Chaos Demon God? No, an Innate Dao Child!

The Sage's voice seemed not to come from his throat, but to resound from the very origin of the Great Dao.

Every word carried the supreme might of words becoming law, completely freezing the space and time around Chen Changsheng.

A reincarnated Chaos Demon God?

Those six words were like six Immortal-Slaying swords, instantly piercing through all of Chen Changsheng's disguises, pinning down his primordial spirit and leaving him nowhere to hide.

A chill a thousand times more terrifying than when he had faced the Heaven-Turning Seal shot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head.

He knew that this was the greatest life-and-death crisis he had faced since crossing over.

Everything before this—whether Zhang Feng's provocations, Daoist Duobao's questioning, or the Chan Sect Twelve Golden Immortals' "punishment on behalf of Heaven"—had merely been children playing house.

Because all of that had still been within the rules.

But now, he was facing the Sage who made the rules!

Sages did not follow rules.

Their will was the rule!

As long as Sect Leader Tongtian harbored even the slightest suspicion, a single thought would be enough to destroy Chen Changsheng in body and soul, erasing him completely from the Primordial World without leaving even a trace.

Under the Sage's gaze, which pierced through eternity and looked directly upon the source, Chen Changsheng felt as though all his secrets, including the system deep within his Sea of Consciousness, had been stripped bare and exposed before the other party.

Thud!

Chen Changsheng's legs could no longer support his weight, and he collapsed weakly to his knees.

It was not that he wanted to kneel. The Sage's pressure had already exceeded the limits that his fleshly body and primordial spirit could endure.

His face changed from ghastly pale to ashen gray. His entire body shook like a sieve, and he could not even utter a complete sentence.

"M-Master... This disciple... this disciple does not know..."

His voice was broken and hoarse, filled with the purest fear and confusion.

It was not entirely an act.

Facing a Sage who might develop killing intent toward him at any moment, even with the system at his side, the instinctive terror rooted in life itself was enough to crush any steadfast will.

Sect Leader Tongtian did not speak.

He merely gazed quietly at Chen Changsheng. Those unruly eyes were as still as an ancient well, revealing neither joy nor anger.

Yet the more he acted this way, the more Chen Changsheng's fear multiplied geometrically.

He was not afraid of being beaten.

He was not afraid of being scolded.

He was only afraid of silence.

In the distance, Daoist Duobao and Zhao Gongming, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, felt their hearts leap into their throats once more.

They too had heard their master's question.

A Chaos Demon God?

That speculation was simply too shocking!

But on careful consideration, the Dao Protector's series of inconceivable methods, utterly unlike anything a being of the Primordial World could possess, seemed... to have no more plausible explanation.

For a moment, the way they looked at Chen Changsheng became incomparably complicated as well.

Chen Changsheng could feel that the aura of the entire Golden Ao Island, and even of all Heaven and Earth, had locked tightly onto him.

He knew he had to provide an explanation.

A perfect explanation that could convince a Sage.

Otherwise, today would be the day of his death!

Begging for mercy? Useless.

Trying to argue? That would only be courting death.

The only path to survival was to use a larger, more reasonable "truth" to cover up the Sage's suspicions!

In that flash of lightning, countless thoughts raced through Chen Changsheng's mind. In the end, he made the most dangerous decision, and the only one that might succeed.

He abandoned all explanations and all disguises.

He raised his head to meet Sect Leader Tongtian's gaze, enough to crush the heavens, and two streams of tears rolled down his face.

There was no fear in those tears, nor any grievance.

There was only boundless sorrow and boundless compassion.

"Master!"

His voice remained weak, yet it carried a force that struck straight at the heart.

"This disciple is not a Chaos Demon God."

"This disciple... is merely an Interception Sect disciple... who had a nightmare!"

As he spoke, he suddenly burst into loud sobs, crying like a child who had suffered an unbearable injustice.

"This disciple dreamed... dreamed that Golden Ao Island ran with blood, that within the Myriad Immortals Array, disciples of our sect died one after another beneath the Chan Sect's butcher blades!"

"This disciple dreamed... that Senior Sisters Three Xiāo were suppressed beneath Qilin Cliff, that Senior Brother Zhao Gongming was cursed to death by the Seven Arrows Book of the Nail Head! Senior Brother Duobao... Senior Brother Duobao was even taken away by the Western Sect, renamed, and became Sakyamuni Tathagata!"

"This disciple dreamed... that Master was besieged by the Four Sages, that the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation was broken, and that, in utter despair, you swallowed the Saint-Slaying Pill and were imprisoned by the Dao Ancestor within Purple Cloud Palace, never to emerge for all eternity!"

"Our Interception Sect... with Myriad Immortals Paying Homage, the greatest sect in the Primordial World... simply... vanished!"

Every word Chen Changsheng spoke was like a cuckoo crying blood, and every syllable carried heart-rending grief.

His weeping echoed before the empty mountain gate, full of despair and unwillingness.

Sect Leader Tongtian's eternally icy expression trembled fiercely when he heard "Three Xiāo suppressed beneath Qilin Cliff," "Zhao Gongming cursed to death," and "Duobao converted."

When he heard that he himself would be besieged by the Four Sages and imprisoned within Purple Cloud Palace, a terrifying killing intent capable of destroying Heaven and Earth erupted from those unruly eyes!

"Enough!"

A furious roar exploded like thunder from the Ninth Heaven.

Even the waters of the East Sea surged backward!

Chen Changsheng's crying came to an abrupt halt.

He raised his head and looked at Sect Leader Tongtian through tear-filled eyes, yet his gaze was incomparably resolute.

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"Master! This is the root of everything this disciple has done!"

"This disciple is insignificant and weak in cultivation. How could I possibly persuade my senior brothers and sisters? How could I possibly change Master's decision?"

"This disciple could only use these... these seemingly absurd 'processes,' these laughable 'rules,' to slowly change our sect's habit of being belligerent and ruthless!"

"This disciple knows these methods are unpresentable! This disciple knows they damage the Interception Sect's prestige!"

"But what is prestige? What is face?"

"Compared to having the entire sect listed and our orthodoxy severed, what could any of that possibly count for?!"

He stretched out a trembling hand and pointed at his chest, his voice hoarse.

"If Master does not believe me, you may search this disciple's soul and examine this disciple's spirit!"

"Everything this disciple has done was for one thing... to let our Interception Sect survive!"

"To survive!"

He nearly screamed the final three words.

After roaring them out, he seemed to have been drained of all vitality and spirit. He slumped weakly to the ground, his breath faint, as though he might dissipate at any moment.

Heaven and Earth fell into dead silence.

Sect Leader Tongtian stood quietly there, his chest heaving violently.

He looked at Chen Changsheng, sprawled on the ground and seeming utterly deranged. In his eyes was an unprecedentedly fierce struggle.

Search his soul?

With his Sage-level cultivation, he could naturally do that with ease.

But he did not.

Because from the fluctuations of Chen Changsheng's primordial spirit, he sensed a sincerity so pure it was absolute, without the slightest impurity...

That resolve to pay any price for the continuation of his orthodoxy even moved him, the sect leader himself.

More importantly, the "dreams" Chen Changsheng had described were too real and too detailed. They precisely struck at the deepest worries in his heart, worries even he himself had never carefully considered.

The Four Sages joining forces...

That truly was the Interception Sect's only fatal weakness!

After a long while.

Sect Leader Tongtian threw back his head and let out a long laugh.

"Haha... Hahahaha!"

That laughter was filled with delight, appreciation, and even... the relief of a burden lifted.

"Good! Good! Good! What a fine 'survive'!"

He took one step and instantly arrived before Chen Changsheng. A gentle Power of Creation flowed into Chen Changsheng's body, instantly restoring his fleshly body and primordial spirit, which had been on the verge of collapse.

He helped Chen Changsheng to his feet and patted his shoulder. Not the slightest suspicion remained in his eyes, only endless admiration.

"Foolish child, your master wronged you."

"A Chaos Demon God? Hmph. How could a group of brutes who know only slaughter and understand no adaptability possibly devise such an exquisite Dao of 'process'?"

A brilliant light burst from Sect Leader Tongtian's eyes.

"You are not a reincarnated demon god!"

"You are... an Innate Dao Child! You are the Heavenly Dao's... Dao Protector bestowed upon the Interception Sect because it could not bear to see our sect perish!"

He had already constructed a perfect explanation in his own mind.

Chen Changsheng's appearance was surely a variable of the Heavenly Dao, a single thread of life for the Interception Sect!

Those so-called "dreams" were surely warnings from Heaven's secrets!

And the Dao of "process" he had created was the Supreme Wonderful Method for dealing with this Investiture of the Gods Tribulation!

Having understood all this, Sect Leader Tongtian felt his thoughts flow freely, and even his Dao heart became somewhat steadier.

He looked at this treasured disciple before him, and the more he looked, the more satisfied he became.

"Changsheng, from this day onward, you shall be the eighth personal disciple under me, Tongtian!"

"As your master, I bestow upon you the Dao title 'Wuwei'!"

"As for the Calamity Aversion Department, you may make all decisions as you see fit! From personal disciples to outer disciples, if any refuse to obey, you may wield your master's Qingping Sword and execute first, report later!"

At these words, Daoist Duobao and Zhao Gongming in the distance trembled from head to toe, their faces revealing ecstatic disbelief.

A personal disciple!

His status would be equal to theirs!

And he had even been granted the Qingping Sword!

This meant that, from this day onward, Chen Changsheng's position in the Interception Sect was truly one beneath one, above all immortals!

Just then, a string of cold system notifications sounded in Chen Changsheng's mind.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, for successfully completing the hidden mission: Ultimate Trial of the Sage!]

[Mission evaluation: Perfect!]

[Using an Oscar-worthy performance and a flawlessly self-consistent explanation, you completely dispelled the Sage's suspicions and made him rationalize your identity on his own!]

[Calculating rewards...]

[Reward One: Obtained the second level of the Sage-grade Divine Ability Great Freedom Head-Shrinking Technique!]

[Reward Two: Obtained a fragment of the innate supreme treasure "Chaos Bell" (1/3)!]

[Reward Three: Obtained an immense amount of Heavenly Dao Merit. Cultivation increased to... peak Grand Unity Golden Immortal!]

[Ding! Detected that the host has successfully created the prototype of the "Process Dao" and gained the Sage's recognition, formally connecting to the Heavenly Dao's operational system!]

[System upgrading to Version 3.0...]

[New functions unlocking...]

[Warning! An abnormal movement of the Heavenly Dao has been detected in the direction of Purple Cloud Palace!]

[Dao Ancestor Hongjun seems to have developed a trace of interest in the 'process' you have newly created...]

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