Chapter 1453: The Fish-Bombing Youth
Palace Heavenly Sovereign sensed something was wrong. Nether Heavenly Sovereign's body was rapidly restoring itself, quickly transforming from an old man into a youth!
The original Nether Heavenly Sovereign had been like a decrepit old man, which was why he was known as the Yincha Old Man.
He had spent years in Nether Capital, his physical body long withered, devoid of vitality, and appearing gloomy, always emerging in the darkness under the light of a horse lantern, folding paper figures and paper horses.
His reputation was notorious. Throughout the myriad realms, mentioning the Yincha Old Man was enough to make even the boldest demon gods fall silent in fear, enough to stop children from crying.
Now, Nether Heavenly Sovereign had turned back into a youth. The heavy, stagnant aura of old age vanished from him, as if he had become that somewhat aloof, solitary youth who liked to sit alone by the water, knead a divine ability, and toss it into the Celestial Lake to bomb fish.
He was not the kind of youth who, with a slight exertion of strength, would bulge with rippling muscles. On the contrary, he was quite thin, his face somewhat pale, and he did not give off a strong sense of threat.
However, compared to when he was bombing fish by the Celestial Lake back then, he was noticeably more cheerful and confident. His eyes were filled with fighting spirit!
"Divine abilities may age, but the heart remains young; returning, I am still the youth—"
Nether Heavenly Sovereign slowly raised his head. Behind him, an immensely vast primordial spirit also slowly lifted its head.
Palace Heavenly Sovereign looked up. The vastness of this primordial spirit was enough to contend with beings like Heaven Duke and Earth Count!
For a long time, everyone had believed that Nether Heavenly Sovereign had declined. He had been silent and still in Nether Capital, not exposed to the divine abilities and techniques of the outside world, not having experienced the Longhan Revolution, the Chiming Revolution, the Shanghuang Reform, the Kaihuang Reform, or the Yankang Reform. His techniques and abilities must have been outdated, unable to keep up with the times.
But the Ten Heavenly Sovereigns of the Heavenly Court had not ignored him. The Heavenly Court established the Nether Capital, letting the Nether Emperor govern it, rivaling Nether Capital, and guiding the souls of the dead, both mortals and gods, into the Nether Capital.
The Heavenly Court's purpose, aside from weakening Nether Capital's power, was to prevent Nether Heavenly Sovereign from mastering the world's techniques and abilities through these deceased souls.
Only the Longhan Nine Heavenly Sovereigns understood how terrifying the potential of Nether Heavenly Sovereign, one of them, truly was. That was why Hao Heavenly Sovereign and Fire Heavenly Sovereign would not give him a chance to grow.
However, everyone overlooked one point: Nether Heavenly Sovereign had billions of avatars in Nether Capital, spread across all the myriad worlds, guiding the dead.
Each of these avatars possessed strength equivalent to an ordinary god or demon.
While the techniques and abilities brought by the dead to Nether Capital did help him grow, what truly elevated him to a level unimaginable to others were his avatars.
He was originally Nether Heavenly Sovereign, who established his path through souls, the first peerless genius to break through the boundary of life and death. After arriving in Nether Capital, his primordial spirit grew increasingly powerful.
Having billions of avatars was a manifestation of his primordial spirit's strength.
And in this battle at Xuan Capital, Nether Capital had been emptied. All the yin messengers had been recalled by him. When these yin messengers all returned to his main body, his primordial spirit was enough to shake the universe!
Before Palace Heavenly Sovereign, when this primordial spirit raised its head, the deep, melodious great path of Nether Capital emitted a sound of the Dao, like the whispers of countless souls, like mortals chanting sutras in temples, full of mystery and unfathomability.
Sixty-four different great paths of Nether Capital converged behind his head. His primordial spirit and the Nether Capital great paths it contained, within Xuan Capital, contended with the Heavenly Dao, carving out a territory in Xuan Capital to form an independent Nether Capital!
"Perhaps... perhaps Void Heavenly Sovereign is not the most perfect candidate to inherit Earth Count. Perhaps he is..." This terrifying thought suddenly surfaced in Palace Heavenly Sovereign's mind.
Nether Heavenly Sovereign's primordial spirit was so vast and powerful that it gave her a shuddering feeling, like facing Earth Count.
Although she was no longer a creator god, although she had long since compensated for the weakness of the creator god race's souls, facing Nether Heavenly Sovereign, that shuddering feeling surged back, making her heart twitch, her muscles tremble, her bones shake.
Even her primordial spirit was trembling!
"But the Longhan Nine Heavenly Sovereigns are in the past. Now is the era of the Ten Heavenly Sovereigns!"
Palace Heavenly Sovereign let out a fierce cry. The Heavenly Court formed by thirty-five heavenly palaces emitted a resounding horn sound, boiling her blood and surging her combat power. This woman was exceptionally valiant, one of the few who dared to strike at Grand Emperor and Grand Beginning. Even if Nether Heavenly Sovereign possessed the strongest primordial spirit in history, she was fearless and ready to fight!
The Ancestral Court divine whip in her hand trembled, straightening like a spear. She pointed it at Nether Heavenly Sovereign and charged in fiercely!
Even if Nether Heavenly Sovereign had the strongest primordial spirit, he had just fallen into her divine sense illusion and must have been injured by her storm-like assault. His strength would surely be greatly diminished!
She was using Grand Emperor's spear technique!
With a single thrust, the treasure transformed from the Ancestral Court's dragon vein instantly came to life, like a dragon vein ten thousand miles long, writhing and twisting in the air, shaking space!
The majestic mountain body was like dragon scales, the dragon's body winding, the mountain roots like dragon claws, all displaying ferocity!
This strike was grand and imposing, combined with the immense power of the Great Heavenly Court formed by thirty-five heavenly palaces. Her strength had been pushed to the peak of her lifetime!
Nether Heavenly Sovereign's power was certainly far inferior to hers—that was the key to her victory!
She would use her own power and treasures to beat Nether Heavenly Sovereign from a youth back into an old man, from cheerfulness back into depression!
Buzz—
A tremor rang out, and wrinkles appeared on Palace Heavenly Sovereign's beautiful face. Buzz, buzz, buzz—another series of tremors came, forming folds on her face that could not be smoothed.
She witnessed an astonishing sight. With each tremor, behind Nether Heavenly Sovereign's immensely majestic primordial spirit, a second Nether Capital world appeared, then a third, a fourth, a fifth!
Layer after layer of Nether Capital worlds unfolded. Palace Heavenly Sovereign's eyelids twitched violently. These Nether Capital worlds were layers of heavens, like Kaihuang's Sword Dao Heavens.
However, Kaihuang's Sword Dao Heavens were acquired great paths, domains no one had ever set foot in, requiring Kaihuang to perfect and explore step by step.
But Nether Heavenly Sovereign's Nether Capital Heavens were directly comprehended from the sixty-four great paths of Nether Capital. From the very beginning, Nether Heavenly Sovereign had cultivated the great path of Nether Capital. To resurrect his mother, he studied more diligently and seriously than anyone else!
Compared to Kaihuang, he had a huge advantage. Kaihuang created the Sword Dao from nothing, an incredibly difficult task, while Nether Heavenly Sovereign had Earth Count by his side. If he didn't understand something, he could simply ask Earth Count.
Of course, if Earth Count didn't understand, he could also ask Nether Heavenly Sovereign.
He had stayed in Nether Capital for a million years. Over that million years, his mastery of the Nether Capital great path had reached a level where he could stand shoulder to shoulder with Earth Count. The only thing he lacked compared to Earth Count was Earth Count's powerful physical body.
Compared to innate gods like Earth Count, his physical body was far, far weaker.
"That's right. Kaihuang could ignore my divine sense illusion because his Dao heart was too strong. His Dao heart and Dao realm had already been cultivated to the thirty-fifth heaven."
Palace Heavenly Sovereign gritted her teeth, did not retreat, poured all her strength into that single spear, and still charged forward unflinchingly at Nether Heavenly Sovereign, thinking to herself: "But even Shepherd Heavenly Sovereign couldn't escape my divine sense illusion, yet Nether Heavenly Sovereign did. This shows that his Dao heart surpasses even Shepherd Heavenly Sovereign's..."
However, it was clear that Nether Heavenly Sovereign was new to the Dao realm and had not put much effort into this area. Now, he was raising his Dao realm for the first time, so the speed of opening the Dao realm was relatively slow.
After all, not many years had passed since Kaihuang introduced the Dao realm cultivation system, and even the Ten Heavenly Sovereigns had not achieved high mastery in this area.
Nether Heavenly Sovereign was essentially comprehending the Dao before battle, elevating his Dao realm without prior preparation, which gave Palace Heavenly Sovereign hope.
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
By the time Palace Heavenly Sovereign's spear reached Nether Heavenly Sovereign, the Nether Capital worlds behind his primordial spirit had already reached eighteen layers.
His primordial spirit's massive hand reached out, slapping down against Palace Heavenly Sovereign's spear. Palace Heavenly Sovereign let out a muffled groan, and the great spear in her hand was pressed down, bending. Her body was also forced to bend!
Her power—the power she prided herself on, the power contained in her thirty-five heavenly palaces—was still inferior to the power contained in Nether Heavenly Sovereign's immensely vast primordial spirit.
Her legs bent, the Heavenly Court's horn sounded long, boosting her blood energy once more!
Palace Heavenly Sovereign straightened her body, and the long spear transformed into a whip, wrapping around the arm of Nether Heavenly Sovereign's primordial spirit with a series of swishes. Meanwhile, her feet flew up, kicking toward Nether Heavenly Sovereign's main body's head!
Buzz—
Another wave of fluctuation came, and a nineteenth wrinkle appeared on Palace Heavenly Sovereign's face, making her look like an old woman.
Her physical body was aging, her life force draining away, startling her. But her strength did not diminish at all. Her legs were filled with terrifying explosive power. As long as they struck Nether Heavenly Sovereign's head, in just an instant, she could blow it apart!
At that moment, the nineteenth Nether Capital world behind Nether Heavenly Sovereign's primordial spirit slowly unfolded.
The primordial spirit's hand, wrapped in the whip, gave a forceful shake. Palace Heavenly Sovereign was involuntarily flung away, then with a whoosh, she was pulled back!
What greeted her was the other arm of Nether Heavenly Sovereign's primordial spirit—a massive fist that slammed heavily into her body!
Boom!
A terrifying shockwave erupted in all directions, forming a ring of white light that expanded rapidly, causing every star in Xuan Capital to pulse with a jolt!
Palace Heavenly Sovereign's body flew backward. She retracted the whip, planted her feet, and her body was almost flat against the starry sky, leaving two spatial cracks in the void.
She stopped her backward momentum, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. The whip coiled around her right hand with a series of swishes.
Her Heavenly Court emitted an even louder horn sound, boosting her blood energy further. Palace Heavenly Sovereign strode forward like a furious tiger descending a mountain, charging fiercely. Her fighting spirit was even stronger!
Buzz—
Another tremor came toward her, adding another wrinkle to her face—the twentieth.
Behind Nether Heavenly Sovereign's primordial spirit, the twentieth Nether Capital world slowly unfolded.
Palace Heavenly Sovereign charged before him, the whip dancing like a dragon, striking from all angles. Various divine abilities flew from Palace Heavenly Sovereign's fluttering sleeves, from between her brows, and even the whip would occasionally shoot out from her sleeve, making it impossible to defend against.
Nether Heavenly Sovereign's primordial spirit's hands danced, blocking all her attacks, preventing her from penetrating the primordial spirit's defense and reaching Nether Heavenly Sovereign's main body.
Nether Heavenly Sovereign had weaknesses, had flaws, but she simply could not grasp them!
Buzz!
Buzz, buzz!
Twenty-three wrinkles had already appeared on Palace Heavenly Sovereign's face. Her physical body was showing signs of age, her once glossy black hair turning gray.
Meanwhile, Nether Heavenly Sovereign's primordial spirit grew even more powerful, beating her until she coughed blood repeatedly.
Boom!
A fist knocked Palace Heavenly Sovereign over. She staggered to her feet, only to be knocked down by another fist.
Palace Heavenly Sovereign struggled to stand again, and Nether Heavenly Sovereign's primordial spirit raised its fist once more. Suddenly, Palace Heavenly Sovereign's knees gave way, and she collapsed.
"I don't like talking to you."
Under the massive primordial spirit's feet, Nether Heavenly Sovereign looked at her, as if returning to the mindset of that fish-bombing youth from the past. His tone carried pride: "Because you're all very stupid."