Chapter 718 — Ambush on the Netherworld Supreme

This person's aim was not to stop the descending tribulation, nor to crush Lou Yunqu and his two companions. His true target was Yin Tianzi himself! To think so little of a small target like Lou Yunqu and fix his eyes instead on a being of the Imperial Throne's caliber — how audacious was this man?

By the same token, this person must once have stood in the highest station; only one who stood high enough could see far enough to set his sights on a being like him. Had it been men of Shen Mu's or the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's standing, their aim would at most have been Lou Yunqu, at most to prevent the calamity from unfolding. But the one who had laid this scheme was different.

He must be a figure of the very highest rank in Kaihuang's Heavenly Court, to dare set his target upon him! Who this person was, was all but spoken aloud!

Yin Tianzi's heart burned with shock and fury: "I have been matched by one who planned while I did not.

This man — it can only be the Woodcutter, first of the Four Great Celestial Masters of the false court!

Yes — if I were he, and I meant to scheme against a master like myself, I would make certain of it beyond any doubt. I would never set only King Yama and Tian Shu against me.

If I meant to strike, I would gather every master who bears me a grudge.

And the one who hates me deepest is Lady Tianyin. .

. " He had barely thought this far when demon-gods came flying from every quarter of the Dark Capital to aid him.

Yin Tianzi's blood ran cold, and he waved his hand in frantic haste, crying, "Do not come near—" The space of the Dark Capital split open with a sudden crack, and Lady Tianyin's figure appeared in another world, looking at Yin Tianzi with a smile. Yin Tianzi's heart sank: "All these years hunting geese, and now a sparrow has pecked out my eye.

. .

" Lady Tianyin held in her hand a flaw — the Heavenly Dipper, the very treasure Yin Tianzi had refined — and working her art across the boundary of worlds, she set the underworld sea suddenly churning; the whole ocean of black soul-sand turned upside down, sea above and men below, and came crashing down upon them all!

Yin Tianzi himself had nothing to fear, but the demon-gods of the Dark Capital could not withstand it! Yin Tianzi's face went ashen. The Heavenly Dipper was a treasure of his own refining, made to control the black soul-sand and the starved ghosts of the Tianyin Realm — and now, in the end, it had been turned against him! "Yin Tianzi, is this not retribution exact and unfailing? " Lady Tianyin's laughter carried to him, and the underworld sea came crashing down.

Countless demon-gods of the Dark Capital were crushed to the sea floor; the black soul-sand battered them, and innumerable demon-gods had their primal spirits shattered by the wash of it! These skeletal demon-gods varied in strength.

Some were mighty and did not perish in that first wave, but their primal spirits were gravely wounded all the same.

Lady Tianyin smiled, and the Heavenly Dipper flipped over once more; the underworld sea rose into the air again, and again came smashing down!

She was like a child tossing a little toy, flipping the Heavenly Dipper this way and that, the underworld sea floating up and crashing down again and again, until countless skeletal demon-gods of the Dark Capital were pounded to powder and their primal spirits shattered into sand! Yin Tianzi was truly enraged — never in his life had he been so enraged. From childhood he had known nothing but smooth sailing, and never had he suffered such losses, such grievous losses!

Tian Shu and King Yama joined forces and attacked him with frenzy.

His mind wavered, and the wounds on his body multiplied. Just then, a portal rose slowly out of the underworld sea, standing tall upon the surface of the waters.

The Dark Capital Heavenly Gate.

This portal was no divine ability; it was the true Dark Capital Heavenly Gate. Many disciples of the Dark Capital cultivated the divine ability of the Dark Capital Heavenly Gate, but all their arts were evolved from this portal.

And this portal itself had been born of Youdu's Gate of Heaven's Mandate. In certain mysteries of the Dao, the Gate of Heaven's Mandate was no match for the Dark Capital Heavenly Gate — its power of reincarnation and creation, for instance, was beyond anything the Gate of Heaven's Mandate could rival.

For this reason, this portal too was numbered among the Four Great Heavenly Gates, and was called the North Heavenly Gate.

"Tianyin, did you think I feared you? " Yin Tianzi laughed in his fury.

The Dark Capital Heavenly Gate pressed down upon the underworld sea, and at once its waves were stilled; even Lady Tianyin urging the Heavenly Dipper could not shake it: "It is time you saw the true strength of the Imperial Throne! " Within the Shen-Character Continent, Lord Heaven and the Crimson Emperor took turns watching the outer world through Shen Mu's third eye.

From Tian Shu's appearance with blade in hand, cutting his way into the Dark Capital, to Fengdu's collision with the Dark Capital, to King Yama bearing his sword in the siege of Yin Tianzi, to Lady Tianyin working the Heavenly Dipper across the boundary to crush tens of thousands of demon-gods of the Dark Capital — Lord Heaven and the Crimson Emperor watched with soaring spirits, clapping and cheering again and again. "Could it be that Shen Mu had long since arranged all this with the Woodcutter and the rest, to stage a fine play?

" The Crimson Emperor laughed: "The timing is far too neat.

Tian Shu, who drinks fierce as a tiger, King Yama of Fengdu, and Lady Tianyin, so lately revived — to string all these forces into one line, it must have been prepared long in advance!

And with Shen Mu, the Divine Son of Youdu, as the bait, Yin Tianzi was certain to take the hook!

" Lord Heaven laughed: "It must have been prepared long ago. This battle is fought with relish!

And Shen Mu played his part so well that even I could see no flaw in it.

" The Crimson Emperor laughed: "Nor could I see the slightest flaw.

A moment ago I thought he had truly been taken by demon-nature and meant to slaughter and devour the primal spirits of the skeletal demon-gods. Who would have guessed that in the next breath he would use his third eye to disrupt Yin Tianzi's primal spirit and let Tian Shu's sneak attack land.

He must have been part of this surprise strike on Yin Tianzi from the start! His pretense of being seized by demon-nature just now was truly frightening. " Lord Heaven breathed a sigh of relief and laughed: "If he can master the demon-nature of Youdu, then I can set my mind at ease. What is he doing now?

" The two of them looked through Shen Mu's third eye, and dimly made out the back of a head.

"This is. . .

" Lord Heaven and the Crimson Emperor were both puzzled, then suddenly it came to them: "That boy is gnawing on the Calamity God's head! " At that moment Shen Mu lay sprawled on the Calamity God's back, his mouth stretched wide in excitement, biting down on the Calamity God's head, a low growling humming in his throat.

The Calamity God's head was a mask of blood where he gnawed. Lord Heaven and the Crimson Emperor exchanged a glance and said in one voice: "That boy really has fallen to demon-nature — he is not pretending! "