Chapter Forty-One: Dragon Capital

“The one who overreaches,” Heaven stood suspended in the void, a fissure yawning behind him, and from it emerged a blade. “Shall be forsaken by Heaven.”

The word for blade and the word for Dao echoed the same sound.

What he held in his hand was not merely a blade, but the very Dao of the Dragon Capital’s celestial realm.

“You shall face Heaven’s judgment!” Heaven’s black beard fluttered, his tone indifferent.

Yet, as he uttered the decree of Heaven, thirty-three tiers of thunderclouds gathered above the Dragon Capital’s celestial realm.

“Today, I shall cut down the heavens.” Bai Zhaoju pointed her finger, and a divine radiance surged forth, obliterating the thirty-three layers of thunderclouds. Instantly, she grasped at the air, and five fire dragons burst forth. Their color was muted, their bodies thick as beams of water, and they twisted to slay the Dragon Capital Emperor.

The blade in the Emperor’s hand trembled, and five streaks of azure light transformed into dragons, surging forth. The azure radiance was turbulent, thunderous, even more ferocious than Bai Zhaoju’s fire dragons.

The fire dragons were easily suppressed; celestial flames plummeted from the sky like falling stars.

As the Dragon Capital Emperor struck, the Soul Ancestor seized the Jade Purity Bottle, and nine streams of qi, like nine celestial rivers, danced and writhed with a momentum that shook the heavens.

Heaven, however, merely turned his hand and seized the nine celestial rivers, condensing them into a long spear, which he hurled at the Soul Ancestor.

The Soul Ancestor hastily activated the Jade Purity Bottle, absorbing the spear. The bottle quaked, and he used innate qi to suppress it.

Jiang Xuanyi and the Bridge Ancestor saw this, and each unleashed their own arts, flanking him left and right in perfect harmony.

Yet Heaven closed his eyes, and three incarnations stepped forth from his body.

One was Heaven in his youth, wielding a flying sword, its edge sharp beyond measure, wrapped in the energy of hard metal, exuding an indomitable will to defy Heaven and Dao.

One was Heaven in middle age, wielding a heavy blade, brimming with murderous intent. Ferocious qi coalesced into a coiling dragon, winding around the blade.

One was Heaven in old age, wielding no sword or blade, but a whisk, its countless threads embodying the very laws of Dao, evolving into myriad spells.

Each incarnation was as powerful as Heaven himself.

This art of splitting incarnations resembled Bai Zhaoju’s threefold karma, yet surpassed it.

These three incarnations divided themselves against Jiang Xuanyi, the Bridge Ancestor, the Soul Ancestor, and the Old Mother of the Gourd River.

Heaven himself turned to face Bai Zhaoju.

The five stood with grave faces.

Except for Jiang Xuanyi, all had witnessed the might of the Dragon Capital Emperor.

Even the invincible Emperor, who had dominated the world, was slain by Heaven’s sword.

Awed by his renown, none dared be negligent.

Jiang Xuanyi faced the young incarnation of Heaven, whose swordsmanship was unorthodox and ferocious.

With one swing, ten thousand swords bowed; the sword qi was so sharp it chilled him to the bone and seared his soul.

Jiang Xuanyi merged eight celestial dragons into himself, transforming into the True Martial Sacred Body and wielding a treasured blade.

This time, he did not use swordsmanship but blade technique.

His blade art surpassed his sword art in subtlety.

The blade shimmered with icy brilliance; even separated by vast distance, Xu Zhong could feel its chilling aura, as if it would freeze his flesh and soul. He could hardly imagine the pressure one would endure facing it directly.

Yet, his opponent was Heaven.

The young Heaven twisted his sword, and its light blossomed in seven dazzling colors, shattering Jiang Xuanyi’s blade aura. With a single stroke, he cleaved a heavenly chasm, unleashing endless thunder that exploded the celestial dragons and entombed Jiang Xuanyi within.

Jiang Xuanyi employed escape arts, fleeing the chasm, contemplating other means.

Meanwhile, the Soul Ancestor and the Bridge Ancestor joined forces, barely able to suppress the middle-aged Heaven.

Though separated, they coordinated flawlessly.

From the Bridge Ancestor’s threefold cycle disk, colored flames surged, waves of heat igniting the sky. Even the wind caught fire, whistling like a great bellows.

The Soul Ancestor, behind the Bridge Ancestor, infused the Jade Purity Bottle’s nine qi to form nine massive rings behind the sea of flames, each ring nested within another, fueling the fire, stabilizing the void, and sealing the space, trapping the middle-aged Heaven within while they themselves remained outside.

The middle-aged Heaven’s blade was the most severe.

He broke the rings of nine qi and suppressed the threefold cycle disk.

But as he stepped out of that space, he found himself within the disk’s cycles.

Spaces nested within spaces, forming endless portals.

Countless doors barred his way; he could find no target.

Each door was a vortex, endlessly devouring the vital energy within him.

He was, for the moment, subdued.

Elsewhere, the Old Mother of the Gourd River battled the elderly Heaven to a stalemate.

Her blade was even fiercer than those of the middle-aged Heaven and Jiang Xuanyi.

Strike followed strike, refining vast fragments of space within the Dragon Capital’s celestial realm into blade light, boundless and swaying with spatial power, filling the realm with her blade’s radiance.

Blade upon blade.

The elderly Heaven swept his whisk, sending thousands of white threads shooting like lightning, weaving a great net that caught the Old Mother’s blade light from below.

With a twist, the space fragments turned to dust, leaving only the power of space lingering in the void.

This power of space circled and floated to Bai Zhaoju.

Bai Zhaoju pointed.

Divine light swirled at her fingertip, and a great river surged forward, washing over Heaven.

Heaven frowned slightly.

He sensed the flow of time.

Then he saw mirrors.

These mirrors were empty, reflecting nothing.

But as his gaze fell upon them, images appeared.

His movements were split sixteen thousand ways.

His time slowed sixteen thousandfold.

Bai Zhaoju found Heaven’s flaw within these sixteen thousand mirrors, transformed herself, and entered one of them.

A solar true fire issued from her lips, like the very sun itself, setting Heaven ablaze.

Yet in the next moment, Heaven snorted coldly.

The mirrors seemed to shatter.

But the mirrors remained intact; within, sixteen thousand Heavens snorted together, their actions and words as one.

The solar true fire was scattered, vanishing without a trace.

Then Heaven cut with his blade.

Yet this strike was sixteen thousand versions of him, each in a different time, now superimposed. The river of time was cleaved in two.

There was a Bai Zhaoju of the past, and Bai Zhaoju of the present.

The true Bai Zhaoju spat blood.

Her blood stained the colors of the Dragon Capital’s celestial realm.

“Your threefold karma is incomplete. If it were whole, you could indeed have slain me,” Heaven regarded Bai Zhaoju across the void.

“Yes, your future self was slain by me long ago, so your threefold self is incomplete.”

The past and present returned to Bai Zhaoju’s body. “Even so, I can still kill you now!”

Bai Zhaoju drew a three-foot sword, ancient and weighty, its blade pure blue, its ridge adorned with four sets of lines on each side—eight sides in all.

This was Bai Zhaoju’s sword.

The spirit of hard metal shone forth, revealing black and white hues.

This divine sword was famed as the greatest under heaven, even the Dragon Capital Emperor’s own sword was crafted in imitation.

Bai Zhaoju gripped the eight-sided sword; instantly, a black dragon leapt forth, black light surging, white light hidden within.

The celestial realm seemed unable to bear the sword’s radiance, as endless fissures appeared.

Heaven frowned, sensing a threat akin to what the Dragon Capital Emperor once posed.

Heaven struck with all his might, cutting with his blade.

Thirty-three layers of thunderclouds fused into the blade.

Thunder, primal thunder, was born beneath this blade.

Heaven above and below, all dimensions and directions, form and formless, all became thunder. Heaven’s yin and yang, the five elements, creation from nothing, nothing from something, all transformed into thunder.

The whole world echoed with thunder.

Blinding white light filled the world.

Boundless, space shattered.

The Dragon Capital’s celestial realm was utterly destroyed.

Mountains, rivers, trees, and living things fell into the outer world and merged with it.

Heaven drew his hand, isolating this space once more.

Xu Zhong stumbled amid the collision.

Chaos below him supported his flesh.

Otherwise, a fall from ninety thousand feet would have left him crippled if not dead.

When the dust settled,

Bai Zhaoju lay bleeding, unable to maintain human form, transformed into a white serpent six thousand miles long, stretching across the land like a snow-capped mountain, though now blood clouds hovered above.

Heaven too was injured.

His heart and brow were each pierced by the energy of hard metal, endless qi flowing out to nourish the world.

Though distant, Xu Zhong caught traces of this qi.

As it entered his body, it stirred every bit of vitality, washing through every part.

In that silent moment, every cell and particle of life within him surged with vitality; without realizing it, he had fully unlocked the secret of Wood Star.

He sensed it, dimly.

If he severed his arm, it would regrow in three days; a drop of blood would hasten the growth of spiritual herbs...

Xu Zhong felt he had become a walking human-shaped panacea.

And indeed, it was so.

Anyone who fully unlocked the Wood Star’s secret became a potent medicine to demons and outcasts—fit for refining elixirs or planting herbs.

“Bai Zhaoju, you now qualify to leave this realm.” Heaven healed his wounds.

Bai Zhaoju’s eyes drooped, her breath weak: “You have a soul, but your soul is dead. You have a heart, but your heart has stopped.”

“You are not Heaven itself, but an alchemist. And you have long since died.”

“No, I am still alive!” Heaven stepped toward Bai Zhaoju. “You live because of us.”

“You exhausted your qi and indestructible soul light, stabilized your inner world, and transformed it into a realm, becoming its will.”

“An immortal existence, though successors may follow. Will eventually dissipates and dies, divinity will be stripped, and you too will be replaced. When you are replaced, you will die.”

Murderous intent flooded the space, so intense that Xu Zhong felt plunged into an icy abyss.

Bai Zhaoju spoke feebly: “When the Dragon Capital Emperor grew strong, he sensed you, and you sensed him. You knew he would replace you, so you killed him.”

“One who overreaches shall suffer Heaven’s wrath; his death was deserved.”

Heaven’s murderous intent grew stronger, wielding his blade to slay Bai Zhaoju.

This strike was meant for Xu Zhong and the others as well.

But he did not strike, for a voice came from behind him.

“No, you are already dead!”

Heaven’s expression changed; he slowly turned.

And what greeted him was a flash of sword light.

The sword light severed his head and shattered his body.

Yet in the next instant, Heaven’s body reformed from nothing.

Heaven was terrified, staring incredulously into the void. “Dragon Capital—no, how are you still alive?”