The Dao Ancestor answered every question from Qin Ruqing.

“I am no longer involved in worldly affairs. The catastrophe facing humanity must be overcome by yourselves.”

Qin Ruqing’s vision froze, and her eyes showed a trace of seriousness.

The worst fear had come true…

The upper echelons of the cultivation world had placed their last hope in the Dao Ancestor.

They believed that since the prophecy was foreseen by the Dao Ancestor, the Ancestor must have a solution.

They were most concerned about whether they could find the Dao Ancestor, but once they did, they were confident the situation would be resolved.

That’s why, even in the midst of urgent war, the Void Realm Council decided to prioritize finding the Sixth Domain.

Their insistence wasn’t without reason—if even the Dao Ancestor, the Immortal Dao’s origin, couldn’t save them, could ordinary people possibly save themselves?

“You think my response is a major blow to the cultivation world,” the Dao Ancestor said calmly, sensing Qin Ruqing’s emotions.

“Yes,” Qin Ruqing smiled a little and teased, “They’ve pinned all their hopes on you.”

“It’s human nature,” the Dao Ancestor replied. “I once thought I could save the world too.”

The world around Qin Ruqing changed, and this time, she saw the Dao Ancestor—specifically, the Dao Ancestor from ancient times.

The Dao Ancestor wore simple robes, without the divinity and grandeur Qin Ruqing had imagined.

Instead, the Ancestor looked very ordinary, like any other being.

But the Dao Ancestor was different.

The features were neither distinctly male nor female; they were calm and expansive.

The Ancestor’s presence seemed to blend with the natural world, and every breath caused a ripple in the wind.

The gaze made the space subtly tremble.

Soon, the Dao Ancestor’s form changed before Qin Ruqing’s eyes, turning into a woman in green robes.

“Huh?” A voice in her mind said, “Because you prefer me as a female form.”

Of course!

Why couldn’t the supreme being be female?

Qin Ruqing was delighted to see the Dao Ancestor in a female form.

“The current successor of the Azure Lotus is female, so it is fitting for me to appear as a woman,” the Dao Ancestor confirmed, intentionally adjusting her appearance to have long, beautiful hair and more pronounced features.

“Wow, Dao Ancestor… you really understand!”

The green-clad woman moved to the edge of the sky, where there was a huge gap.

She hovered in front of the gap, calculated with her fingers, and her expression became serious.

“A new species will cross this gap and bring a catastrophic disaster to the world.”

After thinking for a moment, the woman leapt into the gap to investigate.

Qin Ruqing couldn’t see inside the gap but guessed it might be the Void, the place where the sky was just beginning to crack.

The Dao Ancestor was probably entering the Beast Realm.

This was also why the Beast Realm had just learned of the existence of “Chaos.”

“An otherworldly realm with the same origin as the human world, with unique and simple laws. The Great Dao is fifty, Heaven’s transformation is forty-nine, and the last one is here.”

When the green-clad woman, or the Dao Ancestor, returned from the gap, she only said this.

Qin Ruqing even suspected that the Dao Ancestor didn’t really say these words but that they were the Ancestor’s thoughts at the time, and she only heard them because the Dao Ancestor’s consciousness added “subtitles.”

The green-clad woman traveled through countless stars, using astrology.

The stars in the sky flickered and occasionally fell.

Whenever a star fell, the woman would revise her previous predictions and start over.

But as she continued, the stars seemed to turn into beautiful yet fleeting fireworks.

Fireworks will eventually extinguish.

No matter how dazzling the stars were at first, they all inevitably fell.

Qin Ruqing didn’t understand astrology, but she saw from the fate of the stars that humanity’s fate was like these falling stars.

The Dao Ancestor couldn’t stop the stars from falling, just as she couldn’t prevent humanity’s destruction.

With her long, black hair and robe, the green-clad woman made one final attempt.

This time, the stars did not fall.

It suddenly stopped.

The Big Dipper pointed towards the crack in the abyss.

The woman in blue gracefully withdrew the star chart, and all the stars returned to their places.

The world became calm and untouched once more.

Her deep gaze followed the direction of the crack.

A mysterious power seemed to cover Qin Ruqing, and in that moment, she understood the meaning of the star chart.

“The Great Dao is fifty, Heaven manifests in forty-nine, leaving one last thread of hope. But that hope is in the beast realm?”

No, no, maybe she was thinking too simply.

The message of the stars couldn’t be that straightforward.

The direction of the Big Dipper might not completely represent hope, but something else, something deeper?

The distant sky disappeared, and the green-robed woman, who seemed like a goddess, appeared right in front of Qin Ruqing.

Seeing Qin Ruqing frozen in place, the woman brushed a strand of her silky black hair and said, “This form is shaped by your imagination. What, are you not satisfied?”

Qin Ruqing was still stunned.

“You like gentle women, with long hair down to their waists, like the ‘Third Sister’ or the ‘Ancestor Wenxuan’ in your mind. You even prefer them to have a full chest, so you can bow before them…”

“Dao Ancestor! Dao Ancestor!” Qin Ruqing’s scalp tingled, and she quickly interrupted, unable to bear it any longer.

Her face flushed slightly as she awkwardly said, “If the old cultivators saw you like this, they’d be completely shocked.”

Who would’ve thought the Dao Ancestor could be so down-to-earth? She even mentioned… “full chest” for bowing?

Can a divine being even say such things? And so seriously, too.

She was mortified.

“My physical body may have perished long ago, but my consciousness has been watching the mortal world. Since our minds are connected, I know the words you have in your head… Does this bother you? I can learn your ancient language too.”

Qin Ruqing’s scalp tingled even more. Letting the Dao Ancestor learn modern slang?

Forget the upper ranks of the void, even her family’s ancestors wouldn’t let her off!

She cleared her throat and hurriedly changed the topic: “Dao Ancestor, what does it mean when the Big Dipper points to the abyss? Does it mean the last hope of humanity is in the beast realm?”

“No, the Great Dao is fifty, it’s just an approximation,” the Dao Ancestor explained, “You can think of it as if the laws of the world are divided into fifty parts: humans control forty-nine, and the beasts control one.”

“The ‘one’ and ‘nine’ don’t simply represent numbers; they refer to a difference in origins.”

Even though Qin Ruqing barely understood, she felt a chill in her heart.

If the laws of the world were divided into fifty parts, and humans held forty-nine while beasts had only one?

Though the Dao Ancestor said it wasn’t purely about numbers, there was still some significance there.

Inequality causes conflict.

If she were born as a beast, she would certainly complain. “Why? Why do humans get ninety percent of the laws, and we beasts only one?”

Conflicts start from inequality.

If the root issue isn’t resolved, the struggle will never end.

“When the world first formed, the laws naturally left a thread of life, but that thread unexpectedly gave birth to the beast race. They were born from inequality and grew stronger through it. So, the only way to end the war is to eliminate the inequality.”

The Dao Ancestor confirmed Qin Ruqing’s suspicions.

She couldn’t help but blurt out, “How do we eliminate this inequality?”

According to the Dao Ancestor, this “inequality” was created by the heavens.

When the world first formed, a tiny flaw was intentionally left, creating an opening.

And yet, this tiny opening grabbed its chance for survival, eventually becoming a weapon that now threatens the world.

How could such a mistake be fixed?

Qin Ruqing couldn’t even imagine it.

The Dao Ancestor gave her the answer. “All that’s needed is to merge the laws of both realms. Once the Dao becomes one, everything will be resolved.”

“You make it sound easy…” Qin Ruqing wanted to argue, thinking that the power behind the laws was so great, how could anyone change them?

But when she met the Dao Ancestor’s calm, all-knowing gaze, the answer suddenly came to her.

The world was born from chaos.

Chaos existed before the laws of the Dao. Chaos can merge everything.

…

Realizing this, Qin Ruqing looked at the Dao Ancestor in shock.

The beautiful woman in blue nodded slowly.

“Just as you think, I ventured into the barrier, seeking a way to merge the laws of the two realms.”

“Did you… succeed?” Qin Ruqing asked softly, but before the Dao Ancestor could respond, she realized how foolish the question was.

If the Dao Ancestor had succeeded, how could she have lost both her body and soul, leaving only a wisp of consciousness?

“If even you couldn’t do it, who could possibly merge the two realms?” Qin Ruqing sighed.

Before she could finish, the woman in blue looked at her warmly, almost lovingly, a look that perfectly fit Qin Ruqing’s idea of “gentle and kind.”

Qin Ruqing’s face stiffened.

After a moment, she nervously rubbed her hands and said, “Dao Ancestor, I actually know someone with potential… Maybe they could inherit your teachings?”