Chapter 1623 — How Many Steps to Slay the Yin Lord
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
His qi, his aura—none could call them weak. Among the Nine Heavenly Venerables of Longhan, the Fire Heavenly Venerable had opened the Heaven-Man Divine Treasury and stood ranked fourth.
His talent was extraordinarily high—otherwise he could never have opened the Heaven-Man Divine Treasury and carved his own indelible mark into the divine treasury cultivation system.
The Heaven-Man Divine Treasury was the treasury that linked heaven and earth as one. It joined the Five Luminaries and the Six Directions, and it also served as the bridge that bore up the Life-Death Divine Treasury that came after.
The Jingping Reforms had improved the divine treasuries and revised the Divine Bridge Treasury that the Cloud Heavenly Venerable had opened, yet he had scarcely altered the Heaven-Man Divine Treasury at all.
From this alone one could see the extraordinary caliber of the Fire Heavenly Venerable.
The Cloud Heavenly Venerable, however, seemed not to feel that dreadful Dao might in the slightest. The Fire Heavenly Venerable's dharma power was boundless and majestic, far more majestic than this mortal flesh of the Cloud Heavenly Venerable's—and yet the Cloud Heavenly Venerable remained calm and unhurried, and even the gaze he fixed upon the Fire Heavenly Venerable carried a trace of pity and sympathy.
"Fire, do you mean to be rid of me?"
The Cloud Heavenly Venerable smiled a half-smile. "This time, when you kill me, I imagine you won't be shedding tears again, will you?"
The Fire Heavenly Venerable said grimly, "Once I thought you were my Dao companion, and so I wept when I killed you. But only now do I see your true face. You are nothing but an ambitious petty schemer, no different from Shen Ye and Shen Mu!"
His killing intent surged. Beneath the mask, his pupils emanated boundless murderousness. "The harm you bring is greater than Shen Mu's, greater than Shen Ye's! They are fools, but you are cleverer. You will drag our human race into irredeemable ruin and shatter clean the fine situation I have painstakingly built! I absolutely cannot tolerate your living on!"
The Cloud Heavenly Venerable laughed heartily, and the pity in his eyes deepened. "Fire, have you never been curious how you knew I would inevitably take this road? Who told you I would pass through here?"
Behind him, Li Zheng gave a slight start.
He too was troubled by this very question.
Only five people knew of the Cloud Heavenly Venerable's journey to the Ancestral Court: Shen Mu, the Ling Heavenly Venerable, the Cloud Heavenly Venerable, the Moon Heavenly Venerable, and himself.
And yet the Fire Heavenly Venerable had seemed to know long in advance that the Cloud Heavenly Venerable would go to the Ancestral Court, and had even arrived ahead of them at a place they would inevitably pass through!
The Cloud Heavenly Venerable would never betray himself, and Shen Mu, the Ling Heavenly Venerable, the Moon Heavenly Venerable, and Li Zheng were even less likely to betray him!
So how exactly had the Fire Heavenly Venerable known the Cloud Heavenly Venerable would pass through here?
"Your being able to come here and wait for me means that person deliberately leaked word to your reincarnated body in Jingping, letting you know I would go to the Ancestral Court and would pass through here."
The Cloud Heavenly Venerable said calmly, "His goal is not to borrow your hand to be rid of me. He knows that even if you slay my mortal flesh, I will not die because of it—after all, I have already cultivated a perfect Primordial Spirit Great Luo Heaven, more perfect than the Great Emperor's. His goal is simply to make me utterly give up on you."