đź“– Chapter 1284 - One Sentence Decrees Dao!
As Wang Baole’s words echoed out, rumbling sounds came from the blood-colored vortex that had been split open. Streaks of crimson lightning could be seen jumping between the vortex’s two halves.
Deafening roars rose to the heavens. Looking closely, it could be seen that the Emperor’s eyes within the vortex had also been split apart, and the red-robed young man had been sliced in half from the center of his brows.
Right now, the flashes of lightning grew more and more numerous as the vortex struggled to fit itself back together.
Wang Baole, watching all this from on high, suddenly raised his head and glanced into the distance. The place he looked… was beyond the stele world.
However, this action of his was so fast as to be almost impossible to detect. An instant later, he turned back to look at the blood-colored vortex, and his eyes flashed with coldness. Right now, he had already gone through four of the five element worlds. Only the Wood World derived from his Wood Dao was yet to be unleashed. And for Wang Baole, the Wood Dao… was his essential Dao, his foundational Dao, and at the same time, his most powerful Dao.
All along, he had been waiting for a chance to use this most powerful Dao of his to decide the battle in one fell swoop. At this moment, the Emperor’s gaze had been weakened by four element worlds already and was no longer as shockingly powerful as before. Now was the time… for Wang Baole to unleash his Wood Dao.
As the severed halves of the blood-colored vortex desperately tried to fuse back together, Wang Baole waved his right hand. In an instant, the whole world rumbled, and a massive apparition appeared behind him.
It was the manifestation of Wang Baole’s Wood Dao, the black wooden nail!
This black wooden nail exuded the aura of ancient times, and the power of black wood emanating from it caused heaven and earth to distort. At this moment, the whole area seemed to have returned to a bygone era.
With the appearance of the black wooden nail, streaks of black lightning instantly flashed out. More and more streaks of lightning appeared, bringing with them endless rumbling, until they seemed to fill and replace the entire starry sky.
The starry sky had turned into a sea of lightning!
This sea of lightning gave off an extreme brutality, and the black wooden nail surrounded by the lightning exuded heaven-shaking, earth-shattering pressure. It was like the foremost power of the universe, capable of creating all things but also destroying them.
Compared with the black wooden nail and the sea of lightning, Wang Baole’s figure was small and insignificant. To outsiders, it might even seem like he didn’t exist; everything about him was overshadowed and swallowed up by the black wooden nail.
He was the black wooden nail, and the black wooden nail was him.
A vast aura swept through heaven and earth, even reaching past the land of the void and into the core of the stele world. All living beings in the starry sky awakened from their previous state of blankness and felt waves of shock surge through their hearts, as if they had laid eyes on a divine spirit.
No matter what kind of lifeform, no matter what their cultivation base, everyone and everything was trembling at this moment.
This astonishing aura even spread beyond the stele world as a whole. Those gazes from outside paying attention to the matters in the stele world all became even more solemn.
As for Wang Baole, who stood in the void in front of the illusory black wooden nail… after a few moments of silence, he slowly lowered his raised right hand.
Boom!
A monstrous noise reverberated from the void, and the whole stele world shook violently. The black wooden nail, together with the infinite sea of lightning around it, slowly fell toward the blood-colored vortex that was frantically trying to put itself back together!
The black wooden nail was so immense that just getting close made it seem like an immense black tree instead; however, from afar, it couldn’t be any more obvious that it was indeed a nail. Black lightning flashed and thundered as it fell toward the blood-colored vortex with inexorable momentum.
Under this immense pressure, the vortex seemed unable to hold on. As the two halves trembled violently, the crimson lightning flickering between them instantly stopped, and they even started showing signs of fragmentation.
The red-robed young man’s eyes revealed deep terror. Right now, he could sense the shadow of death encroaching on him with alarming certainty.
It was as if he was in the cold winter wilderness while wearing nothing but a thin layer of clothing. As an icy sensation filled him from inside out, he also recalled memories from his original body.
The scene of the black wooden nail drilling into the center of his original body’s brows suddenly appeared in the red-robed young man’s mind.
“I won’t be suppressed a second time!” The red-robed young man went completely mad. He knew that letting the vortex heal was no longer an option, so he lifted his hands and waved them violently. In an instant, the two halves of the blood-colored vortex separated and turned into two new vortexes.
As for himself, he also split in two, fusing into the two new vortexes in an instant. At this moment, as both of the blood-colored vortexes rotated simultaneously, an eye appeared in each one.
As soon as these eyes appeared, faint outlines of facial features also came into existence. Now, beneath the falling black wooden nail, there was what appeared to be a massive face!
This face was similar to Master Never-Ending, and also similar to the red-robed young man. It was… the face of the Emperor’s true self!
Although most of the facial features were blurred, that pair of eyes contained an inextinguishable and eternal might. At this moment, the face opened its mouth and let out a soundless roar toward the descending black wooden nail.
With this roar, the vault of heaven instantly shattered as the face burst out with its full strength. This sudden impact caused the black wooden nail to tremble slightly, but its descent didn’t stop. Just as it reached a spot ten zhang away from the center of the face’s brows, a wave of majestic might erupted from the face and caused the nail to finally pause.
“Suppress!” The moment the black wooden nail paused, Wang Baole’s seven orifices completely opened up. His clones fused into his body as he spoke solemnly.
As soon as his words came out, heaven and earth rumbled, and the starry sky shattered. The black wooden nail rumbled into motion once again, falling ever closer to the Emperor’s face. But at that moment, the space above the Emperor’s face blurred, and the red-robed young man appeared again. This time, there was no madness in his expression, only serenity as he spoke calmly.
"I am the Emperor, the pinnacle of the universe and the origin of law; he who slays me shall also bring destruction upon himself!"
There were a total of twenty-four words in this sentence. With each word, the Emperor’s face grew dimmer, and after speaking all twenty-four words, the Emperor’s eyes seemed to have used up all their strength.
However, although his eyes had turned dim, these twenty-four words contained an indescribable power. The whole stele world rumbled, and even the Great Universe beyond was trembling. Suddenly, among the innumerable natural laws of the Great Universe, a brand new law appeared. This new law was the Emperor’s declaration, and as it appeared among the laws of the Great Universe, it was also reflected in the laws of the stele world.
This was beyond laying down law with a word, this was… one sentence decreeing Dao!