Chapter 516

515. Chapter 510: Who Is Helping?

Ding Huan's heart jolted—who could have foreseen this hide scroll?

More importantly, this hide scroll is hidden deep within his spiritual soul, even he cannot locate it—how could someone else have foreseen it?

Could the one who foreseen this hide scroll possibly have penetrated deep into his consciousness?

"Who schemed against you?" Ding Huan asked.

"Tell me, and will you let me go?" came the Dao resonance from the scroll.

Ding Huan replied coolly: "Whether I let you go depends on you—if in the end I believe you truly are a Dao resonance I left behind in one of my past lives, would I stop you from leaving?"

"I could even fuse with you immediately and restore my past-life memories."

He said this, but he was one hundred percent certain he had no connection whatsoever to this thought-resonance.

The origin of this thing was undoubtedly extraordinary.

"It was Heaven's Dao that schemed against me," the thought-resonance within the scroll spoke, filled with resentment.

Heaven's Dao?

Ding Huan stared skeptically at the scroll before him—he found it hard to believe Heaven's Dao would scheme against this hide scroll.

"Your cultivation is too low to sense it—Heaven's Dao left behind a Dao principle in this world: the Chaotic World is about to be perfected, and the Great Dao's opportunity lies right before you—I could not wait any longer..."

"What does that mean?"

"It means this world will merge once more with other worlds, forming a complete Chaotic World. Once the Chaotic World forms, complete Chaotic Dao principles will emerge."

"Moreover, Chaotic Qi will instantly fill the entire Chaotic World. If you do not absorb it the moment it appears, it will immediately transform into ordinary Heaven-and-Earth Qi."

"At that moment, if I still cannot fuse with you, I will be unable to absorb true Chaotic Qi, let alone perceive the Chaotic Dao principles."

"If so, all my years of scheming and waiting will vanish into nothingness."

Ding Huan fell silent, pondering why Heaven's Dao would scheme against the Dao resonance within this scroll.

And why would Heaven's Dao provide a false Dao principle?

"Because I sensed Heaven's Dao's Great Dao direction, and I sensed you slaughtering the Demon and Beast Tribes, I grew increasingly anxious—and became certain the formation of the Chaotic World is real."

"If you do not quickly cultivate to the Immortal King realm, I cannot fuse with you, and I will miss the formation of the Chaotic World."

"Why must you reach the Immortal King realm to fuse?" Ding Huan asked again.

"I am one of your Dao resonances. When you ascend to Immortal King, your Great Dao resonance undergoes a qualitative transformation—that is the perfect moment for me to merge."

"If you fuse while your cultivation is too low, your consciousness will collapse, and you will fail to achieve complete fusion."

Sensing Ding Huan remained silent, the Dao resonance continued: "You should know how many Great Dao concepts I contain, right?"

"If I were not a Dao resonance you left behind in a past life, why would I seek you out? Why have I helped you repeatedly? Even the Heaven-Piercing Dao Art—you sensed it because of me."

"If you do not fuse with this Dao resonance that belongs to you, the chance for your Nirvana on Blue Star will become uncertain..."

The Dao resonance from the scroll kept pouring forth—Ding Huan did not miss a single word of anything important.

As for the scroll's claim that it was a Dao resonance he left behind in a past life, Ding Huan treated it as nonsense.

Though this scroll contained only a single Dao resonance, its scheming against him had been extensive.

Many of the insights and Dao concepts he longed to know never appeared—and as for the Heaven-Piercing Dao Art, had Old Six not given him the broken fragment, it would never have surfaced.

In truth, even without the complete Heaven-Piercing Dao Art, with the broken fragment and the Great Cosmos Art, he might still have deduced a new version of the Heaven-Piercing Dao Art.

He was pondering one thing: why had Heaven's Dao clouded the sentient awareness of this residual Dao resonance?

The only beneficiary of Heaven's Dao clouding this resonance's awareness was Ding Huan himself.

Was Heaven's Dao helping him?

Yet he felt almost no belonging to the Pangu Great World—if not for Brother Xingpan's good relations with him, he wouldn't even bother with the Pangu Great World's fragmentation.

If so, Heaven's Dao of the Pangu Great World had even less reason to help him.

If not Heaven's Dao helping him, why did the scroll believe it was Heaven's Dao?

No—the scroll originally thought it had been secretly schemed against by someone, only later claiming it was Heaven's Dao.

Then who was Heaven's Dao?

The only name that surfaced in Ding Huan's mind: the Dao Ancestor of the Purple Cloud Palace.

When Pangu opened heaven and earth, Heaven's Dao was incomplete—the Dao Ancestor merged with Heaven's Dao to fill its deficiency, becoming Heaven's Dao itself.

That matched.

Only the Dao Ancestor possessed the power to plant a Great Dao principle within the Pangu Great World.

After the Nine Heavens collapsed, the Dao Ancestor carried the shattered Nine Heavens, left the original universe, and eventually arrived in the Pangu Great World.

The Dao Ancestor believed the Pangu Great World's rules were still incomplete, so he did not remain.

He appointed Wu Chang the Great Emperor as Heaven's Emperor, then departed the Pangu Great World, continuing his search for higher-level universes.

This was also one reason he wished to follow the Dao Ancestor's footsteps.

If it were the Dao Ancestor, foreseeing him as a variable was no surprise.

The Dao Ancestor might even have foreseen that Wu Chang would be driven away by him, and that Brother Xingpan would ultimately become Heaven's Emperor.

But if so, why didn't the Dao Ancestor simply make Brother Xingpan Heaven's Emperor? Why go through the trouble of helping him?

Other things the Dao Ancestor foresaw—Ding Huan found those normal.

But foreseeing that he would be coerced by a Dao resonance, and leaving behind a false Dao principle to deceive and manipulate that resonance—that was absurd.

No matter how absurd, one thing was certain: the Dao Ancestor had definitely helped him.

If the Dao Ancestor helped him and installed Wu Chang as Heaven's Emperor, was it because the Pangu Great World was also destined to face the Hundred Tribes' Calamity?

Was humanity's extermination of Beasts, Demons, and Gods merely one phase of the Calamity?

Just as in the Nine Heavens—starting from the Primordial Calamity, then the Wu-Xian Calamity, the Divine Ascension Calamity, the Journey to the West Calamity, and so on—every so often, a Calamity would emerge.

Until the Nine Heavens shattered.

"I'll ask you two questions: first, who was I before? Second, why did the Great Calamity occur—and even be created by the Saints?"

Ding Huan voiced the two things he understood least.

"When chaos first split and primordial wasteland began, besides the Three Thousand Demonic Gods, a Dao Spirit was born—named Tai Xu. Tai Xu was your former self; when you communed with the boundless universe, someone else merged with the Dao of Heaven."

"You naturally could not allow yourself to survive under a Dao of Heaven merged by another, so you strove to tear apart chaos and restructure cosmic order…"

The Tai Xu Flame clearly sensed this Dao Nian speaking its name—and even stealing it. It erupted in fury. The flame's temperature surged instantly, and waves of Flame Dao Principles slammed into the parchment, as if it would not rest until the parchment was utterly reduced to ash.

The parchment sensed Tai Xu's rage and began trembling again.

Clearly, the Tai Xu Flame burned wildly, and even the parchment could not endure it.

Ding Huan sent a message to the Tai Xu Flame, signaling it to calm down.

Once the Tai Xu Flame cooled slightly, Ding Huan spoke coldly: "So you mean the Great Calamity in the Nine Heavens universe happened because of me?"

"Correct. Not only did you do this, but you also took as a disciple a student who cultivated through slaughter to attain Dao."

"Who was that disciple?"

"The Demonic God of Slaughter, Luo Hou."

Ding Huan was internally stunned—was Tai Xu this powerful?

Even Luo Hou was his disciple—how immense must his strength have been?

But apparently, he was still crushed by the Dao Ancestor.

"Very well. What method did that being on Blue Star use? And how can I fuse with it?"

Even though this Dao Nian spoke with such convincing detail, Ding Huan still treated it as nonsense.

"I am merely a Dao Nian. Much of this information is only vague. To obtain accurate knowledge, you must fuse with the Dao Nian."

Clearly, the ultimate goal was for Ding Huan to fuse with the parchment.

Ding Huan immediately sent a thought to Tai Xu: "This Wang Ba is using your name. Let's kill it."

The Tai Xu Flame, long wanting to burn the parchment, received Ding Huan's suggestion and its flames surged again.

Ding Huan continuously reinforced Tai Xu with Flame Dao Principles; the already surging Tai Xu Flame rose another tier in power.

Ding Huan himself began burning his essence to raise the temperature of the Flame Dao Principles—he knew destroying this parchment would not be simple.

Under Ding Huan's relentless driving force, the Tai Xu Flame erupted with a terrifying temperature surpassing Ninth-Rank Immortal Flame.

Ding Huan's cultivation was weak, but his Dao Principles were unmatched.

Now, burning his essence to drive the Flame Dao Principles, he would kill gods who stood in his way and slay Buddhas who blocked his path.

Yet even so, he could not destroy the Dao Nian within the parchment—evidencing just how formidable that Dao Nian truly was.

"Ding Xiaotu, you are digging your own grave. You will regret this…"

The Dao Rhythm of the parchment's Dao Nian echoed again—but the next instant, the Dao Rhythm Immortal Array collapsed, consumed by the Tai Xu Flame reinforced by Ding Huan into nothingness.

Chiiii!

Waves of black smoke curled around the parchment; the parchment twisted wildly.

Ding Huan could not help but admire the parchment's resilience—this flame, exceeding Ninth-Rank Immortal Flame, still could not burn away even a single Dao Nian.

One day, ten days, one month…

Ding Huan's physical body had already advanced to Ninth-Rank Immortal Body, yet he still relentlessly burned the parchment alongside Tai Xu.

Three months later, the black smoke around the parchment turned to gray smoke, then white smoke, then red.

But the parchment kept jumping, like a cockroach that refused to die.

Crack!

Ding Huan's bones continuously cracked, and waves of powerful Immortal Spiritual Energy instantly permeated his entire body.

Ninth-Rank Immortal Body achieved.

At this point, even without the Nirvana Technique, the molten fire could no longer harm his body.

But for Ding Huan now, progress in body refinement was merely a side benefit—he truly needed to burn the parchment.

Another month passed, and Ding Huan connected with the Immortal Spirit Vein inside the iron pot.

Indeed, with the Immortal Spirit Source from the vein, the Tai Xu Flame rose another tier.

Yet it was still insufficient—Ding Huan could still see the parchment dancing merrily within the Tai Xu Flame.

He decisively threw ten Superior Immortal Spirit Veins into the Tai Xu Flame.

The temperature, already far beyond the molten fire, erupted with a terrifying roar.

Immediately, Ding Huan saw the topmost layer of the parchment lose its color—it finally shifted from gray-brown to pale gray.

These Immortal Spirit Veins were not enough. Ding Huan tossed in one top-grade Immortal Spirit Vein.

The top-grade Immortal Spirit Vein exploded within the flame, and the flame's power surged again.

The gray on the parchment faded, turning dark white.

Still not enough.

Ding Huan's divine sense settled upon the Dao Vein.

This Dao Vein was only three zhang long—a broken remnant of a broken remnant.

He truly hated to use it; once consumed, his cultivation progress would slow drastically.

Otherwise, after he ascended to Immortal King, using this Dao Vein for cultivation would let him reach Immortal Emperor in the shortest possible time.

Screw it—no pain, no gain.