Houqing saw Gu Hai using the Gu’s Immortal Firmament to consume pieces of the flawed immortal firmament. Although unclear about the specifics, he understood that Gu Hai was reaping great benefits. Therefore, he threatened to leave, hoping to force a compromise that would halt Gu Hai’s gains. Yet, a man in a black robe appeared out of nowhere.
Houqing had not seen this man in action, but the fact that the skeleton Gu Hai offered to replace him set off mental alarms.
“Is your cultivation at the consummation of the Upper Heavenly Palace Realm? You want to fill the gap?” Houqing scoffed.
“I am close to achieving it. That’s enough to fill the gap,” replied the skeleton Gu Hai coolly, his face obscured within his black robe.
“Close? Haha, do you even realize the immense toll this void takes on us? Without being at the consummation of the Upper Heavenly Palace Realm, you’re simply seeking your demise!” Houqing retorted fiercely.
Nearby, Gu Hai’s true body asked casually, “Houqing, do you want to leave or stay?”
“I’m definitely leaving!” Houqing declared, glaring.
“If you want to leave, then quit yapping and hurry up!” Gu Hai’s true body commanded in a stern voice.
“I…! You…!” Houqing goggled, momentarily speechless at Gu Hai’s dismissive expression and tone. This fanned his growing frustration.
“Houqing, if you dare to leave, then you’re not my younger brother anymore!” Lady Houtu chastised Houqing in a panicked voice.
“Humph! Elder Sister, I’ve said it before: Heaven Cang is dead. Why do you still pledge your loyalty to Long Wanyu?” Houqing retorted, disgruntled.
“Shut up!” Lady Houtu shouted angrily.
“Humph! I don’t care what you all do. This man in the black robe hasn’t reached the consummation of the Upper Heavenly Palace Realm. You’re just waiting for death if you stay here. Let’s see how this ritual array functions without me. You’ll follow me to the Six Paths Immortal Firmament immediately. Humph!” Houqing snorted coldly.
Boom!
Houqing disengaged from the ritual array and shot off into the distance. As soon as he left, the barrier formed by the ritual array shook, seemingly on the verge of collapsing.
The skeleton Gu Hai swiftly moved to the missing spot in the ritual array. Instantaneously, a surge of energy from the skeleton flowed into the ritual array.
Buzz!
The barrier once again stabilized. However, maintaining this came at an enormous cost to the skeleton Gu Hai. Surprisingly, he extended a bone hand outside the barrier.
Buzz!
All present were taken aback when they saw a bone hand stretch out. A skeleton? Is this man in the black robe the Bone Deity?
Soon, astonishment replaced their shock as they observed the bone hand making contact with the void with no protective barrier. Bizarrely, the bone hand did not dissolve.
“Meow! It’s incredible! How can this hand withstand the void?” Mao Tianyun exclaimed.
In its astonishment, the cat extended a paw into the void.
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
A sizzling sound filled the air as a large portion of the fur on the cat’s paw evaporated instantly, like steam.
“Meow! You’re kidding me! How come you’re unharmed?” Mao Tianyun quickly retracted its paw, staring at the skeleton Gu Hai in surprise.
Indeed, the skeleton Gu Hai seemed unscathed. Even more peculiar was that the mysterious Void Energy was entering his body from the void and did not corrode the skeleton Gu Hai but even strengthened him.
“Brother-in-Law, is this…?” Long Wanyu’s eyes lit up as if she had figured out something.
Gu Hai’s true body nodded. “Yes, it’s that.”
Gu Hai’s true body entered the Gu’s Immortal Firmament. At that moment, Long Wanyu was thrilled. “I thought it was destroyed!”
“How was it created? From your rib bone?” Gu Hai asked curiously.
“No, it was actually my spine from my previous life! After being eroded by Void Energy, it resembled a rib bone. All the segments had melted into one piece!” Long Wanyu explained, awestruck.
“Unfortunately, its consciousness…” Gu Hai furrowed his brows slightly.
“Don’t worry, Brother-in-Law. It’s useless to me now. I’m more than happy for it to become your clone. Besides, that segment of the spine had broken once. After someone helped me fix it, it often gave me discomfort. Eight hundred thousand years ago, it mutated in the void. I can’t quite explain the mutation. You can study it yourself!” Long Wanyu shook her head.
Gu Hai’s true body nodded.
In the outside world, as the skeleton Gu Hai absorbed more and more Void Energy, his contribution to the ritual array increased.
For a while, Mao Tianyun, Lady Houtu, Long Wanqing, and Kong Xuan watched the skeleton Gu Hai in astonishment.
“Meow! Are you really not at the consummation of the Upper Heavenly Palace Realm? How is it that almost all the energy in the ritual array is yours, and I don’t need to expend anything?” Mao Tianyun exclaimed.
“Yeah, it seems we just need to stabilize the ritual array. We don’t even need to provide energy?” Kong Xuan also expressed amazement.
“Isn’t it better not to need to provide energy? I appreciate your efforts!” the skeleton Gu Hai replied solemnly.
“Your voice…are you Gu Hai?” Mao Tianyun’s eyes suddenly lit up.
Initially, everyone had ignored the possibility of a connection between the skeleton Gu Hai and Gu Hai’s true body, as they were both present simultaneously. However, with Gu Hai’s true body now in the Gu’s Immortal Firmament, it became obvious that the skeleton Gu Hai’s voice belonged to the same person.
The skeleton Gu Hai nodded.
“Huh?” Everyone was momentarily taken aback, but then everything clicked.
A clone?
This skeleton is Gu Hai’s clone?
Roiling Void Energy continuously poured into the skeleton Gu Hai, not only strengthening him but also seemingly aiding him in his advancement to the consummation of the Upper Heavenly Palace Realm.
On the other side, the Gu’s Immortal Firmament consumed one Great Dao after another. Pieces of the flawed immortal firmament, which had been shattered by the Six Paths Immortal and Essence Genesis, had drifted off into unknown places.
The skeleton Gu Hai led everyone on a search for a while. Currently, they did not need to spend a shred of their energy, so naturally, there were no complaints.
The Gu’s Immortal Firmament increased in size by over a hundredfold as more pieces of the flawed immortal firmament and Great Dao integrated into the Gu’s Immortal Firmament.
Rumble…!
One after another, the Great Dao established themselves, and the world underwent a tremendous transformation.
“Brother-in-Law, we have two hundred twenty Great Dao. The immortal firmament is becoming quite impressive!” Long Wanyu exclaimed in delight.
The two hundred twenty Great Dao sent surging energy into Gu Hai, nourishing his body and healing his injuries. In no time, he recovered from eighty percent of his injuries.
Apart from the five people standing in formation outside, Gu Hai brought everyone else into the Gu’s Immortal Firmament. “How many Great Dao did the flawed immortal firmament contain?” Gu Hai inquired, gazing at Long Wanyu.
“There were three hundred in total. They were the treasures that Six Paths and I collected over the years!” Long Wanyu explained, full of admiration.
“Oh? Treasures?” Gu Hai parroted in confusion.
“Indeed, treasures! Gathering a Great Dao isn’t an easy task. It requires a deep understanding of a particular Great Dao and limitless energy to form one. I collected them for countless years. Various talented individuals from different eras helped me comprehend and perfect the rules of each Great Dao. Only after accumulating wisdom from numerous generations and countless geniuses could I complete a Great Dao. I collected two hundred of them, and Six Paths somehow found another hundred. We used these three hundred Great Dao as the foundation and collected countless other laws to create a rudimentary form of the Great Dao. With that, we barely managed to form this Holy Heavens Immortal Firmament. I wholeheartedly assisted Six Paths, only to realize he was a deceiver!” Long Wanyu stated indignantly.
“We found only two hundred twenty. The remaining eighty seem to have dissipated,” Gu Hai sighed lightly.
“No, the resilience of each Great Dao is stronger than a consummate Upper Heavenly Palace Realm cultivator. They certainly wouldn’t have dissipated within a year!” Long Wanyu asserted.
“In that case, let’s continue searching!” Gu Hai responded, his eyes glowing with anticipation. The group tirelessly searched the void. Indeed, one by one, they found the Great Dao, which Gu Hai collected.
Half a year later:
Boom!
A loud report came from around the skeleton Gu Hai, and a shock wave spread towards the others.
“Meow! Have you broken through? The consummation of the Upper Heavenly Palace Realm?” Mao Tianyun exclaimed in surprise.
Lady Houtu also gazed blankly at the skeleton Gu Hai.
“Just by luck!” The skeleton Gu Hai nodded in affirmation.
Everyone stared at the skeleton Gu Hai, at a loss for words. This situation made no sense; one could only expend energy here, not accumulate, so how could he have broken through? Regardless, the fact remained that the skeleton Gu Hai had truly reached the consummation of the Upper Heavenly Palace Realm. Rendered speechless, they continued their search for the Great Dao.
Two months later:
Boom!
The group finally found the last Great Dao. The Gu’s Immortal Firmament swallowed it, then closed up.
Now, the Gu’s Immortal Firmament had grown to one percent the size of the Six Paths Immortal Firmament and contained both a land of the living and a nether realm. A smaller version of the Six Paths Immortal Firmament had been born.
“In the end, the void had worn down the Great Dao. This immortal firmament is only half as strong as that flawed immortal firmament,” Long Wanyu noted with a frown.
“I am already satisfied,” Gu Hai replied with a smile.
“Brother-in-Law, you have the Go Dao here? Oh! There’s also the Hell Dao, the Human Dao, the Asura Dao, and the Beast Dao? However, we don’t have enough energy to manifest them. These are the records of four of the six paths of reincarnation. They are the foundations of the three thousand Great Dao. If we want to manifest them, we will need hundreds of times more energy!” Long Wanyu noted, surprised.
“No matter, we can think about these four paths of reincarnation in the future!” Gu Hai replied with a smile.
“But, Brother-In-Law, how did you get their diagrams? Isn’t it that only after fully comprehending a Great Dao can one illustrate a Great Dao? How did you…?” Long Wanyu asked, surprised.
Gu Hai hid nothing, taking out the Death and Life Register. Inside the Death and Life Register were three hundred and five Great Dao patterns, which immediately caught Long Wanyu’s eye.
“The Death and Life Register? It really is the Death and Life Register. I thought Sa took it away!” Long Wanyu exclaimed in surprise.
Gu Hai dismissed everyone, leaving only him and Long Wanyu standing at the entrance of a large hall.
“Wanyu, you mentioned Sa before. What’s going on? Also, does Sa know about the Death and Life Register?” Gu Hai asked, intrigued.
“Of course. But I doubt many people know about Sa. He is…far too ancient!” Long Wanyu responded, lost in reminiscence.
“Oh?” Gu Hai asked, intrigued.
“Brother-in-Law, do you know how my previous incarnation became Heaven?” Long Wanyu looked at Gu Hai.
“Were you the first lifeform of the world?” Gu Hai looked back at Long Wanyu.
“No, I was the third. The second lifeform of the world was called Sa,” Long Wanyu recalled.
“Sa? Sa is from the Six Paths Immortal Firmament?” Gu Hai asked, shocked.
“The Six Paths Immortal Firmament? Alright, I will call it the Six Paths Immortal Firmament too. However, Sa was indeed the second lifeform in the Six Paths Immortal Firmament. Back then, he was the real master of the immortal firmament. He was the overlord of the world. Unfortunately, the entire immortal firmament developed very slowly, and there were too few lifeforms. One day, Sa came to me and said he wanted to explore the void to see if there were other immortal firmaments,” Long Wanyu recalled.
“Sa? He wanted to go into the void to find other immortal firmaments?” Gu Hai asked, surprised.
“Yes. He said our world was too boring, with too few lifeforms. He felt dissatisfied with ruling over so few lifeforms, desiring much more. He took out the Death and Life Register. The records of the three thousand Great Dao laws it held could control the three thousand Great Dao. He forcibly stripped these law records from the Death and Life Register and refined them into an Immortal Origin, which he gave to me. I became Heaven Cang and ruled over the world. He left the world and went into the void. He is probably long dead by now!” Long Wanyu lamented.
Gu Hai was taken aback. What is this situation? The Sa from Earth was the ruler of the Six Paths Immortal Firmament before invading Earth? Was Sa from the Six Paths Immortal Firmament?
If someone else had told him this, Gu Hai would not have believed it. However, Long Wanyu was Heaven Cang’s reincarnation. Her words were naturally the truth. Even so, it took Gu Hai a long while to recover from this shocking news.
