Chapter 1487 — The Firmament Is Vast, the Three Realms Small
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Palace Heavenly Venerable raised her head; in the instant she lifted it, her hair had turned white, and a twenty-fourth wrinkle had appeared on her face.
Her mortal flesh had grown old.
By rights this was impossible. One who had cultivated to the divine realm held a lifespan coeval with Heaven; the bodies of gods remained forever at their peak, and beings possessed of boundless longevity could by no means age.
The lifespan of a god's body was infinite; no subtraction could ever exhaust it. Even if You Heavenly Venerable pared away her lifespan, it should not have been able to make her age.
And yet her body had aged, and nothing could hold it back.
This was the first time since the founding of the Heavenly Palace's cultivation system, the first time anyone had encountered a divine art capable of shearing away the lifespan of a god, or even of a Heavenly Venerable!
And that art had been created by none other than You Heavenly Venerable, who had opened up the divine treasury of life and death!
He had broken through the boundary between life and death, opened the gulf between the underworld and the world of the living, so that those who cultivated divine arts might possess endless lifespan upon reaching the divine realm; and now he had fathomed the Great Way of the You Capital to its utmost, gaining the power to strip away the lifespan of a god's body!
Palace Heavenly Venerable visualized with all her might, marshaling her divine consciousness, striving with every ounce of her strength to visualize the state of her body in her youth, to restore its functions.
In her previous life she had, after all, been a God King among the Creators; the Creators too could attain eternal life, and theirs did not rely upon the divine-treasury Heavenly Palace system, but upon visualizing one's own body, keeping it forever young!
She still had a chance: in the instant You Heavenly Venerable let down his guard, she could strike him by surprise and turn defeat into victory.
She had lived far too long; she had long since ceased to take a moment's honor or disgrace, a moment's victory or defeat, to heart. So long as she could win, any means was worth it.
Yet even as she visualized in secret, she found her body sliding inexorably toward a deeper abyss of age. Cold sweat broke out on Palace Heavenly Venerable's brow, and despair rose in her heart despite herself.
You Heavenly Venerable's primordial spirit lifted its palm and raised a single finger; the finger was like a spear, stabbing toward her heart.
The Benevolent Sage King Tianqi of the You Capital had never been a man to spare the fair; the heavens he had destroyed in his hands were beyond counting, and Tu Bo's nine-bend, eighteen-curve horns were proof enough of his ruthlessness!
Palace Heavenly Venerable watched that descending finger and sighed silently. This time, most likely, there was no escape from the calamity.
Just then she suddenly felt the decay of her body's functions halt abruptly; more than that, her body began to regain vigorous vitality, its functions rising in a straight line!
Lying flat in the starry sky awaiting death, Palace Heavenly Venerable at once stirred her vital essence and shot sideways at flying speed, dodging You Heavenly Venerable's blow.
You Heavenly Venerable's primordial spirit stabbed at empty air, and suddenly he felt himself locked on, an ominous feeling, as though the Great Way of the You Capital had met its nemesis, filling him with extreme discomfort.
You Heavenly Venerable's primordial spirit withdrew its finger, and in the brief instant while the twenty-fifth stratum of the Dao realm burst forth, he shook off that lock, straightened his waist, and turned to face the one who had locked onto him.
The youth You Heavenly Venerable's eyelid twitched: he saw Yan Heavenly Consort, and behind her two ancient gods.