Old Master, Times Have Changed - Chapter 707 (Patreon)

Chapter 707: The Illusory, Ungraspable “Dao-Extremity”

Listening to Ji Yinxue’s voice, utterly devoid of emotion, Dianling and Cuojiu both felt their scalps prickle.

Even Kongji Sacred Lord frowned slightly.

If they hadn’t slaughtered innocents indiscriminately before continuing the count from three hundred and seventeen years ago… then what about those three hundred and seventeen years?

As she was thinking, Ji Yinxue continued.

“Since three hundred and seventeen years ago, when the two of them welcomed a grandson into the world, their excessive indulgence shaped him into someone who commits every kind of evil and delights in torturing and killing young children.”

“To satisfy that man’s depraved tastes, over the past three hundred and seventeen years, these two have abducted a total of one hundred and seventy-nine thousand three hundred and twenty-seven children, and silenced one million seven hundred and ninety-three thousand two hundred and fifty people.”

As she spoke, Ji Yinxue’s gaze fell on the pair.

In truth, as transcendents at the “Sacred Lord” level, they were fully capable of tampering with the victims’ cognition after abducting the children.

But to them, whether those abducted children or the people they casually killed to cover their tracks were nothing more than “toys” that could be replaced at any time.

Their grandson liked them, so they grabbed a few. If they found them noisy, they slapped them dead.

A bunch of insignificant ants—why bother going through the trouble of altering cognition?

In the present day, the “new ritual methods” required “faith that never wavers” to touch the transcendent, which was why so many high-tier transcendents with extreme convictions had been born.

But in the old-law era, while the conditions for touching the transcendent were not as harsh as they were now, transcendents of that time almost never regarded ordinary people as their own kind.

In a sense, Taiyi Realm’s past had been even darker than the period when demonic cultivators ran rampant in Tai Xuan Realm.

That so-called “splendor” had only ever been the splendor of transcendents.

“The sins of these two cannot be cleansed,” Ji Yinxue said flatly, her gaze returning to Kongji Sacred Lord. “I’ll leave them to you.”

…

Kongji Sacred Lord fell silent for a moment, then looked toward Dianling and Cuojiu, who were kneeling on the ground ahead of her, confusion in their eyes.

They both understood that transcendents of this era were a stubborn bunch.

They had also heard of Kongji Sacred Lord’s style of doing things, so they knew they were unlikely to escape this time.

At the brink of life and death, they didn’t feel panic. They had faced countless moments like this on their road.

But they truly could not understand.

They were just mortals as insignificant as ants, just bugs that could be crushed with a thought.

Why?

Why would that foreign True God kill them over such negligible existences?

Very soon—

A thread of pure, holy pale-gold flame pierced straight through the space between their brows.

The light in Cuojiu’s and Dianling’s eyes quickly faded.

Their gaunt bodies toppled to the ground, and a scorched smell drifted from the ruptured flesh on their foreheads.

Two “hidden Sacred Lords” who rivaled the very best Integration cultivators were, under the sealing imposed by Ji Yinxue of the Soul Transformation realm, killed by a single finger from Kongji Sacred Lord—like two utterly ordinary elderly people.

Watching them fall, Kongji Sacred Lord, the one who had done it with her own hand, felt dazed.

Those two had joined forces just moments ago and completely suppressed her.

Yet now, they had died without managing even the slightest effective resistance…

It made her recall the doubt she had just sensed rising in their hearts at the instant of death.

To Sacred Lords like them, ordinary people were negligible—so they could not understand why they would die over a few negligible ordinary people.

And yet, in the eyes of this “Pure World Dao Lord,” what were they, compared to ordinary people?

After a long while, Kongji Sacred Lord finally came back to herself.

“Well done,” Ji Yinxue praised.

She had thought this “supremely kind” Kongji Sacred Lord might choose to spare them, and she had already been prepared to handle it herself.

Hearing that, Kongji Sacred Lord fell silent again.

She believed in “love and peace,” but she was not foolishly soft.

She withdrew her gaze, no longer looking at Dianling and Cuojiu on the ground, and instead looked at Ji Yinxue, her tone more serious than ever before.

“May I ask… the reason you did all of this?”

From Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu, she had learned that Tai Xuan Realm’s cultivation system was different from the “ritual transcendent system” she walked.

But why did this Pure World Dao Lord seem even more extreme than Taiyi Realm’s transcendents?

…

As if she hadn’t expected that question, Ji Yinxue fell silent for a moment as well.

“I don’t like it.”

Her voice was soft, yet it made Kongji Sacred Lord freeze.

“A thousand reasons, ten thousand arguments—when you strip it down to its essence, it’s nothing more than: I don’t like it.”

She didn’t like “good” dying because of kindness, and she didn’t like “evil” bringing calamity upon the world.

As she had said before, she only wanted “good to be repaid with good, and evil to be repaid with evil.”

That was all.

“My master once said my personality is a bit extreme.”

…

This Pure World Dao Lord was already terrifyingly powerful, and she still had a master?!

For a moment, the order-side transcendents who had just recovered were all at a loss for words.

Ji Yinxue didn’t react to them. She raised her head and looked into the distance, her gaze seeming to pierce through the Kongji Sacred Domain and, from a higher vantage, overlook the entirety of Taiyi Realm.

All the world’s good and evil lay gathered within her sight.

Her reason for coming to Taiyi Realm, as she told her master, was to seek an opportunity to comprehend “Dao-Extremity.”

But “Dao-Extremity” itself was the most illusory, most intangible hurdle on the road of cultivation—everyone’s process of grasping it was different.

“Dao-Extremity has no fixed form.” That was exactly what it meant.

“So I will change this world, until it becomes what I hope it will be.”

Her voice was still soft, yet within it was an will that could not be shaken.

Ever since her meeting with Sword Ancestor at the Hehuan Sect, she had been thinking about whether her persistence was correct.

But she had never gotten an answer.

“Right or wrong—try it once and you’ll know.”

Silently, it was as if a seed had sprouted.

A change that could not be named, could not be explained, was quietly taking shape.

…

…

Tai Xuan Realm.

Morning. Sword Sect outer sect, Ascension Hall.

Because Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu would be returning from the Chaos Sea today, Yuan had arrived early and, accompanied by a sword-intent projection of Du Ruoheng, waited for their return.

Yuan didn’t think much of it.

This was Sword Sect. It was normal for the Sword Sect’s sect master to keep an eye on things.

It was just that…

These sect masters really were wherever they were needed. In a massive immortal sect, big and small matters alike always had their shadow in them.

That was the only reason they didn’t die from overwork—because they were in the Integration realm.

Yuan grumbled inwardly while fielding one question after another from Du Ruoheng.

Perhaps because Yuan had ushered in an era of great reforms and led the founding of the Alliance of Righteousness, the Sword Sect sect master kept asking him policy questions about the various states under Sword Sect’s rule.

Putting everything else aside—was it really okay to ask an outsider about that kind of thing?

“Thank you for enlightening me, senior,” Du Ruoheng said.

Strictly speaking, he was actually older than Yuan.

But who told him Yuan was in the Soul Transformation realm, while he was only in the Integration realm?

In the cultivation world, the accomplished come first.

A Soul Transformation cultivator under two thousand years old was just plain unreasonable.

“Sect Master, you’re too polite.”

The two of them went back and forth, occasionally exchanging polite compliments, and the atmosphere in the Ascension Hall was remarkably harmonious.

Soon, the scheduled arrival time came.

Du Ruoheng stopped talking, but his expression clearly held a trace of lingering desire to continue…

…

Yuan pretended not to notice and stared fixedly at the Ascension Platform hub at the center of the hall.

On the uppermost platform, a faint distortion appeared, and then two hazy human silhouettes emerged.

Just as those silhouettes were growing clearer…

“Then I won’t disturb you, senior.”

Du Ruoheng had good sense. He directly turned into a streak of sword-light and vanished within the Ascension Hall.

And in the instant he disappeared completely—

The two silhouettes on the Ascension Platform hub fully solidified.

It was Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu.

Perhaps because the Perception Ascension state had faded, both looked a little dazed.

But in less than two seconds, they came back to themselves and, almost at the same time, looked toward Yuan standing at one side of the hall.

… Yuan smiled. “Welcome back.”

Ning Wanzhu pressed her lips together, while Mingyu’s eyes reddened.

…

…

“Reunited after a long separation, tsk tsk. That’s truly rare.”

Halfway up the mountain where the Sword Sovereign Hall stood, in front of the bamboo house.

Meizu sat on a bamboo chair by the pond, holding a handful of sunflower seeds from who-knew-where, cracking them as she watched the scene inside the outer sect’s Ascension Hall.

Bie Xuening and Xu Xing were there as well.

And beside them floated a light screen, showing Ning Ruo.

“But watching the little… three of them reunite like this—doesn’t it feel a bit wrong?” Meizu said.

This was unethical behavior!

“It doesn’t matter. They don’t know,” Bie Xuening said blandly.

Xu Xing didn’t say a word. Neither did Ning Ruo.

Just as Senior Sister—the Sword Sovereign—had said: they didn’t know anyway.

Besides, they definitely weren’t the only ones watching.

Even if others didn’t, Huo was certainly paying attention to Yuan’s condition.

Soon, Yuan opened his arms and pulled Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu into his embrace, one on each side—achieving a truly literal “left arm, right arm” moment…

Seeing it, Xu Xing couldn’t help frowning.

“Dao-brother, are you jealous?” Meizu said with a grin. “How about this concubine and the Sword Sovereign give you a hug too?”

Xu Xing looked speechless.

Bie Xuening merely glanced at her and said nothing.

Before long, the three inside the Ascension Hall finished gathering their emotions and walked out together.

They walked slowly, speaking of the longing of these past years. Yuan even took out two items he’d kept since before he left: the half hairpin Ning Wanzhu had given him, and the mask Mingyu had given him.

He had preserved both very well.

Even though the very essence of his Soul Transformation body had been worn away by the Ritual of Seeking Truth by Refining the Origin Amid Chaos, those two gifts had not suffered the slightest damage.

Humm!

A thread of crimson edge flashed past—

In an instant, every gaze spying on Yuan was severed.

Meizu paused and looked at Xu Xing.

“It was just getting good!”

“About enough. Give them some private space,” Xu Xing said with a slight shake of his head.

Watching further wouldn’t be appropriate.

“Dao-brother is jealous, huh!” Meizu wore an I-know-it expression. “You could’ve just told this concubine. Whatever Dao-brother wants to do, this concubine will agree, you know~”

As she spoke, she put on a perfectly timed show of shyness.

“Stop fooling around.”

Xu Xing took out some fish feed and sprinkled it into the pond.

Seeing he wouldn’t budge, Meizu pouted and casually tossed the remaining sunflower seeds into the pond.

The spiritual fish below, seeing food again, leapt up in competition.

For a moment, the splashing water in the pond grew even wilder.

But just as they were about to catch them, those sunflower seeds directly transformed into wisps of pure spiritual qi, diffusing above the pond.

Though that spiritual qi was far more precious than real sunflower seeds…

Once the fish realized the food was gone, they fell stiffly back into the water and resumed swimming lazily.

Meizu stared blankly.

It was the first time she’d seen spiritual fish that weren’t interested in spiritual qi.

She had already noticed the Sword Sovereign’s fish were off, but she hadn’t expected them to be this off!

“Xu-ge, how are you planning to arrange things next?” Ning Ruo asked.

She knew very well that Xu Xing was paying attention to Yuan’s movements not only because of the “fellow townsman” identity, but also for the sake of the Ascension Plan.

“Let him recover a bit first,” Xu Xing said.

In Yuan’s current state, he couldn’t even control his own Soul Transformation body, let alone do anything else.

The soul needed time to recover. Then bringing soul and body into harmony, and repairing the “Dao injury,” would take another stretch of time.

“Once he’s recovered, we’ll ask what he wants.”

With the spread of the Ascension Web, the Ascension Plan was advancing steadily.

At present, there didn’t seem to be much that needed optimization or refinement.

But Yuan had come to Tai Xuan Realm because of that single thought of Xu Xing’s—perhaps he would have new ideas on this matter.

“For now, we should wait for a result from little Yinxue’s side first.”

Going to Taiyi Realm to seek a chance to comprehend “Dao-Extremity”…

If she could succeed, that would naturally be best.

Even if she couldn’t, any gains would do.

After all, “Dao-Extremity,” in a certain sense, was even more illusory and intangible than the Immortal Threshold.

At the very least, the Immortal Threshold was right there—meet certain conditions, and you could touch it.

But “Dao-Extremity” was different. Either you grasped it, or you didn’t. You couldn’t force it.

Back then, Lord Hong’s Dao companion, Daoist Ningfu, had wandered all four star territories and traveled through the great peril-lands of the Central Continent in pursuit of “Dao-Extremity.”

She had even nearly been bitten to death by a poisonous insect in Qingxu.

If Lord Hong hadn’t been secretly watching all along, she might have perished in Qingxu.

Afterward, she was brought back to the Supreme Dao Sect to recuperate.

During her recovery, for some reason, she had a fight with Daoist Qianshuang—and just like that, she comprehended “Dao-Extremity.”

Mm…

Lord Hong hadn’t explained the process too clearly.

Of course, that didn’t mean everyone’s “Dao-Extremity” was that inexplicable.

Take Ji Yue, for example. To comprehend “Dao-Extremity,” she had directly guarded the Starfront Battlefield for a thousand years, charging at the very front whenever war erupted.

In the end, it was only when she was surrounded by three Soul Transformation Cang cultivators, with life hanging by a thread, that she finally comprehended “Dao-Extremity.”

If you counted carefully, in today’s Tai Xuan Realm human race, there were fewer than thirty Soul Transformation cultivators who had achieved the status of “Dao-Extremity Venerable.”

About a third were the “sudden enlightenment” type like Ningfu; the rest were the “deep accumulation, late eruption” type like Ji Yue.

Even among the current Tai Xuan Realm’s Thirteen True Immortals, only Artifact Lord, Kui, Min, and Huo were the kind who attained sudden enlightenment, achieved “Dao-Extremity,” and then knocked open the Immortal Threshold in one go.

“Little Yinxue has never lied. She’ll definitely make it!” Meizu said, brimming with confidence in her one and only disciple.

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