Chapter 2744: The Derivation Immortal Venerable Dies: Mistaken for Me, Not the Dao

The Derivation Immortal Venerable has fled!

He has fled!

The key is, the fleet's military formation did not trap him, and he truly escaped.

The Sun Ancient Emperor, the Nine-Leaf Sword Emperor, and others showed expressions of furious rage, ashamed beyond measure, their faces alternating between green and white, yet they did not pursue, merely watching.

The Derivation Immortal Venerable, the strongest of the Fifth Golden Great Age, who inherited the principle of reversing heaven and earth to forge the Dao and pushed it to its peak, fled in madness, about to escape to the cosmic wilderness in an instant, but in the next moment, he, as well as the spacetime, the Dao, and the three thousand rules around him, all solidified.

In this Fifth Golden Great Age's universe, the myriad stars, countless turning great and minor thousand worlds, and even the ancient realms all solidified.

If viewed from a higher-dimensional perspective, the river of time throughout the ages suddenly halted for a moment as it flowed through this instant, revealing a major anomaly.

The Derivation Immortal Venerable's mad expression froze, his gaze slowly fixing ahead.

There, a youth in blue robes stood silently.

No spatial fluctuations, no ripples of time—even though this era's Golden Great Age master held complete authority over heaven and earth, he could not sense anything, as if this existence had been here since the dawn of heaven and earth, waiting for his arrival.

Time fell silent for a moment.

No words were spoken.

The binding force vanished.

The Derivation Immortal Venerable gasped heavily, his body pierced through by countless black chains and spear shafts, many places mangled with flesh and blood, exposing bone, his immortal form covered in sword marks, seal marks, halberd marks, and numerous wounds left by the Ancient Emperors of the Seventh Golden Great Age.

The Derivation Immortal Venerable was in a wretched state, utterly miserable.

After a long while, his immortal body slowly recovered, flesh regenerated, barely covering the bones, regaining a rough human form, barely revealing a trace of the immortal's former ethereal grace and transcendent aura.

"Your path, is it wrong?"

The Earth Immortal asked lightly.

Again, silence fell.

The Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang was asking: when the two Golden Great Age masters first met, their Dao discussion—both believed the Dao was as they saw it, supreme and absolutely correct, capable of citing countless examples to prove it, with countless facts and past war histories etched in stone.

The Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang believed that the path to immortality lies in repeated breakthroughs in immortal productivity; once one possesses the productivity of the immortal realm, one can naturally become an immortal.

The Derivation Immortal Venerable believed that cosmic spiritual energy and matter are constant; as long as one successfully reverses the universe's principle, one can naturally become an immortal; the so-called development of immortal productivity and accumulation is merely useless effort.

Each side held their own view, and the Dao discussion could not determine right from wrong.

This is the origin of the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang's question.

"Ah~"

"My Dao, is it wrong?"

The Derivation Immortal Venerable gazed into the depths of the Wu Jin Kong Kong, let out a soft sigh, and said.

Right and wrong were already decided at the moment victory or defeat appeared, regardless of whether one verbally acknowledges it; though he lost, this self-respect he was unwilling to abandon, and he stubbornly defended himself.

"Where is it wrong?"

Jiang Ding continued to ask.

This seemed like boasting of one's own victory, humiliating the opponent, something a natural victor should rightly possess.

But no.

The Earth Immortal had lived through an immeasurably long span of years, his lifespan even exceeding twice that of the Derivation Immortal Venerable—over forty billion years—and before the Derivation Immortal Venerable, he was actually the elder, and would not engage in such meaningless actions.

He was like a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old student in class asking a teacher why a math problem was wrong, innocent and pure, without any other motives mixed in.

"Wrong in,"

"My Derivation, talent low, stupid as a pig, incapable of achievement!"

The Derivation Immortal Venerable whispered: "Reversing heaven and earth's principle must be correct, the supreme Dao; as long as one can fully reverse the universe's principle, one will inevitably become an immortal on the spot."

"And cosmic spiritual energy and matter, like the yin-yang cycle, eternal and unchanging, is also the sagely principle."

"I am stupid as a pig, yet I only reversed three-tenths of heaven and earth's principle in the mortal realm, never reaching the limit of this path, thus I deserve to die here—this is natural law."

"Just as on this path to immortality, generation after generation of ancestral masters, generation after generation of sages."

Reversing heaven and earth's principle was not created by the Derivation Immortal Venerable; before him, the strongest who forged the Dao by reversing heaven and earth was the Earth Immortal; most cultivators of this path died in sieges, then lay dormant awaiting the Golden Great Age, and the Fifth Golden Great Age is a brilliant era where cultivators of various paths revive.

In the Fifth Golden Great Age, the Derivation Immortal Venerable was born, slaughtering his way through, slaying all heavenly prodigies to become the strongest, akin to an ancient great emperor.

Unlike the ancient great emperor, the Derivation Immortal Venerable, as a Dao-forger of this Golden Great Age, slew the masters of every path, reversed heaven and earth's principle, achieved immortal venerable status, and became invincible in the Golden Great Age.

But today, he lost.

He lost to cultivators of the Seventh Golden Great Age from who knows how many billions of years in the future.

"That is to say,"

"The Dao-forging method of reversing heaven and earth's principle is not wrong; it is you who are wrong."

Jiang Ding translated for him.

"Exactly so."

The Derivation Immortal Venerable slightly nodded, displaying a composed demeanor.

"Then let this lord also speak his thoughts."

Jiang Ding nodded, indicating understanding, then said: "This lord believes the Dao-forging method of reversing heaven and earth's principle is wrong, while you are not wrong—you have already reached the limit of this path."

"The error lies in the Dao, not in you."

"Why say so?"

Jiang Ding said lightly: "This path, from the very beginning, has been weakening the immortal foundation of the universe; from the very beginning, it has made heaven and earth more barren; its limit was already fixed at the start, with no further development possible; from the source, this path has already failed."

"You said, heavenly and earthly matter and energy are constant."

"You also said, the so-called accumulation and development of productivity limits are meaningless, because all development and accumulation merely change the form of matter, transforming hard-to-use matter and energy into easy-to-use matter and energy—this is meaningless."

"This is a fact,"

"This is also sophistry."

"If one could truly ignore any premise and utilize all matter and energy in the universe—what you call reversing heaven and earth's principle from the source, without need for accumulation—if you could truly do so, ignoring all premises to utilize all matter and energy in the universe, then,"

"You are already an immortal."

"Ignoring all prerequisites and utilizing matter and energy—this is the method of an immortal."

Jiang Ding looked at the immortal with the bearing of a celestial before him and said calmly: "Your path, whose principle is 'to become an immortal by using the fact of becoming immortal,' is fundamentally fallacious."

"Even if your luck is good, and you encounter the same master of the Three-Character Immortal Scripture in this Golden Age, and by chance win, you still cannot become an immortal; the probability is not small, but zero."

"Because from the very beginning, the source of the Great Dao was mistaken, leaving no possibility of becoming an immortal."

"This is my view."

The blue-clad youth slowly expressed his thoughts, sharing them.

The Immortal Yan Fa nodded, indicating he had heard.

"What do you think?"

Jiang Ding slowly drew the Taiqing Flying Sword from his waist, still granting symbolic respect to a master of the Golden Age.

"You are wrong."

"This is the prejudice of mediocrity, mistaken for self, not for the Dao."

Immortal Yan Fa said calmly.

"Hmm."

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword flashed past, the sword returned to its sheath, and the blue-clad youth turned and departed.

The Fifth Master of the Golden Age, invincible among living beings, who defied heaven and earth to reach the pinnacle of the Dao through cultivation, Immortal Yan Fa, died beneath the sword of Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang of the Seventh Golden Age!