Chapter 2910 - The Ceaseless Abyss of Destiny and the Natal Heart Lamp
River Ancestor Lu Shu was, after all, the Monarch of Endless Tribulations’ subordinate.
Su Yi had only just been fighting the Monarch of Endless Tribulations and the Buddha of Non-Existence, yet now, River Ancestor Lu Shu was thanking him with such respect. Who wouldn’t have been bewildered?
Wang Zhiwu and River Ancestor Shen Xiao got the sense that something shocking had happened during the battle beneath the dome of heaven. It wasn’t simply that Su Yi had won and returned victorious.
“You guys chat on your own for a bit. I need to take a moment to cultivate,” said Su Yi. He casually found a place to sit, then crossed his legs.
No one disturbed him.
Wang Zhiwu plopped down not far away, let out a breath of turbid air, and said, “No matter what, we’re at least getting out of here alive. That’s enough for me.”
River Ancestor Shen Xiao smiled. “Fellow Daoist Wang, if you aren’t opposed, might you take this opportunity to tell me more about my worthy younger brother?”
Everyone else instantly pricked up their ears. Most of them were river denizens. Now that Lu Shi was dead, Wang Zhiwu was the only one left from outside the river.
The river denizens knew the least about Su Yi, so to them, he seemed utterly shrouded in mysteries.
“I don’t know that much either,” said Wang Zhiwu. “But if you’re interested, I can tell you some of what I do know. Only the parts I’m allowed to share, of course.”
Everyone was all too happy to agree to that.
Meanwhile, Su Yi activated the Spirit Platform Chapter. His heart and mind silently slipped into the Book of Destiny.
Two new mysterious bundles of light now hovered in the Divine Punishment Destiny Ruin on the first page. The first emanated a terrifying, calamitous aura, while the second billowed with dense Buddhist flames.
These were the clones of the Monarch of Endless Tribulations and the Buddha of Non-Existence. The heart devil in the rusted sheath had used a secret method to suppress and confine them within the Destiny Prison.
But Su Yi disregarded all that. The moment his heart and mind entered the Book of Destiny, he heard a clamor of voices tinged with sadistic glee.
“Hey Xiao Jian! You had all that fun throwing your weight around as Destiny’s Chosen, but look at you now! Your imprint is on the verge of dissipating. How pathetic is that?”
“Without your imprint, how could the Little Chosen possibly keep us confined?”
“The heavens really do have eyes. Our opportunity to escape confinement will soon arrive!”
“What Book of Destiny? It’s nothing but dog shit! When I escape, I’ll burn it to cinders!”
The voices criticized and verbally abused without reservation, their tone full of eagerness and excitement.
But then, seemingly out of nowhere, Mo Hanyi’s voice rang out. “Don’t bother trying to provoke him. That scholar Xiao Jian couldn’t possibly lose his temper and try to attack you over this; you can forget about seizing this opportunity to exhaust what remains of his imprint.”
The clamor of voices instantly died down.
Su Yi blinked. So, all of that was just a bid to lure Xiao Jian into attacking them and exhausting his imprint faster.
“Oh? The Little Chosen’s here!” Mo Hanyi suddenly laughed. “You faced disaster and overcame it. Allow me to offer you my congratulations!”
Even though he was trapped in the Book of Destiny, he’d obviously sensed the battle raging outside.
Su Yi disregarded Mo Hanyi completely. Instead, he asked, “When you were Destiny’s Chosen, why not just kill these old-timers and be done with them? All they know how to do is rattle on endlessly. They’re as irritating as flies.”
Flies?!
The Book of Destiny practically boiled over. A cacophony of voices arose on all sides, with rebukes, curses, mockery, and all kinds of provocation.
Even Mo Hanyi obviously couldn’t keep his cool. He sighed. “Little Chosen, that was far too unkind of you. Hearing such things from you is deeply disappointing.”
Boom!
The world in the Book of Destiny shook violently as a strange power swept across it like a windstorm, instantly quelling the old-timers’ voices.
Then, Xiao Jian appeared out of nowhere in the Divine Punishment Destiny Ruin on the first page. He seemed indistinct and ethereal, as if he might dissipate at any moment.
“They’ve just been suppressed here for far too long, and they’ve accumulated an enormous amount of resentment. When they saw me meet with disaster, they forgot their usual comportment, that’s all. Ultimately, they’re inferior to even flies. They’re at most... pitiful worms, unable to truly live, yet unable to die,” said Xiao Jian.
The inside of the Book of Destiny was deathly silent save for the sound of Xiao Jian’s voice.
Su Yi could sense that the old-timers’ auras had been suppressed. They could no longer chatter or speak impudently.
“It’s just a pity that this is the Book of Destiny; there’s no way to drink and celebrate properly in here. We’ll just have to make do.” Xiao Jian took a seat, leisurely and relaxed.
After a moment’s silence, Su Yi said, “The way you see it, is there any hope of me bringing you back one day?”
That was what he was most concerned about.
Xiao Jian shook his head. “It’s impossible. I’m your past life. I’m still alive thanks entirely to the power of the Book of Destiny. With its power, I managed to seize hold of a profound mystery and cling to life. Even so, if I live on, I’ll have to settle things with you sooner or later.
“Ultimately, you and I are the same person. Think about it: if I’m alive, how could you possibly exist?”
Su Yi’s heart sank, but out loud, he said, “There are no absolutes in this world. You never mastered the power of reincarnation, but I succeeded. That aside, I now possess the Book of Destiny, too. I’ll do everything in my power to bring you back.”
Xiao Jian looked at him with great interest. “All of your past lives have become part of you. If you fuse with my Dao Imprint, I’ll become part of you, too. Why insist on bringing me back? Isn’t that unfair to the rest of them?”
“There’s no need to get hung up on the ‘whys,’” said Su Yi. “I don’t need a reason to save you. It’s simply in my nature to do so.”
Xiao Jian blinked, stunned, and seemingly moved. He sighed. “You realize that if you don’t fuse with my Dao Imprint, it’s highly likely to leave flaws in your path of reincarnation and rebirth?”
“When the time comes, entrust me with your mantle,” said Su Yi. “That will naturally be enough to repair the damage.”
Xiao Jian couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t get your hopes up. How can past and present incarnations coexist? Nothing so absurd has ever happened in this world!”
“Let’s talk about something else,” said Su Yi. “I came here to see you because there are two things I’d like to ask you about.”
Xiao Jian sighed but made no further attempts to persuade Su Yi.
Su Yi went on to ask about the Book of Destiny. Although he’d acquired it, he’d yet to fully master it, and there was a lot he didn’t yet understand. Xiao Jian was once Destiny’s Chosen. He was naturally best equipped to help Su Yi.
And indeed, Xiao Jian told him everything he wanted to know without reservation.
The Book of Destiny’s origins were connected to the source of the entire River of Destiny. It was imbued with the supreme truths and mysteries of Destiny.
However, even at his peak, Xiao Jian never managed to uncover all of the Book of Destiny’s mysteries. The Book of Destiny’s secrets were too enormous, and they were inextricably intertwined with the source of the River of Destiny. Their mysteriousness was far from ordinary.
According to Xiao Jian, the Book of Destiny had three pages.
The first page contained the Divine Punishment Destiny Ruin, and it was imbued with the power of Destiny’s Wrath, one of the fundamental source powers used to control the Laws of Destiny.
Numerous supreme powers of the Grand Dao were connected to destiny, but only a tiny handful were connected to its source. Destiny’s Wrath was one of them.
The second page was called the Abyss of Ceaseless Destiny, and it was full of Destiny Soul Power.
Much like Destiny’s Wrath, Destiny Soul Power was one of the source powers of the Laws of Destiny.
The Abyss of Ceaseless Destiny was like the final resting place of Destiny Souls. It was vast beyond measure, stretching on without end. Those inside couldn’t fathom its depths or tell what direction they were facing. Size and distance ceased to be.
It was as if they were in a true vacuum. There was nothing there, and therefore, nothing to sense.
According to Xiao Jian, those Destiny Souls trapped in the Abyss of Ceaseless Destiny were effectively consigned to its depths forever, unable to live, yet unable to die.
If Destiny’s Chosen willed it, he could grind those Destiny Souls to bits, transforming them into the purest Destiny Soul Origin Power.
If Su Yi wanted to open the second page and access the Abyss of Ceaseless Destiny, there was only one method. He had to condense a Natal Heart Lamp!
Cultivating the heart was full of profundities upon profundities. Cultivation methods useful for tempering it were so rare that they might as well not have existed. There had never been a complete system of cultivation for it.
Prior to condensing his Heart Soul, Su Yi had no idea that anyone whose heart reached a certain level of strength could condense a Heart Soul.
It was also then that he learned that even some of the Heavenly Sovereigns had yet to condense true Heart Souls!
Later, when his Heart Soul gave rise to the Light of the Heart, Su Yi learned that this was the next stage, a higher level of mastery of the Heart Soul.
Now, Su Yi learned of the third stage for the first time.
The Natal Heart Lamp!
In truth, there were more than just three stages, but the first stage, acquiring a Heart Soul, was such a high threshold that typically only Heavenly Sovereigns managed to cross it.
The Light of the Heart and the Natal Heart Lamp were even more unattainable.
Su Yi dared say with certainty that the transformations of the heart had stages preceding the development of a Heart Soul. It was just that no one had ever successfully combed through them and divided them into clear levels.
He also strongly suspected that levels existed beyond the Natal Heart Lamp, but he’d need to discover them on his own, too.
As he realized all this, something suddenly occurred to him. Someday, I have to create a clear system of cultivation for the heart!
But Su Yi’s ambitions went far beyond that.
His grand ambition began when he first acquired the Epoch Spark, and he’d spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of epoch civilization he wanted to make.
His path was unique and unprecedented.
When the day came that he reached the limits of this unprecedented path, he could try fusing all cultivation civilizations, systems, and legacies to create a new cultivation system all his own!
Of course, Su Yi had only a rough idea of all of this, but he would realize all of his ambitions sooner or later!
The Natal Heart Lamp was, as the name implied, a lamp lit with the Light of the Heart, with one’s vital source at its roots.
When the Natal Heart Lamp shone, the chamber of the heart filled with radiant light.
When the level of one’s heart was as lofty as the heavens, the Heart Lamp outshone the heavens, reflecting all Daos within the heart.
Su Yi calmed his heart and quietly examined it. In the end, he concluded that he was far from the level needed to condense a Natal Heart Lamp.
He couldn’t help but be surprised. How terrifying must the Ceaseless Abyss of Destiny be if you need a Natal Heart Lamp to even access it? And Xiao Jian did it back then, too. Doesn’t that mean that he, at the very least, reached the level of condensing a Natal Heart Lamp?
