Chapter 2035: Awakening

Outside the Southern Abyssal Realm, accompanied by a thunderous roar, the figure rising into the sky was none other than Cao Erzhu.

He transformed into a streak of purple lightning and shot into the sky, launching an attack after ancient sword cultivators like Yu Tu and Wen Ting.

This scene left everyone stunned.

Among the younger generation, though Cao Erzhu's reputation wasn't as grand as Master Shou's, he had already made an appearance in the Feng family's mirror of teachings in the Southern Domain.

Aside from everything else, the mere five words "Son of Kuilei Han" guaranteed that his life would never be obscure.

However, to compare Cao Erzhu's fame to that of Yu Tu, Wen Ting, or even the Demonic Ancestor Sheng Xin, would be a gross overestimation of Erzhu's standing.

Questions erupted among the onlookers. He was merely in the Void Refining Spirit Realm, not even a sealed Half-Saint, they noted. Ancient sword cultivators could achieve Ancestor status without being saints because they followed the Path of Realm Creation, reaching Ancestorhood in three realms. So what right did Cao Erzhu have to step forward? Was it just sheer audacity? Many pointed out that if his father hadn't sacrificed himself and stripped away the Demonic Ancestor's authority over thunder and tribulation, Cao Erzhu, who cultivated the Spirit Thunder attribute, would still be under the Demonic Ancestor's control. His success, they concluded, was entirely thanks to his father. Others added that even with his father's sacrifice, the Demonic Ancestor might still wield the Nian Dao. It was possible the seed his father protected could even be reclaimed by Sheng Xin, potentially affecting Nianzu. A general sentiment emerged that he was too impulsive, perhaps guided by some petty scoundrel.

A fervor erupted across the Five Domains.

Let alone the spirit refiners from various regions.

At this moment, even Jin Ren, within Jiang Naiyi's body, felt that Cao Erzhu had been guided.

But he swore it wasn't his doing.

Jin Ren knew too well that Erzhu and the main body had a good relationship.

Yu Tu, Wen Ting, and Gou Wuyue still held a glimmer of hope; a desperate struggle might succeed. How could Jin Ren possibly place hope in the Void realm Cao Erzhu, believing he could also interrupt the Heaven-Earth Sealing and Refining?

He needed to be guided back.

There was no time for pretense; Jin Ren immediately took over Jiang Naiyi's will, and the Yi Dao Disk beneath his feet unfolded.

Yet, at that very moment, his thoughts suddenly jolted.

The connection with the original body in the Temporal Realm, which had been so faint as to be imperceptible, suddenly became incredibly clear.

Jin Ren was stunned.

He saw a chaotic, shattered scene.

There, the Ancestral God's Calamity of Annihilation unfolded layer upon layer, obscuring the sky and almost submerging the entire world.

Tribulation lightning roared down like it was free, tens of thousands of bolts falling at once. Forget those undergoing tribulation; it felt like even an Ancestral God would be struck dead.

Amidst this apocalyptic scene of thunderous calamity, Jin Ren felt his self-will, possessing Jiang Naiyi, forcibly swapped for an instant, then thrown back.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...

Within his body, countless potentials seemed to be ignited.

It was as if all the chains of the Dao that bound him were severed, his self-overdrafted completely. Lightning and chaos surged before his eyes, and his entire body, spirit, and will completely collapsed.

I...

Jin Ren was powerless to struggle, powerless to resist.

He could only let his self, the self that had been manipulating events from behind the scenes in the Five Domains, suddenly push to its limits and rampage uncontrollably.

The main body was struck dead by the thunder tribulation?

To be replaced by him?

Jin Ren was utterly dumbfounded. As he completely lost control, he heard the main body's extremely bleak, shattered, and feeble voice echo in his ear, saying it was sorry, and promising to let Jin Ren live a peaceful life next time, vowing to be struck by lightning if it broke this promise.

Jiang Naiyi suddenly found himself asking what he was doing.

He scratched his head, suddenly regained his senses, and took back control of his body. He stared in astonishment at the profound Yi Dao formation unfolding beneath his feet, having been previously immersed in a beautiful fantasy of how the Demonic Ancestor would reward him after the battle.

Unconsciously, he looked up, and his vision suddenly broadened.

Whoosh.

A gentle breeze stirred, and the world seemed to quiet down.

What met his eyes was the Memory Tree, grown tall enough to touch the sky, the streak of purple lightning flashing in the distance, and the Demonic Ancestor, who had just withdrawn the Embryonic Mother Coffin from beside the Temporal Realm passage...

And then there was himself, standing dumbfounded beneath the Memory Tree, foolishly gazing up!

His gaze settled.

Jiang Naiyi was then drawn to a beautiful sight.

Beneath the great tree, he saw a stubborn, tender green grass sprout, peeking out, as if it had just begun to gaze upon the world.

It was just like him, having lived his life under the protection of his elder brother Jiang Buyi, enjoying guardianship without realizing it, and foolishly attempting to surpass the insurmountable class barrier between grass and trees.

He silently wondered if hope could truly exist as long as one strived.

The Memory Tree's power slightly leaked.

It wasn't even a breath; the tender grass sprout, holding the hope of new life, was crushed to dust because of its close proximity.

Jiang Naiyi's life journey came to a complete halt at this final, empty scene.

Rumble—

A beam of golden lightning surged skyward.

Beneath the Memory Tree, a magnificent wave of power suddenly exploded, shattering everything for thousands of miles, pulverizing all life forms, energy, and matter within its vicinity.

Roar!!!

A furious beast roar ripped through the sky.

This roar, though coming later, completely overshadowed the shock caused by Cao Erzhu's forceful attack on Sheng Xin, compelling everyone to look towards the Memory Tree.

A collective gasp rose. "This is... A gi-giant?" they stammered. It looked as if it had rampaged. Had Master Shou appeared only to immediately go berserk?

The Five Domains hadn't even had time to cheer and celebrate Master Shou's apparent desire to join the battle.

The golden Ultimate Giant only made a brief appearance. With a tearing sound, its massive body shattered and vanished, its power drawn away to an unknown location.

It was as if what they had just witnessed was merely an illusion.

Master Shou had not appeared at all.

Unit Zero's internal query was about the nature of this spirit skill.

Inside Unit Zero, commands were issued at light speed. But after calculating for a long time, it couldn't deduce that Xu Xiaoshou had ever displayed similar berserk power.

While he did possess a berserk giant, that couldn't even compare to the Ultimate Giant, let alone this rampaging giant.

Sheng Xin, however, instantly discerned a few clues, wondering if Xu Xiaoshou had encountered a great calamity. She noted the faint wisps of tribulation power emanating from the Temporal Realm passage. He must still be undergoing tribulation, she mused. The Temporal Realm and the Sacred Divine Continent surely had different time flows. Had he not finished yet? The rampaging giant just seen must be his trump card left in the Five Domains, she concluded, requiring such a grand effort to directly activate this power and draw it across two planes. Fortunately, the great tribulation seemed to have nullified this card. Then, considering it again, what kind of tribulation would force such terrifying power to be unleashed? Could it be the Tribulation of Extermination? No, that wasn't right. Once the Tribulation of Extermination appeared, it was always accompanied by a thunder tribulation array. Xu Xiaoshou had just... *hiss*, the Twin Rivers of Grand Dao, the Sea of Intent Dao. Could he truly be undergoing a triple tribulation array?

Outside the Southern Abyssal Realm, Gou Wuyue's mind was also greatly shaken.

His perspective was completely different from Unit Zero's and Sheng Xin's.

In that instant, he clearly saw the power from Xu Xiaoshou's sword diagram, which shattered simultaneously as the rampaging giant's power was drawn away.

He wondered if Xu Xiaoshou's sword profoundness had truly been cultivated to such a level.

That was almost the height of the Eight Venerables' mastery so far, perfect and flawless, with all nine great sword arts progressing simultaneously, without any weaknesses.

And what vanished was not just zero-level sword intent, but also the aura of the Ancestral God's Calamity of Annihilation!

In that moment, a flood of realizations cascaded through Gou Wuyue's mind. He recalled feeling a guiding force just as Yu Tu and Wen Ting suddenly made their move. Sheng Xin, who should have remained hidden until the very end, had abruptly erupted from Mount Siling, directly confronting Wen Ting's three-realm sword, breaking an arm but refusing to retreat a single step. The Medicine Ancestor's sudden disappearance; Unit Zero was certainly not invincible, and Bei Huai had clearly achieved Ancestor status. A joint effort by Medicine and North would undoubtedly possess fighting power, yet they had opportunistically vanished, hiding without acting. Dao Qiongcang, or rather the Dao Ancestor, had used the elevation of the Memory Tree's Dao cultivation level to remain aloof, displaying an ambiguous, lukewarm attitude towards Sheng Xin's Heaven-Earth Sealing and Refining, neither helping nor adding insult to injury. Moon Palace Slave still held an Eight-Character Token, a fact Gou Wuyue was aware of, and the demonic, medicinal, and malevolent factions must all have been wary of it, yet tacitly, no one had touched this card. The Eight Venerables had left as they pleased, leaving behind a mess that even Gou Wuyue could see early on, one that Shen Yi and Cao Yihan couldn't fix. And the once flourishing Xu Xiaoshou had not appeared until now. The rampaging giant's power had also only appeared to be drawn away, its final destination unknown, but there was likely only one remaining possibility.

Piece by piece, thread by thread, what was once a tangled mess in his mind was slowly unraveled and smoothed out by Gou Wuyue.

Yes, this was the Daoist way of thinking!

Everyone assumed that after Sword Immortal Wuyue took on the mantle of the White-Clothed Dao Master, he became complacent, making no further progress.

Yet, no one knew the reason why Gou Wuyue had stayed by Dao Qiongcang's side for thirty years, even following him to the Southern Domain when Dao Qiongcang's influence waned.

A large part of it was because he remembered a statement from the Eight Venerables long ago, that the path of ancient sword cultivators had already been thoroughly explored.

So, for a way to transcend, the Eight Venerables had pushed forward with absolute talent, achieving a state of "return to zero" in a single step.

Gou Wuyue believed he couldn't achieve that, but he saw a glimmer of hope in Dao Qiongcang, a hope he could adapt for himself. He pondered that absolute talent wasn't necessary, nor was absolute calculation. An ordinary person who wasn't an absolute genius, as long as they found the right path, could still be considered a regular genius on a certain Dao. And for any genius, as long as they hadn't neglected their diligent practice, the twists and turns of the process didn't matter; only the result did.

At crucial moments, there might be only one opportunity!

But by balancing "calculation" and "combat," those who accumulate profound strength can also astonish the world during that opportune moment!

Non-action was never inaction.

Acting without desire was naturally never reckless behavior.

Gou Wuyue's Dao was about breaking the square and the round within established rules, and, when transforming from a sparrow into a golden roc, tearing open the cage that bound him without losing himself in the vast, boundless freedom afterward, like the malevolent Yin.

Calmness, wisdom, and genuine insight.

These were the qualities that could help ancient sword cultivators in the Spirit Refining Era find a path for the Dao, under the overwhelming influence of countless Ancestral Gods.

Without the talent of the Eight Venerables...

Unwilling to become a headless fly like Shen Yi...

And taking Kuilei Han's miserable end as a warning...

Nor like Dao Qiongcang, who had the assistance of ancient Ancestral God power...

Gou Wuyue, from beginning to end, was just Gou Wuyue. He had won, drawn, and lost battles, just as all mortals in the world have such records; this was not surprising.

Blood and sweat, countless days and nights of tempering.

Without background, without external help, he had, by himself, lifted the two most prestigious trophies on the continent.

Yet, in the end, he discovered that above these achievements, there were still mountains to surpass. All he could do was train, train, and continue to conceal his true abilities.

After meeting the Eight Venerables, he realized his own "concealed abilities" were not even worthy of the name. Even if he unleashed them, they likely wouldn't be impressive enough to catch the attention of the Ancestors.

Thus, how could a mere mortal sword cultivator ultimately transcend?

Even when Yu Tu and Wen Ting made their move, Gou Wuyue couldn't see any hope. Even if he had acted to bring back the Eight Venerables, who he had thought were in the Temporal Realm, even if it ultimately succeeded and brought victory, it wouldn't be Gou Wuyue's victory, but that of the Eight Venerables and the Holy Slaves.

But at this moment!

At the precise moment the rampaging giant flashed and vanished!

Gou Wuyue saw the sole opportunity he had relentlessly pursued for thirty years, waiting from the Ancestral God's War until now to finally glimpse. Gou Wuyue's conviction solidified: the one in the Temporal Realm wasn't the Eight Venerables, but Xu Xiaoshou. This wasn't the crucial point; what mattered was that the demonic, medicinal, and malevolent Daoists dared not enter the Temporal Realm, yet the Temporal Realm could endure the Ancestral God's Calamity of Annihilation.

This news might mean nothing to Xu Xiaoshou, the Holy Slave.

Nor would it mean much to the Dao Ancestor, or rather, to Dao Qiongcang of the Qian Shi Imperial Realm.

However, the Sacred Divine Hall that Gou Wuyue relied on was gone. He had lost his intelligence network, wasn't from one of the Five Great Sacred Emperor Families, and had little understanding of the Ancestral God's hidden secrets.

All knowledge concerning the Ten Ancestors, from the beginning of the War of Deification and Ancestral Proclamation until now, had been enlightened by Xu Xiaoshou, obscured by the Ten Ancestors, and then repeatedly altered by the Dao Ancestor.

It was a complete mess!

But within the chaos, there was order. Gou Wuyue had waited until now to sort out the entire sequence of events and affirm what he believed in his heart. He was certain that even if undergoing tribulation in the Temporal Realm was fraught with difficulty and danger, this had to be his only, and last, opportunity.

This strategic opportunity was indeed exquisite.

If Sheng Xin's Heaven-Earth Sealing and Refining were broken, Xu Xiaoshou would return, having completed his Dao.

With the demonic, medicinal, and malevolent Daoists clashing with the Five Ancestors in the New Heaven Realm, no one would bother with someone in the Temporal Realm, nor would anyone care if that person had the qualifications or ability to achieve the Dao.

Even if they wanted to investigate, at worst, they would enter the Temporal Realm and get lost together.

Better to break as jade than remain as tile.

Better than Elder Yu, and Mister Si Ren nearly being slain, and Wen Ting being sealed in a coffin on the spot, remaining merely a sword in another's hand until death, right?

And what about him, Gou Wuyue, he thought.

In the distance, golden light shattered, and purple lightning struck nothing.

On the small earthen mound, Gou Wuyue's eyelids trembled slightly, a sharp glint flickering in his eyes. But after a deep breath, he suppressed all turbulence in his heart.

The voice of Nulan vibrated.

Gou Wuyue gently pressed down, suppressing the resonance of the Nulan voice, with which he shared a deep connection.

He murmured, a soft "Soon..." escaping his lips, as if conversing with the Nulan voice, and also with his own heart. He lifted his head, but not to look at the ignorant junior in the sky who dared to stand before Sheng Xin, even if the junior was powerfully built. What he saw was the boundless Great Dao, the winding past, the waiting present, and a potentially promising future. Again, he whispered, "Soon..." Gou Wuyue's voice trembled as he lowered his eyelids and closed his eyes. The gods and buddhas in his heart had long since vanished in the Eight Palaces.

This world was without light; most lives were born ordinary.

Acknowledging ordinariness never meant settling for mediocrity.

Just as Gou Wuyue was never merely an appendage under the Eight Venerables' radiance, so too in his world, the Nulan voice was certainly not a substitute for Qing Ju.

He realized, "We are all unique."