The final calamity had arrived, and a hundred ships were racing in the torrent. There were countless games of intrigue, countless unavoidable entanglements, and matters spreading across eons. It was truly exhausting. Meng Qi wanted to escape all of this, cultivate peacefully, enjoy life, and avoid conflicts, facing the end and death calmly when the final moment came.
Yet, while he might wish for such peace, there was a lingering frustration in his heart, an unresolved bitterness. He longed to sever all these entanglements and escape the games of fate, to cut down the helpless version of himself who felt powerless.
At this moment, in this crisis, to not advance meant to retreat. He must rise to the challenge and fight for a tranquil sky.
His mind calmed, and his emotions settled. Meng Qi surveyed his surroundings, searching for any traces that Gu Xiaosang might have left behind.
She had risked great danger entering the Jade Void Palace. She couldn’t have come merely to glimpse the Chaos Green Lotus where Nezha slumbered, only to leave as if on a casual visit, could she?
After suspecting that Gu Xiaosang’s independent consciousness might have been the work of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, Meng Qi no longer found it surprising that she could penetrate deep into the Jade Void Palace. But why had she come?
The chaos was vast and silent, the lotus pond serene and pure. Meng Qi spent considerable effort, employing the Cause of All Effects, searching every hall and pavilion, yet found no trace of Gu Xiaosang. She seemed to have truly come only for a “visit.”
“Perhaps her entering the Jade Void Palace and viewing the Chaos Green Lotus itself is the clue,” Meng Qi mused as he sat cross-legged within the chaos, absorbing its essence to recover from the toll of his blood-renewing rebirth. He recalled Gu Xiaosang’s past actions, pondering their implications. “I am being watched by numerous Transcendent Beings, including the Golden Emperor. Accomplishing anything without their notice is extremely difficult. For example, coming to the Jade Void Palace to search for Xiaosang’s hidden plans undoubtedly invites interference and obstruction. Success is possible, but so is failure. Given Xiaosang’s cleverness and foresight, she would never rely on such uncertain arrangements, where a single misstep could lead to irreversible disaster.”
The reason he had chosen to come to the Jade Void Palace now, rather than waiting until he became a legend, was because the longer he delayed, the more unpredictable variables would arise. If another ten or twenty years passed, Transcendent Beings like the Eternal Mother might return. By then, even if he became a legendary being himself, his enemies would be Transcendents, and the gap between them would be far greater than the current one between Sha Wujing and himself. The advantage of terrain would be negligible, leaving no room for maneuver. Only a Transcendent could oppose a Transcendent.
As his thoughts turned, Meng Qi gradually grasped Gu Xiaosang’s intentions and plans:
“Her having entered the Jade Void Palace itself indicates she indeed has another hidden plan. Viewing the Chaos Green Lotus suggests that this plan is related to the Chaos Lotus Seed. However, the specific arrangement is not here. Therefore, no matter how the Eternal Mother and others try to sabotage, as long as they don’t destroy the Jade Void Palace itself, these two messages will surely reach me…” Meng Qi’s mood gradually improved.
The so-called hidden plan was simply the transmission of information!
Even without Zhao Qian’s Moonlight Mirror, after employing the Cause of All Effects and the Infinite Seal, he could still detect the subtle traces of Xiaosang’s presence near the Chaos Green Lotus, albeit not as directly.
“Another riddle-solving session. But to return undetected under the watchful eyes of the Transcendent Beings, such indirect and circuitous methods are truly necessary,” Meng Qi mused, a faint smile appearing on his face. Suddenly, his right hand shot out, while above his head, the Pangu Banner flew forth, merging with his palm.
Light flared, the chaos ruptured, and Meng Qi slashed open a new world. Then, using the Sleeve Containing Heaven and Earth, he carefully collected a portion of the chaos he had severed.
Though not pure, true chaos, it was still rare to encounter. At the very least, the preservation and cultivation of the Chaos Green Lotus Seed required chaos of this level.
Rising to his feet, Meng Qi stepped out of the lotus pond, preparing to return, his mind already turning to what he should do next:
“Taking advantage of the flaws I’ve identified and obstructing my resurrection of Xiaosang, the Eternal Mother successfully awakened Sha Wujing ahead of schedule without provoking an excessive reaction from other Transcendent Beings. Even though his power is diminished, the gap between a legendary being and a Celestial Immortal is vast. Even retaining just ten percent of his former strength, he would be formidable enough to sweep through the current world and accomplish many strategic goals. The Luo Sect will become a major threat to the Great Zhou Dynasty and the righteous path in the coming years, and for now, we can only avoid confronting them directly.”
“As for me, since I cannot oppose Sha Wujing, and the anomaly in the Endless Abyss Ocean still has some time before it fully manifests, my priority remains improving myself and striving to reach the Celestial Immortal stage as soon as possible, laying the foundation for my legendary status.”
“If I could obtain another ‘Primordial Projection’ like the previous Venerable Heaven, my Inner World would undergo a qualitative transformation, naturally advancing me to the Celestial Immortal level. However, aside from the fact that such a ‘Primordial Projection’ possesses strength rivaling a legend, with near-Transcendent power, without Han Guang’s cooperation, wielding the Demon-Subduing Whip would only make me a delivery boy for others. Moreover, to enhance myself, I would have to kill a projection that has gained consciousness—how would that be any different from the Demon Buddha, whom I despise?”
“Though this path is tempting, I shall not take it!”
Meng Qi’s gaze turned resolute as he considered other avenues for breakthroughs.
There were certainly ‘Primordial Projections’ without consciousness, but he didn’t know where to find them, and it wasn’t worth the risk to search blindly.
“Dao cultivation in martial arts becomes increasingly dependent on causality the higher one ascends. The Primordial Heavenly Venerable and Buddha both engaged—or once engaged—in ‘reduction.’ Though I am still in the ‘addition’ phase, could I accelerate my progress by resolving some karmic ties?”
“Minor karmic ties won’t have that effect, and major ones involve Transcendent Beings, which I cannot sever for now. They are not like the Demon Buddha, who was sealed away…”
As these thoughts floated through his mind, Meng Qi suddenly had an idea, inspired by something Sha Wujing had said: “Both the Fengshen and Journey to the West narratives were extracted, evolving into their own realms, thereby obscuring history. Yet, stories about them still circulate on Earth! Some are true, some false, but overall, they align with reality.”
“If the Demon Buddha deliberately let me know this, why would he bother altering many details to cover up the truth for the Primordial Heavenly Venerable and the Virtuous Heavenly Venerable?”
“This body originates from Earth. Without returning once, I will always feel incomplete, my mind often unsettled, my karmic ties unresolved.”
Suddenly, a strong desire to return surged within him, unstoppable. Where his heart longed to go, he would go without hesitation.
Return! Return! Return!
Perhaps completing this journey to Earth, resolving karmic ties, and achieving inner completeness would allow me to attain the Celestial Immortal stage.
But the problem was—how to return?
The multiverse contains more universes than grains of sand in a great river. Without reaching the legendary stage, it would be impossible to traverse them all. Who knows which universe Earth lies in? Even a legendary being, omnipresent though they might be, would still need clues to locate it.
As Meng Qi pondered how to find Earth, he considered that for someone like him, as long as he could find relevant connections and karmic ties, he could descend remotely. But with just this current body, it was still insufficient—like a thread with only one end.
“Earth-related karmic connections…” Meng Qi lightly furrowed his brow, recalling past events. Suddenly, an idea struck him. “When the Demon Buddha transported me from Earth into Su Zi Yuan’s body, the direct link to Earth still existed. It hadn’t yet been severed. If I could return to that moment and capture those karmic traces, things would become simple.”
As for how to return to that moment, Meng Qi already had a plan:
The Seven-Kill Stele!
As an unparalleled treasure, it certainly hadn’t been destroyed when two divine weapons self-destructed back then. Most likely, it had been reclaimed by the Black Mountain Elder (the Seven-Kill Daoist).
He would travel to the Black Mountain Elder’s world, seek out the Seven-Kill Daoist for the Seven-Kill Stele, and also pay a visit to Nan Gong Chong. With the plan set, Meng Qi left the Jade Void Palace and descended upon Qi territory, returning the Demon-Subduing Whip to Duke Huan of Qi and reclaiming the Multiversal Awareness Orb. As an aside, he also sent a Multiversal Awareness Talisman to Gongzi Yu across realms, settling an old karmic bond.
Then, he returned to his Jade Void Palace on Kunlun Mountain, walking to the edge of the lotus pond and gazing at the unopened lotus flowers.
“At the time, Xiaosang gave me that lotus seed—it must have been a hint about the Chaos Green Lotus Seed…”
After a long while, he flicked his sleeve, sending that fragment of chaos flying out, landing in the center of the pond, deep and dark, unfathomably profound.
As for the two Chaos Green Lotus Seeds, Meng Qi left one with his own spiritual imprint, establishing a connection. If both blood-renewing rebirth and projection substitution failed, he could still use it to reform his physical body. The other seed, he left untouched, to be used by someone else when needed.
The two lotus seeds flew into the chaos, quietly slumbering. Meng Qi closed his eyes, sensing them briefly, then his body suddenly vanished.
…
The cliff jutted into the clouds, hidden deep within surging “white waves,” its surroundings resembling a fairyland.
Sun Junlin, the former Left Minister of the Heaven Sect and now its current Sect Leader, suddenly felt a stirring in his heart. He stepped out of his retreat and saw a figure in a green robe standing at the cliff’s edge, exuding elegance and bearing the marks of time, gazing at the rolling clouds.
He was momentarily stunned, then exclaimed in surprise:
“Senior Elder!”
Wasn’t the sect’s Senior Elder Ji Wuliang supposed to have cultivated the Heaven Sect’s Grand Dao to the stage of “Heaven Already Established,” achieving a divine and demonic body, ascending to the heavens?
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