Chapter 1798 — Two Arts, One Plan
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Lan Yutian crossed the distance in a single step and plunged into the Empress's domain — a terrifying domain formed by the Dao of Guixu, where all things around were falling into the Empress's realm: continents, mountains and rivers, even the divine mountains of the Ancestral Court disintegrating as they fell. What was more terrifying was that the sun, moon, and stars in the sky were also falling; as the stars and all things descended, one could dimly perceive that the Empress's Guixu domain was divided into thirty-six layers. The first through the eighth were mere falling; the ninth through the sixteenth were destruction and pulverization; the seventeenth through the twenty-fourth were heat death — a heat death in which even the Dao would disintegrate.
By the twenty-fifth layer, even light could not escape; all matter within transformed into chaotic qi. Upon the Empress's lotus platform, all things were reduced to chaos, sprayed out from the lotus seedpod of the platform, connecting to the Empress, becoming her cultivation. This was complete Guixu Dao-attainment. Since the First Cosmic Era, only one person had attained the Dao through Guixu: the Second Young Master, Wuji.
And now there was one more — the Empress.
After she devoured Xie Wuqi, the last of her familial affection vanished, and she finally became the true Goddess of Guixu. Even when the Empress first attained the Dao, she knew that familial affection was a constraint upon her.
At that time she had suddenly felt the mother-son bond with Xie Wuqi grow so intense it could not be suppressed; she could not wait to see her son, and so made the journey to Jingping to see Xie Wuqi.
This mother-son affection, the love of a parent for its young, seemed perfectly normal, but for the Goddess of Guixu, it was an emotion she absolutely did not need. From that moment on, she realized that to advance further, she must erase this emotion.
Heavenly Venerable You brought out Xie Wuqi, intending for her to retire with him and enjoy the bliss of family — but this only steeled the Empress's resolve.
With this step, the Empress had no more weaknesses.
Heavenly Venerable You, the two Xuanwu Emperors, and Lang Wan were closest to her; when the Empress's Dao heart reached perfection, the four also fell into her Guixu domain, tumbling ever deeper from the outermost layer. Even though they were among the most powerful people in the world today, they could hardly resist the power of Guixu; in the blink of an eye, they fell into the sixteenth layer of the Guixu domain.
Once they reached the seventeenth, even Dao-attainers could not fly out; they could only fall irreversibly toward the Empress, their Dao arts disintegrating into chaos, becoming nourishment for Guixu. The four exerted all their power to unleash their divine arts.
The two Xuanwu Emperors each bore wounds; the Wu Emperor had first been wounded by the combined assault of the Heavenly Court's Emperor Throne powerhouses, and then gravely wounded by the Empress, his injuries severe, making him the weakest link, the first to fall into the heat death of the seventeenth layer.
The Xuan Emperor reached out, straining to hold his wife, surging all his vital essence, mobilizing his ancestral land, trying to fly outward. The Xuanwu Great Marsh flew over and settled beneath his feet, but even this most renowned holy land was now collapsing and disintegrating within Guixu.
This disintegration was the disintegration of the Dao itself.
"Let go! " The Wu Emperor struggled with all her strength, but the Xuan Emperor refused to let go.
The Wu Emperor flew into a rage and said harshly, "I've long grown tired of you! Let go, and you'll be rid of me!
I beat you every day — without me, you'll be free! " The Xuan Emperor still refused to let go, and laughed, "We were born to be together.