A black dragon soared through the sky, gazing down at the black mountains and white waters below.
The clouds hung thick and muddy yellow, like unyielding silt, as lightning and thunder bore down upon the mountains. The earth was fractured and torn, its only living presence the glowing red magma surging and churning in every direction.
Heaven and earth were plunged in murky yellow, with day and night indistinguishable.
The Black Dragon had flown ten thousand li and seen over a thousand volcanoes erupting with violent fury, yet it could not find a single speck of green.
Ten thousand li of rivers and mountains were nothing more than ten thousand li of living, fiery purgatory.
Ignoring the flying volcanic rock in the air, it flew several hundred li farther before slowly descending by the shore of the Eastern Sea.
Here lay an oasis, separated from the outside world by a colossal barrier of light. Outside, heaven and earth were crumbling, but within the light curtain, grass and trees remained lush and green, and living creatures scurried about.
Along the oasis's edge stood one hundred and eight glowing stone steles, which together held up the light barrier. Inside the oasis, humans and beasts came and went in a frantic rush, busier than worker ants, yet largely without interfering with one another.
Upon landing, the Black Dragon walked straight to the stele in the cardinal east. This primary stele was the largest and tallest; only upon close inspection could one spot faint cracks appearing upon its magic artifact.
Maintaining this light barrier was no easy task, and should it ever shatter, the living creatures within would undoubtedly face doom.
And so, the Black Dragon scraped a scale from its own chest and used it to replace the artifact.
From the center of the light barrier, seven figures came forward to greet it. "We thank the Divine Venerable for your toil. How fares the outside world?"
The Black Dragon raised its head toward the exterior and spoke in human tongue: "The mortal world is everywhere like this. In the south, twenty thousand li away, and in the west, seventeen thousand li away, I saw only two sanctuaries. Between them are no more than a billion living creatures, with fewer than a million surviving humans, though each is overseen by a Demon Venerable."
Now that it had landed, the contrast with its surroundings laid bare the Black Dragon's sheer enormity—over a hundred zhang from its horns to the tip of its tail, with black scales laced with gold, and eyes like coral fire.
The humans standing before it seemed as insignificant as mung beans.
Hearing its report, the seven figures actually let out a sigh of relief. "That is fortunate; it is more than we had anticipated."
One among them, sporting a cyan jade crown and a grizzled beard, added, "Living beings are resilient in their ignorance. Given time, they will flourish once more. It is our heritage and lineage that truly face peril."
The sky above the oasis remained pristine. All living creatures looked up to see a massive gash across the vault of heaven, as though someone had slashed heavily across a canvas, nearly slicing it in two.
Fortunately, this rift was already seven- or eight-tenths healed, and countless streaks of radiant light rose into the air from the ground, disappearing into the tear.
Cyan Jade Crown sneered. "These Heavenly Fiends are clever enough, knowing to scurry back before the celestial rift seals."
"If they stay behind, only death awaits them."
Just then, a sudden surge of red light erupted from within the celestial rift, so piercing that the creatures below instinctively shut their eyes and turned away.
One must realize that the supreme beings within the light barrier could gaze directly into True Solar Fire, yet this red light left them dazzled and disoriented, their hearts pounding in alarm.
The creatures throughout the oasis had long collapsed in terror, and the more timid among them were frightened to death on the spot.
"The celestial rift has stopped closing! How could this be?"
The expressions of the seven figures changed drastically, their hearts sinking to rock bottom. "Seven thousand of our immortals and saints offered their flesh and blood to seal the heavens, yet even that cannot mend this rift?"
Could this final battle—gathering the fortune of countless living beings, deciding the world's fate and the very survival of the immortal path—truly end in defeat?
"Does the enemy still hold a trump card?"
Before the words had fully settled, the Black Dragon shifted from its crouch and rose to its feet, its beard and whiskers bristling. "Not good! We have been deceived!"
As its fury flared, an invisible draconic might blanketed the oasis. All living beings trembled in fear, and quite a few frail humans fainted on the spot.
The immortals were alarmed and frantically asked for the reason.
The Black Dragon replied at once, "We believed the Heavenly Fiends fled beyond the heavens only because they were routed, but they still possessed the strength to fight. You and I know that full well."
The immortals nodded.
"It seems now that they retreated only to advance," the Black Dragon said, raising its head toward the celestial rift. "They appear to have forged a supreme treasure, taking advantage of heaven and earth's wounds and the chaos of worldly laws to merge it into the Heavenly Dao. They are altering the power of the laws!"
Cyan Jade Crown asked hurriedly, "Altering them how?"
"If this artifact fuses entirely with our realm's boundary, it will surely spawn new laws that favor the Heavenly Fiends! We cannot sit by and do nothing!"
The immortals declared at once, "The Divine Venerable shares the very heart of heaven and earth, far surpassing us. We beg the Divine Lord to show us a path forward!"
The Black Dragon fell silent, its divine eyes flashing like lightning as it scanned the seven faces, as if seeking to see right through them.
Yet these seven were all immortal venerables of boundless magic power, their depths deeper than the sea; how could they possibly betray any trace of their thoughts?
It seemed to understand something.
In the next instant, the Black Dragon withdrew its gaze and turned back to inspect the celestial rift and the red light.
"The fusion has already begun. I will attempt to disrupt it. Yet this is a supreme instrument capable of merging with an entire realm's laws; I have no certainty of success." Its voice boomed like a great bell. "After I am gone, observe the shifts in the laws of heaven and earth with utmost care. At the same time, look after the mortal realm and sustain the billions of living beings!"
"That is our duty!" Seeing it step forward, the group rejoiced and bowed to it. "The Divine Venerable's merit is boundless!"
Even as the Black Dragon chuckled softly, the sound rolled like thunder. "You must all engrave today's pledge in your hearts: conform to heaven's will and bestow blessings upon the common people! Otherwise, even if you escape today's catastrophe, you will inevitably have to answer to endless tribulations in the future, until your bodies perish and your Daos are extinguished!"
This utterance was heard by all creatures within the oasis. The immortals clasped their hands in salute, reverently accepting the sacred instruction.
The Black Dragon cast another glance toward the oasis and let out a sigh. Only a very few could fathom the pity within its eyes.
Then, the Black Dragon leapt into the air, the fierce wind it generated sending objects throughout the oasis tumbling. Its form expanded rapidly in the sky until it stretched a thousand zhang long, casting its shadow over nearly the entire oasis.
This was its true form!
Even the primordial behemoths of the Panlong Ocean could not match its sheer size.
With just a few beats of its form, the creatures below watched it soar higher and higher, plunging straight into the clouds. The sky, clear for ten thousand li just moments before, had become dense with dark clouds.
As the Black Dragon dove into the sea of clouds, the cloud bank transformed into a colossal, incessantly churning vortex. Thunder and lightning in the sky illuminated the immense silhouette of the dragon undulating within the clouds.
Witnessing such a wondrous sight, the creatures on the ground prostrated themselves and prayed with sincere devotion.
Immediately after, a mass of shimmering black and gold surged toward the enormous rift in the sky with unstoppable resolve.
A deafening boom shook heaven and earth.
This time, the seven figures watched without blinking, witnessing with total clarity as the black-and-gold cloud mass collided with the red pinpoint inside the celestial rift. A light far more dazzling erupted, and the shockwave generated in that instant bore down from above, plowing through the fractured ground all over again and even suffocating the violently erupting volcanoes into a brief halt.
The light barrier shuddered violently, appearing as fragile as a soap bubble caught in a gale before such heavenly wrath.
Just then, the black dragon scale upon the primary stele gleamed faintly.
Thanks to this, the entire light barrier quickly stabilized and was not shattered.
Under the cover of that blinding glare, a speck of red light and a streak of black light shot toward the west and the east respectively, their fates unknown.
Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds.
Then, the red light within the celestial rift faded, and the colossal tear across the heavenly vault began to mend slowly at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Chapter 1177