Chapter 699: Destiny, Detonate!
In the past, there had been many cultivators from a variety of species who were willing to fight back against the gods. But now... such people were as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns .
The reason was that the people who fought back were all dead now. In the vast majority of instances, only gods could rival other gods.
Over the countless years that had passed, the only instance in which a cultivator slaughtered gods was in the epoch when Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity waged war before ultimately departing. After that... it never happened again. Gods were paramount above all else, not to be blasphemed and not even to be looked at directly.
Gradually, the concept of slaughtering gods came to be viewed as impossible to members of all species. In fact, even just imagining something like that was fear-inspiring. Gods were more terrifying and powerful than cultivators could even comprehend. Gods also surpassed the scope of the divine abilities cultivators could use, and even existed outside of their perceptions.
The two... almost didn’t exist in the same dimension.
To the vast majority of cultivators, any given god was beyond understanding. Gods were omniscient and omnipotent, and mysterious and gruish to a degree that defied comprehension.
Meanwhile, in the eyes of the gods, all living beings were excessively simplistic. A single glance could reveal their past and future. And even the many potentialities in their futures could be seen through. That was just a manifestation of a higher level of personhood. Only cultivators who reached the absolute pinnacle of cultivation could possess similar personhood, and thus be taken somewhat seriously by gods. Unfortunately... very, very few cultivators ever reached that pinnacle.
When it came to gods, there were both postheaven gods and natural-born gods. Therefore, when cultivators relied on magical techniques as their trump cards, and used things like wind, rain, thunder, lightning, metal, wood, water, or fire, they were essentially meaningless to gods.
Gods acted similar to the way Zhang Siyun had just acted. The mere raising of hīs hand allowed hīm to calculate and manipulate the destiny of all living beings.
To gods, there was little difference between cultivators and mortals. The slightest tap of a finger could alter destiny. Power like that could drive people to despair.
Right now, everyone from the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom to the Captain and Xu Qing lacked any memories of the past. In fact, they didn’t even seem capable of perceiving each other.
The only things that existed for them were unending torment and pain. There was no beauty to create a contrast with it. There was only suffering. In fact, from a certain perspective, it almost didn’t make sense to call it suffering. That wasn’t accurate. The torment brought by such memories seemed never-ending. It was indescribable and impossible to endure.
For example, Xu Qing... who was immersed in his earliest memories of everything collapsing. He wanted to free himself, but the images in his memories created a cycle of past and future from which there was no escape....
Everyone was currently standing just outside of the Moon Palace on the red moon. None of them had stepped inside. It was as if their previous thoughts of slaughtering a god were nothing more than a joke.
“Mortals slaughter a god?” Zhang Siyun shook hīs head, then lifted hīs thumb and tapped it onto the second digit of hīs ring finger. A sound like a breaking bottle echoed out, crisp and clear.
“Destiny: Detonate.”
Hīs voice echoed out with a level of command that had to be obeyed.
The Captain shivered as cracks spread out over him. Not even the blue light that emanated out of him, forming a sealing ice, could stop it from happening. He eventually collapsed, turning into a mass of blood and gore that splashed onto the ground.
Xu Qing shivered, his heart and mind blank thanks to the second image that had appeared in the violet crystal. He had sunk into a world of endless darkness in which nothing else existed. It was just like what happened in the image after the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan lowered his hand.
Next was Eighth Sib, who trembled from head to toe as the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures that came close to being the power of a god were actually wiped away. With nothing to hold him up, Eighth Sib fell onto the ground.
The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom were both Smoldering Gods, but even their major worlds were full of grief, pain, and bitterness. Even their life force was turning dim.
Ninth Sib struggled to hold strong. Slowly looking up, he summoned a sword into his right hand. It was his final life force sword. It was also his strongest sword, the ultimate sword that Emperor Ancient Spirit had glimpsed earlier. Yet what Emperor Ancient Spirit didn’t realize was that Ninth Sib’s final sword wasn’t a sword of killing, but one of defense.
Up ahead, the door of the Moon Palace slowly closed. From atop the pāramitā lily, Zhang Siyun shook hīs head and closed hīs eyes. Hē seemed disinterested in what was happening, and settled down as still as an emotionless statue.
Everything was over.
Ninth Sib didn’t speak. Behind him, Fifth Sister had her eyes closed. Her age-wracked face was pale and ashen, and she pulsed with a strong aura of death. Without Ninth Sib there protecting her, she would already have perished. Then she opened her eyes and looked at her older brother. Then she looked at everyone else in the throes of death. Her eyes closed.
Gradually, a florescent light began to seep out of her, where it took the form of a flower. The flower had numerous stamens that seemed to burst with life and beauty. The moment the flower appeared, the closing door of the Moon Palace stopped moving.
Zhang Siyun’s eyes snapped open.
The new flower was also a pāramitā lily! It looked just like the one Zhang Siyun was seated upon. The difference was that this one was the color white.
As the flower bloomed, Fifth Sister withered. She was burning herself, just like she had when she was born, when she had used her own life force to save her brother. Throughout her life, she had burned away her life force to save others. Even in ancient times, while all her brothers and sisters looked young, she looked old and full of decay.
As she knew, that was her mission. As she knew, that was her purpose. In the past, she had hated that truth. But in the end... she chose to have no regrets.
As the flower was set free, and its fragrance spread, the Heir Apparent’s body stitched back together. It was the same with Princess Brightblossom, Eighth Sib, the Captain, and Xu Qing. Everyone was restored. Their bodies formed again, and their energy erupted. Their emotions stabilized. Most strange of all was that all of the memories that had been destroyed by the god magic were returned.
It was not a reversal of time. When dealing with the god magic of a god, only someone with corresponding personhood could do that.
Fifth Sister’s pāramitā lily was a blessing! Similar to godly curses, godly blessings were an extreme rarity.
Zhang Siyun was visibly moved. Looking at Fifth Sister, hē said, “Very impressive of Li Zihua to do something like this. He sealed a god in your future body! In the future, you’ll have a god inside of you, and gods cannot be defied. It’s like karma. That’s why, until you actually have that god sealed inside of you, you won’t die!
“Therefore, you can use a mortal body to unleash unlimited god magics. It’s a curse for you, but a blessing to others.... You even kept me in the dark. However, though you won’t die, you will grow old.... And when you grow old enough, your body will become a mindless shell. Very interesting. Now I’m curious what god this body of yours was prepared for.”
Zhang Siyun had openly described Fifth Sister’s secret! As hīs voice echoed out, the Heir Apparent and everyone else outside the Moon Palace looked over at Fifth Sister.
Her aura was extremely weak. She seemed profoundly old, and was full of an aura of death. Blood sprayed out of her mouth.
However, she was smiling. Voice hoarse, she said, “This is the purpose of my existence.”
When those words reached the ears of everyone present, Xu Qing shivered, and his eyes went wide. It was as if everything from before had just been a bad dream.
The Captain opened his eyes and exhaled. HIs expression was grim, and in very rare fashion, he pulsed with a baleful aura. At the critical moment, he had called out to a High God for help, only to be refused.
I should have killed this indecisive crippled god sooner!
Heart pulsing with fury, he looked at Zhang Siyun on the Moonlight Sea, and his eyes became as cold as ice.
It was the same with the Heir Apparent and the other siblings. Their gazes shifted from Fifth Sister to Zhang Siyun.
And then the Heir Apparent took action. He raised his right hand, within which appeared a black nail. It was none other than Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua’s nail! The moment it appeared, the Heir Apparent spat out a mouthful of blood. Within it appeared the image of a world that entered the nail. It was his major world, and he was using it to augment the nail!
Princess Brightblossom and Eighth Sib tapped deeply into their cultivation bases before spitting out their own mouthfuls of blood to augment the nail. And thus, in the shortest of times, that nail gained the projections of four worlds!
The black outer layers of the nail began to peel off, revealing a white nail underneath. Off to the side, Ninth Sib’s eyes gleamed with aggressive light as he reached out, grabbed the nail, then stabbed his own palm with it. Blood poured out.
In short order, a fifth and sixth world appeared in the nail.
With the addition of those worlds, the black surface of the nail completely fell off, revealing its pure white interior. It was as if a seal was being undone, revealing the true might of the Imperial Sovereign’s nail.
Prismatic energy surged. Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. The red moon trembled. A terrifying aura exploded out. Then Ninth Sib let loose a shout and waved his blood-slicked right hand through the air. A thunderous boom rang out as the air shattered and the nail turned into a white streak of light that shot toward the door!
The Heir Apparent and the other siblings began to speak in low voices.
“Use the power of perception to ensure the nail hits the target!”
“Use the magic of time to pierce through both past and future!”
“Use the energy of longing to allow human nature to resist a god!”
“Use the dao of slaughter to guarantee bloodshed!”
The white nail pierced through time and hit the door with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. Then it shot across the Moonlight Sea. The sea churned. The air shattered. The nail crushed everything in its path as it headed right toward Zhang Siyun atop the pāramitā lily!