Chapter 1654 — The Fool of the Southern Heaven

The instant Lady Yuanmu made her move, it was with the Great Heavenly Court transmuted from the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces, driving the Way of Guixu to its utmost extremity!

She deserved rather to be called the Goddess of Guixu; only at this moment Lady Yuanmu's consciousness held the ascendancy, for she had fused Lady Yuanmu's Way of Destruction with the Empress Consort's Way of Creation, blending the two into one, transmuting into the perfect Way of Guixu.

The power of that perfected Way of Guixu was exceeding strange: it could devour all things, devour every kind of energy, and turn it into strength of its own.

The might of Huotian Zun's Dao-fire could almost rival the Wind of Heat-Death; and yet within Guixu dwelt the true Wind of Heat-Death, grinding matter to dust and reducing it to pure energy.

Terrifying energies crushed and piled together, and that is the Wind of Heat-Death!

To pit oneself against Lady Yuanmu was to find one's own mana sinking ever lower, while her strength rose ever higher!

Boom!

Huotian Zun bore the blow head-on, and at once perceived that his Dao arts and divine powers had sunk like a stone into the sea, powerless to inflict the slightest injury upon his foe.

Then, in that very instant, Lady Yuanmu's mana abruptly surged a notch; the lotus burst straight through his defenses and, hissing and spinning, carved open his chest!

One keen lotus petal swept across his face; the mask upon it gave a light crunch, split in two, and revealed a hideous, frightful visage.

Huotian Zun's face had been ruined by Shen Mu. Its features were past all recognition, leaving only white bone and stray scraps of flesh.

The skin of his face had been torn away entirely; of his nose only the bone remained, of his ears only the holes; his eyes, with no flesh to shield them, lay bare to the air; his lips were gone, and his teeth showed through.

His face was a skull wearing scattered scraps of flesh.

In all the world today, Shen Mu was the undisputed first in the Dao arts, and the Dao wound he had left upon Huotian Zun's face had lasted to this very hour, impossible to undo; not even a pill master could heal the injury to his countenance.

At the sight of that face, even Lady Yuanmu was startled.

The two fought fast against fast; Huotian Zun, hobbled at every turn, felt that every divine power he unleashed had lost its rightful might. However he struck, the force was devoured by Yuanmu.

He had not cultivated the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces; he had but thirty-five. That single lack left him far weaker than Lady Yuanmu in mana, and cast him into the part of one who takes a beating.

His strength lay here: he had no weakness at all, no flaw in his Dao arts and divine powers. Though his Dao arts were checked by Lady Yuanmu, his fleshly body was mighty and could trade blows with her head-on; only, the longer he fought, the worse he fared.

Petal upon petal drifted down and danced about him high and low, razor-keen, slicing open his flesh, all but flaying him!

Whoosh---

The Great Abyss of Guixu abruptly loomed behind him; a savage gravitational pull came surging forth, twisting his body and dragging it into the abyss.

Huotian Zun roared and fought his way out of the abyss. The moment he broke free, Lady Yuanmu swung her lotus down upon him.

Huotian Zun spewed blood, tumbling and rolling away.

Swish, swish, swish---the stamens within the lotus shot out one after another like serpents, coiled around him, and hauled him toward Lady Yuanmu.

Huotian Zun at once raised his hand and severed stamen after stamen, but Lady Yuanmu had already arrived before him.

His form rose sharply and fled far in a streak of firelight, swift beyond belief.

Yet the Great Abyss of Guixu was like a maw that swallows the heavens and the myriad worlds; space itself collapsed about it, and however fast he flew, he could only wheel at the rim of the Great Abyss of Guixu, never escaping the reach of its gravity.

"My fate ends here!"

Despair filled Huotian Zun's heart. He turned his head, and there was Lady Yuanmu at his back, smiling as she pinched the twin lotus on its single stem, ready to deal him the killing blow.

Strange to tell, the moment Lady Yuanmu raised the lotus in her hand, she halted, and did not unleash that fatal strike.

Huotian Zun was taken aback. She stood there, and upon her face had appeared a look of alarm---an alarm that grew ever deeper.

Her expression held no feigning; she already held the upper hand by far, and had no need to pretend.

Yet not only did Lady Yuanmu show alarm, her very body began to tremble, and at the same time the black mole at the center of her brows began slowly to change, from black to red.

"You little slut..."

Lady Yuanmu clenched her teeth and hissed: "You pick this moment to jump out---are you courting death?"

Huotian Zun did not grasp her meaning. Thereupon he struck her hard, and in an instant the twin lotus in Yuanmu's hand swelled huge, snapped shut with a swish, and wrapped Lady Yuanmu within it.

Huotian Zun's blow fell upon layer upon layer of petals, striking them down in a shower, but the frightful force still reached deep into the twin lotus.

A muffled groan came from within the lotus, and then another voice sounded: "Little slut, how could this palace concede defeat just like that? This palace is the orthodox one, the true owner of this body. Now that you have nursed your wounds, it is the perfect moment for this palace to take the body back..."

"Elder sister, contending with me for the body will only play into Huotian Zun's hands!"

"If you do not withdraw, this palace will perish together with you, and let Huotian Zun kill us both!"

...

Huotian Zun hammered blow after blow, broke open the twin lotus, and charged inside, to find Lady Yuanmu frozen there, unable to move.

In a single instant he unleashed countless divine powers upon the woman; Lady Yuanmu was struck and sent bouncing high, then dashed hard against the ground.

Boom!

Huotian Zun came down and planted a foot on Lady Yuanmu's chest, a fevered light glittering in his eyes: "My fortune is still heaven-shaking; I am not meant to die. Yuanmu, be on your way..."

Then the black mole upon Lady Yuanmu's brow turned wholly red; her eyes regarded him coldly, her voice became the Empress Consort's own timbre: "Huo, my dear minister, you dare trample this palace's body?"

Sss---

One of Huotian Zun's legs was seized by the Empress Consort and smashed hard against the ground; he was battered senseless, though luckily the Empress Consort, too, was gravely wounded, and did not take his life outright.

A savage light flared in Huotian Zun's eyes. He thought: "She has just been badly hurt by me. This battle is not necessarily lost!"

Zushen Wang and Xutian Zun drew near, and saw that the twin lotus had closed its petals, entwined tightly together, its flower chamber swelling and shrinking, now expanding, now contracting, while waves of frightful divine-power surged from within, appalling to behold.

Zushen Wang and Xutian Zun were gravely wounded; they exchanged a glance, and each showed a look of dread.

The battle within the twin lotus ended quickly. Of a sudden the petals split apart and a streak of firelight rushed out---the man drenched in blood, none other than Huotian Zun.

Zushen Wang and Xutian Zun struck at once to bar his way, and the three traded blow for blow outside the flower chamber, fast against fast. Xutian Zun hewed off Huotian Zun's left arm; Huotian Zun wrenched Xutian Zun's head from front to back, so that she was staring at her own backside.

Zushen Wang roused the Tiangong flesh-body and smashed Huotian Zun's head into his own chest cavity; a pair of eyes grew from Huotian Zun's chest, and his right hand seized Zushen Wang, who stood upon the Tiangong's face, while Dao-fire spun like a wheel and twisted his body into a dozen wheels, flesh and primal spirit stretched thinner than a fried dough twist!