Zhang Ruochen struck the wooden clapper. The sound was not loud, rather muffled and deep.
Yet the sound layered upon itself, spreading throughout the entire Qiankun Realm. It could propagate so far not because Zhang Ruochen had exerted his own power, but because he had borrowed the power of heaven and earth, harmonising with the Heavenly Dao.
When the piece ended, Kong Lanyou was already filled with sorrow, tears falling from her eyes. She said, “I never imagined cousin’s attainment in music was so profound! What piece is this? Why, upon hearing it, even with my cultivation, am I affected and unconsciously moved to tears?”
“It is a piece a departed friend often played in life. Just now, unconsciously, I infused my own sorrowful emotions into it. I should not have made you cry.”
Zhang Ruochen thought of Uncle Mu and Mu Xiaolin, gently shaking his head. He continued, “Actually, my attainment in music is not particularly profound. It cannot compare to those mental strength gods who immerse themselves in it for tens of thousands of years. But do you know why it could move you to tears and make the world resonate with the sound?”
“Why?” Kong Lanyou asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, “When sound harmonises with the dao, it can achieve anything. This dao is the Heavenly Dao.”
Kong Lanyou was slightly dazed.
Zhang Ruochen continued, “There are countless masters in the world, but if one pursues only music itself, after reaching a certain level, further progress becomes extremely difficult, and one might even regress. Only by broadening one’s vision and harmonising music with the Heavenly Dao can everything in heaven and earth be unified into music. The Heavenly Dao is infinite, boundless, inexhaustible.”
“When sound harmonises with the dao, it can achieve anything.”
Kong Lanyou repeated the words, pondering for a moment. She said, “Cousin means that thoughts must be fully expanded, not limited to what is immediately before the eyes. The vision must be broad enough to seek the root of the Heavenly Dao through music.”
Zhang Ruochen nodded. “Exactly! The divine dao I now cultivate is the Wuji Divine Dao, which exists within this heaven and earth, yet can also be said to have transcended it. If you can comprehend the profound mysteries of the Wuji Divine Dao, you too could make the world resonate with sound, and all powers in the world would be at your command.”
Kong Lanyou asked earnestly, “What is Wuji?”
“Wuji is the Heavenly Dao itself,” Zhang Ruochen replied.
Kong Lanyou said, “But I can only see what is before me. I cannot see Wuji.”
Zhang Ruochen gazed in all directions. “Just like now, the places you can see truly exist. The places you cannot see, you can construct in your soul and spirit, even if they are merely illusory. But you must construct them. When you become sufficiently powerful, even the illusory world you have built will become real. It will change because of your will!”
He continued, “On the path of music, many masters can immerse listeners, make butterflies and birds dance in accompaniment, cause ants to halt and geese to land. I believe you can achieve that too. But, using only music, without any mental strength or sacred qi, can you make rain stop, wind cease, flowers bloom?”
“How could that be possible without mental strength and sacred qi?” Kong Lanyou asked.
Zhang Ruochen smiled. “This is the Wuji I speak of, the impossible illusory world I want you to construct. What the heart conceives, the world will change accordingly. If you can walk this path, in future you might well become a music god master and attest to the dao with the flute.”
“Make rain stop, wind cease, flowers bloom?”
Kong Lanyou gripped the bamboo flute tightly with her five fingers, eager to attempt it.
Zhang Ruochen picked up a small stone. “We can take it step by step. For example, first use the flute sound to make this stone float. Control objects with sound!”
If mental strength and sacred qi were used, this would be the simplest matter.
But using only flute sound…
Kong Lanyou felt her cousin was either teasing her or being wildly fanciful.
It was fundamentally impossible.
Yet she chose to believe Zhang Ruochen. “The stone is too heavy. Let’s try with a bodhi leaf first.”
“Fine! Rest assured, cousin will never lead you astray. If within a hundred years you cannot make the bodhi leaf move with your flute sound, it means this path is not worth continuing,” Zhang Ruochen said.
“I will definitely achieve it!”
Kong Lanyou’s gaze was resolute. Taking a bodhi leaf and holding the bamboo flute, she went beneath the sundial.
The flute sound arose, melodious and pleasing to the ear.
Zhang Ruochen listened for a moment, his expression darkening. He could not sit idly by. He must find a way to search for the Sword Realm or leave the Dark Triangle Star Domain.
Though the Dark Triangle Star Domain was filled with endless darkness, it was not entirely empty.
There was thin spiritual qi, spatial veins, heavenly rules…
When Zhang Ruochen had flown along the path explored by the Yasha Clan, his keen perception had actually discovered a pattern.
That path had been opened along a thin belt of spiritual qi.
This approach was correct!
Otherwise, the Yasha Clan would have to be mad to expend vast manpower and resources exploring a path of thirty million steps.
However, the spiritual qi belts in the Dark Triangle Star Domain crisscrossed like a spider’s web, innumerable. Finding the correct one and avoiding circling in one area was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
This was why the Yasha Clan suspected the path they had explored might be wrong.
Now, with no other options, Zhang Ruochen could only divine.
Of course, not true divination.
Swish!
Standing in the dark void, Zhang Ruochen released seven soul swords and six divine swords, exerting no control over them, allowing them to drift freely.
In the end, he chose the direction pointed to simultaneously by three soul swords and one divine sword.
The other swords pointed in different directions.
Since cultivators across the world believed he, Zhang Ruochen, had a greater chance of finding the Sword Realm, he could only guess wildly like this!
“Fly along this spiritual qi belt. You already know the Divine Spirit Steps, right? Keep practising. If it intersects with another spiritual qi belt, send me a message, and I will divine again.”
Zhang Ruochen patted the old yellow ox’s rump and returned to the scroll world.
“You call this divination?”
The old yellow ox looked unwilling, yet it still stepped with Divine Spirit Steps, proceeding solitarily along the spiritual qi belt.
Back in the Qiankun Realm, Zhang Ruochen cultivated under the sundial. First, he spent several years consolidating the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram Imprint. Then, he began studying the Luoshu, comprehending the Daoist lineage’s interpretation of heaven and earth, pondering the direction for the next evolution.
The Luoshu states that after the two principles, the four images will evolve.
The so-called four images refer to greater yang, greater yin, lesser yang, lesser yin.
Within the two principles are yin and yang qi, which repel yet depend on each other, circulating ceaselessly.
Since yin qi and yang qi circulate, there must be places of gathering.
Yang qi gathers to form greater yang.
Yin qi gathers to form greater yin.
Within yang qi hides lesser yin.
Within yin qi hides lesser yang.
In the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram Imprint Zhang Ruochen had cultivated, it had only just transformed from chaotic qi into neutral qi where yin and yang harmonise. There was no greater yang qi, greater yin qi, lesser yang qi, or lesser yin qi.
Zhang Ruochen secretly guessed that if the four images truly reached completion, it would surely be another earth-shaking change.
Then, though the universe is vast, there would likely be no place he could not go.
Currently, he had only just evolved the two principles. The yin and yang qi were not yet substantial enough, and the rule divine patterns needed tempering. Rashly evolving the four images would be like using a paper bowl to hold molten iron.
Thus, condensing his own “bowl” was the primary task at present.
“I need to set a small goal: first accumulate ten times the yin and yang qi, temper the rule divine patterns to twice their current strength. The number of rule divine patterns… can wait for now.”
As far as Zhang Ruochen knew, great gods who had just reached the Taiyi realm all had to complete this step to reach mid-Taiyi.
Thus, all paths in the world lead to the same destination.
Yin and yang qi naturally refer to divine qi of two attributes.
Cultivating divine qi consumes an enormous amount of divine stones.
Back when he activated the sundial for ten thousand years of cultivation in Xinghuan Heaven, countless gods from Heaven and Hell had come seeking favours, and Zhang Ruochen had harvested a large fortune in divine stones.
But no one knew how long they would be trapped in the Dark Triangle Star Domain. If the divine stones were exhausted, Zhang Ruochen could only choose to sleep, or the divine qi in his body would continuously dissipate.
Therefore, he did not directly absorb divine stones for cultivation but took out the Hunyuan Bottle.
The moment he opened the bottle’s seal, curses from Zhao Wuyan, the great god of the Temple of Darkness, rang out. He clearly knew Qingpingzi would never spare him, so he did not beg for mercy or soften.
“How can it be you, Zhang Ruochen? What is your relationship with Qingpingzi?” From within the bottle, Zhao Wuyan sensed Zhang Ruochen’s aura.
Zhang Ruochen muttered to himself, “The divine soul and mental will of a great god are truly powerful. Refined by Seven Scatter Divine Water for decades, yet still not dead.”
“Zhang Ruochen, what exactly is your relationship with Qingpingzi?” Zhao Wuyan’s roar came again.
Because he had thought of a terrifying possibility.
Zhang Ruochen ignored him.
What was there to answer from a dead man?
“Fine, I will send you on your way!”
Zhang Ruochen continuously mobilised the death rules and death qi of heaven and earth, infusing them into the Hunyuan Bottle. He did not use the death profound meanings given by Huang Tian, but the Wuji Divine Dao.
To thoroughly kill a great god, using a specialised god-slaying artefact is the fastest.
For example, the divine axe on the God-Slaying Platform in the Temple of Destiny is said to annihilate even Immeasurable realm gods with one strike, body and form destroyed utterly. Divine soul, mental will, life force, all cleaved clean.
Of course, such great god-slaying weapons number only a few in total between Heaven and Hell.
Not every divine artefact is born for slaughter.
Nor can every divine artefact reach the extreme in killing attributes.
Once killing qi is too heavy, controlling it is no easy matter.
Besides such god-slaying weapons, using targeted profound meanings to refine and kill gods is the fastest method.
For example, death profound meanings can invoke death rules of heaven and earth. Each death rule is a blade. If one blade fails, billions will succeed in killing you.
While mobilising death rules and death qi, Zhang Ruochen suddenly sensed a powerful fluctuation of death qi beneath the Heaven-Connecting Divine Wood.
Only then did he recall placing a pink skeleton there.
Zhao Wuyan’s roars came from the bottle. “Zhang Ruochen, my attainment in the path of death exceeds yours by more than tenfold. Using the path of death to kill me? Can you?”
Zhang Ruochen gave a light snort and immediately mobilised light rules and light power, infusing them into the Hunyuan Bottle.
Finally, Zhao Wuyan screamed in agony. Amid various curses and threats, his mental will and divine soul were eradicated by Zhang Ruochen.
This process took seventeen days in total.
