novelraw Chapter 580: Reality and Illusion Are Separated by a Single Thought
Chapter 580: Reality and Illusion Are Separated by a Single Thought
Ning Fan informed a few Mingluo priests about acquiring ten Min Luo puppets, simplifying the matter without mentioning the fact he had slain the Return to Origin Tree King, so as not to frighten the Min Luo people.
He briefly recounted the encounter with the Treant Ming Luo, only saying it was trapped in the Rain Immortal World, without mentioning anything about Dark Sparrow’s Grave.
Priests like Gu Luo and Xu Luo, their old eyes brimming with tears, did not cry when their Min Luo clan was bullied.
Nor did they cry when one hundred thousand members disintegrated their souls for Qingdai, never to enter reincarnation.
But upon hearing that the Last Tree Emperor still lived, they wept tears of joy, their eyes filled with warm tears.
The ancestors are still here, with us...and that is enough for now.
Gu Luo proposed rescuing the Tree Emperor by going to the Rain Immortal World, but the proposal was rejected by Xu Luo and other priests.
The Last Tree Emperor has been trapped for so many years, clearly indicating the difficulty of escape.
Their modest cultivations would not allow them to reach the Rain Immortal World, and even if they could, rescuing the Tree Emperor was impossible. It would only expose his existence.
Rescuing the Last Tree Emperor requires long-term planning.
At present, their pressing task is to quickly gather all Min Luo people from Siluo Bamboo Sea, return to their clan, and attend the funeral of the ten Void Refinement Realm ancestors...
As night descended, a massive structure was erected within the Illusion Tomb Forbidden Land at the center of Siluo City, and a great bonfire was lit.
The so-called Illusion Tomb is the burial ground for the Min Luo clan’s ancestors.
Countless Min Luo people rushed back to Siluo City from all over the Bamboo Sea, busy preparing for the funeral of the ten ancestors throughout the city.
The priests Gu Luo, Xu Luo, along with Qingdai, the High Priest, were all engaged in the ancestor worship preparations for the funeral.
Ning Fan, on the other hand, seemed to have nothing to do and wandered aimlessly around Siluo City.
Now the Min Luo people all knew Ning Fan was a Void Inquiry cultivator and a friend to their clan. Thus, no one stopped him from wandering freely in the city.
Various types of incense burned within the Illusion Tomb. Even when Ning Fan walked to the west of the city, he could smell the thick scent of incense.
Walking alone in the bright night of the bonfires, he found unprecedented tranquility within his heart.
He had heard the story of Qingdai from the mouths of six other priests.
A thousand years ago, when Qingdai was still young, her mother, the High Priest, was killed by the Cedar Clan.
Within a thousand years, one hundred thousand Min Luo people had selflessly disintegrated their souls, never to enter reincarnation, sacrificing their cultivations to refine a Cultivation Pill for Qingdai to consume, ultimately enabling her to break through to the Void Glimpse Stage...
The hundred thousand Min Luo people sacrificed not for the prosperity of their clan but merely to retrieve their ancestors’ bodies, unwilling to let them fall into foreign hands...
The ten Min Luo puppets, all at the Void Glimpse Stage, represented a formidable force for the now-declining Min Luo clan.
Deploying these ten puppets to protect the Min Luo clan, with Qingdai’s puppet skills, would assuredly elevate Min Luo back to a first-rate power in Hancang Kingdom, never again to be bullied by other tree clans...
But the Min Luo people acted recklessly, dismantling the puppetry formations of the ten puppets, destroying them, leaving only ten ordinary corpses without any combat power.
Thereafter, they respectfully buried these ancestral bodies...
"They’re foolish...yet I don’t resent it..."
With a slight chill in the night wind, Ning Fan closed his eyes, recalling past events in the Hu Clan of Yue Country.
Hu Fengzi, to protect his family, willingly shattered his soul, transforming into a Cultivation Pill...
A hundred thousand Min Luo people, in seeking to retrieve and bury their ancestors’ bodies, did the same...
The path of cultivation has never lacked clever individuals; all who endure the bloody mist are geniuses in their own right.
The path of cultivation has always lacked those who are foolish. Knowing it’s impossible yet still pursuing, knowing dangers lie ahead but for the sake of their convictions, not hesitating to face death, standing firm against thousands!
Knowing all efforts might amount to nothing, yet stubbornly seeking a conclusion!
Knowing opposing the heavens risks peril at every step yet, for just one smile of hers, defying the heavens themselves!
Those who are highly cunning often find themselves unhappy.
The images of paper cranes, Mu Xiaoliang, and others emerged before Ning Fan’s eyes, and he suddenly smiled knowingly.
These silly girls, perhaps with his protection, could remain untouched by blood throughout their lives and stay joyful.
True wisdom appears as foolishness, true skill appears clumsy, great sound is rarely heard, great form is without shape, great filling is like a void, great debate is scarcely articulated, great integrity lacks edges, great straightness appears bent, great accomplishment appears incomplete...
This is the utmost simplicity of the Dao!
When a wise man hears the Dao, he diligently practices it; when an average man hears the Dao, he wavers between belief and doubt; when a foolish man hears the Dao, he laughs aloud. Without laughing, it wouldn’t be the Dao!
The world mocks the Min Luo clan’s foolishness, but they do not know that such conduct aligns with human decency and the friendly Dao.
If everyone could understand the Min Luo clan’s Dao, then it wouldn’t be considered the great Dao anymore.
Ning Fan took out the blood wine gourd, gulped down a mouthful, and suddenly turned back under the dim lights, gazing at the massive bonfire at the center of Siluo City with increasingly deep eyes.
When the grand Dao reaches its peak, it becomes its reverse!
When reality reaches its peak, it becomes void!
Ning Fan, progressing along the path of cultivation, initially saw emptiness as emptiness, later saw emptiness as non-emptiness, and eventually as emptiness again.
Yet now, even as he clearly gazes into reality, the path of his insight is nonetheless void!
The duality of void and reality, he gradually comprehends, with insights sufficient for the Void Pierce Stage and nearing complete understanding even at the Great Void Sect level!
He stared at the giant bonfire in the Illusion Tomb, watching the ten Void Refinement Realm ancestors slowly turn to ash in the flames.
He saw three hundred and twenty thousand Min Luo people bow down and kneel, eyes filled with tears, sincerely praying and worshipping by the bonfire.
"We, the Min Luo Race, born as trees, rooted to the ground, where our roots are, there is our nation! Our nation can fall, our roots can burn, our bodies can be destroyed, our Dao can disappear, but our ancestors shall not be insulted or desecrated!"
"A vast catastrophe for millennia, our ancestral bones scatter, hurting our hearts in contemplation! We, unworthy descendants, will not rest until countless enemies are slain!"
"We, the descendants, vow upon the Illusion Tomb that, even at the cost of all three hundred and twenty thousand, we will see our enemies perish! If this oath is broken, let Heaven unite against us!"
Those mighty oaths echoed with force, stirring Ning Fan’s heart.
Beneath the bonfire, Qingdai adorned in luxurious attire, barefooted, danced gracefully around the flames, sincerely praying.
In her eyes, there was a deep remembrance of her ancestors. Her dance was so beautiful, like a gracefully fluttering blue butterfly...
With a smile on his lips, Ning Fan took a deep drink from the blood wine gourd.
His gaze became clearer as it followed Qingdai’s graceful dance.
The dance was reality, the remembrance of ancestors was the void.
The bonfire was reality, the vows melting within the flames were the void.
The bodies of ten ancestors were reality; once consumed by fire into ashes, the mournful presence of ancestors echoing throughout Siluo City was the void.
Ning Fan flexed his fingers and plucked a bamboo leaf from a Xiangfei Bamboo.
That bamboo leaf was reality, but as Ning Fan exhaled his power, it gradually transformed into a formless green qi.
As Ning Fan’s mind moved, the ethereal green qi once again turned into bamboo leaves...
The void and reality are only a thought away!
Ning Fan threw the bamboo leaves back into the soil and closed his eyes, his figure gradually fading into the night.
Gradually, his physical body disappeared into the void, as if vanishing into the night!
This was the complete embodiment of his physical form into void!
When he was at the Void Inquiry stage, Ning Fan had also made his physical body void, but it had not reached this level!
At this moment, because of his journey through the Siluo Bamboo Sea, his understanding of the Void was complete!
As long as his mana was sufficient, he could break through the Void Pierce bottleneck and reach the Void Fragmentation Realm at this moment!
His mind moved, and his body gradually reappeared in the vastness of the night.
No joy or sadness showed on his face, calm and composed, as if the breakthrough in Void understanding was only natural, without any surprise.
"Silly brother, you’ve already broken through the understanding of Void Fragmentation. If your mana is sufficient now, you can break through the Void Fragmentation Realm in one go... But sister reminds you, the biggest obstacle in your breakthrough isn’t understanding or mana, but the lightning tribulation... If you’re not fully prepared, don’t hastily undergo the tribulation. This time’s lightning tribulation will certainly be stronger than the last, most likely the Tribulation of Yin Wind!" In his mind, Luo You giggled and reminded him.
"I understand... Thank you."
Ning Fan replied with a smile to Luo You, who usually seemed indifferent to him, deliberately keeping a distance and not engaging in much conversation.
But whenever he faced difficulties, she’d always offer concerned reminders.
Though Luo You kept avoiding him, she wasn’t necessarily without feelings for him.
She ultimately had some family feud or national hatred that led her to evade emotions so much...
Boom!
Suddenly, a huge roar erupted from the wood rack in the center of Siluo City, shattered by a giant palm print descending from the sky!
Ash drifted in the night sky, and the gray of ten Void Refinement ancestors’ corpses scattered with the wind.
From the high sky came the cold laughter of three elderly voices.
"The Ming Luo Race is truly foolish! They retrieved ten ancestral Void Glimpse spiritual puppets, yet destroyed them, cremating their ancestors... Utter stupidity!"
"If the Ming Luo Race had ten Void Glimpse ancestors present, today’s bloodbath might cost us more people. But now those ten Void Glimpse spiritual puppets are destroyed; only their Void Glimpse High Priest and two external Void Inquiry cultivators remain, hardly worth mentioning!"
"A mere declining tree race that dared to kill our Cedar Clan’s people is simply courting death!"
The three cold laughs hadn’t stopped when close to a million Gold Core expert armies suddenly descended from the sky above Siluo City!
These cultivators were divided into four clans, each with a large flag: Cedar Clan, Stone Tree Clan, Thunder Cypress Clan, and Shenqiao Clan!
The three laughing ones were three ancestors of the Cedar Clan, each a Void Refinement Realm expert!
With a single phrase, they exposed the matters of the Void Glimpse spiritual puppets, clearly having thoroughly investigated the Ming Luo Race’s details before coming to Siluo Bamboo Sea!
They came prepared, intending to destroy the Ming Luo Race in one stroke!
Not even the mighty being who transformed souls into bamboo and preferred reincarnation could stop the four clans’ determination to eradicate Ming Luo!
"Who killed my child? Come out right now!" yelled a middle-aged man in a silver robe beside the three Cedar ancients.
He was a Void Pierce Stage expert, the current Cedar Clan Leader, named Ao Wang!
The Cedar Clan’s young sect leader Ao Chen, killed by Ning Fan, was his son!
The four major tree clans, including the Cedar Clan, suddenly descended with a total army of millions of cultivators.
Among them, 30 Void Refinement Realm cultivators came alone!
in Void Glimpse, 7 in Void Inquiry, 6 in Void Pierce, and 6 in Void Fragmentation!
The high-ranking cultivators of the four clans all joined the battle to bloodshed Ming Luo. Only low-level cultivators remained in the clans!
Qingdai, Gu Luo, Xuluo and other priests, along with 320,000 Ming Luo people, looked up at the million cultivators in the night sky with rage in their eyes!
Their ancestral ritual was destroyed by the four clans’ cultivators!
The ancestors’ ashes scattered by the four clans, impossible to collect!
Though aware of the overwhelming enemy strength, every Ming Luo person was indignant. Hundreds of Ming Luo people with blood-red eyes immediately burned their Demon Cores and Demon Infants, soaring to the sky to perish along with the four clans’ cultivators!
They could endure insults and bullying, be ridiculed—they didn’t care.
But when their ancestors were humiliated, their ashes scattered, how could they endure, how could they bear it!
"You’ve gone too far!"
The Cedar Clan Leader Ao Wang sneered in the sky, tapping his toes as a void ocean emerged above, pointing a finger to shatter the bodies of hundreds of Ming Luo soaring to the sky, turning them into blood mist!
"Mere Golden Core and Nascent Soul ants dare challenge this Clan Leader? It’s simply overestimating themselves! Now, the only ones in Ming Luo that I might give any regard are those two Void Inquiry cultivators, even your Void Glimpse stage Qingdai High Priest is just an ant in this Clan Leader’s eyes!"
"This Clan Leader will count to three. If the Void Inquiry madman who killed my child doesn’t appear, I’ll immediately order the bloodwash of Ming Luo!"
"One!"
"Two!"
Ao Wang hadn’t said "three" when suddenly a dragon-like sword hum echoed in the world!
Out of the night, a white-robed young man riding a black Giant Sword formed by sword sense suddenly appeared in the sky.
Ao Wang hadn’t seen his face clearly when the youth and the sword sense simultaneously shattered!
In an instant, Ao Wang seemed to see the white-robed youth mysteriously transform into a black robe, almost like an illusion.
In the next moment, a sweeping ink-like sword sense spread across the night, and before the four clans’ million Gold Core cultivators could react, twenty to thirty thousand cultivators died under the sword sense’s sweep!
The four clan ancestors, all Void Fragmentation Realm, with three from Cedar and one from each of the other clans.
Six Void Fragmentation Realm experts jointly acted to block the sword sense sweeping the night sky, to prevent further loss of their low-level clansmen.
The six held back their outrage, yet before they could retaliate against the white-robed youth, countless fragmented ink shadows suddenly appeared beside Ao Wang.
Fragments of ink shadows suddenly gathered, forming a vast strangling power that killed Ao Wang within them!
Black shadows dispersed, Ning Fan in white robes holding Ao Wang’s Spirit, his eyes filled with boundless evil qi, swept a cold gaze over the four clans’ cultivators.
With just one glance, even the four clans’ six Void Fragmentation experts felt an unsuppressable panic!
"I am Lu Bei, I killed your Cedar Clan’s Young Sect Leader, what can you do!"
Ning Fan uttered a word, and the entire sky fell dead silent!
The next moment, a recently returned Void Refinement Realm cultivator from Northern Forest Sea suddenly exclaimed!
"He is Lu Bei! He’s the madman wanted by the Vine Emperor! He has fled to our Eastern Tree Ocean!"
(Math error corrected, modified) (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com for reading.)