Chapter 1843 — A Brand-New Lord of the Divine Dao

Lord Haotian's heart pounded wildly.

No one else knew of the numbers in his eyes, yet Kaihuang Shen Ye seemed able to see them — truly bizarre.

What made his heart quail even more was that the number before his eyes had fallen to zero, becoming a string of noughts!

Could it be that his day of death had truly come?

"You are already a dead man. I have no interest in killing a dead man. " Kaihuang Shen Ye slid his sword back into its sheath, turned around, and walked with his back to him toward the other battlefields: "I once thought that of all the heroes under heaven there were only two, myself and you, Haotian.

I never expected that when I rose again from the east, you would have fallen so low.

When I wished to do away with you myself, you were already a dead man.

" Lord Haotian flew into a rage: "What do you mean, already a dead man? Shen Ye, I am alive and perfectly well!

" The words had scarcely left his mouth when suddenly a divine ability came from nowhere and struck his body! The might of that divine ability was enormous, and it came abruptly, without the slightest omen, striking him squarely on the forehead — precisely at the place of the sword wound Shen Mu had left ninety-three years before!

Lord Haotian's head burst apart with a thunderous roar.

Though he had attained the Dao through force, and had trained and studied diligently all these years, comprehending the insights into the Hongmeng runes grasped by the Dao-attainers of Miluo Palace, he still could not withstand the power of that blow!

Lord Haotian's skull shattered, his primal spirit blasted out of his body, and he was both shocked and furious — his primal spirit too had been wounded.

Yet how could a being as formidable as he simply die like that?

His Great Luo Heaven had already manifested, his Dao tree had already taken form, his Dao fruit had already been born; mighty beyond measure as that blow was, it could not take his life! "Is this all the Seventh Young Master has?

" He was just about to regenerate his body when suddenly those divine abilities from nowhere blotted out the sky, tens of thousands of them, of every kind that Dao-attainers wield, endlessly transforming, and drowned him! No two of those abilities were alike; each contained the ultimate attainment of a great Dao, and the number of Daos they touched was so vast that not only could Lord Haotian not recognize them all — most likely even the Young Masters of Miluo Palace could not recognize them all!

Boom!

Lord Haotian's Great Luo Heaven was shattered, his Dao fruit pulverized, his Dao tree disintegrated, his primal spirit reduced to flying ash, and his body annihilated outright amid that sky-blotting torrent of divine abilities, not a trace remaining! Those divine abilities were not Shen Mu's; they came from the Old Man Wuya.

Ninety-three years earlier, in the Battle of Guixu, the Old Man Wuya had attacked Shen Mu.

The World Tree hung with thousands upon thousands of Dao fruits; its branches danced and became his countless arms, unleashing the great divine abilities of countless Dao-attainers. When those great divine abilities struck at Shen Mu, they were blocked by his incomplete Thirty-Six Heavens of the Dao Realm, and fell into sixteen long rivers of chaos.

In the long ages that followed, those great divine abilities of the Old Man Wuya would cross the rivers of chaos one by one, traversing endless time, arriving at Shen Mu's side each in its turn.

But Shen Mu had no such patience as to deal with them one by one, and so, when he forged the Wheel of Six Paths from chaos stone, together with that sword strike aimed at Young Master Lingxiao, he sent all of the Old Man Wuya's divine abilities to this very day, ninety-three years later. Those divine abilities of the Old Man Wuya would, on this day ninety-three years later, appear at the site of Young Master Lingxiao's sword wound.

Had Young Master Lingxiao still been in control of Lord Haotian's body, he would of course have handled it easily; after all, ninety-three years earlier the Old Man Wuya had been trapped in the great abyss of Guixu, his cultivation and strength gravely diminished, posing little threat. But against Lord Haotian, it was truly his day of death!

Gifted as he was, before the Old Man Wuya's transcendent, otherworldly divine abilities he could not block even a single move!

Neither Young Master Lingxiao nor anyone else in Miluo Palace had perceived the killing intent hidden in that one sword strike of Shen Mu's, because they had only just come into contact with this kind of divine ability of his and did not know its deeper mysteries. Kaihuang Shen Ye, however, had worked alongside Lan Yutian and others to help Shen Mu perfect his Thirty-Six Heavens of the Dao Realm, and so understood this divine ability deeply.

Thus, when Kaihuang Shen Ye faced Lord Haotian, he saw at once that his day of death had come, and had no further heart to contend with him.

Turning his head and seeing Lord Haotian's form and spirit both extinguished, Kaihuang Shen Ye felt a pang of sorrow.

An era had drawn wholly to its close with Lord Haotian's death. The Ten Heavenly Venerables had become history through and through.

Once he had matched wits and courage with the Ten Heavenly Venerables, contending for supremacy over the world; now the Ten Heavenly Venerables had all turned to yellow earth.

Ahead, Shen Mu was battling the Dao soldiers of the Third and Fourth Young Masters, while Lang Wan, Taishi, Kaihuang Di Yiyue and others fought on in blood.

Shen Ye drew his sword and charged into the battlefield.

Jingping's enemies had long since ceased to be the Ten Heavenly Venerables; today's foes were stronger and more tenacious, yet still he would walk sword in hand — for nothing else but to guard that land without sorrow in his heart!

Lord Haotian's death was but an inconspicuous ripple in the situation of the Ancestral Court's War of the Cornered Beasts; his death only drew a sigh of regret from the Third and Fourth Young Masters of Miluo Palace, and then was forgotten.

And this battle was merely one ordinary engagement in the Ancestral Court's War of the Cornered Beasts.

Another three thousand years passed, and in the Ancestral Court Shen Fengqing attained the Dao, and Xing An attained the Dao.

Lan Yutian then left the Ancestral Court, and Zhu Santong followed him back to the Yuan Realm; before long Zhu Santong brought a band of Jingping's powerful cultivators into the Ancestral Court to continue this trial. As time went on, the situation in the Ancestral Court grew ever more bizarre; the Old Man Wuya and Young Master Wuji appeared, stirring the Ancestral Court into turmoil.

Shen Mu's cultivation and strength grew ever greater, and he became the pillar upholding the Ancestral Court. Another three thousand years passed, and Gongsun Yan, Crown Prince Youming, and the Dao Ancestor attained the Dao as well.

Kaihuang Shen Ye left the Ancestral Court and returned to his native land; Zhu Santong followed him once more, going with him to the Yuan Realm.

After attaining the Dao, Crown Prince Youming went to the Yuan Realm to seek out his reincarnated parents, taught Emperor Xuan and Emperor Wu well, and later sent them to the Ancestral Court. Another three thousand years, and Emperor Ming and Emperor Chi attained the Dao in the Ancestral Court. Another three thousand years, and Kaihuang Di Yiyue, the village headman Su Muzhe, and Granny Si Youyou attained the Dao.

Over the three thousand years after that, one after another attained the Dao — the Southern Emperor, Hua Xuanxiu, Wei Suifeng, Jiang Yunjian, and in time Zhu Santong, Dongyang and others as well.

The people about Shen Mu came and went; many returned to the Ancestral Court to pass on all they had learned and comprehended, to study the fruits of Jingping's reforms, and to teach those who came after.