Chapter 1799 — Seizing Life Through Control

The Moon Heavenly Venerable's arts were hardly less exquisite than the Hall Master of Joy's, but in cultivation she was far inferior; and Jiang Baigui had taken the path of post-heaven Dao-attainment, untouched by the Jade Capital Trap and the Lingxiao Trap, his cultivation and strength still intact.

The two complemented each other, and the pressure on the Hall Master of Joy doubled at once.

Even so, the Hall Master of Joy could hold off the two of them and still bar the Golden Ship of Salvation.

Suddenly the Moon Heavenly Venerable's music changed; the melody turned murderous, and she played on and on without pause, becoming the thirty-sevenfold kill of Lord Shang's Dao-Slaying Melody.

The Hall Master of Joy shuddered with dread, and at once fell wholly onto the defensive, guarding her whole body — and the Golden Ship of Salvation burst through the air and shot into the Ultimate Void.

"You tricked me!"

The Hall Master of Joy had waited in vain for Lord Shang, and in her fury she dealt murderous blows at the Moon Heavenly Venerable and Jiang Baigui.

One of her Dao fruits flew from the Dao Tree, entered the Ultimate Void, and made straight for the Golden Ship of Salvation.

Aboard the Golden Ship of Salvation, Xu Shenghua had at last completed the Red Rope Knot Seal; his five fingers spread and closed upon the Empress's face, and the Red Rope Knot erupted.

The Empress's consciousness was still struggling in samsara, breaking through samsara after samsara, trying to leap free.

Shen Mu had once taught her the Dao of Samsara, and though he had hidden a flaw in it so that her consciousness and Yuanmu's would strive endlessly, each fighting the other, it was still extremely hard for Xu Shenghua to hold her with the Dao of Samsara. She had been caught off guard at first; now, having worked out the mystery of the samsara of consciousness, she paid the Samsara art no more heed, and kept leaping out of samsara after samsara.

Just as her consciousness was about to leap free, five red rays of light suddenly bored into samsara, like a great red handprint, and pressed her down beneath its palm.

The Empress's consciousness fell into that palm, was pressed down and plummeted with a thunderous roar, passing through samsara light after samsara light, falling in a moment through she knew not how many kinds of samsara.

"Change!"

At Xu Shenghua's word, he and Lan Yutian crossed past each other in an instant: Xu Shenghua would hold off the unconscious attacks of the Empress's true body, while Lan Yutian took over the Samsara art to control the Empress's consciousness.

Xu Shenghua's Red Rope Knot had few variations, and his knot seal would be broken by the Empress with ease; if the Empress escaped her bonds, then the two of them would be in deadly peril.

Moreover, she had already taken the measure of his Samsara art, and would find it easier and easier to break.

Yet Lan Yutian's Dao of Samsara differed somewhat from Xu Shenghua's.

That Dao of Samsara was not yet settled; it had been founded by Yin Tianzi and perfected by Shen Mu, but Shen Mu had not achieved the Dao by means of it, so the Dao of Samsara was not yet a complete Great Dao — each who cultivated it might comprehend different things.

With Lan Yutian wielding it, the Empress would need more time to break it.

As for the Red Rope Knot Seal Lan Yutian had comprehended, though its variations too were few, they differed from Xu Shenghua's, and thus could also buy a stretch of time.

Xu Shenghua faced the Empress head-on, blocking every attack she made in her unconscious state, and her Guixu domain crumbled without cease within the Ultimate Void.

At that moment a Dao fruit flew up, suddenly blazing with light; lances of light shot out, and with a single strike it drove the Golden Ship of Salvation out of the Ultimate Void.

The Golden Ship of Salvation crashed through layer after layer of void, the Dao fruit following behind, striking out blast after blast, so that Xu Shenghua's and Lan Yutian's domains shook violently, and they could hardly contend with the Empress's Guixu domain.

The great advantage collapsed in an instant.

Seeing that the Empress would soon wake, suddenly Lord Shang's Dao-Slaying Melody sounded, and with it a blade-light that rose from below to meet the Hall Master of Joy's Dao fruit and cut it open.

The first kill of Lord Shang's Dao-Slaying Melody.

Lord Shang had truly come.

When the second kill of Lord Shang's Dao-Slaying Melody sounded, the blade-light was like white silk, cutting the split Dao fruit to pieces.

At the third kill, tens of thousands of Hall Masters of Joy were cut in two at the waist, their blood spraying into the sky.

At the fourth, fifth, sixth and the rest of the Dao-Slaying Melody, the space around the Hall Master of Joy became a sea of blood, strewn everywhere with severed, withered limbs.

The Hall of Joy descended from the sky and came down upon that blade-light with a thunderous crash, shaking Lord Shang out of the blade-light and pinning him beneath the Hall of Joy.

The Hall Master of Joy, drenched in blood, wounds everywhere, stood before the hall and cried harshly, "Lord Shang, you still think to ambush me twice? I am no longer the one who had just descended..."

As she spoke, beneath the Moon Heavenly Venerable's qin the Dao-Slaying Melody was driven to its thirty-seventh kill; the aura of slaughter rose in a surging crescendo, reaching its uttermost.

In that thirty-seventh kill a blade-light split the Hall of Joy asunder.

The Hall Master of Joy's face showed horror; just as she would dodge, Jiang Baigui came flying in, and the seventy-two halls and thirty-six heavenly palaces crashed down and pinned her in place.

At the same instant the Golden Ship of Salvation charged once more into the Ultimate Void, and Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian crossed and circled around the Empress, stepping without pause: now Xu Shenghua blocked her attacks, now Lan Yutian — and whenever either found an opening he used the Samsara art, or the Red Rope Knot Seal, holding the Empress in a death grip.

The Ultimate Void and the Guixu domain clashed violently; these two meant to hold the Empress in control until she died.