With fate, one can connect with others, with things, and with the myriad phenomena of the world, thus giving birth to Dharma.
The gate of the Second Yuqing opened, and Ji Xiang stepped into it. Within that gate naturally lay a world, the nascent realm of fate.
A name gives rise to a phenomenon, a phenomenon gives rise to a world, and within this world lie myriad phenomena, yet not every realm can be proven by mortals.
Ji Xiang paused, gazing at the phantoms emerging within the realm of fate. This realm of fate mirrored the old timeline and connected the first Yuqing with the new realm of the second Yuqing. It should have been empty, for even the primordial era had not yet begun, and there was no form or substance.
The phantom could not see this new realm; it was merely projected from somewhere, unaware of being watched. This was because fate had not yet established a connection with it, thus no Dharma could manifest.
In Ji Xiang's eyes, the various laws of fate from the old timeline continued to manifest, the fates of countless powerful beings in the world.
They were all reflected in this new realm of fate.
"At the beginning of the old timeline, at the origin of fate."
It was the Buddha.
The Twelve Links of Causality, as comprehended by the Buddha, were the ultimate truths closest to the "extremity of fate" and the "extremity of karma" among the Four Symbols. This was a true, half-Buddha fruit.
One fate arises, karma appears.
To comprehend the Four Symbols, understand them, and transcend them, one can ultimately leave all realms of myriad phenomena, breaking free from shackles. Once this level is reached, regardless of how the framework of the new era changes, one will exist eternally.
Some in the old world had reached this level. They remained hidden, existing eternally through every shift in time. Such individuals would not be altered by the rules of the new era, nor could anyone shake them. However, they could not escape the old world, still lacking the proof of the Profound Symbol.
"Having reached the end of Dao and Buddha, they are truly those who have attained 'fruit'."
"But even such individuals find it difficult to contend with Mr. Gu."
The defeat in the Zhaoming world, the Buddha's hiding, the escape of the Buddha Emperor, and among the Fangshi, those who Ji Xiang could see as unchanging and eternal, comparable to the Buddha.
Among these individuals, the Buddha and Zhaoming did not represent the power of a single person. The Buddha possessed the hearts of the Seven Past Buddhas, and the Zhaoming world held the immense power of the Confucian Heavenly Hearts of successive generations, combining the strength of all saints to create a vessel for ascension.
Yet, they still lost.
And some thought that if they could not advance further in this era, they would move to the next, seize that sliver of opportunity, and be the first to be revered as ancestors.
This was the thought of the Four Heavenly Hearts of the human realm.
Vajra Huiji was the most prepared. The Six Heavenly Envoys were merely an avatar of the Zhaoming world. The Purple Robe God wished to become the Supreme in the next era, not the Primordial, but the true "Supreme," not the Grand Supreme Elder. However, this could only be achieved by leveraging the Taiqing lineage.
The Purple Robe God cared not for the Primordial, only for the Supreme. Thus, he detested those who trespassed into the human realm, as it would delay his search for the Supreme.
In the next thought, crossing the realm of fate, the laws of fate converged, arriving in a vast and ancient world.
"Upon seeing the Profound Symbol, I have no name. Before the Primordial, before all things."
This was not Ji Xiang's voice, but another speaking. The towering Heavenly Venerate's projection descended, like the accumulation of countless worlds, reflecting the changes of yin and yang, containing the energy of the cosmos and the shimmering, oscillating light of time.
"Greetings... Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate."
Ji Xiang looked at this magnificent form, the divine tablet that many had sought, and that he himself had once searched for. The reason it was so difficult to find was that this divine tablet had never truly existed.
It was merely a phantom projected from the Raven's Cry Kingdom. The true lineage was something no one could alter or perceive, for it predated all lineages.
"The Primordial Heavenly Venerate has returned to the Profound Symbol, and the immortal path of the Old Yuqing is completely severed. As the Heavenly Venerate of the New Yuqing, the Wushi Wuzhong Heavenly Venerate, why do you come to the Old Yuqing? Is there something you still cling to?"
"The timelines reflected by the Old Yuqing will disappear. In fact, they have already disappeared. With your current strength, even having seen the Profound Symbol, you cannot save this old timeline."
"You have also witnessed the Profound Symbol, so my objective is achieved. Before the next Profound Symbol, you will take charge. This great timeline ends here, and a new great timeline emerges. I will dissolve and depart from here. You will never see me again in any timeline."
"The so-called Jiuyou is in an extremely distant place, that is, before the Profound Symbol. There is nothing here; it is the beginning of everything, the past of the past."
"The immortal path is dead. Because I will cease to exist."
The voice of Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate was vast. Within his projection, which encompassed all phenomena, cosmic stars flickered, dark energy roamed, and yin and yang constantly changed. These were the myriad stars, the Dharma realms, and all Dharma realms projected from him.
Then, along the great timeline, myriad phenomena emerged.
"How are you and Mr. Gu?"
Ji Xiang still wanted to know this answer. Within those laws of fate, Ji Xiang had seen Mr. Gu.
The future of the future, various gods and demons, massacres and sacrifices, the demise of the human world and the great timeline, were actually devouring the past in reverse.
"He is the immortal path."
"If I do not exist, then he will gradually cease to exist."
This was both astonishing and terrifying. Mr. Gu, who in the future continuously devoured all Yuqing cultivators to achieve the true Primordial Heavenly Venerate, would also fall from the immortal path with the departure of Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate.
The origin of everything in the Old Yuqing lay with Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate. Once Jiuyou Heavenly Venerate disappeared, just as with the consequences of the Primordial Heavenly Venerate's disappearance, everything connected to him would cease to exist. Only those Yuqing powerhouses intimately connected with the Primordial Heavenly Venerate would retain some memories.
"Gradually... If he can still open the immortal path again?"
Ji Xiang inquired.
"Did I not already bestow upon you an ultimate divine ability?"
As Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate spoke, the brilliance of that hidden ultimate divine ability within Ji Xiang's body, which even Qingyang had not taken away, began to bloom externally. Within the immense form of the Wushi Wuzhong Heavenly Venerate, it radiated the immortal light of Jiuyou.
Ji Xiang looked at that expanse of temporal phenomena. Within it, a vast world grew larger and larger, shrouded in mist, sealed by layers of history, its true appearance unseen, like a rock painting hidden within clouds of countless wheel formations, with many figures constantly changing.
As the old timeline perished, this world emerged, as if exerting all its power to move towards the new timeline.
Ji Xiang stared at that world, already knowing what it was.
The voice of Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate was also grand, calling out the name of a Heavenly Venerate:
"Lingbao..."
The True Spirit Registry was obtained by Qingyang, but Qingyang had been transformed into the new timeline by Ji Xiang. In the realm of fate within the Second Yuqing, controlling the arising and ceasing of fate, all things naturally returned. The True Spirit Registry flew out, and the form of Lingbao Heavenly Venerate manifested from it.
"The Rite of the Primordial. By controlling the Jade God Pan and returning all previously transmitted scriptures to their rightful place, one can create the Primordial. All that was disrupted in the old timeline will be re-enacted with the reappearance of the Primordial Heavenly Venerate."
"But I am about to depart now. Without me, the new world within the old timeline may become even more brilliant, and the heavens and earth even vaster. You, make your choice."
"The old timeline still flows, destinies change, and the rules of the new era will soon be finalized. Those destined ones are fighting and scrambling, and various sects are going mad for it."
"Will you choose to continue existing in the old timeline, using the Rite of the Primordial to reverse everything, or to move to the new timeline?"
The voice of Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate descended, and a sigh of emotion emerged from the form of Lingbao Heavenly Venerate:
"If you depart, it means there will be no trace of the Primordial in the old timeline, and no one will be able to see the Profound Symbol. Everything will sink and be sealed. Even if my Han Dynasty endures throughout history, fixed within time, with the demise of the Primordial, all the 'Dao' will cease to exist, only to be reborn with the advent of the new era. And how many sects of this era can rely on those bearing destiny to survive into the new era?"
"When the Primordial no longer exists, Lingbao will also be useless. Even if Mr. Gu is eliminated, I will have no reason to remain in that old timeline. My object of service has also changed."
"I shall go to the new timeline. I am the successor of the old timeline, but the fact that I have the opportunity to make this choice proves that in the vast struggle of history, it is ultimately we who have won."
Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate nodded, and a great affirmation resounded from his majestic form, encompassing the cosmos, the primeval world, and the stars of eternity:
"You have won. There is no need to sink into the previous old timeline."
He then said to Ji Xiang, "When the new timeline begins to advance, the Primordial Heavenly Venerate will reappear. As long as you establish the era, the Primordial Heavenly Venerate will descend again from the Profound Symbol."
"Therefore, you must evolve the new timeline, and Lingbao is indispensable. Of course! Even if you have decided that your Second Yuqing will be without past, without future, without beginning, and without end, the myriad phenomena surviving in the new timeline will ultimately require a sense of past, present, and future. This way, their existence will have meaning, their own meaning."
Lingbao Heavenly Venerate paid his respects to the two Great Heavenly Venerates and said to Ji Xiang:
"There is no absolute certainty in the world, but time has always had only one source. If there is a second, unstarted timeline, where would the person who opens such a timeline be?"
"Those who witness the Profound Symbol, or those who come from the Profound Symbol, are the only two types of people. When I saw that you could cultivate the Heavenly Demon Art, I knew that your spirit was not within the Four Symbols of the old timeline."
"The demonic path is not a path that the beings of the Four Symbols in the old timeline can cultivate, because it originates from the Primordial Heavenly Venerate, and thus it has no lineage and cannot be cultivated."
Lingbao Heavenly Venerate said to Ji Xiang, "I am willing to become the past of the new era, to ferry this world!"
"There is no one more suitable than me in this world. Possessing the name of one of the Three Pure Ones, and not far from Qingyang of the Dao. If the lineage of Shangqing can be reunited, and I can return to my original form, the past of the new era that I transform into will be unshakeable!"
"The past of the new timeline will be more solid than the past of the old timeline!"
Ji Xiang saw the fate of Lingbao Heavenly Venerate.
All scriptures in the world, except for the Red Script Jade Characters, were transmitted by Lingbao Heavenly Venerate. The Three Pure Ones each had their duties, and Lingbao Heavenly Venerate's duty was to transmit scriptures, gather the lost scriptures again, and then... create a "Primordial Heavenly Venerate" who could be worshipped by the people of the next era.
This was not the Primordial who descended from the Profound Symbol, but a primordial void conceived by later generations, essentially created by Lingbao Heavenly Venerate leading the way.
However, his new timeline was one without the Primordial Heavenly Venerate. But even so, Lingbao Heavenly Venerate still needed to exist. The absence of the Primordial Heavenly Venerate did not mean the Primordial Heavenly Venerate no longer existed, as the Primordial Heavenly Venerate was not descending from the Profound Symbol this time.
Because the Profound Symbol still existed.
And the relationship between Lingbao Heavenly Venerate and Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate was that the former's form was bestowed by the latter, and he had been gathering lost scriptures for the latter, in exchange for his era being liberated from the destruction of time.
And at that time, Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate was not Jiuyou Bazui; he was "Primordial Heavenly Venerate," still using the title of Primordial.
"A piece of history circulates through various eras. Even in the second timeline, it still exists."
Lingbao Heavenly Venerate's reasoning was sound. There was no one more suitable than him to become the "past," one of the new Four Symbols. The lineage of the Three Pure Ones, Shangqing originated from Yuqing. Lingbao Heavenly Venerate had a deep connection with the Primordial Heavenly Venerate, but was far from Tai Shang.
Ji Xiang nodded to Lingbao Heavenly Venerate, and Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate also approved. With the recognition of the Profound Symbol, that world was finally freed from its constraints and merged into Lingbao Heavenly Venerate's body from the old timeline.
"Living within history is also a form of eternity. It will not be disturbed by any external force. This history is always shrouded in mist because it is a piece of history. For the great timeline, there is no truth, and therefore no falsehood, so it cannot be traced back."
"But not all of this world has fully returned; many parts remain scattered."
The two who witnessed the Profound Symbol raised objections to this world. Lingbao Heavenly Venerate responded, "Every emperor of a dynasty has their own thoughts, and with their thoughts come their own methods. Their methods may not necessarily fail. It is just that I have taken the first step."
Ji Xiang: "I promised the Heavenly Venerate back then to retrieve the Qingping Sword and the Jade God Pan. I shall fulfill this promise."
"I do indeed have some attachment to a portion of the beings in the old timeline. I govern the new timeline, and you bring that portion of history to my abode. I hope they can exist eternally within the history you bring."
Lingbao Heavenly Venerate expressed his gratitude, "Thank you, Heavenly Venerate."
Ji Xiang once again asked Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate:
"I have a question: were there many old timelines in the past?"
Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate: "Yes. Naturally, there were also those who witnessed the Profound Symbol. From beginning to end, they were passed down in pairs."
"...When the Heavenly Venerate departs, does he become the Heavenly Above the Heavens? The so-called 'Divine Firmament'? Or is the Heavenly Venerate the Divine Firmament? What level is the path after departure?"
Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate: "It is within the Heavenly Above the Heavens. That is a greater and more distant path. Just as you witness each other within the Dao, for the cultivators of the world, the Dao is the heavens. But for the Dao, the Heavenly Above the Heavens is the heavens. My departure, this process, is called 'Ascension to the Profound,' and the realm reached is forcefully named 'Formless'."
This was a new realm, a new path, the method of truly transcending the ultimate limit of the old timeline.
The Great Symbol is Formless, ascending to the Profound amidst nothingness!
The Four Symbols are minor symbols.
Witnessing the Profound Symbol is the prerequisite for attaining the "Great Symbol."
Seeing the Profound Symbol is the first step towards Ascension to the Profound.
"The entire old timeline is a Great Symbol. Evolving it to its extreme is the moment of Ascension to the Profound. Heavenly Venerate said that all sentient beings and phenomena in the world require past, present, and future, so that they have their own meaning. Therefore, in Heavenly Venerate's view, is Heavenly Venerate himself the same?"
Ji Xiang said this, and Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate responded with laughter:
"Yes, it is the same for you, the new Heavenly Venerate. There certainly is, and that is before the Profound Symbol. Even the Profound Symbol has a void thought, and it is because of this void thought that we exist."
"You are anything in the world, the myriad phenomena, the Four Symbols, the myriad phenomena, and finally, you wield one Great Symbol."
The appearance of Mr. Gu actually signified that the immortal path had reached its extreme, and the evolution of all phenomena had reached its end. This was proof of successful Ascension to the Profound.
This was why Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate said, "The immortal path is dead," upon seeing Mr. Gu.
All the immortal paths he had opened had now completely ended in the old timeline.
"If you are interested in the Heavenly Above the Heavens, you might as well try to approach it in your Second Yuqing. Perhaps you will gain something, for you yourself are a 'residual symbol' projected from another timeline."
"Even if this symbol is very weak, once it is projected, it coexists with the world. The constancy of symbols is unshakeable, and anything containing symbols is unshakeable. Even a small amount is more solid, more ancient, and more profound than the existence of all gods and spirits."
Ji Xiang: "Am I a remnant, or an outsider? Like Lingbao Heavenly Venerate, a residual symbol from another timeline. Will Lingbao Heavenly Venerate also become the next person to witness the Profound Symbol?"
"He cannot. Lingbao's name is sealed. He is destined not to surpass the Primordial, always remaining in the first列 below the Primordial."
"This is a name that oversees all phenomena, not a name that surpasses all phenomena. What truly surpasses all phenomena, comparable to the Dao or the Formless realm, is 'Tai Shang.' That is, what those Taiqing Daoists refer to as their lineage."
The voice of Jiuyou Bazui Heavenly Venerate echoed:
"I am about to ascend to the Profound and depart. You have already left the old timeline. Before I depart, you cannot use the power of all phenomena here, but none of the phenomena within my world can harm you in the slightest."
"Do what you need to do quickly. Remember, you cannot save the old timeline, because this is my symbol. Therefore, only do what you can do. Mr. Gu is currently fighting to the death with my residual light, determined to devour it."
Ji Xiang closed his eyes. At this moment, the blank divine tablet could no longer be seen.
Because after witnessing the Profound Symbol, Ji Xiang himself knew that he was that divine tablet. Now the divine tablet has no name, fundamentally because it is not the symbol of this timeline.
And in the real world at this moment, catastrophic disasters had already occurred. Within the entire visible, long history and the surrounding myriad worlds, vast expanses of temporal death energy emanated. The futures that were annihilated by Mr. Gu's single thought, large amounts of time were extinguished, and the past was to be destroyed along with it.