Chapter 2664 - In Pursuit of the Grand Dao, Retreat Means Death

Su Yi’s voice echoed through the air, but even after a long time passed, no one responded.

He just sat there, brow furrowed. He was certain that someone, or rather, two someones, had been following him this entire time.

Earlier, while gathering various strokes of good fortune and killing Chaos Beasts, he deliberately revealed openings on multiple occasions, all in a bid to lure his pursuers out into the open.

But he didn’t succeed.

The two of them stayed calm. Even after all this time, they never once let anything slip.

He would soon reach the Five Elements Altar, so he’d decided to simply lay everything out on the table and address his pursuers directly. He wanted to see just who exactly he was dealing with.

But it seemed they had no intention of showing themselves.

“Skulking about like ghosts, too afraid to show yourselves, huh? Keep turtling up like that, and you’ll only make me look down on you.” Su Yi shook his head, rose from the boulder, and continued toward Five Elements Peak.

It was only after he’d left that two figures emerged from a distant meadow.

A thin old man, and a middle-aged man as steady as a mountain.

“So, he discovered us a long time ago.” The middle-aged man rubbed his nose and grimaced. “He even laughed at us. How truly awkward.”

The old man coughed dryly. “It’s not like the boss never laughed at us. That doesn’t matter.”

Long ago, the boss had pointed at him and said, “You’ll never amount to anything, and you can forget about ever touching the threshold of Heavenly Fate in this lifetime.”

His words proved prophetic. Even at the peak of his cultivation, he never reached the threshold of the fifth and final realm of Eternity, Heavenly Fate.

The boss had chastised the middle-aged man, too. “A knot of wood cannot grow flowers. The more you cultivate, the narrower your path becomes.”

This was a refutation of the middle-aged man’s whole lifetime of cultivation, and it left him stunned, drenched in cold sweat, and ill at ease.

When he thought back on it, then compared it to what Su Yi had said before he left, the middle-aged man actually burst into laughter. “It’s true. Compared to the boss’s prophetic remarks, a bit of mockery is nothing at all.”

He turned to look at the middle-aged man. “Why not meet with him, chat for a bit, and make our position clear?”

The old man shook his head. “We cannot see him, and we cannot meet with him. What if he asks for our help? Would

you

be able to refuse him?”

“I understand his personality,” said the middle-aged man. “There’s no way he’d request our aid before the Battle for Order.”

“But as both you and I know, his position is quite precarious,” said the thin old man. “He faces all but certain doom. If we met, could you really keep yourself from warning him?”

“A warning, that’s all. What would that matter?”

“It’s true! A knot of wood cannot grow flowers! Warn him, and you’ll inevitably influence his mentality and his judgment of the situation.” The thin old man sighed. “Your good intentions might well hurt him. If that happened, we’d be irredeemable sinners. Ten thousand deaths wouldn’t be enough to make amends!”

The middle-aged man fell silent.

After a while, he suddenly changed the subject. “Don’t you find it strange? Su Yi has yet to truly step into Eternity. No, he hasn’t even touched the threshold. How did he figure out that we were tailing him?”

The thin old man froze. A moment later, his eyelids twitched.

He and the middle-aged man were violating the rules of Red Pine Mountain just being here, but not even the yellow finch had sensed them.

Numerous prominent experts were watching everything that happened here from the spacetime void beyond the God Domain, but they hadn’t noticed the two men following Su Yi either.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

But Su Yi... had somehow sensed them!

“The gates of Red Pine Mountain test the body, one’s powers of the Grand Dao, and the heart. The trial of the heart is the most difficult, but to Su Yi, it might as well not have existed,” said the middle-aged man. “He broke through it in a single slash!”

The thin old man seemed to have guessed something. “Are you trying to tell me...”

“That’s right.” The middle-aged man nodded, a hint of undisguisable astonishment in his gaze. “If that’s really the case, it’s an absolutely unprecedented miracle.”

All the old man could think was, “A Heart Soul!”

This was a power of the heart few ever managed to achieve even on the River of Destiny!

Yet this power had appeared on Su Yi, an Undying Realm Master God. That was unquestionably far too unbelievable.

After a moment’s silence, the old man said, “Don’t bring this up again. It would be best if no one else found about this.”

“Understood!” said the middle-aged man.

He’d only just said this when the old man seemed to sense something. His turbid eyes gazed into the distance. “He’s yet to reach Five Elements Peak, but the spectacle is about to begin...”

...

If the cultivators approaching the Five Elements Altar were streams, then Five Elements Peak was the ocean, the place where all streams converged.

One after another, cultivators reached the end of their separate paths and arrived at the base of Five Elements Peak.

Xiao Jian, Lu Shi, Yu Chiyang, Cang Lingzi, the Dipankara Buddha, Di E...

By the time Su Yi arrived, there were already over one hundred people gathered there!

None of the Nine-Tribulation Master Gods, Half-Step Eternals, and False Eternals had made it. Most of those present were Unfettered Realm Eternals from the River of Destiny, or the clones of experts of higher cultivations.

A few were Unfettered Realm experts who’d proven their Dao in the Central Divine Continent a long, long time ago, like Ancestor Hun Yun.

There wasn’t anyone there beneath the Eternal level!

After all, most of those who’d entered Red Pine Mountain had no intention of participating in the Battle for Order. They naturally wouldn’t risk their lives by coming here.

Thus, when Su Yi arrived, he found himself the only non-Eternal in attendance.

An Undying Realm Master God!

The five-colored clouds were wispy and ethereal, and Five Elements Peak was tall and steep, with a holy air about it. Dense, primeval chaos qi poured down its slopes like a waterfall, like a flood of ten thousand Daos, all of them rumbling like thunder. It was an astonishing sight.

When Su Yi arrived, all conversation came to an abrupt halt as everyone turned to look at him.

“Brother Su.” Wang Zhiwu, the Master of Legends, smiled and waved, completely disregarding the strange looks on the others’ faces.

Su Yi nodded, then scanned the area. He saw no sign of the black sheep, and he couldn’t help but find that a bit surprising.

Given “Baa Baa Black Sheep’s” disposition, there was no way she’d miss out on this spectacle. Even if she chose not to participate in the Battle for Order, she should have at least come to watch.

But there was no sign of her.

“We’ll proceed to the peak soon. You’d best watch yourself, Su Yi!” Yu Chiyang said icily. He made no attempt to conceal his hostility.

Su Yi disregarded him completely, put his hands behind his back, and gazed up at the peak.

The stretch leading up to the peak really was steep, like a halberd piercing the clouds, swathed in five colors of auspicious clouds, sacred and transcendent.

The Five Elements Altar stood at the highest point of the mountain, but if you wanted to reach it, you couldn’t fly. The only way was to climb the steps on foot.

The path was covered in surging chaos power interwoven with countless Laws. You could only force your way through it with the power of your own cultivation base.

Furthermore, once you began the climb, you couldn’t retreat.

Either you fought your way to the top, or you got stuck there until the chaos power ultimately ground you away completely.

“In the pursuit of the Grand Dao, retreat means death!” Lu Shi sighed. “Five Elements Peak contains the power of the ten thousand Daos of the God Domain. If you want to reach the peak, you must withstand their combined pressure. Only then are you qualified to ascend to the Five Elements Altar and compete in the Battle for Order.”

“Reaching the top won’t be hard for us,” someone said softly. “The hard part is that if someone tries to attack us mid-climb, we won’t be able to escape.”

Many of the others’ gazes shifted slightly. Some glanced instinctively at Su Yi.

Why was it that no one had chosen to attack Su Yi outside Red Pine Mountain?

This was why. Once they reached Five Elements Peak, Su Yi would have nowhere left to run!

“How much longer do we have to wait?” someone asked impatiently.

“According to the rules, the path only reveals itself after everyone with a Five Aggregates Talisman arrives,” said the fist-sized yellow finch.

It appeared out of nowhere and perched on an ancient boulder, instantly becoming the center of attention.

The Patrolling Spirit!

No one dared to underestimate this unassuming little bird. In a sense, it was the true ruler of Red Pine Mountain, the representative of its rules!

As time passed, several others joined the group gathered here.

Su Yi didn’t recognize most of the people here, but it wasn’t hard to guess that they were either from the River of Destiny or the Central Divine Continent of old.

Su Yi wasn’t the least bit interested in learning about these strangers’ origins.

“Su Yi, when we begin our climb to the peak, you’d best be careful. Whatever you do, don’t let anyone kill you on your way up,” Huang Yanleng said coldly. “I can say with certainty that many of the old-timers here will strike to kill during your ascent. I don’t want to take advantage of the situation, but I don’t want you to die by their hands either, so... I hope you can make it to the top.”

This woman born with sharp eyes and a rebellious fate stood out even amongst this crowd of old-timers.

“Is that so?” Su Yi scanned the group, then laughed. “Thanks for the warning.”

Xiao Jian suddenly stepped forth. “Su Yi, when the climb begins, I’ll clear a path for you. I’ll guarantee you a chance to compete on the Five Elements Altar. That way, no matter whether you live or die in the end, you won’t have made this trip in vain.”

Uproar ensued. No one would have guessed that someone would dare promise Su Yi a chance to reach the top even under these circumstances!

Some of them glared coldly at him.

But against all expectations, Di E stepped forth too and said coldly, “If anyone dares to attack Su Yi during the climb, I’ll kill them!”

Boom!

The crowd was instantly in uproar.

Those old-timers who saw Su Yi as prey furrowed their brows.

“That’s right. The Battle for Order would be meaningless without Fellow Daoist Su.” The Dipankara Buddha clasped his palms together, his voice like the ringing of a bell.

Countless people were dumbstruck. The three of them were all Su Yi’s enemies.

So why was it that people so eager to kill Su Yi were stepping forward, one after another, to say that they’d ensure Su Yi a chance to reach the top and compete in the Battle for Order?