Chapter 1284: All in Great Qi Attain the Dao
But then he remembered that this Sun Luyao before him was, in fact, his own creation.
Calling him useless would be like admitting his own craftsmanship was shoddy, wouldn't it?
So, Li Fan swallowed the curse on the tip of his tongue.
With another cold snort, his thoughts raced, and the failed "Sun Luyao" was obliterated.
A moment later, a brand-new fabricated personality was born.
"Senior, that formation just now..." the new personality began, completely unaware he had just been created. His memory was frozen at the moment the Spirit Void Array annihilated the world, his face ashen.
"It was simply too profound. I haven't learned it yet," Sun Luyao said, his tone bitter with the fear of angering Li Fan.
Li Fan felt the crystalline sphere that had been condensed at the cost of an entire small world and offered a gentle smile. "Don't worry. The No Beginning Spirit Void Array is indeed a bit complex. I'll just have to demonstrate it a few more times."
The calmly spoken words sent a chill down Sun Luyao's spine. Yet he didn't dare to object and could only stare blankly as he followed his companion toward the next target world.
Still, he suspected this act of digging up the very roots of the Xuanhuang Realm couldn't last for long.
Li Fan weighed the crystalline sphere in his hand. "Just two or three more of these, and the protection will far exceed what my 119th life's 'Refining the Spirit of All Beings' could provide. That should be more than enough."
...
The Great Qi Small World.
Bai Hua was at the border of the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven, staring blankly out into the void.
She had always carried out the Saint Emperor's tasks flawlessly. As a result, her rewards of Source Power Essence had never faltered and had recently become even more abundant.
But this Source Power Essence... it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
Before she had it, it seemed impossibly precious, something she'd do anything to taste. But now that she had it in abundance, she found it had grown rather dull.
After all, it couldn't help her transcend the limits of mortality and ascend to the realm of a True Immortal. Any more of it was useless.
Bai Hua felt herself slowly growing complacent.
Once she had her fill of Source Power Essence, she began to lose her sense of purpose and drive. Most of her days were spent tending to the various Cave-Heavens, ensuring their spiritual energy flowed smoothly and they teemed with life.
Her second most frequent activity was simply staring into space.
She would empty her mind and think of nothing. Occasionally, fragmented images would flash through her thoughts.
Some were from her experiences in Great Qi since her awakening.
Others were from before her capture by the Fishing Pond, moments spent with survivors from other worlds.
"I wonder if they're all really dead," Bai Hua couldn't help but wonder.
As Bai Hua was lost in thought, a ripple in the space before her caught her attention.
Recognizing the familiar aura, her tensed nerves instantly relaxed.
"Senior Bai Hua."
The visitor was none other than the Saint Emperor's eldest disciple, Sun Erlang.
"Here for another beating?" Bai Hua saw Sun Erlang's expression and knew his purpose, sighing with a touch of resignation.
Sun Erlang admitted frankly, "I've been cultivating since we last met and feel I've made some progress. So, I've come to ask for your guidance again, Senior!"
Bai Hua smiled. "I've told you before, don't listen to that Master Qiaogong's boasting. He claims his puppets are comparable to Longevity cultivators. In the end, they're just a pile of inanimate objects. How can they truly compare to cultivators like us?"
Before Sun Erlang could speak, Master Qiaogong's voice rang out. "We'll see about that! Ability isn't proven by boasting. Let's see what you've got! Sun boy, give her a proper lesson!"
Sun Erlang cupped his hands. "Be on your guard, Senior... this time, it really will be different."
Before his words had faded, Sun Erlang's figure vanished from Bai Hua's spiritual sense.
A grave look flashed in Bai Hua's eyes as she transformed into a streak of golden light, soaring into the endless void carved out by the Split Boundary Whale.
She had a faint feeling that a great many beings were secretly trailing her.
"It must be the puppets that boy is controlling, but to think even my spiritual sense can't lock onto them?"
Bai Hua's interest was finally piqued.
With a mere thought, a glazed golden flower materialized in her hand.
In the next instant, it bloomed abruptly.
Petals drifted down, yet the glazed flower itself remained whole. Before long, the void around Bai Hua was shrouded by hundreds of millions of golden petals.
Bang!
Bang!
The petals fluttered wildly, constantly colliding with the puppets hidden in the shadows.
One by one, dark-gold puppets were forced to reveal themselves.
There were five in total, and they had already silently surrounded Bai Hua.
Bai Hua's voice was laced with mockery. "So the boy knew he couldn't win alone and decided to turn a duel into a group beating?"
Sun Erlang's reply came, but not from any of the puppets. "You misunderstand, Senior. All of these puppets are controlled by me alone. So, in a way, it's still a fair fight..."
In the void, five nearly identical voices echoed Sun Erlang's words in unison.
"Gold of Rending Void!"
"Wood of Entanglement!"
"Water of Life Extinguishing!"
"Fire of Burning Intent!"
"Earth of Nothingness!"
Strange five-elemental powers surged from the five puppets. They didn't rush to attack Bai Hua but instead instantly formed a battle array.
Trapped within, Bai Hua felt as if she had been ripped from the void and returned to the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven.
Except this version wasn't brimming with life; it was an image of pure, murderous slaughter.
Every wisp of the five elements' aura within the Cave-Heaven was like a razor-sharp sword. Sensing Bai Hua, an outsider, they launched a frenzied assault.
The Gold of Rending Void was silent and traceless, its sharpness capable of tearing space itself.
The Wood of Entanglement sought its enemy in the void; once it entwined, it wouldn't let go until death.
The Water of Life Extinguishing doused all vitality. Even the glazed golden flowers released by Bai Hua withered quickly upon contact.
...
The five elements fed each other, their five powers interchanging in an endless, self-sustaining cycle.
Trapped in the array, Bai Hua seemed to have endured the siege for days, yet the assault showed no signs of weakening.
"This is a Five Elements Slaughter Array."
"The five puppets must be at its core. Instead of fighting directly, they've become the array's eyes..."
As Bai Hua pondered, she failed to notice a dark-gold puppet that had silently appeared behind her.
Hidden amidst the violent five-elemental energies, it struck like a golden longsword, cleaving down with absolute resolve.
Clang!
A sound like metal striking metal resounded through the Five Elements Slaughter Array as Bai Hua's body instantly became transparent.
A glazed golden flower bloomed within her.
Under its radiant light, the longsword that had cut into her body began to turn translucent and glaze-like itself.
The power of the Rending Void Gold erupted, breaking free from the glazed erosion before vanishing once more, hiding within the turbulent slaughter array.
"Not bad."
For the first time, Bai Hua revealed her true form to Sun Erlang and offered a faint compliment.
"If it were the old me, I might have been seriously injured by that move."
"Unfortunately for you..."
Within Bai Hua's transparent body, the glazed flower expanded rapidly.
Under the pure, glazed brilliance, the violent five-elemental energies were all assimilated, transformed into solid, glazed crystals.
In just a few breaths, the glazed flower swept through its surroundings, swallowing the entire array space.
Ting!
A slender finger emerged from the solid crystal.
It tapped lightly on the crystallized flower.
A crack appeared, then rapidly spread across the flower's entire body.
Bang!
The flower exploded into countless fragments, and the once-furious Five Elements Slaughter Array dissolved into the void.
Bai Hua returned to her original form and gazed around.
But to her surprise, it seemed her "Purifying Life Glaze," a technique capable of annihilating a small world in an instant, hadn't actually broken the array.
Within the emptiness, a disturbing aura began to emerge once more.
After a moment of discernment, Bai Hua realized her mistake. "This isn't just a Five Elements Slaughter Array. It's a Yin-Yang Five Elements Grand Array."
The twin energies of Yin and Yang flowed into each other, and from that chaos, the five elements emerged anew, endlessly regenerating.
Soon, the brief tranquility of the void was shattered again.
Seeing this, Bai Hua couldn't help but frown slightly.
She could easily destroy the array, but she couldn't stop the process of Yin and Yang birthing the five elements.
No matter how many times she annihilated it, the killing intent directed at her in the void remained inexhaustible.
"The power of Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements, combined with an array... the killing power hasn't increased much, but it has certainly become much more troublesome."
Although Bai Hua knew a little about arrays, she couldn't sense any trace of one around her.
"Hahahaha! You're out of options, aren't you, Bai Hua! Just surrender quietly!" Master Qiaogong's arrogant voice echoed through the slaughter array.
Bai Hua snorted coldly, and a brilliant golden light ignited in her eyes.
"Sun boy, be careful! She's finally using that move! Let's see how our countermeasures hold up."
Empowered by the Source Power Essence, Bai Hua's glazed light seemed to have grown even purer.
It felt as if space itself was crystallizing as a brilliant gemstone slowly formed around her.
The Yin and Yang energies that birthed the five elements, and even the very structure that sustained the array, had no room to exist under the pressure of such pure power.
Light from the outside world began to shine in; Bai Hua was about to break the slaughter array.
"You think you're the only one with Source Power Essence?!"
At that moment, Master Qiaogong's somewhat smug voice rang out again.
A finger made of pure golden light, ignoring the already solid glazed crystal, appeared inexplicably before Bai Hua without any warning.
The crystal shattered instantly, dissolving into streams of light. The golden finger was unstoppable, pressing down fiercely toward the space between her eyebrows.
Bai Hua's expression shifted slightly as her body returned to its pure glazed state.
Reflecting the same golden light, Bai Hua met the golden finger head-on.
To her astonishment, this seemingly terrifying finger of Source Power Essence was nothing but an empty shell.
It collapsed on contact, transforming into countless golden threads that wrapped around her body.
"Sun boy, spring the trap!" Master Qiaogong shouted in exhilaration.
In an instant, the golden threads spread out, crisscrossing until Bai Hua, caught completely off guard, was snared in a net!
The glazed flower tried to radiate its light, but it collided with the golden net and was neutralized into nothingness.
A tremendous force pulled from the net, and Bai Hua was dragged along violently, hurtling forward.
"Insolence!"
This time, Bai Hua was truly enraged.
"All Living Beings are Glaze!"
With an icy cry, the figure of the seemingly captured Bai Hua vanished.
The glazed flower was also an illusion. Its petals fell away, this time disappearing completely as they dropped, instantly revealing its true form.
Amidst the shifting light and shadows, it was a world of glaze!
As the glazed ice sealed everything, countless beings within it suddenly opened their eyes!
Hiss...
The giant golden net wrapped around the world instantly showed faint cracks.
Master Qiaogong's shocked and angry voice rang out. "Didn't you say you abandoned your world and fled?! I never thought you'd actually refined the entire Wansheng Realm into a glazed state!"
"What a vicious woman!"
From within the glazed world, Bai Hua's voice retorted, "What do you know! This was for survival!"
"Not just for me, but for the entire Heavenly Lotus Sect!"
With Bai Hua's furious roar, a dazzling brilliance erupted from the glazed world, completely tearing apart the golden net that bound it.
"Sun boy, retreat!"
"My apologies, Senior..."
She faintly heard Master Qiaogong's somewhat flustered voice and Sun Erlang's tone, full of resignation.
When she returned to the void, the two of them were gone.
The glazed flower bloomed once more, concealing the glazed Wansheng Realm at its center, and Bai Hua reverted to her original form.
She didn't give chase, but instead returned to the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven.
"That fight was a good way to break the monotony. I wonder when the real war with the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance will begin?"
"If we can really escape the Immortal Ruins, and even this entire Darkest Star Sea, maybe the Heavenly Lotus Sect will see the light of day again," Bai Hua mused.
She had a strange confidence in the Saint Emperor of Great Qi.
Bai Hua's gaze drifted unconsciously toward the void beyond.
There, in the place the Saint Emperor had once visited, she could faintly sense an energy that made her entire glazed Wansheng Realm tremble with fear.
"Truly a madman..."
Back in the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty, a rather disheveled Master Qiaogong muttered curses as he looked over the seven dark-gold puppets with a pained expression.
"I should have known! How could anyone who survived a world-ending calamity be so simple? Seeing how meek and subservient she was in front of the Saint Emperor, I actually let myself be fooled..."
"Qiaogong, oh Qiaogong, you've really gotten muddle-headed!"
Sun Erlang remained silent.
The power that this seemingly gentle Senior Bai Hua had suddenly unleashed was indeed terrifying.
However, the purpose of challenging her this time had been achieved.
Sun Erlang looked at the seven dark-gold puppets in the center of the field.
Through these puppet bodies, he had not only become more familiar with the power of the seven Heaven and Earth Souls at their core.
He also felt his grasp of the Source Power Essence had deepened.
"No! I refuse to believe it! How can I, the Master Craftsman of the Tianji Realm, be outdone by someone from the puny Wansheng Realm!" Beside him, Master Qiaogong spat out his words fiercely and pulled something from his robes.
"Sun boy, you install this into the puppets!" Master Qiaogong said with a vicious look.
"What is this?"
Sun Erlang asked curiously, looking at the square, black object in Master Qiaogong's hand.
"Heh heh, this is the 'experience' our Tianji Realm extracted from the Immortal Puppet 'Ancestor' back in the day. It can't be replicated. After the Tianji Realm was destroyed, every use means there's one less. I've been reluctant to use it, but now..." Master Qiaogong looked at it with a hint of reluctance, but finally gritted his teeth.
"There's no way I'm letting that woman beat us!"
Upon hearing the words "Immortal Puppet," Sun Erlang's heart skipped a beat.
He was about to take it but suddenly remembered something and hesitated. "An item this precious should be saved for Senior Tianyang, right? It might be more useful to him..."
Master Qiaogong waved his hand. "I already gave him a share. Why do you think you haven't seen him for so long? He's been in seclusion comprehending it and hasn't come out yet!"
"Stop dawdling! Do as I say! Quickly, before I change my mind!"
Hearing this, Sun Erlang no longer stood on ceremony.
His consciousness connected to the seven dark-gold puppets as he simultaneously crushed the black, square object in his hand.
A black liquid flowed from the cracks between his fingers.
Like a living creature, it crawled up Sun Erlang's arm until it reached his head. It reared up like a hunting cobra, then plunged straight into his eye sockets.
Trusting Master Qiaogong completely, Sun Erlang did not resist.
The moment the black liquid covered his eyes, Sun Erlang's perception of his surroundings changed completely.
A flood of blurry images washed over him, accompanied by fragmented memories of battle.
Or, to be more precise, memories of "getting beaten."
Mysterious and unpredictable techniques bombarded the Immortal Puppet's body.
The Immortal Puppet could only rely on its own tough materials to endure, with little opportunity to counterattack.
But even from just taking a beating, waves of profound insights emerged in Sun Erlang's mind.
After being beaten so many times, it was as if Sun Erlang had developed some kind of instinct.
When an attack from a celestial technique appeared in his mind again, his body instinctively knew how to respond.
The feeling was intoxicating, and Sun Erlang lost himself in it.
Unfortunately, just as he seemed on the verge of a true breakthrough, the images suddenly vanished.
And all the previous insights receded like the tide, leaving no trace behind.
"Urgh..."
Sun Erlang's forehead bulged with veins, his fists clenched, and he gasped for breath.
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at Master Qiaogong.
But Master Qiaogong seemed prepared. He had already moved a good distance away and said coldly, "Sun boy, clear your head. Don't be deceived by an illusion!"
"That feeling of imminent enlightenment—did it come from you, or from the Immortal Puppet?!"
Master Qiaogong's words were like a bucket of ice water poured over his head, and Sun Erlang instantly sobered up.
Even so, it took him nearly half a day to slowly suppress the urge born from that sense of loss—the urge to seize the Immortal Puppet's experience from Master Qiaogong and continue his enlightenment.
"I'm sorry, Senior," Sun Erlang said, ashamed.
"It's fine. Don't blame yourself. It's not just you; even the old geezers from my Tianji Realm couldn't resist that temptation." Master Qiaogong licked his lips, as if savoring the taste of enlightenment.
"Now, take another look. See what's different from before," Master Qiaogong instructed.
Focusing his attention back on the five dark-gold puppets, a flash of delight crossed Sun Erlang's eyes a moment later.
"Eh? The memories of being beaten are surfacing again..."
Sun Erlang closed his eyes to feel it.
Master Qiaogong clapped his hands, and several thousand Sacred Army Puppets appeared one after another.
Following their mechanical instincts, they simultaneously launched an attack on the dark-gold puppets controlled by Sun Erlang.
As if tempered a thousand times, Sun Erlang effortlessly dodged every different technique and move.
The result was so stunning that even Sun Erlang himself was momentarily dazed.
He couldn't even comprehend why the barrage of attacks, which clearly landed on the dark-gold puppets he controlled, ultimately caused no damage.
It wasn't that the puppets' powerful defenses had nullified the damage.
It was that he had, through some profoundly mysterious method, genuinely evaded every single attack from the Sacred Army Puppets.
"Don't just stand there! Hold onto that instinctual feeling for as long as you can!"
"The remnants of the Immortal Puppet's experience will fade quickly. How much you can retain in the end will depend on your own fortune!"
Master Qiaogong's words snapped Sun Erlang back to his senses.
He cast aside all distracting thoughts and focused his entire being on memorizing the Immortal Puppet's evasive instincts.
But these were, after all, the divine abilities of an Immortal Puppet, not something that could be solidified through mortal means.
Even though Sun Erlang was trying his utmost, as time passed, the number of times his dark-gold puppets were hit inevitably increased.
After seven long days of persistence, the evasion rate finally stabilized at a consistent value.
"One-third."
"That's a pretty good result," Master Qiaogong said comfortingly.
Sun Erlang was clearly not satisfied.
"Don't worry. As you continue to comprehend it in the future, your evasion ability will improve to some extent. But to reach the level of the Immortal Puppet, moving with a single thought to evade so-called divine abilities and spells..."
"I'm afraid that would only be possible after breaking through the limits of mortality," Master Qiaogong said frankly.
Sun Erlang let out a long breath, slowly suppressing the regret in his heart.
"Don't underestimate this one-third. In a life-and-death battle, it can often produce miraculous results. Even if your opponent's strength far exceeds yours, their attacks can be inadvertently dodged."
"More importantly, you can control seven puppets at once. In actual combat, because the senses of the seven puppet bodies are shared, your performance will be slightly higher than this value..."
Master Qiaogong began to summarize and analyze the gains from this session with Sun Erlang.
"If you were to fight Bai Hua again now, you would have a high probability of dodging the glazed golden light of that Wansheng Realm. If the array remains unbroken, she's nothing more than a turtle in a jar..." Master Qiaogong was clearly still not convinced of Bai Hua's superiority and muttered resentfully.
As the two were talking, they suddenly noticed the surrounding space begin to tremble faintly.
"Hmm?"
Sun Erlang and Master Qiaogong were startled at first, then simultaneously flew out of the testing ground.
It wasn't just their location; the entire Great Qi Sacred Dynasty was caught in a violent tremor.
In the sky, a vortex was faintly appearing.
Flashes of lightning boomed within it.
"This is..."
A hint of joyful surprise flashed in Sun Erlang's eyes.
He had experienced a similar scene before.
It was the celestial phenomena that occurred when the Great Qi's very essence was elevated.
After the last event, the concentration of spiritual energy in the Sacred Dynasty had multiplied several times over. Furthermore, the number of geniuses born into the world had also significantly increased.
The current cultivation environment in the Sacred Dynasty was already no worse than that of an ordinary province in the Xuanhuang Realm. If it were to be elevated again...
Wouldn't it be far ahead of the Xuanhuang Realm?
Not only the Saint Emperor's disciples, but all the citizens of the Sacred Dynasty now walked out of their homes, gazing up at the sky with excitement.
As the most direct beneficiaries of the world's elevation, the people of the Sacred Dynasty, without any prompting, all knelt on the ground and began chanting the Saint Emperor's name, praying devoutly.
If Li Ping were here, he would have seen that the Sacred Dynasty's fortune, which had already been condensed to its limit, was now showing signs of another breakthrough.
However, taking this step was extremely difficult.
This was only the beginning.
Amidst the chanting of the citizens, a tangible, misty purple energy floated up from all over and was absorbed by the vortex in the sky.
The sound of wind and thunder intensified. The booming of the lightning was so powerful that it even made Sun Erlang's spirit tremble.
From above, he felt a mounting pressure.
It forced him to bow his head slightly.
"Master has made another breakthrough."
A clear understanding flooded Sun Erlang's mind.
From the expressions of Su Yuqing, Ou Shangtian, and the Saint Emperor's other disciples, Sun Erlang saw that they shared the same thought.
The vortex in the sky spun faster and faster. Streaks of starlight shot out from it from time to time, scattering to every corner of the world.
When they touched vegetation, it grew at a visible rate.
When they touched living beings, it was like a sudden, profound enlightenment, an instantaneous grasp of the Dao.
Several condensed, vast beams of starlight shot out like bolts of silk, flying with unerring accuracy toward Sun Erlang and the others.
This included Master Qiaogong, Bai Hua, and the other cultivators recruited by the Saint Emperor.
The moment the starlight poured into his body, the scene before Sun Erlang's eyes changed dramatically.
As if he had truly arrived in the endless void outside the Xuanhuang Realm, Sun Erlang saw, hidden within the deathly silence of the darkness, countless terrifying and ravaging calamity powers.
Sun Erlang also saw that even in this terrifying, silent sea of stars, countless Daos of the Star Sea were tenaciously reviving.
"Light is hidden beneath the darkness..."
"Life is born from deathly silence."
Like a devout believer attaining enlightenment, Sun Erlang personally witnessed the vastness and tenacity of the Star Sea, and tears streamed down his face.
The other cultivators within the Sacred Dynasty experienced the same.
Waves of mystical energy erupted from their bodies, shooting straight to the heavens.
This shared enlightenment caused the vibrations of the Great Qi Small World to intensify once more.
The tremors even spread beyond the world, rippling out into the void.
The Five Elements Cave-Heavens surrounding Great Qi, as well as the other small worlds that had been moved here, were all affected and began to resonate at the same frequency.
Like the rhythm of a heartbeat, something seemed to be gestating within that pulse.
All living beings in the Great Qi Small World, as if they sensed something, raised their heads to gaze at the vortex in the sky.
Under the watchful eyes of all, a towering figure passed through the wind, thunder, and lightning, through the purple mist and the mysterious, mesmerizing starlight.
He slowly descended upon the world.
"We welcome the Saint Emperor!"
Hundreds of millions of Great Qi citizens kowtowed in unison, their voices a thundering tide.
But the Saint Emperor's disciples, as well as Bai Hua, Master Qiaogong, and Yin Shangren, were stunned to see that their familiar, faceless Saint Emperor... now had a face! Where once there had been only a void, features had now appeared!
After only a moment's hesitation, the aura emanating from the Saint Emperor confirmed his true identity without a doubt.
The Saint Emperor stood high in the nine heavens, looking down upon the living beings below.
With a gentle wave of his hand, all the kneeling citizens rose to their feet.
(End of Chapter)
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