Heaven and earth hold yin and yang. Chaos holds the clear and the turbid. He has broken through! Fellow Taoist Qingping Zi has broken through to Tai Zhen. The Heavenly Court has gained another great god.
Only a peak upper god like Feng Xuan, who has cultivated bitterly for hundreds of thousands of years, can truly understand how exhilarating it is to break through to Tai Zhen. Perhaps only the feeling when surviving a kalpa of an aeon can compare.
Worldly fame and profit are mere mist.
The bridal chamber and its candles are illusory flames.
Mortals look up to saints.
Saints yearn to become gods.
Gods pursue Tai Zhen with even greater madness. It demands efforts of a hundred thousand years, two hundred thousand years. For it, they can abandon family ties, risk their lives for the slightest chance of advancement, even twist themselves into something neither human nor ghost.
To gods, “breaking through to Tai Zhen” is the greatest desire.
Once achieved, their status in heaven and earth becomes utterly different. They can single-handedly uphold a powerful realm, live for hundreds of thousands of years, and look down upon the gods.
Feng Xi gazed at the tall, lean figure in cyan Taoist robes. He walked alone towards the pitch-black ghost cloud. Though his frame appeared slender, at this moment it seemed incomparably towering, inspiring awe and longing.
He was like a peerless sword god, capable, when heaven collapses and earth sinks, of holding up a domain of survival for all beings.
The human-skin lantern watched the Taiji Yin-Yang diagrams in the dark void and murmured to itself, “Is this the phenomenon caused by a Taoist cultivator breaking through to Tai Zhen?”
When it had broken through to Tai Zhen, there had been no such majesty.
Those who did not know might think someone had broken through to Taixu realm.
Xuanyuan Qing had already been deeply shaken when she saw Qingping Zi raise his sword against Zhao Wuyan. Hearing his words, “Today Feng Yan crosses his tribulation. I shall guard the path,” brilliant light burst from her eyes.
She naturally knew Qingping Zi’s true identity.
Seeing him make such a choice, he was clearly not as unworthy as the world claimed. He was truly a bold and resolute man, a pure-hearted soul who held fast to his principles. This only strengthened the resolve in Xuanyuan Qing’s heart.
Aboard the divine vessel, whether gods or saints, all the cultivators felt their spirits surge when they saw a great god emerge on their side.
It was like seeing a ray of hope in endless darkness.
Zhao Wuyan stood beneath the ghost cloud, black as an ink sea. Surprise flickered in his eyes, then he gave a sinister laugh. “So what if you have broken through to Tai Zhen? You are merely at the early stage of Taiyi realm, and your realm is still unstable. If you fled immediately now, you might still have a slim chance of survival. To dare face this seat in battle is nothing but courting death.”
Zhao Wuyan was a being of the Darkness Temple who had survived two kalpas of an aeon. He had cultivated for nearly three hundred thousand years. His foundation was profound, his accumulation deep, far beyond anything Li Xiao or the Second Armoured Blood Ancestor could match. His cultivation was on an entirely different level.
He was already close to the peak of Taiyi.
A great god who had only just reached the early stage of Taiyi realm—if he wished to flee, Zhao Wuyan would indeed find it hard to kill him.
But if he chose to fight, he was truly seeking his own death.
Behind Zhang Ruochen, the Taiji Yin-Yang diagram continued to evolve. The outlines of yin and yang fish appeared. Yang held yin within it, yin held yang within it. They rotated endlessly, drawing in the spiritual qi and sacred qi of heaven and earth without cease.
The yin within yang was like an abyss of darkness.
The yang within yin was like an eternal sun in the sky.
When he was still a thousand miles from Zhao Wuyan, Zhang Ruochen’s aura reached its peak. His whiskers flew wildly. He declared, “This poor Taoist also wishes today to slay a great god of the Darkness Temple. Zhao Wuyan, accept your death!”
Zhao Wuyan felt the powerful aura from his opponent and did not dare underestimate him.
A direct clash might bring easy victory, but it would make him seem reckless.
“You said you would guard his path, did you not? This seat will kill him right before your eyes.”
Zhao Wuyan gave a low laugh and moved his divine sense.
From the dense ghost cloud above his head, billions of yin ghosts flew out. With piercing shrieks, they surged towards Feng Yan beneath the tribulation cloud.
The tribulation cloud above Feng Yan’s head already spanned a hundred thousand miles. Countless bolts of lightning and fire shuttled within it.
Zhang Ruochen pointed a finger. From its tip flew a cyan river ten thousand zhang wide.
It was not a true river. It was formed from countless sword qi gathered into a cyan stream.
The cyan river surged forward and collided with the billions of yin ghosts tens of thousands of miles away. Instantly, ghostly wails filled the heavens. All the yin ghosts were slain, turning into wisps of smoke.
Whoosh!
In a flash of lightning, Zhao Wuyan had already crossed the thousand miles. He appeared above and before Zhang Ruochen. The Xuan Yue Nether Blade in his hand drew extreme yin-cold dark power and slashed down through the void.
This was a premeditated strike!
Clearly, Zhao Wuyan wanted to kill Zhang Ruochen, or at least cripple him and render him unable to fight, as quickly as possible.
Killing a god was easiest at close range.
Yet the blade he believed infallible had long been seen through by Zhang Ruochen. He had been waiting precisely for Zhao Wuyan to close in.
Zhang Ruochen swung his sword upward from below. Countless time imprint light spots appeared across the sky. Striking second yet arriving first, he diagonally cleaved Zhao Wuyan’s ghostly divine body in two.
The powerful dark force and blade light were completely shattered.
“Careful!”
Feng Xi’s warning cry rang out just as she saw the dark qi around Zhao Wuyan split apart and the two severed halves of his ghostly body fly backward.
Every cultivator present who could clearly see the exchange was stunned and shocked.
“Excellent!” Feng Xuan cried.
Zhang Ruochen gave Zhao Wuyan no chance to reform his ghostly divine body. His sword flowed like water. Sword light flashed faster than lightning. In an instant he struck over a hundred times, beating Zhao Wuyan into a sky full of ghost mist that wailed incessantly.
The ghost mist split into ten thousand avatars, trying to flee Zhang Ruochen and escape in all directions.
Yet they were locked by Zhang Ruochen’s divine qi and dragged back.
“Where do you think you are going?”
…
Aboard the divine vessel, most cultivators could only see a pitch-black expanse in that direction, filled with ghostly cries and howls. Sword light flashed densely. Occasionally they heard Zhao Wuyan’s furious curses and screams.
Even without seeing the clash clearly, they knew Reverend Qingping Zi held absolute dominance. It was utterly exhilarating. Many wanted to kneel and kowtow.
“It is time swordsmanship. He actually masters time swordsmanship.” The human-skin lantern sensed something wrong. Divine light blazed on its body like a constant star. It raised its battle axe, intending to strike Qingping Zi from afar.
“As a sword god of the Kunlun Realm, what is strange about mastering time swordsmanship?”
The cyan lotus mark on Xuanyuan Qing’s brow came alive. Cyan radiance fused with the power of light. Her graceful and elegant figure regained mobility.
A scroll flew from her brow and shot towards the human-skin lantern.
The axe that had been aimed at Zhang Ruochen immediately swung down, cleaving the scroll.
Boom!
Axe and scroll collided.
The scroll shattered, turning into a expanse of nine-coloured, ten-hued divine radiance that pulled the human-skin lantern into a strange world.
Within the radiance stood twenty figures shining with heavenly brilliance. Some glared like vajra guardians, some dominated the world, some seemed like dragon ancestors reborn. Their mere silhouettes made the human-skin lantern’s heart quake and its courage falter.
“The Twenty Heavens Chart… No, this is not the Twenty Heavens Chart painted by the Fourth Confucian Ancestor. It is a new one!” The human-skin lantern attacked the vajra-eyed Buddha figure, swinging its axe.
Twenty heavens? They were mere projections. How could a great god be so intimidated that it dared not strike?
Yet the axe it swung was repelled by a single palm from the Buddha figure.
Great god power could not shake the divine projections.
Three hundred thousand years ago, the Fourth Confucian Ancestor had been invited by the Rebel God Heavenly Venerable to paint the Twenty Heavens Chart. Legend said that painting it required the blood of the twenty heavens and took six hundred years to complete.
When the chart was finished, all the pigments in the entire Sacred Realm flew away to splash ink upon it, turning the sky colourful.
Yet that chart had long vanished together with the Fourth Confucian Ancestor.
The Twenty Heavens Chart that Xuanyuan Qing unleashed—no one knew which divinity of the Heavenly Court had painted it. It depicted the current twenty heavens of the Heavenly Court. Though far inferior to the Fourth Confucian Ancestor’s version, it was still extraordinary. For a short time, the human-skin lantern could not break free.
Whoosh!
A brilliant sword light that illuminated the darkness flew over Xuanyuan Qing’s head, heading straight for the divine battlefield where Zhao Wuyan and Zhang Ruochen fought.
It was the Clear Sky Sword King!
The Yellow Spring Flower poison had already taken effect in Shang Hong. His three divine bodies had been cleaved into blood mist by the Clear Sky Sword King. Now he struggled to reform them, clearly having lost combat strength.
Xuanyuan Qing had considerable faith in Qingping Zi. She did not immediately intercept the Clear Sky Sword King. Instead, she devoted herself to suppressing the Yellow Spring Flower poison within her body. Until the poison was subdued, she could not fight at full strength and would end up like Shang Hong.
Bang!
In an instant, Zhang Ruochen collided with the Clear Sky Sword King.
Two swords clashed.
The Qingping Sword turned darkness into cyan sky. The sword in the Clear Sky Sword King’s hand was no ordinary weapon either. It blazed like fire. Cultivators below divine realm were blinded by the sword light.
The Clear Sky Sword King’s cultivation surpassed even Zhao Wuyan’s. He was already at the peak of Taiyi realm.
Yet in this exchange, they were evenly matched. He gained no advantage at all.
“How can he be this strong? How is it possible?” Shang Hong, who had only just reformed his divine body, was too weak to move. His eyes were filled with doubt.
He had been unrivalled in the world during his great saint and upper god phases. His foundation and techniques were such that few cultivators of the same realm across the entire universe could compare.
Yet even after separating his three corpses, he had been no match for the Clear Sky Sword King.
Even without the Yellow Spring Flower’s influence, Shang Hong believed he would have little chance against a great god with such profound accumulation as the Clear Sky Sword King.
An aeon-level genius—every thousand years, one or a few would always emerge.
One could say that many great gods had been aeon-level representatives in their saint phases, or at least figures who stirred the mundane world on the Red Dust Peerless List. Only with such a foundation was it easier to cultivate to great god level.
Since the foundations were not vastly different, cultivation realm, accumulation of divine qi, number of rule divine inscriptions, profundity of mysteries and divine dao, level of divine abilities, grade of war weapons—all these became especially important.
The foundation built over thousands of years in the saint realm could largely determine future potential and advantage within the same realm.
But for gods, the hundreds of thousands of years of cultivation after becoming divine were the true key to determining combat strength.
One could say that without powerful trump cards, at the great god level, crossing even a minor realm to defeat an opponent was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
