Chapter 1465 — Do Not Decline My Salute
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
The expression on Lord Yin's face had not yet frozen stiff; he seemed never to have imagined that these five, joining hands, could be so terrifying — and indeed he had not.
Though Shen Mu claimed he had beaten him so badly he pissed his pants in front of the Heavenly Palace's four Great Heavenly Masters and Heavenly Kings, in truth it was Shen Mu who had been beaten to a pulp; had Shen Mu not forced Bai Yuqiong to intervene, he might well have been finished off by Lord Yin. But that was then, and this was now.
Shen Mu's strength had risen beyond all recognition since those days: he had cultivated to the twenty-sixth heaven of the Dao Realm, his cultivation had reached the Nine Hells Terrace, and in the battle in the Taiji Star Domain of the Ancestral Court he had stood firm against the Empress herself without defeat, and had stormed the God-Slaying Terrace of the Ancestral Court and walked out alive!
With Zaifu and the other four joining hands, his Dao Realm was raised to the thirtieth heaven, the Great Dao imprinting thirty layers of void! Having cultivated to such a stage, Shen Mu was brimming with confidence; he even believed that the five of them together could trade a blow or two with a Heavenly Venerable without being annihilated — which was why he had insisted on going to Xuandu.
Lord Yin possessed only four Heavenly Palaces of his own, and only through the power of the Netherworld Gate did he have eight; facing five such ferocious foes, his head was bound to fall to a single blade.
But Lord Yin's greatest strength was neither his magic power nor his cultivation realm, but his Great Dao of Reincarnation, his divine ability of Reincarnation.
Though he had been split in two by a single blade, and even the little Heavenly Court formed by his eight Heavenly Palaces had been cloven apart, the Netherworld Gate behind him burst forth with a strange power, forcibly closing the riven doorway.
As his corpse passed through the Netherworld Gate, a strange sight unfolded: beneath the gate the Nether Sea suddenly surged up, its waters churning, all of it seawater made of the black sand of souls, dark beyond measure.
The Nether Sea heaved and crashed against the gate, and in the instant Lord Yin's corpse passed through, his form vanished; what flew out from behind the gate was a demigod of Black Tortoise blood — dragon head, turtle shell, human body — standing upon the sea. Long ago, when the Woodcutter Sage and his companions had rescued Di Yiyue, Di Yiyue, Lady Tianyin, Tian Shu, King Yama and a host of other masters had besieged Lord Yin; a hundred battles of bitter toil, and still they could never bring him down.
At the time they had slain Lord Yin several times over and shattered his flesh several times, yet he could always restore himself whole through the Netherworld Gate. To pass through the Netherworld Gate was to be reborn once — not only could he change at will between man and woman, he could even change species!
Such was the working of the Dao of Reincarnation. Shocked and furious, Lord Yin raised his head — and another blade-light came falling from the heavens straight at him!
That blade-light clove apart the Netherworld Gate that had just gathered itself together, and came down upon the crown of his new body. "Mu the Heavenly Venerable, you son of a bitch.
. .
" Before he could finish the words, he was split in two by a single stroke; reborn through the Netherworld Gate's reincarnation, he had not yet found his footing when Shen Mu, Zaifu and the other three cut him down together!
The Netherworld Gate boomed and shook, and sank with the Black Tortoise Lord Yin's corpse into the Nether Sea.
The Nether Sea vanished in an instant, then reappeared behind the great army of the Northern Heaven Netherworld Capital; the Netherworld Gate rose slowly once more, and Lord Yin was reborn from behind its doorway.