Chapter 1677 - 234: A Tao Talisman

Chapter 1677: Chapter 234: A Tao Talisman

"You have no choice."

"You can only choose to accept fate... and together with me, kill them."

Lu Yuzhen sat on the ground, legs sprawled, and said with a surly grin, "Hurry up and drink this Undying Spring. We’ll meet again in the next Reincarnation."

Paper snow fluttered down in profusion.

Heaven and earth gradually froze.

Xie Xuanyi lifted his eyes to look at the nearby Paper Taoist. In the latter’s palm, that Undying Spring Eye was emitting a faint lustrous white glow.

His expression was somewhat complicated.

"What, regretting it?"

Lu Yuzhen sneered, "Regret is useless... the chance to do it over has already been missed."

"I don’t regret it."

Xie Xuanyi lowered his gaze. "I’m just thinking about some questions."

"It’s almost over."

Lu Yuzhen said faintly, "What use is there in thinking so much?"

"I’m thinking..."

Xie Xuanyi said, "Since you chose Annihilation, then after this Great Tribulation, why did you cultivate so desperately? What was it for?"

"Naturally, to become that One."

Lu Yuzhen laughed freely.

After the Great Tribulation, heaven and earth were shattered.

The Heavenly Dao Order collapsed; only by attaining the Dao in such a ruined world could one achieve a truly authentic Fruit Position.

Thus, by means of the Great Divine Power of the Daoist Brush, he ceaselessly traversed the River of Destiny, ceaselessly accumulating Dao Fruit, ceaselessly seeding hidden threads, and with the Power of All Living Beings, the Power of Cause and Effect, he ultimately reached the absolute summit.

It was all for becoming the true "Dao One."

The origin of all under heaven, the Dao of all under heaven—

Return to One.

"So, you’ve always used me as an anchor point."

Xie Xuanyi mused, "From Yuzhu Town onward, all the way trekking to the end of the River of Destiny..."

The reason Lu Yuzhen had not killed him.

Was not because he was soft?hearted, a Bodhisattva at heart.

But because...

To initiate this chain of Cause and Effect of becoming Dao One, he needed Xie Xuanyi to cultivate to the Heavenly Human Realm.

He needed Xie Xuanyi more than anyone else in the world.

This was very reasonable.

Yet Xie Xuanyi dimly felt that he seemed to have overlooked something.

"You’re only half right."

Lu Yuzhen paused, then corrected him, "Yuzhu Town is not the beginning, but the end."

Or rather.

Yuzhu Town is both the beginning and the end.

The advent of the Annihilation Tribulation would cause space-time to shatter...

That "forbidden zone" which severed the River of Destiny was born because of this. In this newly opened era, by relying on the Daoist Brush, Lu Yuzhen survived, but as the price, he could no longer live in the Flower Bud World in a normal life form.

Just like Xie Xuanyi at this very moment.

A thousand years ago, Xie Xuanyi moved against the current.

A thousand years later, Lu Yuzhen became the Pilgrim.

This was why the Paperman Sect appeared out of nowhere and vanished into thin air...

Even Lu Yuzhen himself could not control the era, the moment at which he appeared.

Only by reaching the absolute summit, grasping a complete Great Dao, and achieving the True Immortal Fruit Position could he escape this endless chaotic drifting through space-time.

As for Xie Xuanyi...

He fell back to Yuzhu Town, and began cultivating from the break point of his Second Life.

"So that’s how it is."

Xie Xuanyi murmured softly.

From this angle.

This already formed a perfectly closed great circle.

No wonder, every time he awoke to that pitch-black darkness, it always felt so familiar...

At the moment he woke in Yuzhu Town, he was already lying in a coffin.

That was both the first station and the last.

At this moment, most of the doubts in Xie Xuanyi’s heart were dispelled.

All except...

One point of suspicion that still remained.

"It’s a bit quiet here."

Xie Xuanyi looked toward Lu Yuzhen once more and said earnestly.

"Quiet?"

Lu Yuzhen was taken aback for a moment.

"This battle is far too quiet..."

Xie Xuanyi asked, enunciating each word, "You mean to say, you haven’t felt it?"

Lu Yuzhen’s face stiffened slightly for an instant.

"I remember that battle in the West Desert from years ago as if it were yesterday."

Xie Xuanyi quietly closed his eyes, recalling the journey of trekking over countless years. Because the span of time was too long, many memories had been weathered and faded.

But that battle in the West Desert.

He could not forget.

In that battle, he faced all the peak Strong Persons of the Golden Era.

And won a great victory.

Heaven and earth were beaten to the point of collapsing.

"In that battle, I defeated many Heavenly People."

Xie Xuanyi said in puzzlement, "Yet now, with the Annihilation Tribulation descending... so many ’Heavenly People’ outside besieging Pure White Mountain, why is the commotion still not as great as in the West Desert?"

After such a long, bitter fight.

He could still only hear shouts of killing.

Yet saw no more figures.

The two of them had been hunted until their oil was exhausted and their lamps were dry, forced to hide in Pure White Mountain.

This in itself was nothing amiss.

But for so many Heavenly People, not a single one to show themselves—this was truly unreasonable.

"Of course, the truly quiet thing is not this battle."

Xie Xuanyi sorted out his thoughts and said slowly, "You and I have fought a battle that spans a full thousand years of the River of Destiny... from this end to that end, and yet we haven’t seen a single figure. That doesn’t seem quite right, does it?"

Master, Xiao Yaozi, the Zen Master.

He knew that by relying on his Divine Skills, Lu Yuzhen had defeated quite a few opponents within the River of Destiny.

Quite a few of the Strongest had fallen.

But—

The three mightiest Strongest of the past thousand years should not have gone down so easily.

"..."

At this point in their conversation, Lu Yuzhen no longer replied.

The Paperman Taoist’s eyes grew cold.

"So... can this Undying Spring truly be taken?"

Xie Xuanyi lowered his head and looked at it for a long time.

In the end, he could only let out a soft sigh. "I’m sorry... after all these years, I still can’t bring myself to trust you."

Xie Xuanyi did not accept the Undying Spring.

Having said all this.

He made no further move.

Xie Xuanyi began to wait.

To wait for Pure White Mountain to explode.

To wait for this Annihilation Tribulation to fully descend.

But in the end.

Nothing happened.

The sounds of slaughter and furious shouting outside grew ever closer.

Streaks of radiance crashed down.

The earth quaked and the heavens shook.

Yet Lu Yuzhen did not speak again; he simply let everything play out.

At last.

Pure White Mountain was breached.

One after another, auras of the Great Dao emerged...

The Great Divine Ability Users besieging Lu Yuzhen came from Da Sui Sword Palace, from the Taoist sects, from Fan Yin Temple, from the Demon Country.

These Great Dao auras naturally also came from the Sword Palace, the Taoists, and the Buddhist Sect.

Under the shroud of the Space-Time Dao Realm.

The Heavenly People outside had blurred faces, impossible to see clearly.

Yet among those many auras of the Great Dao, there was mixed one that should not have been there.

"This is...?"

Xie Xuanyi gave a soft "hm" as he extended his palm and grasped toward the void.

The Swallowing Dao Scroll precisely locked onto that strand of aura.

Swoosh!

The void shattered!

The next moment, a sheet of talisman paper stained with fresh blood was seized and dragged over by the Swallowing Dao Scroll.

Of course Xie Xuanyi knew this talisman.

After leaving Yuzhu Town, the first talisman he taught Deng Baiyi to draw was called "Purity."

This was originally a common talismanic technique among the Taoists.

But Xie Xuanyi privately added a few modifications, so the Purity Talisman that Deng Baiyi learned carried a faint trace of Sword Qi...

Right now this talisman was exuding that familiar, faint Sword Intent.

This was a talisman drawn by Deng Baiyi.

No matter what, this talisman should not have appeared a thousand years ago, nor should it be present in this current scene of the Heavenly People’s great purge.