txolops Chapter 197 Everlasting Greenery, Life Like a Dream
Chapter 197 Everlasting Greenery, Life Like a Dream
Chapter 197 Everlasting Greenery, Life Like a Dream
On Evergreen Peak, fine bamboo shoots crisscrossed the earth, compressing the once soft soil until it was as hard as iron.
The moss in the cracks of the rocks withers and turns green again, then withers and turns green again, in an endless cycle.
A thick layer of dust covered the black iron gate.
Inside the secret chamber, the magical lamp called the Calming Lamp had long since burned out, its wick curled up into a charred charcoal.
Gu Yan sat on the white jade futon, his body covered with a layer of blood-gold hard shell.
Thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye. For ordinary people, it is half a lifetime wasted, but for Nascent Soul cultivators, it is just a normal period of seclusion.
After breaking through to the late Nascent Soul stage, Gu Yan's consciousness did not return to reality, but instead sank into the depths of the realm constructed by the four primordial forces.
He was like a tireless traveler, walking through the long river of the rise and fall of humankind.
In the first dream, Gu Yan opened his eyes and found himself lying in damp grass.
The air was thick with the stench of blood and the smell of rotting earth.
His limbs were strong and powerful, his nails were sharp as hooks, and with each breath, his lungs felt like they were on fire.
This is an ancient monster.
He was no longer Gu Changsheng, nor the Blood Swordsman.
He was a hungry lone wolf.
In the desolate wilderness, he fought fiercely with his fellow humans for a piece of bone stained with blood.
The fangs pierced the flesh, and blood gushed into the throat.
That primal, predatory desire numbed his mind.
He killed his rivals and howled mournfully as he trampled on the corpses of his own kind.
The ancient demonic power of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain transformed into endless slaughter in his sea of consciousness.
Gu Yan watched as black fur gradually grew on his hands, feeling the pain of his reason being devoured by his bestial nature.
This force was telling him that heaven and earth were a giant millstone, where the strong were the millstone and the weak were the powder.
So-called spiritual practice is nothing more than a higher level of eating.
Gu Yan remained in this massacre for ten years.
He rose from a lone wolf to become the emperor who rules over all demons.
He sat on a throne made of bones, looking down at the trembling creatures below.
Just as he was about to lose himself in his animalistic instincts.
The bloodshot in his eyes suddenly froze, turning into a calm, cold glint.
"I see."
Gu Yan muttered to himself.
"Beastly nature is the cornerstone of power, the fuel called desire. Without this greed that devours the world, cultivators would be like a stagnant pool, destined to dry up."
"But I am not a beast; I am a man who wields the beast."
As soon as the words were spoken, the throne of bones collapsed, and the desolate wilderness shattered.
The primordial power of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain transformed into a gentle, dark red dragon within his body, coiling around the right arm of the Divine Demon Nascent Soul.
In the second dream, Gu Yan found himself standing in a misty valley.
Holding a rusty little hoe in his hand, he was surrounded by countless exotic flowers and plants.
He became a medicine boy.
His mission was to carry a medicine basket and search for miraculous medicines that could save lives in these mountains.
The life-giving properties of Medicine King Valley led him into a world of redemption.
He saw people suffering from famine, exchanging children to eat, and the land was devastated.
He saw the city ravaged by plague, with bones exposed in the wilderness, and not a rooster crowing for miles.
He began to try to save these lives with the elixir he possessed.
He traveled through village after village, brewing pot after pot of bitter medicinal soup.
People knelt at his feet, calling him a living god, and worshipped him with the most devout eyes.
This vanity of being admired by thousands and appreciated by all people attempts to bind his true self.
This is a hidden demonic obstacle within the very essence of Medicine King Valley.
Vitality is often accompanied by heavy consequences.
If you save someone, you must bear the consequences of that person's good and evil deeds for the rest of their life.
You have saved countless people, so you must bear the burden of all birth, aging, sickness, and death in this world.
Gu Yan looked at his aged, wrinkled hands and at the grateful mortals.
He suddenly released the bowl of medicine from his hand.
The medicine bowl shattered on the ground, and the brown medicine liquid spilled all over the floor.
Amidst the horrified gazes of the crowd, he crushed those so-called spiritual herbs with one foot.
"Life is not a gift, but the irrigation before the harvest."
"If you save people just to enjoy that false worship, what's the difference between that and feeding livestock?"
"I save all living beings because they still have value and can provide me with more resources and energy."
"Every life I save when I need it becomes a stepping stone for me to become stronger. This is the truth of Medicine King Valley: compassion is the skin, selfishness is the bone."
At that moment, the lush greenery covering the mountains and fields withered instantly, transforming into strands of pure life essence.
The primordial power of Medicine King Valley transformed into a stream of azure light within his body, merging into the left atrium of the Divine Demon Nascent Soul.
In the third dream, Gu Yan sat in a magnificent and solemn hall, wearing a crown and a robe.
Ahead lay a dense crowd of kneeling worshippers, behind them an endless array of rules and laws.
The Taiji True Meaning of the Cangxuan Sect transformed him into a creator of order.
His every word and action aligns with the principles of Heaven.
He stipulated the time for spring planting and autumn harvest, the ethics between ruler and subject, father and son, and the standards for rewarding and punishing good and evil.
In this world, everything is harmonious and balanced.
Yin and Yang are in balance, and order is maintained.
He is the most perfect guardian of this world.
However, behind this absolute order lies extreme repression.
Spirituality is stifled, and genius is assimilated into mediocrity.
People are like puppets on strings, running on a fixed track.
The essence of the Cangxuan Sect was tempting him: "Become the Heavenly Dao. As long as you merge into this order, you will be an immortal being, the eternal and unique one in this world."
Gu Yan looked at the lifeless, bustling scene before him.
He slowly raised his hand and broke the vermilion pen in his hand.
"Tai Chi is not a fixed circle; Tai Chi is a continuous flow and transformation."
"If order is a cage, then I am the hammer that smashes it. Rules are always meant to restrain the weak, while the strong are the very origin of rules."
Amidst the roar, the magnificent palace turned to dust, and the black and white power of law transformed into a slowly rotating miniature compass within his body, hovering behind the Divine Demon Nascent Soul.
The last dream had no sights, no sounds, not even light.
Gu Yan's body is forever falling.
The surroundings were absolutely silent, due to the annihilation sword intent of the Guixu Sect.
This power is the most terrifying because it represents the end.
It tells Gu Yan that no matter how you struggle, no matter how strong you become.
The sun will eventually set, and the universe will eventually return to dust.
If everything is illusory, then what is the meaning of spiritual practice?
What is the significance of expansion?
This deathly power was eroding Gu Yan's fighting spirit.
It made him want to close his eyes and become a part of this eternal darkness.
Gu Yan fell in the darkness for a long time.
Until his consciousness was about to be extinguished.
He suddenly burst into laughter.
Laughter reverberated through the void, shattering the deep darkness.
"Nirvana is the end of all things, and it is precisely because there is an end that the existence at this moment is so magnificent."
"The Ruins of Guixu are not my grave, but the edge of my sword."
"I will use this destructive power to sweep away all those who stand in my way. If this world is destined to become nothingness, then before nothingness descends, I declare that I will become the sole will of this world."
As darkness faded, the sword intent of annihilation transformed into a dark red, edgeless heavy sword, which fell into the left hand of the Divine Demon Nascent Soul.
Four fundamental sources, thirty years of rise and fall.
Inside the sealed room, a crack suddenly appeared on the hard shell covering Gu Yan's body.
The crack widened rapidly, and golden and dark red light spilled out in a mingled pattern.
A "click" sound.
The hard shell cracked open.
Gu Yan opened his eyes, and two beams of light, as solid as metal, pierced through the array in the secret chamber and shot straight into the darkness deep underground.
He sat there, yet he seemed like a real, existing nexus of heaven and earth.
That is the realm of the late Nascent Soul stage, at its peak.
Now, he is only one step away from the legendary Divine Transformation Realm.
Gu Yan slowly stood up. His white robe, being a high-grade magic treasure, remained spotless despite the vicissitudes of time.
He opened his palm and looked at the divine and demonic nascent soul.
At this moment, the left half of the nascent soul was pure, radiant golden light, while the right half was deep, destructive bloodlust.
Four supreme primal forces intertwine behind it to form a magnificent ring.
Thirty years of planning have finally yielded perfect results.
He pushed open the stone door to the secret chamber.
The first thing I saw was Shen Youwei, who was guarding the door.
Thirty years have passed, and she is no longer the somewhat naive woman she once was.
She wore a purple robe with gold trim, her aura was deep and restrained, and her cultivation was stable at the late stage of the Golden Core realm.
Hearing the door open, Shen Youwei abruptly raised her head, her usually cool eyes bursting with uncontrollable ecstasy.
"Junior Brother Gu."
She strode forward, wanting to show concern as usual, but when she got within three zhang of Gu Yan, she was overwhelmed by an invisible, terrifying aura that made it hard to breathe.
For a fleeting moment, she felt as if the man before her was no longer a human being, but a god in human skin.
Gu Yan calmed his aura, and his eyes softened again.
"Senior Sister Shen, thank you for your hard work."
He spoke softly, his voice like the tinkling of an ancient spring, washing away the weariness of thirty years from Shen Youwei's heart.
Shen Youwei felt a slight ache in her nose and gently shook her head.
"It's not hard work, as long as you get through customs safely."
With her head bowed, she took out a jet-black jade slip from her sleeve, which exuded a faint, chilling aura, and presented it to Gu Yan with both hands.
"This is a top-secret message sent by Mo Wuhen, the sect leader of the Guixu Sect, three days ago."
Shen Youwei bit her lip, her voice full of worry.
"He ended his three-hundred-year seclusion three days ago and entered the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm. The first thing he did after emerging from seclusion was not to celebrate, but to send someone using a spatial secret technique to deliver this jade slip, specifically asking you to receive it."
Gu Yan took the jade slip, and the coolness from his fingertips went straight to his bones.
He sensed that there was a powerful divine sense lock on the jade slip.
This lock can only be opened by those who have truly grasped the essence of Nirvana.
If anyone tries to spy on it, they will suffer a backlash and bleed from all seven orifices.
With a flick of his finger, Gu Yan unleashed a flash of annihilating sword energy.
The divine sense lock within the jade slip silently dissolved.
An aged voice, filled with disdain for all living beings, suddenly resounded from the depths of his consciousness.
"Young friend Gu, how have you been lately?"
His voice was calm, and each word he spoke caused the void to tremble.
"Thirty years ago, you single-handedly reconciled the two sects, quelled the demonic calamity, and saved our sect's Grand Elder from dire straits. I originally intended to personally visit you to express my gratitude for this great act of righteousness."
In his mind's eye, a phantom figure appeared.
It was an old man dressed in a black robe.
The old man had his eyes closed and carried an ordinary-looking wooden sword on his back.
Although it was just a projection of divine consciousness, it made Gu Yan feel an unprecedented sense of crisis.
Mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
The strongest fighting force in Dongzhou today truly lives up to its reputation.
Then, the old man's next words made Gu Yan's pupils constrict sharply.
"However, after I emerged from seclusion, I suddenly discovered that the Blood Pool in the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom is connected to the very source of the righteous path of my Eastern Continent. And why is the lifespan that Mo Tianwen and the others burned converging towards the Flowing Cloud Sect?"
The old man slowly opened his eyes, his cold gray eyes staring straight into the depths of Gu Yan's soul.
"Young friend Gu, I have set up a game of chess and a pot of aged spiritual tea on the summit of Guixu Peak. I would like to invite you to taste them. By the way, I would also like to ask you personally whether the red-robed swordsman who shattered the projection of the Holy Sect's Nascent Soul stage with his sword is currently sitting on your Evergreen Peak."
The sound stopped abruptly.
The jade slip could not withstand the residual divine consciousness of the Nascent Soul cultivator and turned into dust in Gu Yan's hands.
In the long corridor outside the secret room, Shen Youwei watched Gu Yan's increasingly serious expression and nervously held her breath.
Gu Yan looked at the black powder remaining on his fingertips, a meaningful smile appearing on his lips.
He raised his head and looked up at the distant sky.
There, in the direction of the Guixu Sect, a terrifying aura of destruction was awakening, locking onto his location.
"A Nascent Soul cultivator is ultimately a powerful being, whose perception of the laws of heaven and earth far exceeds imagination."
Gu Yan originally thought that this thin veil could last longer.
But Mo Wuhen's words had already made it clear.
This is not just an invitation, but a trap.
Mo Wuhen was telling Gu Yan: I've seen through your game.
If you don't come, or you can't give a satisfactory explanation.
The next place where the Guixu Sect's Annihilation Sword Qi will descend will not be the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom, but rather the Evergreen Peak of the Liuyun Sect.
Gu Yan straightened his cuffs, turned around, and gave Shen Youwei a gentle smile.
"I cannot refuse Sect Leader Mo's kind invitation. As the leader of the Demon Extermination Alliance, it is only right that I pay a visit to this number one person in Dongzhou. Senior Sister Shen, pass down the order to seal off the supplies pavilion immediately."
Gu Yan walked out of the corridor and stood on the mountaintop.
At the foot of the mountain, the once bustling Liuyun Sect became completely silent under the terrifying pressure of Mo Wuhen.
"Mo Wuhen, you want to find out my true colors."
Gu Yan's voice was barely audible in the wind.
"Then I'll bring all my cards to see you."
An unprecedented ambition was burning wildly in Gu Yan's heart.
So what if you're in the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm?
On the chessboard of Dongzhou, no one has yet been able to make Gu Yan abandon a piece halfway through the game.
At the mountain peak, Gu Yan's figure transformed into a streak of light and vanished into the sky.
Direction: due east, Guixu Sect.