Chapter 1750 — The Dao-Defier's Divine Ability

In the instant their divine abilities clashed, the Thirty-Three Heavens domain convulsed violently; layer upon layer of dao-realm domains overturned into chaos, time and space reversed, the Thirty-Three Heavens tilted, and everyone within that Thirty-Three Heavens domain slid forward despite themselves, as though all were tumbling at once toward a single singularity!

They hurried to steady themselves, only to find that in this clash of the two great Young Masters they had been shifted into other domains.

And more terrifying still, they had drawn closer to Shen Mu!

Cold sweat broke out on every brow; nostrils flared, pupils shrank, throats went dry.

The Empress giggled, then abruptly roused her Guixu divine ability. The great abyss of Guixu appeared, and she cast herself into it, laughing, "I'll not play with you lot any longer! Farewell, then."

The great abyss of Guixu swallowed her; then the abyss closed and vanished without a trace.

At the same time, the two Taiji Ancient Gods suddenly merged into one, becoming a giant with a serpent's head and a human body. They roused the Taiji sand table; the sand table spun, and bore them away with a whistling shriek!

They had seized the moment with exquisite cunning: the very instant Shen Mu and the Fourth Young Master Zixiao clashed, when the Thirty-Three Heavens domain trembled, steady and yet unsteady!

That was the finest moment to escape Shen Mu's domain.

Swish!

A surge of black light; the abyss split open and the Empress stepped out of it, laughing, "Now we can storm into Jingping..."

The smile on her face froze. Before her the World Tree rose lush and green, blotting out all the heavens; she was still inside the Thirty-Three Heavens domain, and closer to Shen Mu than before!

She had roused her Guixu divine ability, and still she had failed to escape Shen Mu's domain!

At the same time, the Taiji sand table spun with a whistling shriek, then halted abruptly. The two Taiji Ancient Gods separated, sweat pouring down their faces and bodies, staring fixedly at Shen Mu beneath the tree ahead.

Their distance from Shen Mu was even shorter than the Empress's!

The three of them froze there, not daring to stir again.

The Fourth Young Master Zixiao strode forward. Shen Mu's Breaking-Kalpa Sword had not broken his one-finger divine ability; that finger of his was a Miluo Palace divine ability whose foundational rune was the Hongmeng rune, already the most fundamental rune of the great dao, impossible to break!

And in a contest of the power of two divine abilities, he was a notch above Shen Mu's Breaking-Kalpa Sword!

In the same instant that his Breaking-Kalpa Sword was broken, Shen Mu changed his move, meeting that finger with a Hongmeng Finger. The two divine abilities were almost identical, yet the variations hidden within each were wholly different.

Though the Hongmeng Finger in every case evolved from the Hongmeng rune, each person's comprehension differed, and so the variations differed. Within that one finger the Hongmeng rune could evolve countless great daos, from the Five Primals of the Innate to every innate great dao; all could be evolved from it.

At this point, what was pitted against each other was their foundations: whose foundations ran deeper, his variations were the more numerous!

Hiss!

Shen Mu's chest burst open; his body flew backward and was pinned to the World Tree by the Fourth Young Master Zixiao's single finger!

As he crashed against the World Tree, the Thirty-Three Heavens domain trembled once more; the ordering of every domain shifted again, and the formations of the Heavenly Court's countless armies spun dizzily once more.

This time they found themselves much farther from Shen Mu, no longer tumbling toward him, and each of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Shen Mu slid down from the World Tree. Suddenly the Hall of Chaos brimmed with the qi of chaos; rolling chaos qi came surging out in all directions, shrouding the World Tree!

In that moment the World Tree seemed to stand within Guixu; all around, in the chaos qi, the winds of heat-death blew everywhere, like a world-ending calamity of destruction in which every great dao had ceased to exist!

"A petty dao, nothing more," said the Fourth Young Master Zixiao, walking into that calamity of destruction.

Beneath the tree, Shen Mu reached out, as though drawing a sword, and stared fixedly at the Fourth Young Master coming through the chaos qi.

The Fourth Young Master's figure went from hazy to distinct, his body growing ever larger. He walked within the calamity of destruction Shen Mu had evolved, as though invulnerable to all dharmas, eternal and indestructible, the winds of heat-death unable to touch him in the least.

Just then, far away in Lanfeng Valley, Celestial Venerable Yue's finger moved and the notes of her zither sounded; thread by thread, strand by strand, the notes entered Shen Mu's domain under her control and carried into the Fourth Young Master's ears!

The Fourth Young Master lifted his foot. Hearing those notes, his heart and spirit suddenly quaked, and his dao heart lost its measure.

Sword-light blazed.

Shen Mu drew; and what he drew was his own right hand!

The Heaven Capital's Chapter of Opening Heaven!

"The Dao-Blasphemer!"

The Fourth Young Master fell back, yet that single stroke of sword-light had already cut through layer upon layer of chaos, opening heaven with one sword, and sliced into the space between his brows. The Fourth Young Master's mind became a chaos, and in an instant his consciousness was as though heaven had been opened within it!

With that one sword Shen Mu slew his consciousness outright and ground away his strength!

Thud.

Behind the Fourth Young Master, the Zixiao Hall collapsed with a thunderous crash, and there surfaced the primordial vista of a universe in which heaven and earth had just been cleft apart!

Taichu at once seized the body and transformed into a wisp of Taichu qi to flee far away, only to see, in horror, that he was drawing ever closer to Shen Mu!

Swish.

A figure appeared before him, seized him by the nape of the neck and flung him out of Shen Mu's domain.

The Third Young Master Lingxiao, his face dark, watched Shen Mu's palm and said in a grim voice, "Old Seven, you have learned the Dao-Blasphemer's divine ability and turned it against the Miluo Palace. Your intentions are dark indeed!"