Endless Sword Dao

As the bronze doors of Hong Meng Hall closed behind him, Chu Mo heard faint, fragmented weeping mixed into the groan of the hinges—the remnant souls of the twelve Divine Lords were crying out in release. The Fate Pearl in his palm suddenly grew hot, and every pearl revealed a different scene: the red-haired Divine Lord teaching children to play with fire amid lava; the white-robed Divine Lord cleaving open fog for mortals with Sword Qi; and the ever-stern gold-robed Divine Lord secretly planting spirit herbs in the sword tomb on Mount Guiji.

"They could have been fine guides." Yun Che stroked the cracks on the Fate Pearl. The flowing light of the Light Orb Race streamed along those cracks, tempering the dark-purple flames into transparent flames of original intent. "They were simply trapped by the Sword Master's legacy for too long."

The stone pillars in the hall suddenly began to hum. Thirteen streaks of starlight descended from the skylight overhead, assembling a star map of the Dawn of Primordial Chaos Land across the floor. Chu Mo's Twin Life Swords automatically rose into the center of the map. The Light Orb Race adorning their tassels transformed into thirteen streams of light, entering his twelve major acupoints and the space between his brows. Something deep within his Sea of Consciousness exploded with a thunderous boom, and a sight he had never seen before emerged before his eyes: in the void beyond primordial chaos, countless Divine Regions floated like bubbles, each bubble's surface reflecting a different ending for him and Yun Che within a cocoon of light.

"This is... the Eye of Myriad Worlds?" Chu Mo's voice trembled. In one bubble, the silver-scaled man was leading the Light Orb Race in rebuilding Godfall Island; in another, the remnant souls of Zilin and Wuyin had become Twin Flowers, blooming beside a new sword tomb on Mount Guiji. In the innermost bubble, the roots of the Old Scholar Tree had already pierced the entire Divine Region. Countless wind chimes hung from its branches, each engraved with a different name—the hosts who had perished throughout thirty thousand years of reincarnation had finally attained immortality in this way.

Yun Che suddenly pointed toward the edge of the star map. "Chu Mo, outsiders!" Space there was twisting as seven figures clad in armor of different materials stepped through the mist. Their armor bore the seven laws of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning, while identical Rhombic Crystals to those embedded in the Sword Master's skeleton were set in each of their brows.

"We are the Domain Guardians of the other eight domains." The leading man in golden armor spoke like a great bell. "Sensing that the laws of the Ninth Divine Region have collapsed, we came to confirm... whether the Chaos Sword Body has been corrupted by the Demon God." His gaze swept over the Endless Body markings on Chu Mo's chest, and his pupils abruptly contracted. "You actually fused the Twin Life Force of the Sword Master and the Demon God?!"

Chu Mo noticed that the skin exposed through the gaps in the seven men's armor was just as translucent as that of the Light Orb Race. Within the crystals in their brows flowed projections of their respective Divine Regions' laws. "So these so-called Domain Guardians are nothing more than puppets of the Divine Regions' laws." He recalled the masked man's final words and suddenly understood why the eight great domains were so sensitive to changes in the Ninth Divine Region.

"You misunderstand." Yun Che stepped forward half a pace, the Ice Clan Fate Pearl flowing with light in her palm. "We merely broke the old sacrificial laws. We have not been corrupted by any power." Her fingertip swept across the star map, and the Light Orb Race transformed into butterflies that settled upon the golden-armored man's shoulder guard. Cracks actually appeared in the golden patterns across his armor. "The true threat is those who seek to imprison life with laws..."

Before she could finish, the lightning-armored man suddenly erupted into motion, his lightning whip lashing toward Chu Mo's brow. "Chaos Power is the cancer of all worlds! Today, I shall cleanse the house for the Sword Master!" The lightning laws on the whip carried the sword intent of the sword tomb on Mount Guiji. It was clearly a branch of the legacy that the First Generation Sword Master had divided away in the past.

Chu Mo's Twin Life Swords flew from their sheaths in response, yet he did not choose to meet the attack head-on. He recalled the "First Sprout" sword intent he had unleashed in the Dawn of Primordial Chaos Land. His blade lightly brushed across the lightning whip, and the raging lightning actually turned into a fine rain, nourishing a newborn forest on the star map. The lightning-armored man froze as sprout-like patterns surfaced across his whip—signs that Chaos Power and the laws had fused together.

"Do you see?" Chu Mo pointed his sword tip at the Old Scholar Tree growing in the center of the star map. "Chaos is not destruction. It gives every law the possibility to grow." He looked toward the crystals in the seven men's brows. "You have been trapped by the Divine Regions' laws for too long. You have long forgotten the Sword Master's original wish—to let every life hold a sword in its own way."

The golden-armored man suddenly dropped to one knee. Upon his golden armor appeared the character "Defy," carved by the Sword Master in Endless Hall all those years ago. "For thirty thousand years, we have finally waited for someone who can make the laws grow." Seeing this, the other six also saluted. The crystals in their brows shattered at once, revealing their true forms beneath the laws' imprisonment—they were each transformed from scattered fragments of the First Generation Sword Master's Dao Heart.

"The mission of the Domain Guardians is to protect the diversity of laws." The golden-armored man rose to his feet, seven blank jade tablets now in his hand. "Now that the old laws have collapsed and the new Endless Sword Dao is about to be born, this is the gift of the eight great domains to the Ninth Divine Region."

The instant Chu Mo accepted the jade tablets, the laws of the eight great domains surged into his Sea of Consciousness like a tide. He saw the metal-aligned Geng Metal Domain using the remnants of sword tombs to build furnaces; the wood-aligned Qingmu Domain nurturing the new sprouts of Mount Guiji into a World Tree; even the most violent Lightning Domain had begun constructing platforms amid the clouds for mortals to practice swordsmanship. "So truly unifying all worlds is not about conquering them with power, but allowing every Divine Region to bloom with its own Dao."

When the first faint glimmer of primordial chaos dawned at the horizon, the plaza outside Hong Meng Hall was already packed with living beings from every realm. The children of the Light Orb Race played beneath the Old Scholar Tree, their bodies gradually becoming solid while mist from the Dawn of Primordial Chaos Land still clung to their hair; former disciples of Godfall Pavilion removed their purple-scaled armor and planted spirit flowers symbolizing hope before the new sword tomb; even the Domain Guardians of the eight great domains had shed their uniform armor and changed into the traditional attire of their respective Divine Regions.

"Chu Mo, look!" Yun Che pointed at the sky. The thirteen stars rearranged themselves, forming the two words "No End" above the Ninth Divine Region. At their center, the phantom of the Old Scholar Tree was resonating with the Chaos Sword Body. "This is the recognition of the new legacy by all worlds."

Just then, tremors came from the direction of Mount Guiji. Chu Mo's Twin Life Force suddenly pointed toward the mountaintop—there, the new sword tomb jointly nurtured by the Divine Lords' Fate Pearls and the Light Orb Race was erupting. Countless spirit swords condensed from Chaos Power soared into the air, and every scabbard bore a different name: Zilin, Wuyin, Future Chu Mo, and that youth practicing swordsmanship within the cocoon of light.

"These swords... are for everyone who wishes to hold a sword," Yun Che said softly. "There are no bloodline restrictions, no shackles of fate. So long as one has the heart, anyone may become a sword cultivator." In the distance, the teleportation arrays of the eight great domains flickered. The first seeker of the Dao from the Geng Metal Domain was stepping through the mist. There was no sword at his waist, only a hammer for forging iron, yet sword intent hotter than any divine sword burned in his eyes. Chu Mo smiled and turned to Yun Che. "Are you ready to welcome a new story? This time, it is our turn to be the guides."

Yun Che nodded, her fingertips brushing over the two characters "Chu Mo" on the sword hilt. Behind them, the doors of Hong Meng Hall slowly opened. Within, countless light butterflies transformed from the Light Orb Race were lifting a newly carved plaque—"Endless Sword Dao, All Worlds Shine Together." Beneath it, the first line of the sword manual had already emerged, the opening words Chu Mo and Yun Che had written together:

"The sword has neither end nor beginning; the heart has brightness and extinction. With my Dao Heart, I shall illuminate and shatter ten thousand calamities."

When the first ray of primordial chaos sunlight fell upon the plaque, sword cries rang throughout the entire Ninth Divine Region. This was neither the mournful cry of thirty thousand years of sacrifice nor the battle roar of a Demon God invasion, but a hymn to the Path of No End, belonging to all free sword cultivators. Chu Mo knew that the legend belonging to him and Yun Che had only truly begun at this moment—in this myriad worlds without a predetermined script, they would use their Twin True Intent to write an endless legend of the sword for every life.