Xiao Fei was about to retreat when he found that the Heavenly Dao of this world had taken the initiative to greet him. There was only one Heavenly Dao he was somewhat familiar with.
It was the one who had joined forces with him to fight the Dao Worm, whose name seemed to be "Ning."
"Are you Ning? Why can you recognize me?"
Xiao Fei was a little confused. The last time he met Ning, he wasn't wearing a mask and was in his true form.
Now, wearing the ugly mask given to him by Zhu Yu, even Immortal Lords couldn't recognize his true identity.
Xiao Fei even felt a trace of killing intent deep in his heart, ready to kill the Heavenly Dao to silence him if anything went wrong.
"I am the Heavenly Dao of this world, and I have control over everything within the world. I can sense a faint familiar aura from you."
Xiao Fei sensed that Ning's aura was extremely weak, as if he were about to die.
"How did you become like this?"
Xiao Fei looked at the dilapidated world before him, which was quite different from the world in his memory.
"Thank you for still remembering me. Ever since my world was bitten and broken by the Dao Worm last time, and after some other changes, the spiritual energy in the world has been continuously draining, and it has slowly become like this."
Xiao Fei spread his divine sense, enveloping this world.
He discovered that there was no spiritual energy left in this world, the environment was harsh, and the number of living beings was scarce.
There were several more gaps in this world, and the remaining spiritual energy was still leaking out through these gaps.
If this continued, this world would eventually become completely barren.
"Friend, I can't hold on any longer. Can you do me a favor?"
"What favor? I do sympathize with your current predicament, but I am powerless to help."
Although Xiao Fei's strength had improved greatly, he still lacked experience in dealing with such situations.
"I am beyond saving and am about to fall into dormancy. I want to ask you to help me preserve a memory."
"Memory?"
Xiao Fei was a little confused. He had heard that some powerful beings preserved a memory before reincarnating and cultivating again.
"Are you planning to reincarnate and cultivate again?"
"How could I reincarnate and cultivate? We Heavenly Daos are just consciousnesses merged into a world.
We exist by relying on the world. When the world perishes, we can only perish with it.
Recently, my consciousness has become increasingly blurred, and I may completely lose consciousness soon.
For a Heavenly Dao, losing consciousness means death."
As Ning spoke to Xiao Fei, his words were intermittent and he appeared to be struggling, possibly close to death.
"If I help you preserve your memory, what should I do then? Do I need to find a body for you to possess and be reborn?"
Xiao Fei instinctively did not want to find a living person for the Heavenly Dao to possess.
Although they knew each other and had some acquaintance, it wasn't enough for him to do something too heinous for him.
Unless he accidentally killed a Heavenly Demon Guard or a Jiao Yin Demon in the future, and used their bodies for the Heavenly Dao to possess, he wouldn't have any psychological burden.
While Xiao Fei was still hesitating, Ning spoke again:
"Ordinary bodies cannot bear the vast consciousness of our Heavenly Daos, so Heavenly Daos rarely have the chance to possess and be reborn.
But I once heard a legend that after a world becomes silent, the Heavenly Dao does not completely die, but is reborn in another form of life."
"Are you referring to the Dao Worm?"
Xiao Fei immediately thought of the legend of the Dao Worm that Zhu Yu had mentioned to him before.
"So, friend, you also know this legend."
"I only vaguely know a little bit, not much," Xiao Fei shook his head.
"Among us Heavenly Daos, there has always been such a legend.
As the energy in the world continuously drains, every world will eventually head towards destruction.
We use terrifying heavenly tribulations to kill those cultivators at the Mahayana stage, preventing energy leakage, but this can only temporarily slow down the speed of destruction.
The loss of energy is unavoidable, so the destruction of every world is already a foregone conclusion."
Ning paused for a long time after saying this, took a deep breath, which caused the remaining small amount of spiritual energy in this world to become even thinner.
It seemed as if he was organizing his thoughts or recovering some consciousness.
Seeing how weak he looked, Xiao Fei took out a few immortal stones and used his laws to decompose them into pure immortal energy.
Ning received this wave of immortal energy support and his spirits recovered a lot, continuing to speak.
"According to the legend, the dormant consciousness of the Heavenly Dao will be reborn in another way and then devour the entire world, becoming a Dao Worm."
If the legend was true, then in the end, all worlds would only become Dao Worms, or be devoured by Dao Worms.
Xiao Fei fell into deep thought. If this continued, all the worlds in the myriad realms would eventually be destroyed.
Similarly, the Immortal Realm was not much better. The immortal energy in the Immortal Realm was decreasing, and it would eventually be destroyed.
Their current action of eradicating Dao Worms was merely to delay the speed of world destruction.
When the world is destroyed, even these immortal beings who live forever would not escape the calamity in the end.
"Then what do you plan to do? Are you going to possess a Dao Worm to be reborn?"
Xiao Fei's interest in Ning's plan was piqued, and he really wanted to know how he intended to be reborn.
"I will extract all my memories and entrust them to you for safekeeping.
If the rumors are true, after my consciousness falls into dormancy, I will gradually transform into a young Dao Worm.
At that time, please, fellow Daoist, imprint my memories into the Dao Worm before its consciousness is fully formed."
This was indeed a good idea. Some people reincarnated and were reborn with their souls.
Ning only needed to make a copy of his memories to achieve rebirth in the Dao Worm's body.
However, from then on, his identity would be that of a Dao Worm, an existence that stood in opposition to the entire Immortal Realm.
Xiao Fei pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement.
It wasn't as if there weren't many Dao Worms roaming in the chaos, so one more wouldn't hurt.
"Thank you! Please wait for me for a moment."
Ning thanked Xiao Fei and then returned to dormancy.
Xiao Fei waited for about an hour, and Ning finally showed some reaction.
A huge point of light appeared in the sky, growing smaller as it descended, eventually becoming a point of light the size of a fist.
This point of light landed on Xiao Fei's palm and transformed into a sphere the size of an egg.
"This contains all my memories. I trouble you, friend!
You are my only friend. If this succeeds, I will forever remember your kindness."
After saying these words, Ning's consciousness completely fell silent, which was no different from death for him.
To be able to meet Xiao Fei at the moment of his death was fortunate for him, as he could at least leave behind a memory, a glimmer of hope.
Xiao Fei held the egg-sized memory sphere in his hand. When he tried to probe into it with his divine sense, it was repelled.
Ning's remains had not yet cooled, and he couldn't go too far. He decided to stay in this broken world for a while.
Opportunities to encounter a completely dead world Heavenly Dao were rare, and he might as well stay here to witness it.