Thirty-Three Heavens Outside

Chapter 38: Beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens

For the last three days, Taiyi had nearly worn a hole through the floor of the Sun Palace.

He shattered and reformed jade slips, dismantled and redrew array diagrams, and sometimes stared at the dense threads of karma until past midnight, his eyes going unfocused. Once, when he got stuck at a crucial point in his deductions, he punched a wall—the wall formed of True Sun Fire was unharmed, but the back of his hand went numb from the impact.

"Fuck." Taiyi shook his hand, muttering a curse only he could understand.

Just before dawn on the third day, he finally broke through the node where his deduction model had stalled. Staring at the slowly rotating simulated image of Zixiao Palace suspended in mid-air, he let out a long breath and slumped onto the ground, his back leaning against the cool, white jade wall.

The sky outside the window was shifting from pitch black to indigo. The Sun Star had yet to show itself, but a sliver of golden-red was already appearing on the horizon.

Taiyi looked at that line of light and suddenly felt a sense of familiarity—like seeing the morning light after pulling an all-nighter coding in his previous life. The same exhaustion, the same... uncertainty.

The door was pushed open at that moment.

Di Jun stood in the doorway, the morning light filtering in from behind him, casting long shadows on the floor. He didn't speak, just looked at his younger brother sitting on the ground for a long while.

"It's time to go," he finally said.

Taiyi pushed himself up using the wall, his knees feeling a little weak. He looked down at himself—his casual clothes were rumpled, the cuffs still had fragments of jade slips stuck to them from who knew when, and he exuded the weariness of someone who had been up for three days and nights.

"Wait for me to get ready," he said, his voice a little hoarse.

By the time he emerged, dressed in a proper robe, Fuxi and Nuwa had already arrived.

Fuxi was his usual serene self, holding the Eight Trigrams Plate, the yin-yang fish slowly rotating. Nuwa stood a little distance away, dressed in a simple, moon-white gown, her hair tied up casually without any extra adornments. The morning light filtered through the window lattice, casting a soft golden edge on her profile.

Taiyi's gaze lingered on her for a moment longer.

It wasn't because she was beautiful—though she certainly was. It was because he suddenly felt that Nuwa's aura felt... a little off.

It was a hard-to-describe sensation. At first glance, she seemed no different from usual, her aura contained and harmonious, the hem of her moon-white gown gently swaying with the subtle airflow in the hall. But Taiyi's perception of the Heavenly Dao laws was far sharper than before. He could vaguely "see" incredibly subtle, almost imperceptible ripples in the void around Nuwa.

These weren't fluctuations of magical power or deliberately emitted pressure. It was more like... she herself was beginning to resonate more deeply with the surrounding laws of heaven and earth. The void adjusted and adapted around her spontaneously, as if making way for her, or perhaps welcoming something in advance.

Taiyi's heart skipped a beat.

A precursor to sainthood?

He couldn't be sure. In the Great Wilderness stories from his past life, Nuwa only achieved sainthood through merit after creating humans; that was still a long way off. But this was the real Great Wilderness, where anything was possible. Perhaps she had already reached that threshold, just lacking the final catalyst.

"Eastern Emperor Your Majesty," Nuwa suddenly turned her head, meeting his gaze, and smiled slightly. "Has your injury improved?"

Taiyi collected himself, putting on a polite smile. "Thank you for your concern, fellow Daoist Nuwa. I am much better."

He answered calmly, but his guard was up. Nuwa's glance just now... was too sharp. He had only looked at her for a moment, and she had noticed. Such spiritual awareness was indeed worthy of a future saint.

The four of them left the Sun Palace and ascended on clouds towards the South Heaven Gate. The Heavenly Court in the early morning was quiet. The sea of clouds flowed slowly beneath their feet, and distant palaces appeared and disappeared in the morning mist. Occasionally, early-rising demons would see them from afar and hastily bow in greeting.

Outside the South Heaven Gate, Bai Ze was already waiting. The wise sage of the Demon Race was wearing formal star official robes today, holding a jade tablet. Upon seeing the four arrive, he stepped forward and bowed, "Your Majesty, Eastern Emperor Your Majesty, fellow Daoist Fuxi, fellow Daoist Nuwa. The chaotic currents will enter a stable period in two hours, which is the window for passage."

Di Jun nodded. "The affairs of the Heavenly Court are entrusted to you, sir."

"It is my duty," Bai Ze bowed, then looked at Taiyi. After a moment of silence, he said, "Eastern Emperor Your Majesty... take care."

Taiyi nodded. "Don't worry."

The five spoke no further, transforming into streams of light and soaring into the sky.

They passed through the Nine Heavens, crossed the sea of stars, and the surrounding scenery began to feel unfamiliar. The sky looked like watercolor paper that had been soaked, gradually blurring and becoming indistinct. The light of the stars was swallowed by some kind of gray mist. The texture of space shifted from solid to viscous, and they had to expend extra magical power to counteract an invisible resistance while flying.

This wasn't Taiyi's first time on this path, but the experience was always different. The first two times, he had been full of spirit, charging in with the Chaos Bell; this time... he touched his chest. Although his injuries had healed, his Origin had ultimately suffered some damage.

"Focus," Di Jun's voice sounded in his ear.

Taiyi sobered, immediately calming his mind. He noticed that Nuwa beside him had already unfurled a phantom image of the Mountain and River Diagram—not the complete supreme treasure, but a wisp of projection that formed a faint, flowing barrier enveloping the five of them. The chaotic energy struck the barrier, emitting faint sizzling sounds.

But what concerned him most was Nuwa's state while performing the spell.

She didn't chant or form hand seals; with just a thought, the barrier naturally formed. That effortless, natural mastery already hinted at something beyond "technique," approaching the level of "Dao." Moreover, Taiyi could sense that the barrier's interaction with the surrounding chaos was peculiar—not a direct confrontation, but a kind of guided yielding.

When the chaotic currents struck, they were naturally deflected and dissipated by the barrier. The entire process was as smooth as a stream flowing over a smooth stone.

Fuxi also acted. The clear light of the Eight Trigrams Plate in his hand shone brightly, the yin-yang fish spinning rapidly and projecting a guiding spiritual light trajectory ahead of them. The trajectory wasn't straight but adjusted in real-time according to the fluctuations of the chaotic currents, winding like a snake.

Di Jun walked at the forefront, True Sun Fire burning fiercely around him, like a moving miniature sun. But he didn't simply brute force his way through; the rhythm of the True Sun Fire's burning also changed subtly, sometimes fierce like an explosion, sometimes gentle like the dawn, seemingly adapting to something.

Taiyi watched the three of them and suddenly had a realization.

This was the path to a higher realm—not to fight against heaven and earth, but to understand, to yield, and even... to merge.

He also began to adjust. The phantom image of the Chaos Bell in his sea of consciousness trembled slightly, drawing forth a trace of spatial-temporal Dao rhythm to protect his body. At the same time, he attempted to use the methods recorded in that ancient secret art to perceive the "rhythm" of the surrounding chaos.

As he perceived, he saw deeper scenes.

Chaos was not entirely without order. Beneath the seemingly violent and chaotic currents, there were actually extremely complex structures—some areas had spatial-temporal structures as dense as iron plates, while others were as fragile as spiderwebs; some regions were showered with fragments of laws like a downpour, while others were as calm as a vacuum.

He even "saw" floating fragments of space-time.

These fragments varied in size, some palm-sized, others like small mountains. They floated quietly in the depths of chaos, their surfaces reflecting fragmented scenes—sometimes a fragment of an unfamiliar world, sometimes a long-extinct ancient battlefield, sometimes even a blurry reflection of himself.

A fragment floated past him. He caught a glimpse of a familiar scene reflected within: Buzhou Mountain, a Witch Race tribe, Di Jiang standing high above, looking down... The image flashed and was gone.

Taiyi's heart grew stern.

Were these fragments the past? The future? Or something else?

He looked at Nuwa, wanting to see her reaction. But he found that Nuwa wasn't looking at those fragments at all—her gaze was fixed on the deeper regions, on the seemingly most chaotic and violent areas of the chaos. Her eyes were focused, as if she were... reading.

Reading Chaos?

Taiyi followed her gaze, initially seeing nothing. But as he immersed his mind into that special state of perception, he gradually discovered something.

Deep within those violent chaotic currents, there was actually some extremely ancient "information." These were remnants from the creation of heaven and earth, traces left by the evolution of the Great Dao, the most primitive form of the laws of heaven and earth. Nuwa was looking at those, deciphering the most fundamental mysteries of heaven and earth from the chaos's violence.

Is this her path to becoming a saint? Taiyi thought.

Just then, a particularly fierce turbulent current surged forward.

This current was unlike any they had encountered before—it was dark gold, with fine lightning patterns flowing across its surface. Wherever it passed, even chaos itself distorted and wailed. Even more bizarrely, a low roar could faintly be heard from within the current, like the lingering echo of some ancient existence.

Di Jun's expression changed slightly, and he raised his hand to unleash his full power.

"Wait," Nuwa suddenly said.

She took half a step forward, and the phantom image of the Mountain and River Diagram rippled gently. Instead of resisting head-on, the faint stream of light barrier met the dark gold turbulent current like ripples on water.

The next scene made Taiyi's pupils contract.

The moment the dark gold turbulent current hit the barrier, there was no explosion, no impact, but… it melted. Like ice and snow meeting the warm sun, the violent current gradually dissolved, decomposed, and finally transformed into the purest chaotic origin, which was absorbed and converted by the barrier.

The entire process was eerily silent.

Nuwa withdrew her hand, and the barrier returned to its original state. Her face showed no expression, and she simply said softly, "This piece of chaos… carries the lingering resonance of Great God Pangu's axe from when he created the heavens."

Fuxi nodded. "Indeed. The rhythm of that turbulent current just now is similar to some of the dao traces deep within Buzhou Mountain."

Di Jun looked deeply at Nuwa but said nothing.

Taiyi's heart, however, was in turmoil. The lingering resonance of Pangu's axe from when he created the heavens? Nuwa could sense even this and resolve it? This affinity and understanding of the origin of heaven and earth had already surpassed the scope of ordinary Grand Unity Golden Immortals.

He suddenly recalled the descriptions of Nuwa "molding earth to create humans" from records in his past life. That wasn't simply molding clay figures; it was imbuing lifeless objects with vitality, creating entirely new races, and wielding authority that touched the origin of life. And what she was displaying now, her understanding and guidance of the chaotic origin, was perhaps the nascent form of that authority.

The five of them continued forward.

The deeper they went, the more bizarre the scenes in the chaos became. Sometimes they encountered large areas of law crystals—these crystals floated like icicles, each reflecting different fragments of laws. Other times, they would stumble into zones of temporal and spatial distortion, where visions of the past, present, and future flashed interchangeably, causing dizziness.

Nuwa always maintained the most composed position. No matter what anomalies they encountered, she could find the "most suitable" way to deal with them—not the most forceful, nor the most cunning, but the method that best resonated with the rhythm of heaven and earth, yielding the best results with the least consumption.

Taiyi observed and learned silently. At the same time, the deduction model he had been building in his mind about "how to act in Zixiao Palace" was quietly being adjusted—incorporating Nuwa's approach of "conforming to the Heavenly Dao." Some steps that had initially seemed risky now appeared to have more stable solutions.

After flying for an unknown amount of time, the chaos ahead suddenly calmed down.

It wasn't a complete stillness, but a kind of… orderly calm. The chaotic energy was still flowing, but its trajectory began to exhibit a certain regularity, as if an invisible force was guiding and regulating it.

The guiding spiritual light from Fuxi's Bagua disk suddenly brightened at this moment.

"We're here," he said.

The five looked forward simultaneously.

The chaos there seemed to be parted by an invisible hand. Amidst layers of rippling waves, the outline of an ancient palace slowly emerged.

Gray-green bricks, simple eaves, without any superfluous decoration. Yet, such a seemingly ordinary palace exuded a majesty that made everyone's heart tremble—it was the manifestation of the Heavenly Dao itself here.

Zixiao Palace.

The palace gates were closed, and quite a few figures had already gathered in front of them. The Three Pure Ones stood together, their auras as deep as the sea; Jieyin and Zhunti were on the other side, one with a bitter face, the other with flickering eyes; Hongyun and Zhen Yuanzi were talking in low voices; Styx stood alone in a corner, his blood-red daoist robe unmoving in the chaotic airflow…

As Di Jun and the other four landed, many gazes turned their way.

Taiyi's expression remained calm, and he even nodded to a few acquaintances. However, his peripheral vision remained focused on Nuwa.

He saw that the moment they stepped into this "orderly chaos" before the gates of Zixiao Palace, the ripples resonating with heaven and earth around Nuwa suddenly became clear for a moment—although they quickly retracted, in that instant, Taiyi truly "saw": the void around her was spontaneously arranging and combining, forming an extremely profound formation.

The formation flashed and disappeared, but Taiyi remembered it.

It wasn't an attack, nor a defense, but seemed like… some kind of "authentication." As if this domain belonging to the Heavenly Dao was confirming her qualification.

Nuwa seemed to sense something and turned her head to look at Taiyi. Her eyes were still calm, but Taiyi could feel that beneath the calmness, there was a hint of understanding.

She knew he had seen it.

But she said nothing, merely gave a slight nod, then shifted her gaze to the closed palace gates.

Taiyi took a silent breath.

He had seen much on this journey. The dangers of chaos, the strangeness of time and space, and… the nascent form of a future saint before taking that final step.

And what he himself had to do was, within this palace where the Heavenly Dao manifested, to complete a "rebellion" against the Heavenly Dao.

How ironic.

He looked up at the closed gates of Zixiao Palace, and in the depths of his golden eyes, a hint of almost mad calmness flashed.

The gates were about to open.