Talisman Emperor

Chapter 2197 – Punishment (Part 2/3)

Right at this moment, he saw himself within the screen of light seem to risk everything and shout with extreme madness. “Enter Samsara! I seek my true self! The eternal shall be my guide to retake Genesis!”

After that, the Sovereign Sect’s Master’s figure within the screen of light vanished, and the complete River Diagram and Genesis Energy vanished along with him....

At this point, the screen of light suddenly vanished.

The Sovereign Sect’s Master stood there on the spot while his expression changed indeterminately, and his cold, indifferent, and emotionless eyes were flickering indeterminately as well.

Could all of those scenes have been... true?

No!

If it were true, then how could someone who was dead like Chen Xi be able to stand before me?

He lost the River Diagram, lost Samsara, and lost his opportunity to take control of Genesis Energy. I erased his existence completely, so why was he still alive?

That was clearly fake!

His mind told him that it might be true, but he refused to allow such a thing to occur.

So, it wasn’t long before he eliminated all the distracting thoughts in his mind, and then he gazed at Chen Xi and spoke indifferently. “That show was very interesting indeed. Was that what you prepared to defeat me with?”

Chen Xi seemed to not feel surprised by this reaction, and he said, “The reason I showed you all of that was merely because I want you to feel even more pain when you fail later.”

The Sovereign Sect’s Master grunted coldly. “Little Fellow, I have no time to waste my breath on you.” As he spoke, he pointed at the chaotic cloud behind him and said, “Your master and the others are trapped in there. You’re bound to be unable to change their fate regardless of whether you try to save them or not. But you’ll definitely not believe me. Since it’s like that, then are you willing to head in there and give it a try?”

“There’s no need for that.” Chen Xi flicked his sleeve, and then the chaotic cloud suddenly vanished as if it was swept away by an invisible hand.

The Sovereign Sect’s Master’s expression couldn’t help but change when he witnessed this scene. “You....”

At the moment the chaotic cloud vanished, he instantly noticed that his control over the Order of the Heaven Dao had actually vanished as well!

The Order of the Heaven Dao which belonged to Godsbane Heaven and covered the three dimensions, the Ancient God Domain, and the entire cosmos seemed to have been taken away, and it didn’t belong to him any longer!

How could the Sovereign Sect’s Master accept this?

That was the key to why he was able to possess his current status and set up such a death trap for Chen Xi. Once he lost control of it all, he would be no different than a tiger that had lost its teeth!

At this moment, the Sovereign Sect’s Master really was in panic and disorder. He felt unprecedented terror.

It was also at this exact same moment that he suddenly noticed a trace of a crack had actually appeared in his Grand Dao of emotionlessness, and he’d aroused fluctuations of emotion.

So, he naturally linked all of it to the scenes he’d witnessed on the screen of light just now, and he recalled that he had suffered a similar unexpected event in the scenes displayed by the screen of light....

In an instant, his heart shook while the vital blood throughout his body almost started flowing in the opposite direction. He couldn’t stop himself from coughing out a mouthful of blood any longer.

“How... how exactly did you do all of this?” The Sovereign Sect’s Master gasped rapidly for breath while his vital blood raged throughout his body. He was practically on the verge of madness.

“That is my path.” Chen Xi spoke casually. “In your opinion, the Dao Terra Firma is whether both the beginning and the end are. It’s where the Chaos of the three dimensions was born, and it’s the source of all the myriad of Daos in the world. Both in my opinion, this place... isn’t the end of my path towards the Dao!”

The Sovereign Sect’s Master was dazed. It was the first time he felt that he was so slow-witted and muddled because he was actually unable to figure out what Chen Xi was trying to say.

“You severed your Dao Heart, so there should have been no one in this world capable of defeating you. But since the moment you took control of the complete River Diagram, you indirectly obtained a new Dao Heart. The Dao Terra Firma and the myriad of worlds throughout the world were that Dao Heart of yours.” Chen Xi spoke calmly. “At that moment, your Dao Heart was like a shell that blinded your eyes. It made you only capable of seeing everything before you, but you were unable to see beyond the Dao Terra Firma.”

The Sovereign Sect’s Master was stunned, and he said, “Is it not the three dimensions and the Ancient God Domain that are beyond the Dao Terra Firma?”

Chen Xi shook his head. “Let me ask you this. How was the Dao Terra Firma born? How did Genesis Energy come to be?”

These words were like a thunderclap that shook the Sovereign Sect’s Master to the point his soul was on the verge of splitting apart and collapsing.

“The beginning! I thought Genesis Energy was the source of all things, but who would have imagined that there’s actually another world beyond the Dao Terra Firma....

“Why has this happened? Why was I unable to discern all of that?

“Liars! All of you are liars! The heavens, the earth, and all things were just a smokescreen! It was all of you! It was all of you that caused this to happen!!”

The Sovereign Sect’s Master’s hair was disheveled, and his face was livid while he roared and howled madly. He seemed so ferocious, yet he was also helpless and filled with despair.

“Actually, it was all thanks to your actions of seizing the River Diagram from me that I was able to grasp this path of mine. It made me completely lose the River Diagram which I relied on, but what I got in return was my true Dao Heart!” Chen Xi spoke softly.

Actually, he’d really sighed with emotion for a long time in his heart. His fate had been linked closely to the River Diagram since before he was born, and then he’d constantly gathered the River Diagram fragments and relied on its might to constantly break through all obstacles he encountered throughout his path of cultivation.

At the moment he arrived at the Dao Terra Firma for the first time, he’d similarly thought that the true secret of the Ultimate Path was to take control of the Genesis Energy within the Dao Terra Firma.

However, when the River Diagram had been taken away from him and at that last instant before he died, Chen Xi finally laid eyes on his true Ultimate Path. He saw a supreme path that transcended the Dao Terra Firma and was far superior to Genesis Energy!

It was his path!

It was a path of his inner self!

The inner self was himself. It was without the energy of the River Diagram, without the energy of Samsara, and was completely without any realms of cultivation, in divine energy, the Sword Dao, the soul, or Dao Comprehension!

At that moment before death, all of these forces had been taken from him, and it was exactly because he’d lost all of them that Chen Xi had fallen into an ‘empty’ state. He finally broke through the smokescreen before his eyes, and he saw the scene beyond it.

This process was a tribulation.

The ancient character for tribulation ‘?’ could be further described as a process of ‘??’, the removal of energy.

It was the removal of all energy to return to one’s true self!

That was Chen Xi’s path towards the Dao.

It had broken through the so-called limits of the world, surpassed Genesis, and pushed open a door that went beyond the Dao Terra Firma!

This door transcended the three dimensions, the myriad of Daos in this world, and the boundaries within the limits of all beings in this world!

Since the ancient times until now, no one had ever seen through all of this. But at this moment, Chen Xi had become the first person to ever pass through that door!

If the Dao Terra Firma was described as a seed, then the Chaos of the three dimensions was the period when it was sprouting, the myriad of worlds and the boundless Grand Dao were a flower and its branches and leaves that had grown and matured from that seed. The vitality of the flower was the living beings throughout the world.

But if the Dao Terra Firma was a seed, then were there even more seeds throughout the world? Who was the one who’d sowed the seeds?

No one could imagine it.

All of these things that were unimaginable was like an invisible door!

Now, Chen Xi had pushed that door open, and he’d laid eyes on a path of the inner self which was his own.

This was a difference in attainment and enlightenment.

The end of the Ultimate Path in the opinion of the Sovereign Sect’s Master was Genesis Energy, and it was the same for Fuxi, Nuwa, and all the others.

However, only Chen Xi knew that it wasn’t the end. The true end was beyond that invisible door!

Once he comprehended that, saw through it, and took control of it. The difference in them became obvious.

At this moment, Chen Xi had attained such a state.

So long as he willed it, he could transform into Samsara, into the River Diagram, the myriad of worlds, or all the Grand Daos in the cosmos. There was nothing he couldn’t take the form of, so he was omnipresent.

Similarly, all of it were unable to become obstructions to Chen Xi. He didn’t have to take control of them all, yet he’d surpassed all of them!

There was no limit to the path of inner self!