Chapter 504 |
“Enter briefly?”
Randolph repeated the words. He couldn’t understand what Fenghun was thinking — how foolish and arrogant would a mage have to be to obey him and step into a formation that even a fool could see was problematic?
“This place is far from the Immortal Realm.”
Randolph shook his head. “No need. When Daoyuan Heavenly Sovereign ascends, we will arrive naturally.”
Fenghun’s smile seemed like a spell of blessing fixed on his face; it did not change at all. “Very well. But since you come from afar, our hospitality may be lacking—please pardon us.”
After all, he was a ninth-tier life; inviting the mages into the formation was merely a casual probe. Since the mages refused, he did not press or resort to crude provocation. He made a light remark and withdrew. The portal, however, remained exactly as it was.
A few True Spirit Mages had already performed a preliminary analysis of the Zhou Tian Star Array / Celestial Constellation Array . Their wisdom was great: though they did not know much about Immortal Dao, analyzing energy nodes was no problem.
When Randolph returned to the starship, Maxison said, “Its primary function is confinement. Its killing power is not a great threat to us. Besides, before that Daoyuan fellow reveals his true aim, trapping us makes no sense — it would only provoke our counterattack.”
Nehem said, “Temporarily grant me the starship’s highest authority. I will write the Dark-Realm algorithm into the ship’s core program. Randolph, I’ll need your help.”
Nehem continued, “Either way we have to travel outside the Immortal Realm. At that moment, even if the Zhou Tian Star Array traps us the instant Daoyuan ascends, the Dark-Realm algorithm can buy us a sliver of time. With that flaw we can blast open the confinement.”
— — —
“They won’t come in.” In Daoyuan’s Immortal Hall, Fenghun reported to the gathered Heavenly Sovereigns.
Daoyuan was not surprised. He projected himself onto others; if he had been in that situation, he too would never willingly walk into such a trap. Still, he paid it no mind. Inviting the mages inside had never been intended as anything more than a test. As Maxison had said, the moment of ascension was near; inviting a set of terrifying enemies ahead of time would be foolish.
“What about the Primordial Demons?” Daoyuan’s true body sat cross-legged within the hall, eyes closed. He exuded a weird fusion of deathly stillness and etherealness — he was taking his final breath adjustments.
A Heavenly Sovereign replied, “They’re about to reach the Immortal Realm. However, that True Spirit Mage seems to have killed Hanxu and Xuanwei.”
Fenghun dismissed it lightly. “No matter. They were dispensable. Their greatest use was to wound the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign, then notify the demons to act.”
That cold remark drew no surprise; quotas were limited. Six Primordial Demons and six Heavenly Sovereigns — that was the limit and the necessity. None feared being sent out and sacrificed.
Daoyuan asked, “Any movement from the Primordial Immortal Hall?”
“No abnormalities. Not only that, the Heavenly Dao and Reincarnation show no signs of disorder. That one there… seems resigned to his fate.”
— — —
“They’ve come.” In the Primordial Immortal Hall, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign opened his eyes and told Wanxiang, who sat by his side, “You did very well.”
Wanxiang seemed for a moment not to expect the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign to speak to her. For more than a year since she had entered the Primordial Immortal Hall, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign had controlled and confined her, forbidding her from sending messages outward and answering none of her questions.
She turned her head and said dryly, “What?”
The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign smiled slightly — a smile unlike his usual aloofness and indifference. It dispersed the lofty fog that had long surrounded him and, for the first time, revealed something of his true self to Wanxiang.
“The Great Yǎn number is fifty; its use is forty-nine. Do you know this?”
Wanxiang stared at this strangely familiar stranger for a moment, then nodded. “I do.”
“The path of the mages and our path are both called the Dao. We do not seek deep understanding to harmonize with the Dao. The mages pursue origins to their source, tracing back — great and all-encompassing — all within the Heavenly Dao, beneath the Great Way.” The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign rose from the center of the seal. Countless black-and-white threads wound around his feet, clear and fragile as if about to snap.
Wanxiang was certain those sealing threads had not looked like this before. She could not help pointing at the Sovereign’s feet.
“My path derives from True Demon; your paths derive from me. Grasp the ancient way to govern the present — that is the shortcut.”
Wanxiang looked at the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign in bewilderment. A shortcut? But had not the immortal world’s countless generations walked exactly this road for ages? The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign had transcended tribulation and passed down the Heavenly Dao; later generations, including later Heavenly Sovereigns, had all sought this Heavenly Dao. Was that not their goal?
“Those who learn from me live; those who merely resemble me die — do you understand?”
Wanxiang felt as though struck by thunder. She recalled herself and the innumerable living beings of the Immortal Realm who had cultivated through endless ages — wasn’t this precisely it? Everyone strove only to become like the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign , searching within his Dao, never pioneering nor innovating.
Thinking this, her Primordial Spirit left her body. Celestial calamity and gale winds of tribulation descended from nothing. In an instant Wanxiang flickered as a candle in the wind, barely alive.
“The Great Yǎn number is fifty; its use is forty-nine. Withdraw one — that one is called Change.” The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign sighed lightly; the disaster dispersed and his breath turned to a light, nimble mist that shielded Wanxiang. He continued, “When the Immortal Way loses Change, it becomes like a pool of still water — ever flourishing in appearance yet hiding rot. But the mages possess Change; like a spring of living water they are ceaseless. They dare the path with tattered clothes and brambles — this is great wisdom. I am not so; nor are you.”
“Even knowing the ancient origin, one cannot make it a canon. The path of transcendence is nothing but Change.”
White threads steamed and swirled at his feet, converging into a cluster that resembled the source of the Mage World — though the Mage World’s source, thanks to the Demon Net, is vibrant, this cluster was as still as a dead thing. “This is the Heavenly Dao. Forty-nine are present; only one is missing.”
Wanxiang stared blankly at the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign and murmured, “You mean—”
“What you think and what Daoyuan seeks are both a search for that one. I know both. Today it seems you are right; Daoyuan is wrong — he has fallen into demonhood.”
Wanxiang suddenly grew excited and looked at the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign in disbelief. “Why? Why did you know from the start yet not stop him?”
The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign sighed again. His gaze on Wanxiang bore some kindness. Everything had been permitted by him. He had watched himself become isolated, and now the only one left by his side was Wanxiang. “Because the one withdrawn is something I too have been searching for.”