Yefutidaolu

Chapter 444 Port
Gao Jian let out a long sigh, his chest heaving violently, causing throbbing pain from his internal injuries. However, with the release of vital energy from his seminal vesicles, all the injuries on his body were quickly healed.

His mind was completely clear at that moment.

This incredibly dangerous attack not only temporarily freed him from his predicament, but also further confirmed his previous suspicions!
The feeling of being struck by the rusty blade, the icy stillness emanating from the other side of space, originating from the same source as the rift in the stars... it couldn't be wrong.

The “primordial law” before us is by no means the “heaven” that is mindless and follows some kind of natural law!
His true form, or rather the source of his power, is hidden within that rift connecting to the unknown land.

Just as Gao Jian's mind raced, the "Yuan Lu" standing in mid-air opposite him suddenly stopped moving. The overwhelming aura of heaven and earth around him receded like a tide, and a subtle change appeared on his indifferent expression, as if... there was a hint of regret, and a touch of impatience?

He looked at Gao Jian, who, though disheveled, had sharp eyes as if he had seen through something, and sighed softly.

"Ugh……"

This sigh was completely unlike the emotion one would expect from someone who "harmonizes with heaven and earth" and is devoid of emotion and desire.

“Someone’s coming soon, what a hassle…” he muttered to himself, his voice not loud, but clearly reaching Gao Jian’s ears. “Well then, let’s just stop here for now.”

Gao Jian's pupils contracted, he gripped the rusty knife tightly, and stared at him warily.

A subtle, enigmatic smile appeared on Yuan Lu's lips as he continued, "In this exchange, you've learned a little about me, and I've learned a little about you..."

His gaze swept casually over the rusty knife in Gao Jian's hand, finally settling on him. A faint but undisguised apprehension flickered deep in his eyes. "It really is the aura of the Desire Realm. This is troublesome."

Before the words were even finished, and before Gao Jian had any time to react or ask any questions, a sudden change occurred!

Inside Yuan Lu's body, it was as if an invisible "point" suddenly appeared, generating an irresistible inward collapsing force. His robes, flesh, bones, and even the spiritual light that had not yet completely dissipated around him were all gripped by an invisible giant hand and violently pulled inward!
It was as if a hole had been opened inside him, greedily swallowing up all traces of his existence. There was no earth-shattering explosion, no dazzling light and shadow effects, only a chilling and illogical process of "disappearance."

The entire body flipped inward, as if it had been closed by an invisible giant mouth, instantly annihilated, leaving only a few ripples that had not yet subsided.

Gao Jian stood there holding a knife, his brows furrowed tightly.

what happened?

Talking to himself, and then... self-annihilation? What is this? Who is this "someone coming" he's talking about? Is it a high-ranking official from the Imperial Academy who sensed the unusual fluctuations here? Or... the Emperor's people?
He immediately activated the Heart Lamp Illumination Scripture with all his might, his divine will spreading outwards like mercury spilling onto the ground, sensing the flow of every breath within the Imperial Academy.

The wind continued to blow, and the pavilions and halls of the Imperial Academy stood quietly below. In the distance, there seemed to be students or teachers who had been disturbed by the battle just now spying on the scene, but no particularly powerful aura with obvious official or royal characteristics was rapidly approaching.

At least, within his perception range... there was no one there.

That tension of being poised to face a new opponent felt like punching empty air. The opponent wasn't defeated; rather, they left in a way that was completely beyond comprehension.

What remains is an even deeper fog than before, and that meaningful sentence—"You understand me a little, and I understand you a little."

Gao Jian looked down at the rusty knife in his hand. The rust on the blade was still mottled in the dim light of the day, as if the stunning blow that severed the "source" just now was just an illusion.

"The aura of the Desire Realm... He confirmed it. And he seems quite concerned about it." Gao Jian muttered to himself, "Is he, or rather the being behind him, afraid of the Desire Realm? Or... is there some connection between the Desire Realm, that star rift, and this phenomenon of fake earth immortals?"

Silence returned to the airspace where a battle between Earth Immortals had just taken place, with only the howling of the wind. Gao Jian hovered in the air, his injuries, the mystery, and a premonition of an impending storm all weighing on his mind.

Gao Jian stood alone atop the towering palaces and pavilions of the Imperial Academy, the night wind ruffling his blood-stained robes and bringing a chill. He waited patiently, his divine senses like an invisible spiderweb, meticulously scanning every movement within a radius of several miles.

He waited for fifteen minutes.

A quarter of an hour felt like an eternity.

However, the expected Imperial Academy enforcement team, court officials, and even any powerful aura bearing official authority did not appear. The night in the capital, after the earth immortal-level clash that had shaken the entire region, was strangely deathly still. It was as if a drop of water had fallen into a deep pool; after the ripples, the pool remained unfathomably deep and silent.

“As far as the locals of the capital are concerned, they obviously don’t want to get involved in these matters, and it would be pointless to rashly meddle in them.” Gao Jian understood.

In this capital city, a place teeming with hidden talents yet rigidly hierarchical, self-preservation is the survival wisdom of most. As for the emperor… that reclusive and enigmatic supreme ruler seems to have no intention of interfering at all.

So, who was the imposter Yuan Lu referring to when he said "someone is coming" before he disappeared? Was it just a bluff? Or some kind of warning that he couldn't understand at the moment?
The mystery grew thicker and thicker, like a fog.

A full quarter of an hour passed, and all that remained was the sound of the wind and the faint, distant clamor of the capital city itself.
Gao Jian didn't linger. With a flicker, he silently drifted down from the heights like a falling leaf, landing on the cobblestone path. He suppressed his injuries and walked towards the small building where he was temporarily residing within the Imperial Academy.

Unimpeded journey.

No one stepped forward to question them, and no one stopped them.

This unusual calm only intensified Gao Jian's sense of unease.

With so many people at the Imperial Academy, it's impossible that they were completely unaware of the battle that had just taken place. The only explanation is that they chose to remain silent, or rather, they were observing.

He made it back to his secluded little courtyard without incident.

But at that moment, his brain was working at lightning speed.

“Yuan Lu… what exactly happened?” He rubbed his throbbing temples, piecing together the clues. “That imposter’s power source is connected to the Star Rift, he possesses self-awareness, is familiar with everything about Yuan Lu, yet he is not the real one. He finally confirmed the ‘Desire Realm’ aura on me and showed a ‘troublesome’ attitude…”

Most importantly, he disappeared. He vanished completely in a way that involved spatial collapse and a return to the "source".

"So, what's the status of that Yuanlu puppet that I personally crafted for Li Zoufang?"

Once the thought arises, it can no longer be suppressed.

The puppet of the Netherworld Ancestor, which he handed over to Li Zoufang to prove its worth and gain leverage for cooperation, is key to verifying many things. Will the appearance and disappearance of the imposter Yuan Lu affect the real puppet? Or, is there some problem on Li Zoufang's side from the very beginning?

We can't wait any longer. Gao Jian took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his injuries, took out a healing pill from his storage pouch and swallowed it. He felt the medicinal power dissipate, slightly nourishing his parched meridians and damaged internal organs, and then he set off.

He needed to ascertain the status of the Yuanlu puppet as soon as possible.

As night deepened, they arrived silently at Li Zoufang's official residence.

Compared to the luxurious mansions of many powerful figures in the capital, this high-ranking official's residence still appeared excessively simple, with the dark courtyard standing there quietly.

Gao Jian didn't knock on the door. Instead, he followed the path he remembered, leaping over the courtyard wall like a ghost and appearing directly outside the study in the inner courtyard. A dim light shone through the window, indicating that the owner was not yet asleep.

He gently knocked on the window.

After a moment of silence, the study door slid open a crack without anyone noticing.

Li Zoufang stood behind the door, his face showing little surprise, as if he had already anticipated his arrival.

He stepped aside to let Gao Jian in, then quickly closed the door. A complex array of enchanting lights flashed across the door, completely isolating the inside from the outside.

The candlelight flickered in the study, casting the shadows of the two people on the wall, making them appear longer and shorter.

A brilliant insight gets straight to the point without any preamble.

"Listen to me first. I recently sparred with that Yuan Lu, and after some probing, I managed to uncover some clues—"

Gao Jian began to recount, briefly describing the process of his fierce battle with the fake "Yuan Lu," as well as the other party's strange words and actions and his self-collapse and disappearance.

He emphasized the unsettling phrase, "You understand me a little, and I understand you a little," but concealed the dialogue within the 'desire realm'.

Li Zoufang listened quietly, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. When he heard that the power of 'Guixu' and 'Rift' might share the same origin, his tapping suddenly stopped.

Clearly, he knew about the emperor's 'strange illness'.

After Gao Jian finished speaking, a heavy silence fell over the study.

The candlelight crackled, illuminating Li Zoufang's ever-changing face.

He pondered for a full minute or two before slowly raising his head, his eyes filled with a complex emotion.

“The Ruins… the Rift… so that’s how it is…” he murmured softly, then, as if having made up his mind, he looked at Gao Jian and said, “I understand.”

He didn't offer any further explanation, but instead raised his hand and clapped it three times.

The crisp applause was particularly clear in the quiet study.

As the applause subsided, the shadowy corner of the study rippled like water.

The next moment, a figure slowly materialized from the ethereal and became clearly visible.

It was Yuan Lü, the true ancestor of the Netherworld, who had been refined into a puppet by Gao Jian!
He remained in the same form he had been created, with empty eyes and an expressionless face, standing there motionless like a delicate doll.

However, Gao Jian's pupils suddenly contracted the moment he saw him!

Because, on this Yuanlu puppet, there were obvious traces left by the previous fierce battle—there was a tear in its robe by the sharp energy, a charred knife mark on its left shoulder, and even the energy fluctuations emanating from its body had a clear sense of instability and weakness, which perfectly matched the damage that Gao Jian had personally caused in his memory!
How can this be? !
Gao Jian had personally turned him into a puppet, and he clearly remembered that he hadn't inflicted such fresh and severe battle wounds on him. These wounds were clearly left from the fight between him and the imposter Yuan Lu!
A chill crept up Gao Jian's spine.

Seeing the undisguised shock on Gao Jian's face, Li Zoufang spoke in a low, slow voice, revealing the chilling truth: "It seems... the connection between 'them' is far deeper than we imagined. The wounds you inflicted on the other party have simultaneously appeared on this 'main body'."

“They’re not necessarily synchronized.” Gao Jian shook his head, his gaze sharp as a knife, fixed on the wounded Yuanlu puppet with its empty eyes. “They might be the same person.”

"The same person?" Li Zoufang frowned, instinctively retorting, "Is that possible? One is a being with clear consciousness, eloquent, and even capable of expressing emotions, while the other is a puppet that has been refined and whose consciousness has been extinguished!"

“Why not?” Gao Jian’s voice was deep and calm. “Yuan Lu is not dead. The reason he is a puppet is because his ‘consciousness’ has merged with ‘heaven and earth,’ which is a requirement of the Dao foundation of ‘the perfect man has no self.’ But what if… the ‘heaven and earth’ he merged into itself has consciousness?”

"Impossible!" Li Zoufang almost immediately and categorically denied. "Heaven and earth cannot have consciousness! It is a natural law, a principle! If heaven and earth had consciousness, then what would be the point? Everyone might as well surrender! Who could possibly defeat heaven and earth itself?"

He couldn't accept this conclusion, as it meant that all the struggles and plans had been rendered meaningless.

Before a self-aware "Heaven," individuals and even the entire divine dynasty are nothing more than ants and dust.

Heaven and earth operate according to the laws of nature, their rules unchanged since time immemorial! If heaven and earth truly possess consciousness, then what is there to say? Cultivators defy the heavens, striving for a sliver of transcendence. If heaven itself has a will, who can defeat it? They might as well surrender!
Seeing Li Zoufang's slightly agitated reaction, Gao Jian didn't argue, but simply nodded slowly, then abruptly changed the subject: "Indeed, the possibility of the real 'heaven and earth' above us possessing independent consciousness is extremely slim. But there is another possibility, which is..."

He paused, then turned his gaze back to the Yuanlu puppet, and said, word by word:

“The ‘heaven and earth’ into which the primordial law is integrated may not be the real heaven and earth.”

The air in the study seemed to freeze at that moment.

Li Zoufang stood there, stunned, his expression shifting in the candlelight.

The candlelight flickered in their eyes and on their faces.

If that's the case, what terrifying enemy will they face? An unknown behemoth that has stolen the position of "Heaven and Earth"!

Yuan Lu became a 'clone' and a 'portal' controlled by that will!
(End of this chapter)