The Green Ox Becomes Si

"Calm down!"

Li Qingyun cast a faint glance at this one of his Four Imperial Guardians and shook his head slightly.

How could he not know what Li Xuanji wanted to say at this moment? That was precisely why he stopped her from continuing.

After ascending and being forcibly stuffed into that stone-bodied Dao statue, he had realized something.

Later, upon entering the real Black and Gray World, he had involuntarily immersed himself in—perhaps even narcissistically adored—that three-headed, six-armed, serpent-tailed divine body. Only then did he perceive certain links between the Jade Body Divine Statue's appearance and the origins of his own foundation.

But clarity was clarity; he was unwilling to simply acknowledge that thing as "himself."

In the eyes of a Dao Lord like Li Xuanji, who had attained the Heavenly Eye Fruit, perhaps all the myriad beings and things of the present world wore another form. Perhaps she was seeing the true faces of all living beings.

"Heaven and earth have been turned upside down, the numbers of the Dao warped and distorted. From the very beginning, the boundless masses had no right to choose—but having reached this point, you and I must all the more firmly uphold our Dao hearts!"

Li Qingyun's face remained calm as he looked directly into the dark-red madness in Li Xuanji's eyes, a trace of self-mockery tugging at the corner of his lips.

"What is real, and what is false? If my Dao heart remains steadfast, then every thought of mine is real. If my Dao heart wavers, the outside world can easily bewilder and disrupt me, and I will be no more than a puppet at 'His' mercy!"

His Dao heart was naturally unwavering. His essence was human.

Even if, in that "reality," he truly was a three-headed, six-armed, serpent-tailed being,