Chapter 1628 — The Decisive Battle of the Netherworld

The Void Heavenly Venerable gave a cold snort. Her primordial spirit emerged and went howling forward, snatching for the Book of Life and Death—but the zither music suddenly turned mischievous and light, and within those notes space became large and small, long and short, layer upon layer, leaping up and down, to left and right!

The Void Heavenly Venerable sensed the peril: the Moon Heavenly Venerable's music was like countless blades of space hewing at her primordial spirit, wounding it, all but splitting it into countless fragments!

"Fire!"

The Void Heavenly Venerable shouted in fury. Scarcely had the word left her lips when layer upon layer of space behind the Moon Heavenly Venerable twisted; ring upon ring of Dao fire spun through that space and formed a twenty-eight-layered Heavenly Dao realm, so that the zither music could not break through the writhing flames.

The Fire Heavenly Venerable appeared behind the Moon Heavenly Venerable. The twenty-eight writhing strands of Dao fire became an oval wheel of flame and bound the Moon Heavenly Venerable within it!

At the very instant his form appeared, a hand reached out from the thirty-fifth layer of void, drew the Moon Heavenly Venerable into the thirty-fifth layer of void, and so freed her from the Dao fire.

The wheel of Dao fire spun, annihilating all it contained—but the Moon Heavenly Venerable had already escaped ahead of it, and the Fire Heavenly Venerable's attack struck only empty air.

The Fire Heavenly Venerable whirled about, and there before him stood a cold, aloof woman, the vertical eye upon her brow opening to reveal a Taichu Divine Stone.

The divine stone blazed with light, and the Fire Heavenly Venerable felt a snow-white radiance drown him.

When the light dispersed, he found himself back at the Yaochi Grand Gathering of a million years ago. He stood within the Manhui Corridor Pavilion and saw the Hao Heavenly Venerable, Yin Tianzi, and the Yu Heavenly Venerable.

He saw Yin Tianzi suddenly strike, sealing the Yu Heavenly Venerable's primordial spirit with the Dao of Youdu—and at almost the same instant, the Hao Heavenly Venerable's attack fell upon the Yu Heavenly Venerable!

The two of them joining hands, together they slew the wholly unprepared Yu Heavenly Venerable within the Manhui Corridor Pavilion!

The Fire Heavenly Venerable's body suddenly shuddered: "Brother Yu... I must avenge Brother Yu, slay the murderer with my own hands... No! This is Langwan's illusion!"

Suddenly the Hao Heavenly Venerable turned around, as though he had seen him; his face abruptly went cold, and he barked: "Kneel!"

The Fire Heavenly Venerable's knees gave way and he knelt prostrate upon the ground. Then he heard the Moon Heavenly Venerable's zither music at his ear and came to his senses: "This is an illusion! The God-King of the Creators thinks to destroy my Dao heart with an illusion of consciousness—he underestimates me far too much!"

Boom—

The whole Yaochi Grand Gathering burst into flame; everything was consumed by the Dao fire, like a painted scroll burning.

The Fire Heavenly Venerable leaped up and was about to attack Langwan when the scene around him shifted once more, and he saw the Xiaohan Heavenly Court in flames!

He saw another version of himself, together with the Hao Heavenly Venerable, Langxuan, the Ancestral God-King, Ming Fangyu, the Gong Heavenly Venerable, and others, besieging the Cloud Heavenly Venerable!

He saw his own hand thrust into the Cloud Heavenly Venerable's chest, and his own tear-streaked face saying to the Cloud Heavenly Venerable: "Yun, you understand me, don't you?"

The Moon Heavenly Venerable's zither music came again.

The Fire Heavenly Venerable snorted in fury; the Dao fire burned and consumed it all. Yet as this layer of illusion vanished, he appeared in another.

This layer of illusion was of his going to slay the Ming Emperor. The Ming Emperor of the human race had led a great army against the Heavenly Court, fighting his way into the starry void beyond the Southern Heavenly Gate. The Fire Heavenly Venerable himself had led troops to put him down, and after long fighting could not win.

The Hao Heavenly Venerable came, and the Fire Heavenly Venerable saw another version of himself bow to him with an ingratiating smile: "It is not that I am incompetent; it is that this brute has refined his creation divine art to the point where his fleshly body cannot be destroyed. But in crossing blows with him I discovered one place he has never refined—his primordial spirit! I recommend Yin Tianzi, and this brute can be destroyed!"

The Fire Heavenly Venerable's face was grim; whatever the illusion, he smashed them all to pieces.

The zither music was melodious and sweet.

In the layers of illusion that followed were scenes of him assassinating the Moon Heavenly Venerable, of him campaigning against Kaihuang, of him trying to slay Lan Yutian upon the Heavenly River, and of him enslaving the South Heaven human race.

The Fire Heavenly Venerable did not even look. He simply shattered every illusion with his monstrous dharma power, until at last he saw Langwan—and without a word he launched a killing strike!

His dharma power exceeded Langwan's by far too much. Though she was a Creator of formidable fleshly body, and her consciousness was the foremost surviving in the world—with the Great Emperor dead and Gong Yun destroyed, Langwan's consciousness stood unmatched beneath heaven.

Yet her dharma power fell far short of the Fire Heavenly Venerable's. Among the Heavenly Venerables, his dharma power was second only to the Hao Heavenly Venerable and Taichu!

Under that blow Langwan's face changed drastically; she raised a hand and met it head-on.

With a tremendous boom, the Fire Heavenly Venerable's blood and qi surged uncontrollably, and astonishment showed upon his face.

This Langwan's dharma power was actually not much inferior to his own!

Without a second thought he pressed the attack, Dao fire blazing, striking to kill; and Langwan before him matched him, divine arts whirling, trading blow for blow in the hardest of clashes, her divine arts and Dao methods exquisitely refined!

Both were wounded. Suddenly the Fire Heavenly Venerable's heart gave a small jolt, and Langwan opposite seemed to recall something as well; in one voice they cried: "The three rooms of the Bridge of the Void!"

In Youdu, in the thirty-fifth layer of void, the Moon Heavenly Venerable sat within the void, plucking her zither strings, her gaze upon the dancing of her ten fingers. Langwan stood behind her, the consciousness at her brow erupting.

And there in Youdu, the Fire Heavenly Venerable was trading furious blows with the Void Heavenly Venerable, fighting to the death.

The three rooms at the end of the Bridge of the Void in the Taixu Land had originally been built by the Moon Heavenly Venerable together with the clan chiefs and elders of the Creator race; the Fire Heavenly Venerable and the Void Heavenly Venerable had once been trapped within them and barely escaped with their lives.

At the same moment, above the Ancestral Court, the Hao Heavenly Venerable rose to his feet, a look of alarmed uncertainty upon his face; his gaze pierced through into the Youdu within the Ancestral Court, and he stepped down from the Heavenly Court.

Beneath the World Tree, Kaihuang rose to his full height, robes snapping in the wind, and walked out of the Black Wood Holy Land.