Chapter 2041: Heaven and Earth in Mourning

From the shattered body of the Seven Killings Sword Lord, a dim, grayish head tumbled down through the starry sky.

The top of this skull was missing a large chunk; the inside, where brains and the like should be, was completely empty and long rotted away; the skin at the back of the head was wrinkled beyond recognition, and the hair was grayish-white.

His own face had been utterly destroyed by himself.

This Sovereign, in the netherworld, would have no face to meet the ancestors of the Seven Killings Divine Dynasty.

As this dim Sovereign's head fell, it suddenly paused, flew before a youth in blue, and was carefully scanned by his divine sense.

"An Eighth Tribulation Sovereign—"

"Truly powerful."

Jiang Ding's divine sense ceaselessly scanned the Seven Killings Sovereign's head, recording every material, structure, and remnant rule within, feeding them into the central array-spirit computer database of the Immortal Gate.

These precious data will play a vital role in future Immortal Dao research and development.

Once all scanning was complete, Jiang Ding fetched paper and brush, wrote out the full account of this battle's cause and effect, then tossed it into the Immortal Gate's museum for sealed preservation, so that future Immortal Gate citizens could visit this skull to broaden their horizons, or use it for research and practice, deepening the foundation of Immortal Gate cultivators.

Apart from this broken skull, the traces this Eighth Tribulation Sovereign left behind in the mortal world also included spiritual energy.

An Eighth Tribulation Sovereign who had sat at the center of a star domain, cultivating for several million years, swallowing countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures into himself—this skull alone was already a quasi-immortal-grade treasure, containing incomparably abundant spiritual energy; if used properly, it could easily give rise to a powerful Seventh Tribulation holy land.

When a Sovereign dies, like a whale-fall, spiritual energy disperses and rules return to heaven and earth, inevitably forming a cultivation holy land.

At this moment, accompanying the complete death of this skull, such a phenomenon of spiritual dispersion likewise occurred!

Terrifyingly extreme spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and the rules of the Great Dao, dispersed in all directions; the Heavenly Dao of the Solar System rejoiced, the Heavenly Dao of the Nine Spirit Domain gave birth to all manner of strange omens, and the Immortal Dao foundation of this entire realm began climbing rapidly.

"This is too disordered; the waste is far too great."

Jiang Ding's divine sense scanned for a moment, then judged.

This phenomenon of spiritual energy and rules dispersing was entirely random dispersal, not directed toward key targets; the reshaping of heaven and earth was far too inefficient.

Hum!

Behind the blue-clad youth, the Great Sun Immortal-Mortal Sword Soul manifested once more; the Law-Destroying Great Dao enveloped the world, freezing this place, sealing the spiritual-dispersion phenomenon triggered by the Eighth Tribulation Sovereign skull's complete death.

Then, the Great Sun Immortal-Mortal Sword Soul's white pupils opened.

These were pupils dazzling as becoming-immortal itself, the source of authority that controlled the flow of all spiritual energy in heaven and earth—obey, and one becomes immortal.

These sun-like, dazzling pupils bloomed with infinite radiance; their gaze swept across the entire Solar System, swept across the entire Nine Spirit Domain, fell upon the entire Ancient God Zhong Senior Qian Shi Gao Jie cluster, and upon world after world whose Immortal Dao civilizations had plummeted because the Seven Killings Sword Lord had devoured massive amounts of spiritual energy.

These worlds were practically entering the End-Law Era; the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was terrifyingly faint, making it immensely difficult even to birth a Jin Dan cultivator.

"This is the Immortal Gate's homeland; it should not wither like this."

Jiang Ding said lightly.

His dazzling white pupils radiated light, drawing strand after strand of quasi-immortal spiritual energy from the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy dispersing from the Seven Killings Sword Lord's skull, then sending each strand into the various Zhong Senior Qian Shi Gao Jie and Minor Thousand Worlds of the Ancient God Domain, sealing these strands of quasi-immortal spiritual energy into the cores of each world's spirit veins.

These strands of quasi-immortal spiritual energy will, in the future, take the spirit veins as their bodies, inhaling and transforming the chaos of the starry sky into spiritual energy, allowing the Immortal Dao of these worlds to flourish once more.

In the distribution of this spiritual energy, the Ancient God World cluster received one-tenth.

The several hundred Minor Thousand Worlds of the Nine Spirit Domain received two-tenths.

The nine major planets of the Solar System received the remaining two-tenths.

In an instant, with these strands of quasi-immortal spiritual energy as the foundation, rolling waves of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy were transformed by each world, pouring into them, slowly and unceasingly raising the grade of the world's spirit veins; this process would last at least a hundred thousand years before this spiritual energy finally dissipated, blessing an entire star domain.

This is the vital role cultivators play for the endless universe and starry sky.

So long as one does not become immortal, a cultivator will eventually die; the cultivator's corpse will become nourishment for the endless starry sky, continuing to bless Immortal Dao civilization, endlessly and without cease.

"This is the beauty of Immortal Dao nature."

Jiang Ding sighed.

The remaining five-tenths of quasi-immortal spiritual energy naturally belonged to him, making up for the losses he had suffered in this battle.

This time, the share he took was a bit high.

But there was no helping it: the Immortal Gate's Nine Stars were people from home, and the Nine Spirit Domain's Heavenly Dao had, over all these years, always favored the Great Sun Sword Lord without change—so naturally an exception had to be made; he could not treat them too poorly.

Jiang Ding sat cross-legged in the starry sky, gathering countless strands of quasi-immortal spiritual energy to recover his own injuries, to further nurture his foundation—which had suffered minor flaws from his premature ascension to Heaven-Man—and to repair the Taiqing Flying Sword.

With this ceaseless supply of quasi-immortal spiritual energy, he should be able to emerge from seclusion within ten thousand years, restored to peak condition.

……

The Gods-and-Buddhas Great Thousand World.

The headless Seven Killings Sword Lord fled madly into the depths of the universe.

Behind him, the Zhenjun He Huan Dao Lord, the Wuji Sword Lord, the Burying-Heaven Sword Lord, the Qingfeng Qingfeng Beidou Sovereign who wielded an Imperial Dao heavy treasure, and other Eighth Tribulation combatants were madly pursuing and killing him, occasionally joining forces to strike down attack after attack, ceaselessly grinding away the Seven Killings Sword Lord's rule authority, ceaselessly grinding away his magic power and divine sense—patient beyond measure.

Clearly, these Eighth Tribulation Sovereigns were seasoned and cautious, wanting to kill the Seven Killings Sword Lord without taking any damage themselves.

An Eighth Tribulation Sovereign, if fighting desperately and burning himself without regard, could at least inflict some injuries upon them.

If their coordination faltered, or if some Sovereign harbored dark schemes and tried to redirect disaster toward another, it was entirely possible for an Eighth Tribulation Sovereign to be gravely wounded.

This step-by-step approach was excellent—grinding away bit by bit, killing without injury was the best possible outcome.

The two sides—one chasing, one fleeing—continued for some time.

"Puh!"

At a certain moment, the headless Seven Killings Sword Lord's chest trembled; the headless body pumped out a great spray of fresh blood, as if struck by lightning, and his own aura dropped sharply for no apparent reason.

The Seven Killings Sword Lord's entire aura instantly turned dim and gray; he stopped fleeing, halting right there.

"Could it be…"

The Wuji Sword Lord, the Zhenjun He Huan Dao Lord, and the other Eighth Tribulation Sovereigns were shaken in their hearts.

A sourness and a terror rose within them.

They surrounded the headless Seven Killings Sword Lord, no longer continuing their attacks; their hearts were complicated and unspeakable—they already understood what had happened.

Seven Killings had lost.

This path was too difficult; Seven Killings had wagered everything, and for that sliver of hope of advancement had resolutely stepped forward—but still, he had lost.

"Lost…"

"This Sovereign has lost, lost…"

The headless Seven Kill Sword Master wept in grief, identical to that severed head, at the very same moment.

Though the Joy Union Dao Lord and the others were his enemies, at this moment their hearts ached, unable to contain themselves, as if they saw another version of themselves.

They had all entered their twilight years, about to die when their lifespans ran out.

The sorrow of an Eight-Tribulation Supreme Being moved heaven and earth to mourn alongside him!

Dark clouds spontaneously arose in the starry sky, countless drops of Hua Dong Xue Yu fell upon the earth, the gale howled without cease, the heavens dimmed and the earth darkened, as if even the Heavenly Dao itself was bidding farewell—bidding farewell to a being who had accompanied it on the Seven Kill Great Dao for several million years.