139: Chapter 139 Yuanshi Tianzun?

Time passed, and another thousand years went by.

Jiang Hao was in closed-door cultivation deep within the Lingxiao Palace when his mind suddenly stirred. It wasn't because someone outside the hall sought an audience, but rather a message that had crossed the endless starry river.

It was from Heavenly Venerable Lingbao, and his tone carried a rare sense of solemnity.

Jiang Hao did not hesitate. With a slight shift of his thoughts, his figure vanished from the Lingxiao Palace.

The next moment, he appeared in a remote corner of the Universe where even starlight was nearly extinct.

This place was already beyond the normal range covered by the Heavenly Court's Luck, and time and space appeared somewhat fragile.

A familiar blue-gray figure stood with hands behind his back atop a floating meteorite; it was indeed Heavenly Venerable Lingbao.

"Fellow Daoist, you've arrived." Lingbao turned around. His usual easygoing manner was gone, replaced by a face full of solemnity and a faint expression of excitement.

"I came as soon as I received the transmission." Jiang Hao landed beside him and asked directly, "Fellow Daoist, do you have some important happy news?"

Seeing Heavenly Venerable Lingbao's expression, Jiang Hao knew the matter was not simple.

Lingbao did not answer immediately. Instead, he waved his hand to set up a barrier isolating the inside from the outside before speaking in a low voice:

"Fellow Daoist Jiang, I may have... discovered the traces of an old friend."

"An old friend?" Jiang Hao's eyes flickered slightly. "There probably aren't many old friends who could make you so solemn, Fellow Daoist."

Heavenly Venerable Lingbao came from the Mythological Era. People from that era were either dead or had entered restricted zones.

"Indeed, almost all of my old friends have passed away." Heavenly Venerable Lingbao sighed. Although he wasn't an outgoing person, waking up to find two eras had passed and his old friends had withered away still moved him.

"But recently, my mind has been constantly tugged by a mysterious sensation... Combined with a wisp of nearly dissipated dao rhyme I accidentally captured while traveling near this place in my earlier years, after repeated deductions, I've arrived at a guess that even I find hard to believe."

Heavenly Venerable Lingbao paused and looked directly at Jiang Hao. "That wisp of dao rhyme is extremely faint, almost merging with the Chaos Void Realm. Ordinary people would have no way of detecting it."

"But my Dao is unique, and that dao rhyme is also special. That tiny bit of sensation feels incredibly familiar to me."

"It feels like..." Lingbao slowly uttered the name that had shaken the heavens even in the Mythological Era, "It feels like Fellow Daoist Yuanshi."

Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi!

Jiang Hao's eyes suddenly narrowed.

One of the Nine Heavenly Venerables of the Mythological Era, he primarily cultivated the Yuanshi Dao and was a supreme existence who, according to legend, had long since completely perished during the Mythological Era.

A very powerful and legendary Heavenly Venerable!

"Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi?" Jiang Hao said in a deep voice. "Ancient history records that his Dao has vanished."

Jiang Hao had read various records, all of which stated that Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi had fallen, a fact corroborated by many Heavenly Venerables from the Mythological Era.

"The records say so." Heavenly Venerable Lingbao nodded, but his tone became increasingly certain.

"But that unique dao rhyme of the beginning of all things... I am seventy percent certain that the source of that aura, even if it is not Fellow Daoist Yuanshi himself, must be directly related to him!"

Heavenly Venerable Lingbao pointed toward the distant Void Realm where even the Chaos Qi currents appeared thin and chaotic:

"Right in there, in the depths of a forbidden land where time and space are completely distorted, that wisp of dao rhyme flickers in and out, extremely unstable."

Jiang Hao looked toward that dark Void Realm that seemed capable of swallowing everything and said without the slightest hesitation, "In that case, let's go in and see for ourselves."

Jiang Hao still trusted Heavenly Venerable Lingbao quite a bit.

Heavenly Venerable Lingbao was not a man who enjoyed lying; he was trustworthy.

"Good!" Lingbao's spirits lifted.

With that, he took the lead, transforming into a sharp sword light that shot toward that absolute Void Realm.

Jiang Hao slightly restrained his aura and followed him like a shadow.

The two instantly entered that lightless, soundless dark Void Realm.

Subsequently, they arrived in the depths of the Void Realm.

"It's right here." Heavenly Venerable Lingbao pointed to the Void Realm ahead.

This place looked no different from any other Chaos Void Realm.

But Jiang Hao indeed felt something different; there were traces of manual processing here.

"Open!"

With a low shout from Heavenly Venerable Lingbao, at the intersection of the Sword Qi, the Void Realm was forcibly torn open like a strip of cloth, revealing a pitch-black rift.

From inside the rift, a desolate and ancient aura emanated.

It was exactly the dao rhyme that Lingbao had sensed.

Jiang Hao and Heavenly Venerable Lingbao glanced at each other, then flashed inside.

Inside the rift was a small Small World, spanning no more than a hundred thousand miles.

It was deathly silent here, without sun, moon, or stars, without mountains or rivers, and not even a trace of wind. Only in the very center floated a figure in tattered Daoist robes.

The figure maintained a cross-legged sitting posture, its face eroded into an indistinct blur by time and some kind of power, but the silhouette of its body slowly overlapped with the old friend deep in Lingbao's memory.

What made their gazes freeze even more was that at the forehead of this remains, a true spirit mark was flickering.

The true spirit was like an extremely thirsty infant, absorbing an invisible, special essence from the surrounding Void Realm at an imperceptible speed.

"It really is Fellow Daoist Yuanshi!" Heavenly Venerable Lingbao's voice carried a trace of imperceptible trembling. He stepped forward quickly but stopped abruptly a few feet away, not daring to touch it rashly.

Jiang Hao was also somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected it to truly be Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi; it turned out Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi really hadn't died.

As expected, records aren't necessarily reliable, even those certified by Heavenly Venerable Ancient Emperors.

Heavenly Venerable Lingbao suppressed his excitement, his gaze like lightning as he carefully scanned the invisible, special grand Formation in the Void Realm surrounding the remains.

The more he looked, the deeper the shock on his face became. "And this Formation... the circulating trajectories of the Dao laws contain the traces of another person besides Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi's dao rhyme!"

Jiang Hao saw it clearly as well.

Maintaining the existence of this Small World, protecting that fragile wisp of true spirit, and skillfully channeling the essence of the Chaos Void Realm to nourish it was a set of extremely complex and ancient Formations.

Within it were two dao marks. One was indeed from Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi, while the other's dao rhyme and layout style were exactly what Jiang Hao had sensed not long ago on the Kunlun Ancient Star.

"It's the Dao Venerable," Jiang Hao said slowly, his tone certain.

"Correct, it is indeed the handiwork of the Dao Venerable!"

Lingbao also nodded heavily, his face a mix of realization.

"I didn't expect... before the Dao Venerable left back then, he not only laid out plans for Kunlun and future generations but even left such a backup for Fellow Daoist Yuanshi."

Jiang Hao was also somewhat surprised in his heart.

But on second thought, it seemed reasonable.

Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi followed closely after the Dao Venerable in the Mythological Era; the two must have had interactions and perhaps even a deep friendship.

Given the Dao Venerable's abilities and magnanimity, helping Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi and hiding a glimmer of hope for him made perfect sense.

Jiang Hao stepped closer to take a detailed look at that true spirit mark.

The mark was in an extremely deep slumber, showing no reaction to the outside world, and its speed of absorbing the essence of the Chaos Void Realm was agonizingly slow.

At this natural rate, it would probably take millions of years for the true spirit to be fully restored and for consciousness to awaken.

However, there was no other way. Judging from the arrangement, both the Dao Venerable and Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi himself had already done their best.

The grand Formation laid by the Dao Venerable and the location chosen by Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi were very deliberate.

Because of the uniqueness of Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi's Dao, the Chaos Void Realm was more suitable than anywhere else.

It allowed this wisp of true spirit to undergo a slow process of returning to its origin while in absolute slumber, reverting to its purest Innate primal state.

Once successful, the revived Yuanshi might be even closer to the true essence of the name 'Yuanshi' than he was during the Mythological Era.

Jiang Hao's gaze moved from the Formation's network to the remains, and his brow furrowed slightly.