Chapter 1750: The Sandpiper and the Clam Grapple, the Fisherman Profits
In the Ancestral Court, the Heavenly Court had completely collapsed. Huang Tang, Li Shu, and Yan Xiuge fought with bloodshot eyes, forcing the Joy Hall Master and the Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian to flee toward the Heavenly Court army where the Empress Dowager was stationed.
The survivors of the Heavenly Court army were all experts. The Empress Dowager personally led the army to reinforce them, forming a battle formation to block the Three Elders of Feng Shu.
As the Return to Ruins Goddess, the Empress Dowager's strength was naturally extraordinary. She personally engaged Li Shu, planting the Return to Ruins within him, nearly devouring all of the old man's vital energy and Great Dao.
Huang Tang and Yan Xiuge joined forces to neutralize the Return to Ruins divine ability, barely rescuing Li Shu. Enraged, they mobilized hundreds of prehistoric experts to attack, routing the Heavenly Court's seven hundred thousand divine demons.
Even the Empress Dowager could not reverse the Heavenly Court's decline. Forced to retreat, she fell back to the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court.
The Three Elders of Feng Shu led the prehistoric experts in a relentless slaughter. The Heavenly Court army suffered countless casualties, and by the time they reached the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court, only two hundred thousand remained.
Even the Empress Dowager and the Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian felt the despair of being cornered.
The Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court appeared to be situated within the Ancestral Court, but in truth, it spanned across the destruction tribulations of various cosmic epochs. Within the city, no Dao-achievers of the Mi Luo Palace had truly descended into the Seventeenth Epoch. They had to rely on blood sacrifices and mass-energy conversion to descend.
The Joy Hall Master could be considered the only Dao-achiever to have descended into the Seventeenth Epoch, yet she was severely wounded by Shang Jun as soon as she entered.
The Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court was nothing but ruins.
Though the city appeared to have thousands of palaces and halls, countless Dao Trees forming forests, and an eerie, unfathomable atmosphere, no Dao-achiever could actually leave the city. They were all still trapped in the destruction tribulation.
The Empress Dowager and the Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian led the remnants of their army into the city to take shelter. The Three Elders of Feng Shu, blinded by rage, led the prehistoric experts in pursuit. However, as soon as they entered the city, they suffered heavy casualties. Various bizarre events occurred frequently, causing the invading prehistoric experts to die without even knowing how.
The Three Elders of Feng Shu had no choice but to withdraw from the Jade Capital City.
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian finally caught his breath, but he saw the Three Elders of Feng Shu setting up a sealing grand formation outside the city and erecting an altar, preparing to refine the Jade Capital City.
"The Three Elders of Feng Shu truly do not know their limits!"
The Joy Hall Master shook her head and said, "Heavenly Emperor, come with me to cross the river and seek an audience with the Young Master. I was severely wounded by Shang Jun and also struck by that Moon Heavenly Sovereign's killing melody. Only the Young Master can heal my Dao wounds. The Young Master's divine abilities are profound and myriad; killing the Three Elders of Feng Shu would be as easy as turning his hand."
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian agreed, saying, "I was cut down from the Great Luo Heaven realm by Cloud Heavenly Sovereign. I have lost my Dao Tree, Dao Flower, and Great Luo Heaven. Hall Master, could you put in a good word for me before the Third Young Master, so that I might restore my cultivation realm?"
The Joy Hall Master glanced at him with a faint, ambiguous smile and said, "Heavenly Emperor, in the Mi Luo Palace, who hasn't crawled through the threat of death? Everyone in the Mi Luo Palace has experienced more than one defeat in their lives. Some have suffered even greater setbacks than you! They were able to return to the Great Luo Heaven and cultivate Dao Flowers and Dao Fruits. Why can't you?"
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian's voice was hoarse as he said, "They have never experienced a defeat like mine! In my life, I have gone through two great rises and falls, and each time I emerged stronger than before. But this third great defeat is different. Before this defeat, I stood at the pinnacle of power, with an excellent situation. Yet it was dismantled by Cloud Heavenly Sovereign and Mu Heavenly Sovereign, and everything turned to nothing! My Heavenly Court, my authority, and even my cultivation realm—none of it was preserved! In the eyes of everyone, I am nothing but a joke, a laughingstock!"
The Joy Hall Master looked at his dejected yet somewhat manic expression and shook her head, saying, "This is the drawback of cultivating power without cultivating the Dao heart. Heavenly Emperor, your heart is filled only with strength, but your mastery of the Dao heart is lacking. If you cultivated your Dao heart, even if you suffered a defeat a hundred times more vicious than this, you could still rise again. In this world, the one who has suffered the greatest defeat is actually the Teacher, the master of the Mi Luo Palace."
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian was momentarily stunned and shook his head, saying, "The master of the Mi Luo Palace is the strongest being across seventeen cosmic epochs. What defeat could he possibly suffer?"
"The Teacher has the world in his heart and wishes to save all living beings. In terms of martial power, no one is his match. But every destruction tribulation is a tremendous defeat for the Teacher."
The Joy Hall Master taught earnestly: "With each great tribulation, he wants to save humanity, yet every time he fails. He possesses boundless power, but can only watch helplessly as people die before his eyes, rendering his strength useless. That kind of pain is beyond your imagination. Yet after every defeat, the Teacher's Dao heart undergoes tribulation and is reborn, rekindling his fighting spirit. This is what it means to be a master of the Dao heart."
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian asked, "Where is the master of the Mi Luo Palace now?"
The Joy Hall Master fell silent.
After experiencing sixteen defeats, the master of the Mi Luo Palace had finally become disheartened, his Dao heart dead.
"If the Teacher were here, so many things in the Seventeenth Epoch would not have happened, and the Mi Luo Palace would not have been blocked from descending to the Seventeenth Epoch for so long."
She sighed softly and went with the Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian to the Chaos Long River.
On the river, the chaotic energy churned violently, with surging waves more intense than before.
The Joy Hall Master was puzzled. She activated her Dao Tree to stabilize the heat-death wind and the churning chaotic energy. Just then, she saw the Mi Luo Palace's Third Young Master, Fourth Young Master, and the other hall masters of the Mi Luo Palace.
These experts of the Mi Luo Palace were within the destruction tribulation, all gazing in one direction.
The Joy Hall Master stepped forward with the Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian, quickly paying her respects, and said, "Joy is incompetent and failed to fulfill the Young Master's and fellow Daoists' entrusted tasks."
The Third Young Master raised his hand and said, "No need for formalities. The defeat in this battle is not your fault. This time, three people from the Mi Luo Palace descended to the Seventeenth Epoch, and only you survived. Surviving is your merit, so that we can proceed with what comes next. Other variables have arisen this time, and even if you had presided over the great sacrifice, it would have been futile."
The Joy Hall Master was puzzled.
The Third Young Master, Ling Xiao, looked grave and said solemnly, "This variable is something even Zi Xiao and I did not anticipate. The old thing beneath the World Tree has come back to life."
The Joy Hall Master's heart trembled, and she dared not speak further. She had once heard that the old man beneath the World Tree had even been sought out by the master of the Mi Luo Palace for guidance, and was extremely mysterious! Later, the master of the Mi Luo Palace seemed to have sensed something and gradually distanced himself from the old man beneath the tree.
Following everyone's gaze, her heart pounded violently, and she exclaimed, "The Second Young Master!"
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian also quickly looked. On the Chaos Long River, a section of the river's surface stood upright like a steep cliff. There, two lotus leaves and a lotus flower floated on the cliff-like river surface.
The lotus leaves and flower were enormous, and faintly visible were the lotus roots plunging into the Chaos Long River, drawing energy! The roots were very fine, thousands upon thousands of strands, and the lotus joints were long, but only two sections, like a monster lurking in the river.
"That is not the Second Young Master, Wu Ji, but the Seventh Young Master, Hun Dun."
The Fourth Young Master, Zi Xiao, said calmly, "If it were the Second Young Master, his strength would be far more terrifying."
The other hall masters' expressions changed slightly, and they remained silent, clearly recalling the terror of the Second Young Master, Wu Ji.
"The Seventh Young Master, Hun Dun?"
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian shuddered, "Mu Heavenly Sovereign! Has his strength already reached this level?"
Besides the Return to Ruins Lotus, they also saw the vision of the World Tree. That World Tree was not as massive as they had imagined, but it was still extraordinary, several times larger than the Return to Ruins Lotus. It was attacking the lotus, making the plant precarious.
"The one contending with the Seventh Young Master is that old monster beneath the World Tree, the Boundless Old Man."
The Third Young Master said, "He is the incarnation of the World Tree, extremely powerful, with the deepest knowledge and foundation. In the past, the Teacher held him in high regard, but later they parted ways. This time, our blood sacrifice was disrupted because of his meddling."
He turned around and erased the ultimate killing intent and Shang Jun's residual killing Dao from the Joy Hall Master's wounds, saying indifferently, "He was dead but not decayed, stealing the energy of the blood sacrifice for his own use. As a result, most of the sixty billion years of blood sacrifice in the Seventeenth Epoch was intercepted by him. This is why the Dao-achievers of the Mi Luo Palace have had such difficulty descending. Now that he has been reborn and the World Tree has regrown, as the number of Dao-achievers in the Seventeenth Epoch increases, his strength will slowly recover."
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian suddenly understood.
The Boundless Old Man beneath the World Tree had released so many prehistoric experts precisely to let them achieve Dao in the Seventeenth Epoch! The Boundless Old Man was the incarnation of the World Tree, and the Dao Trees of Dao-achievers were imitations of the World Tree. The more Dao-achievers there were, the faster the Boundless Old Man's strength would recover!
In the Seventeenth Epoch universe, after the Yan Kang reforms, the transformation of Dao techniques and divine abilities had undergone a qualitative change. Especially after the new generation of Heavenly Sovereigns like Lan Yu Tian and Xu Sheng Hua created and perfected the Ancestral Court Dao Realm system, achieving Dao no longer relied on external factors or the Void. Instead, it was achieved internally, analyzing the foundation of the World Tree and cultivating a World Tree within the body.
If Yan Kang gained the upper hand and promoted this method of achieving Dao throughout the world, in the future, there would be no Dao-achievers who cultivated Dao Trees and relied on the Void. The Boundless Old Man's cultivation would likely stop there.
The Mi Luo Palace's strength was too great, and the Young Masters were the most top-tier existences of each cosmic epoch. The Boundless Old Man could not control this power. If the Mi Luo Palace descended to the Seventeenth Epoch, he would only become their vassal.
Therefore, he intercepted the energy of the Third Young Master Ling Xiao's blood sacrifice, protecting a group of prehistoric experts as they sneaked into the Seventeenth Epoch.
These prehistoric experts were often at the Heavenly Sovereign level of combat power, only one step away from achieving Dao.
When they achieved Dao in the Seventeenth Epoch, the Boundless Old Man's strength would continuously increase, eventually dominating the Seventeenth Epoch!
"This game involves three parties."
The Fourth Young Master, Zi Xiao, said unhurriedly, "The Boundless Old Man's side, the Mi Luo Palace's side, and the Seventh Young Master's Yan Kang. Among the three, Yan Kang is the weakest, and the Mi Luo Palace is the strongest. However, because the Mi Luo Palace is trapped in the destruction tribulation and cannot descend to the Seventeenth Epoch, the power they can exert is actually the smallest."
The Third Young Master said, "The Boundless Old Man can exert the greatest power. After he defeats the Seventh Young Master and sends him to the past, he can dominate the Seventeenth Epoch, forever preventing the Mi Luo Palace from descending."
The Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian's heart pounded wildly: "Three powers contending for supremacy, Mu Heavenly Sovereign certainly has no chance of winning. No matter what, he cannot contend with the other two. As they say, a rare commodity is worth hoarding. This Boundless Old Man seems more promising than the Mi Luo Palace. If I were to defect to him and gain his support..."
Suddenly, his mind exploded as he recalled something. Was he truly the rare commodity the Boundless Old Man needed?
The Boundless Old Man had the support of so many prehistoric experts; he had no need for him at all!
Right now, aside from the two hundred thousand remnants of the Heavenly Court's defeated army, he had nothing!
Someone like him, the Boundless Old Man would not even glance at!
The only one he could rely on was the Mi Luo Palace!
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He was already completely bound to the Mi Luo Palace's interests and could not extricate himself.
"However, the Seventh Young Master's strength cannot be underestimated."
The Third Young Master, Ling Xiao, said calmly, "The remnant of Tian Du, Tai Yi, once cut down the World Tree, suppressed the Boundless Old Man, single-handedly blocked the stowaways, and hindered the Mi Luo Palace's descent plan for sixty billion years. After the Seventh Young Master grew up, he left the World Tree to provoke the Teacher and was struck down to the Fourth Epoch. In the Sixteenth Epoch, he was suppressed by Senior Brother Tai Shang. Senior Brother Tai Shang was elusive, disappearing after suppressing Tai Yi. But not long ago, Senior Brother Tai Shang returned."
The other hall masters' expressions changed drastically. They exchanged glances, a hint of worry in their hearts.
"Senior Brother Tai Shang's return means Tai Yi has already escaped."
The Fourth Young Master, Zi Xiao, took over, saying, "The Seventh Young Master contending with the Boundless Old Man will certainly not be his match. After Tai Yi escapes, he will definitely not stand idly by. Historically, the Seventh Young Master's attitude toward Tai Yi has always been ambiguous, and he has also been entangled with the Dao Desecrators. Their relationship is suspicious. Tai Yi will surely act to save him. The moment Tai Yi makes his move..."
He exchanged a knowing smile with the Third Young Master, Ling Xiao.
"That will be the moment we severely wound the Boundless Old Man, severely wound Tai Yi, and send the Seventh Young Master back to the past!"