Chapter 719 — The Bride in the Cold Coffin
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The others nodded. Slaying their way through checkpoint after checkpoint, cutting down the Dark Prison guards who came swarming at them, they opened the cages along the way and released the prisoners within.
This Dark Prison was the most heavily guarded prison of the Dark Capital; those confined here were gods and demons who had shown the Heavenly Court disrespect, stripped of their physical bodies, their primal spirits imprisoned here to suffer.
There were many guards in the Dark Prison — after all, the ones held here were dangerous figures indeed — but what they faced were ruthless characters like the Old Angler, Chi Xi, and Fu Riluo, who unleashed killing moves without a word of parley.
The Old Angler cast out his fishhook and hooked out souls, one strike one catch; Chi Xi had three heads and six arms; Fu Riluo's demonic arts were more stunning still. The three of them killed until the Dark Prison was turned upside down, and when they met a foe they could not handle, they had the First Ancestor Human Emperor.
Ever since the First Ancestor Human Emperor had walked out of the prison of his own heart, his cultivation and strength had grown greater and greater, with a strong tendency to break through the God-Slaying Platform and enter the Jade Capital realm.
The group fought their way on down. The Dark Prison had many levels, plunging deep into the depths of the Dark Capital; the deeper they went, the heavier the seals and the stronger the guards.
By the time they reached the lowest level, they were worn to exhaustion from killing, but fortunately, having released so many Dark Prison inmates, they had drawn off the greater part of the guards and eased the pressure upon themselves.
"This is the place!"
The Woodcutter Sage looked this way and that. The place was murky and dim, grim and uncanny; on the walls many monsters like geckos crawled with a rustling sound, swift beyond measure, and of enormous size.
"That person must be imprisoned here."
They looked about them. There were not many cells here, but each had a door forged of divine gold, covered with all manner of imperial edicts, and the seals contained in each edict were exceedingly terrifying; no one knew who had left them.
Fu Riluo said in a low voice, "Just who is the person we are to rescue? Brother Daoist, will you tell us now?"
The Woodcutter Sage walked forward, studying the seals of the edicts on these few cells and distinguishing the kinds of seal within them, and by this means deduced who was sealed and suppressed within. He said calmly, "This person is the First Heavenly King of the Kaihuang Era. The Heavenly Court of the Kaihuang Era had thirty-six Heavenly Palaces, and among the thirty-six, four stood the most honored; these four great Heavenly Palaces were held in the hands of four Heavenly Kings. Of these four Heavenly Kings, the Azure Emperor of the East was the most senior; Heavenly King Shakra of the West was the youngest; the Dark Capital Heavenly King of the North was peerless in valor when drunk; and the mightiest in strength was this Heavenly King of the South."
The First Ancestor Human Emperor's heart skipped. He said in a low voice, "The Shakra in Heavenly King Shakra is a Buddhist title; he was in origin a god skilled in the heavenly craft of forging. The Di in this Southern Heavenly King's name is neither a Buddhist title nor a surname."
The Woodcutter Sage examined the edicts in fine detail and said, "Your Highness is right. The Di in the Southern Heavenly King's name is an honorific. Her strength even surpassed the Azure Emperor's; in the Kaihuang Era she was a figure qualified to contend with Kaihuang for the throne. Though she was defeated at Kaihuang's hand, she was honored by others as Di."
The First Ancestor Human Emperor fell silent a while, then said, "Di Yiyue of the Four Great Heavenly Kings — it is said she fell in battle before the calamity erupted."
"I once thought she had fallen in battle as well. But she did not."