"All the divine beings of the heavens, they merely appear to possess an awe-inspiring presence."
The Demon-Slaying Valiant Sword was swung, and in this dream of the dead, it was invincible. Yet, as Jin Guang Tian Xin's body was severed, his voice, filled with intense mockery, echoed from all directions, from the heavens and the earth.
The Three Officials Great Emperors pressed forward. Jin Guang Tian Xin had vanished without a trace. The black-clothed Ji Xiang conjured the forms of all the divine beings, and each of the Three Officials Great Emperors held a handwritten document.
They needed the divine form of the Black Emperor, to seize it from the black-clothed Ji Xiang and then be resurrected as one of the true Five Directional Emperors. The Three Officials' handwritten documents, since ancient times, had governed the fortunes and misfortunes of the human world. For those afflicted with disaster or sin, praying to the Three Officials Great Emperors would cause their handwritten documents to ascend to heaven, connect with the earth, and reach the waters below, thus adjusting the three origins of the world and relieving the supplicants of their calamities and sins.
"Sin!"
The Three Officials Great Emperors pointed at the black-clothed Ji Xiang. At this moment, great calamity approached from the past, and profound sorrow loomed from the future. Past and future merged, and a person's destiny was sealed, entangled by calamity and sorrow, making escape impossible for the rest of their life. For the past and future were intertwined, leaving no way to flee this prison within the flow of time.
Destiny was the most terrifying and impartial force, composed of countless threads from the past and future. Separately, they were insufficient to inspire fear, appearing merely as minor choices. However, once connected, from beginning to end, they became unshakeable.
The Three Officials' handwritten documents represented such supreme methods, helping people make choices at every moment of their past and future, granting them sin and thus plunging them into a muddy, temporal prison, existing in suffering. This was originally a method to liberate the world, but when used in reverse, it became exceedingly terrifying.
"The Three Officials Great Emperors, once suppressed by the Nu Qing Heavenly Law, are merely frightening in appearance."
However, the black-clothed Ji Xiang faced the confession and reflection of the Three Officials' handwritten documents with indifference. As an existence of the Dao, he had already been slandered as an evil entity by the world for countless years, and he cared not for another sin. Even if he refused to confess, the Three Officials Great Emperors' art of altering destiny and fortune would be unable to do anything to him.
Destiny permeated him, but the black-clothed Ji Xiang's past was already chaotic. The chaotic script also appeared on the Three Officials' handwritten documents, making it impossible to connect all the nodes, for the Azure Goat was merely a legend, and as the embodiment of the Azure Goat, the black-clothed Ji Xiang's present future was also a blank slate.
There were no nodes within the blankness.
The black-clothed Ji Xiang's body trembled, and the great sin decreed by the Three Officials' handwritten documents was shattered by him, transforming into waves of mesmerizing light that shot into the sky.
"The third manifestation of the Dao extends backward, giving birth to all things. The first manifestation of the Dao exists innately, beyond all things. Can the third manifestation of the Dao, which determines the fortunes and misfortunes of all things, also determine the fortunes and misfortunes of the first manifestation of the Dao?"
"Nu Qing Heavenly Law, I know it too!"
The Heavenly Law contained punishments for righteous gods, but the Three Officials Great Emperors of the Ghost Capital were different from the Three Officials of external incense and offerings. As the Heavenly Law flowed, Cheng Jie's voice was indeed vast, but it was like thunder without rain. It fell upon the Three Officials Great Emperors, causing no significant ripples, merely causing a corner of their handwritten documents to break.
In the first exchange, neither side gained the upper hand, but the black-clothed Ji Xiang was more concerned about the whereabouts of Jin Guang Tian Xin. His divine sense probed the ten directions of heaven and earth, faintly sensing the other's location, but at the next instant, it abruptly ceased.
The black-clothed Ji Xiang's vision suddenly darkened. He felt his consciousness spin and whirl in an instant, and he heard a voice in his heart, more colossal than thunder and the collapse of heaven:
"Yin and Yang separate, spirit perishes."
The black-clothed Ji Xiang trembled all over. He felt as if he were about to be divided into two individuals. The aura of the divine beings behind him suddenly diminished, and his own essence was flowing into these forms, making them seem as if they were about to break free from him and form independent existences.
Jin Guang Tian Xin's voice was indifferent:
"I said it would take some effort, and it truly only took 'some' effort."
"I am Confucian, and I also comprehend the Dao. In ancient times, this was a common occurrence. Although you are an embodiment of the Dao, you are not the true body appearing. You seize everything from others to stand here, carrying the innate form in a post-natal state. The separation of Yin and Yang will be fully manifested in you. Once the fundamental Yin and Yang are separated, you will disappear. This is the annihilation of the spirit."
"For example, form and spirit will split into form and spirit; wish and thought will split into wish and thought; will and intention will split into will and intention. This is the Yin and Yang that I comprehend, the Yin and Yang of Confucianism."
"All things are composed of Yin and Yang. Even the innate 'One' is so. Yin and Yang exist within chaos, not that chaos gives birth to Yin and Yang. It is these two that inherently exist and construct chaos. Therefore, returning to the innate is progress, and the Dao giving birth to three is also progress. Yin and Yang exist eternally, they are conceptual things, yet they truly affect all phenomena in the world and beyond."
"In ancient times, Cang Jie created characters, and ghosts wailed and gods howled. The world held no more secrets. All phenomena could be composed and deciphered through characters. A single character was insufficient to describe such things, so more characters were combined to express it. And I, by transforming with the Yin and Yang of Confucianism, reverse this combination, and then these things will revert to an indescribable void state. The world will not know of its existence or name, and it will itself move towards oblivion."
The black-clothed Ji Xiang looked at the divine beings behind him and discovered that they seemed to be developing self-awareness. Apart from Xuanwu and Bai Mian Zhen Wu, who already possessed self-awareness, the other divine beings began to exhibit abnormal behavior.
Their eyes became more spirited.
Their forms and spirits exuded vitality outwards.
"You used my 'Dao of One' to separate Yin and Yang forces, and then with the help of the Three Officials' handwritten documents... not to pierce through my destiny, but to create all things from the three!"
The black-clothed Ji Xiang's expression turned grim. The abilities of this Confucian Tian Xin exceeded previous observations. However, as an embodiment of the Dao, he was not an existence that could be easily erased. Thus, in the next moment, the light of time appeared around the black-clothed Ji Xiang's body.
The power of a Yuqing cultivator lay in their true body tracing back to the past. Ji Xiang's existence had not reached the Tian Xin realm before, but now, occupied by the Azure Goat, he naturally possessed the divine power of the Yuqing realm. In the next moment, the black-clothed Ji Xiang's state reverted to before being influenced by the Three Officials, and everything was reset.
"In my past existence, I have a past body, and I wield the past sword."
The black-clothed Ji Xiang disappeared from the present world and then reverted to the past. Within the past, he swung the Demon-Slaying Valiant Sword. Thus, past and future influenced each other, the divine books in the hands of the Three Officials Great Emperors broke another corner, and Jin Guang Tian Xin was once again turned into smoke and vanished!
"Past true body... Ah, it seems that as an embodiment of the Dao, you still possess some skill. I thought you wouldn't be able to use such a move."
The present body is the past body. When the present body disappears, the past body is eternal. One mistake, and another reversion, makes the present eternally empty, the sword's edge forever coming from the past.
The future is continuously damaged.
[Success and failure depend on movement; if movement does not cease, it will transform.]
[Formless and without worry, this is called so.]
That voice echoed in the black-clothed Ji Xiang's heart once more, and even though he was in the past, in the next moment, the black-clothed Ji Xiang was suddenly heavily injured!
Yin and Yang were torn apart. The black-clothed Ji Xiang immediately returned to the past, but each time he returned to the past, the tearing force of Yin and Yang always remained!
"Once life is generated, it acquires form, and the calamities that endanger its survival are already hidden within. In other words, there is achievement and failure, form and worry, life and death."
"Life, inevitably leads to death."
"He who dies but does not perish is called longevity."
"The power of Tian Xin lies in the word 'heart.' For Tian Xin, death does not exist, only perishing is real. Only when the heart of Tian can be annihilated will Tian Xin truly die. Therefore, you return to the past, but the Tian Xin of the past, is it not also me?"
"Ultimately, I am the Tian Xin here."
Jin Guang Tian Xin appeared. The Tian Xin realm has no distinction between past and future. Therefore, although he cannot truly revert to the past, he can still modify the past in the future. The black-clothed Ji Xiang jumps to the past to kill his future self, but the Tian Xin of the past and future are both himself. If he kills himself once, he can modify it once.
The fundamental way to annihilate Tian Xin is how to kill this "heart."
As vast as heaven, a single thought gives birth to the world, a single thought causes the world to revolve. Able to act in the human world on behalf of the heart of heaven, possessing absolute control over heavenly mechanisms and karma. The past is the future, the future can reflect the past. If I say the past is undamaged, then the future is never damaged!
"What use is the Dao of One?"
"I comprehend Confucian Dao and Fangshi arts, possessing the techniques of the Three Teachings. My understanding of the Dao may be deeper than yours."
The black-clothed Ji Xiang remained silent, only for red clouds to surge from his seven orifices.
Seven red clouds rose into the sky but transformed into darkness. The form and spirit of a blue goat twisted and appeared from his body. When this blue goat appeared, all Daoistic principles ceased to rotate, Yin and Yang no longer separated, wishes and thoughts were restored, and past and future returned to one. A Twelve-Phase Taiji Diagram appeared beside him.
Everything in the world was destroyed, becoming a state of disorder. Neither the past nor the future could be seen.
"Hmm? You've disrupted the operation of the Dao, but even if the Dao is useless, Tian Xin still remains."
Jin Guang Tian Xin's voice held a slight hint of doubt, but no emotional fluctuation.
The black-clothed Ji Xiang let out a scoff:
"Tian Xin does not die, it only perishes. But how can it perish if it does not die? There is still a way."
"Ah..."
The black-clothed Ji Xiang's lips moved.
There was once a divine spell that could strip away the divine abilities of Tian Xin. After inheriting everything from Ji Xiang, the black-clothed Ji Xiang naturally knew of the existence of this divine spell. Moreover, unlike Ji Xiang, who could not perform it.
As an embodiment of the Dao, he could naturally perform it, without needing the assistance of Lingbao Tianzun!
"Zhongshan Divine Spell!"
"Dao Ju Zhe Yi!"
And the moment the Zhongshan Divine Spell was cast, the giant blue goat activated the Twelve-Phase Taiji Diagram.
The disordered Dao of the world returned to order.
At this very moment, the blue goat drew upon the aura within it, and at the same instant, Jin Guang Tian Xin directly faced a vast power.
The beginning of the primordial energy of heaven and earth, primordial energy unformed, what silence?
Vague and indistinct.
All energies gathered, condensing into the True One.
The so-called True One.
It is when the Tian Xin realm cannot obtain true heavenly will, it finds an alternative path, shatters Yin and Yang, and starts anew, condensing a primordial innate force of all things. The Dao of One is the birth of such things, and if one can condense it oneself, it is...
Hun Yuan realm!
Jin Guang Tian Xin's expression remained unchanged, but the Twelve-Phase Taiji Diagram began to vibrate violently. This was him modifying the past, exchanging karma, and the Zhongshan Divine Spell and the True One force were simultaneously applied to him.
This was equivalent to a Hun Yuan strike!
The divine abilities of Tian Xin receded, and the power of the True One was unavoidable. Jin Guang Tian Xin's true body appeared in the dream of the dead. Once struck by the True One, even if he did not die, he would suffer great damage. His Tian Xin power would inevitably recede. With the past and future sealed, time would no longer flow.
"The greatness of the Dao lies not in heaven, but ultimately in the One."
The black-clothed Ji Xiang felt that he had secured victory. Of course, to guard against variables, the forms and spirits of the Ghost Slaying Generals had already begun to reach out to the ten directions of heaven and earth, continuously shattering all techniques, preventing Jin Guang Tian Xin's power from spreading.
Until.
The vast light suddenly erupted from Jin Guang Tian Xin's body.
Countless fair hands extended from that light. With a great "Disperse," the sound echoed majestically in the dream of the dead, rising above the ten thousand zhang Yin City, blocking and freezing the Hun Yuan True One force, and rushing towards the ten directions.
"!"
The black-clothed Ji Xiang was stunned, watching this scene.
And in front of Jin Guang Tian Xin, a wooden bell appeared. He himself emitted a ethereal and distant voice:
"The heaven of Confucianism exists in the mountains and rivers within, and also everywhere. When the heart moves, it arrives; when it does not move, it is not revealed. This is the earliest shore. It arrives with just a thought in the heart. As long as my heart is bright, it will arrive. This is the Bright World, even earlier than the Buddhist shore."
"The flesh and bones perish in the lower darkness to become wild soil, their essence ascends to become bright and luminous, mournful and poignant. This is the essence of all things, the manifestation of the spirit."
"Simply put, within me, at all times, resides the 'spirit in heaven' of my Confucianism!"
"Things of this shore cannot harm things of the other shore. I possess the power of the other shore—"
"Immortal, incorruptible, unperishable! Eternal with the teachings, and present in all places that exist and do not exist."
At this moment, the black-clothed Ji Xiang discovered the clue and vibrated:
"You are also not a person who existed in true history!"
This truth greatly surprised the black-clothed Ji Xiang. He thought to himself, no wonder this fellow's strength was so bizarre, and even the Dao of One could not suppress him. It turned out to be...
Jin Guang Tian Xin smiled:
"I am Shu Sun Tong, I am Fu Sheng, I am Dong Zhong Shu, I am Hu Wu Sheng, I am Gong Sun Hong, I am Yang Xiong, I am Wang Mang, I am Huan Kuan, I am Liu Xiang, I am He Xiu, I am Zheng Xuan, I am Deng Yu!"
"I am the true body condensed from the spirits of several Confucian Tian Xins and great scholars of successive dynasties. I am the messenger of the other shore, and upon coming to the world, I have the mission to restore the Heavenly Emperor. I am the prayerful heart of all of them. I am not one Tian Xin, I am countless Tian Xins! I am—"
"The Bright World!"
It is a divine kingdom itself, and all of history is within this divine kingdom!
"In my history."
"I am all of them!"
"And they are my spirits in heaven!"
One person is one teaching! Countless strong individuals in history prayed for one person, and this one person reversed history, causing the entire history of one teaching to be born from one person.
And this one person can be seen as the ultimate achievement of the Dao.
And the black-clothed Ji Xiang's heart was in constant turmoil.
Because this thing before him could truly be called "Tian Xin realm"?
Eternal and incorruptible, perhaps it could be called "Immortal Tian Xin"?
And this was what Xu Fu hoped to create?
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