Chapter 4718: World Source Spring
In Supreme Boyang's words, the Upper Domain was ruled by Supreme Baizhong, who possessed the World Source Spring.
That spring continuously filtered the Great Dao, making all Dao paths in the Upper Domain extremely pure.
This was both good and bad.
Where only yang exists, nothing flourishes; where only yin exists, nothing is born.
Baizhong had wanted to change this.
He planned to add another layer above the World Source Spring so that some Daos would bypass the spring entirely.
If that worked, the Upper Domain would change, and a number of unfiltered Daos would appear.
Any being who cultivated and comprehended such Daos could become the "other side" of the Upper Domain, bringing yin and yang into balance.
He had struggled for a long time, but the results were minimal.
Boyang led Lin Moyu straight to the heart of the Upper Domain, where the World Source Spring lay.
"This is it," Boyang said. "Looks familiar, doesn't it, Daoist Lin?"
"So this is the World Source Spring," Lin murmured.
This was his second time seeing it.
The first had been back in the Great World, when he had only just stepped into the Other Shore realm.
Then, he had seen a pool, with a huge gourd hanging above it, riddled with holes.
An endless flow of Ancestral Water spilled from the gourd: some into the pool, the rest out into the ten thousand worlds.
He had assumed he was seeing only the local situation in the Great World, yet he never found a matching place there.
Later, when he discovered the Realm Sea and the Origin Continent, he guessed the Ancestral Water came from that continent but again, found nothing.
In the end, he let it go, leaving it to fate.
Now he finally understood: the Ancestral Water's source was the Upper Domain of this world.
The structure of the World Source Spring was highly intricate, shaped overall like a pagoda.
A suspended lake at the very top of the void overflowed constantly.
That lake was the World Source Spring itself.
Its waters filtered Heaven's Dao, and every Dao in the Upper Domain had to pass through it.
After filtering, each Dao became utterly pure.
All impurities were trapped in the lake and carried downward with the overflowing water.
Below the lake floated countless gourds, all identical, pocked with tiny holes.
They received the World Source Spring water, subjected it to a second filtering and fusion, then released it through their myriad openings.
Part of that outflow formed small pools beneath each gourd.
The rest streamed into the void, vanishing.
What Lin had seen in the past was one such gourd and its pool.
There were tens of thousands more, staggered at different heights throughout the void, forming the overall layout of the World Source Spring.
"The lake at the top is the World Source Spring," Boyang explained, "and the gourds below are called Ancestral Water."
Lin grunted assent.
He saw many beings moving about the Ancestral Water pools, collecting the liquid.
Ancestral Water had tremendous uses.
It could be used for battle, cultivation, alchemy, and artifact refining.
Lin himself still held a single drop of Ancestral Water Essence that he had never had the chance to use and now it was effectively obsolete.
His gaze swept over the World Source Spring and soon found a point of light, a sight far too familiar.
It marked the array Calamity Supreme had set up.
That array had been built beside the World Source Spring specifically to draw power from it.
As one of the rarest waters in Chaos Wasteland, the spring possessed immense power, at a level beyond Supremes and close to the rules themselves.
However strong Calamity Supreme's formation was, it still had to adapt to the rules and could not surpass them.
By using the array to absorb power from the World Source Spring, he had only completed one part of the structure.
When the strength gathered by all twelve arrays finally fused into one, a whole new level might be reached.
Only then would Calamity Supreme's full plan be completely revealed.
"With it here, at least there's no need to hunt it down," Lin said.
He had come to the Upper Domain precisely to seek this last array, and now the search was unnecessary.
Looking past the formation, he could see the lake of the World Source Spring.
Above it, space rippled in a disturbingly unnatural way.
There was a spatial tunnel there, leading to another world.
At its far end, Supreme Baizhong in white robes stood waiting.
He had clearly noticed Lin and Boyang.
His voice drifted over. "Daoist Lin, please come up."
"Let's go," Boyang said. "He's probably getting impatient."
The two flew up to stand above the World Source Spring, where they could feel its mystery more keenly.
The spring and the World Water Mother seemed to share a common origin, though their functions were different.
The World Source Spring filtered impurities from the Dao, purifying it.
Once filtered, the spring turned the impurity laden water into Ancestral Water and sent it on into the ten thousand worlds.
To many lower level worlds, those Dao "impurities" were already extremely pure and mighty power.
The World Water Mother, in contrast, dissolved the Dao entirely, reducing Heaven's Dao to nothingness.
To Lin, it resembled a cycle a cycle of the Dao itself.
The World Source Spring represented birth; the World Water Mother represented nothingness.
He realized then that Baizhong's attempt to alter the spring and remodel the Upper Domain was a mistake.
What Baizhong should have done was seek out the World Water Mother.
Only by using both the World Source Spring and World Water Mother together waters of the same origin yet different effects could one truly comprehend the world and cleanse oneself.
That might have opened a path beyond Supreme.
There were many ways to surpass the Supreme realm.
There was never only one road; the question was whether anyone could find another.
Seeing Lin silent, Baizhong asked, "Has something occurred to you, Daoist Lin?"
"Nothing," Lin said. "Just thinking of the past."
Baizhong smiled. "In those days, this old man only wished to meet you and form a good bond."
"And the Ancestral Water you gave did indeed help this Lin greatly," Lin replied. "That favor is remembered."
"It was a small matter," Baizhong said. "No need to keep it in mind."
"Daoist Baizhong is a master of water," Lin said. "You surely know that a drop of grace warrants a spring in return. This Lin understands. When it is time to repay, it will be repaid."
Baizhong did not linger on that topic.
He turned to business. "Boyang has told you about this, has he not?"
He glanced at Boyang and paused briefly, noticing the bruised red and purple marks and the clear fist imprints on his face.
It was obvious he had been beaten and there were very few in this world who could manage that.
Baizhong, however, did not voice it, his expression remaining calm to preserve Boyang's dignity.
"He has," Lin said. "You have already visited that world yourself, I assume."
Baizhong nodded. "When it first appeared, it drew in a large amount of World Source Spring water. The moment I sensed that, I sent a clone to follow the flow."
"Upon arrival, the clone saw only a few broken images before it perished. That world is extremely dangerous."
He tapped a finger in the air, projecting the images his clone had seen.
The clone traveled with the World Source Spring through the spatial tunnel and entered that world.
At once, the spring water vaporized and so did Baizhong's clone.
Before dissipating, it saw a single silver white mountain glowing intensely.
The light from that mountain alone had vaporized the World Source Spring and the clone together.