Congratulations, Fellow Daoist. From now on, you walk the Great Dao alone.
Looking at the smiling Primordial Saint cupping his hands in greeting before him, Sisui had no intention of returning the gesture. He only looked at the person before him with equal amazement.
"...The joy is mutual. Fellow Daoist is not the slightest bit inferior to me."
The Primordial Saint marveled at his achievement, and he felt the same way.
What took him so many years to accomplish, the Primordial Saint had achieved over a hundred thousand years ago. Even if he relied on external forces, he ultimately succeeded.
Compared to him, his current stature was only equivalent to the first layer of [Paramita]. However, the person before him had once reigned at the pinnacle of [Paramita], residing at the seventh layer. Although he had fallen due to the drawbacks of external objects, unlike the other Dao Lords, his essence had undergone a transformation.
The so-called "immortal-like" appearance originated from this.
The celestial appearance, the honored title of Primordial. To completely transform himself into this appearance, this transformed essence was also a crucial factor.
After a moment of silence, Sisui suddenly asked:
"Fellow Daoist, are you still you right now?"
Thinking back to when they first met, the Primordial Saint had merely changed his name. His face was entirely different from the current celestial appearance.
But now, it had changed.
Not only was his name replaced with a [True Name] carrying greater concept, but even his face had become the face of an immortal, with no trace of his past self visible.
The next second, the Primordial Saint smiled.
"Fellow Daoist is not me, so how can you know me?"
"A mere name and physical vessel are external things. If they are changed, they are changed. The key is the [Self]. As long as the [Self] remains unchanged, all other myriad things are false appearances."
All myriad things are false, only the [Self] is true.
"Is this the Dao of the Nascent Soul?"
Sisui looked deeply at the Primordial Saint, shaking his head and sighing. "Only today do I understand the secret of the Nascent Soul. Among the Dao Lords, only Fellow Daoist can be called a true Nascent Soul."
"Hahaha!"
Hearing this, the Primordial Saint laughed out loud, but pointed at Sisui and shook his head. "For me, it is exactly the opposite. In my view, Fellow Daoist's transcendence is false."
"In what way is it false?" Sisui's expression remained unchanged.
"Your cultivation level is false!"
The Primordial Saint said with certainty, "Fellow Daoist returned the Great Daos, settling all karma. Although clean and unburdened, and presumably able to travel the Dark Void without fear of getting lost—"
"It's useless."
"Fellow Daoist is merely carefree in the Light Sea and unconstrained in the Dark Void. You have attained the essence of transcendence but not the power of transcendence. In the end, it is nothing but an illusion."
At this point, the Primordial Saint even felt somewhat regretful. "For instance, right now, Fellow Daoist has indeed transcended, but your cultivation level is only akin to the Ancestral Dragon of the past, merely at the first layer of [Paramita]. Yet you achieved transcendence prematurely, unaffected by the karma of the Light Sea. How will you progress in the future? Every step will be as difficult as ascending to heaven!"
"Even if Fellow Daoist's final step has no bottlenecks—
"Before that, to elevate your stature to the ninth layer of [Paramita], by my rough estimate, even for Fellow Daoist, it will take at least billions of years!"
"Therefore, this is a false transcendence."
"Though you can attain temporary freedom, true liberation is hard to come by. I do not want this."
The Primordial Saint spoke with absolute certainty. Every word seemed to trigger a resonance in the Dark Void, crashing into the chaos, striking Sisui's Dao Heart, and shaking the lake of his mind.
The clash had long since begun.
From the moment the two met, the Heaven, Earth, and Man Dao Struggle of the past had already restarted. At this moment, the two were debating [Heaven] once again!
"If that's the case, what kind of transcendence does Fellow Daoist seek?"
Sisui's eyes were calm as he spoke in a deep voice. "Suppressing the Light Sea with [Paramita], using sentient beings as materials, ultimately reaching the supreme pinnacle, and taking another step to transcend?"
"Correct!"
The Primordial Saint smiled. "Fellow Daoist indeed understands me. And unlike Fellow Daoist and the Ancestral Dragon, this path is truly the perfect, most correct path."
"How so?" Sisui asked.
"Because the ancient era was destroyed!"
Debating the Dao with him, the Primordial Saint held nothing back, saying plainly, "And the reason the ancient era was destroyed was that it nurtured the first transcended person."
"He stepped on the ancient era and took a supreme step."
"Compared to him, whether it's the Ancestral Dragon or Fellow Daoist, your vision is too narrow. The method of transcendence is completely imitating his Great Merit."
At this point, the Primordial Saint shook his head. "For example, the Ancestral Dragon back then swallowed the Five Great Heavenly Destinies with the Five Elements, yet focused on the Variable that ranked first."
This was a form of imitation.
The Ancestral Dragon racked his brains precisely to recreate the supreme Great Merit of the first transcender, who pioneered "transcendence"—the greatest variable in all of history.
"He ultimately failed to walk this path."
Immediately after, the Primordial Saint glanced in Lu Yang's direction and smiled. "However, after him, an outstanding junior managed to achieve something similar."
"An unorthodox path of [Transcendence], plus a Dao-Attaining Land. Unfortunately, due to the [Heavenly Being's Remnant Consciousness], he cannot truly control the Light Sea and is stuck at Golden Core Perfection. This Dao-Attaining Land has major flaws. However, with this unorthodox path present, perhaps he can seek a false transcendence like Fellow Daoist in the future."
"As for Fellow Daoist..."
His voice falling, the Primordial Saint retracted his gaze and looked at Sisui. "Fellow Daoist alone holds three Daos and created the [Dao Heart]. Truly remarkable. It can be considered a lucky coincidence."
After speaking, he shook his head again.
"No, I can't say that. With such a Light of Wisdom, Fellow Daoist must have sensed it in your heart and chose this path. It's actually no different from the Ancestral Dragon."
"It's still an imitation."
Just a few simple words, yet like the sharpest blade, they sought to deny the conceptual foundation of Sisui's bitter cultivation up to this day. Seemingly peaceful, they were fraught with hidden killing intent.
Hearing this, Sisui slowly exhaled. "Why is it an imitation?"
The Primordial Saint chuckled lightly.
"Because that first transcender back then departed by transcending through the Primordial Spirit Dao Heart. Doesn't Fellow Daoist's transcendence through [Dao Heart] precisely align with that concept?"
"So, Fellow Daoist..."
At this point, the Primordial Saint extended a hand toward Sisui and said faintly, "Since you have transcended, you must have let go of many obsessions and are no longer bound."
"That being the case, why don't you and I join forces?"
"The entire Light Sea is our pasture, allowing us to grant life and mete out death. Doing so, in at most another hundred thousand years, Fellow Daoist will be able to catch a glimpse of the upper realm of Deity Transformation!"
The Primordial Saint spoke with excitement, but his eyes gradually turned cold.
Because Sisui remained calm.
"...It seems Fellow Daoist is unwilling."
The Primordial Saint sighed, his tone returning to blandness. "That's why I said long ago, Fellow Daoist doesn't understand human nature. I can only replay the events of the past."
Faced with such an assessment, Sisui had nothing to say back then.
However, this time, he shook his head without hesitation. "That is a huge fallacy."
"In the struggle of human nature last time, I lost to the Dao Lords. I indeed do not understand the hearts of the Dao Lords. However, the heart of the Light Sea and the heart of the world are yet unknown."
"The so-called Dao Lords are just a group of solitary individuals."
How can solitary individuals represent human nature?
Hearing this, the Primordial Saint blinked, then laughed loudly. "Indeed a huge fallacy. Although Fellow Daoist has transcended, the [Self] has become even firmer, not changing in the slightest."
"Unfortunately, the same applies to me."
My will is the will of heaven; my heart is the heart of humanity.
In my eyes, the Light Sea is nothing but a pigsty, and sentient beings are merely livestock, all resources for my pursuit of the Dao. As for human nature, if they haven't become Dao Lords, can they even be considered human?
Sisui's eyes drooped. "Different paths, no shared schemes."
The Primordial Saint nodded. "Good."
That was all there was to say!