A chill of dread rose in Dao Master Ji Cang's heart. He had not harbored true murderous intent; he had simply been suppressed for so long that he yearned to stretch his limbs and flex his might.
Yet the moment he gripped Emperor Lord Zhao He, a sudden surge of violent, ferocious malice rushed into his mind, driving his hand to strike to kill against his own will!
It was only after crushing Emperor Lord Zhao He to pieces that his wits returned.
Had it been an ordinary man, killing him would mean nothing—just one more insignificant life. But Zhao He was a Dao Master after all. With a bit of grooming, he could have traded blows with the old fogies of the other shore.
At the very least, he could have served as a scapegoat.
Yet to have struck him dead without conscious intent—Ji Cang immediately sensed that something was terribly wrong.
He had never cultivated Daos like Calamitous Destiny, Slaughter, or Karma. In the early days of the other shore, when they had just made contact with Tianjing, everyone cultivated those Daos that were comparatively easy to master. Hardly anyone cultivated the Nine Innate Daos.
Those supreme Daos were simply too difficult to pursue; attaining any significant achievement in them was arduous beyond measure. Take Grand Dao Lord Taiyi, for instance: to this very day, he remained merely a Grand Dao Lord.
The luminaries of his generation had long become Dao Kings, only to be slain by Hua, Lin, and Luo, while Taiyi was still a Grand Dao Lord, having made little progress.
In that era, the easier a Dao was to cultivate, the greater the accomplishments one could achieve early on. And once possessing immense cultivation, one could seize high stations on the other shore, commanding resources and authority to suppress dissidents.
*There is an exceedingly supreme Dao in this universe subtly influencing my judgment.*
Thoughts flashed through Ji Cang's mind like sparks and lightning as he reviewed the Nine Innate Daos one by one. Understanding dawned on him: *Of the Nine Daos, the only ones capable of affecting me are Karma, Calamitous Destiny, and Slaughter. None of the other Daos, not even Samsara, could sway me in the slightest. And of these three—Karma, Calamitous Destiny, and Slaughter—the most enigmatic is Calamitous Destiny! Calamitous destiny, calamitous destiny...*
His expression grew increasingly grim.
He had never had contact with calamitous destiny. More precisely, back then, before he ever had the chance to encounter the calamitous destiny of the other shore, he had been ambushed and suppressed to death by Dao Master Hua.
Thereafter, he had remained in a state of death, completely oblivious to external upheavals, unaware that the other shore had already weathered calamitous destinies more than once during that time.
"The calamitous destiny in this universe has grown so vast that it triggered an outbreak of slaughter, causing me to be swayed by the Dao of Slaughter!" Ji Cang's face darkened with dread.
Calamitous destiny could well be called the most mysterious Dao under heaven. Even Dao Masters knew precious little about it, aware only that it was ubiquitous and lay completely dormant under ordinary circumstances—yet once accumulated to a certain threshold, it would erupt without mercy.
The consequences of a calamitous destiny eruption were terrifying. In milder cases, it provoked another Dao of heaven and earth—the Dao of Slaughter—plunging the world into butchery and strife.
In graver cases, the entire universe was gripped by a chilling blight; the myriad Daos perished together, lapsing into nirvanic demise and triggering the supreme catastrophe brought forth by the Dao of Nirvanic Demise!
Cold sweat beaded on Ji Cang's forehead. *If the Zhao Realm falls into nirvanic demise, even I will be doomed! I must leave this place at once!*
Right at that moment, a snowflake of Dao ash drifted down.
Ji Cang raised his hand to catch it. Fear lingered in his eyes.
Shouts of battle and slaughter drifted from the Zhao Realm Heavenly Court. The Immortals of the Zhao Realm were charging toward him, bent on avenging Emperor Lord Zhao He.
"Do you not see the Dao ash?" Ji Cang yelled at the charging Immortals. "This is Dao ash—the ashes of the Zhao Realm Universe's Grand Dao! The calamitous destiny of your Zhao Realm has already erupted, dragging everything down into the nirvanic calamity!"
Those Immortals charged before him, deaf to his words, and unleashed their deadliest strikes.
Ji Cang stood firm without flinching. Their divine arts could not even touch his person, disintegrating in midair.
Even for Immortals, divine arts possessed structural form; before a structureless Dao Master, their attacks were utterly feeble.
Seeing them still swarming like flies, Ji Cang flew into a rage. Slaying several of them in rapid succession, he roared, "In the nirvanic calamity, all myriad Daos perish! The universe will return to chaos, the Hongyuan will shatter, and everything will be reduced to zero! Zero! Do you understand?!"
Like a god of slaughter, he struck such terror into the surviving Immortals that they dared not attack him again.
The snow of Dao ash between heaven and earth gradually grew heavier. Flakes drifted down from the starry sky, like the wilting of the Grand Dao itself.
The calamitous destiny had begun to take its toll.
At that moment, the Zhao Realm Immortals surrounding Ji Cang suddenly noticed that the Grand Dao of heaven and earth in their realm had turned from prosperity to decline—it was beginning to recede!
This discovery was earth-shattering.
"The Grand Dao is ebbing!" an experienced Immortal cried out.
The others were equally shaken. They had all heard of the Great Dao tides. Legend had it that a Great Dao tide could suddenly rob an entire universe's Grand Dao of all its Dao power. Divine arts would lose every shred of might, and everyone, even Dao Masters, would be reduced to mere mortals.
Yet Great Dao tides were only legends; no one in the Zhao Realm had ever witnessed one.
"If a Great Dao tide is upon us, won't we fall from the sky and plummet to our deaths?" an Immortal shrieked in panic.
They were currently beyond the sky of the Zhao Realm Heavenly Court, tens of millions of li away from the court itself.
Ji Cang shook his head. "This is no Great Dao tide. Unfathomable though a Great Dao tide may be, an ebb is followed by a flood; when the tide rises again, your cultivation will return. But the Great Nirvanic Calamity is different. It is the universe beginning to repay its karma."
The eyes of the Zhao Realm Immortals all turned to him. Ji Cang gazed at the snowy Dao ash in his palm, his eyes filled with dread.
"The universe is repaying karma, paying back the karma of heaven, earth, and the Grand Dao. The various Grand Daos born of this universe are turning into Dao ash. The repayment begins with the myriad Daos, proceeding to the Five Elements, then to Yin and Yang, the Five Tais, the Limitless, returning to Primordial Origin, and finally terminating in Chaos."
His eyes were vacant and hollow as he explained the terror of the Great Nirvanic Calamity to these Immortals. As the karma of heaven, earth, and the Grand Dao was repaid, the karma of all creation was called due as well. All things in heaven and earth were born of the Hongyuan; the stars, galaxies, nebulae, and Dao manifestations would all return to the Hongyuan.
All life had to return to the Hongyuan. All things would be ruined, all species wiped out—humans and beasts alike would be utterly extinguished. The only beings capable of surviving were Dao Masters. Yet a Dao Master could only save himself, never others.
Once all living beings were extinct and the stars annihilated, the Hongyuan itself would collapse into a point, perishing alongside the innate spiritual treasures to return to Chaos.
Such a cycle was the Great Nirvanic Calamity.
"In this great calamity, no one can survive. No one!" Dao Master Ji Cang burst into wild laughter, shaking his head. "The only one who could have survived has already been eliminated by the nirvanic calamity through my hands! Calamitous destiny... this is calamitous destiny!"
Laughing madly, he walked away into the distance. It was unclear whether he was mocking these Immortals of the Zhao Realm or mocking himself for being puppeted by calamitous destiny.
The snow of Dao ash grew thicker and thicker between heaven and earth, swirling endlessly.
The power of the Daos across heaven and earth diminished considerably, true for every single Dao.
The chance for cultivators to comprehend the Dao or attain enlightenment plummeted drastically—where it had once been one in a thousand or one in ten thousand, it was now one in a hundred million!
Moreover, the process of contemplating and entering the Dao easily bred inner demons, inducing cultivation deviation that often incinerated the cultivator to cinders.
What terrified the cultivators of the Zhao Realm even more was that the immortal spirit qi produced by the cave abysses they summoned was steadily dwindling, and the spirit qi generated by their immortal mountains grew exceedingly thin.
Then, on one day, the summoned cave abysses began to spin and vanish one after another, as though even the Immortals of the other shore were unwilling to harvest them, fearful of being infected by the calamitous destiny.
The Crown Prince of the Zhao Realm led a group of Immortals to seek out Qingxuan, the Holy Venerable, and their companions, kowtowing as he pleaded, "You four are of the sacred race of the other shore, knowledgeable and experienced, and disciples of that Dao Master! Please save our Zhao Realm and help us weather the Great Nirvanic Calamity!"
Qingxuan and the others were equally helpless before the upheavals of the Zhao Realm, none of them knowing what to do.
At that moment, Zhangsun Shenghai stepped forward and said, "In the face of this calamity, there is only one method to delay it. And that is slaughter."
Startled to see him, Qingxuan and the others exchanged glances and shook their heads, indicating that none of them recognized him.
Zhangsun Shenghai gave a slight bow and said, "I am Zhangsun Shenghai, disciple of Dao Master Tongtian, and formerly the eldest senior brother of the Taiyi Dao Sect."
Shi Tianyang said excitedly, "Eldest Senior Brother, we are from the Taiyi Dao Sect too!"
The Crown Prince of the Zhao Realm pleaded for guidance: "How can slaughter help us overcome the calamity?"
Zhangsun Shenghai replied, "Slaughter cannot help you overcome the calamity, but it can delay it. My master, Dao Master Tongtian, attained the Dao through slaughter. Before I set out, he told me that if the Zhao Realm fell into nirvanic demise, it could be resolved through slaughter."
Qingxuan asked, "Senior Brother, what is the reasoning behind this?"
Zhangsun Shenghai answered, "Presumably because we cultivators represent the greatest karma between heaven and earth. In particular, those who have attained the Dao: the more times one attains the Dao and the stronger one's might, the greater the karma one owes heaven and earth. By employing slaughter as the means to eliminate these greatest karmic debts in the world, one can repay karma to the greatest extent and weaken calamitous destiny. In this manner, the calamitous destiny will be stalled, and the Great Nirvanic Calamity will naturally recede."
Hearing this, the Crown Prince of the Zhao Realm kowtowed in gratitude. Zhangsun Shenghai helped him up and said, "There is no time to lose. Go and eliminate as many Dao attainers as you can to repay karma. If you sink deeper into the mire, there will be no remedy left."
The Crown Prince affirmed his agreement and departed with his host of Immortals.
Zhangsun Shenghai looked over Qingxuan, the Holy Venerable, and the others several times, feeling bewildered in his heart: *After I left the sect, Master's choices of disciples have grown rather indiscriminate. This one is clearly a heavenly fiend, that one is brimming with wild ambition, another has a thousand arms, and as for this one, he's a monkey.* He secretly shook his head at Grand Dao Lord Taiyi.
"Has Eldest Senior Brother seen Senior Brother Xu?" Daoist Wukong asked, concerned for Xu Ying's safety.
Zhangsun Shenghai shook his head, surprised. "Martial Uncle Xu... Junior Brother Xu is here as well?"
The others nodded.
Zhangsun Shenghai pondered for a moment, then smiled. "Junior Brother Xu was likely drawn by the aura of slaughter here and intends to attain the Dao of Slaughter in this realm. I share the same intention. Everyone, this is no place to linger. If the Crown Prince of the Zhao Realm fails to eliminate enough Immortals, the universe will very likely collapse back into a Hongyuan state, and ultimately the Hongyuan will collapse into nothingness!"
Daoist Wukong looked toward the other three. Qingxuan said, "We will leave only after finding Dao Ancestor Xu."
Zhangsun Shenghai said, "You need not worry about him. If the Grand Dao of heaven and earth disintegrates completely and the various Dao powers vanish, space itself will decay like tattered rags, shattering at the slightest movement. You might spend your entire lives and still fail to fly out to the Chaos Sea. Even if you reached it, the Sala Tree would probably have withered. But he is attaining the Dao through slaughter, one of the only three Daos remaining in the universe on the eve of the Great Nirvanic Calamity. He will be able to depart at his leisure."
The group expressed their thanks and immediately set out toward the Sala Tree.
Those words were what Qingxuan had once used to advise Xu Ying; now, witnessing the chilling blight of this universe, his own insights ran even deeper.
He unconsciously slowed his pace, sensing the bleak slaughter and calamitous destiny between heaven and earth, gradually arriving at an epiphany.
Seeing this, the Holy Venerable, Wukong, and Shi Tianyang were filled with envy.
"If we could comprehend the two Daos of Calamitous Destiny and Slaughter, perhaps we wouldn't need to rush away," the Holy Venerable suggested suddenly.
The others nodded in agreement, focusing their minds to comprehend.
This was a rare opportunity: all the other Daos of heaven and earth were in ruin, while Calamitous Destiny and Slaughter alone were burgeoning. If they could seize this chance, they could master both Daos.
This crisis was fraught with mortal peril, but the opportunity was just as immense!
The greater the risk, the greater the chance—and the swifter the death!
The four halted their footsteps and turned back. Unbeknownst to the others, Qingxuan had already captured traces of the Daos of Slaughter and Calamitous Destiny, his comprehension deepening until his own Slaughter Cave Abyss and Calamitous Destiny Cave Abyss gradually took shape, though the Holy Venerable, Wukong, and Shi Tianyang had yet to break through.
When they returned to the Zhao Realm, they found that it had descended into chaos at some point. The worlds under the jurisdiction of the Zhao Realm Heavenly Court were collapsing one after another, plunged into the turbulence of earth, water, fire, and wind!
Furthermore, the boundary between the Yin and Yang realms had been breached. Countless ghosts and demons from the Netherworld surged into the mortal world like a torrential flood, slaughtering and devouring people everywhere!
Between Yin and Yang, order had completely crumbled!
"This is..."
Qingxuan stared in shock. Suddenly, he saw an Immortal from the Zhao Realm Heavenly Court swoop down toward a lower world. As the Immortal's divine arts erupted, heaven tore asunder, earth fractured, seas surged inland, lightning and fire raged, and black gales swept through, dragging the cultivators and mortals of that entire world into the blast of his technique!
Qingxuan and his companions were filled with shock and fury, only to see another Immortal descend upon a different world, channeling the Dao of Creation to obliterate all creation, reducing countless lives to ashes!
Elsewhere, yet more Immortals of the Zhao Realm descended onto other worlds, unleashing one massacre after another!
The four stood frozen in horror and rage, staring at the rampant carnage tearing through the Zhao Realm, unable to comprehend what was happening.
"Didn't Senior Brother Shenghai tell the Crown Prince to eliminate Immortals to repay the karma of heaven and earth and halt the nirvanic catastrophe?" Shi Tianyang shouted, incandescent with rage. "Why aren't they killing Immortals? Why are they butchering ordinary people instead?!"
The Holy Venerable saw the truth with cold clarity and said, "If it were me, I would do the exact same thing. Rather than slaying all the Immortals, it is far easier to butcher the mortals and ordinary cultivators of every world. Making those worthless wretches repay the karma of heaven and earth can halt the calamity just the same."
His voice was callous as he added, "I am an Immortal myself—why would I eliminate Immortals, why eliminate myself? Rather than revolting against my own life, why not wipe out the mortals? By butchering the mortals to delay calamitous destiny, we can sire countless descendants and continue to sit high above the world!"
Qingxuan charged toward those Immortals, his voice chillingly stern: "Since the Immortals of the Zhao Realm refuse to repay their debts, then we outsiders shall help them pay!"
The Holy Venerable sneered and shouted after him, "Qingxuan, no wonder Emperor Qingxuan severed you from himself—your compassion is simply boundless! What do the mortals of another universe have to do with you?!"
Before he had even finished speaking, Daoist Wukong and Shi Tianyang let out long roars and charged forward alongside Qingxuan.
In that instant, their auras resonated with the Dao of Slaughter permeating heaven and earth. Strands of slaughter aura connected directly with their forms. In this fleeting span, both of them had attained enlightenment in the Dao of Slaughter!
The Holy Venerable froze in disbelief. "Isn't slaughter born from a cold and callous heart? How can helping others evoke a resonance with the Dao of Slaughter?!"
Chapter 794