Chapter 1734: Lü Taiyi's Swan Song

On the gloomy, corpse-strewn plain, two streams of origin power, terrifying to the extreme, clashed continuously, eroding each other, and the heavens for ten thousand li appeared shattered, as if the sky itself had collapsed.

A vast silver-frost sword light, wrapped in an intensely cold, biting fluctuation, swept forth; wherever it passed, even the energy of heaven and earth was reduced to frost particles, and at last it descended in an overwhelming slash toward the void ahead.

At that moment, that void also collapsed into a black hole, and from deep within the black hole, a foul-smelling river formed of countless corpses surged out. Those corpses clearly had no life left, yet they still gaped their mouths wide, madly tearing at the corpses beside them, stuffing their withered flesh into their mouths and chewing frantically.

Like a pack of starving ghosts.

But as they devoured so frantically, the hunger origin power erupting from the river of corpses grew ever more vigorous.

At last, the two collided. The silver-frost sword light shattered the river of corpses; the cold spread, turning those corpses into ice crystals. Yet even though their bodies had become ice crystals and could no longer feed, the corpses' bodies began to melt of their own accord, turning into wisps of black qi that burrowed into their own nostrils.

As if devouring themselves.

Boom!

The void was torn apart by the two vast streams of origin power, and two figures emerged in the sky.

It was precisely Lü Taiyi, gripping his azure-edge longsword, and the Hunger Calamity Demon King, gaunt as a skeleton.

After a bout of merciless magical combat, the two sides, as expected, fell into a stalemate; for the moment, neither could gain the upper hand.

But Lü Taiyi's expression was far more solemn. This stalemate was not what he wished to see, because there were still three other Calamity Demon Kings in the Dark World, currently running rampant and threatening the "Ten Provinces Heaven-Earth Barrier."

Lü Taiyi raised his head and looked toward several distant directions. Powerful origin fluctuations no weaker than this one were erupting there—clearly, the other pinnacle Three-Crowned Kings of the Ten Great Outer Shenzhou were also locked in bitter battles.

In truth, the current situation was already a little better than previously expected, because Jiang Jiang Qinge had stepped forward and held off one Calamity Demon King, greatly easing the pressure the Ten Great Outer Shenzhou coalition would have to bear.

However, if this dragged on, the Outer Shenzhou coalition would simply be unable to withstand the ravages of the three Calamity Demon Kings.

Lü Taiyi let out a soft sigh.

And then, at that very moment, Lü Qing'er's gentle voice sounded in his heart.

"Great-Uncle Taiyi, I'm ready."

"What about you?"

Lü Taiyi was stunned for an instant, then a look of ease and gratification appeared on his aged, kindly face. He sent his reply through a special method into her heart: "Then the hard part after this will fall to you, Qing'er."

Lü Qing'er fell briefly silent, then a voice came again in his heart: "Is it really going to be like this?"

Lü Taiyi replied with a smile: "Someone has to step forward, don't they? This old man is about to reach the end of his days. All those dazzling prodigies of my generation have been outlived by me, and now it's my turn to do something."

"Qing'er, proceed according to plan."

Even though Lü Taiyi knew what he was about to face, he remained utterly carefree and calm.

"Understood." After a moment of silence, Lü Qing'er replied.

Hearing this, Lü Taiyi said no more. He raised his head to look at the Hunger Calamity Demon King, which had the appearance of a starving ghost, and a smile surfaced on his aged face.

Yet that smile of his, in the eyes of the Hunger Calamity Demon King, caused a nameless unease and sense of danger to arise in its heart.

Soon, it learned the source of that unease.

Because above Lü Taiyi's head, the three layers of thick, majestic kingly crowns suddenly ignited with an extremely terrifying origin fire. The flame lit from the deepest part of the crowns, immediately triggering a violent upheaval of heaven and earth.

A pinnacle Three-Crowned King sacrificing and burning his crowns!

How terrifying was that?

In the void behind Lü Taiyi, three phase manifestations appeared, radiating vast, boundless origin power.

Vast ice-frost origin power flowed; within it, an ancient giant turtle treaded upon frost qi, and in its great mouth it held a lingzhi that looked as if carved from cold jade.

Frost Phase! Longevity Turtle Phase! Cold Lingzhi Phase!

At this moment, the three phase manifestations burned with origin fire, and a faint wailing sound emerged from the giant turtle's mouth, echoing across a million li.

Heaven and earth changed color.

"Lü Taiyi, have you gone mad, to actually sacrifice and burn your own foundation?!" The Hunger Calamity Demon King's oily green pupils now showed shock and fury, and a low, chilling voice came from its mouth.

As an aberrant being of the Dark World, it clearly did not understand Lü Taiyi's sudden act of sacrificing himself. In its kind's eyes, maintaining one's own existence was the most important thing.

Yet Lü Taiyi paid it no heed. As the three phase manifestations and the kingly crowns were all sacrificed and burned, the origin power that erupted instantly surged to an utterly terrifying level.

Moreover, because the origin power was so immense, an exceptionally dazzling orb of light was ultimately born within it. Within the orb, a wondrous silver-frost seal-script drifted up and down, unsteady.

Upon this wondrous seal-script, streams of boundless divine light flowed.

This was Rank Divine Light. After Li Luo had fused a phase beyond ninth grade, he could use the "Rank Divine Phase Tree" to unleash it; however, the intensity of the Rank Divine Light he unleashed and the divine light released by this wondrous seal-script now showed an extremely obvious gap.

Because this was the ultimate condensation of Rank power.

Rank Sacred Seal-Script.

The origin power unleashed by Lü Taiyi, a pinnacle Three-Crowned King, when he sacrificed and burned his kingly crowns, had already grown so powerful that it could condense a "Rank Sacred Seal-Script."

When this Rank Sacred Seal-Script appeared, the entire world seemed to tremble for it; vast heaven and earth energy surged in, swirling around it as if paying homage to a deity.

And all this heaven and earth energy was, at this moment, assimilated into the attribute of bitter frost.

The entire world was shrouded in bone-piercing frost.

The Rank Sacred Seal-Script turned into a streak of light, slowly descending, and landed upon the azure-edge longsword Lü Taiyi extended. Immediately, the sword's body began to turn an icy blue, like a longsword of ice.

A supreme, mighty power surged forth, forming Rank Sword Aura upon the blade.

Wherever the blade pointed, ice sealed a region of ten thousand li; even the energy attributes between heaven and earth were reversed and transformed.

On Lü Taiyi's aged face, cracks appeared, and a thick death qi emanated from his eyes. Yet at the corner of his mouth, there rose a carefree smile.

He held his sword and looked at the Hunger Calamity Demon King, but the latter was now terrified beyond measure. The void behind it shattered, and its figure directly turned into a black light, fleeing into the river of corpses that existed within.

And the river of corpses pierced through layer upon layer of void, seeking to escape.

"Lü Taiyi of the Golden Dragon Mountain, I ask you, sir, to die with me."

Lü Taiyi said softly. His calm voice, however, was like a thunderclap, reverberating through heaven and earth for a million li.

The ice-sealed longsword in his hand descended in a casual slash.

The instant the sword light fell, on this stretch of land, an ice-ridge mountain range stretching north to south for a million li thrust up from the earth.

Frost rapidly spread from where Lü Taiyi gripped his sword, gradually covering his body.

But deep within the layered void, the Hunger Calamity Demon King, which was fleeing by way of the river of corpses, watched in terror as boundless, endless cold currents flowed in from the ends of the void. Wherever they passed, even the river of corpses it had formed by exhausting its origin power began to be sealed in ice at a startling speed.

It let out a terrified shriek: "Lü Taiyi, you madman!"

It had never expected that this old thing would actually stake its life to drag it down to die together!

Even if he died, what could it change?!

So now the Hungry Karma Demon King deeply regretted why it had been the one to seek out this old thing!

But at this moment, regret was already too late.

The sword-light formed by exhausting Lü Taiyi's foundation was already pursuing at an unavoidable speed, and the majestic power of rank flowing upon it made even the Hungry Karma Demon King feel despair.

In the end, the cold current swept past, completely freezing solid the spaces deep within the void.

Frozen along with them was the body of the Hungry Karma Demon King.

The frozen body fell into the spatial turbulence and was ultimately shredded into a stretch of nothingness.

Lü Taiyi's body was also entirely frozen at this moment, forming an ice sculpture; the corners of his mouth carried a smile, and then his body fell from the sky, shattering into a skyful of crystalline ice dust.

In that instant, on the Great Star Plain, countless powerhouses could sense that the origin fluctuations of Lü Taiyi and the Hungry Karma Demon King had vanished completely.

Before the Ten Provinces Heaven-Earth Wall, Lü Qing'er's eyes, like Binghu, rippled faintly; on her exquisitely beautiful cheeks, the aura of frost seemed to grow ever denser.

She slowly raised her hand and gently closed it into a fist.

Space tore open at this moment, and the frost-sealed longsword that had flowed with "Rank Sacred Inscriptions" in Lü Taiyi's hand earlier fell into her grasp.