Chapter 717 - 29: Nine Cycles Merge, the Cycle Ends, Lu Xuan is Annihilated

"You should know who I am. This is a path you are destined to walk. From destruction comes creation..."

"Go. Go to The Beginning of Ancient Times."

"Remember, for every action, a wound is added. If the wounds reach ten, your body and Dao will perish. You will be beyond saving!"

After a brief conversation, Qing Xuan finally said to [Lu Xuan]:

"This journey will be fraught with hardship..."

[Lu Xuan] nodded silently, then rose to take his leave. Before departing, he turned around, performed a solemn bow, and said softly:

"Daoist Qing Xuan, it has been hard on you..."

With that, he silently headed in the direction of The Beginning of Ancient Times.

Watching [Lu Xuan] depart, Qing Xuan closed his eyes as the ninth great wound slowly emerged.

He coughed violently, then glanced aside. With a weary wave, he dismissed Xiaohuo'Er and Little Xi He before taking a deep breath.

'Next...'

He suddenly frowned, sensing a transformation occurring within him. It was creating ripples so great they were nearly impossible to conceal, showing signs of being detected by Taiyi and Fu Xi!

Qing Xuan's expression changed. He traced the cause to the consequences of him distributing Wa Huang's Qi.

As he possessed more and more of Wa Huang's Qi, he grew stronger, and a smooth, harmonious aura began to spread uncontrollably.

If this continued, he was afraid he would be discovered by Taiyi and Fu Xi ahead of time. They might even sense that something was amiss. If he was hunted down before finding that [special node], all his efforts might be for naught!

'First, I need to find a way to conceal these ripples. Then, I'll continue trying to copy Wa Huang's [Essence] and search for that [special node]...'

Muttering to himself, Qing Xuan stopped the copying and replication process. As he stared at the two Near Transcenders who were still fighting to the death, he suddenly coughed up a large mouthful of blood.

'My time... is running out.'

The Daoist began to crack. The fissures did not fade, but spread from his very foundation, running through his entire being. He was dying, bit by bit. Or rather...

He was being devoured, bit by bit, by the [Great Era].

'Is this the final fate of all the past Qing Xuans?'

The Mist Daoist continued to cough up blood. The nine wounds from the Era's backlash were making him weaker and weaker, pushing him to the brink of being assimilated and annihilated...

'I must find a place to sever my connection to the Era...'

'Otherwise, it won't be long before I'm completely devoured by the Great Era.'

Muttering to himself, he dragged his weary body out of the Guangcheng Daoist Palace, his brow tightly furrowed. With all nine great wounds gathered, he had begun an irreversible fall into the abyss.

This was especially true now, during the End-Tribulation. The Great Era had entered its twilight years and grown ever more frenzied, desperately trying to assimilate him to extend its own life...

'That [special node] must exist. It exists somewhere in the period of time between me guiding [Lu Xuan] to become Qing Xuan and me being completely assimilated by the Great Era...'

'My time is running out.'

As more and more cracks appeared on his Physique and True Spirit, and as the nine great wounds deepened, a sense of urgency welled up in the Mist Daoist's heart.

He calculated all of the past, all of the present, and all of the future, finally finding a place where he could temporarily resist the Great Era's assimilation.

Qing Xuan silently walked into the [Current World]. The [True Dharma-Ending] Age was descending. The Current World had collapsed again; the Great Heaven and Earth had turned into the Great Cosmos, and the Central Continent had become the Ancestor Star.

Cultivators were once again on the verge of extinction in this era. The [True Dharma-Ending] was not as simple as the dissipation of Spiritual Qi; the very rules of existence were being downgraded. The strong were no longer eternally strong!

Even a Daluo here could, at most, destroy a single galaxy with a full-power strike.

Ordinary True Immortals and Earth Immortals had been reduced to the mundane. An Earth Immortal would sink to their knees walking in water, though they could still send a man flying with a single blow. A True Immortal could lift and throw an elephant with one arm...

But that was all.

Only [Golden Immortals] at the originally Immortal level still possessed transcendent abilities. Only Dao Fruit Cultivators were undiminished in their might, remaining as they were before.

The Qing Xuan Daoist surveyed this chaotic, Dharma-ending world as he walked toward a familiar mountain peak.

Taishan.

He stood beside the Coffin and Casket on the summit of Taishan, his gaze impossibly deep.

'This Coffin and Casket...' ℯℯ𝑙.

Only now did Qing Xuan perceive the abnormality of the Coffin and Casket. He lifted the lid. Confucius lay within, frighteningly old due to the Dharma-Ending Age, deep in slumber.

But beside the sleeping Confucius was another black wooden Coffin and Casket. On it were eight cracks, engraved with profound and mysterious Dao and principles. It exuded an air of end-tribulation, golden age, and pioneering, yet it seemed completely out of place with the entire Great Era.

A large coffin containing a smaller one.

Qing Xuan gently caressed the eight cracks on its surface and tried to open the black wooden coffin. He exerted a bit of force, but the Coffin and Casket didn't budge, which stunned him.

He knew that with his current power, even a slight exertion of force could annihilate the Celestial Myriad Realms hundreds of times over and cause the River of Time to completely collapse. And yet, he couldn't even budge this Coffin and Casket??

Qing Xuan frowned and applied more force, even activating his True Form of Transcendence, but he still couldn't lift the lid of the black wooden Coffin and Casket.

He pondered for a long time, then drew upon his [End-Tribulation Body], took up his Qing Ping Sword, and struck lightly!

This time, it worked. A crack appeared on the black wooden Coffin and Casket, identical to the other eight.

"Hm?"

Qing Xuan's heart skipped a beat. As he coughed up blood, a look of trepidation appeared on his face. 'Could it be...?'

He followed the crack and walked inside.

"You're here?"

A gentle voice sounded. Eight Qing Xuans, who were in the middle of playing mahjong and poker, all turned to look at him with a smile.

Every one of them was on the verge of death.

Three large question marks appeared above the Mist Daoist's head.

...

"So..."

After a long conversation, a baffled Qing Xuan spoke:

"So, you're all... the previous me's?"

"To be precise, and to put it simply, you are the ninth run." A Qing Xuan in black robes spoke with a smile. "By the way, I'm the second run."

As he spoke, he also coughed up a mouthful of blood, looking quite haggard. He was clearly suffering from the torment of the nine great wounds.

The ninth-run Qing Xuan furrowed his brow deeply.

"So, in the previous eight cycles, none of you found the [special node]?"

The eighth-run Qing Xuan, the one who had guided him before, looked up.

"You could say we didn't find it, but you could also say... we did."

"What do you mean?" The Mist Daoist's expression hardened as he quickly asked.

The eighth-run Qing Xuan pondered for a moment before speaking.

"Before you arrived, we weren't just playing cards and discussing the Dao. We tried to work together to deduce the key to breaking this situation, and we finally came up with an answer."

The Mist Daoist didn't interrupt, listening silently with his full attention as the eighth-run Qing Xuan continued.

"The answer is..."

"Nine is the limit of numbers."

Hearing this, the Mist Daoist was a little surprised. 'Nine is the limit of numbers?'

A thought flashed through his mind, and a guess began to form. His expression changed drastically.

"You mean... the cycle ends at the ninth time?"

"Correct." The first-run Qing Xuan nodded slightly. "Barring any accidents, the cycle should end now. In other words, if you fail, you will have truly failed. There will be no more after this."

After a pause, he coughed again and asked:

"What additional arrangements did you make this time?"

The Mist Daoist described his two backup plans: one involving Xiaoyan, and the other involving Fu Xi.

The eighth-run Qing Xuan let out a breath.

"The nine of us are truly all different. Your preparations are the most complete. Of my two chances, I used one to save Xiaonian, which was a waste, frankly. The other, I used to forge the Six Paths of Reincarnation."

The Mist Daoist was stunned. 'The Six Paths of Reincarnation... so I was the one who forged it?'

The seventh-run Qing Xuan also smiled and said:

"As for my two chances for spare intervention, I wasted one protecting all living beings. The other I used to merge the Heaven-Opening Banner, the Qing Ping Sword, the Taiji Diagram, and so on, to forge this."

As he spoke, he opened his hand, and a dusty gray stone appeared. It looked completely ordinary, but it gave the Mist Daoist a heart-stopping sensation.

The sixth, fifth, and fourth runs each described the backup plans they had made, also mentioning they had each wasted one chance. The third and second runs sighed, as they had wasted both of their spare chances.

As for the first-run Qing Xuan, he just smiled.

"I used one chance to create this Coffin and Casket to resist the Great Era's assimilation. For my other chance, I took the Eight Sceneries Palace and buried it in The Beginning of Ancient Times. Sealed inside is a full-power strike from our Teacher at the peak of his true form, to be used in case of an emergency."

The Mist Daoist had a flash of realization. 'No wonder the Eight Sceneries Palace suddenly disappeared in the past. I even investigated it but couldn't find a trace. So it was taken away during the very first cycle?'

At this moment, the first-run Qing Xuan looked up.

"If our deductions are correct, that nine is the limit of numbers and the cycle ends with you, then you might be the only one who can break the stalemate. All our hope rests on you."

The Mist Daoist shook his head with a bitter smile.

"I am no different from you. Out there, I am also being assimilated by the Great Era at every moment. I can only cower here like you all, hiding from assimilation..."

The eighth-run Qing Xuan pondered for a moment and said:

"Is the backup plan you left on Fu Xi useless?"

The Mist Daoist shook his head.

"I'm not sure. It might be useful, or it might not be... I can't just gamble on it."

The various Qing Xuans discussed amongst themselves for a moment. Finally, the first-run Qing Xuan spoke solemnly:

"We also hope our deduction is wrong, that the numbers don't stop at nine. That way, with infinite cycles, we would surely succeed once. But..."

After a pause, he continued:

"But, if the numbers truly do stop at nine, you are the last chance."

The Mist Daoist's expression turned solemn.

"You mean...?"

The first one smiled.

"We can merge with you and forcibly block the Great Era's assimilation. As long as you don't receive a tenth great wound, you will be fine."

The Mist Daoist was silent for a moment before saying softly:

"If I do that and fail, you will all vanish into thin air."

The eighth run chimed in:

"That's not the right way to look at it. If the cycle ends here, only you are attuned to this Great Era. Only you can break the stalemate. If you do nothing and wait for Taiyi and Fu Xi to determine a winner, we are all doomed to vanish anyway..."

He paused, then continued:

"And if the cycle *doesn't* end this time, then it matters even less. Even if you fail and we dissipate along with you, the next Qing Xuan will eventually arrive..."

The Mist Daoist listened silently and gave a quiet nod.

He felt a heavy weight on his shoulders. If the speculation was true and the cycle ended here, then he himself was the [special node]. The entire future rested upon him.

The nine Qing Xuans conferred with each other for a moment. Then, the other eight handed all their remaining backup plans to the Mist Daoist before walking into his body, one after another.

With each Qing Xuan that merged with him, one great wound was suppressed. When all eight Qing Xuans had entered the Mist Daoist's body, eight of his nine great wounds had dimmed.

He closed his eyes, comprehending the change for a long time. Finally, he pushed open the black wooden Coffin and Casket and slowly walked out.

Just as he expected, the feeling of being assimilated and devoured by the Great Era was gone.

As long as he didn't incur a tenth great wound, everything would be fine!

But if he did incur a tenth...

Qing Xuan took a deep breath and gazed toward The Beginning of Ancient Times. This was the moment when [Lu Xuan] was stirring the three Era Essences, preparing to escape into the [True Past].

He watched quietly, muttering to himself:

'No, wait. If this is how it goes, how could the cycle end? Could it be that the deduction was wrong? That the numbers don't stop at nine?'

As he muttered, the Mist Daoist felt an inexplicable sense of relief. The burden on his shoulders seemed to lighten considerably. 'If that's the case, then I'm not the [last one]...'

A faint smile appeared on Qing Xuan's face.

However, in the next instant, the unexpected happened.

In The Beginning of Ancient Times, [Lu Xuan] was at the epicenter of the vibrations from the three [Era Essences], the absolute focal point. His figure was gradually fading, escaping into the True Past...

In the instant before he turned completely illusory, the joint strike from Fu Xi and Taiyi landed prematurely.

VMMMM!!

The balance of the three [Era Essences] was broken. At the center point, [Lu Xuan] was torn to shreds by the three [Era Essences], then devoured and assimilated by the entire Great Era.

He vanished completely.

"Nine is..."

"The limit of numbers."

The [O] ends here, evolving into a [6]. All paths of retreat are severed.

Qing Xuan stared at this scene, somewhat lost in a daze. His heart sank, and then suddenly, his scalp tingled and a chill ran down his spine.

The Mist Daoist snapped his head up, only to see two [Near Transcenders] staring at him from above the Chaos.

He had been discovered.