Chapter 1318: A Battle of Statute and Daos

Xu Qing’s voice echoed out over the imperial capital of humankind, filling the sky and reaching the hearts and minds of powerful experts from countless species. Without exception, they were shaken to the core.

They had originally assumed that this battle was going to be a tribulation brought by this ancient immortal. But given what they had just heard Xu Qing and the ancient immortal talking about, it seemed... that the battle, while seemingly simplistic in nature, was actually a lot more complicated than anyone realized.

Empress Summer Departure sank deeper into silence. Master Seventh looked up into the starry sky until his gaze ultimately came to rest on the broken face of Eminent Desolation. His expression was thoughtful. As for Zhou Zhengli and the others, their eyes glittered, and they thought back to that mysterious, unknown enemy they had encountered on their way back. It was correct to say that if Xu Qing’s battle prowess hadn’t been sufficient, then their return trip... would have been a very difficult one, and they would all likely have perished.

People were thinking many things as of this moment on Revered Ancient.

As for the ancient immortal, he hovered in the air just looking at Xu Qing for a long moment. Then he smiled.

“How amusing. Apparently you really did your homework on me. Well, that’s fine. There are some things that are simply beyond my control. Let’s limit this discussion to the fight between me and you. And since you want to see my statute, then... I might as well give you a glimpse!”

He lifted his right hand and then smacked his own forehead.

That slap resounded like heavenly thunder. Intense rumbling sounds smashed through the dome of heaven, and the ancient immortal trembled violently. Something like dust seemed to cascade off him. His twisted, withered hair became as lustrous as it had been before, and the cracks all over his face turned into mere wrinkles.

The immortal bones within him instantly became like glowing ceramic. Thirty-six thousand hidden meridians within him glowed with brilliant silver, and the crevices tainted by karma shone with a fire of canon and statute that was brighter than any daylight.

The fire was like the explosion of a dying sun, and it caused his withered frame to suddenly straighten. He became like the picture of a sky-obscuring, sun-blocking statue of an immortal! It was boundlessly magnificent!

His aura, his cultivation base, his soul, and his karma all reverted from their previous decline. He was back to how he had been before!

When Xu Qing saw that, his gaze hardened. Given the level of his cultivation base, he knew that this was no simplistic transformation. This was a true recovery! Although his previous injuries had been a trap, they were still real, not faked. The reflection of the myriad worlds really had damaged him substructurally. Unless he was actually an Immortal Lord, he shouldn’t have been able to resolve that situation.

And yet, this ancient immortal had done it.

Actually, he didn’t resolve anything, nor did he recover. He molded a new version of himself!

It was creating something from nothing, or building without any foundation. It was taking the impossible and making it possible!

“Your statute...” Xu Qing said grimly, looking at the ancient immortal.

The immortal looked down at Xu Qing. “Now do you see what my statute is? If you don’t understand completely, then I can explain! Let the heavens be opened!”

His voice boomed as the fire of statute and canon raged around him, sending out dazzling light in all directions. At the same time, the image of that enormous immortal was suddenly covered with a host of cracks. From within those cracks emitted a violet energy like something from the most primordial chaos.

The primal-chaos violet energy swirled around before turning into a host of dao clones around the immortal. They proliferated by the thousands and tens of thousands, spreading as far as the eye could see! And every single one looked just like the ancient immortal. Although they were not true and real, just illusions without battle prowess, every single one could take damage in the place of the true form.

Revered Ancient trembled. All living beings were astonished and filled with despair. This ancient immortal was terrifyingly powerful!

“Life and death are under my control.”

The ancient immortal lifted his right foot and then dropped it down. The void beneath that foot shattered. Millions of silver magical symbols sprang forth, forming underfoot to form a 3,000-meter-wide “dharmic wheel of karma.”

All of the stories of his life were inscribed on the surface of that wheel! Dharmic fire raged, turning into stellar debris that caused his already dazzling immortal form to glow more brightly.

“The cause and effect of karma is also under my control!” He lifted his right hand. The karma threads that had been infected before reversed and formed anew. The ugly tumors exploded, turning into dazzling immortal light that surged back into him.

All of Revered Ancient trembled. Spirit meridians everywhere went wild, and the surviving heavenly daos began to prostrate in worship. At the same time, the myriad worlds formed from the canon of parallelism began to appear.

The myriad worlds that Xu Qing had overturned were coming back. The immortal tree which had protected one world, but had withered up, now began to grow again. The tree became a crown for the immortal statue, and the leaves chanted the dharmic words that he chanted.

Other things happened in the myriad worlds. Spirit springs became huge silver rivers. Black ice shattered to form rains of swords. Everything that had gone wrong now went right. And because of the karmic chant uttered by the ancient immortal, all of it conformed to his mightiness.

“Even your parallelism is controlled by me! Let’s not even talk about the heavenly daos.”

The ancient immortal’s tattered robe began to shine brightly, and upon it formed mysterious designs that seemed even more ancient than the heavenly daos.

In that peak state, he looked at Xu Qing. “Child, my canon started out as countlessness. Then it became unbounded. And that led to the birth of the final power of statute! This statute... never existed before me! And I have come to call it... omnipotence!”

The ancient immortal’s voice was stupefyingly majestic. It already surpassed anything mortals could understand, and directly entered their seas of consciousness with explosive force.

Cultivators from countless species coughed up mouthfuls of blood. Unable to control their own actions, they bowed their heads. At the same time, the flesh on their foreheads wriggled as an image of the immortal appeared there.

“I am eternally indestructible. Undying. I can become countless canons and innumerable authorities. I can create myriad things. How can you... fight against me?”

The ancient immortal lifted his right foot and dropped it down.

An immensely terrifying force raged toward Xu Qing, crushing anything in its path as it prepared to wipe him out of existence. Xu Qing was like a rowboat in a stormy sea, tossed about by the raging winds. And yet his expression was as calm as ever. Despite how his garments flapped wildly around him, he looked less like a little rowboat and more like a coral reef.

As the wind blew, he looked thoughtfully at the ancient immortal. After becoming a Summer Immortal, Xu Qing had come to know more about what it meant when immortals fought to the death.

Whether it was what Grandmaster Bai had explained, or what he had experienced on his return journey, he understood... that the true nature of a fight between immortals was canon! Battles between canon could manifest in many ways. But generally speaking, they came down to two things: techniques and daos.

The techniques put on display during such a fight were really just the exterior appearance of canon. The dao struggle was the internal clash of statutes, and was a type of annihilation carried out at the most fundamental level. To a certain extent, a clash of statutes... came down to striking a blow to the most fundamental logic governing the opponent’s canon and statute, and using that to defeat them!

That internal danger often meant that victory and defeat could happen in the shortest of moments. Of course, the prerequisite... was to be able to understand the opponent’s statute!

And right now, Xu Qing understood.

“Omnipotence?” Xu Qing shook his head. “I already understand you. Your canon is not unbounded. It’s karma. And your statute is definitely not omnipotence. It’s self-consistency. You’re right that it’s a rare type of canon....

“What you really need is for all things to have a karmic cause and effect. But in order to make it sound more plausible, you first set down a karmic effect that you call omnipotence. By using that karmic effect to trace back to yourself, you can produce a karmic cause called omnipotence!”

Xu Qing’s words caused the ancient immortal’s eyes to narrow.

“In reality,” Xu Qing continued, “I could have crushed you at any point. I just wanted to make sure you had no way to escape....”

Xu Qing’s eyes flashed coldly as he lifted his right hand. Then he pointed his finger through the tempest toward the ancient immortal.

“Therefore, I will sever your canon, and wipe you out of existence from the root up! Your canon and statute actually isn’t very hard to defeat.”

The moment those words left his mouth, seven lamps appeared around him. This was none other than the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse![1]

It was a curse that Xu Qing had used quite a bit when he was a Smoldering God. It was very effective. It used life force as the target, soul fire as the attractant, karma as power, and the lantern slides as the foundation. Its function was summed up by saying that when the lamp was extinguished, the enemy was extinguished! And that could harm the soul.

But right now, thanks to Xu Qing’s canon and statute, it was instantly disassembled and adjusted. Specifically, he had made adjustments to the karmic power of the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse!

“Change the lantern slides into a cage!” The seven lanterns combined, rose into the air, and then became a lamp that covered the entire area.

“Soul fire becomes the wick!” The lamp fire tugged on the immortal soul, causing it to become the wick. Sparks showered as if it were about to ignite.

“Life force as the lampshade, revealing the shadow play of karma!” Xu Qing’s eyes glittered! A lampshade appeared outside of the soul lamp. Soul fire blazed, and as the light was cast within the lampshade... a shadow of the ancient immortal appeared.

It was almost like a shadow puppet! And it was connected to the karma of the ancient immortal!

“As for the contents of this shadow play....” Xu Qing looked at the shocked ancient immortal and calmly continued, “Your statute isn’t omnipotence, is it? Nor is it creation. Your karma is now fundamentally the same as the karma of this divine ability. With a thought, you should be able to project the shadow play. You say you’re omnipotent. So go ahead and create a rock that you yourself are incapable of moving.”

The ancient immortal’s face was ashen as he glared at Xu Qing. The ancient immortal didn’t seem capable of looking away as Xu Qing took a step toward him.

“You say you’re omnipotent. But if you create a rock that you yourself are incapable of lifting, then you really aren’t omnipotent.”

The shadow on the lampshade distorted as a karmic paradox played out!

The ancient immortal took a step backward.

“You say you’re omnipotent. But if you can’t create that rock, then... you’re equally lacking omnipotence!”

Xu Qing spoke in a voice that could not be ignored. He understood this ancient immortal’s canon and statute, and thus, he understood that to sever them, he needed... a paradox!

By bolstering and adjusting the karma of the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse, he was able to form a self-contradiction regarding ‘omnipotence.’ And that turned into a karmic paradox!

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Previously, when the lamp was extinguished, the enemy was extinguished. Now, when the lamp was extinguished, karma collapsed! Now, it was not the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse. Rather, it was the Karmic Shadow Puppet Play.

The shadow play rippled and the ancient immortal’s face grew more pale. He began to shake, as his canon... cracked. His statute crumbled. A battle of canon. A fight of statute. This was the foundation of an immortal. He opened his mouth to speak, and his canon and statute stirred within him. Except... it never happened.

Xu Qing shook his head and waved his hand. The soul fire in the lamp was extinguished.

The moment it happened, blood sprayed out of the ancient immortal’s mouth. His entire body shriveled, and his energy, his soul, his cultivation base, his immortal body, and everything else about him shook violently. And that was because his canon and statute were collapsing!

1. The Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse first appeared in

chapter 688

and last appeared in

979

. ☜