Chapter 1180: Power of Heaven and Earth

The Mystic Divine Palace really did not have much energy left. Ten bolts of lightning kept striking it day and night. With lightning constantly striking, even ordinary Demigods would not be able to last more than a couple of minutes. The Mystic Divine Palace had already hung on for such a long time. This was all a result of the power that it had accumulated for over seven hundred trillion years.

All this time, Jiang Yi remained in seclusion. He did not even emerge once. Jiang Yunhai and the others remained obediently in Mystic Thearch Pavilion, resting. They did not know what was happening outside either. Before Jiang Yi appeared again, they were to remain exactly where they were.

Jiang Yi was still trying to realize the ‘Night Sea’ painting. He was going to stick to this path until the end. He would either win or die trying. It was not that he made no progress at all in the recent few months. In fact, he made a lot of progress.

He discovered the secret behind the ‘Night Sea’ painting!

On the surface, the painting looked calm, but in fact, there was a hidden storm. The entire painting made one feel like danger was lurking in unseen places, but there was nothing in the scenery that one could point to as the source of that feeling. Instead, everything looked peaceful. It was a beautiful painting of the scene at night.

Jiang Yi’s progress was in that he discovered where the threat lay: it was in the calmness of the sea!

There was a hidden danger in the sea because there was an undercurrent. At any time, one would expect a huge wave to surge upward toward the sky, covering the entire island. The little boat would be overturned, and the fisherman would perish!

The ‘Night Sea’ painting was expressing a clear message, but Jiang Yi had not realized any dao pattern presence within. Instead, he realized something else in his heart. This thing was like the Fire Dragon Sword’s sword spirit, but when he tried to grab hold of it, it disappeared. He could not focus on it long enough to get anything out of it.

“The night, the sea, the sky, the fisherman, the island, danger… undercurrents. Mystic Thearch, what dao pattern are you hiding in here?”

Jiang Yi applied his entire heart to realizing this dao pattern. He did not know how long had passed already; neither did he know how many more days the Mystic Divine Palace could remain standing. All he knew was that he was gambling his entire life on this right now. If he did not realize the dao pattern in this painting, he was prepared to die in Stupa City.

Once again, he sat down for several hours. Jiang Yi kept his eyes opened, focusing on the ‘Night Sea’ painting. In the State of the Union of Heaven and Man, this painting would become even clearer, and his brain would move faster. However, seeing it with his actual eyes would make it look more real to him. This was how Jiang Yi wanted to meditate on this painting.

As he looked at the ‘Night Sea’ painting, his eyes began to cloud over. It was almost as if he was inside the painting itself. He was standing on the sea, looking at the clear half-moon in the distance. He studied the night sky, the island, the fisherman catching fish, the little birds moving happily…

At last, he focused on the sea. He felt danger lurking once again, and his heart thudded. He looked up again at the sky, at the dark clouds, and then at the island. In that moment, he suddenly realized that danger was lurking at every corner. There was danger everywhere he looked. It was almost as if it was hidden in every crevice of the world.

Buzz!

His blurry eyes brightened up by several times at once. He slapped his own head and shouted, “I was wrong! I understood this wrongly! I kept thinking that the sea was where the danger was and that the dao pattern that was hidden in this painting was water-elemental! I was so very wrong. This dao pattern is not water-elemental. It’s a special type of dao pattern, one that would suppress other people! It borrows the power of the sea, the power of the space, the power of the island, and the power of heaven and earth; and it turns everything against people so that they feel overwhelming pressure. They would feel so threatened that they would feel suppressed. This dao pattern is more high-level than I thought! Damn it, Mystic Thearch, you’ve hidden it so well!”

Many people of the Stellarsky Continent once understood intent. Jiang Yi, for example, understood the Massacre Intent. These intents all came from dao patterns.

Precisely because Jiang Yi had realized the Massacre Intent, he finally understood the hidden dao pattern in the ‘Night Sea’ painting. However, this dao pattern was much scarier than the Massacre Intent and Overlord Intent that he realized before. It was hundreds and thousands of times scarier, in fact!

The Massacre Intent and Overlord Intent depended on one’s own power and skill to overpower the enemy. However, this dao pattern made use of the power of heaven and earth to overpower the enemy. This was also what this dao pattern made use of to attack the enemy!

How scary can the power of heaven and earth be?

Flames could devour all things. The sea could devour all things. Winds could destroy even the most formidable of martial artists. Earthquakes could cause everything to break into pieces. The Nine Heavens’ Divine Thunder could kill even nine-star martial artists and wipe out energy that the Mystic Divine Palace had accumulated for hundreds of trillions of years in just six months. What if there were a hundred bolts or even ten thousand?

Why does man go against heaven? It’s because heaven is way too powerful!

Every dao pattern borrowed the power of heaven and earth. They depended on a certain element in heaven and earth and harnessed different types of energy to either defend the user or attack other people. However, every dao pattern borrowed a different type of power from heaven and earth. Wind-elemental dao patterns borrow the power of the wind, fire-elemental dao patterns borrow the power of fire, and spatial dao patterns borrow the power of space.

This dao pattern felt different to Jiang Yi because it made use of all the different types of power in heaven and earth. It could access wind-elemental, fire-elemental, spatial power, and all sorts of other powers. This was why it was so powerful to Jiang Yi.

Of course, this was just his conjecture. He would only find out how strong it actually was after he realized the dao pattern.

He had already figured out the ‘Night Sea’ Heaven Painting. Why was it called a Heaven Painting? It was because it contained the dao pattern congealed within. As long as one understood the painting, he would not be far from realizing the dao pattern itself. This was how the Heaven Painting defied heaven. This was what made Heaven Paintings so valuable. The Buddha Thearch of the Yi Clan managed to accumulate many Heaven Paintings. This was what helped Yi Chan realize so many dao patterns. She had realized those dao patterns from studying those Heaven Paintings. This was also why Jiang Yi managed to sell his Heaven Painting at such a high price before.

He immediately sat upright and entered the State of the Union of Heaven and Man. With all his attention and strength, he focused on realizing this dao pattern. In that moment, he cast aside even his worries about the Mystic Divine Palace. He allowed it to float in mid-air and be attacked by the lightning and thunder.

He had thought initially that if he could steer the Mystic Divine Palace to dodge the attacks, the palace would be able to hold on for about a month or so more. Now that he was no longer trying to dodge the attacks, the palace could only last for one month at the very most. Jiang Yi knew this deep in his heart, but he still focused all his attention on realizing the dao pattern. This dao pattern was way too important. It was likely the strongest dao pattern that the Mystic Thearch knew.

Every martial artist wanted to improve from the deepest recesses of his or her heart. Jiang Yi was no exception. He wanted nothing more than to get a firm grip on this dao pattern as soon as he could. He wanted to become more powerful and break through the lightning bolt cage surrounding him.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of the divine thunder surrounded him. The ten bolts of lightning above the Nine Heavens cut through the night sky, lighting up everything within five thousand kilometers of the palace. The scene of the night looked exceptionally frightening.

…

It was quiet where Jiang Yi was, but the continent was far from peaceful.

The continent had just sent out its second army. Winning the victory against Sin Island caused the martial artists of the continent to become even bolder. News of their killing, stealing, and raping in Sin Island spread across the continent; causing many mountain bandit corps and disciples of the smaller sects to become excited. Many of them rushed to join the army, ready to kill the demons and steal their treasures.

There was a Mystic Martial City within the Endless Deep Sea. There were also a hundred and eight caves. News of these things was spread across the entire continent. It was said that the Mystic Martial City and the 108 caves contained countless spirit and immortal herbs. There were also supposed to be countless divine veins in the Endless Deep Sea. All the cities were made out of celestial stones.

If they could annihilate the demons of the Endless Deep Sea—not only would they be able to make a name for themselves, but they would also steal the treasures and celestial stones from the Endless Deep Sea. Few people in the world would be willing to help others out when they were in need, but many would jump at the opportunity to gain for themselves. The victory against Sin Island boosted people’s confidence in benefiting from going to war.

In just two weeks, an army of twenty million people had been gathered. The Zhan Clan, the Wu Clan, and the Tang Clan arranged for the army to board a Heaven Fate Ship and be transported to God Bestow City. They were prepared to join the alliance army in killing the demons of the Endless Deep Sea.

Most people who had run away from Sin Island had been caught up with and killed already. Every island had been flattened out. Even the Soul Travel Realm martial artists and Vajra Realm martial artists who dared to resist were killed. The rest of them were turned into slaves and brought back to the East Imperial Continent.

The Battle Thearch and North Thearch gave orders for the army to gather at Gods Bestow Island. In a month, they expected everybody to have arrived. The second army from the East Imperial Continent would also have arrived there safely. Once that happened, they would set out and annihilate the demons.

The wind was stirring. The real war was about to begin.