Chapter 1631 — The Tide Has Turned
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Taichu Emperor Sword shifted in Yun Tianzun's hand, and torrents of dao might burst from the imperial blade. His swordsmanship was unlike either Shen Mu's or Kaihuang's.
Kaihuang's way of the sword stood peerless, his strokes inheriting his dao; the instant he struck, the majestic thirty-six heavens unfurled, and those heavens of his sword dao had so enraptured Lizheng, once the Sword God of Jingping, that they became the man's inner demon. Shen Mu's swordsmanship was more protean still, hailed as the foremost sword art in a million years; he had entered the dao by way of divine powers, his sword itself a divine power, steeped in tribulation. But Yun Tianzun's swordsmanship had taken another road altogether.
Plain and grand, less nimble in its transformations than Shen Mu's, less magnificent than Kaihuang's, it nonetheless bore a supreme imperial might! That imperial might came of the Longhan Era, when he had reigned as the human race's Celestial Emperor over the Xiaohan Heavenly Court for several hundred thousand years—a reign longer even than Taichu's!
Nor was that all: in his time upon the throne he had executed Taidi, slain Taichu, struck down Taidi, the sovereign of the ancient age, within the Great Void, and struck down Taichu, Celestial Emperor and ruler of the ancient gods, within Yuandu, cutting the ancient gods' dominion short outright! His swordsmanship carried the majesty of two great beings slain, and so it bore a supreme imperial might, a momentum that swept all before it!
The authority he commanded with sword in hand surpassed even that of Taichu, the ancient gods' Celestial Emperor! Such was his might, his momentum!
Taichu's face turned grave; he drew the Emperor Sword he himself had forged and met the stroke. Two men, two swords; in the instant they clashed, Taichu felt at once that his own imperial might could not contend against it, and was pressed down instead!
Yet Yun Tianzun's weakness was plain as well: in mana he was far the inferior.
Behind Taichu's head a Grand Heavenly Court emerged, and the Lingxiao Hall bestowed by the Third Young Master blazed with light, sending his mana surging, crushing down with matchless strength!
In the Ultimate Void, two Daluo Heavens collided; above the Ancestral Court, another two Daluo Heavens writhed and intertwined.
Beneath those two Daluo Heavens, Hao Tianzun and Kaihuang sat facing each other on a platform, neither rising. Both seated on the ground, Kaihuang drew his sword and thrust at Hao Tianzun; the Wheel of Ten Thousand Daos behind Hao Tianzun's head swept past him and planted itself between them.
The wheel revolved—fifty-eight treasure halls, thirty-six heavenly palaces spinning ceaselessly within it—and churned the great dao concealed in Kaihuang's thrust into chaos.
Clang, clang, clang! Kaihuang's thrust rang out thirty-six times in succession.
At the first note, the Taihuang Pingtian Sword burst forth and became the Heaven of Taihuang; at the second, the Taiming Qitian Sword burst forth, and from within the sword emerged the Heaven of Taiming.
After the thirty-sixth sword-note, a Daluo Heaven of the sword dao pierced clean through the Wheel of Ten Thousand Daos! At the same moment the Wheel of Ten Thousand Daos revolved, and with each revolution it burst forth with an incomparably weighty note of the dao, and before it another Wheel of Ten Thousand Daos appeared.
The wheel revolved through twenty-eight heavens; twenty-eight wheels surged forward in layers, drawing Kaihuang into them. The twenty-eighth heaven of the Dao Realm.
His dao realm was inferior to Kaihuang's, and the Wheel of Ten Thousand Daos was likewise innate primordial qi that had not reached the pinnacle of innate primordial qi—yet this wheel was a component of his Grand Heavenly Court.