Inside the palace.

Golden light emanated from Qin Luo's body.

The Imperial Advisor stood atop the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace, and suddenly his figure vanished.

Qin Luo frowned slightly. He could feel the Imperial Advisor suddenly appear behind him. They were back to back, and they were moving so fast that even he couldn't see them clearly.

Light and darkness divide the palace equally.

The Imperial Advisor mocked, "Zhang Fulong dares not come to me, but he sent you to your death."

Qin Luo remained calm. "Dealing with you doesn't require my master's intervention."

As soon as he finished speaking, everything in the palace froze instantly, even the Grand Preceptor remained motionless. Qin Luo activated the laws of time, causing time in the palace to stand still.

Qin Luo slowly turned around, reaching out to grab the Grand Preceptor's shoulder, wanting to know what the Grand Preceptor looked like.

Even though they were so close, Qin Luo's hand remained slightly away from the Grand Preceptor's shoulder—a distance barely perceptible to the naked eye. Qin Luo's eyes narrowed slightly. "The Laws of Space!"

"Before me lies an infinite space; you cannot touch me, not even light can get any closer," the Grand Preceptor transmitted his thoughts.

In the blink of an eye.

The figure of the Imperial Advisor appeared in the distance, and the entire palace became infinitely large, like a vast expanse of space.

Qin Luo once again activated the laws of time, using time reversal to bring the Grand Preceptor and Qin Luo closer and closer, but they always maintained their distance.

The Imperial Preceptor smiled and said, “You have unlimited time, and I have unlimited space. There’s no point in wasting time like this. Why don’t we have a real sparring match using true Taoist techniques?”

"OK."

Qin Luo put away the Time Dao.

The palace was restored to its original state, and the Grand Preceptor faced Qin Luo directly. Suddenly, he lifted his hood.

Qin Luo looked at the Grand Preceptor's appearance and was shocked, "Hua Ying?"

Just as Qin Luo was lost in thought, the Imperial Preceptor activated the spatial laws and put Qin Luo into the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Qin Luo was teleported into the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace. When he tried to activate the Time Dao Law, the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace lit up with golden light, and the Time Dao Law became ineffective.

The Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace was transparent, allowing Qin Luo to see the Imperial Advisor outside. Trapped inside, the Imperial Advisor remained calm and couldn't help but sigh, "As expected, old ginger is spicier. Now you can tell me your true identity, right?"

"hehe."

The Grand Preceptor's appearance began to change, transforming into Qin Luo's likeness with a strange smile on his face. "Before this game ends, I am nameless and formless."

Qin Luo sat cross-legged inside the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace. He could smell that familiar fragrance, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Was Hua Ying born inside this furnace?"

The Grand Preceptor put on a black hood, nodded slightly, and sighed, "Indeed, the Daoist Canon left by the Dao Ancestor records the method of the unity of heaven and man. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the Dao Ancestor's origin and could only use the Empress's origin as a substitute, which is why the Flower Shadow is not perfect."

"The Empress?"

Qin Luo recalled the purple-haired fairy in the jade pendant. No wonder he felt that Hua Ying looked a lot like the purple-haired fairy when he first saw her. It turned out that Hua Ying had her origin in her body.

"You intend to use the shadow of flowers to manipulate the Heavenly Dao?"

"Hua Ying is a composite of the Heavenly Dao's origin and the Empress's origin. She is a fragment of the Heavenly Dao walking in the mortal realm. If the Heavenly Dao wants to reclaim the power that belongs to it, it can only devour Hua Ying."

The Imperial Advisor did not hide anything.

Qin Luo stared at the Imperial Advisor, his eyes filled with anger. "You planted the Devouring Heaven Gu in Hua Ying's body, never intending to let her live, only wanting to use her to scheme against the Heavenly Dao."

"You're very clever; you even know about the Devouring Heaven Gu. Whether you're the chosen one or the one chosen by the Dao Ancestor, you can't disrupt my game with Heaven. Before, you were the variable; now you're an outsider." The Grand Preceptor's laughter echoed in the palace.

The raging fire baked Qin Luo, and the temperature inside the alchemy furnace continued to rise. Qin Luo remained unfazed, showing no fear whatsoever. "You've lived for so long. I want to know, in your eyes, what is the Dao?"

The Grand Preceptor spread his arms wide, looked up at the sky and laughed loudly, “I am not myself, the Dao is not the Dao. There was no Dao in the world, we created the Dao.”

Qin Luo said firmly, "The Dao is omnipresent, and you cannot trap me."

"This is the Dao Ancestor's Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace, also known as the Heaven Refining Furnace. It can even refine fragments of the Heavenly Dao. How long can you hold out? I hope I can still see your bones when I return." The Grand Preceptor disappeared into the darkness, his laughter fading into the distance. Only the blazing Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace remained in the palace.

Qin Luo was surrounded by a deep blue light, protected by the water energy of the Luo River. However, the deep blue light grew dimmer as the water energy was being devoured by the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace.

"Thank you for protecting me."

Qin Luo withdrew the water transport and activated the Dao of Fire, bathing his entire body in golden flames, intending to use the Dao of Fire to counter the purple fire inside the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace.

The golden flames were gradually being devoured by the purple flames. Qin Luo discovered that the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace was absorbing the energy within his body. "It turns out that it is transforming energy into the origin of the Dao."

When Qin Luo was at the Prince of Zhenbei's mansion, Wang Chongming demonstrated a similar technique to him. Qin Luo directly absorbed the purple flames in the furnace and transformed them into tiny specks of light.

Soon, the purple flames inside the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace went out completely, and the Eight Trigrams outside the furnace dimmed at the same time. Qin Luo was surrounded by purple energy. He swung his fist and smashed it into the furnace. The Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace shook violently, but it was not damaged.

Qin Luo then condensed the Dao of Gold into a long sword. He swung the sword and slashed out, but failed to leave any trace in the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace.

"As expected of the furnace left behind by the Dao Ancestor."

Qin Luo stopped using brute force, realizing it was impossible to open the alchemy furnace from the inside. He calmed down and meditated, when he heard a faint sound of wind.

The palace was airtight, yet the sound of wind could be heard. Qin Luo opened his eyes and reached out to touch the furnace wall.

A gust of wind swept up the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Furnace, and the wind opened the furnace from the outside, allowing Qin Luo to escape successfully. The Imperial Advisor had already left the palace and disappeared.

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