Chapter 2885 No Way Out Beneath a Heaven of Slaughter and Calamity

The starry sky churned, and the void trembled violently. The hellish world that had once loomed over everything collapsed the moment Kong Jue appeared.

Jianan’s white beard swayed gently, divine light rippling in his eyes. Gripping the Seven Treasures Ruyi, he stood firm like a mountain awaiting the coming storm. Just moments ago, he was still calm and compassionate, like an unshakable sovereign who held the heavens in his palm and with everything under his control.

Now, before Kong Jue, even he grew solemn.

“Fellow Daoist,” Jianan said, his palms pressed together as endless Buddha light poured from his body, illuminating the void. “Your name has long shaken the heavens. To cross paths today is my honor.”

Kong Jue’s smile vanished. His gaze turned cold and detached, his presence as sharp and terrifying as an unsheathed celestial sword. “For me, crossing blades with you, monk, is nothing but shameful.”

“What do you mean by that, Fellow Daoist?” Jianan asked, not angered but faintly curious.

“Don’t take it personally, I just can’t stand anyone from your Zen Sect,” Kong Jue said lightly.

Jianan’s tone remained calm. “There are many in this world who despise the Zen Sect. One more makes little difference.”

Kong Jue stretched lazily, exhaling a long breath. “Enough talk. Let’s begin. My nephew has waited long enough.”

He stepped forward. With every stride, the starry sky caved in beneath his feet, thunder echoing through the void. His aura surged higher and sharper, like a rising tide of blades. From afar, he seemed like a peerless divine sword being unsheathed, its gleam suppressing all beneath the heavens!

As Kong Jue advanced, Jianan’s brows twitched slightly. He drew a sharp breath and swept the Seven Treasures Ruyi through the air.

Buzz!

A magnificent Buddha seal took form, glowing with boundless radiance. Its surface bore the marks of endless sutras, and the chanting of Buddhas thundered through the heavens like eternal light flooding the starry sky.

Seal of the Infinite Past! Such power could shake the heavens and resound through eternity! Facing this strike, Kong Jue simply raised his fist and struck.

Boom!

Heaven and earth overturned; even the sun and moon lost their light. The Seal of the Infinite Past, suffused with Eternal power, shattered beneath his fist, bursting into a rain of radiant fragments that streaked through time and space like falling stars.

That one punch was simple, domineering and absolute. Kong Jue kept advancing, his slender, upright figure growing more majestic and imposing.

Jianan did not relent. The Seven Treasures Ruyi resonated with a clear hum, manifesting one divine seal after another: the Amitabha Seal, the Mahasthamaprapta Seal, the Vaidurya Radiant King Seal, the Lotus of Sublime Truth Seal, the Buddha Brahma Seal, the Great Immeasurable Mercy Seal...

Each seal exuded a distinct Eternal aura, imbued with supreme might. Within them, the power of laws stirred and rose, so vast and terrifying it defied imagination. Lin Xun and Fang Daoping watched in awe, shaken to their core by the might of the Eternal Stage.

Those were only Will Dharma Forms yet they already wielded such unimaginable might. If their true bodies had descended, how terrifying would that power have been?

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Facing such an assault, Kong Jue’s response was brutally simple. He punched out. Once. Twice. Again and again. Each time his fist fell, a seal shattered! For a time, the starry sky thundered with deafening explosions. Blinding waves of light surged outward like rivers, giving birth to countless unbelievable visions.

Step by step, Kong Jue advanced, drawing closer and closer to Jianan. His aura was overwhelming, like a peerless divine blade buried for endless ages that had been unsheathed at last, blazing with boundless radiance, unstoppable, and cleaving through everything in its path!

However, Jianan did not retreat. Kong Jue’s aura had locked onto him completely. He knew that even the slightest hint of hesitation would plunge him into mortal peril. Watching Kong Jue’s murderous aura surge closer, Jianan’s expression grew even more solemn.

He pressed his palms together, as though entering deep meditation. Wisps of translucent Buddha flame rose from his aged body, clear as crystal, suffused with the aura of boundless wisdom, enlightenment and unwavering resolve.

It was as though he had cast aside life and death to offer his dharma body as sacrifice to the dao!

Boom!

Before him, the Seven Treasures Ruyi roared to life, as if it had absorbed every ounce of Jianan’s Will Dharma Form, blazing and erupting with seven kinds of divine radiance.

In the Zen Sect, the seven treasures, gold, silver, coral, crystal, conch, red pearl, and agate, symbolized seven supreme truths of the Buddhist Dao such as wisdom, courage, resolve, protection against evil, and auspicious fortune.

The Seven Treasures Ruyi was forged from seven primordial divine materials born of Divine Rank law and thus brimmed with the very power of laws.

Now, burning the power of his Will Dharma Form as fuel, Jianan unleashed the Seven Treasures Ruyi in full, and the seven divine lights that burst forth flared with the power of law itself! Clearly, Kong Jue had driven Jianan to stake everything on one desperate strike!

Boom!

Seven divine lights unfurled like the feathers of a celestial peacock, each ringing with the sound of divine weapons as they slashed toward Kong Jue.

Even from afar, Lin Xun and Fang Daoping were wracked by a tearing agony through their mind, body, and spirit. Both had turned deathly pale. There was no doubt that if that strike was aimed at them, they would be utterly powerless and annihilated in an instant!

At that moment, Kong Jue stopped. From his first strike until now, he had advanced exactly forty-nine steps, and his power surged higher with each one like a rising tide. Now, he blazed with radiance, his might eclipsing the stars above!

Pausing, he lifted a sleeve and brushed it lightly through the air, like a celestial being sweeping aside the clouds, effortless and transcendent. In that instant, a streak of sword qi shot forth, carrying an indescribable brilliance that stunned the starry sky.

Time itself seemed to freeze, and only that streak of sword qi gleamed, its brilliance cutting across eternity. He had gathered his strength through forty nine steps, all to unleash this sword strike!

Bang!

The seven beams of divine light that were as terrifying as the feathers of a celestial peacock, now seemed as fragile as bubbles. With a single sweep of the sword, they burst into a magnificent rain of color and light.

With a single sword, the starry heavens split open, and the very laws of heaven and earth tore apart, unable to withstand its might! Lin Xun and Fang Daoping stood frozen, their eyes vacant, their minds blank with shock.

What kind of sword strike was that? Its power overturned everything they knew. It was beyond comprehension, and beyond the limits of the mortal world!

Rumble!

The starry sky had turned upside down, and the vast void had long since collapsed into ruin. Only the raging power of destruction continued to echo through the darkness. It was a long while before silence returned.

When the dust finally settled, the heavens lay desolate. It had become a broken, barren expanse of collapsed stars. Kong Jue stood tall and straight like a sword piercing the void. The wine gourd at his waist was gone. He now held it in his hand, drinking deeply with his head thrown back, utterly unrestrained.

After a pause, he smacked his lips and let out a chuckle, “So that final strike of yours wasn’t a fight to the death, but to send the Seven Treasures Ruyi away. Monk, did you really think I’d covet it?”

His voice dripped with disdain.

Not far away, Jianan’s Will Dharma Form still maintained the posture of clasped palms, but his body was riddled with countless hairline cracks, spreading like a spider’s web.

“Fellow Daoist may not desire it, but my Zen Sect cannot afford to lose this treasure. Otherwise, I would be branded a sinner to the sect.” Jianan’s voice remained calm. As he spoke, his fading gaze lifted slightly, sweeping past Kong Jue to fall on Lin Xun in the far distance. “That boy...truly resembles the Lord of Fangchun Mountain.”

His voice brimmed with emotion, and the meaning of his words were deep.

Kong Jue shook his head, “His achievements are destined to surpass his master’s. My elder brother once said that a disciple need not live forever in his teacher’s shadow. He waited eternity, waiting for the one who could outshine his master, the one capable of shattering the true ultimate path.”

A strange light flickered in Jianan’s eyes. “That path is filled with slaughter and calamity...there is no way out.”

Crack!

His words faded with his Will Dharma Form. His body cracked apart, fragment by fragment, until it dissolved into drifting ash.

“No way out? That’s just an excuse for the weak.” Kong Jue laughed, shaking his head. He turned toward Lin Xun, Fang Daoping and Taixuan, smiling brilliantly. “Apologies for keeping you waiting. Let’s go.”

Taixuan’s blurry figure gave a faint smile. “With you here, I can rest easy.”

His voice faded into silence as his Will Dharma Form vanished completely.

“Thank you, Elder.” Lin Xun bowed deeply toward the place where Taixuan had disappeared.

He would not forget back in the Fortune Dominion, it was Taixuan’s Will Dharma Form that had shielded him all the way to Fortune Divine City. And now, once again, Taixuan’s Will Dharma Form had stepped forward to stand against Present Age Buddha Jianan.

In just a few decades, two Will Dharma Forms had been consumed. The toll on Taixuan’s cultivation would be beyond measure. His sacrifice was nothing short of monumental!

“That old brother Taixuan...his growth is truly astounding.” Kong Jue smiled in quiet admiration. He had led the first group of cultivators to cross the cosmos in the primeval era, and he and Taixuan had known each other for a long time.

“Martial Uncle, has your state of mind been fully restored?” Lin Xun asked.

Kong Jue shook his head. “One moment I’m fine, the next I’m half-mad. This state of mind...really isn’t easy to repair.”

Lin Xun froze in astonishment. “But Martial Uncle, you’ve already attained the eternal dao. How could your state of mind still be flawed?”

Kong Jue pursed his lips helplessly. “My ambitions were too vast, my desires too fierce. To strive for supremacy in this realm...how could one’s state of mind not waver? But even knowing this, I refuse to yield. Look at Taixuan, he’s trapped himself in seclusion all these years, wrestling against himself, still unable to break free. My state of mind is much the same.”

Lin Xun nodded. He didn’t fully understand, and he knew there was no point in asking further. Matters of the heart and mind were something that could not be helped by another. However, he was deeply relieved that Kong Jue now stood clear-minded before him.

He thought back to the first time he met Kong Jue. He was more pitiful than a beggar on the streets, lost, delirious and broken beyond recognition. The memory still ached in his heart.

“Hm?”

Kong Jue was about to depart with Lin Xun and Fang Daoping when he suddenly sensed something. He halted mid-step and turned to gaze into the distant void.

Boom!

At that same moment, a vast and terrifying Eternal aura surged from afar, like a blazing sun sweeping its brilliance across the heavens.

“Hahaha, I finally caught up!”

The figure was none other than Yuan Xukun. He arrived roaring with laughter, but when his gaze swept across the devastated landscape, his smile froze and a deep frown creased his brow. It was clear that this place had just endured a terrifying battle.

Then, his gaze turned toward the far distance. Kong Jue, Lin Xun, and Fang Daoping stood in the distance, watching him quietly, expressionless and without fear.

A flicker of suspicion crossed Yuan Xukun’s eyes. His gaze snapped toward Kong Jue. “Whose Will Dharma Form are you? Where’s Taixuan?”

“Taixuan has vanished.” Kong Jue smiled brilliantly. “As for me...my name is Kong Jue, peerless and unparalleled, the one and only.”

Yuan Changtian frowned slightly. “The name sounds familiar...yet I don’t recall the Eternal True Realm producing another Eternal figure like you.”

“Oh, I only ascended to eternity a few years back. It’s no wonder you haven’t heard of me.”

Kong Jue’s eyes swept up and down Yuan Xukun. “You’ve arrived at just the right time. Shall I send you on your way?”