The realm of Shenxiao lay as an open world.

Hu Taisui remained in the gap, gazing through a dim, narrow alley towards the dilapidated old house opposite. “It is not that the owner was helpless and lost,” he murmured. “It is not that its creator is already dead, nor that its lifeblood has withered.”

At the peak of his power, when the Shenxiao King commanded abundant resources, he had actively relinquished his authority, opening Shenxiao to all sentient beings across the myriad heavens and ten thousand worlds. This included demons, ghosts, humans, devils, and beasts. Not only did he not discriminate, he did not even observe. Later, venturing into the vast Chaos Sea, he left everything behind, allowing others to claim what they desired. The spirit of the Shenxiao King truly amazed.

Meanwhile, Chan Fayuan and Ji Xingkong, one chasing the other, had circled the Tianxi Wasteland several hundred times and were still at it. Lu Ximing watched from afar, her mouth curving. “I think it is because his cultivation has transcended external attachments and requires no outward seeking.”

Ji Xingkong, still provoking Chan Fayuan, managed to steal a moment to retort, “If he truly required no outward seeking, why did he initially contend for the position of Demon Emperor?”

Hu Taisui turned his amber eyes towards them, his expression slightly serious. “He bore a great ideal.”

Ji Xingkong did not pursue the argument further; he couldn’t handle two blows simultaneously.

Lu Ximing chuckled. “Hu Tianzun seems to recognize the Shenxiao King quite well.”

“A great ideal is destined not to be widely recognized from its inception,” Hu Taisui stated. “Many times, I was one of the few exceptions in this demon world.”

“Hearing you speak, you seem to have a resonance with the Shenxiao King,” Lu Ximing said, licking her lips. “The Great Dao is long; perhaps you aspire to walk it together?”

Hu Taisui ignored her half-hearted probing. Instead, he said, “Just now, they spoke of the Tongue-Pulling Hell, which reminded me of the Mao God, the purported master of that hell – the Faceless God. He also mingled within Shenxiao. What do you think, whose pawn is he, and what does he seek?”

“Shouldn’t you have already investigated everything?” Lu Ximing twisted her head to look at him. “Even this concerns you? I am starting to grow curious about your own pursuits.”

Hu Taisui replied softly, “The feeling is mutual.”

Feathers, luminous and white, drifted from the sky, reminiscent of the demon marks that Yu Xin had severed. However, these were white, not silver, devoid of substance, yet imbued with a golden glow.

Unlike Lu Qilang, Shu Jialan, and the others who employed divine powers to block these descending feathers, they ultimately fell. Xiong Sansi, from the beginning, simply looked up, allowing his body to experience their descent directly. It was just as when he had endured Yang Yu’s heart bell and the Heaven-Outside Bell in the previous battle. These falling feathers brought no sensation upon his body. When they dissolved, it was as solitary as if it were happening in another time.

*Flying Light, Ageless Spring, Buddha Says Fifty-Eight Chapters*

Amidst the falling feathers, Xiong Sansi spoke in a hoarse voice. “The Scattered Feathers of Radiant Light should still be here. What does the Blood-Dyed Scarlet Pearl seek?” He seemed to grasp something, maintaining his upward gaze, gradually falling silent. A subtle transformation seemed to be occurring. Those precious things remained, but where could the traces of history be found?

Lu Qilang pressed his hand to his sword, yet did not draw it. Yang Yu clasped his palms, chanting scriptures without sound. Zhu Lanruo’s hands were empty of her zither, only holding broken strings one by one, each ripple gradually ceasing.

“Supreme One! What is happening?” Chai Ah Si asked in his heart, shocked.

The Supreme One had no leisure to reply, for within the vast, white mirror world, feathers also drifted down. These feathers, stained with a faint golden radiance, ignored any formless barrier, freely flowing in, covering and cutting. They fell faster and faster, more and more, like a sudden downpour. The feathers were swift as flowing light, like fish-dragons performing a dance. In hazy moments, their sweeping trails seemed to outline complex images, yet none were real, leaving no true understanding, only a blurry sense of fleeting springs and autumns.

At this moment, Jiang Wang could still sense, know, and hear the bell. He felt the long-missed presence, the Five Mansions and Four Seas, the Dao Origin Divine Power. He felt he possessed his own. His self was still his self. But this time was no longer that time!

After understanding the truth of the Shenxiao world, he was more capable of accepting and understanding all the changes within it. He also completely comprehended what was happening now. Where were the falling feathers? They were clearly time! The wreckage of the time treasure ship was indeed destroyed. But as a time treasure ship that had once carried the hopes of the demon race in ancient times, and was then a focal point of attack by human race powerhouses, how could the existence of the [Flying Light]’s wreckage only be the object of Xing Nian Zen Master’s gaze? How could its destruction be solely within Xing Nian Zen Master’s scheme?

Flying Light, Flying Light. Its complete destruction might signify the end of a period of history, but that was not all. For this place, this situation, what it brought was the complete temporal chaos of the Shenxiao realm!

Above the divine mountain, flowing light filled the sky. Outside the divine mountain, shadows swept densely. The entire divine mountain seemed to transform into a colossal treasure ship, carrying these bewildered young visitors into the long river of time, where was the end? The demons on the divine mountain could all move now, but none did. For better or worse, having become time travelers, every single one was extremely cautious. Outside the divine mountain, those sweeping shadows had already blended into a hiding mass, visible as a hazy expanse. It was not the darkness that a pure eye could not perceive, but that kind of “far away” that concealed many things. You knew that as you approached, you could see much – perhaps the truth of history, perhaps some rare treasure, perhaps something interesting – but it was too distant. For now, you saw nothing. Only a vague feeling.

Profound universe! It was unknown how much time had passed. When the eternal flow of time began to chaos, time itself lost its meaning. Perhaps an instant, perhaps a thousand years, ten thousand years.

In the depths of the universe, a colossal stone tablet appeared. This was a perfectly square stone tablet, without any extra carvings. It was tangible yet intangible, thick, correct, already imprinted upon the eye. Chai Ah Si recognized it at first glance; it was the same kind of stone tablet he had seen earlier on the forest path. It was identical to the one inscribed with Yu Zhen’s political outline from that year, describing ‘Dragon originally is demon’. Only this stone tablet was magnified countless times, appearing in the dim vastness as a unique world shaped like a square tablet.

“Truth stone tablet?” Quan Xihua, who had read a few books, exclaimed in shock. It wasn’t until he spoke that Zhu Dali remembered there was still such a heavily injured demon monster present. She had intentionally ignored Gu Yu, but Quan Xihua truly had no sense of presence. Having emerged from the dense forest with Master Yang Yu, everything after that had been Yang Yu’s performance. Even he, who had rampaged in Mo Yun City, had been silently recovering from his injuries ever since. Especially after Zhu Yin’s head was easily severed, he hadn’t dared to lift his own head much. Speaking in the midst of this chaotic journey through time, he truly was speechless after his shock.

“It is a True Word stone tablet,” Lu Qilang corrected. “Where in the world is there eternal truth? Only the true word of one’s heart in that moment!”

The demons seemed to suddenly come alive, each with their own thoughts arising, each with their own vitality. The idea of a “Truth stone tablet” was of course just one way of saying it. For every word inscribed on these stone tablets had to undergo a ‘true or false’ inspection. Their annual production was very limited, and demon race powerhouses often used these stone tablets to record history and carve scriptures. Chai Ah Si and Yuan Mengji exchanged glances. As the earliest group to encounter these stone tablets in Shenxiao, they were only now learning their name and this elevated status. Truth? True Word?

“Benefactor, your words are wrong!” Yang Yu said with a serious expression. “How can you say there is no eternal truth in the world? Please, gentlemen, try reading the ‘Collection of Supreme Wisdom, Divine Roots and Fruits’.”

“Sheep Monk, your words are wrong!” Shu Jialan retorted. “If you are to read, you should read the ‘Orthodox Canon of Transversal Law’. This scripture is the true scripture of the Buddhist sect!”

Lu Qilang completely ignored these two monks whose minds were filled with Buddhist scriptures. In fact, although the Buddhist Gate in the demon world was recognized as orthodox cultivation, and Ancient Southern Mountain was even recognized as a positive teaching by Taigu Imperial City, a very large portion of the demon race still held traditional demon monster beliefs and strongly resisted Buddhist studies. They not only resisted Buddhist studies but also all human studies, believing these things would corrupt the demon race’s thoughts and subtly change the demon race. Among these human studies, Buddhist studies, due to their pursuit of faith – and this is also a factor in this teaching’s best development among the demon race – were resisted most fiercely. Although Lu Qilang did not resist to that extent, he still felt somewhat that learning these things might cause problems with one’s brain. Reading things like the ‘Collection of Supreme Wisdom, Divine Roots and Fruits’ or the ‘Orthodox Canon of Transversal Law’ was dry and boring, a waste of mental effort. Better to read his ‘Record of a Hundred Flowers Pointing Fragrance’!

While they spoke, time flew. The True Word square tablet drew closer to their eyes. The demons thus saw that in the center of the stone tablet, Dao words were also inscribed, a total of five words, stroke by stroke: The world originally had no people!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Their hearts felt as though heaven and earth were opening! This was a historical shock to their senses! Every demon monster present was shaken to their core, their emotions difficult to describe. Jiang Wang in the mirror world was especially affected.

“Dragon originally is demon” was a historical truth and also Yu Zhen’s political outline from that year. “The world originally had no people” was also part of Yu Zhen’s political outline from that year. Could it be… that it was also a historical truth? Jiang Wang had easily accepted the former piece of history, but he found it very difficult to accept or recognize the so-called “true word” inscribed on this subsequent True Word stone tablet. If the world originally did not have the human race, where did the human race come from? If the world originally had no people, then who am I? What occupies the present world?

Regardless of whether the demons were shocked, doubtful, sighing, or harboring other thoughts, time would not be influenced by their will. This True Word stone tablet thus fell before the demons’ eyes, sinking into the vast universe. And as the divine mountain shuttled on, a second True Word stone tablet slowly rose, like a flying landmass in the shape of a square tablet, appearing before the demons. The words inscribed upon it were also Dao texts whose meaning was clear upon sight: The demon race made itself!

The world originally had no people, the demon race made itself. Ten Dao words completely described a segment of history, transporting the viewers to the distant depths of time. All that was known before the present world was the Near Ancient Era, the Middle Ancient Era, the Upper Ancient Era, and the Far Ancient Era. The Far Ancient Era was the longest era. Its beginning was already impossible to trace. Before this, there were only vague legends. This was the era when the demon race ruled the heavens.

This journey through time, carried by the broken Flying Light, was of course not enough to send the demons to that ancient era. But the two True Word stone tablets before their eyes told precisely a segment of history from the Far Ancient Era. This world initially had no human race. Demons were favored by heaven and earth, beasts were born of heaven and raised by earth. Nature bred myriad different races, and there were also spirits of mountains and seas, who called themselves gods. There were strange beasts born with divine power, wild beasts with boundless strength… And in this era of myriad competition, the demon race’s innate Dao pulse manifested externally, living as long as gods, born strong, ruling over all heavens.

“People” were at first merely a common form of the demon race, a stroke by stroke indication of the demon race’s stand in heaven and earth. This was to solve the problem of low reproductive capacity and insufficient ruling scope. Powerful demons took their own forms as templates and, after removing the parts belonging to the demon race’s innate talent, created the human race. As a vassal race of the demon race, they assisted the demon race in ruling the myriad worlds, and sometimes even served as food. To prevent them from growing too powerful and breaking free, their Dao pulse was blocked at the beginning of their creation, and a lifespan limit of one hundred and twenty-nine years and six months was set. After all, “The Great Derivation is fifty, its use is forty-nine.” There were very few human race geniuses whose innate Dao pulse accidentally manifested, allowing them to cultivate. In that era, they were selected and promoted by the demon race to help the demon race control the human race.

What was the common point of the demon race after removing their demon marks? Perhaps it was not just “people”? So why were the human race and the demon race so similar? Because in a sense, the two races originated from the same source. But this segment of history was wiped away. Not only from written records and oral tradition, but also from cognition. This erasure of cognition was not limited to the human race itself but affected all worlds, from ancient times to the present. Only in these depths of time could it be faintly seen.

So why was “Dragon originally is demon,” which was part of Yu Zhen’s political outline and incorporated the power of the dragon race, even known to Yuan Mengji? Yet “The world originally had no people,” which established the demon race’s confidence, could not be passed down? Even when inscribed on a True Word stone tablet, it could only be hidden in these depths of time. This was the reason. Without exception, the vast majority of intelligent spirits among the human race, demon race, water race, and sea race only knew that in the Far Ancient Era, the human race was ruled and enslaved by the demon race, then rose up in resistance, counterattacked the demon race, and became the masters of the present world, covering all heavens, sealing the demon race in this heavenly prison world! This kind of destiny truly elicited sighs!

Instead, Xiong Sansi, after a brief silence, posed a question. His rough, marked voice said, “This is a True Word stone tablet, inscribed with the true word of that moment’s heart. That is to say, if you deceive yourself, construct wrong cognition in your heart into what you think is correct cognition, you can also inscribe a true word on this. Do I understand this correctly?”

Lu Qilang thought for a moment and said, “Theoretically, yes. But the idea that the demon race created the human race solves all the doubts I’ve had about the two races since I was a child. I think…”

Boom, rumble, rumble! The colossal True Word square tablet before their eyes sank as if into the sea. It was like a boundary marker, seeming to describe a step in this journey deeper into the history of Shenxiao, the second True Word stone tablet. And the power of the broken Flying Light could only support them this far. This journey through time seemed to be reaching its end, stopping here, and thus beginning to reverse. Towards the flickering illusion of shuttling light afterwards, they began to fly forward again. Heaven and earth were leisurely, the universe in chaos. The Scattered Feathers of Radiant Light should still be here. What was the Blood-Dyed Scarlet Pearl seeking again?