Chapter 339 - 315: The True Heaven’s Will
Two torrents of Yang God power, representing the zenith of might in the Cangque Realm, collided like two stars burning to their absolute limit.
Every move was a manifestation of the Great Dao, heralded by the roar of Laws.
Across the Celestial Vault, two vast oceans of light—one golden-white, the other pale gold—crashed violently into each other!
A collision of Pure Yang Dao Principles, refined to their utmost purity!
"BOOM—!!!"
The cataclysmic sound defied all description, like the primordial thunder at the dawn of creation, resonating deep within the Divine Soul Origin of every living being.
The pure yang aftershocks manifested as visible, tangible golden rings of impact, spreading out madly in rings and layers at speeds beyond sound!
Wherever they passed, mountains were moved and rivers altered. The land, as if tilled repeatedly by a colossal, invisible plow, churned up titanic waves of earth that were instantly melted by the intense heat into crimson lakes of magma!
Rivers were severed, lakes boiled dry, and forests instantly carbonized before turning to ash!
The Imperial City?
The magnificent complex of buildings, once a symbol of the Great Cang Dynasty’s supreme authority, was as fragile as a sandcastle before such aftershocks.
Towering palace walls crumbled in droves, their carved beams and painted pillars turning to dust.
Only a few core areas, precariously protected by the Arrays Qi Yun had laid in advance, survived. Even so, their Spiritual Light flickered wildly, threatening to give out at any moment.
In a matter of moments, the entire Imperial City had been reduced to a ruin of golden flames and flowing lava!
The sky was no longer blue. It was now a terrifying, yet mesmerizing, tapestry of destruction woven from raging streams of golden energy and intersecting spatial rifts.
The sun and moon vanished, the stars dimmed.
It was as if all the world’s light had converged upon that pure yang battlefield of constant collision, annihilation, and regeneration.
The figures of the Yang Gods flickered in and out of existence,
each Manifestation accompanied by an earth-shattering roar and the complete collapse of vast swathes of space.
Their battle had long transcended the realm of mortals; it was more like dozens of mobile, colliding "miniature worlds"!
The entire Cangque Realm groaned, trembled, and teetered on the brink of collapse.
If not for the Array Disc, modified by the [Heaven-Deceiving Array], barely maintaining stability in some regions,
the aftershocks of this climactic duel alone would have been enough to shatter this mortal world and plunge it into primordial chaos!
And just then—at the very instant the battle reached its zenith, as a maelstrom of destruction swept through Heaven and Earth, threatening to shake the very foundations of the [Cang Que] world—
Qi Yun stood firm in the void at the battlefield’s edge, a chaotic light swirling around him and shielding him completely from the violent aftershocks.
He paid little attention to the world-destroying duel between the Yang Gods.
Instead, his brow furrowed as he sensed something far more fundamental.
Suddenly!
An immense pressure descended without warning.
It was serene, indifferent, and as cold as the first frost of eternally unmelting Profound Ice.
It was seventy to eighty percent similar to the previous "gaze of celestial will"—a gaze with clear manipulative intent, as cold and efficient as an executioner’s—yet it was fundamentally different.
It lacked the sense of deliberation and purpose, possessing instead the natural, all-encompassing indifference of... the Celestial Dao.
It was as if an ancient will, slumbering for countless eons, had been jolted awake by a violent "pain" and "chaos" that touched upon the world’s very origin.
Slowly, with the initial confusion of awakening and an age-old apathy, it cast its gaze toward this corner of the world, a corner undergoing a violent "lesion."
Qi Yun’s body trembled slightly.
He snapped his head up, his eyes shining with an unprecedented, brilliant light.
"Just as I thought... just as I thought!"
He muttered to himself, his voice laced with a long-suppressed sense of relief and excitement.
’It wasn’t for nothing. My sixty years of planning, of painstakingly using the Great Cang Dynasty to lay this world-shaking Grand Array... ’
’...of triggering the karmic debt of countless beings across generations, refining the insidious poison of the [End of Dharma], and igniting this cataclysmic slaughter that has engulfed both the True and Mortal Realms...’
His gaze seemed to pierce through layers of space, through the warring Yang Gods, through the gaping hole burned into the very fabric of the world.
It reached toward something unseen, something higher and far more profound.
’If the current [Celestial Will] is an imposter that has stolen the nest... ’
’...then where is the true [Cangque Celestial Will], the one that birthed all creation in this realm and upholds its fundamental Laws?’
’And if one were to find the real [Celestial Will]... ’
’...what would happen to this [Fake Celestial Will]?’
’Would it not be held to account by the true one?’
’Use the karma of countless souls as the drum and the clash of this realm’s peak powers as the mallet to strike a beat that shakes all of Cang Que.’
’The True [Celestial Will] has indeed been awakened!’
Feeling that ancient "gaze" grow clearer, the smile on Qi Yun’s lips grew wider and wider.
’The guest of honor has finally arrived...’
Almost at the same instant this thought flashed through Qi Yun’s mind,
another change swept through Heaven and Earth!
The color of the sky began to flow in indescribable ways.
One moment, it was the golden-red of the pure yang war-flames.
The next, it faded to an ancient, desolate blue-gray.
The next, it was awash in an indifferent, merciless pale white.
The flow of the wind became chaotic and illogical.
One second, a scorching gale howled from east to west.
The next, a bone-chilling Yin Wind rose up from below.
Vortexes of air even appeared in the same area, spinning in completely opposite directions.
Falling ash and dust would sometimes plummet to the earth and turn to stone, and other times reverse course to ascend and vanish into thin air.
The magma flowing across the ground would suddenly solidify into new mountain ranges, only to melt once more and even flow backward into the fissures of the earth.
Threads of causality emerged from unseen dimensions, flickering in and out of existence. They went slack, tangled, and knotted, forming chaotic halos of light in the void.
The rules of the entire world seemed to be growing... unstable.
It was as if two invisible, Supreme wills were engaged in a silent yet ferocious struggle, competing at the level of this world’s "fundamental Laws"!
One will was efficient and cold, with a clear intent of repulsion and suppression. It sought to drag everything back onto a predetermined, controlled track and to completely "format" the "diseased" corner of reality.
The other will was ancient and boundless, tinged with the indignation of being awakened and driven by the instinct to preserve its own integrity.
Though it seemed passive and slow, its foundations were profound, and it resisted the "external force" attempting to seize complete control.
The contest of wills, the distinction between true and false—at this moment, amidst a world turned upside down by war and karma, the curtain quietly rose.
And this was the very stage Qi Yun had painstakingly plotted for sixty years to create!
The glint in his eyes almost became a tangible light as he stared intently at the ever-changing, treacherous Celestial Vault, as if trying to discern every minute shift in the tide of the invisible battle.
’Fight... Fight on...’
’Let me see if experience truly trumps all... or if the student has surpassed the master!’
Across Heaven and Earth, the invisible conflict grew more intense, and more bizarre.
The true [Cangque Celestial Will], forcibly awakened from its ancient slumber, possessed a will as old and boundless as the breath and pulse of Heaven and Earth itself.
Its every "thought" stirred the natural rhythms of the world—the shifting clouds, the rise and fall of mountains and rivers, the life and death of all flora.
However, the [Fake Celestial Will] that had usurped its authority was far more proactive and efficient.
It forcibly overrode and twisted the True Celestial Will’s instinctive resistance.
What it pursued was not the natural harmony of Heaven and Earth,
but an absolute and indisputable order and control.
Two equally Supreme, yet fundamentally different, wills wrestled madly on a plane beyond mortal comprehension or perception.
But as time went on, the true [Cangque Celestial Will] began to show signs of faltering.
Though its will was as vast and profound as the earth itself, bearing all things, it was also just as slow, ponderous, and lacking in "sharpness."
A long slumber and suppression had seemingly dulled its reactions.
In contrast, the [Fake Celestial Will], though seemingly rootless and without a source, possessed a highly concentrated will and wielded its authority with absolute precision.
It even possessed a ruthless determination to maintain control, willing to drain the world’s very origin to do so.
Anything that dared to stand in its way would be ruthlessly crushed.
Gradually, the vast and ancient fluctuations of the True Celestial Will were compressed and forced into retreat.
The bizarre yet naturally rhythmic phenomena across Heaven and Earth appeared with decreasing frequency and scope.
The [Fake Celestial Will] had ultimately gained the upper hand.
The sky gradually stabilized, though it remained riddled with cracks and Energy Turbulence.
But its color began to shift toward a uniform, lifeless white.
The True Celestial Will was like a wounded and weary ancient beast. Under the clever, vicious attacks of the usurper and weighed down by its own deep-seated afflictions, it let out a low, unwilling, but powerless whimper.
The radiance of its will dimmed, as if it were about to be forced back into boundless silence once more.
However, forcibly suppressing the True Celestial Will had also come at a considerable cost to the [Fake Celestial Will].
The [Fake Celestial Will], which had always remained hidden and formless high above, at this moment, at the very zenith of the pale Celestial Vault, faintly... underwent Manifestation!
It was a hazy, flickering, almost illusory halo of blue-gray light.
The halo was not large, perhaps only an acre in circumference, and it floated there silently.
And at the very instant this hazy, blue-gray halo’s Manifestation appeared in the Celestial Vault—
"VMMMM!!!"
From within Qi Yun’s robes, the token that had lain dormant ever since it had faintly guided him upon his arrival in this realm burst forth with an unprecedented, violent pulse!
Qi Yun’s body jolted!
For the first time, his perpetually placid expression cracked, revealing clear astonishment.
He snapped his head down, staring at the incessantly humming token in his robes, then jerked his head back up. His gaze was like lightning, locking onto the blue-gray halo that had just undergone Manifestation in the sky—a halo that radiated an aura of Supreme authority!
In that instant, countless clues, theories, and questions connected, as if a dense fog had been pierced by a bolt of lightning!
His furrowed brow slowly smoothed out. Qi Yun’s sharp gaze remained fixed on the blue-gray halo as he slowly uttered in a low, clear voice:
"So it is..."
"You... are the [Fruit Position]!"
...