Chapter 342 - 317: Tearing Down the Bridge After Crossing the River
"Perish!"
With a single word, he dispelled the heavenly punishment. In Qi Yun’s right eye, the azure illusion of mountains, rivers, sun, and moon slowly spun, reflecting the violent tremors of the grayish-green halo high above the nine heavens.
He felt the supreme, magnificent power surging within him—as vast as a Star Sea, as heavy as the entire Heaven and Earth pressing down on one shoulder.
Qi Yun’s mind was as clear as a mirror.
’Although this power is immense, it is ultimately borrowed.’
’How could the position of a True Monarch be usurped by mere power alone?’
He lacked the "golden nature" that came from enduring ten thousand tribulations and achieving immortality.
Many of the truly profound methods, Great Daoist Divine Techniques, and even the supreme authority of one’s own Dao Fruit—all belonging to the True Monarch level—were beyond his ability to use.
This borrowed True Monarch Status felt more like a massive, clumsy suit of armor.
It possessed peerless strength but lacked the "intent" that allowed for effortless mastery and fluid change.
But what did that matter?
He, Qi Yun, had always excelled at using his strengths to strike at his enemy’s weaknesses!
He had no need for those lofty Great Daoist Divine Techniques that might not even suit him.
He had his own Innate Divine Techniques, which were perfectly compatible with his Dao Foundation and pointed directly to the root of the Ten Thousand Laws—
Mastering All Skills!
With his Heart Thought made up, Qi Yun no longer hesitated.
He raised one hand in a simple, grasping motion.
The moment he lifted his hand—
BOOM—!!!
Behind him, the Daluo Heaven—which spanned tens of thousands of miles and was still expanding and strengthening under the infusion of the True Celestial Will—suddenly erupted with Infinite Light!
It burst forth, interweaving into hundreds of millions of incomparably brilliant rays of Nine-Colored Divine Radiance!
The nine colors swirled, containing a supreme rhythm that governed all things.
"Seize!"
Qi Yun uttered a True Word, and the five fingers of his grasping hand clenched shut!
VMMMM—!!!!!
An indescribable roar of Law resounded through the very source of all things in Heaven and Earth!
His target was the wisp of Mysterious Purple Qi at the very core of the False Heavenly Intent’s halo, which was frantically drawing upon the last of the Power of Heaven and Earth in a desperate, final struggle.
"You... dare to seize my position?!"
A grand, distorted roar exploded from the halo’s core.
RUMBLE—!!!
The False Heavenly Intent held nothing back, even burning the very source it had stolen.
The acre-wide, grayish-green halo abruptly shrank to a hundred zhang in size, its color turning a deathly, ghastly white. On its surface, the phantoms of countless pained and twisted mortal faces appeared, letting out silent wails!
This was its final counterattack, bought by overdrawing the potential of its Celestial Position!
Two powers, both touching the pinnacle of this world’s authority, slammed into each other!
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no dazzling, brilliant light.
At the center of the collision, the space for tens of thousands of miles around instantly filled with countless fine cracks, like glazed glass struck by a boulder. But within the cracks was not darkness, but a flow of bizarre and grotesque colors and scenes that completely defied reason.
The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism went completely berserk, transforming into a chaotic storm that swept through everything.
The five elements were inverted, and Yin and Yang were in chaos!
This was no longer ordinary Magical Combat, but a brutal battle between two "Heavenly Intent" level powers, fighting for the ultimate ownership of this same Heaven and Earth!
Qi Yun’s expression was grave, and a trickle of pale golden blood slowly seeped from the corner of his mouth.
Although the borrowed True Monarch’s Power was immense, the strain of using Mastering All Skills to forcibly strip away a will that had nearly fused with the Celestial Position was far greater than he had imagined.
But his gaze was as sharp as ever, now tinged with even greater resolve.
"I command the Daluo and bring order to the heavens!"
His Heart Thought connected, and the Daluo Heaven behind him trembled violently as support from the True Celestial Will surged in like a tide.
"Get... down here!"
Qi Yun roared, and the five fingers of his grasping hand yanked down hard!
TEAR—!!!!
A tearing sound, audible throughout all of Cang Que, suddenly rang out.
BOOM!!!
The acre-wide, grayish-green halo violently expanded and contracted, and the countless wailing faces of mortals became even more twisted in agony.
Pale white chains wrapped tightly around the Nine-Colored Divine Radiance!
The False Heavenly Intent burned everything. The pale chains constantly regenerated and reinforced themselves, even trying to reverse-corrode the Nine-Colored Divine Radiance, attempting to pollute and assimilate Qi Yun’s control.
This was the ultimate contest of will, endurance, and depth of understanding of the rules!
Time seemed to stretch.
Every breath was accompanied by the annihilation of immense amounts of rules and the exchange of authority.
The pale golden blood trickling from Qi Yun’s seven orifices became more pronounced. His body trembled slightly as the borrowed True Monarch’s Power was consumed like a receding tide.
In contrast, the False Heavenly Intent’s ghastly white halo dimmed and shrank at a visible rate, and the wailing mortal faces within shattered and dispersed one by one.
In this brutal war of attrition, the scales of victory slowly tipped in Qi Yun’s favor.
CRACK...
A faint but incredibly clear cracking sound.
The thickest of the pale chains, under the continuous assault of the hundreds of millions of rays of Nine-Colored Divine Radiance, finally... snapped!
It was followed by a second, a third... a chain reaction of collapse!
Just as the last few core chains were about to be severed—
"If I can’t have it... none of you can—!!!"
The remnant will of the False Heavenly Intent erupted in a final frenzy!
BOOM—!!!
An invisible but violent impact detonated at the level of authority!
Qi Yun grunted. The Nine-Colored Divine Radiance manifesting around him instantly disintegrated, and the Daluo Heaven returned to its original state.
And that wisp of Mysterious Purple Qi, which had been held in the False Heavenly Intent’s death grip, instantly transformed into a stream of Flowing Light and vanished into the highest point of the firmament.
Authority... had returned to its rightful owner.
Across Heaven and Earth, the terrifying phenomena born from the struggle for authority began to slowly subside.
The chaotic rules gradually returned to their places, the Broken space slowly mended, and the inverted Spiritual Mechanism was gently restored to order.
Qi Yun slowly lowered his trembling hand and wiped the blood from his lips. He gazed in the direction where the Celestial Position had returned, his eyes deep and unreadable.
Although he hadn’t managed to seize the Celestial Position directly...
...but...
With a flicker of his Heart Thought, he sensed his Purple Mansion.
An acre-wide halo of clear light, exuding a potent Dao Rhyme, was firmly suppressed at its lowest level.
The Fruit Position was his!
Standing in the center of this gradually calming world, the azure celestial light flowing around Qi Yun from the borrowed True Monarch’s Power was slowly dimming and receding.
’My goal for this trip has been achieved.’
’It’s time to leave.’
He no longer hesitated. He connected his Heart Thought to the Six Realms Heaven, preparing to activate its last remaining accumulated power to open a stable passage back to the Profound Yellow Realm.
However—
The instant his Heart and Spirit connected with the Six Realms Heaven, a sudden change occurred!
The power infused into his body by the Heavenly Intent was suddenly and rapidly siphoned away.
"Hm?"
Qi Yun’s brows furrowed sharply as he performed an Inner Observation of the Self.
The power drained away at an incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, seven or eight-tenths of the Power of Heavenly Intent that allowed him to shake the authority of Heaven and Earth was gone!
His aura plummeted from that Supreme Realm that surpassed all things and stood equal to Heaven and Earth, returning to his own Yang God Realm.
Due to the emptiness and backlash from having the power forcibly extracted, his aura was even slightly chaotic and weak.
At the same time—
BOOM!!!
An unprecedented, tyrannical, and magnificently blazing yet anciently majestic and terrifying aura erupted from nearby.
Like a dormant volcano suddenly erupting, it instantly swept across the world, which had only just begun to calm!
The source of the aura was none other than the Great Cang Emperor, Zhao Xuanji, who had been slumped at the edge of the Diligent Governance Hall’s ruins, his aura withered and aged!
At this moment, Zhao Xuanji had somehow straightened his stooped back and was slowly rising from the ruins.
He still wore the same tattered and bloodstained Bright Yellow Dragon Robe, his white hair disheveled, the wrinkles on his face still deep.
But his once murky and weary eyes were now terrifyingly bright!
His eyes no longer held the depth and schemes of a mortal emperor.
Instead, they burned with two rounds of blazing golden flames, as if they contained condensed fragments of Heaven and Earth’s authority and the fortune of the Dynasty’s countless subjects!
Within the flames, the illusory images of a nation’s lands and altars ebbed and flowed, and the voices of ten thousand subjects paying homage echoed.
Furthermore, he was frantically devouring, absorbing, and performing Refinement on the pure Dao Rhyme and fragments of authority that had just been released into Heaven and Earth when the True Celestial Will returned!
The aura around him was skyrocketing at a jaw-dropping speed!
Yang God Early Stage... Yang God Middle Stage... Yang God Late Stage... Peak of Yang God!
His aura even began to be laced with a sense of Heaven and Earth’s authority—similar to the False Heavenly Intent from before, but far more magnificent and righteous, and more in harmony with the rhythm of this world’s mountains and rivers!
This was not just a surge in Cultivation, but a leap in his level of existence, an investiture of authority!
He stood there, no longer a decrepit mortal emperor, but a deity in the process of rapidly awakening, one who wielded the authority of the mountains and rivers!
Pale golden Emperor Dragon Qi and azure Dao Rhyme of Heaven and Earth coiled around him. The Dragon Qi took form, no longer an illusion.
Instead, it was a nearly solid Five-Clawed Golden Dragon, coiling around his body and letting out a low, majestic roar that clearly resonated with the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism!
In just a few breaths, Zhao Xuanji’s aura and might had surged to a heart-stopping level!
While it didn’t match the boundless immensity of Qi Yun when he was borrowing the True Monarch’s power...
...the sense of "sovereignty"—so pure, condensed, and unusually compatible with this Cangque Heaven and Earth—was even more dangerous!
Zhao Xuanji slowly raised a hand, palm up, his fingers slightly curled.
Following his gesture, the last remnants of the True Celestial Will’s power in Qi Yun’s body, as if summoned by a sovereign, completely broke free of his control. It transformed into a stream of azure Flowing Light, sank into Zhao Xuanji’s palm, and was easily absorbed and refined by him.
After doing all this, Zhao Xuanji’s eyes, burning with blazing golden flames, slowly turned to finally rest on Qi Yun, whose gaze was calm and whose aura had already fallen back to his own Realm.
Between them lay several hundred zhang of broken void and the lingering smoke and dust of battle.
The atmosphere instantly froze.
Qi Yun felt the waves of emptiness and dull pain within him from having his power forcibly stripped away.
He looked again at Zhao Xuanji, whose aura was now infinitely close to the True Monarch level, his body entwined with Emperor Dragon Qi and the Dao Rhyme of Heaven and Earth.
The Great Cang Emperor’s eyes were now filled with unconcealed coldness, scrutiny, and a faint, sharp edge.
He suddenly quirked the corner of his mouth, a half-smile playing on his lips that broke the suffocating silence. His voice was calm, betraying no emotion:
"Heh..."
"Is this... burning the bridge after crossing it?"
...