Chapter 816 Secret

As the three of them arrived at my side, their eyes full of relief and worry, something dark and profound invaded my mind. It wasn’t a mere thought but a realization—a revelation that had been buried deep within me since the moment I had fused those strange elements, those disparate techniques.

The destructiveness of Demonic Qi, the roaring life energy of the Golden Titan, the duality of Poison Yin and the raging inferno of the Soul Flame of Yang—all of them had harmonized in a way that defied logic, creating something far beyond my comprehension.

In that moment, I glimpsed something I had long sought without even understanding it: the Source, the First, the Beginning… the Origin.

It struck me like a bolt of lightning. The Origin wasn’t just some abstract concept; it was the chaotic mixture of all that exists, the primal force that gave birth to everything we know. The Origin was everything and nothing, the chaotic energy from which all things emerged. Heavenly Qi, Saint Energy—they were mere byproducts, tertiary forms of this primordial force.

They were refined, purified, but they were not the Source.

The Origin was chaos itself. The Origin was the raw, unrefined energy that gave birth to existence. And what am I, if not a testament to such chaos? A creation that emerged from this primordial stew, molded by the whims of the universe, altered by the desires of those around me.

A cultivator’s journey begins with the absorption of Heavenly Qi, but that is only a step—a step far removed from the true Source.

So what is the Origin? The question resounded and bounced through my mind desperate to be answered.

The thought consumed me. The Origin was the fuel that moved the planets, that gave life to the worlds. It was the force the Wisest Sun had been searching for—a force that could create life, not just stone and earth. The Origin was the primordial soup from which all things sprang, the chaotic energy that birthed thunder and lightning, that struck water and created life.

From that chaos came the fish that swam in the sea, the lizards that crawled on the land, and eventually, people—beings blessed with the highest form of Origin energy: Soul. Stay tuned for updates on empire

The realization was overwhelming, a tidal wave of understanding that threatened to drown me. I sank to the ground, surrounded by the three women who had come to my aid, their faces etched with confusion. They had expected me to embrace them, to express relief at their arrival, but instead, I sat down and closed my eyes, lost in the enormity of what I had just discovered.

I had yet to truly enter a state of enlightenment. I had guided others to it, but for myself, it had always been just out of reach. Now, it felt as though I had been plunged into it, force-fed the secrets of the universe that were never meant for mortal understanding.

My mind went blank, and I felt myself slipping out of existence. I was no longer Shen Bao, no longer Du Shen, no longer a cultivator or a man. I was a point of consciousness drifting in an endless, dark void, a void so vast that it defied all comprehension. For a moment, there was nothing—only silence, only darkness.

Then, from that void, something began to emerge, something came to exist, before…no, after… maybe, never and maybe forever, it was there, beyond time, beyond space beyond all that is material. Beyond dimensional and above.

It was a sphere, a morphing orb of chaos, collapsing upon itself and reconstructing in an endless cycle of creation and destruction. It was the beginning and the end, existence and nothingness, all wrapped into one. It was the Origin, the Source of all that is and all that will ever be. Words failed to describe it. It was beyond reason, beyond understanding.

Yet there it was, constantly churning and rumbling, a cauldron of raw potential.

Suddenly, from its depths, a white light shot forth, piercing the darkness, shattering reality itself. The light spread out, breaking the void into countless pieces, each fragment becoming its own universe, its own world. Some became planets, others strange floating platforms in space, while others existed in dimensions that defied all logic.

Some worlds were lush and vibrant, teeming with life, while others were barren, void of all things, empty and desolate.

From this chaos, life was born. The Origin’s energy—far more refined than Heavenly Qi, far denser than Saint Qi—flowed into these new worlds, giving them form, giving them purpose.

Morphed and changed and became existences within their own world. From water-dwelling fish, to land-crawling lizards, then came the People who were blessed with the highest form of Origin energy.

Soul.

Origin Energy is just Soul energy? As if struck by a thousand lightning bolts I was struck awoken.

My eyes snapped open, and I was back in the real world, but the understanding I had gained lingered. A blinding white light shot out from my eyes, so intense that it felt as though my entire being was unraveling. Agony like I had never known ripped through me, a pain so profound that my body instinctively sought to evaporate, to escape the suffering in any way possible.

A taboo. A taboo against the heavens is what I had just committed. I had uncovered a secret the Heavens had kept hidden, a truth they had decided no mortal or cultivator should ever know.

The skies above, which had been battling the Rakshasa, turned their full fury upon me.

“R-run! RUN AWAY!” I screamed, my voice ragged with fear and pain.

This wasn’t the time for reminscing old memories and drinking tea with old loved ones. Today the heavens have sought me as a target, and had declared me their enemy. I have seen what shouldn’t be seen, and I have understood what should always remain vague. Today might be the last day for me to exist. Because that thing up there looks like a pissed off grim reaper.