Hao Yongtian was in the middle of a meaningless desolate land. His ears could hear no sound as he floated just above. There was no mountain here, even when he extended his spiritual sight to the pinnacle of Divine Emperor's power.
The lack of residual power of Qi, Immortal Spirit or Divine Mark, meant that the source that drained this land completely had used a personal and unique power. It was someone truly mighty, at least as powerful as the three sisters, but with a wicked intent.
For the first time since returning to the Outer World, Hao Yongtian truly unleashed his full wisdom and capacity. He could not cultivate so far from deep waters, but he would pay the price and drain some of his divine power to discern what had happened.
The Elders of his spirit world appeared as faint shimmering beings, and they each spread out across that blasted land, pursuing their own diagnoses and presenting many streams of information and wisdom for Yongtian.
The Divine Seat of Mind / Spirit / Soul / Will / Authority, represented by his throne, shimmered into existence next. The Throne of Waters divided into the two thrones of Lifegiving and Judgment, and Hao Yongtian sat down in the throne of Lifegiving, observing the actions of all of the Elders.
The Elders were thorough, for he had cultivated for centuries in their presence, and never hurried his investigations.
It had been three weeks since he left the sisters. Yong let the Elders travel the extent of the dead land for eight weeks, while he deeply pondered the matter himself. Finally, they returned to the thrones which were set up in the center of the blight.
Working together for another two weeks to gather and analyze what they'd found, they then had one of their own present their data and inferences. The blighted area was expanding, very slowly. Where it grew along the edge, it was consuming natural life and human life, but the humans were nowhere to be seen.
Since the Elders didn't really exist in the outside world, the blight didn't attack them. It might have attacked Yong, but Yong never noticed any attack. He was, however, a roaring fountain of Life energies, not the easiest target.
Next, they found on the barrier, the soil lost it's liveliness first, then the roots, and then what was aboveground died, having no support.
The Elders shuddered as Yong stood up from the Lifegiving throne, taking up the saber and sitting in the Judgment Throne. Hao Yongtian made his pronouncement, "This matter is caused by a powerful cultivator working somewhere far underground. He must have the power to bring the Red Cloud Mountain underneath along with him."
The power of the Judgment throne erupted as a massive wall of water surrounded and followed Yong, also making a way for him straight down. Facing an unknown presence, he had his saber ready, the water as his antidote to his foe's favorite surroundings.
The Earth separated at Yongtian's will, and he came face to face with the cultivator inside a massive Stone golem. The Saber's momentum was diverted by the massive stone fist, which sent Yong flying back upwards. The water continued downward, crashing into the golem, and carving a huge hole deeper into the Earth.
The golem cultivator ascended with one stone fist forward, the other hand carrying a tiny black staff, and Unlife surrounded Yong. With a thought, the Two thrones merged into one again, and as he repelled the Unlife with the water of Life, while he also struck stone fist with saber, and on the third hand, he pierced the enemy's side with a spiritual acupuncture needle, bringing Judgment against Unlife. Judgment against Unlife pierced the enemy in the Divine space, causing black blood to pour out.
The immoral cultivator abandoned the Golem, focusing completely on rolling clouds of Unlife, which smelled of plague and death and rot. That was met by a greater ocean of Lifegiving water, and the Judgment against Unlife struck again.
Yong's spiritual needles increased to three, and the enemy defended, preparing with sigils of Anti-Life Protection and desperately pouring his Unlife force out to meet Yong's life waters.
Adding a fourth area of battle, Yongtian attacked the vile cultivator in his Dao-heart, forcing the man to mutter dark confirmations, while also defending from the needles, saber and Life water.
Massive anvils began flying into the evil man from all directions, while he desperately dealt with these added threats, unable to retaliate any further.
Yongtian's final trump card was the attacks of 23 Elders of his Spirit Realm. Each Elder's attack was both a Physical flying gavel, and also a spiritual acupuncture needle.
The Vile man forgot about defending and instead sacrificed his divinity entirely to empower forty Evil djins of his Spirit Realm to attack.
Yongtian shined with the ghostly radiance of near-Peak Tyrant status, unleashing greater power still. Twenty elders attacked the Daos of the forty Evil djins, leaving all of them convinced that they had gone the wrong way.
His enemy's forty spirit beings switched sides, becoming Penitent Spirits in Yongtian's inner world.
The enemy yelled, howled almost, as Yongtian learned from the reformed djins. His foe was also a Divine Tyrant, but only on the fortieth step. He invoked the finishing art of Judgment: Final Conclusion.
The enemy was trapped in both a Dao dilemma and physical confinement. Essentially it was an undodgeable question of why the enemy had lived the life he lived, morally speaking, combined with a physical imprisonment unless and until he repented of his entire way.
Only continued willingness to pursue evil would cause the cultivator to die. Unfortunately, Yongtian's foe was completely stubborn and unable to change his ways, even in defeat.
The rising Red Cloud Mountain indicated that the man was dead.
As the Mountain began to rise above ground, Hao Yong realized it was now devouring the land much more quickly. "As with the man, so with the land," he muttered, exerting himself to defeat the Mountain which still pursued Unlife.
Identifying exactly what his foe's source of Deathly power was, Yong was now able to neutralize it with Lifegiving power. At first, it was a precarious balance as his own Life power fought against the Unlife of the Mountain, but then Yong brought forth new life in the form of trees, flowers, and even weeds.
True Life power was something belonging to the stage beyond Tyrant. He had only began to grasp it after a few hundred years of seclusion. It didn't just restore what was broken, but also create new life.
With the new life, there was new tenacity, something to hold onto his regular Life powers. The Life was infused with Judgment, as was Yongtian's specific will. As a result, the decayed old land wasn't just left to corrupt the good new life, instead every plant began to neutralize the decay brought on by the original Unlife.
Yongtian didn't just neutralize what his enemy had done, he brought his full powers to bear on controlling the mountain. It was not something his enemy had created, but a source beyond this world's nature. It was a nexus of something greater, that had been perverted.
The land of Life and Justice covered and replaced the land of Unlife and began to expand into areas where trees and grass still lived. Every inch the new land reached, it brought profound vitality.
Yongtian was ready to return to Deep Waters and cultivate for a decade to restore his Divine power. He had drawn deep into his reserves in order to emperor the new Living Mountain power. But before he left for deep waters, he first went to the very highest peak of Red Cloud Mountain.
There, Hao Yongtian would meet the greatest mystery and greatest power in his World.
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