Chapter 1190: No One Can Hold Back the Sky

No One to Turn the Tide

Yishu, like most cultivators of the Taiyan Sect, had utterly scoffed at the Duo'e Sect's theory when he first heard of it many years ago. It seemed absurd to him that when a calamity struck, one would not actively seek solutions but instead choose to hide and pin all hope on some vague, destined savior. Such an approach, he thought, was completely baseless and unpredictable.

Yet, the Duo'e Sect was one of the Ten Immortal Dao Sects, tracing its lineage back to Grandmaster Tiandu, and its heritage had emerged in primordial times. Its longevity suggested that there was indeed a profound, unique logic behind its beliefs, though outsiders could never fully grasp its mysteries.

Today, however, upon arriving at the Great Qǐ Holy Dynasty—a realm that seemed to have sprung forth from nowhere—and witnessing its numerous technologies comparable to the Myriad Immortals Alliance's best, as well as a new cultivation method entirely distinct from current practices, one capable of utterly subverting the Dharma Dispenser Heavenly Venerate's foundation in the Xuanhuang Realm, Yishu’s mind was instantly flooded with the Duo'e Sect's words from long ago.

He recalled a time when the great calamity first emerged. The core leaders of the Ten Immortal Dao Sects had gathered to discuss potential countermeasures. Each sect had passionately voiced their opinions, yet only the Duo'e Sect maintained a conspicuously passive stance.

“Everyone,” the Duo'e Sect Master, Lu Chenghuang, had said, with an air of profound detachment, “the saying goes, 'one cannot escape a destined calamity.' If it could truly be averted through mere struggle, what sort of calamity would it be then?”

“Is this, then, the reason your Duo'e Sect places those so-called Divine Eyes of World Observation everywhere?” Xiahou Yan, the notoriously ill-tempered Master of Boundless Prison, retorted, his expression darkening.

“Xiahou, you do not understand. These are necessary measures to await the appearance of the Xuanhuang Calamity Averter,” Lu Chenghuang replied blandly.

“A Xuanhuang Calamity Averter, my foot!” Xiahou nearly swore aloud. “In the face of calamity, all beings perish! If everyone dies, where is this savior supposed to pop out from?”

“Are you questioning the Grandmaster's legacy?” With that single sentence, Lu Chenghuang left Xiahou Yan utterly speechless.

Lu Chenghuang merely smiled. “Are not all of you here?” he then added meaningfully. “The Xuanhuang Realm is not so easily destroyed. If any cultivation realm in this starry sea is destined to endure until the very end, it will certainly be our Xuanhuang Realm.”

The leaders of the Ten Sects listened, none offering a rebuttal. After a brief silence, perhaps to assuage their concerns, Lu Chenghuang offered a concise explanation: “The concept of averting calamity is not baseless. Cycles of creation and destruction, kalpas, are inherently part of the cosmic order. Even the Great Calamity of the Immortal Realm might not be beyond the True Immortals’ foresight.”

“You are all living in constant trepidation, yet observe the Grandmaster: does he show even a flicker of disturbance?”

Xuan Ji, the leader of the Supreme Sect, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke: “The Grandmaster has achieved profound mastery of creation; even within the Immortal Ruins, he moves with effortless ease. He simply does not concern himself with a disaster that could devastate the Xuanhuang Realm. We, however, are not so capable. Brother Lu, I will not prevent your choice to seclude yourselves, but you cannot contribute absolutely nothing to addressing this calamity.”

Seeing the collective gaze fixed upon him, Lu Chenghuang finally nodded, making a concession.

However, Lu Chenghuang's final statement plunged everyone present into silence once more. “One day,” he had said, “you will realize that our Duo'e Sect was right.”

Now, across thousands of years, the collective consciousness of the Taiyan Sect, embodied within Yishu, vividly recalled Lu Chenghuang's pronouncement.

After gaining a rudimentary understanding of the principles of self-foundation cultivation, the Dao Transformation Stone Mother incorporated this new variable into its prognostication of the Xuanhuang Realm's future.

A future that had once been clear now became blurred, as if caught in a storm of chaos. Even with the Stone Mother's current, almost divine, computational abilities, it found itself momentarily bewildered.

The Taiyan Sect had, in fact, also attempted to deduce a novel cultivation method capable of overthrowing the Dharma Dispenser system. However, creation ex nihilo is fundamentally different from future prognostication based on existing data.

The Dao Transformation Stone Mother had only ever concluded that such a possibility existed, but the probability was infinitesimally small—even less than the chance the Dharma Dispenser had of surviving when besieged by Eternal Life realm cultivators in the past.

Beyond the inherent difficulty of creating such a novel cultivation method, the paramount obstacle was the Dharma Dispenser's pervasive influence over the Xuanhuang Realm.

Just as cultivators gradually forgot the calamities of the Xuanhuang Realm and entirely overlooked its topographical changes over thousands of years, so too was the prognostication of this new method not merely an ultimate display of one's own creativity. It was, more profoundly, a struggle against the Dharma Dispenser's pervasive influence.

Therefore, in the Dao Transformation Stone Mother's prognostication, which held a precise understanding of the Dharma Dispenser Heavenly Venerate's current power, the likelihood of this new cultivation method emerging naturally approached zero.

Yet, precisely what was deemed far beyond the realm of possibility had come to pass. In an isolated, previously unknown corner of the Xuanhuang Realm's wandering void, within a recently established power, the new cultivation method had not only quietly surfaced but had even progressed to the Golden Core stage!

This revelation was truly world-shaking, causing even the Dao Transformation Stone Mother's prognostication to momentarily falter. Based on all currently known factors, there was simply no discernible reason for this new cultivation method to have emerged at this specific time.

The only plausible explanation lay with the Xuanhuang Calamity Averter—an entity beyond conventional understanding and outside the realm of predictable variables.

Privately, the Ten Sects had also discussed the concept of the Xuanhuang Calamity Averter, arriving at a near-unanimous conclusion: if such a figure truly existed, they must either hail from beyond the Xuanhuang Realm or be the reincarnation of a formidable expert.

A native cultivator, rising through their own efforts alone, attempting to avert such a catastrophic collapse... it was simply impossible. No matter how prodigious their talent.

The environment of the Xuanhuang Realm could no longer foster the foundational conditions to produce someone capable of standing against the Dharma Dispenser Heavenly Venerate.

“What, then, is the true origin of this Great Qǐ Faceless Holy Emperor?” At that moment, Yishu—or rather, the collective consciousness of the Taiyan Sect—had utterly shed all traces of condescension.

Instead, they now viewed the Great Qǐ Holy Dynasty as a power of equal, or even superior, standing. They were genuinely exploring the possibility of forming an alliance with it.

As one of the former rulers of the Xuanhuang Realm, now confined to the Taixuan Minor World by the Dharma Dispenser Heavenly Venerate's Myriad Immortals Alliance, it was impossible for the Taiyan Sect not to harbor a deep sense of resentment.

Even if they no longer required territory or resources, the bitterness of having what they once possessed stripped away remained, clinging to the Taiyan Sect's consciousness like an undying nightmare.

“Sects like the Grand Dao and Supreme Sects, though seemingly contending with the Myriad Immortals Alliance in the past, had in truth long since become complicit, no different from the Dharma Dispenser's lackeys.” “Yet, they too, like us, must not have fully submitted. All that was truly lacking was an opportunity.”

The emergence of the Great Qǐ Holy Dynasty, particularly its novel cultivation method, now offered the Taiyan Sect a glimmer of hope.

Nevertheless, as a sect that had endured since the ancient calamity, the Taiyan Sect exercised the utmost caution in making any decisions that concerned its destiny.