Taiyi and the others all wore solemn expressions, especially Sacred King Xuannü, who was unconsciously radiating a bone-chilling intent to kill.
Taiyi gave a light cough and said, "Fellow Daoist, rein it in, lest you alert the three Dao Masters."
Sacred King Xuannü fought down her killing intent.
Seeing this, Xu Ying could not help feeling astonished. "What did this Luo Taizong do? Judging from your expressions, none of you seem to have a good impression of him."
Truth be told, Xu Ying's own impression of Luo Taizong was rather favorable: straightforward, generous, towering with heroic spirit, and never one to dally.
Tian Chengzi sighed. "Dao Master Luo can still be counted as human, but Luo Taizong is no human."
Xu Ying froze. Luo Taizong wasn't human?
Sacred King Xuannü said, "Like me, he is an innate god. But he is far more powerful—a deity born at the very opening of heaven and earth, possessing supreme might! He received the sacrifices and incense of all living beings, and long before Tianjing ran aground, he was already a supreme myth."
Xu Ying asked tentatively, "Is he a universe primordial spirit?"
The crowd nodded one after another.
Realization dawned upon Xu Ying. Luo Taizong was another Ancestral God, but a complete one!
Back then, because the Three Realms lacked a Hongyuan core, it had been cleaved open by Yuan Realm Dao Master Dao Zongyuan before it had truly grown to maturity; thus, the Three Realms had been a premature birth.
As its universe primordial spirit, the Ancestral God had also been born prematurely. It was only later, when Xu Ying used the Hongyuan core to mend the heavens, that the Ancestral God gradually grew.
Yet the Three Realms had never reached its peak, so the Ancestral God's strength had only reached the Immortal level, equivalent at most to a Dao Lord. Only after merging with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth of Tianjing did he finally become an existence on the level of a Grand Dao Lord.
If it were a complete universe at its peak, its universe primordial spirit would be capable of rivaling a Dao Master. However, neither the Three Realms nor the other shore was in a peak state.
"Benefactor may not know, but our other shore's original civilization was different from how it is now. Back then, ancient gods stood high above all," Sacred King Xuannü said softly. "Beneath the ancient gods were the scions of ancient gods, the demigods. Below them were humans possessing divine blood. And below them were the lower-class mortals. Mighty demigods established divine kingdoms to rule over the lower beings below."
It had been an exceedingly savage world. Although a civilization had formed, the people of the other shore at that time behaved anything but civilized.
They worshipped the ancient gods and offered their own kind as sacrifices. The ancient gods also relished feeding on humans and actively incited wars between different worlds and kingdoms.
Mighty demigods swept across battlefields in every direction, taking captives as slaves for the ancient gods to feast upon. Occasionally, ancient gods descended directly upon the battlefields to unleash slaughter and devour human soldiers in droves.
And the highest sacrifice was to capture the scion of an opposing ancient god and offer them up to one's own ancient god, who, upon tasting the sacrifice, would bestow praise and rewards.
"Even after slaughtering each other to such an extent, even after devouring each other's offspring, the ancient gods remained on harmonious terms with one another. To the ancient gods, this was merely a game with the universe as the chessboard," Sacred King Xuannü said. "And the one orchestrating this game was Luo Taizong."
She recounted the tale methodically. As the universe primordial spirit, Luo Taizong possessed the greatest combat prowess of that era. He admonished the gods: if they wished to maintain the rule of the ancient gods, keep their privileged status, and hold supreme authority, they could never allow the demigods, descendants, and mortals to point their spears at them.
"'Let them breed internal conflict, let them blame and attack one another, let them slaughter one another. As long as their elites, their sages, and their scholars die in wars and brawls, our rule will remain completely secure. Otherwise, should they unite and learn subtle, ingenious Dao methods, they might very well overthrow us.'
"Luo Taizong led us in playing this game for billions of years—until we ran aground against Tianjing," Sacred King Xuannü said.
Xu Ying listened in silence. He had never known that the other shore possessed such a history.
After running aground against Tianjing, Luo Taizong keenly sensed the danger. When demigods began journeying toward Tianjing, Luo Taizong naturally opposed it, striking down those who ventured forth with merciless brutality.
However, some ancient gods also ventured toward Tianjing, and so Luo Taizong unleashed a bloody massacre upon both demigods and ancient gods alike.
The ancient gods, demigods, and descendants of the other shore joined forces, uniting to resist Luo Taizong and cutting off his sacrifices.
"Luo Taizong grew afraid as well. Even he had a day when he knew fear, so he compromised and led everyone to Tianjing."
Speaking to this point, a gleam of vindictive satisfaction shone in Sacred King Xuannü's eyes.
Xu Ying noticed that the eyes of Taiyi, Tian Chengzi, and the others also held a gleam of satisfaction, clearly taking immense pride in having forced Luo Taizong into submission back then.
The demigods and descendants who journeyed to Tianjing numbered several hundred thousand, but upon reaching Tianjing, fewer than ten thousand remained alive.
The reason was that Luo Taizong had once again played his old game along the way, stirring up animosity among the various races and setting them against each other in mutual slaughter.
After they reached the other shore, they encountered the Dao weeping of the pattern script.
Sacred King Xuannü said, "At that time, although the demigods and other ancient gods were powerful, they were far from strong enough to suppress the invasion of the pattern script. When we encountered Tianjing's Emerald Rock steles, we were like barbarians coming face to face with towering, awe-inspiring gods."
It had been an extinction event. Every one of them heard the sound of Dao weeping, and the only one with the strength to suppress the intrusion of the pattern script was Luo Taizong.
Yet Luo Taizong deliberately stood by and watched them turn into Dao ash one after another.
Only a few hundred ancient gods, demigods, and descendants remained alive, on the brink of total annihilation, when the yellow-robed youth Dao Venerable walked over and chanted a passage of Dao mantras. The survivors chanted along with him in their hearts, only then escaping the fate of turning into Dao ash.
This obscure piece of history left the remaining few hundred with both terror and deep-seated hatred toward Luo Taizong. Among them was Luo Taizong's own son—the present Luo Shizong, Dao Master Luo.
Having mastered the arts in Tianjing, they returned, only for the pattern script to trigger an apocalyptic disaster across the other shore. The Great Dao turned into snow, falling continuously for over a million years.
For more than a million years, daylight was nowhere to be seen, and the cold chilled to the bone.
"When a crisis strikes, the first to die are always the weak," Sacred King Xuannü said. "And so, the mortals of the other shore went extinct."
Over the course of those million-odd years, mortals failed to endure and were wiped out from the other shore entirely. Those who remained were all demigods and descendants of divine blood.
In the past, due to the selfishness of Luo Taizong and the ancient gods, the reproductive capability of demigods and divine-blooded descendants had been quite poor, leaving their clans sparse and frail.
Now that they had brought back profound cultivation methods from Tianjing, Luo Taizong sensed that his status was even more threatened. Thus, he once again allied with the gods, intending to resume his old game of manipulating the mortal realm.
Yet how could those who had learned how to cultivate tolerate him any longer?
A second war of ancient gods erupted, but this war was aimed solely at Luo Taizong.
Luo Taizong was defeated. However, as the universe primordial spirit, he could not be killed.
Sacred King Xuannü said, "After that, Dao Master Hua summoned everyone who had achieved success in cultivation to draft a law and proclaim it to the world, declaring equality for all living beings, abolishing the god race, and revering the sacred race. Thereupon, we all signed oaths upon that law, branding them into heaven and earth as we attained the Dao. Luo Taizong, forced by circumstances, signed it as well."
"Equality for all living beings?"
Xu Ying was thoroughly astonished. Could such an ideal have been proposed by a high-and-mighty butcher like Dao Master Hua?
Yet he immediately realized that the so-called equality of all living beings spoken of by Dao Master Hua and his peers was not the same as his own understanding.
For by that time, the other shore had no mortals left.
Their equality of all living beings referred to equality among the other shore's ancient gods, demigods, and descendants.
*The sacred race of the other shore does not resemble the human race; they take the myriad grotesque forms of ancient gods. So it turns out the human race went extinct, leaving only ancient gods, demigods, and their descendants.*
However, he noticed an intriguing point.
*People from other universes who came to the other shore could also rely on this law to sit as equals with the Old Sacred Clan. The seeds of conflict between the New and Old Sacred Clans were planted at that very moment,* Xu Ying thought. *And what is most ingenious is that the Old Sacred Clan now selects members of the New Sacred Clan from other universes to come to the other shore, using the lives of these new sacred clansmen to offset their calamitous destiny! Brilliant indeed!*
Sacred King Xuannü said, "Later, when the war of calamitous destiny broke out to eradicate Luo Taizong, he fled and departed the other shore."
Xu Ying said, "He went to the Dao Alliance."
The others looked bewildered; none of them had heard of the name 'Dao Alliance.'
Dao Master Taiyi exhaled a breath of turbid air and said in a heavy voice, "Luo Taizong's return this time is by no means for the sake of the other shore. I fear it is because, as the other shore's universe primordial spirit, his calamitous destiny is all the heavier! He has come to dispel his own calamity!"
Xu Ying felt a chill in his heart.
A universe primordial spirit like the Ancestral God was bound most intimately to the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth of their native universe. When the native universe flourished, their strength rose accordingly; when the native universe fell into calamity, they too would be drawn into calamity, their cultivation declining!
Tian Chengzi said, "In my view, the urgency of getting rid of Luo Taizong surpasses even that of getting rid of Luo Shizong! This man is brutal by nature, and his return this time is certainly not of one heart with us!"
The crowd nodded in agreement.
Xu Ying shook his head. "Everyone, it is not that I look down upon you, but without my assistance, even if all eleven of you attacked together, Paralytic Luo would beat every last one of you to death. You are not even a match for Paralytic Luo, let alone Luo Taizong."
Taiyi, Tian Chengzi, Xuannü, and the others fell silent.
After a long while, Taiyi finally said, "We deal with Luo Taizong first!"
The others nodded one by one. Bright King Lingyan said in a raspy voice, "Luo Taizong is far more dangerous. Even if we cannot kill him, we must let him know that we are no longer who we once were! We are not to be trifled with!"
Seeing this, Xu Ying thought, *Is Luo Taizong truly so ruthless? To think he could drive Taiyi and the rest to risk death just to be rid of him.*
—
Outside Qiyan Suspended Ridge.
Dao Master Tongtian did not look directly at Luo Taizong. Instead, he gazed at the foliage before him and said calmly, "I sensed a visitor arriving at the other shore, bringing a sudden surge in calamitous destiny and a violent rise in slaughter. Thus, I followed the trail of slaughter here. I am Tongtian. May I ask Fellow Daoist's origins?"
Luo Taizong smiled. "My name is Luo Taizong. I was originally the heaven-and-earth primordial spirit of the other shore. Having attained the Dao hundreds of millions of years ago, I later roamed the Chaos and departed this place. Little did I expect that the Dao of Slaughter, which no one had ever attained back then, would actually be achieved by someone today."
He looked Dao Master Tongtian up and down and remarked leisurely, "Your Dao methods are quite impressive."
Dao Master Tongtian asked, "What advice does Your Excellency have in coming here?"
Luo Taizong laughed. "I came here to see a young man named Zhangsun Shenghai."
Dao Master Tongtian let out an "mm" and said, "He is my disciple."
Luo Taizong said, "I heard he learned the Nine Innate Daos and achieved considerable attainment in them. Hence, I came for a look. There is no malice."
Dao Master Tongtian said, "He has indeed cultivated the Nine Innate Daos. Please take your leave."
Luo Taizong smiled faintly, gazing down at his own hands, and said languidly, "Fellow Daoist, sensing the calamitous destiny and slaughter I brought with me, you should be able to deduce just how powerful I am from their sheer intensity. You are far from my match."
Just then, magnificent radiance burst across the sky, and a voice approached at blinding speed, sneering, "Which is why Tongtian informed us as well!"
Luo Taizong looked up to see Dao Master Hua standing atop the clouds, rushing forward with murderous intent, and chuckled. "So it is Shengcheng. You carry injuries? Were they left by the Dao Venerable?"
Dao Master Hua felt a jolt of alarm. In his nervousness, without another word, he summoned all the various innate numinous treasures he had amassed. Over a hundred innate numinous treasures floated in the air all at once, suppressing the surrounding heaven and earth until it cracked and fractured!
Luo Taizong scrutinized Hua's body without restraint, as though his discerning eyes could see right through him, and smiled. "You make a fine specimen. From your Dao injuries, one can glean just what stage the Dao Venerable's cultivation has reached. You are well worth studying..."
Right at that moment, a loud laugh rang out: "Luo Taizong, didn't you claim you would never return to the other shore? Returning now—aren't you swallowing your own words?"
Luo Taizong looked toward the sound and saw Dao Master Lin striding forward, bearing a long spear on his back, supporting a great cauldron in his hand, a great bell hovering above his head, stepping upon an array diagram, with flags of various colors planted behind his back, and surrounded by a myriad of innate numinous treasures hovering in the void, ready to strike at any second.
Although Lin had made full preparations before setting out, when Luo Taizong's gaze swept over him, Dao Master Lin still felt a shock in his heart, nearly unleashing his treasures on the spot!
Luo Taizong smiled faintly. "Since Fellow Daoist Tongtian informed the two of them, he must certainly have informed that rebellious son of mine as well, correct?"
Dao Master Luo's voice came through, sounding rather helpless: "Father, I originally did not intend to make an enemy of you. As long as you leave the other shore, I can pretend I never saw you."
Luo Taizong turned to look and saw Dao Master Luo driving his carriage over, still putting on the airs of a paralytic. He chuckled and scolded, "You slippery rascal."
Dao Master Luo was terrified, having hidden all his innate numinous treasures beneath the carriage's canopy long ago, ready to summon them at any moment to slay his old father.
Yet Luo Taizong did not expose his feigned paralysis, laughing instead. "After I left, is this all that remains of the other shore—just two or three of you? Shengcheng, Chuanting, Shizong, you won't do. Back when you besieged me three times in the past, you mobilized far more people than this. Under your rule, the other shore has grown worse by the day, not even measuring up to the time when I governed it."
Just then, Dao Master Taiyi's voice rang out: "Luo Taizong, who says our other shore has no one left?"
Luo Taizong looked over, his brows furrowing slightly. He saw Dao Master Taiyi striding forward at the head of ten Dao Masters, including Tian Chengzi and Sacred King Xuannü. Each of them had summoned an innate numinous treasure, their fighting spirit ablaze as they glared fixedly at him.
Today, it seemed the scenes of the past were about to replay themselves once more.
In the ancient past, three wars of the ancient gods had taken place, and all three had been aimed at him!
Someone whispered, "If we kill him, the other shore will be able to cross the calamitous destiny, won't it?"
Luo Taizong laughed. "After arriving at the Dao Alliance, I turned over a new leaf and reformed myself; I rarely kill the innocent anymore. But seeing you all, my hands are itching once again."
His gaze swept across their faces one by one, finally coming to rest upon Taiyi, his brows knitting slightly.
In the distance, watching this unfold, Xu Ying grew so tense he nearly cried out.
Chapter 847