Cang Hao and Myriad Laws.
In terms of age, Cang Hao was indeed the senior. Myriad Laws, as the last of the Three Foundations to attain the Dao, was among the youngest of the Dao Lords.
He was only slightly older than the Primordial Saint.
However, as a rising star, he had truly surpassed his predecessors, far outstripping Du Xuan and single-handedly propping up the Three Foundations after Sisui was suppressed.
The other Dao Lords had found this somewhat strange, but they attributed it to Myriad Laws' own brilliance; after all, this wretched place never lacked geniuses. Furthermore, he was being compared to Du Xuan—and when one thought about it, surpassing Du Xuan wasn't exactly a boast-worthy achievement.
Yet, no one expected this.
At this very moment, Cang Hao and Myriad Laws—two Dao Lords who were equally taciturn and low-profile—were fundamentally the same person!
"Impossible..."
Even Sisui found the scene before him hard to believe. "Myriad Laws... I observed him back then. He could not possibly have been a Dao Lord practicing in secret."
Dao Lords had forged Primordial Spirits.
The light of a Primordial Spirit cannot be hidden from the gaze of another Primordial Spirit, especially not from someone like Sisui. How could Cang Hao have hidden from him?
On the other side, the Sword Lord found it even more inconceivable. She had planted [Threads of Sentiment] on both Cang Hao and Myriad Laws; she knew them inside out. Neither their depth nor their essence should have been able to hide from her. If they truly were the same person, how did they evade the perception of her threads?
It was illogical.
Simultaneously, the Primordial Saint let out a long breath. "Interesting. Not one person, yet acting as one. Did you secretly modify my Primordial Spirit method?"
"Fine methods!"
The Primordial Saint couldn't help but clap and laugh. "No wonder you were able to obtain a portion of the [School of Names] inheritance back then. I underestimated you."
Cang Hao and Myriad Laws were not the same person!
Others might not know, but how could he be deceived?
Given his history, the backgrounds of the Dao Lords could not be hidden from him. That was how he remained unerringly calculative, achieving a legacy at the pinnacle of the Light Sea.
Thus, he was one hundred percent certain that Cang Hao and Myriad Laws were not one person. Instead, the current fusion was what warranted study. He sensed an anomaly within their Primordial Spirits—it seemed to involve the secret arts of the [School of Names], yet it bore many traces of deliberate modification. If one had to say—
"You created your own [School of Names] method?"
Infinite Light of Wisdom swirled in the Primordial Saint's eyes as he finally deduced the change occurring in Cang Hao and Myriad Laws—a transformation that had astonished even himself and Sisui.
"Not one person, but the same [Name]!"
"You and Myriad Laws share a single name!"
"Under normal circumstances, sharing a name is impossible. Even if the names are identical, the details of the Primordial Spirits would show obvious differences."
"But you two are different now. You both switched to the [Seven Emotions Reaching Heaven Incantation] and attained my [Supreme Forgotten Emotion]. Emotionless, selfless, lawless, and heavenless—where only the Dao remains. Your essences are extremely close, which created the possibility of sharing a single [Name]. Truly an ingenious method!"
The light finally dissipated.
Cang Hao stepped forward. The injuries previously inflicted by Myriad Laws' [Dao Arts] had now become his own gain; there was no longer any damage to speak of.
Dao Arts and Fortune.
Before this, no one in the Light Sea had ever simultaneously attained two Great Daos. At most, they borrowed wonders, which bore no comparison to a true Master of the Dao.
Yet now, Cang Hao and Myriad Laws had achieved it.
Being [effectively one person], Fortune and Dao Arts were unified, driving their stature to skyrocket in this instant!
In a mere breath, they broke through a critical threshold. With the Great Daos overlapping and their path extending, the fused entity reached the stature Sisui held before his transcendence. Aside from Sisui and the Primordial Saint, they were now the strongest among the Dao Lords!
"Nian Yao, do you have any final words?"
Cang Hao's gaze was indifferent, his voice calm. The Sword Lord raised her eyes, staring directly at that face which had been stripped of all emotion.
"...Heh."
If begging for mercy worked, she would have knelt without hesitation. She would do anything; face and dignity were trivial matters not worth considering.
However, she could tell that begging would not buy her life.
So why say more?
Taking a long breath, the Sword Lord did not speak. Instead, she mustered every ounce of her majesty and erupted in one final, desperate attempt to flee into the distance.
In the next instant, an overwhelming brilliance erupted from Cang Hao's palm, illuminating the realm and drowning everything in its wake. It was a long time before the light gradually faded.
Within the Dark Void, the surging Long River of Destiny finally ground to a halt. The churning waters fell into a long-absent silence, without a single ripple. The [Destiny] that once hung high in the sky had finally set; its glory was gone, and its many wonders could no longer be maintained.
"BOOM!"
Suddenly, a hollow roar shook the Light Sea and echoed through the Dark Void. The radiant dharmic light vanished as the Sword Lord's silhouette completely dissipated into the Light Sea.
A Dao Lord had fallen!
Regardless of her character, the Sword Lord's strength was unquestionable. Her practice in [The Great Dao Responds to Me] had reached an incredibly profound level.
Thus, her fall affected far more than just herself; it dealt a heavy blow to the entire Great Dao of [Destiny]. For at least the next hundred thousand years, this Dao would not manifest in the world, nor could anyone re-attain it until time eroded the mark she left upon it.
Furthermore.
If there were still masses of living beings in the Light Sea, they would have felt a resonance. With [Destiny] gone, all beings would gain the wonder of perceiving the future.
Even mortals.
For example, the "prophetic dreams" of urban legends, or the feeling of déjà vu for events never before seen—these are all perceptions of the future.
In the past, these perceptions were mostly hoarded by [Destiny]. As a wonder of that Dao, it did not allow the mundane to peer into it or steal its majesty.
Now that [Destiny] was hidden and the Great Dao shattered, it could no longer seal away its secrets, allowing them to drift freely through the mortal world.
Soon, an invisible hand swept across the area.
All concept and spiritual light were smoothed over by the palm, revealing the fused form of Cang Hao and Myriad Laws as he slowly pulled a sea of consciousness into his sleeve.
He then surveyed his surroundings before vanishing into the Dark Void without a word.
In another realm of the Light Sea, the Primordial Saint shook his head helplessly.
"Variables..."
Since taking control of [Inevitable Fate], the more he schemed, the more he appreciated the grandeur of [Variables]. The claim that it was the foremost power in the Light Sea was no exaggeration.
His schemes against the Sword Lord and Cang Hao were certainly insidious, drawing heavily from the experience granted by that ancient fortuitous encounter. Yet in the end, Cang Hao's trump card had exceeded his expectations. The planned mutual downfall had turned into a "snipe and clam" situation where the fisherman—Cang Hao—reaped the spoils.
'If I let him go now, the next time we meet, he will likely be a Dao Lord.'
At this thought, a surge of killing intent appeared in the Primordial Saint's eyes. He would rather have the Sword Lord, Cang Hao, and Myriad Laws all alive than face one fused Dao Lord.
The latter was far more troublesome than the former.
Especially since Cang Hao, upon returning to his Dao Lord rank, would not necessarily stand with him.
After all, the [Paramita] was but a tool. He could lead this tool, and Cang Hao could do the same. Cang Hao likely wanted to eliminate him even more than Sisui did!
However, in the end, he retracted all emotion. Sisui's gaze followed him like a shadow, already locked onto him.
'The situation is growing worse.'
'If this continues, I will have no chance at transcendence.'
At this thought, the Primordial Saint turned his gaze toward the [Heavenly Destiny Divine Record] brought out by the Ancestral Dragon. Within his indifferent eyes, emotion slowly began to surface.
It was a madness known as [Seeking the Dao].