Volume One, Yanyun in Turmoil, Chapter Ninety-Three: The Mortal Realm Crushes the King of Hell

Once he realized that this was power that could reach the heavens, Dou Xiaotong’s expression could no longer be described as merely grim.

Such power was utterly beyond human control. No matter how Yama had come to possess it, it was an omen of calamity.

“How troublesome. Could there truly be an Underworld in this world? Otherwise, how could Yama wield such power?” Dou Xiaotong frowned. With a flick of thought, the Border-Stilling Brush and the Ten Thousand Scrolls appeared above his left and right shoulders.

The Ten Thousand Scrolls was another name for the Dao Canon, referring to the ten thousand volumes of scripture Dou Xiaotong had selected from every book ever collected since the dawn of the human race.

It was also a pure-origin treasure, his life-bound artifact, forged by him step by step from the Primordial Unity stage all the way to Dao Union.

For a fleeting moment, he was even glad that it was he who stood here. If it had been the Wind God Guard instead, they would surely have died in vain. As for him, though he was no match for Yama, he could still rely on one quarter of the Ji Palace’s fortune and foundations to hold him at bay.

Moreover, Yama had descended upon the world with power that could reach the heavens. He did not believe that man would sit by and do nothing. All he had to do was endure until that man arrived.

“Soul Without Form, you are still alive, aren’t you?” Dou Xiaotong asked.

No one answered from within the Ghost Gate.

At that moment, Yama took another step and swung his blade again.

The Ghost Gate shattered with a thunderous crash. A frigid, abyssal aura surged out from within, sweeping across the land like a tidal wave.

Dou Xiaotong raised the Ten Thousand Scrolls before him to block it. When the blade aura struck the scrolls, it paused for the briefest instant, then turned and sliced outward in all directions. In the blink of an eye, the great city of Fengshun was torn apart and reduced to ruins.

Seeing this, Dou Xiaotong’s eyes flickered. He raised his right hand and quickly wrote the character for “stasis” in the air. The character expanded at once until it enveloped the sky in all directions.

As though the law of this stretch of heaven had been altered, the tidal wave of frigid aura was truly frozen in place.

Dou Xiaotong let out a slight breath of relief, then quickly wrote another character: “seal.”

As the seal spread outward, a force of suction seemed to awaken within the Ghost Gate. The cold aura near it was slowly drawn back in. At that moment, a cold snort suddenly sounded from inside the gate, and a foot covered in scales stepped out.

With a boom, as though the world could not bear the weight of that foot, heaven and earth began to tremble violently, groaning under the strain. Dense clusters of lightning gathered rapidly overhead, and in the next instant countless bolts of thick thunder crashed toward the foot that had emerged from the Ghost Gate.

Dou Xiaotong froze, his brows knitting slightly.

He had witnessed two ascensions before, and he knew what an ascension tribulation looked like.

Even during ascension, the world would not react with such intense backlash at the very beginning. Why, then, would Yama’s world provoke such a phenomenon?

No, he had seen that Yama once before. It was itself a creature born from Soul Without Form’s technique, and that technique had been built upon the foundation of heaven and earth. Why would it trigger such a nearly annihilating recoil?

Dou Xiaotong had drawn upon one quarter of the Ji Palace’s fortune, and because the Ji Palace borrowed the intent of the mortal world, he sensed changes in heaven and earth far more keenly than others.

Within those thunderbolts that seemed to shake the heavens, he felt something else even more clearly.

Fear.

Why would such an emotion be present?

Heaven-reaching beings were not uncommon in this world. Even now, the Demon Lord of the Ice Plains and the head of the Demon Race Elder Council both stood at that level.

Could it be that Yama did not belong to this world?

Thinking of how the blade aura earlier had actually avoided the Ten Thousand Scrolls on its own, Dou Xiaotong felt a vague suspicion forming in his mind.

But at present, he had no way to confirm it.

Another cold snort came from within the lightning, and Yama seemed intent on forcing his way out of the Ghost Gate.

The thunder became fiercer still.

“Even if the seas of tribulation thunder from the Nine Heavens descended together, what could they do to me, much less the thunder sea of heaven’s own laws?” Yama’s voice rang out from within the lightning, slow in cadence, high in tone.

Dou Xiaotong was still wondering whether he should lend a hand to help Heaven suppress Yama when he suddenly heard a lazy voice.

“I spent so much effort in Cloud Tomb trying to block the road to the Underworld. I never expected you to appear here.”

Li Jinxing?

Dou Xiaotong turned abruptly, staring at the newcomer with a sharp gaze.

“Why are you looking at me? I really didn’t expect Soul Without Form to be this troublesome, to the point of even managing to conjure up an Underworld.”

Dou Xiaotong said, “So there really is an Underworld?”

Li Jinxing shook his head. “There is no Underworld in this world.”

After a pause, his gaze deepened. “The Underworld exists beyond the world.”

Dou Xiaotong said, “The evil race?”

Li Jinxing nodded. “Exactly.”

Dou Xiaotong said, “I never expected the Underworld to be a branch of the evil race. That fellow, the Demon Lord, won’t be coming here, will he?”

Li Jinxing shook his head. “You and I are both here. The Demon Lord is unlikely to come.”

After a brief pause, he glanced at Dou Xiaotong with an odd expression.

Dou Xiaotong asked, “What do you want to say?”

Li Jinxing said, “You, the one said to know everything under heaven, actually didn’t know about this?”

Dou Xiaotong said, “Who can truly know everything? I only know the questions people are going to ask.”

At every moment, endless things happened in this world. Even the Unfettered Pavilion could not know everything at once.

Li Jinxing shook his head and pointed at the unyielding figure in the lightning. “Any solution?”

Dou Xiaotong nodded. “There is.”

Li Jinxing said, “Let’s hear it.”

Dou Xiaotong looked at him. “Wait for you.”

Li Jinxing was slightly taken aback, then gave a wry laugh. “So your solution is to wait for me?”

Dou Xiaotong showed no shame at all. “Every trade has its own specialist. There’s no helping that.”

Li Jinxing smiled as well, and did not argue further. With a sweep of his hand, he summoned the Rising-and-Falling Pearl and the River-and-Mountain Chessboard.

The chessboard merged into the earth, and the ground ceased trembling.

The pearl hovered in the sky, and the lightning gradually steadied.

Yama’s figure emerged from within the lightning. Behind him was the shattered remains of the Ghost Gate, and beside him lay Soul Without Form, unconscious.

“Just as I thought.” Dou Xiaotong’s expression was extremely ugly. “This fool actually dared to use power he cannot control!”

Li Jinxing said, “After all, it is the strongest art he possesses. Even knowing he cannot control it, he would still use it in an attempt to drag the other side into mutual destruction. If he lacked even that resolve, how could he ever have made it out of Xuhai?”

Though Dou Xiaotong knew Li Jinxing’s words were true, his expression remained grim.

Before he could say anything, Yama suddenly let out a roar.

Dark clouds in the sky began to knit together once more, and faintly, the thunder seemed about to gather again.

Li Jinxing frowned and waved his hand. “Scatter.”

The silver sparks that had just begun to gather vanished into nothingness along with the dark clouds, which began to break apart bit by bit and drift away into the distance.

Li Jinxing looked at Yama. “Trying to temper your body with lightning? I’ll make sure you feel the mortal world’s intent in this realm instead.”

Yama stared at him coldly and said nothing.

Li Jinxing rubbed his nose, then said to Dou Xiaotong, “Lend me the Ten Thousand Scrolls.”

Dou Xiaotong raised a brow. “That’s my life-bound artifact.”

Li Jinxing was somewhat helpless. “If my Dragon-Tail Inkstone weren’t unsuitable for this, why would I be borrowing yours?”

Dou Xiaotong narrowed his eyes. “I don’t mind lending it to you.”

Li Jinxing sounded even more helpless. “Really? You’re still going to bargain with me now?”

Dou Xiaotong said unhappily, “Isn’t this whole mess your doing?”

Li Jinxing thought to himself that up to this point, all of it had been done by the third brother alone, and at most he had given Bloodless a few pointers. How had it become his doing?

Still, he could not be bothered to argue with Dou Xiaotong over it. He said readily, “Once this is over, I can take you to Cloud Tomb.”

Dou Xiaotong knew very few secrets, and Cloud Tomb was surely among the most important.

“Deal.”

Driven by the intent of the mortal world and stirred by a Red-Dust Immortal, the Ten Thousand Scrolls seemed to unfold the entire several-thousand-year history of the human race before Yama’s eyes. After those thousands of years, the scales on Yama’s body began to corrode as if weathered by time.

And yet, he endured.

“The human race does not represent this world,” Yama said coldly.

“You’re right,” Li Jinxing replied with a smile. “That is why I also brought the Nether Emperor’s Seal and the Demon Emperor’s Seal.”

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