153: Chapter 153 Mutual Devouring

No one spoke in the courtyard anymore.

Pure Void Master stood by the stone bed, staring at the Taiji diagram mark that had already faded from the space between Bai Yu's eyebrows, his hands clasped behind his back, his right index finger unconsciously tapping his left wrist.

Once, twice, thrice.

"What's the situation inside him?" Void Realm asked, leaning against a doorpost.

Pure Void Master didn't answer; he reached out, placed two fingers on the space between Bai Yu's eyebrows, and his Divine Thought probed inside.

After three breaths, he withdrew his hand, his expression darkening significantly.

"It's a mess inside."

"To what extent?"

"Two Laws are devouring each other, one gold and one black, churned into a tangle." Pure Void Master returned to the stone table and sat down, pouring himself a cup of tea. "His Divine Soul is in the middle, being pulled by both sides. The good news is he hasn't shattered; the bad news is he hasn't woken up either."

The nameless old man walked over from the backyard, still covered in mud, having just finished reinforcing the Formation. "What do you mean he hasn't woken up? Is he unconscious?"

"It's not unconsciousness." Pure Void Master took a sip of tea and set down the cup. "His consciousness has been suppressed to the lowest level. Those two things are fighting too fiercely, using his entire Divine Soul space as an arena. It's not that he doesn't want to wake up; he simply can't squeeze his way up."

The old man cursed.

"Can we help him?" Void Realm asked.

"We can't," Pure Void Master said bluntly. "External intervention will only accelerate the speed at which the two sides devour each other. The only thing we can do now is wait. Wait for him to find a gap himself."

"Wait for how long?"

"I don't know."

The courtyard fell silent again.

The wind blew from the back mountain, carrying the scent of soil. The two peach trees the old man had pulled up were tossed in a corner, wet mud still clinging to their roots, their leaves already withered.

Void Realm closed his eyes and stopped speaking.

The old man sat on the stone stool for a while, then stood up, walked to the stone bed, and looked down at Bai Yu's face.

Young, so very young.

He had lived for a hundred thousand years and seen countless Geniuses rise and fall, but he had never seen a Genius like Bai Yu, with the legacies of two eras stuffed into his body, half-dead yet still being coveted as a tool.

"If you kid die in there," the old man muttered softly, "my Bone Knife will have been given away for nothing."

No one heard him.

No one responded either.

...

Bai Yu's Divine Soul space.

This place was originally a void-like gray plain, where his Divine Soul rested every time he entered meditation.

Now it was a ruin.

The ground was torn into countless fragments floating in mid-air; some were burning, others were freezing. Golden runic chains and ink-colored Sword Qi were intertwined between every fragment, exploding upon contact, then sticking back together after the blast, repeating in a cycle.

Bai Yu crouched on a fragment at the very bottom.

This fragment wasn't large, just enough for him to sit on. All around were the chaotic aftershocks of Laws, with golden and black light flashing alternately above his head; with every flash, his Divine Soul twitched.

He looked down at himself.

Translucent. His right side was almost invisible, leaving only a faint outline that was on the verge of dissipating.

The half that had been gnawed away.

He tried to move his right hand; it could move, but he couldn't feel anything. It felt as if there were a layer of something in between.

Above him, the clash between the two forces grew increasingly intense.

The golden chains were tightening, each carrying a cold, rigid will of order, operating like an emotionless machine—sealing, suppressing, returning to position, without any redundant judgment.

The ink-colored Sword Qi was struggling to break free, each strand filled with greed and rage. That aged voice roared intermittently from the depths of the Sword Qi; though full words couldn't be heard, Bai Yu could feel the core of that will: devour, survive, at any cost.

Two Heavenly Daos were fighting inside his body.

And he was the floor.

Bai Yu didn't move.

It wasn't that he didn't want to move, but that moving was useless. He had tried three times, and each time he pushed out his remaining Divine Soul power, it was crushed back by the aftershocks from both sides. In his current state, he couldn't even attract the attention of these two things.

Too weak.

He sat on the fragment, looking up at the war that didn't belong to him, thoughts spinning in his head.

He couldn't win, and he couldn't run.

Of the two things above, one wanted to lock down this body, and the other wanted to occupy it. No matter who won, the outcome for him was the same—Bai Yu would be gone.

If the lock won, he would become a walking cage, nailed in place forever as the lock core.

If the sword won, his consciousness would be devoured, and his body would become the Old Monster's new shell.

Both paths were dead ends.

Bai Yu thought of that Jade Slip.

On the last page, that phrase: "However, those who decide may not be benevolent; proceed with caution."

The Decider.

The old heavenly dao was a "Decider"; it had created this lock, calculated everything, and arranged for Bai Yu to be the lock core. Pure Void Master was a "Decider"; he stood outside waiting for the result, ready to negotiate terms with whoever won. heaven slasher was also a "Decider"; it had hidden in the sword and fed for who knows how many years, waiting for the moment to break the seal.

Everyone was "deciding."

Deciding the situation, deciding the pieces, deciding the outcome.

But Bai Yu was never a chess piece.

He looked down at the half-transparent outline of his right hand.

Half his Divine Soul was gnawed away?

Then he would fight with half his life.

He stood up.

Not to charge upward, not to fight those two things.

He walked downward.

Beneath the fragments was the deepest part of the Divine Soul space, an area he hadn't even explored himself. There was no light, no Law, nothing.

Bai Yu took a step out, the fragment beneath his feet shattered, and he fell.

Falling into endless darkness.

The roars of the two forces above grew distant, the golden and black lights dimmed, until nothing could be heard and nothing could be seen.

Then he stopped.

Not standing on anything, but stopping within the void.

There was nothing here.

No golden chains, no ink-colored Sword Qi, no Law, no order, no chaos.

Just emptiness.

Bai Yu stood in the emptiness for a long time.

Then he felt something.

Not power, not a Law, not anything that could be explained by any Cultivation system he knew.

It was a kind of... breathing.

Very faint, very slow, as if the void itself was breathing.

Between each inhalation and exhalation, his Divine Soul stopped dissipating.

That half-transparent right hand began to solidify; it was so slow it was almost imperceptible, but it was indeed solidifying.

Bai Yu looked down at his hand and didn't speak.

He didn't know what this was.

But he knew one thing.

This void was nowhere else.

It was himself.

It was the "Bai Yu" himself who had been gnawed away, torn apart, and treated by everyone as a tool and a vessel.

His Divine Soul could be gnawed away by half, but "he" still existed.

Above, the golden and ink-colored slaughter suddenly paused for a moment.

Both wills simultaneously noticed that extremely faint ripple in the depths, as if sensing something that shouldn't exist was waking up.

The golden chains began to extend downward.

The ink-colored Sword Qi also began to permeate downward.

Bai Yu looked up at the two forces reaching down at the same time.

He smiled.

Not a sneer, not a bitter smile.

He just smiled.

"Come," he said, his voice having no echo in the void.

"This is my place."

"Whoever comes must follow my rules."

In the depths of the void, that breath suddenly grew a beat heavier.