The Holy Emperor Perceives the Lingering Will

Sun Qi raised a hand, trying to touch the sky. Without him even deliberately maneuvering to absorb it, the surrounding spiritual energy swarmed eagerly into his body. This sensation... Sun Qi had not experienced it in a very long time. As though a towering tree that had weighed down upon him had been toppled, Sun Qi felt unprecedented relief. "Hehehe..." After a brief daze, a hint of ferocity gradually surfaced in Sun Qi's eyes. "As expected, families and kin are all encumbrances! "Reversing Qiankun, Qiankun reversed—the end of this path is solitary supremacy throughout the ages! "I am the Sun Clan! The Sun Clan is me! "The prosperity of an entire clan, converging upon a single person..." Having lived the first half of his life under the shadow of the clan, now by a twist of fate, all his kin were dead. Yet Sun Qi felt little sorrow; instead, he felt a thrill of liberation unlike anything in his entire life. He could even vaguely perceive that with the death of the other bloodlines of the Sun Clan, the overall fortune of the clan had not directly dissipated or vanished. Instead, it was slowly converging upon him. "Give me ten years—no, five years! Not only will I restore my cultivation to what it was, but I might even achieve the Dao Integration realm..." The wonderful future foreseen by his powerful intuition made Sun Qi tremble with excitement, tempting him to burst into hearty laughter. Yet another silver-white arrow that whistled past overhead instantly turned his face pale and sent a shiver through him. "By the Heavenly Venerable! Could it really be cultivators from beyond the Xuanhuang Realm invading..." Sun Qi shrank his neck, glancing at the White Mist Barrier not far away, and gritted his teeth, proactively accelerating his absorption of spiritual energy. "Tianling Province is no place to stay. I must leave at once... "What a pity those burdens were all dragged off by those tentacles. If I want to cross the White Mist Barrier, I'll have to rely on myself." Having dispersed his cultivation and rebuilt it anew, Sun Qi made swift progress. In less time than it takes to drink a cup of tea, he was back at the pinnacle of Qi Refinement. More and more raiders flew across the sky, making Sun Qi feel increasingly pressed for time. "Now that I can maneuver a flight artifact, I should get to safety first. "Crossing the barrier of just one province won't shave off much lifespan. "Only after returning to Foundation Establishment will I be able to observe future fortunes again. But right now, I can't afford to wait..." His mind made up, a transparent orb enveloped Sun Qi and flew straight into the white mist. Just as Shanteng Province was within arm's reach, Sun Qi was horrified to discover several silhouettes dimly visible within the white mist ahead. Appalled, he instantly maneuvered his artifact to halt his flight. Yet it was already too late. "Who goes there!" A thunderous roar accompanied by a barrage of multicolored spell attacks burst from the white mist, crashing squarely onto Sun Qi. Before he could even let out a scream, Sun Qi was reduced to ashes in an instant! "Target eliminated. Stand down from alert!" Cai Yongchen, a squad leader of Great Qi's Third Legion on garrison duty, examined the scene and reported: "Only at Qi Refinement. Likely an Alliance cultivator fleeing in panic." "Rotten luck. I thought it'd be a big fish!" "Poor bastard, blindly plunging right into our perimeter..." "Quit the chatter. Sweep this area clean at once!" Cai Yongchen snorted, cutting off his subordinates' idle banter. He suddenly sneezed. It felt as if something lingering from the Alliance cultivator he had just inspected—who had been blasted so utterly that not even a corpse remained—had entered his body. Cai Yongchen's heart tightened. After checking himself carefully, he found nothing amiss. However, his professional discipline as a squad leader in Great Qi's legions kept him from simply brushing it off. Instead, he conscientiously reported the origin of the event and his sensations in detail through the Holy Emperor's grand network. Only after filing the report did he breathe a sigh of relief and continue leading his men on their sweeping mission. *** In Sun Erlang's sea of consciousness, event reports of this kind surfaced without pause. They included counts of Sacred Army puppets and Sky-Patrolling Arrows expended on the battlefield, wounded and fallen soldiers of Great Qi, and lists of Alliance forces that had been captured alive or surrendered... There were also inventories of newly produced supplies from the Sacred Dynasty of Great Qi in the far rear. Massive datasets constantly shifted and flashed in real time. Based on this, the Dao Assimilation Stone glowing with faint blue light inside Sun Erlang's sea of consciousness adjusted its internal deduction of the battlefield situation accordingly. Although some degree of resistance had arisen across the provinces of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, the vast majority of Alliance territories had already fallen completely under the Sacred Dynasty's control. The Chuanfa likenesses in the Heavenly Cities were suppressed by the Holy Emperor's talismans, and new suppression and connection formations were swiftly erected. "In the deductions, the Sacred Dynasty's win rate on the peripheral battlefields is climbing ever higher. "Once the situation stabilizes, we can focus on biting through the tough bones. "At present, thirty-four Alliance Dao Integration cultivators have appeared on the peripheral battlefields. Roughly a hundred or so who should have appeared still have not shown themselves..." Contemplating this massive number, Sun Erlang could not help feeling a heavy weight in his heart. Although they possessed a formidable weapon like the Sky-Patrolling Arrows, Dao Integration cultivators were not mere sitting ducks that would stand still and let themselves be bombarded. Great Qi's soldiers had to pin them down. Casualties were unavoidable. "Fortunately, the earlier Li Realm Rainbow Light Plan drew away a large number of veteran Alliance Dao Integration experts. Otherwise, this battle would be even more grueling." Sun Erlang looked at the miniature map of the Alliance before him. Apart from the yellow and purple markings showing the contested territories between both sides, a distinctive grey hue was indiscriminately permeating every region. Centering on Tianling Province, it slowly diffused outward. Wherever the grey took hold, in the deductions of the Dao Assimilation Stone, the Sacred Dynasty ended battles swiftly with overwhelming dominance. "The Dao-One Worms..." Before Sun Erlang's eyes appeared the scene of a Shanteng Province Dao Integration cultivator being captured alive by a squad of Great Qi Core Formation soldiers clad in Sacred Army armor. The anima of Heaven and Earth offered by this Alliance Dao Integration expert was the Scarlet Vine. Only after Shanteng Heavenly City was taken by Great Qi's forces did this Scarlet Vine Immortal Venerable arrive tardily. Countless vines resembling flaming coiled dragons erupted across heaven and earth, growing wildly and unrestrainedly. The vines swept across with boundless, peerless might, swatting down throngs of Sacred Dynasty soldiers from the air like flies. The Scarlet Vine took root midair and multiplied across the ground. In the blink of an eye, it had crawled across all of Shanteng Province. What had been a land of continuous mountains and rivers abruptly transformed into a primordial jungle choked with vines. Faced with ubiquitous red vines that each seemed to possess a will of its own, the three legions of the Sacred Dynasty fell into a bitter struggle. Though protected by puppet armor, they could not endure being bound, constantly roasted, and drained. It seemed as if this Alliance Dao Integration cultivator would truly turn the tide single-handedly and reclaim Shanteng Province. However, once an inexplicable shadow descended and cloaked the heavens, the tide of battle reversed abruptly. The vibrant scarlet vines suddenly went limp like frost-bitten eggplants, their attacks turning weak and feeble. Even the hue of their scarlet flames dimmed inexplicably. In contrast, the Sacred Dynasty soldiers, who had been exhausted in the grueling battle, had all their fatigue wiped away the moment the grey arrived, bursting with vitality once again. Their offensive became even fiercer than before! Any casual strike imbued with spiritual energy tore a gash into the once seemingly indestructible Scarlet Vine. The wounds on the Scarlet Vine did not heal as before; rather, as the battle continued, the tears only grew wider. As if some unseen presence were constantly devouring it! The Sacred Dynasty's counterattack lasted only a single shichen. The colossal entity that had sprawled across the entire province's heaven and earth was ultimately reduced to half the size of an adult. Captured alive by Sacred Dynasty soldiers, it was locked inside a specially crafted cage designed exclusively for imprisoning Alliance Dao Integration cultivators. This cage severed the captive's connection to the outside world and forced the power of the anima of Heaven and Earth inside the Dao Integration cultivator into dormancy. Once imprisoned, a Dao Integration cultivator was as helpless as a frail mortal, utterly incapable of escape. All captured Alliance Dao Integration experts were sent to the rear in Great Qi for centralized detention. As the Dao-One Worms spread, the number of captured Dao Integration cultivators climbed steadily. Only as the outer battlefield stabilized did the pressure on Sun Erlang's shoulders ease slightly. Massaging his throbbing temples, Sun Erlang did not rest. Instead, he combed through the converging intelligence from the battlefield once more, lest any detail had slipped through. Soon, he noticed Cai Yongchen's report. Not dismissing Cai Yongchen's sensation as an illusion, Sun Erlang pondered for a moment and ordered Cai Yongchen brought back from the front line. After isolating him, Sun Erlang performed a meticulous examination. The result was the same: he still found nothing wrong. Yet Sun Erlang still felt something was amiss. After some thought, he ultimately reported the full affair and his findings regarding Cai Yongchen to the Holy Emperor via the astral grand network. Mere moments later, the Holy Emperor replied: "The anomaly within his body should be stray Primal Qi of Qiankun. "Qiankun is Heaven and Earth. "Qi is the source of all things. "It is a blessing, not a bane; there is no cause for concern. However, this stray Primal Qi of Qiankun stems from a fallen cultivator and may carry remnants of its previous host's will. For now, he should not remain on the battlefield..." Enlightened by his master's guidance, Sun Erlang suddenly understood. He also marveled at Cai Yongchen's remarkable stroke of luck. This Primal Qi of Qiankun could barely be considered half a wonder of Heaven. Even though Cai Yongchen had absorbed merely a stray portion, its benefits were boundless—it could even merge directly with his Dao foundation, yielding manifold miraculous effects. "Return to Great Qi first and recuperate in the Sacred Heart Hall. Only after you have fully assimilated this Primal Qi of Qiankun may you return to the battlefield!" Sun Erlang explained the nature of the Primal Qi of Qiankun to Cai Yongchen and issued the command. Even as joy crossed Cai Yongchen's face, he felt a tinge of regret. "I hope that by the time I return, the war is already over." Cai Yongchen bowed deeply and took his leave. Sun Erlang issued a personnel reassignment to fill Cai Yongchen's vacant post. Though merely a minor episode, it demonstrated the impact of efficient communication on the overall war effort: eliminating every potential hazard in its cradle. Tiny increments of probability accumulated, ultimately locking in victory. As days passed, only a single-digit number of provinces remained locked in fierce combat on the peripheral front. All the rest had been conquered by the armies of the Sacred Dynasty. Sun Erlang was in no rush to order a general assault on the remaining Alliance territories. Instead, he ordered the legions to build garrisons on the spot. At the same time, he methodically transferred captured Alliance cultivators and resources back to Great Qi. Having prepared for war over these years, Great Qi had long prepared ample facilities to house and imprison them. Sun Erlang turned his gaze once more toward the four central provinces of the Alliance. "The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' true counterattack should be arriving soon." Judging from the faint tremors rippling through the sealing moonlight, Sun Erlang arrived at this conclusion. *** Tianquan Province, the moonlight boundary. Watching plumes of rising cyan vapor shroud the moonlight, Lu Xichan could not help but let a flash of joy cross her eyes. Though only eight days had passed in real time, Alliance Headquarters had run countless deductions. At last, they had uncovered a glimmer of possibility to break the formation. Since the formation was transcendent to an incomprehensible degree, they simply abandoned the idea of "unraveling" it. Instead, they deployed Spirit-Nullifying Qi directly to corrode its formation components. Spirit-Nullifying Qi could suppress all fluctuations of spiritual power. Under its continuous smoldering vapor, it indeed took effect. The moonlight, once resembling an unbroken bolt of silver silk, gradually became cloaked in cyan smoke. It seemed the formation would break at any moment. Yet... The bright moon in the sky shed its radiance once more. In mere moments, the lost portions were replenished. Even though Lu Xichan had anticipated this and ordered everyone to resist with all their might, they could not prevent the moonlight from descending. Seeing the formation fully restored, Lu Xichan turned livid. "Chief..." The formation masters under her turned pale as well, despair filling their eyes. "I will fetch the formation-breaking disc," Lu Xichan said in a deep voice, conceding her failure to break the formation. Turning into a rainbow of light, she vanished into the horizon. A short half-day later, Lu Xichan returned. Behind her followed a cultivator in dark-green Daoist robes, with an imprint resembling a mirror carved into their forehead. Their facial features were indistinct, their gender unidentifiable. Had Li Fan been here, he would have recognized at a glance that this was the distinctive attire of the Alliance's Mirror Keepers. The Mirror Keeper ignored all the formation-breaking cultivators present, first looking up at the silver moonlight enveloping the wilderness and nodding slightly. Then, bowing slightly toward empty space, the mirror imprint on their forehead beamed with radiance. A white jade disc appeared in the air amidst the shining light. The white jade disc flew forward of its own accord, slowly approaching the moonlight spilling from above. The moonlight warped and was absorbed by the white jade disc. Upon the radiant projections bursting from the disc, countless diagrams of shifting formations seemed dimly visible. The Mirror Keeper studied it for a moment and frowned slightly. Then, another white jade disc was released. Seeing that the effect was still insufficient, the Mirror Keeper released nine discs all at once. The nine discs circled one another, drawing the moonlight into their center. The shifting phantom images of formations accelerated countless times over in an instant. "What kind of formation-breaking disc is that? How can it be so formidable?" "Chief Lu said it is a secondary body birthed by the Tianxuan Mirror, called the Dissociation Disc." "Hiss... To think such a wondrous item exists in this world. If it can break formations so effortlessly, what use are we formation masters?" ... The formation masters present discussed among themselves via voice transmission. Lu Xichan stared intently at the shifting patterns at the center of the Dissociation Discs, her brows still knitted. "Venerable One, it seems..." The Mirror Keeper nodded, gazing at the great array above with an increasingly solemn air. Then, pausing briefly as though reaching a decision, they flew above everyone, struck a strange pose, and bowed toward the empty space ahead. With a gentle kowtow, the imprint between their brows burst with light. A phantom image of an object quietly surfaced. The Mirror Keeper kowtowed nineteen times in succession. Nineteen illusory objects of varying shapes appeared in the clearing. Some were circular discs like the Dissociation Disc, though of different colors; there was a white jade ruler, a cyan jade slip... The nineteen objects flew as if sentient to the periphery of the nine Dissociation Discs. They began to spin rapidly. The already ethereal phantoms blurred further as they rotated. Their outward forms changed accordingly, turning remarkably similar to the Dissociation Discs in the inner ring! Bolstered by the outer Dissociation Discs, the flickering speed of the deduction imagery in the center surged exponentially. It was nearly impossible for the eye to follow. After observing for a while, the Mirror Keeper spoke: "Three days will be enough to open a breach in this formation. "You must seize the opportunity to thoroughly resolve the trapping array." The Mirror Keeper pointed to the bright moon above. Lu Xichan lowered her head. "I will report this to the Lord Transmitters." The Mirror Keeper said no more, focusing single-mindedly on guarding the Dissociation Discs and the nineteen phantom silhouettes. The spectating formation masters, stunned for a while after witnessing this marvelous spectacle, finally came to their senses. "How did nineteen more Dissociation Discs appear? The formation-breaking power of a single Dissociation Disc is already terrifying. Nineteen stacked together..." "I know now! The Xuanqing Mirror, the Heart-Measuring Ruler, the Book of Heaven and Earth... These are all Tianxuan secondary bodies!" The words stirred waves of astonishment, shaking all the formation masters to their core. "Nineteen! I knew secondary bodies of the Tianxuan Mirror existed, but I never imagined there would be so many!" "No, no, no—after so many years, birthing nineteen is understandable. But I never heard that they could transform into one another! Doesn't that mean every single secondary body can unleash dozens of times its own power?" As if noticing the clamor of her subordinates, Lu Xichan swept a cold gaze over them and sent a transmission: "Don't just gawk. Discuss and study the formation fragments deciphered by the Dissociation Discs! "Do you think breaking the formation means our troubles are over? If we can't make amends for our failures after this, I expect everyone in our Formation Planning Hall—from top to bottom—will be completely replaced." Her words left the formation masters breaking into cold sweat, their attention hastily shifting from the Tianxuan secondary bodies to the flickering phantom diagrams of the array. *** The Holy Emperor Throne. The Holy Emperor's gaze pierced the barrier of the formation, falling upon the twenty-eight Tianxuan secondary bodies, including the nine Dissociation Discs. "The Tianxuan Mirror gestates its own form, dividing to manifest the Dao..." The Holy Emperor nodded thoughtfully, praising from the bottom of his heart: "Even after tumbling into the mortal dust, it has never abandoned its pursuit of detachment once more. "The Tianxuan Mirror truly lives up to its status as a supreme treasure passed down in the Xuanhuang Realm since antiquity." The Holy Emperor gently held down Maobao, who had poked its head out with curious eyes, poised to leap up at any moment. Thwarted, Maobao felt a bit disgruntled. It lightly nipped the Holy Emperor's finger, but once pacified with a ball of golden source power, it finally let the matter rest. It settled back down onto Li Ping's shoulder to rest. "Aiya, great Holy Emperor, those things down there are all fine treasures!" Daoist Yijue, whose eyes were both extended into the vortex passage, clicked his tongue in wonder as though he could clearly see everything in the Xuanhuang Realm below. "Every single secondary body is equivalent to a Dao replicated and separated by the Xuantian Mirror. "Some of these Daos were not even originally possessed by the Tianxuan Mirror itself, but were detected by the Xuantian Mirror over all these years as it observed this world. "If this old Daoist still had a human body, I'd risk my neck to snatch one! Using it as a foundation would be of immense use even when achieving the Dao and becoming an immortal in the future!" Daoist Yijue babbled incessantly, seemingly egging the Holy Emperor on to snatch them. Li Ping was entirely unmoved. "We can comprehend the Dao of Heaven and Earth directly within the sea of stars. Why rely on external objects? "Besides, the Daos observed by the Tianxuan Mirror are not necessarily true." Li Ping let out a soft laugh, leaving Daoist Yijue struck dumb. "Great Holy Emperor, are you just going to watch them break the formation? Even if you don't snatch back a few Tianxuan secondary bodies, sending people to harass them and buy more time would still be good," Daoist Yijue spoke up again after a brief silence. "Yijue, just attend to the tasks We assigned you," Li Ping said, casting a faint glance at him. Daoist Yijue gave an awkward laugh and held his tongue. "This old man was never this talkative before. It seems the mirror down there is indeed of great use to him," Tianyang, who had remained silent all along, suddenly remarked. Below, some of the Crossing Adversity Sect paper effigies nodded slightly, offering no denial. Yet as to what specific use it served, Daoist Yijue kept entirely mum. "You people from the Ten Sects are as detestable as ever," Tianyang said softly. As though an invisible wind swept through the grand hall of the Holy Emperor Throne, the paper effigies of the Crossing Adversity Sect swayed violently. Even the mountain gate of the Crossing Adversity Sect showed signs of being buffeted. Daoist Yijue waved a hand, and the paper effigies huddled together to withstand the wind. Tianyang snorted coldly and turned his gaze away. Thereupon, the gale gradually died down. "It seems you truly have made considerable progress," the Holy Emperor remarked with some pleasure. "Having recovered my sanity, I gained a new understanding of the Progenitor's memories. Furthermore, slumbering in the earth veins for all those years—though my original body died—the experiences of my puppet body remain a treasure. The blue seas turn into mulberry fields, time flows on, and all worldly affairs are thus..." From Tianyang's child-sized body came words of incongruous antiquity and weariness. "By the way... take a look at this." After a moment, Tianyang produced the skeleton of a young child. "Hm? Is this not your mortal body from life?" The Holy Emperor recognized its origin at a glance. "Yes..." Tianyang had an inscrutable expression. "I can vaguely feel an extraordinarily peculiar power upon it. It comes from the obsession I held before abandoning my body back then. "It is unlike any cultivation method of today..." Hearing Tianyang's words, the Holy Emperor grew noticeably more solemn. Prompted by Tianyang, Li Ping took the skeleton, furrowing his brow as he sensed it. After a long while, he shook his head slightly and spoke frankly: "I feel none of the energy you spoke of." Tianyang rubbed his chin, looking pensive: "Perhaps this will work." A reddish-gold hue instantly surged across the surface of his skin. Tianyang's body dissolved and vanished into this abruptly manifested reddish-gold armor. The reddish-gold armor split into several pieces and flew toward the Holy Emperor one after another, equipping onto him in sequence. It adjusted automatically to fit the Holy Emperor's physique. Before long, a set of puppet armor seemingly tailor-made for the Holy Emperor took shape, encasing his entire body and exuding an aura of majestic sanctity. Tianyang's voice echoed in his mind: "Do not resist. "Please... witness my life..." Boom! "Tianyang, time to take your medicine!" Countless scenes instantly appeared before Holy Emperor Li Ping's eyes. It was everything Tianyang had experienced across his lifetime. Yet transmitted proactively by Tianyang now, it was as if Li Ping had truly become Tianyang himself, experiencing it all firsthand. Senior brothers and the master of the Path of Bodily Transformation, stepping onto the battlefield one by one to embrace death willingly just to protect him. The vivid, agonizingly real scenes and emotions deeply shook the heart of the Holy Emperor of Great Qi. "Throughout my life, I, Tianyang, was second to none!" The cry from the depths of Tianyang's heart transformed from illusion to reality, genuinely ringing in Li Ping's ears. And so... The Holy Emperor of Great Qi was finally able to sense in sync that peculiar strand of energy upon Tianyang's skeletal remains. It seemed utterly out of place with everything in this world. Like a winter plum in the snow, standing proud and solitary. Though seemingly fragile, it had endured for thousands of years, never fading with the passage of time. Instead, it grew ever more pristine with age. "This is..." Li Ping seemed to recall something, his hand trembling slightly. Yet an invisible entity severed this thread of connection. A pang of loss welled up in the Holy Emperor's heart. Yet with his extraordinary willpower, he quickly suppressed the anomaly. First testing it with Maobao, he found that even Maobao could not identify this strange energy. He then turned his gaze toward the Crossing Adversity Sect below. The paper effigies of the Crossing Adversity Sect seemed completely oblivious, still huddled together. "Yijue, do you know anything about this?" Holy Emperor Li Ping asked, though unsure. Daoist Yijue actually withdrew his protruding eyes from the passage at this moment. Trailing long strips of paper, the two eyeballs flew over to Tianyang's skeleton. They circled around it several times. Judging from Daoist Yijue's expression, he seemed to have truly recognized something. "This old Daoist merely has a conjecture. "It cannot be taken as certainty." The Holy Emperor waved a hand. "Speak freely." As if afraid of being overheard, Daoist Yijue turned his eyeballs around to glance outside the Holy Emperor Throne. Only then did he say, word by word: "Regarding Archmage Tiandu, our Crossing Adversity Sect has held a conjecture since ancient times. "The Archmage has long fallen. What imparted the immortal arts to the Ten Sects was merely a strand of thought preserved after his demise. "Bearing the Archmage's lingering will to transmit the Dao." As Daoist Yijue spoke these words, the paper effigies of the Crossing Adversity Sect huddled even tighter together, as if some horrifying entity were drawing near. "A lingering will of Dao transmission is neither a living being nor an energy. "It is more like..." The Holy Emperor, deep in thought, picked up: "A resonance of the Great Dao." Daoist Yijue clapped in praise: "The Holy Emperor truly has great comprehension! "When the immortals fell, their Daos were vacated. The immortal Daos are everywhere; should anyone come even slightly close to their essence, it will trigger a resonance of the Dao. "Within Tiandu, it was the Dao of Dao Transmission. "And upon this skeleton, perhaps it is... the Dao of Contention."