Xu Ying was greatly heartened and said with a smile, "I have lingered in the Jing Realm for all these years, putting off my departure, precisely waiting for you to say that you intend to rebel. But there is one thing I don't understand—why didn't Sect Master He rebel before, yet decide to do so now?"
Sect Master He Ying replied, "In the past, we did not rebel because we still had a way to survive, believing we were worse off than some, but better off than many. Now we rebel because we realized that we are at the very bottom, never in the middle layer at all. In the eyes of the superiors on the other shore, even our Jing Realm universe is nothing more than ants that can be casually wiped out. The other shore is unkind, treating us like straw dogs. Thus, rebellion is our only way."
She recalled how, when the Saint race of the other shore descended in the past, though they threw their weight around and acted tyrannically, at least most of the Jing Realm's people were still alive. Moreover, compared to common folk, she and the disciples of the Taiyi Dao Sect still held status.
Yet when Daoshengzi arrived, the entire Jing Realm was on the verge of plunging into reincarnation—when had he ever spared a thought for the lives of the people of the Jing Realm!
The other shore had never treated them as people. If that was the case, why shouldn't they try to cast off their dependence and seize control of their own fate?
Xu Ying asked, "How does Sect Master He intend to rebel?"
He Ying had already turned this over in her mind thousands of times and said, "We will proclaim to the people of the Jing Realm that the Jing Realm belongs to the people of the Jing Realm, not to the other shore. We will revere Brother Xu as our leader, learn Brother Xu's Dao methods, sever the cave abysses summoned by the various Dao sects, and cut off all paths of passage between the other shore and the Jing Realm so that the other shore cannot locate the Jing Realm to quell the rebellion, thereby buying us time."
Xu Ying asked, "You don't intend to launch a counterattack against the other shore?"
Sect Master He Ying shook her head. "The disparity in strength is too great; we have no such intentions. At present, for our Jing Realm, the greatest rebellion is to kill those loyal running dogs of the other shore and sever all contact between the two realms."
Xu Ying nodded gently and smiled. "Not aiming beyond your grasp—truly admirable. If you had planned to counterattack the other shore, I would have worried whether this ally could survive. As for what Sect Master He mentioned about revering me and studying my Dao methods, there is no need."
Sect Master He Ying grew anxious at once. "You once said that as long as I was willing to learn, you would teach me! How can you go back on your word?"
Xu Ying said solemnly, "I can teach you the methods to cultivate a cave abyss, but I will not teach you the Three Realms' New Dao pattern system. I can impart various divine powers to you, but I will not transmit the Three Realms' New Dao cultivation system. Your Jing Realm has its own cultivation system and its own Dao patterns. If you copy the Three Realms in every respect, how will the Jing Realm differ from the Three Realms?"
He Ying argued, "But if we don't learn them, how are we to grow strong?"
Xu Ying smiled. "The Jing Realm once had its own cultivation system, its own Dao scripts, and its own civilization. Why not search among the buried civilization for things that can be renewed and developed?"
He took up a brush and penned a letter, saying, "The Jing Realm has studied the Dao methods of the other shore and now has the cave abyss cultivation methods of our Three Realms. Your vision and insight have long surpassed what existed when your realm was destroyed. Standing at such a height, Sect Master He will surely bear fruit by advancing and evolving the Jing Realm's Dao patterns."
He placed the letter into He Ying's hands. "After I depart, take this letter and follow the map I have drawn to the marked location. Find the immortal palace there. Kneel outside, raise the letter above your head, and say that Dao Ancestor Xu deemed your aptitudes too meager to practice his techniques and recommended you to come study here instead. The person inside the immortal palace shares that sentiment deeply and will surely come out to see you."
Sect Master He Ying took the letter, blinked, and asked, "And then?"
Xu Ying chuckled. "Enter her tutelage, and she will naturally teach you whatever she can. Her vision and insight are fathomless, far surpassing my own, and she is also a native of the Jing Realm. For her to revive the Jing Realm's heavenly and earthly Grand Daos is as easy as lifting a hand. As for evolving the Jing Realm's Dao patterns, with her help, achieving extraordinary results will take at most a few thousand years. Most importantly..."
He smiled faintly. "She will do her teaching, while you carry on with your rebellion. If you truly run into danger you cannot withstand, how could she, as your master, refuse to help you? She will naturally be dragged into the water and forced to stand against the other shore."
Sect Master He Ying was both surprised and overjoyed, hastily bowing in gratitude.
He explained everything down to the finest detail—how to open a cave heaven and how to evolve a cave heaven into a cave abyss.
Although what Xu Ying explained was not the cave abyss cultivation system, it was nonetheless an extraordinarily complex path of practice.
Sect Master He Ying's heart was filled with deep emotion. The more she looked at the youth, the fonder she grew of him, thinking, 'If only I could keep him here for good—that would truly be a blessing for my Jing Realm.'
She had dressed up meticulously for this occasion, wearing fine makeup and gossamer clothing over a white undergarment. Even her toes were carefully trimmed, the big toes painted with red half-moon symbols, and she wore no shoes. A beaded chain hung from her ankle, draping over the top of her foot.
Her heart pounding like a startled fawn, she arrived at Xiuhua Tower and knocked on the door, glancing left and right for fear of being seen.
She was no longer a naive young maiden whose head could easily be turned by romance; to her, passion was merely an outlet and a tool for forging emotional bonds. Yet at this moment, for reasons she could not explain, she felt the bashful flutter of falling in love.
However, no one answered inside Xiuhua Tower for quite some time.
Sect Master He Ying sensed something amiss. Pushing the door open, she saw that Xu Ying had already departed, his whereabouts unknown.
Sect Master He Ying walked to the window and looked out. The green mountains were lovely and the white clouds drifted leisurely, yet the clouds seemed somewhat heartless.
Feeling a hollow sense of loss, she collected her emotions.
Having repeated her plea several times, there was still no answer from within the immortal palace.
Sect Master He Ying once again recounted how Xu Ying had handwritten a letter recommending her to come here, yet the palace remained silent.
She knelt there at a loss.
Sect Master He Ying blinked. "There's no one inside the palace; I've knelt here in vain for over a dozen days."
Zhong Yuliu came up beside her, and the letter flew up on its own, unfolding before her.
Zhong Yuliu looked it over from top to bottom and said, "Xu Ying scorned your aptitudes as mediocre and was unwilling to take you as a disciple?"
Sect Master He Ying nodded repeatedly.
Zhong Yuliu sneered. "A mere cultivator of the Eighth Dao Realm actually dared to think of taking a Ninth Dao Realm cultivator like you as a disciple, and even had the gall to look down on your aptitudes! That boy doesn't know how to teach according to a student's strengths—he only knows how to squander talent. Fine, just follow me; I will teach you!"
Sect Master He Ying was overjoyed and hurriedly kowtowed to her new master, thinking, 'It happened just as Young Master Xu said!'
She felt all the more grateful to Xu Ying. In the years that followed, she cultivated alongside Zhong Yuliu. Zhong Yuliu's learning was vast and eclectic, and as a Dao Master, her insights were profoundly deep. Master and disciple spent their time on the sacred mountain organizing various prehistoric Jing scripts, refining them, and developing a new cultivation system.
Sect Master He Ying abandoned the original cultivation system of the other shore and switched to cultivating the new methods. As her cultivation grew stronger by the day, in her spare time she began her rebellion, intending to completely eradicate the art of summoning cave abysses.
First, she won over a cohort of like-minded experts and destroyed the Taiyi Cave Abyss summoned by the Taiyi Dao Sect, severing the passage through which masters of the Taiyi Dao Sect on the other shore could descend. Following that, she abolished the method of summoning cave abysses within her own sect, requiring everyone to discard their original techniques.
When this decree was issued, an uproar of protest naturally erupted within the Taiyi Dao Sect. He Ying appealed to their emotions and reasoned with them; when persuasion proved useless, she executed every last diehard conservative.
While promoting the new methods and the New Dao, she lobbied other Dao sects, urging them to abandon the techniques of the other shore and switch to the new ways.
When reasoning and emotional appeals failed with them as well, she directly shattered the cave abysses they had summoned, slew their stubborn factions, and forced them into rebellion.
Having cultivated the new methods and the New Dao, she no longer used the flawed arts of the past. Her cultivation was far superior to that of the sect masters and patriarchs of the other Dao sects, making her invincible wherever she went.
Nevertheless, the Dao sects in the Jing Realm were numerous, and not a few were every bit as formidable as the Taiyi Dao Sect. Upon hearing the news, they banded together and launched a counteroffensive against He Ying. The two sides clashed in battle and slaughter again and again until rivers ran with blood and white bones carpeted the wild, plunging the Jing Realm into chaos.
Only then did He Ying realize how difficult rebellion truly was. Faced with the furious retaliation of the conservative factions, she, the founder of the new methods and New Dao, was actually on the verge of being suppressed!
What made matters worse was that several Dao sects repeatedly performed blood sacrifices, allowing Indestructible Dao bodies from the other shore to descend. Along with them came many disciples from the other shore who, though not Indestructible, possessed cultivation and strength far exceeding their own.
"If this continues, we will surely be defeated!"
Just then, the native heavenly and earthly Grand Daos of the Jing Realm suddenly awakened, sweeping across the entire Jing Realm universe. They rose to contend with the secondary Grand Daos of the other shore, showing every sign of suppressing them.
He Ying was greatly invigorated, knowing that her master, Zhong Yuliu, was lending her aid.
The news of the Jing Realm's native Grand Daos reviving quickly reached the other shore, immediately alerting one Indestructible after another.
"The Jing Realm has rebelled! It's out of control!"
"The Jing Realm has rebelled! It's out of control!"
"Prepare to harvest and recover our losses!"
"Prepare to harvest and recover our losses!"
Mighty power from the other shore descended through various cave abysses, directly seizing the bodies of those diehards to harvest their fruits.
In an instant, throughout sect after sect and across expert after expert in the Jing Realm, their Primordial Spirits transformed into the forms of the Indestructibles of the other shore, their flesh exploded, and their lifelong cultivation was plundered wholesale!
The harvesting of the Jing Realm had finally begun!
Just as the Indestructibles of the other shore possessed powerful Primordial Spirits to slaughter all around them, a vast, profound power suddenly enveloped the Jing Realm, causing their Dao methods to run sluggishly.
"A Grand Dao Sovereign! There is a Grand Dao Sovereign in the Jing Realm!" Terrified, they scrambled to withdraw their power.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Primordial Spirits possessed by the Indestructibles of the other shore detonated almost simultaneously in a dazzling display.
"Detestable!"
Zhong Yuliu's indignant voice rang out. "Dao Master Hua, I fled all the way to the Jing Realm, yet you still won't let me be, coming all this way to bully my disciple! You've forced my hand—now I have no choice but to rebel!"
Seeing this, He Ying's heart settled completely, and a long-absent smile graced her face. 'Master has finally rebelled. As expected of someone who also came from the Taiyi Dao Sect—it truly runs in our sect's tradition.'
Thinking of Xu Ying, she wondered, 'Young Master Xu should have returned to the other shore by now, right?'
Xu Ying sat aboard the emerald rock multi-decked vessel. The big bell floated at the bow, with several slender root tendrils extending from the Chaos Sea and tethered to the bell's loop.
That was the chaos lotus submerging into the sea to absorb the qi of chaos.
Only after a long while did the lotus reluctantly return from the sea to the vessel.
"Lord Lotus, you could easily take the chance to slip away. Ah Ying wouldn't chase after you," Master Bell whispered.
The chaos lotus sluggishly waved its few root tendrils and lotus rhizomes, indicating that its movement was too slow to evade the searches of other powerhouses.
It was not strong enough yet to handle the many terrifying perils in the Chaos Sea; before it could even grow up, someone might pluck its blossom, seize its Hongyuan, and refine it into a treasure.
'I was sentenced to exile, and exiled I was. Now that I am returning to the other shore, will the past simply be brushed aside?'
Xu Ying hesitated inwardly. This exile had lasted for fifteen years in total. Nearly twenty Indestructibles of the other shore had died, and even a Dao Lord like Daoshengzi had perished in the Jing Realm.
Moreover, the Jing Realm had rebelled.
Returning so brashly would hardly bring peace.
'Still, they hunted me down, but nobody said I wasn't allowed to hit back,' Xu Ying thought.
Aboard the vessel, he toyed with the green jade token Zhong Yuliu had given him. The token had no special markings and could easily be forged, yet it contained a marvelous power that even Xu Ying could not fathom.
'Returning to the other shore might be dangerous; perhaps I should contact the Dao Alliance first.'
Moved by the thought, Xu Ying attempted to activate the jade token. The token suddenly flew up, emitting a soft, faint light that illuminated the surrounding Chaos Sea until it appeared almost transparent.
Xu Ying was thoroughly astonished. 'What kind of light is this, to be able to shine through chaos!'
After waiting for a while, the faint toll of a bell suddenly drifted through the Chaos Sea. The bell toll approached with astonishing speed from far to near. Suddenly, the chime produced layer upon layer of overlapping folds in space, shattering the light radiating from the jade token.
Xu Ying hastily stowed the jade token to prevent it from shattering, but he heard the bell toll receding into the distance until it vanished.
Xu Ying hesitated, baffled by this sudden occurrence. With no other choice, he steered the emerald rock multi-decked vessel onward toward the other shore.
Not long after he departed, an immortal palace came spinning through the Chaos Sea, arriving in the blink of an eye. It swept around the area once and found nothing.
Suddenly, the bell tolled again, and the immortal palace hurriedly fled, vanishing without a trace.
Another half-year passed, and the emerald rock multi-decked vessel returned to the other shore.
Xu Ying stowed away the chaos lotus and Master Bell. As the vessel sailed out of the Chaos Sea, he severed his karma with the ferry guards. The guards looked right through them as if seeing nothing, allowing the vessel to glide past.
Xu Ying returned to She'an Palace in Daoji Heaven. When Dao Lord Jiuzeng saw him back, he stamped his feet repeatedly and cried, "How dare you come back, you little ancestor!"
Xu Ying smiled. "Everyone who hunted me is dead. Why shouldn't I come back?"
Dao Lord Jiuzeng pulled him aside, lowered his voice, and whispered, "The Jing Realm rebelled and lost contact, and all the Indestructibles who went to harvest suffered disastrous losses! You did that, didn't you?"
Xu Ying's face flushed red, and he said indignantly, "Senior Brother, don't falsely accuse an innocent man! By then, I was already aboard the ship, nearing the other shore. How could I have done such a thing?"
Dao Lord Jiuzeng thought it over carefully; it did make sense.
Xu Ying asked, "Where is Master?"
"In secluded cultivation again. Also, that Junior Brother Qingxuan whom you took in on Master's behalf—he went and accepted several disciples for Master. One is a monkey with a thunder-god face, and another is a burly fellow with a thousand arms. Both of them look like fugitives on the run."
Upon hearing this, Xu Ying rejoiced. "Those are Daoist Wukong and Shi Tianyang! The crimes they committed were done together with me!"
Jiuzeng could not help feeling that Xu Ying took an 'I did it and I'm proud of it' attitude. He continued, "There is one more person, calling himself Yuan Yu, who was also taken under Master's wing by Qingxuan."
Xu Ying said in astonishment, "Why did he come? Our Taiyi Dao Sect isn't a den of vice or a haven for rebels—how did he manage to sneak in too?"
He made his excuses and hurried away.
Meanwhile, Dao Lord Hunyuan finally crawled out of the Chaos Cave Abyss. He couldn't help bursting into boisterous laughter. "Xu Ying, I already know you're in the Jing Realm! I will cross the Chaos Sea right now and ensure you cannot escape your doom!"
Chapter 784