Under One Person: I Have a Billion Taoist Gods Within Me

Chapter 46 Zhuge Liang: "You've come. I've waited for you for a thousand years..."

Li Yuan raised his eyes again, looking at the Qimen formation that enveloped the entire city of Tanzhou.

The Qimen formation he created with his will is now slowly rotating in the void.

Tai Chi rotates, Bagua turns, the eight gates open and close, the eight gods appear and disappear, and the nine stars shine and fade.

All of this was defined by his "intention" and manifested in a single thought.

But at this moment, Li Yuan "senses" something that doesn't belong to him.

That's a kind of—

resonance.

It was as if his Qimen Dunjia divination resonated with some deeper, more distant, and more ancient "source".

It was as if his "intention," in the instant it spread, triggered a "mechanism" that had been dormant for thousands of years.

The summons came to him at that very moment from the resonance.

A thought involuntarily surfaced in Li Yuan's mind.

Even with his level of mental cultivation, this thought seemed somewhat unbelievable.

Zhuge Liang, the strategist!

One of the greatest extraordinary individuals in history, a genius of unparalleled wisdom!

Legend has it that Zhuge Liang, the Marquis of Wu, was not only able to deduce the secrets of heaven and calculate the workings of yin and yang, but also to understand the past and present and predict the future.

The Records of the Three Kingdoms states that he "deduced military strategies, created the Eight Trigrams Formation, and grasped its essence."

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms further mythologizes him, saying that he can summon wind and rain, turn beans into soldiers, launch six expeditions to Qishan, capture Meng Huo seven times, and finally fall at Wuzhangyuan. Before his death, he devised a plan to make Sima Yi retreat.

However, outside of official history, what has been passed down through generations in the world of supernatural beings is another hidden figure—the Marquis of Wu, Zhuge Liang, who was no ordinary supernatural being.

He is a true "knowledgeable person of both ancient and modern times".

He can see the past and also glimpse the future.

He knew the fate of Shu Han, the fall of the empire to Jin, the chaos of the Five Barbarian Tribes, the transition from Sui to Tang, and the reigns of Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing.

He knew he couldn't change those things.

But he still did everything he could.

Because his mission is not to change, but to—

inherited.

Leave something for those who will truly need it in the future.

Now, seventeen hundred years later.

Li Yuan stood in front of the Lu residence, holding the tattered scroll of the Eight Trigrams Formation in his hand, surrounded by the Qimen formation he had created in a single thought.

The call came from the deepest reaches of time and space, clear and resolute.

Could it be—

This summons came from the Marquis of Wu from 1,700 years ago.

That extraordinary person, who was knowledgeable about both ancient and modern times, left behind a timeless call with his unparalleled wisdom before his death.

That summons, is it waiting for this very moment?

What awaits is someone who can truly unravel the mysteries of the Eight Trigrams Formation.

Could it be that he himself, the innate Dao Child from 1,700 years in the future, is waiting for him?

Li Yuan closed his eyes.

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately followed the guidance of the summons.

In an instant!

Consciousness and mind, like a wisp of smoke, drift out from the body.

Towards the source of that call—

It sank.

The process was extremely mysterious.

It's not a spatial movement, but a deeper "return to one's place".

It's as if you're passing through layer after layer of curtains, and behind each curtain lies a different world.

In those worlds, fragments of time float.

It features the clash of swords and the thunder of war during the Three Kingdoms period.

There is a feather fan and silk turban of Zhuge Liang, the Marquis of Wu.

There is the vast and desolate landscape of Qishan Mountain, with its six peaks rising from the horizon.

There is a long, bright star that fell at Wuzhangyuan.

Li Yuan's consciousness passed through those fragments without lingering.

He knew those were just "traces".

These are the "footprints" left by that extraordinary person throughout history in the long river of time.

The true calling lies deeper and further away.

And so, I don't know how much time passed.

Perhaps it will only last for a moment.

That void has finally come to an end.

Li Yuan's consciousness sank into a space he had never seen before.

here-

It's an interior view.

Li Yuan sensed it immediately.

Because his interior is the ancient and majestic Daluo Palace, guarded by all the gods.

His perception of "inner vision" is more acute than anyone else's.

But this is not his interior space.

This is an unfamiliar interior scene.

There were no palaces, no gods, nothing that could be called "existence".

There is only nothingness.

Boundless nothingness.

There is no sky, no earth, no up or down, no four directions.

There was no light, no darkness, no sound, no breath.

He was the only one, silently suspended in this void.

Li Yuan's gaze swept calmly over the surroundings.

He "sensed" the essence of this nothingness.

It is not empty, nor is it barren.

Instead—

"wait".

It's as if this space has been waiting ever since it was created.

Waiting for someone to arrive.

Waiting for that person, carrying what they are waiting for, to walk in.

Then, it can "come alive".

Li Yuan withdrew his gaze and stood silently in the void.

He was neither impatient, nor did he search or try to change this void in any way.

He simply stood there quietly, letting this void "sense" him.

Just like that day in the Chengxin Water Pavilion, he let Zhang Zhiwei's "Divine Intent Fugue" fall into his Dao realm.

He knew that since he was already there, he might as well make the best of it.

What is meant to appear will appear.

really.

He stood still for three breaths.

Suddenly, something changed in the void ahead.

It started as just a single point.

A tiny, extremely small point, so small that it is almost imperceptible.

But once that point appears, it's like the first drop of ink falling on a blank sheet of rice paper—it begins to spread.

The spread was very slow, as if each step had taken countless years of waiting.

But it spreads very steadily.

As that point spread, a faint outline began to emerge from the nothingness.

First came the sky.

A void of sky spread out overhead.

Then there's the ground.

A void quietly took shape beneath my feet.

Then comes the wind.

A faint breeze, almost imperceptible, blew from the depths of nothingness.

Then there are clouds.

A few wisps of clouds drifted slowly across the sky.

Then comes the dragon.

A faint dragon appears and disappears in the clouds.

Then comes the tiger.

A phantom tiger roared with its head held high in the mountains.

Then there are birds.

A bird, seemingly real yet ethereal, soars freely in the sky.

Then came the snake.

A snake, its true form indistinguishable from a real one, meanders through the grass.

Heavenly Cover Formation.

Ground-based array.

A gust of wind blew.

Clouds hang low in formation.

Dragon Flight Formation.

Tiger Wing Formation.

Bird formation.

A snake formation.

The eight formations appeared together.

The Eight Trigrams Formation.

The complete Eight Trigrams Formation.

It was not the tattered scroll in his hand, nor the incomplete manuscript that the heads of the Zhuge family had tried to complete but never succeeded in doing so.

It is a complete, authentic, and even living Eight Trigrams Formation.

The eight formations appeared together and began to slowly rotate.

They echo each other, blend together, and transform into one another.

The sky covers the earth, the wind blows and the clouds hang low; dragons fly and tigers spread their wings; birds soar and snakes coil.

The eight formations are united as one.

All things in heaven and earth are contained within it.

Li Yuan watched quietly.

He knew that this Eight Trigrams Formation was not a real formation.

It is "meaning".

It is the "intention" that extraordinary person of all time, with all his wisdom, condensed into this inner landscape before his death.

O

And now, this "meaning" is showing itself to him.

Proving to him—

The person he was waiting for finally arrived.

The Eight Trigrams Formation was operating faster and faster.

final-

They suddenly froze.

All changes, all transformations, all births and deaths, in this moment, all return to one.

Returning to the One—

A human figure.

The figure slowly emerged from nothingness.

At first, it was just a faint outline, barely visible, as if it might disappear at any moment.

But as the outline gradually became clearer, the unique aura belonging to that extraordinary person throughout the ages also spread out.

Feather fan and silk turban.

Wide robes and long sleeves.

His face was clear of tumors, and three long strands of his beard fluttered gently in the wind.

His brows held a wisdom and profundity that seemed to understand the world and the past and present.

Those eyes, at first glance, seemed gentle and warm like water, but upon closer inspection, they seemed to reflect the flow of cause and effect throughout history.

That's right—

Zhuge Liang, the Marquis of Wu.

Li Yuan stood silently in the void, watching the figure gradually become clearer.

He showed no surprise, no shock, and not even any extra emotional fluctuation.

From the moment he sensed that summons, he already had a guess.

This moment merely confirms that guess.

The figure of Zhuge Liang has finally taken full shape.

He stood quietly about three zhang away from Li Yuan, gently waving his feather fan, his gaze fixed on the young Daoist who had finally arrived here after traversing seventeen hundred years.

In those eyes that seemed to see through the ages, there was no scrutiny, no inquiry, only a sense of relief, as if they had finally met an old friend.

"You've arrived."

Zhuge Liang spoke.

The voice was not loud, and could even be described as calm, yet it seemed to penetrate all barriers of time and space, reaching the deepest part of people's hearts.

There was no doubt, no emotion, only an unwavering certainty in that voice.

Li Yuan nodded slightly and bowed respectfully: "Junior Li Yuan greets Marquis Wu."

As Zhuge Liang looked at his kowtow, a very faint smile appeared on his usually composed face.

The smile contained appreciation, satisfaction, and a hint of something complex that was hard to define.

"The kowtow is a gesture of respect between juniors and seniors in the Taoist tradition."

"But you—"

'

At this point, Wu Hou paused slightly, his deep eyes looking directly at Li Yuan: "You deserve my respect."

As he spoke, he actually nodded slightly to Li Yuan, returning the gesture with a half-bow.

As a man of great rank, Zhuge Liang returned the courtesy to a junior.

This is unprecedented in history.

Li Yuan remained expressionless, simply gazing quietly at this extraordinary figure of all time.

He knew that the figure before him was not the real Zhuge Liang.

The real Zhuge Liang perished at Wuzhang Plains 1,700 years ago.

The figure before you is a wisp of "consciousness" that Zhuge Liang, the strategist, condensed in this inner landscape before his death, using his supreme wisdom.

This wisp of consciousness carries the wisdom and insights of Zhuge Liang throughout his life, his vision and expectations for the future, and the true mystery of the unfinished Eight Trigrams Formation scroll.

It has waited here for seventeen hundred years.

Waiting for the right person.

A person who can truly unravel the mysteries of the Eight Trigrams Formation.

A person who can help him fulfill his final wishes before he dies.

And now, that person has finally arrived.

Zhuge Liang looked at Li Yuan, and a slight light flickered in his eyes that seemed to see through the past and present.

Do you know why I am waiting for you here?