The boundless radiance was even vaster than the previous Nine Nether Immortal Light, on an entirely different level.
Mr. Gu was greatly shaken.
He understood everything now.
The First Yuqing had not hidden himself.
Nor was he plotting something.
He wasn't trying to devour him, nor use him to overcome a calamity, nor consider him a heart demon.
"Is he the source of all this Great Time?"
A look of sudden realization dawned on Mr. Gu's face.
Yes.
The Lord of All Phenomena.
"The immortal path is dead, the immortal path is dead. It was meant to send me on my way, and the reason he tasked someone else to eliminate me instead of doing it himself, is because I am also a part of the myriad phenomena he evolved. If he were to sever himself, it would be incomplete, is that it?"
"Is it?"
Mr. Gu stared at Ji Xiang, but the answer he received plunged him back into confusion.
"No."
Ji Xiang shook his head. "He never intended to eliminate you. This divine ability was indeed given to me by him, but it wasn't initially meant to be used against you. He didn't say."
"It was only after I pressed him further that he told me this divine ability could deal with you."
Mr. Gu fell into a long silence, then a surge of profound anger welled up in his chest. It was the true, ultimate rage of the mortal world, a colossal emotion born from devouring countless phenomena and achieving a unified state of being.
Yin energy ascended, transforming into blazing flames, incandescently brilliant.
This was the "Taiyin Tribulation Fire."
When the world reached its end, all things stirred, converging on Taiyin; the tribulation fire blazed, and the great universe was destroyed.
Ji Xiang gazed at the inferno, seeing Mr. Gu's karma.
For the current Mr. Gu,
Indifference was the greatest insult in the world.
If the other party had gone to such lengths to eliminate him, he wouldn't have felt anything even if it were a messy affair. As the embodiment of the immortal path, he had believed he was destined to integrate Yuqing and achieve the status of Primordial Heavenly Venerate. But the true Lord of All Phenomena had been watching him all along, and only now did he realize it.
He was never Primordial.
And there was no Primordial in this world!
The Primordial Heavenly Venerate was a title that the Nine Nether Sin-Removing Heavenly Venerate had brought forth from within the Xuan Phenomena. It was the materialization of the Primordial Path, something that could never be attained. The Primordial Heavenly Venerate that people spoke of being able to attain, that divine tablet, and all the sacred titles held by Yuqing cultivators – were all things within the Great Phenomena.
"Within the Great Phenomena, for me to devour all Yuqing cultivators, it would be the greatest dead end in the world? I am also on the dead end, and I have walked further than anyone else? Hahahaha!"
"Impossible! I have been moving forward, so it is not a dead end! I understand your and his intentions. You both believe I can never surpass the extreme of time? Never?"
"I will reopen the immortal path before you!"
As Mr. Gu uttered these words, the Nine Nether Immortal Light in Ji Xiang's hand suddenly surged. The radiance scattered, piercing through time, shattering all paths of the past and future, causing all phenomena to revert to their origins, ceasing to exist.
Mr. Gu was frozen in place, his posture one of arrogance and madness. Everything about him, beneath this radiance, became an "image."
A phantom image drawn out.
"Yes, it is precisely because you absolutely can reopen the immortal path that this divine ability exists. This divine ability is called 'Absolute Scenery'."
"It can extract the image of that thing. This way, even if it possesses the world's most unparalleled form, spirit, essence, soul, body, thought, and heart, even if it has the Heavenly Mandate bestowed by the Heaven above, without the existence of its image, it cannot do anything. It will not even leave any trace in the world. It clearly exists, yet it has never existed."
"Everything in this world has long been arranged... On the Primordial Path, form and spirit are simple imitations; thought and heart are the foundations of enlightenment; possessing the Heavenly Mandate, the fate decreed by the Heaven above or the Lord of All Phenomena, is what allows one to enter the door of Yuqing and find a way to continue on."
"That is to say, it has its own image."
"If you were to reopen the immortal path, what kind of immortal path would it be? You devoured nine supreme experts of Yuqing to achieve such a feat and reach your current realm. You were born as the end, trapped in the future of the future, because the past has been destroyed by you. You have no future of your own. The future you exist in only holds the dead silence of the extinguished immortal path."
"Since you are the terminator, the one who gathers laws rather than transmits them, even if you reopen the immortal path, would you still be willing to pass these laws to the next batch of people?"
Ji Xiang's voice was inexplicably strange, and the Nine Nether Immortal Light was suddenly grasped by Ji Xiang, not directly hurled at the frozen Mr. Gu.
"Perhaps, it is not appropriate to make you an Absolute Scenery here."
Turning his head, Ji Xiang looked again at the Grand Supreme. The Grand Supreme's eyes held no trace of emotion, nor were they swayed by the Nine Nether Immortal Light.
The Grand Supreme is undefeated.
Any hostile action he perceives turns into futile effort. The phenomenon, upon its very appearance, has already moved towards its demise. The sprout of all things, as soon as it is born, enters its death throes.
"You are holding what was prepared for me. However, it is common in cultivation for treasures left from the past to be unexpectedly acquired by others."
Ji Xiang: "I have come to retrieve that Dharma Realm. There is something I need inside."
The Jade God Pan and the Qingping Sword, along with the refinement of the Human Dao Dharma Realm, were sealed within it. The vast Dharma Realm condensed from the entire true human world was a concentrated history spanning millennia, with countless cultivators and myriad phenomena appearing and disappearing, countless deities being worshipped and long enshrined in human temples.
And those beings from the old times, who had not truly died but had become the spiritual essence of the Dharma Realm, those who could journey to the next era.
"No."
The Grand Supreme responded with firm resolve. "The path of my other half, I must reclaim! The Dharma Realm of the Human Dao is also mine."
Ji Xiang shook his head. "You want everything. I am also like this. It seems there is no way to have a proper discussion."
Mr. Gu also wanted everything.
He himself was the same.
This Grand Supreme was also the same.
Everyone had their own desires, and the phenomena they wished to obtain were different. Because of this, no one was willing to yield, nor was there any need to yield to others.
If you do not take it, others will, even eradicating you along with it. Taking a step back is not about finding a broader horizon, but about walking towards your own death.
The things from the old times are limited.
And there are several who wish to use these things to surpass the extreme of time and fulfill their respective desires.
Even if there are two, they cannot be divided equally.
Just as a path is incomplete, it is flawed. Something flawed will eventually stop at a certain moment, then decay, perish, dissipate, and cease to exist.
"What is being fought for is not the past, but the new future that has not yet begun nor been witnessed."
The Grand Supreme made his move, confident that Ji Xiang had not yet mastered the remaining half of the path. The principles of the Grand Supreme's body were still in his hands. As long as the name of undefeated remained, he would not fail, and no phenomenon could cause his demise.
But Ji Xiang said: "I am no longer within this Great Phenomena. You cannot reach me, nor can I harm you."
"That will not be the case, because I am not within this Phenomena either! The Three Pure Ones merge. We are both before the gateway of the Grand Supreme Path. Of course, we need not adhere to the Primordial rules! Where the Grand Supreme is, all is unrestricted!"
"We are the source of the Dao! All in this realm operates because of the Grand Supreme!"
The Grand Supreme's gaze was intense. With a wave of his hand, all laws reached their end. All phenomena stopped. From the beginning, it was the end. The event, as soon as it occurred, was almost concluded. He held Ji Xiang in his hand. His body, at some unknown moment, had filled the entire old time, being everywhere, his silhouette present in every location.
"Is that so?"
Ji Xiang realized, and smiled faintly. "So that's how it is, unrestricted."
"Of course! But the matter is over. Those myriad phenomena from other Great Phenomena that you brought from beneath this Great Phenomena, which are attached to your side, and which allow you to be reflected in this matter, are now, at your side, almost stopped. You, like Mr. Gu, will become a phantom image."
"I give you my final words."
The Grand Supreme's voice held a slight tremor, a hint of nostalgia. As a new thought, born with myriad phenomena, possessing the Grand Supreme's law, invincible, an existence unbound by the world's time or even the Great Phenomena, this battle, as soon as it began, had already concluded, with only one victor.
Final words?
"For my final words, I will state my sacred title."
Ji Xiang raised his hand.
The gradually stopping myriad phenomena, those dazzling, illusory splendors, began to turn again.
The Grand Supreme opened his mouth, preparing to speak. The very first word he uttered would immediately end everything, and Ji Xiang would be frozen as a phantom image.
But now, those brought myriad phenomena began to turn again. Ji Xiang was not frozen, nor did he become a phantom image.
That voice descended, like the hollow spiritual sound of the Nine Nether Sin-Removing Heavenly Venerate, shattering time.
"I am."
"The Boundless Beginning and End Heavenly Venerate."
Beneath that palm, the Grand Supreme witnessed an unbelievable sight.
Those myriad phenomena, surging violently, had no beginning.
Rushing forth, they also had no end!