Start from a baby to become a Taoist

Chapter 490 The Master Doesn't Care
Chapter 498

He gave up resisting, letting the destructive power flow into his broken body.

His physical body was torn apart even more severely in an instant.

His soul, overwhelmed by the force of the contradictory laws, let out a mournful cry.

However, his consciousness was clearer than ever before.

“The torch…you’re right…”

"I shouldn't have defined them..."

"I should...become them..."

His soul no longer resisted, but instead, like a sponge, began to passively and indiscriminately absorb, feel, and remember every kind of chaos, every contradiction, and every madness.

He felt the decisiveness of "water" transforming into "knife".

He felt the intense heat when the "mountain" turned into "slurry".

He felt the resentment that came with the transformation from "life" to "death".

He experienced the distortion that occurred when "death" transformed into "life".

……

Every feeling is an extreme form of pain, a complete subversion of past understanding.

But he endured it.

He was no longer the lofty "Dao Sheng"; he placed himself on an equal footing with all things in this world. He was no longer a "god"; he was simply an ordinary "perceiver" in this world undergoing tremendous change.

Gradually, a wonderful change occurred.

The chaotic laws that surged into his body, after discovering that they could not destroy him (because he had given up resisting and merged with them), began to seek a new "balance" within him.

A... chaotic balance.

His shattered Dao body no longer radiated golden divine light. From within those cracks began to flow all sorts of bizarre and wondrous colors. Sometimes it was flame, sometimes ice, sometimes life, sometimes death…

His aura was no longer pure "order" nor pure "chaos," but a kind of chaos that contained all "possibilities."

Within that deep, empty right eye socket, a wisp of gray, primordial energy, as if from the beginning of time, quietly emerged.

He is dying.

The Dao Sheng who represented "perfect order" is dying.

At the same time, he is also being reborn.

A completely new, undefinable "being" that resonates with this broken world is slowly rising from his corpse.

In the endless void.

After a brief moment of astonishment, the will of the "Throat of Chaos" erupted into an even more furious roar.

"No! This can't be! He's given up resisting? He's actually embracing this ultimate chaos that even I can't fully control?! He'll die! He absolutely will die!"

It cannot comprehend it. In its understanding, any vessel of order, when it comes into contact with true "disorder," will only be assimilated, torn apart, and ultimately lead to meaningless demise.

However, a sign appeared on Daosheng's body that it had never seen before and that made it uneasy.

The other ancient beings fell into a long silence.

After a long while, the "Source of All Things" let out a complex sigh.

"Destruction precedes construction...putting someone in a life-or-death situation leads to survival..."

Instead of repairing the 'perfect' porcelain, he chose to... smash himself to pieces, and then use all the fragments to piece together... something entirely new.

The eternal indifference of the "Eye of Annihilation" finally vanished completely, replaced by an unprecedented... solemnity.

"He... embarked on a path that even the torch of revolution had not yet been completed."

“A path that takes ‘variability’ as its way.”

“From this moment on, he is no longer the ‘Tao Fruit’ of the torch, nor the nemesis of ‘Disorder’.”

"He himself became the greatest 'variable' of this era."

The chill that rose from the depths of his heart did not stem from the oppression of power, nor from the threat of death. It was a more essential coldness, as if in an instant, he had been redefined from a living, breathing "being" with flesh and blood, with love and hate, into a cold, selfless "object" that existed only for a specific function.

This chill is more insidious than the chaotic laws of the "Throat of Disorder," capable of shattering everything. Chaos still has form, and can still be understood and tolerated. But this utterly "objectified" indifference is the deepest denial of "existence" itself.

He was born for order for eight thousand years, yet embraced chaos between life and death, ultimately forging this unprecedented Dao body and pioneering a path no one had ever walked before. He thought he had stepped out of the chessboard and become the player, but he never imagined that he had merely been placed from a small chessboard onto a much grander and more cruel one. And the one who placed him on that chessboard was none other than the "guide" and "savior" he once believed in—the Flame.

"Ha ha……"

Dao Sheng suddenly chuckled softly, a laugh tinged with self-mockery and melancholy, but more so with a madness and relief born from breaking free of all shackles. His laughter, though not loud, caused the distorted world he had just "redefined" to tremble slightly. The black mountains, shimmering with an eerie metallic sheen, seemed to resonate with him, low rumblings emanating from their depths, like ancient beasts turning over in their slumber. The waters of the East Sea, reflecting this otherworldly scene, rippled with countless waves, each ripple a silhouette of a world's rise and fall.

He was no longer the perfect child of order, nor the ignorant seeker of the truth.

Scam? Exploitation?
When even the meaning of a person's "existence" is defined by others, what does so-called deception amount to?
“The flame… what a flame…” Daosheng murmured to himself. In the depths of his golden left eye, in the pupil as bright as the sun, the eternally unmoving “origin” seemed to ignite, revealing an extreme calmness and rage. And in his right eye, which contained the chaotic nebula, the gray nebula spun even more violently, with billions of “possibilities” arising and dying wildly within it, as if deducing all the ways to break free from fate.

"So, everything I've experienced, everything I've endured, was just your 'tempering'. The 'Throat of Chaos' is the hammer, the torrent of laws is the water, and my world, my path, are just the anvil and flames you used to forge this 'weapon' of mine."

His voice did not travel beyond this world; it only echoed within his own soul. But he knew that the Flame could hear it.

In the void, the ancient observers fell into a deathly silence. They had clearly also sensed the cold will of the Flame.

"The Flame... it has finally come to this." The "Source of All Things" was filled with endless emotion and a deep sense of apprehension. "Using the myriad worlds as a furnace and eras as firewood, it only wanted to forge a Dao Fruit that could bear the 'Ultimate'... It is even more insane than 'Disorder'."

"Madness? No, this is its 'way'," "Touch of the Void" retorted. "In its understanding, all sacrifices are worthwhile in order to cope with the inevitable 'Great Annihilation'. We, the Dao Beings, and even the billions of beings in this Chaos Sea are just numbers on its chessboard."

The eternal, unchanging light of the "Eye of Annihilation" seemed to pierce through the mists of time and space, revealing something deeper. For the first time, its intent wavered: "The Way of the Flame is 'Existence.' To allow the concept of 'existence' itself to endure, it can sacrifice any concrete 'existence.' It's not creating weapons; it's creating a new 'concept,' a concept capable of confronting 'Ultimate Nothingness'... But will this nascent 'concept' truly work as it desires?"

Daosheng did not listen to their conversation.

At this moment, his entire being was immersed in the confrontation with the flame.

That chilling will resounded once more, carrying an unquestionable authority and a matter-of-fact tone:
“You don’t need to feel angry or deceived. The name ‘Daosheng,’ the identity, and even your eight thousand years of memories are all just ‘initial parameters’ set up to help you better understand ‘order.’ Now that you have transcended them, those things are shackles for you. You should thank me; it is I who have given you the qualification to touch ‘truth.’”

"Reality?" Dao Sheng's smile grew even more sarcastic. "Reality that you manipulate, or reality as you define it?"

"The only meaningful truth." The will of the torch remained unmoved and began to instill in Daosheng a series of grand and despairing images.

That was the edge of the Chaos Sea, an endless land known as the "Boundary Sea." A "dam" stretching across countless billions of light-years, forged from the remnants of countless shattered universes, solidified time, and the Dao bones of ancient supreme beings, stood there.

On one side of the dam lies the vibrant (even if fraught with conflict and chaos) Chaotic Sea where they are located.

On the other side of the dam lies a darkness that defies description.

That wasn't the "darkness" of light and darkness, but a kind of "nothingness." A pure, absolute "nothingness" that devoured all concepts. It had no energy fluctuations, no trace of laws, and not even the attribute of "existence." It simply existed there, quietly "eroding" the dam.

Any matter that gets close to it, any powerful supernatural ability, any eternal law, will be "erased" the moment it comes into contact with that "darkness." It is not destroyed, but completely eliminated from the root of "existence," as if it had never existed.

“That is ‘Return to the Void’.” The voice of the Firewood was like ice that had never melted since time immemorial.

"Everything in the Chaos Sea is born from 'existence'. Order and chaos, light and darkness, life and death are just different manifestations of 'existence'. 'Return to Nothingness' is the embodiment of 'nothingness'. It is the 'opposite' of the entire Chaos Sea and the ultimate destiny of all 'existence'."

"At the end of each era, the tide of 'Return to Nothingness' will rise, overflowing the dikes and washing everything away. This is 'Great Extinction'. At that time, all things return to nothingness, and everything begins anew."

"And the 'Throat of Chaos' was merely an insignificant ripple in the tide of 'Return to Nothingness.' It seeped into the dam, prematurely stirring up chaotic ripples in what should have been a calm sea of ​​chaos. Its death caused a crack to appear in the 'dam' node it had eroded."

The will of the torch, transformed into a clear command, was imprinted in Daosheng's mind.

"Your first task is to go to the 7,200th section of the 'Boundary Sea Dike', the 'Weeping Blood Ancient Wall,' and use your 'New Path,' which contains both order and chaos, to repair that crack. Your power is the only one that can 'counteract' and 'neutralize' the power of 'Return to Nothingness' without being directly erased by it."

"This is your mission, and the only reason for your existence."

The words of the torch were filled with undeniable logic and a sense of destiny. It laid everything bare, revealing the most terrifying truth nakedly before Daosheng, as if to say: Look, this is the truth of the world; you have no choice but to fight for me.

Daosheng fell silent.

As he looked at the scene and felt the "nothingness" of "Return to the Void," a state that would make even the strongest person despair, he finally understood the plan of the Fire of the Gods.

It needs a "monster".

An intermediate state that exists neither purely in "being" nor in absolute "non-being." An existence that can stand on the boundary between "being" and "non-being," becoming a "living patch" for that dam, or even a "weapon" to fight back against "return to nothingness."

And he, Daosheng, was the chosen one, the "monster".

"What if I say no?"

After a long while, Daosheng finally spoke again, his voice eerily calm.

The will of the torch seemed to pause for a moment, as if it had not expected that Daosheng would ask such a question after witnessing the terror of "Return to the Void".

"Refuse?" For the first time, a trace of emotion appeared in the will of the Flame, a coldness that was almost "pity." "You cannot refuse. Your 'Tao,' your 'existence,' all originated from my design. I can give you all of this, and naturally I can take it back. Without me, you cannot even maintain your current form. The order and chaos within you will once again spiral out of control, tearing you into fragments smaller than dust."

“More importantly,” the will of the torch grew ever grander, like the voice of the heavens, “the coordinates of this ‘Dao Origin Realm’ you are in have been exposed before that rift. If you do not go, the first thing to be swallowed by the ‘Return to Nothingness’ tide will be your homeland. Everything you have protected, this new world that you have ‘acknowledged,’ will all be silently transformed into absolute ‘nothingness.’”

Threat.

A blatant, yet irrefutable, threat.

Daosheng closed his eyes.

He could feel that his Dao Source Realm, every inch of his land, and every twisted law were closely connected to his soul. He could even feel that the little deer named "Chu Ling" was looking at him with worry in its clear eyes.

He can disregard whether his "existence" is defined, and he can disregard whether he is a pawn.

But he couldn't ignore all of this.

(End of this chapter)