Chapter 1942: This Road

The wind howled!

Heavy, feather-like snow swirled all around Mount Lingyu.

The biting wind filled his mouth and nose, its icy touch chilling his eyelids and cheeks, each contact sending a shiver deep into his bones.

Hua Changdeng could barely hear the world's noises. In his dull, vacant eyes, the solitary figure opposite him, clad in snow-white robes, was reflected.

One person, one sword, dimming the brilliance of the sun and moon.

"A Mortal Immortal..."

How like a flawless jade was Ba Zun'an!

Immovable and serene, wisdom hidden within, he stood eternally between heaven and earth, a creation of divine craftsmanship.

When Qingju returned to his body, the Dao flowed naturally, making him a complete, harmonious whole.

What he embodied was the perfect fusion of yin and yang, a flawless, complete perfection.

He was both Wuji and Taiji.

Yet, still as a mountain, he moved like thunder. The concept of an "Ancestral God" was no mere talk.

When Qingju was summoned and held diagonally in his hand, Taiji gave birth to Liangyi, yin and yang clearly distinguished, like river and stream.

Even if the Great Calamity of Ancestral Gods, which destroys methods, were summoned, a flick of his sleeve could restore perfection and shatter the tribulation of the Dao.

"'One step to zero, transcending the Great Calamity of Ancestral Gods that destroys methods, that alone would be enough.'"

"'But what about his Dao Integration period?'"

Even though Ba Zun'an demonstrated it multiple times, Hua Changdeng seemed to understand, yet he still couldn't break free from his ingrained thought patterns.

Why could someone achieve 'one step to zero' without undergoing tribulations or Dao integration to be deified and hailed as an Ancestor?

Hua Changdeng's insight was no less than that of the Ten Ancestors. Without it, he couldn't have embarked on the 'two-in-one' path, nor could he have risen again after failure, reopening a mysterious brilliance through the Way of the Sword.

His achievements, if scrutinized by future historians, should surpass those of at least four Ancestors: Sword, Dragon, Battle, and Heaven, by half a measure.

Indeed! Compared to the long and ancient lives of Ancestral Gods, Hua Changdeng's was utterly insignificant.

Yet, in a brief and hurried few decades, he had reached the absolute peak, the zenith of an era!

He perfectly manifested his talent, perfectly utilized the resources of the Sacred Emperor Yunshan, and perfectly navigated between the paths of Medicine, Ghost, and Sword, forging his own new path.

He stretched time to its limits – even during his self-imprisonment in the Screen and Candle Chamber, every moment was spent refining his Sword Ghost and deducing each step after becoming an Ancestral God.

Hua Changdeng was a genius.

He believed, and the Five Domains would also acknowledge, this to be true.

He was a genius among geniuses; otherwise, he wouldn't have been the first Ancestral God of the Spirit Refining Era!

But what about Ba Zun'an...

Hua Changdeng, lost in thought, looked sideways, silently gazing far to the east.

When Qingju returned from the Sword Burial Mound on East Mountain, at the moment when the Ghost Hunting Town shattered Ba Zun'an's 'Sword Self,' all so-called 'geniuses' became a joke!

Before 'one step to zero,' all his meticulous efforts – the refinement of death god power, the annexation of the Divine Court's underworld, the two-in-one integration of Ghost Ancestor, and the unlocking of Sword Ghost's mysteries – became mere clown tricks!

Tap, tap, tap...

In his silent, self-contained world, crisp footsteps sounded again, as if someone was approaching.

Hua Changdeng's eyes blurred.

He looked, and saw not the Five Domains.

Instead, he saw himself, half-leaning against a broken willow in the Screen and Candle Chamber, relaxed and self-contained.

One person, one sword.

An ancient table, a dying lamp.

Not self-pity, but deep-seated pride, disdain, and self-importance.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

But the footsteps grew closer, becoming increasingly piercing.

Step after step, they trod upon his Dao heart, sending ripples, one after another.

Hua Changdeng looked from beneath the broken willow. What was once a placid ancient well now raged like a tsunami in his heart.

His pupils trembled violently.

He knew too well when this was, who was approaching, and what their intentions were.

In the Eight Palaces!

The Sacred Slave Chief revealed his face!

The Eighth Sword Immortal, back in the world!

And the one approaching with crisp footsteps, shaking his head and muttering something, holding the Celestial Divination Compass, was precisely Dao Qiongcang, who had informed him of this matter.

"'Shut up!'"

"'Just shut up!'"

Hua Changdeng suddenly erupted, his Sword Ghost thrusting three times, piercing Dao Qiongcang with multiple holes and obliterating his figure into mere dust.

He caught his breath, as if he had stopped something, yet...

Clatter!

The Celestial Divination Compass fell to the ground, its star-spoon shadow casting long and short, whirling to a stop in the candlelight of the Screen and Candle Chamber.

Dao Qiongcang's prolonged chanting, like the eastward-coming Qingju, pierced directly into his heart, irrepressibly echoing loudly from the depths of his soul:

"'A sword comes from the east, a sword immortal too; drunk, leaning by Yellow Springs, he walks the azure sky.He seeks not to be a guest in the mundane world, yet how can his fervent sincerity be broken?'"

Shatter!

The Screen and Candle Chamber shattered like a moon reflected in water, or a flower in a mirror.

His lifelong efforts, on the verge of success, failed. He could neither integrate with the Dao nor devour his 'Sword Self.' Instead, he was like a devout pilgrim, bowing once, twice, thrice, reverently inviting the god and Buddha into his eyes.

The god and Buddha remained unmoved.

Hua Changdeng saw his deep-seated pride, disdain, and self-importance trampled underfoot, ground into dust.

The wind howled!

The heavy snow whitened his hair.

The howling wind suddenly jolted awake the people standing like stone in Lingyu and Fusang.

A sharp intake of breath.

Gou Wuyue, like a drowning man, surfaced, gasping for a mouthful of long-unbreathed air, tart with moisture.

He was alive.

His chest heaved violently.

"'Dao...'"

He stared blankly at Ba Zun'an in the sky.

In a trance, he blinked, and Ba Zun'an was gone, integrated with heaven and earth!

Before him, Hua Changdeng, though deified and hailed as an Ancestor, originally unreachable, was suddenly reduced to dust, no longer visible.

How could the light of a firefly compete with the brilliant moon?

But...

"'How was it done?'"

"'How could it be achieved in a single stroke?'"

Gou Wuyue had witnessed Ba Zun'an's pursuit of the Dao with perfect clarity. He also knew the man's character: he never held back.

"How much you can see, how much you can learn, I will display it all; the rest depends entirely on your own fortune."

"'Deification and Ancestral title, Ancestral God's destiny, true self and false self, discerning self, two-in-one, one-to-zero...'"

Of these things, some he had seen himself, others Dao Qiongcang had mentioned. Gou Wuyue understood the path ahead with utmost clarity.

However, the path taken by the Ten Ancestors and the path taken by Hua Changdeng, he could still understand. Though extraordinary, they didn't induce a feeling of helplessness.

Everyone had a scale in their heart.

"What he could achieve, to what extent he had to strive, I could also achieve, perhaps even better!"

Thus, witnessing Hua Changdeng's deification as an Ancestor, Gou Wuyue felt emotion, but never despair.

But...

Ba Zun'an?

"'What are you doing?'"

"'Sword self, sword self, Qingju relies on me, I rely on Qingju?'"

"'Compared to an Ancestral God's destiny, Qingju possesses an additional body, spirit, and will, making it another 'self.' A sword nurtured by oneself is naturally better to use... Yes, this gains an advantage in concept, but its power should be inferior to an Ancestral God's destiny, right?'"

"'No! What Hua Changdeng severed – 'three thousand strands of sorrow' – and what Ba Zun'an shed – 'the unchangeable shackles' – are more crucial... Ba Zun'an forged a new path, one of complete self-discernment!'"

"'Then, in a deeper sense, if the 'unchanging self' is entirely severed, what remains is nothing but 'variables.' Isn't this precisely what the Calamity of Yin, devouring the Ancestor of Arts, sought: to exhaust all changes? And ultimately, failed?'"

"'That's not right either! Ba Zun'an didn't fail! He not only saw through the paths of the Demonic Ancestor and the Calamity of Yin, but the rising sword, Qingju, was the most crucial key to breaking the deadlock!'"

"'Ba Zun'an is already dead! When Qingju returned to him, there was only a wisp of clarity. Yet, he could use the little to command the much, the subtle to command the immense, and instantly stabilize his 'self of myriad changes?'"

"'Still not right! How could discerning the true self be achieved in an instant? It must be the reverse—Qingju brought back a wisp of the ever-changing Ba Zun'an, and Ba Zun'an could accept every single change. Therefore...'"

"'It's Ba Zun'an of myriad changes, manifesting the unchanging Ba Zun'an? Meaning he is constantly changing, yet in the perfect balance of yin and yang, he found the relatively static 'unchanging him,' thus maintaining a clear mind and resisting the assimilation by the Great Dao?'"

A sharp intake of breath?!

Gou Wuyue gasped sharply.

In that instant, his mind nearly burned out, and he still couldn't be certain if his conjecture was correct.

"'Elephant Dragon Sixth Grade...'"

Yes, that feeling was back.

And it was different from instantly comprehending sword intent at Elephant Dragon Tenth Grade or Sixth Grade.

This time, Ba Zun'an was even higher!

He could clearly understand up to the previous step, but suddenly... without blinking or losing focus, he couldn't keep up anymore!

Ba Zun'an had laid bare the entire process of his pursuit of the Dao before the cultivators of the Five Domains, without concealing a single step.

Looking around, probably no one in the entire world could keep pace with him. Not Hua Changdeng, nor the three Ancestors from beyond the borders?

"Heh, heh-heh..."

After staring in a daze, Gou Wuyue found himself chuckling with exasperation, his heart filled only with bitterness.

The Ten Venerables, the Seven Sword Immortals – the two greatest monuments of the Spirit Refining Realm – he, Gou Wuyue, had claimed them all.

Besides him, who else would dare call themselves the undisputed double genius of this era?

But...

Still, one had to compare oneself with others!

Three breaths to Xiantian, three years to Sword Immortal – everyone dismissed these with a laugh, because many could achieve them; it just wasn't publicized as mystically.

Elephant Dragon Tenth Grade, Elephant Dragon Sixth Grade – half of the Ten Venerables couldn't laugh at these, yet some could still surpass them, for Kui Leihan was, after all, the creator of the initial 'thorough divine sense.'

But for those above, you made it as simple as eating and drinking; that would be fine. Yet, when it came to comprehending the Dao, others struggled their entire lives without success.

Why could you also achieve 'one step to zero,' as if breaking through to innate sword intent?

Gou Wuyue turned his head away, lost in thought, then rubbed his eyes and looked back at the void, at the calmly standing figure.

He was in the high heavens.

I was like an ant.

"'Was my talent truly dull?'"

"'How then to explain Hua Changdeng's shattered Dao heart?'"

"'The three Ancestors from beyond the borders originally sought to seize Ba Zun'an's Dao. Now that Ba Zun'an had achieved the Dao, they all fled, not daring to show even a shadow. Why was that?'"

Heh.

Gou Wuyue let out a heavy sigh, trying to quell his indignation, yet he didn't know how to cool himself down.

"'My sword, severs the god and Buddha in your heart...'"

"'My sword, severs you...'"

It couldn't be severed anymore!

This great Buddha was firmly established in his heart!

A single phrase: "Qingju."

A single phrase: "When evening falls, none surpass Sangyu; upon return, naught but the sword rises." Without any buffer, it instantly killed the battle.

How could a genius be compared to a monstrous prodigy?

This talent, one could spend a lifetime pursuing it and still not catch up!

But...

"'Was it truly only talent?'"

Gou Wuyue gazed at the figure standing tall and proud in the void. Reflected in his eyes was the frail, hunched figure he had first seen thirty years ago in the Eight Palaces.

He simply couldn't reconcile the him of then with the him of today.

"'Were these truly the same person?'"

Yet, after a brief moment of disorientation, he realized what else, besides talent, had led to Ba Zun'an's achievement:

"'Were not the three Ancestors from beyond the borders precisely those white-robed thousands who crossed the border then, like black clouds pressing down on the city?'"

"'Did not all cultivators pursue the Dao not for themselves, but lamented the remnants of the Sacred Ancestors, thus being slaves?'"

Gou Wuyue laughed because he suddenly realized that what Ba Zun'an had said back then wasn't just about that moment, but also referred to the general trend:

"'Dark clouds deceive the Tiansang, the great river flows west against the current.''The Dao's principles are lost, power bows to servants.'"

So!

Before his Dao reached 'zero,' were all those outward manifestations of frailty, weakness, and unworthiness truly those of a bird with broken wings?

Was his hunched, frail body truly because he, as a Sacred Slave, was inferior to the Sacred God Hall, weaker than the five great Sacred Emperor families, and crushed by the immense pressure of various Ancestors like the Demonic Medicine Calamity?

The answer had been written long ago.

As early as when the Sacred Slave of Tiansang Spirit Palace brought out Xu Xiaoshou.

As early as before Ba Zun'an publicly declared war after White Cave.

His 'self,' from beginning to end, was never confused, always clear and resolute.

"'A bird with broken wings, unyielding; a sheathed sword, not a mortal body...'"

Gou Wuyue watched, seeing the hunched Ba Zun'an from the Eight Palaces gradually straighten up in his mind's eye.

Until he stood tall, his head touching the firmament, touching the current Eight Ancestors, fusing with their yin and yang, becoming one.

"'To bow down in fear and trembling? My Dao considers the heavens too low!'"

"'Sword Nurturing Art...'"

Millions of cultivators saw millions of Ba Zun'ans in their eyes.

Below Fusang City, Xiao Kongtong's face was plastered with a smile, his mouth wide open, sprawling on the ground, as if drained of all strength, only gazing at his teacher with profound adoration.

So beautiful!

Beauty beyond compare!

When Qingju and Ba Zun'an merged into one, becoming his backbone, Xiao Kongtong immediately understood.

"'Sword Nurturing Art, the Sword Nurturing Art my teacher taught me.'"

"'Exactly the same method as nurturing the Kongtong Formless Sword!'"

"'This means I just haven't yet comprehended the convergence of yin and yang, but from the very beginning, as recorded in the 'Sword Observation Canon,' Teacher's Dao already had its rudimentary form...'"

Xiao Kongtong could understand anything, accept anything.

In his world, the name 'Ba Zun'an' inherently represented 'omnipotence.'

His astonishing the three Ancestors was perfectly normal.

His destroying Ancestor Hua was effortless.

He was an immortal who should have resided in the heavenly realm, coming from the Western Heavens, plucking a sword from the east, frolicking through life, his intentions unknown to mortals, his thoughts unfathomable.

Hua Changdeng?

Hua Changdeng should have been laid to rest thirty years ago.

Though Dao Xuanji had once defied fate to change his destiny, he couldn't escape the eventual outcome of a cold wind blowing out a flickering candle.

All of this had been foretold long ago. Even before Teacher Ba Zun'an laid out his plans for Void Island, while fishing in Yunlun, the answer was declared:

"'I come from the west, staggering eastward with the current.By day, I observe the common folk; by night, I share a bed with ghosts.Mayflies guess my will, a cool breeze extinguishes candles.Drunk, I drink the waters of the human world; sober, I am precisely an immortal.'"

Outside the Four Symbols Secret Realm.

Dao Qiongcang landed on Crescent Peak, standing against the wind.

A desire, an intensely impulsive desire, involuntarily rose within him.

Everyone saw Ba Zun'an's brilliance, the 'yang' side of him after achieving the Dao.

Yet few could see the Ancestor Ba's predicament, his 'yin,' the 'yin' that could no longer make a move!

"'Non-action...'"

Looking at this path, it was clear what Ba Zun'an had put into practice.

In fact, it wasn't hard to see what Dao this man was cultivating. The so-called unchanging, myriad changes, past, present, and future, were not particularly important.

"'Either failure, and vanishing into smoke.'"

"'Or Dao achieved, transcending and ascending.'"

In Dao Qiongcang's eyes, Ba Zun'an had only two 'either/or' outcomes.

Though phrased differently, these two outcomes were, in essence, one and the same: 'elimination.'

The variable had indeed arisen!

The Sacred God Continent couldn't withstand this wildly formidable individual. Above the heavenly realm, he would be like a fish in water.

Here, however, he would be constrained at every turn.

"'One sword, one domain?'"

Dao Qiongcang made a rough estimate: the strength of the 'zero-returning' Ancestral God meant that, most likely, two or three sword strikes would obliterate the Sacred God Continent.

Ancestor Hua?

He had never taken Hua Changdeng seriously.

It was after Ba Zun'an's first and second sword strikes, his clearly discerned 'self,' his Dao...

"'Such a perfect Dao, even I desire to seize it. Would the Demonic, Medicine, and Calamity Ancestors not be tempted?'"

"'Would Ba Zun'an not be on guard?'"

"'Then I...'"

Dao Qiongcang suppressed his impulse, and managed to hold it back.

With his greed withdrawn, he was content to remain outside the fray, eagerly awaiting who would be the first to extend a covetous hand towards Ba Zun'an.

Glancing back at the Four Symbols Secret Realm, he chuckled, able to hum verses with a shake of his head. He had collected many of Ba Zun'an's sword odes.

"'Like a wandering cloud, a wild crane, drifting leisurely; hailed as saint and emperor, forgetting shame.''Pray, lend me your three-foot sword, and watch me sever all worries under heaven.'"

He paused, fondling two jade walnuts in his hand, then pinched his chin, a playful look on his face:

"'Worries, oh worries, how many families rejoice, and how many grieve?'"