Karmic history, interwoven light and color.
Lu Yang stood with his hands clasped behind his back. The fire of the Primordial Spirit blazed in his eyes. His figure was illusory, as if he had also arrived hundreds of thousands of years ago, into that true historical scene.
He saw the Great Sword Ancestor's struggle.
In that era, when the world had fallen silent and none remained who could threaten him, he became locked in inner conflict—a clash of Dao Hearts.
"Have you still not figured it out?"
The demonic-aura-filled Great Sword Ancestor muttered in a low voice: "I know what you are doing it for. The myriad living beings of the world, right? For the sake of mortals, you would rather slaughter other cultivators."
"Do you think you are right?"
"Those Perfected Lords, the cultivators you killed, don't they feel wronged in their hearts? Or do you think only mortals are human, and they are not?"
The worried Great Sword Ancestor shook his head:
"I have never felt I was right. It's just that I resolved to do this. After all, if the Ancestral Dragon emerged, the number of dead mortals and cultivators would only be even greater."
"So what?"
The demonic-aura-filled Great Sword Ancestor seemed to have caught a flaw, his voice abruptly amplifying: "What qualification do you have to decide who deserves to die and who doesn't?"
"I didn't decide who deserves to die and who doesn't."
The worried Great Sword Ancestor was instead very calm: "My decision was to kill everyone, including myself. And before that, I also sought other methods."
"I asked Pan Huang, I asked Heaven-Mending and Pill Cauldron, I asked Emperor Cang, I even asked the Heavenly Lord. From the first year of the Immortal Calendar, I asked for two hundred years. But the result, without exception, was that there is no way. Everyone had only one answer—wait for the Dao Lords to return. Yet no one knew when that would be."
"Everyone had no other method."
"Then I could only use my method... This is not some correct decision. In the final analysis, this is actually just because my ability is insufficient."
"This is all I can do."
The demonic-aura-filled Great Sword Ancestor closed his mouth, his brow furrowed tightly. In contrast, the originally worried Great Sword Ancestor's brow smoothed out instead.
However, right at this moment.
"Stupid!"
The extremely indifferent Great Sword Ancestor spoke: "Suicide? Do you think the problem is only the Ancestral Dragon? Don't forget, not a single one of those Dao Lords can be trusted."
"You stopped the Ancestral Dragon, what use is it?"
"If the Primordial Saint, the Sword Lord, and Cang Hao are allowed to defeat Lord Sisui, the mortals' fate might not necessarily be better than if the Ancestral Dragon emerged. Are you just going to ignore them?"
The worried Great Sword Ancestor looked over upon hearing the voice: "...How can I manage it?"
"Very simple. Live."
"You were not wrong about one thing. The Ancestral Dragon has already established a connection with us. As long as we live, it will always retain a sliver of a chance to break free."
The extremely indifferent Great Sword Ancestor said in a deep voice: "This is a bad thing, but also a good thing. We can use this as a weapon to threaten the Dao Lords. If the Primordial Saint and the others truly intend to besiege and kill Lord Sisui, we will proclaim our intention to release the Ancestral Dragon, making them hesitate out of fear of collateral damage. This is the correct course of action."
"...Sophistry."
The worried Great Sword Ancestor shook his head: "If that is the case, why did I still kill Pan Huang and the others? Keeping them alive would have made it easier to release the Ancestral Dragon."
"Why didn't you speak up back then?"
At this moment, the worried Great Sword Ancestor seemed to become increasingly clear-headed, like a precious sword having its rust ground away, gradually revealing its sharp edge:
"You are afraid."
"You are afraid of death."
"Once dead, everything is gone. After all, with our cultivation, reincarnation is useless. To sever the Ancestral Dragon's hope of breaking free, we must die cleanly."
The extremely indifferent Great Sword Ancestor shook his head: "Are you not afraid?"
"Of course I am afraid."
The Great Sword Ancestor smiled: "But there are some things that must be done even if one is afraid. My ability is insufficient; I can only reach this step. Then I should do it to the best of my ability."
Right at this moment, the demonic-aura-filled Great Sword Ancestor spoke again. This time, it even broke away from the Great Sword Ancestor's appearance. Invisibly, there seemed to be a massive will descending across the void, even causing fine dragon scales to grow on that face, almost transforming into a humanoid True Dragon.
"It's useless."
It said faintly, like a snake or flood dragon licking its prey: "Do you know what your final ending is? Do you need me to reveal it to you?"
"Your actions have no value."
"Do you know what the Primordial Saint and the others plan to do? They are going to forge another history to replace this current one, and then use the fake history to suppress Sisui."
"History is a plaything of the Dao Lords."
"In the end, you haven't saved anything. You want to save the mortals? Do you know what these mortals will be reduced to if the Dao Lords reside in the world?"
"Consumables."
Speaking of this, the demonic dragon revealed a ferocious smile: "I am more familiar with this than anyone. After all, that was how I viewed you all back then."
"Generation after generation, mortal are materials that can be harvested to the heart's content."
"Back then, Sisui led the various Dao Lords to defeat me. Now, the Primordial Saint led the others to defeat Sisui. And in the future? Will there still be newcomers?"
"There won't be anymore."
"The Primordial Saint is not me, not Sisui. He cultivates [Inevitable Fate] and controls the sea of light. There will never be another Dao Lord emerging to defeat him and change the sea of light."
"So if they succeed, your existence will inevitably turn into a karmic illusion—transformed into a fake thing by them, altered at will, and even thoroughly buried. Do you think you are very great? Very noble? It's useless. No one will know, no one will remember, not even yourself."
"...It's not true."
Facing the demonic dragon, the Great Sword Ancestor slowly lifted his head after a long silence. His eyes shone with piercing clarity. The turmoil within them receded, replaced by a rising, unrestrained spirit.
He gazed upon the Immortal Nexus of that era—
The sun, moon, and stars; the mountains and rivers; the boundless sea of light; the trillions of mortal lives. All of it was reflected in his eyes, stirring both deep nostalgia and unwavering resolve.
"This has meaning."
"Even if future karma is altered, even if history fades into illusion—at least in this very moment, what I do holds meaning for them."
"And that meaning… the present me remembers."
That was enough.
As his voice fell, all figures vanished without a trace. Only the Great Sword Ancestor remained, standing alone. The divided Three Spirits converged, refined into unity by a single thought.
In the next instant, he raised his sword and held it across his neck.
Upon the blade—pure and mirror-bright—ran a line of resplendent seal script:
[To lay down one's life for righteousness is to value justice above the self; thus, nothing under heaven is more precious than righteousness.]
And so, blood light flooded the heavens.
In the first month of the 264th year of the Immortal Calendar, the Great Sword Ancestor took his own life in Jiangnan.
Yet upon his corpse lingered an indescribably furious will, persisting for three full months without dispersing. It could not comprehend, could not accept—and so it raged:
"Bastard!"
"Utterly foolish! Blind and ignorant! Historical karma is on the verge of shifting—no one will ever witness this scene! And do you truly think that woman would have spared your life…?"
The scene halted abruptly.
A fair, jade-like palm crossed the bounds of time, parted karma, and delivered a steady, unshaken voice into the ears of the Ancestral Dragon of that era—halting its fury in an instant.
"I saw it. And I remember it."
The dark-robed youth stood before the Great Sword Ancestor's corpse, as though he had been there from the very beginning. The radiance of the Primordial Spirit illuminated the strands of karmic history in that moment.
The Ancestral Dragon's expression froze.
"As for its meaning—I will retrieve it from history."
A thunderous Dao voice, belonging to Lu Yang, resounded through the scene. It flowed downstream, bearing the corresponding karma back into the vast sea of light.
All should know—
This sword is worthy of the world… and shames the unworthy.