Chapter 1728: Lord Shang’s Killing Path Melody
When the drumbeats sounded, the spiritual energy and spiritual qi between heaven and earth suddenly became restless. The drumbeats were simple, only the purest thumping sounds, but each strike seemed to hit the soul, to hit the blood and qi, causing the blood and qi to boil and the soul to be filled with killing intent!
The heavy drumbeats, like supreme authority and boundless might, crashed down like great mountains pressing on people's Dao hearts, pressing down until they could barely breathe.
The Moon Venerable's zither music, however, was not affected by the drumbeats at all. Instead, the zither notes were kept low and very peaceful, but the music pierced through the drumbeats, clear as a babbling brook flowing into everyone's heart.
In the ruined Heavenly Court camp, only the wounded soldiers and the busy Yan Kang pharmacists remained. The soldiers listened to the drumbeats and zither music, and gradually their groans of pain lessened.
On the night battlefield, war fires had not yet been extinguished. In the distance, the Dao light of the One Qi Grand Luo Heaven erupted from time to time, making this night seem especially enchanting.
The drumbeats grew heavier, as if trying to completely crush the zither music. The killing intent and oppressive pressure in the monotonous drumbeats were like a restless sea suddenly boiling over, as ferocious and dangerous as a battlefield, filled with slaughter everywhere, flying swords and halberds everywhere, severed limbs, rolling heads, and all living beings struggling, crying, and wailing under iron hooves!
The Butcher's drumbeats were truly magnificent!
He, alone, with two hammers and a hundred drums, bare-chested and beating the drums, poured all the authority and power of the lofty rulers into his drumming. The killing intent in the drumbeats grew stronger and stronger, freely venting his worship and desire for power, using that power without restraint to trample everything!
Trampling the right to exist, trampling proud lives, manipulating war, manipulating slaughter!
The drumbeats were filled with the ambition to satisfy the desire for power. The feeling it gave was like when the Ten Venerables were in power, oppressing all things in heaven and earth and all living beings!
But the Moon Venerable's zither music remained unmoved, still like a spring breeze blowing, like a small river flowing, as gentle as moonlight in the night.
Her zither music did not dispel the frenzy of the drumbeats. It was like the long-lasting vitality of all living beings, destroyed and harvested amidst the drumbeats, yet stubbornly growing back, multiplying and thriving.
The suffering endured by all living beings seemed to condense within her zither music, bearing all the calamities and pain, life and death, separation, yet living on tenaciously, silently enduring.
The Butcher's drumbeats soared, full of the domineering spirit that swept across the world, just like him, pushing the killing intent that filled heaven and earth to its limit!
Suddenly, his body shook violently. He activated the Creation Mystic Art, and countless arms flew, beating the drums almost frantically. The drumbeats became restless to the extreme!
The killing intent in the drumbeats became ferocious, twisted, and frenzied, like a twisted Dao heart, a released demon, as if a nightmare had come to reality!
Power, turning one's hand to clouds and the other to rain, freely manipulating the world and the people!
The Ten Venerables changed one after another, revolution followed revolution, reforms, changes—the hopes and expectations of all living beings all turned into bubbles and shadows under the turbulent times!
One set of Ten Venerables fell, and a new set of Ten Venerables grew, as if warriors grew the claws and fangs of evil dragons, still occupying high positions, still freely venting power, suppressing everything!
The drumbeats were bloody, causing everyone who heard them to see before their eyes the broken and ruined scene of the myriad realms. The Ten Venerables who controlled the world looked kind and benevolent, but they controlled the conflicts and turmoil of the entire universe, sending down countless calamities, only to prolong their own existence, only to satisfy their own lust for power.
At this moment, the zither music was pressed to the extreme, pressed down until it was barely audible, as if the lives of all living beings were about to end here, completely crushed by the calamity.
Just then, the zither music suddenly shifted. *Zheng, zheng, zheng*—the sound of killing and warfare suddenly arose!
At that instant, the zither music, which made one's scalp tingle and spirit tremble, seemed to come alive. It brought tears to one's eyes, giving one the feeling of returning to history, experiencing history, and spanning history.
That feeling released the fighting spirit at this moment, so strong, so surging and fierce, like a tide flooding over the mountains, covering the earth, like a giant disturbing the stars, pulling the Heavenly River!
This was earth-shattering, the voice of an unyielding warrior's heart!
The zither music was full of killing and warfare, contending with the drumbeats. The two kinds of killing intent intertwined, entangled, and clashed, pushing the killing intent between heaven and earth to its limit.
The Butcher grew even more frenzied. His hundred arms flew, beating the war drums, exhausting all his ability to suppress the zither music, to suppress the resistance of all living beings. But the killing intent in the zither music never ceased. After being crushed, it rebounded violently, becoming higher and higher, more and more sonorous and forceful!
Suddenly, the Moon Venerable's long hair flew. Her ten fingers plucked the zither, and the sounds of the fifty strings converged at this moment, transforming into a fierce and imposing killing intent that charged forth!
*Zheng!*
The zither music was incredibly sharp, its penetrating power reaching its peak, making one's blood boil!
Lord Shang's Killing Path Melody, the First Kill of the Moonlit Night!
At the same time, a layer of heaven appeared behind the Moon Venerable. It was a layer of the Dao realm. In that layer of heaven, a figure of the Moon Venerable playing the zither appeared. The zither music was rapid, making it hard to breathe. Suddenly, she plucked, and the zither music pushed the killing intent that filled heaven and earth up another level!
The Second Kill of the Moonlit Night!
Before the zither music ended, another layer of heaven appeared behind her. The phantom of the Moon Venerable stood in that layer of the Dao realm, her long sleeves flying, her ten fingers fluttering. The ancient zither spun around her body, various melodies interweaving chaotically. Suddenly, the Moon Venerable grasped the large zither and plucked it heavily!
The Third Kill of the Moonlit Night!
Another layer of the Dao realm heaven appeared. The phantom of the Moon Venerable played the zither, then suddenly stood the ancient zither sideways and plucked it frantically with both hands!
The Fourth Kill!
Then came the Fifth Kill, the Sixth Kill, the Seventh Kill, the Eighth Kill!
...
Behind the Moon Venerable, layer after layer of Dao realms appeared, pushing the unyielding spirit of all living beings, the protection desired by the determined, and the killing intent between heaven and earth to the extreme!
The Butcher's drumbeats had already been scattered, broken into pieces, but he forced himself to continue beating the drums, contending with the zither music, trying to suppress it, to force out an even deeper, even stronger unyielding spirit and killing intent!
*Bang, bang, bang!*
The flesh on his body burst open, but he still beat the drums frantically. In terms of cultivation and Dao realm, the Butcher was far inferior to the Moon Venerable. But to stimulate the ultimate killing intent of Lord Shang that Qin Mu had mentioned, he needed to use greater and stronger pressure to provoke the killing intent in the Moon Venerable's zither music!
Amidst the vibrations of the zither music, the killing intent almost blasted all the skin off his body, causing his blood and qi to steam like morning clouds, but he still beat the drums without stopping.
The Moon Venerable's Dao realm heavens quickly reached the thirty-third layer, and Lord Shang's Killing Path Melody was also elevated to the level of the Thirty-Fourth Kill!
The Thirty-Fourth Kill: Heaven Emits Killing Intent, Stars Shift and Lodgings Change!
At this point, the killing intent was so dense that it produced abnormal phenomena, distorting space. Heavenly calamity dragon whirlwinds appeared in the sky, forming heavenly calamity divine blades. Besides heavenly calamity, there was also blood calamity, howling and spinning. Countless corpses floated and sank in a sea of blood, struggling and wailing.
Suddenly, one by one, the large drums exploded. Around the Butcher, the hundred-foot-tall war drums were all shattered by the killing intent!
The Butcher hurried forward, using his broad back to protect the last large drum. His hundred arms raised and smashed down heavily on this final war drum!
*Dong!*
The drum sounded, and the drumhead burst. The Butcher was covered in blood, falling flat on his back, a smile on his lips. "I can only do this much. The rest is up to you, Moon Venerable..."
*Zheng, zheng, zheng!*
The zither music rose another level—the Thirty-Fifth Kill of Lord Shang's Killing Path Melody!
Earth Emits Killing Intent, Dragons and Snakes Rise from the Land!
The earth cracked open with a *kacha kacha* sound. The killing intent surging from underground moved like winding dragons and snakes!
The Moon Venerable's mouth bled as she urged the Thirty-Sixth Kill!
Man Emits Killing Intent, Heaven and Earth Overturn!
Behind her, the phantom of the thirty-sixth layer of void appeared, flickering and unstable, difficult to solidify. For the Thirty-Seventh Kill of Lord Shang's Killing Path Melody, she no longer had enough strength and foundation to execute it.
The Thirty-Seventh Kill was the crucial ultimate killing intent. However, the Moon Venerable was still lacking some experience, and the final kill could never be plucked.
Just then, layers of dreams spread out, surrounding her. In the dream, the Moon Venerable seemed to become Lord Shang, experiencing Lord Shang's tragic life from his perspective.
The dream seemed long, but in reality, it was only a brief moment.
In that brief moment, the Moon Venerable, in the form of Lord Shang, experienced the twisted world at the end of the Sixteenth Epoch. She understood Lord Shang's obsession, his dream, his hopes, and his despair.
Only by being there could one understand the suffering of Lord Shang's tragic life, understand why his blade was broken by Qin Mu, why his Dao heart collapsed, why he could no longer be the terrifying Killing Path Lord Shang of the Sixteenth Epoch's great destruction calamity!
In the Moon Venerable's thirty-sixth layer of the Dao realm, her phantom appeared and plucked the zither strings.
The Thirty-Seventh Kill of Lord Shang's Killing Path Melody!
Heaven and Man Unite and Act, Ten Thousand Transformations Set the Foundation!
The zither music sounded, the killing path boiled, the Dao was vast and hazy. The Moon Venerable spat blood, the ancient zither exploded, and she also fell flat on her back, but she showed a smile. Her Ultimate Void had achieved the Dao at this moment.
"I can probably play that piece by the Fourth Young Master of the Miluo Palace now."
She lay on her back on the ground, looking at the turbulent killing intent in the sky, and silently said in her heart, "Mu Venerable, in the battle with the Fourth Young Master, I can lend you a hand..."
Qin Mu withdrew his dream, his breath calming down. He looked out the window at the night sky.
In the night sky, a burst of terrifying ultimate killing intent erupted from the One Qi Grand Luo Heaven. A blade light flashed there, cutting through the Primordial One Qi.
Outside the house, the Butcher lay on the ground, looking at that blade light from afar, and couldn't help but smile.
This blade, in the eyes of a grandmaster of the blade path like him, contained too little of the blade's Dao. But the killing path and the blade path were interconnected, giving him a feeling of enlightenment again, learning by analogy.
The blade light was shimmering, so enchanting.
The blade light turned into blood light, dyeing the One Qi Grand Luo Heaven red.
The killing path killed the great Dao of heaven and earth. At this moment, Lord Shang's Dao heart was complete. His Dao was enough to slay the Primordial One Qi Great Dao!
In the One Qi Grand Luo Heaven, the Dao tree split, the Dao flowers dissolved, and the Grand Luo Heaven fell.
Qin Mu closed his eyes, not looking at the final scene, and whispered, "Second Brother, please forgive your younger brother for being unable to see you off due to his condition."
——Thinking about it, I don't know how to say it. Let's just send Second Brother off.