Old Master, Times Have Changed - Chapter 686 (Patreon)

Chapter 686: Neither Rejected nor Recognized

A “True Name” or an “Honorific Title” is the manifestation of a Dao-attaining being’s Dao. In a certain sense, it can be counted as a part of that being’s very existence.

Xu Xing and Bie Xuening’s “Sword Ancestor,” “Sword Sovereign,” and the like all fall into this category.

Of course, what an honorific title or true name ultimately amounts to still depends on the Dao-attaining being themself.

At that level of existence, if they are unwilling, then even the myriad heavens and worlds cannot forcibly impose a “True Name” upon them.

Take Huo, for example. The world calls him the “Demon Ancestor,” but he himself doesn’t really acknowledge that title, so other Dao-attaining beings can’t use the honorific “Demon Ancestor” as an anchor to lock onto him.

A Supreme Existence is the same.

The reason He deliberately blocks His True Name is to avoid leaking unnecessary information, so that the Thirteen True Immortals of Tai Xuan and the Cang race’s Two Ancestors can’t track Him down.

He genuinely doesn’t want to get involved in the conflict between the human clan of the Tai Xuan Realm and the Cang race.

Still… it’s not like there’s no way to locate the world of that Supreme Existence.

As long as Xu Xing takes her beyond the Tai Xuan Realm and uses her as an anchor, there’s a certain probability that, through the connection on her body, they can pinpoint the world of that Supreme Existence.

Whether it works…

That depends on whether the Supreme Existence’s Dao has certain “hidden” properties.

If it does, then it’s truly not guaranteed they can find Him.

After all, no existence that can reach the level of a Dao-attaining being is simple.

These are truly great beings who surpass all living beings of the myriad heavens and worlds—utterly transcendent, beyond what living beings can comprehend.

Inside the Gloom Prison.

Xu stood at the center of the formation, lips pressed tight.

What Xu Xing had just said made her realize something.

Yes.

How could a supreme being like the Sword Ancestor need her answers to understand anything? The resolve she’d made, even the thoughts buried deep in her heart, were meaningless.

“How will you deal with me?”

“Well…”

Xu Xing pondered for a moment, studying the Xu in front of him.

She was the first living being to arrive from an outer-realm world whose own level had reached above the Integration realm.

As an existence that had climbed to the very summit of the “ritual” transcendence system, innumerable “True Runes of Xu” constantly shifted and flowed, forming her true god body.

It was a state completely different from that of Soul Transformation cultivators, yet it possessed an equivalent standing.

Earlier, Overlord had guessed that after Xu was sent to the Tai Xuan Realm, the difference in her system would cause her to be suppressed by the Tai Xuan Realm.

But the situation in front of them clearly wasn’t what he’d predicted. The Tai Xuan Realm was far more “tolerant” than Overlord had expected—so tolerant that…

“What race do you think you belong to?”

Huh? Such a familiar question.

After only a slight hesitation, she gave her answer.

“Of course I’m human.”

The same answer as before.

After answering, she looked at Xu Xing nervously.

She didn’t know whether her answer would satisfy the great existence before her, but lying in front of such a great existence had no meaning anyway…

Just as panic and unease rose in her heart, Xu Xing’s gaze passed over her, piercing the Gloom Prison to observe the changes in the Tai Xuan Realm.

Unfortunately, the change he had hoped for did not occur.

“What a pity…”

He had originally thought: since the Tai Xuan Realm did not reject Xu, would it perhaps recognize her? That was why he’d suddenly asked that question—to verify a few suspicions.

But even when Xu personally said she was human, the “weight” occupied by the human clan in the Tai Xuan Realm did not increase in the slightest.

Neither rejected, nor recognized…

That was the Tai Xuan Realm’s attitude toward those above the Integration realm from outer-realm worlds—more accurately, its attitude toward beings at the Soul Transformation level.

A pity?

Xu didn’t understand what he meant, but she didn’t dare make a sound to interrupt the great existence’s thoughts.

After quite a while, Xu Xing looked back at her.

“For now, live here. I understand everything you’ve done, but our world doesn’t yet have relevant laws to put you on trial.”

Huh? Laws?

A trial?

A great existence like you still needs to follow such things? Sword Ancestor…

Your title doesn’t sound like a great existence who governs “law” and “order,” does it?

“It does.” Xu Xing seemed to see straight through her heart. “First, not to mention that you carry methods left behind by another Dao friend.”

What?!

Xu’s heart clenched.

Could he be referring to that “Demon Ancestor”?

“Second, after the Ascension Plan was carried out, you’re the first ‘non-Ascendant’ to arrive in our world. How we handle you will, to a certain extent, affect our subsequent arrangements.”

“So I’ll think carefully, and after seeking other people’s opinions, I’ll decide your final outcome.”

Was this “Xu” a good person? Of course not. Just as she introduced herself—“the witness of the world’s end.”

During her earlier struggle with Yuan, she suffered extremely severe injuries. To recover, she personally guided several worlds toward annihilation.

All of that had nothing to do with the word “good.”

But it was foreseeable that, as the Ascension Plan expanded and the Ascension Web encompassed more and more realms, similar things were destined to happen more and more often.

For beings like this, they had to produce a concrete standard of judgment and a handling process.

So Xu Xing intended to seize this opportunity to have the sect masters and some Soul Transformation cultivators discuss and reach a result.

Before that, it would be enough to keep her confined here.

Xu: “…”

What even is all this?

“Thank you for your explanation, great Sword Ancestor.”

Even with these explanations, she still couldn’t quite decipher the meaning behind this great existence’s words.

But that didn’t stop her from presenting a humble attitude to increase her odds of survival.

“Can I live?”

Xu still asked the question she cared about most.

“As compensation, I will guide those worlds that were led to annihilation to revive again, and I will sort out the timelines within those worlds, returning them to the instant before I affected them.”

From the conversation just now, she hadn’t gained much information.

But one thing was certain: the Sword Ancestor before her leaned toward “order.”

Fortunately, the worlds she guided into annihilation would not completely dissipate the way self-annihilating worlds did. Instead, they would remain frozen at the final instant she had “witnessed.”

Everything still had a chance to be remedied.

“I know the pain I caused them is impossible to fully make up for, so I’m willing to accept any punishment except ‘death.’”

She didn’t hide her desire to live.

Just as she’d said: in front of a great existence, all concealment was meaningless.

“Do you understand what that means?”

“Yes.”

The greatest difference between the “ritual” transcendence system and the cultivation system was that they influenced themselves through changes in the external world.

So, likewise, they were also easily influenced by changes in the external world.

Of course, the higher the existence, the harder it was to be influenced—but only Dao-attaining beings could truly ignore that limitation.

For transcendents like Xu who had reached the level of a true god, the changes that could affect her were vanishingly few.

But they absolutely did not include “reviving worlds”—that kind of act that dug up one’s own foundation. 

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