Start from a baby to become a Taoist

Chapter 540 The Soul Trembles!

Chapter 548

Roars that seemed to transcend eras resounded in everyone's souls. Zhen Shan and the others felt their blood boil, as if they had personally returned to that glorious era of swords and warships vying for supremacy.

But the next moment, an even more terrifying scene unfolded.

On the opposite side of those divine court phantoms, in that endless dark void, wisps of extremely cold white law lines were also pulled out by the great formation.

Those were the traces of "erasure" left behind when the "Heavenly Principle Sequence" made its move!
Two completely opposing paths, like water and fire, began to collide and annihilate violently under the forceful pull of the great formation!
Rumble!
The entire formation was shaking violently, as if it would collapse at any moment.

"Not good! The conflict between the two Dao traces is too intense, and even the Chaos Immortal Gold can hardly suppress it!" Cang Shi exclaimed in horror.

"If you can't suppress it, then don't suppress it!"

Xu Ran's voice was like a stabilizing force, calming everyone's minds.

He stood up, took a step, and landed directly on the violently vibrating Chaos Immortal Gold, where he sat down cross-legged.

"All paths serve as fuel, entering my furnace!"

"Reincarnation becomes fire, refining eternity!"

boom!
From Xu Ran's eyes, two divine lights, one gold and one gray, suddenly shot out, transforming into a yin-yang fish interwoven with gray and gold, instantly enveloping the chaotic immortal gold!

At this moment, his body became completely one with the entire "Ten Thousand Furnaces"!
He became the "soul of the furnace"!
"Come!"

Xu Ran opened his mouth and inhaled, and the extremely violent Divine Court Dao Mark and Heavenly Principle Dao Mark immediately found an outlet, turning into two torrents, one golden and one white, which rushed wildly into his body!
"what--!"

Zhenshan and the others only saw that half of Xu Ran's body was dyed a brilliant gold, sacred and majestic, like the Heavenly Emperor descending to earth; the other half was dyed a cold white, rational and ruthless, as if it were the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao.

Two extreme forces clashed within his body in a terrifying battle!

His physical body was frantically being created and destroyed between constant "construction" and "erasure"!
The sacred golden runes that had just appeared on the skin were instantly disintegrated by cold white logic and reduced to nothingness. Then, new flesh and blood grew back under the "definition" of the golden runes.

This kind of pain is enough to cause even a god to collapse instantly, with his soul and spirit annihilated!

But Xu Ran's face showed no sign of pain; instead, it was filled with an almost greedy desire!

He's experiencing it!

He's analyzing!

He was using his own body as a battlefield to experience the essence of the two great paths!

"The core of the Divine Court's Way is 'I,' which defines the existence of all things through the will of 'I.' It is domineering, yet compassionate."

"The core of the Way of Heaven is 'reason'. The logic of 'reason' is used to determine the truth or falsehood of all things. It is absolute, yet without intention."

"One is driven by self-interest, the other by reason..."

Despite the intense tearing, Xu Ran's soul entered a state of unprecedented clarity.

His Eye of Return to Nothingness was operating frantically, analyzing the inner logic of the two Great Daos, searching for their commonalities and weaknesses.

Time seemed to lose its meaning at this moment.

A million images flashed through Xu Ran's mind.

He witnessed the rise of the Divine Court, an unparalleled being who held the Divine Court Codex and proclaimed, "Where I am, there is order." Thus, the chaos of the universe was dispelled, and the galaxy returned to order.

He witnessed the descent of divine justice once more, an indescribable will overlooking the prosperous divine court, uttering a cold syllable: "False." And so, the "Code of Order" that supported the entire divine court universe began to collapse from its very conceptual roots.

It turns out that the Divine Court's defeat was not due to its power, but rather to its "legal principles"!
Just like a dynasty, no matter how perfect its laws are, it cannot resist the changing of the "mandate of heaven".

The order of heavenly principles is the supreme "mandate of heaven"!
"No...no!"

Just as Xu Ran was about to succumb to this sense of powerlessness, a warning bell rang in his mind!
"If the principles of Heaven are the same as the Mandate of Heaven, why leave this graveyard here? Why set up cleaners? The true Mandate of Heaven is silent and subtle, nourishing all things without a sound. This deliberate 'cleaning' itself shows that it is not omniscient and omnipotent! Its 'principle' is not the only truth in the universe!"

"It, too, feels fear!"

"It fears 'variables,' it fears existences that cannot be defined by its 'logic'!"

boom!
A bolt of lightning ripped through Xu Ran's sea of ​​consciousness!

He finally grasped that crucial point!
His cycle of reincarnation, its very existence is the greatest provocation against the natural order!

Because reincarnation is neither "existence" nor "nothingness"; it is neither "true" nor "false".

Reincarnation is a process of moving from "truth" to "falsehood" and then from "falsehood" back to "truth"! It is a paradox in itself! It is a "variable" that cannot be defined by the binary logic of natural law!
"I understand... I finally understand!"

Xu Ran roared to the sky, and the roar shook the entire star field!

"The Way of Heaven reveres 'reason,' and all things serve as its footnotes!"

"The way of the Divine Court is to venerate 'I'; my heart is the heart of Heaven!"

"And my path of reincarnation... reveres 'change'!!"

"Everything is in flux, and all beings are in a cycle of reincarnation! Existence is the beginning of nothingness, and nothingness is the gestation of existence! The only constant is change itself! This is the ultimate truth of the universe!"

"Heavenly Principles, your 'principles' should also 'change'!"

The moment the words fell, the violently clashing golden and white torrents within Xu Ran's body suddenly stopped!
Immediately afterwards, a chaotic and all-encompassing "Law of Change," somewhere between gray and gold, was born from the origin of Xu Ran's soul!
As soon as this law was revealed, the Divine Court Dao Mark and the Heavenly Principle Dao Mark, which were originally incompatible like fire and water, became docile instantly, as if they had found a king.

They no longer clashed, but instead, with the principle of "change" at their core, they began to slowly rotate and merge in a mysterious trajectory!
The golden "existence" and the white "erasure" begin to transform into each other under the true meaning of "change"!
Xu Ran's body no longer collapses and regenerates.

The cold white law on his left side gradually faded, transforming into a deep gray that represented "the return of all things to stillness".

The brilliant golden laws on his right side gradually receded, transforming into a chaotic color full of infinite vitality, representing the "beginning of all things".

One gray, one chaotic; one alive, one dead; one yin, one yang.

On his chest, where the two colors met, a brand new Dao seal slowly took shape.

That seal was no longer a simple yin-yang symbol, but a constantly rotating, three-dimensional Möbius strip containing countless possibilities of birth and death!

The Cycle of Reincarnation Seal, Great Success!
Boom! ! !

A terrifying aura, far surpassing anything before and even faintly touching the threshold of the "Dao Lord" realm, surged forth from Xu Ran's body! Under the influence of this aura, the entire "Myriad Dao Furnace" increased its operating efficiency a hundredfold!
The boundless metal cemetery, with its countless warship wrecks, began to weather and decompose at a visible speed, turning into the purest fragments of Dao principles. These fragments were then devoured by the great formation and poured into Xu Ran's body, becoming the cornerstone of his new Dao!

His cultivation level was increasing at an unbelievable speed!
Early stage of Dao Lord!

Mid-stage Dao Lord!

Late stage of Dao Lord!

Peak Dao Lord!

Just one step away from breaking free from constraints, defining a universe and spacetime with one's own path, and achieving the position of "Dao Lord"!
"Initiation!"

Xu Ran opened and closed his eyes, his divine light shining brightly. He shouted and slapped the void with his palm.

The purest "Divine Court Guardianship" and "Unyielding Fighting Spirit," refined and purified by him, instantly transformed into streams of golden rain, penetrating the hull of the Pioneer and falling precisely upon Zhenshan and all the Guixu warriors.

"what!"

Zhenshan let out a triumphant roar, feeling an unprecedented surge of immense power flow into his body. His cultivation, which had long reached its bottleneck, was instantly shattered! His previously vague understanding of the laws became crystal clear at this moment!
Not only him, but all the kings and generals, and all the warriors of Guixu, felt their auras rise steadily under the bathing of this golden rain!
This is an incredible stroke of luck!

When one person attains enlightenment, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven!

However, just as the entire furnace was operating at its maximum capacity, and Xu Ran was preparing to make a final push to break through to the Dao Lord realm.

A sudden change occurred!

At the core of the great formation, the Chaos Immortal Gold that served as the giant maw of the Taotie suddenly let out a mournful cry of unbearable burden!
Its reach and depth were too vast!

Beneath the wreckage of countless divine fleets, in the deeper layers of the earth, it touched something... that did not belong to the divine court, nor to the order of heavenly principles!

It was a broken piece of bone finger, from some unknown creature...

It was only about a foot long, pitch black, with no runes or Daoist marks on it, only a primitive, ancient, and ominous aura.

The moment the bone-splitting finger was drawn out by the power of the great formation, a faint yet incredibly venomous and insane thought transcended the barriers of time and space and exploded directly in Xu Ran's mind!
"...A deception...it's all a deception! 'Heavenly Principle' is not a guardian, it's a thief! It stole the 'Fruit'...it stole the 'Fruit of the End' from all the worlds!"

"...The road to 'returning home' is blocked by it...we can't go back..."

"...Finding the 'Primordial Flame'...that's the only...variable..."

This thought was chaotic and fragmented, but the information it contained struck Xu Ran like a thunderbolt!
Is the Heavenly Principles Sequence a thief?

The final fruit? The road home? The primordial spark?

These unfamiliar terms seemed to open a door for him to a deeper, more terrifying truth!

The war between the Divine Court and the Heavenly Principles may just be an insignificant prelude on the stage of this universe.

boom! ! !
Just as Xu Ran was in shock, the strange black bone finger seemed to be triggered by some taboo and suddenly burst open!
A polluting aura, far surpassing that of the Divine Court and the Heavenly Principles, filled with chaos, madness, and indescribable pollution, suddenly erupted, instantly shattering the energy circuit of the "Myriad Paths Furnace"!

Click!Click!
The surface of the Chaos Immortal Gold, which is at the core, is covered with fine cracks!
The entire formation came to a sudden halt!
Xu Ran's progress in breaking through to the Dao Lord realm was also abruptly interrupted!

He suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with gray and gold, and his face instantly turned pale.

But his eyes were brighter than ever.

He looked up at the desolate gray sky.

Twenty-seven days have passed.

The final deadline is fast approaching.

Above the sky, a gigantic, slowly rotating silver cross appeared out of nowhere.

That cross, cold and sacred, was filled with absolute order and majesty. With each rotation, it solidified and tightened the laws of this caged star field.

A terrifying pressure, ten thousand times stronger than the previous cleaner and even surpassing that of an ordinary Dao Lord, slowly descended like the sky collapsing.

The new "executioner" has arrived.

"Just in time."

Xu Ran slowly stood up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

Although his attempt to become a Dao Lord failed, his gains have far exceeded expectations. His Cycle of Reincarnation has reached its peak, and his strength is more than ten times greater than it was eighteen days ago!
More importantly, he glimpsed a deeper secret hidden behind the sequence of natural laws.

"A thief..."

A cold smile curled at the corners of Xu Ran's lips.

He stretched out his hand and looked at the constantly rotating Reincarnation Seal in his palm, which seemed to contain infinite possibilities.

"Let me see whether your so-called 'natural justice' is a sacred judge or a shameful thief!"

"Today, through my own cycle of reincarnation, I hereby condemn you...to be guilty!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he took a step forward and disappeared into the Pioneer. When he reappeared, he was already standing in the sky, facing the slowly descending silver cross that was acting on behalf of Heaven to carry out the execution!

A fierce battle that will decide life and death, an ultimate judgment between two paths, has officially begun at this moment!

A fierce battle that will decide life and death, an ultimate judgment between two paths, has officially begun at this moment!

The starry sky was deathly silent, and all was still.

The enormous silver cross, like a monumental judgment descending from the source of "reason," slowly rotated and hung in the sky. It emitted no energy fluctuations, no earth-shattering pressure; it only possessed an ultimate "sense of presence."

It was as if it were the sky, the earth, the only law and truth.

Under its radiance, the concept of spacetime was redefined, becoming viscous and solidified. The lines of law that constituted this caged star field were forcibly twisted and corrected, converging towards the "absolute order" it represented. The irregular breaks of those floating metal debris even began to gleam with silver light, showing a tendency to be "repaired" into perfect geometric shapes.

This is a force more terrifying than erasure—correction! It fundamentally corrects all "variables" and "irrationality" into the form of "truth" that it recognizes.

On the Pioneer, Zhen Shan and the others, whose strength had just increased dramatically due to the empowerment, now felt as if they had fallen into an ice cave, their very souls trembling. Before that silver cross, they felt like a line of code that had been written incorrectly, a circle that had been drawn crookedly, which would be mercilessly erased and rewritten in the next second.

(End of this chapter)