[Responding to Emperors].
In the empty pavilion, Lu Yang pushed the door open and entered, sitting grandly in front of the pavilion's desk. However, unlike before, this place no longer held any profoundness.
Lu Yang sighed in his heart, then formed a hand seal.
[Heaven and Man Dao Unity Wondrous Art]!
This was the secret method of the gatekeeper lineage of the [Heavenly Being's Remnant Consciousness]. It allowed one to extract the specific coordinates of the next stage of the [Heavenly Being's Remnant Consciousness] after clearing the current one.
The next stage after [Responding to Emperors] was named [Equality of Things].
And the stage after [Equality of Things] was [Mark of Fulfilling Virtue].
Back then, Lu Yang had directly skipped [Equality of Things] and entered [Mark of Fulfilling Virtue] through Feixue, only to see a shattered ruin.
The entire [Mark of Fulfilling Virtue] was shattered. Thanks to that, even though I hadn't cleared [Equality of Things] at the time, I could easily obtain the things inside it. However, correspondingly, I couldn't get the coordinates for the next stage from [Mark of Fulfilling Virtue], and got stuck again.
The [Heavenly Being's Remnant Consciousness] had a total of seven stages.
The stage after [Mark of Fulfilling Virtue] was named [Great Grandmaster], and after [Great Grandmaster] was [Carefree Wander], which was said to be the foundation of the Netherworld.
I wonder if I'll be fated to see it.
Lu Yang pondered in his heart, but his hands didn't stop moving. After solidifying the hand seal, abundant spiritual power poured in, immediately spawning a dazzling radiance.
In the next second, the radiance flew from his hands.
"Boom."
In an instant, the entire [Responding to Emperors] trembled violently. Dense, visible cracks impressively surfaced within the empty pavilion at this moment.
Endless radiance swept through every corner of the pavilion like a storm, vibrating the void until it completely crushed the pavilion. The entire building sifted down layer by layer, collapsing all over, and finally dispersing. It turned into a sky full of gold and silver powder that drifted with the wind, merging with the radiance into a blurry scene.
Magnificent and beautiful.
Lu Yang just stood amidst this sky-filling anomaly until the surrounding scene transitioned from blurry to clear, only then did he finally raise an eyebrow in slight surprise.
What met his eyes was a long vermilion staircase.
At some unknown point, the world had completely changed.
The crimson profound steps went up step by step, totaling exactly nine hundred and ninety-nine. Every step was engraved with patterns of mountains, rivers, and peaks, and at the end was a dense golden light.
This place was [Equality of Things].
After pondering for a moment, Lu Yang stepped onto the profound steps, but didn't feel anything abnormal. This didn't seem to be a trial; it was just the most ordinary flight of stairs.
In the next second, he rode a streak of light, directly bypassing the nine hundred and ninety-nine steps and arriving at the top. However, what met his eyes was still only golden light. In a daze, he seemed to be able to see a palace resting within the golden light, but no matter what spells he cast, he could never truly approach that palace.
Like trying to scoop the moon out of the water.
"...Interesting."
Lu Yang stroked his chin and returned to the bottom of the vermilion staircase. This time, he didn't fly on a streak of light, but walked up the steps one by one.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine steps, he walked each one steadily.
Initially, the top of the staircase was just a golden light. Halfway up, the appearance of the palace could be seen clearly. With one-third remaining, the palace was right before his eyes.
Until the very end.
"Bang!"
The palace that he couldn't touch no matter what before, was now impressively right before his eyes. Lu Yang pushed casually, easily pushing open the palace gates and walking inside.
The palace itself was extremely gorgeous and magnificent. Looking around, its doors opened in six directions, and its roof tiles gleamed with colors. There were a full twenty-four layers of halls stacked high, like twenty-four layers of heaven, surging with colors and galloping with flames of light, each layer surpassing the last. Only at the very top could a bright pearl be seen hovering majestically.
And above the plaque in front of the palace doors were two large characters:
[Changhe]!
That's not quite right...
Lu Yang was somewhat surprised, simply because he felt a qi aura from this [Changhe Palace] before him that was different from the [Heavenly Being's Remnant Consciousness]. This feeling was—
...A supreme treasure.
The feeling this [Changhe Palace] gave Lu Yang was almost exactly the same as his [Arctic Exorcism Court] and [Sky-shrouding]'s [Dao-Attaining Hidden Profound Palace]!
Thinking of this, Lu Yang paced forward, only to find that the closer he got to the palace, the flatter that towering palace became. After its original magnificent vastness faded, its true appearance was revealed, which instead made him praise it even more in his heart: "I see. It's not a palace, but a painting drawn with a great divine ability!"
This was much more brilliant than a simple palace!
No wonder no matter what technique I cast before, I couldn't enter this place. How can someone outside the painting enter the painting? Only that vermilion staircase can forge a new path to enter.
Who created this?
At this moment, Lu Yang was one hundred percent certain that [Equality of Things], just like [Responding to Emperors] and [Mark of Fulfilling Virtue], had lost its original appearance.
It had also been modified.
Standing in front of the palace, Lu Yang looked left and right, a thoughtful look on his face. "I have already entered the painting, but ultimately I am the viewer of the painting, not the creator."
"Since I am not in the palace within the painting, I naturally cannot enter it."
"The only way to walk into the palace is to add a brushstroke to the palace within the painting and draw my appearance. Otherwise, I can only look at the painting and lament."
Such profoundness! Such an artistic conception!
Anyway, he himself couldn't do it.
Thinking of this, Lu Yang was almost certain that this was the handiwork of the First-generation Master of Beast Taming Peak again... until a strand of consciousness attached to him suddenly woke up.
"Huh? This place..."
It was impressively Sisui's remnant thought.
This remnant thought, which had an extremely low presence, spoke in a bewildered tone at this moment: "I seem to have been here before. There is a mark left in my memory here."
"...What?"
As soon as these words came out, Lu Yang instantly narrowed his eyes. He immediately waved his hand, condensing brilliant light to temporarily act as a Dharma body, allowing Sisui's remnant thought to manifest again.
Immediately after, Sisui's remnant thought first revealed a look of recollection, then somewhat hesitantly formed hand seals. After several transformations, he pointed a finger:
"Open!"
In an instant, Lu Yang saw the palace in the painting suddenly change. The originally tightly shut doors were pushed open, and a young military general clad in black robes and ink-colored armor, fully armed with sharp weapons, strode out from the palace. His face looked as if it was chiseled by a knife and axe, actually bearing a seventy percent resemblance to the face manifested by Sisui's remnant thought.
"What kind of scoundrel... Hmm?"
Initially, the young man had a disdainful look, but upon seeing Sisui's remnant thought, he suddenly froze in place. Immediately after, he revealed a monstrously angry expression:
"Demon!"
"It's one thing for you to come back, but you dare use a disguise technique to trick me?"
Before his voice fell, the palace painting suddenly shook, fluttering in the wind. Endless light and colors surged out from the painting, and the palace on paper instantly turned into a physical entity.
It then ruthlessly crashed down!
"Boom!"
Visible ripples of vibration rippled out beneath the palace. Layers of concepts surfaced—there were changes in winter and summer, inversions of the roles of ruler and minister, copulation between men and women, the simultaneous collapse of heaven and earth, sun and moon, spreading out to the east, west, south, and north with no end in sight, as if aiming to directly turn him into a splash of ink in the painting.
Seeing this, Lu Yang responded cleanly and efficiently.
He raised his hand and threw a punch!
"Bang!"
This punch struck out like a heaven-supporting white jade pillar, forcefully propping back up the collapsing heaven and earth, sun and moon, freezing all the chaotic concepts.
In an instant, the palace in the painting retreated.
The boundless radiant concepts quickly dimmed, once again revealing the figure of that young military general. However, his appearance had changed, and his face was a mix of shock and joy.
"Dharma Body Dao!?"
"Master, you've returned!?"
(End of Chapter)