His laughter shattered the morning mist outside the ruined temple.
Tongtian stood before the divine statue, his blue robes snapping, his sword intent whipping up his black hair.
No trace of a Saint's aloof transcendence remained in that laughter.
Only the chill of having seen the death trap with his own eyes.
Boom!
The void behind him was torn open by a Saint's sword intent.
The phantom of the Immortal Slaying Sword Formation slowly emerged.
Four sword phantoms-the Immortal Slaying Sword, the Immortal-Killing Sword, the Immortal-Trapping Sword, and the Immortal-Severing Sword-dominated the four directions.
Blood-red sword qi crisscrossed through the air.
Earth, fire, water, and wind surged within the formation.
The mournful cries of the fallen Ten Thousand Immortals seemed to have passed through the tribulation ahead of time and descended upon this ruined temple.
Every grave in the Mass Burial Grounds trembled at once.
Ghosts prostrated themselves, even their resentment forced back into the depths of their soul flames.
Had an ordinary Quasi-Saint stood here, this sword intent would have pressed cracks into their mind.
Yet the clay divine statue behind the offering table remained seated and unmoving.
Three feet from it, Primordial Purple Patterns flowed gently.
All that saintly might.
All that sword intent.
The instant they approached the divine statue, they dissolved without a sound.
The statue merely gazed calmly at Tongtian.
As though looking at a Saint who had finally seen the game board clearly.
The Main Temple in Guanjiangkou.
Gu Changqing sat cross-legged before the divine statue, his divine sense reaching through the incense anchor to feel every tremor in Tongtian's Dao heart.
He knew the moment was ripe.
Tongtian's sharpest weapon was his sword.
Yet what he found hardest to sever was affection.
Every strand of future cause and effect Gu Changqing had just unveiled struck precisely at what Tongtian cherished most.
Long-Eared Dingguang Immortal's betrayal.
Duobao being taken away by Taishang.
Golden Spirit Holy Mother's death.
Turtle Spirit Holy Mother falling victim to a plot.
Wudang Holy Mother left alone to hold together the shattered remnants.
The Ten Thousand Immortals gathering to pay homage on Golden Turtle Island, only to become the foundation of flesh and blood beneath the Investiture of the Gods List.
If these futures unfolded one by one during the tribulation, anger might drive Tongtian into the abyss.
But now.
None of it had happened yet.
Tongtian still stood at the height of his power.
Yet Gu Changqing had laid that crushing defeat before him in advance, bloody and raw.
Such a shock was tantamount to tearing open the wounds of the future before the calamity had even descended.
Inside the ruined temple.
The laughter finally stopped.
Tongtian bowed his head, his disheveled black hair hiding half his face.
His voice was low, like a sword blade scraping over stone.
"Whose taboo has this Dao of mine violated?"
He slowly raised his head, sword light surging in his eyes.
"I believe in the fifty great Daos, in the Heavenly Dao deriving forty-nine, and in a remaining thread that all living beings can seize."
"I founded the Interception Sect to teach without discrimination."
"Humans may hear the Dao, demons may hear the Dao, immortals may hear the Dao. Even devils, if they seek the Dao wholeheartedly, may enter my sect and listen to my teachings."
"I have always respected my two elder brothers, never once scheming against them."
"Where was the wrong in any of this?"
With every sentence, the sword intent in the ruined temple grew heavier.
Tongtian was questioning the divine statue.
He was also questioning himself.
For the first time, he clearly realized that from the moment the Interception Sect's Dao had been established, it had already stood in opposition to certain rules.
For a Saint, doubt arising in the Dao heart was far more dangerous than damage to the Dao foundation.
Silence settled over the temple for a moment.
The Primordial Purple Patterns between the clay statue's brows suddenly lit up.
Gu Changqing's voice descended softly.
"You were not wrong."
Tongtian's gaze abruptly sharpened.
The voice within the divine statue continued.
"Nor was your Dao."
"The fault lies in this world being too small."
"So small that it cannot accommodate a second order."
Tongtian's fingers tightened slightly.
The Immortal Slaying Sword's intent within his sleeve instantly let out a low hum.
Gu Changqing's voice was calm, yet every word pressed deep into his Dao heart.
"The Heavenly Dao demands fixed outcomes."
"It wants all beings in their assigned places, cause and effect flowing along their appointed channels, immortals and gods entered into the register, and everything moving along predetermined paths."
"Yet your Interception Sect gave far too many living beings the chance to change their fates."
"Those clad in fur and bearing horns could hear the Dao."
"Those born from dampness or hatched from eggs could ascend to immortality."
"Even those without pedigree could seek a thread of survival on Golden Turtle Island."
"If you continued down this path, you would tear openings in the ranks, pedigrees, and destinies ordained by the Heavenly Dao."
Before the divine statue, ashes rose from the incense burner without a breeze.
A wisp of purple within the ashes formed a vision of the Ten Thousand Immortals gathering to pay homage on Golden Turtle Island.
Immortal radiance rolled like a tide.
Fortune spread like a sea.
Yet deep within that magnificent scene, dark threads of cause and effect had already entangled the life flames of the Ten Thousand Immortals.
Gu Changqing's voice sounded again.
"That is why the Interception Sect must enter the tribulation."
"The more the Ten Thousand Immortals flourish, the better suited they are to filling the list."
"The more you cherish affection, the easier it is for others to lead you by the nose."
"Your two elder brothers merely stood on the side the Heavenly Dao needed, then helped themselves to the fruits that benefited them most."
Boom!
The Immortal Slaying Formation Diagram behind Tongtian shook violently.
The confusion in his eyes began to recede, inch by inch.
In its place came an utterly icy clarity.
He finally saw it.
What the Interception Sect had truly violated was always the order predetermined by the Heavenly Dao.
The thread of survival the Interception Sect sought to seize had cut straight into those fixed outcomes.
From its very root, this tribulation was meant to sever his Interception Sect's Dao.
And his two elder brothers had, in the end, become the blade wielders who drove this tribulation down upon it.
"So that is how it is."
Tongtian spoke in a low voice.
It was very quiet.
Yet outside the ruined temple, every grave fell still at once.
He slowly straightened.
All his earlier pain, anger, and confusion sank into the depths of his eyes.
The sea of swords that had nearly collapsed gathered anew deep within his Dao heart.
This time, the sea of swords no longer sang for the bonds of the Mystic Gate.
Nor did it stand guard for the old ties between brothers.
It rose only for the Interception Sect.
For the Ten Thousand Immortals of Golden Turtle Island.
For that Dao of interception which Heaven would not tolerate.
Tongtian raised a hand and straightened his disheveled blue Daoist robe.
Then he walked up to the offering table.
Three sticks of mortal incense lay on it, long since covered in dust.
They were merely the incense mortals used when worshipping at temples.
They held no spiritual radiance.
No resonance of the Dao.
Yet Tongtian reached out and picked them up.
He flicked a finger.
A wisp of mortal flame ignited at his fingertip.
There was no Samadhi True Fire.
No solar true fire.
Nor any Saint's Dao fire.
Only the most ordinary mortal flame.
The flame lit the tips of the incense sticks.
Thin trails of smoke curled upward.
Holding the three sticks of incense, Tongtian stood before the clay divine statue.
At this moment, he put away his saintly edge and bowed to the statue before him solely as a seeker of the Dao.
It was not submission.
Nor was he acknowledging a master.
Rather, he admitted that this being before him, whose origins he could not discern, already stood outside the game board of the Investiture of the Gods.
"I was presumptuous in probing your temple earlier. Please forgive my discourtesy, Senior."
The three sticks of incense were planted in the incense burner.
The smoke rose, winding around the Primordial Purple Patterns.
Tongtian raised his head, no longer testing or probing with his gaze.
Only genuine solemnity remained.
"Your words today have laid bare the Interception Sect's death trap."
"I have seen the slaughtering tribulation clearly, yet I still cannot see a way to break free."
His voice was not loud, yet it made the entire ruined temple seem to sink beneath its weight.
"Please guide me, Senior."
"How can the Interception Sect wrest a true path to transcendence from this death trap?"
Within the incense burner, the three sticks of mortal incense trembled at once.
The Primordial Purple Patterns abruptly blazed.
Inside the Main Temple in Guanjiangkou.
Gu Changqing slowly opened his eyes.