Chapter 1801 — While the Palace Stands, the Dharma Stands; When the Palace Falls, the Dharma Falls

Heavy-hearted, Lan Yutian stepped out of the Salvation Golden Ship.

Xu Shenghua too felt a great stirring within him. The life of the Empress Dowager had been a legendary one; though many of her deeds were contemptible, her experiences had already been seared into the mythology of this universe.

The era belonging to the Empress Dowager and the Ten Heavenly Lords had passed.

Of the Ten Heavenly Lords of old, only Emperor Haotian remained.

The two of them could not afford to dwell on such thoughts. They immediately set off in the direction where Emperor Haotian had imprinted the void. Now was the critical period of Emperor Haotian's second attainment of the Dao—under no circumstances could he be allowed to attain the Dao again!

Emperor Haotian, for all his contemptibleness, was after all the finest intellect under heaven. He had been crushed by Heavenly Lord Yun and Shen Mu, and so he must be kept crushed—he absolutely could not be given a third chance to rise from the ashes!

If even in this state Emperor Haotian could still make a comeback, his Dao heart restored, then he would become utterly terrifying!

Not far from the two of them, the battle between Lord Shang, Heavenly Lord Yue, and Jiang Baigui against the Master of the Joyous Hall had also reached a critical juncture.

Jiang Baigui suppressed the Master of the Joyous Hall's physical body with the Great Heavenly Court of the Acquired Dao. Lord Shang was suppressed beneath the Joyous Hall, and from beneath the hall he drew his blade—the blade light cleaved the Joyous Hall apart!

Above the Master of the Joyous Hall's head blazed crimson flames; her primordial spirit leaped forth, blasting Jiang Baigui away. But it was already too late. Lord Shang's blade light swept past her left leg, and in the instant she flew up from the hall, she looked down to see her left leg standing intact within the Joyous Hall.

"Lord Shang, you demon! Let us depart together!"

The Master of the Joyous Hall gritted her teeth. Her treasure hall erupted with dazzling Dao light, colliding with Lord Shang's Dao light. At the same time, her Dao tree swept toward Jiang Baigui!

Boom!

The rippling clash of Dao light sent Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian stumbling in the distance.

The two turned to look back and saw the Joyous Hall split in two. The Master of the Joyous Hall's enormous Dao tree had manifested the extraordinary phenomenon of ten thousand Dao trees forming a forest, transforming that place into a forest of Dao trees.

Atop one half of the shattered hall stood Lord Shang, drenched in blood, blood streaming ceaselessly from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Atop the other half stood the Master of the Joyous Hall on one leg, a horrifying blade wound across her face.

Heavenly Lord Yue shouted fiercely, her zither music surging, folding space as she attempted to break through the Master of the Joyous Hall's spatial divine ability and send Jiang Baigui into the Dao tree forest.

Jiang Baigui was not faring well either. Swept by the Master of the Joyous Hall's Dao tree, his heavenly palaces and great halls lay in ruins.

He was the great synthesizer of the Acquired Dao, his cultivation and dharma power vast beyond measure. His Dao techniques and divine abilities fell entirely outside the scope of the former cultivation systems—they could be called a new learning, one that even Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian did not understand.

Facing his divine abilities and Dao techniques, the Master of the Joyous Hall often had no way to break them.

But the gap in cultivation was difficult to bridge, and Jiang Baigui was still gravely wounded by her.

Heavenly Lord Yue could not break the Master of the Joyous Hall's Dao tree forest in a short time. Anxious at heart, she suddenly gave a fierce shout and urged her dharma power to its utmost limit.

A peach branch was flung from her hand, falling into the Dao tree forest. The moment the peach branch touched ground, a peach grove grew forth, peach blossoms resplendent. Petal by petal the blossoms flew out in all directions, the petals shuttling through space, growing ever more numerous.

Jiang Baigui trod upon the peach blossoms, pushing ever deeper into the Dao tree forest. Within the Dao trees, all manner of Dao chains interwove like shuttles. He encountered attacks of every kind along the way, breaking through them one after another.

Heavenly Lord Yue coordinated with him, the two of them together breaking the Master of the Joyous Hall's divine abilities. Heavenly Lord Yue sent him deep into the Dao tree forest, drawing ever closer to the shattered Joyous Hall.

Atop the shattered treasure hall, the Master of the Joyous Hall gazed at the hall now divided in two, her expression bleak. She said softly, "My teacher once told me that in this world, those who can achieve a treasure hall through their own Dao are exceedingly few. The treasure hall is stronger than the Dao tree, its cultivation higher than the Dao fruit—it is a new path. The Dao tree and Dao fruit are merely imitations of the World Tree, but the treasure hall is the ravines within the chest of one who has attained the Dao, the heaven and earth within their breast. The hall is the final pure land of those who attain the Dao, and their supreme achievement."

Lord Shang raised his blade. Wounds large and small across his body bled without cease. The power of the Joyous Hall had nearly shattered every bone and sinew in his four limbs and hundred bones, but he was after all one who had attained the Dao, and with his own powerful dharma power he held his body together, keeping himself from falling apart.

In the history of the Sixteenth Epoch, he had suffered wounds more severe than this, and so he paid them no mind at all.

His gaze fell upon the Master of the Joyous Hall's lone leg.

Her other leg had already been severed by him, and the Dao wound made this woman bleed without end.

"My teacher transmitted to me the supreme dharma, but my aptitude was dull, and I could never comprehend it thoroughly. The hall he spoke of was in truth a treasure hall condensed from the Great Dao, like the Supreme Hall, the Limitless Hall, the Lingxiao Hall. He wanted us to discard the old and bring forth the new, to walk our own path—a path even he could not walk. To walk it to its utmost limit, to become a lord who stands alone, to become his Dao companion, to support one another and advance together. But I could not do it."

The Master of the Joyous Hall panted, adjusting her breath. Her voice hoarse, she said, "All I could do was take one step forward under his guidance. That one step was already my limit. And so I could only become one of the masters of the Seventy-Two Halls."

A smile appeared on her face. "My teacher once told me that my temper was too violent, that I should think thrice before acting. He said my smile was very beautiful, very innocent, and so he gave me a Dao name: Joyous. He hoped that in moments of impulse I would smile, and in smiling I would think, and so emerge from my impulsiveness. He hoped I could keep smiling forever, preserving the innocence of my Dao heart. Since I began cultivation, I have indeed, as he hoped, often smiled in the face of all things under heaven, and so I committed fewer foolish deeds."

Lord Shang said indifferently, "Your smile is indeed very beautiful."

Zither music drifted in from the Dao tree forest outside, faint and indistinct. Heavenly Lord Yue and Jiang Baigui were breaking through the forest and had gradually drawn near.

The peach grove spread, its canopy growing ever wider.