"Disciple Ming Xin pays his respects to my two masters." Ming Xin bowed respectfully.
Amitabha and Buddha Mother Zhunti looked at Ming Xin, both slightly moved.
They could sense that Ming Xin was even more unfathomable now than when he had established his veins. It was an ultimate state in which boundless power had been perfectly contained within him, like a Chaos volcano that could erupt at any moment.
"My beloved disciple has emerged from seclusion. Has your cultivation reached completion?" Buddha Mother Zhunti asked with concern.
Ming Xin shook his head and replied frankly, "Master, the Great Dao is boundless. How can one speak of completion?
I have merely made some progress, barely enough for now.
This disciple has sensed the heavenly secrets. The Witch-Demon War is about to begin. It is the great tide of the Primordial World and an opportunity as well. This disciple wishes to go and observe it. Perhaps I can secure a sliver of advantage for The West."
Hearing this, Daoist Jieyin pondered for a moment before saying, "The Witch Clan and Demon Clan are immensely powerful, and their Killing Intent reaches the heavens. Within the Tribulation lies extraordinary danger. Though your Dao Cultivation has advanced greatly, you must still proceed with caution. Preserving yourself comes first."
"Rest assured, Master. This disciple knows his limits." Ming Xin nodded. "Though the Tribulation is perilous, it is also a path of tempering.
My Three Veins of Slaying Karma, Mortal World, and Cause and Effect need precisely such a slaughterous tribulation to be tested and developed."
The Two Sages of the West knew his mind was made up. Moreover, Ming Xin's current strength was no longer something they could easily influence, so they did not try to dissuade him further.
Buddha Mother Zhunti said, "Then go, disciple. Should you need aid, simply communicate with your thoughts. Your master and I will arrive in an instant."
"Thank you, Masters!" Ming Xin bowed again. "This disciple will be going now."
With that, he turned and took a step out of the hall. His form had already transformed into an intangible, formless streak of light containing the Dao rhythms of Judgment, Mortal World, and Cause and Effect, tearing through space.
He sped directly toward Buzhou Mountain, where the Witch and Demon forces converged and Killing Intent was at its densest!
The curtain was about to rise on the Primordial World's first Witch-Demon War. And Ming Xin, this extraordinary existence who had accumulated endless power and walked the path of Half-step Primordial Unity,
would formally step into this surging torrent, practice his Dao amid the slaughterous tribulation, and seek that sliver of opportunity for Transcendence!
After bidding farewell to the Two Sages of the West, Ming Xin did not head directly for the Witch-Demon battlefield that was about to erupt. Instead, he followed his heart.
Like a true ascetic and observer, he measured the increasingly restless lands of the Primordial World step by step.
He restrained the terrifying aura of Half-step Primordial Unity, appearing no different from an ordinary wandering cultivator.
Clad in a simple azure robe, he walked with calm composure, his tranquil gaze sweeping over mountains and rivers, passing tribes and cities.
Whenever he encountered followers of the Heretical Path wreaking havoc, cultivating demonic arts with the souls of living beings, or occupying mountains and bullying the weak, Ming Xin never hesitated to act.
More often than not, he merely pointed a finger or narrowed his eyes.
There was no earth-shaking display, only a strand of Slaughter sword intent containing the will of Judgment, or a wisp of Mortal World Reincarnation aura that stirred their own karmic burden.
Those who had committed countless evils would often perish in an instant, or fall into endless illusions born from their own sins until their souls scattered and dissipated.
"To kill in order to protect life; to slay karma, not people." He murmured softly, his heart without ripples, holding only the resolve to uphold Order and justice.
When he arrived at places blessed with spiritual beauty and sensed living beings gathered in pursuit of the Dao, he would occasionally stop.
Whether atop a mountain peak or beside the water, he would sit down casually and begin expounding the Dao.
What he taught was not the profound Dao of a Sage, but basic principles of doing good, methods of cultivation, and the need for caution in Cause and Effect, drawn from his own insights into Mortal World and Cause and Effect.
When he taught, there were no golden lotuses blooming from the earth. Yet his words were like spring rain, nourishing all things in silence. Those who listened often felt something stir in their hearts and suddenly saw the light. They gained a little more understanding of the road ahead, and the good within them began to grow.
Once he finished, he drifted away without leaving behind a name, only a trace of Dao rhythm and opportunity for those fated to obtain it.
Amid this repeated cycle of walking, observing, acting, and teaching, Ming Xin witnessed the joys, angers, sorrows, and pleasures of countless beings, along with the intertwining of good and evil.
He saw ultimate evil and bore witness to pure goodness. He saw the inevitability of karmic retribution and the fickle tricks of Fate.
One day, he reached the bank of a great river and saw a weak aquatic creature exhaust its very origin to save land-dwelling beings trapped by a mountain flood, nearly suffering the destruction of both body and soul.
Elsewhere, a powerful cultivator was wantonly slaughtering every living thing on an entire mountain to refine a single furnace of pills, harvesting their essence, blood, and souls.
Good and evil, life and death, played out upon the lands of the Primordial World with such clarity, yet remained so deeply entangled.
Ming Xin stood there for a long time, gazing at the ceaseless river. It was as if he saw the tides of good and evil, the turning cycle of life and death.
Suddenly, enlightenment struck him. The system within his sea of consciousness shone brilliantly, while the Dao rhythms of his Past Self and Future Self resonated with it.
He understood.
Good and evil were not absolute opposites. They depended upon each other, forming the two extreme facets of a being's nature and actions.
Those who clung to goodness could gain blessings and Fortune; those who indulged in evil would inevitably suffer the backlash of karma. Life and death, meanwhile, were the two ultimate outcomes toward which such good and evil actions led, and were also part of the cycle of heaven and earth.
"At the utmost extreme of goodness, one may bless all living beings and awaken Life Force; at the utmost extreme of evil, one may poison all creation and bring utter deathly stillness."
"Yet when things reach an extreme, they reverse. Within supreme goodness, falsehood may hide; within ultimate evil, truth may remain... Life and death turn in cycles, good and evil give birth to one another..."
A brand-new insight into a law surged into his heart. It was not any Great Dao he had previously focused on, but something more fundamental, concerning the nature and state of existence of all living beings—the Law of Good and Evil!
With his profound foundation and the system's assistance, his comprehension of this newborn law rapidly deepened. In a short time, he actually grasped three levels of both!
Though he had only just entered the doorway, he could already begin drawing upon the power of good and evil to influence the natures and Fortune of living beings.
Building upon this, combined with his understanding of life and death, Reincarnation, and Judgment, he naturally comprehended a divine ability—
Seal of Good and Evil Life and Death!
With a single seal, it could draw upon a target's own good-and-evil karma. It bestowed Life Force and blessed fortune upon the good, while igniting the Karmic Fire of a death tribulation within the wicked! It was a mysterious divine ability that pointed directly at the origin and judged life and death!
Ming Xin slowly raised his hand. In his palm, one black and one white stream of air slowly revolved, appearing and vanishing unpredictably as they contained the heart-palpitating Power of Good and Evil Birth and Death.
He nodded faintly, incorporated this newly acquired divine ability and law into his own system, and continued onward.
Who knew how much time passed before the Killing Intent between heaven and earth grew ever denser? A rusty scent of blood began to permeate the air, while the faint sounds of battle cries and the thunderous collision of divine abilities came from an immense distance away.
Ming Xin knew that the place he had been waiting for had arrived.
He quickened his pace, crossing a thousand miles with each step. Before long, he reached a vast, boundless plain. Or rather, it had once been a plain, but had now become a Flesh Mill!
As far as the eye could see, at the horizon's end, two boundless "torrents" crashed together with world-destroying force!
On one side, demonic qi soared into the heavens and banners fluttered in the wind. Countless Demon Clan cultivators rode demon winds, wielded magical treasures, and formed strict battle formations.
The power of the Myriad Stars Array faintly blessed them. At their head stood Di Jun, Tai Yi, and numerous Demon Saints, their bearing incomparably tyrannical!
On the other side, Killing Intent blanketed the land and vital blood surged like dragons. Countless Witch Clan warriors manifested the true forms of Ancestral Witches or the Dharma manifestations of Great Witches. They cultivated no primordial spirits, relying solely upon peerless physical bodies and innate divine abilities.
Like moving mountains, they roared as they charged forward. At their head stood the Twelve Ancestral Witches, their battle intent tearing through the heavens!
The instant these two torrents collided, heaven and earth lost their color, and the sun and moon went dark!
The radiance of divine abilities exploded endlessly like fireworks, tearing apart the earth and vaporizing rivers!
Severed limbs rained down like a storm. Blood gathered into streams before being instantly evaporated by terrifying energy!
Roars, screams, the clash of weapons, the sound of shattering bones... intertwined into an incomparably cruel Symphony of Death!
Hundreds of millions of beings slaughtered one another here. Countless lives vanished every moment, while Killing Intent, resentment, and death qi surged into the heavens, staining the sky dark red!
Ming Xin stood atop a lone peak at the edge of the battlefield, his azure robe snapping in the raging energy storm.
He calmly watched this most massive and brutal war since the Primordial World's creation, his gaze deep and profound.
This place was both calamity and opportunity. His sword of Slaying Karma, his Dao of Mortal World, his web of Cause and Effect, and even the good and evil, life and death he had newly comprehended...
all needed to receive their final verification and sublimation amid this endless Slaughter and Destruction.
He had arrived.
Before you continue