Imperial God Emperor

In the self-isolation quiet room.

Ye Qingyu was sitting cross-legged.

As if dead sitting, his eyes were tightly closed, his lips were slightly curled up into a smile, and his brows were drooping to his eyes, all in a natural posture which resembled that of an ice statue. There was no sign of aura, inner yuan, or vitality on his body, and even his usually-ruddy complexion was gradually paling. As time went by, his skin was also gradually becoming gray and wrinkled while his long jet-black hair quietly dullened to an ashen color, giving him the look of a centenarian.

This was an absurd and bizarre feeling, as if the tide of time was frantically whizzing past him such that ten thousand years were going by in a mere instant, during which his heroic appearance rapidly became infirm and old.

"Though the Great Dao is as visible as the blue skies, I'm unable to comprehend it."

There was nothing and no self in Ye Qingyu's heart as these words popped up in his mind once more.

These words were like ten blazing suns shining upon his sea of consciousness and turning it as clear as day.

Using his divine sense, Ye Qingyu read the words in backward order several times.

He gained a different comprehension each time.

After reading them countless times, his divine sense focused upon the word "comprehend".

Subsequently, the Dao sounds were heard once more.

Originating from the strange phenomenon of flashing lightning and rolling thunder, every word of the [Great Dao Induction to Rebirth Scripture], akin to divine writings, continually popped up in succession in Ye Qingyu's sea of consciousness. The Dao sounds which had emerged in his sea of consciousness when he was in the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's quiet room rang out once more.

The next moment.

All three thousand words of the scripture suspended within his sea of consciousness like patterns of gold light, giving off a brilliant radiance.

A Dao sound would be heard every time Ye Qingyu looked at a different word.

After looking through them all once, his soul seemed to be thoroughly cleansed, as if all impurities had been expelled from his body.

This was an indescribably wonderful feeling, and although it did not result in any strength increase, Ye Qingyu had vibes of Immortality during this process, as if he had entered Heaven from where he looked down on all creation.

However, after reading through the entire scripture once, he did not do so a second time.

He shifted his attention away and no longer deliberately listened to the Dao sounds.

This was because his intuition informed him that although the Dao sounds were wonderful, there might be danger if he listened on, and they would thus turn into the sounds of death instead.

This was not without precedent.

After what he experienced in the quiet room of the Great Dragon Turtle Demon, he knew that, given his present cultivation, he would be led into the Dao realm and become Dao-dissolved - all of his cultivation, yuan qi, flesh, bones, viscera, and even hair would turn into Dao essence and vanish completely, becoming a portion of the energy and laws throughout the world, a state that was no different from death.

This was the consequence of him, as an expert, forcefully trying to comprehend the meaning of the Great Dao which he could not grasp.

He already understood the causes and effects.

The reason why the harsh scriptures he had heard in the [Infinite Arsenal] did not engender any strange phenomenon when he was in there observing and learning, but did so and made thunderous Dao sounds when he walked out to check on the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's condition, was because of one word -

Comprehend.

He suddenly understood this because of the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's condition.

Scriptures were always like this. If one did not have the luck or did not comprehend them, they would remain as dead texts even if read a million times.

But the very moment that one comprehended them, they would transform from dead into magical, and the Dao sounds would emerge immediately, presenting the Great Dao of the scripture.

After listening once to the Dao sounds of the [Great Dao Induction to Rebirth Scripture], he thought about the change process of the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's internal condition.

Previously, after he had regained a clear head and observed the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's condition, he discovered that the foundation of demonic qi in the latter's body was actually recovering gradually - via an extremely bizarre method which was as if one was coming back to life from death, using one's deathly aura and power as the Dao foundation. This was simply unbelievable. Previously, the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's body had nearly been totally seized by the power of death, and it was none other than this wisp of brilliance which gave him renewed life and caused qualitative changes to his condition.

Under that kind of change, the more massive the power of death in the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's body grew, the more incredible the power of life he regained.

With just one look at that time, Ye Qingyu immediately comprehended a shade of meaning of the [Great Dao Induction to Rebirth Scripture].

This was a completely unsurpassable scripture.

Within it, he saw a glimpse of opportunity which could turn a normal person into a Saint, and so he hurriedly self-isolated.

At this time, his mind was profusely recollecting the kind of change in the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's body.

Unknowingly, his own body underwent change.

His vitality receded, one drop at a time.

However, this sort of receding was not disappearing.

Instead, it was transforming.

The power of life was continually transforming into the power of death, which then frenziedly invaded his body.

-

Just like the Great Dragon Turtle Demon a while ago, his vitality was being burned up.

However, the speed of this process was a lot faster than that of the former.

Within less than two hours, he had already become a haggard, white-hair-falling, and emaciated monster, as if his lifespan had been depleted, such that even the throbbing of his chest disappeared. He was left with only the final and weakest bit of life.

Silvery-white strands of hair fell from his head.

This process continued for approximately ten minutes.

Eventually, all of his hair fell, turning him into a desiccated corpse.

The final bit of life in his body dissipated.

But, at this very moment, just as the final strand of hair landed on the ground, his heart suddenly gave a thumping throb.

The sound of this was thunderous.

Sound waves vibrated and turned into a layer of transparent halo which radiated in all directions, as dust danced wildly in the air all around his body.

Thump!

Thump thump!

The throbbing noise rang out once more.

As powerful as the sound of a divine drum, it was extremely similar to the throbbing of the Great Dragon Turtle Demon's heart earlier, except that it was even faster and tougher. Its weird frequency caused the space in the quiet room to ripple like an autumn pond, and as the thumping noises became faster, it exceeded the frequency range which could be heard by a normal human in a twinkling.

As Ye Qingyu's heart throbbed, a bout of exuberant vitality burst out from his body.

A strange change appeared.

Beneath his skin, which was as wizened as the bark of an old tree, a beam of red light abruptly circulated within his terribly-bulging blood vessels, which were like dried-up riverbeds. It was a trail of sparkling divine-level blood. As it filled his dried-up blood vessels, its mysterious power moistened and revitalized his body wherever it passed, very much in the manner of a sweet spring irrigating a withered field.

Ye Qingyu did not detect this kind of change to his body.

This was because his divine sense had already completely submerged into his dantian world.

A storm rose in his yuan qi ocean, while the [Yuan Qi True-Self Doppelganger] which stood tall in the Void was in exactly the same apparent state as Ye Qingyu - like an old, desiccated corpse, it was wrinkled and wizened all over, bringing to mind a sand sculpture.

The [Yuan Qi True-Self Doppelganger] was undergoing the same change as Ye Qingyu's physical body - its vitality was dissipating and turning into the power of death.

But at the final juncture, just as the [Yuan Qi True-Self Doppelganger] was about to dissipate like flying sand and smoke into the Void, a misty ball of light suddenly circulated at its heart region and gave off a strange splendor, resembling primeval chaotic mist.

Subsequently, the giant doppelganger regained a trace of vitality.

It began to move.

Like a hobbling old man, it gently took a step forward.

In front of it was the towering, uncrossable Immortal Gate, which it had found difficult to open even when it was in its best state, and as such impeded Ye Qingyu's passage into the Saint realm.

The wizened doppelganger, whose power was less than one-ten-thousandths of its peak period, slowly hobbled up to the massive Immortal Gate.

It gradually raised a hand.

There was barely any strength.

Its five fingers gently pressed onto the door leaf and momentarily paused before it flipped its palm such that its back rested on the Immortal Gate. Extending its index finger and middle finger while keeping the other fingers bent, it gave a very gentle knock.

This action was the very picture of an ordinary old man knocking on the door of his own house after coming back from a stroll outside.

It was very casual and effortless.

It made a very light sound, as if signaling for a family member inside to open the door.

Thump thump!

Thump thump thump!

He gently knocked five times.

Subsequently, the two leaves of the massive Immortal Gate, which Ye Qingyu had been unable to open no matter how he rammed into it, silently opened.

The Immortal Gate had opened.

This was the proper way to knock on it.

The real mystery behind opening the Immortal Gate was the word "knock".

Throughout all of Ye Qingyu's several hundred attempts, he was pounding on the door rather than knocking on it.

That was why the Immortal Gate did not open.

The difference that a word made was utterly absurd.

As the Immortal Gate opened wide, the silver splendor shone in mistily from the other end of the gate, covering and drowning the giant [Yuan Qi True-Self Doppelganger].

A saintly pressure pervaded.

This was the kind of pressure which only a true Saint could wield.

Like a deluge when the floodgates had been opened, the aura of the Saint realm flowed out of the Immortal Gate. It diffused at a terrifying speed and filled up Ye Qingyu's entire dantian world, within which it soaked everything it passed by.

The next moment.

Moving against the torrential flow of this Saint realm aura, the [Yuan Qi True-Self Doppelganger] walked across the Immortal Gate.

Taking the longest of times, the giant figure finally passed through the gate with slow yet firm footsteps.

It then stood at the other end of the Immortal Gate.

While standing still, it turned its head back.

For a split second, its gray eyes seemed to contain tremendous might as it watched the massive Immortal Gate tremor slightly and fade away gradually into the Void.

This was a normal change.

The Immortal Gate was a materialization of all the power of laws which impeded an expert from stepping into the Saint realm, and so anyone who did not comprehend the power of a Saint would find it most difficult to pass through it. However, if an expert had entered the Saint realm, then these impeding forces would have no need nor reason to exist and would naturally disappear gradually, and thus the Immortal Gate was no longer.

At this moment, Ye Qingyu completely advanced to the Saint realm.

After bathing in saintly might, the [Yuan Qi True-Self Doppelganger], too, showed astonishing changes. Its color gradually changed from the blue of the yuan qi ocean to silver, and after the saintly might finally pervaded the entire dantian world, the silver color faded as the doppelganger gradually shrank to the same size as Ye Qingyu. Its skin gained the color of flesh as if it had truly become another Ye Qingyu, with its expression equally flexible and vivid.

As it watched the Immortal Gate gradually disappear into the Void, its expression twitched.

"Impeding power is also power."

Ye Qingyu's voice was uttered from this doppelganger's mouth, which he then opened and sucked slightly. At once, the already-faded phantom Immortal Gate became a ball of flowing light and was absorbed into the mouth!

After that, the doppelganger sat cross-legged in the Void above the yuan qi ocean of the dantian world, resembling an old monk meditating quietly without joy or sorrow.

Meanwhile.

In the quiet room.

Like the [Yuan Qi True-Self Doppelganger], Ye Qingyu, whose physical body had turned infirm, regained his peak state of vigorous blood qi.

The vitality that had died out was regained and the desiccated hair which had fallen grew back. His muscles and bones began to shine while his viscera became perfectly devoid of all dust and filth. At first glance, it was as if his muscles and bones were transparent, allowing his blood vessels and viscera to be seen, yet on closer observation, this was but an illusion.

Ye Qingyu straightened his body and stood up.

A saintly might pervaded the quiet room.

The throbbing heart noises died down, albeit this did not mean the heart had become ordinary. Instead, Ye Qingyu's body had been reborn and turned toward its foundation, becoming a perfect union with the heart and muffling its throbbing noises. On the surface, Ye Qingyu looked no different from an ordinary person.

His eyes opened and closed.

In one eye, thunder and lightning manifested.

In the other, a chill arose.

This was what a Saint was.