"Numinous Treasure?"
Chen Cuo, who had been watching the battle for Chang'an all along, heard the name spoken by the white-robed Daoist too.
Questions immediately surged through his mind.
After all, the name was hardly unfamiliar to him. In both his Previous Life and this one, among the Three Pure Ones—the legendary founders of the Daoist Order and progenitors of the Immortal Dao—stood a Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerable.
But when Chen Cuo's cultivation had been weak and his Divine Abilities meager, he had not even dared speak the name of such a figure, or let it cross his mind. If his thoughts strayed toward it, he had to sever and extinguish them!
Now, though, the name had come from the white-robed Daoist's mouth, with a strangely incongruous title attached. For some reason, Chen Cuo looked toward Tingyi.
"He stole a name to make himself what he is." Tingyi was already in dire straits. The will occupying her body kept expanding and spreading. "After he became the master of a great sect and attained the standing to wield the Dao on Heaven's behalf, he was given the name of that Heavenly Dao sage and styled himself the Great Dharma Master!"
"He rose by stealing a name?"
As Chen Cuo turned the phrase over in his mind, he kept his gaze fixed on Chang'an.
At that moment, the gate had sent ripples rolling across the sky over nearly half the Central Plains. The entire heavens seemed to have become a lake, its surface wrinkled without end!
"That's right!" Tingyi nodded with difficulty. "Before taking on that name, he was merely a disciple of the Jade Void Gate. His seniority was considerable—he belonged to the same generation as your Patriarch and the others—but he had little reputation and kept a low profile. Even