Follow the path of Dao from infancy Chapter 1785 - 461: My Heart Is the Heavenly Heart (2)
Previously on Follow the path of Dao from infancy...
The foe, lashed by fate's relentless whip, watched his skin rip open and flesh tear away, while the True God Blood inside him got pulled out and crushed, enduring wave after wave of harm.
"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 outstripped anything the Immortal Monarch Realm could manage—likely some ancient fiend reborn!
Luo Ningshuang and Su Wanyi gazed in stunned silence at the spectacle, abruptly grasping that this fearsome powerhouse had just seen his body demolished—how mighty must Li Hao be, the one who crushed him?
...
Leaving the black-robed youth behind, Li Hao pressed onward, ascending directly to the summit of the Heavenly Road.
Those enigmatic murmurs grew sharper, and the terrain nearby shed its intricate law patterns, shifting instead into swirling fog.
Inside this fog, waves of Daoist echoes rippled through, purifying the spirit even as they muddled the Divine Soul, dragging it into endless dream realms one by one.
In Li Hao's vision emerged the grand entrance of the Dream Nine Abyss Sect, with a splendid hall rising ahead—the Imperial Palace of the Dayu Divine Dynasty.
All at once, along the path in front, a elegant shadow lingered facing away from him. Merely glimpsing her outline made Li Hao spot her as Shi Miao right away.
Yet she couldn't possibly be here. Li Hao steadied his mind, allowing the visions to unfold, but he kept marching forward without pause.
Despite spotting them as nothing but tricks, the visions refused to fade.
"Don’t go any further."
"Look back; that path is destined to be lonely."
Known faces popped up along the Heavenly Road: Feng, Emperor Yu, and even Ren Qianqian, who once wielded a blade for Li Hao, waited quietly at the edge, murmuring gentle warnings to him, their gazes brimming with concern, exactly like in Li Hao’s recollections.
Though Li Hao understood these were fakes, the visions persisted, their coaxing murmurs going on.
"Don’t joke with them!"
Fury flashed in Li Hao’s eyes all of a sudden, rejecting the idea of these forms being twisted by mere deceptions.
"Break for me!"
He burst into a dash, bellowing a furious cry toward the heavens, his voice booming like thunder that rang through the whole Heavenly Road.
The visions started to thin out, fading away bit by bit, and Li Hao’s resolve sharpened, making the fog and haze in front part slowly, uncovering the lofty summit.
Is this the end of the Heavenly Road?
Li Hao jumped and touched down at the top of the stairs, right away sensing a strange lightness as the heavy force around him dropped away in a flash.
As Li Hao scanned the area, his awareness plunged downward, yanked into a boundless realm.
It felt like ascending to immortality at its peak, blending the form with the cosmos.
A host of laws sprang into Li Hao’s senses, along with various Daoist Charms, from the Heavenly Road under his feet to the throngs of climbers on it, all sharp and clear in his mind.
He appeared to fuse with the sky and land encircling the Heavenly Road.
"Hmm?"
Li Hao glanced upward sharply, detecting high above, in the firmament over the Heavenly Road’s crest, a grand and awe-inspiring force hovering silently, like a god gazing down on every creature.
That lofty and distant aura stirred a shiver in Li Hao, sparking an instinct to kneel.
"Heavenly Dao?"
Li Hao sensed a stir inside himself, as though drawn to draw near that aura.
While Li Hao brimmed with questions, an enormous intent crashed down, enveloping him and freezing him in place like a stone figure.
The intent loomed immense, regal, and noble, stripped of feeling—icy yet lucid—gently probing Li Hao’s Divine Soul, resembling a chilly vine grazing his brow.
Right then, a storm of ideas burst in Li Hao’s Sea of Consciousness, chaotic as the universe's birth.
Before him, endless radiant beams twisted swiftly, building a strange primordial realm.
Li Hao beheld chaos splitting apart at first, heaven and earth emerging, watched hordes of Chaos Ancient Clans roam wild in the ancient Primordial True Realm, faced disasters, celestial blazes, and bolt strikes, and viewed countless Chaos Ancient Clans clash in bloody fights, their agonies mingling with infants' cries.
From the slain bodies, dim Divine Souls got tugged by unknown forces, looping back into rebirth.
Without end, the wheel of life and ruin spun on...
Until one day, from the ranks of Chaos Ancient Clans, a lineage arose, but these lineages entered the world as hollow shells, empty of vitality.
That day, no fresh souls graced existence.
So, throngs of Chaos Ancient Clans banded together to probe this mystery, hunting its root, finally sending clan Emperors into a shadowy, forbidden void...
Through the flickering glows and shades, without notice, beyond the Primordial True Realm stretched a huge universe, teeming with lives that spread and settled into this fresh domain.
Yet as clans multiplied, the new realm quickly sank into wars, killings, and rivalries, the loop of rebirth and fresh starts cycling again, like a fated and unbreakable Doom.
The broad lands lay strewn with slain forms and rivers of blood.
Witnessing this sight, Li Hao got touched deeply, a wild grief swelling in his chest, so profound it edged toward hopelessness.
Right as this hopelessness loomed to swallow him, Li Hao shook free from the feeling, and the vision dissolved, yielding to a silver-white glow.
He brushed it lightly with his mind and caught a pristine, sovereign intent from the glow, or perhaps a purpose.
Redemption, for every soul?
From this intent, Li Hao grasped an ironclad belief, carrying a heavy yet noble burden.
At the same time, he realized that taking it on, claiming this intent, would bestow upon him tremendous might, a strength not drawn from worldly laws, but straight from that ultimate Heavenly Dao!
Receiving the mandate of heaven grants one eternal life!
These eight words rose in Li Hao’s thoughts.
Upon claiming this intent, carrying out the task etched in it, he would rise as the "Heavenly Son"!
His strength would match a Great Emperor's, fading with the stars and moon, lasting alongside the cosmos!
Still, the task tied to this intent proved staggeringly tough—redemption of all souls, turning into the keenest edge swung by the Heavenly Dao!
"Is this... the Heavenly Heart?"
Li Hao sensed confusion; this Heavenly Heart held utmost gravity and holiness, but oddly, he no longer wished 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!"
Catching Li Hao’s withdrawing Daoist resolve, the emptiness boomed with thunderclaps, churning fiercely like a stormy ocean ready to drown him, as if the highest power voiced its anger.
Li Hao’s locks whipped about, his garments billowing madly. In that instant, every sight before him cleared, stranding him solo at the Heavenly Road’s top, the unseen and unreachable sovereign intent lingering far in the sky.
"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, ready to shoulder that task and role but unwilling to have it thrust upon him, since it clashed with his Daoist path.
If shackled by bonds, how to claim forever?
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 murmured.
With those words, a colossal thunderclap ripped through the skies, like the firmament in fury.
Next, Li Hao felt a colossal intent quiver and plunge, carrying crushing weight, dropping from above onto him. In a blink, it slammed his frame against the Heavenly Road’s summit, pressing him flat to the stone, rooted in place.
Li Hao felt every bone in him snap, and the True God Blood surging in his veins got quelled by that overpowering force, not a drop able to break free.