Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Ever since they cultivated the Two Elements Origins-Returning Scripture, the third passage of Lin Feng’s Heavenly Classic of the Way’s Virtues, both Wang Lin and Zhu Yi integrated their own understanding of the Great Way of the Heavens and Earth into their cultivation and crafted their own version of the Way of the Two Elements of Creation.
They incorporated their personal comprehension into the Heavenly Classic of the Way’s Virtues, innovating and improving upon it to reach newer heights.
Wang Lin’s Way of the Two Elements of Creation was the integration of destiny and the battling of fate – two polarizing yet closely related paths. After identifying this path and grasping a basic understanding of it, Wang Lin became Lin Feng’s first disciple to stride down this path. He continued advancing down this path, and the cultivation of his Virtual Entity has already presented itself in front of Wang Lin.
At this moment, facing mounting pressure and formidable opponents, Zhu Yi also began to understand his Way of the Two Elements of Creation with greater clarity. The promising road before was also becoming clearer.
Back with the Buddhists’ Karmic Theory Debate, Wang Lin reaped the greatest rewards while Zhu Yi garnered very little knowledge. But now, he no longer faced any problems understanding the final point which proved to be a stumbling block back then.
Zhu Yi stood on the Higan Golden Bridge, reverting back to his human form for an instant before revealing his Immortal Soul form again, transforming into the Literary Taiji Diagram.
Astronomical numbers of Light and Darkness Characters drifted and fluttered above the Taiji diagram. These characters were all formed from the combination of light and darkness, being incredibly mystifying and unpredictable.
But now, all the Light and Darkness Characters suddenly dissolved, forming billions of radiant light rays and billions of dark black rays. The scene looked as if boundless light and boundless darkness were balancing each other.
All the light rays converged together, instantly illuminating the void space, while all the black rays also converged together, like a bottomless abyss which swallowed all light. Amidst the boundless light, the hazy figure of a Buddha rose up which looked like the Forever-Bright Tathagata of Buddhism’s Five Tathagatas. And amidst the dark abyss, the figure of a Taoist draped in robes faded into view, wearing a conniving and sinister expression. He looked extremely unfamiliar to everyone onsite now, but anyone from the Middle Ages could easily recognize him as the Dark Shadow Demonic Elder, the founding grandmaster of the Demonic Shadow Sect, one of the sects of the Satanic Way during the Middle Ages.
He was the one who uncovered the remnants of the Immemorial Dark Emperor’s existence and obtained a portion of the Dark Emperor’s lineage, and ultimately founded and established the Demonic Shadow Sect.
The two lighted figures opposed each other like the polarizing ends of light and darkness, but at this moment, they continued to alter.
The Forever-Bright Tathagata’s figure faded away while the Forever-Bright Light was suddenly no longer blinding to the eyes, instead becoming incredibly clear, exuding a quality of transparency without bearing any secrets. Anyone could understand, identify, observe and comprehend it.
The Dark Shadow Demonic Elder’s figure also vanished slowly as his boundless darkness changed correspondingly. It was no longer a purely mysterious darkness, but became a profound darkness which was incomprehensible, indiscernible and indescribable. No one could grasp it.
These two opposing yet mystifying forces began merging. They seemed to be clearly distinct from one another, standing at polarizing ends of the spectrum, but they also seemed to be coexisting and complementing each other.
The combination of light and darkness ultimately formed a giant character. At first glance, it looked straightforward and simple to understand, yet it also seemed strange and difficult to grasp.
This character was ‘Yi’, but it was starkly different from the previous iteration formed by the Light and Darkness Characters. They were indeed the same word, but this one encapsulated a more abstruse implication.
The ‘Yi’ character floated above the Taiji Diagram formed by Zhu Yi’s Immortal Soul before it changed its appearance once more. It split into eight parts.
Zhu Yi’s crisp voice reverberated through the void space.
“Like how the heavens maintain their vigor through ceaseless movement, a gentleman should constantly strive for self-improvement.”
“Like how the earth is supportive and nurturing, a gentleman should greet the world with an open mind.”
“Like how the wind follows its flow, a gentleman should do as he is ordered.”
“Observing the thunderstorms, a gentleman should learn through fear to reflect upon himself and avoid calamities.”
“Like the tranquil flow of water, a gentleman should do things with prudence to avoid conflict.”
“Like the merging of heaven and fire, a gentleman should gather like-minded people who share his ideals.”
“Like the division between the heavens above and the swamps below, a gentleman should draw his boundaries clearly to discern right from wrong.”
“Like the mountains rising over the land, a gentleman should improve upon his shortcomings with humility.”
The character ‘Yi’ seemed to have been separated into eight different phenomena condensing above the Taiji Diagram. They were the eight natural elements of the Eight Trigrams – Heaven, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Water, Fire, Mountain, and Marsh.
Following that, the elements of the Eight Trigrams began evolving again. They were not evolving and altering in terms of power or physical qualities, but instead clarifying various mysteries and answering various doubts.
Above the Taiji Diagram, as these varied elements continued evolving, the Earth Dragon King, the Tiangang Swordmaster, the Azure Skies Dragon King about to be delivered to the Black Sea, and the Hou Ning Dragon King with the Syncretic Star Soul, all felt a strange sensation in their heart.
It was as though there was a pair of eyes glaring at them from the top of the Taiji Diagram. The gaze was neither sad nor joyful, void of any emotion, just possessing a vague all-knowing quality.
Besides the Earth Dragon King and the Tiangang Swordmaster who dealt with this better, the Azure Skies Dragon King and the Hou Ning Dragon King felt as if those eyes could look through them and grasp everything they were concealing.
Although the Azure Skies Dragon king was incredibly weak at this point of time, he regained his composure and soothed the anxiety in his heart slightly.
But the Hou Ning Dragon King felt as though everything he was concealing was blatantly exposed under that piercing gaze. He even had a seemingly ridiculous thought that his opponent’s understanding of him was far clearer than his own understanding of himself.
Zhu Yi’s calm voice travelled out from the Literary Taiji Diagram. “The power of the Black Sea is indeed mystifying, but the Black Sea is incredibly unstable now. The delivery spell it conjured contains many loopholes. Without these loopholes, you can definitely leave with ease, Azure Skies Dragon King. But now, you’ll stay.”
As he said this, the Taiji Diagram and the Higan Golden Bridge suddenly merged together. A golden rainbow flashed across the void space, instantly traversing boundless void space and landing in front of the Azure Skies Dragon King.
The Earth Dragon King let out a furious roar and forced the Tiangang Swordmaster back. He turned around and lunged towards Zhu Yi.
“Earth Dragon King, the injury my master inflicted on you back then had a devastating effect on you.” With that, the golden rainbow conjured from the Higan Golden Bridge suddenly jolted. The Taiji Diagram and the Golden Bridge fused to form a towering giant with seven rainbow-colored rings of light above its head. This meant that the esoteric Yi Taoism Diagram was still floating above his head.
As Zhu Yi’s figure suddenly flashed and split into tens of thousands of illusory copies, the gargantuan golden giant also split into countless figures. Every giant was overbearing and magnificent, flashing with golden light all over its body. The seven rings of light encircled its each with the Yi Taoism Diagram turning quietly.
This was clearly the Yuan Shadow Avatar, the Immemorial Dark Emperor’s secret skill that was eventually passed down to the Demonic Shadow Sect.
The Earth Dragon King’s gaze grew colder and more piercing as he let out a deep growl as low as the rumbling thunder. He opened his gaping mouth and expectorated huge amounts of golden draconic flames, combining the destructiveness of the Flame Dragon Tribe, the majestic mana of the Yellow Dragon Tribe and the Azure Dragon Flames of the Azure Dragon Tribe, sweeping across the void space.
Years ago, the Dark Emperor fell at the hands of Emperor Jue, and right before that, the Dark Emperor’s Yuan Shadow Avatar proved to be a considerable obstacle for many powerhouses in the demon tribes. Emperor Jue overcame this spell, and this technique has naturally been passed down by the dragon tribes.
But the Earth Dragon King could not relax. Although his draconic flames blazed through the void space, eliminating most of Zhu Yi’s Shadow Avatars, Zhu Yi had seemingly infinite avatars. Everything the draconic flames decimated were merely avatars, with Zhu Yi’s real body still eluding capture.
“You know this well yourself, don’t you? Originally, your strength should be able to destroy my Yuan Shadow Avatar abhijina, but this feat seems to be out of your reach now.” The thousands of Zhu Yis opened their mouths and spoke in unison. “It’s a pity I couldn’t identify your weakness previously, and I only saw through your falsities after being enlightened on my new abhijina, but I can now devise the best method to deal with you.”
As he said this, the majority of this Shadow Avatars were destroyed by the Earth Dragon King, but numerous avatars still appeared before the Azure Skies Dragon King in a split second. “You should still be concealing some weaknesses, but my new abhijina and spell is not completely perfect, hence I’m unable to see through your secrets. It seems like I cannot win you now, but you cannot save the Azure Skies Dragon King anymore.”
When the Earth Dragon King attacked Zhu Yi, the Tiangang Swordmaster also aided Zhu Yi in retaliating against the Earth Dragon King. Upon witnessing the scene before him, the Tiangang Swordmaster dawned upon a realization. “The Earth Dragon King is still as formidable as before. His demonic energy is boundless and overwhelming, and his abhijina is immense, grasping the various mysteries behind the Way of the Heavens and Earth. Even after enduring a long battle, his mana remains overwhelming and fearless, and the explosiveness of his power retains its incredible strength when unleashing all his energy at once.”
“However, after this violent outburst, his manipulation of his demonic energy became slightly sluggish, now being difficult to achieve another similar outburst at maximum power seamlessly.”
Defeating the Yuan Shadow Avatar required an advantage in strength, sweeping both the real opponent and his avatars indiscriminately by expanding the range of one’s attacks, or else no one would ever be able to overcome this technique.
Since Zhu Yi was continuously producing new Shadow Avatars while his previous ones were being destroyed, the Earth Dragon King had to ensure that his attacks possessed adequate firepower and continuity to achieve a greater attacking range.
This was actually not a problem for the Earth Dragon King before he received the injury from Lin Feng, but that was no longer the case.
He knew his own weakness the best, and he has been concealing it very well until now. It was always incredibly difficult for Zhu Yi, the Tiangang Swordmaster or Shi Yu to notice.
But now, after Zhu Yi identified his weakness, Zhu Yi could employ the most appropriate strategy to exploit it.
In reality, if given ample time, the Earth Dragon King could still overcome the Yuan Shadow Avatars. After all, Zhu Yi had to exhaust a great deal of energy to continue producing new avatars when his previous ones keep getting destroyed.
However, Zhu Yi was not hoping to defeat the Earth Dragon King now. With the Tiangang Swordmaster aiding him at his side, he forcefully shrug off the Earth Dragon King and arrived in front of the Azure Skies Dragon King.
In an instant, the Azure Skies Dragon King was swept up by the power of the Black Sea, about to disappear amidst the void space.
Upon seeing this, Zhu Yi cracked a smile. “It seems like the space is indeed unstable. The inter-dimensional passage would distort and collapse anytime, but the actual reason for the instability stems from the change in the flow of time which exposed the loopholes in this delivery spell.”
“The window to strike opens for a fleeting instant. If I miss the right moment to break this spell, I would lose my chance. However, you will definitely not escape today, Azure Skies Dragon King.” The golden giant Zhu Yi conjured joined its palms, then spread them outwards to both sides. The graceful radiance between his hands vanished and light up again in split seconds, igniting and extinguishing repeatedly. It embodied the esoteric mysteries of the fleeting changes and instantaneous vanishing of time.