Companions of the Great Dao

In the Upper Realm, Great Axe was the first to strike. A Heavenly Venerable with no attachments, unburdened by the human race, and with no charge to defend—such an independent powerhouse was precisely what every faction dreaded most. ... Lower Realm. Su Yu took Wan Tiansheng and Lan Tian to find the researchers. When it came to research, the Multiple Divine Characters Department was actually quite adept. Because the department cultivated many divine characters, which was originally meant to prepare for the Brush Dao. The Brush Dao was considered one of the harder Great Daos, so those of the Multiple Divine Characters Department were naturally gifted and had decent comprehension of the Daos. However, there were not many powerhouses in the Multiple Divine Characters Department today. ... The Dead Spirit Realm. Zhenling Domain, Hetu's Kingdom—the region suppressed beneath the Old Turtle, which had previously been Hetu's territory. Bai Feng and the others were all here. Before Su Yu went to the Upper Realm last time, he had arranged for them to stay in the ancient city. Before Hongmeng left for the Tianyuan Realm, he moved them down into the Dead Spirit Realm below. Bai Feng and Wu Lan were quite weak, and their life qi was not abundant, so there was no worry of stirring up ripples in the River of Dead Spirits. With the Old Turtle's protective power defending them, they could also avoid being eroded by death qi. Origin Spirit Research Institute. No one knew which research institute this was for them by now; every time, they relocated quickly and switched research projects just as quickly. Inside the institute. Hetu was present, but not just Hetu—there were also several unfamiliar dead spirits. These were all students of King Wen from long ago. Some had only revived recently, while others had revived earlier but drifted elsewhere, retaining few memories. As Hetu and the others searched for them and provided enough dead spirit marks, they finally regained some memories. There were not many of them, only four. King Wen's informal students back then were far more than this. One only needed to look at the divine character battle techniques inside the Tombstone of Civilizations to know: back then, almost everyone who cultivated divine character battle techniques was King Wen's student, easily numbering in the hundreds if not thousands. Yet now, only four had been found, all of whom were formidable powerhouses. The weaker ones either had not revived or simply had not been summoned back. When Su Yu and his companions arrived, the group was discussing something in the research room. As Su Yu entered, everyone looked over together. Then, aside from Hetu walking up, the others paid them no attention. As Hetu walked over, Su Yu raised a hand, skipping any extensive pleasantries, and listened to the dead spirits arguing with Bai Feng and the others. "Bai Feng, you are too young! You haven't even comprehended a Great Dao. Do you even know what it means to fuse Daos?" "You are too naive! The Space Dao is all-encompassing, but it isn't the only one... Trying to use the Space Dao as the core and foundation to encompass all ten thousand Daos will never work!" "..." Several dead spirits were berating Bai Feng, their junior. The Multiple Divine Characters Department could be considered the inheritance of King Wen; by that calculation, Bai Feng was their descendant by an unknown number of generations. Having recovered much of their memory, even though they were dead, they still gave Bai Feng no face at all. A mere child—what the hell did he know? He hadn't even touched a Great Dao, yet he dared to spout nonsense! Bai Feng's face turned red with anger. "You are the ones who are ossified! Does research require one to personally touch all ten thousand Daos? Yes, it's a bit idealistic, but what I'm offering are theoretical analyses! I've outlined plenty of divine characters too. Theory is theory, and practice is practice!" "In my view, the Space Dao encompasses an immense amount of things. Does space relate to speed? Of course it does! Spatial transit inevitably involves speed. Space includes shifting, compression, velocity, slicing... All kinds of Daos are linked to the Space Dao! The places we inhabit are forms of space. Everywhere the Great Daos manifest is within space!" "Even the River of Time exists within a space!" "Whether it's the cosmos, spacetime, living spirits, or dead spirits—what doesn't exist within space?" "Even ethereal willpower, the power of Great Daos, and the power of rules—which of them isn't within space?" Bai Feng's face was flushed and his neck veins bulged. "Tell me, can the Space Dao serve as this foundational anchor to branch outward? If you have the ability, then propose a core foundation to branch into all ten thousand Daos! I'm merely presenting a theory. As for whether it's feasible, that requires people like Su Yu and Lan Tian, who gather all Daos, to test it..." Outside the door. Su Yu listened silently. His teacher's strength was indeed not great; even now, he had only just entered the Shanhai Realm. Shanhai... sounded so distant nowadays. Yet listening to Bai Feng's words, Su Yu suddenly found some sense in them. In theory, the Space Dao was indeed all-encompassing. What if the Space Dao were made the core Great Dao? Using it as the foundation, fusing the ten thousand Daos—perhaps it really could form a closed loop. Just as Su Yu was pondering, one of the dead spirits, likely a woman, spoke with disdain: "What you're saying is pure rubbish! Just because the Space Dao is all-encompassing doesn't mean it can serve as the core of a closed loop. You just want to take this Dao as the core and dump everything into one pot, don't you? If it were that simple, any powerhouse cultivating the Space Dao could unite all ten thousand Daos!" "That is completely unrealistic! The Space Dao is merely one of ten thousand Daos. It can serve as one of the cores for a closed loop, but it cannot be the sole core! Fusing all Daos requires gradual trial and error, connecting Daos one by one... You're trying to take a shortcut, and shortcuts will never work!" They were thoroughly dissatisfied with Bai Feng. Bai Feng's concept was to center on the Space Dao and throw the ten thousand Daos into one pot, stewing them all together. Stewing them into chaos! Did it make sense? It was fine for fooling laymen—no, even someone who wasn't quite a layman, like Su Yu, felt it made sense. Yet now, the female dead spirit was filled with utter contempt. Calling it an irresponsible speculation and theory, she said sharply, "This is no joke! Once a fusion goes wrong, the Dao collapses. A single Dao collapsing could cause all ten thousand Daos to shatter completely!" "It's just like the 360 origin apertures. They can form a complete closed loop, but only by connecting the corresponding apertures... And what about you? You're just taking all 360 apertures and stringing them together willy-nilly... Can that form a cultivation art? A Zhou Tian art? Impossible! If you connect them blindly, try it—it'd be a miracle if your apertures didn't explode!" "Young people always want shortcuts. Discovering a trivial scrap of something, they think they've mastered the Great Dao, utterly unaware of the heights of the heavens and depths of the earth..." "..." The two sides were arguing fiercely. Beside Su Yu, Hetu sent a voice transmission: "Emperor Yu, they've been arguing for days. Ever since they started working together, there's been an ideological divide!" "Bai Feng wants simplicity. Deriving and fusing ten thousand Daos slowly takes too much time and is far too difficult! In Fellow Daoist Li Yun's words, Bai Feng is swallowing without chewing. His single-Dao core is too crude. Weaving ten thousand Daos is like weaving a net of ten thousand strands; not a single misstep is allowed. It must be woven strand by strand..." Su Yu listened in silence. He understood Bai Feng's mindset. Did Bai Feng not know that weaving ten thousand Daos bit by bit was better? He knew! But Bai Feng also knew his student's situation: Su Yu needed speed. Weaving ten thousand Daos piece by piece was far too slow. Therefore, Bai Feng's idea was to lay a foundation first and sort things out gradually later, as long as the ten thousand Daos were roughly brought together. How long would it take to weave and fuse them one by one? Nobody could say for sure! With these thoughts in mind, Su Yu stepped inside. "Out!" One of the dead spirits barked in reprimand. Hetu's face darkened. "Impudent! This is His Majesty, Emperor Yu!" Su Yu waved his hand. In the room, the dead spirits all looked at him. They had never met Su Yu before; last time, Su Yu had merely issued orders through Hetu. The dead spirits looked at one another, briefly unsure of what to do. Su Yu did not dwell on formalities and said directly, "Seniors, I am Bai Feng's student, Su Yu. Let me ask first: if the ten thousand Daos are fused slowly, purely from a theoretical standpoint, how long would it take to form a closed loop?" The dead spirits exchanged glances. Seeing that Su Yu cut straight to the point without mentioning anything else, they stopped agonizing over etiquette. The female dead spirit said briskly, "From what we can see, the Chaos Dao is mixed with an enormous amount of Dao power. Exactly how much, we haven't analyzed yet. People say 'ten thousand Daos'... but no one knows if there are truly ten thousand. Based on current findings, there are likely no fewer than 3,000 Great Daos!" The female dead spirit continued, "With 3,000 Great Daos, there is no need to test fusing every single one. Daos that clearly have no relation need not be tested; Dao fusion has its own logic... Back then, when we dismantled the Brush Dao into ninety-nine types of Dao power, that was essentially a form of Dao fusion. Can you understand what I'm saying?" She worried Su Yu wouldn't understand. Su Yu nodded. "I understand. Every cultivation art or Great Dao has special rules, such as the symmetry of apertures, or the uniqueness of aperture connections... According to Senior's estimate, how long would it take to complete the fusion?" "To fuse one Great Dao... about three days!" "For 3,000 Daos, even without rest, it would take at least 9,000 days—around thirty years!" The female dead spirit showed a smile. "And that is assuming you can provide Dao power, various kinds of Dao power! Furthermore, I received a set of materials earlier: the component ratios of some Chaos Daos, the proportions of various Daos within them... That information helped us immensely. Otherwise, forget thirty years, even three hundred or three thousand years would be difficult! Whoever could analyze so many component ratios is truly a powerhouse, a genius..." She looked at Su Yu and the others. "Could you introduce us to the researcher who analyzed those Dao ratios? We would like to communicate in person..." At least thirty years! And that was the timeline given after Su Yu and his companions had already analyzed the Chaos Dao. Su Yu frowned slightly and said promptly, "Too slow! Furthermore, the earlier analysis of the Chaos Dao was done jointly by me, Lan Tian, and Mansion Master Wan. We all cultivate Daos that combine all Daos, which is how we could analyze some of the ratios..." He looked at the group. "Seniors, I know that in research, you strive for perfection, but... I don't have time!" "I plan to open a Dao—a Dao of unifying all Daos!" "I must complete it as soon as possible. Perhaps... I have only half a month." "..." The dead spirits were dumbfounded. How long? Half a month? What a joke! Even Bai Feng was shaken and exclaimed, "Don't joke around! Even my 'one-pot stew' couldn't be done in half a month. That still requires the Daos not to repel one another and testing them one by one. Even if it doesn't take thirty years, three to five years is the bare minimum. Are you kidding me?!" Half a month? Get out of here! It was impossible. The dead spirits also grew annoyed. "This is impossible! Half a month... fusing all Daos? How could that be? Even if Master King Wen were here, he couldn't accomplish that!" Su Yu nodded. "I know, and I am not entirely ignorant myself." Su Yu explained, "Here is the situation. I will delve deep into the River of Time. Between the power of the River of Time and the power of Chaos, one represents the ten thousand Daos after being combed through, and the other represents them before. I will compare them, match them, and make a record. For now, the general idea is to reference the ratios of the River of Time..." "That still won't work!" The female dead spirit shook her head. "A Great Dao isn't something you can just look at and grasp. Let me ask you: have you mastered the ten thousand Daos?" "No!" Su Yu shook his head. "I have a superficial understanding of a hundred or so Daos. As for mastering ten thousand... my involvement is simply too shallow, and I haven't had the time or energy to delve into them... Of course, I have outlined several thousand virtual Daos, just for simple foundational comprehension..." In truth, he had used the pages of the civilization chronicle to siphon a bit of power. For each of those Daos, Su Yu possessed a simple, shallow understanding, nothing profound. Even so, the dead spirits were slightly shaken. The female dead spirit hesitated. "You are the successor who mastered the Brush Dao?" Su Yu nodded. "Yes, I was the one who fused the Brush Dao previously!" "No wonder! Then you truly are an unmatched genius. The Brush Dao was dismantled by us into the power of a hundred Daos. For you to inherit the Brush Dao means you have at least understood and comprehended a hundred Daos, outlining them into divine characters before the Brush Dao came to be..." Now, the dead spirits no longer treated Su Yu as a layman. To fuse the Brush Dao and outline a hundred divine characters meant Su Yu wielded the power of at least a hundred Daos. A monstrous talent! The female dead spirit was no longer as aggressive. She said gravely, "Half a month is too short. Why must you rush like this?" Su Yu explained, "The current situation changes by the day. In the Upper Realm, the Prison King lineage, the mortal enemy of King Wen, has risen! Not to mention the threat of the myriad races, here in the Lower Realm, the Hundred Battles King is about to return... The Hundred Battles King... might not share our lineage! He occupies the Physical Body Dao and may be connected to the Human Ancestor!" "The conflict across the myriad realms has grown increasingly severe. It is no longer a simple struggle for unification, but a Dao contention!" Yes, Dao contention! At this moment, Su Yu spoke the phrase aloud. Even without hearing King Wen's words, he still voiced the term 'Dao contention.' Su Yu said gravely, "Although I haven't inherited the full lineage of the ancient Human Sovereign or King Wen, the foundation of my Dao comes from them! Put it this way: the Prison King lineage may now represent the Dao lineage of the Chaos Era, the Hundred Battles King may represent the Primordial Era, and I... most likely represent the Ancient Era!" "Yet my strength is too weak, and my faction is too weak!" "If I don't open my Dao now and wait thirty years... that's impossible. By then, I might already be annihilated!" There were things he had not mentioned before, but now he shared them with the dead spirits. They were unfamiliar with him, and precisely because they were unfamiliar and were King Wen's students, Su Yu spoke openly. Su Yu was not standing entirely on his own. He was indeed considered an inheritor of the ancient lineage! Of course, King Dazhou and the others, standing at the base of the mountain, might not have seen through it, or rather, had not seen through the true nature of the Hundred Battles King. Yet Su Yu had his suspicions: the Hundred Battles King did not represent the ancient lineage, but was the inheritor of the primordial lineage. Now, the divide could no longer simply be drawn between humans and the myriad races. It was a clash of Dao lineages! The Prison King's betrayal, his lineage blocking the emergence of King Wen's successor—all of it likely stemmed from representing different factions and eras. The Prison King likely represented the Chaos Era! Su Yu had deduced this himself after Marquis Tongtian mentioned the matter of the portals. "Dao contention!" The expressions of the dead spirits shifted slightly. The female dead spirit remarked with surprise, "Dao contention... This... does young friend mean that the Daos and lineages of different eras are emerging to restore the rule and laws of their respective eras?" Su Yu nodded. "It's possible! I suspect—merely suspect—that multiple eras: Chaos, Heaven Opening, Primordial, and Ancient, are beginning to converge. Moving forward, the myriad realms will undoubtedly descend into chaos!" Saying this, Su Yu added in a low voice, "The geniuses and powerhouses of every era may all gather here!" At those words, even Wan Tiansheng and Lan Tian changed color. What did that mean? Paying them no mind, Su Yu continued, "Those who vanished, went missing, or fell... the powerhouses of every period may walk out from somewhere, stepping forth from their seals. This era... may see them all flow together!" He did not know if his guess was true. However, the portals... the portals sealing the eras had appeared! The Human Sovereign was to return, and King Wen and the others might return as well. Everything could happen. Therefore, Su Yu had to open his Dao as quickly as possible! He could not afford to wait! At this moment, perhaps only he understood this. Perhaps the Hundred Battles King or someone in the Chaos clan understood as well, but whether the myriad races knew remained uncertain. Although the female dead spirit did not understand everything, she grasped the gist of Su Yu's meaning: urgency, absolute urgency! Yet no matter how urgent it was, fusing ten thousand Daos was no simple matter. Her brow was furrowed tightly, and the other three dead spirits beside her were equally distressed. Difficult! Far too difficult. The timeframe Su Yu gave was simply too short. Su Yu spoke again: "From now on, I, Lan Tian, and Mansion Master Wan Tiansheng will all cooperate with everyone!" "I know how difficult this is, but I have an idea. Hear me out..." Everyone looked at him. Su Yu said in a heavy voice, "It's like this: the path of cultivation can be taken step by step. Just like opening apertures, I can open one first, then a second. It doesn't mean I must open all 720 apertures all at once!" "I've been thinking about what Dao to use as a starting point. For instance, the Space Dao my teacher suggested. I could start with the Space Dao, perfecting it as I open it, opening one Dao and fusing one Dao, until a closed loop is formed, completing the cultivation and opening of the entire Great Dao!" Hearing this, even Bai Feng couldn't help saying, "That's... far too dangerous! The margin for error is even lower than my one-pot stew!" Su Yu nodded. "That's why every time a Dao is opened, it requires precise calculations from all of you! Once this Dao is opened, what comes next? After opening that, the one after that might need to take into account the fusion of the entire closed loop!" "Once an error occurs with one of the Daos, that Dao may have to be scrapped and restarted from scratch—constant trial and error!" Su Yu said calmly, "I am prepared for this. We skip the testing phase and start directly on me; I will be the test subject!" Bearing all the risks himself. Perhaps after opening 2,999 Daos, he might suddenly discover that the second Dao was wrong and shouldn't have been ordered that way. Scrapping the second Dao might render the thousands of Daos that followed useless, requiring everything to begin anew. That would be a catastrophic disaster. At this moment, even the dead spirits were shaken. Doing it this way carried extreme danger and could easily go disastrously wrong. Furthermore, if halfway through they discovered that the foundation of the earlier Daos was flawed, it would render Su Yu's Dao completely ruined, forcing him to start over from scratch. "Your name is Su Yu, right?" The female dead spirit spoke gravely, "If you choose this path, you can indeed skip many steps to achieve Dao fusion! We could even begin right away. In fifteen days, using one Dao as a starting point, we can deduce the fusion of dozens or hundreds of subsequent Daos for you. However, we cannot guarantee it will be correct—we don't dare guarantee it!" "Although we know something about the Daos, our knowledge is far too shallow." "Moreover, regarding this initial Dao: what Dao you choose is also up to you to weigh... Any Dao could perhaps serve as a starting point, but the starting Dao will bear the greatest pressure and requires immense Dao comprehension. It will likely also serve as the core of your Dao..." She spoke incessantly. Su Yu's demands were too high, and his timeframe was too tight. She felt reluctant. "Give us thirty years... No, we'll strive to deduce a complete closed-loop Dao for you within twenty years! Doing a trial run can effectively avoid many troubles without putting you through hell... Twenty years isn't that long; it's already beyond imagination. Su Yu, what do you think?" She offered to shorten the time for Su Yu because, as an inheritor of the Brush Dao, Su Yu was strictly speaking King Wen's direct successor. If he ruined his Dao in cultivation, the suffering would be excruciating. Even if he didn't die, it would be an enormous disaster. Su Yu smiled. "How long do you think... I have left to live?" The dead spirits looked at him, and the next moment, their expressions shifted. Su Yu... didn't have much lifespan left! His death qi was about to overwhelm his life qi! The female dead spirit couldn't help saying, "This... why don't you cultivate the Brush Dao first? Strengthen the Brush Dao and strive to reach the Ruler of Rules realm within twenty years. That way, you can extend your lifespan." Su Yu shook his head. "Twenty years? There's no time! Even if I truly mastered the Brush Dao completely within twenty years, by then, it might already be too late for everything! The Brush Dao is powerful, but at a time when all eras converge, the Brush Dao... is not enough to reverse anything!" The dead spirits exchanged looks. This Su Yu possessed immense ambition—or rather, a grand vision and lofty sight. He believed that even if he mastered the Brush Dao, he wouldn't be able to participate in the monumental events ahead. Opening the ten thousand Daos... At this point, Bai Feng spoke up: "Let's do as Su Yu says! With one Dao as the foundation, we'll do our best to deduce the subsequent fusions, sort their order, and try to organize the sequence of hundreds or even thousands of Daos within fifteen days." "However, Su Yu, you must give us a baseline. Exactly what Dao will you start with?" He looked at Su Yu and said solemnly, "What Dao is used as the foundation might not be important, or it might be critical. Think it through." Su Yu smiled. "Teacher suggested the Space Dao earlier... The Space Dao is actually the Yu Dao. 'Above, below, and the four cardinal directions are Yu'—Yu is space! I've considered it, and no matter what, I'll take Yu as the foundation of my Dao!" He exhaled. "In cosmos civilization, Yu is the beginning and Zhou is the end! Civilizations weave through it—the civilization of ten thousand Daos, the civilization of the myriad races... Since I forged the Cosmos Civilization Chronicle, I have long been prepared and had these thoughts! Space in all directions is Yu; it is the Space Dao, yet not entirely the Space Dao. My name is Su Yu... so Yu shall be the beginning!" Hearing this, everyone wore peculiar looks. Su Yu hadn't deliberated endlessly. He had decided on the spot! Yu as the beginning! Beside him, Lan Tian was no longer laughing and joking. With a solemn expression, he said, "Yu and Zhou as the two closing points? The Yu Dao is fine, but what about the Zhou Dao? Yu is space, Zhou is time. As for the Time Dao, you and Tiansheng both said before that time is unique... Are you going to break that concept? If so, what you said before becomes a joke!" He had no objection to the Yu Dao as the beginning. But taking the Zhou Dao as the end seemed like a massive problem to him. It could result in Su Yu being unable to close the loop of the ten thousand Daos in the end, unable to twist them into a single rope, leaving Su Yu's Dao riddled with flaws—or even collapsing completely. Weaving the civilizations of the myriad races and the ten thousand Daos through it was a good idea, with no issue. Su Yu smiled. "Time is unique; I have always maintained that! However, I want to establish my own ten thousand Daos, establish my own world. As a Heaven Opener, the beginning of time in the heaven I open will be held in my hands! When I say the heaven and earth first opened, that is when they opened... When I make heaven and earth return to chaos, they will return to chaos... That is the Zhou Dao!" "Time is in my hands!" Su Yu's civilization chronicle hovered into the air, and the four large characters for Cosmos Civilization appeared on the cover forged from the Great Dao diagram. At this moment, Su Yu was filled with fighting spirit. "My Dao is like this; it was destined from the start! The Lord of Dead Spirits opened the Dead Spirit Dao, and the Human Sovereign opened the Responsibility Dao... Not me. I will open the Cosmos Civilization Dao!" "If one mixes in their own will and inclinations, such a Dao becomes too limited. For example, the Dead Spirit Dao is only suited for dead spirits; that is not what I seek... Even if I fail, I want to cast aside my personal biases and simply open a pure Dao of Heaven and Earth!" "The Human Sovereign's Dao is the same, full of restrictions and responsibility... Being responsible for the human race makes for an undoubtedly powerful Dao, but it carries far too heavy a burden!" "Therefore, it should center on me as much as possible rather than outsiders... Cosmos civilization, running from beginning to end!" The next moment, the character 'Yu' floated into the air. Space rippled. Yu stood for above, below, and the four directions—the breadth of heaven and earth. It was the Space Dao, and yet... not entirely! Su Yu's character 'Yu' was actually a combination of several Daos. Su Yu said again, "Yu is heaven and earth. Heaven and earth have life and death, yin and yang, five elements, qi, and earth. Rising qi becomes heaven, sinking qi becomes earth... These are all Daos that must be fused next!" "Everything that forms the foundation of Yu must be counted, deduced, and fused... Fifteen days is enough!" Su Yu chuckled. "I only look at the present, not the future. The future cannot be grasped. If I truly fail in the future and cannot close my Dao... then let me be a failed Heaven Opener!" "In the future, leaving behind a text saying, 'Emperor Yu opened a Dao, only to fall mid-path'... that sounds like a rather good legend too!" Everyone felt heavy-hearted. Wan Tiansheng took a deep breath. "We'll follow Su Yu's lead: take Yu as the foundation! Next, we'll run more tests and do simple trials. During this half month, Lan Tian, you and I will test various Dao powers! And to the seniors... you are all geniuses in research. We entrust the calculations to you. Deducing Daos is tremendously troublesome, and it is not our specialty." The four dead spirits nodded. An elderly male dead spirit spoke for the first time, his voice low: "It would be best to test with some virtual Daos! But Su Yu's Daos are needed to open his own Dao and cannot be tested lightly..." He pondered and said, "Is there another way to acquire some virtual Daos for simple fusion trials? That would be much safer!" Virtual Daos... pseudo-daos... Qi Rong! Su Yu's eyes flickered. Qi Rong was also an expert in researching Great Daos. Hongmeng had already mentioned that Qi Rong and Fat Ball had gone to retrieve some pseudo-daos. Should he bring Qi Rong into this as well? To research together! At this moment, every extra person meant extra strength. With that thought, Su Yu nodded. "I will go find someone immediately. Do you seniors need anything else?" "Yes!" The elderly dead spirit said quickly, "Divine characters, a large quantity of divine characters! Divine characters are the embryonic forms of rule Daos; we need divine characters to conduct experiments! Also, we need various kinds of Dao powers..." Su Yu laughed. "I have that. The civilization chronicle still has over a thousand pages buried within the Great Dao. Although the power drawn isn't vast, it's enough for now!" Beside them, Bai Feng said gravely, "Don't you still have a Time Book? Bring it out and use it! I suggest using the Time Book as a test subject. Even though the Time Book is stronger than your civilization chronicle, the civilization chronicle is your Dao-proving weapon. The Time Book... is fine to use for experiments!" "The Time Book?" The dead spirits glanced at each other, as if they had heard of it. Just as Su Yu was about to speak, Lan Tian laughed. "Why make it so troublesome? I'll go fetch the Heaven Hunting Ranking. Besides... don't forget, I cultivate the Common People Dao of uniting all Daos. Just use me for the tests!" He chuckled. "I know every Dao! Most Daos possessed by the myriad races, I know; even if I don't, I can learn or devour them immediately! The Heaven Hunting Ranking is also a Dao weapon of the Common People Dao... There's no need to waste the Time Book. If the Heaven Hunting Ranking is ruined, so be it; it's just defective scrap forged by King Wen anyway." The dead spirits looked at Lan Tian once more. Do you know that was forged by our master?! Those words were truly asking for a beating! Su Yu frowned slightly. "Your clones have all exploded, and you only have this single body left. If you slice your sea of will again, I worry you'll slice yourself to death!" Lan Tian chuckled. "It's fine. I'll take another walk down my Common People Dao to absorb Dao power. I actually recover very quickly!" If you treat me like a hero of the state, I shall repay you as one! Fusing Daos, fusing with Lan Tian, was more convenient than anything else. If his clones blew up again, his strength would inevitably suffer, and his mind might even become disordered, creating flaws in his Dao. But what of it? This era was mad to begin with. Even if I go mad, I still remember that I am Lan Tian! That was enough! Here is my fellow Daoist, who helped me open my Dao. "Fellow Daoist Su wishes to open a Dao, and it should be a powerful one! You helped me open my Dao back then; naturally, I can help you open yours!" Lan Tian beamed with smiles. "No need to say more. I'll go retrieve the Heaven Hunting Ranking... Liu Hong, that fellow, should come out of seclusion as well! 'If a man hears the Dao in the morning, he may die in the evening without regret!' Fellow Daoist, since you have clarified your Dao, you must advance without looking back!" Lan Tian's smile grew even brighter. "Even if you die, you won't lose out. Don't people like us spend our lives seeking the Dao? Being able to witness the Dao you opened—whether good or bad—is a form of success in itself!" "If you truly fall, fellow Daoist, it will still be enough to be remembered by all..." Su Yu laughed despite himself. "Crow's mouth!" "This is called preparing for the worst!" Lan Tian chuckled. "If you fail to prove your Dao, fellow Daoist, at least you won't suffer later. Bowing out at the peak—what a fine conclusion!" At that moment, Su Yu laughed, and Lan Tian laughed too. Beside them, Wan Tiansheng smiled as well. Across from them, Bai Feng sighed inwardly. This student of mine... is truly different from before. The next moment, Bai Feng regained his composure and said, "You lot, stop spouting such depressing nonsense! Su Yu, go prepare the things we need. Right now, immediately, we will begin locking down the foundation point and matching Daos to minimize the risk as much as possible!" Su Yu nodded. Without another word, he vanished in an instant. He hadn't even had the chance to ask what these dead spirits were called. Of course, no one cared anyway. Researchers didn't need to concern themselves with such things, so long as their concepts aligned. Lan Tian also vanished swiftly; he needed to find Liu Hong and retrieve the Heaven Hunting Ranking. Wan Tiansheng thought for a moment, then looked toward Hetu: "Fellow Daoist Hetu, I need some help from you." Hetu was puzzled. Wan Tiansheng said gravely, "It's awkward for Su Yu to ask, so I'll say it directly! Taking the Yu Dao as his foundation inevitably encompasses life and death. The Death Dao is also one of the Daos he must outline early on! Midway through opening his Dao, he may comprehend the Death Great Dao, transforming from life to death and stepping into the realm of dead spirits! When that time comes, I hope you can provide Su Yu with some of your insights from transforming from life to death back then..." Hetu's expression changed slightly. Wan Tiansheng nodded. "Yes, I need you to recover your full memories, including your insights during that instant between life and death! I have had similar experiences, but mine were not pure enough. Whether Su Yu succeeds in opening his Dao this time, the transition between life and death is a critical link... He didn't mention it, probably intending to prepare it himself, but I hope you can offer some support." In the instant between life and death lay great terror. Hetu might not be willing to recall that moment, and Su Yu had not mentioned it at all. Yet Wan Tiansheng brought it up anyway. Hetu fell silent for a while, then nodded. "Fine. Over the next few days, I'll prepare as well. The moment of my death back then... I saw an abyss... I don't really want to remember it, but... I hope Emperor Yu succeeds in opening his Dao!" He was likely the very first powerhouse to transform directly from a living person into a dead spirit. Wan Tiansheng bowed. "Thank you, Fellow Daoist!" "Mansion Master Wan is too polite!" Hetu looked at him and sighed. Fellow Daoists... companions on the path of cultivation. Su Yu's cultivation was not lonely; at the very least, there were people willing to sacrifice for him. The dead spirits looked at one another with complex emotions. In a lifetime of cultivation, perhaps what everyone desired most was a group of like-minded friends.