Chapter Eighty-Five: Sowing Demons in the Heart of the Dao

Xu Zhong remained silent, only staring at the rattle in his hand.

Yuan Yi, seeing this, promptly withdrew the suspense he had cast.

“As everyone knows, to become an innate deity, one must sever the past, present, and future, making oneself the sole existence in the river of time—a state we call ‘Transcending the One.’”

The Way numbers fifty; the heavens operate forty-nine; man escapes the one.

This is the source of the innate gods’ strength.

“After transcending the one, there is neither past nor present nor future; fate becomes ethereal and intangible, making the innate gods inscrutable, unspeakable existences. Even the Heavenly Dao cannot erase them by its own hand.”

A thought stirred in Xu Zhong’s mind—did this mean that once he achieved the status of an innate deity, neither the Thunder Ancestor nor the demon aspect of the Heavenly Dao could harm him?

His heart pounded wildly, yet he knew how difficult it was to attain the level of an innate god.

“But that doesn’t mean they cannot die.” Yuan Yi’s tone shifted. He continued, “Beyond natural disasters, there are calamities wrought by men.”

“The Thunder Ancestor died because of such a calamity.”

Xu Zhong was puzzled.

“To explain, we must begin with the creation of heaven and earth.” Yuan Yi opened his mouth and spat forth what seemed like a cosmic egg—the universe, undivided and primordial.

This universe expanded ceaselessly with time, yet the spiritual energy within the primordial chaos weakened as expansion continued.

“The universe expands, but the total amount of spiritual energy between heaven and earth remains unchanged.”

Yuan Yi pointed to the ever-changing miniature world as he spoke.

“With the expansion, spiritual energy grows thinner.”

Thus, at the dawn of creation, the world was suffused with vital energy, but as ages passed, that energy transformed into innate qi. Later still, innate qi became acquired qi, and one day, acquired qi would be utterly exhausted, leaving the world unable to sustain cultivators—the so-called Age of the Declining Law.

This legend had circulated in the cultivation world for ages.

Yet the decline never arrived, and the world of cultivation remained prosperous, producing talent in abundance.

But cultivators who had reached the pinnacle knew that after prosperity comes endless desolation.

“From the vital energy, the first innate gods were born—the Thunder Ancestor was among the most distinguished.”

“But once the vital energy changed to innate qi, the world could no longer birth innate deities. Thus, the innate clans appeared, and as innate qi thinned, acquired races emerged.”

At this point, Xu Zhong still couldn’t grasp the crux of Yuan Yi’s words.

“The more beings who cultivate, the faster the spiritual energy is consumed, making it ever more scarce. Yet, correspondingly, there are more powerful cultivators, and they become increasingly hard to kill, sometimes even impossible to die.”

But the total spiritual energy remains constant; the more cultivators, the greater the consumption, leaving less qi for all. This leads to the world being unable to accommodate more cultivation.

“To maintain balance, someone must die.”

No one is willing to die.

Xu Zhong blurted out, “God wars?”

When a cultivator dies, their magic power reverts to spiritual energy, returning to heaven and earth and maintaining equilibrium.

Thus, to keep balance, war began.

But Yuan Yi shook his head. “Not so.”

“God wars happened later.”

He continued, “The earliest innate gods reached a tacit understanding among themselves. Within a set period, they would voluntarily or involuntarily join a war, but they would not act directly—instead, they let their clans’ cultivators fight.”

So those innate gods could live for ages upon ages.

To them, race meant nothing; it was merely a tool to maintain balance.

The world sustained by the Heavenly Dao was uncontrollable in its events.

They could not stop the proliferation of life, so they used death to keep spiritual energy balanced.

All living beings were nothing more than crops to the earliest innate gods—harvested over and over again.

“And so it went for a very long time,” Yuan Yi continued, “until some beings felt something was wrong.”

“We weak cultivators can die, but you powerful ones cannot?”

Such voices thundered through the ages.

“And so, the god wars began. Weak cultivators challenged the strong. In the beginning, they were suppressed and slaughtered, but in that process, they grew stronger, eventually reaching the level of innate gods, even becoming gods themselves.”

“They slew deities, restored the balance of spiritual energy, and life and death.”

Yuan Yi glanced back at his own physical body. “Wei Yan offered the Thunder Ancestor three strategies—each only temporarily effective, never permanent. So Wei Yan was cooked by the Thunder Ancestor.”

“How does this relate to the marks on us?” Xu Zhong suppressed his shock. He realized Yuan Yi was stalling, isolating himself from the oath’s influence, but the story was so compelling he couldn’t help but be drawn in.

Beside him, Shiyue listened in confusion. She didn’t understand what innate gods were, nor what ‘Transcending the One’ meant, but Yuan Yi’s words were so astonishing that she was utterly shaken.

Amidst the haze, only Yuan Yi’s voice echoed in her ears, rolling like thunder.

She listened intently, forgetting to maintain her star chart and array.

Yuan Yi introspected—his oath appeared as concentric golden rings. Outside those rings, a golden dragon’s claw was snipping away the oath.

He needed more time.

So he continued, “You’ve planted a spell called ‘Demonic Seed of the Dao Heart,’ the middle strategy among Wei Yan’s three.”

“In his view, rather than waging war again and again, it was better to set a shackle for cultivators—a demonic seed. The seed takes root in the Niwan and Mirror Heart, controlling their realms and souls.”

“When they reach a certain level, this shackle can directly manipulate their life and death, returning their spiritual energy to the world, maintaining balance.”

Xu Zhong’s heart lurched.

This plan was truly venomous—controlling life and death through the demonic seed. It did avoid endless wars.

But how could it be implemented? Cultivators weren’t fools; they wouldn’t allow such a seed to be planted in them.

Without the demonic seed, their deaths couldn’t be controlled. Xu Zhong asked Yuan Yi.

“The Thunder Ancestor asked Wei Yan the same,” Yuan Yi laughed. “Wei Yan said, reincarnation exists—go to Fengdu, seek Lord Tai Mountain, who governs mortal life and death. Persuade or defeat him, and you can plant the demonic seed in the immortal soul of every newborn.”

No one knew how long Fengdu had existed—not even the Thunder Ancestor and his ilk, who were born with the world.

“The Thunder Ancestor thought it was a good idea, so he went.” Yuan Yi couldn’t help but smile. “He must have failed, and even fought Lord Tai Mountain, evidently losing. This was the chief reason for his later death.”

From Yuan Yi’s words, the Thunder Ancestor seemed rash indeed.

Wei Yan made the suggestion, and he really went to Fengdu and fought Tai Mountain’s lord.

But in the next moment, Xu Zhong’s mind abandoned the notion of the Thunder Ancestor’s rashness.

Perhaps before dying, he was impulsive, but afterward, everything changed.

He used his inner realm as foundation, evolving a world, establishing his own cycle of reincarnation. In every cultivator within that realm, he planted the demonic seed, restricting their growth.

At this, a sudden, baseless terror seized Xu Zhong.

Was the Imperial Dragon’s opening of heaven truly of his own volition?

Or was it guided by the Thunder Ancestor?

After opening a world, he cultivated the Demonic Seed of the Dao Heart. When the spell matured, he knew the time had come, guiding the Imperial Dragon to forge the inner world into reality.

Perhaps he had a grander plan—to spread the demonic seed throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths via those cultivators made real.

“Am I overthinking?” Xu Zhong wondered.

Yet some thoughts, once born, never cease.

Ever since the Thunder Ancestor devoured the ancient Yue Heavenly Dao and appeared in his Niwan, Xu Zhong regarded him as the most cunning and sinister of innate gods.

Suddenly, Xu Zhong recalled the great cauldron outside the palace, and the innate elixirs within.

Those elixirs lacked the guiding ingredient—and cultivators like them were the guide.

As more and more cultivators from the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths entered Yu Country and Tianyuan City,

Such things would only increase.

The Thunder Ancestor was guiding cultivators to devour others—those who bore the demonic seed.

“The demonic seed may never vanish. Those devoured become new seeds, rooting in their devourers, becoming the Thunder Ancestor’s new yang aspect.”

“He controls these new aspects, grants them opportunities, fosters their growth, and ultimately manipulates them, provoking new god wars!”

Xu Zhong’s heart raced so fiercely it seemed ready to leap from his mouth.

“Perhaps he is guiding all of this.”

Wisdom deepens with the ages.

A pig living ten million years becomes a pig demon, possessing intelligence rivaling humans.

A monster like the Thunder Ancestor only grows more cunning.

While Xu Zhong reeled in shock, Yuan Yi had severed the oath binding his soul with the golden dragon’s claw spell.

In the next moment, he recovered and cast a spell to seize Xu Zhong’s rattle.

However, Xu Zhong, focused in three directions, summoned the Cloud-Devouring Sword and formed a celestial sword array, trapping Yuan Yi within.

Shiyue, slow to react, also began to act.

But she was too late.

Yuan Yi had already broken free, waved his sleeve, and collected the brazier and corpse into the Five Luminaries of the soul.

Xu Zhong’s sword was too slow—he could only cut a piece from Yuan Yi’s robe.

Then Yuan Yi leapt into the waterfall outside the Water Luminary’s hidden chamber.

“No need to pursue,” Xu Zhong said as Shiyue moved to chase.

“But he said he could erase the marks on us!” Shiyue, though unclear, knew from Xu Zhong’s reaction this matter was crucial.

“We will surely meet him again.”

Xu Zhong then looked up. “I suppose you were guiding me here as well?”

With so many palaces in the Water Luminary’s hidden chamber, it couldn’t be mere coincidence that he encountered Yuan Yi.