The Last Sentinel

The sky trembled, myriad rays of light shattered, and a pillar of destiny spanning heaven and earth crashed down from the top of the nine heavens.

The colossal pillar, imposing and majestic, carried an unparalleled power that could crush the eight directions. The winds and clouds swirled, the mountains and rivers trembled, and the world seemed to be engulfed in a cataclysmic upheaval. With an unmatched suppressive force, it crashed straight down towards Zhao Changcheng.

The boundless aura of immortality permeated the surrounding land, causing ripples in the void and even freezing the laws of heaven and earth.

Facing this overwhelming pressure that could crush everything, Zhao Changcheng did not retreat even half a step.

He slowly raised his eyes, gazing up at the heavy pillar of destiny pressing down on him, his expression calm and unwavering: "Senior brother, let me tell you a secret. When Master passed on the Book of Changes to me, the version I received was different from the one you received. The reason you've been unable to enter the Path of Destiny is actually because Master deliberately didn't pass it on to you!"

Upon hearing this, flames suddenly surged in the void opposite.

Mo Lijie's eyes burned with blazing immortal fire, his black and white immortal robes billowed in the wind, and his orthodox immortal aura surged and roared around him. His supreme celestial official pressure swept across the entire scene, and every word was filled with rage and contempt: "Nonsense! You are a sinner, exiled from your sect, while I am a legitimate successor of your sect and a registered celestial official in the Heavenly Court! How could my master, with his discerning eyes, abandon his legitimate successor and entrust the true copy of the *I Ching* to a sinner like you? It's utterly absurd!"

A deafening roar erupted overhead as the pillar of destiny continued to sink, crushing the air around Zhao Changcheng and shattering it completely. A life-or-death crisis was imminent. Yet, he stood tall and straight as a pine tree, his tone calm yet carrying a resolute certainty that seemed to penetrate fate, as he slowly spoke, word by word.

"Our two copies of the Book of Changes seem identical, with 99.99% of the text and hexagrams being exactly the same. No cultivator or elder in the world can distinguish the genuine from the fake. But there is only one difference: my version has one more hexagram than yours."

"The sixty-four hexagrams of Fuxi exhaust the changes of heaven and earth and encompass the principles of destiny in the world. People all think that this is the ultimate of the Book of Changes. But in the book I have, there is one more hexagram after the final chapter of the sixty-four hexagrams."

"This sixty-fifth hexagram is the ultimate secret that my master kept for me alone. Do you want to know what kind of power this hexagram, hidden from the ages, holds?"

Mo Lijie's brow bulged with veins, his chest burning with rage. His lifelong cultivation of his Dao heart was violently shaken by this earth-shattering secret. He shouted sharply, "Speak!"

Facing the overwhelming might of the heavens, Zhao Changcheng smiled with a clear and weathered smile. His voice was clear and resonant, echoing through thousands of mountains and valleys, shattering the shackles of fate that had bound him for centuries.

"You and I have spent our lives obsessed with destiny, trapped by fate and fixed in our beliefs that destiny cannot be defied. In the end, we are too fixated on fate and have forgotten the true meaning of the first hexagram of the I Ching: 'The movement of heaven is strong; the superior man makes himself strong and untiring!'"

His gaze suddenly sharpened like a sword, and the dormant aura around him surged instantly. His words were resounding and echoed throughout the heavens and earth: "Everyone knows that the Dao of Destiny determines good and bad fortune, and believes that the Dao of Destiny has no offensive techniques or ultimate killing power. But they do not know that this sixty-fifth hexagram is the true essence of the I Ching, buried for eternity and never revealed to the world. It is the Dao of Destiny's only and strongest immortal killing move!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the secret technique began.

Zhao Changcheng formed a secret hand seal that was rare since ancient times. The index and middle fingers of his left hand were joined together and firmly pressed against the spiritual gate between his eyebrows, while the two fingers of his right hand were straight like a sword, pointing at the furious Mo Lijie in front of him.

In an instant, all the noise in the world fell silent, leaving only his roaring voice that shook the heavens and the earth.

"The 65th Hexagram of the I Ching: The Immortal's Deadly Move—Destiny! Defeat!"

As the four words fell, the Great Dao roared, and the invisible laws of destiny suddenly surged, enveloping the entire sky.

Mo Lijie's expression darkened, his eyes filled with disdain and arrogance. His orthodox immortal power erupted, and pure white aura soared into the sky, directly confronting Zhao Changcheng's secret technique's oppressive force: "You mere collateral branch criminal, dare to flaunt your petty tricks before me? To attempt to shake my orthodox immortal path with your so-called life-destiny killing moves is nothing but courting death!"

The moment Mo Lijie finished speaking, the void behind Zhao Changcheng suddenly trembled violently.

Countless blurry and staggered figures emerged from the void, the phantoms of his soul at every stage of his life, from his ignorant cultivation, his early apprenticeship, his trials and tribulations, to his gradual progress. Countless versions of him, spanning countless years, overlapped and intertwined, all the hardships, obsessions, struggles, and past cultivation experiences condensed into these phantoms.

The next second, the countless phantom images shattered and vanished!

All the accumulated years, the spiritual foundation of a lifetime, and the obsession with cultivation over hundreds of years were burned into pure and refined spiritual power, flowing wildly into Zhao Changcheng's body like rivers flowing into the sea.

boom--!

A jet-black, profound, and extremely condensed pillar of divine soul light rose from behind Zhao Changcheng, piercing through the clouds and tearing apart the dome. The pillar of light possessed a calm and domineering aura, carrying a resolute determination to overturn fate. It surged wildly from a height of ten meters, then instantly to fifty meters, one hundred meters, three hundred meters, five hundred meters, and finally burst through the thousand-meter mark!

The jet-black pillar of light was majestic and imposing, exuding a profound Daoist aura, in no way inferior to the orthodox immortal pillar of fortune that Mo Lijie had cultivated for a thousand years. The jet-black Daoist aura swept across the land, like a colossal pillar of the Heavenly Dao rising from the abyss of the earth, standing proudly between heaven and earth, confronting Mo Lijie's pure white pillar of fortune that pierced through the nine heavens.

The next instant, the two colossal pillars, representing completely different paths of cultivation, collided with each other, each carrying its own Dao heart and obsession!

The heavens and earth trembled violently, the wind and clouds shattered, and an endless tide of light swept across the eight directions, causing the void within a radius of ten thousand miles to collapse and shatter.

At the center of the clash of the extremely violent forces, Zhao Changcheng's tall body was instantly covered with dense cracks, like glass on the verge of shattering. The cracks spread throughout his flesh, soul, and foundation, and wisps of soul energy continuously seeped out from the cracks, enduring the extreme pain of the backlash.

However, Mo Lijie on the other side did not gain the slightest advantage.

A profound sense of weakness instantly swept over his entire body. The composure and arrogance on his face collapsed in an instant, and his eyes were filled with extreme astonishment and disbelief. He stared intently at his junior brother, who was standing in front of him covered in blood, and his voice trembled with barely concealed shock.

"The Path of Fate... it really does have a deadly technique?! All the classic texts and sect traditions say that the Path of Fate is all about deduction and has no offensive or defensive aspects. Why would the Book of Changes contain a secret technique for killing immortals? My master... my master has never mentioned a single thing to me!"

Centuries of understanding collapsed in an instant, the orthodox Daoist heart was violently shaken, and cracks appeared in Mo Lijie's state of mind.

Amidst the chaotic light, even though Zhao Changcheng's body was cracked and he was severely injured, his eyes still shone brightly, his gaze clear and sharp, piercing straight through all of Mo Lijie's arrogance and pride.

Facing the raging winds and turbulent currents, he spoke again, revealing a second secret that would overturn all previous truths.

"Senior brother, you are still deceived by appearances. Let me tell you something else: from beginning to end, I have never awakened my own primordial will. The so-called descent of my primordial essence is all an illusion. This pillar of destiny within me, comparable to that of orthodox immortals, has never been my own power, but rather—Master's pillar of destiny! Master passed on his power of destiny to me!"

These words struck like a thunderbolt. Mo Lijie's immortal power suddenly froze, his eyes turning bloodshot. Extreme anger and a sense of absurdity swept over him. He roared, "Utter nonsense! Pure rubbish! Ten years after you were expelled from the sect, your master peacefully ascended to immortality. His physical body, Dao foundation, and destiny all vanished into nothingness. How could his pillar of destiny remain in your hands?!"

Zhao Changcheng burst into loud laughter, his honest voice breaking through the chaos and revealing a century-old, unspoken scheme: "Senior brother! Your talk of Master's ascension ten years from now is nothing but a meticulously planned deception!"

"On the eve of my departure, my master had already truly ascended to immortality, passing on his life's destiny and the Heavenly Pillar of Fate to me before he left. And the grand ascension ceremony that the whole world knew about ten years later was nothing more than the work of my uncle!"

"Have you forgotten that your martial uncle is the Thousand-Transformation Demon Lord, a master of all illusions, whose true form is indistinguishable from the false!"

Mo Lijie's pupils trembled violently, his mind was completely thrown into chaos, and the beliefs he had held for hundreds of years, the sect he trusted, and the truth he firmly believed in all collapsed at this moment.

He retreated repeatedly, his pure white aura turbulent violently, his tone panicked and ferocious as he continued to argue with himself.

"No, that's impossible!"

"It's fake! It's all fake! You're lying to me, you're bluffing me!"

"My master has always been biased and values ​​the orthodox lineage; he would never secretly favor you!"

"My uncle-master lives a carefree life, free from worldly strife and desires. He has no reason to cooperate with your charade!"

"Zhao Changcheng! You are exploiting the last remaining brotherly affection I have for you, deliberately delaying the battle and disrupting my Dao heart!"