Chapter 1749 — The Will of Heaven and the Heart of All Beings

The raging karmic fire had finally died down.

In the extinguished sea of flame only ashes remained, and nothing else besides.

"Earth Count..."

Celestial Venerable You turned around, facing the vast army of devils and monsters of Youdu. A fellow Daoist had passed away, just like that.

What he had glimpsed in his daze must have been only Earth Count's obsession, not a thing that had truly happened. Within that obsession, Earth Count had surely fulfilled his own wish.

Shen Fengqing watched this scene from afar, and he felt that he had grown a great deal more, and drawn a great deal closer to the true Earth Count.

"Walk well, big fellow..."

He stirred the Six Paths Heaven Wheel and said in a low voice, "Rest assured, I will do as you taught me. I will guard well the justice that comes after death, and give all living beings the same impartial justice!"

He stepped down from the Six Paths Heaven Wheel. His magic power was still sustaining the Wheel's turning, yet in this moment he no longer needed to maintain it at every instant.

Celestial Venerable Xu had departed together with Earth Count. With Celestial Venerable Xu gone, the Heavenly Court's threat to the Yuan Realm was much diminished, and he had no need to sustain the Six Paths Heaven Wheel at every moment.

Shen Fengqing closed his eyes and drew a long breath. The Youdu of the Yuan Realm was joined to Youdu, no longer two separate worlds. As Celestial Venerable Xu and Earth Count transformed into the dao of Youdu, the great dao of Youdu was once again made whole; the great dao pervading Youdu was growing and swelling, making him feel filled with power.

In this moment, the Yuan Realm was free of the threat of Youdu. And he too could now stretch his limbs and fulfill his ambitions!

Above Jingping, Little Xuandu.

"Fellow Daoist Earth Count, has your wish been granted?"

Heaven Duke looked down. The fire of the Yuan Realm's Youdu had gone out; his heart and spirit trembled, and he felt a mood that was both great sorrow and great joy.

When Earth Count departed, he had probably left behind no regrets.

"To outsiders, perhaps his passing brings grief, but to you, fellow Daoist, there is likely joy in your heart that his wish was granted. You became human, and you also became dao; you are forever together with your daughter, your family. Is this not a great liberation?"

Boom!

The Ancestral God King gathered the heavenly dao and transformed it into a supreme treasure, smashing it hard into Heaven Duke's face. Heaven Duke's features twisted; he was struck tumbling and rolling, crashing back and forth within Little Xuandu, and only after a long while did he come to a stop.

He had lost his wits for a moment, grieving and rejoicing for Earth Count, and in that single instant the Ancestral God King seized the flaw and beat him miserably.

He had never been a match for his son, the Ancestral God King, to begin with. Though he had comprehended the heart of the heavenly dao, and had cultivated his dao realm to an extremely high level, in a short time he could not achieve the dao through the heavenly dao, and could only contend with the Ancestral God King by relying on the heavenly dao supreme treasures.

But at this moment the heavenly dao supreme treasure had transformed into Little Xuandu, blocking Xuandu's army of gods and devils, buying time for Celestial Venerable Yue and Lang Wan so that Xuandu's army could not pour into Jingping. Therefore he had been at a disadvantage from the very start.

Within Little Xuandu, Celestial Venerable Yue stirred Zaiji Void, slicing space apart, dividing Little Xuandu into countless spaces. Lang Wan stood at her side, visualizing innumerable gods and devils, visualizing a brilliant river of stars, to meet the armies of Xuandu's Sun Guards and Moon Guards in battle.

The two sides clashed; suns and moons filled the sky, countless suns and moons forming all manner of wondrous formations, attempting to break through Little Xuandu's confines. But facing Celestial Venerable Yue and Lang Wan, the formations of the Sun Guards and Moon Guards seemed somewhat strained.

"Heaven Duke, the situation is stabilized!"

Celestial Venerable Yue wiped the sweat from her brow and called out loudly, "You can withdraw the heavenly dao supreme treasure now!"

During this time, Heaven Duke had been beaten half to death by the Ancestral God King, nearly losing his life, able only to flee constantly; yet his physical body was in the Ancestral God King's grasp, and no matter where he fled, the Ancestral God King could always strike him.

Heaven Duke's physical body was a notch inferior to the physical body of Taichu, the ancient god Heavenly Emperor, but it was still one of the mightiest bodies in the world today. Over these years the Ancestral God King had controlled this body with ever greater skill, and its power had grown ever greater.

"Father God, will you die or not?"

The Ancestral God King was abnormally elated, driving Heaven Duke's physical body to chase Heaven Duke into flight in all directions; yet his attacks could still land upon Heaven Duke, making his wounds ever heavier.

Heaven Duke tried to summon the heavenly dao supreme treasures, but the Ancestral God King raised a hand and waved it, and from within Heaven Duke's physical body burst forth one heavenly palace after another, blocking each supreme treasure of the heavenly dao, so that he could not touch them.

"Father God still dotes on me!"

The Ancestral God King laughed heartily, not without pride: "Letting me kill Father God twice, to make up for what my heart desired!"

He stepped down from the brow of Heaven Duke's physical body, looked at Heaven Duke struggling bitterly, shook his head, and sighed: "In this world, there is no such thing as fairness and justice. Father God, you always have fairness and justice on your lips, but in truth you are the most unjust of all. The wolf eats the sheep, the sheep eats the grass, the grass eats the soil. This is the heavenly dao. The ancient gods eat the half-gods, the half-gods eat humans, humans eat animals and plants. This too is the heavenly dao. As Heaven Duke, your comprehension of the heavenly dao is too narrow; when faced with the resistance of the human race, you actually chose to help them fulfill it rather than strangle it!"

He raised a hand and pointed at Lanfeng Valley, sneering: "Look at these humans, these postnatal living beings. They were originally unable to attain eternal life, yet they defy heaven and can live as long as gods! They originally had no power, yet they created cultivation arts and divine abilities, and grasped power! They dig ore veins, open mines, extract the metals of the gods and forge them into weapons, and begin to slay gods!"

"They level the mountain slopes and lay roads, change the courses of rivers, irrigate the fields; they even alter the growth of crops to satisfy their appetites! They even twist the great dao of heaven and earth, actually carrying out reforms, so that many arts of the dao that never existed before have appeared in this world!"

The Ancestral God King reached out and seized the Heavenly Net Dao Weapon flying toward Heaven Duke. With the dao weapon in hand, the other heavenly dao supreme treasures immediately flew over and circled around the Ancestral God King.

"They are changing the heavenly dao, changing this universe! And you did nothing! As an ancient god, you should have a stance, and you, you have no stance at all!"

One after another the heavenly dao supreme treasures came under the Ancestral God King's control. The Ancestral God King walked toward Heaven Duke, and behind him Heaven Duke's physical body was still madly attacking Heaven Duke.

"I saw long ago that these postnatal living beings would throw the universe into chaos. I realized that in the future, the rule of the gods would be dismantled by them, destroyed by them! If we let them grow, we will become their slaves, the objects of their enslavement!"