Lu Yang's spirit drifted upon the face of the abyss.
Opening his eyes, Lu Yang followed his established routine— seeking out Yu Suzhen to calm his nerves, then allowing his mind to surge, leaping into the [Heavenly Palace] located far beyond the Light Sea.
"...Lu Yang."
Before his eyes was a scene far different from the forest of myriad deities of the previous life—the palace was empty, save for four people looking at him with expressions of concern.
The Patriarch Nether Whisper, Perfected One Vanquishing-Demon, Suo Huan, and Empress Xiao.
"What has happened?"
The Patriarch Nether Whisper his brow, being the first to sense the anomaly in Lu Yang's emotions. He said heavily, "Has something gone wrong with the [Heavenly Palace]?"
"...No."
Lu Yang gave a bitter smile and opened the panel of the [Book of a Hundred Lifetimes].
[To have truly forced the Primordial Saint to his death once and witnessed the Final Tribulation with your own eyes—you have achieved a feat no one else could.]
[Current remaining pages of the Book of a Hundred Lifetimes: 83]
[Restarting this life, you may choose one of the following rewards from your previous life:
Treasure
Cultivation
Secret Technique
Forfeit all rewards to randomly awaken a talent based on your previous experiences.]
"...My apologies."
Looking at the information on the panel, Lu Yang's celestial form turned toward the Patriarch and the others, speaking with solemnity: "This time, I cannot choose you."
Speaking to this point, he was being entirely open.
Having experienced so many restarts, Patriarch Nether Whisper vaguely sensed the key issue, his voice deepening: "Have you come through it all again?"
"Mhm... it was nothing much."
Lu Yang didn't elaborate. The sudden apology was purely from the heart; he could have chosen not to explain, and Patriarch and the others wouldn't have remembered.
But he said it anyway.
In a daze, he felt as if he had returned to the previous life—back to that most exalted rank of Dao Lord, back to the instant before the restart. He had watched with his own eyes as all things shattered like bubbles, seeing the concerned faces of Sisui and Dao Tianqi erased of all traces by an invisible giant hand.
Their existence had meant nothing.
Restarting so easily made everyone else seem like NPCs in a game; he clearly had a more efficient way to utilize things...
[Fellow Daoist, do not change.]
The warning Sisui gave when he ascended to Dao Lord rank echoed in his ears again. Lu Yang exhaled deeply, as if to purge all these cold emotions.
'At the very least, I must remember.'
Others might not remember, but he had to. He would engrave everything in his heart and continue forward to walk toward the most perfect ending.
Instantly, Lu Yang felt his fluctuating Primordial Spirit thoughts stabilize, and he reached a new realization: 'Just now... that was a form of cultivation for the Primordial Spirit.'
I have dealt with myself for so long; I would rather remain myself.
If a day came when he no longer remembered—or was unwilling to remember—he would likely follow the old paths of the Sword Lord and Cang Hao that Sisui had described.
'I choose Treasure.'
Lu Yang lowered his eyelids, withdrawing all emotion. A moment later, amidst the radiance of the [Book of a Hundred Lifetimes], a Dao fruit appeared out of thin air in his hand.
[Heavenly Destiny Reckoning]!
Simultaneously, he summoned the version of [Heavenly Destiny Reckoning] already within the [Heavenly Palace]. He clapped his hands together, refining the two into one.
"BOOM!"
In an instant, the Light of Order—so intense it nearly turned into a physical tide—erupted from Lu Yang as the center, expanding toward every corner of the [Heavenly Palace].
This was the [Dao Fruit] cultivated in the previous life using the [Tianhuang] world opened by Sisui, the myriad living beings of the Light Sea, and various Great Daos like Spiritual Power, Yin and Yang, Dharma Body, Tribulation, and Dao Heart as nutrients. In terms of its sheer stature, it had already exceeded the shackles of the Light Sea!
'It was because of [Tianhuang].'
Lu Yang understood in his heart. The former [Tianhuang] contained Sisui's transcendent essence; thus, the Dao fruit birthed through it was also tainted with that concept.
Furthermore, Lu Yang had nourished it far too well.
It was already a convergence of the concept of the Five Great Heavenly Destinies, and having fused so much high-quality nutrient, its ability to break through the limits was due to the robust foundation behind it.
Within the Light Sea, the Ten Great Daos are supreme.
However, these ten Daos can only allow a cultivator to reach the peak of Golden Core at most; otherwise, the various Dao Lords back then wouldn't have spent so much effort searching for a way forward.
Even the Ancestral Dragon, the only one at the Dao Lord level, was not there because the [Five Elements] Dao possessed that stature, but because it was born with the stature of a Dao Lord.
But now, the eleventh Great Dao had appeared.
It was not a unorthodox-path of any of the ten Daos, but stood unique and independent. It exceeded the limits of the Light Sea—it was a Great Dao truly possessing the stature of a Dao Lord!
"Looking across the Light Sea, perhaps only the [Variable] can surpass it."
After all, that was a legacy left by the high-stage Deity Transformation being; Lu Yang didn't dare compare himself to that just yet. But compared to the other Great Daos, its essence was superior to all of them!
Even [Inevitable Fate]—as "overpowered" as it appeared—wasn't like that because the Dao itself was strong, but because the one using it was the Primordial Saint; the Dao was the one being propped up. In Lu Yang's case, however, the relationship between the Dao and the Dao-attaining land was completely reversed.
"Currently, my Dao is stronger than my Dao-attaining land."
"However, I still lack a foundation."
A Dao must have a beginning and an end; otherwise, it is incomplete. No matter how great the power, it is difficult to deploy fully.
"Generally, Great Daos and Dao fruits take root in the [Sea of Bitterness]."
"But for me, doing so would only drag [Heavenly Destiny Reckoning] back into the shackles of the Light Sea. Besides, that would be far too conspicuous."
Lu Yang knew that if a Dao capable of reaching the Dao Lord rank suddenly popped up in the [Sea of Bitterness], it would shock all the other Dao Lords into a frenzied backlash.
'I should... go to the Dark Void!'
Since he had jumped out of the Light Sea's restrictions, he shouldn't choose to cocoon himself by rooting the Dao there. He should root it in the Dark Void instead.
He wouldn't be the eleventh Dao of the Light Sea.
If he was going to do it, he would be the first Dao of the Dark Void!
Furthermore, the Dark Void was an excellent place—much harder for the Primordial Saint to discover than the Light Sea, and a Great Dao is not as conspicuous as a Dao-attaining land.
'It's settled!'
In the final fifty years of the last life, he had been almost entirely immersed in the insight and interpretation of [Heavenly Destiny Reckoning]; he hadn't just been sitting there in a daze.
With that thought, Lu Yang reached his decision.
Go to the Dark Void, establish his Dao, and restore his cultivation!
Then, he lowered his gaze to look at the physical world of the Light Sea, his heart certain— 'Nothing has happened. As expected, the time gap truly exists.'
'But it is only a time gap. The Primordial Saint of the last life chose suicide to leave a record, clearly certain that his self in this life would see it. He is also confident that even with a time gap—even if he can't know of my existence immediately—he will still have the ability to control the situation when the time comes.'
So the question was—
'Does he know that I can choose restart anchor points and quickly restore my peak cultivation from before the restart via rewards?'
Most likely not.
At the very least, judging from the Primordial Saint's "restart diary"—which was crammed with hard work and effort—Lu Yang saw none of the charm that should come with using "cheats."
'For now, I'll use ten lifetimes to test the waters and see what happens.'
Within ten lifetimes, he would figure out the details of the time gap—specifically— at what exact point in time does the Primordial Saint investigate the [Supreme Grandmaster] and see the altered records?
Then the method to break the deadlock would be simple.
Whenever the Primordial Saint goes to check the [Supreme Grandmaster], I will intentionally choose an anchor point after that moment, then use a restart to bypass it entirely.
Of course, the prerequisite was—
'I must first obtain one or two new anchor points.'
'Last life, achieving Dao Lord via the [Heavenly Palace] was not recognized by the [Book of a Hundred Lifetimes]. '
'In this life, I will use only the [Heavenly Destiny Reckoning]—using the Dao to break the limit of Golden Core perfection. I wonder if that will gain the book's recognition?'
With that thought, Lu Yang immediately entered the Dark Void.