A Scroll of Shepherding Immortals!
There was a Scroll of Shepherding Immortals in the world of immortals as well!
When Fuxi traveled through time from the great wilderness and arrived in the world a hundred thousand years ago, he’d taken on the identity of Human Celestial Master Zhang and used the core essence of God to draw a painting.
Someone then separated the painting into three—Panorama of Clarity, Portrait of Emptiness, and Profile of Harmony—and depicted the origin of the divine race. Legends spoke of the Panorama of Clarity being able to return the underworld’s tomb keepers to their core origin and escape the fetters of the underworld.
The Scroll of Shepherding Immortals had been made whole a long time ago and was with the little fox, but Qing Yu had also just sliced through one?!
……
“The Scroll of Shepherding Immortals?” Qing Yu brought her sword to her side with a snort of laughter. “You have only the form of the scroll and no treasure spirit, what kind of silly Scroll of Shepherding Immortals is that? If you don’t hurry along and get out of here, World King, I’ll cut you down where you stand.”
Zing!
Her sword rang piercingly and flared with killing intent. The Profound and Yin Yang Kings below halted and jerked their heads up to regard the weapon in her hands.
“Quiet!” The World King stared fixedly at it. “This was once the ultimate treasure of the Di Clan, to think it’d be in your hands!”
As the ruler of Origin World, his breadth of knowledge was wide-ranging and he recognized the treasure at first glance. In their heyday, the Di Clan had commanded the winds and rains in the Hongmeng to the point of being a third pillar of the realm, alongside the Immortal Region and Ten Valleys of Evil. They’d suddenly departed from the third realm several hundreds of millions of years ago, descending to the world of immortals to protect the immortal dao.
That provided an opening for the Immortal Region and Ten Valleys of Evil to scheme against the clan and almost resulted in their complete annihilation.
Later on, they became Jin Naluo’s pawns in the world of immortals. He set up a Blood Sea after collecting their fragmented souls so he could bring in the real Blood Sea.
Radiant white splendor erupted from Quiet like white chains; they snaked around Qing Yu to form a layer of sword light clothing. Her strength was completely one with the sword and rivaled the Profound King’s.
“You’re getting ahead of yourself to think you can kill me with just an ultimate treasure,” sneered the World King. With the destruction of his Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, it would be throwing the handle after the ax if he didn’t walk away from this encounter with something gained.
Whoosh!
Qing Yu bounded into the air and viciously slashed down at the Nineworld Origin Diagram in the air.
“Vile spawn, how dare you harm Origin World’s ultimate treasure?!” The World King roared wrathfully and hastily brought the tattered remnants of the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals forward. He blocked the blow, but that ruined the scroll beyond repair.
He threw the fragments aside with a dark laugh. “Fine, I’ll leave immediately if you can take my next blow!”
Whoosh!
The Nineworld Origin Diagram suddenly broke free of the Netherdark Formation and Hopeless Major void. Turning horizontal, it expanded even bigger and drew nine strangely shaped holes in the sky.
Qing Yu’s eyes widened and she slashed Quiet through the air, redirecting the Netherdark Formation into rays of intersecting blue and purple light. The command seal of Hopeless Major scattered plumes of brilliant radiance that floated down protectively around Lu Yun and the little fox.
Lu Yun frowned; having observed the battle for so long, he recognized what the Netherdark Formation was. It was the outward expression of hell’s power in the form of a great formation. It was missing one critical component—the fires of hell!
Unbidden, he deployed hellfire from his body and melded it into the formation.
Humm!
The Netherdark Formation came alive and transformed into a thirty-six ranked lotus flower with purple and blue petals.
Sword in hand, Qing Yu perched in the center of the flower with a stately and august bearing. Her strength grew rapidly once again.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Nine detonations sounded from the holes created by the Nineworld Origin Diagram and pulses of terrifying power wafted through the openings. First to travel through were ripples of nine colors that scattered in all directions.
“Empyrean King, if you can take a hit from my Nineworld Origin Cannon, I will leave immediately!”
“Nineworld Origin Cannon!” Yin Yang and Profound screamed with one voice.
“Are you crazy, World King?! Do you want to destroy Hopeless Major?!”
“Stop, stop immediately!”
They disengaged from their struggle at the same time to rush the World King, but the Nineworld Origin Cannon was fully activated. They were swept aside by the terrible ripples and couldn’t draw near at all!
RUMBLE!!
An enormous explosion rocked the void, sending through a searing blast of light that turned Qing Yu’s face ghostly white. She was calling upon the formation’s full power and hellfire had perfectly integrated into it, but it was insufficient to block the incoming blast!
The founder of Origin World had certainly been someone on par with Violetgrave in status and strength as the two were of equal repute. This Nineworld Origin Cannon was Origin World’s strongest military strength.
If in ordinary times, the two valleys would be evenly matched and it would be impossible for one to triumph over the other. But right now, the World King had aimed the cannon at the heart of the Netherdark Formation!
Destructive power had already spread throughout the formation and Qing Yu stood at the vanguard, withstanding the brunt of the attack.
She turned back and looked at Lu Yun, who answered her with a smile. He waved a hand and flashed an image of a tremendous bridge with a desolate air through the void, bolstering the Netherdark Formation.
KABOOM!!
A huge mushroom cloud rushed for the horizon. The blast that contained enough power to level Hopeless Major was… blocked, then dispersed.
……
“It held! The formation thwarted the Nineworld Origin Cannon!” Profound viewed the dissipating waves of energy with astonishment.
“The eminent one… is the holy ancestor’s handpicked successor alright! She holds a mandate from Hopeless Major itself!” Yin Yang gaped to find himself still alive. He’d been ready to die, but Qing Yu really had withstood the cannon—the greatest weapon in the Ten Valleys of Evil!
“Impossible, impossible!” The World King scanned the scene with disbelief. He had called forth a blast at full power because he was ready to destroy Hopeless Major, but the Netherdark Formation had rendered the blow ineffective!
“…fine, this matter is over since you’ve withstood a hit from my Nineworld Origin Cannon. We take our leave!” The World King waved a hand, wrapped up the Kaleidoscopic King in his grasp, and streaked into a long tail of light to leave Hopeless Major.
“You throw Hopeless Major into disorder and attack us with the Nineworld Origin Cannon, then want to leave with just a casual word?? I think not!” Qing Yu’s robe of sword light lit up into a beam of indistinct radiance. She shot into the sky and cleaved down on the World King’s streak of light.
She was furious.
The Nineworld Origin Cannon was the final trump card for that faction, and the last time it’d been fired up was when the Immortal Region threatened the Origin World’s borders. On the verge of complete defeat, the previous ruler activated the cannon to inflict severe casualties on the Immortal Region’s armies, winning enough time for the other nine valleys to come to Origin World’s aid.
This time, the World King fired it up in the heartland of Hopeless Major for a land grab!
If it wasn’t for Lu Yun’s timely summoning of the Bridge of Forgetfulness from Jin Naluo, Hopeless Major might’ve really been wiped out of existence.
Sword light of snowy brilliance cut through a hundred million miles of empty space and sliced through the World King’s vanishing tail of light.
A heart wrenching scream rang out, and a spray of vivid red blood accompanied a pair of human legs plummeting out of the radiance.
“Empyrean King! How dare you cut off my legs!” the World King keened.
If Quiet cut through a part of the body, that was the equivalent of severing a karmic relationship. The removed legs would never recover, as if they’d never existed in the first place. No transformation or shape shifting method would make one whole again.
It was an incredible shame for the vaunted ruler of the Origin World to lose his legs!
“What about your legs?!” Qing Yu roared and sent out another burst of white radiance from Quiet. It arced into the rapidly receding streak of light that was almost out of Hopeless Major territory.
A severed arm fluttered down from the sky.
The World King didn’t dare say anything more, he focused his full strength on making good his escape.
Qing Yu stood in the air with Quiet upraised; she suddenly turned back and looked at the Profound King, Ruin King, and two other ninth step kings who’d fought with them.
“I… yield,” sighed Profound. “May the eminent one flay or execute me however you’d like.”
All thoughts of rebellion fled their mind the moment Qing Yu blocked the blast from the Nineworld Origin Cannon. After she cut off the World King’s legs and an arm, they didn’t even dare consider the possibility of escaping.
Qing Yu considered them quietly.
“You are founding elders of Hopeless Major and the old subjects left behind by the Eminent Violetgrave. How could I possibly kill you?” she heaved a heavy sigh. “Go back to whatever you should be doing.”
The Profound and Ruin King looked at each other, dumbfounded. Things were over? Just like that? The Empyrean King wasn’t going to punish them?
The Profound King opened his mouth and closed it again, not sure of what to say.
“Profound King, you and your cohorts ushered the wolf into the house today and almost ruined Hopeless Major. Yet the eminent one, mighty and benevolent as she is, still spares your life. Express your gratitude at once!” roared the Yin Yang King with a step forward.
“Our deepest and most humble gratitude to the eminent one for not taking our lives!” The other six ninth step kings that’d been in the Profound King’s camp quickly fell to their knees. They’d started wavering almost as soon as the fighting broke out and weren’t going to wait for the four ringleaders to make up their minds.
“Our deepest and most humble gratitude for the eminent one’s forgiveness.” The Ruin King and other two sank to their knees, followed by all of the other kings and disciples of Hopeless Major.
Only the Profound King was left standing. He looked at Qing Yu, then slowly hung his head without a word.
