Boundless death qi emerged from the deepest parts of the Netherworld, swallowing myriad phenomena with unimaginable speed and isolating all observation from outside the Netherworld.
This isolation was not comprehensive.
Strictly speaking, it was confined to the components in the deepest parts of the Netherworld—the four great ghost domains and the Netherworld Lord's Palace—but it still played a critical role.
Because Lu Yang had escaped.
Originally, under the Sword Lord's all-out effort, Lu Yang had [Destiny] suppressing him from above and sword light rising from the [Home-Viewing Terrace] blocking his path from below.
With these two combined, it should have been impossible for Lu Yang to escape into the four great ghost domains, and without entering them, he naturally couldn't use them to jump out of the [Heavenly Dao]'s encirclement... However, the wave of death qi rising from below shattered the blockade of the [Home-Viewing Terrace] and opened a thoroughfare for him.
This gave Lu Yang a window to operate.
A chance to break away from the Primordial Saint's gaze, reach Perfected Lord Azure Firmament Radiance—the Ancestral Dragon—and transform it into a [Character in the Play].
Immediately following this, he showed no lingering attachment.
His mental incarnation flickered like a candle flame, and in a flash, he had broken free from the Netherworld, re-entering the Dark Void to return to his main body sitting outside the heavens.
Almost simultaneously.
Resonant sword chimes followed in pursuit, carrying a sharpness that could slay all things, appearing as if they intended to obliterate Lu Yang's incarnation on the spot before it could return to his main body.
Until the figure outside the heavens looked toward it.
The light of Order was lit; a ring of the Great Dao, which seemed to expound all ultimate truths, began to rotate, as if infinite profound wonder were condensing within it.
"Fellow Daoist..."
A towering voice echoed thunderously within the Dark Void, like a candle flame in the night—not powerful, nor dazzling, yet it tore through the boundless darkness.
"You wish to battle me."
Six heavy and powerful words. [Order] framed myriad phenomena, refusing to entangle with the Sword Lord at all, but instead striking directly at the essence, crashing thunderously into the river of destiny.
In the next instant, the Sword Lord felt her mind stir. In a daze, a young Daoist wearing a black robe and a tall, straight figure seemed to pace forth within the river of destiny. Everywhere he passed, boundless light of Order covered the heavens and earth, continuously encroaching upon the future destiny concept that originally belonged to her.
"...Seeking death!"
The Sword Lord was instantly enraged. The river of destiny almost boiled, condensing infinite light and color, intending to directly suppress and kill the young Daoist within the depths of [Destiny].
Seeing this, Lu Yang did not yield an inch.
With a turn of his mind, the ring of the Great Dao manifested by his Dao Ancestor true body immediately locked onto a small segment of the river of destiny. The power accumulated within it erupted violently at this moment.
[Modify].
A usage distinct from [Delete], this was a brand-new method Lu Yang had developed after his mastery of the [Order] Dao took a further step.
In short, it involved incorporating external objects into [Order] and then redefining them. For example, previously, Lu Yang had forcibly defined the Threads of Sentiment as "dual cultivation" and then utilized his talent as a [Unorthodox Prodigy] to counter them—this was essentially an application of this technique.
At this moment, he repeated his old trick.
Beneath the ring of the Great Dao, a massive amount of future images were redefined and transformed by Lu Yang, forcibly intercepted from within the river of destiny.
However, in the very next instant, an even more boundless future surged forth from the unseen end of the River of Destiny, instantly swallowing the portion Lu Yang had encroached upon. As it shattered that fragment completely, it also engulfed his silhouette—like ten thousand swords descending at once—obliterating him into a sky of scattered light.
But that was all.
Though the Sword Lord paid a heavy price to destroy Lu Yang's form and erase his presence, the Dark Void trembled—and in the very next breath, a new figure reformed.
Lu Yang stood there once more.
"Well? Shall we continue?"
The young Daoist in the black robe stood with his hands behind his back in the Dark Void, the ring of the Great Dao behind his head still rotating continuously, appearing as if he had suffered no damage at all.
This was the gap in essence.
Even if the Sword Lord's stature was far superior to his, she could not wound the essence of his Dead Cycle. In the end, it would only evolve into a protracted war of attrition.
Seeing this, the Sword Lord also fell silent. The originally galloping and roaring river of destiny calmed down, and the sword chimes gradually turned into a dead silence.
After a long while, they receded like the rising and falling tide, revealing the Dark Void and the Light Sea once more. Clearly, she did not intend to entangle with Lu Yang to the bitter end.
She accepted this loss.
After watching the Sword Lord depart, the light of Order around Lu Yang gradually dimmed, and his eyes, which had been flowing with infinite data streams, returned to normal.
'Hmph.'
In the next second, he reabsorbed the mental incarnation that had escaped from the Netherworld, bringing the vast amount of Threads of Sentiment it had carried along completely under his control.
Refine!
Individual Threads of Sentiment were enveloped by [Order], then forcibly redefined as "dual cultivation," and finally integrated into Lu Yang's Primordial Spirit.
As time passed and more threads were refined, his mind grew increasingly agile. The threads were no longer a restraint to him, but instead a nourishing miraculous medicine and a fierce fire for tempering his consciousness. Under their influence, Lu Yang soon discovered a surprising change.
'The rift between the thoughts of good and evil has shrunk?'
'To think such a thing could happen?'
Regarding the Primordial Spirit, Lu Yang knew full well he had taken a shortcut; although he had achieved it, the risk was also great. The [Heavenly Emperor] had not truly perished.
Nor could it perish.
After all, only the union of the two was a true Primordial Spirit. If one side were to perish completely, it would only cause his Dao Heart to fall from the Primordial Spirit realm.
The rift between the thoughts of good and evil—the maneuvering between "me" and "myself"—was itself the method of Primordial Spirit cultivation advocated by the [Method of Traversing the Mortal Dust]. Lu Yang had not achieved the Primordial Spirit for long, so this rift was very obvious, which is why a subtle wavering had appeared at the moment of the restart.
However, there was now a change.
After refining the Threads of Sentiment, Lu Yang operated his Primordial Spirit thoughts again and found they were no longer as jerky as before, as if he had undergone the tempering of ten million years of time.
If heaven had feelings, heaven too would grow old; the righteous path of the human world is full of vicissitudes.
Primordial Spirit cultivation is generally measured in units of ten thousand years; therefore, generally speaking, the longer one lives, the stronger the Primordial Spirit and the more resolute the "I."
Thus, Lu Yang, who had attained the Primordial Spirit for less than a hundred years, had attainments in this area far inferior to the Sword Lord. Now, however, things were different. The refined Threads of Sentiment seemed to have usurped time from the Sword Lord, helping him fill the gaps brought by the years to a large extent. The fire of his Primordial Spirit grew increasingly pure.
After a long while, Lu Yang stopped the refinement of the Threads of Sentiment.
He had to admit he was somewhat addicted to the feeling, as this improvement was simply too rapid—it was equivalent to the Sword Lord using her own Primordial Spirit to nourish him!
'I can have more of this.'
'Having been on guard this time, the Sword Lord likely won't fall for it again. But I can perform this operation once in every lifetime; eating a few more might lead to a breakthrough!'
At this thought, even Lu Yang could not help but feel a surge of heat in his heart.
He had a premonition that if he could consume two or three more portions according to this time's standard, his Primordial Spirit might be able to illuminate the Dark Void of the second layer of the [Paramita]!
'At that time, I will have the capital to break through to the second layer... However, I am not walking the path of the [Paramita], so it is impossible for me to move directly to the second layer just because my Primordial Spirit cultivation has arrived. To advance, I must first make the [Order] Dao take a further step. It's a bit slower... but relatively more stable.'
At least once he ascended, it would be impossible to fall back down.
Lu Yang operated his divine sense to calm all his thoughts. Then, he turned his gaze toward the [Paramita], which had returned to tranquility, a trace of contemplation surfacing in his eyes.
He had finished everything he needed to do.
Now, how would the Primordial Saint react?
(End of Chapter)