Struggling to Survive with Regression Power in the Primordial Saint Sect

Chapter 571: Want to Turn the Tables? You Can’t!

After walking out from the 【Pseudo-History】, Lu Yang had been pondering how he could possibly break this deadlock, what he could use to attain the 【Heavenly Fire】.

After much contemplation, he reached a conclusion.

‘My abilities can’t escape the World-Honored One’s predictions. The Hongtian in the 【Pseudo-History】 was already the limit of everything I could prepare.’

Within the current limits, Hongtian had failed.

That meant he would also undoubtedly die!

‘So... the only way is to find a trump card that escapes the World-Honored One’s calculations—one even he couldn’t anticipate. Only that could reverse everything.’

The answer wasn’t difficult to deduce:

‘The fundamental mystery of the Heavenly Fire.’

‘Only this lies beyond the reach of a pseudo-holder like me, while also surpassing the World-Honored One’s foresight. It is the key to breaking this deadlock!’

The reason was simple: As long as he attained the 【Heavenly Fire】, he could wield its fundamental mysteries. If even then the World-Honored One could suppress or kill him, then was there any point in preventing him from attaining it in the first place? Killing him would purely be on the World-Honored One’s whim.

Yet the World-Honored One had tried to prevent it—and with considerable effort.

That proved one thing: the fundamental mystery of the 【Heavenly Fire】 might truly reverse everything. Once he attained it, the World-Honored One might not be able to do anything to him!

The logic was simple.

Then came the question of how. Lu Yang thought long and hard, eventually deciding that it all depended on how much favor the 【Heavenly Fire】 showed him.

‘At the current level, this is the limit.’

‘The 【Heavenly Fire】 doesn’t reject my pseudo-holding, and even allows me to manifest its Fruit Position imagery. But I still can’t touch its fundamental mystery.’

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough favor.

The root cause was simple too: though Lu Yang had ruled the world, it was still only at the Foundation Establishment level. He hadn’t touched the Golden Core realm.

What if he went further?

What if even Golden Core True Lords chose to submit? With their immense karmic weight, could they earn him more favor from the 【Heavenly Fire】?

Lu Yang didn’t know.

But he had to try.

‘The four of them seeking the Golden Core—it doesn’t matter in itself. Even if four more True Lords appeared, it wouldn’t change the fact that I’m destined to die.’

The key was: the three True Lords currently attaining the Golden Core were his people.

And in today’s world, they were the only three True Lords. In other words, his authority as ruler now extended even to the Golden Core level!

‘All of this is just one grand gamble.’

‘I’m betting I can wield the fundamental mystery of the 【Heavenly Fire】 as a pseudo-holder. If I succeed, I overturn the game. If I fail, so be it—I die, and try again after restarting.’

‘Luckily, I won the bet.’

Stepping out of the 【Heavenly Fire】, Lu Yang’s expression was calm, composed. When he looked toward the Manifested Tathāgata, there wasn’t a trace of resentment or anger.

“Why?”

At this moment, the Manifested Tathāgata’s expression had also returned to calmness, though his brows betrayed curiosity: “I clearly shattered your flesh and soul.”

He wasn’t mistaken. Just earlier, he had taken on the Real Person of Demon‑Cleansing’s sword head-on and unleashed his full-force 【卍】-fist, utterly obliterating Lu Yang—body, soul, blessed land, golden nature... not a single trace remained. Yet Lu Yang had calmly walked out of the 【Heavenly Fire】.

“There’s nothing strange about it.”

Lu Yang said lightly, “Any cultivator favored by a Fruit Position, even as a pseudo-holder, can return from it at their peak state after death.”

“What kind of joke is that?!”

The Manifested Tathāgata reflexively retorted: “Do you take me for a fool? I’m an incarnation awakened by the World-Honored One—I’ve never heard of such a rule…”

“Starting today, such a rule now exists.”

As his words fell, a complex talisman—radiant with blazing fire and seemingly containing infinite Dao principles—lit up at Lu Yang’s brow.

【The Chapter of Heavenly Inscription】—a truly peculiar mystery.

It was Lu Yang’s first time encountering it, so he hadn’t delved deeply, but he understood the basics: in simple terms, it let him inscribe rules into the Heavenly Dao.

This was different from rules set by Fruit Position imagery.

Previously, the rules he had set only included punitive mechanisms—if one could endure the burning trial of Heavenly Fire, breaking them meant little.

But 【The Chapter of Heavenly Inscription】 was different. It set iron laws.

In other words, these were rules that would absolutely come to pass—like water extinguishing fire, or yin and yang repelling one another. Irrefutable principles of the world.

If he said a pseudo-Golden Position Foundation Establishment cultivator could revive through the Fruit Position after death—then they could.

Of course, such rules required him to expend his own magical power to maintain. And the more significant the rule, the more it would erode his mysteries.

Therefore, aside from inscribing Heaven’s principles directly, this Fruit Position mystery also had a simpler, less costly, and quicker application.

The next moment, Lu Yang’s eyes flickered, and the talisman on his brow shone once more.

Just as the Manifested Tathāgata was preparing to commit suicide and revive via the 【Laws of the Immortal Kingdom】, his movement froze, a bead of cold sweat dripping from his Buddha face.

“Go on, then.”

Lu Yang smiled: “Didn’t you transform yourself into a kind of official post? Able to revive after death? Why stop now? Changed your mind?”

The Manifested Tathāgata: “…”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to.

It was because, just now, he suddenly sensed that the 【Laws of the Immortal Kingdom】 he relied on had been altered out of thin air. A new operational rule had been added:

【The higher the official rank, the longer the revival takes.】

A simple rule, but it struck at his fatal weakness.

Because if he was to be considered a position within the 【Laws of the Immortal Kingdom】, he was undeniably the highest. According to this new rule, his self-destruction and revival would now take a full sixteen thousand years!

What kind of revival was that!?

The opportunity would be long gone!

Realizing this, the Manifested Tathāgata once again divined the future with karmic insight and opened his wisdom eye to look at Lu Yang—his face darkened further: the inevitable death in the future had vanished!

Why?

He quickly calculated the answer:

That inevitable death came from Hongtian’s fate. It was Hongtian—Humanity—who was fated to die. What did it have to do with me, the True Dragon? They weren’t even related.

It was the work of 【The Chapter of Heavenly Inscription】 again!

Simply put, Lu Yang had rewritten the activation conditions of that future possibility. He no longer fit the conditions, and so escaped the outcome.

“This… this…”

The Manifested Tathāgata gaped, then looked toward the 【Yama Hall】 within Lu Yang’s body. Logically, the Fortune of Hongyun should’ve already collapsed!

Why hadn’t it?

He calculated again:

【The Chapter of Heavenly Inscription】: The 【Yama Hall】 could still operate normally even with a shattered golden nature.

The Manifested Tathāgata: “…”

The next second, the Buddha radiance shattered, and the Manifested Tathāgata’s figure dissolved into the dispersing myriad lights of Buddha, fleeing in all directions.

At some unknown point, the 【Laws of the Immortal Kingdom】 had vanished.

‘I still have hope!’

‘I haven’t lost yet!’

Amid the thousands of Buddha lights, one of them—housing the Manifested Tathāgata—remained calm. He wasn’t fleeing in fear, but to buy some time.

Because he still had one last trump card.

He had kept it hidden until now—not even used in the 【Pseudo-History】. He once thought it unnecessary, but now… he couldn’t wait.

With that thought, the Manifested Tathāgata looked toward the overseas region.

There, another light of Golden Core attainment flickered—compared to those of Chong Guang, Empress Xiao, and the Demon-Cleansing Real Person, it was faint and struggling.

Clearly, this one lacked deep foundations.

But that didn’t matter.

The Manifested Tathāgata knew the Fruit Position that light pointed to was the 【Celestial River Water】. No doubt—the one attaining the core must be the dragon clan’s Tianqiu!

‘That Tianqiu... he once bore a planted Buddha Fate!’

So-called Buddha Fate was a karmic connection. The Buddha Child could use it—and so could he, the higher Manifested Tathāgata. At a crucial moment, he could convert others!

‘As long as I activate the Buddha Fate and convert him into a Guardian of the Faith, then have him destroy the overseas domain… perhaps I can ruin the aura of that demon dragon. If his aura plummets and he loses access to the Heavenly Fire’s mysteries, I might still turn the tables and avoid total defeat…’

The Manifested Tathāgata had calculated everything.

In a flash, he arrived overseas, and without hesitation, began casting the incantation to awaken the Buddha Fate hidden deep within Tianqiu.

But the next second, the Manifested Tathāgata froze.

Because there was no response.

He clearly sensed the Buddha Fate being awakened—but the location wasn’t in front of him, but in some remote sea region overseas…

This wasn’t Tianqiu!?

Then who was it?

“No need to wonder.”

The Manifested Tathāgata stood silently in the air—and behind him, Lu Yang walked through the sky, thundering with rolling divine sound:

“Want to turn the tables? You can’t!”