Donghuang Ziji

Chapter 967 Emperor Tian Suppresses Immortals and Demons

Summoned by the Heavenly Emperor, the First Rank Eastern King Duke was the first to respond.

This being is the most central symbol of the Immortal Path, as the Twelve True Lords maintain much of the order of heaven and earth, and are among the better-performing ones.

With the return of the Three Pure Ones, he was the first to break free from his twisted madness and walk out of the temple.

Its skin, a bluish-green color, shimmered with a constant flow of light. With each step, countless specks of light floated and fell to the ground, transforming into layers of lotus blossoms.

The lotus petals are exquisite and translucent, as thin as cicada wings. Under the sunlight, they refract seven-colored light. The halo flows and transforms into Buddha's light and precious flames, burning the lotus and turning it into a series of pigeon egg-sized glass beads. Some are red like the essence of the sun, some are green and full of vitality, and a few are silvery white like the moon.

Amidst the intertwining of various colors of light, it transformed into a towering Fusang divine tree, supporting the immortal manifestation of the Dao in the eastern heavens, as well as the many realms under its jurisdiction.

The main trunk and branches of the Fusang Divine Tree were all cast like pure gold, and the leaves were carved like jade. Among the gnarled branches and green leaves, plump and round medicinal fruits hung down.

As the Eastern King Duke continued his advance, the radiance of the pearl that bloomed after the lotus flower was burned gradually coalesced into a phantom image of a Buddha under the Fusang tree.

The chanting of Buddhist hymns resounded through the void, and the yang energy surged, inducing a transformation in the Queen Mother of the West.

The goddess, half-naked, with disheveled hair, revealing sharp teeth and dragging a leopard tail, looked up at the Taoist priest in the east.

Four lotus flowers beneath his feet instantly bloomed with boundless Buddhist light, revealing palaces and pavilions, flying apsaras dancing gracefully, and countless devout monks and nuns surrounding the four bodhisattva phantoms, listening to their teachings.

Suddenly, the four bodhisattvas seemed to sense the change in the east and simultaneously began chanting the name of the Medicine Buddha.

The pure and holy radiance surged upwards, stimulating the life and death energies around the goddess. The thick, ink-like, churning, deathly gray-black energy began to dissipate. This symbolized the goddess's control over the Heavenly Fiend and the Five Destructions, which corresponded to the decay, decay, wear and tear, and consumption of all things.

This corresponds to the goddess's original, wild form. Now, drawn by the aura of the Eastern King Duke and assisted by the Four Great Bodhisattvas, the goddess has gradually regained some of her compassionate nature.

The Azure Bird and the others, who had already returned to the Great Heaven, sensed the changes in the goddess and held a grand ceremony. Stimulated by the power of their vows, a vibrant, verdant aura of longevity began to manifest around the goddess, radiating endless vitality, revival, and the power to nourish all things.

As death gave way to rebirth, the goddess's violent and fierce aura, like the receding tide, slowly settled and subsided.

Wisdom and compassion appeared in her eyes as she looked around and exclaimed, "What a magnificent dream!"

The Queen Mother of the West glanced at the four pure lands beneath her feet, then slowly rose and returned to Kunlun. The four Bodhisattvas joined their palms in reverence and returned to their original forms.

When the Jade Pool Fairy Maidens Qingniao, Suhua, and Yuzhen saw this, they immediately flew around her, fetched pure water from the Jade Pool to wash away the dust, and coiled her smooth, long hair. The rosy clouds from Kunlun Mountain, woven by them, transformed into celestial robes and draped them over the goddess, making her even more divine.

The transformations of the Eastern King Duke and the Western Queen Mother liberated some of the fruits of enlightenment for the four Bodhisattvas, and allowed the Medicine Buddha to reappear.

Naturally, this stimulated the future Buddha in the Zi position, the present Buddha in the Si position, and the past Buddha in the Wei position. These three are not so much independent beings as manifestations of the Tathagata Buddha. Sensing the four great Bodhisattvas and the Medicine Buddha, they immediately manifested and intended to absorb them.

However, with the return of the Heavenly Emperor, the Buddha Tathagata merged with them even earlier. The Four Great Bodhisattvas and the Medicine Buddha followed suit, re-evolving the Western Paradise and dispersing many more Pure Lands, which were then re-differentiated from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas absorbed by the Buddha Tathagata.

Similar to Buddhism are the Twelve True Lords of the Immortal Path. These twelve immortal cultivators, who guard their respective regions, also received a tremendous boost of immortal destiny during this upheaval.

With the tacit approval of the Heavenly Emperor, the concept of the Twelve Earthly Branches was incorporated, and together with the Queen Mother of the West and the King Father of the East, the Great Celestial Light was stabilized.

At midnight, the Daoist Masters of the Celestial Realm ask about the myriad spirits; at 1 AM, the Daoist Master of the Celestial Realm asks about the dragon and tiger; at 3 AM, the Daoist Master of the Complete Perfection Realm asks about the Lesser Yang; at 5 AM, the Daoist Master of Feather Transformation asks about the Flying Immortal; at 9 AM, the Daoist Master of the Jade Emperor asks about the Golden Palace; at 7 AM, the Daoist Master of the Upper Purity Realm asks about the Great Cave; at 11 AM, the Daoist Master of the Pure Subtle Realm asks about the Cave Illumination; at 1 PM, the Daoist Master of the Primordial Spirit Realm asks about the Years; at 3 PM, the Daoist Master of the Marketplace asks about the Nine Streams; at 5 PM, the Daoist Master of Heaven and Earth asks about the Great Void; at 7 PM, the Daoist Master of the Stopping Void asks about

Of course, along with Heaven and Earth, the Heavenly Master of Fate, of the Yi position, also returned. His return, along with the assistance of the Bodhi Patriarch, further stabilized the destiny and fortune within the Great Heaven.

Some of the power that fell into the Three Pure Ones Heaven, the Azure Scholar of the Chen position and the Great Freedom of the Shen position, also returned to the Great Heaven during this process.

The Azure Warrior, upon manifesting, immediately became a bridge connecting the two great heavens, while the Great Freedom, upon recovering, immediately wanted to leave.

"Heavenly Demon, you'd better stay here and keep watch."

The Jade Pure Heaven at the Yin position, the Supreme Pure Heaven at the Mao position, and the Upper Pure Heaven at the Wu position stood in the void, steadily suppressing the Great Freedom and restraining the Heavenly Demon's power that was trying to break free.

"are you back?"

A faint whisper broke the silence within the jade palace.

Then, from the depths of that majestic palace, came the murmurs, prayers, blessings, and oaths of countless beings. The invisible sound waves impacted every part of the palace, echoing and stirring up the clouds and mist, eventually converging together and shooting out a ray of light.

The radiance was initially a violently distorted mass of light and shadow, as if it were formed by the convergence of countless precious lights of wishes and black curses. It was extremely unstable, with the radiance and black curses twisting and colliding every moment.

But gradually, this conflict was no longer confined to the surface, but collapsed and coalesced inward.

Ultimately, it transformed into an illusory image of an emperor.

Above the Emperor's head was a crown formed from the convergence of countless wishes, its light flowing like liquid gold threads across his body, outlining the Emperor's robes.

An invisible will emanated from his body, spreading outwards and gathering the power of wishes and curses into one, beginning to unravel the many principles within the Great Heaven.

"You've actually gone this far?"

As the Heavenly Demon watched Dingwei Ancestral Master Emperor gradually recover, and felt the Heavenly Emperor's power rapidly seizing control of the Great Heaven, he was both shocked and anxious.

He hadn't expected that the Heavenly Emperor's cultivation had actually made some progress during the long period of suppression.

Even after losing the support of Heaven, the Three Pure Ones were able to suppress him.

Some of the demons, unable to accept this fact, looked at the Great Freedom beside them and were about to exert further influence to corrupt this post-Saint Emperor again when suddenly a series of water sounds came from the void.

The Heavenly Demon was startled. In the next instant, he sensed a dark aura emerging. Then, a deity entirely constructed of flowing water slowly emerged from the Ruins of Return. The misty water vapor swirled throughout the heavens and earth, driving the circulation of the world's water veins.

But the Heavenly Demon felt a considerable threat.

That is the Ren position of the Chaos Venerable among the Later Saint Emperors, symbolizing nothingness and the end, a deity who can represent the state of nothingness after the destruction of everything.

However, he is an ancient water god who, after the Heavenly Emperor fell into slumber and before the Black Emperor lost control, received control of the water veins from the Black Emperor. He spends most of his time suppressing the Void of the Immortal Manifestation Dao Transformation Great Heaven, a duty that also makes him the greatest irony of his symbolism.

At the same time, because of its symbolism of nothingness and the end, it is also the most restraining force against the Heavenly Demon's Dao Fruits of [Change], [Chaos], and [Separation].

In the past, because Hun Dong Zun's power was inferior to that of the Heavenly Demon, and he did not have a separate grasp of the concepts of nothingness and the end, he could only rely on Gui Xu to protect himself.

Now that the Heavenly Demon is suppressed, he is naturally willing to come out and help suppress his many [changes].

No matter how the Heavenly Demon manipulates its supernatural powers, or how it twists and turns the impossible into the possible, the Dao Fruit of Transformation is utterly useless in the face of Nothingness. Some of the Transformations that fail to leave a trace can even be traced back by the Chaos Venerable through the water veins, using the wonder of water's impermanence to imprint the form of the Transformation.

Then, through the cyclical changes of water, the alternation of all things is brought about, rejecting chaos and separation.

The Heavenly Demon tried to struggle, but Hundong Zun's actions had already attracted two other powerful beings with the symbol of nothingness.

The position of Xu (戌) is forbidden, and the position of Hai (亥) is the abyss of the underworld.

The former was merely a simple shadow, which, upon its appearance, devoured and assimilated everything about the Heavenly Demon, directly and brutally suppressing it.

The latter's form exists between the tangible and the intangible, formed by the interweaving of three streams of water vapor: one clear and deep, containing the meaning of purity, carefree, and peaceful sleep; one profound and mysterious, settling the myriad emotions of the mortal world; and one filthy and viscous, symbolizing the inevitable decay and destruction of all things.

These two also exert considerable restraint on the Heavenly Demon. However, the Unfathomable One directly refuses to comprehend many of the Heavenly Demon's abilities, transforming them into something even more chaotic and incomprehensible than [Chaos]. This prevents the Heavenly Demon from further dividing and altering its power.

Huang Quanyuan, in cooperation with Hun Dongzun, directly guided all the tangible changes of the Heavenly Demon toward the end, settling all the emotional provocations and disturbances, causing all spiritual distortions to fall into eternal slumber, and finally, with the power of Hun Dongzun, returned to the Void, or rather, returned to the Unfathomable One that merged with the Void.

Faced with that unknowable, unfeeling, thoughtless, and unthinking state, symbolizing all that is unknowable, all that is doubtful, all that is wrong, all that is distorted, and all that is chaotic, even the Heavenly Demons did not want to get close.

He knew all too well how much of his power had been absorbed by the Immortal Manifestation Dao Transformation Great Heaven over the long past period, and how many of his methods of dealing with the situation had been swallowed up by it.

There may be some changes under the shadow of the unspeakable, but it is difficult for him to drive change in the core internal structure. He can only try to assimilate through chaos.

But given the current state of the Three Pure Ones, the Chaos Lord, and the Yellow Springs Abyss, he didn't think he could have a good outcome if he fell into their clutches.

The Heavenly Demon naturally wanted to escape, but at this moment, the Bing-position Divine Firmament Lord and the Geng-position Golden Sun Clan manifested. One of them could be considered a main god who subdues demons, and the other was inclined towards the master of war. The two directly cut off the Heavenly Demon's many escape routes.

As the various post-saint emperors suppressed the Heavenly Demon, the remaining distortions and changes in the Great Heaven began to subside. The Gui-position Beichen Jun began to awaken, invoking the stars in the heavens and restoring the normal operation of the myriad worlds.

The immense power caused the order of the heavens to begin to visibly shift in a normal direction, and the price that the Heavenly Demons paid for trying to distort all things was becoming increasingly higher.

In particular, with the gradual restoration of the Heavenly Empress of the Wu position and the Earthly Sovereign of the Ji position, the existing order of heaven and earth was completely stabilized, allowing it to continuously change in a positive direction.

The few possible negative possibilities are also suppressed in the underworld by the Nine Netherworld Realm of the Ox position and the Lord of Fengdu of the Rooster position.

At this moment, the Heavenly Demon seemed to know that it could not escape, and silently accepted its fate by being sealed inside the Unfathomable.

After dealing with these matters, the Heavenly Emperor looked towards the direction of the Eastern Celestial Heaven and saw that with the help of the Emperor in the Heavenly Heaven, he was suppressing the Lord of the Demonic Path, the Lord of the Buddha-Demon Path, the Jade Calendar True Lord, and Chu Tai.

With the help of the heavens, this guy can summon a Saint King's treasure every time he swings his shepherd's staff, and its power is enormous, basically maintaining the power of a first-grade weapon.

Even if the physical object itself does not reach the first rank, the Emperor can still manipulate the profound mechanism to combine and merge the many Saint King Great Daos he has mastered, bringing all laws together and forcibly raising the power of the treasure to the first rank.

If some treasures already possess a first-grade quality, they can unleash a power that shakes the very foundation of the heavens when combined.

The most typical example is the Hetu (河图).

The most powerful part of this treasure is the original version held by the Holy King Xi, which corresponds to the divine summary of the laws governing the operation of heaven and earth. It can be said to grasp the pivot of the universe's operation. After being deduced and created by the Holy King Xi, it was further improved and became an unparalleled treasure that can understand the fundamental nature of all things in heaven and earth and deduce the basic information of the universe.

The superimposed River Charts, crafted by multiple sage kings, though mostly water systems and primordial energy circulation diagrams of the Great Heaven or the Central Plains, only of the second or third rank, when combined with the River Chart projection of Sage King Xi, allowed the emperor to deduce the principles of different eras, and thus manifest the illusory images of heaven and earth of different eras within a small space.

These phantoms are not mere illusions, but projections of different eras corresponding to the Great Dao of the Holy King. With the Heavenly Realm integrated into them, different orders are constructed, such as the movement of stars, the myriad phenomena of mountains and rivers, or the birth and death of the mortal world. There is always one that can suppress Chu Tai, Jade Emperor True Lord, and others.

Once trapped inside, it is very difficult to break free.

Even Chu Tai, who briefly escaped the illusory era by relying on the Eastern Emperor Bell, was intercepted by the Emperor.

The Eastern Emperor Bell shook, causing the invisible river of cosmic light to freeze, the stars in the star layer to tremble, and the way of the universe to be suppressed.

Chu Tai attempted to freeze the emperor in time.

But the other party merely waved his shepherd's staff, and two orbs of light containing endless mysteries appeared. One flowed with the true meaning of time, seemingly surrounded by the illusory image of a long river, while the other carried the myriad phenomena of stars, revealing the wonders of heaven and earth.

The two auras merged and protected the Emperor. Although they were easily shattered by the Eastern Emperor Bell, the remaining power could not shake the Emperor's essence. He stood in place and waved his shepherd's staff again. Countless Qian Tian Gang Qi manifested and intertwined into a lightning net.

"Get down here!"

Faced with that dazzling net of lightning, Chu Tai dared not confront its sharp edge directly.

That thing, though seemingly a simple net, actually connects all the heavens and is almost one with the very foundation of the entire Thunderfire Layer.

If this net of blockade is broken by brute force, it will be tantamount to shaking the foundation of the Thunderfire Layer. At best, the Thunderfire Layer will collapse; at worst, the nine heavens will tilt, the universe will be in disorder, and all things will be in trouble.

Logically speaking, such a fundamental mobilization of one side would cause even a first-rank cultivator to suffer a great backlash from the heavens.

However, at this moment, the Emperor received the blessing of the power of the two Great Heavens, and his magical power seemed inexhaustible. He did not care about the consumption at all. In addition, the Emperor was able to materialize many Saint King treasures. The Saint King power that once built the Thunder and Fire Layer was materialized by him. With the two combined, he easily withstood the exclusion of the Great Heavens.

This directly resulted in Chu Tai being forced to wait for the physical form to dissipate in the face of such methods. This process was also enough for the Emperor to manipulate and strengthen the seal.

"This can't go on like this."

(End of this chapter)