Chapter 1791 — The Palace Master's Compensation
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The World Tree is a natural substance of the Unchanging; its roots can appear in any era, in any destruction calamity.
It is even more solid than the Miluo Palace, even more indestructible. Its roots swiftly climbed Taiyi's legs, winding upward along them, trying to drag Taiyi down into the destruction calamity of the Sixteenth Era.
At the same time, behind him, the World Tree's true body steamed with the light of the Dao; the light gathered and condensed into the shapes of dao fruits — thirty-six thousand dao fruits, each radiating a different light. Those were not true dao fruits, but the projections of the dao fruits of every being who had achieved the Dao through cultivating a Dao Tree across sixteen cosmic eras.
Even so, this power was peerless beyond compare.
Beneath the illumination of those dao fruits, the branches and leaves of the World Tree seemed to have the great Dao crawling and flowing through them, winding along the branches and leaves, so that the whole World Tree seemed the aggregate of all the great Daos from the First Era to the Sixteenth Era.
This blow he had to block.
Not only block it — he had to grievously wound Taiyi, even kill him.
Taiyi was even more dangerous than Shen Mu: Shen Mu in past universes had been merely a Seventh Young Master fond of stirring up muddy water everywhere, but Taiyi was a blasphemer through and through.
A profaner of the great Dao!
The divine axe and the World Tree were about to collide; at the same instant, the Third and Fourth Young Masters of the Miluo Palace, together with the host of Miluo Palace hall masters and Dao-achievers, each drove their Dao arts and divine powers to the utmost.
This was a gift from heaven, a fine chance to settle the Miluo Palace's two great rivals at a single stroke.
To let it slip would be an offense against heaven itself.
At the Ancestral Court, Jade Capital City, above the destruction calamity of the First Era, the Miluo Palace floated, bearing its seven halls. In the Taishang Hall, the First Young Master Taishang now opened his eyes as well, gazing deeply at that battle in the Seventeenth Era.
The Taishang Hall was no longer the splendid, magnificent place it had once been, but a thatched cottage; its door stood open, and Taishang watched this scene from afar, and could not help shaking his head.
"Lingxiao, Zixiao," he murmured, "you have still underestimated these two. " His gaze fell upon the tightly shut door of the Miluo Palace; behind that door was his teacher, the master of the Miluo Palace, whose Dao heart was dead and whose body was ruined.
"Our teacher cast Tiandu down into the Fourth Era, and there is deep meaning in it.
Tiandu rose in the Fourth Era; our teacher destroyed him in the Seventh Era and sent him to the Fourth Era — it must have been to make amends for his own fault.
" The First Young Master Taishang said softly, "And now I understand our teacher's painstaking intent. Yet you remain obstinate and deluded.
.
.
" He did not leave the Taishang Hall to stop the Third and Fourth Young Masters. He had always been indifferent to fame and gain; with the master of the Miluo Palace's Dao heart dead and the Second Young Master Wuji suppressed, if he had stepped forward to preside over the Miluo Palace, the Third and Fourth Young Masters could never have contended with him.
But he had no heart for it.
Just then his gaze fell upon the Chaos Hall not far away. The Chaos Hall was the great Dao achievement of the Seventh Young Master Shen Mu; and now the door of the Chaos Hall had opened as well, and within it all was vast and chaotic.
The Seventh Young Master Shen Mu pushed the hall door open and was stretching lazily, utterly at ease.
Their eyes met, and the Seventh Young Master Shen Mu smiled faintly at him and nodded in greeting.
Bang.
The First Young Master Taishang shut the hall door and paid him no further heed.
"So you disdain me. .
.