Chapter 775 — Charging Straight into the Celestial Gate of the Nine Heavens
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
Achou's body trembled; he saw his newborn little daughter held up in the air, and he felt as though he had died, as though he had fallen into a bottomless darkness where no light could be seen, only the sight of his little daughter falling from the sky.
A faint crack came from within his heart, like the sound of a heart splitting; a faint crack came from his brow as well.
That line of blood, cut open with his knife, had never healed, and now the wound burst open again.
"Achou is not Tubo. Achou is only an ugly child who looks very much like Tubo. " His old mother's words rang in his ears again.
Through all the years of his suffering they had been an immense support to him, holding him up so that he could keep living with his wife and daughters; and now those words too seemed to collapse. He sank utterly into darkness. His brow split open and the third eye emerged: a blood-drenched eye, shimmering with endless karmic fire that set the earth ablaze and made the soil of this world burn!
Achou vanished, and Tubo returned.
Only, what returned this time was a wrathful Tubo, a Tubo of vengeance. Countless chains appeared abruptly, clanging as they pierced his body, ran him through, and rooted him to the earth. They were chains transmuted from the rules of Youdu, binding this wrathful Tubo fast.
As Tubo, he could not defy the laws of heaven and earth of Youdu, could not defy the great Dao of Youdu.
Even Tubo could not break free of these chains. He caught the descending God-Slaying Dark Blade; the blade-light cut into his hand and blood ran down.
He rose to his feet, and the God-Slaying Dark Blade melted in his grasp; the divine blade notorious as the Celestial Court's foremost weapon of ill omen keened in his palm and swiftly became molten iron.
The molten iron fell to the ground and became a great cauldron, and the revived Tubo stood within it.
The ancient god behind him trembled; Tubo seized his head, pressed it into the cauldron, and stamped down hard, stamped until the head burst apart, and the ancient god's face appeared in the cauldron.
Within the cauldron all was darkness, and the face floated alone in the dark, wearing a look of terror.
But soon more demon-gods came to keep him company.
The demon-gods across hills and plains died, and died swiftly; in almost a single turn they were all shattered by the cauldron's might, refined to death, and became faces in the cauldron.
Tubo's body grew ever taller; he reached up and caught the infant girl falling from the cliff, and darkness poured from the cauldron, spreading in every direction, overtaking the fleeing demon-gods. One mighty demon-god after another twisted, suddenly became an empty shell, and fell to the ground as a human skin. The darkness surged madly, surging to every corner of that withered, silent world.
The ancient gods in the sky were aghast, and one after another they concealed themselves and fled toward the Celestial Court.
This world had already become another Youdu. They fled, not daring to linger, and when they looked back they saw the ever taller ox-horned, tiger-faced demon-god striding out of that world upon endless darkness, a little girl with ox horns seated on his shoulder.
His body was wound about with chains transmuted from the great Dao of heaven and earth of Youdu, binding him fast, and the other ends of those chains were linked to the world that had become Youdu.
Yet Tubo hauled on the chains and dragged that world along with him, chasing them in slaughter toward the Celestial Court! "Tubo has gone mad! " they shouted as they rushed into the Southern Gate of Heaven.
Many ancient gods came surging out and stood in midair, blocking Tubo's way, urging him one after another: "Tubo, they were only joking with you — why work yourself into a true rage? " "Will you not come over and make your apologies? " Someone tried to smooth matters over: "Thankfully no great disaster has been brewed.
Tubo, calm your anger.
.
.