Chapter 1750: The Snipe and the Clam Grapple, the Fisherman Profits
At the ancestral court, the Heavenly Court had completely collapsed. Hoang Duong, Le Thu and Yen Tu Cac had all gone bloodthirsty, forcing Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ and Hao Thiên Đế to flee toward the Heavenly Court army where Đế Hậu Nương Nương was stationed.
Those who survived in the Heavenly Court army were all experts. Đế Hậu Nương Nương personally led the army to reinforce, forming battle formations to block the three elders of Phong Thu.
As the Return to Ruins goddess, Đế Hậu's strength was naturally extraordinary. She personally fought Le Thu, planting the Return to Ruins inside his body, nearly devouring the old man's vital energy and Great Dao completely.
Hoang Duong and Yen Tu Cac joined forces to dissolve the Return to Ruins divine ability, finally rescuing Le Thu. They flew into a rage, mobilizing hundreds of prehistoric experts to attack, routing the Heavenly Court's seven hundred thousand gods and demons.
Even Đế Hậu Nương Nương found it difficult to reverse the Heavenly Court's decline. Forced to retreat, she fell back toward the ancestral court's Ngọc Kinh thành.
The three elders of Phong Thu led prehistoric experts in a bloody slaughter all the way, the Heavenly Court army suffering countless casualties. By the time they reached the ancestral court's Ngọc Kinh thành, only two hundred thousand remained.
Even Đế Hậu and Hao Thiên Đế could feel the despair brought by this hopeless situation.
The ancestral court's Ngọc Kinh thành only appeared to be situated within the ancestral court; in reality, it spanned across the destruction kalpas of various cosmic eras. Within Ngọc Kinh thành, no Dao-achievers of the Di La cung had truly descended into the Seventeenth Era.
They had to undergo blood sacrifices, mass-energy exchange, to descend into the Seventeenth Era.
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ could be said to be the only Dao-achiever who had descended into the Seventeenth Era, yet she had barely entered when she was severely wounded by Thương Quân.
The ancestral court's Ngọc Kinh thành was merely a ruin.
The city appeared to have a thousand palaces and ten thousand halls, appeared to have forests of Dao trees, appeared mysterious and unfathomable, but in reality, no Dao-achiever could walk out of this city.
They were all still within the destruction kalpa.
Đế Hậu and Hao Thiên Đế led the remnant forces into the city to take shelter. The three elders of Phong Thu, bloodthirsty, led prehistoric experts charging into the city. Unexpectedly, upon entering, they suffered heavy casualties. All sorts of bizarre incidents occurred frequently, leaving the invading prehistoric experts dead without even knowing how they died.
The three elders of Phong Thu were forced to withdraw from Ngọc Kinh thành.
Hao Thiên Đế managed to catch his breath, only to see the three elders of Phong Thu setting up sealing formations outside the city, and establishing altars, preparing to refine Ngọc Kinh thành.
"The three elders of Phong Thu truly don't know their place!"
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ couldn't help but shake her head, saying: "Thiên Đế, follow me across the river to seek an audience with the young master. I was severely wounded by Thương Quân, and also struck by that Nguyệt Thiên Tôn's killing melody. I need the young master to make a move to heal my Dao wounds. The young master's divine abilities are infinitely mysterious; killing the three elders of Phong Thu would be as easy as turning over a hand."
Hao Thiên Đế acknowledged, saying: "I was cut down from the Đại La Thiên realm by Vân Thiên Tôn. I no longer have my Dao tree, Dao flower, or Đại La Thiên. Can Điện Chủ put in a good word for me before the Third Young Master, to let me recover my cultivation realm?"
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ glanced at him, smiling ambiguously: "Thiên Đế, in the Di La cung, who hasn't crawled and struggled under the threat of death? Every person in the Di La cung has experienced more than one setback in their lifetime. Some have even suffered defeats greater than yours! They were able to return to Đại La Thiên, cultivate Dao flowers and Dao fruits. Why can't you?"
Hao Thiên Đế said in a hoarse voice: "They haven't experienced defeats like mine! In this life, I've experienced two great rises and falls, and after each time I became stronger than before. But my third great defeat is different. Before this defeat, I had ascended to the peak of power, with an excellent situation. Yet it was dismantled by Vân Thiên Tôn and Mục Thiên Tôn, and everything turned to nothing! My Heavenly Court, my authority, even my cultivation realm—I couldn't preserve any of it! In everyone's eyes, I am a joke, a laughingstock!"
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ looked at his dejected yet somewhat manic expression, and couldn't help but shake her head, saying: "This is the drawback of cultivating the Dao without cultivating the heart. Thiên Đế, your heart only contains power, but you don't have strong attainments in Dao heart. If you cultivated your Dao heart, even if you experienced defeats a hundred times more vicious than now, you could still rise again. In this world, the person who has suffered the greatest defeats is actually the teacher—the master of the Di La cung."
Hao Thiên Đế was slightly stunned, shaking his head: "The master of the Di La cung is the strongest being across seventeen cosmic eras. What defeats could he have suffered?"
"The teacher's heart embraces the world; he wants to save all living beings. In terms of martial power, no one is his match. But every destruction kalpa is a tremendous defeat for the teacher."
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ taught earnestly: "Every great kalpa, he wants to save the people of the world, yet every time he fails. He possesses boundless power, but can only watch helplessly as people die before his eyes, making his power utterly useless. That kind of pain is beyond your imagination. Yet the teacher, after every defeat, lets his Dao heart undergo kalpa rebirth, rekindling his fighting spirit. This is what a Dao heart expert does."
Hao Thiên Đế asked: "Where is the master of the Di La cung now?"
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ fell silent.
After experiencing sixteen defeats, the master of the Di La cung had finally become dejected and dispirited, his Dao heart dead.
"If the teacher were here, so many things wouldn't have happened in the Seventeenth Era, and the Di La cung wouldn't have been blocked from descending into the Seventeenth Era until now."
She sighed inwardly, and together with Hao Thiên Đế, they arrived at the Hỗn Độn trường hà.
In the river, the chaotic energy churned endlessly, waves surging, even more violent than before.
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ felt surprised, urging her Dao tree to stabilize the heat-death wind and the churning chaotic energy. At that moment, she saw the Third Young Master and Fourth Young Master of the Di La cung, along with the other Điện Chủs of the Di La cung.
These experts of the Di La cung were within the destruction kalpa, all gazing in one direction.
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ brought Hao Thiên Đế forward, hastily paying respects, saying: "Hy Hỷ is incompetent, failing to accomplish what the young masters and fellow Daoists entrusted to me."
The Third Young Master raised his hand, saying: "No need for formalities. The defeat in this battle is not your fault. This time, three people from the Di La cung descended to the Seventeenth Era, and only you survived. Surviving is your merit, and only then can you do what comes next. Other variables have arisen this time; even if you could preside over the great sacrifice, it would be futile."
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ was puzzled.
The Third Young Master, Lăng Tiêu, had a grave expression, saying in a deep voice: "This variable is something even I and Tử Tiêu didn't anticipate. The old thing beneath the World Tree has come back to life."
Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ's heart trembled slightly, not daring to say more. She had once heard that the old man beneath the World Tree was someone the master of the Di La cung had once gone to seek guidance from—extremely mysterious!
Later, the master of the Di La cung seemed to have sensed something, gradually distancing himself from the old man beneath the tree.
She followed everyone's gaze, her heart pounding violently, and she blurted out: "The Second Young Master!"
Hao Thiên Đế also hurriedly looked. He saw that in the Hỗn Độn trường hà, a section of the river surface had risen up, steep as a cliff wall. There, two lotus leaves and one lotus flower floated on the cliff-like river surface.
The lotus leaves and flower were extremely massive. One could vaguely see lotus roots plunging into the Hỗn Độn trường hà, drawing energy!
The root hairs were very fine, thousands upon ten thousands of strands. The lotus joints were very long, though only two segments, like a monster lurking in the river.
"That's not the Second Young Master Vô Cực, but the Seventh Young Master Hỗn Độn."
The Fourth Young Master Tử Tiêu said calmly: "If it were the Second Young Master, his strength would be far more terrifying than this."
The other Điện Chủs' expressions changed slightly, remaining silent. Clearly, they all remembered how terrifying the Second Young Master Vô Cực was.
"The Seventh Young Master Hỗn Độn?"
Hao Thiên Đế shuddered: "Mục Thiên Tôn! Has his strength already grown to this level?"
Besides the Return to Ruins lotus, they also saw the vision of the World Tree. That World Tree wasn't as massive as they had imagined, but it was still extraordinary, several times larger than the Return to Ruins lotus. It was attacking the Return to Ruins lotus, making that lotus flower precarious.
"The one contending with the Seventh is that old monster beneath the World Tree—the Vô Nhai lão nhân."
The Third Young Master said: "He is the manifestation of the World Tree, extremely powerful, with the deepest knowledge and foundation. In those days, the teacher held him in high regard, but later they went their separate ways. This time, our blood sacrifice was interfered with—it was him causing trouble."
He turned around, wiping away the ultimate killing intent at Hy Hỷ Điện Chủ's wound and the remnants of Thương Quân's killing Dao, saying indifferently: "He was dead but not gone, stealing the energy of the blood sacrifice for his own use, so that the sixty billion years of blood sacrifice in the Seventeenth Era was mostly intercepted by him. This is why the Dao-achievers of the Di La cung have had such difficulty descending. Now he has been reborn, the World Tree reborn. As the number of Dao-achievers in the Seventeenth Era increases, his strength will slowly recover."
Hao Thiên Đế suddenly understood.
The main purpose of the Vô Nhai lão nhân beneath the World Tree releasing so many prehistoric experts was to let these prehistoric experts achieve the Dao in the Seventeenth Era!
The Vô Nhai lão nhân was the manifestation of the World Tree, and the Dao trees of Dao-achievers were imitations of the World Tree. The more Dao-achievers there were, the faster the Vô Nhai lão nhân's strength would recover!
The Seventeenth Era universe had undergone the Diên Khang reforms, causing a qualitative change in the transformation of Dao techniques and divine abilities. Especially after new-generation Heavenly Venerables like Lam Ngự Điền and Hư Sinh Hoa created and perfected the ancestral court Dao realm system, achieving the Dao no longer required external support—no need to anchor in the void—but rather achieving the Dao internally, analyzing the fundamentals of the World Tree, and cultivating a World Tree within one's own body.
If Diên Khang gained the upper hand and promoted this method of achieving the Dao throughout the world, then in the future there would be no Dao-achievers who cultivated Dao trees anchored in the void. The Vô Nhai lão nhân's cultivation would probably stop there.
The Di La cung's strength was too powerful. The young masters were the most đỉnh tiêm existences of each cosmic era. The Vô Nhai lão nhân couldn't control this power. If he let the Di La cung descend to the Seventeenth Era, he would only become an appendage of the Di La cung.
Therefore, he intercepted the energy of the Third Young Master Lăng Tiêu's blood sacrifice, protecting a batch of prehistoric experts to sneak into the Seventeenth Era.
These prehistoric experts were often at the Heavenly Venerable level of combat power, only one step away from achieving the Dao.
When they achieved the Dao in the Seventeenth Era, the Vô Nhai lão nhân's strength would continuously increase, eventually dominating the Seventeenth Era alone!
"This game has three parties."
The Fourth Young Master Tử Tiêu said unhurriedly: "The Vô Nhai lão nhân's side, the Di La cung's side, and the Seventh's Diên Khang. Among the three, Diên Khang is the weakest, and the Di La cung is the strongest. But because the Di La cung is trapped in the destruction kalpa and cannot descend to the Seventeenth Era, the power we can actually exert is actually the smallest."
The Third Young Master said: "The Vô Nhai lão nhân can exert the greatest power. After he defeats the Seventh and sends him to the past, he can dominate the Seventeenth Era alone, making it impossible for the Di La cung to ever descend."
Hao Thiên Đế's heart pounded wildly: "Three parties contending—Mục Thiên Tôn definitely has no chance of winning. He can't outfight the other two no matter what. As the saying goes, rare goods are worth hoarding. This Vô Nhai lão nhân seems to have more prospects than the Di La cung. If I were to defect to the Vô Nhai lão nhân and gain his support..."
Suddenly, his mind exploded with a realization—was he really the rare good that the Vô Nhai lão nhân needed?
The Vô Nhai lão nhân had the support of so many prehistoric experts. He didn't need him at all!
Right now, all he had was two hundred thousand defeated remnants of the Heavenly Court—nothing else!
Someone like him, the Vô Nhai lão nhân wouldn't even glance at!
The only one he could rely on was the Di La cung!
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He had been completely bound to the interests of the Di La cung, unable to extricate himself.
"However, the Seventh's power cannot be underestimated either."
The Third Young Master Lăng Tiêu said calmly: "The remnant of Thiên Đô, Thái Dịch, once chopped down the World Tree, suppressed the Vô Nhai lão nhân, and single-handedly blocked the stowaways, holding back the Di La cung's descent plan for sixty billion years. After the Seventh grew up, he left the World Tree and went to provoke the teacher, only to be struck down by the teacher into the Fourth Era. In the Sixteenth Era, he was suppressed by Senior Brother Thái Thượng. Senior Brother Thái Thượng was elusive as a dragon—after suppressing Thái Dịch, he vanished without a trace. But not long ago, Senior Brother Thái Thượng returned."
The other Điện Chủs' expressions changed drastically, exchanging glances, a hint of worry in their hearts.
"Senior Brother Thái Thượng's return means Thái Dịch has already escaped."
The Fourth Young Master Tử Tiêu continued: "The Seventh contending with the Vô Nhai lão nhân certainly won't be able to defeat him. After Thái Dịch escapes, he absolutely won't sit idly by. In history, the Seventh's attitude toward Thái Dịch has always been ambiguous, and he's also been entangled with the Độc Đạo Giả. Their relationship is suspicious. Thái Dịch will definitely make a move to save him. The moment Thái Dịch makes his move..."
He exchanged a glance with the Third Young Master Lăng Tiêu, and each smiled knowingly.
"That is the moment we severely wound the Vô Nhai lão nhân, severely wound Thái Dịch, and send the Seventh back to the past!"