Hua Mingxuan watched in stunned silence, a chill running down his spine.
A Mighty Figure at the peak of the Second Heaven of the Immortal Platform!
Wherever he is in the Eastern Wasteland, he would be a powerful ruler, a figure who would establish his own sect!
Surprisingly, in front of Eastern Exalt, he couldn't even make a complete movement, just like a fish on a chopping board, easily frozen in place!
What an enormous gap in strength!
What an incredible method!
Li Qingshan then calmly stood up.
His steps were steady, the soles of his boots landing silently on the frosty ground.
He walked towards the gray-robed old man who was suspended in mid-air, stopped three feet in front of him, and calmly examined the "human-shaped sculpture" as if he were observing a rare specimen.
"Hiding skills are passable," Li Qingshan finally spoke, his tone as calm as a comment. "His aura is connected to the Star Peak Earth Vein Array, and he is normally as silent as withered wood and stubborn rock, indistinguishable from a mountain cliff. If one were to probe him solely with divine sense, even King would find it difficult to detect."
He paused, then shook his head slightly. "Unfortunately, from the moment I stepped into the Taixuan Sect, you had nowhere to hide."
The gray-robed old man's body was frozen in place and unable to move, but deep within his gray pupils, an expression of extreme resentment and madness suddenly erupted!
At the same time, an even more dangerous and violent aura began to brew and rise from within his imprisoned body!
A strange dark light emanated from beneath his skin. The light writhed like a living thing, rapidly spreading along the veins throughout his body. Wherever it passed, the blood vessels beneath his skin bulged and turned a deep black, like venomous snakes crawling under his skin!
From within the body, a low, rumbling sound, like muffled thunder, emanated—a prelude to divine power being forcibly compressed and ignited in a destructive manner!
He's going to self-destruct!
With his peak cultivation at the Second Heaven of the Immortal Platform, he risked the destruction of his body and soul, unleashing the full power of his origin and demonic arts!
Such a self-destruction is powerful enough to turn an area of hundreds of miles into a dead zone, causing widespread devastation!
Hua Mingxuan sensed the destructive energy rapidly escalating and cried out in alarm, "Watch out! He's going to...!"
Li Qingshan didn't even let Hua Mingxuan finish speaking.
He simply raised his right hand again, this time extending only his index finger.
A gentle, peaceful golden light emanated from the tip of his index finger, seemingly containing the pure Daoist essence of the beginning of Heaven-Opening.
Point your fingertips forward and tap lightly.
The target was the gray-robed old man's brow, which was filled with death and madness.
My fingertips touched the old man's skin, which was as cold as iron.
"Puff."
A sound so faint it was almost inaudible.
That warm, golden light, like a hot knife slicing through butter, entered the old man's brow without any resistance.
The golden light, as fine as a hair, was incomparably sharp, easily piercing through the skull's defenses, which were harder than refined gold, and penetrating the depths of the sea of consciousness protected by numerous restrictions.
"Ugh!!!"
The old man in the gray robe, whose body had been frozen in place, suddenly shuddered violently! Although he was still unable to move, he managed to squeeze out a agonizing, inhuman roar.
In his gray pupils, the wildly surging dark demonic light clashed fiercely with the invading golden light, the light flickering uncertainly, like a candle in the wind.
Although the golden light was thin, it contained a supreme power of purification and disintegration. Wherever it passed, the layers of vicious primordial Divine Forbidden melted away like ice and snow, and the violent tendency to self-destruct was forcibly suppressed and calmed down.
Search the soul, extinguish consciousness.
Li Qingshan's golden light traversed the opponent's sea of consciousness, ignoring the backlash restrictions, precisely seizing all useful fragments of memory: the profound meanings of the scriptures of " Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art " and " Indestructible Heavenly Art," forbidden secret techniques, the special communication codes and methods within the Ruthless One Lineage, and a rough distribution map of their forces lurking in the Eastern Wasteland and even parts of the Central Continent. A massive amount of chaotic information was rapidly stripped away, organized, and absorbed.
All of this, though a long story, actually happened in the blink of an eye.
Three breaths.
Just three breaths later, the last glimmer of light in the gray-robed old man's pupils dimmed completely, spreading rapidly and losing all its luster.
The rapidly rising aura of destruction receded like the tide, disappearing without a trace.
Thump.
The old man, as if a skin had been stripped of all its bones and soul, fell from mid-air and crashed heavily onto the frost-covered bluestone ground with a dull thud.
Thick, black blood slowly seeped from its seven orifices, carrying a pungent stench and a faint demonic aura, meandering across the white frost surface and drawing twisted, eerie patterns.
The protector of a Ruthless One Lineage at the peak of the Second Heaven of the Immortal Platform was thus annihilated, body and soul.
From being captured by Li Qingshan from a thousand miles away in the Void, to being immobilized, having his soul searched, and then killed, the entire process took no more than ten breaths.
He didn't even manage a single effective act of resistance or escape.
Hua Mingxuan stood frozen in place, his whole body ice-cold, his inner shirt already soaked with cold sweat.
He witnessed it all firsthand, yet he still felt a strong sense of unreality.
Throughout the entire process, Eastern Exalt Li Qingshan moved slowly and spoke in a calm tone, without revealing the slightest hint of murderous intent or solemnity, as if he had only done a trivial matter.
But it is precisely this effortless mastery that reveals his unfathomable strength and profound level of skill.
Immobilize the enemy with a single word, capture them from a thousand miles away in the Void, and let golden light from your fingertips break through barriers and search their souls—aren't these legendary, almost divine abilities?
Ten breaths later, Li Qingshan slowly opened his closed eyes.
The calm and stillness in his Central Plains now held a chilling coldness, as if solidified from millennia-old ice.
He didn't say much, but his gaze swept over the corpse on the ground that was rapidly losing its vitality and beginning to emit a putrid smell, and then looked at Hua Mingxuan, who was still in shock and unable to recover.
Hua Mingxuan jolted awake from his daze.
He looked at Li Qingshan again, his eyes now filled not only with gratitude, but also with boundless awe.
" The Eastern Exalt's kindness today is like a second life for Taixuan! Hua Mingxuan, on behalf of the ancestors and countless disciples of the Taixuan Sect, humbly express my gratitude for the Eastern Exalt's great kindness! This kindness and virtue will be forever forgotten by the entire Taixuan Sect! We will gladly die for any task at hand!"
His voice trembled, yet every word was firm and resounding, containing heartfelt gratitude and a promise.
Li Qingshan accepted his bow without hesitation.
Only after Hua Mingxuan looked up did Li Qingshan speak calmly, his voice echoing clearly in the silent secret hall. "The protector of the Ruthless One Lineage has been eliminated. I have found the key to the restriction they placed within Hua Yunfei's body in his memories. I will pass it on to you. Combined with the Taixuan Technique, it can help Hua Yunfei sever the demonic seed and return to his true path. However, the dangers and pain involved must be borne by him alone. Whether he can break through and rebuild depends on his will and Fortune."
As he spoke, a flash of golden light appeared and entered the forehead of Hua Mingxuan, the leader of the Taixuan Sect.
Upon hearing this, Hua Mingxuan's eyes shone with unprecedented hope. His lips trembled with excitement as he nodded repeatedly, "Yes! Yes! Thank you for your guidance, Eastern Exalt Eastern Exalt! Thank you for giving Yunfei a chance to live!"
Li Qingshan nodded slightly and said no more.
The Cause and Effect have been resolved, and this matter is now concluded.
He turned away, no longer looking at the chaotic scene inside the hall, and slowly walked towards the black iron hall door that was still tightly closed, but whose interior space had been torn apart by him.
The array patterns on the palace gate had already been mostly destroyed in the spatial turbulence just now, and their light had dimmed.
"And," Li Qingshan paused slightly before his figure completely faded away, without turning back, but his clear and calm voice clearly reached Hua Mingxuan's ears, "After Hua Yunfei wakes up and his mind is clear, you can tell him: the shackles that hindered the strings of the zither are gone. In the years to come, how much free and clear sound this 'zither' can play, how many beautiful chapters it can compose, will all depend on his own will and Fortune."
After speaking, Li Qingshan's figure, like the last vestiges of night fading in the dawn, or like water vapor quietly rising under the sunlight, vanished from solid to ethereal, from dense to faint, slowly dissipating into the dim light of the secret hall, leaving no trace, as if he had never existed.
Inside the secret room, only Hua Mingxuan remained, kneeling there in a daze.
And the rapidly decaying corpse of the gray-robed old man, emitting a faint black aura, the shattered incense burner, the overturned jade table, the frost and bloodstains scattered on the ground, and the lingering cold and bloody stench in the air, all silently spoke of the situation.
With the matter of the Star Peak Secret Palace resolved, Li Qingshan did not linger at the Taixuan Sect.
At this moment, he opened a temporary cave in an unnamed desolate mountain in the Southern Region of the Eastern Wasteland, set up an isolation formation, and began to calmly comprehend these two imperial scriptures that have shaken the ages.
It doesn't require cultivation.
Li Qingshan's resolve was as firm as a rock; he had long since clearly defined his own path.
While the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art's path of plundering external paths to achieve its own merits is commendable, its pursuit of "inner self-cultivation and Ultimate Sublimation " is equally admirable.
His understanding is what constitutes "learning" and "resources."
Inside the cave, Li Qingshan sat cross-legged on a blue stone, his eyes slightly closed, his mind sinking into his sea of consciousness.
Great Emperor scriptures floated deep within the primordial spirit, their texts emanating two completely different auras:
One is deep and dark, seemingly capable of swallowing the light of all things;
One is hazy and transcendent, as if immortal life is being nurtured in the midst of annihilation.
The mind is like a mirror, slowly reflecting reality.
The profound meaning of the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art flowed through my heart.
One day, two days, and seven days later, Li Qingshan gradually entered a deep state of enlightenment, Controlled Dao Transformation, as if he were having a Daoist exchange with the Ruthless Great Emperor.
Upon entering the Controlled Dao Transformation, a myriad of insights came rushing in, instantly piercing through the appearance of "devouring all bodies and merging with the origin," pointing directly to its core true meaning.
"It's not plunder, but rather 'copying'," Li Qingshan realized. "The so-called 'devouring' of one's physical origin is nothing more than using the bloodlines of all living beings as a pen and the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth as ink to forcibly copy and record the 'form' and 'rhythm' of the various Great Daos in the universe on one's own 'blank sheet of paper.'"
Why is it so difficult for mortals to grasp the profound Dao?
It's not that they lack the necessary qualifications, but rather that they lack a "starter," a "bridge" that resonates deeply with a specific path.
A special constitution is a "natural bridge" created by heaven and earth, most in harmony with one or more of the Great Daos.
The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art dismantles, analyzes, and replicates these "bridges" in the most domineering and direct way, and then attempts to reconstruct them within itself.
" Ruthless Great Emperor," Li Qingshan murmured to himself, already feeling a certain respect for this unseen empress. "You treat your physical body as a malleable 'Dao embryo,' using the essence of all living beings as your material to defy fate and reshape your foundation. What you seek is not the power of your bloodline itself, but the 'Dao' that your bloodline points to."
This idea is truly astonishing.
Ordinary cultivators cherish any powerful physique they possess as a treasure and painstakingly develop its potential.
However, the Ruthless Great Emperor regarded the celestial matter as "samples" that could be collected, dissected, and studied. His purpose was not to possess them, but to understand and master the "Great Dao Rules" they represented through them.
Upon rereading " The Indestructible Heavenly Art," Li Qingshan gained an even deeper understanding.
" The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art is about 'collecting' and 'copying,' an accumulation of quantity, and the source of 'chaos.' All paths converge within one body; without the supreme Iron Order to govern them, it becomes a dead end where the Great Daos clash and the origins clash." Li Qingshan's divine sense swept over the text of the Indestructible Heavenly Art. "This scripture is the 'Iron Order' that governs all paths, the supreme principle that transforms 'chaos' into 'order.'"
The core of the Indestructible Heavenly Art lies in "refinement" and "integration".
It does not simply merge the various primal forces it has devoured into a more powerful force, but rather, with transcendent wisdom, it extracts the most essential "common principles of the Way" from this complex array of "models of the Way," discarding the dross and retaining the essence, to construct a stable, harmonious, and orderly "internal system of the Way."
" The Chaos Body may just be a relatively noticeable 'byproduct' of this path, a phase in time," Li Qingshan pondered. "The real goal is probably to use the myriad Daos as fuel to ignite one's own Dao Fire, forging an 'undying Dao Heart' that can reflect, govern, and even evolve the myriad Daos, or what might be called a ' Chaos Dao Embryo '? This 'embryo' is not a bloodline embryo, but rather a 'prototype of Dao Fruit ' born from the combination of Dao enlightenment and the origin of life."
The Underworld's painstaking attempt to imitate failed, resulting in the so-called " Chaotic Blood Monster" that merely possessed the form but lacked the spirit. It only imitated the superficial appearance of "devouring and fusion," failing to grasp the essence of "refining and unifying," and lacking the supreme talent and mindset to transcend and control all paths as its core driving force.
By comparing and studying the two imperial scriptures, Li Qingshan seemed to see a clear but dangerous path to defying the heavens:
First, he used the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art as a "broom" to sweep across the world and collect all kinds of "traces";
Then, using the Indestructible Heavenly Art as a "furnace," the traces are tempered, and the "true meaning" is refined;
The ultimate goal may be to forge an immortal " Dao Self " within the crucible of "Ten Thousand True Meanings"!
The greatest danger on this path, besides external divine retribution and human calamities, lies in the internal loss of self.
"All paths taint the true self, obscuring its true nature." Li Qingshan observed with keen insight, "Devouring the source means accepting fragments of others' life imprints and Dao rhythms. When the quantity is small, it can be suppressed and digested, but as more is devoured, the myriad external 'Dao rhythm imprints' and 'life echoes' intertwine and resonate, continuously impacting and covering the cultivator's own 'true self consciousness.'"
"Like drops of various colors of ink being continuously added to clear water, at first the water remains clear, and each drop of ink creates its Present Self image; but as too many drops of ink are added, they blend and mix, and the clear water itself becomes murky and loses its original appearance." Li Qingshan deduced through his mind, "A practitioner must maintain the clarity and independence of their 'true self' amidst the impact of this 'myriad noises,' constantly distinguishing 'what is heretical and what is one's own mind.' What a steadfast Daoist heart and supreme wisdom this requires!"
The remedies left behind by the Ruthless Great Emperor are more like buffers to help stabilize the "Dao Heart" and reduce "noise pollution," rather than a fundamental solution. The fundamental solution probably lies in the process of refining and unifying the " Indestructible Heavenly Art," and also in the ultimate tempering and protection of the "True Self."
"In the original story Yaoguang Holy Son finally stopped at six thousand four hundred kinds of origins. It wasn't that he couldn't reach them, but rather that his heart had become fearful, his mind had become turbid, and he could no longer maintain that absolute clarity and control." Li Qingshan understood.
Moreover, true fulfillment may require a supreme mental cultivation method for "refining the mind in the mortal world and seeing the true self," to anchor oneself amidst the myriad influences and to see one's true nature amidst all illusions.
The existence of the Xiao Nannan may be a manifestation of this missing link or something that transcends the scriptures.
Having realized this, Li Qingshan slowly opened his eyes, his eyes devoid of joy or sorrow, only radiating the light of wisdom.
He would naturally not choose this path, which is fraught with danger and paradox.
But this enlightenment was incredibly rewarding.
"For me, the greatest value of the Path of Devouring Heaven lies not in its 'techniques,' but in its perspective of 'observing the Dao' and its approach to 'applying the Dao,'" Li Qingshan thought to himself. "It provides an extreme yet effective methodology for 'understanding all Daos,' using the 'imitation' of countless concrete entities to infer and understand the abstract 'rules of the Great Dao.'"
This has great reference value for him in perfecting his own "understanding of the Great Dao".
The Innate Sacred Body Dao Embryo are in harmony with all the Dao, but this is more of an innate instinct and talent.
The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art provides a proactive and systematic way to "disassemble," "analyze," and "understand" the myriad paths, thus filling in some blind spots in his cognition.
"More importantly," Li Qingshan said with a profound gaze, "The ideas in the Indestructible Heavenly Art regarding 'unifying the differences of all paths, refining the commonalities of the Great Dao, and constructing an internally ordered system of Dao principles' have provided immeasurable inspiration for my deduction of the subsequent chapters of the Red Dust Immortal Path in the Mortal World after I attained the Dao and became an Emperor, especially in thinking about how to integrate and sublimate the Dao Fruit in Lifetime reincarnation, and ultimately form an unparalleled immortal Immortal Fetus in the mortal world."
" The Chaos Body can be seen as a preliminary 'unified model of all paths' with the physical body as its carrier." His thoughts wandered.
"Especially that ultimate aim of 'using all paths as materials to forge my undying Dao heart,' although the paths are different, its spirit and scope seem to converge with my pursuit." Li Qingshan revealed a thoughtful expression. "Perhaps I can borrow this idea, but not the 'substance' of plundering external paths, but the 'spirit' of tempering my own heart and unifying the inner Dao."
"In my second Red Dust Immortal Path World, with my Innate Sacred Body Dao Embryo and Heavenly Dao Embryo fully formed, and my Innate Dao Rhyme reaching its peak, when all the supernatural powers and laws are fully integrated, I may attempt to use this principle of 'unifying all Daos' to evolve a 'Great Dao Returning to its Origin' within my body, simulating the scene of 'the beginning of chaos, when all laws return to their source.' Taking this as an opportunity, I will embark on my first incarnation on the Red Dust Immortal Path of the Mortal Lifetime, shedding my old body and giving birth to the ' Mortal World Immortal Fetus '!"
With this thought in mind, Li Qingshan suddenly felt enlightened.
The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art and the Indestructible Heavenly Art that I have obtained this time are far more valuable than an ordinary imperial scripture.
It does not offer specific cultivation methods, but rather a revolutionary perspective on cultivation and a supreme understanding of the "Tao," which can serve as a rich resource on his Red Dust Immortal Path and a beacon of wisdom to illuminate his way forward.
He slowly rose and brushed away non-existent dust from his clothes.
Outside the cave, dawn was approaching.
These insights have been fully absorbed and transformed into a solid foundation for my own path.
" The Ruthless Great Emperor, your talent is indeed unparalleled." Li Qingshan gazed towards the direction of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land and sighed softly, "The path you have forged, though different from mine, is worthy of my respect and from which I have benefited greatly."
Having said that, he took a step forward, his figure already leaving the cave and merging into the dawning light, continuing his journey through the mortal world.
The insights gained from those two imperial scriptures are like precious jades sunk into a deep pool, waiting for a crucial moment in the future to shine and guide the way forward.