Lu Yang's voice reached the Primordial Saint.
The Primordial Saint froze, his expression shifting rapidly. Everything unfolded exactly as Lu Yang had predicted.
The [Variable] yielded no response.
As the master of [Inevitable Fate], the Primordial Saint had suppressed the [Variable] for eons. He understood it intimately and wielded its profound majesty flawlessly.
In his previous life, he had exploited the balance between [Inevitable Fate] and the [Variable] to salvage countless collapsing scenarios. Yet now, having achieved transcendence, he sensed nothing of the [Variable]. He had become an irrelevant outsider.
"A trap..."
The Primordial Saint gritted his teeth, finally grasping the snare hidden within transcendence. This was why Lu Yang had allowed him to ascend.
Yes, he had grown stronger.
But in doing so, he had severed his own retreat, losing that innate sliver of hope present in all living things. Faced with a desperate situation, he stood powerless.
"No, I haven't lost yet!"
He rallied his spirits. The body Lu Yang had just bisected seamlessly reattached. Time flowed backward, instantly restoring him to his peak state.
He was a Transcender!
As long as he retained this essence, he stood a head above Lu Yang. He could suppress the Seed of the Great Dao and deny Lu Yang Deity Transformation.
If Lu Yang couldn't achieve Deity Transformation, his strength mattered little. The Divine Land would inevitably shatter, ushering in the Final Tribulation.
The Primordial Saint could survive the true Final Tribulation through his transcended essence, but Lu Yang would die. If he held out until then, victory remained his.
He just needed to stall!
Abandoning the fight, the Primordial Saint split his figure across the river of time, transforming into countless illusory silhouettes.
Then, he fled. He retreated into older pasts and distant futures, scattering in all directions just to buy time against Lu Yang.
Simultaneously, he continued extracting majesty from the Seed of the Great Dao. Forcing Lu Yang to restart would make his enemy stronger, but it would also bleed Lu Yang's restart counts dry, leaving him defenseless against the Final Tribulation.
The Primordial Saint maintained his composure. He was borrowing a knife to kill, striking directly at Lu Yang's vital flaw. Without transcendence, resisting the Final Tribulation was impossible. It wasn't about strength; it was a matter of compatibility.
"Who said I cannot transcend?"
Watching the struggling Primordial Saint, Lu Yang remained calm. Unhurried, he stood in place and pinched a hand seal.
The grand majesty of the [Variable] rippled across multiple space-times. Everyone who had met, fought, or spoken with Lu Yang within the cycles of the [Book of a Hundred Lifetimes] recalled their pasts, only for their memories of Lu Yang to fade.
They were forgetting him.
Lu Yang slowly vanished from space and time. This forgetting began with those holding the shallowest connections to him, like Liu Xin and Xiao Shiye. If Lu Yang's life were a book, the minor characters were the first to lose the protagonist.
As they forgot, Lu Yang's figure blurred. The aura binding him to the mortal dust experienced a momentary liberation.
The Primordial Saint's eye caught the shift immediately.
"How is that possible..."
He halted his flight, staring at Lu Yang as if witnessing something irrational. He detected the concept of [Transcendence] radiating from Lu Yang! Though faint, it was real. If Lu Yang transcended, attaining reality from this single thought of Deity Transformation, fleeing became meaningless!
This defied logic.
Sisui's transcendence required 129,600 years, excluding eons of prior accumulation; it crystallized his wisdom. The Primordial Saint's own journey was identical. The [Paramita] ascension—the ultimate leap—was his life's blood, the culmination of endless deductions.
What foundation did Lu Yang possess? He had cultivated for barely a hundred thousand years. Reaching the Dao Lord realm was already a heaven-sent fortune. How could he design a method for transcendence?
I spent countless epochs to transcend, yet you achieve it so easily? The Primordial Saint was baffled.
Lu Yang laughed loudly. "Because I am different. From the very beginning, I was completely different from all of you."
He was a transmigrator! He possessed no wisdom light, nor was he a Pre-Ancient cultivator. He hailed from another world. From his first breath here, he transcended this realm!
"I just became entangled with too many people, accumulating karma through repeated restarts. It masked my essence as a Transcender, trapping me in the mortal dust. Once I sever these karmic ties, I will naturally transcend!"
Lu Yang spoke with absolute certainty. As more people forgot him, his figure withdrew from space and time, ascending to a higher plane. His transcendent aura intensified.
The Primordial Saint's expression hardened. However, under the [Supreme Forgotten Emotions], he felt no despair; he only calculated countermeasures.
Since things have come to this... He quickly identified the optimal solution.
If I cannot achieve Deity Transformation and transcendence, I will deny everyone else!
He gripped the [Heavenly Destiny Divine Record], pouring boundless majesty into it. The divine book began to fracture
. Inside, the Seed of the Great Dao erupted with a violent, sorrowful cry. Profound wonders galloped, myriad colors interwove, and the Seed itself cracked alongside the record!
Lu Yang raised an eyebrow.
"Book of a Hundred Lifetimes—!!!"
An illusory bubble popped. Everything restarted.
However, both the [Heavenly Destiny Divine Record] and the Seed of the Great Dao retained their cracked states.
Uniqueness! A restart shifted the positions of these supreme treasures, but it could not alter their foundational existence. Once shattered, they remained broken.
This was the Primordial Saint's goal. Clash the uniqueness of the two supreme treasures. Destroy the [Heavenly Destiny Divine Record] and shatter the Seed of the Great Dao to detonate its majesty!
The Primordial Saint's eyes reflected a calm madness born of pure rationality. Raging waves churned beneath that tranquil surface.
Lu Yang understood the gamble instantly. Detonating the Seed of the Great Dao bypassed the restart's repairs. The erupting majesty would have nowhere to go, violently flooding the surroundings. The Primordial Saint would be the closest person to the blast.
Either I absorb the detonated majesty and achieve Deity Transformation... or we both die in the explosion!
This was classic Primordial Saint.
Lu Yang frowned. "You want mutual destruction."
Crack! The Primordial Saint didn't answer. He ripped the [Heavenly Destiny Divine Record] further, forcing the Seed of the Great Dao to shatter in sync. The boiling brilliance intensified.
"Book of a Hundred Lifetimes—!!!"
The world plunged into an indescribable illusion. Lu Yang accelerated his restarts, continuously stacking his majesty. They raced against time. Lu Yang sought to elevate his power to suppress the Primordial Saint, while his enemy rushed to detonate the Seed of the Great Dao first.
Simultaneously, Lu Yang rapidly severed his karma. But as he reached the threads binding him to Patriarch Nether Whisper, Perfected One Vanquishing-Demon, Suo Huan, Empress Xiao, [Sky-Shrouding], the World Honored One, and Dao Tianqi, he hesitated.
Should he sever them? Should he force his allies to forget him?
That brief hesitation decided the tug-of-war. Seizing the opening, the Primordial Saint completed his preparations!
"RUMBLE!"
A crash that split heaven and earth erupted from the Primordial Saint's hands. Dazzling, multi-colored light exploded outward.
"I win!" The Primordial Saint lifted his head. "The human heart... remains a weakness. You lost to your own heart. Half a beat too slow. Had you been decisive, I might have lost."
His voice faded into the light.
Lu Yang sensed a transcendent majesty spreading outward, ignoring the [Book of a Hundred Lifetimes]!
The Seed of the Great Dao had shattered!
The Primordial Saint braced to receive the howling power of Deity Transformation, betting his life to refine it and ascend.
Yet—
Lu Yang's transcendent aura suddenly collapsed, dragging him back beneath the rolling karma of the mortal dust. His expression shifted.
His brows relaxed. The tension of their race vanished, replaced by genuine ease. He cast a deep glance at the Primordial Saint.
The Primordial Saint read that look instantly. It was pity.
Pitying me? Wait... what happened to his aura? Wasn't he transcending?
"Do you believe everything I say?" Lu Yang patted his sleeves and laughed.
"Natural transcendence? If severing karma was all it took, I wouldn't have worked this hard."
"What do you mean..."
"I mean I lied to you!" Lu Yang laughed. "I am a Perfected Lord of the Saint Sect, a true inheritor of the Sword Pavilion! Anyone with a brain knows I don't tell the truth!"
There was no transcendence!
Stepping out of the three metamorphoses and wielding the [Variable] relied entirely on Shi Weixiong's divine blade—an external object. Lu Yang had never even considered transcendence. How could he possibly ascend mid-battle?
"Only an idiot would believe that!"
Lu Yang shook his head. "Severing karma merely displayed my transmigrator essence, which mimics a Transcender. That's all."
True transcendence was never so cheap.
The Primordial Saint froze within the billionth of a second after the Seed of the Great Dao shattered.
Ignoring him, Lu Yang continued.
"You also made a massive mistake. You think we are the same. I admit we are cut from the same cloth in some aspects. However, my experiences differ. Look around you, old man. You reached the end, yet you are entirely alone. I have friends. I have a deep background."
"What do you have to fight me with? Did you really think I would abandon everyone to pursue transcendence? Judging me by your own standards? With all these karmic connections, even that bald donkey, the World Honored One, looks pleasing to the eye lately!"
It was a fatal mistake. If the Primordial Saint hadn't projected his own selfish nature onto Lu Yang, he wouldn't have fallen for the fake transcendence and chosen mutual destruction.
Lu Yang's words struck deep, silencing the Primordial Saint. But he quickly regained his composure.
"Even so, the outcome remains."
Lu Yang had tricked him down a dead-end road, but it wasn't a broken one.
"As long as I survive the deluge of majesty from the shattered Seed and refine it, I will achieve Deity Transformation. Your lies mean nothing now."
Pity swelled in Lu Yang's eyes.
"How sad. You still fail to grasp your true situation. I saw it clearly long ago. The spectator sees clearly while the player remains blind."
The Primordial Saint faltered. "What...?"
His true situation?
He forcefully suppressed his doubts, tearing his gaze from Lu Yang to focus entirely on the shattered Seed. Words were meaningless now. The Seed had erupted; their conversation only sustained itself through the majesty of attained Daoists. Time marched on.
He had one task.
Survive the impact! Refine the majesty and achieve Deity Transformation! I am still the ultimate winner!
Distracting thoughts threatened the purity of his Primordial Spirit. He cut off the conversation and severed his external perception, focusing body and soul on the Seed.
He possessed immense confidence. Having discarded worldly constraints to walk the Great Dao alone, and having transcended a step ahead, he would seize this opportunity!
"RUMBLE!"
The shattered Seed acted as a gateway. An unstoppable torrent of majesty surged out, instantly swallowing the Primordial Saint!