Chapter 486 - Judge, Jury, Executioner (III)

Chapter 486

Judge, Jury, Executioner (III)

The heavens split, turning sundered.

Xian Zhelan had never seen anything like it--no, that was not true; he'd seen it once. About a thousand years ago, a Senior from above descended and demonstrated the Will of Dao to him and all of his Brothers and Sisters in the Order.

Senior had barely moved his finger downward before the heavens crackled under the weight of his will, splitting apart like a sheet of paper. It was beautiful, elegant, and grandiose in ways that he'd never seen since and had been the dream he was chasing all these years later.

He was so close.

So close.

Just a step away from immortality, from shedding the mortal coil and ascending to finally meet that Senior again. This was supposed to be an easy win--hoodwink an old, desperate woman with a pitiful promise—and absorb the engulfed realm as the fire for rebirth, like a phoenix.

He was supposed to leave this place enlightened, empowered, and reborn; it was supposed to be a mere blip, a tiny footnote in the story that would be his life.

The light was blinding as the skies parted, edges of the descending blade rippling and dancing as Dao sang. He felt pressure akin to a thousand mountains pressing against him, and though he knew he was supposed to bend his knees and surrender...

... he refused.

Gnashing his teeth, he stood defiant against the judgment.

Why was he less worthy than that scum attacking him?

Why should he die when he sacrificed so much to arrive here? What has that thing sacrificed? Nothing.

Just some spoiled, rotten child of a rich family force-fed divine elixirs since birth, undoubtedly.

He was to be an Emperor.

To be a King.

Slamming his palms together, shadows erupted from underneath him; Qi within him roared like thunder and shuffled through his meridians violently as he conjured more than he had ever before in his life. His skin turned ashen as shadows spun into a spiral underneath his feet and as he began to slice out.

Arrays upon arrays, numbering in tens of thousands, shot against the descending blade of light; the world quaked, rippling under the might of ever-after, as he felt himself pressed further and further down.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" unwilling, he roared into the forsaken skies, his throat ripping apart.

He was unwilling.

His Master always praised him as the cleverest, the most promising, the one who would one day lead the Order.

How was he to fall here, to this child?

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Never!

He gripped thick shadows with both his hands and swung himself in place repeatedly, striking out with fewer but far greater arrays. Shadow and light danced and weaved, and just before he was beaten into the ground, he managed to disperse the last of the blade.

... looking behind, there was nothing but a mile wide and incalculably long gash in the ground that the blade carved out. Up above, the man remained floating, his visage that of a god.

How dare he?

Xian Zhelan's anger surged further as his body continued to fall apart. Most of his meridians were shattered, his bones were turning to dust, and he was bleeding from every orifice.

But it did not matter.

Shadows spun behind his back as dark wings unfurled; a single flap cracked the ground below him as he shot into the sky, turning into a mirage of shadows that descended upon the man. The latter danced back, stepping through his shadows as though he were the one to make them; Xian Zhelan felt the sword toward his back, prompting him to blitz through the darkness and appear next to the man, stabbing forward.

The sword of light descended and blocked him, causing him to turn into a dozen phantoms that struck from every direction; with each strike, plumes of shadows burst out like jets of flames while beams of light curled and twisted.

The two danced higher and higher, light and darkness entwining; Xian Zhelan struck from above, a blade of darkness surging through and tearing apart the void. The man, once again, steered through the shadows like a mirage, appearing by Xian's side; the sword of light descended, severing his left arm.

Ignoring the pain and alarms, he bit into his tongue and snapped forward, managing to stab the man in his left thigh. The sword of light descended yet again, cutting into his spleen. Enduring the pain, he spun in place and dug through the darkness, appearing just behind the man as vapors of shadows embossed his figure. The dagger manifested between his fingers as he stabbed down.

The man elegantly stepped forward, a dash of light crackling like thunder, as Xian followed, the shadow in his hand twisting and contorting into new weapons repeatedly.

On the other hand, the man held tightly onto the sword of light, each swing like a heavenly smite; Xian noted the descent and prepared to block, but the blade never came... yet, the moment his defense loosened, the damned thing descended.

Temporal Law.

He even knew the Temporal Law.

It was impossible.

No, no, no, no...

How was any of it possible?!! He knew the Dao of Sword, Dao of Darkness, Dao of Shadows, Dao of Judgment, Dao of Blade, Dao of Space, and now even Dao of Time.

Who was he?!! An avatar of an Emperor who descended for fun?!

Ignoring the alarms ringing inside his mind, Xian roared and accepted the gash of the blade, stabbing forward and drawing blood yet again. The man pulled back, his expression distorting ever so slightly before light absconded from the sword, the true measure of it showing.

Just as he thought he'd managed to get an upper hand, he sensed it; he barely managed to glance back and twist his body unnaturally before the jets of light spun open a vortex through which a sword-shaped beam of light exploded. It tore through his left leg, obliterating it completely as blood and viscera sprayed.

He'd gotten numb to pain, digging his teeth further into his tongue until his lips were wet with blood. The sword in the man's hand dithered with light as Xian exploded forward yet again, shadows blossoming around him into a grand lotus.

It was his ultimate art, the only one he made that he was proud of. It exemplified all he knew of Dao, all he knew of himself, and all he believed of his own potential; each petal of the flower further blossomed into another behind him, the visage turning into a fairy garden of shadows.

All lotus flowers bloomed at once, petals swarming open as tendrils of shadows burst through toward the man like claws of a beast. The latter's eyes remained steadfast as his robes billowed; time itself seemed to stop as Xian found himself frozen, the flowers halfway toward the man.

He heard the whisper, barely catching the words, "Return to none."

Light was a blip in his sight, a singular flash that quickly passed; yet, the world was divided in two as his shadows faltered, slowly turning to ashes from their edges. His lips moved, yet words would not come out; desperate, he used the last bits of Qi and consciousness to ask.

"Are you an Emperor?"

"... in a way, I suppose," the man said, the look in his eyes complex and distant.

Though he wanted to ask more... he could not.

He felt Dao in him leave as the last light of his soul was extinguished.

Darkness he adored and loved so much was suddenly cold and full of apathy. Shadows embraced him... but all he wanted to do was weep.

He was supposed to be eternal... not a mere mote in the sea of eternity.