Chapter 755: My Older Sister

Chapter 755: My Sister

When epochs are sundered, mortals of this age receive ancient legacies from fragments of scriptures, and in pondering the traces of gods and demons, they often worship and pursue them.

Yet each person is different.

The Eternal Heaven follows the decrees of the Heavenly God; the Great Shaman Bo'e is the one closest to the divine, speaking for miracles.

The overseas nations, due to the storms of the sea, harbor the most primal hope for the protection of the Sea God, thus forming their faith.

These are followers, or those who submit.

The Four Symbols Sect calls for the return of the Night Emperor, establishing an ancient divine kingdom where heaven and man are one—this is both faith and the pursuit of the Dao. When one closer to the Dao appears, their faith may shift. Aside from the Night Emperor, they hold no reverence for the ancient Four Symbols, having long since assumed those titles for themselves.

Xue Canghai pursues the power of the Blood God, his outward reverence extreme—merely fear and submission to strength, with the unspoken implication that a true man should be thus.

Yuan Cheng simply states outright: anyone can become a Buddha; if I achieve it, I am the Buddha.

They still belong to the followers, but already harbor a hint of challenge, more so the fulfillment of self-pursuit.

Once such pursuit conflicts with the divine, it will likely evolve into rebellion.

There are already many rebels in the world... My body is born of heaven, so I shall walk my own path; what care I for the will of the gods?

Heroes rise together, all alike.

Xia Longyuan was also a rebel at heart, rebelling against the Blind One, ultimately collapsing under the weight of causality—who knows how much of that was threads manipulated by the Blind One, a destined defeat.

More typical is Hai Pinglan, feigning compliance for sixteen years, then rising in a sudden fury, the sea and sky roaring in unison, jade and stone perishing together!

He Changhe is likewise a rebel, and besides him, there is Yuxu.

He has always done unwilling things under the weight of the divine... Once, He Changhe thought his rebellion too mild—that was due to insufficient strength, just as his own rebellion could only amount to washing his face with cleanser and avoiding the Heavenly Book for a time—that was already his limit. Such rebellion in the Blind One's eyes probably seemed no different from a tantrum.

More crucially, for a long time people believed the gods were immortal, especially the greater ones. As representatives of a part of the Heavenly Dao system, they had survived the collapse of epochs—what could you do?

Yuxu could only choose nonviolent noncooperation.

Yet with that arrow over the angry sea, the Sea Emperor fell, a single stone stirring a thousand ripples.

So gods can die too!

Yuxu descended the mountain with resolve, joining the mortal strife. On the surface, he answered the Dao Sovereign's call to descend and establish his path, but secretly he harbored another consideration—if I go to Chang'an, must the Dao Sovereign also leave his secret realm and watch the situation from Chang'an? If so, then he leaves his base, leaves the villains of Kunlun secretly gathered under his banner, leaves the chaos of Kunlun's various regions—only in Chang'an, only you and me!

Is this not a golden opportunity!

Li Shentong, knowing him for decades with tacit understanding, sensed something amiss the moment he descended the mountain and urged He Changhe to go to Chang'an. Without a single word exchanged, they unknowingly formed a scheme.

The old Daoist, always nonviolent and noncooperative, dwelling leisurely in a three-room cloud-water hut—once resolved, he shook the heavens!

At the moment Li Shentong collided with the Dao Sovereign's soul, Yuxu seemed to suffer severe physical damage, spitting out a mouthful of blood. But he paid it no heed; the blood sprayed onto the Dao Sovereign's soul, staining it, instantly turning it into a bloodied figure.

The normally intangible yin-shen seemed, through this stain, to become a vulnerable entity, even the sound of "crack-crack" solidification audible.

"Very well." The Dao Sovereign's voice turned sinister: "Yuxu, you have been scheming and plotting for a long time. Fine, fine, fine..."

Yuxu's face was as pale as gold paper, seemingly gravely wounded, yet his expression was relaxed. He did not answer the Dao Sovereign's words; a longsword suddenly appeared in his hand, tracing an arcane, spiraling trajectory straight for the Dao Sovereign's bloodied chest.

At the same time, Li Shentong's heavy fist also struck toward the Dao Sovereign's flank, perfectly coordinated.

Two "slaps" sounded almost simultaneously. The Dao Sovereign caught Yuxu's sword with one hand and Li Shentong's fist with the other. Both attackers felt their own strikes collide with each other, their forces clashing painfully, yet causing no harm to the Dao Sovereign.

A blood-colored taiji exploded violently, and in an instant, the entire Louguan Terrace was reduced to ashes.

It was not the Dao Sovereign's power, but the power of Li Shentong and Yuxu themselves...

The Dao Sovereign was laughing: "Are you familiar with this move? Before me, all the techniques you know are useless; you are constrained at every turn. You want to rebel against me—impossible. Speaking of which, your disciples in the temple are dead, killed by your own power. How does that feel?"

Before the words faded, laughter came from the side: "You're dreaming."

In everyone's perception, hundreds of Louguan disciples, even servants and cooks, were wrapped in an invisible wind, gently carried toward Chang'an under the night sky.

He Changhe's Wind Control, by now, was as effortless as moving his fingers.

Yuxu revealed a faint smile—this, too, was tacit understanding.

By day, Yuxu had invited him; by night, he came with the wind. What they were all here for, did they not know in their hearts? Even the plan Yuxu used now—solidifying the Dao Sovereign's form with blood wrath—was a kind of coordination for He Changhe, who understood the subtle hint.

Amid laughter, He Changhe raised the Longque again. A violent surge of killing intent and blood wrath erupted, dyeing the sky above Louguan for a hundred li in blood. Almost a ferocious demonic face howled in the void, spreading a wanton, shredding brutality.

Even Li Shentong and Yuxu couldn't help but glance at him; even Huangfu Qing and Yue Hongling, coordinating their attacks nearby, trembled with fear. No one in this world had ever seen such terrifying bloody killing intent, let alone from He Changhe...

The fifth move of the Blood Saber Art, one He Changhe had never used.

Annihilation of All Living!

"Clang!" The Dao Sovereign's blood taiji blocked this strike.

The earlier attacks from Yuxu and Li Shentong had vanished like mud into the sea, but He Changhe, though his cultivation was inferior to theirs, struck with the effect of a critical blow.

The blood-solidified body twisted and leaped wildly, face no longer a face, form no longer a form; the blood wrath surged and boiled uncontrollably, nearly bursting.

"Boom!" The backlash struck fiercely. He Changhe could not fully withstand it, but the Dao Sovereign's expected result—that he would be shaken until he spat blood—did not happen.

He only stepped back once!

The Dao Sovereign quickly sensed that he had fallen into a formation—a trinity of heaven, earth, and man; sun, moon, and stars standing in the firmament. The force he bore was split among the other two corners, each bearing only a third.

Meanwhile, a crimson flash appeared on the left, a sword aura tearing the sky, stabbing at his throat; on the right, a faint glimmer of fire, Southern Brightness Flame erupting directly beneath his feet, the blaze shooting to the heavens.

In front, He Changhe's saber had just rebounded, and the black sword arrived.

Demon Heaven descended upon the night; the universe fell silent. Amid the sword aura and flames, the scene was eerily bizarre—like the final chaotic moments of an apocalypse frozen in time: dusk on the left, silent night on the right, and a Milky Way hanging in the middle, splitting the universe. The next moment, it seemed ready to tear apart or merge—more taiji than their Daoist taiji.

Yuxu and Li Shentong were somewhat dumbfounded—they found themselves pushed outside the triangular formation, out of place, momentarily unsure how to coordinate, relegated from protagonists to supporting roles.

It seemed that this family of three alone could slay the Dao Sovereign here... and in truth, it almost seemed so. That offensive was too terrifying, as if fighting against the entire world. What formation was this?

The Dao Sovereign's bloodied foot stood in the fire, as if rooted in heaven and earth, enduring the flames without perishing. He repeated his earlier trick: the blood taiji spun, guiding Yue Hongling's sword aura and He Changhe's saber aura to collide with each other.

But the saber and sword forces met without conflict; instead, they merged tenderly, forming a new spiral. With a "boom," they shattered the taiji into pieces.

At the same time, the blazing fire suddenly turned into cyan flames, an extreme deathly aura spreading quietly. The Vermilion Bird governs life and death—its power over yin-shen began to show its edge! Before her, nothing undying could exist!

The Dao Sovereign let out a piercing scream, madly breaking through one corner, trying to escape the formation's encirclement.

But a second-tier Imperial Realm is still a second-tier Imperial Realm. With that charge, a soft cloud set heaven and earth spinning. The family of three grunted simultaneously, blood seeping from the corners of their mouths. All three involuntarily turned half a circle, creating a flaw in the formation. The bloodied, formless Dao Sovereign took the chance to burst out.

Absolute power surpasses all skill.

"Clang!" The bloodied figure seemed to hit a wall. Li Shentong's bronze face twisted into an ugly grin: "In the past, the old Daoist argued with me, saying water's softness can melt steel. I knew he was right, but in a split-second clash, soft water cannot break a dam."

In that instant, the Zhao family of three had already retaken their formation positions.

Heaven's net, earth's snare—no escape!

The Dao Sovereign had been silently fighting until now, but at last, his twisted face took on a dark hue: "I did not wish to fight to the death with you... but that does not mean I cannot. If I truly go all out, killing one or two of you is not impossible. Are you ready?"

The bloodied figure slowly turned into pitch-black mist, a ferocious ghost face devouring the Blood God's dharma image He Changhe had just manifested in the sky.

The night of Chang'an had become a demonic heaven.

"So that's it," the Blind One said calmly to Jiuyou. "In Kunlun, you subtly corrupted him."

Jiuyou replied evenly: "A single thought of greed, nothing more. Rather than saying I corrupted him, it is his craving for the Heavenly Book and his obsession to replace the Heavenly Dao that led him to demonhood. If you must attribute it to me, it is only that I honestly reflected the Heavenly Dao's design for me. You and I—why are we symbiotic? You should know. Yet even without me, you gave birth to me in your heart... How did Piaomiao die? You know better than anyone, my sister."