Invincible Dad-Chapter 777 All Beings Suffer_1

Sikong Jiu fell to the ground as if he had died on the spot, showing no signs of breath, life, or any fluctuations of Spiritual Energy. Xu Lai didn’t rush forward to check, instead standing at a safe distance to observe cautiously. Only after confirming that Sikong Jiu wouldn’t self-detonate from the elixir did Xu Lai send a thread of his Divine Sense into the boy’s body.

Sikong Jiu had not originally been the Heavenly Dao. For some unknown reason, however, he had become the Earth Heavenly Dao, merging as one with that emotionless, mechanical entity. His body was filled with Heavenly Dao Laws and various karmic threads of the Great Dao, all of which Xu Lai’s Divine Sense deftly navigated around.

In the deepest part of this body, which appeared to be that of a three-to-five-year-old child, Xu Lai found a coiled divine soul at the location of the heart. Although Sikong Jiu inhabited a child’s body to act as the Earth Heavenly Dao, and was unscrupulous, cowardly, and terrified of death, the face of his deeply hidden divine soul was identical to its external shell.

At this moment, Xu Lai could destroy Sikong Jiu’s undefended divine soul with a single thought. The order of the Earth Heavenly Dao would then shatter, plunging this planet into utter chaos.

Of course, Xu Lai wouldn’t do that. Earth was his wife and daughter’s home world.

His Divine Sense, as gentle as a breeze, enveloped the child’s divine soul. Xu Lai was astonished to discover that Sikong Jiu’s divine soul also showed no signs of life; it was already dead.

In the courtyard, Xu Lai froze.

Sikong Jiu and the Earth’s Heavenly Dao had merged to rise and fall as one. If both his body and divine soul were dead, why hadn’t the Earth Heavenly Dao collapsed?

Xu Lai closed his eyes, his Divine Sense blanketing the planet beneath his feet. A moment later, his brow furrowed deeply. No, the Heavenly Dao’s order is showing signs of collapse, but the process is very slow, and it’s gradually recovering.

His expression turned grave. When battling enemies in the Immortal Domain, he had indirectly caused the collapse of the Heavenly Dao on many planets, but none had been like Earth, recovering even as it collapsed.

If a planet were compared to a Cultivator, the collapse of its Heavenly Dao would be like a Cultivator destroying their own foundation. They would have to obliterate their Boundary and Dao foundation entirely, recovering from a state of ’nothingness.’ Some planets succeeded, their Heavenly Dao re-forming. Others failed, becoming dead worlds. But not a single one had a Heavenly Dao like Earth’s, which was recovering in the very midst of its own collapse...

Life and death were cycling endlessly. This state was more like... feigned death!

Xu Lai began to perform divinatory calculations, all while continuing to observe Sikong Jiu’s body and divine soul. This calculation lasted for ten days and ten nights.

When he opened his eyes, he couldn’t help but exhale a breath of turbid air. It’s the False Death Pill.

After ingesting the scrapings of the elixir, Sikong Jiu was, in every sense of the word, dead. He had even deceived Xu Lai’s Emperor Realm Divine Sense. But in reality, Sikong Jiu was still alive, merely plunged into a profound state of feigned death. Had he not been fused with the Heavenly Dao, he might have completely fooled Xu Lai.

The Immortal Domain had similar elixirs, but they weren’t very effective, capable only of deceiving low-level Cultivators. Yet this little white pill from the Cloud Water Rust, a mere speck scraped from its surface, possessed such an incredible effect. If one were to swallow the entire pill, could it possibly deceive the Heavenly Dao Laws of the Immortal Domain?!

The more Xu Lai pondered, the more plausible it seemed. Only those at the Emperor Realm could even begin to comprehend the Cloud Water Rust, and even then, not necessarily in its entirety. Therefore, the ones who took the other five elixirs were very likely Emperors! Having consumed a False Death Pill from The Other Shore, they would feign death at their absolute peak somewhere in the Immortal Domain, waiting for the right moment to awaken. This was unlike the sliver of Emperor Wanyun’s soul sealed in a Bronze Coffin presumed to be from The Other Shore, or the Corpse Emperor sealed within the forbidden grounds of the Samsara Sea.

The number of these individuals could be five. Or it could be just one.

Adding to that the two who were imprisoned at the Boundless Sea Realm Gate, two Other Shore Cultivators who had vanished without a trace, and another two whose whereabouts were still unknown. The current state of the Immortal Domain was giving Xu Lai a headache.

He now believed that the era of the Emperors’ Fall would arrive, bringing with it devastating casualties. To say nothing of the first Emperor of the Immortal Domain, who had schemed for an entire samsaric cycle, the mere possibility that these other beings were still alive was enough to give Xu Lai more than he could handle. If a true conflict were to erupt, it would undoubtedly bring immense suffering and devastation to all living things.

"Whether the Immortal Domain thrives or falls, all living beings suffer," Xu Lai remarked with a sigh. Reigning in his thoughts, he tossed the Heavenly Dao—which was in a state of feigned death with no telling when it would awaken—into the clouds above Mount Haitang.

Here on Mount Haitang, right under his—Xu Qingfeng’s—nose, no one could harm this little fellow.

Except for Ruan Tang.

「...」

Upon learning that the Cloud Water Rust Characters might have been taken by other Cultivators, Xu Lai began his research, working day and night. However, from the eleventh character onward, he could no longer fully comprehend them. Every step forward required extensive and painstaking study. It was mentally exhausting.

Ruan Tang came to help, but the result was unexpected. His wife’s astonishing ability seemed to have failed her; faced with the characters wriggling like worms, she was at her wit’s end.

Xu Lai wasn’t too surprised. It was unexpected, yet it made sense. After all, his wife was only in the Golden Core Realm. Her progress in Cultivation was already monstrously fast; deciphering eight Cloud Water Rust Characters in such a short time was enough to be recorded in the annals of history.

So Xu Lai comforted her, "Don’t worry, darling, I’ll take my time with the research. I’m sure I can..."

His words halted. He saw not a trace of discouragement on Ruan Tang’s face. Instead, she seemed to feel this was exactly how things should be. Then he heard her gentle voice.

"Give me a day or two. I should be able to decipher a few more once I’m in the Nascent Soul Realm. After Golden Core comes Nascent Soul, right?"

"..."

Are those even the words of a human? Even with Xu Lai’s aptitude, his Cultivation was measured in years. Ruan Tang spoke in terms of days... And those one or two days probably included her time at the company, tending to the flowers in the backyard, and handling household chores.

Indeed, you can’t generalize when it comes to people’s constitutions. Ruan Tang had once calmly declared she would break through to the Nascent Soul Realm in two days. Perhaps that was simply true talent.

Xu Lai didn’t understand why his wife’s Cultivation speed was so incredible. She faced no bottlenecks, had no inner demons, and she was a better fit for practicing the Emperor Qingfeng Scripture than even their own daughter, Xu Yiyi.

「...」

While the Earth’s Heavenly Dao was in a state of ’feigned death’, events were unfolding on the Moon.

Crown Princess Ji Jie had returned to the Moon Clan three days prior. With the fate of Crown Prince Ji Gui unknown, she had become the Moon King’s spokesperson and the temporary Commander of the myriad Moon Clan forces. Wielding the Moon King’s decree, she could command any tribe’s Cultivators at will, including the vast Moon Clan army that was now assembled.

She was truly second to one.

However, Ji Jie was not captivated by power; only her good-for-nothing brother enjoyed that. The Royal City had long been destroyed, and the Moon King did not choose to rebuild it. His current whereabouts were unknown to anyone.

In the great hall of the First Upper Crescent Moon Clan tribe, the leaders of the Eight Great Crescent Moon Clans stood at the forefront. Behind them were hundreds of chiefs from other large tribes, and outside the great hall milled the minor chieftains who were not qualified to enter.

Ji Jie reclined on the throne in the center of the hall. No one dared to cast more than a passing glance at her graceful figure, draped in a blood-red palace gown. Resting her cheek on her right hand, she smiled and spoke, "So, esteemed leaders, how many days will you need to take down Chang’an City?"