LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 34: Heaven Opening Sword Art
Di Jun sat on the Nine Dragon Throne with a grave expression. He turned towards Nuwa. "How is Daoist Fuxi?"
Nuwa smiled slightly. "Thanks to Daoist Di Jun's aid, my brother barely managed to keep his Quasi-Saint Realm cultivation base. He just needs another innate spiritual artifact to progress again."
Di Jun nodded. "That's good. Once he recovers, I'll send some suitable artifacts to him."
As the Heavenly Emperor, he had wanted to suppress Nuwa and Fuxi's influence to bolster his prestige, but after seeing the Pangu Genesis Formation's increased power, he could no longer care about such matters.
"Have you felt anything from the Grandmist Violet Qi?" Di Jun asked. He both wanted and did not want Nuwa to become a Saint, but at this point, only a Saint could deal with the Pangu Genesis Formation.
Nuwa shook her head. "For so long, I haven't sensed any changes. My intuition tells me the time hasn't arrived yet."
Di Jun nodded. "It seems that we cannot rely on the Grandmist Violet Qi. We can only strengthen the development of the Demon Clan. If we can gather forty-eight thousand Golden Immortals, then I don't believe the Starry Sky War Array cannot compete with the Pangu Genesis Formation."
After discussing a few more matters with Nuwa, she left, and Di Jun was left with Taiyi.
"Even if Nuwa is a Saint, we can't rely on her," Di Jun said. "She is an outsider, after all. Who knows what thoughts she will have once she achieves sainthood."
"Brother, you mean?"
Di Jun nodded. "You should become a Saint of Heaven. I'm the Heavenly Emperor, so I can't become a Saint, but you can."
Taiyi frowned. "But we can't take Nuwa's Grandmist Violet Qi. It'll cause the subjects' hearts to chill."
"Who said anything about taking Nuwa's Grandmist Violet Qi?" Di Jun asked. "Isn't there one ripe for the taking?"
"You mean Redcloud Ancestor's?" Seeing Di Jun nod, Taiyi fell into contemplation. Finally, he nodded.
Di Jun smiled. "I know I could count on you. Focus wholeheartedly on increasing your strength and wait for a chance. We probably aren't the only ones eyeing Redcloud Ancestor's Grandmist Violet Qi."
Taiyi nodded and left. Once he was alone, Di Jun took out the Demon Summoning Banner. He planned on having every demon aside from the demon emperors and sages place a strand of their truesoul into it.
This way, they would no longer suffer a repeat incident of the Starry Sky Way Array’s destruction. Furthermore, it would strengthen his control over Heavenly Court, and Nuwa wouldn't be able to make any waves even if she achieved sainthood.
Once Di Jun announced the order for every member of the Demon Clan to place a stand of their truesoul into the Demon Summoning Banner, almost everyone willingly complied. In their eyes, there was no difference if they did or did not.
Furthermore, after experiencing the horror of the Pangu Genesis Formation a second time, they wanted a method to save their lives if they perished in the war ten eons from now on. It was another safety net. Plus, the Heavenly Emperor also said they could retrieve their strand of truesoul if they entered the Quasi-Saint Realm.
The only ones to show resistance were some of the Golden Immortals and above. They didn't like placing their lives in the hands of others, but under Di Jun's heavy-handed methods and peer pressure, they conformed.
"Strange," Laozi muttered as he pinched his fingers to calculate the secrets of heaven. "The tribulation should have begun, yet it is now showing signs of stopping? Did the Dao Ancestor delay the tribulation for some reason?"
"Maybe the tribulation should not have arrived now," Yuanshi said. "The Dao Ancestor merged with the Way of Heaven, and his action is equivalent to the Way of Heaven's will."
Laozi nodded. He could only accept such an explanation for now. With the battle now over, Yuanshi and Laozi entered Three Purity Palace. Yuanshi stopped and looked at Tongtian. "What's wrong, Third Sister?"
Tongtian took back her gaze and entered the palace. "It's nothing."
The three of them sat in Three Purity Hall and discussed the recent battle before moving on to other matters. "Third Sister, both Eldest Brother and I have severed our third Corpses. Do you know when you will?"
"If I'm not wrong, it should be some time in the future when Nuwa achieves sainthood," Tongtian said, much to her two brothers' confusion, but she didn't take it to heart. "What about you two? Both of you have severed your three Corpses, any progress on the fusion?"
"It's thanks to Third Sister's advice. The moment I severed my Self Corpse, I could already sense the connection between myself and them. I've already started the merging process, and all I need is time," Yuanshi said with a smile.
"The Way of Three Corpses is meant to merge with the original body," Laozi started, "But I don't want to achieve sainthood with my original body, so I'm trying to create a new method to just merge the Three Corpses together."
"It looks like I'll be the slowest out of the three of us," Tongtian said with a sigh.
She recalled when she had first transformed. With the aid of the Chaos Clock shard, Tongtian embarked on comprehending the Law of Time and stepped into the Quasi-Saint Realm ahead of her brothers, but her lead had disappeared.
"You don't have to lament. With Third Sister's talent, you won't fall too far behind us," Yuanshi comforted.
Tongtian smiled and waved her hand. "I'm just casually saying it."
After all, Tongtian still had memories as a human. Having become the Supreme Purity, she was still very satisfied. In her eyes, it would be strange for herself to continually be ahead of both brothers, but that didn't mean she would give up.
Her stagnant progress was only temporary. She was using it to increase her foundation, so when she stepped into the Primordial Origin Realm, she would ascend to heaven in one step.
"Alright, I'm going to enter secluded cultivation," Tongtian said. "The Pangu Genesis Formation's three ax strikes have given me much inspiration, and I feel like I can create a supreme sword art."
"Then we'll await Third Sister's accomplishment," Yuanshi said as Tongtian returned to her Supreme Purity Hall. He and Laozi continued to discuss and debate the way.
When Tongtian sat down in a lotus position, she closed her eyes and recalled the three strikes of the Heaven Opening Ax Art the Pangu Genesis Formation displayed.
Compared to the seven strikes unleashed by Pangu in Tongtian's memories, they didn't contain even a hundredth of the charm of the authentic Pangu’s strikes. This only confirmed her suspicions.
Pangu wasn't in the Primordial Origin Realm or the chaos fiendgod equivalent. At least, Pangu should be at the very peak of the Primordial Origin Realm or at the realm above it.
Tongtian rid herself of unnecessary thoughts. She still couldn't comprehend the esoteric mysteries behind Pangu's strikes, but she could understand the one unleashed by the false Pangu. By using the false Pangu's ax strikes as a comparison, she could deduce some of the profundities behind Pangu’s power.
She fused her understanding of the first strike of Pangu's Heaven Opening Art with her understanding of swordsmanship and the Laws of Time and Space. When she finally finished, there was a smile on her face.
She created her own swordplay inspired by Pangu's Heaven Opening Art, the Heaven Opening Sword Art. Although it only had one strike, Tongtian was confident that no single Quasi-Saint could withstand it.
What's more, during her meditation, she found a point of fusion between the Law of Time and the Law of Space, creating an embryonic understanding of the Law of Spacetime.
Tongtian pinched her hand to calculate how much time had passed, and her eyebrows almost reached her hairline when she discovered exactly how long she had been cultivating, ninety-thousand years.
Once again, Tongtian felt the worthlessness of time. She exited Supreme Purity Hall and into Three Purity Hall and discovered Laozi and Yuanshi not present. Both were in their own halls quietly cultivating, so she didn't disturb them.
She felt someone wandering outside Kunlun Mountain and couldn't help but frown. 'Is it that annoying guy, Burning Lamps, again?'
Tongtian didn't have any good feelings toward Daoist Burning Lamps. At the end of the Investiture of the Gods, he betrayed Yuanshi and joined Buddhism, becoming Dipankara, the Lamp Bearing Buddha.
To Tongtian's surprise, it wasn't Burning Lamp Daoist but an unknown demon loitering around. With her curiosity peaked, her figure disappeared from Three Purity Hall and in front of the demon.
The demon was a female fox demon. She wore a pristine white dress and possessed alluring features, but she hadn't perfectly hidden all her features, and two white fox ears sprouted atop her head.
"What's a Golden Immortal like you doing here?" Tongtian asked as she appeared above the fox demon.
The fox demon started, but she quickly regained her composure and kneeled to Tongtian. "This little demon is Meihu, an envoy from Heavenly Court."
Tongtian had originally thought that the fox demon wanted to become a follower of the Three Purities to protect herself and remove herself from the Titan-Demon War, but it seemed she was wrong. "What does Heavenly Court want with us?"
"Answering the Supreme Purity, this little demon was sent to deliver gifts." After she finished speaking, Meihu revealed over a hundred chests filled with valuable materials.
"Huh?" Tongtian said. "Does Heavenly Court want us to ally with them?"
Meihu shook her head. "No, these are gifts from the Eastern Emperor."
Tongtian's expression immediately darkened. She waved her arm, sending the fox demon flying back a thousand li along with the hundred chests. She wanted those valuable materials, but that doesn't mean she could be bought.
With a snort, Tongtian returned to Three Purity Palace.
For the next thousand years, several more demon envoys appeared outside of Kunlun Mountain, but Tongtian refused to see them. Even when Yuanshi took action and killed a few, they still showed up, so they gave up and sealed Kunlun Mountain to prevent anyone from approaching.
Burning Lamp Daoist, who had always wanted to apprentice under one of the Three Purities, hated Heavenly Court to the core, but he was too weak and could only swallow this grudge silently.
On West Kunlun, Xi Wangmu, who had retired from interfering in the Great Desolation, allowed the demon envoy to rest in her territory, acting as a bridge between them and the Three Purities. However, she couldn't see the Three Purities either. When the major powers saw this, some said that Xi Wangmu feared the Heavenly Court and surrendered to them. Others said that she wanted to serve the Three Purities and thus, tried to manage their external relationships.
In Yin-Yang Palace on West Kunlun, Xi Wangmu sent the demon envoy to rest with a smile. When they left, her smile disappeared, and a deep hatred emerged from her eyes. She glanced towards Kunlun Mountain but quickly averted her eyes. Instead, she gazed toward the Supreme Yang Star and Supreme Yin Star, and no one knew what she was thinking.
Near the Undying Volcano near the South, Kong Xuan sat beneath the Five Element Tree. Red, black, yellow, green, and white auras emerged and intermixed around him.
When he opened his eyes, he waved his arm, and the Five Element Tree behind him trembled and split into seven pieces: five branches, one trunk, and roots. His five feather-shaped sabers came forth and merged with the five branches correlating to the same element.
The trunk transformed into a fan handle while the five branches transformed the fan itself, forming a five-colored feathered fan. One of the top ten connate spiritual roots, the Five Element Tree, disappeared, but a high-grade cardinal spiritual artifact, the Five Element Fan, was born.
The grade of the spiritual artifact was a bit lacking, but it would suffice for now. It had the potential to become a top-grade cardinal spiritual artifact; all it lacked was an opportunity.
Kong Xuan waved the Five Element Fan, and five colored lights emerged. He tested the Five Feather Formation, Five Line Formation, Five Element Formation, and other techniques that relied on the five elements.
He nodded with satisfaction.
"The Dao Ancestor created the Way of Three Corpses, but I wish to achieve the Primordial Origin Realm, so I will create my way, " Kong Xuan said. "I cultivate the Law of Five Elements, so I will call it the Way of Five Elements."
Kong Xuan closed his eyes, and after over ten thousand years, he opened them and said, "Sever!!"
A yellow light emerged from Kong Xuan's body and transformed into a yellow-robed Kong Xuan. "Meet the Main Body."
Since the Dao Ancestor severed emotions to achieve enlightenment, Kong Xuan severed the five elements. Each Corpse severed would cultivate the element they came from.
Once Kong Xuan severed all five Corpses and they reached the limit in their comprehension of the law, he would reintegrate them with himself, becoming complete. Once he became complete, he would achieve Primordial Origin and become a Golden Immortal of the Primordial Origin.
The price was Kong Xuan’s ability to use the five elements he had been born with. He already lost the ability to conjure earth light. That's why he refined the Five Element Tree into the Five Element Fan to replace his innate ability.
Actually, the best replacements would be the top five flags: the Apricot Flag of Central Infinity, the Red Radiance Flag of South Transience, the Azure Lotus Flag of East Treasured Light, the Plain Colored Flag of West Clouds, and the Black Domination Flag of North Profound Origin.
But Tongtian held the Apricot Flag of Central Infinity, Yuanshi held the Azure Lotus Flag of East Treasured Light, and Zhunti held the Plain Colored Flag of West Clouds.