They had watched Huang Tian, in a single thought, kill Minghe and the other Daluo beings outright. The Daluo of the Honghuang Realm were shaken to the heart, at once afraid and glad.
Their fear was simple. If he could kill Patriarch Minghe and the others with one thought, then killing them would take no effort at all.
Their joy was this: with strength like Huang Tian's, it was all but certain he had attained what lay above Daluo. That was the realm they had thirsted after through countless yuanhui, and now, at last, they saw someone who had attained it.
Outside Zhonghuang Yuanji Heaven, Yuanshi Heavenly King, Emperor Xi, Jieyin, and the others exchanged a glance. All of them revealed their forms, flew into Zhonghuang Yuanji Heaven, descended among the mountains, and stood reverently before Huang Tian.
"Fellow Daoist—Senior, have you already attained what lies above Daluo?"
Huang Tian looked at the Daluo Supreme Saints, smiled, and nodded. "You could say so."
At those words, every one of them was astonished and overjoyed. The next moment they bowed down in a rush. Some even wept.
"We beg Senior to pity the hardship of our paths, and to expound the Great Dao a little for us in our ignorance. The grace of teaching the Dao—we will not dare forget it—"
Whoever had cultivated to Daluo, whatever their character, was bound to have a firm heart for seeking the Dao. Now the Great Dao stood before them. How could they fail to seize every chance they had? This might be their only chance to glimpse what lay above Daluo.
Miss it, and who knew how many yuanhui would pass, or how many cycles of birth and extinction the Sea of Chaos would turn through, before they met it again.
How hard it was to seek the Dao!
Daluo was hard. Above Daluo was harder still, subtle beyond all measure.
Hearing the plea of Yuanshi Heavenly King and the others, Huang Tian did not refuse. He had never minded others learning his Dao. All along his own road, he too had learned from the Daos of others before drawing out of them something that belonged to him alone. And he was willing to teach the Dao—yet not for the Daluo alone. Still more, he would speak it for the endless living beings of the Sea of Chaos.
The Dao, though, was profound and hard to fathom. Even if he held nothing back, among those endless beings there might still be none who could comprehend it.
A hum. His will stirred.
Huang Tian sat majestic above the nine heavens. About him there was neither sun nor moon, yet he shed light of himself, shining through the worlds of the ten directions. He spoke, and his voice was like the sound of a great gorge, deep and far, impossible to exhaust.
"I have attained the Dao and gained the True. I pity the myriad spirits of this Chaos, rising and sinking in illusion, like shadows, like foam. Therefore I pass down the true dharma. If even one among the endless living beings should glimpse the truth of the Dao, that too may count as a karmic affinity."
The Daluo were overjoyed. Quite a few wept for joy and stamped and danced where they stood. All at once they felt they had lost composure, and hurriedly bowed down again, crying, "Thank you, Teacher, for transmitting the dharma," and the like.
Elsewhere, the benighted beings of the endless worlds in the Sea of Chaos were cowed by the blaze of Huang Tian's voice and the vast dimness of his form. Taking him for an immortal or a god, all of them trembled in shock, their joy beyond words.
Huang Tian said, "The world in which we dwell—is it cloud? Is it shadow? It is as when the Great Void gives rise to a phantom veil, and within the veil mountains and rivers appear of themselves. Though the mountains and rivers are false, the veil too has its principle. Yet if one stops at taking the shadows in the veil for real, one is bound by shadow in the end. To shed this veil, one must seek the true light."
Before the words were finished, ripples rose in the void. At first they were like a breeze blowing across water; then they gradually spread and curled. At the heart of every ring a golden lotus welled up. Petal opened upon petal. Look closely, though, and there were gaps within the lotus, and in the gaps a faint glimmer flickered, as if about to scatter and not yet scattered. The lotus was no true lotus. It was knotted together of empty shadows. The light was no true light. It was what living beings falsely took for real.
Huang Tian spoke again. "You look upon this lotus and call it unreal? Yet the unreal still has its image, and the image still has its use. It is like eating a jujube in a dream. Wake, and there is no jujube—but who was it that knew the sweetness in the dream? Though the sweetness has no substance, the one who knew the sweetness has never been absent."
By now the golden lotuses opened ever thicker, filling the void. Lotus crossed light with lotus, and within the light heaven and earth appeared again. There were worlds where sun and moon ran their courses, worlds of birth, destruction, and turning, worlds where immortals expounded the dharma, worlds where a boy herded an ox. Yet amid the flowing light and shadow, cracks could faintly be seen, like a mirror about to break, like clouds about to scatter.
"The realm in which we dwell is made of a great illusion. It is the Illusory Realm. Mountains, rivers, and the great earth; grasses, trees, insects, and fish; sun, moon, and stars—all are formed from the shifting light and shadow of the True Realm. Yet within the light and shadow there is one spirit that stays lucid. One who clings to light and shadow falls into a stubborn void. One who is blind to light and shadow is lost to annihilation. Only one who can see light and shadow as light and shadow—this is called seeing the True."
The multitudes who heard it were all bewildered.
Even the Daluo Supreme Saints were some awakened and some lost. Some gathered their spirits and looked inward, as if they had seen something. Some gazed about in a daze and saw only layer upon layer of lotus shadows, not knowing which was real.
"If, within this Illusory Realm, one can realize the word 'True,' one enters what lies above Daluo. Then one may behold that single True Realm. The True Realm is not far. It lies in the turning of a single thought. The Great Dao is not high. It is your original face."
The voice grew remote. The light withdrew. Only a lingering sound remained, like wind crossing the Great Void. Dim and deep, there was an essence within it. Hazy and uncertain, there was a thing within it. Truth and illusion melted together, and the Dao followed what was naturally so.
Even as he preached the Dao to countless beings, Huang Tian split off a mote of soul light and sent it along the voice line from just now.
"Whoosh—"
It was as if wind sounded at his ear. His soul had already pierced this Sea of Chaos, as if passing through a bubble, a stretch of illusion. Once he left this Sea of Chaos, boundless light shone upon him at once. That light came from none other than the True Realm, across a distance no one could reckon.
The True Realm spilled its radiance abroad. In the play of light and shadow, it cast forth one Illusory Realm after another. These Illusory Realms were like its projections, and so each of them held a portion of the True Realm's rules, yet never completely.
Bathed in the light of the True Realm, Huang Tian felt only an extreme warmth, and went on "ascending" upward.
The nearer he drew to the True Realm, the more he felt a brilliance past all measure, a riot of strange light.
Pfft—
At a certain moment he finally passed through the True Realm's birth-membrane and entered it. Following the voice line, he tore off madly in one direction.
Countless universes, vast rivers of stars, magnificent nebulae—until he saw a blue planet. He had no time at all to look closely. He only caught a vague glimpse, outside the planet, of a point of silver light flickering, and then he plunged into the planet with a crash.
Zip!
Just then, that point of silver light shot to a place above the blue planet and stopped short. It revealed itself as a silver-white spaceship.
The hatch slid open without a sound. A man and a woman came out. They looked much like humans, save that they were quite tall, a little over three meters, and wore garments that flowed like water.
"I didn't expect there would still be an undiscovered civilized planet here." The man released his mental force and swept the planet below in an instant, clicking his tongue. "Very primitive. The technology is far too backward. And they haven't even set foot on the path of the extraordinary."
The woman looked at him. "Fan Ya, what are you planning?"
The man named Fan Ya smiled. "What am I planning? To remodel it while we're at it, of course. Tell me—if we remake this planet to a script, what kind would the players love? The rise of the cavern-dwellers, a world-ending flood, a meteor strike, an absolute killing ground—
"Or we simply destroy the civilization, keep a small remnant of the people, and send them back to the remote antiquity and the high antiquity recorded in their histories, to walk the road of civilization all over again.
"Along the way, the players can play the guides of a rising civilization, or the ones who start the wars—iron cavalry sweeping every direction, enjoying the pleasures of princes, nobles, generals, and ministers."
The woman shook her head. "You've forgotten. Planet No. 056 is already an ancient-dynasty instance. If you make another one now, isn't that a repeat? The players won't buy it. We have to grasp what the market wants. Galaxy Coins are what we're after."
Fan Ya's brows drew together slightly. "Then what do you say we should do with this planet? It can't be an earthquake apocalypse too. That's the instance already set for Planet No. 097, which we're about to head to."
The woman pondered for a moment. "I remember that in Shenwu, the second-largest virtual game in the Galactic Empire, quite a few players want to experience a story of source-energy resurgence, monsters rising, and a struggle against humankind. We could try making one."
"Sounds all right." Fan Ya thought it over, and his eyes grew brighter and brighter. "The main feature of this instance would be savoring human civilization's hard fight to survive and rise.
"I can almost see it. Warriors and martial artists in their millions, tempered in blood and fire, striving all their lives for civilization and for home and country, even giving up their lives!
"How tragic and heroic—how moving!
"Ha! Not bad, not bad. Miao Sha, that's a fine idea!"
Miao Sha smiled. "Actually, if this were only a virtual game, the players might not be able to sink into it. The false is always false. However high the simulation's fidelity, they know everything is illusory, so they never feel it very strongly as their own.
"The many Paradise Worlds our company builds are different. The players know the people they kill are real, and that everything they go through is real. Naturally they sink in deep, and feel it as their own lives."
Her gaze fell on the blue planet, and the corner of her mouth lifted. "On this planet, for instance, they can play the monsters and kill humans, or play geniuses among humankind and fight for the civilization's survival and rise!"
Fan Ya said with a broad smile, "I think this Paradise instance will bring us a handsome profit."
As he spoke, he took a blue crystal from his person and tossed it. Wrapped in source power, the crystal fell in an instant into the blue sea on the planet.
"One energy-gathering crystal can gather the source energy out in space and make the source energy on this planet ever richer. But it still isn't enough. Source energy alone can't change the face of the whole planet in a short time. In one year our Paradise game is to open its servers in a single launch. There's no time to keep waiting."
He thought a moment, then took out a crystalline bottle.
Seeing it, Miao Sha clicked her tongue. "Star-Purifying Dew. That isn't cheap. You can actually bear to use it?"
Fan Ya rolled his eyes at her. "This gets reimbursed once we're back at the company. I'm hardly going to spend my own money on company business."
"I know. It was only a joke." Miao Sha laughed.
Fan Ya had nothing to say to that. He opened the bottle at once, wrapped the Star-Purifying Dew flowing out of it in source power, and scattered it down over the planet below. At once the Star-Purifying Dew became countless crystalline points of light, drifting thickly down over every part of the globe.
When the dew was scattered clean, Fan Ya put the bottle away and sent his voice by mental force. The next second, a middle-aged man with two horns on his head flew out from the spaceship and stood deferentially at his side.
"Master!"
Fan Ya gave a slight nod. "Xiu Miluo, for the coming year you will hold this planet. Monitor everything, and act as the situation requires. Remember, don't let the rising monsters kill all the humans. Mm. Four-fifths may die. The rest must be kept."
Xiu Miluo answered respectfully. "Understood, Master!"
"And if the humans turn around and drive the monsters back step by step?" Miao Sha suddenly thought of it. "Every civilization, pushed to a desperate pass, always produces a few stunning talents."
Fan Ya laughed. "They won't. It's only a year. How strong can these natives get? Stronger than Xiu Miluo? They won't break free of our control."
Miao Sha thought it over and nodded. "Blood and fire do temper people, but within a single year there really isn't much need to worry about anything unexpected. However gifted they are, they can't grow fast enough to defeat Xiu Miluo.
"As for after a year, there's even less to worry about. The company will send a Paradise Oversight Team to take station outside the planet. With them there, any sudden turn can be kept in hand. If some strong one really springs up among these natives, we seize them outright and sell them to the interstellar slave market. That'll fetch some money too."
Fan Ya laughed aloud. "You think just as I do! The weak stay on the planet forever for the Paradise World, giving the players plenty of pleasure. The strong get seized and sold. Either way, we profit.
"Then again, if not for my remodeling of this planet, they might not set foot on the path of the extraordinary even after another few centuries. They wouldn't even be qualified to be slaves! I really am too kind!"
After the laugh, he waved a hand. From the rear cabin of the silver-white spaceship, a small gray spaceship flew out.
"Xiu Miluo, there's an intermediate-grade intelligent brain on this ship. Its technology isn't especially high, but it's enough to help you monitor the whole planet. The ship is also fitted with the proper weapons, in case something unexpected happens. Lastly, if there's anything special, contact me anytime through the virtual world."
"Understood, Master!" Xiu Miluo answered at once.
"Mm."
Fan Ya took one last look at the blue planet below and smiled faintly. "Ignorant natives, enjoy your blood and fire."
With that, he turned and flew back into the silver-white spaceship. Miao Sha followed close behind. The hatch closed without a sound. The ship gave a slight tremor, then swiftly sped off and vanished.
Xiu Miluo went into the gray spaceship and gave an order. The ship spread a sheet of flowing light, then quickly passed through the atmosphere and came down among the mountains. The whole process was silent. No one discovered it.
"Yun'an, invade the network on this planet, take it over, and monitor the whole world." Xiu Miluo gave the order to the intelligent brain.
"Okay!"
The intelligent brain Yun'an set to work at once—
"Huang Tian, why have you been dozing through class all day? I saw several of the teachers looking none too pleased. Watch out, or they'll call your parents."
A voice came at his ear. Huang Tian blinked, sat up from where he had been lying face-down, and looked toward the sound. It was Li Guanglin, who shared his desk.
"Don't tell me you stayed up reading novels and playing games?" Li Guanglin said quietly. "I brought my phone too. But we're in our last year of high school now, and I've forced myself to hold back. One hour of games a day at most. You have to hold back too. The final assessment is what matters most. Once we graduate and get to university, play however you like."
Huang Tian smiled. "I've got it. Don't worry."
"Good, then." Li Guanglin patted his shoulder. "Once the final assessment is over, we'll go to an internet cafe and battle for three days and three nights, and play till we—"
Before he could finish, a sharp cry suddenly rang out beyond the classroom. A huge bird swept across the sky in a flash, kicking up a howling gale.
The anomaly had begun!
Chapter 253