Chapter 1571 — Sword Dao Ascends to the Heaven Beyond Heaven

This one who had attained the Dao was his own making, and naturally his heart was filled with a sense of glory as well.

Upon the God-Slaying Platform, the God-Slaying Mystic Blade had already shattered and become baleful qi, howling and whirling around Kaihuang, yet it could never take form again. Kaihuang's sword dao was too strong; even the God-Slaying Mystic Blade could not return to its whole state.

Shen Mu looked up and saw layer upon layer of void opening; the matchlessly keen sword dao branded itself into void after void, and within every void stood the figure of Kaihuang.

Soon the sword dao was branded into the thirty-fifth void.

In former days Kaihuang had also branded his sword dao into the thirty-five voids, but that branding had been small in scope, whereas this time his sword dao was branded into every corner of the thirty-five voids, present everywhere.

His sword dao was like layer upon layer of heavens spreading through layer upon layer of void, from the Taihuang Heaven to the Yuqing Realm, canopies filling the void.

Shen Mu suppressed the elation in his heart and watched as Kaihuang's sword dao broke through the thirty-five voids and arrived at the ultimate void.

He waited quietly for the arrival of the scene that would surely be engraved upon the history of the entire universe.

Taiyi had attained the Dao, but Taiyi was not a native being of this universe.

Taidi had attained the Dao, but only as a half-finished, defective thing.

Taichu and Haotian Venerable had attained the Dao, but they could remain only briefly in the Heavenly Court realm, and could not yet brand the ultimate void.

The Di Hou sisters had attained the Dao, but the two had become one, mad and crazed, and did not know how to brand their great Dao into the ultimate void. Only Kaihuang Shen Ye, if he succeeded in branding the sword dao into the ultimate void, would be the first to attain the Dao in this universe.

The ultimate void opened, a void of cold silence, empty of all things, incomparably perilous; almost no substance could endure there.

Be it person or thing, anything that entered the ultimate void would be brushed by the wind of cold silence, becoming infinitely thin and infinitely wide, until the distance between the particles of matter grew infinitely far. There was no mass there, no temperature, only cold silence.

A single void bridge in the Taixu held back the Heavenly Court's armies; even a Heavenly Venerable found it hard to cross that bridge, and yet the ultimate void was more perilous than the thirty-fifth void by a factor beyond reckoning.

Only a true Dao could be eternally branded there.

Kaihuang's sword dao entered that place, and the sword dao rose, spreading out on every side through the cold silence to form a Daluo Heaven of the sword dao.

The Daluo Heaven of the sword dao spread ever wider and ever greater, and within that Daluo Heaven a sword-light suddenly quivered faintly; a tender sprout grew there, and at a speed visible to the naked eye it grew into a towering tree.

It was a world tree, and it was also the dao tree of the sword dao.

The dao tree grew from a seedling into a great tree, ever taller, its canopy ever wider, lush and verdant, setting off the Daluo Heaven of the sword dao like a strange sky carved from fine jade.

Suddenly a bud formed upon the dao tree; there the sword dao brought forth a dao flower.

The bud quivered faintly, and its petals spun apart to every side; thirty-six petals unfurled in rotation, and the stamens were crystalline, like one jade sword after another.

This dao flower was intoxicating; gazed upon from afar, it gave no fragrance, and yet one could see the keenness and the vastness of the sword dao, and its supreme might.

Upon the God-Slaying Platform, Kaihuang's aura grew ever stronger, his cultivation surging upward stage by stage, while that dao flower grew ever more vivid and the dao tree ever more vigorous. Shen Mu clenched his fists tightly, quietly awaiting the scene of utmost importance.

How long passed, he did not know, and then Kaihuang's aura reached its peak and suddenly returned to perfect calm, and step by step, stair by stair, he walked down from the God-Slaying Platform.

Shen Mu was astonished, and called out in a loud voice, "Heavenly Venerable Shen, where is your dao fruit? " Kaihuang descended the steps, shaking his head.

"My sword dao is used up.

" Shen Mu was furious.

"What do you mean, used up? " "It means the foundation of my sword dao is exhausted, and I cannot make the dao flower bear fruit.

" Kaihuang's tone was very placid, unhurried.

"I felt my spirit merge with the Daluo Heaven, and in an instant my heart of the Dao became infinitely vast, as though a new heaven and earth had appeared before my eyes. In that moment I was both stirred and utterly still.

" He recounted it all with ease, speaking of what he had comprehended when attaining the Dao.

"I suddenly discovered that attaining the Dao is not the end; beyond attainment there are still realms.

I have just now grasped such a realm; it is profound and mysterious, beyond words to describe, beyond the divine sense to depict.

I could not help but be immersed in it, and thus I realized my own shallowness.

" Shen Mu could not help but yearn wistfully for the Daluo Heaven, and murmured, "There are many more years to gnaw on.

.

.

" Then he suddenly came to himself and said gravely, "I killed the Celestial Consort Qiang and seized the God-Slaying Platform and the God-Slaying Mystic Blade for the sole purpose of helping you attain the Dao.

And the reason I helped you attain the Dao is Heavenly Venerable Ling and Heavenly Venerable Yun.

Kaihuang, are you confident?

" Kaihuang smiled faintly.