Cutting Off the Source, Secretly Crossing the Border

Xuandu stood atop the peak, his green robes fluttering lightly, his black hair draped over his shoulders.

His gaze swept across every corner of the Dao Realm, over those figures lifting their heads, and over the nine Chaos Beings rising to their feet.

"Back then, the Great Dao asked me for help, saying that its origin was weakening and that it needed to create a world to bear itself."

"I believed it."

"With my Transcendence-level Martial Dao Will, I stabilized the core of that world for it."

"But I never expected that, before that world had even taken shape, it had already planted a karmic thread."

"As its origin merged into that world, and as the beings entering the world migrated, that karmic thread was silently brought into the Dao Realm's underlying order."

"Now, that passage is slowly siphoning away the power of the Dao Realm's growth."

"If it is left unchecked, then when the Dao Realm reaches its peak, the Great Dao will descend once more."

When his voice fell, the Dao Realm sank into dead silence.

Hovering in the due north, Xu's crimson-gold eyes churned with a gravity unseen in countless epochs.

He slowly spoke, his voice low:

"The Great Dao truly never let go."

"It promised you that karma would be severed and that it would no longer interfere with Chaos."

"But it had prepared a backup plan from the very beginning."

"That New World was a scheme from the start."

The Azure Emperor stepped forward from the due south. Extremely complicated emotions churned in his emerald eyes:

"It asked you to help not because it truly needed assistance."

"It was because it needed you to personally bring that karmic thread into the Dao Realm."

"The deeper your roots took hold in the Dao Realm, the faster