IS Chapter 134

……Is this what it means to watch from the sidelines? Why does it look like a spiritual pet situation?

They say you can’t mess with the God of Jupiter, but how is it that Second Palace Master Ye is standing perfectly fine between the dragon’s horns?

Yu Que seemed completely oblivious to everything happening outside, and asked solemnly, “May I ask Second Palace Master Ye, where is my domain without the Dao?”

Ye Zhuo: “If you want to fight, then fight.”

“Having form but lacking the Dao, isn’t that clear enough, Second Palace Master Ye?” A smiling voice was heard from not far from Fourth Palace Master Feng, from that handsome, uninvited guest.

He leisurely crossed his arms, standing high above on the rocky mountain of flowing gold and gravel that had suddenly appeared on the desert. How strange, this mountain definitely wasn’t here before, where did it come from?

Then the guest continued: “Real Person, if I were you, having received such guidance, I should offer Second Palace Master Ye half the respect due to a teacher.”

Yu Que’s expression shifted between dark and bright, but he never spoke to that person.

Everyone remained silent.

Appearing with the black dragon, landing in the midst of the crowd, initially claiming to be “from the Dragon Realm,” with a true dragon suspended in the sky, what could they possibly say after this person on the ground spoke?

In the silence, Real Person Yu Que’s solemn face tightened even further.

—The next moment, before everyone’s eyes, Real Person Yu Que actually bowed and gave Ye Zhuo half the respect due to a teacher: “Please enlighten me, Palace Master Ye.”

Everyone was filled with awe. As expected of a Dao-Protecting Real Person from Upper Purity Mountain, truly capable of bending and stretching.

Feng Jiang’s thoughts, however, were drifting somewhat: With this bow, wouldn’t Ancestor Yu Que now be in the same generation as Little Su from the Sword Sect? They could call each other martial brothers in the future, causing the collapse of etiquette and music at Upper Purity Mountain.

Ye Zhuo couldn’t figure out what Yu Que was up to. Judging by his desire for knowledge, he seemed a bit stronger than his other martial brothers. Of course, it might also be because he killed the others too quickly.

Seeing Real Person Yu Que’s action, Li Yuan smiled slightly.

He said: “You create stars, how do the stars run? Why can a trackless orbit collide with people? You create oceans, where are the undercurrents beneath the oceans? How do currentless waters form waves? Sand gathers to form stone, what is the principle behind it? Why can you transform into stone, yet when all the yellow sand gathers, it remains sand? If you cannot explain it yourself, then the Dao is flawed. What’s so strange about a flawed Dao being shattered? Creating things from the void, you only use the power of things, but not the Dao of things. What’s so strange about being turned against as the host?”

“So that’s it. It is not I who employ things, but I am employed by things,” Yu Que said.

“You talk too much,” Ye Zhuo said faintly. “Aren’t you out of money? Go to a teahouse to tell stories, you’ll definitely get tips.”

“Then shouldn’t Your Excellency also give me a reward?”

Ye Zhuo completely ignored him, drew his sword again, and slashed at Yu Que from the sky.

Yu Que waved his sleeve to meet the attack: “Palace Master Ye, look at my move again!”

The world changed in an instant. This time, everyone was on the back of a giant Kun. The Kun emerged from the sea, transformed into a Peng, flew in the azure sky, then returned to the water, transformed back into a Kun, swimming in the vast sea, endlessly cycling. With each rise and fall, years drifted by, and everyone felt the primal power of time, eroding their lives like a fierce wind turning stone into yellow sand, unstoppable.

This time, there was some understanding of the Dao of things, rather than just the power of things. Such a magnificent, cyclical operation, wouldn’t even need to happen many times before they no longer needed to fight, because they would all die of old age in the flow of time.

Real Person Yu Que had only created it slightly, yet he controlled the Way of Time of his junior brother Yu Lou, which showed that he had deep roots of wisdom.

Unfortunately, the Kun transforming into a Peng must reveal its vital weakness. Ye Zhuo killed the Kun.

Yu Que stared at him, and the domain changed again.

The domain shattered again.

Changed again, shattered again.

Those within could only see the myriad things of the four seasons changing in an instant, then shattering in an instant. In a single moment, they traveled through three thousand realms; in an instant, they witnessed three thousand creations and destructions. All things were born in a flash, and destroyed in a flash. This was no longer a martial battle, but a battle of Dao, not only a contest of cultivation, but also a mental struggle. Those with insufficient realms were dazzled by just experiencing these three thousand changes. If their minds were unstable, how could they possibly break through in an instant?

The boundless magical power in Yu Que’s body rapidly depleted, while the spiritual energy of the Green Mountains around Ye Zhuo was like a dragon sucking water, clustering around him. The pressure of the Great Dao on Yu Que’s body seemed to increase with each battle nearing its limit, and Ye Zhuo’s realm also rapidly broke through and grew, actually nearing the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence stage.

In the end, Yu Que and Ye Zhuo stood together in a chaotic realm.

In front of them floated a bronze chess bowl, filled with a bottomless thick gray mist, making it impossible to see what was inside.

“This contains a chess piece, either black or white. Second Palace Master Ye, what do you guess it is?”

Ye Zhuo: “Do you know?”

“I don’t know,” Yu Que said. “I will also guess an answer.”

“The one who guesses wrong will die, is that right?”

Yu Que said: “Naturally.”

Someone suddenly realized: “The Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, because the Dao is simple, and therefore the most solid! This realm is extremely simple, so it can bypass many rules and directly decide life and death.”

Ye Zhuo: “How thoughtful.”

After saying that, he unleashed a sword strike, slicing the entire world, including the bronze chess bowl and the chess piece inside, into clearly defined black and white halves.

The Dao is simple, and his sword is also very simple.

Yu Que spat out a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground with Ye Zhuo. They were in the Human Realm, the Green Mountains, the place that was initially enveloped by Yu Que’s domain.

With one sword strike, Ye Zhuo severed the creator and all the material realms he had created. In that one sword strike, his cultivation abruptly broke through the final bottleneck, reaching the perfect state of the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence stage.

In fact, Yu Que himself had also made great progress. To trade half the respect due to a teacher for such great progress was worth it. But his progress, in turn, also tempered Ye Zhuo’s mind and sword intent.

Yu Que suddenly understood why Ye Zhuo accompanied him through domain after domain until the end, and why Ye Zhuo said, “How thoughtful.”

Because he had already seen the methods of ordinary Human Immortals, but he had never seen the means of creation and fortune of a Dao-Protecting Real Person, and no one had taught him. Therefore, he had to see them all.

Ye Zhuo was not afraid of his opponents making progress, he even hoped they would make progress. In the eyes of those who contend with the Dao, there are no enemies. Everyone who wants him to die is his Dao friend.

Jade must be carved to become a vessel. Such opportunities were rare. This Human Realm was too small. Once they reached their level, it was increasingly difficult to make further progress, so it would be great if this was an equal debate on the Dao.

Unfortunately, neither the Main Sect nor the Dao Sect had produced such a talented person.

Yu Que’s sleeves billowed in the wind on the peak of the Green Mountains. He raised his hands again, and a long wind came surging, as if heaven and earth were in his hands.

In fact, Second Palace Master Ye had awakened him.

Immersed in the arrogance of reversing the universe and creating things from the void, he had forgotten the original intention of why the Great Dao was able to operate. He no longer created things, but became one with the Way of Heaven in this world, which had been tested by time, transforming the entire Human Realm into his own domain. Perhaps, this was the final realm that the Way of Domains should reach.

This realm was still some distance away for him, so using such great power required him to expend too much.

The Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things.

The chaotic Taiji of yin and yang gradually formed behind Real Person Yu Que. Just looking at the aura it exuded, one knew what kind of power it would have once this Dao was completely formed.

Ye Zhuo slowly ran his finger across the blade of his sword, and wisps of desolate, crimson sword intent ignited on it.

All his mind and magic were poured into it, reaching the ultimate silence. Even the fluttering of his sleeves seemed to have stopped. Looking up at the sky, Yu Que seemed like the master of the Great Dao, while he was like a bottomless abyss of desolate silence.

Yu Que’s process of condensing the Way of Heaven had not yet been completed.

Ye Zhuo’s first sword—extremely fast, extremely sharp, extremely ghostly—had already floated out towards Yu Que’s heart.

Second Palace Master Ye’s sword strikes often didn’t seem to have much power. On the contrary, they made people feel that all sounds had been extinguished in silence. It was as if everything in the night was silent, nothing had happened. Suddenly, a startled breeze blew down the first petal, and everything began to change.

With an extremely ethereal clang, Yu Que used the handle of his horsetail whisk to catch Ye Zhuo’s sword tip. This sword had no effect on him, because the Great Dao was extremely empty, the Great Dao was extremely still. Because of its emptiness, stillness, serenity, and detachment, it would not be moved by anything.

The two faced each other in mid-air. Ye Zhuo raised his sword and changed his move. A streak of sword light slashed obliquely around Yu Que’s body. Yu Que’s horsetail whisk blocked his sword, but his sword energy and sword intent had already passed through Yu Que’s body, and then slashed towards the prototype of the Great Dao that was forming behind Yu Que.

Yu Que’s body shook and his internal organs were injured, but the prototype of the Great Dao was not harmed by the sword energy at all. Its speed of formation did not change at all. Because the Great Dao was constantly moving, the Great Dao was constantly flowing, independent and unchanging, endlessly cycling. It would not stop for anything.

Yu Que’s Dao had been completed.

A vast aura of the Way of Heaven roared outward, and Ye Zhuo’s figure was pushed back ten feet by that aura. Heaven and earth at this moment seemed to be in Yu Que’s thoughts. A very grand will in the void pressed down on Ye Zhuo, like controlling a puppet, forcing his sword back into its sheath.

Yu Que smiled, formed a seal with his hands, one embracing yin, one embracing yang, and brought them together: “Return now.”

At that moment, it was as if heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers were all contained in his palms.

Ye Zhuo felt his body separating from his soul, not controlled by himself, and his soul was floating in the void, not ruled by himself. He felt himself existing with all things in heaven and earth, with everyone present, breathing together as one.

Because all things were originally born from the formless and nameless into the Dao, and would eventually return to the Dao in formless and namelessness.

At this time, Yu Que was the master of the Great Dao, and he was a thing born of the Dao. Yu Que wanted to transform him and all these things into the Dao. This process would probably not stop until Yu Que had absorbed and transformed him.

He saw that grass, trees, mountains, and rocks began to drift away, turning into the essence of heaven and earth, feeding back to Yu Que’s body. He saw the terrified faces of the crowd, and their essence and cultivation were also rapidly dissipating.

He also saw the dragon leisurely standing aside as an onlooker, as if everything had nothing to do with him. Naturally, no matter how much Yu Que could control, what he controlled was the Heavenly Dao of the Human Realm, and the dragon was naturally subject to the Heavenly Dao of the Dragon Realm.

In fact, Ye Zhuo rarely thought about the Heavenly Dao. He practiced his sword, cultivated his Dao. What the Heavenly Dao was like, what others were like, and what all things were like, he didn’t need to care.

For him, the Heavenly Dao was more often a pretense. In the past, being said to “violate the Heavenly Dao” was actually violating some conventions in the Human Realm. Recently, he was often said to be “intolerable to the Heavenly Dao,” which was actually some people being intolerant. But that didn’t matter. Anyway, they were all born in the Human Realm, all a body transformed from the Heavenly Dao. Others could claim to be the Heavenly Dao, and he could do the same.

Therefore, Ye Zhuo had never even thought about the so-called true Heavenly Dao.

However, there was a true Heavenly Dao in the world, constantly moving and endlessly cycling.

If not, when Yun Xiangxi aimed that sword at the sky, who was he challenging, and who was it that sent down ninefold tribulation lightning after receiving that sword?

If the Heavenly Dao truly had awareness, wanting itself to be supreme and eternally enduring, how could it have given birth to Yun Xiangxi, just to cause trouble for itself?

And how could it have given birth to him, wanting him to also have impure intentions and disrespect?

In fact, Ye Zhuo didn’t really like this world.

This world of fathers killing sons, sons killing fathers, with armed conflicts and cannibalism.

He also didn’t really like Yu Que, so he wanted to kill him.

If the Heavenly Dao truly had intent, calling a group of people to the Green Mountains, and wanting him and Yu Que to fight in front of everyone, wanting Yu Que to invoke the Heavenly Dao to kill him, what was the purpose of this intent?

—No purpose.

Because the Heavenly Dao has no intent.

If the Heavenly Dao has intent, then the Heavenly Dao has a mind.

Having a mind will lead to obscurity, and having a mind will lead to flaws.

Therefore, being without intent is the Way of Heaven. Just like the Way of Heartlessness, it is also an ultimate path.

If the Heavenly Dao comes to kill people, then the Heavenly Dao already has a mind, already has obscurity, already has flaws, and has already fallen to a lower level.

What is strange about a flawed Dao being broken? Moreover, this is just Yu Que killing him, not the intention of Heaven.

Yu Que using the Heavenly Dao to kill him is like wielding an unparalleled treasure sword to slash at others, but the sword does not belong to him, and the intent of the sword is not the same as his intent.

Such a sword, in the eyes of a sword cultivator, is a second-rate sword.

How should one deal with a second-rate sword?

Yu Que saw that in the great torrent of the Dao of the Unity of All Things, Ye Zhuo, who should have lost all support and been transformed by him, gently moved his fingers like a ghost—and re-gripped the sword hilt.

Ye Zhuo drew his sword again.

Sword intent soared into the sky. He held his sword, and the sword intent of desolate nirvana burned from his body, and the sound of the sword, like lingering whispers, swirled around his sleeves, as if he and the sword were originally one.

The Red Lotus Dharma Appearance emerged from the void, and a blood-red flame protected half the sky behind him. The karmic fire was cold and stern, slowly flowing, just like him, just like his sword. Within that solemn and magnificent Dharma Appearance, there seemed to be an overlapping and transforming outline of his natal sword. His Buddhist teachings and sword techniques were originally one.

The unity of man and sword was a commonly used trick by sword cultivators. However, it seemed that Second Palace Master Ye had never used it before. This was the first time since the creation of the world.

“Can’t you be a little quieter?” Feng Jiang suddenly heard Li Yuan speaking to himself.

What? Suddenly talking to himself, is he crazy? Feng Jiang struggled to shift his gaze away from Ye Zhuo and looked at Li Yuan, only to see that Li Yuan had not shifted his gaze away from Ye Zhuo.

Li Yuan was holding his natal sword, and the sword was trembling incessantly.

“Then you go be his natal sword,” Li Yuan said threateningly. “Even if you want to be, do you think he’d be willing?”

The quarrel between the man and the sword ended unhappily, much to Feng Jiang’s schadenfreude.

The world suddenly became silent, and even the sunlight dimmed, like an eternal night.

The only thing real in the field of vision was the chaotic Taiji behind Real Person Yu Que, which suddenly grew larger and tilted down to crush Ye Zhuo.

The only thing lit up was the intense figure with flying red sleeves, slashing out a sword straight down from above.

At the moment of the collision, everything seemed to have never existed.

There was only the sound of Yu Que’s Heavenly Dao shattering. How strange, the Dao actually had a sound when it shattered, clearer than jade breaking, lighter than ice breaking.

A second-rate sword, naturally, is broken with a first-rate sword.

And a second-rate Dao will collapse without being attacked.

Yu Que’s figure was cut down from the high sky, heavily smashing into a peak of the Green Mountains. The peak collapsed and caved in from the impact. After the roaring noise and dust filled the sky, Real Person Yu Que finally fell awkwardly into a hundred-zhang-deep pit. The five or six mountain peaks next to it were also affected, turning into ruins.

Ye Zhuo stood at the edge of the pit and sized up Real Person Yu Que.

He didn’t die.

He swung his sword, and did it again.

Real Person Yu Que dodged in the bottom of the pit, his body seemed to transform into an illusion. Receiving his sword, he was not greatly affected.

Suddenly, a voice emerged from behind: “Can I hit him too?”

Ye Zhuo turned around and saw that it was Li Yuan.

“Then hit him,” he said.

Li Yuan declared: “It’s my sword that wants to hit him.”

“…Whatever.”

The true dragon phantom perched in the center of the sky, threateningly looking down, as if monitoring Yu Que to prevent him from escaping.

Li Yuan stood on the far side of the sinkhole, just beating a dog that had fallen into the water. He swung his sword casually.

A ravine spanning north and south was slashed out on the already deep and wide sinkhole. Real Person Yu Que was smashed deeper by the sword energy, but his figure seemed real and illusory, and he was still not greatly damaged.

Ye Zhuo: “The Great Dao is constantly creating and ceaselessly living. He has become one with the Heavenly Dao, making him hard to kill.”

As he said that, he slashed another sword at Yu Que.

Li Yuan directly controlled his natal sword with the Flying Sword Technique. The true form of the Sword of Do Not Long For directly stabbed Yu Que’s heart, pinning him to the ground: “Then let’s just exhaust him.”

Dao cultivators are full of tricks, and right now, the only thing to do is to exhaust him. Ye Zhuo did not speak, and one sword after another fell down. The sinkhole seemed to be getting bigger and deeper, but Yu Que’s aura also seemed to be weakening.

“We can exhaust him.” Li Yuan also discovered this point and re-controlled his sword to smash at Yu Que.

Yu Que, however, laughed loudly at the bottom of the pit.

“Ye Zhuo!” he said. “Fierce fire burns things! But it will also burn itself! The Heavenly Dao has flaws! My Dao has flaws! Then is your Dao flawless?!”

Ye Zhuo didn’t really understand what he was asking.

“I don’t seek flawlessness,” he said.

“Therefore, you are without flaw,” Li Yuan said.

Yu Que widened his eyes in astonishment.

If you don’t seek flawlessness, how can you be without flaw? This dragon talks too much, why didn’t I poison him mute in the first place?

Li Yuan saw Ye Zhuo’s disapproval of him from the sudden increase in coldness on the sword and couldn’t help but think, re-thinking the conversation just now.

If you only said half the sentence, and pressed down the other half without saying it, it would indeed sound more like a master. He really still needed to learn from others.

Of course, only they were speaking in this world. Everyone else looked at them in a daze, one sword after another, chipping away at Real Person Yu Que’s vitality, feeling a chill down their spines.

If you chip away like this, who can live?

If you chip away like this, aren’t you afraid of cutting off your own spiritual meridians?

You’re still saying you don’t seek flawlessness, but are flawless? How come it seems like some old codger who came with us sat down on the spot and started to have an epiphany after hearing this? It must be fake!

—Until some kind of formation seemed to appear in the sky, and a figure in white robes with a red sash stumbled and fell to the edge of the sinkhole in the Green Mountains.

A trembling, angry voice rang out in the silence.

“What are you two doing? Huh?”