Chapter 849: The Oriole Behind, Forever Joyful

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

When the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman reaps the benefit.

Between the visible and the hidden, a black hand pulls the strings behind the scenes, setting up an interlocking conspiracy.

Dao Ancestor Hongjun, standing at the peak, launches a campaign against Nüwa… with the overwhelming force of the Heavenly Dao, even Nüwa cannot sit still and must appear in person, treating it with solemnity.

At this moment, it turned into a ploy to lure the tiger away from the mountain, and someone slipped in through the gap, leaving behind what kind of trickery.

The ancient mirror burst forth with a clear, hazy radiance, confusing truth and falsehood, reality and illusion, turning all phenomena upside down.

There stands a genuine willow, a meticulous creation of Nüwa, erected in the primordial Chaos, originally bearing a unique imprint of the Dao.

Yet the world within the mirror has replicated this miracle of life, identical in every way!

This is also perfectly natural.

This divine mirror has borne the most glorious record, having once reflected the primordial Heaven and Earth of Honghuang, refined by the supreme Human Dao, becoming the most marvelous artifact of creation.

In that case, what is a single willow…?

Between existence and non-existence, everything became hazy.

When the false is made true, the true becomes false; where nothing is made something, something returns to nothing!

The shadow beneath the tree vanished, as if it had never appeared at all.

The willow still droops its myriad threads, like the tranquility of old, awaiting the day it carries out Nüwa's grand dream of raising her brows and exhaling—stealing heaven and swapping the sun, transplanting flowers and grafting branches, to pilfer the path once truly walked by Di Jiang.

As for whether this will turn into a staging of the 'Lichee Cat Exchanging the Prince'—a classic tale of stealing beams and replacing pillars…

Then, only a certain person would know.

……

"I have a vague foreboding…"

Nüwa trudged through the vast Chaos, following a glimmer of spiritual light toward the ancient battlefield of old.

There, Pangu once cleaved the heavens and slew three thousand Chaos demons!

The shattered ruins, bearing an indelible mark through the ages, lie buried in the dust of time, sealed beneath the riverbed of the river of ages.

Now, reactivated, it allows the utmost pinnacle of powerhouses to go all out.

However, during the descent, Nüwa's brows furrowed slightly, a faint unease stirring within her.

This is her innate divine sense, immensely powerful.

Perhaps in terms of scheming, breadth of mind, and depth of thought, she falls far short of her brother, whose cunning and myriad schemes make even three thousand gods' scalps tingle… yet she possesses her own trump card: a miracle of life, extraordinary intuition, unfettered by reason.

It's hard to say whether this is learning from a setback, gaining wisdom, forced to evolve by the brutal 'thrashing' of her brother, feeling as if some 'villain' is harming the sovereign.

Especially after she stepped into Pangu's Dao realm, it became a qualitative breakthrough, an unprecedented metamorphosis.

From then on, all manner of plots and schemes directly linked to her will become omens, ringing alarm bells in her heart.

However, this is not without solution.

In this world, even invincible divine abilities do not exist; only a person can truly be invincible.

No matter how keen the intuition and inspiration, they can still be deceived and misled.

When Hongjun arrived at just the right moment, she was successfully led astray in her thinking.

Simply because Hongjun's state shocked her—what a mighty, transcendent bearing!

"Hongjun, you actually broke the seal?!"

Nüwa's face grew grave.

At this moment, all her vague forebodings seemed to find an answer—it was due to Hongjun's state!

"The oath of old, it actually cannot bind your true self, letting you step out of the Purple Cloud Palace?!"

In the vast expanse of Chaos, the Nüwa Emperor gazed upon the Dao Ancestor.

This pair, the greatest rivals of the Witch-Demon era, will here unleash the most thorough, pinnacle showdown!

She had thought that, even if Hongjun could challenge her, at most it would be Xuanyuan joining forces with him, producing an Emperor Hong bouncing about, and that wouldn't make much difference with a few extra 'jun*s'.

To ordinary people, this is immensely strong, an insurmountable heavenly chasm.

But to the top-tier players, this amounts to nothing!

For at their level, contests of strategy are no longer merely about personal strength; they also weigh various stakes.

With the Heavenly Dao sealed, Hongjun becomes inherently weak—capable of self-preservation but lacking the power to advance, grand yet ineffectual.

But what about now?

What did Nüwa see?

She saw the Heavenly Dao in its full glory!

From this moment, the Dao Ancestor's person gave Nüwa a genuine, non‑illusory sense of threat.

This is too shocking.

You must know, Nüwa has already stepped onto Pangu's level!

Even if she, needing to hold someone back, has not yet performed the most perfect ascension to prove the Dao upon Chaos, Honghuang, ages, and myriad beings, her realm is not false, nor her life‑level!

Nevertheless, she still felt a threat emanating from Hongjun!

This proves that the terror of the external force wielded by the Heavenly Dao has, in the dark, already reached a frightening limit.

If she were to slight it, whether she'd capsize is uncertain, but she would certainly end up in a sorry state.

"Is it strange?"

"Not strange."

Dao Ancestor Hongjun replied with a smiling chuckle to Nüwa, "With my wisdom and talent, how could a mere oath ever eternally bind me?"

"If I cannot even pass this gate, then there's no talk of proving the Dao on Pangu!"

"Just be a lifelong tool then!"

Hongjun said with a smile.

"Of course you have such talent, but you still must pay a huge price." Nüwa's eyes shifted, "Either someone will take over your work, or someone will bear this immense karma—either way, it requires a sacrifice from someone of your stature."

She said this, then suddenly sighed softly: "It seems... Cang... has already fallen to your poisonous hand?"

"Given his pride, he's likely unwilling to take over your work." Nüwa muttered to herself, pondering the truth, "Then only the latter possibility remains."

"All his sins are attributed to him, yet they have freed you, letting you run rampant across the world, just as in the beginning of time!"

Nüwa felt wistful.

"Cang... what a pity."

Although the Dragon Ancestor seized power and jumped around in the Wu Clan, he remained a comrade.

Nüwa understood the Ancestral Dragon's downfall; the ending would surely be tragic, and her mood was not good.

In response, the Dao Ancestor merely smiled without speaking.

Everything Nüwa said was true, and he had nothing to refute.

Of course, after the fact, when the historian renders the final verdict, they will likely still beautify it a bit.

——Everyone, watch closely!

——It's not that my Heavenly Dao isn't working hard!

——And it's not that my Dao Ancestor is shirking work!

——There's a dragon that stormed into my office, smashing and looting everything, then after the fact kidnapped me, this pure-hearted Heavenly Dao, leaving me unable to work!

"The Old Dragon struggled throughout the ages, yet ended up like this—truly lamentable."

Nüwa's gaze deepened: "Hongjun, if you can step on him and walk out of Zixiao Palace, it would move me."

"However, coming to provoke me like this... is destined to be a mistake."

Nüwa's expression was solemn and serious.

Her words were arrogant, but her heart was wavering.

Hongjun's strength surpasses imagination.

Without using one's true abilities, giving it one's all, that is hard to handle.

But this way, everything is laid bare, with nothing left hidden!

'My elder brother hides in the shadows; perhaps he sees everything to the bottom?'

'I will lose the chance to strike him unawares.'

'To deal with someone like him who rose through the Yi Dao, wanting to win, you absolutely cannot let him exercise his omniscient ability... The more information he holds, the greater the variables, and the more likely he could turn the tide in adversity.'

'Only by striking him unexpectedly can it truly be the key to victory.'

'But... Hongjun!'

'He forced a battle upon me, so overwhelming that I cannot hold back at all.'

At this moment, Nüwa clearly felt what it means that worldly affairs are impermanent and plans can never keep up with change.

She was still planning to deal with Di Jiang's issue, to set a trap for Xuanyuan... but in the blink of an eye, she herself became the trouble!

"Challenging you is a mistake?" Hongjun sneered, "Surely not? Surely not?"

"Could it really be that someone back then, relying on numbers and strength, forced me to swear a great oath in Zixiao Palace, then took it as a victory over me, proud of it, looking down on me psychologically?"

"The times have changed!"

"Nowadays, the so-called Wuyao, whether demon gods or great Wu, the dead are dead, the wounded are wounded!"

Hongjun gave a cold laugh: "Di Hong still blocks the human world, shaking the gods!"

"With just you, you still want to fight me?"

"Unless you instantly become a Daoist Pangu, we still have a fight!"

"Otherwise, you are doomed to defeat!"

He has boundless confidence.

When Hongjun's fighting spirit began to rise, the endless power of the Heavenly Dao surged tumultuously.

Heavenly Dao!

The law of the Honghuang!

The pivot of the rules!

It recorded and gathered the highest wisdom of three thousand sacred beings, and controlled the myriad flows of the Honghuang universe, summing up all power— in an age when the Human Dao does not manifest, it represents the Human Dao!

Not only is one Pangu's law engraved upon it, but as ages pass, one era after another, one Pangu after another attains the Dao, blessing the Honghuang, which is equivalent to a baptism and upgrade of the Heavenly Dao...

The Heavenly Dao will become even more terrifying!

Now it has first shown its might, a massive divine wheel emerging from the depths, manifesting in the present world... The supreme Pangu's way of opening heaven and earth, the ultimate Honghuang's principle of eternal endurance, together they turn in this sea of chaos, causing immeasurable chaos to collapse, letting the innate five elements flow, endless earth, water, fire, and wind surge, the pure and turbid energies intermingle, forging the profound yellow of heaven and earth, and the primordial Honghuang universe comes into being!

But in an instant, a boundless cosmos of myriad heavens was born, cutting across this battlefield; the Heavenly Dao reigns supreme within it, seeking to directly suppress Nüwa!

Nüwa!

"This time, who will come to help you?!"

Hongjun's tone was indifferent and transcendent, like an irrevocable judgment of fate, declaring the end of the Wuyao era.

"Once I suppress you, I'll go tidy up those jumping greater and lesser Wu, re-establish the rules of the cosmic Honghuang... Although the demons' Heavenly Court has indeed fallen, I have also absorbed enough experience and lessons; rebuilding it again is no great feat."

"To regulate people's hearts, harmonize all things... everything must follow my rules!"

"Resistance? It doesn't exist."

"From now on, only acting on Heaven's behalf!"

"Whoever claims to conquer heaven, defy heaven, attack heaven... is just empty talk."

"Heavenly Dao, that is the sole truth!"

I, I grasp the fate of this world!

The Dao Ancestor said as such.

Listening to Hongjun's grand ambition, Nüwa's gaze nevertheless sank.

"Ha!"

She exhaled a long breath, feeling the immense pressure, the might of the Heavenly Dao, such that she could not hold back.

Even if Hongjun merely rigidly used external force, evolving the two great Pangu Dao traces of the August Emperor and Honghuang… if Nüwa dared to slack off, that would mean ending up bruised and humiliated.

"You're forcing me…" Nüwa whispered, "This time…"

"Even if I have no allies left beside me who can fight shoulder to shoulder with me."

"But now is different from the past; I am no longer the same as I once was."

"In this battle, I will not lose, nor can I afford to lose."

"If I lose, the Wu Clan, the Human Race, and all the fruits of our struggle to this day will come to nothing."

"Moreover, the blood of the Demon Race must not be shed any further."

She murmured, "Unbeknownst to me, I have already borne the weight of this era."

"I have never had such clarity, never before such profound understanding… to govern this heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, this age of ages, I sit upon the highest throne; even if I am merely a mascot, that is enough deterrence and balance, surpassing those warlords who would seize control of the cosmos."

"I am a god, yet I also act as a human."

"And you all have become heaven."

"Heaven does not care for human life and death… but I do."

She clenched her fists, a green lotus manifested before her, budding yet about to bloom, exhaling the aura of creation.

Nüwa resolved, determined to carve out a realm of heaven!

Even if doing so would thoroughly startle that person, putting them on guard.

But she carried the resolve to shoulder the era.

The Dragon Ancestor's coercion caused Nüwa to reflect her Dao fruition upon all beings, ultimately returning it to herself.

And the Dao Ancestor's coercion, after she weighed it, made her confront her own responsibility, truly giving her a sense of mission.

She oversaw the rise and fall of an era, as a player and a decision-maker, arriving at this day.

Countless experiences are provisions; countless decisions are self-interrogations.

In the end, all of that shaped her into the bearing of a Holy Emperor.

More calm, more magnanimous, more transcendent.

In a hazy moment, she seemed to let go of her old heart-knot, a carefree smile—everything became past clouds, no longer held in her heart, no longer weighing on her mind.

No longer thinking about how to counterattack, everything now puts the mission first.

If no one can stop Hongjun, then it will be her who puts a period on the Dao Ancestor.

As a sacrifice, it is the absurd dream she once cherished.

This is a kind of growth.

"But why do I feel a hint of regret and sorrow deep down?"

"The price of this growth is truly not light."

Nüwa let out a soft sigh.

However, she does not regret it.

Some things, after all, must be done by someone.

This time, it was she who stepped forward.

The heavens collapsed; being the tallest, she went to shoulder it!

"Boom—!"

A mighty presence gradually surged.

Nüwa's brows and eyes lifted slightly, a sharp, fierce aura began to gleam, having matured too much and grown too strong.

"Huh?"

The Dao Ancestor suddenly sensed an ominous aura.

However, he did not have time to think further.

Nor did they wait for Nüwa to become fully frenzied.

"Boom!"

This Heavenly Dao‑evolved cosmos of Honghuang… collapsed!

Four Killing Swords, cutting through past and present, annihilating Chaos, cutting across the ages!

That is an unparalleled aura of slaughter!

Yet accompanying this slaughter, there faintly sounded a soft, distant sigh, at odds with the killing intent.

"I only wish… that you remain forever happy."

(End of chapter)