Above the Great Dao

Outside, the battle rages on with tumult, but within Yuan Chen Palace, it is peaceful and quiet, not a sound from the outside can be heard.

Inside Yuan Chen Palace, it is clean and tidy, likely frequently maintained.

It is currently nighttime, the time when the Three Corpse Gods appear, and Chen Shi sees his mother's Three Corpse Gods.

The Upper Corpse God, Peng Ju, lies on the ground, his face ashen, staring blankly at the sky.

The Middle Corpse God, Peng Zhi, sits leaning against a tree, his eyes hollow, filled with a sense of twilight.

The Lower Corpse God, Peng Jue, crawls on the ground, awaiting the arrival of death.

They are surrounded by sorrow, like stone statues.

The master of Yuan Chen Palace is in such grief that the Three Corpse Gods, born of desire, also fall into sadness, unable to escape the grief.

Chen Shi walks past these three ugly Corpse Gods, and they do not glance at Chen Shi.

The divine court gateway of this Yuan Chen Palace is open, yet they do not enter the divine court to persuade the master to join them in revelry.

Because of the master's sorrow, they lose vitality and are trapped by Ghost Gods in this Yuan Chen Palace, unable to go out.

Chen Shi climbs the steps, transforming as he goes.

For these past days, he has been in the form of a Yaksha, only now ending the Transforming God's divine skill, changing from Yaksha back to human form.

He is worried that the Yaksha's form would frighten his mother.

Chen Shi enters the divine court; from the outside, it appears to be a magnificent palace, but upon entering, what unfolds before him is a seemingly endless corridor, with rooms on either side.

"Mother, where are you?" Chen Shi calls out loudly.

The echo stirs within the corridor, transmitting far away, but no one responds.

Chen Shi arrives at the first room, opens the door, and a gentle, warm light greets his eyes.

This room seems to be a delivery room, with Old Lady Wu Zhu acting as the midwife, holding a baby in her arms, full of smiles.

Young Chen Tang stands beside Old Lady Wu Zhu, craning to see the baby in her arms, reaching out to hold it yet fearing he might hurt the child with his strength.

Inside the room are over a dozen Old Lady Wu Zhus, each holding Little Chen Shi in different poses, standing in different positions.

There are also many young Chen Tangs appearing throughout the room, some without holding a baby, some holding a baby, some boldly raising Little Chen Shi above their heads, and others secretly peeking inside the swaddling to check his privates.

They seem to be human figures made of smoke, lightly touched, as if the palms pass through nothing.

Their bodies dissipate as the hands pass through but soon reassemble, retaining their original posture.

Chen Shi walks among them, approaching the bed in the bedroom, where another Chen Tang sits at the bedside, watching the figure on the bed with gentle, loving, and grateful eyes.

But as Chen Shi looks through his gaze, there's no one on the bed.

Chen Shi realizes this is the perspective of the woman who just delivered on the bed.

She is exhausted after childbirth, lying on the bed watching the midwife bustling with her child in the room, observing her husband carefully entering the room, first not daring to hold the newborn, then holding it, and lifting it up before finally coming to her side to check on her health, speaking words of comfort as a couple.

"This room holds the memory of my birth and my mother's mind," Chen Shi thinks to himself.

He leaves this room and enters the room across.

This room is filled with cradles, each containing a tiny Chen Shi, identical in appearance, some crying loudly, some sucking on fingers, others laughing incessantly.

Chen Shi enters the next room, filled with babies pooping and peeing everywhere, the room is chaotic and smelly, with diapers hung everywhere.

Chen Shi enters another room, where the floor is crawling with little Chen Shis, making a lot of noise.

He continues along the corridor, entering room after room; as he progresses, the little Chen Shis in the room gradually grow, from crawling everywhere to sitting on the floor gnawing table legs, to wobbling as they learn to walk, then growing a few baby teeth.

The Chen Shi in the rooms also grows taller, grasping a duck neck pulling a duck into the room saying this is for lunch, scribbling messily on walls and floors, overturning parents' clothes and belongings, even hiding under the bed crying after getting spanked by Chen Tang...

Behind the door appears gradually not a bedroom, but the outside.

This is the courtyard of the Old Chen Family.

He would study writing in the study with Chen Tang, lie on his mother's lap in the sun letting her clean his ears, help her roll yarn, flee frantically from Chen Tang's whip, or come home covered in mud, holding shoes in one hand and a few fish in the other, silly smile on his face while receiving scolding.

Then, behind the door appears scenes of Huangpo Village, with Chen Shi running around everywhere, standing on walls, climbing trees, playing games with other village children, and standing in the corner getting scolded.

...

"These are all memories about me."

Chen Shi rapidly opens door after door, searching for traces of his mother. But the more he sees, the more puzzled he becomes.

In these memories behind the doors, Chen Shi occupies most of them, and the rest involve Chen Tang, yet he cannot find his mother's memory of herself.

She always focuses her energy on Chen Shi and Chen Tang, seldom caring about herself.

Therefore, in these memories, she is always absent.

Chen Shi continues moving forward, opening door after door, the memories behind them are warm, sweet, and joyous, with Grandpa Chen Yindou's figure appearing, whenever Grandpa returns home, the lively scenes at home.

Also, the sullen Chen Tang, confiding in her about being bullied by Creation Little Five.

Behind the doors, Chen Shi grows day by day, from a tiny baby gradually reaching eight or nine years old, studying with Chen Tang, even reading books on the Yellow Earth Slope outside the village.

His height gradually increases.

...

"Mother! I've come back to life, mother!"

Chen Shi stands in the corridor shouting loudly, "I'm here to save you! Where are you?"

His voice echoed in the empty corridor, but no one answered.

Chen Shi opened another door. Behind the previous doors, the memories were colorful, the colors in the memories were more vibrant than those in the real world. But the memories behind this door were black and white, without any other colors, except for a pool of blood on the ground, which was bright red.

On the ground lay a small corpse, Chen Shi's corpse.

In the memory behind this door, there was no sky, no earth, all around was darkness, completely pitch black.

Before Chen Shi's corpse knelt a woman, crying bitterly, but no sound could be heard. She was trembling, but her face could not be seen.

She seemed to be calling out her son's name, calling him back, shouting until her voice was hoarse.

This time, Chen Shi saw his mother, but the perspective was high, it was the soul's perspective, not the eyes'.

Pain.

It hurt too much.

The pain was so unbearable that the soul tore away from the physical body, ran out, and from a transcendent perspective, overlooked this grieving mother.

The soul wanted to return to the physical body, but it was still too painful.

Chen Shi stared blankly at this scene, turned and closed the door, standing in the long corridor, his nose a little sore.

He steadied his mind and opened the next door.

Behind the door was a black and white world, no sky, no ground, except for little Chen Shi's corpse, the grieving mother, and a smear of bright red blood, there was nothing else.

Chen Shi opened another door, behind the door was still a black and white world, Chen Shi's small corpse and the kneeling mother.

He opened another door, the world behind was still black and white, just like the world behind the previous doors.

Chen Shi opened door after door, delving deeper into the corridor, but behind each door there was no change.

His mother's soul left the body in pain, forming this memory from the soul's perspective, afterwards for a long time, she immersed in this painful memory, unable to come out again!

All the grief in this world, there is none worse than this.

Chen Shi couldn't remember how many doors he had opened, yet he still couldn't find his mother. He called out loudly, but received no response.

He rushed forward, pushing open door after door, but behind the doors were always black and white, and he still couldn't find his mother.

He ran forward frantically, but this road seemed endless, as if all the rooms were repetitions of the moment little Chen Shi died, he kept running, kept opening new doors, only to find the same scene behind each.

Chen Shi ran forward, his heart burning with urgency.

This time saving his mother was not foolproof!

His mother was imprisoned here, arranged by King Yan, and from Young Master Wei Yue's tone, back then, King Yan used this arrangement to capture and imprison Chen Shi.

This time, he had invited the Boat Aunt, the three Great Judges, Black Pot, and Grave Stone Carver Du Yiran to help, but they couldn't hold on for long!

There were too many Yin Messengers in Immortal City, swarming over endlessly, even the Heavenly King could be exhausted and overwhelmed by them!

Chen Shi must rescue his mother as quickly as possible!

But how could he possibly find his mother among these seemingly endless doors?

He rushed forward, swiftly pushing open door after door, calling out loudly, but this corridor seemed to have no end, and neither did the doors, no matter how fast or far he ran, there were always more doors ahead.

Chen Shi once again pushed open a door, glanced hurriedly, only to see the same scene as before.

He turned, closed the door, he couldn't check every room, he had to save time, skip a dozen rooms, then open a door, this way, he could save a lot of time. Wait for the scene behind the door to change, then search carefully.

As he was about to run forward, a voice came from behind a nearby door.

"Little Ten, mother finally found you."

Chen Shi's body suddenly froze, he looked at that door, his hand trembled as he pushed open the closed door.

Beyond the door, an endless sea of fire came into view, flames leaping, towering Demon Gods stood amidst the flames, all looking in the same direction.

In the sea of fire, Demon Flames churned, surging towards the heavens.

A frail woman knelt in the flames, tightly embracing an eight or nine-year-old child.

"Little Ten, mother found you."

Chen Shi stared blankly at this scene, a mother's soul, passing through the underworld filled with Ghost Gods, places full of man-eating Ghost Monsters, crossing Sword Mountain and a sea of fire, to find her child.

Of these matters, he remembered nothing.

He didn't remember his mother's soul leaving her body to find him in the underworld, nor did he remember mother and child reuniting in the sea of fire.

He watched this scene, after a moment, he quietly retreated, gently closing the door.

"Little Ten..."

A somewhat trembling voice came from behind him, Chen Shi's body shook, he turned around.

His mother's soul had somehow arrived behind him, staring straight at him, as if she couldn't quite believe the scene before her.

"Little Ten!"

She rushed over, holding Chen Shi tightly, just like in the hellish sea of fire, surrounded by demons, holding the nine-year-old little Chen Shi tightly.

"Little Ten, mother finally found you." she choked out.

Chen Shi opened his arms, holding her tightly, afraid that this fragile yet incredibly strong soul would fly away from the pain in her heart.

"Mother, I've come to take you home!"