Chapter 260: Slaughter
Tathagata and the Dao Lord were the outstanding figures of the previous era, each having cultivated to the level of gods and buddhas. Had the Divine Bridge not been severed, the two of them would have long since ascended, riding the rosy clouds and leaving this world behind.
Although Emperor Yanfeng was a later-generation upstart of this era, he occupied the Nine Dragon Veins and cultivated within the imperial city, enjoying unique advantages. His training yielded twice the results with half the effort, and his cultivation base was vast and profound, capable of connecting heaven and earth. He was undoubtedly one of the most top-tier experts in the world today!
The Yan Kang Kingdom was hailed as the greatest sacred land in the world, and he, along with the Yan Kang National Teacher, were the sovereign and patriarch of this greatest of sacred lands!
Even so, he was still slightly inferior to Tathagata and the Dao Lord. The reason they joined forces against him was not that they felt inferior to him in skill, but because if they fought one-on-one and Emperor Yanfeng wished to flee, neither of them alone would find it easy to stop him.
But with the two of them working together, they cut off any path of escape for Emperor Yanfeng.
Crack, crack. One bolt of azure lightning after another fell from the clouds in midair. Sizzling arcs of electricity coiled around Emperor Yanfeng's body. Blindingly bright light flashed and swirled. True dragons danced in the sky, and suddenly the nine dragons roared in unison, lunging towards the Dao Lord and Tathagata!
Tathagata chuckled softly. The golden alms bowl flipped over, its mouth facing upward. Instantly, golden light blazed forth, and a host of heavens surged out. A multitude of heavenly gods and buddhas clashed with the streaks of true dragons.
"Old friend, leave the slaying of the emperor to you," Tathagata said with a smile.
The old Dao Lord rested his hand on his sword. The sword light stirred, carrying a wondrous rhythm that exhausted all the movements of the mortal world. He chanted softly, "The Dao nurtures the heavens and the great earth, sustains the ten thousand methods, and unifies all under heaven! Your Majesty, this half-move..."
Before he could finish, two streaks of light flashed across the sky and suddenly came to an abrupt halt. The old Dao Lord quickly restrained his sword, not yet releasing it, and gazed intently. He saw an old man in black hempen robes and a blind man leaning on a bamboo staff standing in midair.
"Tathagata, having a fight?" the blind man asked with a grin.
Tathagata also suppressed the golden light spewing from his alms bowl and said with a faint smile, "Horse King God, Blind Daoist friend, what brings the two of you here?"
Master Ma said coldly, "Looking for someone!"
The blind man tapped his bamboo staff, and the sky shook. The many experts locked in fierce combat all around were startled and quickly stopped. The blind man said with a grin, "The great wind rises, clouds scatter and fly. You all fight in such haste. Gentlemen, I offer my greetings. I apologize for the interruption. Dare I ask if any of you have seen a woman?"
Quan Dingwu, who had been on the receiving end of a beating and barely catching his breath, called out loudly, "Blind man, who are you looking for?"
"A woman, exceptionally beautiful. The kind you can't forget after one look, who takes up residence in your heart and scratches at you all day long."
The blind man sighed emotionally. "This woman is very formidable. An old demon lives inside her heart, committing all sorts of evil. He fell in love with the woman's appearance and plans to seize her body to become a woman herself. As the saying goes, a beauty's face is like jade, and a golden house is fond of hiding a beloved. We were originally taking her to the Great Thunderclap Monastery to have old Tathagata subdue this old demon..."
He talked for a while, but the crowd still didn't understand. Master Ma said, "Blind man, get to the point."
The blind man scratched his head and said, "This woman is the former sect leader's wife and former saintess of the Heavenly Demon Sect. Tathagata wanted to kill the emperor, so he let her go."
Tathagata chuckled. "This old monk was too busy to attend to other matters. I'm sorry I couldn't help."
The blind man said angrily, "If you couldn't handle it, you should have said so earlier. Now it's a mess, and we can't find her anywhere. Have any of you fellow daoists seen the former sect leader's wife of the Heavenly Demon Sect? She's exceptionally good-looking. The moment she speaks, she can charm you to the bone. Has anyone seen her?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Xue Bi'e felt a glimmer of hope and called out loudly, "We are from the Heavenly Saint Sect. We implore the two seniors for help!"
Tathagata's heart tightened. The old Dao Lord inquired, "What background do they have?"
"My senior disciple and the God of the Spear," said the old Tathagata.
The old Dao Lord said in surprise, "So it's the three-eyed Horse Divine Constable and the former Divine Eye. They've aged this much?"
Master Ma shook his head. "Your matters are not as important as our search for someone. We don't want to get involved."
"Whether you kill the emperor or protect the emperor, it's really not as important as our search for someone."
The blind man said with emotion, "If the emperor dies, they'll just replace him with another. But if that demoness gets out, tsk tsk, the whole world will suffer. Emperor, have you seen this sect leader's wife?"
Emperor Yanfeng's expression was grave. He slowly shook his head. "I have not seen her. I dare to ask the two seniors for their assistance?"
The blind man looked a bit disappointed. "Not interested. It's good that you haven't seen her. If you had, you'd just be waiting for calamity to befall your country and your family to be ruined. Old Master Ma, let's go. She shouldn't have gotten far!"
Master Ma nodded. The two of them whooshed away and vanished without a trace.
The crowd was stunned. "What strange senior experts."
The sounds of slaughter rose again.
Tathagata unleashed the light from his golden alms bowl. The twenty heavens soared into the sky. The Dao Lord released his sword light. The power of the fourteenth chapter of the Dao Sword bloomed. The sword light expounded the great Dao of heaven and earth. The sword was like the sky, the sword was like the earth. The sword transformed into the ten thousand methods. The sword transformed into the stars and the celestial sphere. This sword strike embodied the unification of all the great Daos under heaven!
Emperor Yanfeng activated the Nine Dragons Imperial Art. His body was entwined with the auspicious aura of nine dragons. He trod on rosy clouds. The power of any single strike was unimaginably great, capable of splitting mountains and parting seas, reversing the cosmos. He was proficient in a vast number of Dao techniques and divine abilities. He could even casually execute the Dao Sword of the Daoist sect or the Battle Victory Method of the Great Thunderclap Monastery. Any divine ability or Dao technique, once in his hands, seemed to turn the mundane into the miraculous, possessing incredible power.
Even the Li Hen Heaven Sword Art of the Li Qing Palace, a sword technique that only women could cultivate, could be executed by him, and with even greater power.
Even the most ordinary moves became immensely powerful!
Spells, sword techniques, even physical divine abilities—he could execute them all. The power of every strike was like moving mountains and overturning seas!
The Nine Dragons Imperial Art had already been cultivated by him to the level of a god!
The Dao Lord's eyes lit up. His sword technique flowed, attacking Emperor Yanfeng like a violent storm. He praised, "Everyone says the National Teacher is a genius of the Dao, but the world has overlooked Emperor Yanfeng. Your Majesty, you are already a Grandmaster. You could easily establish your own sect and create a sacred land. What a pity!"
Ssssss—
The Dao Sword, carrying the rhythm of the great Dao, broke through Emperor Yanfeng's layer upon layer of defenses, inflicting several wounds on him!
Tathagata saw the opening. The golden alms bowl flipped over, and the twenty heavens pressed down. The pressure of the twenty small worlds within the bowl all bore down on Emperor Yanfeng.
Emperor Yanfeng grunted, resisting the immense pressure of the twenty heavens. His movements became very slow, but the power of his Dao techniques and divine abilities grew stronger and stronger as he contended with the Dao Sword.
This half-move sword technique of the Dao Lord was infinitely variable and left no trace. It pushed the calculation and deduction of divination arts to the extreme, exhaustively deducing the principle of "the Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to the ten thousand things." It fully captured the essence of "three giving birth to the ten thousand things."
However, the Dao Lord's wisdom was finite. Hence, this final move was never fully perfected. He had only mastered half of it. But even this half-move sword technique was enough to break all Dao techniques and divine abilities!
Tathagata suspended the golden alms bowl in the air, intoned a buddhist chant, and said, "The Yan Kang National Teacher has yet to appear, but unforeseen changes are inevitable. It's best to finish this quickly." With that, he shook his body, revealing his sixteen-foot golden form. He lightly sent a palm strike forward. His five fingers shook, and five great mountains pressed down.
At that moment, three hundred li away, Qin Mu was sitting on the back of the Dragon Qilin. This beast was galloping through the air on fiery clouds.
"Faster! Go faster!"
Qin Mu sensed waves of terrifying fluctuations and urged, "If you can run faster, I'll give you three dou of Red Fire Spirit Pills!"
The Dragon Qilin was panting heavily. "Sect Leader, I'm going as fast as I can."
Qin Mu gritted his teeth. "Your speed is far inferior to that Green Ox! That guy runs more than twice as fast as you and can run for ten thousand li without stopping! Fatty Dragon, if you put some effort in, I'll take you to beat up the Green Ox! If you keep being slow, I'll bring the Green Ox to beat you up!"
The Dragon Qilin gritted its teeth and suddenly exerted itself, charging forward with all its might. Fiery clouds erupted from its hooves, greatly increasing its speed, nearly throwing Qin Mu off. After running for thirty or fifty li like this, the Dragon Qilin slowed down again, foaming at the mouth. "Sect Leader, I can't take it anymore!"
Qin Mu was helpless and said viciously, "You're such a glutton. Next New Year's, I'll put you on the dinner table!"
Just as he said this, suddenly two streaks of light, one green and one gray, whooshed past. Qin Mu was startled. The two streaks of light turned back.
"Mu'er, what are you doing here?"
The two streaks of light stopped. Master Ma and the blind man revealed themselves. The blind man said, "If it weren't for my good eyesight, I would have missed you. When did you leave the Great Thunderclap Monastery? Did the monks give you any trouble?"
Qin Mu quickly said, "I left right after you did. Grandpa Blind, Grandpa Ma, something terrible has happened! Tathagata and the others are killing the emperor!"
Master Ma said, "We saw it. It's a small matter. Emperors have been replaced often in the past."
The blind man complained, "Mu'er, don't confuse what's important and what's not. Li Tianxing is the real disaster. If that bastard gets Granny's body, the calamity will be immense. Who could stop her then?"
"I've found Granny. You two don't need to worry. Granny just doesn't want to go back to the Great Wasteland, afraid of causing trouble for you all."
Qin Mu blinked and said, "Could the two of you rescue the emperor?"
Master Ma looked at the blind man. The blind man shook his head. "Difficult. The emperor is probably already dead by now. With Tathagata and the Dao Lord joining forces, even if the Yan Kang National Teacher returned, he would be helpless. By the way, your Heavenly Demon Sect is also there. They'll probably die a miserable death."
Qin Mu gritted his teeth. "The emperor can't die yet. As for the experts of my sect, don't worry about them. They can teleport away at any time. Isn't the Yan Kang National Teacher there?"
"We didn't see him."
Master Ma said, "Tathagata is old, and the Dao Lord is old too. The battle won't last long, or it will consume their remaining lifespan."
The blind man said with a grin, "We're younger than them."
Master Ma nodded.
The blind man laughed. "Then let's go snatch the emperor back. Mu'er, wait here. We'll go snatch the emperor's corpse back for you."
Qin Mu was stunned. "Corpse?"
Master Ma left with him, and his voice came from afar. "With the Dao Lord and Tathagata attacking together, he's definitely dead."
On the battlefield, Tathagata and the Dao Lord attacked together for a quick resolution. Emperor Yanfeng, resisting the assaults of two god-like beings, was repeatedly severely wounded. His qi and blood were still extremely vigorous, but the qi and blood of Tathagata and the Dao Lord were fluctuating unevenly. However, their cultivation bases were truly formidable. In terms of cultivation, both surpassed him by a considerable margin. In terms of combat power, they were also a notch above him. And now, two god-like beings were attacking him together!
Although his qi and blood were still vigorous now, it was only the final flare of a dying lamp.
The Dao Lord and Tathagata also knew this. Their next move would take his life. Just then, a bamboo staff tapped forward. The old Dao Lord hurriedly swung his sword to block. Tathagata also felt the killing intent coming from behind and immediately shone the golden alms bowl backward. With two sounds, *ding* and *dong*, the bamboo staff struck the sword body, and the sword pierced into the alms bowl.
The blind man staggered back and praised, "Good skill. Your cultivation is higher than mine. Just a tiny bit worse than that old Village Chief." With that, he turned and left.
Tathagata and the Dao Lord quickly turned their heads, only to find that Emperor Yanfeng had vanished without a trace.
"No need to chase. Emperor Yanfeng's qi and blood have withered, and all his divine hideouts have been shattered."
Tathagata sighed. "Well, well. Even if he is rescued, he will be nothing but a cripple."
Qin Mu was waiting when suddenly a body was thrown over, landing on the Dragon Qilin's back. "Mu'er, the corpse you asked for has arrived!"