Chapter 558: I Shall Attain Dao Unification

The Celestial Venerable's vertical brow-eye was damaged, leaving a bloody hole in the center of his brow, and the wound continued to leak vital essence. The longer this dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became for him.

The blade poison of the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade was a poison of yin and yang qi, extraordinarily potent. The Celestial Venerable was himself accomplished in the arts of yin and yang, but nowhere near the level of this blade.

And the Yin Yang Qi Bottle was the only magic treasure he knew of that could draw out the blade poison, and that very treasure was currently in the hands of Wu Qi.

"As long as I eliminate Wu Qi, I can seize that treasure!"

He wanted to remove Wu Qi, but Wu Qi was also fighting with desperate abandon. This clash between them was even more perilous than before. Because of the injury to his vertical brow-eye, the Celestial Venerable now had a weakness he had never possessed before!

His Great Wilderness Ming Dao Collection was an immortal technique passed down by his master. His master stood above all others, unrivaled in vision and insight, and this immortal art had not a single flaw. If it had any, his master would have died at the hands of enemies long ago.

But the fact that the technique had no flaws did not mean the man himself had none.

With the Celestial Venerable's vertical brow-eye blinded, a weakness had appeared.

And the direction of Wu Qi's full-force attack was also aimed at that very eye!

His body alternately swelled and shrank as he threw everything he had at the Celestial Venerable. When large, he stood towering between heaven and earth, ten thousand zhang tall, moving mountains, shifting peaks, carrying seas, possessed of limitless strength. When small, he was no larger than a mustard seed, like a speck of dust, nearly impossible to detect.

His attacking methods were almost always close-combat techniques, with all his magical power and divine abilities only erupting upon contact with the enemy.

In the forging and tempering of the physical body, his Immortal Art of Immortality was unrivaled in the Western Ox New Continent!

The Celestial Venerable's heart pounded with alarm. Wu Qi's fighting style was as ferocious as ever, stirring a seed of fear within him.

Before, when he had no weaknesses, he felt no fear. Now that a weakness existed, fear crept in, and he grew hesitant and tentative.

Though the gap between them remained vast, Wu Qi actually managed to seize the upper hand for a brief moment this time.

But the Celestial Venerable had also gained experience in killing Wu Qi. After a few exchanges, he spotted a flaw in Wu Qi's technique.

Wu Qi was in the middle of executing the Immortal Art of Immortality's technique, Gonggong's Rage Tipping Mount Buzhou. This move was extraordinarily powerful, pushing the shamanic ritual markings of the Gonggong divine clan from the Great Shang Era to their absolute limit. The next move was Zhurong's Refinement of the Five-Colored Stone. And in the transition between these two moves, a flaw appeared.

Likely because Wu Qi had not yet achieved perfect harmony between the paths of water and fire, there was a slight hitch in the transition between the two techniques.

If he had been facing an opponent of equal or lesser cultivation, even discovering this flaw would have left them no time to exploit it.

But the Celestial Venerable had encountered this very flaw before, back when Wu Qi had his life-and-death clash with the Grand Sacrificial Officer in the underworld.

That time, Wu Qi had also executed Gonggong's Rage Tipping Mount Buzhou and immediately followed with Zhurong's Refinement of the Five-Colored Stone. The Celestial Venerable had seized the flaw and killed Wu Qi in one decisive blow, clean and efficient!

"The key to exploiting this flaw is to take this move head-on!"

The Celestial Venerable surged his cultivation to the limit and collided thunderously with Wu Qi.

At this moment, Wu Qi manifested his true Gonggong form, ten thousand zhang tall, hair bristling with fury, muscles and sinews contorted and fierce, his entire body covered in shamanic ritual markings. These were the ritual markings of the divine official who governed all waterways under heaven during the Great Shang Era. Surging floods formed twin dragons beneath his feet, carrying the might of nature itself, and crashed toward the Celestial Venerable!

The Celestial Venerable's body shook violently, bones crackling and popping throughout his frame. Behind him, layer upon layer of primordial insect flesh materialized, rumbling as they unfolded into tier upon tier of flesh heaven realms, spreading wide.

This technique used the primordial insect's flesh to simulate an immortal's Dao Realm.

The Celestial Venerable shunted the force he could not withstand into these flesh heaven realms, and one after another they exploded, pierced through by Wu Qi's power!

Wu Qi immediately switched techniques, his Gonggong shamanic ritual markings transforming into Zhurong markings. But in that instant of transition between water and fire, the Celestial Venerable's palm force came sweeping in, cutting off the technique.

Wu Qi couldn't execute Zhurong's Refinement of the Five-Colored Stone and hurriedly retreated, activating his Metal God ritual markings. But the Celestial Venerable seemed to have anticipated his every move, striking him square in the chest.

That was exactly how the Celestial Venerable had blasted Wu Qi apart that time!

Now, he was simply repeating the same trick.

At the same moment, Wu Qi's Rushou Demon-Breaking Finger also struck the Celestial Venerable's brow.

The Celestial Venerable was prepared, striking faster. Wu Qi's physical body shattered under his palm force.

But at that instant, Wu Qi let out a mighty roar. From his shattered right arm, two fingers exploded in a burst of flesh and blood, their finger bones flashing with peerless golden light. With a sharp hiss, they stabbed into the Celestial Venerable's brow!

The Celestial Venerable's expression changed drastically. He suddenly remembered that his vertical brow-eye had already been blinded by Zhong Wuwang working together with Chu Feng.

His brow now had a weakness.

In the underworld, Wu Qi's Rushou Demon-Breaking Finger had only touched his brow without managing to exert any force before he was blasted apart.

But this time, Wu Qi seemed to have predicted that his own death was certain, and so at the very moment he was struck, he poured every last ounce of remaining power into those two finger bones, driving them deep into the Celestial Venerable's brow!

Without the vertical brow-eye, he had no way to block it!

"Boom!"

Wu Qi completely exploded, turning into a mist of blood. But before his physical body and Primordial Spirit were destroyed, a smile of grim satisfaction spread across his face.

He didn't know what was happening to him.

Every time he was reborn, he carried no memories of his previous lives. But he had some impression of the gourd vine that had produced his body.

The gourd vine had forty-six gourd stems in total, but no gourd hung from them now, bearing Wu Qi.

Counting himself, there had been forty-seven of him that had grown from that purple gourd vine.

He could guess that he had died forty-six times already, most of them at the hands of the Celestial Venerable.

He knew that the person in this world who understood his Dao techniques and divine abilities best was not himself, but the Celestial Venerable. After all, the Celestial Venerable had killed him more than forty times, familiar and practiced with the task.

But he also knew that experience was not always reliable. It could mislead you into thinking that using the same method would let you win again.

What he wanted was precisely to mislead the Celestial Venerable.

He was also aware of his own flaws, knowing his own habits in combat. One major flaw lay in the transition between water and fire.

He could be certain that the Celestial Venerable must have seized on this flaw before. As long as the Celestial Venerable had killed him once using this method, the next time he saw Wu Qi execute the same techniques, he would reflexively employ the same methods as before.

And thus, he could catch the unprepared with his own preparation, and with his own abilities, defeat the Celestial Venerable once!

"Shhk! Shhk!"

The two finger bones pierced through the Celestial Venerable's brain, lodging in the back of his skull. They penetrated the bone at the back of his head but stuck fast, not flying out.

The Celestial Venerable's physical body was too powerful. Wu Qi's dying strike still failed to kill him.

The Celestial Venerable shook his head, dazed and muddled, his mind less clear than before. Wu Qi's strike had nearly turned his brain to paste. Though his cultivation was unfathomably deep, this kind of injury was still severe.

For a moment, he couldn't control the primordial insect, and its assault on the Palace of Virtue slowed considerably.

Meanwhile, on the moon, within the Celestial Venerable's Dao Realm, Chen Yindu and Creation Little Five, who had been barely holding out against the Celestial Venerable's Dao Body, also felt the pressure ease significantly.

On Qianyang Mountain, the skeletal Chen Shi and Can'er, exhausted from their frantic defense, also felt the burden lighten.

The Celestial Venerable shook his head again, his vision blurring. He saw that after Wu Qi's death, the Yin Yang Qi Bottle was falling before him. He reached out to grab it, but caught only empty air.

His brain was damaged, and his eyesight had become unreliable.

"Use the Yin Yang Qi Bottle to refine away the blade wound in my vertical eye!"

The Celestial Venerable reached out again, but suddenly a figure shot toward him, flashing past his face, snatching the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and fleeing.

The Celestial Venerable flew into a rage, activating his divine abilities and striking out with a palm. Countless sharp swords shot forth, riddling a distant mountain peak with holes, but the figure was already far out of reach.

"Wuwang?! What a fine disciple!" the Celestial Venerable ground his teeth, shaking his head again.

The one who had snatched the Yin Yang Qi Bottle was none other than Zhong Wuwang.

He had arrived just as Wu Qi met his end. Originally he hadn't planned to interfere, but seeing that the Celestial Venerable was wounded and somewhat disoriented, he decided to snatch the Yin Yang Qi Bottle, never expecting it to actually work.

When that palm strike came at him, he felt his entire cultivation, the small world within his body, and his Innate Dao Embryo all suppressed, unable to move. He inwardly thought his life was over, but who would have guessed the Celestial Venerable's strike would go wide, making him breathe a sigh of relief.

At that moment, the Empress of Earth wrapped the primordial insect in her Purple Heaven Vine and charged out of the Palace of Virtue to meet the Celestial Venerable. Though she was only an avatar, her divine power remained mighty and majestic, and her spells were exquisitely refined. Her long sleeves fluttered, forged from primal and mysterious dual qi, immensely heavy. When they landed on the Celestial Venerable, even the immortal Dao patterns he had refined were on the verge of shattering!

He exchanged rapid blows with her, immediately sensing that her divine power was not as deep as his cultivation, but her spells were far superior, surpassing his by a great margin. He immediately abandoned defense against the Empress of Earth's attacks, switching entirely to offense!

His mind was foggy, unable to track the Empress's movements or read her spells, powerless to counter them. Thus, attacking was the best strategy at this moment.

Suddenly, the Empress closed in. In the instant the Celestial Venerable raised his elbow, a beam of finger force flew out, piercing into his heart.

A jet of blood shot from his back. The Celestial Venerable couldn't help but vomit a mouthful of blood. He hurriedly suppressed his injury, sealing the wound in his heart, panic rising within him: "My Great Wilderness Ming Dao Collection was passed down by my master! It cannot have flaws! Why was I struck?"

But this strike from the Empress of Earth also revealed her true position. He immediately raised his hand and struck at her.

The Empress drew her hairpin and met his strike. With a sharp hiss, the hairpin pierced into his palm, punching straight through, and then their palm forces collided. The hairpin burst through the back of his hand and shot away with a whistle.

The Celestial Venerable tilted his head to dodge the hairpin, but the Empress's sleeve ribbon had already swept in from behind, striking his Jade Pillow point.

The Celestial Venerable was battered into confusion, his brains nearly scattered. Then he was struck again, his Yongquan Point pierced from the sole of his foot!

Panicking, he suffered blow after blow. In a short span of moments, the Empress of Earth had struck him eight times.

These eight weaknesses were not flaws in his technique, but flaws in his physical body. Chen Shi had discovered that the body the Celestial Venerable had seized was that of a citizen of the Metal Divine Office Jin Zhengru line from Great Shang, and that clan's shamanic ritual markings were precisely the Autumn Officer's Heavenly Punishment Art. Little Duan Immortal had deduced from the Autumn Officer's Heavenly Punishment Art that the Celestial Venerable's physical body possessed eight weaknesses!

With the Celestial Venerable's mind in a fog, the Empress of Earth struck eight times, and not one attack missed!

The Celestial Venerable was sent flying with tremendous force, crashing heavily into the grey clouds of flesh hanging in the sky.

The Empress of Earth flew forward, ready to end his life, when suddenly the Celestial Venerable cried out in alarm: "Let go of me!"

His voice carried terror: "I am the one who herded you! I am your master! I will whip you soundly..."

The Empress of Earth was about to strike when she saw fleshy tentacles burrowing into the Celestial Venerable's body through his wounds. Especially at his brow, flesh flowed into the wound, quickly filling his entire skull.

The Celestial Venerable's Dao Realm, Grand Veiled Heaven, manifested, and a green whip flew toward him.

At that moment, the Celestial Venerable suddenly abandoned all resistance. The wound at his brow healed at terrifying speed, and the other wounds across his body mended as well.

"I don't want to fuse with you!" the Celestial Venerable cried, standing bolt upright.

He swung his palm, his magical power immense beyond measure. The Empress of Earth dared not meet it head-on and dodged aside.

The Celestial Venerable's expression turned eerie, then he suddenly laughed: "Ah! Fusing with the primordial insect isn't so bad after all. I feel wonderful!"

A fleshy tentacle was lodged in his brow, another through his right palm, and another connected to the Jade Pillow at the back of his head.

Every wound on his body had a tentacle of the primordial insect embedded within.

The Celestial Venerable laughed: "I can feel the power of the Insect Mother! The primordial insect mother is my true master!"

The Empress of Earth's heart jolted: "The Celestial Venerable has been taken over by the primordial insect!"

She charged forward, but within a few exchanges she was already wounded and forced to retreat to the Palace of Virtue, defending with everything she had.

The Celestial Venerable attacked in person, striking at the Palace of Virtue. Tentacles of primordial insect flesh flew everywhere, killing gods when they met gods, slaying demons when they met demons, unstoppable.

The Empress of Earth was forced to retreat to the Palace of Virtue with Daoist Willow and the surviving deities, fighting desperately.

One deity after another died and dispersed. The number of deities around the Empress of Earth dwindled. With a crack, the willow tree snapped, its massive trunk hurtling backward, crashing down from the high mound.

The Empress of Earth's expression grew grim as she fought a desperate life-and-death struggle against the Celestial Venerable who had stormed into the Palace of Virtue.

Meanwhile, in Grand Veiled Heaven, Creation Little Five threw himself in front of Chen Yindu, blocking the full-force strike of the Celestial Venerable's Dao Body.

He flew backward with a whoosh, reverting to his true form mid-air, transforming back into a cloth doll missing an arm and a leg!

"Little Five!"

Chen Yindu roared, driving the Recreate Heaven-and-Earth Furnace to its absolute limit, charging at the Celestial Venerable's Dao Body!

At that very moment, rolling demonic miasma surged from beyond the heavens, and boundless demonic flames poured forth, scorching the primordial insect's flesh upon the moon.

The Celestial True God raised his palm, and a sword qi whistled out, piercing into the Grand Veiled Heaven Dao Realm with a hiss, slashing across the Celestial Venerable's Dao Body and cutting it in two at the waist!

The Celestial True God's enormous form twisted, reaching out to tear open the thick clouds of flesh over the Western Ox New Continent. His three eyes shone like sun and moon, their light streaming down from beyond the heavens, illuminating Qianyang Mountain.

The primordial insect's flesh, which had transformed into many Celestial Venerables to hunt the skeletal Chen Shi and Can'er, laughed at the sight: "Chen Shi, even if you raise the Celestial True God, you can't harm me in the slightest! This Celestial True God is nothing but a dead thing! Even with its power, it is far inferior to the Insect Mother!"

At Sky Measuring Cliff, Chen Shi's figure rose slowly into the sky, flying toward the heavens beyond.

"What if I attain Dao Unification and become an immortal? What if I enter the Celestial True God, using it as my Primordial Spirit, and unify with the Dao of heaven and earth?"

The Celestial Venerables formed from flesh all changed expression drastically. Abandoning the skeletal Chen Shi and Can'er, they rose into the air one after another, swarming like locusts toward the heavens!