Chapter 16

Was that even human speech?

They had expected this exchange for Primordial treasures to cost a great deal,

but they had never imagined it would cost a full twenty billion merit.

That was merit!

They even wondered whether the Heavenly Dao truly had such an enormous reserve of merit.

"Is our Great Master really the Child of the Heavenly Dao?"

Randeng could not help asking Kunpeng.

East King Duke also looked at Kunpeng and said:

"Even if he is the Child of the Heavenly Dao, he shouldn't be wasting it like this, should he?"

Kunpeng was also stunned by the number.

Twenty billion merit—even an ant could probably become a Saint with that much, right?

He swallowed with difficulty and replied:

"If he isn't the Child of the Heavenly Dao, what else could he be?

He can't possibly be the Heavenly Dao's father, right?"

Randeng and East King Duke felt that Kunpeng had a point.

No matter how powerful he was, he couldn't really be the Heavenly Dao's father, could he?

He probably... couldn't be, right?

What they did not know was that

if the Heavenly Dao could take human form,

let alone call Lu Changsheng "Father,"

it would probably acknowledge him as its ancestor without hesitation.

After all, that hundred trillion merit

would make even the Heavenly Dao's eyes turn green with envy.

Lu Changsheng had no idea what the three of them were thinking.

After casually complaining, he looked toward the treasure piles stretching for several miles in Wuji Heaven.

The first was a mountain of treasures,

waiting for Kunpeng and the others to refine them one by one.

It was a thousand zhang tall.

Even a great power of the Primordial World would need quite some time.

The second was a mountain of Merit Treasures,

slightly shorter, but still more than eight hundred zhang tall.

The nearby mountains of spirit roots and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were shorter still.

Finally, there was the pile of jade talismans recording divine abilities,

which was only a few zhang high.

The treasure mountains stretching for several miles were exceptionally conspicuous within Wuji Heaven.

From afar, the sight was spectacular.

Looking at what he had obtained this time, a gratified smile rose at the corners of Lu Changsheng's mouth.

Although he had not used up much merit this time,

the abundance of treasures he had gained was already astonishing enough.

At this moment, Lu Changsheng was certain

that even a Saint's treasury would probably struggle to compare with his collection.

At most, certain Saints might have a slight advantage in the quality of their treasures.

However, Lu Changsheng did not care much about treasures.

No matter how powerful or numerous they were, treasures ultimately could not compare with a Great Dao Saint.

As long as he had not exhausted his merit, he could not attain the Great Dao Saint realm.

When all was said and done, he still had to keep being extravagant!

At this thought, Lu Changsheng could not help sighing inwardly.

"Why, after working so hard to squander my wealth, has my merit still not decreased?"

As he sighed, he casually took out an innate spirit fruit and angrily bit into it.

Upon hearing Lu Changsheng's words,

the three people refining merit into treasures suddenly trembled.

He had squandered twenty billion merit and still claimed that it had not decreased much?

How much merit did one need to dare say something like that?

Could it truly be boundless merit?

At this thought, the three of them refined the merit even faster.

If they worked more diligently, perhaps the Great Master would be pleased and reward them with some merit.

Lu Changsheng did not know what the three of them were thinking.

Even if he had known, he would not have rewarded them.

That was because merit was not something he could give away simply because he wanted to—

everything was controlled by the system.

Just as Lu Changsheng was biting into the spirit fruit and complaining that all the living beings of the Primordial World were miserably poor,

his thoughts suddenly stirred.

He casually tossed aside the ginseng fruit he had eaten halfway and murmured:

"Are you preparing to break through? That's somewhat faster than I expected."

With that, he instructed the three people who were bent over and working hard on the Merit Treasures:

"For this Venerable..."

He then sat cross-legged atop the .

The Great Dao circulated, and the Primordial Creation Art revolved through its cycles.

The Three Thousand Dao Seeds began evolving and deducing.

A series of muffled thunderous rumbles suddenly echoed from within Lu Changsheng's body.

In the next moment, the Three Thousand Laws rose and intertwined.

Endless profound Dao patterns spread across his body.

Golden lotuses containing the aura of laws bloomed one after another,

stretching without end until their limits could not be seen.

Brilliant golden light illuminated the boundless universe.

The River of Time silently manifested.

The myriad truths of the Great Dao floated above the river like stars,

rising and falling with the waves of time.

In the blink of an eye, the River of Time and Space also revealed its traces.

Billions upon billions of brilliant stars reflected one another.

Clear radiance spilled over Lu Changsheng's entire body,

resonating from afar with the countless acupoints in his Violet Palace.

In an instant, the Three Thousand Laws coiled around him like ribbons.

The aura of the Great Dao filled heaven and earth,

sweeping across the entirety of Wuji Heaven.

Randeng, East King Duke, and Kunpeng all wore expressions of horror.

"What kind of profound technique is the Venerable cultivating?

Why can merely breaking through to the Quasi-Saint realm cause the Three Thousand Laws to dance together?"

All three were Quasi-Saint great powers of the Primordial World.

They were Innate Deities born at the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth.

Their origins and aptitudes were all extraordinary.

Yet even after cultivating to the late-stage Quasi-Saint realm or beyond,

they still could not comprehend the mysteries of the Three Thousand Laws.

They could even less cause the laws to voluntarily circle around them and protect their bodies.

Such a divine ability should have been controllable only by Saints.

"Judging by this phenomenon, the profound technique cultivated by the Venerable is probably even more profound than what the Dao Ancestor passed down!"

Randeng could not help sighing.

The beings of the Primordial World universally acknowledged that the Dao Ancestor Hongjun's method of Severing the Three Corpses was the supreme profound art.

That method was already the pinnacle of the Primordial World.

It had attracted countless cultivators to compete to learn it.

What all beings did not know was that

this path concealed a major flaw.

Apart from the Dao Ancestor Hongjun,

no second person could sever all three corpses and merge them into one to attain the Primordial Dao Fruit.

This was the method cultivated by the top great powers among them.

As for those one level below them,

they cultivated the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique created by the Six Sages of the Primordial World.

This technique pointed directly to the Quasi-Saint Dao realm.

After the Dao Ancestor's third lecture, it became the strongest inheritance in the Primordial World.

Because the Dao Ancestor had merged with the Heavenly Dao,

the secret method of Severing the Three Corpses had only been taught to the three thousand guests of the Red Dust in those days.

The highest method later-generation cultivators could reach was the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique evolved by the Saints.

In the eyes of Kunpeng and the others, who had cultivated the method of Severing the Three Corpses,

the technique cultivated by Lu Changsheng was countless levels more profound than theirs.

They even vaguely sensed

that this method might point directly to the Primordial Grand Unity Dao Fruit!

Just as everyone was awestruck by the wondrous profundity of Lu Changsheng's ,

Lu Changsheng awoke from his breakthrough and opened his eyes, as though stars were shattering and all living beings were entering reincarnation.

With a single glance, the void split apart, and his aura was profound and enduring.

When he raised his hand, the Three Thousand Laws coiled around him, while the might of the Great Dao shook the Nine Heavens.

"Boom—"

The majestic aura crashed through the mountains and rivers stretching ten thousand miles across Wuji Heaven. The might of a great power surged like a tide.

Even though he had only just entered the Quasi-Saint realm, his aura alone suppressed Randeng, East King Duke, and Kunpeng, leaving them speechless with shock.

"Phew—I didn't expect the breakthrough to be so easy."

Lu Changsheng exhaled a breath of stale air and murmured as he felt the surging power within his body.

He did not care too much about the Quasi-Saint realm. After all, as long as he squandered all his merit, he could directly reach the Great Dao Saint realm—

wasn't that far more alluring than painstaking cultivation?

Just as Lu Changsheng was murmuring, a Saint's might suddenly enveloped heaven and earth.

Saintly might swept across the Primordial World. Purple qi came from the east for ten thousand miles, auspicious clouds floated through the sky, and radiant colors filled the heavens.

Radiance illuminated the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. Dao resonance circulated through the myriad heavens, while the River of Time and Space appeared and vanished, dazzling beyond compare.

Auspicious signs leaped within the light. Great Dao Laws cleansed the myriad worlds, while golden lotuses continuously bloomed and withered, and reincarnation continued without end.

The might of a Saint enveloped heaven and earth. Before the Saint arrived, their might had already reached them, shaking the myriad worlds.

"This is... a Saint breaking through!"

Randeng stared at the phenomena in the sky and spoke in shock.

One had to know that after becoming a Saint, advancing even an inch in realm was exceedingly difficult.

"As expected of a Saint. The commotion caused by a breakthrough is truly extraordinary."

Lu Changsheng also gazed into the distance at the auspicious clouds filling the sky and sighed softly.

The disturbance caused by a Saint's breakthrough was far grander than that of his own Quasi-Saint breakthrough.

However, Lu Changsheng was not anxious.

Although he was still a Quasi-Saint, he had his own plans.

Yet once his merit was exhausted,

Lu Changsheng would directly attain the Great Dao Saint realm.

One had to understand that the Great Dao Saint realm far surpassed the Heavenly Dao Saint realm attained by the Six Sages of the Primordial World.

It was a supreme realm that even Great God Pangu had failed to achieve in the past.

Kunpeng gazed at the auspicious signs filling the sky, his eyes full of envy. He could not help asking:

"I wonder which one of the Six Sages has broken through this time?"

When Lu Changsheng and the others were startled by the omen of a Saint's breakthrough,

the countless living beings across the land of the Primordial World were likewise shocked by the tremendous spectacle.

However, matters concerning Saints were impossible for non-Saints to observe.

Therefore, to the billions upon billions of living beings in the Primordial World,

this was nothing more than a lively spectacle.

Many speculated about which Saint had advanced another step.

Just as all living beings were making a commotion and guessing,

such a disturbance naturally alarmed the other five Saints of the Primordial World as well.

Within Biyou Palace on Jin'ao Island,

Sect Master Tongtian also sensed the signs of a Saint's breakthrough

and immediately returned from his wandering spirit.

He slightly raised a finger and made a brief calculation,

instantly realizing the reason.

"So it was my elder brother Primordial who broke through."

After discovering the source, Tongtian revealed a look of surprise.

He and Primordial Heavenly Lord were both at the Saint Third Heaven,

and logically, their aptitude and origins should have been comparable.

Yet Primordial had broken through before him,

which showed that Primordial must have encountered some extraordinary opportunity.

Curiosity welled up in Tongtian. A Saint's cultivation advanced one heaven at a time; even ten thousand years of secluded cultivation might not bring any progress. Just what kind of opportunity could allow a Saint to break through in one stroke?

"Looks like I'll have to personally make a trip to Kunlun Mountain."

An opportunity capable of helping a Saint break through was certainly no small matter,

so Tongtian naturally had to go and find out the truth.

Within Eight Views Palace on Shouyang Mountain,

Taiqing Laozi, who had always upheld non-action and refrained from disturbing the mortal world,

was also alarmed by Primordial Heavenly Lord's breakthrough.

Although Laozi rarely concerned himself with the affairs of the Primordial World,

he could not help but pay attention to an extraordinary opportunity related to a Saint's breakthrough.

After investigating the reason,

Laozi was likewise extremely shocked

and decided to go and inquire about it.

He summoned Human Religion's chief disciple, Xuandu, and instructed him:

"I am going to Kunlun Mountain. For now, you will manage the dojo in my place."

"I respectfully obey your command."

At this moment, the ones alarmed by Primordial's breakthrough were not merely the other two members of the Three Pure Ones.

Nuwa of Wa Huang Heaven and the Two Sages of the West from Mount Sumeru were likewise shaken by Primordial Heavenly Lord's breakthrough.

However, these three Saints had little friendship with Primordial Heavenly Lord,

so none of them personally went to Kunlun Mountain to pay a visit.

They merely watched the Three Pure Ones from afar,

trying to find even the slightest trace of an opportunity related to breaking through the Saint realm.

At the summit of Kunlun Mountain, within Jade Void Palace.

The Three Pure Ones, separated for many years, had finally gathered again.

After exchanging a few pleasantries and congratulating Primordial Heavenly Lord on his breakthrough,

Laozi was the first to speak:

"Junior Brother Primordial, did you encounter some extraordinary opportunity during this breakthrough?"

Hearing Laozi's question, Sect Master Tongtian also showed an attentive expression,

quietly awaiting Primordial Heavenly Lord's answer.

Primordial Heavenly Lord glanced at his two brothers and replied with a smile:

"I did indeed gain an opportunity."