Chapter 1859 — We Shall Meet Again

The dao spear bent, then snapped straight with a sudden twang, and Heaven Capital City went shrieking into flight!

This relic was dense with the qi of chaos, solid and vast, yet even such a holy ground could not withstand the terrifying power of Third Young Master Ling Xiao. Shen Mu stamped his foot heavily.

The ruins of Heaven Capital City, which had flown toward the Obelisk Forest, at once pitched down at one end and reared up at the other, adrift in the Foul Ground like a fallen leaf tossed on the wind. Third Young Master Ling Xiao, reeking of killing intent, descended into Heaven Capital City.

Though he had only just recovered his physical body, Shen Mu was in no better shape; the dao wound that Fourth Young Master Zixiao had left on him would not heal in any short span.

The moment his dao spear struck, it was with his most ferocious killing move: the dao spears stood like a forest, like a great prison! Third Young Master Ling Xiao hated evil as though it were his own foe, and the strange treasure he had left in Jade Capital City was his Great Prison, used to suppress and refine the enemies who opposed Miluo Palace.

He was not merciful like Eldest Young Master Taishang, who would not kill his opponents; even against a "great evil" like Taiyi, Taishang merely suppressed him within the Divine Coffin of Dao Burial, suppressed and bound him.

Third Young Master Ling Xiao's Great Prison was filled with a dense forest of solemn dao spears, and those spears pierced the prisoners' physical bodies, pierced their primal spirits, tormenting them without cease until they could bear no more and died. And from his Great Prison, one could also glimpse the tyranny and cruelty of his cultivation arts and divine powers.

The divine power contained in his dao spear was the most tyrannical of divine powers; once the spear struck, all the gods and sages of heaven would gather and guard around it, causing his battle strength to surge! Shen Mu retreated. Countless spear shadows whizzed past him on every side, and Third Young Master Ling Xiao's momentum grew stronger and stronger, closing in with incredible speed, his spear striking like a dragon, transforming in a thousand ways, while from all around came the voices of gods and demons preaching the Dao, lending him strength and making his dao spear even more terrifying!

The ruins of Heaven Capital City burst apart with thudding cracks, shattering under the might of the dao spear and turning into the qi of chaos. The qi of chaos in these ruins grew ever denser, and still more of it came rolling out from the depths of time and space, and within the mist of chaos tall and strange figures seemed to stand, shadowy and indistinct, impossible to make out clearly.

Third Young Master Ling Xiao paid them no heed.

The tip of his spear never left Shen Mu's vicinity as he killed his way deep into the ruins. Suddenly, Shen Mu's figure halted.

His feet, set in neither the ding nor the ba stance, landed exactly at the center of the altar in the place where heaven was opened, within that pair of footprints. Third Young Master Ling Xiao's heart leapt: 'The Heaven Capital's place of the opening of heaven! ' He knew something was wrong.

At once he roused all his power and thrust out one final strike, even as he flung the dao spear from his hand and withdrew.

At that very moment, Shen Mu reached out and drew his sword. The sword light blazed. The Heaven Capital's Chapter of the Opening of Heaven!

Boom!

Chaos was split open, and a new universe was born within the sword light. Wherever that sword light passed, the tall and strange figures in the mist of chaos dispersed like smoke and cloud before the blade!

"Third Brother, this is the very Tribulation of Creation, the opening of heaven and earth, that you escaped.

Now I return it to you!

" Shen Mu's dao voice exploded, and the sword light met the dao spear that Third Young Master Ling Xiao had thrust forth.

The gods and demons of heaven, who had spun and chanted around the dao spear, burst apart one and all!

Crack!

The dao spear was severed, shattered, transformed into pure energy that swelled outward, and thereupon underwent the transformations of the prenatal Five Primes within the radiance of creation! Third Young Master Ling Xiao retreated with extreme speed, yet the speed of that universe's opening was faster still.

It soon caught up to him, swallowed him, drowned him!

Within that radiance of creation, Third Young Master Ling Xiao remembered the scene of his flight during the Tribulation of Creation of the Seventeenth Epoch: countless versions of himself thrusting their strongest blows with all their might, breaking through one bizarre space after another, rushing toward the void of the Foul Ground. At that time, countless versions of himself had perished in the Tribulation of Creation; only he had broken through the tribulation light of the Tribulation of Creation.

His physical body shattered within that tribulation light, his dao spear tumbling, and with his head he plunged into the Foul Ground. He did not know which version of himself it was that had broken through the Tribulation of Creation, nor which version of himself had been destroyed.

In that moment, he had looked back and seen the tribulation light of the Tribulation of Creation cast behind him. Now, he looked back within the tribulation light of Shen Mu's Chapter of the Opening of Heaven, and he saw that the tribulation light of the Tribulation of Creation was still chasing him, had chased him for ninety-five billion years.

By now the tribulation light was already close at hand! He had never escaped the tribulation light of the Tribulation of Creation; he had only fled far enough that it had not caught up with him. And now, the Tribulation of Creation had caught up.

The difference was that the Tribulation of Creation, by Shen Mu's hand, would now devour him, drown him, erase him! No doubt everyone in this void of the Foul Ground had likewise failed to escape the Tribulation of Creation; they had merely not yet been caught by it.

When the Tribulation of Creation of each hidden expert caught up with them, they too would find death inescapable. "This battle, my defeat was not mine, but heaven's will!

" Third Young Master Ling Xiao had no way to resist the tribulation light; his physical body perished within it, yet he roused his last strength and rammed into the ruins of Heaven Capital City, using his final power to drive this relic crashing into the Obelisk Forest!

He had to win time for the Hall Masters and the Dao attainers of Miluo Palace! He had to win a hope for Jade Capital City's continuance!

He could die, but the ideals of Miluo Palace had to be preserved, passed on!

Even if the merit was not his, even if his body perished and his dao dissolved!

Whoosh-- The ruins of Heaven Capital City hurtled toward the Obelisk Forest at even greater speed, drawing closer and closer to it.

Within the tribulation light, Third Young Master Ling Xiao saw that the ruins of Heaven Capital City and the Obelisk Forest were already within a hair's breadth!

Yet his physical body and his great dao were nearly wholly scattered, his consciousness and thoughts dissolving within the tribulation light. He was left with only his head, and the flesh and blood upon that head were dissolving with incredible speed. Soon his skull too decomposed within the tribulation light, yet he felt a trace of comfort.

"Once the Heaven Openers are released, the Dao attainers of Miluo Palace will have a chance to live.

This is the last thing I can do. Someone, surely, will pick up the ideals of Miluo Palace, pick up my thoughts, and carry on for me. .

.

" His consciousness was annihilated.

In the final instant before annihilation, he saw Shen Mu throw himself between the ruins of Heaven Capital City and the Obelisk Forest!