Chapter 1654 — The Fool of the Southern Heaven
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
The instant Lady Yuanmu made her move, it was with the Great Heavenly Court transmuted from the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces, driving the Way of Guixu to its utmost extremity!
She deserved rather to be called the Goddess of Guixu; only at this moment Lady Yuanmu's consciousness held the ascendancy, for she had fused Lady Yuanmu's Way of Destruction with the Empress Consort's Way of Creation, blending the two into one, transmuting into the perfect Way of Guixu.
The power of that perfected Way of Guixu was exceeding strange: it could devour all things, devour every kind of energy, and turn it into strength of its own.
The might of Huotian Zun's Dao-fire could almost rival the Wind of Heat-Death; and yet within Guixu dwelt the true Wind of Heat-Death, grinding matter to dust and reducing it to pure energy.
Terrifying energies crushed and piled together, and that is the Wind of Heat-Death!
To pit oneself against Lady Yuanmu was to find one's own mana sinking ever lower, while her strength rose ever higher!
Boom!
Huotian Zun bore the blow head-on, and at once perceived that his Dao arts and divine powers had sunk like a stone into the sea, powerless to inflict the slightest injury upon his foe.
Then, in that very instant, Lady Yuanmu's mana abruptly surged a notch; the lotus burst straight through his defenses and, hissing and spinning, carved open his chest!
One keen lotus petal swept across his face; the mask upon it gave a light crunch, split in two, and revealed a hideous, frightful visage.
Huotian Zun's face had been ruined by Shen Mu. Its features were past all recognition, leaving only white bone and stray scraps of flesh.
The skin of his face had been torn away entirely; of his nose only the bone remained, of his ears only the holes; his eyes, with no flesh to shield them, lay bare to the air; his lips were gone, and his teeth showed through.
His face was a skull wearing scattered scraps of flesh.
In all the world today, Shen Mu was the undisputed first in the Dao arts, and the Dao wound he had left upon Huotian Zun's face had lasted to this very hour, impossible to undo; not even a pill master could heal the injury to his countenance.
At the sight of that face, even Lady Yuanmu was startled.
The two fought fast against fast; Huotian Zun, hobbled at every turn, felt that every divine power he unleashed had lost its rightful might. However he struck, the force was devoured by Yuanmu.
He had not cultivated the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces; he had but thirty-five. That single lack left him far weaker than Lady Yuanmu in mana, and cast him into the part of one who takes a beating.
His strength lay here: he had no weakness at all, no flaw in his Dao arts and divine powers. Though his Dao arts were checked by Lady Yuanmu, his fleshly body was mighty and could trade blows with her head-on; only, the longer he fought, the worse he fared.
Petal upon petal drifted down and danced about him high and low, razor-keen, slicing open his flesh, all but flaying him!
Whoosh---
The Great Abyss of Guixu abruptly loomed behind him; a savage gravitational pull came surging forth, twisting his body and dragging it into the abyss.
Huotian Zun roared and fought his way out of the abyss. The moment he broke free, Lady Yuanmu swung her lotus down upon him.
Huotian Zun spewed blood, tumbling and rolling away.
Swish, swish, swish---the stamens within the lotus shot out one after another like serpents, coiled around him, and hauled him toward Lady Yuanmu.
Huotian Zun at once raised his hand and severed stamen after stamen, but Lady Yuanmu had already arrived before him.
His form rose sharply and fled far in a streak of firelight, swift beyond belief.
Yet the Great Abyss of Guixu was like a maw that swallows the heavens and the myriad worlds; space itself collapsed about it, and however fast he flew, he could only wheel at the rim of the Great Abyss of Guixu, never escaping the reach of its gravity.
"My fate ends here!"