Volume One, Chapter Fifteen: The Colossal Hand of Brahma

Chapter Fifteen: The Great Hand of Brahmic Energy

Tu Zhe waved his hand and swept his gaze over the group of princely wastrels who trailed behind Huluzhina. “Huluzhina actually dared to order you lot to arrest two Lords of Heaven? Has lard clouded all your hearts? Do you know what crime it is to lay hands on a Lord of Heaven? Have you never read the Hammurabi Code since you were children? Damn it, you’ll be demoted to mere celestial commoners, understand? Aren’t you all sons of Lords of Heaven too? What if one day this stupid pig tries to arrest your own fathers—would you help him then? I’ve never seen anyone more idiotic than you bunch of fools...”

The princely idlers blinked, pondering what “fool” meant, but paid no heed to the punishments laid out in the legal codes. Do those codes apply to the eight princely sons? Surely not—so why would they apply to us?

Doggy wagged his little paw and exclaimed, “Exactly! A whole pack of Cherokee blockheads! With brains like yours, how dumb can you possibly get?”

Just then, above the palace of the Great Dragon Elephant King in the city of Shanjian, a colossal hand of primordial Brahmic energy suddenly materialized. Its span stretched ten thousand fathoms, and it covered a thousand yojanas in the blink of an eye.

Among the gods watching in the sky, some cried out in terror, “No! The Great Dragon Elephant King has made his move...”

“Ah! It’s the Great Dragon Elephant King, revered across the myriad heavens. He’s the master of the eight princely sons...”

“This is disastrous! With the king’s intervention, the world will be destroyed. Tu Zhe and his companions are doomed. To stand against the eight princely sons—death will come before they even realize how...”

“Hahaha! The king’s Brahmic hand—how will you resist? You think you can provoke the eight princely sons and survive?”

“Hahaha! My master has arrived! You’re all dead now—ha!”

Jin Mu and Jin Si, the brothers, looked grave, knowing things had taken a dire turn. They cast a deep glance at Tu Zhe and Qin Lei, a resolve to die already kindling in their eyes.

With a thunderous shout, the brothers unleashed a roar like celestial hounds. Instantly, the blazing sun above seemed to dim, torn by wild hurricanes, as two titanic phantom hounds appeared beside the sun, jaws agape, lunging to devour the king’s immense hand.

Yet compared to that mountainous hand, the two celestial hounds were far too slight. The Brahmic hand brushed them aside as effortlessly as wind scatters withered leaves. The hounds were ground to nothing, and the hand pressed inexorably down on Tu Zhe’s family, ready to crush them out of existence.

As the spectral hounds vanished, Jin Mu and Jin Si were struck by the backlash. They coughed up blood and collapsed, gravely wounded, caught by Shudra, and stood trembling, gazing up at the descending hand in despair and hatred.

Tu Zhe’s face was as solemn as a mountain. He turned to Doggy. “Doggy, what do you say?”

Doggy, now stripped of his earlier levity, stared up at the immense hand. “This is a sage-level divine power... but I can still take it...”

Tu Zhe’s expression was cold as steel. “Dog, if you fall, I will not live alone.”

Doggy blinked at Tu Zhe, mist gathering in his eyes.

The Dragon Elephant King’s hand rumbled downward, tearing the void asunder. Tiny black holes appeared, revealing deeper, more boundless darkness within.

The watching celestial hosts cried out and fled even farther, terrified of being pulled into the rifts at the hand’s edge and obliterated.

Huluzhina and his band of princely flunkies, along with the Yaksha horde, had long since retreated a thousand miles, jeering and cursing as they waited to witness the outcome.

Doggy slipped free of Tu Zhe’s embrace and rose into the void, facing the massive Brahmic hand. He pressed his palms together, then drew one fist to his waist and raised the other hand in a gesture of concentration, his childish voice shrill: “Seal of the Night God—!”

As he formed the seal in midair, he glanced down at Tu Zhe’s worried face and sent him a burst of divine thought, along with images and information: “Brother Rascal, here is where Mo Lesha stashed the stolen treasures, and the full account of the artifacts crafted by Master Artisan Tian during his two centuries overseeing the Celestial Treasury, including who received them.”

With a turn of his mind, Tu Zhe grasped all these secrets in an instant. Yet receiving this knowledge at such a moment filled him with an oppressive dread.

Could it be that Doggy was not confident he could withstand the Dragon Elephant King’s hand?

Tu Zhe felt as if he were plummeting from the sky, his heart falling endlessly.

His eyes flushed crimson, a torrent of grief, resentment, and wrath surging to the crown of his head. An overwhelming murderous aura burst from him, making Shudra, Qin Lei, and the Jin brothers beside him all sense something profoundly amiss.

It was an unnatural field—now burning hot like a furnace, now cold as a glacier—so intense that his family could barely endure it.

Tu Zhe’s gaze never left Doggy. He reached out a hand, his voice preternaturally calm. “Someone give me a blade...”

Jin Mu, sensing the storm raging beneath his son’s placid exterior, knew this was no time for questions. He drew a trident-bladed halberd, its cold light flashing, and handed it to Tu Zhe.

Tu Zhe hefted it, his voice hoarse. “Excellent. It can go toe-to-toe with Erlang’s weapon...”

By now, the Dragon Elephant King’s hand loomed above the Celestial Treasury, indifferent to whether his attack would destroy it. Suddenly, the treasury blazed with divine light, a barrier flaring into existence to protect it.

Doggy had completed his incantation. As his piercing cry of “Seal of the Night God—!” rang out, a black dot appeared at his fingertip, swelling rapidly as it spun. In an instant, a pitch-black spatial vortex formed, expanding at an impossible speed. Within half a breath it had reached ten thousand miles wide, plunging Mount Sumeru’s summit into darkness and blotting out the sun. Its spinning pulled with immense force, seeking to suck in and shred the king’s colossal hand.

The Dragon Elephant King’s hand met the vortex without hesitation. A furious snort echoed from his distant palace, booming like thunder across the heavens, shaking the void and striking terror into every heart. Some lesser gods bled from the eyes and ears, others fainted and dropped from the sky, dying instantly.

As the king’s fury shook the heavens, his Brahmic hand grew denser, suddenly swelling to over a hundred thousand fathoms. The collision was monumental.

Before the rapt eyes of all, the hand clashed with the edge of the vortex. The spinning black hole ground against the hand’s surface, sparking and flinging fragments of Brahmic energy in every direction. At the same time, the black hole shrank visibly, being eroded by the hand. The void itself splintered under the force, as if on the verge of collapse.

Amid shouts of astonishment, the hand wore away the black hole, while the black hole continued to carve at the hand. In just a few breaths, both collapsed and dissipated, their darkness and power fading, the sun shining out once more.

Doggy hung motionless in the sky, still in the posture of the Night God’s Seal, like a statue. After a few heartbeats, as if his bones had vanished, he tumbled helplessly from the air.

“Doggy—!” Tu Zhe’s anguished cry tore through the sky. Clutching the trident halberd, he stepped into the void, diving toward the falling Doggy.

He caught him, cradling him as gently as if he were made of porcelain.

Doggy’s eyes were closed, his breath stilled. His small, soft body, limp as if boneless, lay in Tu Zhe’s arms, bright blood seeping from his tender lips.

Tu Zhe landed, sitting cross-legged, his weapon laid by his side.

“Doggy, can you wake up? Brother Rascal still has so many funny words from the net to teach you...”

“Doggy... don’t scare me, I’m timid, I’ll wet my pants...”

“Doggy... open your eyes, please, just look at me. In this wretched place, you’re the only family I have left... Doggy...”

Tears streaming down his face, Tu Zhe gently stroked Doggy’s fur, wiping the blood from his lips with his sleeve. The sight of his grief broke every onlooker’s heart.

The Jin brothers came over and knelt beside him in silence. Qin Lei joined them, his expression complex, grasping Tu Zhe’s arm. Shudra looked on, thinking, “Young master, that you could grieve so for a dog...”

Just then, another cold snort echoed from the Dragon Elephant King’s palace. A slightly smaller hand of primordial energy appeared once more, pressing inexorably down toward Tu Zhe and his companions.

Huluzhina, seeing this, screamed with cruel delight, “Kill them! Crush these outsiders to dust—die for me!”

Tu Zhe, broken with sorrow, raised his head, wiped his tears, and handed Doggy to Jin Mu, his voice hoarse. “Father, please take care of Doggy for me...”

Jin Mu accepted Doggy without a word, wanting to speak but unable to make a sound. He knew what Tu Zhe intended—but could he stop him? His son was about to dash himself like an egg against a stone. Whether it was foolishness or courage, he would lose him all the same. Heaven, have you bestowed him life just to snatch it away? You, who know neither justice nor compassion—what kind of god are you?

Tu Zhe stood, halberd in hand. His hair streamed in the wind, his clothes billowed, his aura surged.

He knew not a single spell.

He possessed not one power beyond that of a mere celestial.

But damn it, dare to hurt my Doggy, and even if I’m just an egg, I’ll smash my yolk on your stone; even if I’m a pile of dung, I’ll disgust you until you vomit up the milk you drank as a child.

He stepped into the sky, halberd in hand, advancing toward the king’s colossal hand.

What does it mean for the people to have no fear of death—so how can you threaten them with death?

What does it mean to press on, even against a thousand or ten thousand foes?

What does it mean that when there is injustice in the world, a man must strike down the wicked?

What does it mean to care not how mighty the enemy is, only to ask where the enemy is?

To press ever forward, undaunted by death, and never regret.

Tu Zhe’s resolute stride across the void toward the Dragon Elephant King’s hand bewitched every hidden queen and heavenly maiden in the distant clouds. Each covered her lips, mist in her eyes.

Such a man, so fearless, such a spirit, timeless in its splendor. If he would risk his life for a dog, what would he do for those he loved?

Their hearts shattered with sorrow.

As for the gods and princes, seeing Tu Zhe in that moment left them dumbstruck.

Who else could so utterly scorn the majesty of the Dragon Elephant King?

Who else would face his Brahmic hand with such unflinching pride?

Indeed, it was folly.

Indeed, it was reckless.

Yet who among them could claim such courage as Tu Zhe’s?