Ten Dao Bases condensed into light orbs drifted in the air, flying toward the stone platform at the center of the clearing, then began to rotate around the platform. Eventually they arranged themselves neatly around it.
Chen Yan stood behind Mr. You, watching everything unfolding before him.
He had a premonition.
That the reason Fusheng City was founded was because of this seemingly ordinary, humble stone platform in the city.
“If your fate is intimately tied to Heaven’s Dao and destiny, then that means everything still has the possibility of starting over,” Mr. You said slowly.
“Why—how can you be so sure, sir?” Chen Yan asked.
Mr. You only shook his head at that, then smiled and said:
“I am not that certain. I’m only saying there exists the possibility that everything could be overturned and begun anew… After all, Heaven’s Dao has a single destiny and a single answer. If the current destruction of the Chenping Continent is not the correct answer, then Heaven’s Dao will correct it by itself, won’t it?”
Chen Yan’s eyes narrowed at those words.
“But what if this is Heaven’s Dao’s destiny and answer?” Chen Yan asked again.
“Wouldn’t that mean nothing matters anymore?” he asked.
Mr. You smiled and said:
“Just barely surviving in an illusion woven from enchantment and dao rhymes—what meaning is there in that?”
Fusheng City was an illusion woven from enchantment and dao rhymes.
Chen Yan filed that sentence away in his mind.
Then he gazed at the stone platform in the clearing, surrounded by the Dao Bases of ten Immortal Ascension Realm great powers.
“I also gave you something else when you were outside,” Mr. You said.
Chen Yan fell silent for a moment upon hearing that, then took out the golden key he had kept in his bosom all along, the Yexing Dao Basis belonging to Realman Yexing.
Mr. You then placed his hand on Chen Yan’s shoulder and pressed lightly.
He felt the true qi in his Martial Spring, which had been stagnating in past-time, come alive again and surge flowingly.
At this moment, Chen Yan’s cultivation level returned once more to the Myriad Transformations Realm.
But in an instant, his cultivation was suppressed back to a mortal state by the Yexing Dao Basis he held in his hand.
“Go,” Mr. You said, nodding slightly toward the stone platform to indicate Chen Yan should step forward.
“What will happen?” Chen Yan asked.
“I don’t know,” Mr. You only shook his head.
“Once, a strange little fellow from Heavenly Summit Mountain came to debate Dao with me. At that time he was only a Dao Union cultivator, completely unqualified… yet one sentence from him moved me.”
“What did he say?” Chen Yan asked.
“Cause and effect—and destiny,” Mr. You smiled, adopting a nostalgic expression as if recalling that moment:
“You must understand, when a cultivator reaches Dao Union, both past and present causes and effects manifest into a fairly tangible form. Some Dao Union cultivators are more sensitive to the concepts of cause and destiny, others more dull… Generally speaking, those whose perception of cause and effect is stronger tend to advance farther on the path of cultivation.”
Hearing this, an image rose in Chen Yan’s mind of an elder wearing Outer Court Daoist Robes of the Kongshan Sect.
Li Haowen.
This peak Dao Union great power from the same era as Su Hongzhen had been undisputedly the foremost figure on the Chenping Continent during the thousands of years after the path to immortality was severed.
It was because he, as a Dao Union cultivator, had forcibly peered into the heavenly mechanism and damaged his Dao Basis that authority had been handed to Huo Mu, causing turmoil within the Kongshan Sect.
Those disturbances were not set right until Kong Yang returned, restoring order.
But there was no absolute right or wrong in those matters.
Had Li Haowen not peered at the heavenly mechanism, Kongshan Sect might have ceased to exist long ago.
“At the time, that little fellow told me, ‘Everyone knows cause is cause and effect is effect, but could there be a possibility where because of effect, effect becomes cause?’”
Chen Yan fell silent for a moment.
A startling conjecture formed in his heart.
“Sir, may I ask the name of that Heavenly Summit cultivator…?” Chen Yan asked.
“Wen Mian,” Mr. You answered.
Chen Yan was greatly shaken upon hearing the name—of course.
Li Haowen!
He had once seen a scene from more than sixty thousand years ago, months before Heavenly Summit Mountain’s destruction, within the illusion the Heavenly Summit Mirror had constructed. In that illusion, while serving as the Internal Affairs administrator of the Water Mirror Pavilion on Heavenly Summit Mountain, he had once tended to Elder Wen Mian.
But at that time Elder Wen Mian had been like a soulless shell.
“And then?” Chen Yan pressed.
“I journeyed across the Chenping Continent for tens of thousands of years and even stepped beyond Immortal Ascension. Naturally I developed a deep understanding of cause and effect. All along I believed destiny was simply the process from cause to effect…” Mr. You paused briefly as he spoke. His words made plain that he himself was Immortal Venerable Fusheng, the only one among the thirty-one Immortal Ascension great powers of the Chenping Continent who had touched realms beyond Immortal Ascension.
“Because of effect, effect becomes cause—does this mean there is a single path in this world, and all things that happen are merely advancing along that solitary road?”
This was the embryonic form of Mr. You’s theory of Heaven’s Dao and destiny.
As he traveled and peered into heavenly mechanisms, he gradually validated the theory.
“So this stone platform…” Chen Yan looked at the platform in Fusheng City, encircled by the Dao Bases of ten Immortal Ascension cultivators.
“It is Fusheng City’s foundation,” Mr. You said.
“The simplest way to destroy the dao rhyme that sustains Fusheng City’s illusion is for a cultivator above Immortal Ascension to strike personally. Another way is what you see now: ten Immortal Ascension cultivators’ Dao Bases, together with the key refined from an Immortal Ascension Dao Basis.”
“Destroy Fusheng City?” Chen Yan was stunned.
“That’s right,” Mr. You smiled and nodded.
“After all, if this is not the path Heaven’s Dao has determined as correct, then only by overturning everything completely can it begin anew, right?”
Chen Yan understood.
He said nothing further and walked toward the stone platform surrounded by the Dao Bases of ten Immortal Ascension cultivators.
He looked at the ordinary stone platform before him, the golden key in his hand.
What would happen next?
Return to the past, or…?
There was no turning back for him now.
With that thought, Chen Yan inserted the Yexing Dao Basis into the stone platform.
In an instant, everything before Chen Yan began to warp, including Mr. You who stood not far away.
Then they were swallowed together by endless darkness and nothingness.
…
[Reincarnation Ended.]
[This Reincarnation Rating: S- (World’s End)]
[Accumulated Cultivation: Myriad Transformations Realm (three thousand and one strands of innate true energy)]
[Reincarnation Reward: Cultivation advanced by one major realm, Great Derivation Art (Mastery)]
[Reincarnation settlement complete, the host will return to the previous reincarnation record point, inherit the accumulated cultivation of this reincarnation, and restart life]
…………
…
[Reincarnation failed, could not find reincarnation record point]
[Reincarnation failed]
[Please wait, opening a new record point for the host, inheriting all previously accumulated cultivation, restarting life]