523: Chapter 523 The Mystery of Death

How could he possibly admit it?

But the problem was, the other party's words were like demonic sounds piercing his ears, constantly echoing in his Sea of Consciousness, unable to be dispelled.

"Living toward death... the cycle of life and death..."

"Without life, how can there be death?"

"Cultivating only half, yet still wanting to condense a complete Dao Fruit?"

Every word was like a sharp sword, piercing into the weakest part of his Dao Heart.

The theories he had built up over ten thousand years of self-deception and self-hypnosis were as fragile as paper before these sharp swords.

And Lu Yuan did not give him any chance to breathe at all.

"Look at this Underworld River."

The Ferryman stretched out a hand, pointing at the churning, dark red river water.

His fingers were slender and fair, forming a strong visual contrast with this eerie Underworld River.

And the moment his finger pointed, circles of Lianyi actually appeared on the surface of the Underworld River. The Lianyi spread in all directions with his fingertip as the center, pushing away a layer of the viscous corpse water.

"Hundreds of millions of wronged souls are sinking here."

"They only have Death Qi, no vitality, so they can only wail in pain forever, never obtaining liberation."

"Their end is the final destination for all who solely Cultivate the Dao of Death."

"If you are obsessed with pure death, your final fate will be nothing more than becoming a stronger wronged soul in this Underworld River!"

The Great Elder of the Su Clan's complexion changed completely, because he clearly knew that every word the other party said was true!

How could there be only hundreds of millions of wronged souls in the Underworld River?

Among them, there was no lack of Golden Immortal Rank existences!

Before they died, every one of them was a powerful figure who shook the world, but because they relied too heavily on Death Qi to Cultivate, they were eventually backlashed by Death Qi, turning into these undead monsters, trapped forever in this Underworld River, enduring endless torture!

Could it be... that he was also going to turn into that?

Just at this moment, the Ferryman's voice sounded again, but it carried a completely different charm.

It was exactly six words, each containing some unspeakable supreme truth of heaven and earth, as if they were not spoken from his mouth, but were maxims issued by the Great Dao of heaven and earth itself.

"Only after destruction can there be rebirth."

"Only by mastering life can one truly control death!"

As soon as his voice fell, the Ferryman stretched out that finger and pointed it into the air above the Underworld River.

There was no spiritual energy fluctuation, no Law oscillation, and not even any energy dissipation that any Cultivator could feel.

But.

"Hum——"

A trace of the Law of Life, weak to the point of being almost negligible, yet pure to the extreme and profound to the extreme, bloomed from the Ferryman's fingertip.

That Law of Life was only a wisp, as thin as a hair, but the moment it touched the Underworld River, a miracle happened.

With that finger as the center, the dark red river water within a radius of three feet actually seemed to have been purified, starting to become clear and transparent!

The corrosive Death Qi contained in the river water, the moment it touched the Law of Life, was like ice and snow meeting the scorching sun, all melting and dissipating!

Even more crucial were the wronged souls; a few wronged souls with the most hideous faces and the most intense resentment were struggling painfully in the nearby waters.

Their bodies were wrapped in layers of black resentment, and countless twisted human faces emerged from that resentment, emitting sharp and shrill screams.

But when the aftermath of the Law of Life swept across their bodies—

A miracle appeared; the black of the resentment began to fade, replaced by a pure, milky white light.

The wronged souls' originally painful, twisted, and resentment-filled faces, under the infiltration of this light, actually became calm and peaceful little by little.

One of the wronged souls even raised its head and revealed a... smile toward the Ferryman.

It was a smile of liberation. At that moment, these few wronged souls, who might have endured tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years of torture, turned into specks of spiritual light and dissipated between heaven and earth.

They were completely liberated from the shackles of the Underworld River, their souls returned to heaven and earth, and they obtained true rebirth!

Deliverance!

This was not a simple killing ability, nor was it an ordinary technique or Divine Ability.

It was the supreme Profound Truth of using life to control death and living toward death!

"This... how is this possible?"

The Great Elder of the Su Clan's eyeballs were about to pop out.

His dark green eyes stared fixedly at that three-foot clear water surface, staring at the wronged souls that turned into spiritual light and dissipated, staring at that wisp of light on the Ferryman's fingertip that was faint but contained infinite vitality.

He saw it with his own eyes!

He saw with his own eyes that the pure death he had believed in for tens of thousands of years and had painstakingly pondered for over ten thousand years was easily shattered before the other party by this seemingly weak power!

No, it was not shattering, it was transformation, it was transforming the purest death into the purest life!

This was simply overturning all his understanding of the Great Dao of heaven and earth!

If death was not the end, but the starting point of rebirth...

If cultivating Death Qi to the extreme was not to bring destruction, but to nurture rebirth...

If... if he had been walking the wrong path from the very beginning for these ten thousand years...

"No... impossible... my Dao... was it wrong?"

The Great Elder of the Su Clan's voice began to tremble, and his withered body also began to tremble.

The trembling started from his fingertips, spread to his arms, spread to his torso, and spread to his legs.

In the end, he was like a withered leaf in the cold wind, shivering.

The cracks in his Dao Heart expanded rapidly at this moment!

"Crack... crack... crack..."

It was the sound of cracks spreading; the cracks started from his Dao Heart, extended to all his insights into the Laws of the Great Dao, extended to his soon-to-be-formed Immortal Lord brand, and extended to all the Foundation he had built over ten thousand years of Cultivation!

"No! I am not wrong!"

The Great Elder of the Su Clan's eyes turned completely crimson; there was no longer any of the previous calmness and dignity in those eyes, only a kind of near-insane paranoia remained.

"It is you who are spreading demonic words to confuse the public!"

"It is you who are using demonic arts to confuse this old man!"

"The Dao of Death is supreme! Death is eternal!"

He roared hysterically, his voice full of despair and unwillingness.

But while roaring, the cracks within his Dao Heart were expanding, deepening, and spreading frantically in an irreversible trend!

His Dao Heart began to collapse violently, and the collapse of his Dao Heart directly triggered the loss of control of the Death Qi in his body!

You must know that the reason why the Great Elder of the Su Clan was able to Cultivate to his current Realm was not by relying on orthodox Cultivation methods, but by an extreme method—he used himself as a container to forcibly swallow the power of death that had accumulated in the Underworld River for countless tens of thousands of years!

How immense was this power?

It could be said that even an ordinary Immortal Lord might not necessarily exceed him in the accumulation of pure Death Qi!

All along, he had been using the will and Dao Heart he had cultivated over ten thousand years to forcibly control this power.

But at this moment, his Dao Heart had developed cracks, and the balance was completely broken!