However, these were just types of magic, not Daos.
“There are millions upon millions of magics, but the Dao can only exist in the heart. Where exactly is… the Dao of this Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite Temple?” Meng Hao looked around until his gaze finally came to rest on the dilapidated statue of the deity.
Finally, he stood and approached the deity. After sitting down cross-legged, he looked up at the broken statue.
The deity statue was more than half destroyed. It had no head, and its torso was half gone. It was only possible to tell that it was sitting cross-legged, with its right hand extended to form an incantation gesture.
Meng Hao could make the same gesture, but when he did, he got no special feeling at all from the statue.
Feeling a bit annoyed, he turned to the old man behind him and said, “You’ve been following me around for half a month already. Is my head that interesting to stare at?”
Looking at the man, Meng Hao didn’t think he looked fierce or frightening at all any more, just dull and lifeless. “You’re formed from the shadow cast by the fire of that oil lamp. Don’t tell me you’ve been watching me this half-month for no reason at all?”
“Immortal!” the old man suddenly said, his voice hoarse and scratchy.
Meng Hao’s eyes widened. This was the first time the old man had spoken in the entire half month.
“What did you just say?”
“Immortal!” repeated the old man. “This statue is an Immortal!”
Meng Hao gaped.
“Do you wish to become Immortal?” the old man blurted. His eyes glowed with a strange light as he stared at Meng Hao.
Meng Hao was now starting to once again feel that this old man was very strange. His eyes narrowed slightly as he said, “I only have half a step to take and I’ll be a true Immortal.”
“How could Immortal be split between true and false…? That’s an incorrect path.” The old man shook his head, and from the look in his eyes, he seemed to be recalling the past. Then he murmured: “An incorrect path…. Has the legacy been cut off…? Too many years have passed since that war….”
All of a sudden the old man started laughing crazily. “They’re all dead! The land is shattered! The river of stars is cut off….” The man continued to laugh, then started to pace back and forth in the temple, weeping.
“Cut off! I can’t suppress the living, I can only suppress the ghosts….
“Gone, everything’s gone….”
Meng Hao’s mind was spinning. He looked at the projected image of the demented old man, and realized he seemed to be filled with an ancient forlorn sadness. The weeping from the well grew more shrill, and more blood dripped down from the swinging vine.
“Senior, which war are you talking about?” Meng Hao asked.
The old man laughed and wailed. The flame in the bronze oil lamp danced wildly, and the projections all rose trembling to their feet and walked around Meng Hao in circles, laughing and weeping.
Meng Hao was panting, and was on the verge of saying something when suddenly a popping sound rang out as… the bronze lamp was extinguished.
Everything vanished.
Darkness reigned. Meng Hao looked around in shock before noticing that far off in the distance, the sun was just beginning to rise.
Meng Hao was in a bit of a daze for the rest of the day. The old man’s words, and all the other events of the previous night, left him feeling that there was some incredible mystery pertaining to this Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite Temple.
It was a secret that perhaps… related to all the lands of South Heaven!
“Why did the enormous Daoist rite temple… disappear just now?
“All of those projections… where did they go to?
“Why is the temple hall in such a state of ruin?”
The day passed, and when night fell, the bronze lamp burned once again, although the flame was dimmer than it had been at the beginning. The old man appeared again. This time, he positioned himself next to the door of the temple hall. He was no longer weeping or crying, but rather, stood there silently.
After a moment, the man suddenly looked over at Meng Hao. “Your father is powerful. Even in the era in which I lived, he would be considered a powerful expert.
“He is also aware that his path is the incorrect one. However, he can do nothing to change that. If he could, he would be even more powerful.
“You have a good foundation, even better than many of the cultivators from my era. Do you… wish to become Immortal? I do not speak of any sort of false or true Immortal. Just Immortal…. A full 100-meridian Immortal!
“Only by opening all 100 meridians can one truly be considered Immortal! Even in past ages, full 100-meridian Immortals were few and far between. Only those who inherit great Daos might be able to reach that state, and with great difficulty at that.”