The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 53

The massive skull dragon unfurled itself in the skies above, opening his massive jaw and let out another roar. “I am finally free. The souls of the world shall be mine to feast upon. Come then, let me devour this world.” With such a large collection of yokai as well as souls all around the Deathly Palace, the Skull Dragon began to feast. Mei Min stared up in shock, she had assumed that the entity of death would be subject to their commands, but she had been gravely mistaken. “Mei Min, the Skull Dragon is not an entity that can be controlled by anyone. It is the very concept of death.” Wansi said, his broken scythe forgotten now as he could only watch while the Skull Dragon began to devour his kingdom.

Li Jian looked up at the sight and smiled to himself. Ever since his ascension to the Heavenly Palace, he had never had a chance to truly see what he was capable of. “Kon Kon, stay here. Master has just received the gift of a lifetime.” Kon Wang yawned to himself and pulled a meat bun from his pocket and began eating it. The Sword Spirit had started stashing them any chance he got. When the Emperor of the Underworld looked over at him with undisguised questions, Kon Wang simply held it out as of offering him a bite.

With a soft sigh, Li Jian released his full aura. With a bright light, the sudden infusion of Divine Dao essence flooded the entire Underworld itself with light. For the first time in thousands of years, the Underworld was no longer dark. The lightning clouds dispersed, not daring to stand against the strength of such Heavenly brightness.

“What? He’s a Heavenly Deity!” Mei Min said, her eyes opened wide with shock. At this realisation, she had seen her own doom. “Did the Divine Emperor come down from the Heavenly Palace for revenge?” The Deathly Emperor thought.

Such a massive bright light attracted the attention of Gulong who roared out a challenge and began flying down towards the Deathly Palace. The aura of oppression around the ancient creature provided a counterbalance to the bright divine light. Almost.

Holding up his sword towards the Heavens, Li Jian unleashed the Divine Sword Arts: Infinite Sword. Over the skies, a few billion swords appeared made from pure Heavenly Essence. With a single wave of his hand, the Skull Dragon was hit by all of them at once. The impact of such a multitude drove the Skull Dragon from the skies onto the ground. In a single instant, the entity of death had gone from drinking the souls of millions to being suppressed onto the ground itself. “Kon Kon. Show them your true form.”

Kon Wang nodded and ate the last of his meat buns before he was surrounded by an aura of cold nothingness. From the image of the younger almost fey looking male, he was replaced by an entity of pure nothingness. It was as if a figure made up of entirely black holes appeared, the figure over one hundred feet tall. “It’s the Void Emperor. Who is deity that dared to defy the Pact?” The Deathly Emperor’s eyes bulged. The Void Emperor was well known as a supreme entity, one that ruled over a domain of law. Kon Wang strode forward to where the Skull Dragon had been forced to the ground.

“Gulong, you have gotten too impertinent. You dare drink souls in the presence of my Master?” Kon Wang said, reaching down and picking up the skull dragon by his throat as if a child picking up a snake it had found. “What? The Void Emperor? Why are you here?” Gulong knew imminent doom when he saw it. Death was nothing compared to absolute nothingness. “You have upset my Master, the Divine Deity of Swords Li Jian. He is peerless in the Universe and you dared to act like an upstart in front of him.”

Gulong had lived for thousands of years and been sealed away for thousands of years. He had existed in the beginning, since the Universal Dao had started time itself. Yet in front of the Void Emperor, he knew that he could be nothing. When had the Void Emperor become a servant? He knew there would be only one way out.

“Please spare this little ones life, I have no eyes and failed to recognize the greatness of Master.” Kon Wang looked over at Li Jian who simply nodded once. “You are lucky, pitiful creature. My Master is merciful. You will be sentenced to serve Master as the Guardian of the Underworld.” The sword spirit gripped the creatures neck and forced a slave seal upon it before releasing it. Gulong began to shrink, turning from the form of the Skull Dragon into a young boy no older than fifteen.

The Deathly Emperor looked at this scene and gaped. What sort of deity had a sword spirit that was able to turn the entity of death into a young boy?

With a sigh, Kon Wang reverted back to his normal form, and looked over at Li Jian. “Master, I will require a hundred meat buns after.” The Sword Deity cringed, a hundred meat buns could be quite expensive, running up to at least 5000 spirit stones since the Sword Spirit preferred meat buns made from magical beasts. The remaining Underworld Deities could only stare at this scene with shock. “I.. I did not know that you are a Heavenly Deity. Please, have mercy.” Wansi could only get on all fours and bow down to him.

Li Jian thought about it for a few moments and sighed to himself. How bothersome, now he had to deal with this mess that he had gotten into. He raised a hand and pointed it towards Mei Min who was seized by a powerful grip of spiritual force. She shrieked and screamed to no avail as Li Jian infused her broken body with a large amount of Dao essence, her arm quickly re-growing back while a servants seal was forcefully imprinted on her soul.

“Emperor Wansi, I will take the Duchess of Undeath as my servant. This will be her atonement. Your atonement will be telling me how all of this happened.” Hearing this, Mei Min could only hiss in displeasure. Emperor Wansi nodded and bowed. “The great Deity is merciful. Please let this little one tell Senior about what had happened.”

In the Divine Hunts Ground, the ceremony to choose the next Hunt Emperor had occurred. Amongst the human, witch elf and demon deities that existed, the next rotation should have gone to the demon deity, but the witch elf deity of war had demanded the seat. In recent years, Zhan the witch elf deity of war had gotten more powerful than the others and had simply demanded the seat become hers permanently. The Divine Hunt Ground had become split and, in that split, Zhan had reached out to the Underworld, and offered them a trade; a deity’s divine essence in exchange for their support. Sun Ming had been visiting the Hunts Ground during that time that Zhan had seized the throne by force, but she had always been a kind deity. She had asked Zhan to stop but Zhan knew that there was only one way to get rid of her. Having been one of the ones to seal away the Soul King Dagger, she released the seal upon it and handed the Deity of Life over to the Underworld.

Li Jian listened to the explanation and nodded. In the cultivation world, whether mortal or immortal, the level of cruelty is not something a regular citizen would ever understand. He also knew that he had classes to get back to, so he needed to settle this quickly. “Kon Kon, deal with everything here. Go back to the apartment after with Mei Min. I still have a field trip to supervise.” With a flash, he disappeared and re-appeared in front of the gates to the Divine Hunt.

“Who are you? How dare you trespass in the –“ The guard at the gates was cut off as Li Jian just ignored him and slapped him into unconsciousness with a single backhand. He strode through the gates towards the Ger Palace, where the Deities of the Hunt resided. He stood outside the Palace before raising a sword. There was only one way to get a message across to the Hunt Deity of War. With a single strike, he levelled the entire palace and sent out a single message to the Hunt Deities. “Honour the Trifecta.” With that, he had disappeared.

Inside the Palace that had fallen apart, the message reverberated in the minds of the Deities who all fell clutching their heads at the sudden mental intrusion. Zhan looked up at the now open sky, the massive palace protected by thousands of arrays that defied the attacks of deities had all been broken in a single strike. Whichever unknown entity had caused this damage had come with only one thing in mind. She sighed, knowing when she was overpowered. This was not someone they could afford to offend.

“Brothers. Sisters. I have been wrong. The Crown goes to Huo.” Huo was the demon deity of life, and he nodded, stunned by the development. Before the sudden attack, the deities had been in a fierce argument with each other. Zhan had just finished saying that the only right to rule should be decided by power. It seems that in this instance, the argument had been decided for them.