Chapter 1601 — The Death of a Godking

That sword-light was the Sword of Calamity, the nineteenth form of the sword—a foundational sword form. The blade of light began at Gong Tianzun's primordial spirit and plummeted straight down, piercing the Lingxiao Treasure Hall of Gong Tianzun's most magnificent and imposing Heavenly Court.

The Lingxiao Treasure Hall collapsed.

This great hall was the fountainhead of Gong Tianzun's supreme power. When this power crumbled, terrifying energies came surging and rushing in all directions, destroying hall after hall of the Jade Capital City!

Gong Tianzun knew things had turned dire. She acted decisively, urging her divine consciousness into motion.

Yet another sword-light from Shen Mu erupted within her brain, shattering her divine consciousness into fragments. For a time, she could not gather it back together.

This sword-light was the Primordial Chaos Dao Wanderer, bursting forth as Shen Mu bowed deeply. It shook her brain and her divine consciousness into a mass of primal chaos.

Her divine consciousness was powerful, and it was not completely destroyed by Shen Mu's bow. But it was scattered and in disarray, impossible to coalesce.

The power fluctuations from the collapse of the Lingxiao Treasure Hall swept across in every direction. Her Jade Capital City was collapsing faster and faster. Within the surging tide of energy that engulfed everything, sword-light also surged along with it, and wherever it passed, all things were reduced to fine dust!

Soon, the collapse destroyed the entire Jade Capital City and rushed outward, slamming into one heavenly palace after another.

Had Gong Tianzun's divine consciousness still been at its peak, with her strength she could have abandoned her main Heavenly Palace, abandoned the Jade Capital City, even abandoned her own primordial spirit—cutting off her wrist to survive.

But now her brain had been shaken by another of Shen Mu's sword-lights into a mass of primal chaos, her divine consciousness in complete disorder. She could not accomplish such a feat at all.

She could only let the Heavenly Palaces collapse.

If one stood within her Heavenly Palace, one would witness a spectacular and breathtaking sight.

Those towering, majestic structures that composed the celestial divine city were shattered and disintegrating within the terrifying energy fluctuations and sword-light, thereby giving rise to even more powerful and dreadful tides of energy and sword-light, destroying even more divine cities at ever greater speed and with ever more terrifying force!

One heavenly palace after another tilted, collapsed, fell, and in the midst of falling transformed into even more violent energy!

Her primordial spirit floated and dissolved within this energy.

Gong Tianzun's dao arts and divine powers had their own unique aspects. Her Heavenly Court was formed from layer upon layer of heavenly palaces stacked together, and viewed from afar, it resembled a curved horn—utterly different from the layout of others' Heavenly Courts.

The Heavenly Court collapsed from its highest point, falling and crushing the heavenly palace beneath it, gradually building an unstoppable momentum.

Within these heavenly palaces were towering, majestic divine statues—primordial divine saints she had visualized using the Creator's unique method of visualization.

This was her unique trait. As her Heavenly Court collapsed, one divine statue after another awakened and revived. These visualized ancient gods struggled desperately to flee outward, yet even the ancient gods she had visualized—the Heavenly Duke, the Earth Earl, and others—could not escape this calamity of annihilation!

Shen Mu's Sword of Calamity was a sword dao he had created after the outbreak of the Jingping Calamity, born of his sense of his own powerlessness, of having no soul and being reduced to a walking corpse, of his impending death. It was also the nineteenth foundational sword form.

With this sword he faced his calamity, faced the calamity of his own death, and bid farewell to his former self.

This sword eradicated all his former foundations, shattered his heavenly palaces, destroyed his divine repositories, and ultimately reduced all his heavenly palaces and divine repositories to primal chaos.

He was reborn from within the chaos.

It could be said that from that moment on, the big boy Shen Mu of the past had died. The Shen Mu who came back to life from death possessed a brand-new soul, and had become resolute, forbearing, and tenacious.

Shen Mu could face his calamity and obtain new life, but Gong Tianzun could not.

Her Heavenly Court completely collapsed. Incomparably terrifying energy came howling into her brow, scattering the divine consciousness she had barely managed to coalesce under the attack of the Primordial Chaos Dao Wanderer.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

Seven consecutive explosions rang out. Within her body, seven great divine repositories were destroyed one by one, crushed into fine dust!

In the end, her Heavenly Court, heavenly palaces, and divine repositories were completely annihilated, and the energy they transformed into sank down, pressing upon her dao heart.

Silence.

Her mind was utterly still. Her dao heart rippled not at all. Only her brow was split open—that was the sword scar Shen Mu had left behind.

Shen Mu withdrew his sword. The Sword of Calamity slid into its wooden scabbard. His expression calm, he looked at her.

Gong Tianzun also looked at Shen Mu with a calm expression, her face betraying not the slightest ripple, not the slightest fluctuation of emotion. Expressionless, she said, "Mu Tianzun, my divine consciousness reaches directly to the thirty-fifth heaven of the Dao realm, branded upon thirty-five voids. This one move of yours cannot kill me."

Her gaze was hollow and empty, as though unable to focus. She suddenly began to walk outward. "I cannot die. I am the last Creator."

Shen Mu's gaze was complex, revealing a trace of reluctance, but soon that trace of reluctance faded.

He did not block Gong Tianzun. He let her leave.

The Empress rushed over, looked at Gong Tianzun, and revealed a strange expression. She did not stop her either, letting her go.

Gong Tianzun came to the edge of the twin lotus petals and stepped upon the void, passing through the receding tide.

She walked out of the Guixu Tide, following the fallen River of the Underworld upstream against its flow, and soon arrived at Youdu.

Youdu was composed of countless destroyed worlds and heavens—a land of death, the origin of the demonic dao. It was incomparably hideous and dark, filled with the most depraved and twisted demonic nature in all the world.

Yet Gong Tianzun's dao heart was calmer than it had ever been. She was blind to the ugliness of Youdu, as though she had returned to her maiden years.

In the ancient era, she had been a member of the Nüxin Clan. Back then, she was carefree and untroubled.

In her eyes, the dark canopy of Youdu's sky seemed to become a azure blue sky, and the demonic fire spewing from the massive nostrils of the Earth Earl became the bright sun in the heavens.

The maiden Creator cultivated alongside the clan elders. The elders set a primordial divine stone into her brow and told her it was a gift from the Juyu Clan.

She hunted alongside the elders, capturing ancient giant beasts. She learned divine consciousness arts from her uncles, and visualized alongside her sisters-in-law and companions.

She grew up and became an elder of the Nüxin Clan—but she was not old at all. She was young, beautiful, her body filled with the vitality of youth.

Back then, the universe was not as vast as it was now. It was still growing, still expanding day by day. At that time, they sacrificed to the White Tiger, the Western Emperor, at the Western Pole Heaven, making the White Tiger the guardian deity of the Nüxin Clan.