The Dao King nodded with a rueful smile. Upon giving it further thought, Lu Yun did make sense. Mo Yi wouldn’t care to live on if he died.
“Then let’s talk about you.” The Dao King relaxed back into casual composure, forgetting about their earlier awkwardness.
“Wait,” Lu Yun interrupted and inspected his surroundings. They weren’t in the world of his nascent spirit. He seemed to be present with his primary body, but separated with the void created by the Dao King’s separation stone.
It was similar to when he first opened the Gates of the Abyss and entered the Hadal Hell. Hell was separate from the world of immortals and time at a relative standstill. Plainly, the Dao King had pulled him into a similar world.
“Did you set up the tombs in the world of immortals?” Lu Yun asked.
“Yes,” the Dao King nodded. “I was also the one who turned the world of immortals into a tomb, just like this place.
“What people call Ancestor’s Tomb wasn’t a tomb in the distant past. My separation stone layout turned it into a tomb to prevent the demons from taking it over.”
“……demons.” Lu Yun’s eyebrows raised at hearing the Dao King use the Three Thousand term for outsiders.
“Compared to us, the cultivators of the Three Thousand are indeed demons. It isn’t just a name for them—they really are demons,” the Dao King sighed at seeing Lu Yun’s expression. “All things fall under reincarnation, order, and great dao. There are no exceptions. The six orders of inception, ethos, burgeon, creation, opposition, and nirvana guide everything in a never-ending cycle without cessation.
“Yet the orders and great dao of this world reside in the ethos stage. The slightest hint of development is immediately crushed. So tell me, what does that make them if not demons?”
“Does defying order make them demons?” Lu Yun paused.
“No,” the Dao King shook his head. “We cultivators defy the heavens and win back our destiny when we cultivate. We contend with nature and resist order. They are not defying order, but us.”
Lu Yun couldn’t help a broad grin. So it was just a difference in perspective that resulted in one side being attached with a demonic label!
“I know what you’re thinking,” the Dao King sighed again when he saw Lu Yun’s expression. “It’s not just that. It’s that they defy all of life.
“The Three Thousand is existence within nothingness, the source of everything. It should have ultimately become all creation and occupy the nihil, turning the nihil into a colorful and varied world.
“But because of its denizens, the world’s great dao and order cannot progress. The entire Three Thousand has begun to shrivel and the nothing will continue to grow stronger. It will assimilate this place, and when it does…”
“When it does?” Lu Yun asked hurriedly.
“If existence is swallowed by nothing, then the concept of existence will no longer exist. All things will wither away and everything will end,” the Dao King murmured. “Even the cycle of reincarnation will halt and everything will cease to hold meaning. We will turn into nothing and no longer exist.”
Lu Yun froze. He hadn’t thought that stagnant order would lead to such severe consequences. Creation was objective—nothing and existence possessed their own meaning.
Taking modern day Earth as an example, Earthlings consistently failed to find evidence of extraterrestrial civilization. If Earth really was the only location in the universe that possessed life, then life would cease to exist if the planet was one day destroyed. The universe would be meaningless to humans, but it would also continue to exist and quietly operate.
Just like the nothingness.
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If it one day devoured existence, it would be a catastrophic disaster for all of life and everything within it. But for the nothing, it was just a process that wouldn’t affect anything. Perhaps existence being born of nothing, creating order, reincarnation, heaven and earth, and life was just an accident from beginning to end.
“Since the Three Thousand is the source of order, no other existence will appear in nihil if it stagnates? And as it continues to decline, that means…
“All of the powerhouses that have exceeded existence and set foot into nihil use their own bodies to manifest heaven and earth, thus generating creation. They… are all jointly supporting this patch of order?” Lu Yun shook.
“Correct,” the Dao King nodded. “Haven’t you been wondering why three hundred sixty-five is the number of the major cycle? That’s because three hundred and sixty-five nihil powerhouses voluntarily disassembled themselves to manifest three hundred and sixty-five existences within the nothing, so as to support the orders of the Three Thousand.
“Three hundred sixty-five orders and three hundred sixty-five worlds combine with the core essence of heaven and earth, becoming the major cycle worlds that meld into order. That is why no matter what kind of realms or planes of existence that later form, there will always be three hundred sixty-five major cycle worlds to support the primary world.
“That in itself has become an order.”
“So the chief worlds is just one of the three hundred sixty-five?” Lu Yun murmured.
The Dao King shook his head. “You’ll know everything once you pass through the separation stone.”
Lu Yun nodded. The Dao King had said that he would see some things that would overturn his body of knowledge if he opened the doors. However, what the man spoke of now was already rewriting what he knew about the universe.
“Did those powerhouses really go willingly to their deaths?” Lu Yun still didn’t believe it.
“They can come back to life. Once the orders of the Three Thousand start operating again, it will not need the protection of the major cycle worlds. They will return to life then,” the Dao King nodded. “Their death is temporary, but if the Three Thousand shrivels away, their death will be permanent.”
“What are the consequences of resurrecting them ahead of them?” Lu Yun thought of how the powerhouse in the nothing wanted him to remove the sword at the World Heart. That would revive the dead powerhouse.
“Your part of existence is not one of the major cycle worlds. It is a three hundred and sixty-sixth existence, but it’s more important than any of the three hundred and sixty-five,” the Dao King sighed. “That is as far as I go.”
He vanished and Lu Yun returned to reality, but the man’s words echoed through his mind and collided with his thoughts. After some thought, he pushed the bronze doors open.
The separation stone layout dispersed when the doors opened, but the cultivators behind him didn’t dare make a move. Three thousand dragons had burrowed out of the ground at some point and circled around the young man with deadly killing intent.
Whoever dared step forward would suffer their attacks.
Lu Yun entered Ancestor’s tomb.
“Does he want to take it all for himself?” grumbled the Daofire Empyrean Supreme.
The others ignored him and stared quietly at Lu Yun’s back.
“You can give it a try if you aren’t afraid of death,” the Disordered Empyrean Supreme snorted with laughter. “He’s afraid of others dying in there and creating trouble for him. The fewer who die inside, the less trouble there will be.”
The crowd looked up at the dragons on guard outside the bronze doors. Being hit by one of them would scatter one’s mind and soul. Not even a corpse would be left behind in death. Lacking a corpse and a soul in death would forestall many troubling developments from occurring after one’s demise.
