Escorted by the bronze bell, Xu Ying fled the immortal palace and bolted straight toward Jade Mountain. Hearing those words, he could not help but shudder inwardly. *The Heavenly Dao is an impostor? Why are they impersonating the Heavenly Dao? Could the weapons they left behind be the Heavenly Dao divine artifacts?*
The revelations from the Painted Immortal were utterly terrifying, defying any calm contemplation.
*The heavenly gods of the Heavenly Dao world claim to be the executors of the Heavenly Dao and wield Heavenly Dao divine artifacts. Could it be that these heavenly gods are impostors too?* Xu Ying dared not pursue the thought any further.
In the void near the Lesser Xuan Heaven immortal root, a horrifying aura erupted. A dreadful being from another world was descending by way of the spiritual root!
Space collapsed and disintegrated ceaselessly as an immensely towering silhouette stepped forth from the crumbling void. Only its massive physique was visible; its head and face were completely hidden. Everything above the neck was enveloped in light shaped like a maple leaf. The light blazed so brightly that none could gaze directly upon it!
"Heavenly God Longyuan!"
The Qi Refiners of the Yuanding World were both shocked and overjoyed. This towering figure was none other than Heavenly God Longyuan, whom they had just summoned through their grand sacrifice. This great god was the guardian deity of their world. From the common folk down below to the Qi Refiners up above, every living being in the Yuanding World bowed and offered reverence to Longyuan!
To their eyes, Heavenly God Longyuan was omnipotent.
Two pillars of light beamed from Longyuan's gaze, sweeping across the fleeing crowd before snapping back to fix upon Xu Ying as he sprinted toward Jade Mountain.
The maple-leaf-shaped light wavered—his inner calm was clearly shaken.
"People of Yuanding, hear my command: capture him, dead or alive!" he declared.
Hearing this, the four-armed outlanders of the Yuanding World leaped into the air in droves, giving chase after Xu Ying.
Heavenly God Longyuan's gaze shifted to the Painted Immortal. His voice rang out from within the light, brimming with sacred majesty. "A maggot that dares offend the Heavenly Dao! Do you truly believe that holding a Heavenly Dao divine artifact makes you the Heavenly Dao, capable of controlling it? Sheer delusion! You are guilty of defying Heaven and deserve execution!"
The Painted Immortal fixed his gaze upon him and remarked leisurely, "And with what do you intend to execute me?"
He slowly raised a hand and murmured, "Tianzhu, come!"
The dragon-headed divine being vanished, transforming into a Heavenly Dao divine artifact that whistled through the air and fell into his grasp.
It was a divine sword, considerably broader and thicker than an ordinary blade. The hilt was shaped like a dragon's head, and the blade was coiled by a dragon god, etched with bird-and-worm seal script.
"This treasure is a Heavenly Dao divine artifact named Tianzhu, Heaven's Execution. It represents Heaven's will to slaughter!"
The Painted Immortal lightly stroked the blade as his killing intent surged wildly. His eyes gleamed behind his mask. "With Tianzhu in my hands, I am the Heavenly Dao. As for you false gods fallen into the mortal realm, unable to return to the Heavenly Dao world, you will slowly lose the blessing of the Heavenly Dao."
He continued indifferently, "You have drifted in the mortal dust for over ten thousand years, have you not? You cannot sense the Heavenly Dao, nor can you obtain its recognition. All you can do is dupe the living beings of the Yuanding World into revering you as a heavenly god, clinging to a pitiful shred of dignity. In truth, you are merely a discarded piece of trash, used up and thrown away, doomed never to return to the world of the Great Dao!"
Racing toward Jade Mountain with all his might, Xu Ying felt his scalp tingle at these words. He yelled repeatedly, "Lord Bell! Faster! Move faster!"
The bronze bell was equally horrified. It desperately shielded Xu Ying and Yuan Qi as they barreled toward Jade Mountain, thinking to itself, *These two are airing all the dirty laundry, tearing open each other's scabs one after another! When they clash, they'll pull out every stop to slaughter each other! If we're even a step too slow, we're dead!*
The auras of the Painted Immortal and Heavenly God Longyuan climbed ever higher. Inside the immortal palace, the last of the escaping cultivators fell under the sway of their oppressive auras. Strange noises buzzed in their ears, bizarre patterns danced before their eyes, and plunged into torment, they began hacking each other to pieces.
In the blink of an eye, dozens perished.
The others fleeing in panic glanced back, only to see those left behind lose human shape in moments. Under the influence of the Heavenly Dao, they melted into writhing piles of flesh and blood, mutating into gods-knew-what abominations. Xu Ying and his companions had fled early enough to escape the initial contagion.
At last, the Painted Immortal drove Tianzhu, sending the divine sword flying straight at Heavenly God Longyuan!
In that instant, an immense Heavenly Might and slaughterous aura surged forward like a tidal wave, battering the bronze bell until it clanged furiously while escorting Xu Ying and Yuan Qi toward Jade Mountain. The scions of great families and four-armed outlanders escaping the palace also activated their respective treasures to ward off the Heavenly Might and slaughterous chill.
Even so, many lacked protective artifacts or held treasures of insufficient power, leaving them vulnerable to the Heavenly Might and Tianzhu's killing intent. One Nuo master was running when sword qi erupted from inside his body, slicing him into countless pieces!
That sword qi was the direct manifestation of Tianzhu's aura invading the Nuo master's body!
Witnessing this, Xu Ying's heart leaped into his throat. He popped the cork from his gourd, tilted his head back, and gulped down the primordial Dao essence, thinking, *Perhaps this can resist the influence of the Heavenly Dao!*
The gourd held an unimaginable quantity of primordial Dao essence. With a single mouthful, Xu Ying felt the immortal medicine of his soul ignite, turning into a bountiful wave of energy that nourished his three souls and seven spirits!
A soul was composed of three souls, seven spirits, and an imperishable true spirit. An ordinary person possessed only a speck of an imperishable true spirit, a tiny spark of spiritual light—hence the saying, "a speck of true spirit never perishes."
Yet while others had merely a speck of an imperishable true spirit, Xu Ying's entire being was an imperishable true spirit, leaving very little room for his three souls and seven spirits. Naturally, this was only by comparison.
In truth, Xu Ying placed immense value on his souls, training diligently precisely to patch this deficiency. But his imperishable true spirit was simply too powerful; no matter how dramatically his souls improved, they still seemed negligible next to it.
Now that he had opened the Bubbling Spring secret depository, drawing upon the immortal medicine of the soul at every moment to comprehend the orthodox method, augmented by this primordial Dao essence, his soul cultivation was bound to advance by leaps and bounds!
Xu Ying poured the essence down his throat, but soon realized he could absorb no more. The primordial Dao essence was a miraculous substance refined by the Lesser Xuan Heaven spiritual root from spiritual qi gathered near the Immortal Realm. Originally, it possessed the effects of enhancing cultivation, strengthening the constitution, and sharpening comprehension. But its greatest purpose was actually to replenish an immortal's cultivation and refine their immortal body.
When a Qi Refiner of the lower realm underwent tribulation and ascended into an immortal guided by celestial light, their first stop was here. Exhausted by the crossing, they desperately needed to replenish themselves with primordial Dao essence.
At that time, secular impurities still lingered within an immortal's body and Primordial Spirit, requiring primordial Dao essence to flush them out and achieve ultimate purification through its baptism. Xu Ying was no immortal; to have drunk so much without bursting apart was already a testament to his extraordinary mettle. Drinking any more would endanger his physical form.
"Seventh Master, take it!" Xu Ying tossed the gourd to Yuan Qi.
Yuan Qi caught it with his coils, opened his maw, and poured the primordial Dao essence in. Still shielding them as it flew toward Jade Mountain, the bronze bell shouted hastily, "Seventh Master, don't drink it all! Save some for me!"
Yuan Qi soon let out a full burp, spitting a round orb of watery luminescence from his mouth. His body was completely saturated with primordial Dao essence and could hold no more.
"Lord Bell, catch!" Yuan Qi threw the gourd into the air.
The bronze bell clanged with excitement, using its divine sense to wrap around the gourd and siphon the primordial Dao essence inside to temper its material.
"Neither of you has any real fortune! Going into a treasure trove, you only managed to haul away half a head of garlic. I could have cleared it out and pulled the root right out of the ground!" it laughed heartily. Even so, it could not swallow much before its bell walls reached full capacity, leaving it thoroughly dejected.
Xu Ying tucked the gourd into his Realm of Xiyi and frantically operated the Taiyi Guiding Technique to fish up the immortal medicine of the six secret depositories, seeking to accelerate his cultivation and consume more of the primordial Dao essence.
The bronze bell brought him above Jade Mountain when the sky suddenly convulsed violently. The force of the Heavenly Dao rippled here, causing the vegetation across Jade Mountain to sprout like mad!
In a flash, the mountain was smothered in a horrifying sea of green. The people rushing out of the immortal palace whose bodies had been invaded by the power of the Heavenly Dao began mutating as well, swelling into grotesque, writhing mounds of flesh!
The surviving cultivators held up their treasures in resistance and fled down the slopes. The mountain was far too high, leaving them terribly exposed to the clash beyond the firmament. Yet in the airspace of Lesser Xuan Heaven lingered fragmented divine powers left behind from the ancient battle between the great villain and the supreme experts of the myriad realms.
Endowed with the Heavenly Eye, Xu Ying saw through the hidden hazards and landed unharmed. But others were too slow to evade; touching those lingering remnants, they exploded in midair into bursts of bloody mist.
By the time they reached the ground, less than three out of ten remained.
By now, ripples disturbed the sky like water. Xu Ying looked up and barely caught sight of the masked sword immortal beyond the heavens brandishing Tianzhu in a ferocious clash with Heavenly God Longyuan amidst the starry void. Sheets of radiance unfurled across the stars, appearing deceptively slow.
*Lesser Xuan Heaven is under the influence of a heavenly god and a Heavenly Dao divine artifact; something disastrous is bound to happen! The Stone City was built by the mightiest warriors of the myriad realms to besiege the great villain, crafted to be indestructible. That is the safest haven to escape this Heavenly Dao shockwave!*
Xu Ying bolted toward the Stone City at top speed.
Brilliant colored light emerged across the sky, cascading from above and crashing into the desert. Beautiful yet deadly, the light teemed with bizarre power—the very illumination he had glimpsed earlier with his Heavenly Eye.
Now, these lights had descended into Taiyi Lesser Xuan Heaven, carrying the obscure, profound aura of the Heavenly Dao.
Shafts of light plummeted over Xu Ying's head as well. Wherever they touched, the desert sank abruptly, as if crushed under the weight of invisible falling sword qi that even the dunes could not bear! He accelerated and darted to the side!
*Swish!*
A snow-bright light descended, sending dust churning as a blast wave surged out. Moving like a swimming dragon, Xu Ying narrowly dodged it.
Looking back, he saw a youth of the Cui clan standing amid dazzling radiance, a blank expression frozen on his face.
This person had landed nearby and fled alongside Xu Ying, yet had failed to outrun the radiant zone. Suddenly, the Cui scion split into countless razor-thin slices and collapsed slowly to the sand.
"Run!" several distant voices screamed.
Xu Ying traced the cries with his eyes, only to see several figures swallowed by another beam of heavenly light, perishing on the spot.
The clash of two supreme beings was simply too devastating. The shockwaves left Taiyi Lesser Xuan Heaven with virtually no safe foothold! Everyone had to keep moving continuously just to seek a sliver of survival amid the raining beams of light.
Xu Ying dragged Yuan Qi along at a dead run, weaving through the falling light. Suddenly, the sky brightened uniformly. He looked up, his heart sinking into despair. Yuan Qi also raised his head, staring blankly at the heavens.
A sheet of light covering the entire sky pierced through Taiyi Lesser Xuan Heaven, pressing downward. Beneath a technique of this scale, survival was impossible!
Just then, the bronze bell soared into the sky, bellowing, "What of a Heavenly Dao divine artifact? What of a heavenly god? Lord Bell here suppressed a heavenly god for three thousand years—don't you dare run wild before me!"
The bell expanded with a howl, meeting the heavenly light head-on as its chimes rang out without pause. The heavenly light pounded the bronze bell up and down, yet each time, the bell surged upward anew, obliterating the layers of light! Relieved, Xu Ying immediately pushed his speed to the limit toward the Stone City.
Suddenly, a four-armed outlander charged in from an angle. While still a hundred paces away, the wind of his fist churned up a towering wave of sand, crashing down like a writhing sand dragon! "Outlander, Heavenly God Longyuan wants you captured!"
As the fist struck, a dragon's roar reverberated, and the phantom of a coiling azure dragon manifested behind the outlander. It was a martial Dao technique.
The azure dragon appeared exceptionally lifelike; clearly, he had witnessed a real azure dragon and grasped its Dao image to have cultivated his martial technique to such a pitch! Just as Xu Ying moved to sidestep the blow, an immense weight settled upon him, as though a mountain were bearing down on his shoulders.
He looked up to see a Golden Core whistling through the air, radiating tens of thousands of light beams as it pressed down from above! A female four-armed outlander swooped in, shouting, "By order of Heavenly God Longyuan, you are to be kept here, dead or alive!"
The two coordinated seamlessly: one launched a distraction while the other caught Xu Ying off guard, activating her Golden Core to pin him down. With Xu Ying's mobility drastically hindered, the male outlander's martial technique slammed into him with full force!
*Crack!*
The sand dragon shattered, and the outlander's fist force disintegrated against Xu Ying's body.
The outlander was taken aback, but in the next instant he closed the distance, spreading his four arms in close-quarters combat.
Yet Xu Ying bore the woman's crushing suppression and met him head-on, trading blow for blow! Shocked and enraged, the outlander unleashed a torrential barrage using fists, palms, hooks, fingers, and chop strikes. Every blow echoed with a deafening dragon's roar and terrifying force—force potent enough to project a hundred li and slay a foe at that distance!
The Qi Refiners of the Yuanding World took pride in combat, which was why they often cultivated the martial Dao. Having been fortunate enough to comprehend the Azure Dragon Dao image, this outlander had achieved an astonishing level of martial prowess. Yet here, in point-blank combat where his martial art should have shone brightest, he hit a solid wall!
Though pinned by the woman's Golden Core, Dao sounds resonated within Xu Ying. His yuan qi surged like a boundless ocean, and his blood vitality was staggering.
Under that heavy suppression, he invoked the Yuan Dao Sound from the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing, channeling the intent of water and fire in cross-refinement. Within a few palms, he struck the four-armed outlander dead on the spot! Xu Ying then thrust a finger upward; the woman's Golden Core exploded with a loud pop, shattering her souls and spirits! Her corpse tumbled from the sky and crashed into the desert.
Xu Ying picked up his pace and sprinted toward the Stone City, thinking, *Dawn should be breaking over Yunmeng Marsh soon. The old immortal of the Zhu clan once said that come daybreak, the Stone City returns to Yunmeng Marsh. If one fails to return with it, great terror will ensue.*
"How dare you kill my disciples!"
Ahead, that powerhouse from the Yuanding World, Yun Fan, suddenly materialized. His Primordial Spirit towered behind him, its aura profound as an abyss. Without a word, Xu Ying brandished his broken saber, cleaving down with a banner of saber light!
This broken saber had been retrieved from the desert of Taiyi Lesser Xuan Heaven. It was not originally his, yet it responded as though he had refined it for ages. Its latent might erupted, forcing Yun Fan and his Primordial Spirit to raise their hands together to block it. Under that sweeping curtain of saber light, they slid backward across the sand!
It was not that Xu Ying's cultivation surpassed his—in truth, Xu Ying was far weaker—but the broken saber was simply too formidable, a supreme treasure refined by the mightiest of Qi Refiners. Yun Fan finally stabilized his footing and parried the blade. Seeing Xu Ying charging toward him, he laughed in fury. "Without that saber, what else do you have?"
Xu Ying flicked his sleeves. Across the desert, broken weapons belonging to Ascension-stage Qi Refiners rose from the yellow sands one after another! Each of these broken armaments bore a palm print—shattered by the very same person!
Xu Ying raised his hand, igniting the lingering might of Ascension-stage Qi Refiners dormant within the broken swords. Howling through the air, they surged like a tidal wave and engulfed Yun Fan!
Yun Fan was, after all, a Twelve-Story Pavilion stage master who had cultivated a Primordial Spirit. Remaining composed under crisis, he swung his four arms to parry the onslaught of ancient treasures, shuddering backward with every blow. "Let's see how long you can keep this up!"
Gritting his teeth in desperate defense, he thought, *Summoning these broken weapons consumes massive amounts of dharmic power. You are merely a Cross-Refinement stage Qi Refiner who only just formed a Golden Core; you won't last more than a few exchanges!*
Yet Xu Ying stepped forward with sleeves billowing, entirely unperturbed. In front and behind him, shattered treasures unearthed themselves one after another, hurling toward Yun Fan. Yun Fan coughed blood continuously, struggling to hold on, his heart filling with despair. *Why hasn't his dharmic power run dry?*
Before Xu Ying's power could deplete, Yun Fan's own gave out.
Pounded relentlessly by broken treasure after broken treasure, his dharmic power completely drained, Yun Fan was battered to death on the desert sands by hundreds of ancient armaments.
Even in death, he could not fathom why Xu Ying was able to command the treasures of the mightiest Qi Refiners across the myriad realms, nor why Xu Ying possessed nearly limitless dharmic power to unleash their might over and over.
Only after confirming Yun Fan's demise did Xu Ying breathe a sigh of relief. He retrieved the gourd and took another swig of primordial Dao essence, muttering, "As expected of a master who has formed a Primordial Spirit—he could take quite a beating. If I didn't have this primordial Dao essence to replenish my dharmic power, let alone killing him, surviving his hands would have been difficult!"
Delayed for so long by Yun Fan, he quickened his pace, rushing straight for the Stone City. In the distance, the city came into view, bringing him some relief. *The Stone City is still there...*
Just then, the Stone City trembled slightly and began floating upward.
Xu Ying broke into an all-out sprint, running faster and faster. Yet the stone city rose higher and higher, shuddered abruptly, tore through the void, and vanished without a trace!
Xu Ying skidded to a halt, reassuring himself, "It's fine, it's fine. The Stone City will return on the next full moon. I only need to wait a month to return to Yunmeng Marsh."
He gave a chuckle. "The old immortal of the Zhu clan was poked to death by my Mud Pill technique; his knowledge was clearly shallow. There won't be any 'great terror' in Taiyi Lesser Xuan Heaven!"
At that very moment, the sky suddenly dimmed, and a sinister wind swept up. A figure stepped forward toward Xu Ying. Xu Ying focused his gaze, only to see another version of himself.
Chapter 149