(TN: Emperor Pan —> Pan Huang)
The ethereal profound sound faded, and the illusion withdrew.
Lingxiao stood in place with a profound gaze. There was no jade slip in his hand anymore, only a wisp of dissipating flying smoke left. Lu Yang surfaced beside him.
The Heavenly Scripture should be the missing page of [The Book of a Hundred Lifetimes].
There are actually words on it.
Lu Yang carefully chewed on the last sentence spoken by the profound sound. Even though he had shared the pressure of the taboo knowledge with Lingxiao, he was still somewhat sluggish at this moment.
[I abhor the injustice of Heaven and Earth, and the inequity of the Great Dao—now, I shall set it right for you all.]
Who wrote it? That mighty figure who left behind the Ancestral Dragon Manor? Could [The Book of a Hundred Lifetimes] be his masterpiece? Was it because the Primordial Saint saw it that he became certain of the existence of Deity Transformation?
...No, that's not right.
Sisui had also seen it, and even that nameless Dao Lord knew. Yet when the Primordial Saint proposed transcending to a higher realm back then, they still scoffed at it.
Why? There must be even more secrets!
At this moment, Lu Yang once again experienced exactly how deep the waters of this wretched place, the Light Sea, and just how pitch-black the large hands of the Dao Lords hiding behind the scenes truly were.
Taking history as a mirror allows one to know the rise and fall of dynasties. Using all living beings as chess pieces, suppressing lower-realm cultivators, scheming against the Light Sea—to put it plainly, it was actually just that kind of matter. The blackest thing was that they severed "history", causing massive amounts of knowledge to be reduced to taboos. This was the fundamental reason why the Dao Lords stood high above the masses.
For the first time, Lu Yang began to ponder a question.
Why me?
He had transmigrated here and obtained [The Book of a Hundred Lifetimes]. Could this also be the handiwork of that mighty figure? It couldn't possibly be just his pure, heaven-defying good luck, right?
Could it be that my dad transmigrated and then helped his son out? That makes no sense. If you wanted to help your son, wouldn't it be more straightforward to add a "+" sign to [The Book of a Hundred Lifetimes]? That way, I would have fucking defeated the whole world long ago.
Lu Yang's thoughts drifted a bit.
However, he quickly threw off those nonsensical distracting thoughts and turned to look at Lingxiao, who had similarly recovered his senses, saying in a deep voice: "What does Fellow Daoist think?"
There was no need to speak too specifically.
Before Lu Yang's words fell, Lingxiao already understood his meaning.
"A sixty percent chance it is the Spiritual Power Dao Lord. The so-called exposing of his identity is nothing more than a 'darkness under the lamp' method." Lingxiao cautiously stated his judgment.
Regarding the nameless Dao Lord's identity.
Hearing this, Lu Yang also nodded slightly. The reason was very simple: this nameless Dao Lord seemed to know too much, unlike what an ordinary Dao Lord could know.
Therefore, he also relatively agreed with this judgment.
But as the words fell, the two still frowned simultaneously. Intuitively, they always felt something was wrong. This also cast a layer of gloom over their faces.
The sorrow of lower-realm cultivators.
Even if they guessed with such certainty, it was still very difficult to have a hundred percent assurance. The will of heaven was hard to fathom; without cultivation reaching that level, some things simply couldn't be seen clearly.
"This nameless Dao Lord is probably quite special."
After a moment of silence, Lingxiao sighed: "He clearly told us his name, yet he never revealed his aura. The ones he's hiding it from might not necessarily be us; perhaps even the Dao Lords are the targets of his concealment."
Lu Yang similarly shook his head.
"Forget it. Compared to this, Fellow Daoist, why don't you tell me about the false history? After all, we are about to head there, so we should at least have a little understanding of it."
"The false history, huh..."
Hearing this, Lingxiao blinked, a look of nostalgia surfacing. To the vast majority of people, it was a false history, but to him, it was a lifetime he had once experienced.
"I prefer to call it the First History. After all, false history is relative."
As soon as these words came out, Lu Yang instantly nodded:
"Indeed. This is also what we must do: let the First History return from being the false history, and drive this current Second History out of the position of true history."
Lingxiao sighed with emotion and said: "In the Second History, the Battle of the Dao Lords has long ended. The various Dao Lords reside high in the [Paramita] and do not appear in the mortal world. However, the First History is completely different."
After briefly recalling, Lingxiao said faintly: "In the First History, the great battle between the Dao Lords never ended from beginning to end. It even became an astronomical phenomenon that everyone was accustomed to, hanging at the highest point of the Light Sea, visible when looking up from every World Realm."
"We called it [Mars Lingering in the Heart]."
"However, as things stand now, with the First History turning into the false history, the various Dao Lords should have long detached themselves from it. What remains there is probably merely an illusion."
Dao Lords are unique.
Lu Yang, who had been to the false history, was very clear on this point. There were fundamentally no Dao Lords there. Therefore, as long as one became a Dao Lord, one could jump out of the restrictions of the false history.
Not as good as [The Book of a Hundred Lifetimes].
Lu Yang frowned slightly. Very clearly, a problem had occurred with that missing page, its wonders greatly damaged. It no longer possessed the cheat-like abilities of [The Book of a Hundred Lifetimes].
With this thought, he recovered his senses and shook his head: "Not necessarily."
"The Dao Lords may have already left the astronomical phenomenon of [Mars Lingering in the Heart], but there is one who is definitely still there. Not everyone has disappeared."
The Dharma Body Dao Lord, Sisui.
If nothing unexpected happened, this one should be right within the astronomical phenomenon of [Mars Lingering in the Heart]. This was actually good news; at least he knew where he was locked up.
There would also be a direction for a future rescue.
"Continue." Lu Yang motioned: "Since the various Dao Lords did not interfere with the mortal world in the First History, what was the ultimate development of the mortal world?"
"...I don't know much about this either." Lingxiao shook his head: "I was not born in that era, but rather emerged about thirty thousand years ago from today. Many things I only understand from reading the ancient texts of that time. Whether there are tamperings or omissions within them, I have no way to guarantee."
"No matter."
Lu Yang waved his hand: "Fellow Daoist, please speak freely. Just tell me, about one hundred and twenty-eight thousand six hundred years ago, what roughly happened at the point in time we are going to?"
"After the Dao Lords engaged in battle, the Great Perfected Lords of various factions consequently fought a massive war as well, ultimately ending in a standoff in the Immortal Nexus."
Lingxiao spoke softly, as if enumerating his family valuables: "The Immortal Nexus at that time was similarly a four-way standoff."
"The Dao Court, the Sword Pavilion, the Saint Sect, and the Ancient Method. Among them, the Ancient Method occupied what is today's Jiangxi, which can be considered to have replaced the position of the Deep Bliss Pure Land."
"The Ancient Method was still in a disadvantaged position."
"On the Sword Pavilion's side, the Great Sword Ancestor sought the dominion over the world, making him the number one person in the Immortal Nexus. Even the traitor of the Ancient Method, the Dao Court's first-generation Son of Heaven, Emperor Cang, had to submit beneath him."
"On the Ancient Method's side, they were led by twelve Dharma Body Dao Great Perfected Lords such as Pan Huang, and assisted by the Dao Arts Dao's Yellow Millet Dream Immortal Miao Le, and the Spiritual Power Dao's Perfected Lord Supreme Law Upholding Origin."
"The two sides fought endlessly, frequently locked in fierce combat." Speaking to this point, Lingxiao's expression suddenly became incredibly bizarre, his tone very distorted: "As for the Primordial Saint Sect... hm, at that time, led by the first-generation Four Peak Masters, they were charitable and generous, constantly mediating, working hard for the peace of the Immortal Nexus."
"...Ah?"
Lu Yang blinked blankly. From just a short sentence, it was as if he were digesting some taboo knowledge. He was stunned for quite a while before he recovered.
The Saint Sect working hard for peace? Good heavens.
Even so, considering that it was the first-generation Four Peak Masters governing the Saint Sect at that time, and there was a Beast-Taming among the first-generation Four Peak Masters, he calmed down.
It wasn't exactly unimaginable either.
However, soon, he frowned: "Wait... In the First History, the Dharma Body Dao shouldn't have been severed yet, but still maintained perfectly intact, right?"
Lingxiao nodded.
"Exactly. If not for that, I wouldn't have been able to live for so many years, slowly accumulating Dao comprehension and cultivation base."
That wasn't right then.
He had once been to the false history, and there, the false history was about the same as the current mortal world. Although there were Perfected Lords residing in the world, there wasn't a single Great Perfected Lord.
Why would it be like this? The Dharma Body Dao had not collapsed, Perfected Lords had infinite lifespans, and there were no Dao Lords influencing things in the dark. Since that was the case, why would these Great Perfected Lords still disappear?
(End of chapter)