"To modify the laws of the world, five essential conditions must be met."
"Condition one: gather a trillion echoes and obtain the Heavenly Crown Dao Artifact."
"Condition two: cover the Red Heaven Realm with the Saint Path."
"Condition three: obtain a Dao Canon and gain control over the immortal power within it."
"Condition four: have a True Immortal grant permission."
"Condition five: have the World God descend."
"Without meeting the five essential conditions, no matter how you struggle, you will never break free from the shackles and create laws freely."
"Forcing the matter will result either in falling or in creating laws under someone else's control."
Within the fragments of time, a giant seated upon a throne in the Heavenly Palace spoke thus. His body was a full thousand meters tall.
Before him stood ten Kings of Manifest Realm, all of whom had reached the pinnacle of this domain, their auras vast and boundless.
They were none other than the Absolute Emperor and his renowned Ten Heavenly Kings.
They were discussing the difference between becoming an immortal and Achieving Dao.
"Obviously, Achieving Dao is far more difficult."
"Indeed. The grand rituals planned by the various powers have almost never succeeded. That alone eliminates the possibility."
"His Majesty has already mastered the Boundless Dao Canon and obtained immortal power. Becoming an immortal through the imperial path is more realistic."
"A sliver of hope is worth gambling everything on. We only need to obtain the Heavenly Crown Dao Artifact to become immortals on the spot! They are waiting to reap the Heavenly Crown Dao Artifact, and we are likewise gambling on this sliver of life!"
Several Heavenly Kings spoke.
Dao Artifacts were a talent of humanity. Though demons and monsters were powerful, they lacked numbers because of this, losing the foundation for the birth of Dao Artifacts—collective prayers.
They had no choice but to downgrade their bloodlines and create the Fire Spirit Race, thereby replicating humanity's growth process. They had also spent an enormous amount of time, just like humans, constructing a prayer ritual array that enveloped the entire Red Heaven.
As demons and monsters, they possessed long lifespans, but even the Absolute Emperor had been born less than thirty thousand years ago. They had no way of knowing how the Red Heaven had become immortal a million years ago.
Fortunately, these records had left traces everywhere in human history and Dao Artifacts. Reconstructing them in reverse as emperors was not difficult, and they completed it in just several decades.
The ritual array deduced by the Absolute Emperor was even more perfect than the one the Red Heaven had once possessed. It expanded the ritual's range of effect from a single race to multiple races, making up to a certain extent for the scarcity of intelligent demons and monsters.
If not for achieving the imperial path through the human method, which would slash their lifespans down to 6,400 years, with even the absolute limit falling short of ten thousand years, then given the lifespan of the demon and monster race, they would not have needed to cultivate the Fire Spirit Race to gather echoes at all. They could simply have waited.
"The five essential conditions—Saint Path is actually an essential condition?"
Yun Ye found the most important point in time directly through his senses without wasting a second. After hearing this exchange, the giant suddenly turned his gaze toward him.
In an instant, the enormous pupils widened. They were red eyes blazing with raging flames, as though reflecting the end of the world.
From those eyes alone, one could see the origin power of this emperor.
The Heavenly Purity Extinction Divine Flame—a supreme-grade divine flame of heaven and earth. It was said to be a spark left behind from the era when the Red Heaven Realm Opened Heaven and Split Earth, and it could burn through anything!
Yun Ye understood with a single glance why the Absolute Emperor could refine the human Dao Canon. It was precisely because of this divine flame.
The flames possessed a transcendent power, extremely similar to laws. In an instant, they burned along history, igniting Yun Ye from soul to flesh. Excruciating pain spread through him, and his expression twisted ferociously for a moment. But in the next second, the power of Open Heaven and Split Earth erupted with a boom.
His expression abruptly turned indifferent. The Heavenly Stems Universe revolved within his pupils like a god as he spoke: "Retreat."
The divine flames reversed course.
Against Yun Ye, who had gotten serious, this remnant power within history could not resist.
The giant watched this scene and suddenly burst into laughter.
"Good! Good! Good!"
"My inheritance awaits your taking. Whether human or demon, you must bear this karma and go witness the moment of defying fate and striking down immortals in my stead!"
Immortals were the enemies of the Red Heaven.
Whether humans or demons and monsters, all wished to eliminate them as swiftly as possible. They had blocked the path of advancement for every living being.
"Defying fate and striking down immortals? That ideal is too far ahead of its time. There is not the slightest glimmer of hope in this era. Perhaps several dozen more emperors would have to sacrifice themselves before it could be achieved."
Yun Ye laughed despite himself. He had not expected that someone would truly dare to say such a thing aloud.
It seemed that this emperor of the Demon Race was extraordinary, at least in terms of conviction.
As soon as he said this, the giant's expression grew considerably more animated. He spoke:
"There will be such a day, boy. You do not think that all those who became emperors were selfish and self-serving, seeking only immortality, do you? They traversed mountains and rivers, swept across their era, and reached the summit through supreme conviction and power. Who among them was not pursuing the extreme? Immortality alone was not enough to make them degenerate. They simply did not want to be dogs!"
"The kind of person you imagine is in the minority. Looking throughout history, aside from cultivators forcibly elevated to the imperial path through the complete support of True Immortals, which emperor would be willing to let True Immortals remain high above them? It is only that even beings as powerful as us could not break these shackles. In the end, we could only leave behind a sliver of possibility, allowing future generations the chance to rise!"
The Absolute Emperor revealed some of the truth.
Those who had truly swept across their era could least tolerate someone standing high above them. Those True Immortals had practically treated these existences, who had climbed all the way to the summit, like dogs, harvesting them at will. Who knew how many emperors had fought with all their might, only to fall the moment they became emperors?
They were merely ancient people who had seized their positions early. If they truly fell to the imperial path and fought, then aside from a few True Immortals from their peak eras, the outcome would be almost without suspense!
"And then, every emperor who became an immortal just happened to be selfish and self-serving to the extreme?"
With a single sentence, Yun Ye shattered the Absolute Emperor's argument.
If they were all beings with convictions and ideals, then why had not one of the dozen or more True Immortals stood on the side of the Red Heaven Realm's cultivators? Why had they all stood at the highest peak and severed the path ahead?
The Red Heaven, the second nameless immortal, Azure Heaven, the Boundless True Immortal, the Nine Lives True Immortal, Profound Heaven, the Future Dao Lord, the True Immortals connected to the Dao Canon held by the Neon Race, and the True Immortal who pioneered the spirit arts—there were already nine of them. If only one or two had blocked the path ahead, they should have been suppressed by those who came later long ago.
Yet in reality, even the Future Dao Lord, whom the Red Heaven had once helped, had chosen to vanish without a trace after becoming an immortal, leaving no sign for ten thousand years.
Whether he had been unable to do anything or had directly betrayed them and abandoned his former ideals was unknown.
Judging by the difficulty of becoming an immortal, it was obvious that the True Immortals who had blocked the path to immortality still held the majority.
"Achieving Dao through the Ruling Dao Artifact means that no matter how powerful your original convictions were, they become meaningless. You are merely a shell. Perhaps you can resist at first, but you will inevitably be twisted into the shape originally intended by the Ruling Dao Artifact. This is a trap, but it must be stepped into. Otherwise, there is not the slightest chance of becoming an immortal."
"That is precisely why our predecessors pioneered the Saint Path, abandoning the possibility of becoming immortals to focus on modifying the world and building the world. Go take the Boundless Dao Canon. I recorded the Saint Path Law within the Dao Canon. Even those True Immortals cannot destroy it or erase it..."
A jade book floated in the Absolute Emperor's hand. It was ancient and plain, shrouded in the radiance of divine flames. Text continuously surfaced upon it without end. Merely watching it caused one to absorb the boundless knowledge within of its own accord.
This was none other than the Boundless Dao Canon!
Before you continue