Chapter 1250: Life Perishes In Five, And Heaven And Earth Weep

“Age your elder to age another’s elder, heaven, and earth...”

When Ye Qing punched, a strange voice suddenly hummed in the air. Then, Sunlao Taijun’s yang god—all three of its heads—turned to look at Ye Qing.

As three pairs of eyes stared at Ye Qing, invisible ripples coursed through the air, and the skyful of power of rot and decline transformed into a palm.

The palm had five fingers, each of them sporting a distinct color. They represented decline, rot, decay, old, and death. When the five types of power combined with each other, they formed a mysterious design that looked both like a picture and a word.

If you looked at it as a picture, then it would resemble a contorted, aged face. If you looked at it as a word, then it looked like the amalgamation of the words “Decline”, “Rot”, “Decay”, “Old” and “Death”.

When the palm descended, the face let out a soundless wail that warped the air. At the same time, the five words appeared in the sky and shone brightly.

At that moment, it felt like heaven and earth were rotting, and all living beings were reaching the end of their lifespan.

That was why the palm was named the Life Ending Palm of Five.

Under the effects of the Life Ending Palm of Five, Ye Qing’s fist force and intent kept declining, his Earthly Sovereign True Body kept decaying, and his lifespan and spirit kept disintegrating.

“What an incredible martial art!”

Ye Qing’s eyebrows shot up. This was the first time he met someone who could thwart both his Earthly Sovereign True Body and Break Hammer. Not even Taba Xuanwu could achieve this feat.

That was before Taba Xuanwu became a Half-Sage though. As he was now, he could probably do it.

“Do you still think I’m no match for you, Mad Lord?” Sunlao Taijun looked down on Ye Qing with overwhelming hatred and bloodthirst.

“I’ll admit that your power has surpassed my expectations, Sunlao Taijun.”

A Half-Sage was called a Half-Sage for a reason after all. A Half-Sage wasn’t just several times more powerful than a Great Trueman or Great Grandmaster, their grasp of Magia and secret arts were greater as well. More importantly, they possessed greater understanding regarding the martial way and the world.

All cultivation levels past the Trueman or Grandmaster stage was like a mountain. To fall one cultivation level behind was like being behind by an entire mountain. Assuming that the two warriors’ talent, opportunity, treasures and more were exactly identical, the warrior with greater cultivation would absolutely defeat the weaker warrior.

While he could forcefully increase his level to the Half-Sage stage using powerful Strange Artifacts such as Blue Demon, there was no denying that a definite gap existed between himself and a true Half-Sage.

In conclusion, it was unlikely he could suppress Sunlao Taijun in short order without using one or more of his trump cards.

Not only that, Sunlao Taijun’s yang god was continuously shaving away at the Taoist of Sleep, Old Man of Zhi and more’s lifespan and power. He needed their strength to deal with Westwind Inn and Ghost Taisui, so he couldn’t allow them to die, at least not yet.

So, Ye Qing resolved to do what was necessary. He looked straight into Sunlao Taijun’s eyes and said seriously, “It’s true that I have underestimated you, but know that you are still no match for me.”

“Now, get ready. I’m going to get serious.”

“A shameless, meaningless boast! Today’s the day I make you beg for the sweet mercy of death!”

Sunlao Taijun was quite angry right now. If Ghost Taisui hadn’t explicitly commanded that Ye Qing was to be captured alive, she would have killed the little shit a long time ago.

That said, Ghost Taisui only said that Ye Qing was to be captured alive. He never said that they couldn’t beat him half-dead. After hearing that shameless boast, she would feel bad for herself if she did not beat him half-dead.

“Life perishes in five, and heaven and earth weep...”

The giant hand in the sky descended once more at the same time the face on the palm opened its maw and spat out a gust of formless, grayish black qi of calamity.

The qi of calamity was incredibly smelly. It was also overflowing with inauspiciousness and disaster.

The next moment, the qi of calamity split into five portions and entered the five words.

Anomalous light burst out of the five words. Then, five ghost gods manifested into existence.

The first ghost god was called the God of Decline, ruler of decline and enfeeblement.

The second ghost god was called the Ghost of Rot, ruler of rot.

The third ghost god was called the Demon of Decay, ruler of decay.

The fourth ghost god was called the Creature of Old, ruler of old age.

And the fifth ghost god was the Monster of Death, ruler of death.

The one palm had given birth to five gods made to kill longevity dead.

The five ghost gods looked very lifelike, and they all boasted immense divine or demonic power. Once ready, they charged Ye Qing at the same time.

THANG!

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

It was at this moment a bell chime rang.

Dark yellow rose, and the sky within thousands and thousands of kilometers cleared up in an instant.

The bell chime wasn’t particularly loud or intense, but all sounded faded into the background after it rang. For a time, the only sound everyone could hear was the bell chime.

The five ghost gods shattered without a sound, and the palm that blotted out the sky churned violently as if disturbed.

The next moment, the palm disintegrated into a sea of grayish black air currents.

“Age your elder!”

“Age your adult!”

“Age your young!”

Sensing grave danger from the bell chime, all three heads let out a screeching howl in unison. Their howls were soundless at first, but over time, they grew louder and louder until they finally overwhelmed the bell chime.

It wasn’t without a cost though. As time passed, the three heads on the yang god began aging rapidly. Their faces turned wrinkly, their hair turned grayish white, and their flesh and blood began rotting earnestly.

“When the youth and spring of three periods have ended, all of humanity shall have white hair.”

At that moment, the power of rot, decline, and death reached its peak. The energy became so thick that they churned like liquid. Amidst the river of power was the myriad red dust and human prosperity.

Time flew quickly as the river poured downward. The youth and vibrance that were once present in the red dust all turned into white hair, and the prosperity of humanity faded into the blue sea and mulberry fields.

This was Sunlao Taijun’s greatest Magia, the “End of Three Periods”. It was a Magia she had learned by studying the five intents—Decline, Rot, Decay, Old and Death—and it was so potent that the laws of time itself were involved.

By manifesting an illusion of the river of time, she could fast forward time so that youth was no more, and prosperity was just a footnote in history.

That was what the quote, “When the youth and spring of three periods have ended, all of humanity shall have white hair,” meant.

As the river poured, the passage of time of the entire Nether Mountain seemed to be speeding up rapidly. Everyone and everything was aging and rotting away.

THANG!

However, the bell rang a second time, and this time, it wasn’t clear and pure like the first. No, this one sounded grand and infinite, capable of suppressing everything and returning the universe back to peace and tranquility.

As soon as the bell rang, the churning, speeding river of time abruptly grew as still as a lake.

The unnatural aging that was affecting everyone and everything came to a complete halt as well.

A bronze bell leaped out of the waters and cast its profound light upon all. Like the sun slowly rising from the east, it was dazzling, brilliant, and bright. It illuminated the nine heavens and chased away the darkness completely.

The Nether Mountain was a cold, lightless place. But now, it was as bright as daytime.

Underneath this dazzling, all-encompassing light, the river of time ran dry, the qi of decay disappeared, the power of death was annihilated, and not a single speck of corruption or taint was left across the whole mountain.

“Argh! The Earthly Sovereign Bell!”

Sunlao Taijun was angry, shocked, and afraid. She had heard of the Earthly Sovereign Bell’s legendary feats as a matter of course, but she never imagined that it would be this powerful, or that it would counter her powers so thoroughly.

Right now, she was burning up like a piece of rotten flesh trapped inside a furnace. To say she looked horrible would be an understatement.

Such was its power that she couldn’t even escape.

The grand, infinite profound light hadn’t just sealed off the surrounding space, it had also sealed her mind inside her body. As a result, she could not even detach her yang god from her flesh and escape.

Affected by the infinite light and grand bell chime, she was as weak and feeble, pitiful and sorrowful as an ant or a moth in darkness.