407: Chapter 398 The Sixth Incarnation: Heavenly Venerable (Eighty-Six)

Immediately after, the other Ancient Venerables were also affected! Various phenomena manifested on their bodies to varying degrees—

Some were phantoms of worlds they had destroyed in the past, reappearing and letting out silent wails and curses;

Others were the distorted faces of beings they had used in Blood Sacrifices, pouncing on them with sky-high hatred;

Or it was the "Hostility," "Evil Qi," and "Resentment" accumulated within their own Daos due to excessive slaughter, which they had originally suppressed with supreme magic, now being triggered by Karma and karmic debt, erupting like a volcano and frantically backfiring upon them!

Every phantom represented a being—or even hundreds of millions—whose life he had personally or indirectly ended, bursting forth with the most extreme and distorted negative emotions at their final moment: despair, fear, hatred, curses, unwillingness, anger...

These emotions were amplified, distorted, and solidified within the desperate environment of the Blood Sacrifice. Originally, as the beings perished and the worlds returned to the void, they would have gradually dissipated into the heavens and earth or settled as invisible karmic entanglements.

Normally, with a status as an ancient source like the Dao Lord of Death, he would have long been a supreme existence where "ten thousand tribulations cannot touch the body, and Karma does not cling to the form."

A few remnants of sentient Resentment or world echoes were no different from dust to him; with a single thought, he could suppress or obliterate them, or even inversely absorb and refine them to strengthen the intent of his own Dao.

However, now was not then!

First, the "quantity" of this Resentment was truly terrifying!

It was not from a single world or race, but from the myriad heavens and worlds, infinite beings, and countless realms being sacrificed and ended in despair!

The resulting Resentment, Karma, and karmic entanglements were unimaginably heavy, arguably the greatest "Sinful Karma" since ancient times!

Even for the Most Ancient Dao Lords, bearing such colossal Sinful Karma was by no means easy.

Secondly, the "quality" of this Resentment had been elevated to the extreme due to the ultimate cruelty and despair of the Blood Sacrifice.

It was an essence of the darkest, most distorted, and most desperate negative emotions gathered from infinite beings, mixed with the wails of world destruction and the backlash of collapsing Laws. It had long surpassed the scope of ordinary vengeful spirits, nearly forming a "karmic curse" with the nature of a backlash on the level of the Laws of Heaven and Earth!

Most crucially, at this moment, Dao Lord Shang Qing did not hesitate to burn six Great Daos as fuel to push his Dao of Karma and Heavenly Mandate to its limit. Acting as a most precise and powerful "fuse" and "amplifier," he forcibly, centrally, and thoroughly detonated the terrifying karmic debt entwined around the nine Ancient Venerables!

This was no longer a dissipated, invisible karmic entanglement that could be slowly worn away. Instead, under the guidance of the iron Laws of Karma, it was an "Inferno of Karma" and a "Tide of Resentment" that was instantly ignited, directionally exploded, and aimed directly at the Dao Heart and Divine Soul!

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"Give me back my life! Give me back my home!"

"Why are you all so high and mighty! You shall be buried with us too!"

"Hate! Hate! Hate! I hate the heavens, I hate the earth, and I hate you all!"

"..."

Countless thoughts filled with venomous Resentment roared, like maggots in the bone, burrowing into the depths of the ancient Dao Lords' wills, battering their Dao Hearts that had long since become cold, unfeeling, and regarded all things as straw dogs.

While it wasn't enough to make them lose their composure, it was like countless fine steel needles constantly stabbing, bringing continuous interference, pain, and stagnation of Dao Rhyme.

"Noisy."

Facing that tide of thoughts—like hundreds of millions of ants screaming in unison, filled with endless venom, despair, and curses—the indifferent voice of the Dao Lord of Time rang out, cold and devoid of any emotion.

The silver River of Time around him rippled slightly. The roaring Resentments that had burrowed into the depths of his will seemed to be cast into the ceaseless torrent of time; most were instantly washed away, diluted, and scattered into the endless fragments of past and future time, turning into insignificant noise.

Only the most core and stubborn fraction remained, like a wedge driven into the "present," still creating slight but persistent stabs of pain and interference at the edge of his Dao Heart.

However, this did not move him in the slightest. His gaze remained like time itself—unchanging since antiquity—looking down upon everything.

"Sacrificing yourselves for my Dao is the meaning of your existence, and also your fortune."

The chains around the Dao Lord of Order chimed softly, emitting cold and rhythmic tremors.

The phantoms of Resentment that tried to assault his Domain of Order were forcibly "defined," "categorized," and "bound" the moment they touched the divine light of Order.

His gaze toward these Resentments was like that of a craftsman looking at raw Materials that needed processing; there was only scrutiny and utilization, no disgust, and certainly no pity.

"Hate? Unwillingness? Curses?"

After his initial shock and anger, the Dao Lord of Death instead let out a low, raspy sneer. That laughter was filled with ultimate disregard for life. "All living beings must die; returning to my Dao is their destiny. Your Resentment is merely adding a bit of... flavor to this end."

He no longer tried to forcibly obliterate or absorb those Resentments, instead allowing them to roar and struggle within his Deathly Domain.

The grey aura of death was like the deepest quagmire, dragging, swallowing, and assimilating these Resentments bit by bit.

The despair within the Resentment became a deeper backdrop for death; the curses turned into sharper blades for death; the unwillingness became the most piercing yet realistic note in the movement of death.

With an almost cruel calmness, he endured and digested this endless grudge, as if tasting a bitter wine brewed from the terminal agony of trillions of beings, coldly evaluating the "True Meaning of Death" contained within.

...

Each ancient Dao Lord reacted differently, using various divine abilities, but that indifference and transcendence—born from endless eons and perched at the peak of the Great Dao—were identical.

They might find this sudden, massive Karma and Resentment detonated by Shang Qing to be "troublesome," like being bitten by a swarm of ants while walking—feeling annoyed and uncomfortable, needing to spend effort to swat and drive them away, even perhaps being bitten into a few insignificant "red swellings"—but they would never feel "fear," "guilt," or "vacillation" because of it.

In their eyes, the myriad heavens and worlds and the infinite beings used in the Blood Sacrifice were fundamentally no different from the dust beneath their feet or the motes in the air.

The joys and sorrows of beings, the wails of worlds, and the brilliance and destruction of civilizations were but insignificant syllables in the grand rhythm of the Universe, inevitable links in the operation of the Dao and the cycle of energy.

In their own logic, performing this Blood Sacrifice to seek the Great Dao and strive for transcendence was part of the "Dao," a "necessary" price, and a "rational" process—just like the heavens and earth absorbing Spiritual Qi, stars moving toward annihilation, and the four seasons cycling.

Using all living beings as a sacrifice to achieve one's own Dao is the ultimate principle of heaven and earth. What wrong is there? What guilt is there to feel?

The Resentment of ants cannot shake the indifference of gods.

The elegies of time cannot change eternal nothingness.

"Shang Qing, is this all you have? Do you think you can block our Dao by invoking these echoes of ants?"

The Dao Lord of Time's voice pierced through the roaring Resentment, remaining cold and steady. While using the power of time to wash away and exile the entangling Resentment, he once again cast his gaze toward Shang Qing, Yu Qing, and the nearby ascension heavenly ladder.

Although the karmic backlash continued and the Heart Demon Tribulation Fire burned incessantly under Yu Qing's urging, the cold, hardened Dao Hearts of the nine Most Ancient Dao Lords—which viewed all things as straw dogs—had already begun to gradually adapt to and suppress this "discomfort." Their killing intent and desire for the Heavenly Stairway had not diminished in the slightest; instead, because they were disturbed by "ants," a few more traces of cold fury were added.

One by one, even more terrifying and condensed Dao attacks began to brew and lock on once again!