Chapter 1197: Hanging the Divine Sword Above the Head, the Intelligent and Upright are Gods

The Eight Great Divine Kings of the Heavenly Court!

Eight Dao Lords in total; if their true bodies were here, the entire cosmic realm would tremble.

Each one of them is a titan capable of dominating the myriad realms and suppressing the Earth Immortal Realm for an entire era.

Even the entire Earth Immortal Realm, excluding the era of the Three Great Divine Dynasties, excluding the era when the Hundred Schools of Thought had a full hundred Dao Lords suppressing everything, excluding the peak of the Immortal Qin, and excluding the Immortal Han, which hides deep and has always kept a low profile.

Fine!

That is just the current Earth Immortal Realm...

Power sufficient to suppress the entire Earth Immortal Realm!

The Divine Martial Immortal King stretched out his hand, wishing to pluck that peerlessly noble sword.

"Ou Ou Yezi! In the past, the Heavenly Emperor helped you forge this sword. Because it was stained with the nobility of the Heavenly Emperor, it has this kind of pure, non-evil sword light. Yet you rely on this sword to resist the Heavenly Court! Today, I shall personally take back this sword, because you are no longer worthy of possessing it!"

The Pure Jun Sword hummed softly. Between the five fingers of the Divine Martial Immortal King, the five types of divine weapons manifested on the Immortal-Slaying Platform—Immortal-Slaying, God-Executing, Dragon-Flaying, Demon-Slaughtering, and Devil-Killing—the five divine weapons representing the supreme laws of the Heavenly Court shattered abruptly.

The Divine Martial Immortal King suddenly withdrew his hand. His five fingers were dripping with blood, and drops of golden divine blood fell, rippling out waves on the sea of blood that suppressed everything...

"How bold!" A flash of anger crossed the eyes of the Divine Martial Immortal King: "This sword of great rebellion, how dare you call it Pure Jun? The Jun Heaven is the most supreme and noble heaven. To defy my Heavenly Dao is to have the sword broken and cast into the Nine You!"

Ou Ou Yezi took back the Pure Jun Sword, wiped his index finger across the sword body where the sword light flowed like the water of the Heavenly River, and sighed: "Divine Martial, you were also once the ancestor of the Martial Path, a figure who opened up the Divine Martial Path. To this day, the Divine Martial Great World still honors you as its ancestor. The Blood Demon Great World of that year was one of the few great world strongholds occupied and dominated by the demon race after they withdrew from the Heavenly Realm."

"After the Supreme opened up the new heaven, the human race dominated the Heavenly Dao, and their fortune flourished. Even among the blood-food raised by the demon race, human heroes like you appeared."

"Relying solely on the glimpses of the demon race's inheritance observed while you were a slave under them, you were able to comprehend the zoomorphic boxing techniques from their true forms, momentum, and Dao rhyme."

"Thus, among the human slaves, you passed down various boxing techniques that mimicked demon beasts!"

"Furthermore, after opening your acupoints, you heroically led the human race in an uprising, slaughtering the direct bloodlines of the powerful demon clans. You measured their acupoints, opened up the True Dragon Twelve Acupoints, the Golden Crow Nine Acupoints, and various other acupoint methods within the body, and finally broke through the mysterious acupoint that communicates with the Heavenly Realm! Although the losses were heavy, with an unyielding heart and fierce determination, with the momentum that swept across the entire Blood Demon Great World, and through a thousand-year bloody war with the demon race, you borrowed the momentum of the Heavenly Realm to condense the Demon-Slaughtering Blade."

"Thereby, you cut away the zoomorphic martial arts that originally imitated and simulated the demon race, one by one, integrating them into the Demon-Slaughtering Blade, and opened up the Divine Martial Great Dao."

"Finally, you slaughtered all the demons and were honored as one of the Martial Ancestors..."

"When you ascended to the Heavenly Realm and were conferred the title of Divine Martial Immortal King, although you were not yet a Dao Lord, relying solely on your Divine Martial Dao Seed, there was no one in the myriad realms who did not submit, and within the myriad realms, the demon race trembled at the mention of your name!"

"At that time, you were a hero of the human race."

"When I forged the Fish-Intestine Sword, I also entrusted someone to seek out the long blade you broke while sweeping away the demons in the past. I deeply felt the brave and fierce qi upon it, and the reverse pattern of the Fish-Intestine also contains a part of you. At that time, although your hands were full of blood, the Pure Jun Sword in your hands would surely have been as obedient as an arm, responding to every wish."

"The Heavenly Emperor bestowed upon you the five divine weapon prototypes condensed on the Immortal-Slaying Platform, ordering you to sweep away demons and devils in the myriad realms, and the Divine Martial Path gradually became complete!"

"But today, you can no longer lift the Pure Jun Sword! Do you know why?"

Ou Ou Yezi raised his eyes and stared at the Divine Martial Immortal King.

He saw his eyebrows drooping, his expression indescribably distant, and he said coldly: "In the past, Pure Jun was a sword of supreme nobility because the Heavenly Emperor ordered ghosts and gods to help you cast it, and even personally added charcoal to the furnace for this sword, hence this sword was noble. Now that the Heavenly Emperor has abandoned it, and this sword follows you in rebelling against the Heavenly Court, how can it still be noble? It dares to hurt me because you have developed a rebellious heart!"

"This sword is noble because of the Heavenly Emperor, not the Heavenly Emperor because of this sword. Ou Ou Yezi, you should understand this principle!"

Ou Ou Yezi looked up to the sky and laughed loudly: "Well said!"

"But there is one thing you got wrong! The sword body of the Pure Jun Sword is like a ruler, upright and incomparable. This is a sword of uprightness, and therefore it is noble."

"It is not noble because of the Heavenly Emperor, but because of uprightness. It represents the scale in people's hearts. When you lift it, your gaze is guided by the sword light, and you can be upright and straight, impartial and unselfish."

"Therefore, Pure Jun is a sword of uprightness!"

"The reason it hurts you today, Divine Martial Immortal King! Is because you are not upright..."

"Presumptuous!"

The Divine Martial Immortal King's voice was like thunder, resounding throughout the entire Qin Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum. His tone was chilling: "The Heavenly Emperor ordered me to take charge of the Immortal-Slaying Platform. In my hands, I don't know how many fallen immortals, how many disobedient gods, how many demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters, and how many people with heavy sins have been executed. My heart is the Heavenly Heart, the law I hold is the Heavenly Law, and my gaze is upright. How dare you say that I have deviated from justice?"

Ou Ou Yezi sighed and closed his eyes: "The Immortal King enforces the law impartially. According to the Heavenly Law, there is indeed not a single person who died unjustly under your hands."

The Divine Martial Immortal King sneered: "Ou Ou Yezi, your name is on the Immortal-Slaying Platform!"

Ou Ou Yezi was fearless: "That would not be unjust either..."

"It is just a pity that the Heavenly Law has never had anything to do with justice! Maintaining the Heavenly Law and executing immortals and people who offend the Heavenly Law has never been about maintaining justice or acting uprightly... but merely maintaining order."

"The Heavenly Law is also a law, and the Qin Law is also a law. Come to think of it, it seems like the Heavenly Law learned from the Qin Law..."

"Having mingled with the Legalists for so long, this old man has also gained some insights, which is that there are often two scales in the law. One is the scale in people's hearts. This thing is not seen to exist; there are no inscriptions on bells and tripods above, and no common sayings of villagers below, but it just so happens that even a lone man as ambitious and lawless as the Qin Qin Shi Huang had to bow to it!"

"This is uprightness!"

"This is justice!"

"This thing exists in everyone's heart to measure all laws. Laws that approach it do not need the blessing of any power, nor do they need a shred of violence, yet they can make people obey."

"In the laws of the Immortal Qin, even without the blessing of a shred of violence, as long as they conform to uprightness and justice, they can circulate throughout the myriad realms. Even after the Immortal Qin perished, even in places that were not ruled by the Immortal Qin, its brilliance still remains."

"In those years, the Gaozu of Han held this law, and even with the power to destroy the Dao Fruit, he could not block it."

"The Immortal Han was established by this one word!"

"The Immortal Han was able to be established; its greatest power did not come from the Red Firmament Sword, nor from the Black Emperor of the Heavenly Court, but from that light 'Three-Chapter Law'—those who kill shall die, and those who injure or steal shall be punished accordingly."

"This is the power of justice!"

"Of course, there is a second type of scale in the law, which is rule, which is the personal will executed by violence."

"Kings implement their own will into the law to rule the world and forge order."

"Is the Heavenly Law the former or the latter? I am afraid you know better than I do."

"Therefore, the law is nothing more than something used by rulers to borrow uprightness and justice to push their own will, push their rule, and forge order."

"Is the Heavenly Law not the same?"

Ou Ou Yezi looked at the Pure Jun Sword, his gaze filled with a trace of sorrow.

He sighed: "In the past, when I forged this sword for the Heavenly Emperor, I wanted to use the uprightness of the human heart to measure the nobility of the Heavenly Emperor."

"The wars between the states made me lose all hope in power and violence."

"The strong rely on violence to make others submit, imposing their own will upon the world. Justice is no longer there, and righteousness does not exist. I wanted to forge this sword of uprightness to measure the world and let all living beings in the world know that true nobility is not power!"

"I traveled the world, asked everyone, and knocked on the justice in the hearts of all living beings."

"But that ruler was still so blurry, and even all living beings thought that power was justice, which made the uprightness I saw blurry, making me doubt whether uprightness exists in everyone's heart, or if the sages set uprightness and educated all living beings?"

"Do all living beings have justice in their hearts first?"

"Or do the sages educate justice first, and all living beings perceive it in their hearts?"

"I sought the sword for a thousand years, disheveled and confused, so the Heavenly Emperor transformed into a mortal and enlightened me several times!"

"Later, he helped me sense the hearts of all living beings, and finally found the ruler hidden by the Supreme Dao Ancestor in the hearts of all living beings—uprightness."

"Thus, the Red Firmament Mountain broke open and produced tin; the Ruoye Creek dried up and produced copper; the Rain Master swept and sprinkled, the Thunder Duke beat the bellows; the Flood Dragon held the furnace, the Heavenly Emperor added charcoal... finally, the Supreme looked down, and the Heavenly Essence descended!"

"The sword of nobility, Pure Jun, was thus forged!"

"I happily offered this sword to the Heavenly Emperor, but he showed hesitation and was slow to accept it..."

Ou Ou Yezi showed a trace of sorrow and sighed: "Some things, I finally woke up too late, too late! Late until the sword of uprightness saw through everything earlier than I did, late until I attained the Pointing Spirit Dao Fruit, only then did I know what Pure Jun, Zhanlu, Fish-Intestine, Long Yuan, Tai'e, Gongbu, Juque, and Shengxie once wanted to tell me..."

"The Heavenly Emperor is not benevolent, the Heavenly Emperor is not upright, the Heavenly Emperor is not wise, the Heavenly Emperor is not brave, the Heavenly Emperor is not majestic, the Heavenly Emperor is not kingly, the Heavenly Emperor should not be a person!"

"The Supreme Dao Ancestor cut off the four Dao Fruits of the old Heavenly Emperor's virtue in the past—uprightness, benevolence, wisdom, and courage—and hid them in the hearts of the human race."

"Thus, all things in the world, including the uprightness, benevolence, wisdom, and courage of gods, can only be measured by humans. Therefore, when I gave the Pure Jun Sword to the Heavenly Emperor, he dared not accept it. The reason is that it is the uprightness in the human heart, which can measure the Heavenly Emperor. If the Heavenly Emperor accepts it, this sword hangs high above his head, and all living beings judge his uprightness."

"Divine Martial, why you were hurt by this sword is because it can represent all living beings and measure your uprightness."

"The intelligent and upright are gods. Thus, this sword slays the Heavenly Emperor above and all gods below. Those who are not worthy of being gods can all be slain."

"What the Heavenly Emperor wants is not such a sword hanging high above his head, but to have such a sword held in his hands!"

"He is unwilling to accept that gods, and even the Heavenly Emperor, are judged by the lower, human hearts full of seven emotions and six desires, and all kinds of stupidity and desires, but wants to judge human hearts and define human uprightness."

"All things in the world should use his heart as a scale to measure uprightness..."

"Not only that, benevolence, wisdom, courage, and true love should also be controlled by him, the scale of judgment. This is the Heavenly Emperor Sword, the Heavenly Emperor Sword that subdues the four virtues of the Supreme and is held in the palm of the Heavenly Emperor!"

The Divine Martial Immortal King said woodenly: "The hearts of all living beings as a scale to measure uprightness?"

"The heart has no fixed place, and the human heart is even more restless. How many demons and monsters come from the human heart, and how much demonic nature is hidden within? How can the human heart be used as a scale for uprightness? If there were no divine path hanging high, if there were no us to take charge of the Heavenly Rules and forge order, I don't know how many demons and monsters would breed in these myriad realms! Instead of using us as a scale to take charge of the rewards and punishments of good and evil in the myriad realms, you want to measure the gods by the human heart?"

"Is this not reversing the Heavenly Gang? Is this not indulging the hearts of demons and monsters?"

"Ou Ou Yezi, what sword of uprightness? It is nothing more than a sword that follows the heart, a sword of the human heart, extremely lowly, and not worthy of being a noble sword at all!"

Ou Ou Yezi shook his head and held the Pure Jun Sword in front of his chest. The straight sword body carried a light that was not dazzling but clear and bright, without a trace of deviation or wavering, pointing directly at the sky: "The reason why the Pure Jun Sword is called noble has only one reason. It is to let all those who think they are noble know that true nobility only comes from uprightness. Everything else, under this sword, will only—show its ugly face!"

The Divine Martial Immortal King sneered: "I don't know if you have measured Ying Zheng with this sword?"

Ou Ou Yezi said frankly: "I have measured him, so I told him that although the Qin Law is strong, it deviates from uprightness and will eventually collapse. Later, it was indeed so! Ying Zheng once wanted to see the Pure Jun Sword three times, but once he saw the sword qi and avoided it, once he saw the sword light and his color changed. Before he died, he finally truly saw the Pure Jun Sword and sighed that although this sword is good, it could not be used by him after all."

Ou Ou Yezi showed sarcasm: "Ying Zheng was also a lone man, but the good thing was that he did not hide his ambition to implement his own will and his desire to impose his own will on others!"

"So the Universe Edge he asked me to forge for him did not have a trace of 'morality', only the purest power, the purest immortal path!"

"Ying Zheng was a person whose dreams and desires were highly consistent with his pursuit of power and authority."

"Precisely because he was so pure and undisguised, he could also tolerate the dreams of others. He was an extremely strict yet extremely tolerant, extremely arrogant yet extremely humble lone man, but he forged the Immortal Qin as a body, holding the power of myriad living beings, and was a person who implemented his own will and desires without any avoidance!"

"He was a strong man who thought he was independent of all living beings, but it was also difficult for him to break free from all living beings. He was a person with a clear face, but also extremely blurry in history!"

"He is too much like a person!"

"And the Jade Emperor is no longer like a person at all!"

"When I saw Ying Zheng, it was like seeing a divine sword that was sharp and incomparable, too rigid and easy to break; but when I saw the Heavenly Emperor, it was like seeing an abyss and the sea, the Heavenly Dao in the sky!"

"However, after truly enlightening the spirits of Pure Jun, Zhanlu, Fish-Intestine, and Long Yuan, I attained the Dao Fruit of Morality because of the four virtues of the Supreme, and only then did I discover that although the divine sword is easy to break, it is also different from the existence of heaven and earth between heaven and earth. It is a creation of man, and one can see it at a glance."

"But the blue sky and the sea, in front of the truly boundless Great Dao, do not even have a trace of their own color."

"Forcibly wanting to show something different, but like a thin paper of a painting screen, it breaks with a poke, which makes people laugh!"

The Divine Martial Immortal King was finally angry and said sharply: "Shut up!"

Under the crushing of the Dao Fruit, the entire sky turned into a gate knife and fell down with a bang.

The power of the Heavenly Realm pierced through the Luo Heaven, like a large gate, all kinds of Great Daos, endless murderous intent...

That murderous intent of heaven condensed completely, turning into a law that could sever the Primordial Spirit, using the earth as a chopping board, wishing to sever Ou Ou Yezi's fate and Primordial Spirit.

Pure Jun Sword came out, Ou Ou Yezi pointed with his hand, the sword light flew, and the sword body rubbed against the awe-inspiring murderous intent between heaven and earth, making a clear sword sound.

Impartial and unselfish, it pointed at the gate knife that fell from the Immortal-Slaying Platform.

At that moment, in the awe-inspiring murderous intent on the blade light, the endless unwillingness, resentment, and anger contained in the murderous intent of heaven were like rulers, piercing into the heart of the Divine Martial Immortal King.

"Humph!"

"You offended the Heavenly Law and died by Heavenly Punishment. What unwillingness do you have?"

The Divine Martial Immortal King's heart beat violently, easily crushing most of the resentment and anger.

But there were wisps of incomparably tough sword qi, like a red thread, like blood, appearing in his heart.

The Divine Martial Immortal King looked down and saw a wound in his heart that could not be erased, could not be suppressed, pierced through, and penetrated to the back.

Even the heart of an Immortal King, even the heart of a Dao Lord, is difficult to heal that wound the size of a needle tip.

With the beating of the heart, it tore even more...

In the Bai Hu Hall of the Heavenly Court's Ministry of War!

The true body of the Divine Martial Immortal King stood in the Bai Hu Star Palace, his thoughts scattered throughout the myriad realms with the starlight, leading the heavenly soldiers and generals to constantly clean up the many demons, devils, and cultivators in the myriad realms who defied the Heavenly Law, when he suddenly snorted violently.

He lowered his head slightly, only to see a wisp of blood blooming under his imperial robe on his chest!

"The intelligent and upright are gods!"

"Using the ever-changing human heart, using the stupid, evil, and cowardly hearts of those mortals, can they really measure the gods and hang a sword above our heads... What kind of absurdity is this?"

"In the million years since I attained the Dao, I have executed countless immortals, gods, demons, and monsters!"

"I have always been the one to judge them. How dare those rebels judge me?" ===== CHAPTER 1198 =====