Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 247: Long Time No See, Fellow Daoist Shi

“I had heard rumors that the Peak Masters of the Azure Mystic Sacred Land each possessed distinct methods and contrasting personalities.”

“They said the Half-step Supreme Shi Siling cultivated the Path of Supreme Detachment. Her nature was supposedly cold, severed from mortal desires, completely indifferent to the world, and solely devoted to her own cultivation.”

“They also said Qin Meran of Ink Scroll Peak was a devoted scholar of the sages—a future paragon brimming with benevolence, righteousness, propriety, filial piety, and unwavering loyalty.”

Ji Qinghan’s voice drifted down from the sky as she led the siege against Shi Siling. Her tone was conversational, almost amused. “I must admit, the reality we’ve witnessed today is quite the subversion of expectations.”

Watching Qin Meran abandon the battlefield without a second glance, Ji Qinghan couldn’t help but click her tongue in mockery. “You, the supposedly emotionless cultivator of Supreme Detachment, actually put your life on the line to answer your junior sister’s cry for help. Even after she literally drained your life force to save her own skin, you stood your ground.”

“Meanwhile, the supposedly righteous, loyal paragon of the sages abandoned her own blood with a ruthlessness that makes your ‘Supreme Detachment’ look positively sentimental.”

“It seems, Peak Master Shi, you still have much to learn from your esteemed junior sister when it comes to true detachment.”

Ji Qinghan’s sarcastic commentary was a masterclass in psychological warfare.

It was devastatingly effective. Shi Siling, already drenched in her own blood and fighting a desperate holding action, felt her face cycle between pale ash and flushed rage. The words dug into her chest, violently unsettling her mind.

But her moment of weakness was brief.

“You are not qualified to judge my Dao!” Shi Siling roared through gritted teeth. She violently suppressed the chaotic emotions churning in her chest, forcing her mind back to an icy, absolute focus. She lashed out with everything she had, desperately trying to repel the four Void Refining experts encircling her.

Her situation was catastrophic.

Qin Meran’s parasitic drain had rapidly siphoned away a massive portion of her lifespan. Although Shi Siling had employed a desperate, forbidden art at the last possible second to shield her heart meridian and Nascent Soul—preventing her from instantly aging into dust—the damage was profound. She had permanently lost centuries of life.

Worse still, the physical toll of the betrayal had shattered her flawless rhythm. Previously, Shi Siling had managed to hold the four White Jade Tower experts at a perfect, lethal stalemate. Now, riddled with newly opened physical wounds, her Spiritual Qi was hemorrhaging at an unsustainable rate.

I cannot hold them off much longer. If I stay, I will be ground into dust. I need an opening. I have to break the encirclement and run! Shi Siling decided, her eyes darting for an escape route.

Coincidentally, Ji Qinghan had reached a similar conclusion, privately transmitting orders to her subordinates.

Stop playing with her. Have you forgotten why we are here?! The Origin Dao Rhyme absolutely cannot be claimed! If that anomaly inside the pavilion completes his Divine Invocation, this entire operation is a failure! Burn your essence! Kill Shi Siling right now! At that exact moment, the intentions of both sides aligned perfectly: end this in a single, decisive clash.

But just as they prepared to unleash their ultimate, suicidal strikes…

DONG—! A profound, resonant chime abruptly echoed through the heavens.

It sounded as if it originated from the absolute edge of the horizon, yet it simultaneously rang out from the deepest recesses of everyone’s soul. The note was endless, stretching across the sky, carrying an ancient, lingering majesty.

The instant that singular chime washed over Cloud Firmament City, the apocalyptic, chaotic bloodbath in the alleyway outside the Listening-to-Rain Pavilion simply… stopped.

A heartbeat of stunned silence was followed by an eruption of absolute pandemonium.

“The Origin Bell! The Origin Bell has rung! The Divine Invocation is complete!”

“Heavens above, someone actually did it! Someone successfully bound the Origin Dao Rhyme!”

“Wait… the bottleneck that has trapped me for sixty years… it’s loosening! I feel it! Am I hallucinating?!”

“I have reached enlightenment! The Dao is clear! I must meditate immediately!”

“This is no hallucination! The ringing of the Origin Bell is a supreme, heaven-defying Fated Chance that appears only once in ten thousand years! The resonance of the Great Dao can shatter bottlenecks and bestow enlightenment upon anyone who hears it!”

“Sit down! Cultivate! Do not waste a single second of this!”

The battle lines evaporated.

In the face of the Great Dao’s resonance, mortal conflicts became utterly meaningless. Cultivators from the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion, the Four Seas Gang, and even the scattered Rogue Cultivators dropped their weapons. Some stood frozen, staring blankly into space as revelations washed over them. Others immediately assumed the lotus position right in the middle of the blood-soaked street, five centers facing the sky, desperately trying to absorb the ambient Dao Rhyme.

However…

While the rest of the city rejoiced in the unexpected blessing, the elites of the White Jade Tower looked as if they had been plunged into a frozen abyss.

The color drained from their faces. As they exchanged horrified glances, the same crushing realization settled over them. Even the four Void Refining Venerables hovering in the sky lowered their weapons, their expressions turning ash-gray.

“We were too late.”

“The Divine Invocation is complete… he actually claimed it.”

“Venerable Ji, what are your orders? Do we breach the pavilion and assassinate the one who claimed it?”

Ji Qinghan slowly shook her head, her eyes devoid of their usual tranquil light. “Breach it? To what end? Assuming we could even kill whoever managed to subjugate the Origin Dao Rhyme… the bell has already rung. The deed is written into the fabric of the world. It cannot be undone.”

She let out a long, defeated exhale. “It is over. Nothing we do here matters anymore.”

“Withdraw. We return to the Tower to report this failure to the Master.”

There was no hesitation. The fearsome, overwhelming armada of the White Jade Tower—which mere seconds ago had been prepared to massacre the district—instantly deflated like a pierced lung. Dejected and utterly defeated, they vanished into the sky at Ji Qinghan’s command.

They had lost. Lingering would only invite further humiliation.

…

While the apocalyptic siege outside the gates reached its anticlimactic end, inside the absolute silence of the Listening-to-Rain Pavilion, Gu Xiu slowly opened his eyes.

He had succeeded.

His Divine Invocation was complete.

A brilliant, pulsating crimson light—the pure essence of the Origin Dao Rhyme—had fully integrated into his body. Following the natural laws of cultivation, it immediately surged upward, seeking to anchor itself within his Sea of Consciousness, just like any standard Divine Invocation.

However, Gu Xiu felt no surge of triumph. Instead, his eyes narrowed in absolute concentration.

He didn’t want it in his mind.

Summoning every ounce of his willpower and Spiritual Qi, he violently intercepted the crimson light. He didn’t try to destroy it; he simply acted as a dam, forcefully rerouting the supreme energy away from his Sea of Consciousness and driving it downward.

Toward his Dantian Qi Sea.

This had been his goal from the very beginning.

He didn’t want a mere Divine Invocation. A standard invocation was a passive buff, a resonance with the world. He wanted to take the Origin Dao Rhyme—the literal foundational code of the world’s natural laws—and forge it into a physical, foundational pillar of his own power.

He was going to build a Dao Platform out of it.

Subjugating the Origin Dao Rhyme and hammering it into a Dao Platform… I highly doubt anyone in history has ever attempted this, Gu Xiu mused, keeping his focus absolute. I have no idea if this is physically possible, or how long it will take to force compliance. He wasn’t in a rush. He was fully prepared to spend months wrestling the supreme energy into submission.

But then, the unexpected happened.

“Hmm?”

Gu Xiu blinked in genuine surprise. The Origin Dao Rhyme… wants to be a Dao Platform? At first, the crimson light had resisted the forced detour. It had pushed back against his Spiritual Qi, instinctively trying to reach his mind. But the exact second he forced it into his Dantian Qi Sea, the Origin Dao Rhyme sensed the presence of the seven existing, monstrous Dao Platforms hovering within.

The resistance instantly vanished.

The Origin Dao Rhyme didn’t just stop fighting; it practically leaped out of his grasp and sprinted toward the towering foundation.

Gu Xiu didn’t even need to employ a forging technique.

The crimson light actively began to deconstruct itself, willingly breaking down its supreme essence and molding it into the shape of a colossal platform, fusing seamlessly with the structure beneath it.

Gu Xiu found himself reduced to the role of a baffled spectator in his own body. He literally didn’t have to do anything.

The existing Dao Platforms are resonating with each other, Gu Xiu theorized, watching the rapid construction. Their combined, synergistic aura is so overwhelming that even the Origin Dao Rhyme recognizes the evolutionary advantage of joining the foundation rather than sitting isolated in my mind. It was an incredible revelation.

His Dao Platforms were not isolated artifacts. They were a unified, interconnected engine. While each platform retained its unique properties and strengths, the compounding feedback loop they generated was producing limitless, exponential growth. Now, that gravity was strong enough to effortlessly subjugate the foundational laws of reality.

Which meant…

I can use this exact same method to forge the ninth and final Dao Platform. When the raw material actively desires to be forged, the process is terrifyingly fast.

In the time it took to boil a pot of tea, the final wisp of crimson light settled into place.

Gu Xiu’s eighth Dao Platform was complete.

It rested near the absolute apex of his foundation, a massive, blocky structure glowing with the intense, mesmerizing crimson of a dying sunset. It was breathtaking. But a closer inspection revealed its true terror: the surface was etched with impossibly dense, microscopic runes.

At first glance, it looked like chaotic scribbling. But tracing the lines revealed the physical imprints of countless Divine-grade Heavenly Dao Rhymes. Woven seamlessly into the crimson gold were the distinct, pulsating signatures of the Character ‘Mi’ (Seek) Rune and the ‘Zha’ Character Rune, among dozens of others. They blended together in perfect, terrifying harmony.

But the aesthetic beauty of a Dao Platform was irrelevant. Only power mattered.

The second the Origin Dao Platform solidified, Gu Xiu felt the shift.

His innate affinity with Heavenly Dao Rhymes, already monstrous, spiked to absurd levels. Furthermore, the ambient Dao Rhymes in the atmosphere no longer felt like wild, chaotic forces he had to coax or bargain with. They felt docile. Subservient.

They felt like well-trained soldiers awaiting a command.

Taking a steadying breath, Gu Xiu stood up and stepped out of the Mountain and River Remnant Realm, returning to the physical courtyard of his pavilion.

With a casual flick of his wrist, a blank Talisman parchment and a brush appeared on the stone table before him.

He didn’t gather his Spiritual Qi. He didn’t focus his intent. He simply pointed a single finger at the sky.

Instantly, a localized Heavenly Dao Rhyme tore itself from the clouds, plummeted down, and slammed into the parchment, perfectly inscribing itself onto the paper without a single drop of ink.

Autonomous Dao Rhyme Inscription.

For Gu Xiu, who had spent the last two years churning out Talismans by the thousands to fund his cultivation, this party trick might have seemed mundane.

But a closer look revealed a terrifying, world-shaking evolution.

Previously, his ability to craft Talismans was limited by his own cultivation base. Now? He could explicitly command specific Heavenly Dao Rhymes to engrave themselves, entirely bypassing his own limitations. Even if he demanded a Divine-grade Dao Rhyme to forge a Talisman, it would obey him effortlessly.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, he hadn’t needed to actively suppress the catastrophic visual phenomenon of the Homage of Ten Thousand Rhymes. He had merely projected a passing thought—I don’t want to be tracked—and the world obeyed. The sky remained perfectly clear. No apocalyptic vortex of Dao Rhymes appeared to announce his presence.

He was beyond satisfied.

Just as he raised his hand to conduct another test, he froze. His brow furrowed as his gaze snapped toward the courtyard entrance.

Under his silent watch, the heavy wooden doors of the Listening-to-Rain Pavilion, which had remained magically sealed against a literal siege, were slowly pushed open from the outside.

A moment later, a figure limped over the threshold.

Gu Xiu’s eyebrows shot up.

The intruder froze the instant she saw the young man standing calmly in the courtyard.

Their eyes met in the silence.

In the eyes of the blood-soaked, exhausted woman, Gu Xiu saw profound shock, deep confusion, and a flicker of something intensely complicated that he couldn’t quite name.

Facing her intense, disbelieving stare, Gu Xiu made no move to hide his aura or his identity. His expression remained as calm and untroubled as a gentle breeze.

“Long time no see, Fellow Daoist Shi.”