Chapter 1767 — The Powerful Minister's Dao-Slaying Melody

When the drumbeat rose, the spiritual power and vital breath of heaven and earth at once fell to seething. The rhythm was simple, nothing but the purest dong, dong, dong, yet every stroke seemed to land upon the heart, upon the blood and the breath, setting the blood aboil and filling the heart with killing intent!

The ponderous drumbeats were like supreme authority, like boundless might; they came crashing down like mountain after mountain pressing upon men's Dao-hearts, pressing until a man could scarcely draw breath.

Yet Heaven Venerable Yue's qin music was not the least troubled by the drumbeats; rather, she kept her notes very low and very calm, and yet those notes pierced through the drums, limpid as a trickling stream, flowing into every heart. In the ruined wreck of the Heavenly Court's great camp there remained only the maimed and wounded officers and soldiers and the alchemists of Jing Ping hurrying to and fro; listening to drum and qin, the officers and soldiers gradually ceased their groaning from pain.

On the battlefield in the night the fires of war had not yet gone out, and far off the Dao-light of the Great Luotian Heaven of the One Qi burst forth from time to time, making this night seem singularly beguiling.

The drumbeats grew heavier and heavier, as though they would crush the qin music utterly; the killing intent and the oppressive might within that monotonous beat, like a restless sea suddenly boiling over, were as savage and as perilous as a battlefield, slaughter everywhere, flying swords and halberds everywhere, limbs flung in all directions, heads rolling along the ground, all living beings writhing beneath iron hooves, weeping, wailing, howling!

Zaifu's drumbeat was truly magnificent! One man, two hammers, a hundred drums, stripped to the waist and drumming, pouring into that drumming all the authority and all the power of those who sit on high, so that the killing intent in the drumbeat grew stronger and stronger, giving full vent to his worship of power and his hunger for it, wielding that power without restraint, trampling everything underfoot! Trampling the right to live, trampling proud life, manipulating war, manipulating slaughter!

The drumbeat brimmed with the ambition to glut itself on power, and it made men feel as they had felt when the Ten Heaven Venerables held power, oppressing heaven and earth, all things, all living beings.

And still Heaven Venerable Yue's qin music was unmoved, still like a spring breeze blowing, like a little river running, like moonlight in the night, warm and gentle. Her qin did not scatter the frenzy of the drumbeat; it was like the long life-force of all living beings, destroyed within the drumbeat, harvested within it, and yet stubbornly growing forth again, multiplying and enduring.

The suffering of all living beings seemed gathered into her qin music, bearing every calamity and every pain, every parting of life and death, yet living on tenaciously, enduring in silence.

Zaifu's drumbeat soared, full like the man himself of a hegemon's spirit that sweeps the world, raising the killing intent that fills the world to its utmost limit!

Of a sudden his body quaked violently; he roused the Mystic Art of Creation, and one after another his arms flew, beating the drums in near madness, the drumbeats frantic to the extreme!

The killing intent in the drumbeat turned savage, twisted, raging, like a Dao-heart warped, like a devil released, as though the nightmare of a dream had come into reality!

Power, which turns clouds with a flick of the hand and rain with the back of it, manipulating the people of the world, manipulating the world itself, to its heart's content!

Ten Heaven Venerables were exchanged again and again, revolution upon revolution, reform, change; the hopes and yearnings of all living beings, amid the turmoil of the times, all became froth and bubble and dream-shadow!

One Ten Heaven Venerable falls, and a new Ten Heaven Venerable grows up, as though a warrior sprouted a dragon's claws and fangs, still occupying the high seat, still venting power without restraint, suppressing all!

That drumbeat was dripping with blood; it made all who heard it see before their eyes the shattered, ruined state of the myriad heavens and worlds, the Ten Heaven Venerables who controlled the world wearing kind brows and kindly faces, controlling all the strife and turmoil of the universe, sending down countless calamities, only that they might linger a little longer, only to glut their own lust for power.

At this moment the qin music was pressed to the extreme, pressed until it was scarcely audible, as though the lives of all living beings were to end here, crushed utterly by calamity.

And just then the qin music suddenly tripped; zheng, zheng, zheng, and slaughter rose up at once!

In that single instant, the qin notes that had numbed the scalp and made the spirit shudder seemed to come alive, bringing tears to a man's eyes, giving him the feeling of returning to history, living through history, spanning history.

That feeling released the will to fight in that moment, so fierce, so surging and savage, like a tide running over the mountains and covering the earth, like a giant stirring the starry sky and dragging at the River of Heaven! This was upheaval, this was the heart's cry of unyielding warriors!

The qin's slaughter strove against the drumbeat, the two killing intents entangled and collided, raising the killing intent of heaven and earth to its utmost.

Zaifu went madder still, a hundred arms flying, beating the war drums, doing all in his power to suppress the qin, to suppress the rebellion of all living beings; yet the killing intent in the qin never ceased, and having been crushed it rebounded all the more violently, higher and higher, louder and more sonorous!

Of a sudden Heaven Venerable Yue's long hair flew, and her ten fingers swept the strings; the notes of her fifty-stringed qin gathered into one in that moment and became towering killing intent that came charging forth! Zheng, the qin note was incomparably sharp, its piercing power at its utmost, setting the blood boiling!

Lord Shang's Dao-Slaying Melody, the First Kill of the Moonlit Night! At the same moment a layer of heaven appeared behind Heaven Venerable Yue, a layer of the Dao Realm, and within that layer there appeared the figure of Heaven Venerable Yue playing the qin, the notes urgent, giving a man no room to breathe, and then a sudden sweep, and the qin music pushed the killing intent that filled heaven and earth up yet another step!

The Second Kill of the Moonlit Night!

Before the note had faded, another layer of heaven appeared behind her, the phantom of Heaven Venerable Yue standing within that layer of the Dao Realm, long sleeves flying, ten fingers flying, the ancient qin revolving ceaselessly around her body, notes of every kind crisscrossing in confusion, and then she seized the great qin and swept it heavily!

The Third Kill of the Moonlit Night! Again a layer of the Dao Realm's heavens emerged, the phantom of Heaven Venerable Yue playing, then abruptly she stood the ancient qin on its side, her two hands plucking in frenzy!

The Fourth Kill!

And then the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth!

One after another the layers of the Dao Realm emerged behind Heaven Venerable Yue, raising the unyielding spirit of all living beings, the protection that those with resolve wished to give, the killing intent of heaven and earth, to the utmost!

Zaifu's drumbeat had already been scattered, smashed to pieces, yet he forced himself to drum on, contending with the qin, trying to press it down, to force out an even deeper and more violent unyieldingness and killing intent!