Chapter 1684 — Clash of Players

Even though Haotian Di had used Taisu qi to evolve the Taichu Daluo Heaven, so that the Daluo Heaven was far from perfect, Taichu himself could not take even that first step!

Boom!

Seizing the fleeting instant of his distraction, Yun Tianzun drove the Imperial Sword into his chest. Taichu hurriedly gathered his wits, retreated at lightning speed, and sent the Imperial Sword flying with rapid successive flicks of his fingers!

"Just as Mu Tianzun said, I have, by and large, lost my edge and my drive." He sighed inwardly and threw himself with his whole heart into the fight against Yun Tianzun.

Yun Tianzun's progress was startlingly swift. By now she had grown accustomed to the Grand Emperor's Dao tree and Dao fruit; it was only that her physical body was too weak, hampering her whenever she struck out, so that she found it hard to unleash her full strength.

Taichu was carrying wounds from his battle with Shen Mu, and Shen Mu had knocked away the Lingxiao Treasure Hall bestowed upon him by the Third Prince. But he still had the twenty-four treasure halls he had obtained from the ancestral court Yujing City—his killer trump card.

If only their two Daluo Heavens could merge a little more, he could directly drive those twenty-four halls and suppress Yun Tianzun!

Let Yun Tianzun be suppressed for a single instant, and he could seize the chance to devour and refine her Daluo Heaven, perfecting his Taichu Daluo Heaven!

Their battle grew more and more locked. In this life-or-death struggle, each was hunting for an opportunity to finish the other in one stroke and swallow the other's Daluo Heaven.

At that moment, Haotian Di's body shifted. He stepped out, swung the Taiyi Divine Axe in his hand, and swept one blow at Shen Mu!

He had been building his momentum all along. This stroke carried the supreme power of the Taichu Daluo Heaven, together with his own dharma power and his comprehension of the Dao. Where the axe passed, the ultimate void let out a crack and split asunder beneath the blade!

This was absolutely the most powerful stroke he had been capable of unleashing in his entire life—the might of this stroke was matchless!

In the same instant, the World Tree behind Shen Mu boomed thunderously. Branches thrashed wildly, countless root-tendrils writhed, and plunged deep into the ultimate void!

Root after immense root spread in every direction, piercing through the ultimate void, drinking in the cold, still wind; let the gale howl as it would, the precious tree stood rock-firm, immovable!

Within Shen Mu's body there was virtually no dharma power left; his primordial qi had all been spent rebuilding his flesh and his primordial spirit. But the World Tree held the brand of his Great Dao!

And now, as the World Tree took root in the ultimate void, the Great Dao brand within it seemed to be stamped into the ultimate void itself!

Roiling power of the Great Dao surged forth from the World Tree, overwhelming and without end!

Shen Mu let out a long cry, and the power rushing in from the void filled every corner of his body!

In that moment, it was as if he had attained the Dao, feeling the ultimate power of the Great Dao surging inside him!

The door plank in his hand flew up. The Great Dao poured into the plank, and with the plank as a great blade, he did not meet Haotian Di's axe stroke head-on. Instead, he slashed at the Taichu Dao Tree within Haotian Zun's Taichu Daluo Heaven!

Boom!

Boundless Dao light burst forth in the ultimate void, sweeping over the two figures and drowning their forms!

From within the light came a tremendous crack. The Dao tree in the Taichu Daluo Heaven shuddered, then toppled over, crashing down inside the Daluo Heaven. Dao chains collapsed, and Dao patterns flew up like scattered dust.

Behind Shen Mu, the World Tree swayed, snapped all at once, and crashed to the ground.

The Dao light gradually dispersed. Shen Mu and Haotian Di swayed on their feet, their aura plunging steeply.

A smile broke over Haotian Di's face, and he said in a low voice, "Mu Tianzun, you have been willing to fight me to mutual ruin. But there is one thing you never took into account—behind me stand the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince, and behind them the whole ancestral court Yujing City!"

From the center of his brow, treasure hall after treasure hall flew out with a shriek.

"Now, once you alone are dealt with, all the turmoil throughout the heavens and the myriad worlds can be put to rest with ease!"

Haotian Di straightened his back and said in a deep voice, "Fellow daoists in the thirty-two halls, I entrust this task to you!"

Within those thirty-two treasure halls, there was no response at all.

A slight frown creased Haotian Di's brow as he said in a weighty voice, "Thirty-two fellow daoists, Mu Tianzun's World Tree has already been felled by me—you may make your move!"

Still, the thirty-two treasure halls remained utterly silent.

Shen Mu turned around unsteadily, an inscrutable half-smile on his lips: "Haotian Zun, in the ancestral court Yujing City, there are not only the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince—there is also the Seventh Prince. And I am the Seventh Prince."

At the ancestral court Yujing City, during the great destruction tribulation of the Sixteenth Epoch.

The Dao tree swayed in the wind. The Fourth Prince of Miluo Palace played the zither beneath it, surrounded by the many hall masters of Miluo Palace.

On the far side, a World Tree drifted over from the chaos, and beneath that tree stood a solitary figure. A voice came from afar: "Whoever dares to oppose me, I'll put them to death!"

"Old Seven, you have gone too far." Another voice came, and the Lingxiao Hall appeared.