Laozi was different from Yuanshi.
Yuanshi's indignation stemmed more from the humiliation of having his authority as the "foremost master of the Artifact Dao" openly challenged, of being supplanted.
Over countless epochs, how much painstaking effort had he poured into the Way of Artifacts?
The Three Treasures Jade Ruyi, the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover, and all those renowned Innate Spiritual Treasures wielded by the Chan Sect's disciples-which had not been personally refined by him, infused with his lifelong insights into the Artifact Dao?
In his understanding, when it came to the Way of Artifacts, none among the sages could surpass him.
This had always been the foundation of Yuanshi's greatest pride.
Yet now, a junior, a Jie Sect Disciple, had actually reached a height in the Way of Artifacts that left him able only to gaze up from below.
Indeed!
He could only gaze up!
At that moment, the fluctuations of the Great Artifact-Command Art gave even Yuanshi an unmistakable sense of being suppressed.
It was like a swordsman who had trained bitterly his entire life suddenly seeing a drunkard casually swing a sword, far surpassing a realm he could never reach in all his years.
Anyone would have found it unbearable.
One could well imagine what a devastating blow this dealt to Yuanshi's Dao Heart.
However.
Laozi's state of mind was entirely different from Yuanshi's.
As another of the Three Pure Ones, likewise born from Pangu's Primordial Spirit, Laozi was not as obsessed with the Way of Artifacts as Yuanshi, but his attainments were nonetheless profound.
Thus, he understood better than anyone what that aura spreading from Golden Ao Island had truly meant.
Those were by no means ordinary fluctuations of the Artifact Dao.
Rather, it was a power that transcended the Way of Artifacts, more primordial and