The party that had come this time was not large. It was still led by Immortal King Wuzhong and Immortal King Six Paths of Reincarnation, but behind them, aside from a few attendants, there was now an exceptionally eye-catching figure.
He was a young man with a tall, upright bearing and heroic vigor.
He wore a simple suit of silver battle armor, his black hair loose over his shoulders. Whenever his eyes opened and closed, dense lightning runes seemed to be born and perish within them. Around him naturally pervaded an awe-inspiring, inviolable righteousness of heaven and earth.
And a violent power suppressed to the extreme, as though it could summon the thunder punishments of the myriad heavens at any moment!
His aura had already reached the absolute peak of the quasi-Immortal King realm.
He was the most astonishing rising talent to emerge from the Primordial Ancient Realm in the last tens of thousands of years.
Honored as the one among the Ten Fiends with the greatest hope of breaking through from king to emperor, and because he commanded the supreme might of thunder, all living beings across the heavens respectfully called him—the Thunder Emperor!
“Fellow Daoist Donghuang, pardon our intrusion.”
Immortal King Wuzhong still wore that gentle expression, but there was now a trace of anticipation in his eyes that was not easy to detect.
Immortal King Six Paths of Reincarnation’s gaze lingered on the Thunder Emperor for a moment before he gave a slight nod, clearly placing great importance on this junior.
Lu Xuan’s figure manifested from within the chaotic palace. It was not his true body, but a solid projection governed by his Self Corpse. Its aura stood aloof from the world, and its calm gaze swept over everyone before finally settling on the Thunder Emperor.
“This child is the current sovereign of thunder in your ancient realm?”
The Self Corpse projection spoke. Its voice was plain, yet carried a power that pointed straight to the source.
The Thunder Emperor stepped forward, neither servile nor arrogant. He cupped his hands in salute, his voice like rolling thunder yet firm as metal and stone.
“Junior Thunder Emperor pays respects to Your Majesty Donghuang! I have long heard of Your Majesty’s supreme art of ‘Severing the Three Corpses,’ which can clarify the mind, reveal one’s true nature, and see through illusion. This junior has been trapped in the quasi-king realm for a long time. The Dao of Thunder is fierce and unmatched, yet what is too rigid is easily broken. Heart demons have gradually arisen, and the road ahead is unclear. I humbly beg Your Majesty to show mercy, dispel my confusion, and help me comprehend the Dao!”
His words were sincere, his eyes clear and resolute. It was a pursuit of the Great Dao with utter sincerity, without the slightest impurity.
His situation was different from that of the seven quasi-Immortal Kings of the Golden Crow Clan. The Golden Crow Clan had been suppressed more by the radiance of Lu Xuan’s Great Dao.
The Thunder Emperor, however, had a path that was too extreme. His strength and ferocity were unmatched, but instead had become shackles binding him, making it difficult for him to combine hardness and softness, to harmonize yin and yang, and thus preventing him from taking the final step.
He could even sense that within his thunder Dao heart, a faint and nearly imperceptible haze belonging to “destruction” and “violence” had quietly begun to grow.
If it could not be resolved, there was a danger he would fall into demonhood.
Immortal King Wuzhong added from the side.
“Fellow Daoist Donghuang, the Thunder Emperor is the future hope of our ancient realm. His character is pure and good, and his Dao foundation is stable. Only his path has encountered an obstruction. Fellow Daoist’s method may be able to light the way forward for him. Our ancient realm is willing to owe Fellow Daoist another measure of karma.”
The Self Corpse projection was silent for a moment, as if deducing something, before it slowly spoke.
“Thunder is the command of heaven, holding authority over punishment, yet it also contains vitality. Your Dao is of utmost yang and utmost hardness, yet solitary yang cannot give birth, and lone yin cannot grow. Do you know that within thunder, there are also changes of yin and yang, cycles of birth and destruction?”
He did not agree directly, but instead pointed out the core of the Thunder Emperor’s problem.
The Thunder Emperor’s body shook. Thunderlight burst from his eyes, as though he had grasped something. “Your Majesty means… this junior has pursued the destructive power of thunder too much and neglected the fortune of creation contained within it? Just as… just as after a destructive heavenly tribulation, new life often follows?”
“Your comprehension is not bad.” The Self Corpse projection nodded slightly. “Yet knowing is easy, while doing is difficult. Your state of mind is also like your thunder: too rigid and straightforward, lacking roundness and harmony. You must understand that protection requires power, and power also requires restraint. Blind ferocity is not the righteous path, but the tyrannical path. In the end, it cannot last.”
His gaze seemed to pierce through the Thunder Emperor’s body and see the hidden wisp of violent haze within his Dao heart.
“Are you willing to enter the outer Dao ground of the Sun Ancient Cave and, under the shroud of my Three Corpses’ Dao resonance, reexamine your thunder and reexamine your original heart? Feel the vitality within destruction, and comprehend the flexibility beneath ferocity. Whether you can sever the haze in your heart, distinguish your own ‘good and evil,’ and find the ‘self’ that belongs to you will all depend on your fortune. This process may be dangerous. The backlash of heart demons will be far worse than usual.”
This was an invitation, and also a test.
The Thunder Emperor’s Dao heart problem was far more profound and dangerous than that of the three ancient-realm geniuses before him.
The Thunder Emperor did not hesitate at all. A resolute light flashed in his eyes.
“This junior is willing! Even if my body dies and my Dao vanishes, I must find the Great Dao of my true self!”
“Good.”
The Self Corpse projection said no more. With a wave of his sleeve, a chaotic bridge of light extended outward, directly guiding the Thunder Emperor to the special enlightenment platform at the outskirts of the Sun Ancient Cave.
It stood side by side with the Dao traces left by the three ancient-realm geniuses before him.
The Thunder Emperor sat down cross-legged and immediately sensed the omnipresent Dao resonance of the Three Corpses.
The serenity of the Good Corpse tried to soothe the restlessness and latent violence within his thunder.
The destructive will contained within the Evil Corpse, in contrast, faintly resonated with his own destructive thunder. It both tempted him toward even more extreme destruction and, like a mirror, reflected the dark side within his heart.
As for the transcendence of the Self Corpse, it was like a divine needle that could calm the sea, guiding him to peel away external influences and seek the most original, purest “true meaning” of the Dao of Thunder.
He soon immersed himself within it. The lightning around him was at times blazing like the sun, at times dim as night, at times violent and chaotic, and at times upright, balanced, and peaceful. Clearly, an extremely intense and dangerous confrontation within his innermost heart was taking place.
Wuzhong and Immortal King Six Paths of Reincarnation watched as the Thunder Emperor entered that state, expectation showing in both their eyes.
They could sense that the Thunder Emperor’s Dao was undergoing a crucial transformation.
The Self Corpse projection looked toward the two Immortal Kings and said indifferently.
“If this child succeeds, the ancient realm will gain another Immortal King who has attained the righteous law through thunder. In the future great calamity, he will also be a great aid.”
Immortal King Wuzhong said solemnly, “It is all thanks to Fellow Daoist’s help.”
They understood clearly in their hearts that Lu Xuan’s willingness to help the Thunder Emperor was not merely because of their alliance.
It was also because a powerful expert like the Thunder Emperor, who upheld the righteousness of heaven and earth, was precisely an indispensable force in the future struggle against the source of darkness.
This was both an investment and the support of a Dao Ancestor for the righteous path of the heavens.
The chaotic light and shadow slowly dissipated, and the Self Corpse projection returned to the depths of the palace.
Outside the Sun Ancient Cave, there was now one more seeker of the Dao pursuing his true self.
And in the depths of the Realm Sea, that pair of dark eyes spying upon this place had also noticed the Thunder Emperor’s existence, as well as the pure and powerful thunder aura upon him.
“Thunder… the light of the righteous path… Heh heh. If he could be led astray and transformed into dark thunder punishment, what a marvelous sight that would be…”
Layman Huoxin’s murmur echoed in the darkness. A new scheme seemed to have quietly locked onto this Thunder Emperor, who was struggling to comprehend the Dao.
Beneath tens of thousands of years of calm, the ripples stirred up by the method of Severing the Three Corpses were drawing more and more people and forces into this vast maelstrom concerning the path of the Dao and fate itself.