Chapter 122: Holy Son, Are You Alright?
Yun Xi's voice was soft, but her words struck deep.
Shi Yi had long found it strange—when he recited the Daoist scriptures, his words carried an authority that felt divine. Golden lotuses would sprout from the earth, golden petals would drift down from the sky. It was as though the scriptures themselves had been born from him.
That shouldn't be possible.
Shi Yi knew his limits. He wasn't some ancient sage or reincarnated deity.
So why did this happen?
Could it be that the Twin Pupils—his eyes—were naturally endowed with this power?
The thought lingered.
Shi Yi slowly closed his eyes. High above, a massive pupil appeared in the sky, as if it had existed since the beginning of the Primeval Era. Two irises shifted within the vast socket of this celestial eye.
This was no illusion. It was the manifestation of his Twin Pupils.
From Shi Yi's perspective, the world fractured into a spectrum of laws and lines—threads of karma, threads of fate, threads of life. Everything—people, beasts, objects, time—was made up of these strands.
Sever karma, and cause vanishes.
Sever fate, and bonds dissolve.
Sever life, and breath ceases.
These weren't just threads. They were the underlying structure of all reality. The laws that governed creation, flow, and collapse.
And here's the thing—Shi Yi wasn't the only one born with Twin Pupils. There was another: a woman whose very existence defied time and space.
Back in the Virtual God Realm, after his defeat and death at Shi Hao's hands—when his soul should have vanished forever—it was this woman who intervened, pulling him back from oblivion.
Her gaze, even more terrifying than his own, could peer straight through thought and memory. At that moment, even Shi Hao's mind had been laid bare. No secret, no intent could hide from her eyes.
What this really means is that every pair of Twin Pupils is different.
At the base level, all possess heightened insight—able to mimic techniques, perceive the flow of spirit power, dissect cultivation methods. But the true power lies in the mutation. The personal gift each pair awakens.
Shi Yi's unique gift?
He could see the lines—the essence of the world's design. If this were a world of technology, you'd say he could see particles, atoms, the source code of reality.
So now imagine this:
Shi Yi had the eyes that could see the blueprint. He only lacked a lever to pull the world open.
And the Daoist scriptures—particularly those of the True Primordial Records—were that lever.
Every time he recited the Sutra of Universal Benevolence, the blooming lotuses and golden petals weren't just mystical effects. They were signs of a deeper process. The scriptures weren't being read—they were being used to prise open the layers of reality.
Shi Yi wasn't yet a Sage. But he could become one. If he had been just the original Shi Yi, without this lever, even his eyes wouldn't be enough. But with it…
You've heard the phrase:
"Give me a lever long enough, and I can move the world."
Well, here's the difference: Shi Yi has both the lever and the sight to know exactly where to place it.
Right now, he may be weak. In the eyes of the truly powerful—those from the Upper Realm—he's nothing more than a talented child, only dominant in the Lower Realm's Eight Regions. If not for the guardian deity Liu Shen, any Upper Realm cultivator could crush him.
But none of them, not a single one, can see the world like he does. Let alone move it.
He is the only one who can use the world's own laws against it.
The so-called Thirteen Supreme Dao Scriptures? They're not just sacred texts.
They're thirteen divine levers.
And with those, Shi Yi was beginning to understand why his Ten Heavenly Passages were so...abnormal. He now understood why the earth blossomed with golden lotus and the heavens rained golden light whenever he read from the Sutra of Universal Benevolence.
Half an hour passed.
"Holy Son, are you alright?"
Yun Xi reached out gently, touching his forehead. She had only spoken a few words earlier—had she said something wrong?
"I'm fine," Shi Yi replied, his voice calm.
As he opened his eyes, the vast sky-eye—his Twin Pupils' celestial manifestation—faded like a mirage.
"Thank goodness. You kept your eyes closed for half an hour. That was kind of scary." Yun Xi pressed her palm to her chest, still shaken.
"Hm?"
Shi Yi blinked and looked into the distance.
What the hell was he doing?
Was he trying to mimic Kakarot now?
And not the good parts—but the dumb, battle-crazy ones?
"Holy Son?" Yun Xi asked tentatively.
"It's annoying," Shi Yi muttered, massaging his temple.
"If you'd like to talk about it," Yun Xi offered, "maybe I can help. I may not know much, but I'll try."
Shi Yi gave her a sideways glance.
"What's your take on someone deliberately holding back their strength, even when they clearly outmatch their opponent?"
"Holding back?" Yun Xi thought for a moment. "I suppose it's for the sake of fairness. Maybe to enjoy the thrill of a proper fight."
—
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of miles away, out on an endless wild plain...
The sun was dipping into the horizon, staining the sky a deep, blood-red hue.
Roars echoed like thunder across the steppe. Beast souls trembled. Creatures fled.
A brutal battle was raging.
In the heart of the plains, Shi Hao was clashing with the Nine-Headed Golden Lion.
Each exchange between them detonated like a tempest of sacred light. Powerful divine techniques exploded through the battlefield, shattering hills, flattening forests.
Here's the thing—Shi Hao could have ended the fight long ago. His peak cultivation in the Spirit Transformation Realm could easily crush the Golden Lion.
But he wasn't here to kill. He was here to play.
So he suppressed his realm, restrained his strength, and only used ordinary techniques.
The Nine-Headed Golden Lion roared. All nine mouths opened in unison. The resulting shockwave was visible—golden sound ripples tearing through the sky like tsunamis, slamming into the land.
This was the Lion Clan's ancestral technique: Heaven-Splitting Roar.
The force cracked the earth. The plains flattened under its pressure. Every blade of grass was shredded by sound alone.
Shi Hao didn't back down. He danced in the midst of it, letting the lion vent its power. The beast was durable, a perfect training dummy—tough enough to take hits, aggressive enough to keep things interesting.
The clash tore the land apart.
Boulders shattered. Mountains crumbled into powder.
"I can't use the Form and Intent Method yet," Shi Hao muttered. "If this lion can't even take the weakest of those forms, then what's the point? Might as well have some fun first."
Chunks of stone the size of fists blasted into him, carried by the lion's golden waves. He barely flinched.
Outside the battlefield, onlookers gathered. Fierce beasts and humans alike watched from hiding.
"Is that Shi Hao—the younger brother of the Butian Sect's Holy Son?"
"His brother is a monster, but this guy's not bad either."
"His brother roasts meat; he stews meat. Both of them are monsters from the Ancient Clans. When did the Human Race become so terrifying?"
"I caught a glimpse from afar—the girl beside his brother looks like Yun Xi, the Holy Maiden from Heavenly God Mountain."
"The Holy Maiden?"
"You don't get it? A Holy Maiden is… a Holy Maiden. Tsk. Looks like Heavenly God Mountain just climbed a high branch."
The whispers flowed fast and loose. Gossip wasn't exclusive to humans. Even the beasts had something to say about a possible match between the Holy Son of the Butian Sect and the famed Holy Maiden of Heavenly God Mountain.