Chapter 880 - 341: Allow Me to Call You Dragon Lord
Guan Xin was not someone who liked to fuss over her appearance. All year round, she basically wore plain garments, with no powder or rouge, no makeup at all. Yet this not only failed to lessen others’ impression of her, it instead made her seem clean and fresh.
Even ordinary mortals, when getting along with her, would not feel any pressure.
The "seeking truth from facts" principle she had always practiced gave others the feeling that she could take on any role.
As she sat in the Cowherd Courtyard where the successive Literary Ancestors of Wenxin Heaven had lived, she gave off the air of a Literary Ancestor revered by scholars under heaven.
An unbroken current of transparent wisdom flowed out from her every movement.
"So, what is Young Master Fan planning to do?"
Fan Wubing said,
"What we have always called the Immortal Realm should actually be called the Great Thousand Worlds. And the so-called power of the Upper Immortals is precisely power that comes from the Great Thousand Worlds. The passage, or one could say bridge, between the Small Thousand Worlds where we are and the Great Thousand Worlds is the Path to Immortality."
Having fully grasped the "Will to Seek Truth," Guan Xin understood at a touch. She nodded,
"Then it seems the Heavenly Dao is the communicative medium."
"Yes. The first step in rebuilding the Path to Immortality is to restore the Heavenly Dao to its proper place."
"What is required for the Heavenly Dao to return to its position?" Guan Xin asked.
Fan Wubing said,
"In any case, we no longer need that kind of ’Supreme Heaven’ Heavenly Dao. We must let the Heavenly Dao return to its essence."
"The collective will of all living beings."
"Exactly. The firmament we know is the collective will of all living beings. And the Heaven Nurturing Cauldron, last among the Thirty-Three Innate Supreme Treasures, serves precisely to gather that will."
"The Heaven Nurturing Cauldron..." Guan Xin furrowed her brow. "According to the records, the Heaven Nurturing Cauldron should be under the control of the ancient behemoth Bixi. But ever since the Path to Immortality collapsed, the Human Race has had very little contact with those ancient behemoths. Especially after the True Dragon Will was seized, all the ancient behemoths fell into slumber."
Fan Wubing smiled and said,
"Don’t worry about that. The Heaven Nurturing Cauldron is in my hands."
Guan Xin paused slightly, then felt relieved. She was not surprised at all. The person before her was the Lord of All Beings, the one who had returned victorious from slaying Heaven. No matter what he did, one should not be surprised.
Fan Wubing went on,
"After the Heavenly Dao is restored, we will need a Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth to awaken the obsession with ascension."
"A Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth?"
"Yes." Fan Wubing waved his hand and outlined scene after scene, depicting how, in the span from the Enlightenment Era’s Era of Enacting Heaven to the Ascension Era, a host of seekers of the Dao condensed a Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth and, together with the Heavenly Dao, constructed the Path to Immortality.
Hundreds of thousands of years of time flashed past in the eyes of the two of them.
This was the power of the Eternal Cosmos Dao.
If one could knead the years in one’s palm, tens of millions of years would be no more than an instant.
In the blink of an eye, Guan Xin found herself personally experiencing that vast and magnificent age, and she was deeply shaken. She suppressed her surging emotions and asked,
"How is one to make such a Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth?"
Fan Wubing said,
"If everything could unfold in an orderly manner, then the best way would be as in the early Ascension Era, when the personal wishes of the seekers of the Dao accumulated together into a great Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth. But I cannot guarantee that everything will proceed in such an orderly way."
Guan Xin froze,
"Even with the Supreme Heaven gone, will there still be difficulties and perils?"
Fan Wubing found it hard to explain this to Guan Xin.
Even though she had penetrated the "Will to Seek Truth" and could easily comprehend everything in the world, that was still confined to the scope of this Small Thousand World.
The most unpredictable threats lay in the Great Thousand Worlds.
"An uncharted fate," was all Fan Wubing could say.
Guan Xin understood that this was already beyond the level she could touch. She exhaled lightly and asked,
"What is the other way?"
Fan Wubing said,
"I will make the Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth on behalf of all living beings."
Guan Xin paused for a moment, then asked earnestly,
"I don’t want to doubt you. But you should know the price an individual must pay to make such a vow, don’t you?"
Fan Wubing smiled and said, "I have done my homework on that."
A Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth represents the noblest, most unsurpassable power of a world. Looking across the ages, the time span of any Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth is in the millions of years and requires innumerable lives to jointly make the vow over a long, long epoch.
The Three Thousand Great Dao are the result of such a Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth.
The Heavenly Dao and the Path to Immortality are also the result of a Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth.
To go further back, even the birth of life is the result of a Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth; only, at that time there was no Heaven and Earth, only the Great Wilderness Cyan Dragon.
Guan Xin found it hard to imagine what price Fan Wubing would have to pay to make such a Grand Vow of Heaven and Earth in a short amount of time.
She could not help but ask,
"What if it doesn’t succeed? Have you considered that possibility?"
She respected Fan Wubing greatly, seeing him as her guide and a beneficial friend. So from a personal standpoint, she could not bear to see anything happen to Fan Wubing because of this.
Looking back on Fan Wubing’s experiences thus far, from the heaven-slaying tribulation in the Sea of Eternal Life to the recent path of slaying Heaven, all had come at the cost of enormous sacrifice.
And she had been unable to help much.
This time, if possible, she was willing to give her all.
With the starry cosmos reflected in the Eyes of Eternity, Fan Wubing seemed as though he were beyond the heavens, his voice long and indistinct,
"There is no more tragic ending than being trapped in this cage, unable to go anywhere. Since I am the Lord of All Beings, I must fulfill this mission. If I fail, I will bear everything myself."
Guan Xin lowered her head slightly,
"Bear everything..."
She greatly envied that Fan Wubing could say such words so lightly.
She also knew for certain that Fan Wubing was not speaking casually. It was precisely because she knew he had thought it through so deeply that she felt this envy.