Chapter 691: Two Powerhouses Clash in Sorcery
Those were two beings with Imperial Throne-level strength engaging in cross-realm sorcery combat. Their use of techniques and divine abilities was simple yet grand, adhering to the principle that the greatest Dao is the simplest and most straightforward. Their attacks and defenses had few variations in divine abilities, yet they could unleash power and might that countless cultivators and gods and demons could never hope to match.
This was Dao realm sorcery—simple, effective, without unnecessary changes. Qin Mu's Calamity-Opening Sword was the mark of his gateway to entering the Dao through the sword.
However, Qin Mu had only comprehended one move. After executing it, he had no follow-up sword techniques to continue. But Heavenly Lady Yin and the Yin Emperor wielded their techniques effortlessly. Though they fought across the barrier between worlds, their moves were dazzling and varied, with few repetitions.
The emperor battling Heavenly Lady Yin was indeed, as she had said, a gentle and refined man. Though he possessed an imperial bearing, he was not at all overbearing or arrogant.
He was very handsome, with large eyes and long, narrow eyelids like phoenix eyes. His beard resembled the character "eight" written by a master calligrapher, full of charm.
He was the Yin Emperor, the one who had once ambushed Heavenly Lady Yin and seized control of the Yin Realm.
"Though you have been dead for so many years, it seems you have turned misfortune into fortune," the Yin Emperor said, unable to breach the Yin Realm after a prolonged battle. He suddenly laughed. "Your current understanding of the Dao has surpassed the past. Fighting across realms, I truly cannot defeat you. So I must resort to a trick."
Suddenly, the Yin Realm's winds and clouds shifted violently. Countless black sands surged, pouring into the Yin Realm from various heavens. Countless demonic monsters transformed from starving ghosts charged madly toward Heavenly Lady Yin. In an instant, the entire sea was covered with rampaging starving ghosts!
Not only that, but all the soul black sands in the Yin Realm pressed down on Heavenly Lady Yin at once. The Yin Realm, that massive starving ghost, was about to awaken.
The Yin Realm could no longer see a single glimmer of light, plunging into complete darkness.
Heavenly Lady Yin let out a soft laugh. Suddenly, she tossed the Heavenly Dipper into the air and gave it a gentle flick. The Heavenly Dipper spun wildly in the sky, and the entire Yin Realm began to spin and turn upside down!
The sea crashed upward into the sky with a roar, the earth hung inverted, and the dome of heaven became an empty land. Countless starving ghosts flailed and were flung into the air, but as heaven and earth reversed again, they were slammed back down hard.
The spinning Heavenly Dipper drove the entire Yin Realm, tossing the starving ghosts up and down, leaving them no time to attack Heavenly Lady Yin. The soul black sands were also shaken apart, and the Yin Realm, that massive starving ghost, could not attack her at all.
The Yin Emperor sighed, and his figure gradually faded into the darkness of the Nether Capital.
"You have indeed broken free from the shackles of innate divinity, even learning my Dao techniques and divine abilities from my Heavenly Dipper. I am even more curious about that friend of yours who resurrected you. Who is he, to accomplish such a remarkable feat..."
His face sank into the darkness and vanished. "But you still cannot subdue the starving ghosts or control the Yin Realm."
He was a man who knew when to advance and retreat. Realizing he could not enter the Yin Realm or use the starving ghosts to suppress Heavenly Lady Yin, he decisively stopped his futile efforts and conserved his strength.
Heavenly Lady Yin breathed a sigh of relief. She raised a finger and gently tapped. The spinning Heavenly Dipper slowly came to a halt. At that moment, the Yin Realm pressed down on her again!
"How can I slay this massive starving ghost of the Yin Realm and bring the Yin Realm back under my control?"
Heavenly Lady Yin was filled with worry.
Though she could prevent the Yin Emperor from invading, the Yin Realm was still not under her control. The one who controlled the Yin Realm remained the Yin Emperor.
Unless she could resolve the Yin Realm's predicament, reclaiming it would be exceedingly difficult.
The Yin Realm's predicament was that it was a no-man's land, beyond the jurisdiction of both Lord Tu and Lord Heaven. This made the Yin Realm independent and transcendent, yet fraught with hidden dangers.
The starving ghosts, perpetually in a state of hunger, would devour all living beings. As long as the Yin Realm remained in Lord Heaven's shadow, its predicament would persist—corpses would litter the land, and starving ghosts would consume everything.
"What is the key to resolving the starving ghost problem?"
Heavenly Lady Yin sat by the sea, idly propping her chin on her hand. The pagoda stood tall, suppressing the Yin Realm's disturbances, as she pondered. "If I cannot solve this problem, I will always be alone. No other living being can survive in the Yin Realm except me. Only if living beings can survive here can I possibly resolve the predicament... If only the Grand Sorcerer were here; perhaps he could come up with an idea..."
She thought deeply. The starving ghost problem was the root of the Yin Realm's predicament. Now that she was no longer a perfect innate divinity, she could learn other divine abilities and perhaps find a solution.
If she could not solve the starving ghost problem, she could only remain trapped here. If she left, the Yin Emperor would seize the opportunity to take the Yin Realm, leaving her homeless.
At the source of the Surge River in the Great Ruin, Qin Mu did not share Heavenly Lady Yin's troubles. The battle between Heavenly Lady Yin and the Yin Emperor across realms, with the Yin Realm's heaven and earth repeatedly turning upside down, did not affect the Great Ruin.
Though the Heavenly Dipper had the power to control the invasion of darkness, the Great Ruin was currently in daylight, and darkness could not invade during the day.
"How can we know whether Heavenly Lady Yin won or lost?" He Yiyi asked worriedly. "If we enter the Yin Realm to investigate, it's fine if she won, but if she lost, we'd be walking into a trap."
Qin Mu looked at the cliff and said, "Wait until nightfall. If she wins, perhaps the darkness will no longer invade the Great Ruin. If she loses, the darkness will continue."
Yan Jingjing sat beside him, watching the cliff with him. Qin Mu continued, "Heavenly Lady Yin's victory or defeat concerns not only the Yin Realm and the Great Ruin but, I think, the fate of all worlds and all heavens. The Yin Realm is occupied by soul black sands. If the soul black sands cannot be completely resolved, then as they accumulate across heaven and earth, all worlds will eventually become realms ruled by starving ghosts. At that point, the Yin Emperor will be the ruler of all worlds."
Yan Jingjing and He Yiyi shuddered.
They had already heard Qin Mu's account of his experiences in the Yin Realm and knew the origins of the soul black sands and starving ghosts.
The black sands were the product of shattered souls.
Starving ghosts were an indestructible, immortal type of evil ghost formed from the black sands, perpetually in a state of hunger, knowing only devouring and killing.
If more and more shattered souls accumulated across the worlds, more soul black sands would form, creating unkillable starving ghosts. Neither cultivators nor ordinary people could resist their invasion. If the Yin Emperor controlled and manipulated these starving ghosts, even gods and demons would be no match.
Over time, all worlds and heavens would fall, all living beings would face extinction, and everything would sink into silence and darkness!
"Can she resolve the soul black sands and starving ghosts?" Yan Jingjing asked. "The Yin Emperor is the Black Emperor of the Nether Capital. He is very powerful. Can Heavenly Lady Yin defeat him? If she cannot, then nothing else matters."
"Heavenly Lady Yin has been dead for many millennia and may not be a match for the Yin Emperor, but if he wants to kill her, he must personally descend into the Yin Realm," Qin Mu said. "As long as he cannot breach the Yin Realm, Heavenly Lady Yin can hold him off. It shouldn't be too much of a problem."
He Yiyi frowned. "Even if she holds him off, she probably can't deal with those starving ghosts. If she had a way to handle them, she wouldn't have let the Yin Realm fall into such trouble, nor would she have been devoured by them."
Qin Mu said, "The Yin Realm's problem is just a small issue. She will surely find a solution."
Yan Jingjing looked at him with sparkling eyes, curious. "If it were you, how would you solve it?"
"Simple. Starving ghosts fear the sun. In the Great Ruin, as soon as the sun comes out, the starving ghosts and darkness retreat together, hiding in other heavens or the Yin Realm. Clearly, starving ghosts cannot withstand sunlight," Qin Mu said. "Just hang a sun in the Yin Realm, and it will keep the starving ghosts subdued. With the sun shining day and night, the starving ghosts will be suppressed to one corner of the Yin Realm and unable to cause trouble."
Yan Jingjing's eyes widened. "That simple? Surely she will think of this solution."
Qin Mu nodded matter-of-factly. "She is very clever. Even if she can't find a sun, she can borrow light by chiseling a hole. Just poke a hole in Lord Heaven's sole, and she can borrow his radiance."
Yan Jingjing couldn't help laughing. "That would hurt. Lord Heaven wouldn't like it."
"I think Lord Heaven might be willing, and even if he isn't, he can't do much about it."
"Why?"
"He can't find the Yin Realm," Qin Mu said. "Besides, if his sole gets a hole, his light will shine into the Yin Realm, turning it into part of the Xuan Capital. Then there would be no 'Yin of Heaven,' and one weakness would be eliminated. But in that case, the Yin Realm might cease to exist."
He continued watching the cliff, his expression calm. "The two methods I mentioned are not fundamental solutions to the starving ghost calamity—they only treat the symptoms, not the root cause. To truly resolve the starving ghost calamity, the starving ghosts must be destroyed. The Book of Life and Death refined by the Yin Emperor won't work either; it cannot eliminate starving ghosts or black sands. The soul black sands and starving ghosts originate from the Yin of Heaven, so the only one who can deal with them is Heavenly Lady Yin."
The two women nodded gently.
That day seemed unbearably long. The sun appeared to hang stubbornly in the west, unwilling to set. Everyone waited anxiously until finally, the sun slowly sank below the horizon.
Qin Mu stared nervously at the cliff. Suddenly, darkness surged out from the cliff, quickly engulfing them and sweeping across the entire Great Ruin.
Qin Mu's heart sank. "She lost..."
At that moment, the human skin beside him broke free from its restraints, unfurling. The Kai Emperor's divine form swelled like inflating, curiously looking around.
Yan Jingjing radiated divine light to block the darkness, glancing at Qin Mu's face. She saw the young man's expression darken, tinged with sadness and melancholy.
The Kai Emperor looked at his neck, where a strange necklace hung. Beside him lay a wooden sign and a charcoal stick.
"What happened?" the Kai Emperor wrote on the wooden sign, holding it up to ask.
Qin Mu was silent. The Kai Emperor raised the sign again. "How did the battle go? Who won?"
Qin Mu sighed and walked alone into the darkness. The Kai Emperor looked bewildered and raised his sign. "What did I miss?"
No one answered him.
He was about to raise the sign again when suddenly, Qin Mu's figure in the darkness trembled slightly, his eyes brightening. He laughed, "There are very few starving ghosts in the darkness!"
Yan Jingjing, He Yiyi, and the Kai Emperor were all stunned. Yan Jingjing was about to speak when the Kai Emperor had already raised his sign. "What do you mean?"
"This guy talks too much!" Yan Jingjing and He Yiyi were both astonished. Even when writing on a sign, if he were speaking aloud, no one else could get a word in.
—Hey, the ones reading this are indeed you handsome and dashing fellows again. Since you've read this far, how about casting a vote?