Chapter 416: Truth
Beyond the Southern Capital, three streams of light were rushing at tremendous speed. From the void ripples spreading beneath their feet, it was plain that all three possessed extraordinary attainments in the void; even peak Void-Piercing cultivators who had newly planted void Dao Seeds might not match them on the Dao of void.
One of the three was none other than Gu Li, who not long ago had joined hands with Zhen Xuanyuan inside the Heavenly Dao Sect and still nearly had his grotto-heaven cleaved apart by a single slash from Yaoguang's sword.
Any true disciple of the Heavenly Dao Sect would have immediately recognized another: Supreme Elder Bu Zhou.
But at this moment, both men were deferring to a white-haired man who wore the face of someone in his thirties. Ordinary disciples, even many true disciples, might not know that face, but to every Void-Piercing cultivator, the older ones especially, this man was the glory of the Heavenly Dao Sect.
With the Central Heaven Dao Lord away, he was a pillar second only to the Golden Book Venerable, holding up the sect on its foundations: the invincible Void-Shattering cultivator ranked in the top ten of the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings, Perfected Lord Jinghong.
"Senior Brother, you have no idea how arrogant that Yaoguang is. He barged straight into the sect and murdered Supreme Elder Jing Yuntian," Perfected Lord Bu Zhou narrated as they flew. "You remember Supreme Elder Jing, surely? Loyal to the Heavenly Dao Sect through and through! And not just him. The Jing family has roots in our sect that are thirty thousand years deep, having served us since then. You entered the sect under Master's own wing, Senior Brother, so you wouldn't know, but in your day, the elder who administered the new disciple examinations was a member of the Jing family."
Perfected Lord Jinghong's expression stayed placid, his eyes betraying little feeling either way. He barely even replied; the whole road had been Perfected Lord Bu Zhou talking and Perfected Lord Jinghong listening.
The atmosphere left Supreme Elder Gu Li feeling oppressed. As things stood, Bu Zhou's words did not seem to carry much weight with Perfected Lord Jinghong at all.
Just then, Perfected Lord Jinghong abruptly halted. Before Gu Li and Bu Zhou could work out what was happening, a figure appeared out of nowhere in the void five kilometers ahead. Had Perfected Lord Jinghong not sensed it, the two of them would never have noticed the slightest anomaly.
"It's Yaoguang!" Gu Li burst out. "That's him, the one who ran a slaughter inside our sect and treated its rules and regulations as nothing!"
"Yaoguang?!" At Gu Li's warning, Perfected Lord Bu Zhou recognized the figure as well, and his voice turned grim. "The audacity! He knows we've come and doesn't flee! He clearly holds none of us in his eyes."
"Flee? Why would I flee?" Yaoguang said evenly. "Everything I did was reasonable and lawful, and the rest of the Heavenly Dao Sect has accepted my decision. Is there a problem?"
"Reasonable and lawful? From your mouth, those words are nothing more than a joke." Perfected Lord Bu Zhou's psychic thought had almost a feverish pitch. "Supreme Elder Jing Yuntian fought campaigns for our Heavenly Dao Sect across countless years and gained merit beyond measure, and based only on your slander, with no investigation whatsoever, he was butchered. Such savagery, and you dare call it lawful?"
"No investigation? I believe I investigated quite thoroughly. The evidence was ironclad," Yaoguang said calmly.
"Heh. One Recording Stone, and you'd convict a supreme elder? Since when were the supreme elders of the Heavenly Dao Sect worth so little? Or is it..." Perfected Lord Bu Zhou's expression turned cold and sharp. "...that you've never once counted yourself a member of the Heavenly Dao Sect, and itch to weaken us with your schemes?"
Yaoguang was unbothered by his manner. "You should learn from Supreme Elder Gu Li. He, at least, knows better than to spout nonsense to my face."
He gave a light laugh. "Or is it that with Perfected Lord Jinghong here, your nerve has come back?"
Supreme Elder Gu Li kept his silence. Since that battle, he genuinely feared Yaoguang.
After all, Jing Yuntian had died in front of him, and his own strength was similar to that supreme elder's.
"Heh. Call me a liar if you like, say I have neither reason nor proof. Today you will pay for what you've done all the same," Perfected Lord Bu Zhou said coldly.
"Will I?" Yaoguang's gaze shifted to Perfected Lord Jinghong. "The Central Heaven Dao Lord's most valued direct disciple, top ten on the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings. What do you say?"
"No matter what, Jing Yuntian was a supreme elder of our sect. As Bu Zhou says, if not merit, then at least labor. To kill him on your own authority, without a ruling from the Supreme Elder Council, was wrong," Perfected Lord Jinghong said after a moment's consideration.
"Then there's nothing more to discuss." Yaoguang's face was calm as he looked straight at the strongest man beneath the Heavenly Dao Sect's Dao Lord. "Come. Show me how far you've cultivated the Great Dao of truth."
Perfected Lord Jinghong shook his head instead. "I'm not saying what you did was necessarily wrong. I'm telling you that having joined our sect, you must observe its rules and avoid killing others as you please, restrained only by the strength of your cultivation. Remember, there is always a stronger hand among the strong, always a taller mountain. If everyone applied private justice the way you do, wouldn't everything within the Heavenly Dao Sect have collapsed into chaos long ago?"
"Private justice? And who defines what is private justice and what is public? You? By that logic, the Heavenly Dao Sect must become your echo chamber: when you punish and kill, it's righteous; when we punish and kill, it's forbidden. If things really ran the way you describe, the Heavenly Dao Sect would be finished sooner or later," Yaoguang said.
"Every strong man believes what he does is right, because his power is authority itself, and his strength is truth itself..." Perfected Lord Jinghong paused faintly, then gave a small nod. "I agree with that."
Yaoguang was mildly surprised. This Perfected Lord Jinghong was remarkably direct.
"Which is why I cultivate so painstakingly, why I study the Great Dao of truth; all for the purpose of making those cultivators who think themselves too powerful to bother with reason calm down and sit obediently before me, while I explain to them, carefully, the truth as I understand it..." Perfected Lord Jinghong looked at Yaoguang. "And repeated practice has proven the method very effective..."
"Spoken like a true cultivator of the Dao of truth. You really have touched upon it." Yaoguang felt the urge to fire back a quip and couldn't quite find one.
So he simply brought out the Wandering Dragon Sword. "Come, then. Let me hear your truth! And you can judge mine! We'll see which of us truly holds it."
"Very well." Perfected Lord Jinghong nodded, and then a book appeared in his hand.
The instant it materialized, Yaoguang identified it: a high-grade Dao Artifact.
"You may have reached the Void-Shattering Realm through the Dao of void, but truth allows no profanation! Transgress, and the void itself will turn on you!" Perfected Lord Jinghong said.
The words were barely spoken when Yaoguang felt a Great Dao's power crudely interposing itself between him and his perception of the void. Within moments, the Dao of void seemed to have been talked around, beginning to reject him; his sense of the void dulled sharply, and even the Dao Seeds of his grotto-heaven world seemed to wilt.
"The Great Truth Technique!" Yaoguang recognized it at once as a Dao Technique born of the Great Dao of truth.
At a thought, the Limitless Sword activated within his body, the Great Dao of void descended, and the power of truth was expelled in an instant. At the same time, the Wandering Dragon Sword flashed gold, void power condensed, and a Void Sword quickly took shape.
When Yaoguang activated the Limitless Sword, Perfected Lord Jinghong seemed to sense something, and a flicker of shock crossed his eyes. "He actually..."
But seeing the Void Sword form, his reaction was lightning-fast.
"Truth requires substance to carry it; the sacred word requires space to be enacted! Let the void walk with truth, and serve my hand as well."
With those words, the Void Sword Yaoguang had condensed was suddenly infused with an entirely new power, the power of the Great Dao of truth.
So strengthened, the blade grew mightier, yet slipped completely out of Yaoguang's control. The void, harnessed by truth, reversed its course and slashed straight back at Yaoguang, catching him entirely off guard.
With a swoosh, void power flickered, and Yaoguang reappeared over a hundred kilometers away. The Wandering Dragon Sword slashed out again, sending void power condensed to its utmost streaking once more toward Perfected Lord Jinghong.
Perfected Lord Jinghong simply repeated his trick, seizing control of this Void Sword as well, while the book in his hand turned another page.
"The void is the world's most durable shield, the foundation that steadies all things, unshakable by any power."
Durable! Steady! Unshakable by any power!
At that single utterance, Yaoguang found that even Void Flicker struggled to work.
The void seemed to have become truly stable, no longer willing to be torn open or traversed at anyone's whim. There had only been one exchange, and Yaoguang's position was already completely passive.
And the core of it was not the Great Dao of truth alone, but the Great Dao of void itself, because the Dao of truth was praising the Dao of void. The praise carried no aggression from a rival Dao; it was pure, glowing commendation, and the Dao of void basked in it, so that when Yaoguang, its own cultivator, tried to move it, he had to use ten times the effort for the same result.
"My word and deed are truth itself! The rules of all things are mine to write!" Perfected Lord Jinghong swept a hand, and the captured Void Sword slashed at Yaoguang once more.
Yaoguang threw up his Starlight Glass Body at once and hurled himself backward, but that power of speaking things into reality was enough to suffocate any opponent.
"So this is the Great Dao of truth. Or is it actually the Great Dao of straight-faced flattery?" Yaoguang marveled aloud. "By endlessly affirming and encouraging the Great Dao of void, you dissolve its resistance to the Great Dao of truth, let truth seep in, then take command of it... You've flipped my own comprehension of the Dao of void, making it into a double agent."
"What I speak is simply objective, actual truth. Naturally the laws follow my words, and the rules of all things rally to them," Perfected Lord Jinghong said. "Unless you have merged with the Great Dao and become the Dao itself, then however great you are, you are not greater than the truth of this world."
"Is that so?" Within Yaoguang's body, the Dao Seed of the Torrent of Time began, slowly, to stir. "Your Great Dao of truth has already affirmed the void as the foundation of all things. Then tell me: when the Dao Techniques in my hands are not of the void alone, and that other technique is every bit as strong, how will your truth praise and describe it, objectively and fairly?"