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

The Ancestral God King's fury reached the heavens, and the moves and divine abilities of Heaven Duke's physical body grew ever more vicious: "As Heaven Duke, you should chastise all living beings! When they defy heaven, send down tribulation and destroy them! When they do not make offerings to the gods, use natural disasters to teach them awe! When they open river courses, then send great floods to swallow their cities; when they mine ore veins, then send earthquakes to destroy them! You could make them docile. Send down heavenly fire, blot out the sun and moon, send down floods, unleash great droughts. And yet you did nothing at all!"

"I told you to destroy them, and yet you dragged in something about the fairness of the heavenly dao! From that time on, I knew you could not be relied upon. You are old, and you cannot see the stakes in this!"

Heaven Duke raised both hands, holding up the fist his own physical body smashed down, his face covered in blood, and laughed: "My son, heaven's course has its constancy; it does not endure for Mu, nor does it perish for Xiao. You have never been able to comprehend this saying!"

Boom!

Another fist from Heaven Duke's physical body came crashing over, smashing into him and blasting him out of the Yuan Realm.

The Ancestral God King lifted his head and looked beyond the heavens. A palm stretched out from Heaven Duke's physical body and lifted him up; the Ancestral God King rose slowly, higher and higher, until at last he saw Heaven Duke.

This place was Xuandu, where Heaven Duke's physical body resided.

Heaven Duke's physical body had not truly descended upon the Yuan Realm, because this body was too colossal; compared to this body, the Yuan Realm was still too small, and it could not fully descend.

The Ancestral God King could only control the upper half of Heaven Duke's physical body, reaching in from beyond the heavens into the sky of the Yuan Realm, to do battle with Heaven Duke. And now, they had returned to Xuandu once more.

Heaven Duke floated within Xuandu, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, panted hoarsely, and laughed: "My son, I did not understand this either in the past, until later, when I finally understood."

He stretched out his palm, as if stroking the stars of the universe, his breast surging, and said: "Look. From our Xuandu, one can see all things in the heavens and all worlds, the myriad states of living beings, all vividly before the eyes. The partings and reunions, loves and hates, passions and enmities of the human world are all gathered into the eye. What is this human world?"

The Ancestral God King shook the Heavenly Net Dao Weapon; the other forty-nine heavenly dao supreme treasures flew over and combined into a long spear. Killing intent surging, he walked toward him, sneering: "What strange, absurd talk does Father God have now?"

Heaven Duke stood within Xuandu, looking down upon the heavens and all worlds, his heart filled with joy, and laughed: "This human world, it is the Heaven Sea!"

The Ancestral God King was slightly taken aback, then laughed loudly: "Father God, your mind has indeed been polluted by mortals and the mortal world, and you have begun to spout nonsense! The Heaven Sea is a holy land of the Ancestral Court, and has never been the human world! When the universe was opened in those years, the Heaven Sea was born; the Heavenly River rises from the Heaven Sea, and Xuandu was born! You have grown muddled to this degree!"

Heaven Duke shook his head and laughed: "My son, you still have not comprehended what the heart of heaven is. I did not understand it either back then, until Celestial Venerable Mu threw me into the Nine Hells Platform. I stood at the center of the Nine Hells Platform and looked up, and in that moment I understood what the heavenly dao is, what the heart of heaven is."

There was a heartfelt joy in his heart as he said: "I stood below and looked up, and saw the sky above my head. Then I finally understood: heaven does not exist, and the heavenly dao does not exist either. When the Creator in the Ancestral Court looked up at the sky, heaven was born, and the heavenly dao came into being with it."

"The heavenly dao is in truth the dao of all living beings!"

He said excitedly: "The heart of heaven is in truth the heart of all living beings! This human world of the heavens and all worlds is the Heaven Sea, reflecting every aspect of the heavenly dao! When living beings create new great daos of heaven and earth, heaven and earth are neither startled nor angered, but silently accept it, and heaven and earth silently undergo change, and will not send down tribulation because of it. On the contrary, it is living beings who develop the heavenly dao and perfect the heavenly dao. That you block them, that is the true defiance of heaven..."

"Absurd!"

The Ancestral God King flew into a rage, came charging with his spear, meaning to skewer Heaven Duke on it!

"Father God, you are long unworthy of being Heaven Duke. Let me teach you instead!"

He had killed Heaven Duke once before, when his strength was far inferior to now, and Heaven Duke's strength far surpassed his present state; he could easily kill Heaven Duke once more, and this time, he would beat Heaven Duke until his soul scattered, until even the black sand of his soul no longer existed!

Boom!

He struck Heaven Duke; Heaven Duke burst apart, his physical body shattered, yet he did not turn into nothingness as he had expected.

Heaven Duke's primordial spirit was gone.

At this moment, the Ancestral God King saw the Nine Hells Platform. That must have been Shen Mu's divine ability; in the battle of Xuandu in those years, Shen Mu had driven the Nine Hells Platform divine ability into Heaven Duke's body.

This divine ability was incomparably wondrous; it was a divine ability upon the heart of the dao. From then on, even though Heaven Duke had been summoned back and his soul and body remade by Shen Mu, his dao heart still remained within the Nine Hells Platform, and he had never walked out of it.

Not only had he not walked out, he had sunk deeper and deeper, making the Nine Hells Platform divine ability ever stronger.

The Ancestral God King looked into the Nine Hells Platform and saw Heaven Duke's primordial spirit standing upon a patch of ground a foot square.

Heaven Duke raised his head, looked up at him, and laughed: "My son, come with me to see the heart of heaven, to see all living beings!"

The Ancestral God King was enraged; he raised the heavenly dao supreme treasure to shatter the Nine Hells Platform, to shatter his dao heart, to shatter his primordial spirit!

Just then, the Ancestral God King suddenly felt the world spinning, and saw that he had landed upon a patch of ground a foot square.

He raised his head and looked up, and saw the sky above his head.

"Should I help Heaven Duke?"

Above Lanfeng Valley in the Yuan Realm, Celestial Venerable Yue raised her head and looked toward Xuandu beyond the heavens, worry on her face; but then she steadied her mind, took out her ancient zither and laid it across her knees.

Her gaze turned toward the direction of the Heavenly Court's army. Her fingers rested on a single string, yet she did not pluck it, holding her breath and concentrating, thinking: "Celestial Venerable Mu is holding off the Heavenly Court's army alone; I fear it will be even more perilous for him. What I can do is seek the single most crucial moment, and play the tune of the Fourth Young Master of Miluo Palace, to disrupt his mind and give Celestial Venerable Mu the chance to win!"

That chance would be gone in an instant; she must seize it, and must not be distracted!