Ravines snaked across the earth.
The ground across Luoyan and Luoying Provinces was forced down by dozens of feet.
The might of merely two fingers from Chuanfa was already terrifying to such an extreme!
Yet facing the colossal fingers about to crush down upon his head, Mr. Bai's expression remained unchanged.
Instead, a gratified smile that had long been anticipated appeared on his face.
The motion of his sleeves siphoning from the White Mist Barrier paused slightly, and the surging torrents of white mist came to an abrupt halt.
Then...
*Flash!*
As if countless beams of light had erupted, the dim, bizarrely purple world was illuminated.
In an instant, beneath Chuanfa's two fingers, a dense, colossal net appeared!
It had been compressed in a fraction of a second entirely from the Essence-Devouring White Mist!
Even high in the sky, it radiated an aura that sent tremors through every cultivator's heart.
A clear, brilliant white light met the descending colossal fingers.
A thunderous roar akin to the collapse of the heavens echoed between heaven and earth.
The noise was so immense that to the ears of the cultivators, it felt like dead silence instead.
Only shortly thereafter did cultivators across both provinces discover blood gushing from their ears.
Clutching their ears with both hands, they were filled with horror.
*Crack... snap...*
Though obstructed by the essence-devouring giant net, the momentum of Chuanfa's two fingers did not cease.
It only halted for a brief moment before continuing to press downward.
Although the white mist was being consumed at an astonishing rate,
Mr. Bai was relentlessly drawing replenishment from the barrier.
For a time, the clash between the two sides fell into an uncanny stalemate.
Any cultivator with even a modicum of cultivation could tell by now:
Chuanfa was not using her full strength.
For some reason, she harbored certain misgivings.
The white mist across the Xuanhuang Realm was drawn by Mr. Bai to contend against Chuanfa.
Gradually, cultivators throughout every province noticed a wondrous spectacle.
The thick white mist that had hung unbroken for tens of thousands of years was slowly thinning.
Their previously cramped field of vision grew expansive.
Because of this, they could see much farther,
faintly catching sight of the myriad bizarre phenomena unfolding from Luoyan and Luoying Provinces.
Standing upon the earth, they gazed out into the panoramic expanse of Xuanhuang.
Sensing that the white mist was dispersing, Mr. Bai showed an imperceptible smile.
Turning his head upward to look at Chuanfa's two fingers still pressing downward, his expression turned solemn.
In the next moment,
clouds churned throughout every corner of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The spiritual energy of the entire world seemed to riot in that instant.
At a speed incomprehensible to mere mortals, in the span of a breath, it bypassed the distances of dozens or even hundreds of provinces and coalesced upon Mr. Bai.
And so Mr. Bai's already heaven-propping figure expanded several times over.
It occupied almost half the vault of heaven, making him visible from anywhere in the Xuanhuang Realm.
"My apologies."
"Yet for this period, Xuanhuang is my world,"
Mr. Bai said placidly to Chuanfa high above the vault of heaven.
Then, seizing the surging torrent of white mist converging from the entire world, he slashed upward.
The boundless white mist solidified in an instant.
It morphed into a blade, cleaving heaven and splitting earth!
As though countless suns had risen simultaneously in the sky, the White Mist Heaven-Cleaving Blade illuminated the entire Xuanhuang Realm!
All living beings in the world reflexively shut their eyes in that instant.
There was no earth-shattering din; when they opened their eyes once more,
they discovered that Chuanfa's two fingers had vanished.
Upon the canopy of the Xuanhuang Realm, a layer of amber-like yellow crystals had spread at some unknown point.
Fragile, yet hard.
Beyond the yellow crystals, enormous shadows seemed to prowl.
This fantastical, magnificent spectacle was playing out across the world of the Xuanhuang Realm for the very first time.
It involuntarily captivated the minds of cultivators across the entire world.
"Very well. It can finally be quiet for a while."
"Now, let us begin our lesson,"
Mr. Bai said with a smile, looking down upon the myriad living beings of the Xuanhuang Realm.
"In days of old, the Heavenly Venerable possessed a method: 'Borrow the wonders of Heaven and Earth to establish the Dao Foundation.'"
"Today, I too have a method."
"Relying on no external objects, illuminating the mind to see one's nature, discerning oneself clearly."
"It is named: 'establishing the foundation with oneself.'"
"Though humans are mortal beings, they are born of Heaven and Earth, and in truth possess the wonders of Heaven and Earth, the creation of yin and yang."
...
Word by word, Mr. Bai spoke with composure and eloquence.
The myriad beings of the Xuanhuang Realm listened, enraptured.
Yet this act of his seemed to have thoroughly provoked Chuanfa's reverse scale.
The yellow crystals enveloping the entire Xuanhuang Realm suddenly suffered a violent impact.
As if countless explosive thunderbolts had erupted across the heavens,
the incomparably hard amber crystals abruptly cracked with a hairline fissure.
Mr. Bai paid it no mind whatsoever and continued his lesson without pause.
His voice seemed imbued with a peculiar magic capable of soothing the hearts and minds of the world.
Even though an endless rumble rained down from the highest heavens,
it still could not disturb the people from listening attentively to Mr. Bai's teaching.
After thoroughly imparting the method of establishing the foundation with oneself to the living beings of Xuanhuang, Mr. Bai did not stop.
Instead, he went on to expound upon the Dao path following the achievement of establishing the foundation with oneself:
the so-called Hunyuan Golden Core, Physical Nascent Soul, and Mind Soul Formation.
Mr. Bai also admitted frankly that these were merely deductions made in haste.
They might not be complete, containing numerous flaws,
and the path ceased at the Soul Formation stage.
As for methods of cultivation of higher realms that relied on no external objects under the new method's principles,
the cultivators would have to explore those on their own.
Faced with Mr. Bai's selfless teaching—which imparted a Dao path utterly contradictory to that of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable—
the cultivators of the world reacted with varying attitudes.
There were skeptics, there were those overcome with excitement, those lost in thought, those burning with ambition...
All the myriad ways of mortal beings, each different from the next.
Mr. Bai, however, paid it no mind.
Only after he had taught everything he had attained in full
did he fall silent.
His figure returned to its original size, and he looked up at the amber crystals on the verge of shattering completely.
Facing the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable's probable retaliation,
no sign of fear appeared on Mr. Bai's face.
He remained at ease, waiting quietly.
Right at that moment...
he suddenly sensed a figure hurrying toward him at top speed.
Aged, tottering and unsteady.
Yet the excitement brimming in his heart was beyond words.
"Mr. Bai..."
He flew up beside Mr. Bai, calling out with uncontrollable emotion.
The newcomer's appearance bore a striking resemblance to the current Mr. Bai, except his face was lined with deep wrinkles, showing who knew how many vicissitudes of time he had endured.
He carried a black coffin on his back, looking rather uncanny.
If Li Fan, or Qing and the others were here,
they would surely recognize at a glance that this old man was the Xu Ke of years past.
Seeing the resurrected Mr. Bai once more after so many years,
he ought to have been overcome with boundless joy.
And yet...
The moment he laid eyes on him, his expression turned bewildered.
Then, it turned utterly despondent: "You are not Mr. Bai..."
Xu Ke murmured, looking lost and crestfallen.
"Mr. Bai" looked at the old man before him, who was almost an exact duplicate of himself, and gently patted his shoulder.
"Indeed, I am not him."
"The dead are gone. How could someone who has completely fallen be resurrected so easily?"
"I am merely a trace he engraved and left behind in this world."
"In the terms of you cultivators,"
"it is also known as..."
"...the 'anima of Heaven and Earth.'"
Chapter 795