Chapter 166: Heaven and Earth as a Chessboard

"Clang!"

At the instant the three‑legged crow's sharp beak struck the bell wall, the entire Honghuang ley lines trembled. The sound wave turned into solid silvery ripples sweeping the eight realms, and mountains tens of thousands of li away collapsed in response.

The bronze ancient clock's face showed spider‑web‑like cracks, yet they healed instantly as Dao patterns flowed. Zhou Yi's mouth corner leaked a line of blood, and the ground beneath his feet had sunk into a thousand‑zhang deep pit.

"Just a trifle." Zhou Yi wiped away the blood, and all three hundred and sixty acupoints on his body lit up simultaneously.

The celestial bell thundered as it floated to the ninth heaven dome; the moment its mouth reversed, it swallowed all remaining solar true fire.

All the watching battle deities were shocked; this was clearly fighting to nurture fighting, using the power of Taiyi Shen to forge his destiny weapon.

Taiyi Shen's eyes bulged as if about to burst, about to activate his life‑bound essence, but he saw Zhou Yi's eyes emit starlight: "My turn now."

From within the celestial bell came the Chaos of Chaos's Beginning, and ten thousand Dao patterns on the bell wall peeled and reassembled, finally coalescing into a fist that split heaven and earth.

The strike seemed slow, yet it encompassed the mechanisms of the celestial sphere's stellar rotations; where the fist passed, space‑time inverted and yin and yang reversed.

"All laws return to the source." Amid Zhou Yi's long howl, his newly formed Dao body radiated multicolored sunrise glow.

That fist shadow at times turned into a sword aura that slays saints, at times into a chaotic blue lotus, and finally returned to simplicity, using the purest force to pierce Taiyi Shen's protective body qi.

Where the two supreme beings clashed, the void collapsed into a black hole, devouring all spiritual energy within a hundred‑mile radius.

The Great Peng Bird could still deceive itself with its unhealed old wound, yet now it saw the young Human's head crowned with the celestial bell, standing toe‑to‑toe with the pressure of the Chaos Bell.

The battle aftershocks scattering beyond the heavens caused the watching battle deities to each summon protective artifacts. Someone noted that each time Zhou Yi's shattered body reassembled, Dao markings were etched onto the celestial bell's surface, and the once plain bell now pulsed with the aura of Chaos's Beginning.

"Dao gives birth to yin and yang!" Grand Master Miao Le suddenly shouted in astonishment.

Zhou Yi's left fingertip sparked with true Yin water, his right hand coiled with true solar fire; the two repelling forces perfectly merged within the trembling celestial bell.

The three‑legged crow ridden by Taiyi let out a shrill screech; its wingbeats raised infernal flames that were torn open by the opposing Yin and Yang energies.

The Demon Master Great Peng Bird suddenly stepped back half a pace; he clearly saw twelve brilliant light points traveling along meridians within Zhou Yi's shattered cuff.

It was the ancestral Wu Clan's essence blood resonating! The discovery made cold sweat seep down his back; this person had advanced the Wu Clan's body‑refining art to such a level.

When the celestial bell rang for the ninth time, the entire Honghuang earth trembled.

Zhou Yi's figure, stepping through shattered void, dragged a comet‑like tail of stellar flame; the Yin‑Yang Dao diagram condensed in his fist into a black‑and‑white vortex.

The solar true fire surrounding Taiyi was swallowed whole by this vortex, and the Chaos Bell emitted the most intense hum since the opening of heaven and earth.

The Lord of the Underworld River suddenly clutched his chest; his karmic fire red lotus trembled violently.

Deep within the Sea of Blood, the dormant twelve‑grade Lotus Platform, silent for ten thousand years, blossomed of its own accord, as if welcoming the arrival of some supreme principle.

This omen caused the Sea of Blood's master's pupils to constrict sharply; this person was cultivating his own Heavenly Dao!

Under this earth‑shaking blow, the three‑legged crow was hurled a hundred zhāng into the air; the blazing solar true fire had just spouted a ten‑zhāng flame tongue, only to be completely suppressed by the qi of the fist that Zhou Yi unleashed.

Hundreds of thousands of spectators held their breath, watching as the dark silhouette shattered flame and light, the fist's force drawing a galaxy‑like wave of qi straight at Taiyi's facial gate.

The Demon Race Supreme's pupils suddenly narrowed, his knuckles whitening. He clearly remembered that a hundred days ago his own body had been pinned immobile by his own pressure, yet now he could tear apart the barrier forged by solar true fire.

At the instant the two massive qi streams collided, myriad golden rays burst across heaven and earth, and a visible shockwave shattered clouds within three hundred miles.

"Retreat!" Grand Master Miao Le's sleeves fluttered as he summoned nine‑layered protective black light.

Even so, some cultivators of slightly lower level were flipped onto the ground by the aftershocks.

The ground where the two stood had turned into a crystal‑like glazed surface; Taiyi's gilded war boots remained unmoved, while Zhou Yi's arm armor cracked inch by inch, his mouth curving with excitement.

"Now that's something to watch," Taiyi flicked a starfire off his shoulder, the phantom of the Chaos Bell flickering behind him.

At this moment he truly understood his brother Emperor Diqun's warning: this youth bearing the Human Race's destiny had turned battle into a whetstone for forging his origin.

Zhou Yi wipes the golden blood from his forehead, and seven hundred and twenty acupoints across his body simultaneously inhale and exhale spiritual resonance.

The Great Dao patterns glimpsed moments ago during the fist exchange grew ever clearer; Taiyi activated the spatial ripples caused by the Chaos Bell, as if unveiling a Heavenly Dao formation diagram for him.

The Tai Chi diagram slowly rotated in the sea of consciousness, converting each life‑or‑death crisis into Dao resonance nourishment.

"You thought borrowing a primordial treasure would guarantee survival?" Taiyi laughed bitterly, as the core of the Chaos Bell burst from beyond Dao Li Heaven.

The moment the bell's resonance opened, rivers within a thousand li inverted, and seven floating celestial mountains crashed down. The watching Great Luo Golden Immortals were horrified to discover that their destiny artifacts trembled and wailed within the bell's sound.

Zhou Yi's feet stepped on the Yin‑Yang Fish formation diagram, soaring skyward, his hair flaring wildly under the violent spiritual pressure: "Today the Demon Emperor shall witness that the Human Race's fighting spirit can rival the sun and moon."

Before his words finished, he deliberately charged at the primordial treasure that had once suppressed the great dragon‑phoenix calamity; his fist glowed with chaotic blue light akin to the opening of heaven and earth.

When the war drums rang through the nine heavens, Zhou Yi clenched the ancient scroll of circulating Yin and Yang energies in his hand.

He never imagined that Grand Master Miao Le would entrust the Tai Chi diagram to him in the name of Tai Qing Sheng Ren.

The bronze war boots crushed the clouds, and Taiyi's body ignited solar true fire.

The Demon Court's ruler laughed bitterly, his voice shaking the thirty‑three heavens: "Even ants dare to stare at the sun and moon? Today I will teach you the true difference between heaven and earth!"

The Chaos Bell emitted a faint blue glow, and the totems of countless Honghuang races on its wall lit up in succession. As Taiyi infused demonic power, the bronze bell body revealed a phantom of Pangu's creation, its vast pressure causing the seas to invert.

Zhou Yi wipes the golden blood from his mouth corner, and three hundred and sixty acupoints within his body roar simultaneously.

He had been waiting for this moment, when the energies of the Chaos Bell and the Tai Chi diagram cancel each other, providing the perfect chance to glimpse the Demon Race Supreme's primordial Dao patterns.

"What of the companion treasure?" Zhou Yi shattered the void, behind him six‑realm reincarnation shadows floated, "You treat heaven and earth as a chessboard, yet you do not know you are also a piece on the board."

Taiyi's pupils narrowed. Since the battle began, each time this Human has his flesh incinerated by solar true fire, his reborn Dao body gains several mysterious patterns.

Now those patterns resonate with the Chaos Bell's Dao resonance, wildly imprinting the treasure's mysteries under the protection of the Tai Chi diagram.

"How dare you, brat!" the Demon Emperor finally roared, and the Chaos Bell unleashed a sound wave like falling stars.

Where the bell's sound reached, space peeled away like glass shards, revealing the undivided primordial chaos.

Zhou Yi, however, at this moment withdrew his protective black light, allowing the destructive force to tear his Dao body. Within him rose the chant of ten thousand peoples reciting sutras; the damaged meridians now flowed not blood but solidified merit golden light.

"So that's how it is…" the observing Tongtian Jiaozhu suddenly clapped his hands and laughed, "Fighting to nurture the Dao, borrowing the Demon Race's treasure to forge the Human Emperor's body, this kid truly wagered the Human Race's destiny."