asked in surprise, "Such a thing really happened?"
Zhuo Daochun scrutinized him from head to toe, meeting Xu Ying's clear eyes, yet he could discern not the slightest trace of pretense.
"With your current performance, you should be able to survive before Master and avoid being slapped to death with a single palm."
Zhuo Daochun paused, then added, "This time, Master is coming to the Tianjing Ruins."
Chapter 735