Taiyin Void Sky Technique

The Immortal Master of Penglai had a simple goal: to use the Third Mystic Pass to unleash a divine power and slay Xu Ying's true body first! The Penglai Immortal Realm was a world unto itself. By mastering Penglai's Heavenly Dao, Xu Ying held nearly all the power of that entire world in his hands. Under these circumstances, every strand of immortal spiritual qi in Penglai was at Xu Ying's disposal. Even though the Immortal Master was an Immortal King of Penglai, his power could never surpass the might of an entire world! Even if he devoured every immortal and gathered all their strength into himself, his might would still fall short of Xu Ying's—it could never match it, much less surpass it. Thus, it was only a matter of time before Xu Ying refined him to death. He had only one chance at victory: to eliminate Xu Ying before Xu Ying could eliminate him! As long as Xu Ying died, it would not matter how formidable Penglai's Heavenly Dao was or how exquisite Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao avatar proved to be—none of it would have any purpose left! His divine power was an art of the immortal path. Viewed from afar, it appeared as a cauldron flying through the sky! Although the Yuanchu Great World had suffered an invasion by the demonic realm, many sects and sacred grounds still resided within it. The Qi Refiners resisting the demonic incursion hailed from precisely these sacred grounds. One of them was Daozhen Palace, home to twenty-eight hundred disciples, with numerous experts among them and over a hundred who had formed Primordial Spirits. The master of Daozhen Palace, Wuchenzi, was an Ascension stage Qi Refiner whose cultivation was extraordinarily formidable. He was hailed as the foremost figure Daozhen Palace had seen in nearly three thousand years. On this day, the entire Daozhen Palace was engaged in cultivation when Wuchenzi summoned his beloved disciple, Zhou Yashu, and instructed him, "Now the Dao wanes as the demonic waxes, and the demonic way invades our world. This is the moment for cultivators of our generation to render meritorious service and establish our names. Go down the mountain, assist the common folk, eliminate demons, and defend the Dao. Perhaps an opportunity of your own awaits you." Zhou Yashu complied and was just about to descend the mountain when a great cauldron radiating magnificent multicolored clouds suddenly flew through the sky, heading straight toward the sacred ground of Daozhen Palace. Catching sight of it from afar, Wuchenzi was frightened out of his wits. He hurriedly swept his sleeve, scooping up Zhou Yashu and sending him flying down the mountain, shouting fiercely, "All disciples, hear my command! Flee—" Barely had the words left his mouth when the immortal cauldron swept past Daozhen Palace, trailing magnificent immortal light like the tail feathers of a phoenix. A single streak of that immortal light grazed past the sacred ground of Daozhen Palace. All twenty-eight hundred people of Daozhen Palace instantly evaporated. Even a massive section of the divine mountain's peak was hollowed out, vanishing into thin air! Daozhen Palace's mountain-protecting grand formation, its sect-suppressing supreme treasures, the spirits of past patriarchs, and the mountain-sealing wards were utterly useless, reduced to ash and dust in an instant! Before Wuchenzi was reduced to nothingness by the immortal light, he looked toward Zhou Yashu, whom he had cast down the mountain, and saw his strand of magic power still shielding his disciple as he flew toward the lowlands. *At least... a seed will remain for Daozhen Palace...* Zhou Yashu landed on the ground and looked back, only to see the sacred ground of Daozhen Palace completely evaporated—nothing remained! Zhou Yashu wept bitterly and looked up, crying out in anguish, "Why must it be like this? My Daozhen Palace eliminated demons to defend the Dao! Why would an immortal artifact destroy our Daozhen?!" The Void Sky Cauldron, the immortal path divine power of the Penglai Patriarch, radiated the might to reduce all things to void. Wherever its immortal light passed, whether mountains or rivers, everything dissolved into nothingness! This was an immortal path that transcended the Heavenly Dao, possessing extraordinary might! At this moment, Xu Ying had pushed his cultivation and strength to the absolute limit. He blasted forth various divine powers—Mount Buzhou, the Eight Desolations Sun Refining Furnace, the Chaotic Star Sea, the Seven-Colored Divine Tree, and the Abyss of Burying Dao—hurling them toward the immortal cauldron that dissolved all existence! Across the ten thousand li separating Penglai and Xu Ying, terrifying waves of power erupted, exploding continuously! Xu Ying was already standing in his Nuo Immortal's Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground, dwelling within the Four Immortals realm and driving his cultivation to the peak. As strike after strike flew from his hands, divine powers of mountains, furnaces, stars, trees, and abysses shot endlessly out of his latent transformation ground! He knew his strengths and his weaknesses. His strength lay in his forethought: as early as his first life, he had set down fourteen hundred Heavenly Dao runes and huabiao pillars. Furthermore, in this lifetime, he had completed the three thousand Heavenly Dao runes and mastered the power of the Penglai Immortal Realm's heaven and earth! His weakness was that although his true body was among the mightiest beings beneath the immortal level, his opponent's strength far exceeded that of ordinary immortals, placing him at the level of an Immortal King! Xu Ying could only trade space for a chance at victory, unleashing his divine powers as fiercely as possible before the other's immortal cauldron arrived to clash against it and reduce its destructive might! In a mere moment, he cast out over a hundred divine powers, exhausting most of his cultivation. Even with four Nuo ancestor cave-heavens, the strain was nearly unbearable. The immortal cauldron divine power finally arrived. Though its might had been severely diminished, its arrival still made Fairy Gushe, Yan Yu, and the others shudder in fear. The demon god battling them turned pale with fright, turned on his heel, and fled, not daring to linger for a single breath. Standing within his Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground, Xu Ying watched the three thousand Heavenly Dao runes light up across the canopy of the sky, forming the Heavenly Dao domain of the inner immortal realm. The next instant, the sky shattered. His Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground was fragile before the Penglai Immortal Master's cauldron! The colossal immortal cauldron crushed the Heavenly Dao domain. Under the invasion of the immortal path, the three thousand Heavenly Dao runes collapsed and rapidly dissolved into void! With an all-crushing momentum, the immortal cauldron pressed downward. Beneath it, Xu Ying's boundless Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground caved in with a deafening roar. The earth evaporated, star rivers were annihilated, and Mount Buzhou collapsed! The imprints of the various divine powers he had visualized shattered one after another, turning into nothingness! Xu Ying roared in fury beneath the cauldron, frantically throwing punches to strike at the crushing vessel! Behind him, the four Nuo ancestor cave-heavens operated to their limits. Yet beneath the cauldron's pressure, his skin ruptured with popping sounds, his blood splattered into the air, and his flesh began to dissolve! Even though Xu Ying possessed the Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven and an astonishing speed of bodily recovery, he still could not keep pace with the rate of dissolution! And this was before the cauldron had even fully descended. If it truly struck and its full power detonated, Xu Ying would never be able to withstand it with his current cultivation! At that critical juncture, Fairy Gushe and the seven Penglai immortals led by Yan Yu charged into Xu Ying's collapsing Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground. Fairy Gushe's face paled abruptly. "It is the Immortal Master's divine power, the Taiyin Void Sky Cauldron! Everyone, join forces to resist it!" Without hesitation, she summoned her Dao realm, her Primordial Spirit standing tall within it as she used the realm to violently clash against the Taiyin Void Sky Cauldron! Yan Yu, Xiang Hao, Yu Qin, and the other four pavilion masters also manifested their respective Dao realms, doing everything in their power to meet the Void Sky Cauldron head-on! The Taiyin Void Sky Cauldron bore down from above. In an instant, countless leagues of space within the Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground collapsed, and vast stretches of land rose into the air as if weightless, dissolving into nothingness. Oceans and stars drifted upward, unraveling into the void! Gushe, Yan Yu, and the others each groaned in agony, blood leaking from their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses as their own Dao realms began to fracture and collapse. Fairy Gushe's strength was comparable to that of a top-tier fisher. Yan Yu and the other Penglai pavilion masters occupied fewer immortal mountains and possessed fewer resources, so their cultivation was somewhat inferior to hers, but not by much. Moreover, after Xu Ying had completed Penglai's Heavenly Dao, their cultivation had doubled, granting them formidable strength. Yet the eight of them still felt an unimaginable pressure in an instant—the crushing weight of an Immortal King's divine power, followed by the suppression of an Immortal King's immortal path bearing down upon their own paths! *The Dao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name.* The higher immortal path, unnamable and unspeakable, imposed an absolute suppression upon their Dao realms. Even as they fought with all their might, they felt powerless. *Snap! Snap! Snap!* Their skin split open, their blood boiled into vapor, and they too began to dissolve into void! Just then, a surging wave of vitality enveloped the eight of them, causing their bodies to rapidly regenerate and resist the immortal path's dissolution. *Boom! Boom!* The Void Sky Cauldron bore down upon the nine of them. In that moment, the giant cauldron's might detonated with an earth-shattering roar. Immortal light swept across everything, and the resonant sounds of the immortal path reached their crescendo! The fleeing demon god heard the resonant tones produced by the Void Sky Cauldron's explosion, and the paths within his body suddenly fell into disorder. His bones grew wildly in every direction, piercing through his skin and severely injuring him. The demon god roared in fury, snapping those protruding bones with his bare hands. Coughing blood continuously, he leaped away to put distance between himself and the aftershocks of the cauldron. Only after the Void Sky Cauldron's might had completely poured forth did the area finally return to stillness. The demon god halted his footsteps, staring back toward the site in shock and suspicion. Only after a long while did he dare move, cautiously exploring the ruins. The Immortal Master's divine power had battered this stretch of heaven and earth beyond recognition, but the most severe damage was at the epicenter of the Taiyin Void Sky Cauldron's detonation. A thousand li in every direction had become a desolate no-man's-land. The residual might of the immortal path had twisted the Heavenly Daos here into something far more terrifying than the demonic path! The moment the demon god stepped into this ground, his expression shifted drastically, and he hastily pulled back his foot. The flesh and blood on his sole had already begun to dissolve into void. He let out a shout, and after a moment, hundreds of demonic creatures came stampeding over, charging into the territory. Some of them lost their flesh and blood the instant they entered, leaving behind only white bones that clattered to the ground; the demonic paths within others were twisted by the immortal path, plunging them into madness and death! In a mere breath, seven or eight hundred demonic creatures were completely wiped out! "Those demon immortals claim we are demons, but their immortal path is even more sinister than the demonic path!" Seeing this, the demon god did not dare investigate further. With a cold sneer, he turned and departed. Yet at the center of this terrifying land, a faint seven-colored radiance flickered. It was a Seven-Colored Divine Tree. The tree's leaves had withered, countless roots and branches had snapped, and its trunk was scarred and riddled with holes. Beneath the tree, nine figures stood frozen in defensive postures, straining with all their might to keep from falling. Xu Ying's Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground and every scenery he had comprehended had been wiped clean. Whether Mount Buzhou or the Abyss of Burying Dao, all had been reduced to nothingness! The only thing left standing was this Seven-Colored Divine Tree! Relying on the tree's final defense, they had finally weathered the onslaught of the Immortal King divine power, the Void Sky Cauldron. "We survived..." Fairy Gushe managed a faint smile. Then, all nine of them collapsed in a heap. Had that demon god dared to take the risk, he could have easily killed all nine great experts, securing an unmatched merit that would have made him famous across the demonic realm—advancing to Heavenly Demon God or Demon Lord would have been well within reach. Yet he had been too cautious. He had not noticed Xu Ying and the others beneath the divine tree; even had he noticed them, he would never have dared enter the lingering remnants of the Taiyin Void Sky Cauldron. It was simply too dangerous. Beneath the Seven-Colored Divine Tree, the eight immortals were gravely wounded and fell unconscious. Only Xu Ying gritted his teeth, desperately fighting the urge to black out. He still had to control his Heavenly Dao avatar ten thousand li away in the Penglai Immortal Realm and deliver the fatal strike to the Immortal Master! In the Penglai Immortal Realm, the great Dao of heaven and earth was boiling. Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao avatar channeled all the power he could harness throughout Penglai into himself, suppressing the Third Mystic Pass! This mystic pass was named Yujing Pass. Opening it revealed Jade Capital City of the Immortal Realm behind its gates! The process of a Qi Refiner leaping past Yujing Pass and ascending to Jade Capital was the Ascension stage! This pass was linked to Xu Ying by blood. It was a realm severed from Xu Ying's Realm of Xiyi and refined into a magic treasure by the Penglai Immortal Master. Now, this treasure had become the strongest immortal artifact resisting Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao avatar, parrying Xu Ying's attacks again and again! Yet the Immortal Master's injuries grew heavier with every exchange. Each time he summoned the pass to clash against Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao avatar, his wounds worsened. He had not practiced Nuo methods and possessed no Nuo ancestor cave-heavens; facing injuries to both flesh and Primordial Spirit, he could only rely on his own recovery. Meanwhile, Xu Ying's offensive grew fiercer by the moment. Various Heavenly Dao seals crashed down, and he even unleashed the divine powers of his first lifetime! Even more terrifyingly, the target of Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao avatar was to sever his cultivation realms! Several times already, the Immortal Master had narrowly escaped disaster, nearly having his realm sliced away by sword light. "The seven immortals of Penglai have ruined my grand endeavor!" The Penglai Immortal Master took a direct blow from Xu Ying, coughing up blood as he was thrown backward. He had unleashed the Taiyin Void Sky Cauldron through the Third Mystic Pass and had nearly destroyed Xu Ying and Gushe. It was entirely because of Yan Yu, Xiang Hao, and the other Penglai immortals that his efforts had fallen short at the final step! *Xu Ying joined forces with Gushe and the others to survive my strike, but his lamp is out of oil. He is only holding on by sheer willpower! Just one more strike, and I can wipe them out entirely!* Summoning the Third Mystic Pass, he parried left and right. Catching an opening, he blasted another divine power into the mystic pass, sending it rushing straight toward Xu Ying's location! Yet at the very instant he struck, a flash of sword light bypassed the pass and cleaved directly into his immortal path Primordial Spirit! Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao avatar gripped the sword and struck thrice in rapid succession—*slash, slash, slash!* The Penglai Immortal Master immediately felt his cultivation plummet, and terror seized his heart. In a matter of breaths, his Dao realm crumbled in a steep decline before completely disintegrating, tumbling straight from the Immortal King realm down to the Ascension stage! Overwhelmed by dread, the Penglai Immortal Master leaped into the air and threw himself toward the celestial gate. At the same moment, a sword light stabbed into the gate. The Penglai Immortal Master whipped his hand around to unleash the Taiyin Void Sky Seal, but the sword light pierced his palm, punching straight through the Void Sky Cauldron seal embedded there! The Penglai Immortal Master spat blood as his five fingers were sliced away, tumbling through the air. He was no longer an Immortal King; even the slightest clash brought severe injury. He channeled the mystic pass, straining with everything he had to close the doors. As long as the gates shut, no matter how vast Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao avatar's powers might be, he would never find his destination! This Third Mystic Pass possessed an unfathomable ability: once opened, it could lead into any world across the myriad heavens and realms. It was his supreme treasure for saving his own life! At the very moment the Third Mystic Pass began to slam shut, a giant hand of the Heavenly Dao suddenly thrust between the doors, blocking them! *Boom! Boom!* The hand clenched into a fist and smashed brutally against the Penglai Immortal Master. A patch of the Yuanchu Great World's sky abruptly exploded, and the Immortal Master tumbled out of the void, crashing violently into the demonic realm. Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao avatar seized the Third Mystic Pass. With no time to finish off the Immortal Master, he immediately reached his hand into the portal! A massive hand reached through the sky, surging straight toward Xu Ying's location. In the sky above, beside that giant hand, was the other divine power the Penglai Immortal Master had unleashed earlier. It was now descending from the heavens, poised to obliterate all nine people beneath it! This divine power was called the Void Sky Dao King Halberd. It plummeted like an immense comet, its radiant spear tip blazing as it fell toward Xu Ying and the others! Just as the Void Sky Dao King Halberd was about to strike the ground, the great hand of the Heavenly Dao swept in, catching the halberd and seizing the divine power firmly in its grasp. The halberd continued its downward plunge, finally halting mere yards above the ground! With a series of sharp cracks, the Void Sky Dao King Halberd shattered, crushed to powder by the hand of the Heavenly Dao! Beneath the ruined Seven-Colored Divine Tree, Xu Ying's accumulated injuries finally erupted. Unable to hold on any longer, he succumbed to darkness and lost consciousness. Crashing to the ground, the Penglai Immortal Master groaned. All four limbs were shattered, leaving him gravely wounded and unable to rise. He struggled to look around and saw a divine mountain nearby that was missing its peak. Footsteps approached. A youth walked toward him, his expression honest and upright. The Penglai Immortal Master immediately sat up, striving to maintain the air of a transcendent master as he spoke: "I am Immortal King Meng Wuhuai. Treacherous villains took advantage of me and struck me down here. Youth, your immortal fortune has arrived. What is your name?" A sudden flash of inspiration struck the youth, and he hastily bowed in reverence. "This disciple is Zhou Yashu!" The Penglai Immortal Master immediately replied, "Good, Zhou Yashu. I shall take you as my disciple and teach you the Taiyin Void Sky Technique! You will help me escape that villain's clutches!" "The Taiyin Void Sky Technique?" Zhou Yashu could not help but recall the Void Sky Cauldron that had obliterated Daozhen Palace. Lowering his head, a sharp glint flickered in his eyes.