Tai Yi did not understand.
It was only much later that he began to feel something.
Perhaps, the years of birth of the green-clothed maiden and the Heavenly Dao Fox Ancestor were even before Pangu, even before the chaos.
That was ancient civilization.
An ancient civilization that Tai Yi had never seen before.
Civilization before chaos.
...
Extra Chapter: The Awakened.
The Great Desolation was merely a script.
If the beings of the Great Desolation were those who were immersed in it, trapped in the script and unable to extricate themselves.
Then the awakened were those who maintained their clarity amidst the immersion.
The Primordial Immortal Lord was one such awakened being.
An awakened being in the script of the Great Desolation.
In his first life, he was merely a mortal.
A mortal during the Investiture of the Gods era.
His lifespan was no more than a hundred years, just an ordinary mortal soldier in the Shang Dynasty.
One of countless mortal soldiers in the war between Shang and Zhou.
He was not significant at first.
But he possessed the essence of awakening and was not lost in the script.
Therefore, when the Primordial Immortal Lord opened his eyes in his second life, he found that he, who should have died on the battlefield, had become a teenager.
At that time, Shang and Zhou had not yet engaged in war.
At that time, the opportunity he had missed to become a Qi cultivator still held hope for him to acquire again.
Thus, the Primordial Immortal Lord, who knew the memories of his first life, was no longer a mortal. Instead, he apprenticed himself to a Qi cultivator and began to learn about Qi cultivation.
He became a new Qi cultivator.
Knowing that the decisive battle between Shang and Zhou, and the descent of immortals, Buddhas, gods, and demons, would occur in the future, the Primordial Immortal Lord, even as a Qi cultivator, knew that this was a dangerous place. The correct choice was to avoid the great tribulation and hide in the mountains and forests.
His fate was good, or rather, in this script, he, as a mortal, was less significant than a minor character, never appearing directly in the script and thus not attracting the attention of any great divine beings.
Therefore, having foreseen the great tribulation, he avoided it and, as a Qi cultivator, refined essence into Qi, and refined Qi into spirit, until King Wu ascended the throne. Thousands of years later, his lifespan ended, and he ultimately failed to attain the immortal path, perishing.
The first life was the life of a mortal.
The second life was the life of a cultivator.
And with his awakened essence, carrying his memories, he began his third life, returning to his youth.
In this life, he used his past-life memories to continuously seize opportunities, eventually achieving immortality and becoming an Earth Immortal during the reign of King Wu.
From the Investiture of the Gods to the Journey to the West, twelve hundred and ninety-six Yuanhui, six billion four hundred million years.
This was the first time he had lived so long, even outliving the Journey to the West era and entering the post-Journey to the West era.
Although his roots were extremely poor, even after cultivating for over ten billion years, he remained only a Golden Immortal.
But he had lived for so many years that he had gained profound knowledge of where treasures could be found and which immortals and gods had achieved great things, allowing him to invest, all for the sake of gaining an advantage in his next life.
Therefore, when the tribulation of the End of Dharma arrived, the six Saints abdicated, and myriad realms attacked, and immortals and gods perished.
He, as an ordinary Golden Immortal, died in the tribulation of the End of Dharma. But as an awakened being, he initiated his fourth life.
In the first life, he was merely a mortal and could not access anything.
In the second life, he cultivated with all his might, eventually becoming a high-level cultivator, but not an immortal. His lifespan eventually ended, and he could not access the high-level information of the Great Desolation world.
In the third life, he achieved Earth Immortal status, living eternally, from the Investiture of the Gods era to the End of Dharma era. As a Golden Immortal, he possessed sufficient understanding of the grand situation and the myriad details of the Great Desolation.
He was thoroughly familiar with all sorts of cultivation techniques.
Therefore, when the fourth life began.
The Primordial Immortal Lord, with every advantage, befriended many who would later become Great Luo Golden Immortals, and made plans for the future. He personally entered the great tribulation and obtained one benefit after another.
His roots were replenished, and the positions of Tai Yi and Great Luo were no longer unattainable dreams. He ascended step by step.
Using the ancient method, he ascended to the realm of Hunyuan Great Luo Golden Immortal during the End of Dharma tribulation, becoming the supreme being of the Great Desolation, confronting the Myriad Realms Alliance, and even conversing with the Chaos Demon Gods.
In this life, the Primordial Immortal Lord enjoyed great success. However, when the immeasurable tribulation arrived, he ultimately did not attain the Dao Saint realm, and thus the tribulation destroyed everything.
The fourth life ended, followed by the fifth, sixth, and seventh lives.
As the number of awakenings increased, the Primordial Immortal Lord developed his own secret immortal dao techniques and methods, forging his own path.
He no longer had to wait for opportunities to arise before ascending to the supreme immortal dao fruit. Instead, he seized his immortal dao fruit in advance, time and time again.
He achieved Hunyuan Great Luo Golden Immortal during the End of Dharma tribulation, during the Journey to the West tribulation, and during the Investiture of the Gods tribulation.
The time taken to achieve Hunyuan Great Luo Golden Immortal shortened from billions of years to decades as his understanding of the immortal dao and his knowledge of immortal dao increased.
No one had ever attained the Hunyuan Great Luo Golden Immortal fruit more than ten times.
Only the awakened could create such a miracle.
Therefore, it became increasingly simple for the Primordial Immortal Lord to achieve Hunyuan Great Luo Golden Immortal, and even Dao Saint, to the point of casualness.
His feelings towards the Great Desolation script evolved from an initial desire to actively change history and the script to one of detachment and indifference.
The cyclical reincarnation of the world, the resetting of the world.
Rendered all interference, all grand ambitions, insignificant.
After all, in the next reset, no matter how much effort was put in or how much was changed in the previous cycle, it would ultimately turn to ashes, and things would return to their original state.
The beings of the Great Desolation were like puppets on strings, performing the same script on stage, time and time again.
And he, as an awakened being, grew increasingly weary of this script. Eventually, he ceased trying to make any changes, and even refrained from watching or interfering with the Great Desolation script.
Flowers bloomed and faded, years passed by.
The awakened could only gaze down from a place of nothingness, overlooking epochs, overlooking places of existence, forever awake.
...
Extra Chapter: Outer Realm Demonic Gods.
In the Sea of Void, countless worlds bore the traces of the Main God.
The Main God dispatched reincarnation squads to continuously invade world after world, completely transforming them into subordinate worlds of the Main God.
The glory of the Main God was so radiant that it was almost considered omnipotent.
Yet, in the hearts of the reincarnators, the Main God, who was held in such high regard, still worried about one world.
This world was called the Great Desolation World.
The Great Desolation World – An Unconquerable World.
After dispatching several reincarnation squads, the Main God made this judgment.
His judgment usually stemmed from the resistance level of the world's consciousness.
Low-level worlds typically did not have the concept of world consciousness, or their world consciousness was dormant.
The Main God did not expend much effort and did not need to concern himself with the world consciousness. He merely needed to dispatch a few reincarnation squads to transform a world into his subordinate world.
Mid-level worlds often possessed a certain degree of resistance consciousness; they instinctively resisted the invasion of other worlds.
Such worlds were more complex. When reincarnation squads entered these worlds, they often attracted great malice.
This included a "red name" mechanism. The world was extremely hostile towards reincarnators who did not belong to its system, causing the inhabitants of each world to harbor malice towards reincarnators.
When this malice reached a certain level, powerful beings within the world would, disregarding their own interests and reason, incessantly hunt down the reincarnators.
Even the spiritual energy of heaven and earth resisted the absorption of reincarnators, and reincarnators often could not replenish themselves within the world.
The systems possessed by the reincarnators themselves were suppressed within the world.
The Main God had to exert effort and waste precious resources to assist these reincarnators.
The difficulty of conquering these mid-level worlds was already immense.
If not for the ability to find loopholes and make the world consciousness consider them as their own.
These worlds would be impossible to conquer.
However, world consciousness only possessed instinct and was not an intelligent being, thus having loopholes.
This allowed for the possibility of conquest.
But worlds like the Great Desolation were virtually unconquerable worlds.
Not only did the world instinctively resist invaders, but there were also overseers present, intelligent beings who acted on behalf of heaven.
The world consciousness and the Heavenly Heart were supreme, and the overseers supplemented the instinctual world consciousness.
Such worlds were impregnable from within. Apart from brute force from the outside, there was no other way.
This was always a world that the Main God did not wish to conquer.
"The difficulty is too great..."
The Main God shook his head.
Uncertain of his origin, he abandoned the conquest of this world.
Worlds that could only be conquered by brute force rendered all schemes useless; only strength mattered.
Without sufficient strength, one should not harbor such ambitions.
Perhaps some would still try to find loopholes, but beings like the Main God knew that loopholes simply did not exist.
The Main God did not entertain the slightest possibility and directly chose to leave.
...
Extra Chapter: True Dao.
If Dao could be seen, it would not be True Dao. If Dao could be defeated, it would not be True Dao. If Dao could be sought, it would not be True Dao.
This was the contemplation of Mu Chenguang, the Bright Demon God, regarding Dao.
In the boundless and vast chaos.
All Dao and principles were contained within it.
Everything was in the process of evolution.
Other Chaos Demon Gods saw the Great Dao within it, the Great Dao with golden eyes.
But Mu Chenguang believed it was not True Dao.
"True Dao is the Primordial Origin of Creation."
Mu Chenguang said slowly.
Origin, not a living being, but the beginning of all things, hence called Creation.
That was the true Dao.
The Heavenly Dao laws of the Great Desolation, the Great Dao laws of Chaos, the Hong Meng laws of the Hong Meng World...
All were false Daos.
False Daos were merely stacking boxes.
Each layer was simply stronger than the one below.
But True Dao was omnipotent, omniscient, transcending all imagination, transcending all existence, obeying logic while also violating logic.
True Dao is the Primordial Origin of Creation.
...
Extra Chapter: The Three Daos of Heaven, Earth, and Man.
What was the relationship between the Three Daos of Heaven, Earth, and Man?
I once believed that the Heavenly Heart was not high, and the Human Heart was paramount.
Therefore, even the will of Heaven could not obstruct the Human Heart.
But later, I changed this idea.
In Zixiao Palace, Dao Ancestor Hongjun personally expounded the Dao.
In his teachings, Heaven and Earth were merely a cage, and the beings of the Great Desolation were merely pitiful creatures living within a script.
Everything was prearranged.
Nuwa created humans, Hongjun expounded the Dao, the war between the Wu and Demon tribes, the dispute of the Investiture of the Gods.
These scripts would be performed repeatedly, solely because of the eternal existence of the Great Desolation novel.
People enjoyed such scripts, and thus, such scripts were born.
This was the will of Heaven, the Heavenly Heart, the grand trend.
Therefore, no matter how much the characters in the Great Desolation changed, no matter what thoughts they had, they had to serve these grand trends and could never be liberated.
I could not understand some of the Dao Ancestor's words.
But from him, I also understood the relationship between the Three Daos of Heaven, Earth, and Man.
The Human Dao did not refer to the human race, but to the combined will of all sentient beings.
However, even the will of the Wu tribe, the Demon tribe, the human tribe, the myriad tribes, and all other races and cultivators, when gathered as the Human Dao, was merely a subordinate of the Heavenly Dao.
It was merely a branch of the Heavenly Dao.
The body, the primordial spirit, the mind, the will, were merely wisdom born from the physical body, and the freedom of the mind based on the physical body was a joke.
All were creations of the Heavenly Dao.
Wisdom was ultimately useless.
The Heavenly Dao was the supreme existence, overseeing all.
It predetermined all destinies. Even if cultivators wished to change this, the greater the change, the greater the backlash.
A force would emerge to correct the altered world back to its proper path.
Rarely could a cultivator resist this corrective force.
Therefore, the destiny of the Great Desolation World had always been subservient to the so-called grand trends.
...
Extra Chapter: Ice Soul Token.
Ice was a law.
And the Ice Demon God was the controller of the Great Dao law of ice.
The Ice Demon God was an extremely powerful demon god among the Three Thousand Demon Gods. At the beginning of the world's creation, she directly withstood Pangu's axe.
Yet, she survived.
Along with the Tai Demon God, she was known as one of the two ultimate Hunyuan realm demon gods.
The vastness of the Great Desolation World attracted the greed of many demon gods.
The Ice Demon God, along with the Tai Demon God and some remaining Chaos Demon Gods, conspired to launch the Myriad Realms Return to Origin Plan, invading the Great Desolation World.
The tribulation of the End of Dharma erupted.
However, on the Solar Star, the Ice Demon God received a token.
The Ice Soul Token.
"Ice Soul Token?"
She was puzzled, feeling that this token was very important to her.
Subsequently, she came into contact with a Dao.
The Dao of Hunyuan Wuji.
Ultimate Hunyuan was the culmination of one Dao, while Hunyuan Wuji was the harmonization of the Three Thousand Great Daos for one's own use.
Ultimate Hunyuan focused on walking one path to its end and achieving the power of Ultimate Hunyuan.
Hunyuan Wuji, on the other hand, used coordination to integrate the Three Thousand Great Daos. However, this forced integration, if unbalanced, would erupt and backfire, making its safety not very high.
Which was superior, the Ice Demon God had not yet concluded.
But she knew one thing.
The paths of Ultimate Hunyuan and Hunyuan Wuji were irreconcilable and completely conflicting.
"Where did this path come from?"
The Ice Demon God frowned.
She was a Chaos Demon God who had lived from the beginning of chaos to the present.
But before receiving this Ice Soul Token, she had no idea that such a path as Hunyuan Wuji existed in this world.
This was unreasonable.
Given the Ice Demon God's status, if such a path existed, it was impossible for her not to know about it.
Moreover...
The Ice Demon God sensed the aura within the Ice Soul Token.
"This... seems to be left by myself?"
In the Ice Demon God's eyes, myriad cold lights flashed.
She felt her own aura.
It seemed that the Ice Soul Token itself was created by her.
This should not have been the case.
In her memory, she had never created such a thing.
And she was certain that her memory had not been obscured, as even Pangu could not obscure the memory of an ultimate Hunyuan being.
Then, why did the Ice Soul Token evoke a sense of familiarity?
Gradually, the Ice Demon God had an epiphany.
This token might have originated from another Ice Demon God.
This could explain the ambiguous nature of the Ice Soul Token's existence.
She had always believed that there was no civilization before chaos.
Now, she believed that perhaps civilization existed before chaos, and there were similar Three Thousand Demon Gods.
Otherwise, the Ice Soul Token could not be explained.
"Ancient civilization..."
The Ice Demon God looked at the Ice Soul Token, lost in thought.
The Dao of Hunyuan Wuji in the previous chaotic era?
...
Extra Chapter: Thirteen-Grade Three Flowers.
The three flowers above one's head, and how many petals they bloomed, represented the division of grades.
Legend had it that after passing the Great Luo tribulation and achieving Great Luo Golden Immortal, the number of petals bloomed indicated the potential of that Great Luo Golden Immortal.
The more petals bloomed, the greater the potential.
In the Great Desolation World, ordinary cultivators believed that if one bloomed nine petals upon achieving Great Luo Golden Immortal, it proved the potential to attain the Saint realm.
And if one bloomed twelve petals, one could, like the Great God Pangu, possess the potential to attain the Great Dao.
They always used one event as an example: the Great God Pangu bloomed twelve petals on his three flowers, and thus achieved such a high accomplishment.
Xuantian had meticulously studied the various theories regarding the grades of the three flowers, and then posed a profound question to his master.
"The three flowers represent the grade of the three flowers achieved when passing the Great Luo tribulation."
"In other words, only upon reaching Great Luo can one bloom flowers, and these flowers are not naturally present but are obtained through tribulation."
"Cultivators in the Great Desolation, like the Three Pure Ones, also had to pass the Great Luo tribulation to achieve nine-grade three flowers. This logic makes sense..."
"However, did the Great God Pangu have to pass the Great Luo tribulation?"
"Since he did not pass the Great Luo tribulation, why did the Great God Pangu have twelve-grade three flowers?"
"Could it be that the Great God Pangu did not obtain his three flowers through tribulation, but possessed the twelve-grade three flowers naturally?"
This question had lingered in Xuantian's mind for a long time. He presented it to his master, hoping for an answer.
His master, facing this question, was no longer as composed as when answering before.
After a long silence, the master beat Xuantian soundly.
"You're such a contrarian, why ask so many questions? Looking for loopholes? Looking for differences?"
"Questioning the truth of the legends about the Great God Pangu?"
"What does it have to do with you! Stop worrying about things that don't concern you and focus on your cultivation progress."
Thus, Xuantian's question remained unanswered, and he was sent away.
The next day, Xuantian returned.
"What now?"
The master said impolitely.
"I'm thinking, above twelve-grade three flowers, does a thirteen-grade three flowers exist?"
"Theoretically, how could such a grade of three flowers be cultivated?"
Xuantian said.
The master was speechless and quickly asked him to state his thoughts.
Xuantian quickly shared his ideas.
"Nine-grade three flowers is the limit below the Heavenly Dao, so the six Saints of the Heavenly Dao can only achieve nine-grade three flowers."
"Twelve-grade three flowers is the limit below the Great Dao, so the Great God Pangu could only achieve twelve-grade three flowers."
"The Great God Pangu broke through the limit of the Heavenly Dao but did not break through the limit of the Great Dao, hence his three flowers hovered between nine and twelve grades."
"From these circumstances, one can conclude that breaking through the limit of the Great Dao would allow one to achieve thirteen-grade three flowers."
The master gave him a strange look.
"Do you think, during the Great Luo tribulation in the Great Desolation, what would be the consequences of breaking through the limit of the Heavenly Dao and the limit of the Great Dao to achieve thirteen-grade three flowers?"
Xuantian's voice also stopped.
He naturally understood what the consequences would be.
Breaking through the limit of the Heavenly Dao would incur the Heavenly Dao's suspicion and desire to kill. Breaking through the limit of the Great Dao would incur the Great Dao's suspicion and desire to kill.
A cultivator in the early stage of Great Luo, even if capable of blooming thirteen-grade three flowers, would essentially be declared dead if they provoked the Heavenly Dao and the Great Dao.
This was a dead end.
An unsolvable dead end.
Xuantian finally understood how unreliable his conception of thirteen-grade three flowers was.
Whether theoretically or practically, it seemed impossible.
Although it was impossible.
Later, Xuantian still spread his views throughout the Great Desolation.
Some cultivators thought Xuantian was idle.
Some cultivators also discussed whether thirteen-grade three flowers truly existed.
Some cultivators were very interested and wanted to try methods to achieve thirteen-grade three flowers.
Unfortunately, given his aptitude, let alone breaking through the limits of the Heavenly Dao and the Great Dao, he could only achieve one-grade three flowers.
Thus, ultimately, only one Great Luo Golden Immortal was born with one-grade three flowers.
This type of Great Luo Golden Immortal, who condensed one-grade three flowers, was colloquially known as a "watered-down Great Luo."
...
Gu Xian'er paused in the library on a certain floor of the Myriad Worlds Building.
She placed some of the extra chapters and the main story together, adding to the library's collection.
The library contained many categorized books, representing countless extraordinary systems.
The countless extraordinary knowledge would drive many cultivators in the Sea of Void to madness.
But Gu Xian'er was very clear about the essence of the Great Desolation, the essence of Xianxia, and indeed all other extraordinary cultivation systems.
The birth of these extraordinary systems was merely the fantasy of mortals in the True One Realm. Their role in the True One Realm was merely their inability to save the world or achieve anything in the real world, thus projecting their dissatisfaction into fantasy worlds.
All immortals, Buddhas, and saints in the True One Realm, throughout history, were like this. Whether Dao or Buddhism, the concept of immortals and Buddhas saving the world was essentially a fantasy, a superstition, a hope that gods and Buddhas would save them due to their own inability to change the world.
Of course, some mortals in the True One Realm projected themselves into the roles of gods and Buddhas, considering themselves superior beings and acting with impunity in fantasy worlds, thus escaping reality and retreating into virtual fantasies.
This was the birth of extraordinary power and the ultimate essence of all extraordinary cultivation systems.
Born from fantasy, and ending in fantasy.
"No matter how wondrous fantasy worlds are, no matter how many loopholes and illogical elements the Great Desolation script contains, they are all mere trifles."
Gu Xian'er judged.
"These are merely thoughts in the mind, mere puppets and clay figurines."
"In ancient times, people prayed to gods and Buddhas. Today, people immerse themselves in fantasy. Although they appear different, what distinction is there between them and those ignorant individuals who prayed to gods and Buddhas?"
The Sea of Fantasy was thus. Everything returned to illusion, appearing beautiful, but in reality, it was a reflection of the True One Realm.
The True One Realm was cold and harsh, and that was reality.
(End of book)