Deep within the ley lines of Mount Tao, the roar of breaking chains echoed. Yang Jian’s Three-Pointed Double-Edged Blade hovered three inches from Yaoji’s throat. The divine light of his Heavenly Eye pierced through his mother’s seemingly pristine immortal body, revealing a horrifying sight: Yaoji’s internal organs were entangled with pale gold threads. Each thread stretched toward temples in the mortal realm, where the power of incense and prayer was being used to drain her very essence.
"So, the so-called 'yearning for the mortal world'..." Yang Jian’s hand tightened on his blade until the veins bulged, the steel reflecting the phantom image of the Judicial True Lord’s temple. On the back of the "Upright and Bright" plaque hanging in that very hall were inscribed the birth dates of one hundred thousand mortals! Every time Yang Jian passed judgment on a dispute between immortals and mortals, the lifespan of the corresponding mortal was transformed into a golden thread, binding his mother’s soul ever tighter.
Xiaotian Hound suddenly bit the hem of its master’s battle robe, dragging half a dragon scale from a crevice in Mount Tao. The East Sea scene outlined in the scale’s blood-red patterns made Yang Jian’s pupils contract: the gale-force winds from Sun Wukong’s staff sweeping the Nine-Dragon Wall were identical to the blade aura Yang Jian had unleashed when he first split the mountain to save his mother. The Karmic Fire Red Lotus ignited by Nezha’s Fire-Tip Spear was clearly formed from the root system of the Flat-Peach Mother Tree in Yaochi.
"Judicial True Lord Yang Jian, eliminate the demon monkey of the East Sea at once!" The Jade Emperor’s decree rang out like a thunderclap, and nine Immortal-Binding Ropes descended from the direction of the Lingxiao Palace. Yang Jian slashed the golden ropes, only to discover that the spirits of the commoners from Guanjiangkou—the very people he had protected for five hundred years—poured out from the broken chains. They had been refined into weapons for the Heavenly Court!
"A fine 'Heavenly Dao' indeed!" The Eight-Nine Profound Art roared into motion, and blood and tears streamed from Yang Jian’s Heavenly Eye. His divine light pierced the Thirty-Three Heavens, revealing the truth behind the Jade Emperor’s crown in the Lingxiao Palace: the twelve strands of pearls hanging from the crown were not gemstones at all, but the Heavenly Eyes of successive Judicial True Lords! The newest one was inscribed with the seal script character for "Yang."
The moment the Heaven-Opening Axe descended, the entire Mount Tao let out a mournful wail like the cry of a newborn. Five-Colored Stone slurry erupted from the cracks in the mountain, and Yaoji’s "immortal body" began to crumble, revealing the horrific structure within: her spine was a chain forged from Kunlun jade marrow, her heart was a cage condensed from Heavenly River Weak Water, and embedded in her fontanelle was nothing less than a fragment of the original Investiture of the Gods!
"Jian’er... go..." Yaoji’s remaining consciousness transformed into a beam of light, condensing into Empress Nüwa’s blood jade in Yang Jian’s palm. In the fragments of memory reflected by the blood jade, the gaps Nüwa had intentionally left when Mending the Heavens were being filled by the Jade Emperor using Yaoji’s soul of love. Those charges of "yearning for the mortal world" were merely excuses to extract the divine power of Empress Nüwa!
Xiaotian Hound suddenly stood on its hind legs, its front paws tearing open the void. Its eyes reflected the fierce battle in the East Sea Dragon Palace: Sun Wukong’s Ruyi Jingu Bang was resonating with Nezha’s Universal Heaven Ribbon, and the light woven by these two divine weapons reacted to the blood jade in Yang Jian’s hand. Deep beneath the sea, on the surface of the original Investiture of the Gods jade slip, the true name "Yaoji" slowly began to emerge.
"So we were all pawns in this game..." Yang Jian sliced his palm, using his divine blood to carve a forbidden curse into his Heavenly Eye. The seal of the Judicial True Lord shattered with a boom, and all eight hundred of his grass-headed soldier puppets collapsed. These divine generals he had personally enlightened were powered by the hearts of the people of Guanjiangkou!
As the Three-Pointed Double-Edged Blade cleaved the ley lines of Mount Tao, thirty-six blood-sacrifice arrays simultaneously appeared. Buried at the eye of each array was a toy from Yang Jian’s childhood: the pellet drum was stained with the blood Yaoji shed while giving birth, the bamboo horse had soul-locking nails driven into its hooves, and even the jade tablet he had reached for during his hundred-day ceremony had become a magical artifact used to suppress the bloodline of Empress Nüwa.
"What a display of fatherly love!" Yang Jian laughed in fury, his blade sweeping to sever the umbilical Karma Threads. Black, turbid blood gushed from the broken golden threads, condensing in the air into the phantom image of Yuanshi Tianzun: "Judicial True Lord, do you dare to defy the mandate of Heaven?"
His answer was a blade flash that tore through the void. Seizing the opportunity, Xiaotian Hound swallowed the turbid blood, its body swelling to three times its original size as its fangs crushed the spiritual ley lines of Mount Tao. Twelve nameless steles rose from the crumbling mountain, their inscriptions revealing themselves under the divine light of Yang Jian’s Heavenly Eye—they were the primordial contracts signed between the Jade Emperor and the Twelve Ancestral Witches!
A dragon’s roar suddenly erupted from the East Sea, and the ten-thousand-foot-long body of Ao Guang rose from Guixu. Yang Jian’s pupils contracted: the piece of Nüwa stone clutched in the dragon’s claw was resonating with the blood jade in his hand. Furthermore, the trajectory of Sun Wukong’s staff as it swept through the Dragon Palace was clearly derived from the exact same sword moves Yaoji had used to teach him as a child!
"Mother, do you see this..." Yang Jian pressed the blood jade into his Heavenly Eye, and his Judicial True Lord armor shattered piece by piece. On his exposed chest, a totem formed from the bloodline of Empress Nüwa began to awaken—it was the mark of an Ouroboros coiling around the Heaven-Opening Axe, echoing the Great Yu inscription on Sun Wukong’s Ruyi Jingu Bang.
When the Three-Pointed Double-Edged Blade completely shattered the seal on Mount Tao, the Flat-Peach Mother Tree beyond the Nine Heavens suddenly withered. The Queen Mother realized with a start that the Jade Ruyi in her hand had turned to dust, and the statue of the Golden Mother of Yaochi at its tip bore a face nine parts similar to Yaoji’s! Meanwhile, deep in the East Sea, Nezha stared in a daze at a newly emerged map of the Heavens Mending on his Universal Heaven Ribbon—the missing final piece of the Five-Colored Stone was clearly embedded in Yang Jian’s Heavenly Eye...
Xiaotian Hound let out a long howl toward the shattered Mount Tao, the sound waves collapsing eighteen fake Heavenly Court observatories. Yang Jian stepped onto the clouds and headed straight for the East Sea. From the collapsing mountain behind him rose half a scroll of the Rivers and Mountains Map—within the scene of Nüwa Mending the Heavens, a giant ape wielding an axe and a goddess holding an infant had quietly appeared.