thenovelthief Chapter 842 - 379: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind (Part 2)
Chapter 842 - 379: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind (Part 2)
Empress Yuzhu stood in the void, with more than half of the Eight Yin Wheel beneath her feet shattered, and ominous black flames danced on her Profound Purple Feather Robe.
She thought she had victory in her grasp, so she was in no hurry to kill the prey before her.
Slender fingertips entwined with nine strands of golden thread—that was the Golden Crow Origin that had been completely corrupted, and each strand was connected to the Feather Emperor. From his Divine Spirit, nine painful and struggling Golden Crow phantoms were drawn.
At the same moment, the entire Netherworld trembled violently.
The sky of the Returning Ruins suddenly tore open with an abyss running east to west, like a wound slashed open by a giant sword.
The nine Golden Crow phantoms let out mournful cries, as their origin was forcibly extracted from the Crown Prince Golden Crow, intertwining in mid-air into an ancient Star Map—an inverted reflection of the Blue Star Celestial Vein, the Array of All Heaven Stars originally created by the Feather Race!
At the same time, deafening roars came from the outside world, and web-like cracks appeared in the firmament.
"It seems that Emperor Lie has made his move."
The Empress admired Ye Qingzhou’s suddenly changing expression: "When the army of the Divine Dynasty strikes at the Celestial Vein from the outside, and I open the Celestial Gate from the inside... why don’t you guess how long the Queen Mother can hold out?"
As she spoke, the Empress Yuzhu’s Profound Purple Phoenix Feathers peeled off in the Nether Fire, revealing the crystal-like bones beneath.
Carved on each bone were the oldest sacrificial texts of the Feather Race, inscribed with the forbidden curse words of the seventy-two extinct Feather Bloodlines.
The Solar Crown above her head completely melted, transforming into a dimly glowing moonlight, intertwining with the rising black mist of death beneath her to form a cocoon.
"Can you see, Emperor Slayer?"
The Empress’s voice emerged from the cocoon, carrying a metallic tremor: "This is the true Taiyin Nirvana! When you slaughtered the Feather Race back then, did you ever think that their resentment would become my strongest support?"
The Crown Prince Golden Crow rolled in agony in the void, the nine golden patterns on his imperial crown being forcibly stripped away, transforming into nine burning bloodlines that merged into the dark cocoon.
With each origin drawn away, his Feather Robe dimmed a little until he eventually fell from the Emperor Realm, regressing to the Cultivation of a Celestial King Martial God.
Just as the ninth golden pattern was about to leave his body—
"Crack."
A crisp cracking sound echoed through the Returning Ruins.
It did not come from the Empress’s dark cocoon, nor from the suffering Crown Prince Golden Crow, but from the sword in Ye Qingzhou’s hand!
That seemingly ordinary Cyan Blade shattered inch by inch, revealing within a gray-white Power of Annihilation, although just a thin strand, barely noticeable, its essence was extremely high, as if containing the ultimate mysteries of heaven and earth, symbolizing the heat death and annihilation of the cosmos.
Gazing at the complacent Empress Yuzhu, Ye Qingzhou suddenly burst into laughter, a few hints of relief and... expectation in the laughter.
"Why do you laugh?"
The Empress’s Scythe of Death paused slightly, a trace of unease growing in her heart.
"I laugh because you exhaust your ingenuity..."
Ye Qingzhou wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes suddenly flowing with blue-gray Qi, "yet do not realize you yourself are the most crucial piece."
This laughter, clear and piercing through the clouds, even caused the black mist around the Empress to ripple.
The Empress narrowed her eyes, looked down, and suddenly noticed that the Nether Feather Celestial Balance Ruler in her hand reappeared with cracks.
And at this moment, the half-broken sword blade in Ye Qingzhou’s hand rotated on its own, and that wisp of dark aura suddenly slithered out, forming a gray seed at the sword’s tip.
The instant the seed touched the ground, countless glowing patterns suddenly appeared across the entire Netherworld—an enormous Array Map covering both realms!
The Empress’s feet’s Eight Yin Wheel remnants suddenly reversed, firmly anchoring her in place.
"This is... the Cyan Emperor’s Array of All Things’ Birth and Death?!"
The Empress’s expression finally changed, attempting to activate the Solar Crown, only to find the black mist within it being purified or annihilated by some force: "Impossible! The Emperor Slayer and Cyan Emperor’s Dao Principles conflict, how could this..."
The void suddenly bloomed with boundless azure brilliance, and a vision of an ancient tree reaching the sky sprouted from the center of the Array Map, every leaf bearing a star.
Endless vitality like flowing springs gently poured in, causing the star fruits to bloom dazzling splendor.
Atop the tree crown, a man in dark clothing stood with hands behind his back, his eyes containing an entire epoch of life and death.
"Little Nether Sparrow, do you know what the beauty of death is?"
Amidst the ancient tree branches, a figure in gray robes descended step by step, wherever he passed, time and space decayed and annihilated, returning all things to nothingness: "It’s precisely in making the prey believe... it’s the hunter."
Emperor Slayer!
The Empress’s pupils contracted to pinpoints.
She suddenly realized she had made a fatal mistake—Ye Qingzhou before her was no reincarnation of the Emperor Slayer, but rather a bait!
And within the Laws Destruction Golden Arrow was concealed, besides her own refined death and Taiyin Dao Principles, also...
"Dao Seed."
The Cyan Emperor, clad in an azure emperor’s robe, quietly appeared beside the Profound Emperor, his voice ringing with a joyful laugh, fingertips lightly tapping.
The sword blade in Ye Qingzhou’s hand suddenly became ethereal, transformed into countless points of light, integrating into the Grand Array.
"Using life and death as soil, Yin Yang as dew, then watering it with the full cultivation of the Nether Emperor... only then can the Dao Fruit sprout more quickly to maturity."
The Empress was horrified, desperately screamed while unleashing her full cultivation, forcibly activating the Nirvana Divine Techniques of the Nether Phoenix.
Her body began to burn, this was the Feather Race’s most forbidden Secret Technique—exchanging complete annihilation for a moment of invincibility. But as soon as the flames rose, they were entwined by the roots of the ancient tree, transformed into pure energy that flowed toward a green-gray fruit at the tree’s crown.
"No! This is... a Heaven Sacrifice Ceremony?!"
The Empress was terrified to find that her Nirvana Fire was not breaking free from its binds but was instead drawn away by the Heavenly Dao Divine Tree to accelerate the Dao Fruit’s maturity.
"You had calculated everything long ago!"
Emperor Slayer had already arrived at the eye of the Array, his dark armor billowing without wind: "Your understanding of death is too superficial. Eternal life is the most innate desire of all living beings in heaven and earth, but eternal life itself represents an unchanging stasis, leading to the cessation of advancement in power and realm, eventually ushering in the fate of defeat..."
He raised his hand, softly brushing through the void, revealing scenes from ancient times—the Nether Emperor reincarnated secretly into the Feather Race, becoming a young Yuzhu, subsequently guiding the Feather Race step by step onto the path of Primordial Qi Martial Dao.
"Thus, this world needs death for correction, to eliminate the weak and preserve the strong, evolving endlessly. Nether Emperor, your deliberate guidance led the Feather Race’s civilization toward the erroneous path of eternal Qi, and my extermination of the Feather Race was merely to correct this mistake."
As the words fell, the Path of Death broke free from Empress Yuzhu’s control, pledging loyalty to the Emperor Slayer.
"No!"
Facing the snatching of her death origin right before her eyes, Empress Yuzhu was enraged beyond measure, yet now she was bound by the Grand Array, utterly powerless to resist.
"The Void Divine Dynasty believes it has found the Celestial Vein’s weakness..."
The Cyan Emperor glanced at the crack in the firmament, where the battle had reached its pinnacle: "Emperor Lie also thinks he is attacking, but in fact, all his efforts are merely aiding us in drawing out your trump card, to summon the origin of death and Taiyin from the Void Divine Dynasty to the Returning Ruins."
The Dao Fruit suddenly emitted a crisp "crack" sound, with two more Golden Talisman Secret Text lines added on its surface—corresponding to the origins of death and Taiyin!
In despair, the Empress watched as her millennia of planning turned out to be a wedding garment for others.
Her body began to disintegrate, the Solar Crown completely melted, revealing the polluted Golden Crow Core within.
"Substituting One Thing for Another?"
The Emperor Slayer chuckled lightly: "Today, let me deal with you using this stratagem."
The Cyan Emperor looked up, the Dao Fruit atop the branches of the Divine Tree had nearly matured.
The fruit’s skin emitted brilliant light, shining upon the sky, and in that instant, the entire Celestial Vein of the Blue Star suddenly stabilized, with the vague roar of Emperor Lie in the background: "No good! This is a trap!"
At Kunlun Peak, the Queen Mother wiped the golden blood from the corner of her mouth, gazing at the suddenly retreating Void Army with a faint smile: "I see..."
Within the Netherworld, the last wisp of Nether Fire extinguished.
The purified nine rotations of Golden Crow Origin spiraled upwards, merging into the fractured sky’s rift, repairing the shattered Celestial Vein once more.
Sunlight broke through the clouds, illuminating the newborn land.