Chapter 78

###**I. Sugar Spoon Points West · Primordial Remnants Appear**

Lin Jin gripped the sugar spoon, amber light flowing from the handle, pointing west of the scorched earth. Walking nine miles, sugar frost condensed into a Heaven-Piercing remnant staircase, with alchemy furnace fragments of Medicine King Valley scattered on the steps. On a charred furnace wall, Ao Zhan's last words were crookedly carved:

**"Primordial is not Qi, but the blood and tears of those who ask the Dao."**

At the end of the staircase, a Bronze Giant Gate suddenly appeared, the door ring being two sugar hearts—the left sugar heart wrapped in Ling Yue's sword intent, the right sugar heart sealing Ao Li's Nirvana remnant fire! Lin Jin inserted the spoon into the gate crack as a key, and as the syrup sprayed, a ferocious laugh from Lin Xuan came from inside the gate:

"Good grandson, your father's relics have long become sacrifices for the Dao-swallowing ones!"

###**II. Devouring Abyss Inside the Gate · Ten Thousand Sugars Feed Heaven**

Inside the gate was an inverted Dao-swallowing altar, with ten thousand sugar-sculpted cultivators suspended in the void by bronze chains, the ends of the chains disappearing into pitch-black cracks. A pale giant hand reached out from the crack, the sugar figurine cultivators crushed by its fingertips transforming into streams of light, merging into the scarlet pupils deep in the crack—the gaze of the Dao-swallowing ones outside the sky!

Lin Xuan's phantom rose from the altar, holding Ao Zhan's Azure Dragon Ring in his palm: "This ring seals your father's lifelong cultivation, unfortunately..." He crushed the ring surface, and the Primordial Chaos Qi was actually swallowed by the crack, "it all became bait to feed Heaven!"

Lin Jin's sugar sword slashed toward the crack, but the sword tip was blocked by a pale giant finger: "A mere ant, daring to touch the might of Heaven?"

###**III. Sugar Heart Burns Soul · Ao Li Returns to Dust**

The Dao-swallowing pressure crushed the sugar sword, and just as Lin Jin's seven orifices bled, a warmth suddenly appeared in his arms—the child chasing the sugar butterfly appeared out of nowhere, the sugar figurine in his hand exploding into golden flames. A young girl's figure walked out from the golden flames, the Nirvana pattern behind her ear burning through the void: "Fellow Daoist Lin, the sugar heart can burn the soul!"

Ao Li's phantom grasped the remnant sword, the syrup mixed with Primordial Chaos Qi re-condensing the sword body. Wherever the sword light swept, ten thousand sugar-sculpted cultivators opened their eyes in unison, the Burial Coffin patterns in their bodies reversing into green lotuses!

"Dao-swallowing ones, the dogs you raised are biting back!" In Ao Li's cold laugh, Lin Xuan's phantom was shredded by the green lotus roots.

###**IV. Crack Surprise · Asking the Dao Has No End**

The Dao-swallowing giant hand slapped down in a rage, and Lin Jin stepped on the inverted altar to meet it. The sugar heart sword intent pierced into the palm, actually burning charred marks on the pale skin: "Primordial Chaos Qi? You actually realized..."

A heaven-shaking roar came from deep within the crack, and the Chaos Realm collapsed accordingly. Ao Li's phantom suddenly solidified, the Nirvana Fire wrapping around Lin Jin: "Go! Its true body is about to descend—"

Before the words could finish, the giant hand flicked its finger, and the two were blasted into the Primordial Chaos remnants at the bottom of the altar. The stele inscription on the remnants suddenly lit up:

**"Asking the Dao has no end, only the heart can cross. Swallowing the Dao is not the Dao, sugar leads to the secret of Heaven."**

###**V. Remnants Reveal Secrets · Sugar Butterfly Leads Tribulation**

The stele inscription exploded, flying out ten thousand sugar butterflies. The butterfly wing patterns pieced together into a star map, pointing to the ancient void path outside the Chaos Realm. Lin Jin coughed up blood and stroked the stele, seeing half a candy wrapper pressed under the stele base—it was exactly the one that wrapped the Azure Dragon Ring three hundred years ago, with Ling Yue's blood letter added to the back:

**"Jin'er, the Dao-swallowing ones fear the sugar soul. Your father fused his lifelong cultivation into the sugar butterflies..."**

Before the words could finish, pale raindrops descended from the crack, and wherever the rainwater touched, the sugar butterflies turned to ash. Ao Li suddenly pushed Lin Jin away, the Nirvana Fire transforming into a sugar coat to take the rain arrows: "Take the sugar butterflies and go! They are your father's..."

The sound of the sugar coat shattering and the unfinished words were all drowned out by the roar of the Dao-swallowing ones.

###**Final Act · Ancient Path First Appears**

Lin Jin fell into the void clutching the remnant wings of the sugar butterflies, the Chaos Realm behind him collapsing completely. A faint light suddenly appeared ahead, and in the light floated ancient path remnant steles condensed from sugar frost, the inscriptions mottled but recognizable:

**"Seven Tribulations of Swallowing the Dao, Sugar Heart as the guide. Where the secret of Heaven is broken, asking the Dao has no end."**

Beside the stele squatted an old man selling sugar paintings, carving a new sugar figurine for a child—the face of that sugar figurine was shockingly Ao Li before she destroyed herself!