The Great Heavenly Venerable's Immortal Body

Within the purple-gold vortex, wind and thunder surged faintly. At the very bottom of the funnel-like energy vortex was the panicked silhouette of the Xuanhuang malice. Phantom faces of myriad distinct living beings flashed rapidly through the vortex of wind and thunder, tearing at the Xuanhuang malice like a hurricane. Consequently, its body grew progressively distorted and indistinct. "I am the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao! The father and mother of you cultivators! How dare you treat me like this!" "Yet again! Yet again! You humans all deserve to die!" The Xuanhuang malice roared. Refusing to sit and wait for death, its appearance, which had originally resembled Mr. Bai, finally revealed its true form. Its body inflated like a balloon, swelling in the blink of an eye into a hideous, grotesque monstrosity covered in mottled blue-purple pustules. What was even more hair-raising was that the Xuanhuang malice's face was completely gone—or rather, the countless dark silhouettes swimming rapidly across the surface of its shell were now its faces! Their expressions were all distinct, yet not a single one showed any positive emotion. Madness, hatred, despair, savagery... Every dark, twisted facet of living beings was laid bare upon the Xuanhuang malice without exception. A tangible black baleful qi surged out from within it, soaring skyward to clash head-on against the swirling force of wind and thunder in the purple-gold vortex. In an eerily silent impact, it actually caused Li Ping's heaven and earth millstone to stall ever so slightly. Li Ping noticed that roughly a third of the malice's faces locked their gazes onto him in unison. "Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!" A piercing curse erupted, sweeping forward like a storm. Xu Ke and the other two guarding the formation for Li Ping all frowned slightly at this moment. Under the impact of this malice, faint, blurry features even began to take shape on Holy Emperor Li Ping's blank face. Countless tentacles encrusted with blue-purple tumors extended from the Xuanhuang malice's monstrous shell, flailing wildly in an attempt to break free from the binding of the Myriad Spirits formation. Yet how could a supreme formation that pushed the predictive limits of the Dissociation Disc be broken so easily? After that brief pause, the purple-gold vortex began to turn slowly once more. The howling of wind and thunder grew louder than before. From within it came the rising cadence of human prayers, resonating into a unique rhythm that forcefully suppressed the Xuanhuang malice's earth-shattering roars. "In the end, evil cannot triumph over righteousness." "Look at how you are now. Are you even worthy of the four words 'Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao'?!" Li Ping's calm voice, tinged with subtle mockery, pierced through the din of the clash within the formation and reached the Xuanhuang malice's ears with pinpoint precision. "Bastard! Whose fault was it?!" After a moment of stupor, it flew into a towering rage. Evidently, even the Xuanhuang malice itself found it hard to accept that it had fallen to such a pathetic state. Its body, pinned beneath the heaven and earth millstone, suddenly showed signs of surging up in rebellion once again. Li Ping merely nodded slightly. While continually goading and provoking the Xuanhuang malice with his words, he focused his mind on maintaining the Grand Formation of Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits. Through the vortex, he absorbed into his own body the shavings ground off from the Xuanhuang malice. Negative emotions trickled ceaselessly into Li Ping's consciousness like a stream. Seeing this, the three guardians could not help feeling a bit tense. Being inside the formation, they could perceive the terrifying might of this Myriad Spirits formation even more clearly. Even after being sealed for thousands of years, it was still a part of this great world's Heavenly Dao after all. Yet before this formation, it was virtually powerless to resist. It had even rendered their preparations completely unnecessary, leaving them to simply watch Holy Emperor Li Ping perform. The more terrifying the formation was, the harder it was to suppress their worry. If the Holy Emperor were influenced by the malice and lost control... It would likely be a disaster ten thousand times more terrifying than the escape of the Xuanhuang malice. Even though they had great confidence in the Holy Emperor's strength, they could not help feeling nervous now. After all, they were still inside the formation. "No need to worry. I am fine," Li Ping explained through a calm sound transmission, seemingly noticing their emotional turbulence. Leaving aside how unyielding Li Ping's own willpower was, the blessing of the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation alone made it impossible for the Xuanhuang malice to warp his personality. Furthermore, rather than violently swallowing it whole, he was using the heaven and earth millstone to slowly grind the Xuanhuang malice to dust bit by bit and absorb it gradually, minimizing any side effects. "On top of that, the wills of Daqi's hundreds of millions of subjects are anchored to me." "Hundreds of millions of sentient beings can temper the spirit. This is merely a portion of the original Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao—how could it affect me?" Li Ping's mind remained crystalline and clear. Rather than dealing with the "malice," Li Ping's greater pressure at the moment actually came from digesting the motley, chaotic memories within it. Although the vast majority had grown blurred through thousands of years of twisted despair, these fragmented memory shards had been buried deep within its consciousness. Now, as its body was dismembered, they flowed together into Li Ping's mind. Shattered scenes flashed rapidly across Li Ping's mind. Most were too indistinct to make out details. Only a single sequence of scenes surfaced over and over. Evidently, this was a memory etched deep into the Xuanhuang malice's core. Throughout the years of its imprisonment, it had replayed in its mind time and time again. In the endless dark void. A speeding figure suddenly halted. "Why did you stop?" a voice in the memory asked. Originally, the emotion held a trace of relief and elation. Yet now, it was tinged with confusion. That white-robed figure—Mr. Bai—turned around and looked back. His expression shifted continuously, deeply complicated. "What's wrong?" Amid the deathly silence, the perception from the memory gradually turned irritable. "I cannot leave." In the end, Mr. Bai took a deep breath and spoke slowly. "Why not leave?" "The catastrophe has come to pass, and the tide cannot be turned. Rather than staying there, it is better to head for the High Wall and stake everything on a desperate struggle—perhaps there is still a slim chance of survival." The voice from the memory was stunned at first, filled with incomprehension, before turning urgent as it hurriedly tried to dissuade him. "With the remains left behind by the First Great Heavenly Venerable to shield us, and the detonation of those immortal artifacts to propel us, joining our forces gives us a tremendous chance of crossing the High Wall!" "We've prepared for so long! How can you change your mind so suddenly?!" Even after so much time, Li Ping could still feel the confusion and rage within this severed consciousness of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao. Perhaps knowing he was in the wrong, Mr. Bai remained silent. "Say something!" Only after the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao finally stopped venting did Mr. Bai respond slowly. "That place is my home." "From my birth until now, everyone I've known, everyone I've heard of, and everyone I've loved and hated spent their entire lives there." "Now that disaster has struck, I could certainly walk away. But what about them?" Mr. Bai asked quietly. The Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao could not understand Mr. Bai's feelings in the slightest; in its eyes, ensuring its own survival was paramount. "As long as I exist, once we find another suitable world, we can soon birth another Xuanhuang Realm." "I can even recreate every single person you know," it urged in explanation. Mr. Bai merely smiled softly and shook his head. Hesitating no further, he turned and headed back toward the Xuanhuang Realm. Seeing things spiral beyond control, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao grew increasingly frantic. It pleaded and urged without pause. Mr. Bai turned a deaf ear, his resolution fixed. "I know you treated me well." "You always say I am that person's reincarnation." "Yet I know that I am myself." "Su Bai. An ordinary mortal." As its fury intensified, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's memory grew somewhat unstable. Yet Mr. Bai's words, though intermittent, remained impeccably clear. "I never wanted to cultivate or become some immortal." "All I ever wanted..." "...was to save the people I care about." "I am sorry." "As for what you gave me—the Great Heavenly Venerable's immortal body and those immortal artifacts..." "Even this cultivation of mine—I will return it all to you," Mr. Bai said with utter tranquility. ... Boom! The memory burst abruptly like a bubble. Inheriting the Xuanhuang malice's power, Li Ping experienced it as though it were his own, acutely feeling that extreme fury of being deceived and betrayed. "Die! Die!" The voice of the Xuanhuang malice seemed to circle endlessly in his mind. Along with it, even Li Ping's aura fluctuated slightly. Within the formation, the deformed true body of the malice being crushed beneath the heaven and earth millstone seemed to sense the change occurring within Li Ping as well. It could not help shrieking, "Do you feel it?! Can you understand me?!" "The agony of being betrayed, and then sealed away for thousands of years in return!" ... Unexpectedly, its outpouring was cut short by a single sentence from Li Ping. "At this moment, I am human." "Therefore, the one I empathize with more is actually the one you hate so deeply." "I believe Mr. Bai did the right thing." "There are some things that you, in the end, will never comprehend. And so..." "...go in peace." Li Ping's words grew chillingly cold. The facial features that had faintly formed under the impact of the Xuanhuang malice's memories vanished once again. A frosty, unfeeling aura emanated from the Faceless Holy Emperor. Without hesitation, he accelerated the revolution of the heaven and earth millstone. Like an indestructible, towering dam, he blocked every surge of the malice's assault. Seeing this scene, the three guardians could not help breathing a sigh of relief. They truly had been afraid that the Holy Emperor would be affected by the malice. Especially Master Yin. He joked to Xu Ke, "Actually, my essence isn't all that different from the Xuanhuang malice." "If he can swallow it this easily, swallowing me would just be a matter of convenience." "Seems I'll have to keep my distance from him as much as possible from now on." Xu Ke remained silent. Looking at the figure within the formation that seemed to grow ever taller and more imposing, he felt a wave of uncertainty wash over him. He did not know whether handing over the Xuanhuang malice had been right or wrong. The purple-gold vortex spun relentlessly, the roar of wind and thunder growing louder. The Xuanhuang malice's struggles grew weaker and weaker. It was now only a matter of time before it was completely devoured. As the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's power was absorbed and refined, the Faceless Holy Emperor's majestic figure grew ever more towering. He seemed poised to burst through the firmament of the Daqi pocket world and attain another realm entirely. Li Ping's silhouette emerged upon the sky. Every one of Daqi's hundreds of millions of subjects could now see the Holy Emperor's appearance with crystalline clarity. The boiling will of the populace reached its zenith at this moment. In an instant, the coalesced destiny completely broke past purple, turning into an incomparably dazzling, brilliant golden light. Even if it lasted only for an instant, seemingly on the verge of collapsing back down, Li Ping experienced a flash of insight and keenly seized upon this sliver of opportunity. With a gentle wave of his hand, he scattered a portion of the Xuanhuang malice's power—absorbed and converted by the heaven and earth millstone—down into the Daqi pocket world. Countless purple-gold motes of light drifted down upon the mortal realm like heavenly blossoms raining down. From the perspective of Daqi's common folk below, they saw the Holy Emperor's grace that had been rumored in recent days. Those purple-gold blossoms seemed to carry a natural charm that enchanted the human heart. It drove the people of Daqi to disregard the Holy Emperor's majesty and reach out to touch them one after another. And the changes brought about once the purple-gold blossoms entered their bodies caused those people to fall to their knees on the spot, crying out the Holy Emperor's glorious name. Daqi's dynastic destiny, which had already peaked, seemed to undergo a catalytic reaction and transformed yet again. This time, beneath the mountain-moving, ocean-surging choruses of praise from Daqi's countless subjects, the originally precarious golden destiny stabilized completely. Hundreds of millions of beings cheered like rolling mountains and roaring tsunamis. The spectacle caused even the three formation guardians above Daqi to lose themselves in a moment of reverie. "So this is the legendary 'when one person attains the Dao, even his fowls and dogs ascend to heaven'?" Master Yin could not help remarking. Xu Ke involuntarily scrutinized Holy Emperor Li Ping's motionless body, somehow catching a glimpse of Mr. Bai in him. *Perhaps I was not mistaken,* Xu Ke thought to himself. Meanwhile, Yi Shu of the Taiyan Sect narrowed his eyes slightly, seemingly calculating and deducing something, his eyes filled with shock. The Heavenly Emperor's Qi Canon transformed to its final realm, fully stabilizing. With their powers waxing and waning in opposition, the Xuanhuang malice finally lost all possibility of resistance. "I will wait for you." "You will meet the exact same end as me." Before its consciousness dispersed completely, the Xuanhuang malice, for reasons unknown, suddenly uttered this venomous curse. Holy Emperor Li Ping turned a deaf ear, entirely unmoved. The heaven and earth millstone ground down with a tremendous crash. The power of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao flowed endlessly into his body. Li Ping felt an internal resonance, as if an invisible shackle had been shattered. "The Longevity realm?" "Or rather, an alternative Longevity realm," he murmured thoughtfully. ... Meanwhile. In the Yanfa Jue space at the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters. The feedback from his avatar's breakthrough came to an abrupt halt the instant the Holy Emperor reached Longevity realm strength. Thus, it did not draw the attention of anyone else in the space. The Holy Emperor's breakthrough had long been within Li Fan's expectations. What truly caught Li Fan's attention, however, were the memories from the Xuanhuang malice. "Immortal artifacts?" "And the immortal body of the First Great Heavenly Venerable?" Li Fan closed his eyes, concealing the shock within them. "Mr. Bai's words—'I will return it all to you'... Does that mean these things are still within the Xuanhuang Realm?"