The streets of Luo City were bustling with life.
A stream of people walked independently without disturbing each other, like a never-ending river. Hawkers with their small stalls placed their items on tables or simple carpets on the ground. Some pedestrians took a fancy to the displayed items and stopped.
Big shops owned or rented buildings, small and large pavilions, with their plaques placed high and eye-catching. They were no mere trademarks but also symbols of status and guarantees of their services and products.
Dao Jun was walking among the passersby; he was just another fish swimming in the river of humanity. Seamlessly integrated, he added more color to it.
Thud.
Suddenly, he bumped into someone. He didn't flinch, while the other person was taken aback and fell down, as if what they had hit wasn't a person but a wall.
"Who is it? Which blind dog bumped into this young master!?"
The young man released his divine sense unscrupulously, as the late-stage Golden Core aura pressed outward. It attracted attention from all sides—eyes shifted, and the sounds slowly dissipated, the crowd patiently waiting for a show.
"Huh?" The young man couldn't find the one he had bumped into with his divine sense. Feeling cheated, he fully spread his divine sense even further to catch Dao Jun.
"Where are you!?" the young man roared in anger, becoming a one-man stunt for public entertainment.
Dao Jun had already escaped using a Small Teleportation talisman. Arriving in front of his cave abode, he bypassed the formation and directly entered his room. There, he activated the hidden teleportation formation and disappeared under a flashing light.
Far away, in the Black Demon Forest.
Deep underground, a hidden base made of long and narrow tunnels branched into many parts. Fires rooted directly in the walls placed at regular intervals, bringing light into the dark subterranean dungeon.
Etched into the walls were doors without hinges or handles, only curved shapes cleanly cut into the earth—straight on the sides and round on top.
Dao Jun was pacing alone in the dim tunnel, moving like a specter in the darkness.
It shouldn't be. It's impossible for me to make such a small mistake like bumping into someone. My Dissonant Thought was the cause—it was triggered, causing me to make that mistake.
But for it to be triggered, then there must be something wrong.
A danger?
Thoughts flew through his mind as he tried his best to interpret what had just happened. His instincts told him that danger was lurking in a hidden place.
Soon, Dao Jun arrived at one end of the tunnels, a spacious opening with a large diameter and a tall dome as the ceiling. Stepping into the center of the room, he activated a hidden arrangement on the ground.
Black markings appeared one by one, with red gleams flashing occasionally. They covered the whole ground and extended to the walls and beyond.
Dao Jun summoned a bamboo slip from his dantian and started the ritual.
From other rooms, tubes filled with thick transparent liquid were placed meticulously, not sparing any space. Within the tubes were fleshy white balls as big as an adult's head, quietly floating, with faint heartbeats originating from their cores.
The same black and red engravings reached into these rooms and drew energy from the living batteries.
Under the blessing of the ritual, Dao Jun harnessed enough energy to cast a powerful divination spell. With the bamboo slip floating above his head, a brilliant light bloomed ahead and turned into a pure white closed lotus.
The lotus soon bloomed, revealing its inner beauty—a long scroll rolled down to the ground, mysterious symbols flashing on its surface.
Dao Jun read the cryptic revelation with extreme caution. His divine sense spread out, closely monitoring the changes on the scroll.
"Nothing?" His voice was filled with uncertainty, as he couldn't see any problems with the divination result.
Then, just as he wanted to exert more power into the spell, the scroll trembled greatly and its colors faded as the symbols melted. A vision came directly into his mind: a bleached world of only dust and sand, with rock protrusions and cracked ground.
A bad omen.
His heart trembled greatly, unsure of what to do with the sudden vision. Cold sweat gathered on his forehead, and his back was already drenched. He clasped his fist.
"Calm down," he assured himself.
It worked, as he also cast a purification spell to calm his mind—but only for a moment, before more changes occurred on the scroll.
The scroll caught on colorful fire. The flames soared and devoured the pure white lotus, burning everything down without leaving even ash or dust.
"What?" Dao Jun was flabbergasted, and his body unconsciously stepped back.
Before he could find an answer, it came directly to him.
Invisible fire emerged from his body, dancing lively on his skin, burning him from the inside out.
Everything happened so fast that Dao Jun couldn't connect the dots. But his refined instincts helped him cope.
"Poison?" he made a rough estimation, though it was only half correct. "No, it's impossible for me to be poisoned inside my underground base without realizing it… It only means—"
The color faded from his face as a more terrifying realization came to mind. His pupils lost focus, and his posture slackened as strength left his body.
The fire didn't care what happened to Dao Jun—it grew larger in seconds. The invisible fire distorted the surrounding space, rippling like a water's surface.
Dao Jun returned to his senses, pulling himself together and casting even more potent calming spells on himself. Inside his sea of consciousness, a furnace made of iron—firm and cold—radiated and soothed his fluctuating emotions.
His divine sense carefully scanned his body, analyzing the strange invisible fire.
"It stemmed from my spiritual energy, so it started deep within my meridians and spread to the rest of my body." But even the divine sense was no match for the fire—it too was burned into nothingness.
The smell of burning flesh and evaporating blood assaulted Dao Jun's mind. But he remained unmoved; even the scorching pain and the loss of his divine sense were barely noticeable.
Pain is a weakness of living beings—so he had rid himself of it long ago.
"This fire is similar to true fire in nature. But it's a kind I've never encountered before. It adopts the characteristics of a cultivator's cultivation technique and develops a fire that matches its nature. In my case, it has the power of void."
"But seeing how it takes so long for my flesh to be fully destroyed, it means my peak-stage Rank Four body refinement is effective at countering it!"
Dao Jun's eyes brimmed with light as he found a way to suppress the fire. He then controlled his blood energy, spreading it across his body to reinforce his physique and suppress the fire directly.
His skin turned red from the potent blood energy, with treasure lights and divine inscriptions flashing on his body.
"This should be enough to buy me some time." Dao Jun let out a sigh. The invisible fire no longer emerged from his body but was locked within his meridians.
He pinched his finger, performing a simple divination to trace the source of this strange poison. Soon, he received the result.
"An ancient secret realm suddenly opened far away, releasing a strange poison that polluted the spiritual energy of heaven and earth." The truth wasn't far from what Dao Jun had predicted. It spread too fast for him to react, and he hadn't realized it until he was already affected.
"With the entire spiritual energy of heaven and earth polluted, there is no place to hide in this world anymore. If I want to survive, the only way is to escape to another world."
Without delay, Dao Jun immediately activated the other arrangement beneath his feet. Unlike the strange markings from before, this new arrangement was clearly a formation—with structured and defined forms. It lit up with gentle light, absorbing energy from the first ritual.
Dao Jun acted as both the controller and one of the formation's cores. He used his spiritual energy to penetrate space and open a space channel to another world.
The world he currently lived in was called the Xiaxian World—it was just a lower world, with a cultivation limit at the peak stage of the Divine Transformation Realm. Beyond it was the Spirit World, the target of Dao Jun's migration.
"If not for being in the early stage of Nascent Soul cultivation, I would have been able to escape to another world easily." Dao Jun complained about his shortcoming—but there was no regret in his voice as he focused on stabilizing the space channel to the Spirit World.
It didn't take long—the space channel soon stabilized, its edges becoming rounder and smoother. The spatial fluctuations greatly diminished.
Dao Jun took a long look at the space channel. A thought—an elusive feeling—stirred in his mind, but he couldn't grasp it.
"Am I forgetting something?" Dao Jun murmured. But soon his face turned resolute again, and he prepared to step into the channel. Yet the strangeness in his heart kept knocking, no matter how hard he suppressed it.
Following his instincts, he pulled a flesh puppet from his storage ring and sent it into the space channel.
Their senses were connected, and Dao Jun felt everything the flesh puppet perceived. It only took a moment before his mind was crushed by overwhelming pressure.
The flesh puppet was immediately destroyed by a spatial storm, and the space channel collapsed from the impact.
Although Dao Jun was immune to pain, the impact still crushed his mind and body. He held his head while breathing heavily, his body arching inward.
After the initial shock, his sea of consciousness was severely damaged—but using his powerful soul methods, he mended the damage. The starry sky above flickered, pouring starlight to close the gaps, while the sea below produced a misty light that recovered the rest.
"There's a spatial storm outside this world's boundary?" Dao Jun asked doubtfully. He saw the terrifying, invisible storm—like snakes coiling around the world, sealing every escape route.
His brows furrowed. As he pondered how to save his life, his frown only deepened.
Various methods rose and fell in his mind as he gauged their plausibility, but all failed. Either his strength was too low, or his mastery over certain methods wasn't enough—and the most heartbreaking part was that there was something he simply couldn't change.
Dao Jun thought so deeply that time continued slipping by. The invisible fire he had suppressed began to reclaim his body. No matter how powerful his blood energy, it was bound to be depleted—and it had already begun losing control.
The smell of burning flesh floated back into his mind. It woke him up—but the person was no longer the same. His face was haggard, stripped of youthful radiance, confidence, and pride. All washed away by the cruel reality: the inevitable death that now embraced him warmly.
The light abandoned his eyes as he desperately looked up at the ceiling, piercing through the obstruction of the earth and reaching toward the sky. But it wasn't clear and vast—instead, it was a cage, and it was falling, crumbling, burying everything in its ruin.
"Is this the end? Does my journey to immortality stop here?" His voice was weak, unsure if he was the one who asked it.
His body trembled slowly before it intensified—he shook, pulling himself back as his spine arched far backward, arms spread wide as he laughed madly.
Insanity echoed inside the closed space, crawling into the tunnel through the one and only opening.
"Hahaha! The sky is falling? Then I say the sky is too weak! Heaven is bullshit!"
Dao Jun discarded his helplessness like useless clothes and stood, now composed only of pure indomitable spirit. All calculations and considerations were tossed into the trash. Now, nothing could stop him from surviving this ordeal.
"There's more—more than one way to survive. But the chances of success are abysmally low. In fact, I'm not even sure whether it'll work. But who gives a fuck? I'm going to die anyway—might as well go out with the biggest explosion of my life."
His eyes burned with madness, no longer restricted by anything.
"Reincarnation." He pulled a ring from beneath his robe, where it hung on a cord around his neck. He caressed the ordinary ring—made of plain brown stone, without inscription or design.
"You brought me into this world, gave me a second life. Now I want you to give me a third!"
The ring remained unmoved by his words. As always, it had never shown any reaction in any circumstance. Placing his hope in this ring had always been a fool's dream.
He did have a technique related to reincarnation in his arsenal, but he'd never managed to master it—it was too difficult to practice.
"Infinite Reincarnation Wheel is a magical technique that controls one's endless reincarnations. But I only developed the early stage… never able to activate it."
Dao Jun, ever inventive, had developed many wonderful ideas but fell short of realizing them due to limited resources.
"Now let's practice it!" His voice was laced with madness, and cracks began to show on his body.
The black and red markings on the ground buzzed, drawing in everything from the living batteries—their energy, vitality, and soul. Nothing was spared. All of it transferred into Dao Jun, who now sat cross-legged in midair, eyes closed.
The mixture of energy, vitality, and soul swirled around him like a whirlpool of lights.
Dao Jun suddenly opened his eyes—a sharp light escaped them. He rapidly formed a hand seal and shouted, "Great Universal Evolution!"
A small black dot formed above his head, expanding quickly into a ball, then into a pool. From the black pool, points of light flickered and shot around in random trajectories at high speed—each collision expanding the pool further.
All the energy around Dao Jun was absorbed by the black pool, accelerating its expansion.
Ideas emerged and developed rapidly in Dao Jun's mind. This magical power had only one purpose: to sacrifice everything in the hope of attaining the Great Dao.
It devoured the user's spiritual energy, blood energy, and soul—consuming memories and information—to fuel its derivation. There was no stopping it; it would extinguish itself only when every last resource of the user was depleted.
As the energy around him rapidly dwindled, the black pool turned into a vast sky, its stars orbiting and soon forming a nebula.
"I got it! I got it!" Dao Jun laughed wholeheartedly. He had finally mastered the Infinite Reincarnation Wheel, with the help of the Great Universal Evolution—and more. Due to its unstable nature, evolution's direction was hard to control. It was a gamble on Dao Jun's part.
He used the newly learned magical power, and a reincarnation wheel appeared behind him. He drew reincarnation power from it and fed it into the ring on his chest. It reacted—slightly.
With help from the ever-growing galaxy, the technique instantly deduced many details about the ring.
"So, it is a dead object after all. No matter how glorious its previous state was, now it's just junk. But not without value—it still contains traces of the Reincarnation Dao."
When the nebula turned into a galaxy, something in Dao Jun's mind suddenly snapped—like an invisible thread breaking. He remembered everything. His calm and untameable gaze wavered upon recalling the forgotten knowledge.
"How could I have forgotten this? Dissonant Thought only triggers when someone tampers with my awareness. Why did I interpret it as a danger to my life? It's not wrong, but it was redirected!"
Anger rose in his chest. He clenched his fist.
"This… all of it—my miserable gambit—was because someone was targeting me indirectly!"
Even without his command, the galaxy deduced the source. His mind caught a glimpse of the culprit.
High above the Spirit World, in the one and only Immortal World—a pair of eyes looked down, meeting Dao Jun's gaze.
They did nothing. Yet Dao Jun's soul boiled violently.
"You!" Dao Jun roared across the infinite distance.
"Oh? You actually managed to find me. Interesting," came a male voice—not too old, not too young. It was playful and easy-going—until it turned cold, filled with murderous intent. "Since you already know me, then the cause and effect can be justified. You can die now."
Through the special space connecting them, a wave of invisible energy travelled along the link and struck directly at Dao Jun. It was vast and grand, like the creation and destruction of the world itself.
Survival was impossible. This was a dimensional reduction attack.
But Dao Jun wasn't a pushover. The galaxy had revealed countless wonders and helped him master many methods. A flame flickered on his forehead, transforming into a firefly mark. A throne made of stacked, round white stone slabs appeared beneath him.
Dao Jun, who should have perished, still existed—but he was no longer what he was before. He had become a shadow of his former self, with only the firefly mark remaining—unchanging and immortal.
"Oh?" The perpetrator, who had already left the space, returned. He noticed the firefly mark and was bemused. "Such a strange method. It managed to preserve your life, albeit shallowly. Incredible nonetheless. What a genius. But too bad—you're still destined to die here, by my hand. Even without my second move, your life is like that firefly—glowing for a moment before fading."
"So what? This is enough to deal with you—an asshole-less bastard whose mother is a swine and a snake father!" Dao Jun barked like a mad dog, disregarding the difference in strength.
The other party didn't respond with words, but his eyes said, Show me, then. Show me what you can do.
Inside, Dao Jun had regained his composure. Now that everything had been revealed, his emotions had settled. The expanding galaxy deepened his understanding of the Great Dao, gradually disconnecting him from reality. Even now, he was slowly disintegrating as the galaxy consumed him.
But from it, he learned to use the Infinite Reincarnation Wheel to reincarnate his soul. However, with the immortal's gaze upon him, their karmic entanglement ensured that the next reincarnation would not survive.
Through the Ephemeral Throne of Immortal Firefly, he gathered what strength he could. He used the reincarnation wheel to draw on past incarnations, stacking their power onto his present self.
He exploded into a storm of forbidden techniques, burning his foundation to amplify his strength. His body grew taller, and his blood energy surged around him like hellfire.
"What immortal?" Dao Jun sneered. He pulled down his pants and swung his massive dragon toward the enemy. "Behold my ultimate attack!"
"How vulgar," said the perpetrator.
Dao Jun's blood energy concentrated around his powerful one-eyed dragon, which expanded beyond human limits. Like a volcano erupting, it shot a thick, milky-white destructive beam at the enemy.
The perpetrator exhaled, dispersing the attack—but instead of vanishing, the beam split into countless miniature, naked Dao Juns. They ran around the special space, shouting profanities.
"Your mother is a slut." "Your father is a thief." "Your wife is a mare." "Your daughter is a swine." "Your son has no butthole."
It was cheap and absurd—but when chanted endlessly by an army of tiny Dao Juns, even an immortal would be angered.
"Is this your final struggle?" asked the perpetrator coldly. His gaze sharpened like an unsheathed sword.
Before Dao Jun could answer, the little Dao Juns turned in unison and opened their mouths:
"Fuck your mother! Fuck your mother! Fuck your mother!"
They sang the insult like a birthday song.
"Enough!" The perpetrator had had it. With a word, he crushed the little Dao Juns.
He turned his attention back to Dao Jun, who still stared with seething hatred.
"Die!"
Before the perpetrator could say it, Dao Jun beat him to it, grinning mischievously.
"Such a simple word. Didn't your mother teach you how to read? Your vocabulary is very limited."
The perpetrator was stunned. Never had he been humiliated like this. He had long transcended worldly concerns, yet now, he caught a glimpse of something—something that hinted at progress along the Great Dao.
His gaze softened. In front of him, Dao Jun was just a small fish. Harmless.
"Hahaha. Good. Good. Good."
"Good. Good. Good," Dao Jun echoed, as if reading his thoughts.
That once-untouched heart suddenly gathered dust. The perpetrator looked deeply at Dao Jun.
"You are—"
"How high is heaven, how deep the earth? The immensity of heaven and earth?" Dao Jun cut in, quoting tired clichés he'd heard enough of in his first life.
The perpetrator simmered with anger. The insight he'd just gained was slipping away.
Before he could retort, he noticed something off. Red dust was falling around his feet.
"Red dust? The mortal world's influence?" he said, genuinely shocked. His voice held a hint of respect for Dao Jun's method.
"What do you think? Not bad, right? Honestly, I didn't want to reveal it, but since you saw through it—I'm the disciple of an immortal who underwent mortal training. If you kill me now, be ready for my master's wrath."
The perpetrator was silent as red dust continued to fall.
His eyes turned cold and distant again—an immortal looking down on an ant.
"What now? If you kowtow three times and beg for mercy, maybe I won't report this to my master."
"Do you think this trick will work twice?"
"No?" Dao Jun asked innocently.
"Enough." The immortal's voice was emotionless, filled with vast, divine might.
Dao Jun was silenced. His body shook under great pressure. His lips trembled; his teeth clattered. Yet he forced his mouth open.
"If you cut off your left hand, your right leg, and abolish your cultivation—I might leave your corpse intact!"
Even under such pressure, Dao Jun never lost his edge.
"Are you done? Do you think you can hide secrets from an immortal?"
"No?" Dao Jun laughed through the pain. "There's no trick. No secret…"
He paused, spacing his words.
"…because I already finished you, idiot."
"Cao ni ma!"
The galaxy expanded slightly, devouring the last of Dao Jun and his firefly mark—before collapsing under its own weight without a user to support it.
Only the perpetrator's eyes remained, watching. Unmoving.
It was hard to say what he was thinking—or what he felt in that moment.