Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Zhong Yue looked at the Gui Tree beside him. It had many branches with million types of leaves, each distinct from the other. It was a saint herb, emanating a refreshing fragrance as if their souls’ were bathed in the Daos and their Yuan Shen secret realms were blessed by the Daos. It couldn’t be described just how comfortable it was to be beside it.

It seemed like the Gui Tree was effective in helping the cultivators in studying the Daos. Furthermore, it had an abundant life force that let Zhong Yue have the feeling of being soaked inside an ocean of life force.

King Xiang was probably worried about Zhong Yue’s condition and that’s why he planted the Gui Tree beside it so it would prevent him from killing himself in the experiments.

“Do you know?” Zhong Yue asked.

Gui Tree didn’t answer and waved its branches vibrantly.

“Do you know why are you a saint herb?” Zhong Yue asked again.

It was as if the Gui Tree could understand him. Its branches waved vigorously again like hands, telling him that it didn’t know.

“Saint herbs are also Daos, the heaven, the earth, the living beings, the turtles, the toads.” Zhong Yue was agitated, he said, “Dao cannot be spoken, it can only be understood. I’ll talk and you listen, if you can’t understand it, I won’t say as well. Follow me as I study it, maybe, you’ll get it too.”

Gui Tree was driven nuts by his madness, its branches swung violently, indicating that it doesn’t understand a single word he said.

Zhong Yue was planted in its roots, he slowly cast the Innate Eight Trigrams and the Innate Eight Trigrams covered the saint herb in it, he said, “I will now converge the Daos into one Dao, into Dao Yi, and merge it with Pan Gu; I will also assimilate my spirit with the Daos, and my cultivation base, and my Daos. You’ll join me as I cultivate, I’ll grant you one rare opportunity to transcend to a whole new level!”

The Gui Tree’s branches waved crazily, it tried to unroot itself and leave as far away as it could from the madman.

Although it wasn’t a saint herb cultivator like Monarch Chang Sheng, it was still, after all, King Xiang’s symbiotically-born saint herb. It had followed King Xiang for a very long time and could understand what Zhong Yue was trying to do.

If only it could speak, it would’ve screamed at how crazy Zhong Yue was acting now.

Converging the Daos into one?

Assimilating the spirit, cultivation base, and Daos with the Daos?

This wasn’t cultivating, this was willingly converting oneself into the Daos of heaven and earth and returning to being part of nature—this was a suicide!

His plan was no different from willingly sacrificing himself to nature!

And if Zhong Yue was assimilated into Daos, it would also be dragged down together by him. It would also be sacrificed to the heaven and earth and leave nothing behind, not even a speck of dust!

However, it was planted by King Xiang whose overwhelming arcane energy stopped it from leaving. Hence, it could only be left helplessly on the spot as Zhong Yue executed his mad plan.

“Don’t worry, I know what I am doing.” The madman beside it assured.

Zhong Yue was planted straight beside Gui Tree, although his body was unable to move, his Yuan Shen could still move, his arcane energy could still be cast, and his thoughts were never clearer and quicker than now.

Zhong Yue’s madness shook the Gui Tree’s greatly. As of now, Zhong Yue’s spirit was already incinerating, even the fire spirits fled out of his Yuan Shen and maintained a safe distance from him.

Xin Huo also flew out of his body and avoided the Dao Assimilating Zhong Yue.

Zhong Yue’s body shuddered, the fourteen innate Daos, Tai Yang, Tai Yin, Shao Yang, Shao Yin, Celestial, Demon, Earth, Lightning, Mountain, Lake, Water, Wind, and Yi, they were all assimilating into the Daos of heaven and earth!

Weng—

The seventh secret realm opened in his body and another innate Dao emerged, it was the Space Dao; then, the eighth secret realm opened and the Time Dao flew out. His Space and Time Dao were also going through the Dao Assimilations!

“This is madness!” Xin Huo saw the two Daos and couldn’t keep his calm anymore, he shouted, “No, no, not the Space Dao and Time Dao! The Space Dao can help you reincarnate even after your body died; the Time Dao can still grant you a chance to start all over again! If you assimilate the Space Dao, there’ll be no place for you in this cosmos anymore; assimilate the Time Dao, and the past, present, and future you will be wiped from existence!”

Gui Tree heard it and it quickly buffeted Zhong Yue with its branches, trying to awaken Zhong Yue from his madness so that he would stop.

“Xin Huo, although you are created by Great Sui, you don’t understand why Great Sui has named the first secret realm Dao Yi.” Rays flashed in Zhong Yue’s eyes, he smiled, “Dao Yi, Dao Yi. Great Sui has named it in accordance with the truth of the Dao Yi Secret Realm. He wanted us, the Qi Practitioners, to converge the countless types of totem patterns into one!”

Xin Huo grew extremely anxious, he shouted in anger, “Even so, there’s no need for you to assimilate even your spirit! If your spirit is assimilated into the Daos of heaven and earth, you’d be dead for sure! The spirit is the very foundation of your life. Your Yin Yang Secret Realm, Shen Cai Secret Realm, Wan Xiang Secret Realm, and Wu Xing Secret Realm were all opened inside of your atman! Once you destroy your spirit, you’d have destroyed the four secret realms too. By then, your foundation will collapse like a house of cards and you’ll be dead in no time!”

Then, Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen emerged behind him. The Bloodline Secret Realm had linked his mortal body and Yuan Shen together. In his left eye was his Great Sun Golden Crow Sun Spirit and in his right eye was the Six-eyed Star Toad Moon Spirit.

Zhong Yue shook, he laughed and corrected, “No, Xin Huo, you are wrong. Great Sui’s intention was never to cultivate the spirits. The spirits are only imitations of the ancient Deity Kings and the innate gods. The spirits are not ours, they are outsiders, only the souls are ours! Death is like an extinguished candle. When the soul dies, leaving only the spirit behind, can the spirit still have the thoughts of the soul? Cultivating the spirits was a mistake since the beginning. It’s workable when we were weak, but once we get strong enough, we’ll have to abandon the spirits and start all over again!”

His Daos were starting to crumble, turning into countless totem patterns that danced with the Daos of heaven and earth.

“Opening the Yuan Shen secret realms in the atman does no good. After death, nothing will be left behind. It’s because of the spirit that the soul and mortal body cannot be wholly merged together as one!”

Madness filled Zhong Yue’s eyes, he said, “King Xiang is right. It is the innate sacred grounds that gave birth to the ancient Deity Kings. But the cosmos is a huge innate sacred ground itself. The innate gods are considered as innates, and we postnate living beings are also considered as innates! But we are too weak, far too weak to show it. But being weak is also our forte, the weaker we are, the greater our potential!”

“This damn idiot, what bull** has he fed you!” Xin Huo was filled with anger, he rushed into the cave. His hands were on his waist when he shouted, “Old turtle, get out there now!”

In the cave, King Xiang slowly raised his huge head. His eyes opened and he smiled, “Great Sui’s Fire of Inheritance, I knew you were hiding inside of the little Fuxi. Long time no see…”

“Pui!” Xin Huo spit out a mouth of fire and scolded, “Your bull** is sending my inheritor to death!”

“He won’t die.” King Xiang smiled, “With my Gui Tree by his side, it’s impossible even if he tried to die. This Gui Tree is my symbiotic saint herb, it has been with me since day one.”

“Your Gui Tree is also assimilating into Daos.” Xin Huo answered coldly.

King Xiang was shocked, he turned into the old man form and rushed out while shouting, “Impossible! My Gui Tree is formed by Daos, it cannot be assimilated into Daos! It is Dao itself, how can it be converted into Dao again?”

He reached to the outside and saw Zhong Yue’s Sun Spirit and Moon Spirit disintegrating in the Dao Assimilations. Whereas his Gui Tree was also in the process of Dao Assimilation. The tree’s branches were waving everywhere, dying to escape but failing to leave.

“This…”

King Xiang was pulling on his white beards anxiously, he murmured in shock, “It doesn’t look so good now…”

“If it wasn’t for your bull**, how would he become like this?” Xin Huo scolded, “Look, look at it yourself! My inheritor is dying!”

“It’s not that bad yet. Look, my saint herb is there with him, it’ll protect his life.” King Xiang comforted, “It’s no big deal. Even if there’s anything, I can still save his life.”

Zhong Yue’s spirits were assimilated away quickly. Then, his Yin Yang Secret Realm was the next to crumble and assimilate to the Daos of heaven and earth; along with its crumble was him losing control over his cultivation base.

As a result, a huge swirl of surging energy was created with him in the center. The star sands that buried him and the Gui Tree were washed away by it.

The Gui Tree was finally able to move and immediately, it waved its branches and made its run out away from Zhong Yue’s Dao Assimilations.

Krong—

A loud noise could be heard exploding as Zhong Yue’s Shen Cai Secret Realm crumbled. The swirling energy grew stronger and the saint herb was sucked by it, no matter how hard it tried, it wasn’t able to leave Zhong Yue.

Then, another loud explosion came shortly after as Zhong Yue’s Wan Xiang Secret Realm crumbled, followed by the Wu Xing Secret Realm. His four Yuan Shen secret realms that were opened in his atman had all disintegrated.

His Innate Golden Crow True Spirit and Innate Star Toad True Spirit were gone, no more, assimilated to the Daos of heaven and earth. His 16 innate Daos were also assimilating away, the totem patterns that formed the Daos were disintegrating and the Daos of heaven and earth around him were solidifying!

Suddenly, Zhong Yue’s Bloodline Secret Realm also started to crumble. But this time, the degree of severity was much stronger than the other four. It was the secret realm that linked his soul and mortal body together, for it to crumble, it would only mean Zhong Yue’s mortal body and soul were also disintegrating!

“No time anymore! I can feel his life deteriorating!” Xin Huo hurried, “If he dies, I die! Old turtle, time to save his life now!”

King Xiang was also feeling uneasy. He quickly cast out his innate Dao in order to oppress Zhong Yue’s Dao Assimilations but suddenly, Zhong Yue’s Space Dao and Time Dao also crumbled away, resulting in an even stronger swirl of energy!

The swirl of energy was so strong that even the Heavenly River’s origin was affected by it. The stars were swallowed away in it and the Heavenly River started to flow backward!

All of Zhong Yue’s secret realms, other than the Dao Yi Secret Realm, had all been assimilated into the Daos of heaven and earth!

“Can he still be saved now?” King Xiang said in a quivering voice.

“Old turtle, old turtle, it’s all your fault!” Xin Huo jumped onto King Xiang’s head and battered his bald head.

Beads of cold sweat started running down King Xiang’s bald head as he said, “Do you… want to change an inheritor?”

Xin Huo continued punching King Xiang’s head, he shouted back in anger, “No more, the Fuxi is extinct, he is the last of his kind! Huh, wait, I can still sense his life force, what is happening?”

The duo quickly looked at Zhong Yue and saw his Dao Yi Secret Realm opening up all of a sudden. It merged itself with the swirl of energy and contained it inside while Zhong Yue’s Pan Gu Celestial Being sat in the center of the energy swirl.

Its eight arms were moving around, making mystical hand seals that trembled the energy swirl formed by the Daos of heaven and earth. It was trying to slow down the Dao Assimilations.

Whereas behind his Pan Gu Celestial Being was the Gui Tree, rooted behind him.

The saint herb was shaking in terror, crazily pumping its life force into Zhong Yue to keep him alive. As it stands now, they were both on the same boat, if Zhong Yue died here, it would also die. Thus, it really doesn’t have a choice but to save Zhong Yue.

“This…” King Xiang’s expression was strange as he stared at Zhong Yue’s Dao Yi Secret Realm. His Dao Yi Secret Realm and the energy swirl pool formed by innate Daos were combining together. When the Daos of heaven and earth were assimilating the Dao Yi Secret Realm, the Dao Yi Secret Realm was also assimilating the Daos of heaven and earth.

Slowly, the huge swirl took the form of the trigrams with the Pan Gu Celestial Being sitting in the center. The center was the figure of a Yin Yang Tai Chi with a sun and moon orbiting around the Pan Gu Celestial Being. A layer away out from Tai Chi was Four Symbols followed by Eight Trigrams.

Whereas the Space Dao replaced the dimensions and space of Dao Yi Secret Realm and Time replaced its flow of time.

And this scene was somewhat looking familiar in King Xiang’s eyes.