Chapter 1009 — The Mighty Pass Stretches Long, Hard as Iron

The Taiqing Realm Dao Sword had already attained the domain of the sword dao, which set it apart from the Thirty-Two Heavens of sword dao that had come before.

Those earlier Thirty-Two Heavens had still not shaken off the pattern of Dao-entering sword moves, whereas the Taiqing Realm Dao Sword entered the domain of the sword dao, somewhat akin to the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain, and was therefore called the sword domain. Yet the sword domain was still not the same as the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain.

The Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain laid greater weight on the consciousness's influence over external things: upon entering the consciousness domain, all things gradually came to stillness, and this was the utmost of contemplation.

Kaihuang's sword domain, by contrast, laid greater weight on attack; it was the utmost of the sword.

To Shen Mu, the Taiqing Realm Dao Sword was already beyond comprehension, beyond fathoming, and yet above this heaven there was another heaven still, and it made his scalp go numb.

At last Kaihuang unleashed the Thirty-Fourth Heaven sword domain: that was the Shangqing Realm sword domain, and the moment this sword appeared, the whole of Kaihuang's heavenly court came near to boiling over. The old ministers of the Kaihuang Era, tears streaming down their faces, their voices turning into a flood, called out Shen Ye's name together; that fervor was like a great deluge sweeping heaven and earth, and the gods and demons of the new generation in the Worry-Free Land were swept along despite themselves, plunging into worship of Kaihuang.

Their cries were like those of the primal age, when creation revered the Great Emperor, so fervent, so frenzied, so utterly unreasoning.

Qin Hanzhen and his wife frowned slightly, watching the crowd that had lost its reason; such fervor was something the couple had never encountered, and it left them rather uneasy. Yan Yunxi frowned as well; this turn of events unsettled her greatly too. She had never seen Kaihuang use the Shangqing Realm sword domain before; it must have been a sword art he created after taking possession of the Worry-Free Land.

But that was not the point.

The point was that Kaihuang's old ministers and the gods and demons of the new generation now regarded Kaihuang as an omnipotent deity. In the duel between Kaihuang and Shen Mu, both of them had wielded the Thirty-Three Heavens sword dao; the old ministers, awakened by the spirit hidden within that sword dao, seemed to have returned to the glorious years of old.

Yet the situation was far more tangled than she had foreseen.

Shen Ye had not been Kaihuang from the very beginning; it was through battle after battle, through desperate struggles of life and death against his enemies, that he had gradually become the leader of that age. Too many legendary tales clung to him; imperceptibly, he had become the symbol of an era, the backbone of an era.

In the late years of the Kaihuang Era, even the old ministers had come to see Kaihuang as an invincible being, an omnipotent being, the wisest and most enlightened of beings; they dared not question, would not question, any of his decisions. That too was why, after coming to the Worry-Free Land, the old ministers had so abruptly lost their spirit and vigor, and it was the root of the failure of Kaihuang's reform. They had enshrined a god within their dao hearts, and that god was Kaihuang; he had become their faith.

When Kaihuang's image toppled, their faith collapsed, and they sank into despondency and decay for twenty thousand years.

And now the Thirty-Three Heavens sword dao seemed to carry them back to the age of blind worship of Kaihuang. Yan Yunxi's heart was in a tangled mess.

To set Kaihuang up once more as the god in the hearts of everyone in the Worry-Free Land, that would be disastrous beyond measure! Shen Mu, wielding Kaihuang's Thirty-Three Heavens sword dao, had awakened the sealed and withered dao hearts of the Worry-Free Land's old ministers, and that was a good thing; Yan Yunxi had even abandoned the notion of having Shen Mu give Kaihuang a thorough beating.

But Kaihuang's charisma was too strong; to bind the spirit of an age to a single man could only mean repeating the same catastrophe. "Kaihuang must lose, he must!

" Veins stood out at her temples, her white teeth clenched.

Just then she found herself missing the woodcutter Wen Tiange.

In her heart she thought: "If Wen Tiange were here, he would surely find a way to keep this from happening!

A pity this bastard swore never to set foot in the Worry-Free Land.

.

. " The Kaihuang Era had not been the era of one man, and the Kaihuang reform had not been the reform of Kaihuang alone.

And now history was repeating itself, and she was powerless to do anything about it.

The Shangqing Realm sword domain displayed before all eyes a terrifying fighting strength, a strength that was all but invincible.

Shen Mu fought back with all his might, yet before this domain of the sword dao he seemed unable to withstand even a single blow. In the blink of an eye he was covered in cuts and bruises. He recognized this domain of the sword dao: in the city of the creators within the Void Land, the Fire Heaven Sovereign had left behind the brand of his great dao, and it was there that he had faced Kaihuang.

Kaihuang's sword domain had erupted and forced the Fire Heaven Sovereign to raise his cultivation and strength to their very peak, yet even so the Fire Heaven Sovereign had been wounded by the Shangqing Realm sword domain.

Facing Kaihuang's sword domain now, Shen Mu exhausted everything he had, unleashing sword art after sword art, even unleashing his own Calamity Sword, and in the end Kaihuang still ran him through with a single thrust.

By now the cheers of the Worry-Free Land's multitudes had reached their peak; the fervent waves of sound surged up into the clouds and shook the whole of the Worry-Free Land. Kaihuang held the Worry-Free Sword, his expression as ever, calm and unruffled; nothing could shake his dao heart.

Yet at this moment a trace of desolation, a thread of sorrow, showed in his eyes.

Just then, all at once, rolling yellow sand came sweeping in, and in an instant it carpeted the sky; the wild wind howled, as though an invisible giant had spread out a desert of yellow sand, forming in the heavens the strange spectacle of a vast desert. Kaihuang stood amid the yellow desert, sword in hand, gazing ahead.

Du-du, du-du. Above Kaihuang's heavenly court rang a horn call of exceptional clarity, as on the eve of war, when giants stir their vital essence and blow the war horn; the stirring, soul-shaking sound brought with it wave upon wave of a killing austerity.

Ahead, the wild wind swept the yellow sand like a sandstorm, burying even Kaihuang's heavenly court in dust. Shen Mu's figure came walking out of the dust storm.

Countless stars glittered in the sky, and behind him a primal tree took root and sprouted, put forth branches and grew, racing with terrifying speed into a towering giant of a tree, level with the sun and moon, rising even beyond the heavens.

Kaihuang looked up and saw the Heaven Lord; he looked down and saw the Earth Lord.

All around him, heavenly palaces emerged from the yellow desert, and rolling dust poured out of those palaces, cascading down, while the evil heavenly palace floated in the sky, and others still sank into the earth.

In each heavenly palace sat an ancient deity, presiding over this vast heavenly court; countless ancient gods and demons, towering and hideous, like the most ancient sovereigns of this heaven and earth, held the fates of all living things in their grip. Shen Mu came walking on, and the whole of heaven and earth moved with him, pressing down upon Kaihuang with supreme force.

Starlight shone upon him; the great-dao runes of the ancient gods flickered in brilliant colors, mirrored upon his body, empowering him.