Chapter 772: Great Dao Returns to the Sect, Celestial Phenomena

“Where am I?”

Waking from complete darkness, Xu Xiaoshou looked at the stark white room, feeling disoriented.

He remembered being in Dongtian Wangcheng, in the Zhongcheng District, and even flirting with Rao Yaoyao, one of the Qi Jianxian.

But the next second, Rao Yaoyao drew her sword, and he ended up in this miserable state.

It proved that the Qi Jianxian truly couldn't handle being teased…

“Hongchen Jian?”

Even in his coma, all the information from the Saint Thought's monitoring and observation seemed to feed back into Xu Xiaoshou's spiritual world.

As for Rao Yaoyao's strike, he didn't need anyone to explain it.

Having experienced it firsthand, Xu Xiaoshou knew exactly what that sword was.

One of the Jiu Da Jian Shu, the Qing Jian Shu, Hongchen Jian!

Hongchen Jian severed the seven emotions and six desires, cutting off human intentions.

Xu Xiaoshou had already asked Ba Zun An about the basic information on the Jiu Da Jian Shu.

Ba Zun An hadn't taught him much substance, but he had clearly outlined the concepts.

Among the Jiu Da Jian Shu, there were realms, totaling eighteen levels.

Each sword technique had a first and second realm.

But only Qing Jian Shu had a third realm, while Cang Jian Shu had only the first.

These realms were similar to the profound insights gained after perfecting the Wangzuo Dao Realm, making them extremely rare and hard for most people to comprehend.

The strike Rao Yaoyao used on him was the first realm of Qing Jian Shu: Hongchen Jian.

Trapped in the red dust and bolstered by Saint power, Xu Xiaoshou could occasionally regain consciousness for a moment.

He naturally understood.

After Hongchen Jian, he couldn't withstand the trial of the heart and was aging rapidly.

Moreover, when he was beyond help, it felt as if Hongchen Jian would directly end him, leading him to the brink of death.

Finally, the world shifted, and he fell into this white realm.

So…

“What's going on?”

Xu Xiaoshou tried to get up.

He realized he was lying down and struggled a bit…

He couldn't move!

His body was weak, but his mind was alert.

Like a vegetable, he could only use his soul to observe this small white room.

Suddenly, something came to mind, and he broke out in a cold sweat.

“A hospital room?”

This scene was eerily similar to the hospital room from his previous life.

It was an art of extreme despair and human solitude, painted with nothing but monotonous colors like white, evoking a gray desolation.

—Utter art!

In that moment, Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but shudder mentally.

“No.”

“That's not right.”

“It's not a transmigration…”

For a split second, Xu Xiaoshou even thought he had transmigrated back to reality, and his experiences in Shengshen Continent were just a fleeting dream.

But he quickly affirmed it wasn't.

Because in this white room, there was no white-clad demon to open up to him and chat about the bizarre emotions of the outside world that didn't belong to him, Xu Xiaoshou.

There was only silence.

Xu Xiaoshou focused his spirit and sensed something unusual.

Leaning against the white wall were three swords.

Two black swords and one with a fiery red hilt.

“Zang Ku, You Si Jian, Yanmang!”

Xu Xiaoshou was overjoyed.

The presence of these three items proved he was likely in an enemy's illusion.

His body was still in Shengshen Continent.

“Buzz—”

At that moment, among the three swords in the corner, the other two remained still.

But Zang Ku, noticing Xu Xiaoshou's attention, excitedly straightened up, then leaped high and hovered above his head.

It began to wriggle.

Like a black water snake, it twisted rapidly.

The entire sword contorted in a ridiculous, improper way.

And Xu Xiaoshou could clearly feel Zang Ku transmitting an especially enthusiastic emotion, as if they were two people facing each other, ready to talk.

“You're here?”

“Huh, you can't move. How did this happen? So miserable, so miserable…”

“Look at me, I can move!”

“I'll twist, I'll twist.”

Xu Xiaoshou: “…”

He was speechless for a moment.

But his fear was somewhat diluted by Zang Ku's antics.

Xu Xiaoshou tried to communicate with Zang Ku mentally, just as they had in the past when he held the sword and their intentions connected.

“Where is this?”

The room trembled.

His spiritual intent spread out in waves through the void.

Then, Zang Ku, quite surprised, leaned in close, pressing its blade against Xu Xiaoshou's unresisting forehead, conveying a wave of puzzled emotion.

“Hmm?”

Xu Xiaoshou could sharply detect that this fool was checking if he had a fever, like a human would.

But clearly…

He didn't.

This answer left Zang Ku deep in thought.

“Stop messing around. Where is this?” Xu Xiaoshou said seriously.

Zang Ku was stumped, falling into hesitation, its blade ceasing to twist.

It seemed to be grappling with explaining a fundamental, underlying concept of the world using its limited knowledge and cognition.

In other words, like using human words to describe a commonly accepted phenomenon that was usually overlooked.

After a long while, Zang Ku had an answer. It trembled lightly and tentatively replied:

“Home?”

Xu Xiaoshou was stunned.

In that instant, his soul trembled, and all the scenes from his red dust trials under Rao Yaoyao's sword flooded back.

Finally, Xu Xiaoshou realized, his inner fears vanished completely, and he felt at peace.

“Home…”

Murmuring softly, Xu Xiaoshou suddenly let out a bitter laugh.

Yes.

This was “home.”

The final step of the red dust trial, experienced after the end of life: endless solitude, an empty “home” that belonged solely to oneself.

One life ends.

But unlike others, Xu Xiaoshou's red dust spanned two lives!

In this second life, the way he lived perfectly matched what all spirit refiners experienced in their first life after reaching the end of life under the sword…

Emotionless, desireless, without delusions or actions.

No anger, no delusion, no joy, no sorrow.

In short.

At the end of the Dao, besides death and returning all of life's gifts, there was only eternal life—and the endless solitude that came with it.

Coincidentally, Xu Xiaoshou had already experienced that eternal life and solitude in his previous life!

And once solitary self-dialogue became instinctive…

The trial of the heart was nothing but a joke.

Or, putting it another way, calculating by the seconds-as-years of his previous life…

Xu Xiaoshou had already endured this so-called Hongchen Jian…

Countless times!

“Home…”

Murmuring again, Xu Xiaoshou felt he could move.

He first opened his eyes, then smirked, his voice hoarse and dry.

Then, he laughed.

Rao Yaoyao probably never realized that someone like him could break her Hongchen Jian in such an unconventional way, right?

Was this a coincidence?

Xu Xiaoshou didn't think so.

He recalled the “why” he couldn't overcome in his final heart trial during his life in Shengshen Continent.

Because there, he had emotions, friends, teachers.

Even without realizing it, he had developed faint traces of something he had never experienced before—feelings? affection?

The seven emotions and six desires born, then severed.

To grasp the true meaning of life between eternity and a moment in such a red dust illusion was no easy feat.

He couldn't let go.

That was Xu Xiaoshou's greatest feeling.

He believed it was also the fundamental reason why most people trapped by Hongchen Jian couldn't escape.

But in his second life—which was his previous one…

Everything became clear.

The baseline was set.

“What do I have left to lose?”

Xu Xiaoshou asked himself.

He realized he truly had nothing left to lose.

With family, friendship, love…

That was wonderful.

What people seek is nothing more than that.

But if it's absent, that's returning to the origin!

It's simply going back to the most basic “self.”

When a person has nothing, any gain is a blessing.

Xu Xiaoshou didn't seek blessings, but he had long learned to embrace solitude.

“Home!”

Saying the word heavily again, Xu Xiaoshou understood.

This place was indeed home.

Not reality, yet reality.

It was the final fantasy shaped by the red dust illusion, a person's ultimate illusion.

Similar to…

A spiritual world!

Xu Xiaoshou had opened his Yuan Court innately, where a “passive system” hung high.

He always thought that was his spiritual world.

But now he finally realized it wasn't.

That magnificent world was his imagined spiritual realm, the beauty people pursued.

When he stripped away all that and faced his true self, this small space exposed in the whiteness…

The hospital room!

That was his, Xu Xiaoshou's, spiritual world!

But now, it was different.

Having completed the heart trial, Xu Xiaoshou no longer felt this space was as lonely as before.

It was warm.

A brand-new world.

With Zang Ku's spirit.

With You Si Jian, Yanmang, and other spirits waiting to form bonds with him, yet to awaken.

Sitting up straight, Xu Xiaoshou looked elsewhere.

On a white wooden table, there was a fire seed and an ice lotus.

Nearby, Sang Lao's straw hat stood quietly.

Next to the hat was a bottle of Saint blood and two other pill bottles containing Shengxiang and Xuxiang.

“Of course, the Saint blood, Xuxiang, and Shengxiang—Sang Lao must have directly placed them in my spiritual world. So that's where they are…”

Xu Xiaoshou came to a realization.

He staggered to his feet, not even noticing he could move again.

Glancing at another spot,

Though it was completely blank and empty,

Suddenly, an ancient book titled “Guan Jian Dian” appeared.

As the book materialized, You Si Jian trembled slightly, reacting a bit.

Xu Xiaoshou smiled.

“I come, I see, so I conquer, so it exists!”

In his spiritual world, he was an all-powerful god—what was there to fear about solitude?

He had spent a full three years meticulously crafting this world where he was omnipotent, down to the finest details: the scent of soil, the texture of leaves, the mannerisms of people—nothing was overlooked.

In such abundance, how could there be loneliness?

“Thank you.”

Xu Xiaoshou looked at Zang Ku and sincerely thanked it.

The beginning of his enriched spirit truly stemmed from Zang Ku's single word—home!

Zang Ku buzzed loudly, thrilled, and tapped its blade twice with pride, responding: “Say it again; I love hearing it.”

Xu Xiaoshou: “…”

He flicked his finger hard at the black sword.

With a twang, Zang Ku embedded itself into the white wall.

Then, cracks spread across the wall.

The outside world—people, events, things—vaguely emerged.

“Time to go out…”

As Xu Xiaoshou stepped forward,

Just then, from the cracks in the wall, a intense golden light burst in.

Xu Xiaoshou paused.

Then, he laughed again.

“No longer alone…”

Yes.

Even if he couldn't break this illusion,

That place still had people who cared about him, who wouldn't let him sink further into the sea of red dust suffering.

But…

“My will, Xu Xiaoshou's, rivals that of a Shengdi!”

“And to speak boldly, a Shengdi lasts one life, but I, Xu Xiaoshou, have two… The heavens rise one chi for Ba Zun An, but for me, they rise one zhang!”

“What can a mere Hongchen Jian do to me?”

In that moment, Xu Xiaoshou's eyes blazed with unmatched determination, his chest filled with heroic spirit.

He took a step forward.

No need for golden Buddha light.

Defying all Shengshen.

With a thunderous roar in his mind, the red dust predicament collapsed entirely, and his spiritual world shattered completely.

Time seemed to rewind.

Xu Xiaoshou's hair, once white in mid-air, suddenly turned back to its former black.

In that instant,

The entire Dongtian Wangcheng seemed to be drawn in and suppressed by Xu Xiaoshou's aura of rebirth.

His presence, under the grandeur of the Shengxiang, was as if it could overpower the heavens.

Everyone present stared in shock at Xu Xiaoshou, who should have emerged battered from Hongchen Jian under the Great Buddha Slash…

Yet he stood as an emperor, ruling over the Wangcheng!

“Did he unravel Hongchen Jian?” Mei Si Ren exclaimed in horror.

“He unraveled Hongchen Jian!” Rao Yaoyao's eyes widened in disbelief, as if witnessing the most terrifying event in the world.

“This kid…”

The scruffy uncle was equally astonished.

As the one who performed the Great Buddha Slash, he knew all too well that the slash hadn't even reached Xu Xiaoshou's red dust illusion.

Xu Xiaoshou didn't need it; he had freed himself.

At the same time, almost all the great powers present could see that Xu Xiaoshou wasn't saved by the Great Buddha Slash—he had escaped on his own.

“What kind of unyielding will is this?”

The power of Hongchen Jian was known not only to ancient sword cultivators but also to most spirit refiners who had heard of Rao Yaoyao's deeds as a Jianxian.

Not to mention a mere Xiantian like Xu Xiaoshou—even Wangzuo or Zhandao experts would struggle to regain their senses under a Jianxian-level Rao Yaoyao's strike.

Yet what others couldn't do…

Xu Xiaoshou did!

“How is that possible?” Rao Yaoyao cried out from afar.

She still held her Xingyue Ge Zhe, but in her eyes, Xu Xiaoshou seemed like a completely different person.

He gripped You Si Jian…

He turned his head…

The light in his eyes…

It was the light that could dominate an era, the arrogance that looked down on the world, the unparalleled elegance of holding a sword and being invincible!

For a moment, Rao Yaoyao even saw a young Ba Zun An in him.

And at that instant, Xu Xiaoshou's figure with You Si Jian in hand perfectly overlapped with Ba Zun An's!

“How is that possible…”

Xu Xiaoshou murmured, echoing Rao Yaoyao's question.

He felt something suppressed inside him shattering and releasing.

But after experiencing two lives of red dust, his gaze was incredibly calm. Even with a Jianxian holding a sword before him, it couldn't shake his true self in the slightest.

“Hongchen Jian questions the heart with ‘why’?”

“Why ‘why’? There is no why.”

Xu Xiaoshou said, then laughed.

It was the most profound thing he had ever said in his life.

He looked up at the sky.

The night remained.

Xu Xiaoshou thought, if the heart trial asked “why,” he understood there shouldn't be a “why.”

If he had to give a complete answer to life and existence, he didn't know how others would put it.

But as he said, “Why ‘why’? There is no why.”

Living.

Sometimes, that was the best, most basic answer.

The heavens stirred.

Void Dao patterns arose everywhere.

Xu Xiaoshou faced the wind and spread his arms.

He suddenly wondered:

Just as with “heaven,” why call it “heaven”?

It was merely human convention.

And if “heaven” had no inherent “heaven,” where would “image” come from?

“Heaven's image…”

Saint power enlightened him in an instant.

After two lives of red dust trials,

Xu Xiaoshou knew some things couldn't be suppressed anymore.

But because he had walked this path, he understood these things could just flow naturally.

If they couldn't be suppressed, then don't.

“Heaven has no image, Dao has no form.”

“Heaven is named for its image, Dao takes form when it does!”

He stepped forward.

Xu Xiaoshou comprehended the true essence of Zongshi Tianxiang.

In that instant, the void shook, and swords rang out for ten li.

Normally, one touches the Dao to become Zongshi and comprehends it to enter Wangzuo.

Xu Xiaoshou resisted the Saint intent infusion and suppressed his cultivation.

Who would have thought that through the red dust sword trial, he would directly awaken the true meaning of the Dao with two lives' rebirth?

“Zongshi?”

“A Dao toucher?”

“My Dao was formed long ago; Zongshi is merely that.”

Xu Xiaoshou spoke casually in the void.

In that moment, the great Dao returned to its source, converging into form under the pressure of the Jiu Long Fen Zu Shengxiang.

Even the Qi Jianxian couldn't help but gaze in shock at the young man who had just stepped into Zongshi Tianxiang Realm, making even the Taixu bow slightly.

This was true aura swallowing mountains and rivers!

This was the true great Dao returning to its source!