A chilling realization struck Wang Lin’s mind, leaving it a barren wasteland of thought. The truth gleaned from the cycles of Tian Yunzi’s reincarnation was almost too much to bear, a secret even he struggled to accept. The Celestial Dao, sought by countless souls throughout the ages… was, in truth, Tian Yunzi himself!

He watched the youth before him, that same youth struggling to force a smile onto his face. A tempest brewed within Wang Lin’s heart, a maelstrom threatening to engulf his very being. He was a lone ship tossed upon a furious ocean, his sanity assaulted by thunderous, swirling storms.

The youth, still wearing that strained smile, turned and drifted away into the silent expanse of the cosmos, vanishing from Wang Lin’s sight. The starry skies blurred, then shattered entirely, leaving Wang Lin in stunned silence.

Beyond the confines of the Tian Yunzi’s reincarnation where Wang Lin’s true self was lost, within the Zhaohe Starfield, his avatar sat cross-legged amidst the stars, his face ashen, tinged with an eerie blue.

Around him, wisps of ghostly essence, the scattered souls of Tian Yunzi’s myriad incarnations, drifted like smoke towards him, merging with his body, each one seeking to usurp his form.

As each soul mingled with his being, Tian Yunzi’s sinister voice echoed within Wang Lin’s mind.

“What makes you think you can outpace me, child? I can claim your body this very instant! Has your true self even discovered where my true form lies hidden?”

A thousand tainted souls from the Zhaohe and Kunxu Starfields had already been absorbed into Wang Lin’s form. From afar, more souls from the Luotian and Yunhai regions howled closer, a gathering storm.

Meanwhile, within the Tian Yunzi reincarnation, at the moment the vision of the second awakening crumbled before Wang Lin’s eyes, he caught a glimpse of Tian Yunzi’s first awakening!

As the starry skies dissolved and vanished, what replaced them before Wang Lin was a colossal gate! This gate towered as high as the stars themselves, making Wang Lin feel as insignificant as an ant.

Unlike the gate that manifested within the Heaven Defying Bead, this immense portal exuded no aura of majesty. It simply existed, seamlessly woven into the fabric of the cosmos.

What lay beyond that gate, Wang Lin knew not. But he did witness a series of thunderous booms emanating from within its depths. Then, with a sudden jolt, the gate shuddered violently, as if struck by an immeasurable force from within.

As it trembled, a fissure snaked across the center of the gate, splitting it asunder. Cracking sounds mingled with the thunderous echoes as the fissure widened, stretching endlessly, threatening to cleave the gate in two.

The booming grew more intense. In a moment of agonizing tremors, the great gate finally splintered apart, shattering into several massive fragments that burst outwards with tremendous force.

The gate was so immense that even broken, the pieces did not crumble to dust. Instead, the shattered segments hurtled through the void, propelled by the cataclysmic explosion, sweeping into the deepest reaches of the stars.

One such fragment, driven by the immense force, careened through the void and landed in what would later be known as the Kunxu Starfield. There, in a desolate stretch of space, the fragment exploded, scattering into countless shards that merged with the starfield, tearing a rift in its very fabric, and sinking into the void.

As the shards fused with the void, the starfield became unstable, a spatial tear ripping through its entirety. The fragments of the shattered gate remained there, frozen in time.

Many ages later, a group of cultivators from the Four Sacred Sects, hailing from beyond the boundaries of this world, would arrive using arcane methods. They sought out a cultivation star, moving it to conceal the starfield’s instability, to hide the spatial tear, binding the two together.

In time, these cultivators would vanish, their purpose fulfilled. The spatial rift would occasionally manifest upon this cultivation star, discovered by those gifted individuals who would come to call it the Outer Realm Battlefield, using it to their advantage.

At the instant the great gate shattered, Wang Lin saw a billowing cloud of primordial mist erupt from within its depths, propelled by the unleashed power. This mist swirled like a sphere, surging out of the broken portal.

Within the mist, Wang Lin could just barely make out a figure, a vague silhouette. He could not discern its features, but he could hear the echoes of horrified roars emanating from within the swirling vapors!

“The Celestial Dao!! You actually managed to obtain a Celestial Dao!! Damnable! This King refuses to accept it!!” The roar devolved into a piercing shriek, followed by a deafening boom that shook the mist itself.

Driven by this explosion, the boundless mist began to convulse violently, as if being torn apart from within. The churning mist suddenly split in two, one piece large, the other small. The larger piece, still swirling around the screaming, weakening figure, shot backwards and vanished into the void, its destination unknown.

The smaller piece of mist hurtled in the opposite direction, disappearing in a flash.

As it raced through the void, the smaller wisp of mist contracted and coalesced, allowing Wang Lin to see that within its heart lay a semi-circular shard.

This shard was not clear, but its existence was plainly the core of this remnant mist.

With a final rush, the last of the wisp vanished, completely merging with the shard, transforming into a streak of colorless light that plunged into a desolate cultivation star.

There was no life on this star, only barren, crumbling mountains. The shard descended like a falling star, slamming into one of these mountains. The mountain trembled and instantly crumbled to dust. The semi-circular shard pierced through the crumbling peak, embedding itself deep within the heart of the star.

Wang Lin witnessed all of this. He focused intently on the semi-circular shard within the star. Upon its surface were ancient runes and sigils, appearing like one half of a compass!

Or perhaps, it was indeed one half of a compass that was now known as the Heaven Defying Bead!

Ages passed, the star remaining barren and lifeless. But within the depths of the planet, the half-compass gradually emitted a faint wisp of the original mist.

The mist slowly emerged, coalescing until it formed a vague figure, the silhouette warping before resolving into a youth.

The youth stood, eyes closed, floating above the half-compass. After an age, he slowly opened his eyes, revealing only confusion.

“I possess sentience… I recall being summoned by my master, devouring that immortal. But the immortal detonated his divine sense to prevent my absorption… and I was split apart… Who am I?” The youth’s confusion deepened as he closed his eyes to meditate.

After an eternity, he suddenly opened his eyes, now shining with newfound clarity.

“I am the Celestial Dao… I should not possess sentience. But I absorbed some of that immortal’s divine sense from the explosion… I absorbed his thoughts…” The youth muttered, as if understanding had finally dawned.

Watching this, Wang Lin understood much as well. He understood why even Dao Fei had become a madman. Why, within the illusion of the Seven-Colored Immortal, the Dao Fei he saw possessed a vile demeanor and a boastful tongue, and enjoyed seizing the lovers of cultivators he had set his eyes on. All of this was completely unlike the madman that Wang Lin knew; they were two distinct individuals.

Now, Wang Lin’s mind was clear.

“Lian Dao Fei was already an arrogant person on Immorial Astral Continent. Perhaps he truly had an older brother with a high status. That very status made his character arrogant and bizarre to the extreme. According to my knowledge of him when he was insane, he was the type to rob anything he took a fancy to, be it a treasure or a person!

“And if he couldn’t rob them, he would find any means, even annihilating their entire clan just to satisfy his greed! It was precisely his greed and personality that led him to the Seven-Colored Immortal’s cave, where he tried to take what he wanted.

“But in the end, after he was devoured by the Celestial Dao, he detonated his divine sense. Most of his greed and evil was absorbed by the detached Celestial Dao…”

“Therefore, the madman I met was entirely different from the man he was! Otherwise, with his personality, how could he possibly give me the Immortal Bloodline or impart those supernatural abilities? He would have immediately used every method to achieve his goals from me! By comparison, I prefer the madman I know now, as opposed to the Lian Dao Fei of the past!”

Wang Lin’s eyes flashed as he stared at the youth floating above the half-compass.

The youth looked down at the compass beneath him, lost in thought.

“My true form… is this half of the Heaven Defying Bead… No one can sense its aura. It is safest here…” The youth drifted forward, vanishing from the interior of the star.

Wang Lin ignored the youth’s departure. He focused intently on the half-compass, engraving every detail of this place and this star into his memory. Then, he closed his eyes. As his eyelids fell, everything collapsed silently.

Tian Yunzi’s ninety-odd reincarnations had come to an end!

When Wang Lin opened his eyes again, he saw Blue Dream Daoist, Qing Shuang, and Hong Shanzi. He saw the Zhaohe Starfield and felt his avatar, now just a hair’s breadth away from being completely taken over!

“I have found his true form. There is no need for you three to accompany me. Please help me control my avatar and buy me more time!” Wang Lin abruptly stood, cupping his fist towards the three elders before turning and stepping into the void!

“Tian Yunzi, the game is over!”