Chapter 1488 — The Bright Moon and the Morning Sun Vie in Radiance

Venerable You spat blood, his body smashing hard into the starry sky like a stone flung upon still water, bobbing up and drifting down, raising ring after ring of ripples across the stars. His spirit was entangled by the Taiji Ancient Gods, and at once his weakness lay bare.

His mortal body could not be as mighty as his spirit.

His spirit commanded the Great Dao of Youdu, having entered the twenty-fifth heaven of the Dao; twenty-five worlds of Youdu spread out before him, and each layer of his Dao arts and divine powers ran deeper than the last, each layer stronger than the last. And still he ceaselessly comprehended realms of the Dao ever more profound, so that even the Taiji Ancient Gods could do nothing to him for the moment.

Even when the two Ancient Gods joined bodies and took the form of Tubo, galloping at will through his Youdu worlds, at most they could only run neck and neck with his spirit, and could not wound it.

Though the two Ancient Gods could take the forms of Tiangong, Tubo, and others besides, when it came to the deeper realms of the Dao of Heaven and the Great Dao of Youdu, they fell somewhat short. Yet the weakness of Venerable You's mortal body now showed itself, and gave Consort Yan and Venerable Gong the opening they sought.

He was not a Venerable renowned for battle with the flesh; fighting body to body he had always scorned, nor had he ever had occasion for it. Consort Yan and Venerable Gong struck from front and rear.

In Consort Yan's slender jade fingers a hairpin was pinched; shaken once against the wind it became a sharp sword, and as its light whirled and flew, one great Guixu abyss after another opened before and behind Venerable You, tearing his body in different directions and pinning him alive in the starry sky.

His body was spread-eagled, limbs and head stretched taut, arms, legs, and neck all drawn out long. Venerable Gong leaped up, shook the long whip in her hand, and it became a great spear that thrust at the space between his brows.

Clang! The great spear, transformed from the dragon vein of the Ancestral Court, struck Venerable You between the brows; blood appeared there, and the spear tip pierced through his skull and drove in. Venerable You struggled violently, but could not break free of the Guixu divine art, and his face fell.

"Mu, I did my best.

.

.

" He strove with all his power to drive his mana against the spear's entry, but he could not resist it at all; the dragon spear bored into his skull inch by inch.

"Forgive me.

I could not fulfill what you entrusted to me.

You told me to live on, and that, I cannot do.

.

. " Just then a sword light came vast and mighty, one sword dividing yin and yang, forcing the two Taiji Ancient Gods to part, one to the left and one to the right, to evade that world-startling blade.

The two Ancient Gods were startled, and at once recognized the sword: this was the sword of Kaihuang Shen Ye.

Kaihuang's sword now differed from the sword they had seen not long before, and the difference lay not in swordsmanship but in the realm of the Dao. When they had met Kaihuang in the Heavenly Court before, his one sword had pierced through the Taiji Diagram; mighty as his strength was, he had posed no great threat to them.

But now Kaihuang's single sword had divided yin and yang, and they felt a threat most terrible. Were the two of them parted, one against one, they were a notch inferior to beings such as the Ten Venerables; only joined together did they possess boundless battle power.

They had been parted only a short while, and Kaihuang had already grown to the point of seeing through their weakness; truly remarkable. Once the Taiji Ancient Gods were parted, Venerable You's spirit broke free at once and flew straight to where his body lay.

And that sword light, having divided yin and yang and driven back the two Ancient Gods, drove straight on, aimed at Venerable Gong, so swift that even she felt caught off guard.

In the center of her back, it seemed a sword wound was faintly about to burst open, the very place where Kaihuang's blade had left its mark in the Heavenly Court.

But Kaihuang's sword wound had long since been healed by the Goddess Taisu; why, then, did she now feel the wound ache faintly again? "His sword has been imprinted on my Dao-heart, and left a sword wound upon it!

" Venerable Gong understood at once.

Kaihuang had gravely wounded her with an incomparably powerful realm of the Dao, and Taisu could heal such an injury.

But while wounding her, Kaihuang had also crushed her Dao-heart with an incomparably powerful Dao-heart of his own.

And that wound, Taisu could not heal. The wound upon her Dao-heart could only be healed by herself.

But strong as her Dao-heart was, it had still not reached Kaihuang's level.

Just then Consort Yan gave a cold laugh and struck out with her sword; the sword light became a great Guixu abyss behind Venerable Gong, and Kaihuang's world-startling blade, with a swish, pierced into the Guixu abyss and vanished.

Consort Yan had barely set her heart at ease when the next moment the sword light surged like a tide, passing through one Guixu abyss after another, and abyss after abyss collapsed and crumbled. She had not trapped Kaihuang's sword; on the contrary, that single stroke had broken open her Guixu divine art.

The sword light shot out from the last abyss and was already before Venerable Gong.

Venerable Gong drew out the dragon spear and retreated swiftly; the spear became a long whip that coiled like a dragon to fend off the sword light.

Sword light was everywhere before her eyes; the long whip wrought from the dragon vein of the Ancestral Court coiled ring within ring, clanging without cease against the Wuyou Sword, and great divine mountains and divine stones were sliced apart by the Wuyou Sword, until soon nothing remained in her hand but the whip's handle.

And at last the Wuyou Sword's power was spent, and it whistled away.

Venerable Gong was drenched in fragrant sweat; she shook the whip handle hard, and the dragon vein of the Ancestral Court, shattered by Kaihuang's stroke, came flying back with a rush; the great mountain bodies reassembled swiftly in her hand and became once more a divine whip, whole and unbroken. A chill of fear ran through Venerable Gong: that one sword of Kaihuang's had broken in succession the divine arts of the Taiji Ancient Gods, of Consort Yan, and of herself, four existences of Venerable rank, and only then spent its power. It was terrifying beyond words.

She whirled around and saw Kaihuang striding over.

Though the two Taiji Ancient Gods had been parted, yin and yang drew upon each other, and they revolved around one another in a lovely arc, like the yin and yang fish of the Taiji Diagram turning each into the other, and Kaihuang stood at the very center of the Taiji Diagram. This too was exquisite beyond compare.

Kaihuang had parted them, yes, but he had fallen into their formation diagram; what awaited him would be the two of them striking together with all their might. Kaihuang walked within that Taiji Diagram still forming and gathering, strolling as though in a quiet courtyard, seemingly unaware of the fierce assault about to fall upon him.

He raised his palm; the Wuyou Sword flew back. His right hand held the hilt reversed, while his left drew the scabbard from his waist. Clang — a long, melodious sword cry rang out as the Wuyou Sword entered its sheath before him; the cry was clear and pleasing, and within it lay the resonance of the Dao of the sword.

And just then Venerable Gong happened to look this way; the sword cry reached her ears, her face changed drastically, and the sword wound in her Dao-heart burst forth.

Hiss, hiss, hiss — her body convulsed, and from within her burst hundreds upon hundreds of sword wounds, piercing through her flesh, blood spattering.