The vortex expanded, spinning rapidly until it nearly filled Ruan Yushu’s secluded meditation chamber, shifting from behind her to envelop her completely.
A profound and heavy aura of death emanated from within, intertwining with vibrant and vigorous life force. The two invoked a resonance with the heavens and earth, “composing” their own “themes,” simultaneously blending yet remaining distinct—an extraordinarily mysterious phenomenon.
The melody was exquisite, like celestial music descending from above. Ruan Yushu, her breath seemingly frozen, was momentarily stunned before forgetting all worries, sorrows, and even her own existence, entering a state of selflessness.
This melody could only belong to the “cosmos”—how rare it was to hear it even once in the mortal world!
Lost in rapture, her vision suddenly blurred as if she glimpsed a familiar figure flashing past, accompanied by the pitch-black despair of death, plunging into the surrounding vortex.
The vortex abruptly halted, then slowed its rotation, shrinking at an astonishing speed.
At that moment, Ruan Yushu felt a sudden sense of detachment—the void around her no longer felt real, as if she stood at the boundary of a dream, her connection to the external world hazy and uncertain.
The detachment vanished in an instant, but the vortex of life and death had already condensed into a colorless point, the melody of the Dao growing ever more ethereal.
Within the realm of the ancient Fusang tree, leaves resembling mulberry basked in golden flames. The Green Emperor stood atop it, his figure indistinct, his right hand hanging by his side flashing with a jade-green light before dissolving into mist.
The connection between Him and the “Book of Life and Death” He had forged was deftly severed.
“Is it Him?” The Green Emperor murmured, his gaze profound, a mix of speculation and doubt in his voice.
…
The colorless point vanished, and Ruan Yushu effortlessly ascended to the Earth Immortal realm. Moreover, she had heard the “Sound Near the Dao” born from the resonance of heaven and earth—a tremendous boon for her future cultivation.
Meanwhile, Meng Qi once again stepped into the “Origin of Life and Death,” where sight, sound, and divine sense remained useless.
The old patterns shattered like glass walls, receding like a tide, replaced by new perceptions connecting to the outside world—abstract descriptions flooding in: coldness, gloom, frigidity, darkness, silence, death, warmth, fervor, vitality, joy, light, life, and more. These triggered reactive changes in Meng Qi’s acupoints, flesh, and “internal organs.”
Beside Meng Qi, the enigmatic Emperor of Fengdu finally revealed his true form.
The most immediate impression He gave was of towering height—not the unimaginable vastness of Meng Qi’s Heaven-Earth Manifestation, but another kind of divine peculiarity. Standing no more than nine feet tall, He nonetheless loomed like an unending, weighty mountain range, evoking awe even in Meng Qi.
Clad in pitch-black full-body armor that concealed His head entirely, only His eyes were visible—deep and dark, embodying the most profound and eternal silence of death. Within them, a spark of life had evolved into pupils, hidden in the depths of darkness, maintaining a delicate balance with the surroundings.
His aura was restrained, unfathomable in depth.
Meng Qi narrowed his eyes, the Daoist Primordial Glass Lamp manifesting within them as he quietly sought to illuminate the crucial karmic ties of the Emperor of Fengdu, hoping to uncover the identity of the being behind Him.
The glass lamp swirled with black-and-white radiance, yet the Emperor of Fengdu remained shrouded in darkness, as if even His karmic connections had perished, making them impossible to discern!
“To deceive the illumination of the ‘Cause of All Effects’ through subtle means and superior realm—Emperor of Fengdu is indeed extraordinary…” Meng Qi sighed inwardly, withdrawing his gaze.
“Let us proceed deeper, toward the place near the Dao,” the Emperor of Fengdu intoned in a hoarse yet authoritative voice, His hands clasped behind His back, revealing neither malice nor goodwill.
Meng Qi nodded imperceptibly, trailing half a step behind as they flew toward the depths of his memory.
Along the way, Meng Qi maintained his method of alternating between tempering life and death to achieve balance and gradual improvement, while the Emperor of Fengdu traversed the abstract “death,” only occasionally dipping into “life.”
Neither spoke as they advanced in silence, maintaining considerable distance between them, each benefiting from the “Origin of Life and Death.”
On high alert, Meng Qi gradually felt his true spirit, thoughts, and innate radiance begin to be tainted by the “Dao of Life and Death,” involuntarily following their transformations and evolving toward their direction.
This was “assimilation by the Dao”!
His hands erupted with black-and-white radiance—yin and yang, death and life—forming two intertwined fish. Yet death did not conceal life, nor did life contain death.
The radiance descended, enveloping him. Relying on his “Yin-Yang Seal,” Meng Qi resisted the current level of “Dao assimilation.” Meanwhile, the Emperor of Fengdu showed no fluctuations in His aura, as if strolling leisurely.
After advancing further, Meng Qi summoned the dim and mysterious Primordial Cloud of the Supreme Ultimate from his mud pellet palace, from which strands of chaotic energy cascaded, once again isolating external influences and preserving his intellect. The Emperor of Fengdu remained unchanged, highlighting the disparity between them.
Following the Primordial Cloud came the Overlord’s Saber, and after it, the “Book of Life and Death” forged by the Green Emperor. It seemed Meng Qi could no longer afford to hold back, revealing all his means.
Suddenly, dark mist seeped from the seams of the Emperor of Fengdu’s armor, shrouding Him in further obscurity.
“Has He reached the limit of His realm, now forced to rely on divine abilities?” Meng Qi mused, his saber hanging low, lightning coursing like water.
Amid the boundless abstract concepts and increasingly dense descriptions, Meng Qi’s vision suddenly brightened—once more, he beheld the True Martial Emperor, clad in black imperial robes and a flat-topped crown. Unbeknownst to them, they had arrived before Him!
Compared to before, the True Martial Emperor’s state of neither life nor death was no longer balanced, slowly tilting toward life. The process, slow at first, would accelerate, accumulating disparity until it burst forth like a flood breaching a dam, completing the transformation in an instant.
“True Martial was indeed too greedy,” the Emperor of Fengdu remarked abruptly, a trace of lament in His tone—His first words since their journey began.
Meng Qi subtly increased the distance between them, feigning ignorance as he asked, “True Martial Emperor prepared the River of Forgetfulness as a contingency. His assimilation wasn’t due to greed.”
The Emperor of Fengdu stood firm as an immovable mountain, looking down at the seated True Martial Emperor as he calmly responded, “Those who seek the Other Shore carefully select their current path, shedding overly conflicting elements to refine their foundation and aid in the condensation of an illusory Dao Fruit. Take the Green Emperor, for instance—His four paths of wood, life, time, and space are not fundamentally incompatible.”
“Those who aspire to great heights—or, less generously, overextend themselves—strive to distill an illusory Dao fruit from two diametrically opposed paths, balancing yin and yang to forge their own Taiji. In doing so, when they later endeavor to master and refine the myriad Daos of the realms to perfect the nascent Dao fruit, their efforts will bear fruit twofold.”
As Meng Qi listened intently while maintaining vigilance, he suddenly realized why the Twelve Golden Immortals of the Jade Void lineage each cultivated only one or two of the Primordial Nine Seals—unlike himself, who practiced all nine alongside the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, seemingly striving to encompass all manifest Daos by the time he reached the Creation realm. Once he attained the Other Shore, aside from matters related to time, he would nearly possess a nascent Dao Fruit, bringing him close to the true, ineffable “Dao.”
No wonder “only when the Nine Seals unite does the Primordial One emerge.” Aside from a reckless fool like him, who in the Jade Void lineage would willingly increase their own difficulty?
Reflecting further, he considered the Golden Emperor, who cultivated the Primordial Chaos Seal and attained the Dao of Chaos. Her position among the Other Shore likely wasn’t the lowest…
“True Martial Emperor sought to establish his illusory Dao fruit upon the Dao of Life and Death, so was it his greed that led him too far astray?” Meng Qi asked.
The Emperor of Fengdu chuckled, though His tone betrayed no discernible emotion. “True Martial’s greed lay not in delving too deep—nearly causing his assimilation—nor in overreaching by choosing two conflicting paths as his foundation. Rather, after selecting the Dao of Life and Death, he left himself without means of self-protection for far too long!”
“Due to Hou Tu’s influence, reincarnation exists between heaven and earth. Among all conflicting Daos, life and death are the easiest to harmonize and form a Taiji. True Martial, as a primordial spirit, nurtured life through water and brought death by purging demons—hence his title of Demon-Subduing. Choosing life and death as his foundation was natural. Yet after selecting this coveted path, he dared risk assimilation to complete the crucial step of harmonization.”
“Humph! What use is a contingency? Not being of the Other Shore, how could his arrangements spanning eternity guarantee no mishaps? In fact, mishaps were inevitable. Countless mighty figures—perhaps even greater existences—wish to prevent him from leaving the Origin alive.”
Meng Qi was taken aback before sighing. “So one of your purposes in entering the Origin was to eliminate True Martial Emperor.”
The Emperor of Fengdu turned His gaze toward him, stating impassively, “The earlier words on greed apply to you as well. To refine part of the Origin, you dared follow me inside. What use are contingencies? What use is hiding Guangcheng, Manjusri, and others in your sleeve?”
Pausing, He added, “Pity you changed your mind and didn’t secretly bring them in. Otherwise, annihilating most of the Jade Void’s power in one battle would have been a great boon!”
The Emperor of Fengdu seemed intimately aware of Meng Qi’s preparations, and His confidence in wiping out the Jade Void’s elite was palpable!
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