His Dao—All Rivers Run into the Sea, All Laws Return to the Source

In Ji Wuchen's simulation, one minor character caught Qin Wangchuan's attention.

His cousin.

After having her investigated, he learned her name—

Wang Mingyue.

Thirteen years old.

She was the mixed-blood offspring of a marriage alliance between the Ji Clan and the Wang Clan.

As it happened, she was also present at the banquet.

Though there was no enmity or grudge between them, his intuition told him that this person had to die.

Otherwise, she would surely become a source of disaster in the future.

When the banquet dispersed, Qin Wangchuan led his men to block Wang Mingyue's path.

The young girl's footsteps, as she was about to leave, came to a halt. The silver bells on her skirt chimed crisply in the night air.

"I wonder what business the Young Master has with me?" She bowed to salute, though her gaze fell imperceptibly upon the guards behind Qin Wangchuan.

Qin Wangchuan leaned against a vermilion-lacquered pillar, the moonlight stretching his silhouette long.

"How was it?" he suddenly spoke, his voice carrying a hint of playfulness. "Was sitting through this banquet like sitting on pins and needles?"

Wang Mingyue raised her eyes and smiled faintly. "The Young Master jests. It is Mingyue's honor to attend such a grand feast." Her hand, hidden within her sleeve, clenched tightly, fearful of letting anything show.

Qin Wangchuan did not waste any more words on her.

"On the surface, you are of the Ji Clan..." He suddenly took a step forward, his eyes deep and dark. "But you are standing on the side of the Wang Clan."

The girl's pupils constricted slightly, then quickly returned to normal.

This encounter was not a test; it was an interrogation.

"Even if the Heavenly Emperor does not act, did you really think you could deceive the world?" He suddenly looked up, his gaze piercing toward Wang Mingyue like a blade. "The one who appeared today is none other than the Wang Clan Great Emperor."

The girl retreated half a step involuntarily, only to be pinned down by the Qin Clan guards.

The guards behind her tried to resist, but they were suppressed as well.

"The big fish have already been caught; there is no need for a small fry like you to keep your mouth shut."

"I have only one question."

Qin Wangchuan leaned down and whispered into her ear, but his warm breath made Wang Mingyue shiver uncontrollably.

"There are so many prodigies in this world; why fixate on me? Just because of the Longevity Immortal Body?"

Wang Mingyue's chest suddenly heaved violently, and her previously gentle face twisted.

She jerked her head up, a fierce, resolute light erupting in her eyes.

"Yes!" she roared, her voice piercing the silence of the night sky. "Just because you are the Longevity Immortal Body!"

The silver bells chimed frantically with her violent movements, tracing chaotic arcs of light under the moonlight.

"The Desolate Ancient Sacred Body? The Innate Dao Fetus? None of them are as threatening as you." She sneered repeatedly, her arms leaving red welts as she struggled against her captors.

Qin Wangchuan narrowed his eyes and signaled for the guards to release her.

"Everyone says you are destined to become a Heavenly Emperor in the future, but do you even know what a Heavenly Emperor is?"

"It is not just a few words spoken lightly."

"My Wang Clan..." Her emotions grew more agitated with every word she spoke, "...witnessed the chaos of the Heavenly Emperor during the last great era with our own eyes!"

"Do you know how many provinces collapsed back then?" Her finger pointed sharply toward the sky. "Billions upon billions of lives were reduced to dust in the struggle between three Heavenly Emperors, and even my Wang Clan lost all of its foundations."

"The battle between just three people nearly wiped out the entire Three Thousand Provinces."

"Once you grow up and the Qin Clan gains another Heavenly Emperor, the tragedy will inevitably repeat itself."

"To save the common people..."

As she spoke, she looked at Qin Wangchuan with a ferocious expression: "Tell me! Are we wrong?"

Qin Wangchuan listened to her roar in silence, the moonlight casting deep shadows across his brow.

This rhetoric was much clearer than what he had seen in the simulation.

He suddenly chuckled, a note of desolation in his laughter.

"You aren't wrong." Qin Wangchuan slowly raised his hand, his slender fingers tracing strokes in the void. "It is merely a difference in stance."

Where his fingertips passed, golden light swirled, and a brilliant golden "Slash" character gradually took shape under the moonlight.

She stared blankly at the radiance, as if seeing the end of some predestined fate.

"But I don't want to die." Qin Wangchuan's voice was very soft, yet it made the surrounding air stagnate. "So—"

The moment the character was completed.

A brilliant, snow-white sword light tore through the air, moving so fast that even the wind had no time to howl.

The silver bell was still swaying slightly, but Wang Mingyue's head had already soared high into the air.

Wang Mingyue's wide-open eyes reflected the golden "Slash" character as it gradually dissipated.

"The only ones who can die are you."

The night wind brushed past, scattering the last traces of sword energy.

When her head fell to the ground, the corners of her mouth were level, no longer as vicious as they had been in life.

Perhaps she had already accepted this outcome.

After all, just as Qin Wangchuan had said, it was merely a difference in stance.

Since she dared to participate, she had long since prepared herself for death.

The remaining guards were also wiped out in the blink of an eye, but Qin Wangchuan stood where he was, staring at Wang Mingyue's head, unable to snap out of it for a long time.

"So foolish." In the end, he sighed and knelt down to close her eyes.

"The Wang Clan was the one that witnessed the struggle for the Great Dao, and the Wang Clan was the one caught in the crossfire. What does this have to do with a thirteen-year-old like you?"

"In the end... you were just a poor soul brainwashed and manipulated by the mastermind behind the scenes."

"Young Master..." Ye Jianwei stood behind him, clutching her zither. She keenly sensed that her master was in a bad mood, but she did not know how to comfort him.

She could only stay by his side.

Further away, Li Qingluan stood watching.

"If you fear destruction, you should strengthen yourself, rather than thinking about exterminating others." Qin Wangchuan said as he stood up and turned to look at Li Qingluan.

"I have an answer to the question you asked me before."

Li Qingluan didn't react for a moment. "What?"

Qin Wangchuan continued, speaking to himself:

"The world is dull-witted..."

"Ten thousand paths lead to different ends, and all living beings are divided in heart."

"Just like this world, where the weak are in constant fear and the strong find no peace—at the root of it all, it is nothing more than the four words: 'Source Non-Confluence'."

"Since that is the case."

"Why shouldn't I unify the ten thousand paths and merge all houses into one?" Dao patterns swirled in Qin Wangchuan's eyes, and the phantom of ten thousand Great Daos intertwining appeared behind him. "This is my Dao—the Dao of All Rivers Running into the Sea, the Dao of Ten Thousand Laws Returning to the Source!"

"If the Heavenly Emperor cannot do it, then the Immortal Emperor shall!"

"If the Immortal Emperor cannot do it, then I shall go beyond the Immortal Emperor!"

As these words fell, the entire world suddenly plunged into an eerie stillness. Suspended dust, flowing spiritual energy, and even the flickering candlelight in the distance solidified at this very moment.

Suddenly—"BOOM!"

A golden pillar of light, formed purely from the Laws of the Great Dao, descended from the sky, enveloping Qin Wangchuan entirely.

Within the pillar of light, countless ancient Dao patterns swirled like swimming fish, spontaneously evolving the mysteries of thousands of cultivation techniques.

Even more astonishing was the vague Emperor Shadow that slowly emerged in the void behind him.

The Emperor Shadow wore a Twelve-Tasseled Crown and was draped in a Celestial Star Robe. Though its face could not be seen, it radiated a majesty that compelled all things to submit.

"Who is experiencing enlightenment... to actually trigger a manifestation of the Great Dao?!" a cultivator in the distance exclaimed in shock.

Even the two Heavenly Emperors in the Tenth Heaven could not help but let out a soft sound of surprise.

"This boy of yours is truly interesting."