144: Chapter 144 The Dead Waterway, Li Xiuyuan's Conjecture

"What do you mean by the Yellow River is dead?" Li Xiuyuan frowned slightly, his eyes filled with confusion as he looked straight at Gu Xiao, not understanding what he meant.

Gu Xiao took a drag of his cigarette, exhaled a cloud of bluish-white smoke, and sighed, "Sigh, it's something discovered during an investigation a while ago. Just think about it, isn't the spiritual energy in this world becoming increasingly dense? Take yourself for example: the bodies of water you control, aren't the aquatic creatures within them growing at a speed visible to the naked eye?"

Li Xiuyuan pondered for a moment and nodded. It was indeed so. Currently, in the lakes and marshes under his jurisdiction—setting aside the Yangtze River for a moment—the growth rate of the creatures in those few lakes alone was quite considerable.

"But the Yellow River is not like that." Gu Xiao's voice sank. "The spiritual energy in that great river is actually becoming less and less. A few years ago, it could still produce a few level three or four Rising Beingss, but now, almost all of them are level one."

"According to instrument monitoring, within half a year, the spiritual energy in that river will completely vanish, eventually turning into a waterway as ordinary as can be." Gu Xiao's expression was as heavy as a mountain when he said this.

"Have you found the source?" Li Xiuyuan asked.

Gu Xiao shook his head: "Not yet, but I have heard some rumors."

He hesitated slightly and asked: "Do you want to hear them?"

"Don't talk nonsense," Li Xiuyuan said.

Gu Xiao's expression was somewhat complex. He paused and said: "I heard, just heard, that some people speculate the reason the Yellow River is like this is because the collapse of the Ancient Heavenly Court caused the Yellow River's water veins to perish and its foundations to disintegrate. To revive it, the water vein foundations need to be refilled, using the body of a True Dragon to fill it."

Dragons originate from water; their flesh, blood, and scales are all of the same source as water. Filling it with a dragon to reactivate the Yellow River's spiritual veins would involve letting the dragon's body sink to the riverbed to become the framework of a brand-new riverbed, with the dragon's blood dissolving into the water to stimulate new spiritual energy, and the dragon's soul dispersing into the river course to become the will of the Yellow River's water veins.

No wonder Gu Xiao's expression was so complex; Li Xiuyuan really hadn't expected it to be like this.

"However, this is just a rumor; whether it is feasible or not is uncertain," Gu Xiao said.

Li Xiuyuan said: "The collapse of the Ancient Heavenly Court led to many variables, and this Yellow River is clearly one of them."

Regardless, Li Xiuyuan still had to head north to take a look at the Yellow River in person. If there was truly no way and he could not use the Yellow River to help him break through, then he would have to settle for the next best thing and find other methods.

It wasn't that there were no other ways. If a Chi Dragon wanted to break through further, besides controlling another waterway, it could also stir up wind and waves in its own waters, set up a Dragon Gate, and then leap over it.

However, doing so would be acting against Heaven, and it would be targeted by the Heavenly Dao, attracting the so-called Lightning Tribulation. This is also the hurdle that many demon clans fear the most.

The power of the Lightning Tribulation cannot be underestimated, and the danger coefficient is also extremely high.

Choosing to roam the Yellow River or the Yangtze River to transform into a True Dragon, if one fails, at most one would only suffer serious injuries and a loss of cultivation; at least one's life would still be preserved. But if one fails the tribulation and is struck to death by the heavenly lightning, then one would only end up in a state of complete annihilation, with not even a wandering soul or spirit left.

...

...

Returning from Wudu, Li Xiuyuan went to the cave on Phoenix Mountain. He told Qing'er and Jingxin about the fierce creature, the Meat Ganoderma in Wudu, and its Innate Supernatural Power that understands ghosts and gods. At the same time, he voiced a confusion in his heart, one that had lingered persistently on Li Xiuyuan's way back.

"That Meat Ganoderma's Innate Supernatural Power can traverse time and space to summon the Four Great Judges to judge living beings. But the problem is, the Underworld has suffered an accident; the Ten Yama Kings have disappeared, and the Four Great Judges, along with the ghost officials like Black and White Impermanence below them, must certainly not be in the Underworld."

"I injured one of the judges; was it one from the past or the future?" Li Xiuyuan asked.

Jingxin pondered for a moment and said: "It should be the Four Great Judges from the past timeline, because the current structure has already changed. Neither the Ancient Heavenly Court nor the Underworld can possibly reconstruct and operate as they did before."

Qing'er also agreed with Jingxin's statement. Sitting on the tree canopy, she nodded: "Indeed, I also think it was the Four Great Judges from the past."

"But if that is the case, how could the Four Great Judges from the past judge me, a being from the future?" Li Xiuyuan frowned, puzzled.

When the Four Great Judges appeared from that rift, Li Xiuyuan had solidly felt a fear of death coming from a supreme will. However, their power of judgment came from the Heavenly Dao; strictly speaking, they should only be able to judge people of that time and could not have any substantial influence on the future Li Xiuyuan.

Qing'er lowered her brows, speaking almost at the same time as Jingxin, "The Heavenly Dao is still there."

Whether for modern practitioners or those of the past era, the understanding of the Heavenly Dao is the same: the Heavenly Dao is the law of operation for all things, the source of everything, and the root of why all things proceed as they should.

Previously, the Ancient Heavenly Court collapsed and spiritual energy withered, causing the original order of the Heavenly Dao to shatter. What followed was the era of the extinction of spiritual energy, which is these past few hundred years of the modern era. This is a viewpoint agreed upon by everyone in the academic world today.

Now, with the resurgence of spiritual energy, a new order of the Heavenly Dao should naturally be born. Since the authority of the Four Great Judges comes from the Heavenly Dao and they can still influence the present from the past, this shows that the original Heavenly Dao has not completely shattered and vanished.

Hearing them say this, an incredible thought suddenly popped into Li Xiuyuan's mind. He said: "Do you think there is such a possibility that if we want to survive, we must fight the old Heavenly Dao to distinguish between dawn and dusk?"

Jingxin and Qing'er were obviously very surprised by this answer. "Benefactor Li, this... why would you suddenly think this way?" Jingxin asked.

Qing'er said: "That's unlikely, right? If the Heavenly Dao of the past still existed, it would inevitably recover, placing all living beings under its Heavenly Dao order."

"Correct, but the problem is that those order rules of the old Heavenly Dao are no longer applicable to the present." Li Xiuyuan nodded. He organized his thoughts and language, then continued: "Under the order of the old Heavenly Dao, whether it be humans or beasts, Buddhas or demons, all living beings have their own innate potential, with superiority and inferiority as the order."

"Breakthroughs in life and bloodline all need to follow a sequence, for example, rising slowly from level one, needing to pass through level two, level three, but who can guarantee that in the future, the combination of human technology and spiritual energy cannot directly rise from level one to the pinnacle of level nine?"

"Nowadays, those humanoid mechs already possess this kind of leap in power." In Li Xiuyuan's view, the order of the old Heavenly Dao could not possibly appear in this current era, let alone continue. That is why he thought that way.

Li Xiuyuan's words left Qing'er and Jingxin in deep thought. Putting it that way, it also made sense.

"You are right; if the old Heavenly Dao continues to use its order, then all living beings will have to fight it," Qing'er frowned deeply.

Li Xiuyuan corrected her: "Not just all living beings, but also the new Heavenly Dao."

Qing'er paused, then added: "Right, also the new Heavenly Dao."

"The concept I raised is not necessarily correct, and even if it is true, it is not certain how long it will be before it appears. Let's not think too much about it for now."

After saying this, he saw Jingxin off and spent a moment alone with Qing'er in the cave. The twilight was heavy, and the mountain breeze passed through the cave, carrying a bit of chill.