The Shang Tu Divine Talisman is exceedingly rare. The talisman patterns inscribed upon it number in the unknowable trillions. Even a divine master of talisman dao must search for heavenly materials and earthly treasures to craft the talisman paper.
It then takes centuries, or even millennia, to produce a complete talisman.
Moreover, the chance of failure during refinement is extraordinarily high.
For Wuyue to deploy the Shang Tu Divine Talisman reveals the intensity of his determination today to kill Feng Yunba, Xuanyuan Qing, and Shang Hong.
Under the suppression of both Wuyue and the Shang Tu Divine Talisman, Mr Mo was utterly unable to continue activating the offensive divine arrays. He had no spare attention for the big-headed cloth doll and could only devote himself fully to controlling the ship’s protective divine array.
Both Wuyue and the big-headed cloth doll understood clearly that the Shang Tu Divine Talisman alone could not breach the protective divine array of the Xufeng Divine Vessel.
Yet it could pin down Mr Mo, buying time for the big-headed cloth doll to break the arrays and divine inscriptions around the array towers.
“Splitting Light, Nether Shadows!”
The big-headed cloth doll’s laughter rang out endlessly, resounding through heaven and earth.
Above its head, a sky full of nether shadows appeared. All wore black armour. Some drove war chariots, some raised battle standards, some rode nether beasts, erupting with peerless martial might.
This army of nether shadows surged forward in overwhelming numbers, charging towards the array towers.
Boom! Boom!
Ancient heavenly inscriptions were triggered. In an instant, lightning flashed and thunder roared. Divine power surged, tearing the oncoming nether shadows into fragments that turned into wisps of black smoke.
The big-headed cloth doll traced a line in the air before it and intoned, “Heaven and earth divided!”
It was only a single stroke, yet it formed a spatial barrier thousands of miles wide.
Clearly, it dared not lightly touch the destructive power unleashed by the heavenly inscriptions. It could only command the nether shadow army to advance wave after wave, clearing a path and wearing down the inscriptions.
At this moment, the big-headed cloth doll finally freed its hands. It prepared to thoroughly extinguish Feng Xuan’s spiritual will and divine soul. It lowered its head to look, only to be suddenly shocked.
Feng Xuan’s head and body had vanished!
“How is this possible?”
The big-headed cloth doll was astonished beyond measure. Someone had silently spirited away a half-dead god right under its nose. Even though its attention had been elsewhere, it should not have failed to notice at all.
“Well done, Qingping Zi. Interesting, truly very interesting.”
The big-headed cloth doll saw the Taoist fleeing into the distance. Rage filled its heart, yet its mouth rang with loud laughter.
None could tell whether it was laughing or fuming.
Zhang Ruochen clutched Feng Xi with one hand and the headless Feng Xuan with the other. He ran frantically, wishing only to put as much distance as possible between himself and that big-headed cloth doll.
The gap in cultivation was too vast. He harboured no thought of resistance or ambush.
Feng Xuan held his own head in his hand and said anxiously, “Fellow Taoist Qingping Zi, how can we flee? Even if we escape, we remain aboard the Xufeng Divine Vessel. Once the protective array falls, everything we have done loses meaning. We should return and fight the Devouring Earth to the death. There may yet be a turning point.”
Zhang Ruochen replied, “How would we fight? In the presence of a spiritual power expert of that level, you could not even detonate your divine origin. Since staying aboard the Xufeng Divine Vessel is certain death, we charge out.”
Feng Xi gazed towards the Frost City Demon standing in the distant dark void and said, “It is useless. Charging out is also death. Better to remain aboard the vessel and perish together with everyone.”
“Indeed. Even in death, we must die with dignity,” Feng Xuan said.
The ship’s protective divine array blocked external forces from entering but did not prevent cultivators inside the vessel from rushing out.
The Darkness Temple clearly intended to slaughter everyone.
The Frost City Demon manifested his colossal divine body, standing in the void like an unrivalled demon lord. Any cultivator who fled would be slain by his sword qi, turning into clouds of blood mist in the darkness.
Boom!
In the distance, under the big-headed cloth doll’s assault, Mr Mo ultimately failed to hold. The seventy-two layered array towers collapsed into ruins.
“How could it fall so quickly?”
Zhang Ruochen, Feng Xi, and Feng Xuan felt their hearts jolt. They turned back in unison.
With the array hub destroyed, the light of the protective divine array rapidly faded, unable to resist the Shang Tu Divine Talisman descending from above.
An aura of world-ending destruction enveloped every cultivator aboard the vessel.
“It is over! Everything is over!”
A great saint of the Feng clan was crushed to the ground by the talisman’s power.
Lan Xi was at the peak of semi-god realm. Under the talisman’s suppression, she could still remain standing, but her eyes held no light, only boundless desolation.
Even gods were falling one by one. How could mere saints hope to survive?
Before such destructive power, any struggle seemed laughable and utterly meaningless.
Xuanyuan Qing glanced towards the outer heavens, as if awaiting something. She murmured to herself, “In the end, we are too late? A true catastrophe, indeed a true catastrophe!”
Then her exquisitely beautiful voice turned mournful and icy. She declared aloud, “Gods of the Darkness Temple, I, Xuanyuan Qing, swear today that I will surely slay every one of you present.”
“You are about to die, yet you still speak such arrogance? No, you are Haotian’s daughter. Lord Wuyue would be reluctant to kill you. Heh heh!”
The human-skin lantern raised its battle axe overhead, gathering dark power.
Xuanyuan Qing’s aura was weak. The poison of the Yellow Spring Flower had seeped into her divine origin, congealing her blood. The white divine light on her body grew dim. She stared at the human-skin lantern with eyes that regarded death as return, showing no fear.
“Wuyue!”
A deafening divine roar of fury echoed from the highest point of the vessel. The sound waves hurled Zhao Wuyan and the Clear Sky Sword King away.
Zhao Wuyan’s mount, the crimson hound ghost beast, let out a wretched scream, dissolved into ghost mist, and scattered soul and spirit, kicking up thick dust.
Pfft!
The Clear Sky Sword King spat blood, flew dozens of miles, triggered seventeen arrays, and was scorched black by divine fire.
Even the powerful human-skin lantern staggered back, seven sword marks appearing on its skin.
The three experts’ gazes converged on Feng Yunba.
Now towering several zhang tall, Feng Yunba blazed with divine flames like a heavenly torch. He looked up at the descending skull-shaped Shang Tu Divine Talisman.
His presence was majestic. His dishevelled hair had turned crimson. He showed no sign of poisoning. He declared, “Wuyue, today this seat will take you from this world with me.”
Around Feng Yunba’s body appeared the phantom of a ten-thousand-zhang flame greatsword. It soared skyward, colliding with the rapidly descending Shang Tu Divine Talisman.
The ten-thousand-zhang flame greatsword seemed capable of cleaving the heavens, splitting the talisman in two.
The talisman fragments turned into countless fireballs that scattered into the void.
“Pure Yang Self-Immolation Technique! Excellent! Excellent, Feng Yunba!”
Even with Wuyue’s ability, facing Feng Yunba performing the Pure Yang Self-Immolation Technique, he had to evade the sharp edge and immediately fled far away.
The ten-thousand-zhang flame greatsword pursued relentlessly. A slash from behind instantly illuminated half the dark void with extreme brilliance, piercing through all of Wuyue’s defences.
From afar, it looked as though his physical body had exploded!
Yet soon it reformed, and he continued fleeing.
Zhang Ruochen was utterly astonished. “Fourth Uncle has such skill. Why did he not use it earlier?”
Feng Xi’s face showed unprecedented pain. Tears fell from her eyes like a curtain of pearls, impossible to hold back.
Even Feng Xuan, a god who had lived countless years, spoke with a parched voice. “Once the Pure Yang Self-Immolation Technique is used, in a quarter of an hour the body, divine origin, and divine soul will all burn to nothing. I believe Fourth Brother had only just suppressed the Yellow Spring Flower poison within him, then chose death, seeking to slay Wuyue and win a path to life for us.”
Zhang Ruochen’s heart suddenly grew heavy. Although he had nearly died earlier beneath Feng Yunba’s sword, he now admired the man profoundly.
For what Feng Yunba did was something Zhang Ruochen himself often could not achieve.
He was the rare kind of upright and unyielding figure who drew a clear line between good and evil.
Zhang Ruochen did not consider himself absolutely righteous. His hands were stained with the blood of innocents, and he had sometimes resorted to any means. Yet he hoped the world would have more people like Feng Yunba, who held fast to the righteous path and resolutely separated themselves from darkness and evil.
Zhang Ruochen believed that if Feng Yunba wished to escape alone, he had a chance.
He did not retreat. He did not flee. He still charged forward with his sword, even burning himself, yet striving to win a sliver of hope for the cultivators aboard the vessel.
“Father!”
Feng Yan roared hoarsely. Five-coloured radiance burst from his body. At times he was flesh, at times clay.
In the boundless dark void, a tribulation cloud appeared.
The rules of heaven and earth rapidly gathered into the cloud, causing its scope to expand and the energy within to grow swiftly.
Feng Yan rushed out of the Xufeng Divine Vessel, putting distance between himself and the cultivators aboard.
“At this moment, crossing a divine tribulation—does it hold meaning? Even if you succeed, you would only be a lower god.” Zhao Wuyan laughed loudly.
Divine light flickered on the human-skin lantern. Beneath its black hair, two bright eyeballs burned with excitement. “The legend is true after all, truly true… haha! Legend says Empress Wa used five-coloured clay to mould a clay figure before her death and stored it in the Feng clan’s Five-Coloured Stone Valley. After many years, the clay figure gained sentience on its own, possessed unrivalled battle power, cultivated to the Heavenly Venerable realm, and was titled Pure Yang.”
“Late in life, Pure Yang Heavenly Venerable returned to Five-Coloured Stone Valley, and his body reverted to a pile of five-coloured clay. The Feng clan used this clay to mould twelve clay figures, hoping that after many years another would gain sentience.”
“I thought it mere legend, yet today I behold a true clay figure. This is Empress Wa’s five-coloured clay, part of Pure Yang Heavenly Venerable himself, virtually his second life. Obtaining it would bring boundless wonders.”
Feng Xuan stared fixedly at Feng Yan standing beneath the distant tribulation cloud and said excitedly, “There is still a chance. We still have a chance. So Fourth Brother placed his hope in Yan’er. As long as Yan’er crosses the divine tribulation, he will surely awaken the artefact spirit of the Pure Yang Divine Sword.”
“The artefact spirit of the Pure Yang Divine Sword has survived from Pure Yang Heavenly Venerable’s era, remaining in feigned death and slumber to evade the kalpa of an aeon. If the spirit awakens, the Frost City Demon could not possibly suppress it. A single sword could incinerate a great god.”
The experts standing atop the Darkness Temple clearly knew something of the Pure Yang Divine Sword.
The big-headed cloth doll, currently pursuing Mr Mo, transmitted mentally, “Kill that five-coloured clay figure. Do not let him cross the divine tribulation.”
Zhao Wuyan soared from the vessel. Behind him appeared billions of ferocious ghosts forming a vast ghost cloud, murderous intent surging as they charged towards Feng Yan beneath the tribulation cloud.
Feng Xuan said urgently, “We must go help… Yan’er…”
Before he could finish, the Yellow Spring Flower poison erupted. His body stiffened. He could not even hold his own head, which fell to the ground like a watermelon and rolled.
Zhang Ruochen held back Feng Xi, who wished to charge forward. “I will go. If you go, you have no strength to fight and would only die pointlessly. I can at least put up a struggle.”
Treading the divine spirit steps, Zhang Ruochen held the Qingping Sword. His gaze was resolute and sharp.
At this moment, the speed he erupted with was actually slightly faster than the Taiyi great god Zhao Wuyan.
Feng Xi stared blankly at Zhang Ruochen’s retreating back. She was not surprised that he would charge out to face Zhao Wuyan. In her heart, fellow Taoist Qingping Zi was the same kind of man as her father: capable of selfless rescue, capable of drawing his sword at the Fire Seed Conference for the sake of emotion, capable of risking his life to save the beings of a realm—a true pillar of heaven and earth.
What left her dazed was that fellow Taoist Qingping Zi had always referred to himself as “this poor Taoist” and addressed others as “fellow Taoist,” yet just now he had said “you” and “I.”
Zhao Wuyan saw Zhang Ruochen approaching from another direction. A cold, sinister smile appeared in his eyes. “I failed to kill you earlier, yet you come courting death yourself!”
Whoosh!
The crescent war blade slashed out, tearing space into a shattered path.
Zhang Ruochen felt the entire universe collapsing inward. Oppressive force came from all directions. His body could not even move. Clearly, he was locked by Zhao Wuyan’s battle intent and could not dodge.
This blade was far more powerful than the casual strike earlier.
Zhao Wuyan was stronger than any Taiyi great god Zhang Ruochen had ever fought, and by a wide margin.
In this moment of life-and-death crisis, Zhang Ruochen’s heart suddenly grew calm. He sank into a wondrous state where only he existed in the world, and instantly gained enlightenment.
Feng Xuan had once said that as men, their essence is yang, making yin-yang balance as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Yet the human heart has two choices: seeking life or seeking death.
Seeking life is yang. Seeking death is yin.
When Zhang Ruochen decided to remain, when he saw Feng Yunba perform the Pure Yang Self-Immolation Technique with intent to die, when he resolved to face Zhao Wuyan and aid Feng Yan in crossing the tribulation, in each of these moments his state of mind shifted naturally from seeking life towards seeking death.
When he decided to confront Zhao Wuyan and save Feng Yan, he truly felt no hesitation. It came wholly from the heart. Even knowing he might fall, he would still charge forward and clash.
The yin and yang forces within him reached a subtle balance in that instant.
Zhang Ruochen slowly raised the Qingping Sword in his hand. Behind him, a Taiji Yin-Yang diagram automatically manifested. It seemed only eighteen zhang in diameter, yet also like one hundred and eighty zhang, eighteen thousand zhang, or even boundless.
Whoosh!
A single sword strike shattered the crescent blade light that Zhao Wuyan had sent.
The strike appeared casual, as though no strength had been used at all.
Zhang Ruochen glanced at the sword in his hand, then touched the empty void. A smile appeared in his eyes, which then turned cold and sharp. He strode forward.
With each step, his aura doubled. He advanced towards Zhao Wuyan and declared, “Today Feng Yan crosses his tribulation. I shall guard the path!”
Not only did a Taiji Yin-Yang diagram appear behind him, but beneath his feet, above his head, and in all directions, yin and yang qi filled every corner of the void, with diagrams covering every part.
Every cultivator present was stunned.
