Chapter 477 - 421: Destroy Profound Yellow!

The tranquility within the peach orchard did not last long. Desolate Halberd True Monarch withdrew his distant gaze and focused it back on Qi Yun. His eyes, which seemed to contain the birth and death of stars, were now as heavy and still as an immemorial abyss, carrying the vigilance and vicissitudes of one who had endured myriad tribulations.

"Now, do you understand why I said you must not follow Wu Dao’s old path?"

His voice was no longer as resonant as before. It had deepened, rolling across the sky like muffled thunder, causing the falling petals in the peach orchard to freeze in midair.

Qi Yun’s heart skipped a beat as he held his breath in absolute concentration.

"Back then, his Cultivation progressed too rapidly—so fast that Heaven and Earth didn’t even have time to accommodate him." Desolate Halberd True Monarch’s gaze grew profound, as if piercing through the river of time to gaze at a certain figure’s back. "Furthermore, the Dao he pursued was too cruel and domineering. Every step he took left bloody footprints upon the heart of the Origin of Heaven and Earth. The ’Heavenly Aversion’ he accumulated far exceeded that of his peers, making it nearly impossible for him to take a single step in the Profound Yellow Origin Realm. You cannot even begin to imagine what that felt like."

He paused, his fingertips brushing the rim of his teacup, sending faint ripples across the clear tea.

"The Great Dao surrounding you feels as if it has been forcibly severed. Every wisp of Spiritual Qi you breathe in carries a faint sense of rejection, and the Heaven and Earth Laws detour around you. When you try to unleash Divine Techniques, you realize that the Dao Rhyme you normally command with ease has become sluggish and stagnant, as though the entirety of Heaven and Earth has turned against you. It is neither anger nor hatred, but rather... a silent, omnipresent repudiation."

"Later, he spent eight hundred years sitting alone in the most desolate void before he finally managed to dispel that ’Aura of Aversion’." Desolate Halberd True Monarch looked up, his gaze flashing like lightning. "Eight hundred years without a single step of progress, accompanied day after day only by solitude and rejection. You should take his gains and losses as a warning."

Hearing this, Qi Yun stood up. His robes brushed against the stone stool with a soft rustle. Adjusting his attire, he bowed deeply to Desolate Halberd True Monarch. "This disciple will strictly remember the True Monarch’s teachings."

Desolate Halberd True Monarch nodded slightly and raised his hand in a supportive gesture, signaling for him to sit back down.

Qi Yun returned to his stone stool but did not immediately pick up his teacup. After pondering for a moment, he raised his eyes to Desolate Halberd True Monarch’s chiseled, resolute face and spoke slowly. "True Monarch, when this disciple was traveling through the outer void, I encountered something..." He paused, as if the memory still carried an indescribable sense of oppression. "This disciple once saw True Monarchs carrying a coffin."

As soon as these words were spoken, the wind sweeping through the peach orchard seemed to still for a moment.

"Four True Monarchs carried a massive, pitch-black Ancient Coffin across the void. Buried within that coffin was a bizarre and terrifying entity..." Qi Yun’s gaze narrowed as he slowed his pace. "Its aura was unfathomable. Just one glance made this disciple feel as if my Heart and Spirit were about to shatter. Then, it struck, forcibly driving Wu Dao and the four Buddhist Cultivation Bodhisattvas who were traveling with me back to the Profound Yellow Origin Realm."

He looked up at Desolate Halberd True Monarch, his gaze carrying a searching expression. "This disciple’s Cultivation is still shallow. I only felt that the scene was exceptionally uncanny, but I didn’t understand the profound meaning behind it. Now that I think about it... the origin of the entity in that coffin is likely far from trivial."

Upon hearing this, Desolate Halberd True Monarch showed no surprise; instead, he let out a cold snort. That snort rang out like the clash of metal, causing the falling petals in the peach orchard to explode into tiny specks of light before fading into nothingness.

"Hmph! Those old fogeys know we don’t want them returning to the Profound Yellow, so they’re plotting to suffocate us all within it." His tone carried undisguised coldness. His gaze abruptly sharpened, and a trace of his wild, overbearing aura leaked out.

In an instant, the entire orchard seemed to be shrouded in formless, crushing pressure. The peach branches trembled slightly, and the swirling petals froze in midair, too terrified to land, resembling a motionless painting.

Qi Yun’s eyes flickered; he caught the hidden meaning behind Desolate Halberd True Monarch’s words. It was definitely something that couldn’t be summarized by the simple phrase "drive back."

"Is the True Monarch referring to..." He kept his voice extremely soft, as if terrified of startling something he shouldn’t. "Those Above the True Monarch?"

Desolate Halberd True Monarch nodded slowly, his movements as steady as a mountain. "Other than them, who else would have the capability to employ those undying, bizarre entities?"

As he spoke, his fingertips stopped tracing the teacup. His rough thumb pressed against the rim with measured force, causing a thin layer of frost to form over the surface of the clear tea. The frost was immediately melted by the rising heat, initiating a cyclical process that resembled a silent, unseen battle.

Qi Yun fell silent. The only sounds remaining in the orchard were the faint whispers of falling petals touching the ground and the indistinct bubbling of a distant stream.

After a moment, he finally could no longer suppress the question in his heart. Like a maggot burrowing into bone, this doubt had deeply rooted itself in his mind ever since he witnessed the True Monarchs carrying the coffin. As his Cultivation deepened, not only had it failed to dissipate, but it had grown clearer and heavier.

He looked up, meeting Desolate Halberd True Monarch’s universe-like, profound eyes, and probed, "So... who exactly are those Above the True Monarch?"

As his voice faded, the wind in the peach orchard completely stopped. Desolate Halberd True Monarch didn’t answer right away.

He slowly stroked the coarse teacup in his hand. The cup was densely covered with tiny cracks, as if it had been Broken countless times and pieced back together. His gaze fell upon those cracks, yet it seemed to pierce right through them, gazing at a place even further and deeper.

A long time passed. It was so long that Qi Yun thought he wasn’t going to answer. Only then did Desolate Halberd True Monarch slowly raise his eyes.

In those eyes, the illusion of stars being born and dying vanished, as did the imagery of the void shattering and reforming. All that remained was an extreme, almost icy tranquility.

When he spoke, his voice was as deep as an ancient tolling bell. It echoed through the orchard, vibrating with enough force to make every single petal tremble slightly.

"They... are the people who want to thoroughly destroy the Profound Yellow."

The moment those words fell, the peach orchard turned freezing cold. Qi Yun’s pupils contracted sharply, and a chill ran down his spine.

"Destroy the Profound Yellow? Does the True Monarch mean..."

Before Qi Yun could finish his sentence, the scene before his eyes abruptly changed. Desolate Halberd True Monarch’s previously mountain-steady posture suddenly went taut.

In those eyes, the abyss-like calm light instantly transformed into a vast Star Sea. Billions of stars simultaneously exploded and reformed, shooting out a breathtakingly radiant divine glow.

He abruptly stood up. His movement was so fierce that the stone table before him creaked and groaned. The two cups of clear tea overturned, yet the liquid did not scatter as it spilled; instead, it condensed in midair into two swirling clusters of mist.

"Heh." He tilted his head back, his lips curling into an exceptionally cold sneer. The smile carried a mix of mockery, absolute resolve, and profound domineering arrogance. "They really want to exterminate us all."

Before his words even faded, the entirety of the Spirit Yong Realm began to shake violently.

This shaking was no ordinary earthquake; it was an intense tremor originating from the very depths of the Origin of Heaven and Earth—as if a gigantic, invisible hand had seized the foundation of this world and was vigorously shaking it.

The earth beneath Qi Yun’s feet undulated like ocean waves, with countless fissures spreading outward from him as the epicenter. In the orchard, the millennia-old peach trees snapped simultaneously. Their trunks burst apart, and petals fluttered through the air like splattered blood.

He sharply raised his head. High up in the Celestial Vault, the void—which had just begun to regain its clarity after the Heavenly Will dissipated—was suddenly ripped open, revealing a colossal rift.

The edges of the rift were jagged and uneven, as though it had been violently torn apart by an incredibly brutal force. Dark red void turbulence cascaded down from within it. Wherever it passed, clouds evaporated, Spiritual Qi collapsed, and the Laws solidified.

Deep within the rift lay the ink-black, endless void, alongside countless indescribable, bizarre entities that caused one’s Heart and Spirit to tremble with just a single glance.

THUD!

A footstep that shook the heavens resounded!

Four figures stepped out from the rift. Shattering the void, they descended with a resounding boom.

One Ancient Coffin. Carried by four people.

The Ancient Coffin was as black as ink and impossibly massive. It rested horizontally across the shoulders of the four figures, as if it bore the weight of a ruined Heaven and Earth.

From the four corners of the coffin hung thick chains that wrapped around the arms of the four figures. The chains were pitch-black, and every single link was the size of a mountain range. Bizarre lusters drifted across their surfaces, producing a muffled, metallic clashing sound with the figures’ every movement.

The sound wasn’t loud, yet it pierced the void, echoing endlessly!

It was the exact same phenomenon of the True Monarchs carrying the coffin! To think they had actually crossed the infinite void and tracked them all the way to Spirit Yong.

And their target was clearly Desolate Halberd Splitting Sky True Monarch!

The four figures hovered at the rift in the Celestial Vault, looking down from on high at the entirety of the Spirit Yong Realm. Their faces were blurred, as if obscured by a layer of formless mist. Only pairs of extremely cold eyes could vaguely be seen from behind the haze.

On the surface of the coffin, vein-like patterns abruptly lit up, and a dense, dark green mist once again seeped out from within.

The lead coffin bearer lowered his head slightly. His movements were incomparably stiff, producing sharp CRACK CRACK sounds as his neck turned, much like a rusted mechanism being forcefully twisted.

Those freezing eyes behind the mist fell upon Desolate Halberd True Monarch in the peach orchard.

"Desolate Halberd."

His voice transmitted from the Celestial Vault. It lacked the slightest trace of mortal emotion, yet it made the entire Spirit Yong Realm hum loudly. Mountains and rivers trembled in unison as countless living beings groveled on the ground, shivering uncontrollably.

"Under orders to escort you back to the Profound Yellow."

As the words fell, the four of them stepped forward in unison. They shattered the void, closing in on Desolate Halberd True Monarch. With every step they took, a portion of the Spirit Yong Realm’s Celestial Vault collapsed. Countless Law Fragments cascaded down like snowflakes, fading into nothingness in midair.

The Ancient Coffin on their shoulders let out a low hum—a hum that sounded like a sigh from the abyss of the Nine Netherworld.

Standing amidst the peach orchard, Desolate Halberd True Monarch raised his head, watching the four advancing figures without a hint of fear on his face. He took a deep breath, and the aura around his body instantly skyrocketed. The coarse cloth robe he wore year-round fluttered wildly without any wind, snapping loudly.

On his bare upper body, muscle lines akin to ancient dragon-pythons suddenly tightened. It was as if countless tiny dragons were roaming and roaring within every single muscle. Flowing light could vaguely be seen beneath his skin—the boiling of Magical Power that had been accumulated over endless years.

He did not look back, only stating in a deep voice, "Kid, stand back."

Hearing this, Qi Yun did not hesitate in the slightest. His figure retreated violently. He knew full well that the upcoming clash was absolutely not something a person in the Great Master Realm like him could participate in.