Chapter 1228 Life Furnace (Part 2)

“They are wailing, they are angry, they long to be vindicated! The ‘Wilderness’ back then used a stronger power to forcibly suppress and imprint themselves upon them. But this young man, he tells them with the true meaning of ‘Inverse’—you are not wrong!”

“The end of ‘Nirvana’ can be ‘Rebirth.’ The extreme of ‘Devour’ can be ‘Embrace.’ The endpoint of ‘Wither’ can be eternal ‘Prosperity.’ The one that’s wrong is not your Dao, but the endpoint set by ‘Heaven’s Law’ for you!”

“He is reversing the end of these Daos, he is giving these failed paths… a new ‘possibility’! He is telling all the unyielding obsessions, follow me, I will lead you to a completely different path to witness a… brand new ‘truth’!”

The mysterious voice fell silent.

After a long while, it let out a complicated sigh: “So this is what you mean by… ‘possibility.’ Not to replace but to… embrace all the failures, converging into a torrent undefinable even by ‘Heaven’s Law.’ This… this is simply…”

He couldn’t find the right word to describe it.

This was no longer cultivation, it was a… revolution! A revolution that would sweep through the ages, targeting the supreme ruler of ‘Heaven’s Law’… a revolution of the Great Dao! And Xu Ran is the first to raise the banner of rebellion!

“But can he succeed?” For the first time, the mysterious voice carried a weight, “On this mountain of corpses, the further up you go, the stronger the obsessions of those presences become. Among them, there are a few… even ‘the first one’ back then found them troublesome.”

The Tomb Guardian did not answer, merely watching quietly.

Because he knew that the real test was just beginning.

…

Xu Ran had reached halfway up the mountain.

The pressure here was worlds apart from that at the foot of the mountain.

The corpses here were no longer scattered piles but maintained their battle stances from when they were alive. Each skeleton radiated an ancient and supreme majesty, as if it might come to life at any moment.

Their remaining Dao Principles were no longer single attributes but had formed into patches of… Domains!

A ‘Sword Domain’ composed of endless Sword Intent, a ‘Kill Domain’ condensed from chilling murderous aura, a ‘Time Ruin’ with chaotic Time Flow Speed…

These Domains interwove and collided, forming a deadly land.

The moment Xu Ran stepped into it, he felt as if his Dao body and Divine Soul were being dragged into thousands of different worlds, torn by thousands of completely different Laws!

“Humph!”

Xu Ran let out a cold snort, blood-colored light flared from the mark on his forehead, forming a gigantic “Inverse” character suspended above, stabilizing the space-time around him.

“All Domains unite, they are mine to use!”

Not only did he not retreat, but he actively sat down cross-legged, his Divine Thought erupted, intending to simultaneously analyze and reverse thousands of different Domain Laws!

This was an act of sheer madness!

To use one’s mind for a thousand purposes, simultaneously comprehending thousands of Daos that had once reached perfection, was an unimaginable strain on the Divine Soul. A single misstep would result in chaos of the Divine Soul and collapse of the Dao Foundation!

“Buzz, buzz, buzz…”

Xu Ran’s body began to tremble violently, golden blood started to leak from his seven orifices. His Sea of Consciousness had transformed into a chaotic battlefield, where thousands of different Dao will, turned into an army, were recklessly slaughtering and raging within his Divine Soul world.

Some Sword Intents aimed to grind his Divine Soul to dust, some demonic sounds sought to plunge his will into despair, some Powers of Time intended to turn his memories to ash…

“Hold onto your heart, no law invades… where the inverse lies, I am the center!”

At this moment, Xu Ran’s will condensed to its peak. He relinquished control over his physical body, immersing all his Heart Spirit in the comprehension and application of the true meaning of ‘Inverse.’

He no longer viewed those Dao wills as adversaries but saw them as building blocks of various shapes.

What he had to do was use the thread of ‘Inverse’ to reassemble these blocks according to his own intent!

This process was both extremely difficult and excruciatingly tedious.

Time lost its meaning here.

It could have been an instant or millennia.

From the mountain’s base, Zhen Shan and Cang Shi could only see that solitary figure on the mountainside, engulfed in the brilliant and deadly radiance of countless Dao Principles, like a lone leaf boat in a storm, ready to capsize at any moment.

The Tomb Guardian and that mysterious voice also remained silent, quietly awaiting a result.

Finally, after an unknown period.

From the center of that violent Dao Principle Domain, came a crisp… “crack” sound.

As if something had shattered.

Then, a second, a third…

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The sounds grew increasingly dense, like cracking ice.

The next moment!

Boom!!!

An indescribable terrifying aura exploded from the center of that Domain!

Those thousands of chaotic intertwining Domains seemed to be forcibly fused by an invisible hand at that moment!

The Sword Domain was no longer sharp, the Kill Domain was no longer cold, the Time Ruin no longer chaotic… all the Power, all the Laws, all the will, were forcibly unified by a higher level “reason,” becoming a brand new… Domain!

It was a… gray Domain.

Inside the Domain, everything seemed to be at a standstill. But upon closer inspection, stars were being born and perishing, worlds were withering and flourishing, Sword Intents were cleaving heavens, demon flames were scorching worlds…

All the “Daos” were there, yet none were as they once were.

They all orbited around a center, engaged in a… “inverse cycle”!

Life could be reversed into death, and death into life. Creation could be reversed into destruction, and destruction into creation!

This was a… Domain entirely governed by Xu Ran’s will, a… inversion of common sense… “Inverse Dao Domain”!

In the center of the Domain, Xu Ran slowly opened his eyes.

His pupils no longer clear, had transformed into two profound beans of chaos, as if countless Great Daos were rising and falling within them.

His aura had firmly stepped into… the Daoist Monarch Fifth Heaven!

Moreover, this was no ordinary Fifth Heaven.

His Dao Foundation was forged from fragments of thousands of Ancient God and demon Dao Principles, forcibly smelted with the true meaning of ‘Inverse’ at the core! Its grandness and solidity likely exceeded any Daoist Monarch in the world!

“Hoo…”

Xu Ran exhaled a long breath, this breath in the void evolved into a phenomenon of countless laws appearing and vanishing, lingering for a long time.

He stood up, feeling the unprecedented power within him that seemed able to control everything, to overturn everything, with a glint of understanding in his eyes.

“So this is what the true form of the ‘Inverse Great Dao’ is…”

He looked up at the mountain peak shrouded in clouds and enshrouded by even more terrifying aura.

“Then, it’s time to meet the true… master of this mountain of corpses.”

With a single step forward, his figure instantly vanished from the spot.

Reappearing after traversing countless distances, he reached the very… summit of the mountain of corpses!

…

“He… he succeeded?!” The mysterious voice’s tone was no longer that of shock, but pure astonishment! “To forge one’s own Domain by melting thousands of Daos! Such a feat has never been heard of throughout history! Is he… truly just a Daoist Monarch?”

The Tomb Guardian’s face, unchanged through the ages, for the first time showed a hint of uncontrollable excitement.

“I saw it… I truly saw it!” He mumbled to himself, his voice trembling, “That path… the path that even the master could not complete, truly has a chance to be opened!”

“What exactly did you see?” the mysterious voice urgently asked.