Chapter 1580 — Forty Thousand Years of Storm and Song

Within Heavenly Lord Xiao's body, half of the Great Emperor's primordial spirit roared in fury, contending for mastery of Heavenly Lord Xiao's flesh.

Half of Heavenly Lord Xiao's body went numb, seized by the Great Emperor's primordial spirit, and in an instant his composure was gone.

From the back of his head a string of heavenly palaces burst forth, transforming into the Great Heavenly Court, which crushed and refined the Great Emperor outright; in a moment the Great Emperor's primordial spirit was shattered and became his nourishment. His strength was too great; even the Great Emperor's primordial spirit could pose no real threat to him.

He regained mastery of his flesh, and the very next moment would strike to slay Lord Ling.

With his present strength, at such close range, he would leave Lord Ling no chance of escape at all!

So swift was his strike that Lord Ling would have no time to employ the Unchanging divine ability!

Yet in the very instant before he could act, the Unchanging divine ability turned, and half of the Great Emperor's primordial spirit appeared once more, contending with him for mastery of his flesh!

"Damnation!

" Once again half of Heavenly Lord Xiao's body went numb; the vexation seething in his heart had no outlet, and he had no choice but to destroy and refine the Great Emperor's primordial spirit once more.

Just then, Lord Ling had already withdrawn, leaping back, and Shen Mu too sprang up from the desert; his Divine Treasury domain swiftly healed all his wounds, and he rejoined Lord Ling.

"Your divine ability is not bad at all, Sister Ling! " Shen Mu said with a laugh.

"You taught it well.

" The two exchanged a smile, and just then Heavenly Lord Xiao's voice came to them: "Lord Ling, Lord Mu, did you think the Unchanging divine ability could trap me in the Great Emperor's grip and leave me helpless forever?

You underestimate Xiao Weisu. The immutability of matter is, after all, merely a transformation of matter; but in the Taichu era when the cosmos was opened, matter did not exist at all. Without substance, without form, without state—this is Taichu, this is the Innate One Qi! " Shen Mu's heart went cold; he snatched up the Taiyi cane and rushed at full speed toward the God-Slaying Platform.

Lord Ling followed close behind.

Both moved with incredible speed, and yet on the God-Slaying Platform Heavenly Lord Xiao's body and primordial spirit had already begun to transform into the state of the Innate One Qi!

"The Five Innate Primal Modes are five supreme Daos. The Unchanging divine ability is a divine ability that fixes matter, and judging by the way it can trace time backward, Lord Ling, you truly possess excellence beyond others—beyond even me. But as for the five supreme Daos, all you can restrain is the Way of Divine Consciousness split off from the Taiji Dao and the Taichu Dao!

" Heavenly Lord Xiao's voice carried to them, and before the two could reach the God-Slaying Platform, his form had already vanished, wholly transformed into the Innate One Qi.

Not only he—even half of the Great Emperor's primordial spirit transformed along with him into the Innate One Qi!

Lord Ling immediately sensed that her Unchanging divine ability had been broken.

The first to break the Unchanging divine ability had been Shen Mu; Shen Mu had used the Taishi Dao's form without substance—no matter, only a state of energy—to break the Unchanging divine ability. Heavenly Lord Xiao, by contrast, used the Taichu Dao and transformed into the Innate One Qi to break it; the two methods, different roads, arrived at the same end.

From the moment Lord Ling conceived the idea of the immutability of matter to the full development of the Unchanging divine ability, nine hundred sixty thousand years had passed—a span that could hardly be called brief.

For nine hundred sixty thousand years, Lord Ling had struggled toward a goal that others deemed impossible, even absurd, until at last she perfected this divine ability; the toil she poured out and the bitterness she endured could well be imagined.

Yet a mere forty thousand years later, the Unchanging divine ability had been broken by others. Such was the swift advance of the age that perhaps only a solitary genius like Lord Ling could feel it so profoundly.

But her divine ability had, besides the immutability of matter, another unfathomably profound use: to trace back to what had been.

This was something even Heavenly Lord Xiao could not break.

Moreover, in placing her Unchanging divine ability ahead of the Taiji Dao, Heavenly Lord Xiao had all but set her on a par with the Five Innate Primal Modes, holding her to be an existence that could ride abreast of Taiyi, Taichu, Taishi, Taisu, and Taiji! The esteem in which he held Lord Ling was staggering.

Shen Mu and Lord Ling arrived; Lord Ling employed the Unchanging divine ability and attacked the Heavenly Emperor's body, seeking first to trap this flesh so that Heavenly Lord Xiao could not claim it. On the other side, Shen Mu's Taiyi cane thrust at the Innate One Qi that Heavenly Lord Xiao had become.

Perhaps he could not wound Heavenly Lord Xiao—but the Taiyi cane surely could!

The two struck together, determined to hold Heavenly Lord Xiao back; otherwise, once Heavenly Lord Xiao—whose strength had already reached the point of attaining the Dao through force—returned to his own Heavenly Emperor body, how terrible would that be? Their divine abilities came one after the other.

Shen Mu, wielding the Taiyi cane as a sword, was the faster; the sword art he deployed was the Calamity-Breaking Sword.

Whether his foe was the Innate One Qi or the Taichu Dao, he would use his Calamity-Breaking Sword, which broke through every Dao, to shatter the other utterly!

Ever since he had comprehended the Hongmeng runes, he had possessed this confidence! The Five Innate Primal Modes were not invincible either!

Just as the Taiyi cane pierced the Innate One Qi that was Heavenly Lord Xiao, a strange change arose: another figure appeared on the God-Slaying Platform—none other than Heavenly Lord Hao! Heavenly Lord Hao laughed aloud, bowed low to that mass of Innate One Qi, and said in a ringing voice: "Father God, I have come to pay you homage! May Father God's form and spirit endure forever!

" As he bowed, a shadow rose behind him—none other than the Goddess Taisu.

The Goddess Taisu bowed gracefully, and Heavenly Lord Xiao, who had been in the state of the Innate One Qi, at once took on form and substance, body and hair and skin, blood and flesh, and could no longer transform back into the Innate One Qi!

Shen Mu's Taiyi cane drove the Calamity-Breaking Sword; with a hiss hiss hiss, countless shafts of sword light burst forth, and in an instant Heavenly Lord Xiao was pierced through and through, riddled with a thousand wounds!

Heavenly Lord Xiao spewed blood, flew backward off the God-Slaying Platform, tumbling and rolling until he crashed into the great desert.

"Brother Taichu, who ever said the strength of the Five Innate Primal Modes is ranked by order of appearance?

" The Goddess Taisu giggled: "Among the Five Primal Modes there is no distinction of strong and weak to begin with. Strength depends on each one's comprehension, each one's cultivation!

" Earlier, when Heavenly Lord Xiao said that among the Five Primal Modes Lord Ling could break the Taiji Dao, he had unwittingly revealed his own thinking: that of the Five Innate Primal Modes, the five supreme Daos, the earlier the rank, the stronger.

And now the Goddess Taisu's move had driven him straight from the state of the Innate One Qi back into his physical body, leaving him wounded by Shen Mu—so the Goddess Taisu could not resist a jab at him.

Still, from this one could also see that among the Five Innate Primal Modes there was no simple ordering of precedence and strength.