The Great Dao Truly Is as Hard as Reaching Heaven

"Show me the list of those above the immortal heaven who struck," Ji Liuli said. Wei Yuan said, "It is better not to look. If you do, it might shake your Dao heart." "We cultivators have hearts like tempered steel. No matter how deep the bonds of sentiment, they are merely stumbling blocks on the path to realization. If anyone stands in the way, simply kick them aside!" Wei Yuan nodded and handed over the list. "Five from the Liao Clan, four from the Mountain Folk, two from the Sea Clan... What a formidable united front!" Ji Liuli scanned down the list, her expression abruptly changing as she read. "...Immortal Zhao Li?! He intervened as well?" Wei Yuan nodded. "There are more below. Keep reading." Ji Liuli's face shifted again. "Jiumu? I recall this Heavenly Shaman has always been your ally. He even gave you karmic luck." Wei Yuan sighed faintly. "Now it seems karmic luck cannot account for everything." Ji Liuli was well aware of Wei Yuan's circumstances. She said softly, "Could he have disregarded even his bonds with Molten Dragon? Out of the twelve Heavenly Shamans, only two struck—how could he be one of them? Weren't there so many others who didn't take action?" Wei Yuan shook his head. "I do not know either." "You still have authority in the Desolate Realm..." "In the future, when going to the Desolate Realm, I'll probably have to be careful. Fortunately, I hold part of the authority; if I wish to hide things from Jiumu, I can just about manage it." "And Immortal Zhao Li—could that also be seeking good fortune? But aren't Xiao Liu and Ningguo his descendants? Those children carry his bloodline too!" Wei Yuan's expression turned somewhat melancholic as he said slowly, "Immortal beings endure for ten thousand years. Apart from the offspring raised while still mortal and kept at their knees, they likely feel little affection for later generations, viewing them as strangers. Besides, most who attain immortality have severed the threads of emotion. So-called familial affection is merely a bargaining chip used to weigh value." Having finished the list, Ji Liuli suddenly felt something was missing. "Did you leave someone out? What about Cui Wantong?" "She did not strike." "Why didn't she?" "How should I know? Perhaps she was busy at the time." Ji Liuli's expression suddenly turned suspicious. "No, this is far too suspect! Do you have something going on with her?!" Seeing Ji Liuli reach for his ear, Wei Yuan hastily dodged, crying out, "Nothing of the sort! Hiss..." Without his noticing, flowing patches of darkness had emerged around them, cutting off Wei Yuan's perception so that he failed to sense Ji Liuli's true finishing move. Caught off guard by a single misstep, he fell firmly into her grasp. Wei Yuan looked at Feng Tingyu emerging from the darkness, a sense of foreboding rising within him. Before he could think of a way out, Ji Liuli suddenly tightened her hand and barked, "Why didn't Xu Youyi strike either?! Could the rumors between you and her be true? With so many mouths waiting to be fed at home, you still had to go hunting for wild game outside? How could you even stomach such old, dry meat?!" Feng Tingyu nodded vigorously. As it turned out, explaining oneself was harder than ascending to immortality. Amid the realm lord's constant sharp intakes of breath, the interrogation dragged on for a long time before the two chief interrogators were finally satisfied. Fortunately, he managed to survive the ordeal at last. Before departing, Ji Liuli warned, "Consider this a light punishment. Next time you go risking your life without bringing us along, I'll show you what a fate worse than death really means!" Feng Tingyu nodded vigorously. Having nowhere else to vent his frustration, Wei Yuan gave her thinking organ a firm pinch, snapping, "What are you nodding for? You don't use your brain anyway!" After the two left, Wei Yuan stepped into the Splendor of the Many Realms and stood atop the sea of karmic luck. By now, the sea of karmic luck was reduced to a paper-thin layer at the bottom of the pool. Yet wisps and strands of karmic luck were rolling in from all directions; dharma idol and even Scenery Command karmic luck streamed in without cease. The speed at which human luck replenished was beyond imagination, surging in by tens of thousands at every moment. At this rate, the one billion strands of human luck would be restored in less than a year. Wei Yuan's attempt at ascension, drawing the intervention of all the immortals to thwart him, instantly spread across the realm like wildfire. Elder cultivators mostly chided Wei Yuan for being young and inexperienced, lacking patience, which inevitably led to failure. But in the eyes of younger cultivators, all they saw was the solitary courage of the Splendor of the Many Realms defying the heavens, winning over countless cultivators throughout the realm. News among mortals spread much more slowly; reaching the central states might take several months. Yet even now, the karmic luck contributed by Qingming alone had surpassed that of any previous moment. Looking across the world, the karmic luck generated purely from the realm's admiration would vastly exceed the one billion strands of human luck expended during his ascension attempt. As for the consumed merit, it had been meant to be spent in the first place. When the Venerable Master intervened, he naturally had to target the Central Yin-Yang Heavenly Pillar; otherwise, he could never save face. And the karmic backlash from the merit of restarting heaven and earth, no matter how formidable the Venerable Master's means were, would surely give him quite an ordeal to swallow. For some time to come, the Venerable Master would likely be unable to make any moves. If not for this sudden bid for immortality—one that held an exceptionally high chance of success—it would never have forced the Venerable Master to exhaust all his hidden cards and even mobilize dormant assets hidden away for years. Now that he had probed and exposed the trump cards and hidden depths of the various immortals above the immortal heaven, Wei Yuan could focus wholeheartedly on developing the outer realm. From beginning to end, the outer world remained Wei Yuan's core objective. Reconstructing a realm of heaven and earth offered him immeasurable benefits; even among the eight Buddhas of antiquity, perhaps not every one could boast such an achievement. Once he returned from cultivating the outer world, by virtue of such merit, Wei Yuan's Dao fruit and status would likely no longer be something the Immortal Lord could constrain. Thus, seizing the momentous surge of karmic luck rolling in from all eight directions, Wei Yuan renovated the Expedition Hall and launched a brand-new edition: Void War. Released alongside the new edition were brand-new dharma-body puppets, an immense variety of Dao tools and equipment, as well as a specialized dharma-body puppet: the Engineering Lay Buddhist. The requirements for an Engineering Lay Buddhist were extremely low; anyone at the perfection of the Dao Foundation could pilot one. While their combat abilities were lackluster, they could repair magical artifacts, construct outposts, and even erect arrays to aid in battle. By providing these various services, they could earn a share of military merits from other dharma-body puppets as compensation. The rollout of this new edition realized a concept Wei Yuan had harbored for a long time: instead of taking on every burden himself, give countless cultivators sufficiently abundant tools and clear objectives, and they would devise their own ways to overcome hardships. Among them would surely arise ingenious ideas capable of rivaling—or even surpassing—Wei Yuan's own intellect. Wei Yuan intended to rely on this edition to navigate the coming crisis. Just as he prepared to review the feedback and evaluations regarding the new edition, his heart stirred as a thought struck him. The appearance of the Yin-Yang Heavenly Pillar from the Central Spirit Mansion had been entirely unexpected. At the time, Wei Yuan had merely intended to raise another heavenly pillar; the thought had barely crossed his mind when the Central Spirit Mansion resonated in response, giving birth to the Yin-Yang Heavenly Pillar. How could Wei Yuan not know the significance of this heavenly pillar? Yet the Central Spirit Mansion was steeped in layers of mystery. To this day, he still did not know what its true spirit was, which was uncanny enough in itself. A spirit mansion had appeared in his mind-manifested world and spawned a true spirit, yet he had never even seen it? The thought arose like a sudden inspiration. Wei Yuan immediately altered his course to the Central Spirit Mansion, intending to step inside and find out the truth. Inside the Central Spirit Mansion, yin-yang twin qi permeated every corner, while phantoms of countless spiritual creatures and heavenly beasts rose and faded away. As the yin-yang twin qi circulated, it naturally sought to bring forth all things. Furthermore, creatures born directly from yin-yang were among the most celebrated exotic beasts and heavenly birds of ancient times; even the appearance of qilin and heavenly phoenixes would not be surprising. It was only because Wei Yuan had not yet ascended to immortality that these exotic beasts and heavenly birds could not physically materialize, remaining confined to illusions. At the center of the spirit mansion still stood Maiden Yin-Yang. Wei Yuan circled around her once, and habitually saw her clothes slipping off piece by piece onto the ground. Circling a few more times, Wei Yuan suddenly noticed the garments on the floor; the style she wore today seemed different from before. Different? Both outer and undergarments were different? Since when did she even have outer and undergarments? A flurry of questions surged within Wei Yuan, but looking closer, he could discern nothing unusual. Logically, these clothes should have been part of her dharma form, yet they showed no connection to her dharma body at all—they appeared just like normal clothing. Having discerned nothing, Wei Yuan intended to turn and leave as he had always done. Just then, a cool, detached voice sounded behind him: "Are you only going to look?" Wei Yuan turned around slowly, only to see Maiden Yin-Yang, whose eyes were now filled with vitality. Parting her lips slightly, the maiden said, "Nothing else?" She was alive? She was actually alive?! Thinking back on how unscrupulously he had circled around and stared at her in the past, Wei Yuan's mind suddenly went completely blank. There was no defending himself. Was it merely curiosity? Clearly not. As for lust—he was practically on the verge of declaring himself sovereign and attaining truth; what sovereign wasn't fond of beauty? The problem was that in the past, he had treated her merely as an ornament, an existence like an immortal artifact. Only now did he realize she was not only alive, but possessed profound intelligence. All that he had done in the past... Just thinking about it made Wei Yuan's seasoned face burn hot with shame. Maiden Yin-Yang took two steps forward, coming right before Wei Yuan, and said, "Back then, when I was young and naive, you launched a sudden sneak attack and ruined me..." "And unsatisfied with that, you imprisoned me and played with me in private..." "When facing peril, I had to battle powerful foes on your behalf; when you wanted to ascend to immortality, you climbed upward by stepping all over my body..." "Decades have passed. There should have been a place beside you for me long ago!" Wei Yuan said, "I..." Maiden Yin-Yang said, "Whenever you circled around watching me, I remembered every moment. Every single expression of yours has been recorded. Would you like to review them?" Possessing the mettle of a true warlord, Wei Yuan decisively declared, "Delete them! You have your place!" The corners of Maiden Yin-Yang's lips curved upward faintly, revealing a smile for the first time. "That's more like it. You can't look for free. And what about now? Are you still only going to look?" The path of immortality was perilous; years of painstaking cultivation had ended merely with Desolate Roar resetting to zero. Reaching the Great Dao truly was as hard as ascending to heaven.