Chapter 1 A Laugh in the Dream of Death

"Hahahaha..."

The laughter of that Tianxin powerhouse echoed unreservedly in this dream of the dead, even the dense rows of stone coffins in the heavens and earth seemed to be awakened by the laughter, causing bursts of dust to rise from them.

He did not communicate directly with his mind, but actually laughed out loud.

"Is the Tianxin realm very powerful?"

The black-clad Ji Xiang tried to see through the true form of the golden figure before him, but the other party's voice resounded again throughout this world:

"Isn't the Tianxin realm powerful?"

The golden Tianxin questioned the black-clad Ji Xiang at this time, and used the most direct action to tell the black-clad Ji Xiang not to waste his efforts.

The thing manifested by the One of the Dao was called an evil object by the ancient Yuqing cultivators, and its origin and foundation were indeed earth-shattering, but it still could not see through the deliberate concealment of a Tianxin realm powerhouse.

This already showed the strength of both sides, and the difference was immediately apparent.

"Tianxin, what is Tianxin?"

"What counts as origin and foundation?"

"Upon reaching the Tianxin realm, whatever origin I want, I have. I say I am the reincarnation of an ancient sage, a star spirit descended from the heavens, an incarnation of a great emperor of the heavens in the human world, an ancient immortal rarely seen in the human world for three to five thousand years."

"Who am I? I am who I want to be, I become who I want to become, I have the origin of whoever I want, and whatever legend I want to obtain has already been circulating in the world for thousands of years!"

"How many thousands of years do you want the world to praise me? One thousand, three thousand, five thousand, or ten thousand years? Since the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, or even more ancient times, my name has been circulating."

The voice of the golden Tianxin was undisguisedly mocking.

Do not talk about origin with Tianxin powerhouses.

Even if your own background is indeed very large, in front of a Tianxin powerhouse, reflecting yourself in the past, although you cannot truly trace back your true form like the Yuqing cultivators, modifying your origin is not a difficult thing.

"You have not yet reached the end of the Dao, you are just of great origin, but that is useless, that is the source, which determines your talent, not your current achievements."

"You will never reach the end of the Dao, because you have always been complacent about that One of the Dao."

The black-clad Ji Xiang's expression suddenly turned gloomy: "A Tianxin Dacheng, yet so arrogant in front of the One of the Dao."

The golden Tianxin said: "You came here for these corpse-dissolving immortals, right? I thought so. As the One of the Dao, a thing existing in the Source World, yet in the Dream Realm of the Source World, there is an Yin City burying countless corpse-dissolving immortals, living a dead dream that can never be solved. Who exactly is dependent on whom?"

"You exist in the world because of their dreams. It is said that things in the world rarely have a source. Buddha attested to the Twelve Nidanas, saying that all phenomena in the world have no beginning, because everywhere is the beginning, but does this apply to you?"

"Are you a thing of the world?"

"Are they your source?"

The black-clad Ji Xiang's voice became distant: "Corpse-dissolving immortals... these dead people are living dead dreams, creating Yuqing. I must thank them, but also, I must take back the Yuqing thought they possess. It is not my return to the source, nor is it who is dependent on whom."

"Only by breaking the dream of the dead can I return to the true form of the Dao, trace back to the more ancient times, and become the only one in the One of the Dao!"

The golden Tianxin laughed: "Tracing back further, all the way to the past era that later generations praise you for? But the greater possibility is that you will cease to exist. And if you cease to exist, you will be replaced by another One."

"Since I can stand here, which other Tianxin realms cannot do, then some things are only known to me. One of the Dao, you are the Green Ram, but the Green Ram's source only goes back to the Zhou Dynasty. How do you know if there are other Ones of the Dao above the Zhou Dynasty?"

"Wanting to go to the true past from legends, have you really prepared for this price?"

Are there other Ones of the Dao above the Zhou Dynasty?

At least in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there were still some. The Fangshi had five-colored celestial omens, the various states all had heavenly ghosts and gods, the immortalists had the Taiyi God, the Zhou Dynasty had the昊天昊天昊天 Supreme Emperor, and the Confucianists had the皇天Supreme Emperor. In even more distant times, perhaps there was also the Shang Supreme Emperor worshipped by the Shang Dynasty.

"Those things are not worthy of being called the One of the Dao, they are just primordial legends with some Dao nature. When I return to the past, I can naturally replace them, just as you said before, I can be the five-colored celestial omens, I can be the ghosts and gods of the heavens, I can be the Taiyi God, I can be the Huangtian Emperor, the Haotian Emperor, the Shang Emperor."

"With the changes in history, their stories have all been assimilated, the sources are unified, and the Huangtian, Haotian, and Shang Emperors have all been reduced to something like the Jade Emperor. I return to the past in order not to let their Dao nature be lost in vain, but to turn it into my title."

"My Dao nature is inherently stronger than theirs."

The golden Tianxin suddenly laughed loudly, and asked with a deafening voice: "Do you really know what Dao nature is! Green Ram!"

"Being One, yet not knowing that the Dao 'exists' innately, not something 'assembled' postnatally!"

The black-clad Ji Xiang spread his sleeves: "It seems that our views differ! What exists innately represents vagueness, while what is assembled postnatally represents clarity. All phenomena in the world are going from ignorance to knowledge, from vagueness to clarity. Postnatal assembly is precisely collected from innate vagueness. That is the visible and demonstrable thing of Dao nature. The path of cultivation opens from this, and all techniques are developed from this."

"Even you are a postnatally assembled thing, a heaven-stealer who comprehended the heart of heaven and then replaced it with the human heart. Yet you believe that postnatally assembled things are inferior to innate existence. Then you yourself should not be Tianxin at this time, because according to your words, the postnatal path ultimately cannot comprehend the innate meaning. The person who can never attain enlightenment is not me, but you and the Tianxin realm."

The golden Tianxin was slightly contemplative after hearing this, but he still firmly said:

"The purpose of stealing heaven is to seize heaven. To steal heaven, one must know heaven, so the Tianxin comes from this. But our ultimate goal is to obtain the innate Dao. I am not trying to replace it with the postnatal Dao, nor am I trying to become the One of the Dao, but merely 'borrowing strength'."

The black-clad Ji Xiang's expression was very cold:

"Is that so? Is it also for borrowing strength that you seek the Yuqing bones and the position of the Primordial Lord?"

"It seems that you want to borrow a lot of strength."

The golden Tianxin chuckled: "More means good. More means, more borrowed strength, when the time comes, heaven and earth will all work together."

"It's just that I haven't found these two things yet. I've searched through the Yin City, perhaps they are hidden in some past within this world. Extremely well hidden."

Neither side gained the upper hand in words, but the discussion on the innate and postnatal shocked the Donghua Celestial Maiden's heart, absorbing a lot of knowledge. But she also heard something even more shocking. She looked at the black-clad Ji Xiang, clearly hearing the Tianxin powerhouse in front of her call Ji Xiang "Green Ram"!

Isn't the sacrifice of the Green Qiang already closed, and the Broken Horn Green Ram died outside... Green Ram is the One of the Dao, and Ji Xiang is the Green Ram?

The Donghua Celestial Maiden felt something was wrong, but the realm levels of the two people in front of her were not something she could deal with. She could also feel that Ji Xiang was undergoing inexplicable changes. Just when he spoke, that Dao rhythm had already begun to spread outward, and even the surrounding Yin underworld environment had changed.

In the dream of the dead, which represents Taiyin, darkness is the keynote here, but now colors have appeared, beginning to climb towards all the dark places around, constantly spreading.

The black-clad Ji Xiang narrowed his eyes and looked at the Donghua Celestial Maiden, who had an abnormal expression:

"Do you think there is something wrong with me?"

The Donghua Celestial Maiden did not respond. The black-clad Ji Xiang said: "I have merely obtained the One of the Dao. I am Ji Xiang, and now I am also the Green Ram. There is no need to be afraid. Protecting the connection of the dream is important to both you and me."

Donghua did not speak. Now she was sure that something was wrong with Ji Xiang. Connecting the words of the two people, a fearful thought arose in her heart, but she immediately suppressed it.

And indeed, as the black-clad Ji Xiang said, protecting the connection between dreams was the only thing she could do.

"Assimilated by the Green Ram..."

Christ had done something similar to Ji Xiang before, Donghua remembered very clearly. Her heart gradually trembled, secretly thinking that Ji Xiang had not been taken over by Christ last time, but was taken over by some One of the Dao...

The Donghua Celestial Maiden's gaze involuntarily shifted towards those corpse-dissolving immortal coffins.

As for the black-clad Ji Xiang, even if Donghua was suspicious, it was not important. Now everyone was in the same boat. If she didn't want to be trapped in the dream of the dead forever, she had to cooperate with him.

Now he was assimilating this dream of the dead, but the golden figure in front of him had no reaction at all?

The black-clad Ji Xiang's heart was filled with suspicion, but at this moment, a breath sounded in this ten-thousand-zhang Yin City.

In an instant, the color stopped spreading, and returned all the heaven and earth it had occupied to the world of dead dreams at an even faster speed. And that breath sounded more like a long sigh.

Between the heaven and earth of the great city, three huge black shadows suddenly appeared.

"Taiyin, Netherworld, Ghost Dao. When Taoism first appeared, it discovered the Ghost Dao. What are the Three Primes sacrifices that were born from it?"

The golden Tianxin asked with a smile.

The black-clad Ji Xiang looked at the three huge black shadows, each of which seemed to be an incarnation of the Dao. Their bodies were filled with Dao nature, not the One of the Dao, but the Three of the Dao!

Heaven, Earth, and Water, the Three give birth to all things!

"The Three Officials Ancient Emperors!"

"Zhang Xiu!"

The true founder of the Five Pecks of Rice sect, Zhang Xiu, possessed the Three Officials' Writ, and was one of the earliest batches of cultivators to come into contact with Dao nature. The black-clad Ji Xiang looked at the Three Officials Great Emperors, their voices ethereal:

"One divided into three, one body transformed into the Three of the Dao. When they reunite, they are the One of the Dao. The Three Officials are Zhang Xiu, but now only the form, shadow, and spirit remain."

"This is Ghost Capital..." The golden Tianxin said, "Zhang Xiu is also a corpse-dissolver, and one of the earliest batches of corpse-dissolvers. He is the great achiever of the Ghost Dao. Therefore, I came here to restore five people from the past, the first of whom is Zhang Xiu."

"Select five ancestors who opened the Dao."

The colors between heaven and earth were reduced to only five, as if they were painted in large swathes across the world, unable to accommodate other colors, fixed according to the directions.

White, red, black, yellow, and green, the five colors circulated, constructing all things in the world, and were the five colors that had been sacrificed since the time of Dayu. Later generations used these five categories of colors to divide the Five-Colored Emperors.

"These five people are the Five Emperors of the Directions."

The golden Tianxin pointed to the black-clad Ji Xiang, whose body manifested the Black Emperor's phantom.

"The Black Emperor is something that must be retrieved, so if the one who came was the Arctic True Man, it would be much easier to deal with. But since it is you who came, then I will have to put in more effort."

The black-clad Ji Xiang was slightly stunned: "Using Taoist means to revive the Confucian Five Emperors of the Directions? The Dao is corpse-dissolution, but you want to substitute one thing for another?"

"How can this be called substituting one thing for another?"

The golden Tianxin's laughter shook:

"The Five Emperors of the Directions are revived, accompanying the worship of the Supreme Emperor, all the sages return to their positions, this is called 'Reorganizing the Mountains and Rivers'!"

"The position of the Primordial Lord and the bones of Yuqing are just carriers used to revive the Supreme Emperor. If they really cannot be found."

"Using you is the same."

The black-clad Ji Xiang no longer spoke, but raised the Demon-Slaying Sword.

Behind him, the Four Sages of the North Pole, Xuanwu Zhenwu, Thousand Light King Tathagata, Ten Directions Divine Kings, Four Great Celestial Lords, Six Directions Underworld Lords, Ghost-Slaying Generals, Primordial Demon King, emerged in their positions.