Follow the path of Dao from infancy Chapter 1785 Chapter 461: My Heart Is the Heavenly Heart (2)
Previously on Follow the path of Dao from infancy...
Under the relentless lash of fate, the foe's flesh ripped open, with even his True God Blood pulled forth and crushed, enduring wave after wave of torment.
"Who... who are you?"
The individual from the Chaos Ancient Clan kept his composure utterly intact, noting how the black-robed youth's grasp on the Great Dao Origin Realm clearly outstripped anything the Immortal Monarch Realm could handle—likely an ancient beast reborn through reincarnation!
Luo Ningshuang and Su Wanyi gazed in stunned silence at the unfolding drama, abruptly grasping that this fearsome powerhouse had just seen his body demolished—how immense must Li Hao's strength be, the one who overpowered him?
...
Leaving the black-robed youth behind, Li Hao pressed onward directly to the summit of the Heavenly Road.
The enigmatic murmurs grew sharper, while the terrain nearby shed its intricate law inscriptions, shifting instead into swirling fog.
In that fog, waves of Daoist echoes purified the spirit, yet they also muddled one's Divine Soul, dragging it into layer upon layer of deceptive visions.
Before Li Hao's gaze materialized the entrance to the Dream Nine Abyss Sect, with a grand edifice rising ahead—the Imperial Palace of the Dayu Divine Dynasty.
All at once, along the path in front, an elegant form lingered facing away from him. Merely catching her outline made Li Hao identify her instantly as Shi Miao.
Yet her presence here defied all reason. Li Hao steadied his mind, permitting these mirages to unfold, but he forged ahead without pause.
Though he knew full well these were nothing but deceptions, the visions refused to fade away.
"Don't go any further."
"Look back; that path is destined to be lonely."
On the Heavenly Road, familiar shapes emerged: Feng, Emperor Yu, and even Ren Qianqian, who once wielded a sword in Li Hao's defense, waited quietly at the edge, murmuring gentle warnings to him, their gazes brimming with concern, exactly as they lingered in Li Hao's recollections.
Even as Li Hao understood these were fabrications, the mirages persisted, their coaxing murmurs unrelenting.
"Don't joke with them!"
Fury ignited in Li Hao's stare, unwilling to tolerate these imposters conjured by trickery.
"Break for me!"
He surged forward in a fierce dash, unleashing a furious bellow toward the heavens, a thunderous clamor that reverberated through every inch of the Heavenly Road.
The visions slowly turned faint and ghostly, fading into nothingness at last, while Li Hao's resolve sharpened even more, parting the enveloping vapors ahead to unveil the soaring summit.
Does this mark the conclusion of the Heavenly Road?
Li Hao vaulted forth, touching down at the topmost step, where an odd lightness washed over him as the ambient weight vanished in a flash.
As Li Hao scanned the area, his awareness plunged abruptly, drawn into an immense realm.
This sensation resembled ascending to utter immortality, blending one's form seamlessly with the cosmos.
A multitude of laws surfaced in Li Hao's awareness, joined by various Daoist Charms, encompassing the Heavenly Road underfoot and the throngs ascending it, all sharp and clear in his mind's eye.
He appeared to fuse completely with the skies and lands encircling the Heavenly Road.
"Hmm?"
Li Hao's head snapped upward, detecting overhead, beyond the Heavenly Road's crest, a grand and awe-inspiring force hovering silently, akin to a divine overseer gazing down on all existence.
That lofty, otherworldly aura stirred a shiver in Li Hao, igniting an innate compulsion to kneel.
"Heavenly Dao?"
Something inside Li Hao stirred restlessly, drawn irresistibly toward that aura.
As questions swirled in Li Hao's thoughts, an enormous intent crashed down, enveloping him and freezing him in place like a carved figure.
This intent loomed immense, regal, and sublime, stripped of all feeling—icy yet lucid—gently probing Li Hao's Divine Soul, resembling a chill thread grazing his brow.
In that moment, myriad ideas burst forth in Li Hao's Sea of Consciousness, mirroring the primal turmoil at the universe's birth.
Across his vision, endless radiant strands intertwined swiftly, forging a strange primordial domain.
Li Hao beheld chaos splitting asunder, the dawn of sky and soil, watched hordes of Chaos Ancient Clans roam unbound in the ancient Primordial True Realm, endured visions of disasters, celestial blazes, and bolt-storms, and observed legions of Chaos Ancient Clans clashing in brutal strife, their agonized shrieks mingling with the cries of fresh-born young.
From the slain, dim Divine Souls were tugged by unseen forces, cycling back into rebirth.
The wheel of demise and renewal spun without cease...
Until at last, within the ranks of Chaos Ancient Clans, a lineage arose, though these descendants entered life as hollow shells, barren of vitality.
On that fateful day, no fresh sparks of existence ignited in the realm.
Thus, throngs of Chaos Ancient Clans banded together to probe this enigma, hunting its roots, at length sending forth Emperors from every lineage into a shadowy, uncharted void...
Through flickering gleams and gloom, unnoticed, beyond the Primordial True Realm sprawled a boundless universe, teeming with myriad lives that journeyed to claim this fresh domain.
But as clans swelled and spread, the budding world swiftly tumbled into brawls, massacres, and rivalries once more, the loop of death and genesis recurring, as if fated and bound by an unyielding Hex.
The boundless ground lay strewn with cadavers and gore in every direction.
Witnessing this sight, Li Hao found himself gripped, an overwhelming sorrow swelling in his chest, profound enough to edge toward utter hopelessness.
Just as this gloom loomed to swallow him whole, Li Hao wrenched free from the feeling, and the spectacle dissolved, yielding to a gleaming silver radiance.
With a light brush of his mind, he touched it and felt a pristine, sovereign intent radiating from the glow—or perhaps a purpose.
Redemption for every soul?
From this intent, Li Hao discerned an ironclad resolve, carrying a weighty yet noble obligation.
At the same time, he realized that embracing it, claiming this intent as his own, would bestow upon him colossal might, a force unbound by cosmic laws, sourced straight from the exalted Heavenly Dao itself!
Embracing heaven's decree bestows undying existence!
These eight words echoed in Li Hao's thoughts.
Upon taking up this intent and completing its etched task, he would rise as the "Heavenly Son"!
His strength would match a Great Emperor's, fading only with the stars and enduring alongside the universe!
Yet the duty tied to this intent proved staggeringly grueling—deliverance for all life, serving as the keenest edge in the Heavenly Dao's grasp!
"Is this... the Heavenly Heart?"
Li Hao sensed confusion washing over him; this Heavenly Heart stood profoundly grave and holy, but oddly, he felt a sudden aversion to reaching for it.
"Heavenward salvation should be all living beings saving heaven."
"It's not that the living need heaven, but heaven needs the living!"
Sensing Li Hao's withdrawing Daoist resolve, the emptiness boomed with thunderclaps, churning fiercely like a tempestuous storm sea poised to drown him, as though the ultimate power vented its ire.
Li Hao's locks whipped about, his garments billowing in frenzy. In that instant, every sight before him evaporated, stranding him solitary at the Heavenly Road's apex, beneath the intangible, unreachable sovereign intent suspended in the far-off firmament.
"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, prepared to shoulder that charge and role yet rejecting any imposed yoke, for it clashed with his core Daoist path.
If shackled by bonds, how could one claim timelessness?
Ascending the Heavenly Road, affirming the Heavenly Heart, my Dao harmonizes with reason and celestial echoes!
Shattering every law, rebelling against fate, today I awaken to my true self!
"If heaven aligns with me, I affirm the Heavenly Heart; if not, I follow my true heart!"
Li Hao uttered softly.
With those declarations, a colossal thunder-rumble tore through the skies, as if the firmament itself seethed in wrath.
Right after, Li Hao experienced a colossal intent quiver and plummet, laden with crushing force, cascading from above to strike him down. In a heartbeat, it slammed his frame against the Heavenly Road's summit, pressing him flat to the stone, rendering motion impossible.
Li Hao sensed his skeleton fracturing under the strain, while the True God Blood coursing through him yielded to that overpowering might, unable to surge even the slightest bit.