Chapter 198

Three hundred years ago, when Dongfang Wuji was still a child, he had once heard his father mention the two words 'Heavenly Dao'.

That was when his father brought it up at a discussion with all the elders of the family.

At that time Dongfang Wuji was only five or six years old; he mischievously crawled under his father's stool, intending to startle him, but instead he heard his father say, 'Our Dongfang Clan can no longer withstand the Heavenly Dao; if we do not leave Dong Hai and ally with the sects of Bei Du to seek help, all that awaits us is destruction!'

The Grand Elder slammed the table and retorted, 'Our Dongfang Clan is supreme under heaven; why would we need anyone else's help? No matter how strong the Heavenly Dao is, what of it? Bonds and rules lie there; they have no reason to descend to the mortal realm.'

'Grand Elder, rules are dead, people are alive! If we just stand by and do nothing, it's the same as waiting for death!'

'Enough said. I, observing the night sky, have seen the one who can change our Dongfang Clan already born; raise your child well, and leave the rest to me.' The Grand Elder said impatiently, tapping the ground bricks with his cane as he spoke, reminding Dongfang Wuji's father to mind his station.

Dongfang Wuji would never forget the look his father gave him then—the most terrifying gaze he had ever seen in his life.

'Wuji… you should not live; if you become the source of a massacre in the mortal realm, then I cannot let you live…'

In the end, Dongfang Wuji's father could not bring himself to strike, and because of his mercy, the mortal realm welcomed a cataclysmic disaster.

Later, for reasons unknown—perhaps because Dongfang Wuji had incarnated as a giant demon and set foot in Bei Du, causing the Heavenly Dao not to descend upon the mortal realm at the appointed time—yet he took its place, becoming a devil who slaughtered mankind!

'Heavenly Dao…' Dongfang Wuji never expected that three hundred years later the Heavenly Dao would truly descend to the mortal realm, and he now understood why his father's gaze back then had been so terrifying—his father had long known he was one of the keys to opening the Heavenly Dao, and when the three keys gathered, the Heavenly Dao would be officially opened.

Three hundred years ago his father had thwarted everything, but fate is ever a coincidence; his father could never have calculated that he would be resurrected three hundred years later, and thus no one can stop the Heavenly Dao now.

'Heh… it seems we still couldn't escape all of this…' Dongfang Wuji said with a helpless, bitter smile.

Yan Shan Hai and Ling Hu Shang had never before seen such an expression on the face of a mighty giant demon.

'So you should understand why we came to find you.' Yan Shan Hai even saw fear in Dongfang Wuji's eyes.

That fear flashed by, yet it could not be erased.

'Hahaha! Hahaha! You aren't hoping I'll help you deal with the Heavenly Dao, are you?' Dongfang Wuji tried to mask the fear in his eyes with loud laughter; as he laughed, the demonic aura around him flickered in and out, 'The Heavenly Dao is not just those three people. You should know they are merely fugitives from the Heavenly Dao, and their strength is still a hundred thousand miles from the true Heavenly Dao.'

'What?!' Yan Shan Hai exclaimed in shock.

'There's actually such a thing…' Ling Hu Shang found it hard to believe.

Their worldviews were shattered, then fused together into a muddled mess, as if everything Dongfang Wuji said were Arabian Nights tales, yet they could not help but believe him.

'Those three fled the Heavenly Dao, violating the rules of heaven and earth, and since heaven and earth's rules are set by the Heavenly Dao, whoever breaks them—even if they flee to the ends of the earth—must be seized and brought back.'

'So you're saying we don't need to deal with those three ourselves, because someone will come to subdue them?' Yan Shan Hai asked, following Dongfang Wuji's line of thought.

Who would have thought Dongfang Wuji would shake his head, knowing seemingly more than the royal ancestor, and he continued, 'The last time beings of the Heavenly Dao came to the mortal realm, it may have been several thousand or tens of thousands of years ago; back then the mortal realm was merely a barren waste, so they could tolerate it, but this time, if they see the prosperity of the mortal realm and the beauty of humanity, they will mercilessly wipe everything out and then let all mortals start anew…'

'Too terrifying…' Yan Shan Hai lamented.

'They cannot tolerate the mortal realm surpassing their Heavenly Dao; the laws they establish are both the laws of the Heavenly Dao and the laws of the mortal realm! They dictate when we are born, and we are born then; they dictate when we die, and we die then!' Dongfang Wuji said.

'Hahaha! Then aren't we just others' playthings?' Yan Shan Hai laughed and retorted; what he most wanted to say now was to deny all of this and then hurl abuse at the faces of the three Heavenly Dao beings.

'Not even worthy of being called a plaything.' Ling Hu Shang felt a chill run through him; even a carefree person could not imagine such a thing happening.

'Such a thing must never happen in our mortal realm! We are not pawns, not playthings; we have our own thoughts, our own minds. We built all this, we worked hard for all of it—could it not compare to a single flick of the Heavenly Dao's finger? And who is it that established the laws between heaven and earth?' Yan Shan Hai shouted angrily.

'Hahaha! Fun, fun! This old man doesn't even know that. Above the Seven Heavens there are still people; above the Heavenly Dao there is still the Dao, heh… everything in the world is beyond grasp.' Dongfang Wuji laughed loudly, 'Cough cough… I never imagined I'd encounter such a thing in my lifetime—a once-in-ten-thousand-years occurrence; we must seize it well! If you dare drag the emperor off his horse, do you dare drag the Heavenly Dao down from its steed? Cough cough…'

'What's there not to dare? We've come to this point—do we have any other retreat? Since we're all going to die anyway, why not die with backbone?' Yan Shan Hai countered, 'Or must we just watch helplessly as we perish?'

Dongfang Wuji slowly closed his eyes again, absorbing all the surrounding demonic aura into his body. 'You aren't just waiting helplessly for destruction—what else can you do?'

'Resist!' Yan Shan Hai, excited and nearly leaping to his feet, gritted his teeth and told Dongfang Wuji, 'Just as we resisted you—resist the Heavenly Dao!'

'Hahaha, resistance—is that just what you martial artists say? Opposition? Nothing but a dying struggle.'

'Give it a try; we need your help—don't tell me you can't lend a hand?' Finally, Yan Shan Hai spoke up.

'Was it the royal ancestor who sent you to find me?' Dongfang Wuji opened one eye, glancing at Yan Shan Hai from the corner of his sight.

Yan Shan Hai did not deny it, but he feared Dongfang Wuji would also bring up conditions.