Published at 15th of April 2026 6:35 am

Chapter 1961: Dao Painting (2)

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Everyone was staring at the painting.

And everyone was seeing something different.

Su Yu was staring at the painting as well.

He saw something nobody saw.

Darkness.

Boundless darkness.

And heartbeat

Time did not exist in the primal chaos.

Suddenly, the heartbeat ceased. A dark figure appeared.

The appearance of the figure was indistinct. The race of the figure was unclear. The only clear thing was his incomparably bright pair of eyes. Confusion could be seen in those eyes. The confused figure started traversing the darkness.

Time did not exist. Life and death did not exist.

One day, that figure roared. Reason unknown.

But the primal chaos was torn apart.

A world was created. Countless beasts came into existence amid the darkness.

There was still no time. But the dark figure seemed to have comprehended something. With a wave of his hand, a mesmerizing river appeared.

Bit by bit, it grew.

The dark figure observed the myriad races in silence. He observed all living beings in silence.

Bit by bit, he added more things to the river. The river continued spreading across the world, slowly reaching the end of the world.

An indeterminate amount of time passed.

Until one day, an independent world came into existence.

A shining world with a river running through it in the middle, sandwiched by two dark worlds.

The dark figure vanished.

Countless years passed. This was a world of life and death. However, there was no cycle of life and death. There was only the cycle of life. The various emotions. Joy and grief.

Suddenly, a massive being appeared at the bottom of the river.

"Life and death. With life, death will come. One exists because of life. And one ceases to exist because of death. Why must that be so? I shall open the dao of death. I shall master death itself. The myriad living beings shall be drawn into the cycle of life and death. The living are yours. But the dead are mine."

Boom!

The entire river shook as waves of death qi spread everywhere. Next, all the death qi converged and followed the gigantic figure toward the dark world below. The gigantic figure continued the incomplete work, further completing the creation of the dark world below.

The Death Realm came into being. The death spirit dao came into being. Su Yu observed as the unknown entity created a never-seen-before dao. The death spirit dao. After an indeterminate amount of time, the death spirit dao was completed. The Death Realm was completed. After even more time, even the gigantic figure vanished.

A third person appeared.

While gazing upon the heavens above, the figure said, "I shall open the human dao, providing shelter to all humans. I shall create a new world."

"Your Imperial Majesty, this is dangerous."

"I understand. But for humanity to last, we need our own world. A world running on the human dao."

Boom!

The sky split apart. The incomplete world above became a canvas of creation.

The primal chaos was boundless. Worlds were unnatural.

The myriad living beings only came into existence upon the creation of a world. And thus, numerous worlds dotted the primal chaos. They were the products of the various supreme geniuses who had comprehended the nature of existence.

***

The scene ended after the creation of the third world.

Light returned to Su Yu's empty eyes.

"Time, death spirit, Human Emperor..."

Su Yu muttered to himself. He felt as though he had witnessed an ancient record, a form of willpower inheritance. Through the inheritance, he was introduced to the three Creators. Human Emperor was merely the last of the Creators.

How many people had attempted creation before? Su Yu did not know. But he knew that Human Emperor was incomparably prideful.

Yes. Prideful.

From all he had seen about Human Emperor, it was clear that the Human Emperor only viewed two beings as his equal. The master of the River of Time, and the master of the death spirit dao. He wished to become the third after them. Alas, he had failed to complete his task.

When Su Yu looked at the painting again, it seemed to have transformed into an ordinary painting.

A black-and-white ink painting.

But when Su Yu turned around, he saw that everyone else was engrossed with whatever they were seeing in the painting.

At the same time, the power of their daos was swirling around them. Even Grandstar, who was the weakest among them, had numerous sword qi swirling around him. As for Great Ming King, a hazy shroud of formation qi covered his body. Something similar was happening to all the others.

Su Yu looked back at the painting again and exhaled lightly. Truly impressive.

A painting of dao itself.

It was probably something Human Emperor had painted himself, embedded with what he understood about the myriad daos. It would be accurate to call the painting the most precious treasure in the room.

There was no comparison between the painting and the furniture, books, and weapons in the room.

"A painting of dao. Or perhaps a painting of creation."

Even now, numerous new comprehensions were still emerging in Su Yu's mind. Creation was no simple task. His goal to create a new, independent dao could be far harder than he had imagined. Even Human Emperor had failed to complete this task.

It was unknown if his failure was due to a sudden interruption or a lack of ability to push forward.

***

After an indeterminate amount of time.

The swirling auras in the room started calming down.

One after another, they opened their eyes. Several gasps rang out in the room.

"I...advanced?" Grandstar exclaimed in surprise, "That's the painting of a fish leaping over the starry sea!"

Everyone looked at him like he was blind. That was definitely not what they saw.

Brave Martial General rolled her eyes and said, "It's clearly a painting of a thousand daos."

Grandstar blanked out.

Great Ming King explained, "Wrong. It's the dao of formation."

"What bullshit are you talking about?It's clearly the painting of a destructive fire dao."

"..."

They started arguing among themselves. But soon, understanding dawned on them. Each of them had seen something different.

Just then, the grinning Lan Tian said, "All of you are wrong. It's a painting of all living beings. All life, all dao. What I saw must have been the most complete. I saw Grandstar amid the myriad living beings, eating smaller fish as a big fish. I also saw Great Ming King laying down some ordinary formations. I saw Great Zhou King kneeling and begging for mercy while muttering 'patience' under his breath."

Great Zhou King's face darkened. What was that? This guy seemed rather good at making up stories.

Nevertheless, everyone understood that this was an incredible painting that would show every individual a unique scene. One would only see something related to one's dao.

Brave Martial General asked curiously, "Human Lord, what did you see?"

Su Yu did not reply immediately. He continued staring at the painting for a long while before answering with a smile, "I saw three people. Or three living beings. I wish to become the fourth. Or the actual third."

Everyone blanked out.

What was the meaning of that?

With a pensive look, Great Zhou King asked, "Did you see Human Emperor?"

"Yes." Su Yu turned around, nodded, and said, "Looks like all of you have benefited from this. Grandstar and Great Ming King, the two of you might become tier-three Daofuses before long."

Grandstar nodded. He said, "The next time I see Heavendoom, I can beat him up so badly that he shits himself."

Prior to their departure, Heavendoom was still a tier-five Daofuse. At the time, he was actually slightly stronger than Grandstar. Before this, Grandstar had absorbed a large amount of power of law. But that wouldn't do much if he lacked the comprehension to grow more.

Through the painting, he had finally gained more comprehension. Given some time, he could probably become a tier-three Daofuse. That would put him at the same level as many of the surviving ancient marquises.

One ought to know that tier-two Daofuses were already among the strongest in existence. Not everyone could reach the level of a heavenly king. As for the so-called Venerables, they were essentially the strongest among the heavenly kings.

Brave Martial General grinned and said, "I believe I will become what you call a tier-two Daofuse before long, Human Lord!"

All of them had benefited significantly from the painting.

Looking at the painting, Lan Tian said cheerfully, "This thing is a supreme treasure. I believe it can do a lot of good for the people back home as well. People who aren't Masters of Laws like us have yet to reach the limit of our dao comprehension. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like anyone can use it more than once."

Su Yu shook his head, "That's not strictly the case. You need to have new experiences and understandings for the painting to show you something new. It requires some fuel to work on.

"Why is this painting here? Why didn't Human Emperor pass this down alongside his Torchbearers?"

That painting was more valuable than everything else in the room. Su Yu had a nagging feeling that there was more he could get out of this painting. It was an absolute treasure.

"Great Zhou King, do you know about this painting?"

Great Zhou King shook his head and said, "No. I have never been here before. I'm afraid Culture King was the only person other than Human Emperor who had been here before."

Su Yu nodded, "This thing is nice to have. If taking it back with us is possible, the Eternals and Daofuses with us will be able to benefit massively from it. I am the only person with the Heaven Gate. Most people can only grasp forward blindly when comprehending the dao. This painting here can explain the dao in a more straightforward manner to them."

Great Zhou King laughed helplessly. Grasping forward blindly? Fair. Perhaps that was really true from Su Yu's perspective. However, that was still slightly hurtful to hear.

Su Yu said, "Even if we had gained nothing else from our journey into the Upper Realm, this painting alone would be enough to make up for everything. It is that precious."

He stepped forth, ready to take the painting down. With this thing, he would be able to rapidly grow some of his subordinates. It could be even more helpful than having him personally take them all to the River of Time.

After all, Su Yu could only share his sight with them. He couldn't impart his own comprehension of the dao to the others. This painting was capable of helping with one's comprehension of the dao.

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