Chapter 330 - 128: Pursuing the Dao

Chapter 330: Chapter 128: Pursuing the Dao

’The might of an Innate Supreme Treasure?! Where would that old coot get an Innate Supreme Treasure? Oh, right. It’s probably a special state achieved through the Celestial Demon Dissolution of his Celestial Heart Seal, allowing him to borrow power from the Innate Supreme Treasure, the Primordial Golden List.’

It only took Fang Rui a moment to understand.

’Ah, what the hell. The old coot is about to die anyway. I’ll humor him today.’

He decided to play along, offering the perfect setup. "I do not know."

"I do not know either," Yuan Haogu said, pointing at Fang Rui with a grin, his expression clearly saying, ’Didn’t expect that answer, did you, Fang the Kid?’

Fang Rui was speechless.

That old coot was as difficult as ever.

"But we will find out today. By shattering my Celestial Heart Seal and erasing my name from the Primordial Golden List, I can borrow ten to twenty percent of this Innate Supreme Treasure’s might."

Yuan Haogu’s expression turned solemn. "Fang the Kid, watch closely. This may illuminate the path of Martial Arts that lies ahead for you!"

With that, he straightened his ceremonial cap, turned, and strode out the door, his figure suddenly erupting in a brilliant light.

It was the golden light of Qi Fortune, erupting in its purest form!

Bathed in this light, an identical phantom flickered within Yuan Haogu’s body, looking as if it might break free at any moment.

「At the same time.」

WHOOSH!

A tyrannical wave of Spiritual Power radiated outward, bringing with it an immense, almost tangible pressure that made the very air hum.

Witnessing this, Fang Rui had a flash of insight. ’’A Seed Path Martial Saint’s breakthrough involves being powered by Divine Medicine, detonating the Spirit Seed, unifying with Mixed Gang Essence, and opening the Spiritual Sea. My New Technique... It seems it can...’’

He instantly filed the thought away to organize later. Then, without even blinking, he fixed his gaze on Yuan Haogu, terrified of missing even a fraction of a second.

"All things that suffer injustice cry out! The grass and trees may be silent, but man is not. When a man suffers injustice, he must cry out!"

"I cry out for all living beings! I rail against the injustices done to the common folk!"

"Were it not for such men, with whom would I stand?!"

Yuan Haogu strode forward, hands clasped behind his back, his resonant voice ringing out, clear and sharp as the clash of metal on stone.

With each step—

CRACKLE!

The square, white jade Celestial Heart Seal hanging from his waist began to spiderweb with cracks before finally shattering completely.

Immediately after. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

BOOM!

A phantom image of an imperishable Golden Decree, suffused with a primordial aura, spiraled up from beneath Yuan Haogu’s feet to hover above his head. Its vast, ancient presence swept out, causing the very stones of the courtyard to tremble.

It was none other than the Innate Supreme Treasure: the Primordial Golden List!

’Strong! So strong! Incredibly strong! It is truly worthy of being called an Innate Supreme Treasure!’

Feeling the Gang Essence stir restlessly within him, Fang Rui sighed internally, his expression turning incomparably grave.

At that moment, on the Primordial Golden List, names flowed past until they finally settled on "Yuan Haogu." Then, the name shattered, transforming into a boundless golden light of Qi Fortune that rained down upon him.

Not even an ordinary Upper Three Grade Martial Artist could withstand such a torrential downpour of Qi Fortune, let alone a mortal man like Yuan Haogu.

BOOM!

Yuan Haogu’s physical body shattered and was annihilated, leaving only his Divine Soul behind. It was engulfed in fiery red-gold flames, burning fiercely like a miniature sun.

’People talk about scraping bone to treat a wound, but how could that pain compare to even a fraction of having your entire body annihilated? And then, to have your name on the Primordial Golden List shatter and become a torrent of Qi Fortune that burns your very Divine Soul... That might be a pain even more unbearable than physical destruction!’

’The price for borrowing the Primordial Golden List’s power with the Celestial Heart Seal is far too tragic.’

Fang Rui sighed to himself as he looked up.

In his Divine Soul state, Yuan Haogu’s expression was serene and unflappable, as if he felt none of the excruciating pain.

By now, only his voice, sharp as metal and stone, still echoed in the air. It was filled with a boundless melancholy, as if it were a question posed to the heavens, a cry from the hearts of the people.

"Were it not for such men, with whom would I stand?!"

"With whom would I stand?!"

"With whom?!"

...

Suddenly, Yuan Haogu seemed to reach a new understanding, and his tone shifted, becoming broad and accepting. "The cosmos is vast, righteous energy surges through the Mortal World, and my Path shall flourish!"

"Fang the Kid, this old man is off!"

He glanced back one last time, giving Fang Rui a profound look, then transformed into a streak of light and shot into the heavens, moving ever forward, never looking back.

Under the blood-red sunset.

The miniature sun that was Yuan Haogu’s Divine Soul turned its back to the twilight and charged into the boundless, encroaching darkness. Though it blazed as brightly as the sun, against the vast backdrop of the world, the sight was like a moth plunging into a raging inferno.

The scene was imbued with a tragic, heroic grandeur, evoking the spirit of ’Though I face a million foes, I will go forward.’

"For those who seek the Path, there is no rest until death!"

Fang Rui sighed and closed his eyes. He couldn’t help but be reminded of a certain Sword Saint, and a complex mixture of emotions welled within him. For a moment, he couldn’t even name what he was feeling.

「A few breaths later.」

BOOM!

A tremendous explosion suddenly echoed from a distant part of the city.

"Hm?!"

Fang Rui snapped back to reality. With a light tap of his foot, he shot into the air. "Let’s see who just got eliminated in this little game of ’Werewolf’!"

...

「On a rooftop.」

Fang Rui stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing into the distance until he pinpointed the source of the explosion. "That direction... Is that the residence of the Seed Path Martial Saint, Qi Ba?!"

It was unexpected, yet it made perfect sense.

This Qi Ba, the Qi Martial Saint, was fond of ’Replenishing Energy’ due to the nature of his Cultivation Technique. The gap in life essence between a Martial Saint and an ordinary person was immense, and his ’replenishing’ often proved fatal. It was rumored that several women perished under him each day.

Moreover, the man was tyrannical and petty. A merchant who once inadvertently crossed him during normal business competition was cooked alive, and Qi Ba even invited the man’s wife and children to the ’banquet’...

In short, his evil deeds were too numerous to list.

However, because Yuan Haogu was present, Qi Ba rarely committed his atrocities within Shangluo City. The women he used for Replenishing Energy were all sourced from other regions, precisely because he feared Yuan Haogu might have a final, reckless impulse before dying.

"I heard Old Yuan only confronted the Qi Martial Saint once. After that, Qi Ba stopped acting so brazenly, and Yuan Haogu let the matter drop. To think he was just waiting for this moment all along!"