They transformed into Dao Imprints and merged into his Cave Heavens. The Cave Heavens behind him trembled slightly, as though something were about to emerge.
Something churned beyond the fractured sky. With the slightest movement from whatever lay within, the heavens tore open like a curtain.
The screech of metal grinding against metal echoed throughout the Cave Heavens. Suddenly, chains extended from the rifts in the sky.
The moment those chains appeared, all the visions vanished, leaving only the chains dancing freely within his Cave Heavens.
As time passed, however, the chains gradually converged in a single instant, until only one chain remained swinging within each of his Cave Heavens.
Their whistling seemed to pierce the barriers of the Cave Heavens and reach the outside world. The faint sound of space tearing like cloth reached Shi Qingyun's ears.
Divine Power surged through his body, and his four-wheel Cave Heaven absorbed the spiritual essence of heaven and earth even faster.
The next moment, Shi Qingyun slowly floated into the air, and a chain extended from each Cave Heaven behind him.
They vibrated incessantly behind his back, waves pulsing from the four chains as though resonating with the world outside.
As soon as the chains appeared in the outside world, streams of Yin-Yang Qi seeped from the void.
A suction force emanated from Little White, drawing in great mouthfuls of the descending Yin-Yang Qi. Shi Qingyun, meanwhile, swallowed most of it like a whale.
After absorbing the Yin-Yang Qi, Little White briefly radiated a five-colored glow.
The chains began waving behind him like children who had spotted something curious.
Their rustling woke Little White from a deep sleep below. Looking up at Shi Qingyun bobbing in midair, Little White let out a puzzled howl.
Shi Qingyun slowly opened his eyes, and a beam of divine light shot from his pupils.
Pfft!
The divine light pierced straight through the stone ceiling, leaving a smooth hole through which sunlight poured.
Floating in midair, he casually raised his hand and pointed ahead. The four chains behind him-two black and two white-shot forward.
With a hiss, they slid straight into the cave wall, utterly smooth.
The moment the chains entered the stone wall, frost rapidly formed on one side, while the other was left scorched black, giving off a burnt smell.
With another wave, he brought the four chains back to his side and reached out to stroke one before him.
It felt metallic. Yet when its fierce, scorching heat touched his hand, he felt only a gentle warmth.
Divine Power surged, and all four chains lined up beneath his feet. Standing on them felt as solid as standing on the ground.
The white chains were clear and pure as mutton-fat white jade; the black ones were murky and cold as ink jade and divine metal.
Two opposing powers, two different Dao laws, had appeared together like this.
Was this the "Dao" I comprehended?
He shook his head. The Dao was formless, yet it had form. This should be a manifestation of his current understanding of Dao arts.
He turned his attention back to his dantian. The swirling nebula there had expanded considerably, and even the "branches" flowing toward every part of his body had grown much larger.
Especially the origin qi of the Yin-Yang Dao Body at its center. After drawing some out earlier, he had never expected that it would not weaken, but instead become even more abundant.
"I'm not far from achieving minor mastery of the Dao Body!"
"Next, it's time to see what this thing is."
He sat suspended in midair, and the four chains beneath his feet dissolved into motes of light and vanished.
He extended his right hand, and a pitch-black bone fragment appeared before him.
Gathering Divine Power in his hand, he brushed it lightly. The runes branded upon it flashed for an instant, then swiftly faded.
When the bone fragment appeared, Little White, who was watching Shi Qingyun from below, immediately grew restless.
Little White kept barking at the bone fragment floating before Shi Qingyun. Seeing this, he released a strand of Divine Power to soothe Little White.
Feeling that familiar aura, Little White quickly quieted down, though those eyes remained fixed on the bone fragment before Shi Qingyun.
Divine Power surged in his hand, and he poured it into the bone fragment.
As the Divine Power entered, the bone fragment before him rapidly emitted rays of mysterious light. The flashing runes on its surface began writhing one by one.
Faintly, a tiny fissure slowly opened, threatening to split apart.
Beneath the runes, specks of silver light bobbed within the bone fragment. Some drifted out through the tiny fissure.
Those silver specks seemed to carry some kind of power. The moment they emerged, an ethereal aura accompanied them.
Shi Qingyun instantly reduced the flow of Divine Power, his face turning deathly pale.
Space shattered inch by inch around the bone fragment, and the entire cave trembled. An immense pressure swept over him for only an instant, yet even that made him feel as though his body would burst.
Pitch-black clouds drifted over the cave.
Blood-red lightning flickered faintly within them. Shi Qingyun felt a powerful Heavenly Might circling overhead and immediately reined in his aura.
After he reduced the Divine Power flowing into it, the bone fragment's runes flashed a few times before falling dormant. The tiny fissure instantly healed.
The silver specks also vanished instantly from before him.
Suddenly, a pure white pillar of light shot from the bone fragment toward Shi Qingyun.
The pillar seemed to pierce straight through time and space. The instant it emerged, it struck him.
Chapter 71: White-Robed Immortal
Shi Qingyun felt a white radiance flood his eyes. His vision blurred, then vanished. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself somewhere unfamiliar.
The starry rivers shattered, the Great Dao thundered, and smoke from the fighting rose everywhere. Severed limbs lay scattered all around, still dripping with blood.
An earth-shaking scene of a battle's aftermath unfolded before him, and profound sorrow filled his heart.
The sight stirred an inexplicable grief in him. Clear tears rolled down his cheeks, and he reached up to wipe them away.
He did not know why he was crying. Perhaps the heavens above this land were weeping, and their sorrow had affected him too.
Suddenly, a ripple descended from the sky. It shook his body and instantly pulled him out of that inexplicable sorrow.
At that moment, he stood upon land soaked crimson with blood. Even the dark red blood occasionally bubbling up from underground failed to draw his gaze.
All his attention was firmly captured by the sounds of battle coming from the sky.
Above the heavens-or perhaps beyond them-two enormous figures fought.
The ripples raised by their collisions in the void were like endless waves, battering everything around them.
In the mere blink of an eye, the place where they stood became a stretch of nothingness. Only the sparks of their clashes illuminated that empty space.
Shi Qingyun could not make out the movements of those two figures-or perhaps he could not truly see them at all. He could only vaguely sense that the Great Dao accompanied their every motion.
The mournful cries of the Great Dao seemed to cross countless ages of time and space to reach his ears, so terribly clear.
The Great Daos collided, and the tremendous roar shook a river out of the void. Neither its source nor its end could be seen.
Under their attacks, it broke apart and reformed again and again.
Its direction of flow kept changing. Fine red threads rose from the river and wound around their bodies, but the two figures merely gave a slight shudder.
The red threads entwining them transformed into droplets of blood-colored liquid and flowed back into the river.
The next moment, the two figures became streaks of rainbow light and charged into the river, stepping onto its surface.
Though only a river separated them, Shi Qingyun felt as though an entire history of ages lay between them and him.
The immense shock waves of their battle fell into the long river, stirring up more and more blood-red threads. Dimly, another person seemed to appear upon the river.
The moment that terrifying aura emerged, the two combatants swiftly separated.
The scene that followed grew increasingly indistinct, as though obscured by a bank of mist.
Staring at the river, he felt as though even his soul would be sucked into it, and he dared not look again.
Sounds of battle rang out nearby, and he knew the bone fragment's owner had appeared. Enormous shock waves scattered in every direction.
The shock waves swept into the heavens. Around them, radiant planets teeming with life fell one after another like a meteor shower.
There, a group wielding all manner of weapons pursued a white figure with all their strength, their forms darting constantly through the void.
Space beneath their feet was like glass, shattering inch by inch at the lightest step.
With every step, the white-robed person fleeing ahead wove a blood-red net of formations in the void!
An octagonal disc turned in his hand, shooting countless divine patterns into those formations and causing some mysterious transformation within them.
Those formations briefly obstructed the pursuers, keeping them from catching the white-robed person.
But the pursuers were no pushovers either. A burly man wielding a great saber strode through the void with the bearing of a dragon and tiger.
Space instantly cracked beneath his feet, spreading outward like a spiderweb. Gripping his blood-red saber with both hands, he slashed forward.
A huge, dazzling blade of light shot out. Its razor-sharp edge sliced away the formations along with that entire stretch of space, and the people beside him swiftly gave chase.
Shi Qingyun watched the white figure, but in a moment of distraction, lost sight of him.
Turning his head, he saw a white-robed youth carrying a five-colored egg brush past his side. Whether it was an illusion or not, Shi Qingyun felt that the youth glanced at him as they passed shoulder to shoulder.
The youth's face was very young, but his aura was immensely powerful. Streams of black blood poured from his body.
His snow-white robes were stained, blooming with plum blossoms of blood. His face was deathly pale as well.
The aura emanating from him was exactly the same as the bone fragment's.
Shi Qingyun had only just caught sight of the youth and briefly frozen when the world before him changed again. He appeared somewhere riddled with spatial fissures.
Shattered battle flags and wrecked warships floated everywhere in the void. Above, droplets of blood fell from a massive rift in the sky.
It was as though the heavens were weeping. A grim, murderous air filled every inch of this place.
Not far away, the youth knelt on one knee. The Compass in his hand was missing a corner, and cracks had spread through its center. Blood caught between those cracks flickered with crimson light.
A savage-looking great saber lay shattered before him, while an enormous wound in his shoulder gushed blood.
Corpses lay strewn around him, their bodies covered in all manner of wounds.
The youth tossed the Compass into the air. The next moment, formations flickered across those corpses.
An eerie light flashed on the Compass, and streams of blood-colored energy surged from the corpses along the formations.
Stream after stream of blood-colored energy flowed toward the youth, and the five-colored egg fell from his hand.
Only then did Shi Qingyun see the enormous black wound writhing across the five-colored egg. The black energy clinging to its shell was constantly eating away at its five-colored surface.
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