Chapter 1799 — Seizing Life Through Control

If the Empress did not die, nearly everyone in Jingping would be checked by her; even the Moon Heavenly Venerable's Zaiji Void would be pinned down by her, held fast and helpless.

The two divine arts and one method Xu Shenghua had spoken of were indeed the only way to restrain the Empress.

"My two little sweethearts, you speak of ways to deal with me right in front of me — do you think they will still serve you?"

The Empress could not help laughing aloud. "I have heard your words with my own ears. Do you think I will still fall into your trap? You think far too little of me."

Xu Shenghua said gravely, "Your Highness, Lan Yutian and I have discussed how to deal with you, and were I to tell you every step, every detail, sparing nothing, keeping nothing back, you would still not escape it."

In his words lay a powerful confidence, a confidence the Empress had seen in only one man: Shen Mu.

However mighty a person's conviction, after long enough at Shen Mu's side it would be battered to pieces, and their faith would be a shadow of what it had been.

Of this the Empress had deep experience.

Once the Ten Heavenly Venerables had stood high above all; but after they came into contact with Shen Mu, every one of them had their Dao-heart collapse at one time or another. So it had been with her; so it had been with Emperor Haotian.

But Xu Shenghua was the exception.

He was one of the few who could still keep a mighty faith and conviction in Shen Mu's presence; he even believed himself stronger than Shen Mu — and cleverer.

Aboard the Golden Ship of Salvation the three stood motionless.

Suddenly Xu Shenghua roused his Samsara art; the Empress's face shifted slightly, and her full strength burst out at him. The Samsara art was indeed one of the few arts that could affect her; by using it first, Xu Shenghua was trying to find her weakness.

A Guixu Dao-attainer had no weakness in arts or divine abilities; their only weakness was the mind, and the Samsara art excelled at controlling the mind.

At the same moment Lan Yutian barred himself across in front of Xu Shenghua, and the two traded swift blow for swift blow, art after art pouring out without end. In an instant the Empress was struck by who knew how many arts; yet though Lan Yutian had become one of the few strongest in the world today, he could not wound her in the least — instead her strength only grew greater.

Just then a halo of light suddenly passed through the press of their arts: Xu Shenghua's Samsara art erupted.

The halo came before the Empress; she neither dodged nor evaded Lan Yutian's arts, but drove the Guixu Great Dao with all her might to resist that halo.

Hum!

The halo flashed past and was swallowed by her great Guixu abyss, vanishing without a trace.

"The Dao of Samsara is of no use against me!"

No sooner had the Empress spoken than Lady Yuanmu suddenly popped out from somewhere, laughing, "Sister, what nonsense are you talking now?"

The Empress's heart gave a start, and she saw Taichu come from somewhere, his face gentle: "Zitong, you and Yuanmu — I love you both."

"Vile man!" the Empress raged.

"Mother!"

She saw Xie Wuqi again, Xie Wuqi as a child, lovely as ice and snow, running to her with arms open.

The Empress could not help bending down to gather up her son; then her face turned hideous and she cried harshly, "All false! Nothing but phantoms in samsara!"

She roused the Guixu art, killed Yuanmu, slew Taichu — only the young Xie Wuqi made her hesitate for a moment, and then she killed him too.

"Zitong, why would you do this?" Taichu surfaced once more, eyeing her with suspicion.

The Empress struck him down again; Yuanmu surfaced from somewhere again and sneered, "Sister, do you truly think you can kill me? We are one body — another me dwells inside you, and you will never be rid of me!"

The Empress shouted in fury; the grown Xie Wuqi appeared, his face full of sorrow: "Mother, is power truly so important to you?"

The Empress slaughtered in all directions.

And before her Xu Shenghua stood where he was, halos of samsara spilling ceaselessly from between his brows.

The Empress had fallen into his Samsara art — not an illusion of the divine consciousness, but a samsara of the mind. His Dao of Samsara was not so deep as Shen Mu's, and the Empress had cultivated the Dao of Samsara too; to sink her into samsara was extremely difficult, and he must first suppress the Empress's own Dao of Samsara.

So he used the Samsara art to cultivate other consciousnesses within the Empress's mind, and at the same time drove the art without pause, making her fall deeper and deeper into samsara.

At the side Lan Yutian still strove and clashed with the Empress. Though she had fallen into samsara, when she slew Yuanmu and Taichu within it she was in fact using divine arts.

Those arts would be unconsciously executed by her body, so Lan Yutian must guarantee Xu Shenghua's safety and block them.

Xu Shenghua, dividing one mind to two uses, roused the five ore veins within his divine treasury and tried to imitate the Red Rope Knot Seal with his own Dao arts.

The Red Rope Knot Seal was a Dao art of Miluo Palace, its power rooted in the Hongmeng rune. The Hongmeng rune had been copied by Wei Suifeng and sent to Jingping; many had studied it, but few could cultivate the Hongmeng rune, let alone Hongmeng primordial qi.

To cultivate the Hongmeng rune, one must first cultivate the Taiji, Taisu, Taishi, Taichu and Taiyi runes, advancing layer upon layer.

And the same was true of Hongmeng primordial qi.

When Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian founded the Ancestral Court Dao-realm system and cultivated to the World Tree, they had been obliged to cultivate the Five Tai runes and turn them into the five Tai ore veins.

Here Lan Yutian's attainment was the deepest, but Lan Yutian must block the Empress's unconscious attacks; so only Xu Shenghua could execute the Red Rope Knot Seal.

The Golden Ship of Salvation tore into the air and rose, carrying the three of them higher and higher, rushing into layer upon layer of void, bound for the Ultimate Void.

Suddenly space secret realms unfolded one after another, snatching at the Golden Ship of Salvation; the Dao Tree of the Hall Master of Joy stood ahead. This Hall Master had by now descended fully into the Seventeenth Epoch, and the Dao wound Lord Shang had left on her had healed; she had regained the bearing of a Hall Master.

Her art erupted, and the Golden Ship of Salvation could not fly into the Ultimate Void at all, but could only weave through the various spaces formed by her Great Dao.

Suddenly the Moon Heavenly Venerable's qin music came; the melody rose and fell, and cut apart the Hall Master of Joy's art.

Space became blades: thirty-six levels of formless blades chopped at the Hall Master of Joy.

The Hall Master of Joy sneered; countless leaves flew from the Dao Tree, turning into one Hall Master of Joy after another, surging at the Moon Heavenly Venerable from all sides.

Her arts swept over the golden ship and dragged it back again.

Every Hall Master of Joy transformed from a leaf of the Dao Tree wielded a different art — such was her strength!

The Moon Heavenly Venerable plucked a stirring note, and in every direction space-facets stood in ranks; suddenly within every space-facet were thirty-six heavenly palaces and seventy-two treasure halls, becoming a vast and towering Great Heavenly Court.

Beneath the Great Heavenly Court the figure of Jiang Baigui emerged, charging out from those space-facets to do battle with the Hall Master of Joy. Tens of thousands of Hall Masters of Joy wielded tens of thousands of different arts, and tens of thousands of Jiang Baiguis broke them with tens of thousands of different moves.

The clash of two beings who cultivated the Zaiji Void was a splendid sight indeed.