Chapter 194: Ten Thousand Years of Shattered Heavens, the Birth of Heaven's Will!

"He is there, burning everything of himself..."

After the scenes before them fell into the eyes of the onlookers, whether they were of the Supreme class or the Quasi-Supreme rank, all of them harbored an unspeakable, massive shock and great tremor in their hearts at this moment.

They truly did not know how to describe the scenes unfolding before them.

They could only see, see that Gu Jiangming, this Red Lotus Demon Venerable, seemed at this moment to be burning away his entire self, pouring everything into that Qilin Stone, and then letting that Qilin Stone charge straight into the firmament.

At this very moment, between Heaven and Earth, one could only see a divine light of the inconceivable shining brilliantly.

That was the divine light of the Qilin Stone; that was an inconceivable strike unleashed by Gu Jiangming, the only Heavenly Human existence between Heaven and Earth, after burning away his entire self.

Whoever witnessed such a strike could understand that this was likely the final strike of Gu Jiangming, this Heavenly Human.

Behind the Qilin Stone, one could vaguely see the phantom of Gu Jiangming.

This phantom was entrusted upon the Qilin Stone, its expression containing only solemnity and only detachment.

That phantom held up the Qilin Stone, its gaze directed forward, as if confronting some inconceivable existence, and then, the Qilin Stone crashed thunderously into an inconceivable realm.

This was a true shattering of the heavens and earth; under the gaze of infinite sentient beings, they saw it, saw a figure on that firmament crash into the celestial canopy.

Under the gaze of infinite sentient beings, that figure seemed to have crashed into something invisible.

In just a fleeting instant, within the Four Wilds and Eight Desolations of the entire Heaven and Earth, everyone could hear a terrifying, thunderous roar.

Accompanying the ringing of this thunderous roar, sentient beings saw even more clearly that upon the firmament, there was unmistakably a void.

Such a scene, falling into the eyes of ordinary people, was truly as if the sky itself had been broken open by someone! In fact, that was indeed the case! When Gu Jiangming realized that no matter how he schemed, it was impossible to ascend to become an Immortal, and that it was even extremely difficult to strike the Qilin Grotto-Heaven into the Void, Gu Jiangming had already made his decision.

His decision was to sacrifice his Dao with his body, sacrificing his entire self, entrusting it all to the Qilin Stone, and then using the Qilin Stone as a support to strike fiercely at the place where the Heavenly Net and the Qilin Grotto-Heaven were connected!

A Heavenly Human sacrificing his Dao without regard for his life—even though this Heavenly Net encompassed everything, it was still struck open by Gu Jiangming's blow.

The Heavenly Net shattered; that was the shattering of the principles and rules of Heaven and Earth!

In the eyes of infinite sentient beings, today was destined to be different, and it was a day that people would be unable to forget.

The sky broke, the earth shook, yin and yang reversed, the stars fell, the four seasons fell into chaos, and the seas and lands rolled over.

For those who had attained Heaven and Earth Enlightenment, or for the more powerful cultivators, they were able to know what kind of events were occurring within the Four Wilds and Eight Desolations, but for those ordinary sentient beings, they only looked around in confusion, they only looked up at the sky in terror.

Within Beidi, the final connection that the Qilin Grotto-Heaven originally had with Heaven and Earth began to sever.

In the eyes of those who had attained Heaven and Earth Enlightenment, and those Supremes and Quasi-Supremes, that Qilin Grotto-Heaven crashed thunderously into the Void, and from then on could no longer be seen.

It was not that no one harbored ulterior motives; at such a critical moment, those who had attained Heaven and Earth Enlightenment could all see that this Heaven and Earth did not allow for the existence of those who ascended to become Immortals.

Everything the Red Lotus Demon Venerable did was to recreate a Heaven and Earth outside of the current Heaven and Earth, and then ascend to become an Immortal in the new Heaven and Earth.

But at this time, Gu Jiangming had clearly fallen, which naturally led those who had attained Heaven and Earth Enlightenment, and even those of the Quasi-Supreme rank, to want to step into the Qilin Grotto-Heaven.

If they could take control of the Qilin Grotto-Heaven that Gu Jiangming had fought to the death to preserve, perhaps, perhaps they too would have a chance to ascend to become Immortals? There were not a few beings holding such thoughts, but before they could even act, Jiu Jiu and the other three stepped into the Void first.

They had seen Gu Jiangming's sacrifice of his Dao clearly, but they had not forgotten the purpose of Gu Jiangming's sacrifice.

Gu Jiangming wanted to refine the Qilin Grotto-Heaven into the Taiyi Stone! If the Qilin Grotto-Heaven were allowed to fall into the Void, it would escape the cage of Heaven and Earth, and perhaps one day in the future, it could grow into a world of its own.

But this would be of no benefit to Gu Jiangming!

Originally, with the cultivation of Jiu Jiu and the other three, once they stepped into the Void, it would not be long before they were assimilated by the power of nothingness, and then their souls would be completely scattered.

But at this time, Jiu Jiu and the others could no longer care about such things, not to mention that with Gu Jiangming's sacrifice of his Dao, Jiu Jiu and the other three already harbored the thought of following Gu Jiangming.

When Jiu Jiu and the other three stepped into the Void, the four of them joined forces, all unleashing supreme divine abilities to refine the Qilin Grotto-Heaven, which had just broken free from the constraints of Heaven and Earth, entirely into the Taiyi Stone.

Visibly, everything on Jiu Jiu and the other three was rapidly rotting and dissipating.

But Jiu Jiu and the other three did not care at all; they just sat in the Void, calmed their minds, and focused wholeheartedly on refining the Qilin Grotto-Heaven into the Taiyi Stone.

At the ruins of Wanglin Mountain, Gu Nianmo and his two siblings had barely reacted before everything had already happened.

In the blink of an eye, in their eyes, their omnipotent father had sacrificed his Dao to strike the sky, and their mother and aunt, as if by prior agreement, walked straight into the Void, and were even unleashing divine abilities to seal the Void and refine the Taiyi Stone.

Everything developed far too quickly, so quickly that Gu Nianmo and his siblings had only just begun to grieve for their father's fall, and the next moment they could only watch helplessly as their mother stepped into a dead end.

The void crack left behind by the Qilin Grotto-Heaven escaping Heaven and Earth was slowly healing; whether it was Gu Nianmo, Gu Shengxi, or Gu Mingyue, they could only watch as their mother and aunt were about to sink completely into nothingness.

For a time, the three siblings of Gu Nianmo looked around in confusion; they did not understand, did not understand how it had become this situation in just a single moment? Gu Nianmo and his siblings were in a trance, but how could Long Ao and the many other Supremes and Quasi-Supremes be any better off?

Although they had not stepped into nothingness, having cultivated to their level, how could they not understand that without the Immortal Realm or the power of a Heavenly Human, stepping into the realm of nothingness would only lead to the end of one's body and Dao?

In a short period of time, one Heavenly Human sacrificed his Dao to break the sky, and four Supremes voluntarily stepped into the realm of nothingness.

The old Dragon King had noticed Long Xi's actions, but the old Dragon King had never thought, never thought that his daughter would actually step into the realm of nothingness, and even continue to refine the Qilin Grotto-Heaven into the Taiyi Stone.

"How could it come to this, how could it come to this?"

"The fall of the Heavenly Human Gu was a foregone conclusion, but for the four of them, including Long Xi, how could it come to this?"

"Even if they refine the Qilin Grotto-Heaven, what of it? They clearly still had long lifespans; how could they be so unwise?"

The old Dragon King could not help but let out long questions; he seemed to be asking the many Supremes beside him, or perhaps he was asking Heaven? But in the end, no one responded to him! On Wanglin Mountain, the Supremes looked around in silence, and those who had attained Heaven and Earth Enlightenment harbored great confusion in their hearts.

These people stood at the old site of Wanglin Mountain, and they did not know how long they had stood there; in the end, they all left with infinite doubts, while the old Dragon King, Ziwu, Long Ao, and Huang Yu stayed at the old site of Wanglin Mountain for another three to five years.

As for Gu Nianmo and his two siblings, they did not say a word during those three to five years, only striking the Void like madmen, attempting to blast open the Void and bring their mother and aunt back from nothingness. But their actions were, in the end, merely futile, and in the end, merely powerless!

However, no one knew that high above in the infinite firmament, or rather, within the invisible Heavenly Net, a gaze was watching the human world before it.

The owner of this gaze was Gu Jiangming! The Qilin Stone carried Gu Jiangming's Dao, carried everything of Gu Jiangming, and even after Gu Jiangming reconstructed the Four Thousand Bureau, it smashed fiercely against the Heavenly Net, truly and effectively smashing a hole in the Heavenly Net that had originally operated without obstruction.

This was also the reason for the reversal of the four seasons within the Four Wilds and Eight Desolations; after all, the principles of Heaven and Earth had been smashed, and the Heavenly Net responsible for operating everything was itself in chaos.

But what surprised Gu Jiangming somewhat was that this strike of his did not lead to his true death and the dissipation of his Dao.

The Wanglin Stone was entrusted with Gu Jiangming's Heavenly Human Dao Principle; no matter how much the Heavenly Net disliked Gu Jiangming, the Heavenly Human Dao Principle had been delivered right to its doorstep, and the Heavenly Net's fixed program instinctively sought to turn Gu Jiangming's Dao Principle, entrusted upon the Wanglin Stone, into a main artery of the Heavenly Net.

It was not that the Heavenly Net did not want to strip Gu Jiangming's Dao Principle from the Wanglin Stone; it was entirely that the Heavenly Net had no such consciousness, and with its other networks in chaos, the Heavenly Net made do by using the Wanglin Stone as a main artery to repair itself.

But the strange part was this: although he had burned away everything, a tiny bit of his True Spirit was still entrusted upon the Dao Principle.

If the Dao Principle were incorporated into the Heavenly Net, this tiny bit of True Spirit would naturally have vanished into thin air.

But as it happened, the Heavenly Net made do with the Wanglin Stone, and the tiny bit of Gu Jiangming's True Spirit entrusted within the Wanglin Stone just happened to avoid assimilation by the Heavenly Net with extreme coincidence.

The Heavenly Net had no self-consciousness; it was merely a fixed program.

In the perception of the Heavenly Net, although this newly born Heavenly Human Dao Principle looked a bit strange and had even caused it great trouble, this newly born Heavenly Human Dao Principle seemed exceptionally sensible.

At the very least, while the Heavenly Net was still sorting through its other chaotic, fractured, and broken Dao Principles, this segment of newly born Heavenly Human Dao Principle was actively sorting through the various Dao Principles governing this territory of the Human Race.

Although the method by which it sorted the Dao Principles was different from the Heavenly Net itself, it could still be seen that the structural appearance of the two was exactly the same.

Ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years...

This territory had no years, no time; it was as if everything remained unchanged, and yet as if it had existed since the dawn of time.

Only the passage of time in the mortal world, only the rising and setting of the sun and moon, told the world that a thousand years of time had flowed away just like that.

In a thousand years, everything in the Four Wilds and Eight Desolations seemed to have returned to its original appearance; Supremes and Quasi-Supremes had vanished from the mortal world, and those in the Heaven and Earth Enlightenment Realm with long lifespans were active in the world, occasionally speaking of the past events of the collapse of Wanglin Mountain a thousand years ago.

Gu Nianmo, Gu Shengxi, and Gu Mingyue had disappeared without a trace.

Only those in the Heaven and Earth Enlightenment Realm who had experienced everything from a thousand years ago speculated that the three descendants of the Heavenly Human Gu must have gone to search for an Opportunity to break through to the Heavenly Human realm.

After all, it was known to all that the three children of the Heavenly Human Gu had once spent three hundred years smashing the Heaven and Earth at the old site of Wanglin Mountain.

But in the end, they still failed to smash through the Heaven and Earth, and even inviting several other Supremes to join forces was to no avail.

Time seemed to be smoothing everything over, letting everything dissipate into the long river of history.

But the Heaven and Earth were, after all, different! I do not know when it began—perhaps three hundred years ago, perhaps five hundred years ago—but the inheritance of the Divine Path suddenly flourished in the world; some said it was the Divine Path technique passed down by the wife of the Heavenly Human Gu, Supreme Jiu Jiu, and some said it was the Supreme technique passed down by Supreme Mingyue.

But the Divine Path, after all, blossomed in the Heaven and Earth in this way.

Those old cultivators who had no hope of breaking through but were unwilling to die began to actively comprehend the Divine Path, achieving the status of gods of a mountain, a river, or various other things.

They sorted the Heaven and Earth; they either understood or half-understood how to mobilize Dao Principles and sort them.

The Divine Path technique originated from the Human Race, and in just a few hundred years, this Divine Path technique had already begun to spread and propagate to other territories.

Gradually, some even discovered that Divine Path cultivation was easier to achieve the Heaven and Earth Enlightenment Realm compared to traditional cultivation.

Although the Divine Path technique had only been circulating for a mere few hundred years, the number of existences who had achieved Heaven and Earth Enlightenment with the help of the Divine Path technique had reached as many as thirty.

This made the Divine Path technique seem, for a time, highly revered by all living beings in the world.

But no one knew that the essence of the Divine Path technique was the Heavenly Net, and that Gu Jiangming, who had already controlled a piece of the Heavenly Net after the Four Thousand Bureau, was actively opening his own nodes to let those gods cultivate.

Original cultivators cultivated Dao Principles themselves, while Divine Path cultivators spent their entire lives merely cultivating Dao Principles for the Heaven and Earth.

And if anyone in the Four Wilds and Eight Desolations could see the Heavenly Net at this time, they would inevitably see that on that vast and mighty Heavenly Net, there was a small piece that seemed to have been patched on later, and it even looked somewhat new.

That was a part of the Heavenly Net controlled after the Four Thousand Bureau, and it was also a part of the Heavenly Net controlled by Gu Jiangming.

Regarding this clearly different territory, the Heavenly Net did not have any special reaction, as if that piece of the post-Four Thousand Bureau Heavenly Net was originally a part of the Heaven and Earth, and originally a part of the Heavenly Net.

I do not know when it began—perhaps as the number of gods grew, perhaps after Supreme Long Ao fell, Supreme Huang Yu failed his nirvana, and Supreme Ziwu fell into a deep slumber—but rumors began to spread among those gods.

These gods, equivalent to the Heaven and Earth Enlightenment Realm, said that the Heaven and Earth had consciousness, and the more one cultivated, the more one could feel that consciousness; they called that consciousness, Heavenly Will!!! Three thousand years, five thousand years, eight thousand years...

The theory of Heavenly Will was no longer a secret among the gods, and original traditional cultivation gradually declined in such a long period of time, replaced by the Divine Path which flourished in the world.

After all, compared to the original cultivation method, Divine Path cultivation was simply too fast and too easy.

Traces of the Heaven and Earth Enlightenment Realm gradually became rare in the mortal world, and gods became the mainstream of the world.

Almost no one remembered the story of the Heavenly Human ascending to immortality nearly ten thousand years ago, no one remembered the Heavenly Human smashing the sky, or the Supremes stepping into the void; or rather, those had all become legends.

Even though there were still Supremes in the world, those Supremes simply did not appear in the world at all.

Until ten thousand years had passed, after the Four Thousand Bureau of the Heavenly Net, that bit of Gu Jiangming's True Spirit slowly awakened once again.

In ten thousand years of time, this last bit of Gu Jiangming's True Spirit had also reached the verge of dissipation, but in the ten thousand years, Gu Jiangming's post-Four Thousand Bureau had already become completely inseparable from the Heavenly Net, and even evolved things like Heavenly Will within the Heavenly Net.

Heavenly Will was Gu Jiangming, yet it was not Gu Jiangming; it was merely the instinct of the post-Four Thousand Bureau, the order that Gu Jiangming had set for the post-Four Thousand Bureau Heavenly Net.

(End of this chapter)