Eternal Time and Space

Chapter 25 Body and Soul

After discussing important matters, the five clan leaders took their leave. They needed to reorganize the remaining troops, rebuild the allied forces, and prepare for the next great battle. In the blink of an eye, only Mo Yun and Hong Qing remained in the hall.

The palace doors closed, and the candlelight flickered.

The two sat facing each other in silence for a moment.

Hongqing spoke first.

"Fellow Daoist, we have both taken that step, but what lies ahead after taking it? Heaven has ordained that we prove our Dao through merit and achieve Hunyuan, but what comes after Hunyuan? What lies beyond Hunyuan? No one knows."

Mo Yun looked at Hong Qing but didn't reply.

Hongqing continued, "I have cultivated for countless years and endured countless hardships to reach my current level. But the more I cultivate, the more I realize that the Great Dao is infinite. One person's wisdom is ultimately limited, and the end of a path is ultimately bounded. Since we have both come this far, why not learn from each other and verify each other's paths? Let us use each other's paths to supplement our own."

Mo Yun remained silent for a moment, then a faint smile appeared on his lips.

"Can."

The two sat facing each other, both with their eyes closed.

Above Hong Qing's head, the Three Flowers and Five Qi slowly rose. This was the foundation of a Great Luo Golden Immortal, but on Hong Qing's body, the Three Flowers and Five Qi had completely changed its appearance.

The Five Qi were no longer simply the power of the Five Elements, but transformed into five primordial energies that opened up the world, circulating endlessly around Hong Qing; the Three Flowers were no longer simply a condensation of essence, energy, and spirit, but transformed into three streams of pure energy that opened up the world, rising from the top of Hong Qing's head.

The three streams of primordial energy are: one pure, one mysterious, and one spiritual.

The pure energy rises to become heaven, the mysterious energy resides in the center as destiny, and the spiritual energy sinks to become fortune. The three streams of pure energy intertwine and entwine above Hongqing's head, like three invisible dragons, swirling and dancing, rising higher and higher.

Where the pure energy intertwined, the void began to distort, as if something was being born from nothingness.

Then, a layer of sky slowly unfolded above Hong Qing's head. The sky was formless and intangible, formed by the pure "Dao". It was the embodiment of the rules themselves. Within the sky, three layers of heaven were stacked one on top of the other, each with its own function.

Day 1, Tianxing.

Countless stars revolve in the first day according to their own trajectories, endlessly cycling. Each star represents a power, and each star orbit represents a rule. Between the movement of the stars, the fundamental laws of the universe flow within them.

The next day, the celestial phenomena.

Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning intertwined and changed on the second day. When the wind rose, the heavens and earth howled; when the rain fell, all things were nourished; when the thunder roared, the nine heavens trembled; when the lightning flashed, yin and yang were divided. The power of the four elements evolved into endless changes on the second day, and each change corresponded to a certain weather phenomenon between heaven and earth.

The third day, destiny.

On the third day, there were no stars, no wind or rain, only emptiness. But within this emptiness lay the foundation of all cause and effect, all destiny, and all fate. This was the source of "fate," the starting point of "fortune," and the weaver of the trajectory of all things in heaven and earth.

The three days overlapped, constantly evolving and reorganizing. Celestial stars, celestial phenomena, and destiny—the three heavens intertwined above Hong Qing's head, constructing a colossal wheel of the Heavenly Dao that encompasses billions of beings and governs the destiny of all things.

The giant ship slowly turned, and with each turn it resonated with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, emitting a Dao sound that shook the fates of billions of living beings.

This is Hongqing's Dao. He uses the three Daos to open the heavens and the pure Qi to evolve into the three heavens. The three heavens reside in his body and eventually transform into the supreme Heavenly Dao. He is not cultivating the Heavenly Dao; he is becoming the Heavenly Dao.

Mo Yun looked at the giant wheel of the Heavenly Dao, a flash of enlightenment appearing in his eyes.

Hongqing's path is to become the Heavenly Dao, transforming himself into the very rules, formless and without beginning or end.

Mo Yun also developed his own Dao. He did not have the Three Flowers and Five Qi. His foundation was not the system of the Great Luo Golden Immortal, but the Eternal Dao of Time and Space, which Zi Chen created based on time and space.

A silver-white lotus with thirty-six petals slowly bloomed atop Mo Yun's head.

The moment the lotus bloomed, the main hall vanished, Hongqing's Heavenly Dao Wheel vanished, heaven and earth vanished, and everything was pulled into a vast and boundless starry world in that instant.

The void is like a sea, boundless and limitless. Stars are like pearls, scattered in every corner of this sea of ​​void. Some stars are as large as the sun and moon, shining brightly; others are as small as mustard seeds, yet equally dazzling.

Countless star trails and starlight intertwine, densely packed and layered, weaving the entire starry sky into a dazzling net of light.

In the starry sky, the vast and magnificent will of heaven is flowing. This is not the formless and shapeless rule of heaven like Hongqing's, but a real heaven. The wind, rain, thunder and lightning of the blue sky, the vast heavenly wind of the green sky, and the earth, fire, water and wind of the yellow sky, the three origins of heaven merge into one in this starry sky, transforming into a vast and magnificent will of heaven, which covers the entire starry sky world.

The stars revolve, the will of Heaven operates, and the starry world slowly rotates above Mo Yun's head, each rotation exuding a grand momentum that encompasses everything and all things.

As Hongqing looked at this starry world, a flash of understanding also appeared in his eyes.

Mo Yun's Dao is to transform into heaven and earth, with stars as its foundation and the origin of heaven as its framework, thus transforming itself into a real and illusory great world.

The two sensed each other's Dao, their expressions thoughtful.

After a long while, Hongqing opened her eyes.

"The Way of Heaven is formless, while Heaven and Earth have form. What I seek is the soul, while you seek the body."

Mo Yun also opened his eyes and looked at Hong Qing's Heavenly Dao Giant Wheel.

"The soul cannot exist without the body, and the body cannot live without the soul."

The two exchanged a glance, and saw an unspoken understanding in each other's eyes.

Hongqing's Dao is the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao, the soul of the world; Moyun's Dao is the embodiment of Heaven and Earth, the physical body of the world. The two seem to be completely opposite, but in fact they complement each other.

The soul cannot exist without the body, and the body cannot live without the soul. If they can integrate each other's Dao into themselves, then their own Dao will surely be able to advance further.

Looking at Mo Yun, Hong Qing smiled.

Looking at Hong Qing, Mo Yun narrowed his eyes slightly.

They both knew what the other was thinking. Hongqing had the Heavenly Dao but not Heaven and Earth, while Moyun had Heaven and Earth but not the Heavenly Dao. If either of them could devour the other's Dao Fruit, their own Dao would advance further and reach true perfection.

But neither of them moved.

Neither Mo Yun nor Hong Qing had absolute confidence in killing their opponent. At their level, victory or defeat often hinged on a single thought. If they acted rashly and failed to achieve success in one fell swoop, it would lead to a life-or-death struggle. Right now, they had a common enemy: Shen Ni.

"Let's deal with Shen Ni first," Hong Qing said.

"Alright," Mo Yun said.

A thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Over the course of a thousand years, the five-race allied forces regrouped, gathered their remaining troops, and recruited new soldiers. Races that had been slaughtered by the ferocious beast race responded to the call of the five races and sent out their last elite forces.