Talisman Emperor

Outside the Boundless Barrier.

Hua Jiankong had a solemn expression as he sat cross-legged there like a statue.

He’d been standing guard here for fifty years!This meant that fifty years had passed since Chen Xi entered the Boundless Barrier, yet there was no sign of him at all until now.

The passage of fifty years didn’t affect Hua Jiankong at all. For example, the incident of the aura of the Five Signs of Death descending onto Ancient Barbaric Continent that day wasn’t able to move Hua Jiankong at all.

After one arrived at his level of cultivation, one had long since seen that life and death were unpredictable, so they would naturally not be affected by anything in the outside world. Even if the upheaval of the three dimensions was about to arrive, it was only a ‘calamity’ to him.

Overcoming it equaled to continuing to seek the Grand Dao.

If he was unable to overcome it, then so what?

It was none other than just death.

    …

On this day, Hua Jiankong who was originally meditating silently suddenly noticed something, and he swiftly opened his eyes.

Right at this instant, a strand of droning sounded out from within the Boundless Barrier, and along with this fluctuation, a figure suddenly walked out from within it.

Shockingly, this figure was Chen Xi!“You’ve finally came out…” Hua Jiankong stood up and sized up Chen Xi. He instantly noticed that compared to fifty years ago, Chen Xi’s bearing at this moment had undergone another shocking transformation.

Chen Xi’s green clothes fluttered beneath his handsome face, and his starry eyes were deep and tranquil. His entire body was filled with a composed and tranquil aura that seemed perfect and pure like the full moon above the clear sky.

Every single inch of his skin naturally surged with strands of mysterious aura of the Dao, and it was even to the extent that his dense black hair emanated strands of the glow of the Dao and the aura of the heavens. As he stood there in a casual manner, he emanated an imposing aura that was natural and seemed to have returned to simplicity.

When Hua Jiankong looked at Chen Xi from afar, it was like looking at the place where the Grand Dao resided, and it was extremely remarkable.

“Senior, thank you for protecting me as I cultivated.” Chen Xi smiled as he cupped his hands, and every single word and action of his carried the aura of the Dao.

“You’ve already comprehended it?” Hua Jiankong couldn’t refrain from asking this question, and the space between his brows carried a wisp of shock.

There was a total of eighteen profound barriers of life and death within the Boundless Barrier, and every single barrier represented a cycle of life and death. All those years ago when he entered the Boundless Barrier to comprehend the energy of life and death, he’d exhausted over a hundred years of time and almost lost himself within it.

Yet now, after a mere fifty years of time, Chen Xi had actually walked out from within the Boundless Barrier, causing Hua Jiankong to be unable to help but sigh with emotion. This kid is such a monstrous genius that he really can’t be judged based on convention.

“I’ve already understood it clearly.” Chen Xi smiled as he answered, and then he couldn’t help but inadvertently recall everything he’d experienced in these past fifty years, causing him to be slightly dazed in his heart.

In fifty years of time, he’d experienced eighteen different lives within the Boundless Barrier, and it represented eighteen completely different cycles of life and death.

Something worthy of mentioning was that in every single cycle of life and death, Chen Xi’s original intelligence, cultivation, strength, and even disposition were completely concealed.

Simply speaking, he’d forgotten he was Chen Xi in those eighteen profound barriers of life and death.

For example, during his first life, he’d transformed into a poor scholar in the mortal world. He read all sorts of poems and books while wholeheartedly striving to pass the state exams. After he grew up, he resolutely bid his farewells to his aged parents and rushed to the capital to take the exam. On the way there, he’d coincidentally passed by a temple in the barren mountains, and he met a young woman that was a spirit. She was peerlessly pretty and had a virtuous disposition, causing him to instantly fall in love with her.

Unfortunately, man and spirit weren’t the same. Because she was a spirit, the young woman he loved was mercilessly subdued by an old monk in the end, whereas because he was too obsessed with her, this sudden blow caused him to instantly go mad. He was reduced to a rambling and lifeless beggar on the streets, and he lived without a care in the world and didn’t know the meaning of life.

Up until the point he was old and weak, he read a poem on a scroll by coincidence. The poem referred to how one could only reach enlightenment by giving up all obsession because life is just like a dream.

From that moment onwards, the scholar instantly attained enlightenment, and he roared with laughter before passing away with joy.

In his second life, Chen Xi transformed into a swordsman that hated all evil and injustice, and he intended to eliminate all injustice in the world.

In his third life, he transformed into a silly and naïve little monk, and he served Buddha wholeheartedly.

In his fourth life, he was transformed into a firm and merciless emperor…

    …

The eighteen cycles of life and death were eighteen different cycles of life and death. He experienced all sorts of hardships and difficulties, and he experienced great happiness, great sorrow, and great terror while he experienced these cycles of life and death.

Only Chen Xi himself knew how all of this felt.

It was precisely because he’d seen through the shroud of life and death and seen through the unpredictability of life and death that Chen Xi finally obtained sudden enlightenment. It was like a strand of quintessence was branded in his heart, yet it was impossible to grasp.

This was what it was meant to be unable to see yet see, to not know yet know, to be unaware yet aware, and to not understand yet understand. It was indescribably profound.

After he obtained Chen Xi’s confirmation, Hua Jiankong couldn’t help but sigh with praise as he said, “The energy of life and death is like the foundation of one’s cultivation. One doesn’t grasp the life and death of others, but one’s own life.”

He paused for a moment and continued. “In other words, only by truly grasping the Life and Death Laws would one be able to control one’s own fate!”

Chen Xi nodded. Now, he finally understood that the might of the Life and Death Laws wasn’t reflected in one’s combat strength, and it was a sort of grasp of one’s own life.

Before one grasped the Life and Death Laws, one’s life and death seemed as if it swam along a stream, and it was controlled by the river of fate, whereas once one grasped the Life and Death Laws, one’s fate would truly be in one’s own hands and not the heavens!“Now that you’ve already comprehended the profundities of the three supreme Laws of time, space, and life and death, when do you intend to charge into the Half-step Immortal King Realm?” asked Hua Jiankong.

“Right now.” Chen Xi answered without giving it a single thought. As soon as his finished speaking, he placed his hands behind his back and suddenly roared with laughter towards the sky. His eyes suddenly surged with a wisp of profound and brilliant divine light, and it seemed as if he intended to see through all the secrets of the universe.

“Right now?” Hua Jiankong was stunned.

Right at the moment he was stunned, Chen Xi suddenly pressed his fingers together to form a brush and swiped it through the air.

It was an extremely simple action. It was done so casually and in such a carefree manner. However, when this swipe was completed, a mysterious symbol shot out from the tip of his fingers.

This symbol seemed to be extremely simple, yet it was actually obscure and mysterious. When one looked at it carefully, one could even see the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, landscape, beasts, plants, rocks… Even the changes in the heavens and the earth, the cycle of history, the passage of time… Everything could be observed from within it.

It was merely a single symbol, yet it possessed a myriad of profundities! 

Chen Xi stared at the symbol and pondered before he said, “The path of a Saint is to spread the Dao throughout the world. I hope that once this technique appears in the world, those who are fated in the world will be able to rely on this to enter the path towards the Dao!” 

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his hand and tapped on the symbol!In an instant, a profound feeling instantly arose in Chen Xi’s heart, and it spread throughout his body.

At this moment, a grand and boundless strand of the tune of saints resounded through the heavens and the earth, and it spread throughout the world. All the Saint Immortals in the entire three dimensions sensed it, and they shot their gazes towards Dao Emperor Academy in unison.

“The Heart of the Saint Dao!” Hua Jiankong witnessed all of this from the side, and his eyes erupted with divine brilliance while a wisp of shock appeared on his face.

What was the Heart of the Saint Dao?

It was to establish a heart for the Saint Dao!Establish fate for the living beings of the world!To pass down peerless techniques for the Saints of the future!To pass down the Dao for a myriad of generations to come!

So long as one accomplished any one of these, one could be said to possess the Heart of the Saint Dao.

The Saint Immortal Realm meant one was a Saint. One could spread the Dao throughout the world and establish a sect of one’s own. However, only one in a million were able to possess the Heart of the Saint Dao, and it was rare since the ancient times.

Because the appearance of the Heart of the Saint Dao meant that another technique to comprehend the path to the Grand Dao would appear within the three dimensions. So long as cultivators searched without end, they would be able to encounter this technique in the end, and it could be considered to be an immeasurable virtue!

Yet now, Chen Xi had established his own Heart of the Saint Dao, and it could be considered as passing down the Dao for a myriad of generations to come!This was similar to the great aspirations vowed by the great figures of the Buddha Dimension. It represented one’s aspirations, target, and a type of development and firmness towards one’s own Grand Dao on the path towards becoming a god.

For example, during the primeval times, a Buddha had once vowed with great aspiration — If I don’t enter hell, then who will? 

This great aspiration caused that Buddha to be renowned throughout the three dimensions, and he received the reverence and praise of a myriad of generations.

Right at the moment that Hua Jiankong was shocked and along with Chen Xi’s finger tapping on the symbol that contained his Heart of the Saint Dao, his instantly seemed to have broken through the shackles that covered him and took a stride forward!Bang!The heavens and the earth shook! 

In an instant, a powerful, brilliant, and boundless strand of profound golden light shot out from Chen Xi’s body and shot into the nine heavens. It continued up all along the way and forcefully smashed through the clear sky before immediately surging out into the universe, causing the myriad of stars in the universe to shake!

This light moved horizontally and vertically, and it was filled with the aura of an Immortal King. It was in an ethereal and boundless state, and it formed a link between Chen Xi and the world!Under the impact of this light, the clouds in the sky dispersed while starlight poured down from the sky, and it illuminated the entire world while bathing Chen Xi’s entire body beneath it.

At this instant, Chen Xi stood in midair while airflow whistled around his body, and the energy of the entire heavens and the earth flickered around him. Moreover, his imposing aura was suddenly rising steadily!In merely the time of a few breaths, the imposing aura Chen Xi possessed was already completely different, and every single move he made carried the imposing and majestic aura of a king.

The Half-step Immortal King Realm!In an instant, Hua Jiankong determined this and couldn’t help but exclaim with surprise. “The starlight of the universe responds to his aura, the energy of the world coils around him. This is clearly the aura of an Immortal King. He’ll definitely be able to attain the Grand Dao!” 

He finally understood why Chen Xi didn’t even give it any thought and answered ‘right now’ when he asked when Chen Xi intended to charge into the Half-step Immortal King Realm.

Since Chen Xi walked out from the Boundless Barrier until stepping into the Half-step Immortal King Realm now in one go, merely less than ten minutes had passed!What did this mean?

It meant that a long time ago while Chen Xi was within the Boundless Barrier, he’d already possessed the ability to charge into the Half-step Immortal King Realm, and now, he’d just given it a thought in his heart before he broke through and advanced swiftly!

Moreover, when he recalled the time Chen Xi utilized to charge into the Half-step Immortal King Realm, Chen Xi had only utilized seventy years of time since he entered the Realm of Time to comprehend the Temporal Laws.

Seventy years!Since the ancient times until now, it could absolutely be considered a peerlessly shocking speed of advancement!

However, Chen Xi didn’t feel much pleasant surprise towards all of this. Because being able to attain this had long since been within his expectations, and everything he did earlier was only done according to the will in his heart.

However, after he advanced into the Half-step Immortal King Realm and sensed the tremendous transformation his entire body had undergone, Chen Xi still couldn’t help but arouse a wisp of happiness in his heart.