As the paper avatar stepped into the great hall, it felt like walking into the largest treasure vault near the Jade Palace in Heaven.

Piles of treasure materials—some Li Changshou could name, others he couldn’t—were casually scattered about. In several formation-protected medicine gardens, using the mustard seed pocket universe greenhouse method, more than ten restricted spirit roots were being cultivated.

The four stone walls were covered in complex patterns, and the jade floor beneath seemed to have been nurtured over countless years, having a unique texture when stepped upon.

Li Changshou couldn’t find a single spirit stone in this place…

Was this just one ten-thousandth of Senior Lang’s foundation?

What most attracted Li Changshou’s attention was a bookshelf in the corner, holding just three or four thick volumes, similar in style to the ‘journal’ he had seen before.

Those, he thought, must be Senior Lang’s true relics.

The great hall’s structure itself was extremely simple, like a paper box. Though rich in treasure light, it gave people a somewhat oppressive feeling.

Was that mist-shrouded stone tablet the ‘Kun Peng User Manual’ mentioned earlier?

This…

Fortunately, Kun Peng was male, otherwise, Senior Lang leaving such words would have warranted being nailed to a shame pole and subjected to public criticism.

At the hall entrance, Li Changshou gestured for Immortal Lady Yun Xiao to retreat with him, while adding two more layers of restrictions to Kun Peng’s divine soul.

Inside the hall, the paper avatar slowly walked forward another several dozen zhang, reaching the stone tablet.

Li Changshou carefully summoned a stream of immortal power and blew it toward the stone tablet. The layer of mist silently dispersed, revealing the zhang-tall stone tablet, and on its front surface, dense and neatly arranged…

“Holy—!”

Li Changshou nearly spat out his ancient complaints. The paper avatar stood dumbfounded before the tablet, while his main body silently raised his hand in a cigarette-lighting gesture, feeling the urge to squat down and sigh.

Before him, the stone tablet…

Was…

Covered in the character for ‘correct’.

What kind of twisted humor was this, Senior Lang?

“What’s wrong?” Yun Xiao asked softly, “Is something amiss? This place is rather strange—we should be careful of everything.”

“It’s nothing,” Li Changshou slowly sighed, “This senior fellow townsman of mine… just loves joking too much.”

Speaking thus, he slowly pushed his palm forward, and the stone tablet gradually rotated, revealing the true inscription on its ‘reverse side’.

It opened with…

[Was your first reaction to those ‘correct’ characters an urge to complain helplessly? You truly are of like mind with this poor Daoist.

Don’t misunderstand—these ‘correct’ characters represent how many hundreds of years this poor Daoist spent here, and how much effort was put into modifying Kun Peng.

The content below is recorded in a method only you and I can understand. Do not spread it.]

Li Changshou’s paper avatar frowned as he looked—indeed, there was pinyin again, even specially marked with ‘phonetic notation’.

But reading the contents this time left Li Changshou lost in thought for a long while.

From the books in Holy Woman Nüwa’s bookshelf to what was recorded here, Li Changshou determined that this Senior Lang must have been quite fond of martial arts stories.

The ‘Bridal Gown Divine Art’—an internal cultivation method from a Blue Star martial arts novel. As practitioners reached profound levels, they would become increasingly tormented, thus transferring their power to others to ease their suffering. Recultivating this art could achieve twice the result with half the effort, truly perfecting it for others’ benefit.

Who knew how Senior Lang had brainwashed Kun Peng back then, making him cultivate the so-called ‘Second Divine Soul’ method?

How was this any Second Divine Soul?

This was Senior Lang’s version of the ‘Bridal Gown Divine Art’!

Kun Peng had exhausted his efforts, even stealing the original essence of the Primordial Phoenix who had shown him great kindness, all to forge a Second Divine Soul and prepare for his final transcendence.

Kun Peng birthed a Second Divine Soul from his original divine soul, letting the Second Divine Soul drain everything from his original self.

But laughably, this Second Divine Soul itself had huge flaws, allowing instant control by Senior Lang.

More precisely, it was similar to ‘hypnosis’.

Kun Peng himself knew nothing of all this.

Whenever Senior Lang had the thought, Kun Peng would lose his sense of self, as if falling into a confused, severely injured sleep.

In reality, Kun Peng became a puppet at these times, used at Senior Lang’s whim.

A terrifying method.

What impressed Li Changshou most was…

Kun Peng’s cultivation of the Second Divine Soul method wasn’t when he was cornered and forced to flee into the Chaos Sea; rather, he had actively begun cultivating this method during the Demon Court’s peak.

This Demon Teacher had toiled for several hundred thousand years, metamorphosing into a more ‘perfect’ Second Divine Soul, indeed gaining stronger divine abilities and magical power, his Dao realm advancing by leaps and bounds.

But in reality, Kun Peng had muddle-headedly given up his true self, becoming Senior Lang’s puppet.

Those Dao realm advances and magical powers were all secretly given by Senior Lang.

Kun Peng’s original divine soul—that was the Kun Peng with true self-awareness, the so-called ‘old shell’ that had been targeted by Li Changshou, Yun Xiao, Baize, and Golden Peng.

That wasn’t an old shell, but the true divine soul!

Kun Peng’s most satisfactory Second Divine Soul was nothing more than Senior Lang’s designed…

Control system for the Kun Peng Ark.

After Senior Lang’s fall, Kun Peng’s Second Divine Soul received some benefits from him, such as those formations that could convert chaos essence into primordial spiritual energy.

These should all be ‘Lang’s inheritance’.

According to the stone tablet’s records, Li Changshou only needed to retrieve the token buried beneath the tablet, hold it, and recite an ‘incantation’ to make Kun Peng’s divine soul enter another state.

The paper avatar bent down to search and easily found a round jade token, carefully weighing it in hand.

Could this be a trap?

To be prudent, Li Changshou pondered for a moment, then led Yun Xiao and Kun Peng’s divine soul to temporarily leave this place, leaving the paper avatar to guard it.

Moments later, at the front of the immortal palace where Yun Xiao had previously fainted.

Li Changshou gestured for Yun Xiao to step back as he activated the Eight-Nine Mystic Art, channeling the Equilibrium Dao. Water-blue light bloomed around his body as he maintained utmost vigilance.

Senior Lang couldn’t be underestimated;

Nor could one overestimate Senior Lang’s moral bottom line.

If Senior Lang had set up some ‘grand scheme’, disguising himself as Kun Peng’s Second Divine Soul to ambush him, Li Changshou wouldn’t be surprised at all.

As for why the other party would ambush him?

This was the same principle as why they would leave him benefits.

The two of them shared many common characteristics that other Primordial World beings lacked!

Such as having received nine years of compulsory education.

At present, Li Changshou summoned the Xuanhuang Pagoda, called out the Ground-Leaving Flame Light Banner, mentally reminded Tower Lord to stay alert, secured two pills in his left palm, and gripped in his right hand that jade token which he had checked dozens of times and confirmed had no danger.

Immortal Lady Yun Xiao stepped forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Li Changshou.

Their eyes met—his showing concern, hers expressing shared fortune and misfortune.

Li Changshou recalled the contents recorded on the stone tablet. Though Senior Lang spoke mysteriously, full of classical expressions and sighs of wonder, it boiled down to three steps.

First, knock Kun Peng unconscious.

The Minor Slaughter Divine Spear trembled slightly, and Kun Peng’s divine soul—already weakened by Li Changshou’s interrogation and bound by multiple restrictions—instantly lost consciousness, falling into deep unconsciousness.

Second, awaken the mark within Kun Peng’s body.

—That was the brand Kun Peng had considered a ‘promise mark’.

Li Changshou’s right hand formed sword fingers, drawing a complex talisman and slowly pushing it toward Kun Peng. Kun Peng’s divine soul quickly resumed its great fish form, with faint azure light flowing across its surface as if containing a tiny universe.

Setting aside everything else, Senior Lang’s aesthetics were quite good—just the successfully modified Kun Peng divine soul had an indescribable beauty.

Art wasn’t just about Patrick Star.

Li Changshou accordingly overcame his discomfort, raised the round disk in his hand, aimed it at the great fish’s forehead, and began the third step.

[Shout at Kun Peng’s Second Divine Soul!]

“Kun Peng super evolution! Void Great Kun!”

Silence…

A moment of quiet before the palace. Immortal Lady Yun Xiao frowned at Li Changshou. Though she didn’t understand, she could feel his overwhelming sense of shame.

“Aiya!”

Li Changshou felt his whole body go numb, couldn’t help stamping his feet, and nearly threw away the jade token in his hand as he looked at the completely unchanged Kun Peng divine soul before him!

Was this not some deliberately designed social anxiety challenge?

He, the dignified Star of Metal Essence, how could he do such a thing in front of Immortal Lady Yun Xiao!

Senior Lang was the second, the second being in the Primordial World who could break his composure!

He could already imagine going back to see new words appearing on that stone tablet—’ When townsmen meet, they must play tricks’.

Damn!

*Boom!*

The great formation covering this secret realm suddenly trembled. Immortal Lady Yun Xiao’s slender hand pulled at Li Changshou, saying “The kun fish.”

Li Changshou looked where indicated and saw the kun fish’s body lying quietly in the Chaos Sea suddenly emitting streams of rainbow-colored light.

Around that enormous body burst forth intersecting streams of immortal light, condensing into black scales that covered the great fish’s entire body…

The fish fins disappeared, replaced by a pair of peng wings;

The fish head slightly shrank, and atop it appeared a hundred-li-long golden drill head, containing the Dao rhythms of slaughter, bloodthirst, and ferocity.

Even the kun fish’s mouth was sealed by layers of scales, then outside the black scales condensed terrifying shark teeth!

On the great fish’s black-armored back, eighty-one killing formations activated simultaneously, ready to condense Five Elements power at any moment!

Under the great fish’s belly, vortexes sucked in chaos essence, slowly restoring the majority of magical power the kun fish had expended in the previous battle.

This!

Kun Peng’s great fish divine soul struggled slightly, but at this moment it seemed to have lost all vitality, lying quietly without consciousness.

As the kun fish’s enormous body completed its ‘evolution’, a beam of light shone from the great fish divine soul’s forehead onto the jade token in Li Changshou’s palm. A small frame appeared on the token:

‘Begin authentication?

Upon completion, you will become the new master of the Kun Peng Ark and gain all privileges.’

Li Changshou stepped back twice, letting the jade token float before him, light flickering in his eyes as he asked: “What must I give in return?”

The jade token trembled lightly, now seeming to form a single entity with the great fish divine soul. Another line of small text appeared in the frame:

‘This command has no prerequisites. Whoever finds the jade token and initiates Kun Peng’s super evolution can become the ark’s new master.’

“Who are you?”

‘Unable to complete search, no ‘self’ exists.’

Li Changshou frowned in concentration, standing before the jade token lost in thought.

Beside him, Yun Xiao looked at the greatly transformed kun fish outside, then at the scene before her, thinking of her previous experiences, her face also showing deep contemplation.

What had she…

Just witnessed?

…

Half a day later, on the kun fish’s back.

Li Changshou sat quietly on a meditation cushion, gazing at the Chaos Sea’s scenery, unable to resist glancing again at the primordial monster beneath his feet.

It felt… very unreal.

His original impression of Senior Lang was simply that the senior was quite unrestrained—a perfect start but a messy ending.

He knew Kun Peng and Senior Lang were closely connected, always thinking Kun Peng was Senior Lang’s subordinate, at most his mount.

Who knew Senior Lang could be so ruthless?

Such a massive Kun Peng, such a fierce ancient Demon Teacher, directly trapped to death by Senior Lang’s thousand-layered schemes, abandoning himself and placing hope in a Second Divine Soul.

In the end, the Second Divine Soul was modified by Senior Lang into an unconscious ‘control system’, with Kun Peng himself becoming what Senior Lang called an ‘ark’, left for him.

The information overload was too much; even Li Changshou had trouble accepting it.

At least Senior Lang hadn’t brought shame to Earth people, making no mention of avenging fellow townsmen or putting price tags on these gifts.

At present, paper avatars were searching inside and outside Kun Peng’s body, while Immortal Lady Yun Xiao searched the nearby secret realm.

Li Changshou sat quietly here, using most of his divine consciousness to control the various paper avatars.

Looking at this game of the Primordial World, Li Changshou suddenly felt he couldn’t understand it anymore.

From ancient times till now, layer upon layer of schemes, major event after major event, powerful being after powerful being, all within this game board.

Ordinary beings remained ignorant, only living according to their basic desires;

Mortals didn’t understand the true meaning, respecting Heaven’s mandate and knowing propriety, bustling about for decades before passing away;

Cultivators endured dangers and struggled hard for transcendence, immortality, for carefree existence.

Those powerful beings who had climbed onto the shore from the river of time coldly observed the chaos within this river, yet found themselves trapped in confusion with nowhere to advance.

Only the Dao Ancestor;

Only the Six Sages.

They stood at the peak of all beings, comprehending the true nature of the Dao.

Li Changshou was truly confused now.

He couldn’t fully determine what Senior Lang had been resisting, or why he had opposed the Heavenly Dao and Dao Ancestor Hongjun.

Why was he confused?

Li Changshou understood clearly.

Apart from the conflicts between the Six Sages—that is, the current Great Tribulation of Investiture of the Gods, and the Western Teaching’s Divine Kingdom of Incense—had the Sages oppressed ordinary beings?

They hadn’t.

They didn’t care, couldn’t see; mortals were just little ‘destiny roots’.

Had the Heavenly Dao oppressed mortals?

It hadn’t; the Heavenly Dao protected mortals while suppressing cultivators. The Heavenly Court upheld the Heavenly Dao’s will, and the Heavenly Emperor had a bottom line of protecting the weak.

Then, why oppose Heaven?

Was it just because there was no place at the highest point of Heaven and Earth, so one had to defy Heaven to squeeze in?

Wouldn’t that become… causing world chaos for personal desire?

What would that make one?

Li Changshou stared at the Chaos Sea. He wanted to see some ‘righteousness’ in Senior Lang’s actions back then, but Senior Lang had erased everything, leaving him not even a hint.

From this perspective, Senior Lang was a real man.

Forget it, no more thinking. There were still matters waiting to be handled.

Kun Peng’s Second Divine Soul—that is, the ark’s main control ‘system’—had merged with the ninth strand of the eighth Purple Virtue of Primordial Heaven. Li Changshou truly wasn’t sure what would happen next.

Preparing for the worst case, they could always destroy this ark.

…

Meanwhile, outside Xuandu City.

“Cannot find them?”

“The kun fish swam too fast and lost track at too great a distance. Can’t sense the jade tokens on Changgeng and Yun Xiao anymore either.”

Several figures gathered before the city walls, discussing with worried expressions.

Baize said softly: “This poor Daoist senses great fortune…”

“Sir Baize,” Holy Mother Jinling frowned, “Put aside fortune and misfortune—the Chaos Sea is boundless. If Changgeng and Junior Sister Yun Xiao get lost within, that would be real trouble.”

Duobao Daoist, who had just returned through his tunnel to check the situation, advised:

“Don’t worry, Sister. Senior Brother Xuandu has gone to think of other methods.

That Demon Venerable has close ties with Kun Peng. If Senior Brother Xuandu captures it, he should be able to find Kun Peng’s hiding place.”

The group looked at each other, and then let out long sighs.

At this time, Golden Peng, Zhao Gongming, and other experts were searching for the kun fish’s traces in the Chaos Sea.

It would be a lie to say they weren’t worried. Li Changshou being swallowed, Yun Xiao recklessly activating the Qingping Sword to chase—they could easily fall into dire straits.

Duobao Daoist said: “Once Master finishes fighting, he should be able to locate the Qingping Sword. Our worry won’t help.”

Jinling worried: “Master facing two opponents—I don’t know if he’ll have trouble.”

“Don’t worry…”

“Trouble?”

A light laugh, and beside them three clusters of chaos essence rippled slightly as a young Daoist came floating through the air hands behind their back, four immortal swords circling him, standing on a formation diagram.

In the same instant, two elderly Daoists appeared on the other side of Xuandu City.

Three Great Daos expanded, still secretly contending. Among the high-level experts remaining here, those with weaker cultivation—Baize and Holy Mother Guiling—both turned pale, their chests feeling blocked.

Though there was no Heavenly Dao support here, the might of three Heavenly Dao Sages’ Great Daos opposing each other was truly terrifying!

Three Sages, appearing simultaneously!

The elderly Daoist sitting on clouds over there revealed a slight smile, like a spring breeze caressing faces, yet full of compassion.

He said: “Friend Tongtian’s Demon-Slaying Sword Formation is truly formidable. This poor Daoist and junior brother has learned well today.

This poor Daoist and junior brother were merely passing by, never intending to harm juniors.

Today’s matter is done, we shall take our leave for now.”

Ancestor Tongtian gave a cold laugh and said indifferently: “A pity, couldn’t capture you in the formation too.”

Ancestor Jieyin smiled and shook his head, turning with the constantly smiling Zhunti to leave, their figures about to fade into nothingness.

Suddenly!

A breeze arose without warning in Xuandu City, and the might of the three Sages’ Great Daos suddenly vanished.

Ancestors Jieyin and Zhunti, their figures already fading, seemed to suddenly ‘freeze’, as two faintly rotating yin-yang fish appeared around their silhouettes.

The Dao arises from yin-yang, takes law from nature, and condenses in virtue—this is the true meaning of moral virtue.

An elderly Daoist had appeared above Xuandu City at some unknown time, sitting on a meditation cushion surrounded by beacon fires, without a trace of immortal light around him, yet the entire Xuandu City became naturally harmonious, losing its previous killing intent.

The Chaos Sea’s waves ceased, and the Primordial World fell silent.

Incomplete Dao principles naturally assimilated, yin-yang rotation reaching formless ultimate principle.

Of the Primordial Six Sages: Supreme Clarity Laozi.

Jieyin’s smile froze as he spoke: “Senior Brother Taiqing has also come…”

*Hum—*

A wave of grey light surged from Supreme Clarity Sage’s body, instantly sweeping through Xuandu City, directly cutting off Jieyin’s words.

Then, Supreme Clarity Sage lightly brushed with his left hand, black and white yin-yang fish blooming in his palm. As he slowly pushed forward a palm, swirling air suddenly appeared beside Jieyin and Zhunti.

Heaven and Earth became incomparably stable, stable as a prison.

Shortly after, all was calm.

Great Daos intersected; Duobao and the other immortals completely couldn’t understand what had happened or what method Senior Brother Taiqing had used.

Ancestor Jieyin smiled, sitting quietly within the swirling air, while behind him Zhunti was covered in cold sweat, the phantom of the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree appearing behind him.

The Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree shook gently, dropping two branches.

If they could observe, they might also see that a drop of cold sweat had once appeared on Ancestor Jieyin’s forehead…

Looking back at the city, where was Supreme Clarity Sage’s figure now?

A trace of Dao rhythm brushed through everyone’s minds, condensing into two characters. When the immortals looked within their spirit platforms and carefully savored it, thinking it was Li Changshou’s whereabouts, they were shocked to discover these two characters were actually…

[Passing By].