“Is the Wrath Heaven God Venerable your father, or your grandfather?”
The instant Xuan Yi asked this question, he had already shifted, at a speed imperceptible even to divine eyes, to within three feet of the Peerless Zen Lady.
Two fingers pressed together, stabbing straight towards the centre of her brow.
As swift as light itself!
It was precisely the same finger technique divine ability he had used earlier to pierce Qian Mo Sang’s qi sea and dig out his divine source.
The speed was the same speed, the move was the same move.
Yet the Peerless Zen Lady was not Qian Mo Sang.
The Peerless Zen Lady formed the Fearless Seal. Her palm, radiating golden Buddhist light, collided with the edge of Xuan Yi’s fingers. Surging, overwhelming ripples of energy burst outwards.
Space shuddered. The earth cracked layer upon layer, then was shaken and flung skywards again.
The Peerless Zen Lady was sent flying backwards. Time itself seemed to slow in that moment. Still, Xuan Yi’s speed remained extreme. His arm flashed like lightning as he thrust a second finger.
It looked as though the Peerless Zen Lady was about to follow in Qian Mo Sang’s footsteps.
Halfway through her flight, the Buddhist light vanished from her body. She turned chillingly evil, shrouded in nether qi. Her eyes became a ghostly green. Behind her, the phantom of the Ancestor of the Nether God appeared, and her figure abruptly steadied.
The Peerless Zen Lady formed hand seals and met Xuan Yi’s second strike head-on.
Boom!
The phantom of the Ancestor of the Nether God shattered explosively. The Peerless Zen Lady was hurled away once more.
Xuan Yi thrust a third finger!
The Peerless Zen Lady executed a third hand seal. Behind her appeared the light-shadow of the Nether Realm Kingdom.
…
Every one of Xuan Yi’s moves aimed to utterly crush his opponent.
The most direct and fastest way to completely crush a god was, without question, to destroy their divine source.
Yet the divine source was the place a god defended most rigorously. Breaching that defence to destroy or extract the divine source was far more difficult than shattering the god’s physical body.
Xuan Yi thrust five fingers in succession. Each finger was like a sword, and every strike could have killed a great god of the Grand Void Realm like Qian Mo Sang. Yet all five were blocked by the Peerless Zen Lady.
Behind her, four light-shadows manifested one after another.
They were: the Ancestor of the Nether God, the Nether Realm Kingdom, Nether Souls Undying, and the Nether River Spanning the Heavens.
All four light-shadows were shattered by Xuan Yi’s power. With a loud crash, the Peerless Zen Lady’s body slammed into an ancient wall a thousand zhang high amid the ruins of the Heavenly Venerable Temple.
Countless Heavenly Venerable divine patterns on the ancient wall activated, forming dense, blazing divine flames that engulfed the Peerless Zen Lady.
At the same time, they forced Xuan Yi, who had been about to press his attack, to retreat.
The fluctuations of divine power from the previous five clashes had been so violent that they activated every formation inscription and Heavenly Venerable divine pattern throughout the ruins of the Heavenly Venerable Temple.
This area contained the densest concentration.
Fortunately, the Starry Abyss Heavenly Venerable had been dead for countless tens of thousands of years, and the power remaining in the ruins had greatly diminished.
Xuan Yi stood with his left hand clasped behind his back, gazing at the stone wall where the divine flames burned most fiercely. A figure of fire walked out. The Peerless Zen Lady’s white Buddhist robes had transformed into fiery divine armour.
A flash of surprise crossed Xuan Yi’s eyes. He said, “You are the first cultivator to survive after I closed to within ten zhang of you. Beneath the Immeasurable Realm, to have cultivated the four phases of the Nether Law is to have brought the Book of the Nether to its utmost perfection! I am very curious. The ‘Nether Ancestor Scroll’ and the ‘Nether Kingdom Scroll’ are clearly kept in the Dark Divine Temple. How did you manage to cultivate them?”
“With my status, if I go to borrow them, who would dare utter a single word of refusal?”
The armour on the Peerless Zen Lady dispersed the divine flames and reverted to white Buddhist robes.
Her right hand remained behind her back, blood seeping between her fingers. Yet her aura showed not the slightest weakening. On the contrary, it was stronger than before, and her gaze remained utterly resolute.
Xuan Yi said, “The Child of No Moon cultivated only the ‘Nether Ancestor Scroll’ and the ‘Nether Kingdom Scroll’, yet was already hailed as a once-in-a-generation genius and taken as a disciple by the Nine Deaths Heterodox Emperor. But you have cultivated four scrolls and reached the utmost limit of the Grand Truth Realm. I have heard rumours that cultivating all eight scrolls of the Book of the Nether and uniting the eight phases allows one to attain eternal life. I wonder whether that rumour is true?”
“Just a rumour. Who can say what is true and what is false?”
Standing amidst the divine flames, nether qi billowing from her body, the Peerless Zen Lady caused the four phases, Nether Ancestor, Nether Kingdom, Nether Souls, and Nether River, to manifest simultaneously. She said, “Show your true strength! With only the Heavenly Desolation Streamlight Finger you learnt from Patriarch Shang, you cannot kill me.”
Xuan Yi stepped forward and said, “You are already injured. Why force yourself? If you leave now, I can spare your life!”
The Peerless Zen Lady retreated step by step, always keeping exactly ten zhang between them. She said, “The moment the thought of fleeing enters my mind, my battle intent, confidence, and aura will collapse instantly, and I will only die faster.”
Xuan Yi’s speed was too great, his physical body too strong.
Ten zhang was the reaction time the Peerless Zen Lady needed to respond and deploy countermeasures.
That time was extremely short, but it had to exist!
Xuan Yi halted and said, “Do you think that by staying ten zhang away, I cannot kill you?”
“Om!”
A Buddhist syllable resounded!
Xuan Yi discovered that his vision had vanished. Everything before his eyes turned pitch black. He could see nothing.
Xuan Yi circulated the divine qi within his body, gathering it into his eyes, yet he still saw nothing, as though he had become blind.
Any ordinary cultivator, encountering such a bizarre situation, would panic.
But Xuan Yi remained perfectly calm and said, “What technique is this?”
The Peerless Zen Lady replied, “From ancient times until now, the Buddhist sect has given birth to seven ancestors. The founding ancestor, Kasyapa, spread the teachings across the world, elevating Buddhism from a minor path to the supreme holy path.”
“Ancestor Kasyapa once gathered the six desires of the mortal world, refined them into six treasures, and, together with Brahma flames, forged them into a single luminous pearl.”
“This pearl can shatter all demonic obstacles in the world. The six treasures within the pearl can seal a cultivator’s five senses and consciousness.”
Xuan Yi was shaken and said, “The foremost treasure of Buddhism, the Mani Pearl, has actually fallen into your hands.”
The Peerless Zen Lady held the Mani Pearl aloft. The six treasures within it radiated six different colours of light.
“Ma!”
The Buddhist syllable rang out again.
Xuan Yi’s hearing vanished!
“Ni!”
“Ba!”
“Mi!”
Smell, taste, touch. All five senses were lost.
“Hung!”
The sixth Buddhist syllable sounded, like a world-shaking bell. Xuan Yi’s consciousness rapidly weakened until he could sense only the area within ten zhang.
Those ten zhang were the ground his spiritual will had fought to hold against the Mani Pearl and the Peerless Zen Lady.
The Peerless Zen Lady dared not step inside Xuan Yi’s ten-zhang domain.
Xuan Yi could not perceive the boundless darkness beyond ten zhang and did not know where she stood. The two fell into a stalemate.
Even in such circumstances, Xuan Yi remained utterly calm and said, “I know where Zhang Ruochen has been teleported. I will go now and kill him.”
Xuan Yi’s speed was beyond comprehension. His figure blurred and vanished from the ruins of the Heavenly Venerable Temple.
“You will not kill him, because I am here!”
The Peerless Zen Lady vanished as well.
In an instant, Xuan Yi appeared outside the Rain Deity Temple, and the Peerless Zen Lady appeared right behind him.
That fleeting instant was exactly what Xuan Yi wanted. In that moment, the Peerless Zen Lady had no time to activate the Mani Pearl. Chasing him was simply courting death.
Boom!
Xuan Yi struck with a palm.
The Peerless Zen Lady’s body shuddered violently. Blood sprayed from her body, yet the moment it left her, the blood turned into peach blossom petals.
But in that same instant, the power of the Mani Pearl enveloped Xuan Yi once more.
Within ten zhang was Xuan Yi’s world.
Beyond ten zhang was the Peerless Zen Lady’s domain. Unfortunately, even the Mani Pearl’s power had limits when suppressing a powerhouse like Xuan Yi. In truth, the narrow space between ten zhang and the pearl’s full coverage was the only true domain of the Peerless Zen Lady.
She counter-attacked, chanting Buddhist syllables. Buddhist qi and Buddhist Dao rules surged from her body, activating the Brahma flames within the Mani Pearl. They transformed into flaming Sanskrit characters that flew towards Xuan Yi like a rain of fire.
Xuan Yi moved like a beam of light, weaving through the flaming Sanskrit characters, constantly evading.
He knew that being struck by even one flaming Sanskrit character would be disastrous. With his five senses sealed, his speed had already slowed considerably. Given enough time, flaws would inevitably appear.
Whoosh!
Xuan Yi fled once more, escaping the area covered by the Mani Pearl.
The Peerless Zen Lady did not know exactly where Zhang Ruochen had been teleported and dared not let Xuan Yi go, so she pursued closely.
This was the most exquisite clash beneath the Immeasurable Realm. There was no heaven-splitting, earth-shattering destruction, no annihilation of star seas. Everything occurred within a few zhang. Yet precisely because of that, it was supremely dangerous. Victory and death could be decided in a heartbeat.
In the Divine Realm, close-quarters combat was the most perilous.
To kill a god, one must close the distance. Otherwise, the difficulty increases dramatically.
…
In the void space, Huang Tian was bathed in blood, his skin covered with countless cracks.
The self-detonation of the Seizing Heaven God Emperor’s second divine body had gravely wounded him.
Yet it was of no consequence. His Dao of Life and Death had already reached the realm between life and death. The cracks on his body healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Just moments ago, after several days of effort, he had finally used death rules to completely refine and erase the Seizing Heaven God Emperor’s third and true divine body.
Beneath Huang Tian lay densely packed formation inscriptions.
The formation had been erected by Yu Rumor to resist the erosion of the void’s power.
They both knew clearly that to kill the Seizing Heaven God Emperor, it had to be done within the void space. Otherwise, Shang Tian would sense it and rush over at all costs to stop them.
If Shang Tian arrived, the fact that the Blood Absolute War God was Huang Tian’s secret identity would no longer remain hidden.
When that happened, the ones to bear the thunderous fury of the Shang Clan would be Starry Abyss Heaven, the Twelve Pavilions of the Divine Maiden, Empress Bai, and the Reverse God Clan.
For four thousand years, outsiders had believed that Huang Tian no longer set foot in Starry Abyss Heaven and had become strangers with Empress Bai. Yet Yu Rumor could always see him sitting alone in a pavilion in Jade Destiny Pavilion, drinking wine.
That was the most humble and tormented appearance of a great god.
If Huang Tian truly did not care about Empress Bai, why would he still come to Starry Abyss Heaven?
If the two had truly become strangers, why would Huang Tian disguise himself as the Blood Absolute War God to kill the Seizing Heaven God Emperor?
Yu Rumor understood that in Huang Tian’s heart, no one cared for her sister more than he did. Only her sister could make that heart, hard as bedrock, become fragile and vulnerable.
She hoped that after the Seizing Heaven God Emperor’s death, he could untie the knot in his heart, reconcile with her sister, and together face the difficulties and dangers yet to come.
While healing, Huang Tian suddenly felt a sensation. His eyes snapped open.
Whoosh!
He slashed apart the void space with a wave of his hand, returned to real starry space, and gazed towards the direction of Starry Abyss Heaven.
Regrettably, he looked all around.
He looked again.
Yet he could not find Empress Bai’s stellar soul divine seat.
Yu Rumor’s spiritual power was formidable. She sensed it even before Huang Tian did. Her mind nearly collapsed. She rushed out from the void space, eyes bloodshot as she stared into the distant starry sky, unable to accept that her sister had fallen. She cried, “No, how can this be? My master was clearly in Starry Abyss Heaven… How could this happen…”
In the boundless dark starry sky.
Huang Tian became a streak of fiery light like a meteor, flying towards Starry Abyss Heaven at the fastest speed of his life.
A roar filled with rage, grief, guilt, and perhaps boundless pain shook the stars of this region until they trembled. Countless asteroids were reduced to dust.
