Chaos Dao Sheng Jue

Lu Chen turned around.

He saw that A-Yue was standing three steps behind him.

It was no longer a fleeting phantom above the ruined palace, but a complete and almost tangible entity.

A moon-white long dress, a cool and aloof face, and a silver crescent mark on her forehead, exactly like Fang Xinyi's, but even more profound and ancient.

"Where is this place?" Lu Chen asked, puzzled.

“The Gap of Cause and Effect,” A-Yue said softly, “is the intersection of all the causal lines in the myriad realms, and also the only place where the ‘Great Dao Cause and Effect’ can be severed.”

She walked to Lu Chen's side and gently touched the thread of light.

The light trembled, and countless images surged forth like a tide. In the Tianyuan Continent, Lu Chen, a cultivator, saw the old Taoist priest for the first time.

The old man was wearing a tattered Taoist robe and was setting up a stall on the street, selling cheap trinkets.

Because Lu Chen had just transmigrated, he was full of curiosity about everything, so when he went shopping for the first time, he bought everything he saw.

It was because of this action that he unintentionally bought a bracelet from the old Taoist's stall, which led to Liao Wei severing his tendons and granting him the incredible opportunity of obtaining the Chaos Dao Life Technique.

The scene changes.

In the Divine Realm, the battlefield of the gods, Lu Chen saw the old Taoist's back for the first time in the illusion.

The figure was blurry, yet it gave off a strange sense of familiarity.

"Lu Chen...do you know your crime?"

The scene then changes.

The forbidden land of Nirvana, the abyss of reincarnation, the broken stele left by Lao Tzu.

"The Heavenly Dao is one of the strongest Primordial Chaos experts in ancient times... and also the sole true culprit behind this tragedy."

The final image freezes on a figure standing at the edge of endless void, with their back to Lu Chen.

The old Taoist priest looked exactly the same as the figure from behind, but this time, he slowly turned around.

It wasn't the old Taoist's face, nor Lao Tzu's face, but a face that Lu Chen had never seen before, yet felt strangely familiar with.

The face spoke, its voice calm:

"You've finally arrived."

The image faded, and then the light filaments returned to calm.

Lu Chen stood there, speechless for a long time.

A-Yue looked at him and asked softly, "Did you understand?"

Lu Chen remained silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.

“This thread of cause and effect is not tied to the old Taoist priest, nor to Lao Tzu, but to…” He paused, “myself.”

A hint of approval flashed in A Yue's eyes upon hearing this: "Continue."

“The old Taoist priest chose me not because I am the ‘key,’ but because—” Lu Chen’s voice was a little hoarse, “I am him.”

“No.” A-Yue shook her head. “You are not him, you are ‘possibility’.”

As she spoke, she raised her hand, her fingertips tracing an arc in the air. At one end of the arc was the old Taoist priest.

At the other end of the arc are countless blurry figures.

"Back then, the Heavenly Dao severed the Three Corpses to prove its Dao. The Three Corpses transformed into good thoughts, evil thoughts, and obsessions, each escaping into the myriad realms. But in addition to the Three Corpses, it also severed a fourth thing."

"A fourth item?" Lu Chen asked, puzzled.

“Hope,” A-Yue continued, “the last glimmer of hope for a ‘perfect ending.’ That glimmer of hope was too faint to exist independently, so it clung to the river of cause and effect and drifted with the current.”

"Until many years later, it encountered a dying soul."

A-Yue looked at Lu Chen.

"That soul came from a place called 'Earth'. He was ordinary and unremarkable, without any extraordinary talents or an unbreakable Dao heart. But he had one characteristic—he never gave up hope."

"That glimmer of hope chose him."

Lu Chen was stunned.

So... my time travel wasn't accidental?

Is your own path something you didn't choose?

"You feel resentful?" A-Yue asked calmly.

Lu Chen fell silent.

“It’s normal to feel resentful,” A-Yue’s voice came again. “But you must know that the ray of hope chose not the ‘strongest,’ but the ‘most suitable.’”

Over countless years, the hope clinging to the River of Cause and Effect has encountered countless exceptionally talented souls, even powerful beings at the Primordial Chaos Realm, prodigies born with Dao bodies, and chosen ones burdened with destiny, but it chose none of them.

"why?"

“Because those people are filled with ‘I want.’ I want to attain enlightenment, I want immortality, I want to be invincible,” A-Yue said softly. “But in your heart, you are filled with ‘I want to protect.’ Protect your family, protect your friends, protect those ordinary people.”

She reached out and placed her hand on Lu Chen's chest.

"You may not have realized it yourself, but from the first day you transmigrated, every choice you made, seemingly for survival, was actually for protection. Protecting everyone around you, protecting the mortals of Tianyuan Continent, protecting all living beings in the Immortal Realm, and protecting this shattered world of Shenwen Domain."

"That's why we wanted to select you."

Lu Chen looked down at his chest, where something seemed to be beating.

It's not the heart.

It is that wisp of "hope" that has been forgotten for countless years, severed from the very essence of Heaven.

It has always been in his heart.

He was there from the moment he crossed over.

“So…” Lu Chen’s voice was a little hoarse, “I have never been a key, nor a pawn.”

“No,” A-Yue smiled, “you are hope itself.”

At this moment, the ray of light trembled violently.

The surging images began to recede, shrink, and eventually all returned to the light filaments.

The light filaments grew brighter and thicker until they finally transformed into a pillar of light that shot skyward from Lu Chen's little finger!

The beam of light pierced through the gaps in cause and effect, through all the heavens and myriad realms, through the past and the future!

At the end of the beam of light, a figure slowly emerged.

He is an old Taoist priest, an old Taoist priest in his complete form.

It is not good intention, not evil intention, not obsession, but the original Heavenly Way after the Three Corpses have returned to one.

His aged face showed a hint of weariness, but also a hint of relief.

“Finally…” his voice echoed across endless time and space, “Finally, someone caught that glimmer of hope.”

He looked at Lu Chen with a complicated expression.

There was guilt, relief, regret, and also relief.

"Child, do you know why I severed my three corpses back then?"

Lu Chen shook his head.

“Because of fear.” The Heavenly Dao smiled bitterly. “After attaining the Primordial Chaos, I saw the truth of the ‘Incarnation of Evil,’ the cycle of the Epochal Calamity, and the ultimate return of all the heavens and myriad worlds to nothingness. So I was afraid.”

"I want to find a way to exist forever. The Conferring of Sainthood, the Severing of the Three Corpses, Entrusting the Dao Fruit... I have used every means to try to escape that ultimate fate."

"Then, I cut myself into four pieces."

"Good intentions are fixated on 'restoration,' evil intentions are mired in 'destruction,' and obsessions are steadfast in 'protection'—while that faintest glimmer of hope was cast aside by my own hands."

As he spoke, he lowered his head and looked at his hands.

"I thought I was saving myself. Later I realized I was running away."

True salvation is never about 'escaping fate,' but about 'facing fate.'

He looked up at Lu Chen, and for the first time, his eyes lit up.

"You did it."

"You proved with your choice that hope did not choose the wrong person."

The Heavenly Dao raised its hand and pointed in the distance.

A beam of light separated from the pillar of light and merged into Lu Chen's brow.

It is not power, nor inheritance, but a blessing: "A loser's final blessing to his successor."

His figure began to fade.

"Go. Good thoughts await you, and so do evil thoughts. The Pure Thought Network needs you to build it, and the epochal catastrophe needs you to end it."

“And I—” he smiled slightly.

"Finally, I can rest."

As soon as he finished speaking, the figure of the Heavenly Dao completely vanished...