The Imperishable One

Streaks of light flashed across the sky as Taiyi, Xuan Nü, and the others descended. They had tracked Luo Taizong's aura here precisely to take advantage of his severe wounds from his battle against the Dao Venerable and eradicate him once and for all. As demigods, ancient gods, and their descendants, they had methods of tracking the aura of Luo Taizong's flesh and blood. "Where is Luo Taizong?" Holy King Xuan Nü asked Xu Ying, thick with murderous intent. Xu Ying pointed at the flesh and blood on the ground. "He is Luo Taizong." The crowd froze, then erupted in wild joy. "Luo Taizong is dead! The tyrant is finally dead!" "Luo Taizong fought the Dao Venerable—two scourges, one dead and one wounded! This is truly a magnificent blessing for our other shore!" "A fitting death! Did Fellow Daoist Xu kill him? Many thanks, Fellow Daoist Xu, for ridding our other shore of such a great bane!" ... Dao Master Taiyi came before Xu Ying, surveyed the surrounding flesh and blood, and asked dubiously, "Luo Taizong was not killed by you?" Xu Ying shook his head. "He likely perished at the hands of the Dao Venerable, with only an obsession lingering inside a squirming piece of flesh. I told him this place was the other shore; he said he wished to die on his native soil to reduce the calamitous destiny weighing upon the other shore. With that, his obsession dispersed." Hearing this, Dao Master Taiyi could not help but freeze. Only after a moment did he say, "He once told me he would secure the greatest opportunity for me. Luo Taizong's final move against the Dao Venerable lay right here. What the Dao Venerable killed was the physical body he had severed from himself, whereas the body bearing the other shore's calamitous destiny was his ancient god form." Lost in thought, Taiyi murmured, "Had Luo Taizong died in the Chaos Sea, he would have transformed into endless calamitous destiny, leaving the other shore unable to break free. Yet he deliberately returned to the other shore, signifying the return of that calamitous destiny. Now that he has died here, the calamitous destiny he brought has dissolved along with him." Calamitous destiny arose from karma. The tens of thousands of karmic threads tied to Luo Taizong had also ended with his death. With the demise of this supreme expert, the calamitous destiny of the other shore's world would lighten considerably. The Dao Venerable's scheme to ignite the other shore's calamitous destiny and plunge it into the Nirvanic Extinction Tribulation was postponed because of Luo Taizong's death. Xu Ying asked, "Had Luo Taizong not died this time, but merely crashed down here, would you have killed him?" "I would!" Taiyi answered resolutely. "The other shore has no need for a Luo Taizong today. He had to pay the price for the calamitous destiny he carried! Xu Ying, would you have killed him?" "I would!" Xu Ying answered just as resolutely. "Luo Taizong was the most powerful being on the other shore, domineering and brutal. If the Three Realms ran aground against the other shore, the safety of the Three Realms would hinge upon his whim. That was too dangerous. Given the chance to kill him, I would not have stayed my hand!" Taiyi looked over at Tianchengzi and the others who were celebrating. "Luo Taizong returned to the other shore to dissolve the calamitous destiny upon himself and remove an abandoned pawn for the Dao Alliance. He anticipated this, which was why he said he would secure the greatest opportunity for me when I visited him." Xu Ying pondered. "He also asked me to spare Dao Master Luo's life. Could he have foreseen that he was no match for the Dao Venerable? Perhaps even back then, he had already resolved to embrace death." "Even so, we people of the other shore will not feel grateful toward Luo Taizong," Taiyi said, shaking his head. "We will never thank him." Hearing that, Xu Ying remarked, "In the Three Realms, in a place called Yuanshou, there was a qi refiner named Zhou Chu in a village where I once lived. Cruel by nature, he killed on a whim. Monsters plagued the area—a flood dragon in the water and a tiger demon in the mountains. Zhou Chu, the dragon, and the tiger were collectively known as the Three Scourges." Recalling an experience from his myriad reincarnations of old, he said, "I persuaded Zhou Chu to eliminate the two monsters. Zhou Chu set off alone, slaying the flood dragon in the river and battling the tiger demon in the mountains. We waited in the town for a long time, and when Zhou Chu did not return, we set off firecrackers and held banquets to celebrate the eradication of the Three Scourges. We townsfolk were not grateful to the qi refiner Zhou Chu for ridding us of two plagues, just as you are not grateful to Luo Taizong." Dao Master Taiyi said, "Yet I am grateful for what Luo Taizong did." Xu Ying smiled. "I too am grateful for what Zhou Chu did." Dao Master Taiyi's eyes gleamed. "To others, this calamitous destiny is merely a struggle to cross over. But to me, it is the opportunity for the other shore to throw off its doom and rise again. Now that Luo Taizong is dead and the Dao Venerable is crippled, the other shore must seize this rare chance to excise the malignant tumors and sweep away the calamitous destiny! Even if the Dao Venerable recovers his cultivation, he will be helpless!" His gaze settled upon Xu Ying's face, his voice deep. "Xu Ying, help me! This is a golden opportunity to quell the other shore's calamitous destiny in one stroke! I promise you that the Three Realms will be free of disaster and tribulation! No one from the other shore shall be permitted to harm the Three Realms!" Xu Ying hesitated for a moment, then gave a slight nod. In his heart, Taiyi was far more dangerous than Luo Taizong! Luo Taizong was merely a tyrant upholding his ancient god caste; if the other shore remained in his hands, it would only become weaker and more fractured than it was now. Taiyi was different. Taiyi had a grander vision. He could accept people from other universes as immortals and Dao Masters of the other shore, and he possessed the magnanimity required to reconcile conflicting factions. If he succeeded and led the other shore out of its calamitous destiny, the Three Realms might never be able to contend with the other shore again. After all, the talents of the myriad universes were as numerous as crossing carp; attracting those talents for one's own use would surely forge unimaginable power. Xu Ying had a better choice: get rid of Taiyi and leave the other shore a scattered heap of loose sand, tearing itself apart. The three Dao Masters—Hua, Lin, and Luo—would slaughter the other Dao Masters to push the calamitous destiny further away. Yet if that happened, the Three Realms would have to face Dao Masters Hua, Lin, and Luo directly, along with their innate numinous treasures, with no hope of victory! Taiyi smiled. "We shall throw off Dao Master Hua's pursuit first, then come find you. Otherwise, facing two Dao Masters at once might lead to our total destruction! Tianchengzi, let us go—" Tianchengzi activated his divine art. Spacetime shifted around them, whisking everyone away in a roaring gust and leaving Xu Ying alone. No sooner had they departed than a thunderous boom shook the ground as Dao Master Hua descended from the sky, landing beside Xu Ying. His eyes swept over Xu Ying, preparing to give chase to Taiyi and the others, when his gaze suddenly landed on the mangled flesh before him, causing him to startle slightly. "This is Luo Taizong's flesh? I sense his aura within it... Luo Taizong is dead?" Dao Master Hua wore a peculiar expression as he demanded, "Did you kill him?" Xu Ying slowly shook his head. "After Luo Taizong died, he relied on a single lingering obsession to return to his homeland. Only then did the obsession disperse completely, dissolving part of the other shore's calamitous destiny. With your world-shaking cultivation, Dao Master Hua, you should be able to sense that the other shore's calamitous destiny has lessened considerably." Dao Master Hua burst into loud laughter. "A good death! Splendid! It would be best if that old scoundrel Luo and the Dao Venerable perished together! Even if they did not, heavily wounding the Dao Venerable so he cannot recover for three thousand years is just as grand!" A sinister glint flashed in his eyes as he cast a glance at Xu Ying. Xu Ying channeled the Nine-Dao cyclic verification, ready at any moment to slip into past spacetime to evade pursuit, though he had little confidence in whether he could truly escape. "You can kill people in the past, which means you were the one behind Dao Master Luo's leg," Dao Master Hua said with open disgust. "Poor Dao Master Luo spent all this time searching for the culprit, believing it was Taiyi, never imagining the culprit was right beside him all along. A man from the Three Realms, cultivating to such heights on our other shore that he can actually injure a Dao Master. I said long ago that these foreigners should only be used as kindling, never treated as talents. Sure enough, disaster has struck!" Xu Ying felt a chill in his heart as he detected Hua's thick killing intent. Dao Master Hua demanded, "Should you not return my treasure, the Nirvanic Clear Sky Lamp?" Xu Ying produced the Nirvanic Clear Sky Lamp and offered it with both hands, adopting an attitude of utmost deference. "Many thanks for your assistance, Dao Master. Please take back your treasure." Dao Master Hua looked at the Nirvanic Clear Sky Lamp in his hands, wanting to reclaim it, yet hesitated, not daring to reach out. He had not refined this object. Were it in his grasp, Xu Ying could still activate it at any moment. Even he felt trepidation before the might of such a Nirvanic numinous treasure. Still, killing him will let me retrieve the treasure just the same, Dao Master Hua thought, his eyes flickering. He made no move, but Xu Ying could clearly feel Hua's gaze fixed upon his head, like an immense greataxe suspended above, ready to fall at any second. "Xu Ying, I want nothing more than to kill you right now, but then I recall that Dao Master Luo is far more suited to the task. I have reasons to kill you, and reasons not to kill you. Now, let us see if you can give me a reason to stay my hand." Dao Master Hua clasped his hands behind his back. "You achieved the Nine-Dao cyclic verification? Even Luo Taizong failed to accomplish that. How did you do it?" Xu Ying assumed a humble posture. "This disciple started from the Taiyi Great Dao, deduced backward to Wuji and forward to Samsara, and gradually derived the Nine-Dao cyclic verification." Dao Master Hua glared intently at him, then suddenly barked, "How does the Dao of Strength cyclically verify Taiyi?" Without hesitation, Xu Ying replied, "The Dao of Strength is one of the myriad Daos beneath Taiyi. One must use the Dao of Strength to deconstruct the Great Daos of wind, rain, thunder, lightning, metal, wood, water, fire, and the like, thereby mastering the various Daos. From these Daos, one comprehends the Imperishable One, uniting with the Dao to become Taiyi." Dao Master Hua pressed, "How does one unite with the Dao?" Xu Ying answered, "The Great Dao is structureless, an undifferentiated whole; thus it naturally unites with the Dao." Dao Master Hua's eyes lit up. Structureless, an undifferentiated whole—that was precisely the realm of a Dao Master! "What is meant by an undifferentiated whole?" he pursued relentlessly. Xu Ying said, "Hunyuan possesses Three Qi: the Beginning Qi, the Mysterious Qi, and the Origin Qi. When the Three Qi return to one, the Great Dao becomes hunyuan." Dao Master Hua stared hard at him, then abruptly tore through the air and departed, his deep voice carrying back from afar: "Xu Ying, I shall spare your life for now! Keep that treasure for the time being! Whether you survive Dao Master Luo's pursuit will depend on your own fortune!" Xu Ying watched him vanish into the distance. What Dao Master Hua had asked about were the profound secrets of the Taiyi Great Dao, and the Three Qi were the true transmission of Taiyi's Dao arts! Dao Master Hua had likely contemplated this path for an eternity without finding the way. Now that he had received the true transmission, he was bound to make a breakthrough! However, Dao Master Hua's greatest flaw lay in the Chaos Oath he had sworn with the Dao Venerable. Taiyi and the others were seeking an opportunity to kill him. He had to pursue Taiyi without stopping. If he halted, Taiyi would find an opening to send someone to assault Tianjing. Xu Ying put away the Nirvanic Clear Sky Lamp and raised a hand, parting the earth to bury Luo Taizong's flesh and blood. After a moment's thought, he erected a stone tablet for the grave, inscribing the words: Tomb of Ancient God Great Emperor Luo Taizong. "Now that he has my teachings, Dao Master Hua has two choices: either continue pursuing Taiyi, or calm his mind and comprehend what I imparted to grasp the Taiyi Great Dao. Given his obstinate, conceited nature, he will undoubtedly choose the second." Xu Ying retrieved several sticks of incense, lit them, bowed to Luo Taizong's tomb, and planted them before the tablet. He murmured softly, "Once he masters the Taiyi Great Dao, his cultivation will surge dramatically. Since there is no hierarchy of superiority among the Nine Innate Daos, what would a Chaos Oath matter to him? Yet the moment he makes that choice, he will be doomed to die." Straightening his back, he set off toward Tianjue City, muttering to himself, "Before Dao Master Hua dies, he will certainly inform Dao Master Luo that I was the one who turned him into Cripple Luo. Once Dao Master Luo learns of this, he will be beside himself with fury. Tianjue City will likely suffer as well. I must head back and make arrangements beforehand." ... Dao Master Hua did not pursue Taiyi. He returned directly to Qionghua Island, summoned a servant, and instructed, "Go to Mount Jiuqiu and tell Dao Master Luo that the one who struck him with a sword back then and left him paralyzed for a hundred and twenty million years was none other than Xu Ying." The servant accepted the order and hurried away. Dao Master Hua then deployed one innate numinous treasure after another, sealing Qionghua Island. Over three hundred Chaos spirit roots were arrayed across the island in triple rings, and treasures guarded even the void, leaving not a single gap. "The Imperishable One, an undifferentiated whole, Three Qi returning to one, the Great Dao unified as hunyuan!" Dao Master Hua seated himself and laughed boisterously. "All my life, I sought to use the Dao of Strength as a foundation to comprehend other Daos and thereby grasp the Taiyi Great Dao, yet I could never achieve it. Who would have thought I was so close all along! A Dao Master's Great Dao is structureless, an undifferentiated whole. All I need is to comprehend the Imperishable One from various Daos, and then realize the Three Qi, and I can become a Dao Master of the Taiyi Great Dao!" With a shake of his body, dozens of Daos manifested: wind, clouds, thunder, rain, lightning, and more. Though they were relatively lower innate Daos, his attainment in each had remarkably reached the realm of a Dao Master! Yet even after spending over a hundred million years comprehending fifty-six innate Daos, he had never been able to attain the Taiyi Great Dao. In fact, the more innate Daos he cultivated, the more despairing he had grown. The Taiyi Great Dao was said to encompass myriad Daos; even if he spent a billion years, he could only comprehend five or six hundred, an unimaginably vast distance from ten thousand! Yet receiving Xu Ying's true transmission this time had opened a direct shortcut for him to become a Dao Master of the Taiyi Great Dao! "Taiyi believes I fear the Chaos Oath, but I have over three hundred treasures protecting me. Even if I violate the Chaos Oath, what can it do to me? Once I master the Taiyi Great Dao and integrate the Great Dao into hunyuan, I will be a Dao Master at the pinnacle realm—why should I fear the Chaos Master?" Dao Master Hua sat down to meditate in earnest. "It will take you at least half a year to reach Tianjing, and in that time, I can already become a pinnacle Dao Master of the Taiyi Great Dao!" ... When Dao Master Taiyi and his companions realized Dao Master Hua was no longer pursuing them, they were taken aback. "Could Dao Master Hua have been detained by something? Take his life while he is down! Tianchengzi, you are the fastest—head to Tianjing immediately!" Tianchengzi complied, leaped forward, and vanished without a trace. Half a year later, Tianchengzi arrived at Tianjing, stormed into the cities of the Tianjing people, and began slaughtering everyone in sight. Lady Bifei hurriedly led Dao Masters Ji Cang and Xuanhong to the scene, shouting, "The other shore dares invade us—do you not fear the Chaos Oath?!" Tianchengzi laughed. "It is precisely the Chaos Oath we intend to use to eliminate a powerful foe!" ... In Daoji Heaven of the other shore, upon Qionghua Island. After half a year of arduous cultivation, Dao Master Hua had finally seen through the Imperishable One, comprehended the Three Qi of Beginning, Mysterious, and Origin, fused dozens of Great Daos, and attained Taiyi! His cultivation surged by leaps and bounds, instantly elevating his Taiyi Great Dao to the pinnacle realm of a Dao Master! At this moment, sensing his cultivation swell tenfold, Dao Master Hua was both shocked and delighted. "The Nine Innate Daos truly are formidable!" Scarcely had his words fallen when a melodious bell tolled in his ears, and he sensed a vast, boundless Dao power striking at him from the unseen.