Chapter 1367: Central Heaven Ziwei
Chapter 1366: Central Heaven Ziwei
The cultivators of both the righteous and demonic paths stared at the sky, utterly horrified and stupefied.
They could not see the Dao-Sin’s “yin spirit.” All they could see within the blood moon was that mass of malformed flesh.
Even those who did not understand what was happening, merely seeing that blood-red moon like a living embryo incubating, knew that something monstrous and unspeakable was descending upon the world.
Those who truly understood the truth felt only boundless terror and despair.
Elder Xuanyuan’s face turned deathly pale.
“Dao-Sin…”
“To think… such a colossal Dao-Sin Calamity truly exists in this world…”
On the demonic side, fear gave rise to anger.
“Damn it… to actually nurture something like this…”
“We came to destroy the Great Wilderness Royal Court and seize the dragon qi for ourselves…”
“But that Daoist intends to wipe out us along with all living beings of the Great Wilderness… utterly insane…”
“We became his chess pieces to raise the Dao-Sin… and its nourishment as well…”
“One who slaughters fellow cultivators without regard for kin or kind… deserves death…”
The elders and prodigies of both paths were terrified.
The Dao Court army, aristocratic disciples, and cultivators from every faction all lifted their heads to the sky.
The blood-colored moonlight shone upon their faces, revealing expressions of terror and shock.
Pitch-black, uncanny shadows of the Strange Dao pressed upon everyone’s hearts.
Only those citizens of the Great Wilderness who had already been grievously slaughtered yet still clung to a final breath looked upon the descending catastrophe and revealed savage smiles through blood-stained faces.
“Die… everyone… let’s all die together…”
Then, a heaven-shaking heartbeat suddenly echoed between heaven and earth.
The blood moon began to tremble.
Fresh blood flowed from the moon, hanging inverted from the firmament.
The black silhouette of the “evil god” slowly opened its eyes.
And so, overwhelming terror began to grow wildly.
Everyone’s Dao hearts showed signs of collapse.
Chaos erupted within the Dao army. Morale broke. Comrades slaughtered one another. Some, unable to bear the terror, slit their own throats and died.
Under the shroud of the blood-moon Strange Dragon Dao evil god, the Great Wilderness Royal Court already showed signs of becoming a purgatory.
Countless people fled in panic like ants amid catastrophe.
Within the Dragon Pool.
Mo Hua raised his head toward the sky, his expression grave as still water.
His fate-killing aura was still being drawn by the Dao-Sin.
His Divine-Sense stirred restlessly, as if yearning to merge with the ferocious Dao-Sin, yearning to ascend into a heaven-and-earth evil god and obtain the power to destroy the world.
And the might of a fourth-grade Dao-Sin caused even a trace of fear to arise in Mo Hua’s heart.
He realized he had no way to deal with this terrifying monster.
The Dao-Sin of the Great Wilderness grew with the blood moon, hanging high in the sky… beyond his reach.
The distance was too great; his Great Void Divine-Sense Sword Manifestation True Art could not strike it.
Moreover, this Dao-Sin existed in the present world. Once the Divine-Sense sword left the body, its power would diminish to one-tenth. Even if it struck, it could not truly harm it.
Even in the world of Divine-Sense, facing this fourth-grade evil-god-level Dao-Sin at full divine strength, Mo Hua felt he had little chance of victory.
At best, a stalemate, or self-preservation.
After all, unlike the Dao-Sins of Tōngxiān City and Nanyue City, this one of the Great Wilderness was very likely nurtured personally by his Martial Uncle’s true body.
“So… only escape remains…” Mo Hua sighed inwardly.
“Li—”
“Little Senior Brother!”
A shout came from behind. Mo Hua turned to see Bai Zisheng and Situ Jian standing there, faces grave.
“Little Senior Brother, flee while you can…” Situ Jian said anxiously.
Though the chances were slim, escaping now might still allow them to leave the Great Wilderness alive.
Bai Zisheng said nothing, but looked at Mo Hua with solemn eyes.
Mo Hua nodded.
He had just prepared to move when his expression suddenly changed. Pinching his fingers to calculate, his gaze flickered uncertainly.
“What is it?” Bai Zisheng asked.
Mo Hua murmured, “Something’s wrong…”
He hurriedly raised his head to the sky.
Bai Zisheng and Situ Jian followed his gaze.
But the sky remained the same, the blood moon, the unseen yin spirit, the world-ending Dao-Sin.
Mo Hua’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Suddenly, winds surged and clouds churned in the heavens. The sea of blood roiled. Then a deep blue starlight, like a heavenly sword, pierced through the blood-moon veil and shone upon the earth.
Everyone’s expressions changed.
Mo Hua’s pupils contracted.
“Seven stars… Heavenly Pivot…”
Before his words fell, another beam of starlight descended from the sky, breaking through the crimson heavens and illuminating the land.
“Heavenly Jade…”
Then the mechanisms of heaven turned, and the vast star river glittered. One mysterious beam after another descended from the sky — seven in total, corresponding to the Big Dipper.
Heavenly Pivot (Tiānshū), Heavenly Jade (Tiānxuán), Heavenly Pearl (Tiānjī), Heavenly Authority (Tiānquán), Jade Balance (Yùhéng), Opening Yang (Kaiyang), Shaking Light (Yaoguang).
The seven lights were like seven stellar swords descending from the heavens, piercing through the Dao-Sin’s blood-red firmament.
Blue stellar radiance clashed against the blood-colored aura of the Dao-Sin.
Above the seven stars, high in the firmament, the entire Ziwei Heavenly Enclosure lit up in sequence, dense constellations igniting as immense stellar power circulated, as if the Heavenly Dao itself were in motion.
So magnificent.
So pure.
So overwhelmingly powerful.
All who witnessed it were struck dumb with shock.
Mo Hua, too, could not suppress the tremor in his heart.
Elder Xuanyuan of Dao Province stared upward, his expression shocked and complicated.
“The Imperial Celestial Bureau…”
“The Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper Seven-Star Killing Formation…”
Hearing this, Mo Hua’s heart trembled. He silently memorized the name and looked up again, the boundless starlight reflected within his eyes.
His gaze shone with brilliant stars, filled with longing.
At that moment, the endless starlight flowed according to an unseen formation, gathering together like a river of stars, or a colossal sword forged of starlight.
Amid the flowing radiance, a mysterious figure stepped through the air and arrived at the center of the Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper Seven-Star Formation.
The man wore a pale blue robe. His bearing was unrestrained and elegant, drifting like an immortal beyond the mortal world.
It was none other than the Imperial Celestial Bureau’s True-Person Zhuge.
At this moment, True-Person Zhuge stood alone in the sky.
Before him lay the blood-filled heavens and the world-ending Great Wilderness Dao-Sin still incubating.
The radiance of the Ziwei Heavenly Enclosure draped over his body.
The seven stars formed swords, guarding him at the center of heaven and earth.
True Person Zhuge formed hand seals, calculating the heavenly timing of the Dao-Sin’s birth. Relying on the geographic advantage of the Seven-Star Killing Formation and upholding the righteous mandate of slaying evil on Heaven’s behalf, he waited until the workings of heavenly secrets reached the most auspicious moment.
Then he activated the Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper Seven-Star Killing Formation.
In an instant, the river of stars cascaded downward, sweeping horizontally like a heavenly sword.
Under the illumination of the seven stars, the hatching Great Wilderness Dao-Sin seemed to sense a mortal crisis. It struggled violently, howled, and even used its deformed palms to tear at the blood moon, attempting to rip open the embryonic shell and be born prematurely.
But its life and death had already been calculated within the workings of heavenly secrets.
It could not escape the control of Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper Seven star arts.
The Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper blazed with surging brilliance.
The seven stars radiated killing intent, bright as day.
The dazzling sword-light of the star river, guided by True Person Zhuge’s divine sense, swept across heaven and earth with vast, pure, irresistible stellar power, cleaving open the blood-red sky and slicing the blood moon clean in half.
Together with it, the Dao-Sin within was split into two.
The embryonic body of the Dao-Sin was severed in half.
Baleful energy thickened into blood-like fluid and dripped from the sky.
Yet even so, the Dao-Sin did not seem fully dead. Its shattered halves attempted to fall toward the earth, seeking to pollute the entire world.
True Person Zhuge’s gaze sharpened. He pointed toward the heavens and said:
“Perish.”
The Seven-Star Killing Formation transformed again. The star-river sword dispersed into countless points of starlight. Each point re-condensed into raindrop-like sword radiance.
At his command, the sky filled with descending blades of light, annihilating the divided blood moon, the cleaved Dao-Sin, the rotting crimson flesh, and the black evil intent together.
Like a rain of stellar radiance descending from heaven, it cleansed all karmic resentment from the mortal world.
Every trace of the Dao-Sin’s existence—even its karmic ties—was gradually dissolved, shredded, and extinguished within the Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper Seven-Star Killing Formation, vanishing along with the starlight.
The blood-red hue at the horizon slowly faded.
The worldly suffering, despair, and even the hatred of a fallen nation was swept away by the vast stellar radiance, erased entirely from heaven and earth.
No one knew how long passed before all disturbances subsided.
The sky returned to its original state.
It was a night sky pure as obsidian, serene and tranquil, without conflict, without blood hatred.
Upon the earth, the previously frenzied Dao soldiers regained their senses and gradually calmed.
From the blood moon hanging in the sky, to the manifestation of the Dao-Sin Calamity, to the Seven Stars shattering the bloody radiance and annihilating the calamity, the entire sequence lasted only dozens of exchanges.
Yet to those present, it felt as long as a century.
It was a passage from life to death, and from death back to life.
Everyone stared blankly at the sky, as if awakening from a bloody nightmare… that nightmare dispelled by starlight.
Mo Hua, too, gazed at the night sky in stunned silence, his eyes filled with shock.
Seven stars slaying the Dao-Sin.
A fully formed Fourth-grade Dao-Sin would be invincible. Even drawing upon Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper and condensing the seven stars into a killing formation might not be enough to destroy it.
But the Great Wilderness Dao-Sin had been an embryo… not yet fully formed.
The moment of its hatching and descent was also its moment of greatest weakness.
At such a time, by using Heavenly calculations to determine the perfect alignment of timing, terrain, and human factors, it was entirely possible to strangle the Dao-Sin in its cradle and suppress the calamity before it took shape.
This meant the Dao Court already possessed means to suppress—even annihilate—Dao-Sin calamities.
Or rather, the Dao Court had always possessed such means.
It was simply that these methods were controlled by the Central Imperial Celestial Bureau and had not previously been deployed.
True Person Zhuge’s true mission on this journey had been to use the Seven-Star Formation to extinguish the Great Wilderness Dao-Sin embryo.
Everything in the Great Wilderness had long been within the calculations of the Dao Court’s ancient masterminds.
“So this is… the unfathomable foundation of the Dao Court…”
Mo Hua looked toward the heavens and sighed inwardly.
At the same time, the flowing star river, the Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper Enclosure, and the dazzling brilliance of the Northern Dipper continued to revolve within his eyes.
The scene of the Seven-Star Killing Formation obliterating the Dao-Sin Calamity was engraved deeply in his heart.
“Central Heaven Ziwei Big Dipper Seven-Star Killing Formation…”
Mo Hua murmured softly.
Meanwhile, in the sky, after True Person Zhuge annihilated the Dao-Sin embryo, his face turned pale.
Clearly, activating such a powerful formation had overtaxed his divine sense.
Now that the calamity was destroyed, he wasted no time. Stepping upon the seven stars, he descended from the heavens, his form flickering like starlight, appearing within the Dragon Pool after only a few flashes.
With the true dragon qi depleted and the prohibitions shattered, even Feathered Ascension cultivators could now pass freely.
After descending, True Person Zhuge swept his gaze across the demonic elders and prodigies present. With a casual motion, a Seven-Star sword qi tore through the air, intending to slaughter them all.
He seemed unconcerned whether they possessed Undying Talismans.
Or perhaps, even if such talismans activated and demonic dharma forms manifested, he did not care.
Empowered by Feathered Ascension force, the Seven-Star sword radiance was terrifying.
At the first clash, several demonic Golden Core cultivators were slain on the spot, their flesh incinerated by starlight. The remaining demonic elders and prodigies were struck with terror.
Just as the Seven-Star sword light was about to erase them all indiscriminately…
The ground suddenly split open into a vast chasm.
From within rose an enormous golden corpse.
Its aura was overwhelming. Upon its golden body had appeared faint jade-colored corpse blotches. With a clap of its palms, it forcibly caught True Person Zhuge’s Seven-Star sword radiance.
Though its flesh and bone were burned away by the stellar light, it ultimately blocked the attack.
As True Person Zhuge prepared to strike again, an aged voice sounded:
“True Person, please wait.”
He followed the voice and saw an ancient coffin rise from the chasm.
When the coffin opened, an old man stepped out. His skin had already assimilated with corpse-gold; his face bore mottled golden patches, as if plated with gold after death.
This gold-faced elder was, unmistakably, a Feathered Ascension demonic cultivator.
He, too, had come to guard the Dao—to counterbalance the Dao Court’s Feathered Ascension expert—though he had remained hidden until now.
In a hoarse voice, the gold-faced elder said:
“I hope True Person Zhuge will show mercy…”
True Person Zhuge’s eyes flickered, but he did not respond. Clearly, he intended to crush these demonic prodigies entirely within the Dragon Pool.
Sensing this intent, the elder’s heart sank.
As a great master of the Corpse Dao, he feared no ordinary Feathered Ascension cultivator.
But the man before him was a Zhuge clan True Person, a Consecrator of the Imperial Celestial Bureau, master of the Seven-Star Formation, a truly terrifying figure.
Even if righteous and demonic paths were irreconcilable, he still had to maintain proper courtesy.
Seeing that True-Person Zhuge remained silent, killing intent restrained yet unyielding, the gold-faced elder said:
“If the True Person insists on offering guidance, this old one can only sacrifice this golden corpse body to accompany you. However… a battle between Feathered Ascension experts is long and taxing. It may hinder True Person’s greater task…”
Hearing this, True-Person Zhuge frowned slightly.
This gold-faced elder clearly knew something.
Star-light gathered within True-Person Zhuge’s eyes as he swept his gaze across the demonic cultivators and said coldly:
“Scram.”
The demonic figures’ hearts burned with anger.
Yet the overwhelming might True-Person Zhuge had just displayed—commanding the Seven Stars to slay the Dao-Sin Calamity—was too terrifying. None dared voice the slightest objection.
The gold-faced elder’s flesh showed no expression, corpse-like and rigid. Instead, he cupped his hands.
“Many thanks to True-Person Zhuge for staying his hand… We will not disturb you further…”
After speaking, the elder’s eyes shifted. From beneath the ground, coffins emerged one after another, sealing all the demonic prodigies and elders inside.
Then all the coffins sank into the dark subterranean chasm, sent to an unknown destination, vanishing without a sound.
In an instant, more than half of the Dragon Pool was emptied.
Only then did the gold-faced elder look at True-Person Zhuge and slowly say,
“True-Person Zhuge, we…”
His Corpse-Dao form gradually merged back into the coffin and sank underground.
“…shall meet again.”
At the very end, he tilted his head slightly. Those murky brown-gold eyes seemed, faintly, to glance once at Mo Hua.
That phrase, “we shall meet again,” sounded as if it were spoken to True-Person Zhuge, yet also… to Mo Hua.
After speaking, the gold-faced elder’s coffin completely vanished beneath the earth.
Soon after, that massive jade-blotched golden corpse also burrowed underground, dragging the torn chasm in the earth shut with its hands.
On the ground remained only a thin seam, and all the demonic cultivators had vanished without a trace.
True-Person Zhuge’s expression was slightly cold as he pondered something. After a moment, he turned toward the righteous cultivators and said:
“The Royal court has been destroyed, the calamity dispersed, and your Golden Cores have formed. Everyone… you may return home.”
The shock in the crowd gradually settled. They cupped their hands and replied:
“Yes, True Person.”
“Yes, Honored Consecrator…”
True-Person Zhuge nodded. His gaze suddenly shifted, noticing three ferocious demonic corpses lying on the ground.
The most eye-catching was the powerful body at peak Golden Core, transformed from a demonic flood dragon, half human and half demon-beast.
With a single glance, True-Person Zhuge recognized the corpse’s identity. He frowned slightly in surprise.
“That Demon from Myriad Demon Mountains?”
“…It actually died?”
He turned, looking at the crowd with puzzlement.
“Who killed it?”
The crowd looked at one another. Then, almost involuntarily, all their gazes converged upon Mo Hua.
…
Translator Notes:
The Seven Stars of Big Dipper are:
天枢 (Tiānshū) – Dubhe (α Ursae Majoris) – the “Heavenly Pivot”
天璇 (Tiānxuán) – Merak (β Ursae Majoris) – the “Heavenly Jade”
天玑 (Tiānjī) – Phecda (γ Ursae Majoris) – the “Heavenly Balance”
天权 (Tiānquán) – Megrez (δ Ursae Majoris) – the “Heavenly Authority”
玉衡 (Yùhéng) – Alioth (ε Ursae Majoris) – the “Jade Balance Beam”
开阳 (Kāiyáng) – Mizar (ζ Ursae Majoris) – the “Opening Yang”
摇光 (Yáoguāng) – Alkaid (η Ursae Majoris) – the “Shaking Light”