Destiny is ashes

Chapter 1104 Talking to the Four Saints (4000)

An Jing never boasts.

After the seven Heavenly Venerables of Huaixu arrived in Tianyuan Realm, almost all the problems in Tianyuan Realm ceased to be problems.

Yes. It sounds a bit like a deus ex machina. The problems of the Tianyuan Realm are numerous, whether it's the system, class differences, aristocratic families and corporations, or civilians in safe zones and wilderness areas... and they are all difficult to solve.

If Tianyuan Realm is a closed system, an isolated world, then reforming it would be extremely difficult.

It could even be said that without a civil war that engulfs everyone and is likely to end in self-destruction, there is almost no possibility of fundamental change.

However, in all the myriad realms, there is not a single truly isolated island.

In ancient times, beyond the continent, on those seemingly isolated islands separated by vast oceans, human footprints remained, and a continuous stream of immigrants brought new technologies, even opening sea routes to other continents. These seemingly closed-off civilizations actually maintained constant trade and exchange, both by land and sea, without interruption.

No civilization can develop in complete isolation. Problems that are difficult for them to solve are always brought about by a "deus ex machina" from the "external" to bring about a complete change.

But it wasn't a true deus ex machina; it was simply normal communication and circulation within a larger whole.

Just like the Huaixu Realm and the Tianyuan Realm—the Tianyuan Realm's current predicament is because it used to be the central hub for trade and exchange among the realms, but it had few resources of its own and was only a transit station and a technology development center, so its combat power reserves were not abundant.

When the heavens were severed from communication due to the demonic calamity, this problem was magnified infinitely, eventually evolving into the current situation.

Now that the aid from the Huai Xu Realm has arrived, the Four Saints not only want to terminate their original plans, but they practically want to be free immediately and die on the spot.

In fact, that's exactly what they said and did.

With Huai Xu Tianming and fellow Daoists around, we can rest assured.

At this moment, the wills of the Four Sages of Tianyuan converged in the void. Feng Xiyu sighed, then smiled and said, "We can finally lay down this heavy burden... And judging from An Tianming and the integrity that Senior Haotianjing previously displayed, the four Dragon Gods, Taishan Zhifei, and Wanhua Shenshu are surely far more clean-cut and compassionate towards all living beings than we are."

In this way...

Chen Zhiyang laughed: "We can finally 'die' too."

"Yes," Jiang Haoxu said, his tone even carrying a hint of anticipation. "Finally... it's over. Our tens of thousands of years of waiting have finally come to an end, while we were still resisting, before we succumbed to temptation, while my mind was still clear and I hadn't been corrupted by the demons."

[Although it was far faster than we expected, it is finally coming to an end... Fellow Daoists, the Tianyuan Realm is now in your hands.]

As the Four Sages of Tianyuan sighed, they actually prepared to hand over the jurisdiction of Tianyuan Realm. This progress was too fast, which made the Huaixu warriors and Lingxiao Tianzun, who originally thought they were going to have a battle, somewhat unable to understand.

[Wait! Fellow Daoists, there's no need for you to perish so quickly!]

If the Divine Pivot of Myriad Transformations had a hand, it would have already reached out to try and hold them back. It sensed that the auras of the Four Sages of Heavenly Origin were constantly rising. If they were in Huai Xu, it would surely have thought that they were about to undergo a complete sublimation, return to their peak state, and fight a great battle with them, so as not to waste their brilliant youth.

But in the Tianyuan Realm, He knew very well that the Four Saints truly wanted to die—not just an ordinary death. As the Four Saints' aura intensified, a strange phenomenon appeared throughout half of the Tianyuan Realm, which was also the entire Tianyuan Realm that the human race could currently control.

This strange phenomenon was like a glass window that was originally blurry and shrouded in thick water vapor, which was suddenly swept away by a strong wind. All the water vapor was evaporated in an instant, and the glass window became clearer and more transparent than ever before.

—The demonic energy is being rapidly eliminated!

Without the slightest hesitation or reservation, the Four Sages of Tianyuan were simultaneously activating their respective cave heavens, drawing in every single wisp of demonic energy from the entire human territory of the Tianyuan Realm!
More than that.

The four great grotto-heavens where the Four Sages resided were also gradually becoming disconnected from and separating from the main body of the Tianyuan Realm. This feeling was like four enormous poisonous mushrooms being plucked from a vast expanse of soil.

Although they appear incredibly large and their underground mycelial networks are intricate, when they are actually uprooted, it becomes clear that the Four Great Grottoes are not deeply rooted like trees, and uprooting them would require disturbing large areas of soil.

This was prepared long ago.

Before their self-annihilation, they must pack up and take away all the demonic influence and energy they can carry with them from the entire Tianyuan Realm, and then annihilate the entire cave heaven along with themselves. Of course, this self-annihilation may not be complete, because their bodies, which have been corrupted by demons, are also Heavenly Venerables and may not be destroyed by the destruction of the cave heaven. This is why they dared not do this in the past.

But now, with the seven Heavenly Venerables of Huaixu here, they have enough power to ensure that they are completely and cleanly annihilated.

Since that's the case, let's do it. No matter how bad things get, even if the Huai Xu Realm wants to colonize the Tian Yuan Realm, the conditions they can offer will be far better than ordinary people under the current rule of the four major groups can imagine.

"No need, Four Saints."

Before Wanhua Shenshu could finish speaking, An Jing's voice rang out.

His words were more effective than those of the other celestial beings, and they actually made the four saints, who were on the verge of self-destruction, pause slightly.

An Jing's words were also very direct: "If I'm not mistaken, your souls are pure. In that case, why are you in such a hurry to die? Even if you don't perish on your own, we have ways to shatter your bodies. If all else fails, we can seal them up and deal with them slowly, right?"

[That's right, Mount Tai possesses a secret technique for sealing away demonic phenomena at the Celestial Venerable level.]

The Daoist of Mount Tai saw through the Four Sages' plans and admired them, but he also shook his head: "To be honest, my four fellow Daoists, I admire your great enlightenment, especially since you are Celestial Venerables of the Immortal Dao, with endless lifespans, which is very different from us Lingxiao cultivators whose lifespans are finite."

To possess limitless life and still give so resolutely—such a spirit is truly extraordinary. But the responsibilities of a Celestial Venerable go beyond mere extraordinary qualities. Since you can continue fighting, don't easily abandon your duties—for one thing, if you all die too quickly, we won't be able to properly take over the Tianyuan Realm.

Hearing An Jing and Lao Fei's words, the Four Sages indeed stopped their self-destructive actions. Immortal Yin Zheng smiled bitterly and said, "Do we want to die quickly?"

[Rest assured, we also have our own selfish motives; we won't die so easily—suicide is surrender, an act of cowardice. No matter how powerful the Heavenly Demons are, we will fight to the very last moment, even if it means burning everything within the Heavenly Origin Realm to ashes…including ourselves and all living beings.]

As they said this, the four saints turned their gaze to the human world.

Their gaze was neither fiery nor indifferent, neither merciful nor cruel. It wasn't even contempt, nor did it reflect a self-righteous sense of superiority, regarding everyone as an asset... It was simply a resolute choice made knowing the outcome.

Since we know the outcome will not be pleasant, but rather an eternal quagmire, then swiftly destroying everything and turning it into clean ashes is also a form of mercy.

Of course, inevitably, this rapid demise is also a form of depravity. But depravity also has its degrees.

The Four Sages of Tianyuan have been waiting all along.

In despair, in darkness, in a depravity in which one knows one is evil, one waits on and on.

Waiting for darkness to fall, waiting for despair to arrive, waiting...

Waiting for a miracle to happen in the darkness.

Once, the Guiyi Army was their hope.

In the past, many of the people before the Guiyi Army were the hope in their eyes.

But those hopes were all cut short, extinguished, or perhaps assimilated by them.

Perhaps, not every strategy has a guaranteed winning formula.

Under certain circumstances, at certain times, and in certain situations, failure is inevitable no matter what.

The Tianyuan Realm is a world destined to fail. If, on an infinite scale, the war between Huaixu and the Supreme Heavenly Demon is essentially a draw, then on an infinite scale, the failure of the Tianyuan Realm has long been inevitable; it's just a matter of time—whether it's the past, the present, or even the infinitely distant future.

In such a singular world, even miracles cannot happen.

But are miracles such inconvenient things?
If there are no miracles in this world, then miracles will happen in other worlds, 'traveling' or 'descending'!
Having witnessed the miracle they had been waiting for, the Four Sages of Tianyuan were naturally unwilling to hesitate for even a second longer.

We wish for our own demise, but also for the continuation of our spiritual path.

Feng Xiyu frankly stated: "As my fellow Daoists have said, our primordial spirits remain pure. Even after our self-destruction, a wisp of our soul will carry our Celestial Venerable essence back to Tianyuan. In Huaixu's theory of destiny, this is probably what is called 'born with a divine destiny,' allowing us to quickly become Celestial Venerables again."

[If you fellow Daoists are willing to protect us and prevent our reincarnated forms from falling into the demonic path, then we will become one of you in the future. Although it will be a new me, it doesn't matter to us.]

We can continue to fight the Heavenly Demon, life after life, until even immortality is no longer immortal, and even the indestructible is obliterated.

The Four Sages of Tianyuan were very frank; this was their plan.

The primordial spirit of the immortal path is such an existence. It is precisely because of this unwavering and immortal will that the immortal path has been able to stand firm in the eternal war against the heavenly demons.

At this moment, An Jing also had a realization: "It seems that the divine destiny of Huai Xu Realm, apart from the imprints left by the Heavenly Venerable and even the Dao Venerable in the past, which were brought by the Dao Court at the very beginning, also has the imprints left by the many powerful people who obtained that destiny in later generations, right?"

"Although the warriors of Huaixu do not have reincarnations, as they are all taken by heaven and earth, the imprint remains. Originally, there is only one divine destiny, which continues to multiply, just as a great god can split into several different aspects of divine destiny. This is also the warrior's unceasing struggle and will..."

"This kind of will is the source of 'immortality, indestructibility, immovability, and indestructibility'!"

In a daze, An Jing seemed to sense that there were many other immortal professions besides the most traditional 'Four Great Immortal Professions'—this was not his delusion, but rather the fact that the Immortal Path originally acknowledged that there were countless immortal professions, but the Four Great Immortal Professions were the source-level professions, unlike other derivative ones, the most complete, and the most widely applicable.

If there is a celestial profession related to 'willpower', it should be a derivative of the celestial profession of 'spirit', but with some differences!
However, this kind of enlightenment was just a daily inspiration for An Jing. He shook his head slightly, kept the inspiration in his heart, and calmly spoke to the four grotto-heavens who had already left the Tianyuan Realm: "Everyone, although I know you are getting impatient, and you are afraid that you will be completely corrupted at any moment and unable to reincarnate..."

“But I want to tell you that you still have a lot of things to do, and you cannot rest.”

Having said that, he stretched out his hand and said frankly, "Putting everything else aside, you still have to give me the Five Emperors' Methods inherited from the Tianyuan Realm, the cultivation methods of the Red, Green, and Yellow Emperors in addition to the White Emperor and Black Emperor's methods, right?"

"Oh, this?" Jiang Haoxu paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Of course, not only the Five Emperors Method, but we can also give you our fundamental cultivation methods."

To be honest, these inheritances of the Returning to the Void Dao were originally left for you and all fellow Daoists—this is not an empty promise. If you do not come to collect them, we will entrust your 'Auxiliary Star,' namely Huo Qing and Nian Quan, to bring these inheritances to you after some time.

"That would really be a problem for the Four Sages."

An Jing smiled slightly: "Besides that, there are other ways to separate your souls and then destroy your bodies. For example, we can just activate the Heavenly Burning Weapon again. If one shot isn't enough, we can use four, and if four aren't enough, we can use ten. Anyway, all the Heavenly Venerables are here, so a little more energy won't make a difference."

The will of the Four Saints fell into a brief silence.

It seems... it actually works?

This is indeed an option. If there were a way to completely separate the primordial spirits of the Four Heavenly Venerables and thoroughly destroy their demonized bodies, it would undoubtedly be a perfect ending.

In fact, the Four Sages had planned it this way. Leaving aside the plan to seize the Northern Heavenly Cave, the Ascension Path was the way for them to create a new physical body after shedding their physical bodies. It was just that it was not yet perfected, and they had not yet found a physical body that could support the Primordial Spirit Heavenly Venerable.

However, given the current resources of the Huai Xu Realm, even if they cannot find a 'vessel' to support their physical bodies, it is more than enough to preserve their primordial spirits from being eroded.

"As for the end..."

At this point, An Jing knew that the Four Sages had been persuaded, and a smile appeared on his lips: "To be honest, we have so many people already, Four Sages, really, don't you want to..."

"...So, you're going to turn around and lead us, your new reinforcements, to hunt down the Holy Demon?"

(End of this chapter)