"It seems Senior is dead set on killing me."
Lu Yang sighed with emotion, "Ah, people... being too clever isn't always a good thing. With just a little thought, I easily saw through Senior's eternal schemes."
"Indeed."
The Primordial Saint nodded slightly. "But this is also [Variable]. Erasing you might help me further comprehend the wonder of [Variable]."
"I see."
Lu Yang realized. "So that's why you said I could perhaps take the World Honored One's place..."
How could I take his place?
By dying in his stead, of course!
After all, the current World Honored One had long switched to cultivating [Tribulation]. For the Primordial Saint, he could no longer be considered a rare talent; at the very least, he was utterly useless now.
Thinking of this, Lu Yang suddenly smiled. "Looking at it this way, the World Honored One's previous judgment wasn't wrong either. Senior is far less unbothered than you appear."
He had been frightened earlier.
Because the Primordial Saint displayed the concept of [Variable], he assumed the Primordial Saint could control [Variable] through it. It was truly because his past psychological trauma weighed too heavily.
The World Honored One, on the other hand.
As 'number one in the first lunar month', the World Honored One had suffered the Primordial Saint's torment throughout his cultivation journey until today. However, his heart had never surrendered; he remained very confident.
That was why he noticed it earlier than Lu Yang.
"If Senior's scheme has top, middle, and bottom strategies, then right now, Senior must be taking a risk and forced to use the bottom strategy."
The top strategy naturally meant ascending to Deity Transformation.
Lu Yang also understood the middle strategy: personally kill the World Honored One and use [Karma], an unorthodox path of [Variable], to truly control [Variable] with [Inevitable Fate].
For the first two, the Primordial Saint didn't have to take any risks.
The price of Deity Transformation ascension would be borne by [Paramita] and the Ancestral Dragon. Controlling [Variable] with [Inevitable Fate] was similar; the World Honored One couldn't resist him at all.
However, the bottom strategy was different.
Forced to enter the fray, tempering himself in the great battle, damaging [Inevitable Fate], and then comprehending the concept of [Variable] step by step through his own perception in life and death.
Reaching this stage, the Primordial Saint was actually pushed to the limit. The bottom strategy was his safety net, a baseline that permitted no errors. Therefore, he would only trust himself. Of course, he must have had other plans for the details. Being besieged by seven Dao Lords was not something he anticipated.
"Your initial target should have been Sisui."
"Not while fighting the seven Dao Lords, but comprehending [Variable] while fighting Sisui. Before that, you wanted to maintain your most perfect state to meet the enemy."
Because his injuries were not fake.
After all, if his injuries weren't real, then the flaws in [Inevitable Fate] wouldn't exist.
"But there must be a limit to this."
Lu Yang calculated inwardly and said indifferently,
"As long as the damage to [Inevitable Fate] does not exceed this limit, you can seize the opportunity to display the concept of [Variable], which is also beneficial to you."
"But once it exceeds this limit..."
"[Inevitable Fate] will truly be broken. And since you haven't really grasped [Variable], this damage will inevitably lead to a drastic drop in your state."
In other words.
The Primordial Saint right now was like someone balancing a ball on his head. He balanced it well, grasping the equilibrium precisely, but essentially, he was still walking a tightrope.
A slight misstep, and the ball would drop.
"That's why you didn't want to fight anyone before Sisui emerged. That would only cause you to suffer early damage, making it harder to maintain that limit when facing Sisui."
"Unfortunately, in the end, you still had no choice."
Saying this, Lu Yang finally saw clearly the Primordial Saint's true foundation at this moment. Powerful? Without a doubt. At this moment, he was unbelievably powerful.
Even without the [Paramita] fragments, after damaging [Inevitable Fate] and explaining [Variable] with it, his state would not be worse than Sisui's back then. In a sense, this was also a form of self-cultivation. If he added the [Paramita] fragments, he could probably become even stronger.
However, from another perspective...
He was also in his weakest state ever. Because he, originally high and mighty with a perfected life and nature, suddenly had a glaring flaw he could not conceal!
"..."
After a moment of silence, the Primordial Saint praised for the second time, "Too clever. If Fellow Daoist were born in ancient times, I would definitely have found a way to take you as my disciple."
As his voice fell...
Lu Yang was just about to reply when an intense sense of crisis suddenly swept through his body, making him abruptly shut his mouth. Then, he formed a hand seal and held it before his chest.
Rumble!
The next second, Lu Yang saw the surrounding scenery change. Layers of scenes surfaced, but heaven and earth remained stagnant. Illusion and reality interwove into a single mass.
In a trance, he seemed to see the [Future] he was in accelerating. He saw himself fiercely battling the Primordial Saint, unleashing all his wonders within ten moves, only to have them deciphered by the Primordial Saint one by one. Finally, a fair finger tapped his forehead, instantly extinguishing all his consciousness.
[Inevitable Fate]!
Lu Yang's forehead suddenly cracked. Dense cracks rapidly spread from flesh and skin to muscle and bone, then swiftly approached the soul within his sea of consciousness.
Immediately, a crimson brilliance shone.
[Fate Revolution]!
Previously, it was this wonder—which like [Karma] was also tainted with the aura of [Variable]—that broke the Primordial Saint's originally inevitable finger strike.
Now, Lu Yang repeated the same trick.
However, this time, the wonder that was originally enough to shake the concept of [Inevitable Fate] lost its brightness. Not only did it fail to weaken and intercept the incoming finger strike, but it also caused its momentum to increase even further!
Seeing this, Lu Yang's pupils contracted sharply.
Looking over, he saw the immortal with a perfected life and nature sneering. "Myriad things constantly change, only change itself is unchanging. Fellow Daoist should know by now, countless changes, yet the origin remains the same!"
In a flash, Lu Yang exhaled.
The next second, the five wonders—[Divine Offering], [Dripping Essence of Heaven], [Mortal Dust Tribulations], [Heaven within Palm], and [Fate Revolution]—surfaced around him sequentially.
Then, they coupled!
The five streaks of profound brilliance merged into one. Then, a bright light, resembling a fruit yet not a fruit, resembling a pill, about the thickness of a finger, leaped out from the colors.
[Heavenly Destiny Reckoning]!
It was both the core of Lu Yang's Dao-Attaining Land and the foundation of his five wonders. Now, Lu Yang finally summoned it from the deepest depths of the [Celestial Court]!
In an instant, the Primordial Saint's gaze also flickered.
From the [Heavenly Destiny Reckoning], he actually sensed the auras of the Five Great Heavenly Destinies, perfectly integrated, presenting a brand-new wonder.
What is this?
An unorthodox path of the Five Great Heavenly Destinies?
Ancestral Dragon?
For the first time, the Primordial Saint seemed to see something incomprehensible. This was because the Great Dao Lu Yang displayed now was vastly different from the ten concepts of the Light Sea.
In the Light Sea, the Five Elements and Yin-Yang were the foundation of myriad phenomena. Spiritual power, Dao Arts, and Dharma body were the foundations of cultivators. The Five Great Heavenly Destinies were the principles of myriad phenomena's operation. Everything was orderly. Yet, the [Heavenly Destiny Reckoning] Lu Yang conjured had both the [Five Elements] and the Five Great Heavenly Destinies. It was extremely bizarre.
If he had to say...
Thinking of this, the Primordial Saint's eyes suddenly lit up. It was as if he saw some rare and peerless treasure, or deduced some incredible conclusion.
Immediately, a finger descended.
Bang!
Before that could hit, Lu Yang's figure shattered silently like an illusion. However, from the pulverized Dharma body, a streak of pure light abruptly rose!
Within the [Heavenly Destiny Reckoning], the five wonders symbolized the Five Great Heavenly Destinies.
And among the five wonders, [Fate Revolution] was supreme, perfectly matching the framework where [Variable] ranked first among the Five Great Heavenly Destinies. This triggered an extremely high concept.
Lu Yang didn't know the mystery within, but the Primordial Saint couldn't be clearer.
Why was [Variable] first?
The reason was simple— it was the mark left in the Light Sea by the first and only upper-realm Deity Transformation in history since the birth of Light Sea!