Chapter 340 - 316: Falsely Holding... the True Monarch’s Position
After spending sixty years, plotting with the lives of all beings, stirring the tides of karma, and inciting this cataclysmic slaughter that swept across the True and Mortal Realms...
The ultimate goal Qi Yun sought was finally laid bare before his very eyes.
The [Fruit Position] that Desolate Halberd True Monarch had left behind was not hidden in some Secret Realm, nor was it attached to some wondrous artifact.
Instead, it had transformed into the [False Celestial Will]—the very thing that sat high in the ninth heaven, usurping authority, suppressing the True Celestial Will, and manipulating all cultivators!
A dramatic truth, tinged with a chilling irony.
The Fruit Position was right there, within arm’s reach.
If only one could touch the cyan-gray halo hanging high in the Celestial Vault, an aura of authority that made all creation tremble.
But how could he claim it?
Just as Qi Yun’s thoughts raced, countless plans flashing through his mind only to be instantly discarded,
above the Celestial Vault, the hazy, cyan-gray halo slowly turned its gaze upon him.
"You... him... one place..."
A grand, boundless voice, yet filled with a cold, mechanical quality, struck the depths of Qi Yun’s Divine Soul. It was like the composite roar of a billion minuscule chains of Law vibrating in unison!
Every word was as heavy as a star, carrying an air of irrefutable judgment and icy hostility!
With the arrival of this voice,
a pressure far purer and more fundamental than any Yang God’s might before it descended with a boom, enveloping Qi Yun’s entire body with absolute precision!
"CRACK—!!!"
Beneath Qi Yun’s feet, the towering walls of the Imperial City—already in ruins from the aftershocks of the Yang God battle and held together only by a final Array—suddenly collapsed and turned to dust.
The billowing dust was instantly slammed back down to the ground by the omnipresent pressure!
At the center of the pressure, Qi Yun’s face paled. A series of faint yet rapid cracks echoed from his bones, as if he were bearing the weight of the entire world.
"Hmph!"
With a stifled grunt, a chaotic, divine light erupted from Qi Yun’s eyes!
He held nothing back now—there was no room to hold anything back!
[Daluo Heaven]
Unleash!
With a single step, the scenery within a hundred-zhang radius of him changed dramatically!
A scene like the dawn of primordial chaos boomed into existence!
Pure Qi floated upward, forming illusory images of the sun, moon, and stars. Celestial tracks flowed along their orbits, suffused with the Power of Order.
Muddy Qi sank downward, taking the form of the Nine Netherworld Ruins, hiding an undercurrent of devouring annihilation.
The four fundamental elements—Earth Fire, wind, and water—manifested only to be annihilated. Countless Dao Patterns intertwined and flickered at the edges of this temporarily manifested Realm Heaven, forming a "Heaven and Earth" independent of Cangque’s Laws!
"RUMBLE!!!"
Two sets of "Laws," both Supreme yet fundamentally different in origin, violently collided!
A silent annihilation of Laws erupted violently at the edge of the hundred-zhang domain. Space wrinkled, tore, and regenerated like a crumpled piece of paper.
Qi Yun’s [Daluo Heaven] trembled violently. Inside, the illusory sun, moon, and stars flickered erratically. The cycle of creation and destruction for Earth Fire, wind, and water grew sluggish. At the domain’s edge, the intertwined Dao Patterns continuously shattered and struggled to reform.
However, this resistance lasted for only a few moments.
The cyan-gray halo seemed to "notice" the tenacity of the ant below. Its rotation suddenly accelerated, and the pale Dao Patterns at its core flared with brilliant light!
A more majestic, purer suppression, mobilizing the Laws of the entire Cangque World, came crashing down like the celestial river inverting its course!
"CRACK... CRACKLE..."
Qi Yun’s [Daluo Heaven] began to groan, unable to bear the strain.
The domain’s range was visibly compressed, rapidly shrinking from a hundred zhang to eighty, then fifty, then thirty!
Inside the domain, vast swathes of the manifested scenery dimmed and disintegrated, reverting to chaotic streams of energy.
Qi Yun’s face grew paler, and a trickle of pale gold blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
The [Fruit Position], after all, wielded a portion of the usurped authority over the whole of Cangque Heaven and Earth.
Even though its clash with the [True Celestial Will] had greatly diminished its power,
as an existence comparable to a True Monarch, its might remained boundless and unparalleled, even with less than a tenth of its original strength.
Seeing his [Daluo Heaven] compressed to less than ten zhang, its bordering Dao Patterns shattering like a torrential downpour, and feeling sharp pains emanating from his Dao Foundation, Qi Yun’s brow furrowed deeply.
’I can’t fight it head-on anymore.’
While his left hand struggled to maintain [Daluo Heaven], his right hand reached into his robes. When it emerged, an object was resting in his palm.
It was the palm-sized Jade Box that Desolate Halberd True Monarch had given him before his departure—a box that was a lustrous white, made of a material that was neither gold nor jade, and which blocked all forms of scrying!
The True Monarch had said that if he ever faced an insurmountable crisis, he could open this box.
The item sealed within would help him resolve a single crisis.
This was that crisis!
Just as Dao Rhyme flowed between Qi Yun’s fingers, in the critical moment before he touched the hazy glow on the Jade Box’s surface to open it—
a sudden change occurred!
Deep within the [Daluo Heaven], which had been compressed to its absolute limit and was on the verge of total collapse,
a... new power surged forth without warning from the maelstrom of chaotic energy!
This power did not originate from Qi Yun himself, nor was it like the cold, efficient control over Laws wielded by the [Fruit Position].
It was boundless, ancient, and profound. It carried a sense of lethargy, as if it had weathered countless eons, yet it also contained the most primal, authentic life and rhythm.
It was like an Earth Vein, dormant for ages, suddenly beginning to flow; like a dying star erupting with its last light and heat.
The emergence of this power was extremely subtle, like a mere trickle.
It quietly flowed into the fracturing Dao Patterns of the [Daluo Heaven] domain, into the dimming illusions of the sun, moon, and stars, and into the disordered cycle of Earth Fire, wind, and water.
In that instant, the [Daluo Heaven], which had been on the verge of collapse, gave a slight shudder!
The shattering Dao Patterns began to mend at an accelerated rate, the dimming manifestations began to glow once more with a faint yet tenacious light, and the contraction of the Realm Heaven... was brought to a dead halt!