Chapter 1747 — The Human Heart Burns the Karma Fire
The Herdsman of the Wasteland Page 2 of 2
Boundless wrath burned inside him; the demon nature and demonic qi of the Nether Capital filled his body, filled his mind. Revenge, too, is human nature; revenge ruled him, drove him to storm the Heavenly Court, to annihilate the enemies who had brought him such suffering!
But there was another human nature within him as well, his love for his only daughter.
Ruled by wrath and by love for his daughter, he stormed the Southern Heavenly Gate, he charged toward Jade Capital City.
Though countless shackles of the Dao of the Nether Capital clamped upon him, though countless chains bound him, none of it could hold him back in the slightest! But in the end he was stopped by Emperor Taichu and beaten back into the Nether Capital. As he fell into the Nether Capital, he saw his daughter fall into the palm of Emperor Taichu's hand. His wrath for revenge vanished; Tubo was reborn, and within him was hidden his love and pity for his daughter, the last remnant of his human nature, preserved in Tubo's heart, taking root and sprouting.
To break free of the Dao of the Nether Capital and become human became Tubo's obsession, and for that obsession he had schemed until this day. His love and pity for his daughter made it impossible for him to strike at Heavenly Venerable Xu; A Chou would never harm his own daughter.
This was the gate he could not pass.
The karma fire of kinship would burn him clean away, would destroy his flesh, would reduce his primal spirit to ashes, would utterly shatter his dao heart.
If he could pass this gate, he would be the one who attained the Dao of the Nether Capital, ruling the Dao, ruling life and death.
He could not pass this gate.
A Chou was only a man who looked like Tubo, as ugly as Tubo, but not Tubo.
He was human. But in this moment, he had to choose. "My daughter.
. .
" A Chou clenched his fists and roared at the heavens.
The Dao of the Nether Capital poured out of his body; the power of the Nether Capital was awakening; Tubo within him revived once more.
His body swelled and swelled; his flesh was changing too.
The worlds destroyed in war, the Nether Capital shattered, the living beings who had died in war, their grudges, their demon nature, the sins and the goodness of their lives, all of it surged toward him now! Tubo within A Chou's body awakened, and the Dao of the Nether Capital surged toward him once more.
He turned his head.
In all three of his eyes were tears of fire, and he looked at Heavenly Venerable Xu and reached out his hand.
"My daughter, come home.
I will take you home. " Suppressing the rules of the Dao of the Nether Capital, A Chou showed Heavenly Venerable Xu his ugly smile: "Come home.
Kill no more.
I cannot hold back the Dao of the Nether Capital much longer.
.
.
" The Dao of the Nether Capital would never permit Heavenly Venerable Xu to wield the divine powers of the Nether Capital and slaughter living beings at will.
If Heavenly Venerable Xu insisted on destroying Jingping, then Tubo would enforce the law.
A Chou faced the same situation as in years past, only this time he did not act for revenge, but to protect the living beings of Jingping. There was a flicker of confusion in Heavenly Venerable Xu's eyes, but then hatred clouded her heart.
Without another word she lashed the Long Whip of the Styx at him and cried shrilly: "Hypocrite! I will not go back with you! I am Heavenly Venerable Xu, Heavenly Venerable Xu exalted on high! All living beings shall submit to me, shall tremble before me!
You are content with poverty, content with humiliation.
I am not!
" The Long Whip of the Styx swept toward A Chou, but at once it grew soft and gentle, drifting at his side.
Heavenly Venerable Xu turned and charged at the Lanfeng Valley, charged at Jingping. More fiery tears poured from A Chou's three eyes, spreading like the wings of a butterfly.
Though Tubo had awakened, the kinship in his body remained, his love and pity for his daughter remained.
That love became blazing karma fire, karma fire he could not stop, scorching everything he was.
He reached out to seize Heavenly Venerable Xu; none of her divine powers of the Nether Capital, none of the Dao of the Nether Capital, had any effect on him now! Boom!
The instant he seized Heavenly Venerable Xu, the karma fire suddenly turned unimaginably violent, unimaginably ferocious; the blazing flames swallowed him and Heavenly Venerable Xu together! The slaughter Heavenly Venerable Xu had wrought was now set alight by the karma fire on his body, burning madly; the grudges of countless wronged souls who had died at her hands drove that karma fire to its utmost! "Tai Yi was right. I will have my wish.
But I never thought the outcome would be this.
.
. " Before the Lanfeng Valley, in the Nether Capital of the Primal Realm, the karma fire blazed beyond imagining, as though the karma fire of all living beings accumulated over a cosmic era were burning all at once, erupting all at once.
"Tubo!
" Heavenly Venerable You turned his head and looked at the boundless karma fire. Within the flames, two figures were burning, dissolving.
The karma fire was so fierce that even he could not set foot in it, or he would be burned to ashes and cease to exist.
"Cast off your human nature! Become the true Tubo!
" Heavenly Venerable You rushed forward and stopped outside the blaze, crying loudly: "Erase the last of your kinship, and you can live! " In the distance, Shen Fengqing, who controlled the Six Paths Heaven Wheel, felt it too, and looked toward the blazing karma fire, her three eyes full of fiery tears: "Big fellow, what are you hesitating for?
Why don't you act?
" In the sea of karma fire, everything turned to ash. The flames gradually subsided; the tide of fire slowly stilled.
In a daze, Heavenly Venerable You saw A Chou again, an ugly, stalwart man walking through the sea of fire, with a little girl seated on his shoulder, two small horns growing from her head, utterly innocent and lovely.
In the sea of fire, A Chou turned his head and smiled at Heavenly Venerable You.
Ahead of him a mountain village seemed to appear: an old mother sitting before the house, a woman washing clothes, a pair of children running happily to and fro.
A Chou walked toward it with the little girl, and together with that peaceful mountain village he vanished, becoming a bubble, a dream, a shadow.