Taoist Myth: I am the last true immortal in the world

Chapter 877 Returning to the Essence
Chen Yunduan sat there, deep in thought for quite a while.

He didn't immediately put his idea into practice; instead, he planned to first understand the underlying principles before taking any further steps.

Chen Yun stretched out his palm, and a point of light immediately appeared in his palm.

This spot of light is so small that it might not even be noticeable if it weren't for the light.

Although this point of light is very small, if a Celestial Immortal Realm expert were standing nearby, they would definitely sense an immense and powerful force rising continuously within it.

Indeed, this point of light contains immense power.

Chen Yun plans to use the "Big Bang singularity" as a template to simulate the birth of the universe.

If this famous conjecture from his past life can be successfully verified, then he will begin to conduct new experiments within his own body.

Chen Yun stared at the "singularity" for a moment, then his palm instantly transformed, unleashing the "Heaven in a Pot".

The moment Hu Tian unleashed his power, the "singularity" suddenly released an incomparably intense light, shining tens of thousands or even hundreds of millions of times brighter than a supernova explosion.

At this time, the "Singularity" entered the "Planck Era" under Chen Yun's control.

What was the Planck era?
In the very beginning of the universe, the temperature and density were extremely high.

All previous physical theories were unable to describe the specific circumstances of this period.

As the creator, Chen Yun was naturally able to observe everything.

This time, he didn't deliberately manipulate it; he simply let the "singularity explosion" happen, wanting to observe the specific situation.

Planck's era lasted for a very short time; even describing it as a blink of an eye would be an incredibly long time.

After this phase ended, the "Great Unification Era" quickly followed.

At this point, the three fundamental forces have already appeared in the space created by the "Big Bang singularity".

Chen Yun sensed the existence of a so-called "force," and also sensed that the space continued to expand after the "Big Bang," and the temperature gradually decreased.

The power of the Big Bang was so great that it caused space to enter an era of explosive expansion.

This rapid increase in size is faster than the speed of light, as previously thought by scientists.

Chen Yun continued to observe. After the surge ended, although the space continued to expand, many "Qi" had appeared within it.

He referred to these "qi" as particles.

Of course, Qi is an intangible and formless existence, but its particles can be traced.

Under normal circumstances, even if a universe were to evolve from the world Chen Yun inhabits, no so-called particles would appear.

Because the rules of the Great Dao are not "written" in that way, only "Qi" appears.

This time, he used his supreme will as a half-step Great Luo to forcibly issue instructions to the "singularity," causing particles to be generated after the explosion, which is why this situation occurred.

After the particles appeared, space cooled down and more elements appeared.

Chen Yun "set" that the elements to be hydrogen, helium, and a small amount of lithium and other light elements were present.

Because these elements will become the basis for the formation of stars and galaxies later on.

After the light element appeared, the space in his palm entered a "quiet period".

According to Chen Yun's understanding of the formation of the universe from his previous life, there would be a gap of 100,000 years in this area.

He certainly couldn't wait 100,000 years, so he used his supreme power to directly accelerate the flow of time.

In the blink of an eye, ten thousand years have passed in the palm space.

Various forms of radiation occupy the space, making it opaque.

Chen Yun accelerated the flow of time again, causing the space in his palm to enter a "recombination period".

He sensed that the temperature in the space had dropped significantly.

Various atomic nuclei combine with electrons to form neutral atoms, making the universe transparent.

"The final and most important step is about to begin."

Chen Yun knew that the next step was the formation of galaxies and stars.

If this step goes smoothly, then his "singularity big bang" theory may be applicable to himself.

Thinking this, he sped up the flow of time, and a hundred million years passed in an instant.

Under the influence of gravity, matter gradually gathers to form stars, galaxies, and more complex celestial structures.

Become!

The Big Bang theory of singularity was successfully simulated in the palm of his hand!

In the palm of Chen Yun's hand now lies an incredibly vast yet incredibly small universe.

He suddenly perked up. "Huh? It actually worked?"

Looking at the universe in his palm, Chen Yun suddenly felt inspired to compose a poem and couldn't help but write one:
"The Milky Way flows vast and eternally, the universe resonates like a taut string."

"A singularity in an instant opens up the world, and billions of years of dust gather into planets."

Chen Yun was very satisfied with the poem, and also with the universe that had evolved in his palm.

Now there is only one question: how to return to the primordial nothingness.

Chen Yun knew that to verify whether the universe could return to its primordial state of nothingness, he only needed to do one thing: continuously accelerate the flow of time in the universe in his palm until the universe's lifespan was exhausted. Then he could find out the result.

This time, he did not impose his own will on the universe, but simply accelerated the flow of time.

In the blink of an eye, a hundred million years have passed.

In the blink of an eye, another hundred million years have passed.

Such a long period of time is absolutely incredible for the people of this world, and for many saints.

Because of the "setting" of this world, the lifespan of heaven and earth is 129,600 years.

Once 129,600 years have passed, heaven and earth will be recreated, and all living things will perish within it.

The universe in Chen Yun's previous life was not like this, but was measured in billions of years.

For example, scientists speculate that the universe existed for a full 13.8 billion years from its birth until Chen Yun left that world.

Chen Yun still had a great deal of doubt about this.

If the universe in the previous life could exist for 13.8 billion years, why is it that the cycle of heaven and earth in this world is only 129,600 years?

According to the evolutionary process of the universe in its previous life, life had not yet evolved on Earth in 129,600 years.

Of course, this world is different; life here does not evolve normally, but is created by the divine.

For example, Nuwa created humans by molding yellow clay.

Chen Yun suddenly realized something and immediately understood why the cycle of heaven and earth in this world had lasted for 129,600 years.

You can't think about these things, or people will sense it.

Chen Yun immediately cleared his mind of distractions and focused intently on observing the universe he had created with his supreme power. Time flowed by rapidly.

More than 10 billion years have passed in a short time.

He observed that the universe had entered a period of vigorous development, in which countless beings had evolved.

Everything was so thriving, but alas... it was about to perish.

Chen Yun, still expressionless, accelerated the flow of time.

The universe has gradually reached an age of over 20 billion years. At this point, the situation has changed somewhat. It is like a middle-aged person who has developed some "illnesses," causing many stars to fall and various living beings to disappear.

Gradually, the age of the universe reached 30 billion years.

The universe has entered its "old age" and has begun to gradually evolve towards "collapse," with most planets and living beings perishing in the "collapse."

That wasn't the end of it. When Chen Yun accelerated the universe to a period of 33.3 billion years, the entire universe finally collapsed completely.

He immediately became focused and carefully observed the entire collapse process.

The entire universe has not only stopped expanding, but has also begun to thermally contract.

During this contraction process, the density of the material continuously increases, and the temperature rises sharply.

Ultimately, all matter is squeezed back to a "singularity" similar to the beginning of the Big Bang.

It's as if the evolution of the universe is a cycle.

It begins with the explosion of the singularity and ends back at the singularity.

Everything in the original universe was compressed back into this infinitely dense point.

Chen Yun, who observed this scene, was taken aback. "It has returned to the 'singularity' and is not primordial nothingness?"

This left him feeling somewhat confused. If the "singularity" did not return to the primordial nothingness, then even if he tried, it seemed like he was just wasting his time.

"Could my assumption be wrong?"

Chen Yun felt this shouldn't be the case. "The Dao arises from nothingness and gives birth to Qi, and from Qi, Yin and Yang are produced. I can be certain of this. I can also be certain that all things will eventually return to the primordial nothingness. How come the final result I obtained when I evolved the universe just now was not like this?"

He felt that something must have been overlooked to cause this situation.

Chen Yun was somewhat unwilling to give up, so he tried again.

The same thing happened the second time, so it seems there really wasn't anything I overlooked.

Chen Yun sat there frowning deeply. "Could it be that because the rules are different, the results are also different?"

It seems that there is no other possibility besides this one.

He thought for a moment, then flipped his hand, and the light in his palm disappeared.

Chen Yun reached out again, directly creating a small world within the existing world rules.

Immediately, he accelerated the flow of time, allowing this small world to quickly complete 129,600 years.

Immediately, the small world collapsed and returned to... primordial nothingness!
Upon observing this scene, Chen Yun suddenly realized, "Indeed, different rules lead to different outcomes!"

He seems to have grasped some truth.

All the principles I currently believe in are governed by the rules of this world's great way.

Therefore, the conclusions he draws from using his past life's memories to evolve the universe will certainly differ from what he already knows.

“I have been trying to change things, but in the end I always understand things from my current perspective, which is a mistake in itself.”

Chen Yun vaguely realized why his tests were consistently wrong, even after several attempts.

He can say with great boldness that if things hadn't changed before, and he had continued painstakingly dissecting the matter, he probably would have ended up with the wrong conclusion.

So, how exactly can one truly attain enlightenment?

"Perhaps... I have already found the answer, but I have been misled by my understanding of this world."

Chen Yun roughly understood that to truly attain the Great Dao, one must either unite with the Great Dao and the Dao of this world, or transcend this framework.

It is certainly not possible to unite with the Great Dao and the True Dao of this world.

After learning the ultimate secret of this world, Chen Yun realized that uniting with the Dao was actually a huge trap for him.

His only way to prove himself now is to break free from conventional thinking.

"The Big Bang theory is both wrong and right, it all depends on how I operate it."

Chen Yun knew one thing well: the error of the "Big Bang Singularity" was that it was itself a framework, albeit one belonging to the framework of his previous life's world. As for its correctness, the "Big Bang Singularity" did not belong to the framework of his current world, so it was both wrong and right.

In short, neither the current world rules nor the "singularity and the Big Bang" are suitable for me at the moment.

"I understand what to do."

Chen Yun smiled slightly, “All things eventually return to their ‘essence’, so let’s start from my essence, and eventually I will be able to attain the Great Luo Dao Fruit.”

Others may not understand his true nature, but how could he not know it himself?
Chen Yun took a deep breath, and the True Qi within his body began to boil, like burning alcohol, constantly being consumed.

When his true Qi was severely depleted, his cultivation level continued to decline, from a half-step Great Luo to a Celestial Immortal, and then from a Celestial Immortal to a Divine Immortal, in this cycle until he became a mere mortal.

Surprisingly, even though Chen Yun had completely dissipated his true qi and become a mortal, his appearance did not age as before; it remained exactly the same as it had been.

Only Chen Yun himself knew the reason for this.

He has no thoughts at all, because he can be sensed by others, so he has no thought and it is impossible for him to have any thoughts.

Nevertheless, Chen Yun's appearance and spirit were undergoing drastic changes.

He gradually became ethereal and indistinct, as if his body was about to disappear.

This disappearance is probably to the point of being invisible to the naked eye, but if a transcendent being were standing nearby, they would still be able to sense that Chen Yun still exists.

"This state is still a bit lacking."

Chen Yun's appearance and spirit reappeared, seemingly no different from before, but in reality, they had undergone a great change.

This change is not external, but internal.

His aura seemed to have become even more magnificent and vast than before he had dissipated his true qi.

Chen Yun's eyes brightened. "My attempt this time has almost proven that I made the right choice. I have truly found the path to the Great Luo. As long as I can return to the essence, I can attain the Great Luo."

He knew this step would be difficult, but it was at least easier than the "peeling away the layers" and "singularity explosion" concepts he had previously considered.

Furthermore, he can currently deduce that this approach is entirely correct.

“I was born from nothingness, so naturally I should return to nothingness in order to attain the Great Dao.”

Chen Yun finally achieved enlightenment.

The moment he realized it, the whole world seemed to turn gray.

It was as if the light of his wisdom had overshadowed the light produced by any other source in this world.

After more than seventy years of practicing Taoism in Zhongnan Mountain, I have finally achieved enlightenment!
Chen Yun knew that all he needed to do now was to gradually return to the essence of things in order to attain the Great Luo Immortal realm!
(End of this chapter)