Chapter 1684 — Clash of Players

Thump!

Lady Yuanmu and Ling Tianzun, one behind the other, slammed down onto a lotus leaf at the very bottom of the Great Abyss. Lady Yuanmu had still failed to kill her, and she could not help a rising sense of exasperation.

The two women stood, one at the left end of the lotus leaf, the other at the right.

Ling Tianzun's expression remained as calm as ever. Every attack Lady Yuanmu launched at her seemed utterly immaterial. To kill her was, indeed, no easy matter. Once, the Fourth Prince of Miluo Palace had possessed the chance, but Kaicheng Shen Ye had warded off that disaster in her place.

To kill her, unless an existence at the level of a Miluo Palace prince made a move, there was simply no possibility at all.

Lady Yuanmu watched her with wary eyes, while Ling Tianzun surveyed her surroundings, her gaze at length coming to rest on the twin lotus blossoms standing here and there. She said in surprise, "This is Guixu? Who would have thought so many deep mysteries are hidden within!"

She studied those twin lotus blossoms one after another. Above this stretch of Chaos Sea there were no fewer than seventeen Great Abysses of Guixu, corresponding to seventeen universes.

These seventeen universes had come into being in a definite sequence, and yet here in Guixu that very order of cause and consequence seemed not to exist.

For ordinary people, such a state of affairs was beyond comprehension, but for Ling Tianzun, it was simplicity itself.

To her, the essence of a universe was mass and energy; the seventeen universes were merely seventeen states of mass and energy.

And the Great Abyss of Guixu was an unchanging point, from which all seventeen states could be observed at the same time. It bore a kinship with her divine art of the Unchanging, only it was far more profound.

"This is another point of the Unchanging in the universe, apart from the Great Black Mountain."

Ling Tianzun murmured to herself: "The World Tree of the Great Black Mountain became the model for the Dao trees of all accomplished ones precisely because of its unchanging nature. An accomplished one's Great Dao is branded into the ultimate void in the form of a World Tree, holding out the hope of surviving the great tribulation of cosmic annihilation. And Guixu is another point of the Unchanging. By rights, a path to attainment should also lie hidden here..."

Lady Yuanmu felt a shiver run down her spine.

When she had met the Second Prince of Miluo Palace here, the Second Prince had told her that another path of attainment existed—the very nature of the Guixu Goddess—and that only an ancient god born in Guixu could accomplish it.

Little did she imagine that Ling Tianzun, no sooner had she arrived, would detect the existence of another path of attainment, and would see through the principles of both the World Tree and the Guixu paths at a glance!

Such endowment and insight truly defied heaven!

"This kind of attainment requires cultivating the Dao of Guixu and planting a lotus in the chaos. Easy to say; in practice, a little troublesome."

Ling Tianzun tilted her head and thought for a moment. "It does not seem especially troublesome, either..."

A smile hung on Lady Yuanmu's face as she said softly, "Sister Ling, if you say it is not troublesome, then how does one achieve this Guixu attainment? Tell me—do you think this lady has already achieved it?"

Ling Tianzun cast her a glance and shook her head. "You have not. The road you walk is only the traditional method of Dao-tree attainment. And yet your Dao of Guixu clashes with the ultimate void, so you can never bring a Dao tree to maturity. Your path has gone astray."

Lady Yuanmu's aura stopped dead. She was the most powerful existence in the world today—no one had ever dared to say to her face that her path had gone astray!

But ever since Haotian Di rescued his mother, pulling her out from Shen Mu's red-rope knot seal, she had indeed tried to brand her own Dao into the ultimate void, and every attempt had ended in failure.

When the cold, still wind of the ultimate void met the heat-death wind of her Dao of Guixu, the two annihilated each other on contact!

Let alone a Dao tree—even stepping into the ultimate void, she could feel the mortal danger of death!

"One person in this world has achieved Guixu attainment."

Ling Tianzun went on: "Mu Tianzun made his very self into a universe, evolving Guixu, planting a lotus in the chaos of Guixu until a lotus flower grew. That is why he is the truly orthodox Guixu attainer. But his path has also gone somewhat astray. He did not cultivate the chaos-planted lotus by comprehending the Dao of Guixu; as with his World Tree, he relied on something external—he relied on a Guixu lotus seed."

Lady Yuanmu seemed lost in thought. Just then, a lotus leaf drifted over silently from afar. The Second Prince, suppressed in the Chaos Sea, had originally intended to strike at the two women on that leaf and abduct them by force, but on hearing these words she could not help a slight start, and stayed her hand.

"Your insight is truly remarkable. For the Seventeenth Epoch to have produced an existence like you—this is indeed a land of treasures."

The Chaos Sea surged, waves rolling mountain-high. The Second Prince's enormous face slowly rose above the waters, and her voice pierced into the ears of the two women: "It seems the teacher was right. He once said with a sigh that we accomplished ones are the termites of the universe. We smuggle ourselves into the next universe and seize its spiritual energy and power, so that the native universe grows ever smaller, and the intelligent beings born within it grow ever fewer—until one appears who can resolve the great tribulation of annihilation. The Seventeenth Epoch has not been invaded by the prehistoric accomplished ones, and yet it has given birth to a woman of such gifts and grace as you."

Her face gradually emerged from the Chaos Sea, coming to rest on the surface not far off.

Ling Tianzun looked down and saw that this Second Prince of Miluo Palace was exquisitely beautiful. She bore a certain resemblance to Lady Yuanmu, yet was even more striking.

"You are one who has truly attained the Dao through Guixu."

Ling Tianzun asked curiously, "What is your name? And why are you being suppressed here?"

"I am the Second Prince of Miluo Palace. My name no longer matters. When I had completed my cultivation and attained the Dao at Wuji Hall, the teacher named me Wuji. In those days, because I wanted to destroy the entire universe and wipe out every civilization, I slew many accomplished ones—until the teacher took note... It's you!"

The Second Prince of Miluo Palace abruptly registered Ling Tianzun's features, and as if she had seen a ghost, her voice nearly broke: "How can it be you?"

Puzzled, Ling Tianzun said, "It is me. What is the matter?"

Lady Yuanmu was rather bewildered. She looked from Ling Tianzun to the Second Prince, unable to imagine what had so shocked her.

The ultimate void.

Shen Mu and Haotian Di had both elevated their aura to the ultimate extreme. Haotian Di forcibly converted his Taisu qi into a Dao of divine consciousness, and his One-Qi Daluo Heaven instantly shifted and evolved into the Taichu Daluo Heaven!

Within the Taichu Daluo Heaven, the Dao of Taichu stretched vast and indistinct, making his Daluo Heaven seem like the universe at its very beginning, with the World Tree towering in the boundless Taichu qi!

In his hand, another stream of Taisu qi transformed into the Taiyi Divine Axe, and he gripped it like a giant cleaving heaven and earth asunder!

In the distance, Taichu, who was locked in battle with Yun Tianzun, immediately sensed this nearly perfect Dao of Taichu. He hurriedly turned to look, and his spirit sank in despair.

That was the realm he had dreamed of, the realm he had sought and never found—and now it was being displayed by his own son!