Dark Undercurrents, the Great Dao's Lingering Poison

Within the Dao Realm, everything was steadily advancing toward prosperity.

The three ancient beings at the Hunyuan Taiji Peak Stage were breaking through their respective thresholds at an extremely slow yet irreversible pace.

The Dao Realm's boundaries continued to expand, its laws continued to improve, and the beings who had entered the realm to cultivate were transforming at an unprecedented speed.

Everything was going too smoothly.

Xuandu sat atop the mountain peak at the center of heaven and earth. As he sensed those rising auras, a faint unease slowly settled in his heart.

That unease was so faint that, if not for the extraordinary sharpness of his Transcendence Realm perception, he would never have noticed it.

He fell silent for a moment, then slowly closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into the underlying order of the Dao Realm.

The great net woven from Martial Dao Will and the nine laws was steadily expanding, every warp and weft as stable as mountains that had stood unchanged since time immemorial.

Yet at the edge of that net lay an exceedingly subtle anomaly.

It was hidden within the underlying order where due north and due west met, concealed and minute beyond measure.

If Xuandu had not repeatedly examined it with the perception of the Transcendence Realm, he would never have noticed its existence.

Xuandu's consciousness paused before that anomaly in silence.

Then, he slowly peeled it away.

That withered root was exceedingly tiny.

Yet within that thread lingered an aura that was exceedingly faint, yet exceedingly familiar.

It was the aura of the Great Dao.

Xuandu's gaze abruptly froze.

He sensed the lingering aura within that thread, as well as its extremely weak yet undeniable connection to the Dao Realm's underlying order.

That old thorn had not taken root, had not sprouted,