Chapter 1592 — Nothing Left to Live For

The next moment, the Supreme Emperor's divine consciousness tore free of the Heavenly Emperor's body.

The reason the corner of the Supreme Emperor's eye had twitched was that he sensed a terrible peril, but before he could even react, he had already been stripped away from the Heavenly Emperor's flesh. His response could hardly be called anything but swift; at once he returned to the Dao Tree.

Yet the instant his divine consciousness moved, he suddenly felt that he was in some small way different from before. Exactly how he differed, he could not say.

But in the eyes of Shen Mu and the others, it was a different sight altogether.

The Supreme Emperor's divine consciousness was moving, and at the same time it was taking on substance.

It had a form, it had flesh, it had a soul, it had a primordial spirit.

And just like that, the Supreme Emperor went from a state of divine consciousness to a living, breathing man!

The Supreme Emperor himself did not notice the change, and still rushed headlong toward the Dao Tree.

The Dao Tree was the manifestation of the Great Way he had spent his whole life upon; the Dao Fruit was the fruit of his cultivation.

Ling Heavenly Venerable gave him a feeling of the utmost peril. Ever since this woman, with her incomplete Unchanging Divine Power, had slain him within the supreme domain of divine consciousness in the Great Void, he had regarded Ling Heavenly Venerable with the gravest attention.

He had not even scrupled to use the Heavenly Emperor's body directly to kill her!

Before this woman, he had always carried a shadow he could not shake off.

He became substantial, possessed of form—from a supreme god he became a living man. Then, from the form of a man, he evolved into a state of energy, becoming a pure body of energy.

Even as he ran, he disintegrated.

Behind him, the scattered energy of his own dissolution was blown apart by the cold, silent wind of the Ultimate Void, vanishing between heaven and earth.

This transformation of his came from the Dao patterns of the Miluo Palace, mingled with the Unchanging Divine Power; it gave an impression of unfathomable mystery and wonder, yet it roused in Taisu and Xiao Heavenly Venerable a feeling of profound dread. In that single finger-point of Ling Heavenly Venerable, they saw their own Ways, and the Ways of the other four of the Primordial Five; the Ways of the Primordial Five were transforming freely.

Ling Heavenly Venerable's cultivation might still not compare with Xiao Heavenly Venerable, Hao Heavenly Venerable and the rest, but the mastery of the Way revealed in this one blow had already exceeded their understanding! The Supreme Emperor was already the most powerful existence in this universe, and in this battle he had proven it with his own strength!

Though Ling Heavenly Venerable's strike had held an element of ambush, that one finger made them feel that they too stood in peril of annihilation! As the Supreme Emperor ran toward the Dao Tree, the pace of his disintegration grew ever faster.

When he came beside the Dao Tree, with the tree but a foot away, he stretched out his hand, a smile on his face.

The laughter grew fainter and fainter, until at last a cold, silent wind blew over it, and the Supreme Emperor's smiling face was like a beach smoothed by the waves, every trace of it wiped away.

He vanished utterly. The cold wind blew, and its sound was like a sigh.

A sigh for the fall of an invincible myth, a sigh for the passing of the old days. The Supreme Emperor was reduced to ash and scattered.

His divine consciousness no longer existed at all.

Before everyone's eyes, the leaves of the Supreme Emperor's Dao Tree began to wither and fall; leaf after yellowed leaf left the branches, dropped from the tree, spun in the cold wind, drifted, and then slowly faded into nothing.

Branch after branch too dried and grew brittle and snapped, turning to flying ash in the wind.

The Dao Tree withered, its roots rotted and dispersed.

The Supreme Emperor's azure Dao Fruit withered at that moment as well, shriveling as though all vitality had departed it.

The Great Luo Heaven of Divine Consciousness had already been pierced by a great hole; now more of the cold wind poured in, blowing every which way, and the Great Luo Heaven of Divine Consciousness rotted and collapsed. Ling Heavenly Venerable watched it all quietly, her expression utterly unruffled, yet within her Dao heart a desolation welled up.

Gradually that desolation assailed her and worked upon her, until unknowingly tears wet both her cheeks, until she did not know from where this desolation sprang.

Perhaps it was the Great Way between heaven and earth that was desolate, and unknowingly it had infected her, infected her Dao heart, steeped her in that desolation, mourning the passing of an ancient existence.

By any measure, the Supreme Emperor could be called a forerunner, a pioneer.

In an age of ignorance and savagery, the Supreme Emperor had entered the Way through divine consciousness and created a myth: he had pioneered the runes of divine consciousness, the Dao patterns, the Dao chains, the art of sacrifice, and he had pioneered the supreme domain of divine consciousness.

Though he knew the how and not the why, though he proposed no complete system of cultivation and left no profound influence upon later ages, though in his later years the Supreme Emperor went astray and slaughtered the Creator race in blood sacrifice, though in the end he could only be reckoned half a Dao-achiever, his contributions remained indelible. Had his talents been bent to the benefit of those who came after, he might have become the most dazzling Heavenly Venerable in this world. Unfortunately, he did not.

The Supreme Emperor was dead, done to death by a single finger of Ling Heavenly Venerable. Shen Mu, Xiao Heavenly Venerable, Kaihuang and Hao Heavenly Venerable could not understand Ling Heavenly Venerable's desolation, but Ling Heavenly Venerable, as the one who had with her own hand laid the Supreme Emperor to rest, was deeply haunted by that desolation.

Suddenly, a Lingxiao Hall came to hover above Ling Heavenly Venerable's head; upon its surface countless gorgeous runes quivered, and it came crashing down!

At that very moment, Kaihuang threw himself across, barring her way. Drawing his sword, he rose; the Dao Tree of the Way of the Sword stood lush and verdant, its branches swaying as though ten thousand swords had soared into the air, stabbing up to meet the Lingxiao Hall, striking precisely upon every rune of that treasure hall!

A dreadful quaking burst forth. From within the Lingxiao Hall, Xiao Heavenly Venerable flew out, head down and feet up, and with a palm strike aimed at Ling Heavenly Venerable he pressed down upon her! Around him the runes of the Lingxiao Hall fluttered; Kaihuang was fending off the runes of the Lingxiao Hall, and he in turn was using the hall's runes to fend off Kaihuang's Way of the Sword.

Kaihuang frowned; his Dao flower revolved, petal after petal like the keenest of swords, meeting Xiao Heavenly Venerable's hand.

At the same time, the sword in his hand stabbed backward.

Behind him, Hao Heavenly Venerable rose straight up, and the next moment he was behind Ling Heavenly Venerable!

The wound at the back of his head had already been healed by the Goddess Taisu; in his hand the Myriad Dao Heavenly Wheel burst forth with a dreadful Dao might, spinning ceaselessly as it chopped toward Ling Heavenly Venerable's fair head! Behind his own head, the runes of the Zixiao Hall became countless seals, shining upon the Myriad Dao Heavenly Wheel, driving the power of both its faces to the utmost, making this blow of his seem all the more terrible!

Ding!

Kaihuang's sword stabbed into the center of the Myriad Dao Heavenly Wheel; the powers of the Way of the Sword, the Way of Taichu and the Way of Guixu burst forth. Kaihuang grunted and spat blood.