Follow the path of Dao from infancy Chapter 1785 Chapter 461: My Heart Is the Heavenly Heart (2)
Previously on Follow the path of Dao from infancy...
The adversary, lashed by fate's merciless strike, saw his flesh ripped open and skin flayed, while the True God Blood inside was forcibly extracted and broken apart, enduring relentless torment.
"Who... who are you?"
The Chaos Ancient Clan member kept his composure perfectly, noting how the black-robed youth's command of the Great Dao Origin Realm clearly exceeded anything the Immortal Monarch Realm could manage—likely an ancient fiend reborn!
Luo Ningshuang and Su Wanyi gazed in stunned silence at the unfolding events, abruptly grasping that this fearsome powerhouse had his form utterly destroyed—how immense must Li Hao's strength be to overcome him?
...
After passing the black-robed youth, Li Hao pressed onward directly to the summit of the Heavenly Road.
The enigmatic murmurs grew sharper, and the terrain nearby shifted away from intricate law patterns, turning instead into swirling fog.
In that fog, waves of Daoist echoes purified the spirit, yet at the same time disoriented one's Divine Soul, dragging it into endless layers of deceptive visions.
Before Li Hao's gaze materialized the entrance to the Dream Nine Abyss Sect, with a grand hall looming ahead—the Imperial Palace of the Dayu Divine Dynasty.
All at once, along the path in front, an elegant figure turned her back to him. Even from that angle, Li Hao knew at once it was Shi Miao.
Yet she couldn't possibly be present here. Li Hao steadied his mind, allowing the mirages to unfold, but he forged ahead without pause.
Though he knew these were nothing but deceptions, the visions refused to fade away.
"Don't go any further."
"Look back; that path is destined to be lonely."
Recognizable shapes emerged along the Heavenly Road: Feng, Emperor Yu, and even Ren Qianqian, who once wielded a sword on Li Hao's behalf, waited quietly at the side, murmuring gentle warnings to him, their gazes brimming with concern, exactly as they lingered in Li Hao's recollections.
Even as Li Hao understood these were fabrications, the mirages persisted in their soft urgings.
"Don't joke with them!"
Fury flared abruptly in Li Hao's eyes, rejecting the idea of these forms being twisted by mere illusions.
"Break for me!"
He burst into a rapid dash, unleashing a furious bellow toward the heavens, a roar like crashing thunder that reverberated through the whole Heavenly Road.
The visions slowly thinned out, fading into nothingness, and Li Hao's resolve sharpened even more, parting the mists and clouds ahead to uncover the soaring summit.
Is this the conclusion of the Heavenly Road?
Li Hao vaulted forward, touching down at the top of the stairs, where a strange relief washed over him as the ambient pressure suddenly lifted.
As Li Hao scanned the area, his awareness plunged downward, drawn into an immense realm.
This sensation resembled ascending to immortality's pinnacle, blending one's form seamlessly with the cosmos.
A multitude of laws surfaced in Li Hao's awareness, joined by various Daoist Charms, from the Heavenly Road under his feet to the climbers upon it, all sharply etched in his senses.
He appeared to fuse with the skies and lands encircling the Heavenly Road.
"Hmm?"
Li Hao glanced upward sharply, detecting overhead, in the firmament above the Heavenly Road's crest, a grand and awe-inspiring force hovering silently, akin to a god surveying every soul below.
That lofty and distant aura stirred a shiver in Li Hao, sparking an instinctive desire to kneel.
"Heavenly Dao?"
Something inside Li Hao's frame began to stir, as though drawn irresistibly toward that aura.
As doubts filled Li Hao, an enormous intent dropped down abruptly, enveloping him and freezing him in place like a carved figure.
The intent loomed immense, regal, and sublime, stripped of all feeling—icy and lucid—gently probing Li Hao's Divine Soul, resembling a chill thread grazing his brow.
In that moment, myriad ideas burst forth in Li Hao's Sea of Consciousness, mirroring the primal chaos of creation's birth.
Across his vision, endless radiant beams intertwined swiftly, forming a strange primordial domain.
Li Hao beheld chaos's primal split, the dawn of sky and soil, watched hordes of Chaos Ancient Clans roam unbound in the ancient Primordial True Realm, endured visions of disasters, celestial blazes, and storm tribulations, and viewed legions of Chaos Ancient Clans clashing in brutal wars, their agonies mingling with infants' cries.
From the slain bodies, dim Divine Souls were tugged by unseen forces, cycling into rebirth.
The loop of renewal and ruin stretched on without end...
Until at last, within the ranks of Chaos Ancient Clans, a lineage arose, though these descendants entered life as hollow shells, barren of vitality.
On that fateful day, no fresh existence graced the realm.
Because of this, countless Chaos Ancient Clans banded together to probe the anomaly, hunting its root, and in the end, sent forth Emperors from every lineage to a shadowy, uncharted void…
Through the flickering glows and shades, unnoticed, beyond the Primordial True Realm, a boundless universe unfurled, teeming with diverse beings who journeyed into this fresh domain.
Yet as clans expanded, the newborn world swiftly descended into strife, bloodshed, and rivalry once more, the wheel of reincarnation and emergence turning anew, as if fated and bound by an unbreakable Doom.
The broad lands lay strewn with cadavers and rivers of gore.
Witnessing this sight, Li Hao found himself moved, a profound sorrow swelling uncontrollably in his chest, teetering on the edge of utter hopelessness.
Just as this gloom loomed to swallow him whole, Li Hao wrenched free from the feeling, and the vision dissolved, yielding to a gleaming silver radiance.
He reached out mentally to brush it, detecting a pristine, sovereign intent within the glow—or perhaps a purpose.
Redemption for every creature?
From this intent, Li Hao gleaned an ironclad belief, carrying what seemed a heavy yet noble burden.
At the same time, he realized that embracing it, claiming this intent as his own, would bestow tremendous might, a strength not drawn from cosmic laws, but straight from that ultimate Heavenly Dao!
Receiving the mandate of heaven grants one eternal life!
These eight words echoed in Li Hao's thoughts.
Upon taking this intent, completing the task etched within, he would rise as the "Heavenly Son"!
His strength would match a Great Emperor's, fading only with the stars and enduring alongside the universe!
Still, the duty tied to this intent proved staggeringly tough—rescuing all existence, serving as the keenest weapon in the Heavenly Dao's grasp!
"Is this... the Heavenly Heart?"
Li Hao sensed confusion; this Heavenly Heart held utmost gravity and holiness, but oddly, he felt no urge to grasp it.
"Heavenward salvation should be all living beings saving heaven."
"It's not that the living need heaven, but heaven needs the living!"
Sensing Li Hao's withdrawing Daoist resolve, the emptiness boomed with thunderclaps, churning fiercely like a raging storm sea ready to drown him, as if the paramount being voiced its fury.
Li Hao's locks whipped about, his garments billowing in the gale. In that instant, every sight before him melted away, stranding him solo at the Heavenly Road's apex, with the formless, unreachable sovereign intent suspended high in the far-off heavens.
"Realize the Heavenly Heart, with my heart attesting the Heavenly Heart; my heart is the Heavenly Heart, not the Heavenly Heart as my heart!"
"All living beings have their destinies, even if transcending all beings, it cannot be forced..."
Li Hao murmured, prepared to shoulder that task and obligation yet unwilling to have it imposed, for it clashed with his Daoist path.
If shackled by bonds, how could eternity be proclaimed?
Climbing the Heavenly Road, testifying to the Heavenly Heart, my Dao accords logic and heavenly sound!
Destroying all laws, defying causality, today, I realize I am myself!
"If heaven aligns with me, I affirm the Heavenly Heart; if not, I follow my true heart!"
Li Hao whispered.
With those words, a colossal thunderclap ripped through the skies, as though the firmament seethed in wrath.
Then, Li Hao sensed an enormous intent quiver and crash down, laden with crushing weight, plummeting from above to strike him. In a flash, it slammed his frame against the Heavenly Road's summit, pressing him to the earth, immobile.
Li Hao felt his skeleton creak and fracture, while the True God Blood in his veins was quelled by that overwhelming power, unable to surge even slightly.