Chapter 116: Eternal Exile

"Kill one to benefit the world."

The Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor heard this and could not help but laugh. "How can killing one person benefit the world?"

The Golden Crow Holy Ancestor immediately retorted, "What is wrong with that?"

The two stood in sharp opposition, their gazes clashing to produce thunder and fire that flickered across the heavens and the earth.

"It should be the law that kills, not your empty, boastful words," the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor said, refusing to yield. "If he has committed a wrong, the law will naturally hold him accountable."

"And what if the law cannot constrain him?" the Golden Crow Holy Ancestor asked.

The law cannot constrain everyone; there will always be those who take risks, walking on the edge of legality. Furthermore, Qi practitioners themselves are inherently difficult to restrain by law.

"If the enforcer of the law has a lapse in morality and intentionally lets someone off, then the enforcer shall be held accountable along with them. If the enforcer lacks the strength to constrain him, then send someone stronger. If one person cannot defeat him in single combat, then send an army. If the law itself is flawed, then reform it and perfect it."

The Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor continued, "If it is a natural disaster, go and fight it; if it is a man-made calamity, cut it off at the root. This is an era of human governance. Even those of us called creators must act in accordance with the law."

Before the last Divine War, this was the most ideal world they had conceived. It was a world of human governance, a world governed by law. All living beings were equal and shared the same right to pursue the Great Dao. Whoever dared to obstruct the Dao, using living beings as bargaining chips to balance the universe, would be banished into the Sea of Chaos.

Before the war, they conceived the world. After the war, they enacted laws to govern all living beings. Thus, every tribe, city, and even village where life gathered had a Xiezhi; they were the best judges. Yet, as powerful enemies were banished, they gradually forgot their original intentions. In recent years, friction between various races had begun to stir.

"Kill him, and you can save the billions of lives across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. Between his life and the lives of those billions, which is light and which is heavy?" The Golden Crow Holy Ancestor did not believe he was wrong. There were so many people in this world; if the Heavenly Dao Demon Form were allowed to continue growing, one day it would seize the authority of heaven and earth to shepherd all living beings. Even the greedy old gods of the past were unwilling to see the Heavenly Dao revived. In past historical records, this period was treated with deep secrecy, not even a word mentioned. This showed just how much all living beings feared the Heavenly Dao.

"They are equally heavy!" the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor said sternly. "Life is not measured by numbers, nor can it be compared. Today, his heart reflects the Heavenly Dao Demon Form; tomorrow, it could be a descendant of your Golden Crow clan, and after that, the White Marsh, the Azure Dragon, or the Qilin..."

"The reason it is called the Heavenly Dao Demon Form is precisely because it is the gathering place of the demonic thoughts in the hearts of all living beings, the abyss that contains the filth of heaven and earth. It could be a human, a god, you, or me."

"You can kill one, or two, but can you kill the thousands upon thousands of living beings?" The Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor laughed. "After all, each of us could be an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao Demon Form."

The Heavenly Dao is a man-made product. Here, "man" does not refer solely to the human race, but to all living beings between heaven and earth. Man bestowed divinity upon the Heavenly Dao, making it a supreme deity. But at the same time, it also bestowed humanity upon it. Initially, the two were intertwined. But later, divinity discarded humanity to become the order that maintains the world's operation, while humanity, after absorbing the desires of all beings, turned into the Heavenly Dao Demon Form. It can reflect the inner demons of every living being because it is, in itself, the gathering of all their inner demons.

The best way to completely destroy the Heavenly Dao Demon Form is to destroy the entire world and let all living beings be buried. Of course, this is also the only way. But not everyone has such courage and power.

The Golden Crow Holy Ancestor fell silent.

"Banish him!" the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor looked at Xu Zhong. Xu Zhong was looking at him, too.

"Where should he be banished to?" the White Marsh Holy Ancestor asked.

"Mingzhao!" the owner of the bronze coffin drifted forward. Their voice came from within the coffin, a neutral tone that made it impossible to distinguish their gender.

"Mingzhao?" The White Marsh Holy Ancestor's gaze pierced through the long river of time, pulling out all the past of Mingzhao. "That is indeed a good place for banishment."

Mingzhao lies between the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths and the Sea of Chaos. It is immutable and transcendent, existing beyond all things. Even the Heavenly Dao cannot reach it. It was a good destination.

"Then let him be banished to Mingzhao!" the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor finished and looked at the creators present. "Do any of you have any objections?"

The Golden Crow Holy Ancestor said nothing. The other creators were also unwilling to speak. To them, Xu Zhong's life or death mattered little. If it were not for the presence of the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor, they likely would have already acted to erase him from the river of time.

"Since there are no objections, he shall be banished to Mingzhao."

The Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor extended a finger and tapped the void lightly. In an instant, the void twisted and ruptured, revealing layers of abysses that led to different places throughout the world. A passage slowly manifested. However, the passage was chaotic and hazy, neither fully open nor closed, appearing quite eerie. It seemed that the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor's Dao could not fully bridge the gap between the Sea of Chaos and Mingzhao.

The next moment, someone let out an exclamation. Instantly, a blurred figure appeared within Mingzhao. He wore a crown and imperial robes, with nine golden dragons circling behind him. That aura did not belong to a Qi practitioner, nor an innate deity, nor a creator. It was as if he had existed since the dawn of time. He looked out from Mingzhao, while the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor and the others looked in. But in the next moment, the owner of that figure vanished. Yet, the passage still did not open.

"What was that?" The Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor felt a doubt arise and looked at the owner of the bronze coffin.

"It is the Dragon Capital Emperor of the Ancient Yue Kingdom!" The White Marsh Holy Ancestor took in the figure, instantly memorizing the eight-thousand-year history of the Ancient Yue Kingdom. He recognized the opponent. "He is a creator, but he does not seem like one." The White Marsh Holy Ancestor fell into hesitation.

The Dragon Capital Emperor had refined the false into the real, refining a kingdom that did not belong to this world into a real one, and stuffed it into the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, filling the void of the Sea of Chaos. This was a feat only a creator could achieve. Yet, the White Marsh Holy Ancestor could not feel any trace of a creator's aura from him.

"Regardless of what he is, as long as he does not violate the law, he can be accepted by all living beings!" It was the Xiezhi Holy Ancestor who spoke, the only old god who had not been banished. "Watch me open the path!"

The Golden Crow Holy Ancestor took action. Instantly, surging, holy flames swirled around him. He raised a fist as if holding the great sun itself; endless light illuminated the heavens and earth, and the intense heat ignited the void. With all his might, he punched toward the passage. In an instant, the Golden Crow's fire burned and collapsed layer after layer of the void, carving out a massive chasm. This chasm directly connected the Sea of Chaos and Mingzhao.

The living beings in Mingzhao looked up, exclaiming in succession. They saw another sun flying in from beyond the sky. Its brilliance directly eclipsed the sun above Mingzhao.

The passage was thus blasted open by the Golden Crow Holy Ancestor's punch. The next moment, the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor struck Xu Zhong into the passage, banishing him.

The passage was infinitely long, filled with eternal darkness and cold. Before entering, Xu Zhong had clearly seen that it led to Mingzhao. But at this moment, he found himself in endless darkness. Here, he could not feel the passage of time, nor the layering of space. Upward, he could not touch a boundary; downward, he could not step on solid ground. He was drifting in an unknown, dark place.

"Was it the Golden Crow Holy Ancestor or the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor?"

Here, aside from silence, cold, and darkness, Xu Zhong could feel nothing. He simply drifted in the void, not knowing where he would fall. Clearly, his place of imprisonment should have been Mingzhao, but at this moment, it had become a boundless dark cage. Xu Zhong could not imagine who else it could be besides those two. The Golden Crow Holy Ancestor had opened the passage, and the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor had personally sent him into this cage.

He did not know how long he drifted. Time was the most void and unmeasurable thing to him because there was nothing to compare it to. In his perception, he had wandered for over a hundred years. After a century of wandering, he suddenly saw a point of light drifting from the chaos in the distance.

"Could it be that there is someone else here?"

Xu Zhong’s heart stirred, and he watched quietly as the light grew larger. Eventually, he saw a massive bronze coffin drifting from afar. A lantern hung from the bronze coffin, illuminating the eternal night.

"It is the Master of Yujing!" Xu Zhong recognized the bronze coffin. As for the name, it was the one the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor had spoken at Tianyong City.

The bronze coffin continued to fly toward him. As the distance closed, the coffin was pushed away. Finally, an arm reached out from the coffin. Then, half a body rose up inside. It was a dried corpse, with only the arm possessing a tiny bit of flesh.

"The body of the Heavenly Dao..." He laughed hideously, the skin on his face pulling at the bones, swaying and making creaking sounds. "Let me enjoy it!"

He opened his gluttonous mouth, intending to consume Xu Zhong along with the entire chaos.

However, the next moment, a brilliant sword light flew out from Xu Zhong’s shoulder. In an instant, it slashed the owner of the bronze coffin and simultaneously split the chaos in two. Xu Zhong fell through the rift, and in an instant, he regained the perception of the flow of time and space. The next moment, he saw the sword light transform into the Supreme Primordial Sage Emperor himself. This was the essence and spirit hidden within one of his sword techniques.

"Master of Yujing, you truly never change. It is fortunate that I kept a backup plan..."

The chaos gradually closed, and Xu Zhong fell downward. Finally, he entered Mingzhao.