Before Antiquity, After a Thousand Autumns

Capital.

"Activate Level 1 alert! Immediately initiate special communication procedures to contact His Excellency the Speaker!"

All the highest Federation departments were in complete chaos at this moment, and there was practically no one stepping forward to take charge.

The gods are far too curious; nearly 70% of the beings here are at the divine level.

They were all exploring the Buddhist temple area through the void rift.

This resulted in a large number of deities being locked in place, their gazes forcibly focused there, unable to look away!

"Energy level detection exceeds the instrument's maximum measurement range!"

At the research institute, a researcher spoke in a trembling voice, almost like a groan:

"But the problem is, the maximum measuring power of our instrument is [True Saint]!"

One of the few Old Dean who had never gazed into the void rift caught his breath.

A True Saint is above even the Great Divine Ability User, existing in the fourth realm of the Divine Path, practically the pinnacle of All Gods!

In other words...

Jiang Feinao opened her mouth tremblingly:

"The will that is awakening and returning from the Buddha statue surpasses that of a true saint; it is at least a celestial being?!"

"No, perhaps it touched that level," the Old Dean said in a low voice. "Just a wisp of will is enough to render All Gods, including those with Great Divine Ability User, immobile."

"How could someone with this level of power be a [Celestial Venerable]?"

Jiang Feinao's pupils contracted:

"You mean the legendary [Daluo] who can access time and prove it eternally, whose past, present, and future are eternally the same, and who can arbitrarily define the rules of a True Universe?"

"He may not be Daluo, but he's at least halfway there," the Old Dean said.

"The emergency response plan should have already been activated, but it may not be effective."

"Unless, the Speaker breaks out of seclusion—but unfortunately, the Speaker has entered a deadly seclusion!"

As he spoke, the Old Dean seemed to despair, and murmured:

"Has such a being already descended upon us at the very beginning of this Age of Great Strife?"

The research room was deathly silent; everyone was speechless.

Only the sirens continued to blare, interspersed with urgent reports from various departments in the capital.

On the large screen, what was happening at the Buddhist temple was already being projected.

"What should we do now?" Jiang Feinao asked, but no one answered her.

The group from the Golden Province who had just arrived at the main hospital were also silent; what was happening now was beyond their comprehension.

"Something terrible has happened," Zhang Xiaoxi murmured. She didn't know what was going on, she only knew that the sky was falling.

All eyes were focused on the big screen, waiting for that terrifying will to fully awaken.

However.

"There's someone there, speeding by!" a sharp-eyed researcher shouted.

Everyone looked toward the corner of the screen he was pointing to, and saw a masked girl rushing along a river of Pure Qi.

Then I saw a disheveled old man riding a huge red ox out of the wooden building.

"The energy level detected by the Venerable One is approaching the Venerable One level, and its energy level fluctuations may be a concealment of its true nature!"

One researcher exclaimed, "How could a being appearing at this time be merely a Venerable One?"

"He's speaking! Lip reading is being performed!"

The images on the screen had no sound, so everyone had to use the most basic method—lip reading.

Someone repeated the old man's words, word for word.

"Now I leave Hangu Pass to the west, just as in previous years. Will I once again leave behind a scroll of morality for the sake of the common people?"

"What does this mean?" Jiang Feinao asked instinctively, but no one answered her.

All eyes were fixed on the old man who had suddenly appeared on screen—could this be a turning point?

"He's writing?" the Old Dean murmured in disbelief.

Meanwhile, outside the Buddhist temple.

The thick fog that had been stagnant due to the awakening of the terrifying will suddenly began to flow again.

Within the Buddha statue, something is gradually taking over the weasel's body, awakening from countless years of death and slumber.

Suddenly, it withdrew its earth-shattering power.

That will only uttered an incredulous murmur:

"I can't be that unlucky, can I?"

A deep, resonant sound echoed throughout the land, and the gazes of all the gods locked within all turned towards the old man.

The giant of light and shadow, frozen in the sky, was also startled.

He looked in that direction too.

He saw it.

There, in front of the wooden building, Sloppy Old Man riding on the back of a red ox lowered his head slightly.

He took the pen and paper from the veiled girl beside him, and the girl ground the ink for him.

The not-so-exquisite, not-so-expensive calligraphy brush was dipped in ordinary, common ink.

The old man flicked his wrist, and the Xuan paper floated into the air. Then he wrote on it.

Write down one word, then recite it.

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao." He wrote this down, and spoke it aloud, without any other unusual occurrence.

But a terrifying will, returning from the deepest part of the Human Seed Bag, suddenly trembled.

He fell silent, withdrew all his power and authority, and suddenly became incredibly docile.

At the same time, Zhang Fusheng was writing and reciting simultaneously.

"The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth; the named is the mother of all things."

From this point onward, some wondrous signs began to manifest: auspicious clouds descended from the sky, accompanied by celestial flowers and celestial lotuses.

Golden spring water flowed across the parched, scorched earth.

This land, which was scorched to a crisp by the sun's rays in the past few years, is slowly recovering!

"The Way is like an empty vessel, yet its use is inexhaustible."

"The abyss is like the origin of all things."

The old man on the ox's back seemed immersed in profound wisdom and reason, writing and reciting faster and faster.

Suddenly, a wisp of auspicious cloud, seemingly encompassing all causes and effects, burst forth from the Ancestral Aperture between his eyebrows.

"Primordial Auspicious Cloud!" A terrifying will gasped.

A wisp of Primordial Auspicious Cloud flowed beside Zhang Fusheng.

In an instant, he used his Divine Ability [Star Number].

Suddenly, a cluster of stars twinkled in the sky. The Dao Sound Zhang Fusheng uttered was projected onto the stars, and by borrowing the profound principles of heaven and earth, the Divine Ability of the Star Number was amplified a hundredfold or a thousandfold.

May the stars resonate in eloquent words!

Then.

The stars then showered each word Zhang Fusheng was reciting, along with their starlight, upon the entire Mother Star.

The Dao Sound resonated throughout the Forty-Nine Provinces and thousands of cities.

"Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs! The sage is ruthless, treating the people like straw dogs!"

"Forever and ever."

"The reason why heaven and earth can endure and last so long is that they do not live for themselves; therefore, they can live forever!"

In the Golden Province, Purple Bamboo Forest.

The golden-armored figure looked up, Su Qiansuan's expression changed; both were listening intently to the most wondrous sound. They saw a wisp of purple qi suddenly rise in the sky.

The Miss Mingyue, who was in seclusion, opened her eyes, her expression one of shock:

Dao De Jing

She murmured, gazing at the purple hues in the sky, and then fell silent.

Then they prostrated themselves and listened to the Great Way.

On the Chongyang World, the Emperor Tang was sitting upright in the Hall of Yama, stood up and walked to the imposing gate of the government office.

He also pondered the three words "Dao De Jing" while gazing at the faint purple qi reflected in the sky.

"It's our ancestor."

The Emperor Tang murmured, watching the purple qi in the sky grow thicker and thicker.

It gradually surged into a river.

Or rather...

Purple qi surged and billowed like a tide across the forty-nine provinces and thousands of cities in the heavens.

Then

Accompanied by another Dao Sound, and with wondrous sounds such as "There is something undifferentiated and complete, which existed before heaven and earth" and "It moves in cycles without ceasing, and can be regarded as the mother of all things,"

The purple qi, the purple qi everywhere under heaven, all seemed to be surging in the same direction.

Capital.

Origin Qidian Research Institute.

The Old Dean walked to the window, gazing at the vast expanse of purple purple qi flowing across the sky, and murmured:

"Three thousand miles of purple qi signify the descent of a sage."

"And now, what are these thousands of heavens and earths, these thousands of purple qi stretching for three thousand miles?"

No one could answer His questions.

Everyone was completely absorbed in the melodious music, gazing intently at the purple qi abyss where countless worlds converged.

"Is he a saint?" Zhang Xiaoxi asked.

Standing to the side, Yu Huafeng gently shook her head:

"How could a sage possess such ability?"

The words were finished.

On the screen.

"Man follows the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Tao, and the Dao Emulates Own Inherent Spontaneity."

Purple qi swirled above Zhang Fusheng's head, eventually transforming into a massive vortex.

He pretended not to see it, completely immersed in Tao and reason.

He wrote each character in ink, and recited each eloquent phrase.

He discovered that he encountered absolutely no obstacles in writing the Dao De Jing!

You should know that those Buddhist scriptures, which are far inferior to the Dao De Jing, I could at most barely manage to write half of them.

But what about the Dao De Jing?

Yet, the writing and recitation were incredibly smooth.

The purple qi vortex in the sky was sinking down, spinning wildly around him, and the heavens and earth resonated as if in celebration.

Zhang Fusheng raised his head and glanced at it.

He seemed to see a vague [heavenly position].

The Heavenly Position belongs to [Lao Tzu].

"The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things."

"All things carry yin and embrace yang, and achieve harmony through the interaction of these two forces."

The purple qi flowing from all the heavens and earth began to pour back between Zhang Fusheng and the Xuan paper.

Even the red ox beneath them and the Ruan Yutu leading the ox received some of the purple qi's favor, and their bodies began to radiate a unique purple charm of the Great Dao.

Is this meritorious deed?

Zhang Fusheng suddenly realized.

So this is what merit is.

He didn't know what use the purple qi aura and the merits of heaven and earth were; he simply wrote and recited them word by word.

The purple qi that flowed down from above gathered more and more.

More and more strange phenomena appeared in the world.

There was a vast expanse of chaos, with swirling mist, within which blooming blue lotuses, each imbued with the Great Fortune, swayed and shone.

A giant yin-yang symbol appeared, one black and one white, connected end to end, illustrating birth, death, and cycle.

There is the entire World Plateau, and even the Star Number mentioned in the scriptures.

Countless mountains and rivers, rising and falling with the rhythm of the scriptures,

The mountains pulsate like a heartbeat, and the rivers rise and fall with the rhythm of the punctuation.

At this very moment, all things in heaven and earth became commentaries and harmonies for this scripture.

The gods listened intently.

The Buddha statue, imbued with a terrifying will, had somehow become prostrate before that aged figure.

As they knelt in worship and listened attentively, tears welled up in the eyes of the Buddha, cast in stone and metal—tears of joy at hearing the great truth.

"The way of Heaven is to take from those who have too much and give to those who have too little."

"The way of man is not like that; he takes from the poor to give to the rich."

Zhang Fusheng had always regarded this as a principle, and this insightful statement was uttered when he tried to put it into practice.

His figure suddenly became blurry.

Zhang Fusheng sensed something was wrong. Before him, strange phenomena continued to unfold: the pulsating of mountains and rivers, the grandeur of the World Plateau.

But at the same time, he saw another scene.

Before an ancient pass, on the vast land, countless guards listened.

Countless beasts and birds were worshipping.

And in that sky, in the clouds, the figures of immortals and Buddhas were indistinct, and they were listening as well.

This occurred during the Spring and Autumn Period.

Zhang Fusheng stands not only on the World Plateau, but also in the Spring and Autumn Period, countless years ago.

He wrote the Dao De Jing on the World Plateau, and he also wrote the same text countless years ago.

He existed before all eternity.

He too will live a thousand years later.

Then.

Write down the last sentence of Chapter 81 of this sutra, and then read it aloud.

"The way of Heaven benefits without harming."

"The way of the sage is to act without striving."

This concludes the sermon.

The two blurry scenes existing simultaneously before my eyes merged into one.

He traveled from eternity past to the future.

At this moment, all was quiet.

Lifting my eyelids and looking around, I saw that the mountains and rivers had stopped pulsating, and the strange phenomena began to slowly dissipate.

And the purple qi that filled the sky also sank away.

Forty-five percent entered his body, and forty-five percent lingered in the rice paper.

Of the remaining ten percent, most of it was soaked in the brush, while the rest was divided between Red Ox and Ruan Yutu.

Suddenly, the world became clear and bright.

The thick fog that World Plateau had, unbeknownst to many, completely subsided and settled upon the earth.

It seemed that even the fog was prostrate, listening.

Zhang Fusheng reached out and, using the eighty-one sheets of Xuan paper that fell from the void, bound them together with purple qi into a Daoist scripture.

He then picked up the brush, which suddenly felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

The last two words were written on the book cover.

[Morality].

The Daoist scriptures trembled, emitting a purple light that shone in all directions.

The old man held a book and a pen, and with the help of the remaining blessings of heaven and earth, his [Star Number] Divine Ability could still shake the stars.

He gazed upon his home Star Number cities and realms, before finally uttering a single word.

"I bestow upon the common people five thousand words of morality."

"That's all that's been said."

As the great sound subsided, the celestial stars that had been shining brightly dimmed once more.

The birds, fish, and beasts in the world of Zhucheng awakened to the truth.

The mist that had settled on the World Plateau rose again and dispersed, spreading in all directions.

Yet, the world remained utterly silent.

"Wake up, wake up."

The old man gently stroked the red ox's head, startling the ox awake, and the girl leading the ox also opened her eyes.

The girl then led the ox, and the ox carried the old man, step by step, forward.

Until they reached the Buddhist temple.

At this moment, the many gods suddenly realized that they were no longer bound by that terrifying will.

The giant of light and shadow also broke free from its stagnation.

They looked down and found that the Buddha statue was now prostrate.

"Yellow Eyebrows."

The old man on the ox's back spoke gently.

The Buddha statue trembled.

The terrifying will within spoke with unbearable bitterness:

"The servant is here."

Zhang Fusheng gazed at the Buddha statue and said calmly:

"You're back too early."

The Buddha statue remained silent, utterly silent.

He could sense that the old man before him seemed ordinary and unremarkable, his aura not even that of a Venerable One—but so what?

The Buddha statue then bowed again:

"Little Tong understands."

Then, the terrifying will that had possessed the weasel's body slowly withdrew, flowing obediently and willingly towards the heavens, into the ancient starry sky.

He sealed himself within the starry sky.

"Mercy, mercy." The old man sighed softly, then rode his ox further into the distance.

One step, one step, and another.

The gods remained silent, and the giant of light and shadow gazed upon them in silence.

After walking away.

The old man on the ox's back suddenly turned around and reached out to grab it.

The earth shook violently, and he pulled up the Buddhist temple stele and put it into his sleeve.

He then rode the ox and continued onward.

Until it completely disappeared into the deep fog.

The All Gods looked at each other in bewilderment, and the giant of light and shadow murmured:

"It's fake, right?"

For a long, long time.

A deity asked:

"Who is he?"

The heavens and earth trembled, and a sudden gale arose. The mountains, rivers, grass, and trees resonated in the wind, producing sounds that seemed to be human voices, as if responding spontaneously.

"Laozi."

Such is the way of Heaven and Earth.