Chapter 777 — The Old Fox and the Little Fox

Lu Li and the others stared at the Yin Son of Heaven, each grinding his teeth, and yet utterly helpless.

"Old Yin bastard!

" They were merely frontier lords among the forces the Heavenly Court had stationed in Youdu, whereas the Yin Son of Heaven was a frontier lord of the Heavenly Court who held the very existence of Mingdu in his grasp — a mighty one of the Emperor Throne. In strength, the four Military Commissioners could not hold a candle to him; even had they wished to fall out with him, they could not.

They had schemed and toiled, marshaling heaven knew how many Youdu magnates, and only so had they captured Shen Mu, god-child of Youdu, and set him in the Slaughter Cauldron to be refined — and then the Yin Son of Heaven appeared out of nowhere, slew those Youdu magnates in two moves, and came straight to pluck the peach for himself, with scarcely a breath of effort!

Those Youdu magnates could all be reckoned the personal following of the four of them, and now the Yin Son of Heaven had all but torn them up by the roots. The Youdu magnates had, almost all of them, once belonged to the powers of the Heavenly Court; after death they fell into Youdu and became the backbone of the four Military Commissioners' following. In life they had been of the Emperor Throne or the Lingxiao realm, but after death they were riddled with flaws and could survive only by attaching themselves to the four Military Commissioners.

Youdu, after all, remained Tubo's domain, and besides them there were powers of the Emperor Throne and the Lingxiao realm from hostile factions who fell here after death.

Unless they wished to be finished off by such powers, they had no choice but to attach themselves to the four Military Commissioners and, leaning on the might of the Heavenly Court, survive in Youdu.

So they were glad enough to be marshaled by the four Military Commissioners; honor shared is honor shared, and ruin shared is ruin shared — which was why, when Lu Li twice called them out to fight the god-child of Youdu, they came willingly. Banded together as they were, they could also stand against the Yin Son of Heaven of Mingdu. The Heavenly Court's power in Youdu stood in competition with Mingdu; great interests lay in it, and whether the Yin Son of Heaven or Lu Li and his fellows, each wished to press the other down.

The reason the Heavenly Court, while installing Military Commissioners in Youdu, had also forged a Mingdu was not only to check Tubo, but also out of fear that the Yin Son of Heaven would grow too great; Lu Li and his companions were needed to clamp him in.

That was why the Heavenly Court was glad enough to see Youdu and Mingdu locked in their endless struggle. And now, that scene of mutual restraint would likely be at an end.

From this one battle, the Heavenly Court's magnates in Youdu had been all but wiped out, leaving only the four Military Commissioners; let the Yin Son of Heaven gain the god-child of Youdu as well, and he would be another Tubo!

To win him over against Tubo, the Heavenly Court would surely grant him greater benefits. Lu Li and his companions were, so to speak, utterly defeated!

"Well worthy of an old Yin bastard who has lived from the first years of Longhan down to this day — by all accounts, the Yin Son of Heaven has never once come off the worse! " Lu Li and the others felt their hearts bleed.

Just then, the Yin Son of Heaven finally opened the Slaughter Cauldron.

He lifted away the Huntian Luo, and from within came the sound of escaping air, black currents of qi gushing out of the cauldron. Lu Li and the others were frantic.

The Slaughter Cauldron was the great treasure of slaughter the Heavenly Court had entrusted to the four Military Commissioners; the Yin Son of Heaven could not yet wield it.

If they could wield the great cauldron now, might they not refine the Yin Son of Heaven to death?

But they hesitated.

To kill the Yin Son of Heaven was a crime of no small weight; should the Heavenly Court call them to account, it would likely have the four of them buried with him as companions in death! Suddenly Lu Li saw that the Yin Son of Heaven's other hand was shaping a strange mudra: middle, index and ring fingers curled into a fist, thumb and little finger standing erect.

The four felt a chill. The ghostly light that had just slain Yan Qianchong, Gao Tianwang and the rest appeared once more, circling around the four of them.

Plainly the Yin Son of Heaven had been on his guard: the moment they dared to wield the Slaughter Cauldron, they would surely die beneath this uncanny divine weapon of his before ever they buried him! The four stared at that ghostly light and did not dare stir.

The Yin Son of Heaven grasped the Huntian Luo in his hand, bent his head to peer into the cauldron, and laughed: "The power of the god-child of Youdu. .

.

" A finger came out of nowhere, and just as the Yin Son of Heaven bent to look into the cauldron, it touched the point between his brows. "First Form of the Tribulation Sword!

" The Yin Son of Heaven was startled, and Lu Li and the others were startled as well: the Tribulation-Opening Sword hidden in that finger burst forth with a roar!

Within his mind the Yin Son of Heaven felt a sword-light come shrieking; in an instant the dazzling blade pierced through his seven great Divine Treasuries, raced along the Divine Bridge, and burst through the Southern Gate of Heaven!

The sword-light swept on, crushing all before it, racing along the ground of his heavenly palace, past the Jade Terrace, past the Jade Pool — and the Jade Pool's surface exploded, its waters rearing up into towering waves a thousand fathoms high.

The sword-light pierced the God-Slaying Terrace and, with a thunderous crash, stabbed into the Jade Capital City; its gates and gate-towers were shattered to pieces in the blade's glare, and one great hall after another collapsed and crumbled.

The sword-light drove straight for the Lingxiao Hall!

The dazzling radiance swelled in the blink of an eye, growing immeasurably thick, and rushed in through the doorway of the Lingxiao Hall, straight at the primordial spirit of the Yin Son of Heaven upon the Emperor's Throne! Slow as this sword sounds in the telling, in truth it was swift beyond measure; by the time the primordial spirit of the Yin Son of Heaven reacted, the sword-light was already at his brows!

Within his heavenly palace a heaven-shaking roar rang out; a dreadful wave of force swept out in all directions from the Lingxiao Hall as its center. Palace after palace of the Jade Capital City shook with thunderous booms; of the four city gates one was already destroyed, and the other three were blasted so violently that their doors flew up into the sky, no one knew where.

The shockwave overturned the Jade Pool, its waters flooding the sky; the four heavenly gates of north, south, east and west rang and surged; the rolling tides of qi erupted as white rings bursting outward in every direction from the heavenly palace as their center. Below, the seven great Divine Treasuries were struck as well: mountains and rivers split asunder, the sun and moon were blown away, and the stars and constellations fell into disorder.

Such was the scene within the heavenly palace in the Yin Son of Heaven's mind; but to Lu Li and the others outside, they saw only that after the finger touched the point between his brows, the Yin Son of Heaven went blank for a moment.

Then, with a soft spurt, a lance of blood shot from the back of his head.

The blood-arrow was not long; it flew a bare two fathoms or so.