Chapter 959: You

A crow’s wing sliced through the night sky, flying low over the river’s surface.

It flew past the Three Forks River mouth, crossed the Tianhou Palace, and landed amid a ruin reduced to ashes.

As the crow landed, the broken walls and shattered beams suddenly restored to their original form—vivid, lifelike, an ancient and elegant Wanghai Tower, its curtains hanging like curtains.

Qian Chen sat within the four-sided gauze curtains, pen in hand, writing furiously upon a desk.

The crow flapped its wings and landed beside him; the lamplight flickered, its reflection in the nearby Haihe River showing only charred ruins and collapsed towers.

The river mirrored the ruined towers; beyond the river, buildings glowed with brilliant lights, while within the water, only broken walls and shattered beams remained—no one could tell what was real and what was reflection.

Yet Qian Chen had used great divine power to split the two realms, preserving the reflection of the Wanghai Tower in the river, reversing its true and shadow forms daily—making the tower’s lights glow brilliantly within. Though only three days had passed, it had already become the most bizarre oddity in Zhigucheng!

Locals called it the Wanghai Ghost Tower.

The local gentry had already begun discussing rebuilding the Wanghai Tower.

Qian Chen dipped his brush into the cinnabar inkstone beside him, then wrote in a fluid, effortless stroke—a single narrow strip of yellow paper bore a complete talisman in one sweep.

Qian Chen glanced at the talisman, shook his head slightly, and set the brush aside.

The crow spoke: “Lord, three of the Five Celestial Deities you selected have arrived at the Yaowang Temple; the Illusion-Piercing True Eye has been perfected; the Heavenly Melody Divine Ear and the Taste-Path Divine Tongue are breaking through their realms; but the Dragon Jade Nose and the Mysterious Divine Hair have yet to enter the game…”

“No matter. A trivial matter.”

Qian Chen, hands behind his back, spoke calmly: “The six ancestral founders of the Qingpi Sect each left behind a corpse, storing their Dao paths—centuries ago, someone set a trap intending to forge a single Dao Fruit. Six beings of the Immortal Sage Realm each nurtured one Dao path, waiting for the moment when the mastermind behind it would harvest them and forge the Dao Fruit.”

“According to the laws of this realm, beneath one Jiazi pillar, there must be seven named ones.”

“Only seven Immortal Sage Dao paths can merge into a single Ascension Path. The mastermind, fearing his fish might leap from his net, selected only six resources to prevent them from prematurely opening the Ascension Path.”

“I swallowed two of the six resources: the Sunken Corpse, the Half-Man, the Deep-Fried Bone, the Open-Bellied Buddha, the Great Golden Man, and the Crippled Ghost. They’re already panicking.”

“Add the people you’ve gathered to form the Five Celestial Deities’ head—and the seven named ones are complete. The mastermind knows I can open the Ascension Path even without them, so he will act.”

“Once they move, they are destined to birth a single Ascension Path within this cycle.”

“I only need someone to Ascend, to raise one pillar. Who becomes the pillar? I don’t care.”

Qian Chen said softly.

The crow bowed slightly: “All is within the Lord’s grasp!”

Qian Chen smiled: “The truly important matter is the new talisman technique I’ve just learned. Crow, tell me what you think.”

The crow stretched its neck, peered at the talisman laid flat on the desk, glanced cautiously at Qian Chen’s expression, and whispered: “Your Lordship’s genius—how could I possibly judge it?”

Qian Chen pressed the talisman down with a sandalwood paperweight and sighed: “Alchemy, Artifice, Talismans, Arrays—the four arts of cultivators. I excel at alchemy; I have some skill in artifice; though I’ve not studied arrays, my lineage holds profound transmissions…”

“Only talismans—I’ve learned them poorly.”

Being forced into this was far from Qian Chen’s wish.

Who else but him would have his most crucial plan in this cycle go awry?

Qian Chen had already been exceedingly careful in setting his trap for Murong Chui’s Great Heavenly Demon Lord.

Even to decipher its secrets, he engineered a way to imprint its traces onto the inner side of a human skin, forming the “Great Heavenly Demon Scripture,” which fused all the Great Heavenly Demon’s secrets.

Such a demonic scripture—Qian Chen learned it instantly.

Yet when he truly forced the Great Heavenly Demon Lord into this world and carefully locked onto its traces here,

As expected, the most likely hiding place of the Great Heavenly Demon Lord was the savior who sought to replace him.

But when Qian Chen compared the traces he’d captured from the savior with the Great Heavenly Demon Scripture he held, he discovered a fatal flaw.

That is—Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s seal likely contained the Great Heavenly Demon Lord of the Old Heaven’s Great Dao, and Qian Chen could not understand his method at all.

The “Great Heavenly Demon Scripture” was merely the outer shell Yuan Shi Da Tianzun used to seal the Old Heaven’s Great Dao; the contents within likely had nothing to do with demonic Dao at all.

This rendered Qian Chen’s original plans and schemes utterly useless…

Qian Chen had intended to refine the Great Heavenly Demon Lord into an external elixir.

He had even planned the furnace, the fire, and the ingredients!

This universe itself was his elixir furnace, crafted to forge a Dao Fruit, with the True-Illusion Dao Fruit suspended at the universe’s two poles serving as the fire.

Within this furnace, he cultivated spiritual herbs using the Dao and principles accumulated over tens of thousands of years.

To complement the forging of that Great Heavenly Demon Elixir.

Qian Chen even personally designed four demonic pillars, representing the four ultimate principles of demonic Dao—utterly distinct from the original demonic Dao of this universe.

The four infamous petty peddlers from his past life’s “Hammer” universe: Khorne, the embodiment of violence; Nurgle, the embodiment of decay; Tzeentch, the embodiment of change; and Slaanesh, the embodiment of desire.

Using these four demonic principles as ingredients, combined with the Great Heavenly Demon Lord as the main ingredient, he should have forged a Dao Fruit representing the ultimate essence of demonic Dao—the Great Heavenly Demon Elixir.

But only when he finally began studying the Great Heavenly Demon Lord did Qian Chen realize: this thing might truly be the Old Heaven’s Lost Dao he sought.

Good news—the object was correct!

The Great Heavenly Demon Lord indeed contained remnants of the Old Heaven’s Great Dao, of extremely high rank—worthy of Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s personal intervention; its essence likely came from the Old Heaven’s own “Heavenly Emperor.”

Bad news—Qian Chen could not understand Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s sealing technique at all.

Most likely, all the principles and Dao traces of the Great Heavenly Demon were merely the outer shell designed to contain it.

From Qian Chen’s later research, Murong Chui and all past Great Heavenly Demons had studied—along with the “Great Heavenly Demon Scripture”—nothing that conflicted with the New Heaven’s Dao.

This meant—Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s technique was truly brilliant: after sealing the Old Heaven’s forbidden Dao, it harmonized perfectly with the New Heaven’s Dao, preserving the taboo intact within the New Heaven.

Furthermore, the contents within the Great Heavenly Demon Lord involved no essence of the Old Heaven’s taboos—they were merely Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s crafted “shell.”

And then Qian Chen was stuck.

If he continued refining the Great Heavenly Demon Elixir as originally planned,

The external elixir, this external Dao Fruit, might indeed possess the power of the Great Heavenly Demon Dao Fruit.

But its essence would still lie outside Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s sealed shell—adding another shell, only sealing the thing deeper, preserving it more perfectly, yet granting Qian Chen no access to the Old Heaven’s taboo.

Its power would still derive from Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s “shell.”

But Qian Chen did not seek the Great Heavenly Demon Lord merely for a mere demonic Dao Fruit.

His ultimate plan was actually—

If the final enemy was Tai Shang,

Then Qian Chen’s only hope of turning the tide was the Old Heaven’s Heavenly Emperor—he could never escape the fate Tai Shang had predetermined for him within the New Heaven!

Thus, Qian Chen must preserve a possibility of allying with the Old Heaven’s Emperor, Tai Shang’s greatest enemy.

“But if I destroy Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s seal on the Great Heavenly Demon Lord, the Old Heaven’s thing cannot exist within the New Heaven—especially not the Old Heaven’s Great Dao. A single trace of its aura would cause heaven and earth to erode, inviting the Great Dao’s crushing pressure.”

“And I have no confidence I can seal it as perfectly as Yuan Shi Da Tianzun did.”

“Moreover, Tai Shang opened the New Heaven; his Dao has deeply shaped it.”

“Just look at the Dao Fruit realm above the Primordial Spirit—all Dao Fruits are perfectly round like elixirs. This proves the Golden Core Dao is one of the New Heaven’s fundamental Dao paths—and I am most proficient in the Golden Core Dao, in alchemy! To refine the Old Heaven’s Great Dao into an elixir? Even a Dao Ancestor would struggle.”

Qian Chen looked at the plan: the universe as furnace, Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, and Slaanesh as auxiliary ingredients, the Great Heavenly Demon Lord as the main ingredient, the True-Illusion Dao Fruit as fire—forced to sigh and abandon it.

“Yuan Shi Da Tianzun excelled in talisman Dao!”

“If I treat the Great Heavenly Demon Lord as a talisman, could I add a few more strokes, using Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s reserved interface to connect into the seal within the Great Heavenly Demon Lord and access the Old Heaven’s Great Dao?”

“The New Heaven and Old Heaven are like two mutually hostile, utterly disconnected systems.”

“Since Yuan Shi Da Tianzun has already developed a sealing package, could I build upon it, creating a new system to translate between the two ecosystems?”

“Yuan Shi Da Tianzun is the Ancestor of Talisman Dao—his program should have reserved interfaces, right? He wouldn’t leave no comments in the code—he doesn’t seem like such an unprofessional programmer!”

With the thought of casting a talisman, heaven and earth suddenly widened.

Thus, Qian Chen conceived Plan 2.0: rewrite the entire Great Heavenly Demon Lord as a Heavenly Talisman.

The only obstacle now—Qian Chen had no study of talisman Dao.

Qian Chen carefully recalled his life: in alchemy, his attainments were extremely high—he could even manage the Ninefold Golden Elixir with some confidence. But talismans?

He thought, and realized he had genuinely drawn a talisman no more than three times.

And all were done by cheating with the Divine Authority of “As the Supreme One Commands.”

What Qian Chen knew were all Divine Talismans—principles based on his extremely high authority within the entire Dao system, writing commands to access corresponding levels and activate permissions.

He mastered bureaucratic formats perfectly.

Just write the matter as a red-headed document’s header, fill in the proper format, then stamp it with the “As the Supreme One Commands” seal.

It could then be submitted to the Dao’s receipt system and issued through the Divine System.

But now he held a letter addressed to the former regime’s leader—the Heavenly Emperor, overthrown by Tai Shang’s armed forces.

Under this regime, with his patron Tai Shang’s attitude toward him unclear, Qian Chen wished to preserve the possibility of being a double agent, seeking to establish a secret communication line with the former regime’s leader, the Heavenly Emperor.

Thus, his bureaucratic writing skills, red-headed document headers, and that precious red seal were now useless.

Qian Chen recalled what else he knew of talisman Dao—

“Ah! Talisman Dao is divided into ‘Fu’ and ‘Lu’!”

“Fu is the spirit of heaven and earth; Lu is the name-seal of spirits and gods! Using Yuan Shi Da Tianzun’s sealed and translated Old Heaven Dao, its root lies in the fundamental conflict between the New Heaven and Old Heaven Dao—thus it must reach the most foundational aspect of Talisman Dao—the Dao’s origin!”

“So what do I know about Talisman Dao?”

“Fu has a head and a foot, with key points! The talisman’s key points are crucial: ‘If you draw a talisman without knowing its key points, spirits and gods laugh. If you know the key points, spirits and gods cry…’”

“Hmm, you have some understanding of Talisman Dao. Now go draw a Heavenly Talisman that reaches the Dao’s origin—the highest attainment of Talisman Dao!”

Qian Chen immediately threw the brush he held onto the ground: “You’re fucking with me!”