Chapter 932 — Purple Qi Fills the Heavens, Fist Intent Cleaves the Firmament

"Outdated?

" Yun Jianli turned his head to look at him. Frail and sickly though he was, at this moment he brimmed with spirit: "My ancestor's art was the first Emperor Throne art in all the world, called the Purple Empyrean Azure Void Art! Before him, not one man had ever cultivated his way to the Emperor Throne realm! The greatest trait of this art is change!

Generation after generation, the men of my Yun clan have absorbed the arts and divine abilities of other schools as the ages shifted, and the Purple Empyrean Azure Void Art of today is mightier than it was in those days by a measure no one could reckon! " Speaking of his family's art, boundless pride crept unbidden into his words and bearing: "Every generation of Yun men has stood among the foremost in the Heavenly Court at their own realm. If but one son of our Yun clan could step past the Divine Bridge realm, then in every generation our clan would produce an Emperor Throne powerhouse!

" His voice was full of confidence, and he smiled. "Even I have rarely met a rival among my peers in the Heavenly Court!

Lord Yun's Purple Empyrean Azure Void Art will never fall out of date!

" Behind him, purple light surged abruptly into the air and became a purple sky!

The sky hung thick with stars, their light dazzling; a river of azure void poured down from heaven, and as the great river fell, a divine peak thrust up from the earth and pierced the vault of the heavens!

That divine peak seemed sealed in black ice, and now spring had come, flowers bloomed, ice and snow melted away — truly, green peaks washed clean, a long river like white silk, purple empyrean like a dipper! A divine bridge spanned the heavens, and his spirit stood upon the bridge, the bridge suspended beneath the purple empyrean, amid the starry river, with green and graceful peaks alongside.

Say nothing of the rest — the sheer scene was enough to intoxicate.

Ten thousand fathoms the peak rises, piercing the purple empyrean; where the road runs out, a divine bridge is spanned.

Above, one gazes on the azure void, the stars drawn near; below, one looks on the red dust world, far, far away.

Shen Mu studied the marvel behind Yun Jianli, matched it against that verse, and admiration swelled in his heart all the more.

The Purple Empyrean Azure Void Art that Lord Yun had created was indeed transcendent and beyond the common run, worthy of being the first Emperor Throne art of its age! Each of the Nine Heaven Venerables of the early Longhan years possessed achievements others could scarcely hope to match: even the reclusive Moon Venerable's mastery of the arts of space was beyond all measure; even Kaihuang, who rose later, had a thirty-three-layered heaven of sword dao that stood supreme through all ages. As the first being ever to cultivate the Emperor Throne, Lord Yun's achievements were naturally no small matter as well.

"Lord Mu, in my ancestor's dying instructions he held you in the highest esteem, yet at the same time he had a good deal of fault to find with you and that Longhan Overlord Body of yours.

" Yun Jianli's aura climbed to its utmost peak.

Sickly youth that he looked, a boy who might be blown over by the wind, his momentum now was truly fearsome, and a touch of color had returned to his ashen face. "His instructions say he did not believe the art he founded could be inferior to any so-called Overlord Body, and he hoped his descendants would clear his name for him! " His eyes grew moist, and he laughed softly.

"Today my ancestor's art will finally meet Lord Mu face to face. This was his last cherished wish!

Lord Mu—" His voice rang loud enough to shake a man's ears: "Forgive Jianli's presumption — I fight in my ancestor's place!

" Shen Mu took a single step and was the next instant ten li away upon the surface of the Jade Sea. Lightly, as though wind and clouds were nothing, he said, "When I crossed back to the early Longhan years, I met several of the Heaven Venerables; it is a pity I never crossed hands with Lord Yun. Lord Yun was a man of surpassing worth, and I never imagined he still harbored such a wish.

Yun Jianli, let me see what he achieved.

" Tears streamed down Yun Jianli's face, yet at the same time an indescribable heroic ardor surged and churned in his heart. He sprang up all at once, swift as a shooting star, striking straight at Shen Mu with inconceivable speed: "If my ancestor's spirit lingers on high and sees this battle, he will surely weep with exultation!

" The blood of Lord Yun flowing in Yun Jianli's veins seemed in that moment to awaken. He was no sickly young master now; he seemed to have become a leader of the human race, the one and only Heaven Emperor of humankind in all the world!

As the pioneer of the Divine Bridge god-store within the god-store system, as the first being in the world to cultivate the Emperor Throne, as one of the five founding elders of the Heaven Alliance, as the leader who had guided the human race and the other postnatal beings through the Longhan years, Lord Yun had far too much to be proud of — and ample cause for pride. Even though at the human race's direst hour he had been forced to impersonate Shen Mu and Kaihuang, even though he felt he had wronged Shen Mu and Kaihuang, he remained endlessly proud of his own achievements. He was the most dazzling figure of the human race in that savage age!

He founded the Xiaohan Heavenly Court; by stratagem he slew the Ancient God Heaven Emperor of the seemingly invincible Longhan Heavenly Court, granting every living being room to breathe. He possessed matchless pride and confidence, and that pride and confidence he passed down to his descendants, so that they inherited his spirit, his will!

This strike of Yun Jianli's was like a blow that Lord Yun himself, after hundreds of thousands of years, now dealt to Shen Mu!

Xiaohan of the Nine Heavens!

Shen Mu lifted his head; the nine-layered heavens came rushing at his face. That was Lord Yun's divine ability — crude in his eyes, no doubt the divine ability of the original Purple Empyrean Azure Void Art, though in the eyes of the Heavenly Court's other gods it counted as a rare and peerless art.

Yun Jianli had said earlier that the Purple Empyrean Azure Void Art's greatest strength was change.

The art could advance as the ages advanced, and the men of the Yun clan, generation upon generation, had folded the dao arts and divine abilities of each era into it.

Yet Yun Jianli now employed the most primitive Xiaohan of the Nine Heavens — surely to commemorate his forebear with this one move. Even as an exceedingly ancient divine ability, this move still revealed much that was extraordinary, and it was astonishing to behold.

Shen Mu could see that Lord Yun had already sought to fold the runes of heaven's dao into this move, and that those runes were structured by the arts of calculation.

Cruder, to be sure, than the heaven's-dao runes compiled by the Heavenly Court's Daoist sects today — but in that era they were no small thing.

"So it seems that in the Xiaohan Heavenly Court period, Lord Yun and the Dao Ancestor had already begun their study of the Heavenly Duke.

The Dao Ancestor helped the Heavenly Court dissect the ancient gods' great dao through the arts of calculation — in truth, this was a stratagem Lord Yun had laid down hundreds of thousands of years before!

" A subtle stir passed through Shen Mu's heart. He curled his palm inward, like half of the mao glyph, and met the move with half a stroke of the Heaven Seal divine ability. From that one move of Yun Jianli's he understood many things he had never before been able to make sense of.

The Dao Ancestor had always been ambiguous in his stance; no one knew which faction of the Heavenly Court he belonged to. He was part of the Heaven Alliance, and he helped the Heavenly Court gather data on the ancient gods and compile the ancient gods' dao runes.