Thousands of figures, each as mighty as an immortal, were arrayed across the sky in groups of five, forming the Five Extremes Grand Formations.
There were thousands of these formations in all. As they turned, five-colored qi surged into the sky—darting and weaving through the void like sharp swords, immortal silks, and flowing ribbons—drowning the entire area in radiant five-colored immortal light!
The immortal formations locked down the Dao Comprehension Platform. The sole target of these thousands of immortals was the white-robed scholar standing upon it: the Little Celestial Venerable.
The Little Celestial Venerable tilted his head back, gazing up at the masters stationed at varying heights, a look of perplexity in his eyes.
These experts hailed from the myriad worlds of the heavens, yet every last one of them practiced the exact same technique: the Five Extremes Sky-Surpassing Skill!
The Five Extremes Sky-Surpassing Skill was an immortal path technique. Li Pingsheng, who cultivated this art, had clashed with his disciple Chu Tiandu. Though Li Pingsheng had been defeated, the sheer power of the art had left a deep impression.
Yet for so many masters from different worlds to all hail from the Five Extremes Sect and all cultivate the Five Extremes Sky-Surpassing Skill was bizarre in the extreme!
Sects across the heavens and myriad worlds were typically the lineages left behind by immortals upon their ascension.
An immortal could only ascend once, so naturally they could only leave behind a single lineage. Why, then, was there a Five Extremes Sect in every world across the heavens? And why did every one of these Five Extremes Sects possess the legacy of the Five Extremes Sky-Surpassing Skill?
"This can only mean that all these Five Extremes Sects share the same patriarch!"
Doubt still lingered in the Little Celestial Venerable's eyes. What manner of person could establish a sect in every realm across the heavens and become the founding ancestor to them all?
Planting one's power throughout the myriad worlds was no simple feat.
Which enduring sect did not have an immortal backing it?
"Unless this person's reach can stretch into the myriad worlds all at once. Their power must be formidable enough that the sects of those worlds have no choice but to tacitly permit his sect's existence. It is hard to say how vast their influence is in the Immortal Realm, but in the mortal realm, it must be immense!"
A thought stirred within the Little Celestial Venerable. Looking around, he smiled faintly. "Which Immortal King of Weixu is the founding ancestor of the Five Extremes Sect?"
He possessed a sharp mind. Seeing this display, he realized at once that only Weixu—which acted on behalf of the heavens—wielded such terrifying deterrence, and only Weixu could force those sects to tolerate the Five Extremes Sect.
Because Weixu held the authority over the Great Purge!
"Little Celestial Venerable, you have no need to know much. All you need to know is that today is the day of your demise!"
One after another, the Five Extremes Sect experts burst into booming laughter.
The next instant, immortal swords soared into the air, potent enough to twist and warp the void behind them.
The immortal artifacts moved in tandem with the Five Extremes Grand Formations. In the blink of an eye, bolstered by the formations, their might reached a zenith!
Radiating five-colored immortal light, the Five Extremes Sky-Surpassing Swords struck, thrusting straight toward the Little Celestial Venerable!
The Little Celestial Venerable gave a flick of his finger, striking the tip of one immortal sword. The blade bent under the impact until it curved like a boiled shrimp!
The five masters maintaining this Five Extremes Sky-Surpassing Sword grunted in unison as the recoil struck them, blood trickling from the corners of their mouths!
With a sweep of his sleeve, the Little Celestial Venerable drew dozens of incoming immortal swords into his garment, invoking a universe within his sleeve. With a forceful shake, the dozens of blades inside clanged and clashed violently!
The one or two hundred supreme experts controlling those swords felt their auras scatter; stumbling and off-balance, they swayed haphazardly.
The Little Celestial Venerable's Primordial Spirit rose into the air, unfurling his Dao field. His Primordial Spirit stood tall within the field, appearing like both an immortal and a demon. When hundreds of other immortal swords pierced into the Dao field, they ground to a halt, their forward momentum sluggish and stymied!
"Unite the Five Extremes Formations!"
Roars rang out across the sky. The thousands of Five Extremes Sect experts shifted their stances, merging the layers of formations. Once combined, ten people empowered a single sword formation. Though the number of formations plummeted, their power surged drastically!
*Chi! Chi! Chi!*
Of the immortal swords that had pierced into the Dao field, some plummeted from the sky, while others saw their power skyrocket, hissing sharply as they drove deeper within!
The Little Celestial Venerable was surprised. He saw the newly merged formations combine once more. Half of the immortal swords fell out of control, yet the might of the remaining blades doubled!
The swords accelerated sharply, hurtling directly toward his Primordial Spirit!
Behind the Little Celestial Venerable, the six Nuo ancestor cave-heavens opened fully. Standing like an immortal fiend who had set foot into the realm of Immortal Kings, he locked all the immortal swords in place once again.
Yet the Five Extremes Formations merged yet again, bringing forty people to each formation. Immediately afterward came another fusion, raising the count to eighty people per formation, and then one more, reaching one hundred and sixty people per formation!
One hundred and sixty Ascension-stage grand masters, cultivating an Immortal King-level technique, channeled their collective cultivation into a single sword. It was as though an entity approaching the power of an Immortal King wielded the blade to clash against the Little Celestial Venerable!
And there were sixty-four such entities!
Sixty-four immortal swords radiated five-colored immortal light, swooping toward the Little Celestial Venerable from every angle. Even with all six Nuo ancestor cave-heavens wide open and his Dao field fully deployed, he could not stop the ferocious power of the five-colored immortal light!
Suddenly, the Little Celestial Venerable reached out and snatched an immortal sword from the ground. Holding the blade, he thrust forward to meet an incoming beam of five-colored immortal light. The instant the sword tips collided, all one hundred and sixty masters controlling that blade coughed up blood!
Yet through their combined might, these one hundred and sixty Ascension-stage masters had actually managed to withstand the force of the Little Celestial Venerable's strike.
The Little Celestial Venerable swung his sword in rapid succession. The Dao Comprehension Platform was not large, and his figure flitted across it, blossoming sword lights complementing his fluttering white robes like pear blossoms adrift in the wind.
Around the platform, endless thunderous rumbles sounded. The Ascension-stage masters maintaining the immortal formations spat blood one after another, their formations thrown into disarray and on the verge of collapse!
"Merge the formations!"
An aged voice rang out. As figures shifted across the sky, the sixty-four formations were reduced to thirty-two.
*Clang!*
The sword in the Little Celestial Venerable's hand was deflected by an incoming immortal blade. Even so, with weapon in hand, he strolled leisurely across the platform, parrying the onslaught of all thirty-two formations.
His cultivation seemed boundless, forever remaining at its peak, whereas the experts from the myriad worlds fighting him were depleting their cultivation with every passing second!
"Merge them again!"
Another roar shattered the air, reducing the formations to sixteen, each harboring six hundred and forty people!
With the dharmic power of six hundred and forty experts gathered into one, each strike was as heavy as the blow of a peak Immortal King!
The Little Celestial Venerable's expression turned grave. Suddenly, his figure flickered as he leaped off the platform. Where he had previously remained on the defensive, he now went on the offensive!
Yet the moment he took flight, sixteen beams of sword light bore down on him, forcibly driving him back onto the platform.
"Merge the formations!"
Another shout resounded as the sixteen formations merged in pairs, transforming into eight grand formations, each manned by one thousand two hundred and eighty supreme experts!
Within the immortal formations, the five-colored immortal light cast by one thousand two hundred and eighty Primordial Spirits coalesced into one, resembling a colossal celestial sovereign towering between heaven and earth, leveling its sword directly at the Little Celestial Venerable!
Eight immortal swords, carrying might capable of tearing mountains and rivers asunder, plummeted from the sky toward the Little Celestial Venerable.
The Little Celestial Venerable fused his physical body and Primordial Spirit into one. The Realm of the Six Immortals expanded outward, merging with the Primordial Spirit's Dao field. His Primordial Spirit did not shrink; rather, his physical body surged in size, transforming into a giant tens of thousands of feet tall. He parried the first sword, the sheer pressure forcing his body to shrink continuously.
By the time his flesh compressed back to normal human size, various Dao patterns intertwined across his skin. The first revolution of his divine skill erupted! His muscles and sinews expanded once more, turning him back into a giant tens of thousands of feet tall as he swung his sword to meet the second beam of sword light!
This sword light failed to push him down. But immediately following it, the third beam descended, finally suppressing him.
Under that horrific pressure, the Little Celestial Venerable shrank relentlessly once more. Suddenly, the second revolution of his divine skill erupted! Even more Dao patterns surged from within his body, weaving across his skin and linking with the previous patterns!
His sinews and muscles expanded by leaps and bounds. Both his cultivation and his raw strength climbed continuously as the eight immortal swords pressed down together.
Blood sprayed from the Little Celestial Venerable's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Reaching the third and then fourth revolution of the divine skill, he relied on his monstrous strength to hold off the eight immortal swords.
Within the eight grand formations, over ten thousand experts suffered a violent churning of their vital energy and blood. Shaken to the core, they hastily bellowed, "Merge the formations again!"
Their figures shifted, reducing the immortal formations to just four.
Meanwhile, the Little Celestial Venerable's divine skill reached its fifth and sixth revolutions. The Dao patterns surfacing across his body resembled chains bound to his flesh, bone, and Primordial Spirit, locking his entire frame tight. Yet every single strike he unleashed grew unimaginably terrifying!
"Merge the formations!"
All ten thousand two hundred and forty supreme experts roared together, their auras desperate and tragic. Every single one of them was injured, their skin split open from the shockwaves and their internal organs ruptured!
Never before had they encountered an opponent so stubborn, so horrifying.
With this merger, only two grand formations remained, each containing over five thousand men. Under an assault of this magnitude, even an Immortal King would likely meet a grim end!
By this point, the Little Celestial Venerable's divine skill had reached its seventh revolution. The seventh revolution was his absolute limit.
What he had obtained was an incomplete technique from an ancient era. Through his own comprehension over the years, he had pushed this art to its absolute pinnacle. Yet it was an incomplete art after all; even exhausting his intellect, he had been unable to fully mend it, leaving behind inevitable flaws.
He could only cultivate this divine art up to the seventh revolution. The remaining two revolutions were impossible to master, and at the seventh revolution, numerous breaks would appear among the chains of Dao patterns encircling his body.
Those gaps were precisely where his weaknesses lay.
When he did not activate the seventh revolution, the weaknesses remained hidden; but once he pushed the art to that level, the flaws were laid bare for all to see.
"Die—!"
The two grand formations activated. The five-colored immortal light cast by more than five thousand Primordial Spirits fused into a single entity. The immortal swords blended with the five-colored light and came slashing down with savage finality!
The immortal swords could no longer endure the sheer potency of the five-colored light and shattered with a crackle, reduced to powder!
The moment the Little Celestial Venerable unleashed his seventh revolution to meet the sword light, his form flickered, evading the other beam of light. He leaped from the platform and, in the very next instant, tore straight into one of the two grand formations!
*Boom!*
The formation detonated. Severed limbs and broken bodies flew through the air as Primordial Spirits shattered and three souls and seven spirits were torn to shreds!
With the formation shattered, the surviving experts from the myriad worlds scattered in panic. The Little Celestial Venerable repeated the feat, tearing through the remaining formation.
Just then, the bleak, mournful notes of a vertical flute drifted through the air, carrying a chilling intent to kill. The fleeing crowd froze mid-stride at the sound of the flute, standing utterly motionless.
Many gritted their teeth and pierced their own eardrums, continuing their desperate flight forward!
Yet as they flew, the alien Daos within their bodies began to stir wildly, piercing through their muscles, bones, and skin, and even impaling their internal organs!
The flute's music was bitter and bone-chilling. Amidst the notes, terror crept across the faces of those frozen in place. Suddenly, the immortal paths inside them fell into violent chaos. Spikes of bloody swords erupted from within their flesh, thrusting outward in every direction!
In an instant, hundreds of experts were slaughtered by the chaotic immortal paths within their own bodies!
The bloody swords extended longer and longer, suspending the corpses of those masters high in the air.
"Little Celestial Venerable, Cangyue has arrived late!"
A slender figure flew over and landed in the blood-soaked battlefield. Putting away his flute, he hurried forward several paces and asked with deep concern, "Little Celestial Venerable, how are your injuries?"
The Little Celestial Venerable dispersed his divine skill, his body returning to normal. Looking up, he saw Perfected Cangyue's gaze fixated on the Dao patterns and chains shifting across his frame.
Perfected Cangyue stepped forward swiftly and reached out, as if to support him, but then abruptly withdrew his hand and chuckled. "Our relationship isn't that close. I'm not going to support you."
The Little Celestial Venerable withdrew the hand he had been about to extend, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes. His relationship with Perfected Cangyue was indeed far from friendly.
He had assumed Cangyue had come to ambush him, yet Perfected Cangyue seemed to have no such intention at all.
Just then, a sharp crack echoed across the sky. A massive rift tore open from east to west.
Five-colored immortal light spilled from the fissure, cascading downward like a waterfall. Above the Dao Comprehension Platform, the light formed a gigantic hand that came slamming down!
"I noticed you long ago, Five Extremes Immortal King!"
The Little Celestial Venerable's dormant divine skill flared back into rapid motion. In a fraction of an instant, it surged to the seventh revolution. His muscles and sinews expanded madly as he turned to face the five-colored hand descending from above!
Just as he moved to intercept the hand, Perfected Cangyue looked up, a smile spreading across his face. Leaping into the air, he struck toward the center of the Little Celestial Venerable's back.
Right there, a section of the Little Celestial Venerable's Dao chains was broken—the exact location of his flaw!
Suddenly, the Little Celestial Venerable's other arm slipped under his own armpit, meeting Cangyue's palm head-on!
Perfected Cangyue let out a muffled groan. Blood streamed incessantly from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose as he staggered backward from the impact.
With his right hand still meeting the five-colored hand of the Five Extremes Immortal King in the sky, the Little Celestial Venerable turned his head back. A faint smile graced his lips as he looked at Perfected Cangyue and murmured, "I was guarding against you."
*Boom!*
The Five Extremes Immortal King's palm shattered, dispersing in all directions as five-colored immortal qi. The Little Celestial Venerable's body merely swayed slightly, completely unharmed.
Frowning slightly, he glanced down at his white robes. A single drop of blood had stained the fabric, resembling a plum blossom.
"Am I injured?"
The Little Celestial Venerable raised a hand and flicked lightly, shearing off the blood-stained blossom from his white robes.
Pinching the bloody plum blossom, he brought it to his nose and sniffed it, his expression returning to calm indifference. "Ah, it was only blood that splashed onto me."
High above, the abyss of Weixu rapidly closed and vanished without a trace.
A chill gripped Perfected Cangyue's heart. Coughing up blood, he retreated at top speed, calling out, "Little Celestial Venerable, I was in the wrong here! We are all experts of the Ancestral Court; we see each other all the time. I was temporarily possessed by greed. Surely a man of your stature can forgive a lesser man..."
The Little Celestial Venerable smiled but did not pursue. Instead, he returned to the Dao Comprehension Platform and quietly resumed his position behind Xu Ying.
After a moment, a crack silently appeared in the sky.
An eyeball shifted stealthily within the fissure, which then slowly vanished.
In the distance, Perfected Cangyue suppressed his injuries and peeked out cautiously. Looking back toward the Little Celestial Venerable, he began to withdraw.
*He really wasn't injured!* he thought, thoroughly shaken.
After a long while, Xu Ying slowly awakened from his Dao comprehension and opened his eyes.
"You're awake?"
The Little Celestial Venerable wore a smile, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Without letting his smile falter, he said softly, "I can barely hold on much longer. Keep your composure and listen to me. Do not panic, and do not stand up."
Xu Ying remained seated quietly. Gazing around, he saw corpses strewn across the surrounding mountains, his mind filled with shock and doubt.
The Little Celestial Venerable continued, "Nearby lies a fragment of heaven known as Tianxu. Sense Tianxu with all your might right now and open it. That is our only chance of survival."
Just then, Perfected Cangyue's voice drifted over, laughing from afar: "Little Celestial Venerable, what are you two whispering about?"
Chapter 347