madnovel Chapter 219 Azekanvia
Chapter 219 Azekanvia
The Dharma form manifested again.
This time, it's bigger than before.
A crimson-gold light burst forth from the candle's body, engulfing him entirely.
Amidst the light, his figure began to grow taller—hundreds of feet, thousands of feet, tens of thousands of feet, hundreds of millions of feet.
His head peered above the clouds, his shoulders were level with the stars, and his arms stretched out like two burning clouds.
His left hand cradled the Yuan Yang Great World. That plane, which had just advanced to the intermediate level, slowly rotated in his palm. Continents, oceans, clouds, and living beings—everything was in his palm, like a crystal bead being held in his hands.
His right hand was loosely clenched, his palm holding the fifth-level prisoners. Iron Bones, a blonde woman, a bare-chested giant... dozens of figures were pressed down by an invisible force, unable to move.
Zhu lowered his head, his gaze falling on the old sect leader in his palm.
The old sect leader knelt there, trembling all over. The confusion, grievances, and resentment that had been suppressed for hundreds of years surged up at this moment.
His metallic nature surged within him, like a wild beast that had been trapped for too long, yearning to break free of its cage.
"Go inside." Zhu looked at him.
The old sect leader looked up, his vision blurred by tears, and could only see those golden pupils.
"Enter your dimension, break through. The Heavenly Dao will not stop you. It never will."
As soon as he finished speaking, the old sect master's figure vanished from the palm of his Dharma Image and reappeared above the Yuan Yang Great World. He paused for a moment, then sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.
The aura around his body began to surge—the bottleneck of the half-step Golden Core stage, like a thin layer of ice, was shattered by the golden nature within his body.
A white light descended from the sky, enveloping him.
Heaven is responding.
Zhu withdrew her gaze and stopped looking at him.
In the void, True Monarch Minghuang pulled Li Xiaoyao and quietly withdrew from the edge of the Dharma Image's palm.
He did not manifest a Dharma form, but simply stood with his hands behind his back, his blue Taoist robe fluttering in the void.
Standing beside him, Li Xiaoyao looked at the towering, crimson-gold figure and felt an indescribable shock welling up in his heart.
"True Lord, who exactly is he?"
True Monarch Minghuang did not answer. He simply looked at the figure with a calm gaze, as if he were looking at an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time.
Someone else came from the void.
Those figures emerged from the deepest part of the void, one after another, their auras either profound, intense, or chilling, each one no less than a Golden Core cultivator.
They stood at a distance, surrounding the candle in the middle, like a pack of jackals surrounding a wounded tiger.
No one dared to approach.
Zhu glanced at the group, a slight smile playing on his lips, a hint of mockery in his expression.
Just then, a voice came from behind the crowd.
The crowd parted automatically, and a person emerged from the void. He wore a drab gray robe, the material of which was indistinguishable, and the hem was frayed.
His face was old, his wrinkles like a cracked riverbed, but his eyes were as black as an abyss, like eternal night, like nothing at all.
He walked up to the candle and stopped.
The two looked at each other.
"You're back?"
The old man spoke, his voice carrying a complex mix of emotions.
Zhu looked at him and remained silent for a moment before saying, "You're back."
"It's good that you're back."
The old man's gaze shifted from the candle face to the plane his left hand was supporting, then to the prisoner clutched in his right hand, and finally to the void behind him. "It's good that you're back."
He paused, then suddenly spoke, calling out a name: "Aizekanvia."
There was a moment of silence in the void.
Li Xiaoyao didn't understand the name, but he saw Zhu's expression change. His golden pupils narrowed slightly, and the smile on his lips faded a bit.
"Return to the embrace of the Lord of Destruction," the old man said calmly, as if stating something perfectly natural.
Zhu stared at him for a long time.
Then he laughed. An indescribable, almost pitying laugh.
"Maharaja?"
"Does an exiled prisoner deserve to be called a great ruler?"
The old man's expression remained unchanged.
"He was waiting. He waited a long time."
"Then let him continue to wait." Zhu withdrew her gaze and stopped looking at him.
Silence fell again in the void. The Golden Core cultivators who had gathered looked at each other, some eager to make a move, some observing, and some waiting.
The silver-armored figure from the Paradise of Reincarnation stepped forward: "Hand over the person."
The silver-haired woman from the Starry Sky Gods Kingdom also spoke up: "And ours too."
The shirtless giant from Dragon Tiger Paradise didn't say a word, but simply took the bronze giant axe off his shoulder and planted it in mid-air.
Zhu looked at them without speaking. He raised his right hand, and the dozens of fifth-rank prisoners lay in his palm like ants.
Iron Bones struggled, the blonde woman's face was deathly pale, and the tiger and dragon tattoos on the bare-chested man's body had lost their luster.
"These people?" Candle's voice was soft. "If you want them, come and take them yourself."
No one moved.
The gray-robed elder spoke again. This time, his voice was even lower than before: "If you don't come back, I won't force you. But return to me one ten-thousandth of the Great Lord's primordial power—the one within you."
Zhu turned her head and looked at him. This time, he didn't smile.
"Return it? That's mine."
"It was given to you by the Great Khan," the old man corrected him.
"Once it's given to me, it's mine." The candle's tone was calm, yet undeniable. "And—"
He looked down at the Yuan Yang Great World he was holding in his left hand.
That world slowly rotated in his palm. The mountains, rivers, cities, villages, and billions of living beings on the continent lived peacefully, unaware that a Dharma image was supporting their world, and unaware that dozens of golden core level gazes were falling on this world from the void.
"Aren't you going back?"
The old man remained silent.
Zhu raised his left hand slightly, allowing everyone to see the world in his palm.
That world shone in his palm, white light seeping from every inch of the continent, as if the entire plane was breathing.
The old man's pupils contracted slightly.
"You merged your essence into the dimension?"
The candle did not answer. He simply looked at the world in his palm, watching the white light seep into the void, into every corner of this world.
The old man fell silent. The Golden Core cultivators behind him also fell silent.
They looked at that world, at the white light, at the candle's calm face, and suddenly they all understood.
He's not just protecting this world. He and this world are inseparable.
In the void, a dazzling white light suddenly burst forth from the Yuan Yang Great World.
The light rose from the depths of the continent, from the mountains and rivers, and from within every living being.
They converged into a beam of light, which shot out from the palm of the candle and plunged straight into the depths of the void.
Then, the world vanished from the candle's palm.
Li Xiaoyao was taken aback. He turned to look at True Monarch Minghuang and found that the True Monarch's right hand had been raised at some point.
Above his palm hung a fist-sized ball of light—the Yuan Yang Great World.
It hung there quietly, emitting a soft white light, like a fruit just picked from a tree.
Zhu stared at the ball of light in Minghuang Zhenjun's palm and remained silent for a moment.
"Take them away."
Minghuang Zhenjun nodded and put the ball of light into his sleeve.
"Let's go," he whispered to Li Xiaoyao.
Li Xiaoyao took one last look at the candle. The figure in the crimson-gold robe stood in the void, its Dharma form had been retracted, and its body had returned to its normal size.
His face was still young, but the vicissitudes between his brows were deeper than those of any other old man in the world.
He suddenly spoke: "See you in the future."
True Monarch Minghuang nodded, then turned around with Li Xiaoyao and stepped into the void.
Behind him, dozens of Golden Core level figures still surrounded the candle. He didn't look at them, but stood with his hands behind his back, watching the direction where True Monarch Minghuang and Li Xiaoyao had disappeared.
The old man in the gray robe stood behind him, remaining silent for a long time.
Is it worth it?
The candle did not answer. It simply stared into the depths of the void, in the direction where the sphere of light had vanished.
"See you in the future," he repeated softly.
Then he turned around, looked at the Golden Core cultivators surrounding him, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.
In the void, a battle was about to break out.