Chapter 1489 — The Azure Heaven Falls, Part One

"In the early years of the Longhan era, Venerable You was a troubled youth—solitary, perverse, paying no heed to anyone, caring little for anything. The only thing that could stir him was seeing his mother. The reason he pioneered the Life and Death Divine Treasury was also to see his mother."

Consort Yan released her Heavenly Palace in full, assembling the Great Heavenly Court, and watched with frantic anxiety as Venerable You—his mortal body crumbling yet his momentum ever rising—and thought to herself: "The only thing that holds him back is also his mother. He lay dormant in Youdu for a million years, keeping his mother's soul company, never once coming to the mortal realm to stir up trouble. Because of that, he missed the Heavenly Court's power struggles, and the authority of the Ten Venerables held no share for him. If he were to lose that bond..."

She could not help but shudder several times. Glancing at Venerable Gong, who was gravely wounded, she thought: "When the time comes, a fellow Daoist must be sacrificed! After all, it wasn't I who damaged the mask—it was Venerable Gong..."

To die herself or to let a fellow Daoist die—for Consort Yan this had never been a question of choice.

Naturally, in Venerable Gong's heart this too was no question of choice.

She had barely finished the thought when suddenly Venerable You raised his head. Behind him, his spirit primordial yuan shen surged explosively, carrying the unique dark quality of Youdu, and layer upon layer of Youdu worlds rapidly expanded outward, encroaching upon Xuandu!

And beneath his feet, Youdu worlds piled one upon another, forming a vast Youdu Domain!

The Youdu Domain had actually begun to border upon the true Youdu!

The sight was utterly terrifying. When the Youdu Domain came into contact with the true Youdu, Consort Yan and Venerable Gong watched in horror as two long ox horns, nine times twisted and eighteen times bent, rose slowly from within Youdu.

Those two ox horns were immense beyond measure, like rivers formed from the magma beneath countless heavens and worlds, blazing fiercely, winding and meandering downward around the horns.

Yet the flow of those magma rivers was by no means slow—on the contrary, they poured and surged, like waterfalls crashing down from the highest heavens, roaring, thundering!

"Venerable You has called his family's elder here—the cheat... What on earth is the Heavenly Dao doing? To actually permit Youdu's invasion—truly unconscionable!" Consort Yan laughed in fury.

This battle could no longer be fought.

This was the most ancient invasion between worlds, and Venerable You was the bridge for that invasion.

By rights, the Heavenly Dao and the Great Dao of Youdu stood in opposition, mutually restraining, mutually annihilating; the two worlds should never meet, never come into contact.

Even if Venerable You employed heaven-defying divine powers, these two worlds should never intersect.

Yet this impossible thing had been broken precisely because Xuandu had been invaded by the Ten Venerables.

In ordinary times, the Heavenly Dao would certainly resist Youdu's invasion. Even if Venerable You cultivated the Youdu Domain, it would be ground away by Xuandu's Heavenly Dao, utterly unable to unfold!

Moreover, an existence like Venerable You could never set foot in Xuandu at all—Xuandu's Heavenly Dao would treat him as an invader and eliminate him at the first instant.

But now, Xuandu's Heavenly Dao was entirely gathered within Lord Heaven's body, doing all in its power to protect Lord Heaven's life. There was simply no Heavenly Dao left to resist Youdu's invasion.

These various factors meant the Heavenly Dao no longer suppressed Venerable You's power, nor had any means to resist the Youdu Domain and Youdu's invasion.

This was a scene unprecedented since the opening of the cosmos and the formation of Xuandu and Youdu—yet now it appeared, and appeared as though perfectly natural, catching everyone utterly off guard!

When Tubo's twin horns pierced through Xuandu's firmament, across the Origin Realm, the Ancestral Court, the Four Extremes Heaven, and all the heavens and myriad worlds, every living being who raised their eyes to the sky could see this soul-stirring sight.

Two great horns wreathed in pouring magma rivers burned the sky crimson!

The spectacle struck terror into all hearts.

In truth, ever since the Heavenly Court began its assault on Xuandu, the celestial phenomena across the heavens and myriad worlds had fallen into chaos—stars wandering astray, constellations abandoning their stations, the sun and moon appearing and vanishing unpredictably. Not only were day and night reversed, but many terrifying scenes had arisen: multiple suns appearing together, or a dozen moons circling a single sun!

The people of the heavens and myriad worlds had barely begun to adapt to these bizarre changes when the horns of Tubo—which could silence a crying child and strike terror into gods and demons alike—appeared in the sky as well, as though the apocalypse of all worlds had descended. It could not but fill people with dread and horror.

Consort Yan and Venerable Gong exchanged a glance. At this moment, whether they could kill Lord Heaven no longer mattered. What mattered was whether they could preserve their own lives.

Yet what filled them with alarm was that they had now fallen into Venerable You's Youdu Domain, and could no longer escape.

"Before Tubo arrives here, kill Venerable You first!"

Consort Yan shouted fiercely, and one Guixu abyss after another tore through the sky.

On the other side, Venerable Hong, Consort Qiang, and Shi Qiluo were shaken to their core. Lord Heaven now personally controlled his own body—and this was different from when the Heavenly Dao's consciousness controlled it. It was more agile, more unpredictable!

Lord Heaven had been powerful before, but he had given the impression of rigid adherence to convention, fighting mechanically, knowing nothing of adaptation. Now, however, his techniques and divine powers were exceedingly varied. Though they were still Heavenly Dao divine powers, in terms of variation they far surpassed what had come before!

The pressure on the three Venerables surged instantly. Previously, in their battle with Lord Heaven, they had taken no wounds—but now they were beginning to be injured!

The shock in Venerable Hong's heart was greater than that of any other Venerable.

No one in the world understood Lord Heaven better than he did, understood Lord Heaven's strengths and weaknesses better—because he and Lord Heaven were one body. For so long, their minds had been in communion, indistinguishable from each other.

They had struggled toward the same goal: to break free from the Heavenly Dao's shackles, to leap out from the Heavenly Dao.

And now he felt that he and Lord Heaven were no longer so attuned, no longer of one mind, but as though separated by a layer of gauze, making him unable to see through Lord Heaven's thoughts.

He and Lord Heaven—one was a spirit soul reincarnated, free and unfettered, wielding authority, savoring life; the other had Heaven and Earth souls controlling the mortal body, yet was bound by the Heavenly Dao's fetters, suffocating in its lack of freedom.

Now Lord Heaven's Heaven and Earth souls seemed to have developed their own thoughts, closing themselves off from him.

What alarmed him even more was that with the Heavenly Dao's will receding and Lord Heaven beginning to master his own body, if the Heavenly Dao's will no longer imposed itself upon Lord Heaven, no longer overrode Lord Heaven's will—then did Lord Heaven still need him?

Did he still need Venerable Hong?

In that moment, he and Lord Heaven had diverged.