The Butcher remained cold, but the killing intent locked onto Lu Xuan withdrew slightly. He only said icily, “Your Dao carries the scent of blood. It is a path.”
His assessment was simple and direct.
Lu Xuan smiled faintly, paying no mind to their attitudes. Instead, he looked toward the center of their earlier dispute—the two utterly different embryonic cultivation paths outlined upon the ground with Dao principles.
One was proposed by the fake-medicine seller: to divide oneself and steal the myriad Daos of the heavens.
The other was the Butcher’s: to draw upon myriad tribulations to temper the body, to nurture killing with killing, and forge an “Indestructible Body of Myriad Tribulations.”
“The Daos of you two are both paths that seek transcendence through extreme methods.”
Lu Xuan spoke slowly, hitting upon the key point with a single sentence.
“Brother Medicine’s method is ingenious, seizing fortune from the heavens. Yet too much is as bad as too little. If one cannot truly command the myriad Daos and harmonize yin and yang, there may be the danger of backlash. Fellow Daoist Butcher’s path is fierce and brutal, but when slaughter grows too excessive, one can easily lose one’s true self and become nothing more than a weapon that knows only killing.”
His words struck directly at the hidden flaws at the core of their Daos, causing both the fake-medicine seller and the Butcher’s expressions to change at the same time.
“Hmph! Easy for you to say! Command the myriad Daos? Easier said than done! If you can do it, then you try!” the fake-medicine seller said, somewhat unconvinced.
“Killing is my true self. Where is there any loss?” the Butcher’s voice remained icy.
Lu Xuan said no more. With a slight movement of his will, three indistinct phantoms flashed behind him and vanished.
Although it lasted only an instant, the Dao rhythm of good, evil, and self revolving, ultimately returning to the true oneness of chaos, made both the fake-medicine seller and the Butcher tremble!
“This is… severing distracting thoughts and clarifying the true self? No, it is more like… embracing all and returning to one?”
Intense interest erupted in the fake-medicine seller’s eyes. He was an expert at division, and was the most sensitive to changes in aura.
“Three kinds of ultimate intent… can actually coexist?” A ripple also flashed through the Butcher’s unchanging gaze. His Dao of killing was pure, but he also understood deeply the drawbacks of purity driven to the extreme.
With the profound meanings of his own “Severing the Three Corpses” and the “Chaotic War Immortal Dao,” Lu Xuan did not give them an answer directly, but instead offered them an entirely new perspective.
In the days that followed, Lu Xuan did not hurry to leave.
Together with these two young Immortal Kings of strange temperaments yet peerless talent, he began a long discussion of the Dao amid the ruined remains of this land of myriad medicines.
He discussed with the fake-medicine seller the commonalities between the yin and yang of medicinal properties, the cycle of life and death, and the evolution of chaos.
At times the fake-medicine seller was suddenly enlightened; at times he scratched his ears and cheeks in frustration, continuously evolving all kinds of Great Daos for Lu Xuan to “appraise.” It left Lu Xuan somewhat unsure whether to laugh or cry, yet he also drew from it no small amount of inspiration regarding the essence of life and the transformation of laws.
With the Butcher, he exchanged insights on the true meaning of slaughter.
The Butcher’s killing was pure destruction.
Lu Xuan’s battle, however, was conquest and creation that contained destruction within it.
The two even simulated clashes with divine will. Lu Xuan used chaos to embrace and dissolve his extreme killing intent, then used the will of a War Immortal to guide that killing intent into condensing and sublimating.
Though the Butcher did not speak much, after every exchange, the coldness in his eyes seemed to melt by a fraction, and his understanding of his own Dao grew deeper.
The three of them walked different Daos, yet all were on the path of pursuing the ultimate and transcendence.
Through repeated collisions of thought and confirmations of the Great Dao, their initial vigilance and disputes gradually transformed into mutual appreciation and respect.
The fake-medicine seller discovered that Lu Xuan’s understanding of the essence of the Great Dao far surpassed his imagination, and that he could often point out the hidden dangers in his Dao with a single incisive remark.
The Butcher felt that Lu Xuan was the only existence who could truly understand his Dao of killing, and who could debate and contend with him as an equal without falling behind.
No one knew how long had passed—perhaps several thousand years, perhaps tens of thousands.
On this day, their discussion of the Dao came to a temporary pause.
The Butcher silently untied a seemingly ordinary strip of cloth wrapped around the cleaver on his back and handed it to Lu Xuan. “This object has followed me through battle. It is stained with endless killing aura. It can sever heart demons and break through illusions.”
Lu Xuan accepted it solemnly. He knew that for these two friends, this was already an extremely weighty gift.
“Fellow Daoists, if fate allows, we shall meet again in the Boundary Sea,” Lu Xuan said, cupping his hands. He knew it was time for him to continue on his way.
“Go on, go on. Who knows, maybe one day when I become a true Emperor, I’ll have to find you and test myself!”
The fake-medicine seller waved his hand, his smile sly.
The Butcher merely nodded, but there was now a trace of recognition in his eyes that was difficult to detect.
Lu Xuan transformed into chaotic immortal light and set out once more.
After bidding farewell to the fake-medicine seller and the Butcher, Lu Xuan drove the chaotic immortal light onward, advancing resolutely toward the depths of the Boundary Sea, in the direction of that ancient palace which had already become as clear as a dark lighthouse within his perception.
The deeper he went, the more terrifying the scenery of the Boundary Sea became.
The remnants of stars had lost their final luster, turning into cold, stubborn stone. The void was filled with a suffocating deathly stillness and a sense of oppression born from the depths of the soul, as if ahead there lurked an ultimate terror capable of devouring everything.
After an unknown length of travel, at the end of his sight, a colossal dam appeared, stretching across the Boundary Sea.
No one knew what material the dam was built from. Its entire body was dark gray, towering and boundless, as if separating two completely different universes.
Upon the dam were engraved countless ancient and indistinct patterns, seeming to tell the epic of some forgotten era, yet also seeming to be some supreme seal.
On this side of the dam was the relatively calm Boundary Sea. On the other side was an absolute forbidden zone where the deepest darkness churned, as if it could devour even light itself.
And at the very highest point of that dam, a solitary figure in azure robes stood quietly.
His back was turned toward the direction from which Lu Xuan had come. His posture was upright, yet it carried an ancient desolation and loneliness.
Merely by standing there, he seemed to have become the sole focal point of this deathly silent Boundary Sea. Even the churning darkness appeared to retreat slightly because of his existence.
It was precisely that nameless quasi-Immortal Emperor!
Lu Xuan’s heart tightened sharply.
He had not expected to meet this mysterious existence again here, in such a manner.
He restrained his aura and slowly flew closer, stopping when he was still some distance from the dam as a show of respect.
The instant he stopped, the azure-robed figure on the dam slowly turned around.
His exact features still could not be seen. Lu Xuan could only sense that gaze, shrouded beneath hazy radiance, calmly falling upon him.
That gaze no longer held the indifference and majesty from when it had suppressed the dark giant. Instead, it carried a clarity that seemed capable of piercing through all ages and all spacetime, as well as…
An extremely faint, indescribably complex emotion.
“You have come.”
The nameless quasi-Immortal Emperor spoke. His voice was flat, yet it rang directly in the depths of Lu Xuan’s mind and spirit, carrying a certainty that brooked no doubt.
“I can sense that the time flowing through you is not entirely synchronized with this heaven and earth.”
He had indeed seen through it!
He had directly exposed Lu Xuan’s greatest secret!
Lu Xuan’s heart trembled, but he was not surprised.
At the level of a quasi-Immortal Emperor, one had already touched the roots of spacetime and karma. It was not impossible for him to see through Lu Xuan’s identity as one who had come from the future.
He calmly met that gaze and cupped his hands. “This junior is Lu Xuan. Greetings, Emperor. Your insight is keen; this junior is indeed not a person of this age.”