"All the gods and saints, they just look impressive."

The Demon-Slaying Sword swept out, and in this dream of the dead, it was unstoppable. But even as the Golden Light Heavenly Heart's body was cut down, its voice echoed from all directions, above and below, filled with intense mockery.

The Three Officials Great Emperors pressed forward, and the Golden Light Heavenly Heart had disappeared without a trace. The black-robed Ji Xiang invoked the forms of the gods and saints, and each of the Three Officials Great Emperors held a written decree in their hands.

They needed the divine form of the Black Emperor, to seize it from the black-robed Ji Xiang and revive it as one of the true Five Directional Sovereigns. The Three Officials Decrees had, since ancient times, governed the fortunes and fates of mortals. Those afflicted with disaster, sin, or disease would pray to the Three Officials Great Emperors, so that the Three Officials Decrees could reach Heaven, Earth, and Water, adjusting the three elements of the world to relieve the supplicant's afflictions.

"Sin!"

The Three Officials Great Emperors pointed at the black-robed Ji Xiang. At that moment, great misfortune arrived from the past, and great sorrow enveloped him from the future. Past and future merged, and a person's fate was sealed, entangled in misfortune and sorrow, difficult to escape for a lifetime. Because the past and future were connected, there was no way to escape the prison of time.

Fate was the most terrible and uncompensated thing, composed of the fragments of the past and future. Separated, they were not enough to inspire fear, appearing as mere small choices. But once connected, head to tail, they became unshakeable.

The Three Officials Great Emperors' decrees were precisely such an supreme method, helping people make choices in every instant of the past and future, allowing them to possess sin and fall into the temporal prison like a mire, existing in pain. This was originally a method to help the world escape, but once used in reverse, it became extremely terrifying.

"The Three Officials Great Emperors, once suppressed by the Green Woman Heavenly Laws, only look frightening."

However, the black-robed Ji Xiang was indifferent to the Three Officials Decrees' judgment of sin. As an existence of the Dao, he himself had been rumored as an evil being for countless years, and did not care about one more sin. Even if he refused to confess, the Three Officials Great Emperors' art of modifying fate and fortune could not do anything to him.

Fate pierced through him, but the black-robed Ji Xiang's past was already a chaotic mess. The Three Officials Great Emperors' decrees also presented chaotic text, unable to penetrate all the nodes, because the Azure Goat was already a legendary thing, and as the incarnation of the Azure Goat, the black-robed Ji Xiang's present and future were also blank.

There were no nodes in the blankness.

The black-robed Ji Xiang's body trembled, and the great sin imposed by the Three Officials Decrees was shattered by him, turning into a burst of hazy light that soared into the sky.

"The Three of the Dao extends backward, creating all things. The One of the Dao exists innately, beyond all things. The Three of the Dao can judge the fortune and fate of all things. Can it even judge the fortune and fate of the One of the Dao?"

"I also know the Green Woman Heavenly Laws!"

There were punishments in the Heavenly Laws directed at righteous gods, but the Three Officials Great Emperors of the Ghost City were not the same as the Three Officials incense gods of the outside world. The Heavenly Laws circulated, and Cheng Jie's voice was certainly vast, but it was all thunder and no rain. Falling on the Three Officials Great Emperors, it did not stir up too many waves, only causing the corners of their respective Three Officials Decrees to fold.

In the first exchange, neither side gained the upper hand, but the black-robed Ji Xiang was more concerned about the whereabouts of that Golden Light Heavenly Heart. Divine sense probed the ten directions of heaven and earth, faintly sensing the other's position, but it stopped abruptly in the next instant.

The black-robed Ji Xiang's eyes suddenly went dark, and he felt his consciousness spinning in an instant. In his heart, he heard a sound even grander than thunder and collapse:

"Yin and yang separate, spirit and essence are extinguished."

The black-robed Ji Xiang trembled all over. He felt that he was about to be divided into two individuals, and the aura of the gods and saints behind him suddenly shrank. His own aura was flowing towards these forms and spirits, making them seem to want to break away from him and form independent existences.

The Golden Light Heavenly Heart's voice was cold:

"I said it would take some effort, but it really only takes 'a little bit'."

"I am a Confucian, and I also comprehend the Dao. This was a common thing in ancient times. Although you are the One of the Dao, you are not appearing in your true form, seizing everything from others to stand here. Taking on an innate posture with an acquired body, the changes of yin and yang separation are manifested most thoroughly in you. Once the fundamental yin and yang composition is separated, you will disappear. This is the annihilation of the spirit."

"For example, form and spirit will split into form and spirit, wishes and thoughts will split into wishes and thoughts, and will will split into intention and aspiration. This is the yin and yang I comprehend, the yin and yang of Confucianism."

"All things are composed of yin and yang, even the Innate One. Yin and yang exist in chaos, rather than chaos giving birth to yin and yang. It is these two that inherently exist and construct chaos. Therefore, returning to the innate is a kind of progress, and the Dao giving birth to the Three is also a kind of progress. Yin and yang exist eternally, without a physical form. They are conceptual things, yet they truly affect the myriad phenomena of the world and even beyond."

"In ancient times, when Cang Jie created writing, ghosts cried and gods wailed. There were no more secrets in the world, and all kinds of phenomena could be composed and deciphered with writing. A single character is not enough to describe this thing, so use more characters to combine and express it. And I use the yin and yang of Confucianism to change, reversing this combination, so that this thing will also return to the indescribable state of emptiness. The world does not know its existence and name, and it itself is heading towards extinction."

The black-robed Ji Xiang looked at the gods and saints behind him, and found that they seemed to be developing their own wills. Apart from Xuan Wu and White-Faced Zhenwu, who already had their own wills, the other gods and saints were beginning to exhibit abnormal behavior.

Their eyes became more agile.

Their forms and spirits overflowed with vitality.

"You use my One of the Dao, separate the power of yin and yang, and then use the Three Officials Decrees... not to penetrate my fate, but to create all things from the Three!"

The black-robed Ji Xiang's face was gloomy. The abilities of this Confucian Heavenly Heart exceeded his previous observations. But as the One of the Dao, he was not an existence that could be easily erased. So, in the next moment, the light of years appeared around the black-robed Ji Xiang's body.

The power of the Jade Purity cultivator lies in the true body returning to the past. Ji Xiang's existence had not reached the Heavenly Heart realm before, but now that he was occupied by the Azure Goat, he naturally possessed the divine power of the Jade Purity realm. In the next moment, the black-robed Ji Xiang's state returned to before he was affected by the Three Officials, and everything was overturned and restarted.

"In the past world, I have a past body, wielding a past sword."

The black-robed Ji Xiang disappeared in the present world, and then returned to the past just now. In the past, he wielded the Demon-Slaying Sword. Thus, the past and future influenced each other. The divine book in the hands of the Three Officials Great Emperors folded another corner, and the Golden Light Heavenly Heart was once again reduced to smoke and disappeared!

"True body of the past... Ah, it seems that as the One of the Dao, you still have some abilities. I thought you couldn't use this kind of trick."

The present body is the past body. The present body disappears, and the past body exists forever. One mistake is reverted again, so that there is forever no one in the present, and the sword always strikes from the past.

The future will be constantly damaged.

[Success or failure depends on movement; if movement does not cease, then change arises.]

[Without form, without worry, this is the meaning.]

That voice once again rang in the black-robed Ji Xiang's heart, and even though he was in the past, the black-robed Ji Xiang was suddenly severely injured in the next moment!

Yin and yang were torn apart, and the black-robed Ji Xiang immediately returned to the past again. However, every time he returned to the past, the power of yin and yang tearing always existed!

"Once life is produced, it has a form, and the disasters that threaten its survival are already hidden within it. In other words, there is success and failure, there is form and worry, there is life and death."

"Where there is life, there must be death."

"Those who die but do not perish are called longevity."

"The power of the Heavenly Heart lies in the word 'heart'. Death does not exist for the Heavenly Heart; only perishing is real. Only when the heart of the Heavenly Heart can be extinguished will the Heavenly Heart realm die. So you return to the past, but isn't the Heavenly Heart of the past also me?"

"In the end, I am the Heavenly Heart here."

The Golden Light Heavenly Heart appeared. There was no distinction between past and future in the Heavenly Heart realm, so although it could not truly return to the past, it could still modify the past in the future. The black-robed Ji Xiang jumped to the past to kill his future self, but the Heavenly Heart of the past and future were all himself. He killed once, and he could modify it once.

Heavenly Heart: The fundamental of killing the Heavenly Heart lies in how to kill this "heart."

Like the vastness of Heaven, a thought arises and the world is born, a thought falls and the world revolves. Being able to act in the mortal world in place of the heart of Heaven, one possesses absolute and powerful control over heavenly secrets and karma. The past is the future, and the future can illuminate the past. I say there is no damage in the past, and there has never been any damage in the future!

"So what if you are the One of the Dao?"

"I comprehend Confucianism, Daoism, and Fangshi, possessing the arts of the Three Teachings. My understanding of the Dao may be even deeper than yours."

The black-robed Ji Xiang did not speak, and suddenly red clouds surged from his seven orifices.

Seven red clouds rose into the sky, but turned into a darkness. A Azure Goat form twisted and emerged from his body. When this Azure Goat appeared, all the Dao nature stopped rotating, yin and yang no longer separated, wishes and thoughts were restored, and the past and future returned to one. The Twelve Phases Taiji Diagram floated around him.

Everything in the world was destroyed, becoming an unordered state, and neither the past nor the future could be seen.

"Hmm? Disrupting the operation of the Dao? But even if the Dao is useless, the Heavenly Heart remains."

The Golden Light Heavenly Heart's voice was slightly questioning, but there was no emotional fluctuation.

The black-robed Ji Xiang chuckled:

"The Heavenly Heart will not die, it can only perish, but how can it perish if it does not die? There is still a way."

"Ah..."

The black-robed Ji Xiang's mouth moved.

There was once a divine incantation that could削去 (xue qu: pare away, reduce) the Heavenly Heart's divine abilities. After inheriting everything from Ji Xiang, the black-robed Ji Xiang naturally knew of the existence of this divine incantation, and unlike Ji Xiang who could not cast it.

As the One of the Dao, he could certainly cast it, without needing to borrow from the Spirit Treasure Heavenly Lord!

"Zhongshan Divine Incantation!"

"The greatest of the Dao is One!"

At the instant the Zhongshan Divine Incantation was cast, that giant Azure Goat activated the Twelve Phases Taiji Diagram.

The disordered Dao of the world returned to order.

At that moment, the Azure Goat activated the aura within it, and at the same instant, the Golden Light Heavenly Heart faced a vast power.

The beginning of the vital energy of heaven and earth, when the vital energy has not yet taken shape, what is there in the solitude?

Dim and vague.

All energies gather and condense into True Unity.

The so-called True Unity.

That is, when the Heavenly Heart realm cannot obtain true heavenly will, it takes another path, shattering yin and yang to start again, condensing a power of the innate of all things. The One of the Dao is born from such a thing, and if one can condense a copy of it oneself, then it is...

The Hunyuan realm!

The Golden Light Heavenly Heart's expression did not waver, but the Twelve Phases Taiji Diagram shook violently. He was modifying the past, replacing cause and effect, while the Zhongshan Divine Incantation and the power of True Unity were simultaneously blessed upon his body.

Equivalent to a Hunyuan strike!

The Heavenly Heart's divine abilities receded, and the power of True Unity was unavoidable. The Golden Light Heavenly Heart's true body appeared in the dream of the dead. Once struck by True Unity, even if he did not die, he would suffer great damage, and the power of the Heavenly Heart would inevitably recede. With the past and future sealed, time no longer flowed.

"The greatest of the Dao is not in Heaven, but ultimately in One."

The black-robed Ji Xiang felt that he had a firm grasp on victory. Of course, to guard against variables, the forms and spirits of the Ghost-Slaying Generals had begun to reach out to the ten directions of heaven and earth, constantly shattering all laws, so that the Golden Light Heavenly Heart's power could not spread.

Until.

That vast light suddenly rose sharply from the Golden Light Heavenly Heart.

Countless fair palms stretched out from that light, and a huge "Scatter!" resounded majestically in the dream of the dead, rising above the sky of the Ten Thousand Zhang Yin City, blocking and freezing the Hunyuan True Unity power, rushing towards the ten directions.

"!"

The black-robed Ji Xiang was stunned, watching this scene.

In front of the Golden Light Heavenly Heart, a wooden clapper floated, and he himself emitted an ethereal and distant voice:

"The Heaven of Confucianism is in the Landscape, and also in any place. When the heart moves, it arrives; when it does not move, it does not appear. This is the earliest Other Shore; it has already arrived with a mere thought. As long as my heart is bright, it will arrive. It is earlier than the Buddhist Other Shore. This is the Zhaoming World."

"Flesh and bones perish in the lower yin to become wild earth, and its spirit is promoted above to become Zhaoming. The fragrant sacrifices are the essence of all things, the manifestation of the gods."

"Simply put, I have the 'Spirit in Heaven' of my Confucianism at all times!"

"Things of this shore cannot harm things of the other shore. I have the power of the other shore in my body—"

"Undying, imperishable, unperishing! Forever with the doctrine, and also in all places that exist and do not exist."

At this moment, the black-robed Ji Xiang discovered the clue and said in shock:

"You are not a person who exists in true history either!"

This truth greatly surprised the black-robed Ji Xiang, and he thought to himself, no wonder this guy's strength was so strange, and even the One of the Dao could not suppress him. So it was...

The Golden Light Heavenly Heart smiled:

"I am Shusun Tong, I am Fusheng, I am Dong Zhongshu, I am Humu Sheng, I am Gongsun Hong, I am Yang Xiong, I am Wang Mang, I am Huan Kuan, I am Liu Xiang, I am He Xiu, I am Zheng Xuan, I am Deng Yu!"

"I am the true body condensed from the Heavenly Hearts of several Confucianisms and the spirits of great Confucian scholars of all dynasties. I am the messenger of the Other Shore, coming to the world with the mission of restoring the Imperial Heaven. I am their prayerful heart. I am not one Heavenly Heart; I am countless Heavenly Hearts! I am—"

"The Zhaoming World!"

It was a divine kingdom itself, and all history was in this divine kingdom!

"In my history."

"I am all of them!"

"And they are my Spirits in Heaven!"

One person is one religion! Countless strong men in history prayed for one person to be born, and this one person reversed history, causing the entire history of one religion to be born for one person.

And this one person can see the ultimate Dao.

The black-robed Ji Xiang's heart trembled endlessly.

Because could this kind of thing in front of him really still be called a "Heavenly Heart realm?"

Eternal and immortal, or could it be called an "Immortal Heavenly Heart?"

And this was the existence that Xu Fu hoped to create?

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