The young man returned from the front lines, bearing wounds upon his body.
Even though he had stepped into Yang Five and possessed peerless combat prowess, facing Returning to Nothingness had still left him injured.
"How is Sansheng?" the young man asked.
Ever since Sansheng had returned from Mount Origin, he had been in closed-door seclusion contemplating the path to Yang Six.
"He is still in seclusion," a Yang Three Realm Lord replied respectfully.
"Your Majesty, regarding the matter of Returning to Nothingness, should we inform His Majesty Sansheng?" the Realm Lord then asked.
Evidently, this was not a question he had thought to ask on his own; someone else had prompted him.
The young man frowned. "There is no need to tell Sansheng about this. With me presiding over the matter of Returning to Nothingness, he only needs to break beyond Yang Five."
He was making his stance clear.
He knew that because Sansheng had not chosen another Yang Six path atop Mount Origin to step into Yang Six, no small amount of gossip and idle chatter had arisen within their lineage.
After all, in the eyes of others, had Sansheng stepped into Yang Six, perhaps their lineage would not have been reduced to such dire straits when confronting Returning to Nothingness, forced to abandon so many of their territories.
Having said his piece, the young man spoke no further. He cast a glance toward the place of Sansheng's seclusion and turned to leave.
"Come here for a moment."
Right then, Sansheng's voice drifted out.
The young man's brow twitched, and he stepped into the secluded retreat.
Sansheng looked at the young man, his voice calm. "I intend to go to the Rebirth Realm."
Hearing this, the young man's expression changed slightly.
Yet he said nothing.
"The Rebirth Realm, as well as the Yin Realm, concern my Dao," Sansheng answered.
The young man took a deep breath.
Had it been anyone else, they likely would have already begun trying to dissuade Sansheng by now.
After all, the Rebirth Realm and the Yin Realm were not like the Yang Realm; they lay even further from the Dao.
Breaking through to Yang Six there would be an even greater extravagance of hope.
"I am here. Cultivate and break through with peace of mind," the young man said.
"Alright." Sansheng nodded.
After making a few simple arrangements, his figure vanished from sight in that very instant.
From that day forth, there was no longer a Sansheng in the Yang Realm.
In the Rebirth Realm, an additional Sansheng appeared.
***
"The path of Samsara must also be retraced within the Rebirth Realm."
The Sansheng who arrived in the Rebirth Realm was a brand-new Sansheng.
He began from the humblest beginnings, recultivating the Dao arts through Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Origin Core, Divine Infant... and ultimately stepped once more into the Yang Three realm.
"After Yang Three comes Yang Four, where the true spirit is extinguished, solidifying into rules."
Atop a great snow-capped mountain, a trace of melancholy surfaced in Sansheng's eyes.
"Yang Four... was it brought about by that person's failure?"
Sansheng recalled that atop Mount Origin, a Yang Six had once extended an invitation to him as well.
That Yang Six was named Dun.
This Dun derived from: *The Heavenly Dao numbers fifty, of which one escapes.*
Returning to Nothingness was the overarching tide, the exact opposite of life.
That Dun had used escape to counter Returning to Nothingness.
Only, his Dun was incomplete, just as Jing's Stillness had been incomplete.
"So under Dun's influence, all those at Yang Four across the world... lose their true spirits, existing only in the past and future, and can only exist in the present world when solidified into curious treasures?"
This had been Dun's method for countering Returning to Nothingness, and it was also Dun's Dao.
"The ultimate goal of all Daos is eternity.
"Yet Returning to Nothingness exists in the world, so confronting Returning to Nothingness has also become the ultimate terminus of Dao."
The so-called Returning to Nothingness was returning to zero, destruction, tribulation, madness, and oblivion.
All methods in the world that brought negativity, obliteration, and absolute eradication could be called Returning to Nothingness.
"The so-called Samsara means that even living beings obliterated by Returning to Nothingness may walk forth anew from within my Samsara."
So Sansheng thought.
His vision was wondrous.
Yet wanting to realize it was unimaginably difficult.
Destruction was forever easier than reconstruction.
Across this Yin Realm, Rebirth Realm, and Yang Realm, how many universes, how many dimensions, and how many grand realms existed?
Not to mention the cosmos beyond the Three Realms.
The powerhouses born there were countless.
The Great Dao... was likewise boundless and inexhaustible.
The various methods of obliteration were beyond measure.
Some methods were unfathomably mysterious, enacting absolute banishment, while others spared the true spirit or imposed imprisonment.
Anything that caused a living being distress, or granted them their desires while harboring malice beneath, could be deemed Returning to Nothingness.
Returning to Nothingness stood in opposition to eternity.
One could even say that a malicious eternity was itself a form of Returning to Nothingness.
The Returning to Nothingness manifesting across the Three Realms now descended mostly in the guise of destruction.
"Therefore... if I wish to attain the Dao through Samsara... I must comprehend... every Dao art, every path in the world... and walk each one to its highest peak."
Sansheng murmured.
It was precisely because of this that Jing had once said Sansheng was indulging in delusions.
There were simply too many methods of destruction; Returning to Nothingness encompassed everything.
The Daos of the world were beyond count.
One could even say that a single cell possessed its own unique Dao.
A rock or a barren planet possessed its own Dao as well.
He needed to understand them all, to be omniscient and omnipotent, before he could stand against Returning to Nothingness and truly allow living beings to walk forth from Samsara.
"I must enter Yang Four as well."
Without entering Yang Four, how could he understand Dun's path?
Although the Yang Six realm could discern all things in the world and see through the essence of Yang Four, that manner of seeing through, in Sansheng's view, was merely knowing the phenomenon without truly living it.
"I shall step into Yang Four in the Yin Realm."
With Sansheng's murmur, his form split into two.
One body entered the Yin Realm, while the other remained in the Rebirth Realm.
***
Many years later.
Within the Yin Realm, Sansheng wore a black robe, an obscure aura radiating from his person.
Behind him followed a group of powerhouses.
In terms of aura alone, every one of those powerhouses stood in the Yang Five realm.
Yet even as Yang Five existences, they wore looks of utmost respect before Sansheng, who was merely at Yang Three.
For Sansheng's talent was simply too sublime.
A few stray words from him could grant a powerhouse sudden enlightenment.
Moreover, though he was at Yang Three, his combat prowess was astonishingly formidable.
Facing Returning to Nothingness, he possessed numerous methods of resistance.
Thus, during his time in the Yin Realm, he had gathered countless followers.
"Your Majesty Sansheng, the path of Yang Four... is not an orthodox pursuit. With Your Majesty's talent and brilliance, you could step into Yang Five with a simple gesture," an elderly Yang Five powerhouse spoke up.
He had been stuck at the Yang Three realm for countless years.
In the end, it was only under Sansheng's guidance that he had broken through into Yang Five.
"Yang Five is not what I seek," Sansheng replied softly.
He had established a massive faction spanning endless space in the Yin Realm to gather the techniques of the world.
Yet the Yin Realm was simply too vast.
Perhaps none save for a Yang Six could ever traverse its entirety.
"This time, I shall enter Yang Four. If my true spirit revives one day... there will no longer be Returning to Nothingness in this world."
The Yang Five powerhouses behind him all looked at Sansheng with conflicted expressions.
After all, casting aside one's own true spirit and stepping into Yang Four merely to seek a sliver of hope for the true spirit's revival to confront Returning to Nothingness was something none of them could ever bring themselves to do.
Returning to Nothingness was formidable, but for now... it was still incapable of wiping out Yang Five powerhouses like them.
Even if worlds fell into ruin, the myriad realms of the heavens were vast beyond measure. By journeying elsewhere, they could still survive, eternal and undying.
"If my true spirit fails to revive..." A smile appeared on Sansheng's face. "Someone will eventually follow and surpass me."
As Sansheng's voice fell, his form dissolved into nothingness in that very instant.
His true spirit was extinguished.
At that moment, Sansheng felt powerful to the utmost extreme, capable even of wounding a Yang Six with a single sword strike.
Yet this extreme sublimation lasted for only a single instant.
Then his true spirit was entirely extinguished.
In the cosmos, only a crowd of powerhouses remained, gazing into the void before them with conflicted eyes.
***
Meanwhile, in the Rebirth Realm.
Sansheng's thoughts grew somewhat sluggish.
"Sure enough, even with the method I devised to split my true spirit and step into the Yang Four realm, I am still affected."
Now, Sansheng's true spirit was clouded and dim.
It was as though a layer of dust had settled over a lamp.
"Sleep."
To deal with such problems, Sansheng chose to sleep.
After an untold number of years, Sansheng woke once more.
Suddenly, he raised his arm, his eyes calm.
"Was I bitten?"
Upon his arm, a distinct row of teeth marks had appeared.
Evidently, while he had been asleep, someone had tried to gnaw on him.
He paid it no mind.
Having awakened this time, his comprehension of the myriad Daos had grown even deeper.
Only...
He opened his jade slip, from which numerous messages transmitted.
"Sansheng, the Void Battle Domain has been swallowed by Returning to Nothingness."
"The Yang Tian Realm is gone."
"More and more living beings are migrating to the Ancestral Domain; strife breaks out in the Ancestral Domain every single day."
During the time he had spent slumbering, Returning to Nothingness had run increasingly rampant.
Across the Yin Realm, Rebirth Realm, and Yang Realm, Returning to Nothingness grew ever more prevalent.
All things were being reduced to illusion.
"A thousand autumns in a grand dream. I never expected... the aftereffects of Yang Four's true spirit extinguishment would last for so many years," Sansheng sighed with emotion.
In the present Yang Realm, aside from the powerhouses of his own lineage and a few old monsters, perhaps... no one remembered him anymore.
The newly born Yang Five powerhouses knew nothing of him either.
"The more I know, the more I realize how far I am from Samsara."
Sansheng sighed.
The Samsara he pursued was even more complex than the omniscience and omnipotence of Yang Six.
One could say it was a single person... setting himself against everything in existence.
"Samsara... Samsara."
This became Sansheng's obsession.
In the time that followed, he slowly traversed the Rebirth Realm alone.
He also caught sight of the creature that had once left teeth marks on his arm.
He did not hold it against the creature.
He continued gathering the methods of the world, contemplating and observing Returning to Nothingness.
Yet at regular intervals, news would arrive from the Yang Realm.
"The Wind Realm has been consumed by Returning to Nothingness."
"This time, the living beings of an entire universe could not be evacuated in time and fell completely to Returning to Nothingness."
"Sansheng, you were nurtured by the offerings of myriad races! Along the Path of Origin, this old man escorted you, suffering severe wounds that took ten trillion years to heal. Now that Returning to Nothingness attacks, why do you not return to protect the clans?"
"Could it be that other paths to Yang Six are not Yang Six?"
More and more idle gossip and reproach came pouring in.
Sansheng's resolve in pursuing the Dao never wavered.
"Without achieving Samsara, how can one counter Returning to Nothingness?"
Yet many years later, a girl came weeping before Sansheng, her expression filled with bitter grief.
"Your Majesty Sansheng, His Majesty Shenren... while resisting Returning to Nothingness, his true spirit... was extinguished, leaving behind only a single wisp of thought."
The so-called Shenren was that young man, Sansheng's junior brother.
After so many years, Returning to Nothingness had become increasingly terrifying. Even a Yang Five could perish within it.
"His true spirit extinguished, leaving only a single thought?" Sansheng murmured, his expression complex. "Where is that thought?"
"That wisp of thought... refused to see Your Majesty," the girl wept as she spoke.
The extinguishment of the true spirit meant absolute demise.
That single wisp of thought was nothing more than the last lingering breath of a powerhouse.
His junior brother's last breath... refused to see him.
Sansheng sat motionless beneath a great tree for seven days, his demeanor bleak and desolate.
"I understand.
"The closer I draw to Samsara, the more I understand that I am further from it.
"If I cannot enter Samsara, then let there be Cycle."
At this moment, Sansheng no longer clung to his obsession of walking the path of Samsara alone.
"Cycle first, then Samsara."
Sansheng's voice was calm.
Yet he understood.
After stepping into Cycle, he might draw infinitely close to Samsara, but... he would have no chance to truly touch Samsara.
At this moment, Sansheng entered Yang Five.
From that day forth, Yang Five was the Dao Lord, and the mortal realm entered the Cycle.
Chapter 621