Chapter 1850 — The Third Kind of Imperishable Matter

The power of the Ancestral Court's Chaos Cauldron came howling through the collapsed gates of the Jade Capital City, vast and boundless, and wherever it passed it crushed the city's buildings as easily as rotten wood! Within the city, one Dao-attainer after another and the Hall Masters stepped forward, activating their Dao Fruits.

More than twenty thousand Dao Fruits floated into the air, pinning down the Chaos Cauldron's power! Hall after hall of treasures stood guard ahead, and the fifty-six Hall Masters stood tall.

Suddenly, the Ancestral Court began to shrink rapidly.

Over these three and a half billion years, the Ancestral Court had already shrunk to one percent of its original size, and now it was contracting at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The four walls of the Ancestral Court's Chaos Cauldron pressed ceaselessly toward the center; mountains and rivers, the lay of the land, shrank at a furious pace, gradually becoming exquisite and minute, making the might of this great cauldron ever more concentrated, ever more powerful! The walls and ramparts on all four sides of the Jade Capital City were shaken until they crumbled layer by layer, showing faint signs of total collapse. Young Master Zixiao raised his hand and drew his Dao Sword from the ancient zither, watching Shen Mu at the center of the Six Paths Heaven Wheel with a calm expression. Shen Mu strode forward.

Upon the Six Paths Heaven Wheel, the Dao soldiers of three thousand Jingping Dao-attainers danced, divine abilities flying in all directions, attacking the Jade Capital City's thousand palaces and ten thousand halls, seeking to join forces with the Ancestral Court's Chaos Cauldron and raze to the ground this divine city that even the Tribulation of Destruction and the Tribulation of Creation could not destroy!

The Six Paths Heaven Wheel rotated with Shen Mu at its center, forming a strange formation.

Those Jingping Dao-attainers standing upon the wheel seemed to dwell forever within the cycle of reincarnation, and others found it hard to discern the mystery within. But Young Master Zixiao and Young Master Lingxiao could see the profound secret of the Six Paths Heaven Wheel in motion. When the Six Paths Heaven Wheel completed a single revolution, these Jingping Dao-attainers seemed to undergo rebirth; whether in cultivation and mana or in body and primordial spirit, all was made new!

As the wheel turned, it could keep them at their peak at every moment, their bodies never tiring, their mana never exhausted! The Six Paths Heaven Wheel had two great functions. The first was to plunge Dao-attainers into the six paths of reincarnation, stripping away their bodies, stripping away their mana, and changing their very species.

Those struck by the Dao of Reincarnation might well never even know how they died.

The other function was the one the Six Paths Heaven Wheel now displayed: to keep the Jingping Dao-attainers forever at their peak, undying and indestructible! Young Master Zixiao had once crossed hands with Shen Mu, though it was the Seventh Young Master Shen Mu who had acted, not the Shen Mu of the present.

At that time, the vertical eye at the center of the Seventh Young Master Shen Mu's brow had opened and severed one of his zither strings.

The Third Young Master Lingxiao had also crossed hands with Shen Mu; Shen Mu had sat unmoving while a single Dao Fruit from the World Tree met Young Master Lingxiao's full-strength strike, forcing him to retreat in the face of difficulty. At that time, neither of them had been able to plumb Shen Mu's depths.

Indeed, throughout the past sixteen cosmic epochs, no one had known how many Dao Fruits Shen Mu possessed, or what divine abilities he commanded.

Even though Shen Mu had written down his method of attaining the Dao through Chaos and placed it in Miluo Palace, no one could understand it. More terrifying still, in past universes, almost no one had ever seen Shen Mu act with their own eyes!

Perhaps Shen Mu had acted before, but most who saw him act were already dead.

Even the master of Miluo Palace had once said that he could not quite understand the divine abilities of the Seventh Young Master of Chaos. Because they did not understand Shen Mu, Young Master Lingxiao and Young Master Zixiao could not infer Shen Mu's Dao arts and divine abilities from the Seventh Young Master. Fortunately, over these three and a half billion years, they had studied Shen Mu's Dao arts and divine abilities most thoroughly.

Shen Mu's Six Paths Heaven Wheel, though exquisite, posed no great threat to them; it could not plunge them into reincarnation.

But the wheel's other power was a fatal threat to the Jade Capital City. So long as the Six Paths Heaven Wheel existed, the Jingping Dao-attainers would be undying and indestructible, forever at their peak, all but impossible to kill. One could say the Six Paths Heaven Wheel had transformed these Dao-attainers into three thousand kinds of imperishable matter!

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The tremors from beyond the city grew ever more violent. The Ancestral Court had shrunk to one thousandth of its original size and was still shrinking; it seemed the four walls of this great cauldron were already very close to the Jade Capital City. Of course, this was an error of perception.

The Ancestral Court was immensely vast; even shrunk to a thousandth of its original size, it was still extremely far from the Jade Capital City. Yet at this rate of contraction, it would likely not be long before the four walls of the Ancestral Court's Chaos Cauldron reached the edge of the Jade Capital City!

By then, all the Chaos Cauldron's power would be concentrated in a narrow space, striking the Jade Capital City directly! With the terrifying might of this heavy vessel forged by the Ancestral Court, it would likely shatter the Jade Capital City to pieces! At this moment, the fifty-six Hall Masters and the eighteen thousand Dao-attainers felt their resolve waver, and they looked one after another toward the two Young Masters.

But Young Master Lingxiao and Young Master Zixiao remained calm of countenance, composed and unhurried, watching Shen Mu drive the Six Paths Heaven Wheel as it rampaged through the city, destroying the Jade Capital City's buildings, drawing ever closer to them!

Rumble! The walls on all four sides of the Jade Capital City shifted, and more walls collapsed.

Now, standing within the city, one could clearly see the mountains and rivers upon the four walls of the Chaos Cauldron, could even see the trees upon the mountains! The four walls of the Chaos Cauldron were already very close to the Jade Capital City.

At last, the Six Paths Heaven Wheel came before the Dao Tree Forest in the city. Behind the Dao Tree Forest lay one Chaos River after another.

Within the Dao Tree Forest, many Miluo Palace Dao-attainers felt a wild, savage pressure!

Yes, a wild, unrestrained pressure.

They had all seen the Seventh Young Master Shen Mu before, but their dealings had been few. In their understanding, the Seventh Young Master Shen Mu had always been gentle and refined; wicked he might be, but graceful in bearing. Yet the Shen Mu before them now displayed utter wildness and dominance! Shen Mu looked from the Six Paths Heaven Wheel toward the two Young Masters ahead, his gaze indifferent, and the rotation of the Six Paths Heaven Wheel slowly came to a halt.

Behind him, the Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City was already a scene of utter ruin; not a single intact building could be found.

The two Young Masters stood before the Dao Tree Forest. The Hongmeng runes around Young Master Lingxiao's Dao Spear still howled and turned, propping up the Chaos Sea in the sky so that it could not press down.

By now the Chaos Sea too had shrunk countless times over, growing ever heavier, bending this Dao Spear more and more, until it nearly reached the spear's limit!

Boom!

Another dreadful throb came.