The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion divided cultivation into nine realms.
Body Tempering, Bone Tempering, and Meridian Tempering were the Lower Three Realms, known as the Body Realm.
Iron Body, Soul Condensation, and Body Integration were the Middle Three Realms, known as the Soul Realm.
Grandmaster, Origin, and Transcendent were the Upper Three Realms, known as the Dao Entry Realm.
Crossing the lower and middle six realms to reach the threshold of the Dao Realm in just over two short years—a feat countless practitioners failed to accomplish in a lifetime—seemed entirely unreal for even the greatest genius.
Even the current Prime Minister, Xu Yinhe, had required five full years just to reach Body Integration.
His Majesty the Emperor had taken six years.
Xu Changge had taken seven.
Surpassing the cultivation speed of these peerless prodigies stirred no superfluous sentiment in Xu Yuan.
In his life, he had never played on easy mode.
He had trodden on thin ice for years, step by step; reaching this realm was what he deserved.
Every advancement had come through his own relentless toil.
Every breakthrough defying time had been bought by burning through his own lifespan.
And now, this bid to breach the Dao Realm was an opportunity won by throwing himself into death to claw back toward life.
As the black-and-white ink rhythms washed continually over his body, Xu Yuan’s perception of the world turned clear and translucent.
Dao cleansing had begun.
This was a term recorded in ancient texts.
Breaking through from Body Integration to Grandmaster was not simply a matter of comprehending a Dao charm; a cultivator also had to hold fast to their true heart amid the baptism of Dao charms, allowing those wisps latent between heaven and earth to be claimed as their own.
Compared to the near-zero risk of breakthroughs across the lower and middle six realms, the difference of a hair’s breadth during Dao cleansing was often the gulf between life and death.
Countless cultivators had perished in this trial, and their deaths took a thousand forms depending on the nature of the Dao charm.
A gentler form, like the Charm of the Bewitching Spirit, would let a cultivator sink blissfully into illusion until they died.
A violent one, like a flame Dao charm, would reduce the cultivator to watching their own body burn to ash from the inside out the moment they failed to withstand the baptism.
Thus, unless a cultivator had pushed their comprehension of a Dao charm to its absolute pinnacle, ordinary practitioners advancing from Body Integration to Grandmaster would seek out an undisturbed quiet room in deep mountains.
Xu Yuan dared to make his breakthrough so openly before all these saints because the Dao he was comprehending was none other than life and death.
He was already in a state of death, breaking through toward life—so what talk could there be of perishing and having his Dao extinguished?
Standing on the black-and-white dividing line where ink blended, perched atop the boundary of life and death, Xu Yuan gradually began to perceive the boundless deathly aura pervading Zhenxi Prefectural City.
It was the wailing of tens of thousands of living souls as they perished.
It was the breeding ground for yin ghosts.
Death had become visible to his eyes.
Unfortunately, before he had time to further sense the deaths of the myriad living beings in the city, someone stepped forward to interrupt his Dao cleansing.
Mu Nuo struck.
This was no arena bout, much less a duel governed by martial etiquette; it was a battle of survival that would decide both their existences.
Having confirmed that he could not manipulate Xu Yuan, Mu Nuo chose the simplest, most brutish method: he raised a hand and clenched his fist.
A torrent of qi dynamic surged toward Xu Yuan from all directions. The absolute disparity in raw strength pulverized the brocade-robed youth at the center of the ink rhythms into dust in an instant.
Yet unexpectedly, the moment Xu Yuan’s flesh was annihilated, his calm voice sounded beside Mu Nuo’s ear once more:
“As an entity that successfully crossed from death to life, this young master thought you would understand that a person who is already dead has no concept of dying.”
Amidst his words,
Within that swirl of ink rhythms, the figure of the brocade-robed youth coalesced anew. His eyes were eerie to behold.
His left pupil swirled with blood-red mist, while his right eye was filled with ominous darkness.
He looked at the creature and smiled.
“If you want to kill me, you’ll have to wait until I come back to life first—just as I did to you before.
“To bring about your death, I had to grant you life first.”
Mu Nuo furrowed his brow in silence for a moment before grinning. “Are you claiming you let me devour you on purpose?”
Xu Yuan pondered seriously, then gave a faint smile.
“Inside the blood cocoon, I truly could have devoured you, but calling it deliberate isn't quite right.
“Your choice posed an unsolvable dilemma for me. If I devoured you, my own existence would have perished as well, turning me into a monster that shared life with you—a monster perpetually wandering the boundary between life and death.
“So within that cocoon, I had to let you win.”
Hearing this, Mu Nuo grasped the fellow's line of thought instantly. He narrowed his clear, watery eyes.
“Xu Changtian, you truly are a lunatic.
“Yet you've forgotten one thing.
“Right now, you are nothing more than a parasite. You don’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as my existence!”
Xu Yuan gave a noncommittal shrug.
The world was inherently unfair; indeed, he could not compare to Mu Nuo.
Mu Nuo could exist forever in a state of death, whereas he required the aid of Mu Nuo's domain of the living and the dead to manifest in the mortal world.
With these thoughts drifting through his mind,
Xu Yuan spoke in an unhurried drawl:
“You’re right. My presence here truly does depend on you. So long as you end your own life before I reverse death into life, I will vanish from this world along with you forever.”
At this point,
A smirk of contempt curled Xu Yuan’s lips.
“So, are you going to commit suicide now? Do you dare?”
“...” Mu Nuo fell silent.
“If you don't dare, then stand aside and watch.”
The moment his words fell,
The black-and-white ink rhythms embodying life and death expanded outward.
The death filling the city grew even clearer in Xu Yuan’s sight, and he began to see the things hidden beneath the black haze formed by thousands of deaths.
Soul imprints.
The proof left behind in the mortal world by those departed lives.
Things once invisible were now laid bare before his eyes.
Xu Yuan even had a sensation that, if he wished, he could reach out and touch the traces within these soul imprints to inspect the stories held in the hearts of the deceased.
The Dao cleansing did not last long; it soon approached its conclusion.
In a daze,
Xu Yuan saw a river.
Upon an endless wasteland, a river rushed toward the edge of the world.
Countless soul imprints bobbed and sank within its currents. He stood on the riverbank, pitch blackness at his back.
Boundless might hidden in the dark converged toward him, but his gaze remained fixed on the glowing aura overflowing with rich life across the river.
At that moment, Xu Yuan realized something.
This Dao cleansing had only just begun.
Life and death were not isolated; they were a complementary pair of Dao charms.
Hesitating for only a moment,
Xu Yuan took a step toward the opposite bank.
This step proved extraordinarily arduous.
The moment he raised his foot, the boundless darkness behind him transformed into countless silk strands that wrapped around his body, violently dragging him backward.
Reversing death toward life was no feat meant for mortals.
In that instant, Xu Yuan sensed the Dao charms swirling around his body dispersing rapidly.
Any Dao charm between heaven and earth was excruciatingly difficult to perceive. Once the Dao charms of life and death fully scattered, his breakthrough would halt right then and there, leaving him able to comprehend only the Dao of Death.
Yet Xu Yuan’s current state was utterly unique. So long as he remained standing on this threshold between life and death, the Dao charms of life and death were inexhaustible.
One step...
Two steps...
Ten steps...
Xu Yuan stood upon the shoal representing life, feeling the pulsing vitality within arm's reach.
Now, taking just one more step forward onto the bank would conclude the Dao cleansing, reversing death into life and allowing him to break through to the Grandmaster Realm with the Dao charms of life and death.
Yet he halted right on that dividing line.
It was not enough.
Xu Yuan was a very greedy person.
Having stepped onto the board by sacrificing his life, how could his ambition stop at a mere Grandmaster cultivation?
Just as his Prime Minister father had once said:
The Body Integration realm was a cultivator's first fundamental metamorphosis, the crossroads for myriad cultivation paths, and a realm brimming with boundless potential.
In this realm,
One could temper oneself with source qi to the absolute limit and vaporize the body into qi; one could temper oneself with the intent soul to reshape the physical form into a semi-soul construct; one could even temper oneself through sacred arts.
Countless choices yielded countless paths.
And among these paths of tempering,
Scouring the flesh with Dao charms was naturally included.
Of the three realms of Dao Entry,
A Grandmaster mastered Dao charms and could integrate them into arts.
Origin fused the Dao into the flesh, imbuing every action and gesture with Dao charms.
Transcendent manifested Dao charms externally, materializing them into the mortal realm.
Standing at this fork in the road, Xu Yuan suddenly understood something.
Damn it all.
No wonder that insufferable poser Xu Changge had been impossible to beat even when suppressing his realm below Xu Yuan’s.
Cultivation could be suppressed, but Dao charms could not.
With that thought,
Xu Yuan manipulated the endless Dao charms of life and death to temper his flesh, shaking his head with an amused smile.
None of that mattered anymore.
After this battle,
The days of taking a thrashing from Xu Changge would be a thing of the past.
Origin Realm?
No, no, no.
His greed would never be satisfied with that.
He,
Would break straight into the Transcendent Realm right here and now!
***
“The outcome is decided.”
Waves of turbulent source qi surged in rolling billows.
Standing atop the magnificent ghost city,
The golden-eyed girl in the black gown curled her lips into a faint smile and turned around gracefully:
“It’s time for us to leave.”
Having weathered such extreme emotional turbulence, Tianyan did not clamor to charge forward and help this time. Instead, she asked softly:
[...Why?]
Tianye offered a flippant, smiling retort:
“You want to stay here?”
[...] Tianyan fell silent.
Her silence did not stop Tianye from knowing her thoughts. She smiled.
“I suggest you save whatever you want to say for your next meeting. We have done everything we can, and it is time for a timely exit.”
As she spoke,
The girl’s golden eyes met the gaze Mu Nuo cast their way, her look deep and brooding.
“If you linger here, that brat will target you as a hostage to hold over him. While I can protect you, he certainly wouldn't want to watch you burn through your life again.”
[Is that so...]
Hearing her words, Tianyan felt an inexplicable trace of reluctance, though not because she was leaving.
Spurred by certain emotions buried deep in her heart, she suddenly asked:
[Did you guess his plan from the very beginning?]
Tianye paused for an instant at the question, an odd look flickering across her face. Then, her eyes curved into crescents as she uttered two words:
“Obviously?”
After a brief pause, she continued:
“From beginning to end, I only said he died; I never said he would fail, because I know far too well what kind of madman he is.
“You should have known that too, yet you refused to trust him.”
The moment she finished speaking,
Tianye noticed the body instinctively clench its fist.
It seemed those words had struck a nerve.
Yet Tianye felt no pity for the loser; her words cut straight to the quick:
“Let me tell you the truth. The reason he didn’t even glance at you before he died wasn’t that he didn’t care about you; it was because he knew I was here.
“He knew I understood him, and he knew I would stop you from rushing forward to throw your life away.
“Even my desire to leave now has reasons you haven't considered.
“Tianyan,
“if our order of appearance hadn't been backwards, I can't imagine what right you would have had to stand beside him with me.”
Her breathing quickened. Fighting back the sour ache spreading through her heart, Tianyan asked:
[...Did you not worry about him? Not even once?]
“How could I not have?”
Tianye disdained lying. Looking askance at the man standing amid the black-and-white ink rhythms, she offered a gentle, elegant smile. “It’s just that I don’t let care breed chaos.”
[...]
Amidst the setting sun over the vast desert, the woman’s silhouette remained frail and solitary.
After standing in silence for a fleeting breath,
Accompanied by a swirl of wind and sand, the young woman vanished from the ghost city...
***
When Xu Yuan woke again, the sun had already sunk into the west, and a brilliant, boundless sea of stars hung high in the heavens.
Only half a quarter of an hour has passed...?
Feeling the surging power flooding his body, Xu Yuan cast his gaze around him, his eyes narrowing involuntarily.
Mu Nuo had not simply waited for him to wake.
During this half a quarter of an hour, battle had erupted in the city on what must have been an enormous scale.
If a third of the city had been turned into a ghost city before his breakthrough, now the domain of the living and the dead blanketed nearly the entirety of Zhenxi Prefectural City.
While he had been asleep, Mu Nuo had launched an assault on the prefecture.
His gaze swept rapidly across the scene.
The city defense formations were almost entirely demolished.
Although the prefectural yamen remained intact, rolling rumbles echoed continuously from its direction.
Looking up,
He saw two Dao domains illuminating the firmament above the yamen.
Xu Yuan made out the figures within.
Si Zijing, Li Junwu, Linlang, and...
Mu Xingchen?
The eldest young master of the Mu Family Chamber of Commerce, Mu Xingyi’s elder brother—that heavily wounded Transcendent cultivator who possessed a magic-suppressing Dao domain.
With that thought,
Xu Yuan suddenly realized something.
Where is Tianye?
Noticing that their aura had vanished, Xu Yuan breathed an unconscious sigh of relief.
Though Tianye was like a poisonous datura flower—alluring, beautiful, yet perilous and lethal—there were times when he truly needed someone who understood him so well.
Having confirmed this, Xu Yuan prepared to flash over, but before he could move, he felt a majestic, sovereign gaze descend from the heavens.
He looked up.
His eyes met a pair of dragon eyes.
Framed against the brilliant stars, the White Emperor hung suspended high in the void, gazing serenely down upon everything below.
Meeting his gaze for an instant,
The White Emperor gave him a calm nod,
Signaling that he would not intervene for the time being.
Seeing this,
Xu Yuan remained silent for a moment, cupped his hands in a formal bow, and vanished on the spot...
***
The clash at the prefectural yamen seemed to have reached its twilight.
In silence,
One of the only two remaining Dao domains shattered.
Si Zijing, having lost both arms, coughed up mouthfuls of blood and collapsed in a pool of gore, staring weakly up at the starry sky with breath as faint as gossamer.
Not far away lay Huang Shiwei’s lifeless corpse.
Having revealed its true form, the completely hairless Linlang was pinned firmly in place by countless colossal stone tablets, raspy whimpers of agony catching in its throat.
Having remedied his innate flaws, Mu Nuo had taken less than half a quarter of an hour to thoroughly raze the city defense formations and beat all the experts on the Zhenxi side—save for Li Junwu—into critical, dying states.
Looking down upon the wounded assembly, Mu Nuo stared at the coir-raincoat-clad middle-aged man who still held the front line, as well as the Dao domain beside him where no qi could penetrate, and sighed:
“Uncle, out of respect for your past care toward Father, I do not wish to kill you...”
“As if you could definitely kill him.”
A slightly frail woman's voice abruptly cut Mu Nuo off. Li Junwu walked to the front of the group gripping her halberd, leveling its blade through the air toward the long-haired youth suspended aloft, killing intent flashing in her pitch-black eyes.
“Damned brat, you went through all this trouble just to use this lady’s life to threaten Changtian, didn’t you?”
Mu Nuo cast his gaze upon the armored woman, his tone indifferent:
“That is the sole value that earns you permission to live.”
“In that case, come and try,” Li Junwu murmured, her pale lips trembling faintly.
Mu Nuo stared at her for a moment, disdain surfacing on his face.
“If you fear death, why force an air of composure? I won't truly kill you.”
Hearing this,
Li Junwu glanced in the direction where that fellow lay dormant, pursing her lips into a complicated smile.
“It’s just that I still have things left unsaid, so... I don’t want to die here just like this. But thinking about it, I suppose it doesn’t really matter anymore.”
Drawing upon Linlang’s saint origin through the stone tablets as the beast howled in agony, Mu Nuo spoke without a ripple of emotion:
“Fearing death or simply not wanting to die—what difference is there between the two?
“No matter.
“You are merely a bonus meant for dealing with him. Killing you and then resurrecting you to torment will serve just as well...”
Pfft—!
Before his words could finish,
A palm thrust through Mu Nuo’s chest from behind without warning. A figure previously concealed within the shadows of death slowly materialized at his back.
Mu Nuo turned his head, casting his eyes sideways at him.
Xu Yuan’s gaze swept over the brutal carnage below. When it brushed past Huang Shiwei’s dead body, his pupils contracted violently.
After a heartbeat of silence,
Xu Yuan’s voice rang out, heavy with suppressed fury, every syllable weighed with malice:
“Mu Nuo,
“in just this little bit of time, you’ve done quite a lot of ‘good deeds’.
“You want to fight? I’ll keep you company.”
Chapter 690