Chapter 899: Chapter 622: Gathering Storm
Yan Ming Realm Venerable’s expression grew darker and darker.
He sneered, "A mere rabble—do you really think Tianxia has produced a Lu Chenzhou who can defy the heavens and rewrite fate? Just because two Realm Kings have died? The four of us are still alive and well."
Thunder Realm King said, "Why don’t we start by killing a few soft targets to make an example? I know where the old man of Fishing Mountain is hiding. That old bastard must hate us for annexing his home world. He’d been enduring it before, but now with Tianxia on the rise, relying on their power, he dares come out and contend with us."
"No. Leave them for now. Lu Chenzhou’s reputation is like the midday sun, and the sentiments of many civilizations have been stirred by Tianxia. If we kill the old man of Fishing Mountain at this critical juncture, it might have the opposite effect. We keep silent and feign weakness for now. Once I take the Third Step, we’ll launch a grand campaign and strive to eradicate Lu Chenzhou."
"Best to use a secret technique to enslave him. We need Lu Chenzhou’s Void Dao to open the Realm Tower gate."
...
Flame Bright Great World.
The red Divine Sword stood like a mountain peak, spanning heaven and earth.
Yan Ming Realm Venerable sat cross-legged at the summit, mysterious and intricate crimson Dao Essence coiling around him, causing his aura to climb ever higher, rolling skyward like a raging wolf-smoke.
All around him, piles of pure white powder, the remains of tens of thousands of High Grade Primordial Stones drained of power.
"I have now completed ten bloodline awakenings. Once my realm stabilizes, I’ll be in the late stage. My Fire Dao is at the peak of the Seventh Rank—at best, three years; at worst, ten. I am sure to comprehend the Eighth Rank Dao."
Ten awakenings plus Eighth Rank Dao means I can contend with the Third Step. With the clan’s sacred artifact, I am invincible under the heavens.
"World Master."
An old woman with red hair appeared silently, radiating the aura of the early stage of the Eighth Realm.
She was the previous generation’s Realm Venerable consort, and also Yan Ming Realm Venerable’s mother. Skilled in divination and omen-reading, she knew a little of the Destiny Dao. Thus, within the clan, she usually served as High Priest, responsible for communicating with the slumbering spirit of the clan’s sacred artifact and conveying divine will.
Yan Ming Realm Venerable’s brows furrowed slightly.
"What is it?"
"Last night, I communed with the Divine Spirit, borrowing Divine Power, and divined the Divine Race’s future. I saw the Divine Sword shattered, Flame Bright collapsing, Realm Kings falling like rain... Perhaps, in this war, we are mistaken. While it has not yet escalated to an Eight Realms war, World Master, it would be best to stop here."
The old woman sighed faintly.
Yan Ming Realm Venerable scoffed.
"Even you don’t believe in me?"
"I believe in you, but I trust the spirit of the Divine Artifact even more. The divine see farther than we ever could."
Yan Ming Realm Venerable laughed.
His expression was complicated; he spoke coldly, "Bullshit! I don’t believe in fate. This so-called destiny is just a con. Chi Ji God was the Destiny Daoist Lord, yet he couldn’t change his own death, could he?
During the Great Wilderness Period, the Dao Palace had a master. No matter how hard we, the divine offspring, cultivated, we could not become gods. Now is the Great Destruction Era—Great Cosmos reorders itself anew. This is the best of times. With the heritage of the Divine Court, we are a step ahead.
If I can completely refine the clan’s sacred artifact and take the lead in becoming a demigod, if I then unite the Five Elements, Wind and Thunder, and the Eight Great Divine Clans, we can hope to restore chaos, attain divine enthronement in this new era, reclaim the divine authority stolen by the Evil God, gather all powers unto myself, and become the strongest in the universe. I’ve long since seen the truth—becoming a god still does not mean ruling destiny.
From the Divine Enthronement of the Ancient Times to the Ancient Divine War, everything was but a few people’s conspiracy. Even the divine live within the cage built by the Great Cosmic Will. Only by becoming the master of that cage and ruling the Great Cosmic Will does one have the right to declare, ’My fate is mine and not the heavens.’"
The old woman stood stunned in her place.
"World Master, you... you’re mad."
She had originally thought the World Master only sought to use war to reach for demigodhood.
She’d never imagined he would covet the Great Cosmic Will itself. That was truly unthinkable.
This is taboo!
"Mother, you are old now, your eyes clouded, unable to see ahead... The Divine Race thrives by bloodline, and is doomed by bloodline. Everything I do is to escape the shackles of blood and let our people walk out from Bi Fang’s shadow. It should be us wielding the Divine Sword, not the Sword wielding us. I still wish you could be my lighthouse, just as you were when I was a child."
"Yuan’er..." the old woman called the Realm Venerable by his childhood name. The next instant, she looked down at her chest with a complicated expression, as a massive hand pierced through and drew out a heart, burning with red flames.
The old woman’s body combusted, at last transforming into a single Bi Fang Red Feather radiating divine light.
Yan Ming Realm Venerable planted it into his own heart. Within his chest cavity, there was already a larger Bi Fang Red Feather.
That one belonged to his father.
"Now you are reunited within my heart."
Flames burned in his eyes. Faintly, he saw the red Dao Palace towering above the sky, and the sun-blotting bones of the Bi Fang scattered across the palace steps.
Before the Dao Palace, bones piled high.
"So this is the Eighth Rank. I have already seen the road to the Third Step, and I have also seen Lu Chenzhou and the Tianxia Civilization’s... death star."
The High Priest’s mysterious death.
Soon spread throughout the Great World.
From then on, within the Red Feather Divine Race, none dared urge Yan Ming Realm Venerable to stop the war.
...
The upper echelons of Thunder Realm, Xuanshan Realm, and Gale Realm were also fiercely debating whether to continue the war, splitting into two sects.
Yet the war faction remains dominant. Lei Wanliu and Qiu Kuangyi are strong, but neither is of the Eighth Realm. As long as the civilization’s pillar, the Realm Venerable, stands, there is nothing to fear.
...
"Martial King Lu Chenzhou, is it? This little fellow has grown stronger. With my Seventh Rank Illusion Realm Dao attainments, without outside aid, to hunt him is nearly hopeless. Who would have thought—myself a Heavenly Gu, a Second Step power, yet to kill a Seventh Realm demands such effort."
Somewhere in the Mystic Sky Realm, a Daoist withdrew his hand from the brain of a mine slave saved by Lu Chenzhou.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Seems I ought to speak with the Thunder Realm Venerable."
The Heavenly Gu Daoist has betrayed his elder mother, is now wanted by the Forbidden Zone Star Palace with nowhere to go, but he does not care. He wants only to intercept Lu Chenzhou’s fortune—once it is his, all else is empty clouds.
...
"Interesting. A Seventh Realm body, yet with quasi-Eighth Realm combat power, shattering the Divine Alliance’s reputation. What is the secret of this little fellow?"
Within the Ruins Sea, Hei Zhou sails through the boundless. The girl in black gauze strokes the black cat in her arms; in her palm, a compass-like divine talisman marks the location of the Yaochi Immortal.
"If I wish to act, it must be before this one advances to the Eighth Realm. Lu Chenzhou’s Eighth Realm tribulation will surely shake Mystic Sky—impossible to hide. Though I have Third Step power, even a lion must use its full strength to hunt a rabbit. Best to strike when he undergoes tribulation. This kid has mastered too many Daos—far too slippery."
Hei Zhou cuts through the void, heading for Mystic Sky.
...
"At last, the ritual is prepared."
Somewhere by the Star Dome Sea, an eerie and ancient altar took shape on an asteroid a thousand miles in diameter. Blood drenched every inch of earth—human, demon, over three billion souls in all.
"Now, so many Second Step and Third Step powers are emerging in the Three Thousand Realms that it’s truly hard to find offerings. If not for my Seventh Rank Causality, veiling fate, I’d have been captured by Kunxu Ancestor in the Bitter Bamboo World. That old man—half a foot into Great Power’s threshold; truly terrifying."
Wangyue Demon Saint still had lingering fear.
"Luckily, I’ve refined the Eighth Rank, Lower Grade ’Curse and Resentment Treasure Robe.’ It should raise my chances of success by thirty percent."
Curse and Resentment Treasure Robe.
With the resentment of countless living beings as its substrate, causality as the thread, it is woven. A single robe requires endless effort and resources; it is a consumable treasure, usable three to five times at most.
"The Curse and Resentment Robe, the Evil Star Array, and my Bloodline Great Divine Power ’Heavenly Toad Poison Curse’ cast with Seventh Rank Dao and burning divine blood—against any ordinary Seventh Realm, death is certain if cursed. Lu Chenzhou has fortune’s blessing, but still short of Eighth Realm; even so, the curse’s lethality should reach seventy percent." Wangyue Demon Saint calculated carefully. "I’ll curse once first—if it fails, I’ll immediately retreat and hide. When Lu Chenzhou undergoes tribulation, I’ll strike with a double curse to kill in one go!"
He was very cautious.
Lu Chenzhou was a formidable foe.
And he only had three chances.
"Let’s begin."
Wangyue Demon Saint’s whole body suffused with Causality Dao Essence, enveloping the asteroid. Suddenly, the asteroid came alive, becoming a colossal toad, bristling with countless warts and holes filled with the faces of resentful humans and demons, hundreds of millions of hands stretching out—deeply unsettling.
The Curse and Resentment Robe fluttered without wind.
Relying on the power of the array and treasure robe, a strange resonance formed, causing Wangyue Demon Saint’s aura to ascend, nearly reaching the late stage. Not only that, his Seventh Rank Causality Dao was sublimated, his consciousness rising, nearing the Eighth Rank.
"This is a curse close to a Third Step power. Even a Second Step might die instantly—may it succeed at once."
Wangyue Demon Saint pressed his palms together; the toad’s hundreds of millions of arms plunged into the Causality lines of the myriad beings within Mystic Sky, searching. At this level, no specific medium is needed.
So long as one is in Mystic Sky, one can be cursed directly!
Children’s tricks like that of Yu Tong are nothing compared to this.
"Found him."
Pale hands grasped a golden thread extending in all directions, interwoven with the causality of many Divine Race, Mystic Sky natives, and Tianxia’s people.
The owner of the thread was Lu Chenzhou.
Wangyue Demon Saint’s expression grew grave. He gathered ninety-nine percent of his demonic power; Causality Dao Essence coated the golden thread as he chanted, sweating profusely, painting all kinds of toxic particles onto the line. Lord Toad does not only command causality—his attainments in severe poison are not much weaker than a Holy Lord’s; he is infamous for causality, so people forget he is a supreme poison. Wangyue’s Poisonous Dao is likewise at the Sixth Rank.
He gave a sinister, chilling laugh:
"Lu Chenzhou, didn’t expect this, did you? This Demon Saint gives you a deal—buy one, get one free: two killing moves combined. Even if you survive the curse, you cannot survive the venom. There will be a way to die fit especially for you."
A seamless curse—utterly perfect!
To die by this Dao, Lu Chenzhou would have no regrets.
"Heavenly Toad Finger!"
Wangyue Demon Saint pointed into the void.
At once, a ghostly light flashed down the thread of causality, ignoring all space and time, descending upon the continent.
Meanwhile—
Lu Chenzhou was feasting with wine, delighting in merriment.
Recently, the Tianxia army had swept through five minor Divine Race mines; the Divine Race could only keep retreating, now bunkered at the Eastern Extreme Border Tower.
The situation was wholly in their favor.
"Come, come, down this cup with me."
Lu Chenzhou suddenly felt a pang of foreboding; his cup spilled as he collapsed, losing all control over his body. His flesh was so dense, he shattered the earth for miles all around.
"Military Leader?!"
A group of powerhouses rushed to surround him.