Celestial Dragon Sword Venerable

"The Great Dao ends in mortal dust and bone;

Emperor’s Blood and Dragon Soul carve the ages.

Why is the fate of all life so full of misery?

How many Venerables, how much sorrow?"

Inside the independent Holy Dao Space within the Heaven-Slaying Demon Slayer Sword, Yue Lintian’s Holy Soul had slightly recovered. As he extended his senses to the world outside, he was profoundly shaken.

Yet, amid his shock, his words were filled with sorrow and desolation.

He was reciting an ancient Rune from the Celestial Secret Dao, the very same Rune Ye Tianling had used earlier to explain the Profound Meanings of the Celestial Secret Dao.

The scene of swaths of Cultivators exploding and dying unfolded just as he extended his senses.

He was shocked and stunned, but he also felt an immense heartache.

If there had ever been a chance to salvage the past, that chance was now gone.

’How can a Cultivator at the Half-step Sword Spirit Realm erupt with such terrifying power? Power that can even crush someone at the Half-step Divine Dao Realm?’

In this world, under the cruel law of the strong preying on the weak, there was also a form of absolute fairness.

One often lost as much as one gained.

To go from having no Battle Power to suddenly manifesting such tremendous strength... perhaps it was the favor of the heavens, a blessing of opportunity and Qi Fortune, or the support of a powerful Divine Artifact. But all of this required a central nexus to maintain balance.

’But where did this central nexus come from?’

It came from the core of the Divine Artifact, from this potent Void Origin, and from Ye Tianling’s own Qi Fortune, opportunities, and Life Chart as a peerless Divine Child.

A Divine Child’s Qi Fortune was indeed heaven-defying and their Life Chart powerful, but these could be exhausted, squandered until nothing remained...

Thus, behind this seemingly invincible power lay only endless sorrow and desolation, endless misery and misfortune.

As a Holy Soul with an independent will that had existed for eons, Yue Lintian saw all of this with piercing clarity.

As a result, his heart was filled with immense grief and anguish.

As the Guardian of the Demon Soul Cave on Forbidden Moon Mountain, as an evolvable Sacred Artifact standing guard over a turbulent spatial node in the Celestial Demon Blood Domain, Yue Lintian couldn’t help the tears streaming down his face.

His gaze fell upon the cocoon of light enveloping Ouyang Ruoxue, which was still undergoing its transformation. His expression was bleak, his heart heavy and conflicted.

...

"AHHH—"

"You little bastard, I’ll fight you to the death!"

Yao Yusu roared, completely lost in her madness.

With her hair in disarray and her face contorted in a savage snarl, she looked like a Fierce Ghost.

Drenched in Blood Qi, she had lost all traces of the peerless, transcendent grace of the Jade Pool Fairy.

However, it didn’t matter what techniques she unleashed. It didn’t matter how world-shaking those techniques seemed to others, or how they tore through the Void and shattered the skies.

When that power surged toward Ye Tianling, it simply vanished.

It was as if a strange layer of Space had devoured her attacks, preventing them from so much as severing a single strand of red hair on Ye Tianling’s body.

How could this not drive her to madness and despair!

What was even more terrifying was that once Ye Tianling grabbed her by the neck, she felt as if she were shackled by the Heaven and Earth Laws themselves, completely unable to struggle free.

Like a monkey caught by a hunter, she thrashed about, her legs kicking wildly, but it was all for naught.

Ye Tianling lifted Yao Yusu with one hand and clenched the other into a fist.

Reincarnation Life and Death Fist!

Ye Tianling raised his arm and slammed a punch into Yao Yusu’s chest.

BOOM—

There were no Laws, no amplification from the Supreme Dao.

He struck purely with the Slaughter Technique of the Reincarnation Life and Death Fist.

A single punch sent a violent tremor through Yao Yusu’s formidable Battle Armor. A dense web of cracks spread across it instantly before it shattered into dust.

The aftershock of the punch slammed into Yao Yusu.

Yao Yusu spat out a mouthful of blood. Her chest caved in slightly, but that was the extent of the damage.

The physical resilience that came with her Realm as a Nine Source Sword Saint was astonishingly high.

But Ye Tianling showed no mercy. Still holding Yao Yusu aloft, he threw another punch.

Again, it was the Reincarnation Life and Death Fist.

PFFT—

Yao Yusu coughed up blood again. Ye Tianling’s punch shattered the very air, releasing a Fist Intent powerful enough to tear her Holy Soul to shreds.

She desperately manifested Holy Blood, pushing her Essence, Qi, and Soul to their peak while constantly activating her hidden reserves to defend herself.

’But how many more blows can I withstand?’

BOOM—

BOOM—

BOOM—

Ye Tianling rained down punches. The Guardian Dao Light protecting Yao Yusu shattered repeatedly. A bloody hole was punched straight through her chest, and her body was beaten into a mangled mess, yet she was utterly powerless to stop it.

A Nine Source Sword Saint of her generation, held by the throat, her body relentlessly pummeled by punch after punch.

It was useless no matter how Yao Yusu tried to heal, how she manifested killing intent, activated Forbidden Arrays and Prohibition Talismans, or tried to crush him with her Holy Soul.

Ye Tianling seemed immune to all arts; he didn’t even bother to defend.

After Yao Yusu spat out another mouthful of blood, a wisp of Samadhi True Fire suddenly ignited on Ye Tianling’s fist.

No, that wasn’t right. The Samadhi True Fire was no longer Samadhi True Fire, but the terrifying Silent Extinction Purple Flame!

The blood-red Samadhi True Fire had transformed into a terrifying dark purple, as if the Flame itself had come to life and followed Ye Tianling in Entering Demon.

The sight was horrifying.

The Silent Extinction Purple Flame manifested a wisp of an aura of Destruction. A thousand miles away, the various Saint Masters and Saint Sons were terrified. They instantly fled like streaks of Flowing Light, retreating another two thousand miles before stopping, their faces deathly pale, to continue observing.

To think that a mere wisp of its aura could frighten the Saint Masters so badly...

This sight alone was enough for Ye Tianling’s name to shake the world.

’But would Ye Tianling even care about any of this?’

Of course, he wouldn’t.

He tossed what was left of Yao Yusu—little more than a single head—onto the ground.

A ray of bloody light descended.

Like a terrifying shackle, it locked the head in place.

Yao Yusu discovered in terror that even after Ye Tianling released her, the bloody light enveloping her head prevented it from flying away.

She was now utterly terrified. The madness brought on by her son’s death had subsided, and she finally realized that she, a mighty Nine Source Sword Saint, was likely going to be beaten to death and perish here today.

"AHH— Ye Tianling, you dare kill me! My husband is an Ancient Divine Beast! He will know what you’ve done, and he will kill you!"

Yao Yusu shrieked, her voice growing more shrill and wretched.

But hearing her wretched screams, the distant Saint Masters, Saint Sons, and Saintesses all showed expressions of pure satisfaction.

’Bitch! Serves you right!’

’You caused the deaths of so many of my clan’s people, so many peerless geniuses! Death is too good for you!’

’Seeing you suffer so miserably puts my heart at ease!’

’Weren’t you so arrogant before? Go on, be arrogant now! Serves you right!’

’Damn you! Celestial Secret Divine Son, kill her! Kill that bitch!’

...

’At this moment, although they didn’t dare to shout their curses aloud, nearly every Saint Master, Saint Son, and Saintess was screaming them in their hearts.’

But after their cathartic curses, the satisfaction in their hearts gave way to sorrow and grief.

’After all, they too had suffered grievous losses this time.’

What made it even more painful was the knowledge that after this battle, such a peerless, genius Divine Child would be utterly destroyed.

Everyone was filled with a sorrowful empathy, like a fox grieving a dead hare—a lament for one of their own.

’Such a Divine Child, not yet fully grown... His three world-shaking Void Bodies are now all destroyed.’

’Powerful?’

’The more powerful Ye Tianling appeared now, the more tragic his fate would be after this battle was over!’

’He’s used some unknown method to burn through all the future potential of his life, unleashing it all in this one moment!’

...