Chapter 1627 — The Yin Lord's Legacy

Shen Fengqing's tears pattered down onto the flawless Book of Life and Death. The golden volume gleamed, illuminating every drop until it shone translucent.

Gradually light began to seep from within the tears, as though passing through crystal, refracting in all directions, flowing and shifting without cease. Shen Fengqing flew into a rage and hurled the scroll of the Book of Life and Death away!

"What use have I for this foot-wiping cloth of yours?

Give me back my Earth Lord—" Whoosh— The Book of Life and Death floated in the air, its pages unfurling, growing larger and larger, until in an instant a golden radiance shrouded the space above his head.

The golden light continued to expand, to stretch outward.

By now the Void Heavenly Venerable had followed the Heavenly River to Youdu. Chancing to look up, she saw a curtain of golden light extending from above the Earth Lord's head, growing ever broader, and soon veiling countless worlds within the darkness!

Shhk— The Nether River too was severed by the golden light.

The surging waters of the Nether River poured into the golden curtain, flowing within it! The Void Heavenly Venerable was filled with shock and uncertainty. Youdu's vastness was nearly equal to the entire cosmos; wherever there was death, there was Youdu.

Even the Ancestral Court overlapped with Youdu!

Only a handful of worlds could prevent Youdu from descending upon them—worlds such as Xuandu, Tianyin, and the Heavenly Court. Now this golden curtain was expanding at an inconceivable speed, screening off nearly all worlds, severing their connection to Youdu!

"Has the Earth Lord gone mad? " The Void Heavenly Venerable's eyes flickered with sharp light.

"Has he decided to drag all living beings of the world down with him in death?

So he truly has lost his mind, and begun a great slaughter! But then again, this is the Earth Lord—this is the true demonic path!

" Demonic qi surged from her whole body, dyeing the Nether River black.

She laughed. "You always put on such pious airs, feigning fairness and selflessness, feigning impartiality, wearing the look of one who handles matters justly and without selfish motive. But I am your daughter—how could I not know what the demonic path is? And now at last you show your true face!

" Behind her, the void split open. The Heavenly Lord's enormous face squeezed through the sky, bending down to look. The Ancestral God-King stood at the center of the Heavenly Lord's brow, where demonic qi and the divine breath of Xuandu collided and annihilated each other, filling the sky around the Heavenly Lord with the flames of that annihilation. "Void Heavenly Venerable, the Earth Lord means to slaughter all beings.

If he kills every living creature, whom will we have left to rule?

" the Ancestral God-King called out. "Let him kill!

" The Void Heavenly Venerable flicked her sleeve and sneered. "The more he kills, the less work for us.

Never mind slaughtering all beings—even if he destroys every world, what of it?

He cannot escape death in the end! " The Ancestral God-King frowned. The Void Heavenly Venerable said coldly, "At worst, we remake the heavens and create beings anew, fashioning a new batch of obedient creatures and gods!

" Suddenly, unwittingly, tears had wet her cheeks.

They slid down her face, drifted into the air, and transformed into motes of demonic fire floating there. "Why am I weeping?

" the Void Heavenly Venerable murmured. "In all my life I have shed tears only once, when I was young and ignorant.

After that I never wept again.

. .

" She gazed at her demonic-fire tears floating in the air, somewhat dazed, a faint unease stirring in her heart. Just then, upon the surface of the Book of Life and Death that shrouded the entire world of Youdu, a name emerged.

"Tu.

" The Void Heavenly Venerable looked at this name and showed bewilderment.

She murmured, "Who is Tu?

" The character "Tu" on the Book of Life and Death gradually dimmed, and upon the surface of this supreme treasure of Youdu a scene appeared: the most ancient of savage eras, in the time of the Primordials, when there lived a race of giants between heaven and earth. They were the predecessors of the Creators—in that age, they had not yet become Creators. They lived upon the continent of the Ancestral Court, ignorant and uncomprehending, knowing nothing of what death was. Until one day, a man named "Tu" died.

At that moment, the savage and unknowing giants at last understood what death was.

They gathered around the fallen giant, praying, sacrificing.

Bonfires lit the dark sky, melted the earth, turned stone and soil to magma. Magma and the Heavenly River ran together. The ancient giants sacrificed to the corpse of "Tu," beseeching death to pass them by.

They lashed together a raft and placed "Tu" upon the Heavenly River, watching as the raft drifted away along the Heavenly River and the river of magma. The Heavenly River flowed on, and the Great Dao of the world gradually began to change.

This Heavenly River grew dark and heavy, filled with demonic nature, filled with the giants' terror of death. Splash!

The Heavenly River and the river of molten rock plunged abruptly down, falling into a forming other-dimensional space. Tu's raft burned; Tu's corpse turned to ash in the flames.

The magma swirled around his body, forming two enormous long horns!

His flesh was replaced by molten rock, his soul and spirit burned to ash, and the Youdu Great Dao merged with his remnant soul, forming new three souls. His body was filled with the power of the Youdu Great Dao; his frame grew ever more towering, and Youdu expanded at furious speed! The demonic path transformed him into a deity with an ox's head, a tiger's face, and a human body.

The Heavenly River rushed on, and coming here it became the Nether River, becoming the long whip he held in his hand. Youdu made him an innate god, a god who commanded death.

He upheld the will of Youdu and ruled the world of Youdu. The order of the Youdu Great Dao was his order; the will of the Youdu Great Dao was his will!

He would rule the world of the dead with Youdu's order, carrying out Youdu's will, impartial and unswerving, without bias or favor! The second Dao-Born Ancient God, the Earth Lord, was born.

In that age the giants looked up at the sky, and the sky gained Xuandu. The first giant died, and there was Youdu.

And the Earth Lord was precisely the god born in answer to the passing of life. This scene flashed swiftly across the Book of Life and Death, and then a second name appeared, and a third.

Suddenly, upon the entire Book of Life and Death countless names emerged, countless faces, exquisitely lifelike, flashing past in an instant! These were the names of all beings who had died from the Primordials to the present.

The number of these dead was so vast it dazzled the eyes and left no time to take them in—they vanished before one could even look.

The Ancestral God-King and the Void Heavenly Venerable were filled with shock and doubt. Suddenly all the names vanished from the Book of Life and Death, leaving only one.

Shen Fengqing.

"The little Earth Lord, Shen Fengqing? " The Void Heavenly Venerable's heart trembled slightly. She saw this name grow larger and larger, gradually filling the entire Book of Life and Death.

The name dispersed, revealing the figure of Shen Fengqing weeping bitterly. Then the Void Heavenly Venerable and the Ancestral God-King saw with horror that Shen Fengqing stood in the palm of the You Heavenly Venerable's primordial spirit, with the Earth Lord right before him—yet at this moment the Earth Lord's incomparably towering body had begun to crack and crumble.

The magma boiled and shifted across the molten rock of his surface; those indestructible molten rocks were turning soft and brittle! The magma was the Earth Lord's blood, and now this blood flowed out from within his body, as though vein after vein had burst open!