Chapter 152: Enlightenment

"Inconceivable Heavenly Honored One, do you truly think this ancestor is no match for you!"

As yet another of his attacks was effortlessly neutralized by another 'Ancestor Hongyun' standing before him, Hongyun felt a deep sense of exasperation in his heart.

How long had it been? How long?

He couldn't even be bothered to calculate how long he had been fighting this entity in front of him. If he hadn't known just how stubbornly resilient he himself was, he would have been so angry as to spit blood by now.

The supreme-grade先天灵宝 (Xiantian spiritual treasure) in his hands had long since been unleashed countless times, and his innate techniques alongside the profound divine powers at his fingertips had been cast as if they were entirely free. As for the Qiankun Cauldron, which he had yet to activate, he figured it was likely the same for his opponent.

The only thing on his mind right now was figuring out whose brilliant, ingenious brain had come up with such a method to torment him. Although he had encountered plenty of similar illusions in the past, methods that were this close to the Dao itself made it abundantly clear to him that this was no mere illusion!

*If I ever take in disciples and establish a sect in the future, I must set up a trial like this to put them through the wringer!* Hongyun thought bitterly to himself.

Then again, he was surely not the only one whose mind had conjured such a wicked thought.

Putting that aside, however, just how on earth was he supposed to defeat this past self of his?

With a slight flicker of his mind, an illusory cloud of red drifted up from above his physical body, floating toward the other 'him' on the opposite side. Wherever it passed, wave after wave of hallucinations emerged, directly projecting themselves into the mind and soul.

This was his Dao of Illusion.

Hongyun’s true form was that of a cloud, gathering and dispersing without fixed form, naturally erratic and elusive. Under the influence of this inherent trait, he had always held a rather unique insight into the Dao of Illusion. While it might not have been overwhelmingly powerful, it was more than enough to deal with ordinary Daluo Immortals.

"You dare to play with illusions right in front of this ancestor?"

The past self manifested as Hongyun wore an expression bearing two or three parts of undisguised disdain, a look that sent Hongyun flying into a furious rage.

With a flick of his Dark-Yellow Red Cloud Dharma Robe, his past self casually swept the attack away. A flash of turbid gray crossed his eyes before returning to absolute clarity. "It's not just you who knows how to use such tricks; let this ancestor show you a different kind of illusion for you to taste."

As soon as those words left his mouth, an illusion several times more powerful than the ones Hongyun had cast enveloped him. By the time Hongyun regained his wits, he found himself being severely beaten by the Sanqing, while the demon race hunted him relentlessly across the heavens and beneath the earth, leaving him with no path to the skies and no door to the underworld.

Seeing this, he made no attempt to break the illusion. Instead, he merely used his mental strength to drag out the resistance while he began to ponder anew: what sort of method should he actually deploy to send this past self of his back to the past?

Right from the beginning, he had already thought of one method, but he had been unwilling to use it—relying on his own tribulation Qi to forcefully blast this opponent back where he came from.

Although he had not yet fully mastered the power of the Southern Jambudvipa, even a mere fragmentary trace of it was capable of countless variations. Ancestor Panwang had foolishly sat atop a mountain of treasures without knowing how to utilize them, yet he had still managed to derive a few subtle applications from them, as could be seen from a glimpse of his methods.

However, this power of the Southern Jambudvipa...

After a brief moment of contemplation, Hongyun ultimately dismissed the thought, leaving his illusion-trapped self to take a severe beating.

The power of the Southern Jambudvipa had come with a warning the moment he absorbed it; it was the so-called power of the Yin Tribulation. The power of Yin Tribulation, the power of Yang Tribulation—forces of this caliber had already far transcended the boundaries of his comprehension.

Even though everything that happened within the illusion could reflect upon reality—meaning there were wondrous mechanisms that allowed the damage he sustained within the illusion to transfer to his physical body—such injuries could still only be considered a light drizzle to him. After all, his physical cultivation was nothing to scoff at, and he was himself well-versed in the Dao of Illusion, making it effortless for him to resist.

The one who understood his own techniques best was none other than himself. Trying to deal with him using such means would yield predictable, mediocre results. He simply refused to believe that while he was struggling bitterly here, there wasn't someone else paying close attention. For all he knew, there might be individuals leisurely chatting and sipping tea right now, passing judgment on his methods. If he were to recklessly expose a tribulation force he didn't fully understand and thereby draw the prying eyes of onlookers, he feared he truly wouldn't be able to fend them off.

Yet, if he refused to employ such power, what other means did he possess to knock his past self down?

Waving his hand, Hongyun conjured an illusory landscape. A gigantic handprint materialized in the sky, slapping down angrily as if it were swatting a mere fly.

Great Divine Power: Dark-Yellow Primal Qi Seizing Palm!

Rumble—

Amidst the trembling of space, his past self casually dissolved the cloud Qi, converting it directly into a gentle spring breeze that finally blew past harmlessly.

Catching sight of that slightly comforted expression on his opponent's face, Hongyun felt his teeth itch with irritation. Fortunately, he was accustomed to facing matters with a calm and unflappable mind, so he directly summoned a transformed Dharma form—possessing a thousand hands and a thousand eyes—and charged forward aggressively.

Just where was the key to breaking this deadlock?

Frowning slightly, Hongyun allowed the illusion to continue eroding his mind as he sank into deep thought. *I need to come up with a method that the other guy doesn't know...*

What the other guy didn't know was essentially what he himself didn't know either. Asking him to come up with a method to break the stalemate that he didn't even know himself—well, that wasn't something he could conjure up on the spot.

With a soft sigh, his thoughts suddenly stalled, and he raised his head in startled realization.

There *was* indeed something he didn't know that his opponent possessed.

At that exact moment, he recalled the Dao and information he had encountered not long before, and those thoughts from back then once again surfaced in his mind.

......

*Incorrect, incorrect. The Dao of Clouds gathers and disperses without form. Even if tribulation and clouds are of the same origin and secretly align with the Dao of Heavenly Punishment, it cannot be like this. How can clouds condense into mist, where a single droplet of mist holds an entire galaxy? Unheard of!*

*Incorrect, incorrect. The Dao of Illusion projects the false into reality; the true and false intertwined, the fusion of the illusory and the tangible—that is what makes an illusion, much like a mirage. How can reality transform into the Dao of Illusion, with the end of illusion leading to absolute void? It violates the tracks of the Dao!*

*Incorrect, incorrect. The Dao of Poison disperses to spread plagues and sickness, and condenses to poison the entire universe. Even if the Dao of Poison connects with the Dao of Medicine, it is all within a single thought; poison is poison, how could it be transmitted within a single thought? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.*

......

......

It was a Dao that completely contradicted his own!

Hongyun took a deep breath, his eyes filled with astonishment. Originally, he had simply treated that encounter as a discussion of the Dao, never expecting that not long after, he would already need to verify it.

The Daos he had witnessed within those experiences were different manifestations of all the Daos he cultivated. Trying to verify all of them at once was somewhat unrealistic. But if the Dao principles he chose to verify were too weak, they wouldn't play a decisive role.

After much deliberation, feeling the ongoing erosion of the illusion around him, a piercing gleam burst forth from his eyes. He quickly employed his own methods to protect his physical body and plunged completely into the illusion.

At that very moment, he began to seek out the so-called "true forming the Dao of Illusion, reaching the end of the illusion."

The past-self Hongyun had originally been maintaining a leisurely and nonchalant demeanor, looking utterly unbothered. But at this exact instant, as if he had discovered something, a trace of joy flickered across his expression, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

Instead of attacking the physical body, he put his utmost effort into dispersing the thousand-eyed, thousand-handed Dharma form, pouring the entirety of his cultivation into driving the illusion forward.

Both of them were seeking the answer to the Dao.