Immortal Dao is dead, I am the mastermind behind it all.

The carriage bumped along the rough dirt road, kicking up fine dust.

Luo Hanchan pressed her small face against the swaying car window and looked up at the sky.

One streak of light after another hurriedly streaked across the dim sky, fleeing in the direction far away from Langya Prefecture.

"It's so lively outside, bro! Look at the sky, so many shooting stars!"

Luo Hanchan withdrew her gaze, tugged at Luo Changting's sleeve as he leaned against the carriage wall with a furrowed brow, and spoke with the innocent naivety of a child watching a spectacle.

"Where are they going? To the market? They seem to be in a greater hurry than our opera troupe is rushing to a performance."

Luo Changting was jolted awake from his chaotic thoughts by his sister's tug.

He looked up at the myriad streaks of light outside the window, feeling as if a huge boulder was pressing on his heart.

Through his initial refinement of the power of perception, he could vaguely sense the tension and panic mixed in the wind in the distance.

This isn't a market day; it's a refugee fleeing a disaster.

The flames of war in Cangwu Prefecture are like a sword hanging overhead, and the shadow of that sword has already begun to envelop Langya Prefecture.

"It's nothing. The affairs of cultivators are none of our business." Luo Hui, who was driving the car in front, didn't turn his head. His voice was deep and muffled, with a deliberately suppressed calm.

"Xiao Chan, sit tight and don't look around. Just take care of yourselves." He had naturally heard the whispers as well, even more clearly than Luo Changting through his hidden perception.

It concerns the smuggling of demon cores, the defeat at the front lines, and the brutality of the demon race.

But he was just a minor troupe leader at the second level of Qi gathering, leading a large family of old, weak, women and children in this time of impending chaos. It was already extremely difficult to keep the people in the car safe, let alone have the energy to care about things far away.

Luo Changting pursed his lips, not refuting his father.

That's exactly what he's worried about.

The opera troupe was staggering; where could they possibly escape to?

Once the flames of war truly spread, in the eyes of the demon race, how are these people any different from lambs to the slaughter?

Thinking of the demons in my dream, who feed on humans, I knew that if they entered my territory, they would surely cause widespread suffering.

Luo Changting looked at his sister beside him, who knew nothing about the situation, and a strong sense of powerlessness and anxiety almost overwhelmed him.

We must acquire power as soon as possible, enough to protect our family!

"elder brother?"

Luo Hanchan keenly sensed the oppressive aura emanating from her brother. She moved closer, tilting her head to examine Luo Changting's tightly furrowed brows and lips pressed into a straight line. Suddenly, she reached out her cool little hand and gently pressed it against his brow.

"The way you frown looks like a painted face in a play! It's so ugly!"

She tried to make Luo Changting laugh with an exaggerated tone and imitation, and even rubbed his forehead with her little hand in a pretentious manner: "Don't make a face like that, give me a smile? Look at me, hee hee hee—"

As she spoke, she stuck out her tongue and made an extremely funny face.

Normally, Luo Changting might have been amused by his sister's clumsy attempt at comforting him.

But at this moment, his heart was heavy, and the ghostly face in his eyes only reflected his sister's clear eyes, filled with complete trust and free from worries.

That innocent gaze was like a needle, pricking his heart with a slight ache.

He forced a smile, a smile more painful than a grimace, and gently slapped Luo Hanchan's hand away, whispering:

"...I'm fine, sit still, don't fall."

Luo Hanchan looked at her brother's profile, which was still preoccupied with his thoughts, blinked, and slowly the playful smile on her face disappeared.

She quietly sat back down and stopped talking, only occasionally stealing a glance at Luo Changting. In the small carriage, only the monotonous sound of the wheels rolling over the road could be heard.

Luo Changting closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the newly formed, still unstable Five Elements Demon Seed within his body.

He needs time, and he also needs resources.

The cultivation of the "Primordial Demon Heavenly Book" must be accelerated.

No matter what, he absolutely could not allow the demon race from his dreams to appear in human territory.

If one's cultivation level is insufficient by then, then one can only...

I recalled the Heavenly Demon Ritual in the "Book of the Beginning Demons" and the absolutely unusable summoning technique.

The price wasn't great, just a soul with a life as fragile as paper.

A resolute glint flashed in Luo Changting's eyes.

Whether it's his family or the people of Langya Prefecture.

He will protect them all.

…………

Shen Moyan read Luo Changting's thoughts and fell silent for a moment.

If Luo Changting were to go and resist the demon race, giving up the chance to compete for the Nascent Soul Dao Fruit, he would be deviating from his plans.

However, everything has two sides.

Shen Moyan smiled dismissively and immediately activated the "Primordial Demon Heavenly Book".

Consciousness and cognitive distortion.

……

In the distance, Luo Changting, who was resting with his eyes closed, suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

A thought, like a poisoned nail, pierced deep into his consciousness and quickly took root.

You can't protect everyone.

only...

Transformation of God's Dao Fruit!

Only by mastering the power of that one step into the Divine Transformation stage can we reverse all of this!

Only with absolute strength can you protect everything you want to protect!

As for the birth of the Dao Fruit, certain sacrifices are necessary.

This thought carried an unquestionable absoluteness, instantly catalyzing Luo Changting's originally vague desire for the Dao Fruit of Nascent Soul into an almost obsessive belief.

The original aspiration to protect one's family and safeguard the common people has been cleverly hijacked by distorted perceptions and turned into a reason to pursue extreme power.

Luo Changting suddenly opened his eyes, a barely perceptible crimson glint flashing in the depths of his pupils.

When he looked again at his sister Luo Hanchan, who was somewhat uneasy because of his emotional change, his brows, which had been furrowed with worry, slowly relaxed, replaced by an almost cold calm.

Luo Hanchan blinked, feeling that something about her brother seemed different, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

……

Six months later, underground.

"Fellow Daoist Cen, I have arrived."

"Not replying to me? Is the signal bad?"

The sound of the underground river flowing was particularly clear in the empty cave. Shen Moyan steered the small boat along the simple route map provided by Cen Boliang and finally arrived at the so-called ferry.

This is a more expansive underground lake, its waters dark and bottomless, seemingly connected to the netherworld.

On the lakeshore, there was only a stone platform that had long since collapsed, covered with a thick layer of pale green moss. The air was thick with moisture and carried the smell of decaying time.

A broken stone pillar was stuck diagonally in the water, with several ancient runes faintly visible on it, which were the words "Ancient Realm" marked on Cen Bolang's keepsake.

Through the power of the Nine Songs Immortal Lord to convey the Dao through literature, Shen Moyan understood those few words.

Boundary river crossing.

Shen Moyan looked away and slowly stepped onto the shaky platform.

In the middle of the lake, a boat is quietly moored.

The ship had an ancient and simple design, and was made entirely of some kind of dark wood. Its hull was covered with mottled corrosion marks, as if it had been forgotten and had been submerged in the deep sea for millions of years.

A lantern hung at the bow of the boat, emitting a dim, gray light that barely illuminated a small patch of water around the boat.

A boatman, wearing a tattered cloak and with a hunched back, was standing at the bow of the boat, his back to the shore.

It seemed to have stood there since time immemorial, blending into the desolate environment.

Shen Moyan approached and saw that under the cloak was not a body of flesh and blood, but an empty skeleton with two points of ghostly blue soul fire flickering in its eye sockets.

This is the ferryman that Cen Boliang contacted, an ancient being who travels along forgotten routes of the past and present.

Shen Moyan concealed his aura and held the domino token, which was cold to the touch, in his hand, given to him by Cen Boliang.

He didn't say anything, but simply held the dominoes forward.

The ferryman's skull silently turned 180 degrees, its eerie blue soul flame looking at the dominoes in Shen Moyan's hand.

After a moment of deathly silence, it raised a hand that was nothing but bones and pointed to the side of the ship.

Without words or questions, the deal was struck in silence.

Shen Moyan lightly touched the ground with his toes, and his body floated up like a falling leaf, landing steadily on the deck of the ancient ship.

The ship didn't even shake at all.

The moment we boarded the ship, the light from that gray lamp seemed to flicker slightly.

The ferryman skeleton then turned around completely, walked to the stern, and grasped an equally ancient boat pole with its skeletal hand.

The tip of the pole plunged into the dark lake water, silently.

The next moment, the ancient ship slowly began to move.

As if sliding into an invisible membrane, the ship began to blur, and the surrounding scenery began to distort and elongate.

The cave walls, the glowing moss, the pitch-black lake water... everything faded rapidly in the field of vision.

Instead, countless bizarre lines and color blocks flowed wildly outside the ship, as if it had entered a tunnel composed of pure temporal turbulence.

Subconsciously, Shen Moyan opened his Heavenly Demon Eyes.

The chaotic blocks of colors and lines that originally filled the field of vision and made people dizzy were stripped of their disguises under his gaze.

Shen Moyan's eyes widened.

This was a scene I will never forget.

Among those color blocks, some are as bright as stars, filled with pure light and fire in purgatory, while others are as dark as an abyss, with an indescribable and enormous shadow lurking in the deathly silence.

Some are teeming with life, with the outlines of mountains, rivers, and all living beings faintly visible, light and shadow intertwined, life and death never ceasing.

Some were shattered, like crushed glass, dragged behind as the ship sailed on, as if falling into eternal nothingness...

Each streak of light that flashed by was a different world in its own unique form!

No, to put it another way.

Dimensions, these are all dimensions!