Chapter 1353: Half a Hexagram to Glimpse the Heavenly Secrets

Supplicating Heaven Continent, Heaven Patch Sect.

On Dragon Rising Peak, thick clouds shrouded the mountain summit.

At the peak, within a black stone altar, a swirling mass of black mist churned slowly, as if possessing an infinite gravitational pull.

Inside the vortex, a twisted, aged head floated unsupported, its forehead hair completely gone, the remaining gray and white locks disheveled and motionless, like a sculpture.

After an unknown span of time, the head's slightly closed eyelids suddenly trembled and lifted, revealing one black and one white pupil. The white one was like fish belly, clearly blind.

Its brows furrowed with effort, and its sole remaining eye strained to look upward.

There, a long, leafy peach branch suddenly shook, and a dense spiral of cloud descended from above, brushing past it to land beneath the peach tree outside the altar.

As the cloud dispersed, a middle-aged man with a face like jade, slender eyes, and a long beard materialized. He wore a loose white robe and sat in a wheelchair seemingly carved from white jade.

“Daoist Gu, you already consulted the hexagram once. Why have you returned?” the aged head spoke, its voice extremely hoarse.

The man in the wheelchair was none other than the Time Ancestor, Gu Huojin.

“Chen Tuan, the Bodhi Banquet is imminent, and I feel uneasy. I must consult another hexagram,” Gu Huojin said slowly, smoothing the golden tassels at his waist and placing them at his side.

“I am only one hexagram away from merging with the Heavenly Dao. If I divine it, I will surely be devoured by the Heavenly Dao. What you promised me would then hold no meaning for me,” Chen Tuan said, his tone unhurried.

“This matter concerns not only you and me. If we succeed, it will elevate the Heavenly Dao by three feet, no longer oppressing those of us who stand at the summit. Are you not afraid that missing this hexagram will lead to failure?” Gu Huojin asked calmly, his expression unchanged.

Hearing this, Chen Tuan’s aged, twisted face grew even more contorted, and a flicker of hesitation passed through his eye.

“This hexagram involves too many Ancestor-level cultivators and too much Heavenly Dao fate. It is already a question to Heaven beyond the celestial hexagram. I cannot fully divine it; I can only consult half. What results come will depend on Heaven’s will,” Chen Tuan said after a moment.

“Agreed,” Gu Huojin nodded without much thought.

Ancestor Chen Tuan said no more, and a chanting sound rose from his mouth.

Without hands to form seals, it took twice as long as before before a crystalline light slowly lit up in his remaining eye, shooting forward into a patch of void.

…

After a long time, the crystalline light suddenly withdrew, and the void gradually returned to normal.

The vortex of void behind Ancestor Chen Tuan suddenly churned violently, and from it extended wisps of black crystalline threads, like crawling insects and ants, creeping onto his face, engulfing the half of his face that still had a good eye.

In an instant, black light surged on that half of his face, dissipating like dust, turning into vortex mist. The once prophecy Ancestor now had only this blind half-face and the half-skull behind it.

“How is it?” Gu Huojin watched the scene, frowned slightly, and then asked.

“In the half-hexagram, the situation is fine, but at the watershed, there is a variable… an anomaly,” Chen Tuan said, his remaining half-face’s lips moving, his voice somewhat ethereal.

“An anomaly?” Gu Huojin narrowed his eyes and asked.

Ancestor Chen Tuan did not speak, but the hair at the back of his head suddenly stirred. A wisp of clear wind blew from behind his ear, circled the ancient peach tree of unknown age, and swept down hundreds of pink petals.

All the petals fell to the ground, forming a tall figure on the surface, with light rippling like water waves, from which a faint fluctuation of Time Law emanated.

Gu Huojin’s wheelchair slowly moved forward, stopping close to the petal phantom.

“Han Li,” he said softly after a careful look, leaning back against the chair back.

“Even the Reincarnation Hall Master cannot escape fate. This variable at the Bodhi Banquet is only this one person,” Ancestor Chen Tuan’s hoarse, ethereal voice echoed slowly in the void.

“Heh, since you have divined it, it is no longer a variable. I will handle it myself, and it will settle a dispute over the Great Dao,” Gu Huojin said with a self-deprecating smile, his hands gripping the armrests of the wheelchair.

In his view, even if Han Li had reached the pinnacle of Time Law cultivation, only one step away from him, he was still far from matching him in the exploration of the ‘Dao.’ Their conflict could hardly be called a dispute over the Great Dao.

“That would be good, then all will be stable…” Ancestor Chen Tuan said slowly.

Gu Huojin waved his hand, dispersing the figure formed by peach petals before him, and clouds began to gather beneath him.

Just then, his expression suddenly changed slightly, and an inexplicable smile appeared on his face.

“The Heavenly Court has a distinguished guest. It seems I must return to welcome him. The matter of eliminating this variable will have to be entrusted to someone else,” Gu Huojin said.

“It would be better for you to go personally regarding the variable,” Ancestor Chen Tuan advised.

“Is a Ten Directions Myriad Immortals Formation enough?”

Leaving only this rhetorical question, Gu Huojin’s figure, borne by curling clouds, ascended into the sky and vanished.

Ancestor Chen Tuan sighed faintly, habitually closing his blind eyes.

The ancient peach tree of four seasons swayed gently, and for a moment, petals fell like a rain of flowers.

…

Central Earth Immortal Domain, Eastern Victory Continent.

Above a vast, boundless sea, countless green islands of various sizes were scattered like stars. A mere few hundred li away lay the easternmost coastline of the Eastern Victory Continent.

Unlike the jagged, interlocking reef coastline of the Northern Abyss Continent, the Eastern Victory Continent’s coastline was mainly sandy beaches, with gentler lines, resembling a woman’s back curve, winding and soft.

The two islands closest to the coastline were the largest among all the islands. On each stood a white jade pillar tens of thousands of zhang high, densely carved with auspicious cloud patterns, extending into the clouds high above.

Through the thick clouds against the blue sky, one could see the top of a three-tiered, upturned-eave archway. In its center hung a huge vermilion plaque with gold-lacquer seal script reading “Yingtian Gate.”

This was the Eastern Heavenly Gate of the Central Earth Immortal Domain.

At this moment, inside and outside the majestic Eastern Heavenly Gate, nearly a million troops were stationed, all celestial soldiers clad in gold and silver armor.

Behind these celestial soldiers, every hundred li or so stood a giant celestial general, tens of thousands of zhang tall, bare-chested, wielding a heaven-splitting axe, glaring forward.

Thousands of li away in the void and on the islands below, hundreds of thousands of armored soldiers stood, holding weapons.

Compared to the Heavenly Court side, the armor of these soldiers was not uniform, appearing somewhat chaotic.

Beyond these soldiers, on the sea surface, stood many beings of various races, their bodies rising and falling with the waves. Deep beneath them, faintly visible, huge shadows slowly swam.

Behind this army, numerous spirit boats of different sizes and shapes floated not in the air but on the water. Complex runes engraved on their hulls lit up, continuously drawing spiritual energy from the surroundings to accumulate power.

Among these linked spirit boats, there was a huge dark red one, on which stood a massive three-story palace. In the square before the palace, a dense crowd of people stood.

At the head of these people was a tall man in a bamboo hat and black robe, none other than the Reincarnation Hall Master.

“Hall Master…”

The crowd behind the Reincarnation Hall Master simultaneously cupped their fists and bowed, as if seeing him off.

“Proceed according to plan,” the Reincarnation Hall Master said, glancing back briefly to instruct them.

“Yes,” everyone answered in unison.

Then, the Reincarnation Hall Master no longer looked at them. A flash of escape light enveloped him, and he shot out from the army, heading straight for the Eastern Heavenly Gate.

The Heavenly Court army stationed outside the Eastern Heavenly Gate stirred as the figure approached, all soldiers on alert, as if facing a great enemy.

However, the Reincarnation Hall Master stopped outside the Eastern Heavenly Gate, not intending to force his way in, hovering in midair.

Several celestial generals among the Heavenly Court garrison exchanged glances, unsure of his intentions.

“What? Didn’t Gu Huojin invite me to the banquet? I’m here, and this is how you welcome guests?” the Reincarnation Hall Master asked with a smile.

His voice was not loud, but it carried an indescribable penetrative power, like the tolling of a great bell striking deep in the sea of consciousness of every Heavenly Court soldier, shaking their hearts and unsettling their souls.

However, the Reincarnation Hall Master did not intend to severely wound the army with this method; he only wanted to ensure his words reached the ears of those who should hear them.

In the central part of the Eastern Victory Continent, within a range of continuous mountains, there was an unremarkable white Daoist temple, hidden in a dense, lush forest.

Inside a three-story library in the temple, a middle-aged man in black-and-white Daoist robes was consulting a green-covered book, frowning deeply from time to time, appearing to study it meticulously.

The man had a gaunt face, bright eyes, a straight nose, thin lips, and a long beard. He was not particularly elegant or handsome, but he had some of the bearing of a Daoist master.

After turning a page, he would often stroke his long beard, nodding repeatedly when he came to an interesting part.

“Such encounters… unexpected. It’s a pity that these worldly people always imagine the immortal path so easily—falling off a cliff and finding ancient immortal techniques, stumbling into deep mountains and obtaining divine weapons, exploring secluded valleys and meeting a master, or encountering a seductive ghost in a deep temple at night. In the end… they think too beautifully,” the gaunt Daoist murmured to himself, concluding.

With that, he put down the book, which closed automatically, revealing the title page: “A Mortal’s Journey to Immortality.” It was not a secret manual but a work of fantasy written by a rustic mortal named “Wang Yu” from the foothills, based on market tales.

Just then, the gaunt Daoist suddenly raised an eyebrow and muttered to himself, “Here it comes…”