“You clearly just learned the Taiyin Void Sky Technique from me a moment ago, so how did it become authentic to you?” Zhou Yashu asked, dumbfounded.
He had given his transcription of the Taiyin Void Sky Technique to Xu Ying solely in the hope of using Xu Ying's hand to find the flaws in the art, so he could slay Immortal Master Meng Wuhuai and avenge his sect.
Yet fortune smiled upon him today. He had never imagined this single act would bring him such an immense opportunity.
When Xu Ying imparted his own comprehension of the Taiyin Void Sky Technique to him, Zhou Yashu—exceptionally brilliant and the foremost prodigy of Daozhen Palace—pondered the teachings in detail. Areas that had baffled him no matter how hard he cultivated or contemplated suddenly clicked into place, and divine abilities and Dao methods that he could never master before were suddenly as familiar as second nature!
For the first time, he felt that cultivation was so simple and so wonderful—there was no need for rote memorization, no need for rigid drills, and no need to torment oneself like an ascetic.
Only now did he realize Xu Ying's words had been no boast: Xu Ying's Taiyin Void Sky Technique was indeed more authentic and far more profound than Meng Wuhuai's!
Yet how was that possible?
As he was lost in bewilderment, Meng Wuhuai suddenly emerged from the mountain forest. Looking as though he had been wounded, he walked with unsteady, swaying steps and wheezed feebly, “Perfected Cangyue truly lives up to his reputation as one of the Ancestral Court's top three experts. His skills are formidable indeed. This old one gave his all, yet still could not detain him and let him escape.”
Having obtained the Taiyin Void Sky Technique, Xu Ying possessed seventy to eighty percent confidence when facing Meng Wuhuai. But Perfected Cangyue was different; among the experts of the Ancestral Court, Perfected Cangyue ranked third, behind only the Little Celestial Venerable and True Lord Yan! Without formidable skills, who would dare ambush and try to kill the Little Celestial Venerable?
Xu Ying's gaze fell upon Meng Wuhuai, thinking to himself, “Perfected Cangyue didn't fight him at all. Grave as Cangyue's injuries are, he is still a half-immortal, more than capable of slaying Meng Wuhuai. Since Perfected Cangyue didn't kill him, what on earth were the two of them discussing just now?”
Cangyue was the only one who dared openly oppose the Little Celestial Venerable and even rush to the Dao Comprehension Platform in person to assassinate him! Other Ancestral Court experts like Daoist Ji only dared to try to scavenge a bargain after the Little Celestial Venerable was grievously wounded; Cangyue was the only one bold enough to directly plot the Little Celestial Venerable's murder.
Had Meng Wuhuai still been the Immortal Master of Penglai, Perfected Cangyue would likely have been a fraction or two inferior to him. But having had his realm slashed down by Xu Ying and having been cast out of Penglai, the gulf between Meng Wuhuai's power and Cangyue's was as vast as a chasm; he could never be Cangyue's match.
Since the two had not fought, the contents of their discussion had to be very interesting.
The only person who could exert enough deterrence against Perfected Cangyue was the Little Celestial Venerable. Thus, having the Little Celestial Venerable patrol would place enough psychological pressure on Perfected Cangyue that he wouldn't dare act rashly.
Meng Wuhuai tottered over to the group, coughed twice, and panted, “This old one just risked his life battling Perfected Cangyue and suffered heavy wounds. Yashu, why haven't you come over to support me?”
Appearing frail and aged, Meng Wuhuai said, “Little Celestial Venerable, this old man forced Cangyue to retreat, but my old injuries flared up again. I beg your pardon.”
Earlier, he had referred to himself as “this old one,” but now he called himself “this old man”—the former carried a touch of self-deprecation, while the latter held a hint of presuming upon his seniority.
With his Primordial Spirit controlling the Little Celestial Venerable's body, Xu Ying seemed not to notice this subtle distinction and said with concern, “Immortal Master Meng's merits and hard work are great. Rest for now.”
Meng Wuhuai's eyes flickered, and he followed them closely, chuckling. “The Little Celestial Venerable flatters me. If we encounter enemies again in a moment, this old man probably won't be of any use.”
The Little Celestial Venerable looked at Xu Ying, and Xu Ying bowed. “I shall take action then.”
Catching his breath, Meng Wuhuai said, “Just now, Perfected Cangyue told me that he colluded with the Five Extremes Immortal King of Weixu to bring over ten thousand disciples into the Ancestral Court and lay an ambush at the Dao Comprehension Platform, forming the Ten Thousand Immortals Five Extremes Formation to severely wound the Little Celestial Venerable.”
With a half-smile, the Little Celestial Venerable asked, “You believed his words?”
Meng Wuhuai replied hastily, “How would I dare believe it? But he spoke with absolute certainty, as if he had witnessed it with his own eyes. He even described the Little Celestial Venerable unleashing the seven revolutions of his divine art and told this old man where the flaw lay during the seventh revolution, leaving this old man no choice but to believe.”
The Little Celestial Venerable said leisurely, “Could it be that Immortal Master Meng wishes to witness the flaw in my seven-revolution divine art?”
Though Xu Ying had no idea what the “seven revolutions of the divine art” meant, he was riding a tiger and had no choice but to bluff it out.
Meng Wuhuai hurriedly lowered his head and said, “How would this old man dare test the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art?”
Xu Ying's heart gave a sudden thump: *Disaster, it seems I got the name of the Little Celestial Venerable's cultivation technique wrong!*
Meng Wuhuai seemed not to notice this slip and smiled. “Little Celestial Venerable, are we heading to the Hunyuan Palace? In the Hunyuan Palace are the artifacts with which the Celestial Venerable mends the heavens. Once there, there will be no need to worry about the petty scoundrels hunting down the Celestial Venerable.”
The Little Celestial Venerable chuckled. “Immortal Master Meng truly is my confidant. Indeed, we are precisely on our way to the Hunyuan Palace.”
Meng Wuhuai smiled. “However, the Hunyuan Palace does not lie along this path. Little Celestial Venerable, you are heading in the opposite direction.”
Unperturbed, the Little Celestial Venerable replied with calm nonchalance, “A wily hare has three burrows. The Hunyuan Palace you have seen is merely one of my palaces. Aside from it, I have several other palace complexes, all named Hunyuan Palace. There, many experts loyal to me reside.”
Meng Wuhuai looked enlightened. “So that's how it is. Little Celestial Venerable, this old man is heavily injured and my Dao heart is unstable. I fear Perfected Cangyue might return. That man cultivates demonic tones and excels at bewitching the mind. I worry I might be controlled by him into betraying the Celestial Venerable. I implore the Little Celestial Venerable to plant the Corpse God Great Technique within this old man's body, lest I bring about a great catastrophe.”
Xu Ying and the Little Celestial Venerable both looked at him. Meng Wuhuai wore an expression of utmost loyalty and righteous nobility, looking ready to sacrifice his life for justice at any moment.
The Little Celestial Venerable dissuaded him, “Immortal Master Meng, the Corpse God Great Technique can only be cast upon enemies hated to the marrow. You are my confidant and fellow Daoist; how could I lay such a vicious hand upon you?”
Meng Wuhuai said with utter sincerity, “The Little Celestial Venerable treats me as a confidant and fellow Daoist, and do I not feel the same? That Perfected Cangyue is exceedingly cunning. If I were bewitched by his demonic music and struck at you, wouldn't that cause grief to friends and joy to foes? Little Celestial Venerable, please proceed without hesitation!”
The Little Celestial Venerable said, “The Corpse God Great Technique is fraught with extreme danger. With a single thought, I could make you wish you were dead...”
The Little Celestial Venerable added, “You and I are Dao friends, how could I...”
Meng Wuhuai suddenly burst into loud laughter, straightened his spine, pushed away Zhou Yashu's supporting hand, and drawled, “Little Celestial Venerable, you don't know any so-called Corpse God Great Technique, do you?”
The Little Celestial Venerable showed utter astonishment. “Immortal Master Meng, what is the meaning of this?”
Meng Wuhuai sneered. “It seems Perfected Cangyue did not deceive me. The Little Celestial Venerable is indeed gravely wounded, perhaps even comatose! To break through the encirclement of the Ten Thousand Immortals Five Extremes Formation and clash head-on with the Five Extremes Immortal King and Perfected Cangyue—the Little Celestial Venerable truly is the foremost powerhouse of the demonic realm. But you are not the Little Celestial Venerable. You are merely Xu Ying using a secret method to manipulate the Little Celestial Venerable's body.”
The Little Celestial Venerable's expression remained unchanged.
Xu Ying, however, looked stunned and blurted, “Meng Wuhuai, why would you say such a thing?”
“Shut your mouth!”
Meng Wuhuai's murderous gaze swept over him as he sneered, “Xu Ying, you stole this old man's Penglai Immortal Mountain! You cut down my realm! Did you think I would let the matter rest with you? This old man allied with the Little Celestial Venerable solely for revenge, to reclaim the immortal mountain!”
Xu Ying obediently shut his mouth.
The Little Celestial Venerable spoke slowly: “Meng Wuhuai, I had thought we could be friends. I never imagined you harbored such treacherous designs. Since you wish to experience my Corpse God Great Technique, I shall grant your wish.”
White vapor steamed above his crown as he slowly raised his right hand.
Meng Wuhuai felt a jolt in his heart. *Could Perfected Cangyue have lied to me? Could the Little Celestial Venerable not be wounded after all? If I kneel down now... is it still in time?*
Right at that moment, Xu Ying shifted his footing from behind the Little Celestial Venerable and flashed in front of him. With a slight shake of his palm, an imprint in the shape of the Void Sky Cauldron appeared in his hand!
It was precisely Immortal Master Meng Wuhuai's signature divine ability, the Void Sky Cauldron!
Immortal Master Meng Wuhuai raised his hand to meet the blow head-on, similarly unleashing the Void Sky Cauldron seal. The instant their seal arts collided, six Nuo ancestor cave-heavens buzzed into existence behind Xu Ying, his dharmic power surging to the apex in an instant as his feet stepped into the Realm of the Six Immortals!
Behind Immortal Master Meng Wuhuai, a ten-thousand-zhang Primordial Spirit surged forth. Immortal Dao hummed, forming a Primordial Spirit Dao domain in a flash!
Their energies fully discharged, their respective auras violently vibrating!
“The Taiyin Void Sky Technique?”
Immortal Master Meng Wuhuai was startled. His form abruptly shifted from substance to void, causing Xu Ying's palm force to strike as if against empty space.
His body blurred into the void, vanishing from sight as if concealed within empty space itself. He sneered, “Xu Ying, executing the technique I created right in front of me—you truly don't know life from death!”
Suddenly, Xu Ying's figure faded away as well, transforming from substance into void.
Zhou Yashu looked around in shock and uncertainty. No figures were visible; he could only see divine abilities erupting out of nowhere in the void, blowing apart the sky in continuous detonations!
At first, the blasts of divine abilities occurred quite close to Zhou Yashu, but in the next breath, the battlefield had shifted thousands of li away.
Looking up, Zhou Yashu was dazzled. Suddenly, Xu Ying and Meng Wuhuai materialized. Plummeting from the high heavens, they engaged in brutal close-quarters melee, blasting out a flurry of seal arts and divine abilities at point-blank range!
Every time a palm strike landed on their bodies, their physical forms and Primordial Spirits would immediately turn incorporeal, causing the opponent's divine abilities to hit empty air and achieve nothing.
The two fell faster and faster, their offensive growing increasingly rapid and blindingly chaotic!
They were executing the same cultivation technique, and their divine abilities were virtually identical. Since turning their physical bodies and Primordial Spirits into void rendered most attacks misses, inflicting harm upon the other came down purely to a contest of their respective attainments in the Taiyin Void Sky Technique!
The longer they fought, the more alarmed Meng Wuhuai became. At first, Xu Ying's execution of the Taiyin Void Sky Technique had been somewhat unseasoned. Yet through their clash, he advanced at an astonishing pace, growing ever more seasoned and adept.
Earlier, Meng Wuhuai could evade Xu Ying's seal arts effortlessly, but now dodging was becoming increasingly difficult.
When Xu Ying's seal arts swept through his incorporeal body and Primordial Spirit, the reverberating force began forcing his flesh and spirit back into substance, causing him immense agony.
This meant that Xu Ying's attainments in the Taiyin Void Sky Technique were gradually surpassing his own!
“Yet I am the creator of the Taiyin Void Sky Technique!”
Meng Wuhuai's eyes widened in fury. His strikes grew faster and faster, and the ten-thousand-zhang Primordial Spirit within his Dao domain lashed out madly, attacking Xu Ying!
Within Xu Ying's Realm of the Six Immortals, the Heavenly Dao avatar emerged, trading frantic blows with the Primordial Spirit!
Boom!
The four figures plummeted from the sky and slammed into a nearby mountain forest, happening to crash straight into an Immortal Dao anomalous zone!
Furious gales howled and surged, uprooting countless demonized trees and forming a colossal vortex that expanded outward, sweeping more vegetation into the tempest!
Within that Immortal Dao anomalous zone lay a pool of emerald green water. Xu Ying and Meng Wuhuai landed on the surface of the pond, staring at each other without moving a muscle.
Around the pool, the demonized forest had been completely devastated. Beneath the water, bubbles gurgled and rose continuously.
Clusters of green immortal radiance burst from the bubbles, drifting around them.
Under the water, a beautiful maiden swam about, revealing a deathly pale face as she looked up at them from beneath, her figure wonderfully graceful.
Neither Xu Ying nor Meng Wuhuai was moved in the slightest.
Suddenly, pale, ghostly hands materialized behind both of them and clawed toward them. The fairy in the pool instantly turned hideous, transforming into a skeleton that seemed poised to drag them down into the water and devour them!
Yet the ghost immortal in the pool clawed only empty air. Her sharp talons swept straight through their bodies without catching anything.
Startled, the ghost immortal slowly sank back to the bottom of the pool.
Though she was the anomaly haunting this place, to her, these two men were far more monstrous and bizarre.
She sensed that if she provoked them again, her soul would scatter and even her remnant thoughts would be blasted into nonexistence!
Suddenly, Meng Wuhuai smiled. “You obtained my Taiyin Void Sky Technique from that disciple of mine, Zhou Yashu, didn't you? Xu Ying, I must admit, you truly are absurdly strong.”
Filled with boundless emotion, he said, “Back then, when the other Immortal Kings and I received orders to intercept and kill you, I set up a formation at the Fourth Heavenly Pass. We were all at the same realm, yet even with immortal artifacts and Heavenly Dao divine artifacts deployed in our array, you slaughtered your way straight through us. You were like a living nightmare walking out of the starry depths, leaving a trail of corpses of immortals and gods behind you. For many years after I became the Immortal Master of Penglai, whenever I entered deep meditation, inner demons would breed, and I would dream of you walking toward me out of a sea of blood.”
Meng Wuhuai's expression darkened as he continued, “Sixteen thousand years ago, when you and Yan Bao'er arrived at Penglai, I discovered that you were already broken, weak, and riddled with flaws. Yet even then, I did not dare lay a hand on you; I could only tip off the immortals and gods who were hunting you down. Not long ago, when you arrived at Penglai once more, I still didn't dare face you directly, only daring to strike with lethal force after you departed. But today is different.”
The tall elder straightened his back and sneered mockingly, “I have realized that you are no longer the man you once were. You learned my cultivation technique and divine abilities from that unworthy disciple of mine, but did you ever stop to think that when teaching a disciple, I held things back—and kept more than just a single divine ability in reserve?”
He suddenly struck, his divine abilities shifting drastically. He laughed boisterously, “Xu Ying, taste my Taiyin Three Extremes Fingers!”
This strike was far more exquisite than his Void Sky Cauldron, Void Sky Seal, or Dao King Halberd. Dao runes oscillated around his entire body, creating a Dao domain that flickered between void and reality. His finger force stabbed out from ten thousand voids straight toward Xu Ying! At the same moment, Xu Ying thrust out a finger as well. In an instant, thousands of finger beams crisscrossed above the emerald green pool, hissing with sharp, piercing sounds!
Their figures crossed. Xu Ying let out a stifled grunt as a burst of bloody light detonated over his heart with a sharp pop!
Though he had channeled the Taiyin Void Sky Technique to evade thousands of finger beams, he had failed to turn his physical flesh and Primordial Spirit incorporeal in time against a single ray, and his heart was blasted to pieces by that one finger strike!
Xu Ying raised his right hand and tapped rapidly across his chest to seal his blood vessels. Shifting his feet apart, his Realm of Xiyi manifested.
His Primordial Spirit flew out and shuttled through his Realm of Xiyi, refining away the various Dao injuries on the Heart Peak Immortal Mountain, striving to purge them before his vital blood was exhausted.
With his formidable vitality, his heart could regenerate swiftly; what truly obstructed its regrowth were the injuries inflicted by the Dao.
As he was refining away the Dao injuries, Meng Wuhuai—his face pale and grim—landed behind him. Tilting his head, Meng Wuhuai asked, “Why?”
Xu Ying did not turn around, remarking calmly, “A fraction apart in the Dao, a tenfold difference in power. Your Dao attainment is inferior to mine; naturally, you must die by my hand.”
Immortal Master Meng Wuhuai snorted. Turning his back to Xu Ying, he walked toward the shore, striding through the layers of mountain forest until he stood before the Little Celestial Venerable and Zhou Yashu.
“You betrayed me. Why?”
Meng Wuhuai reached out, caught Zhou Yashu by the throat, and lifted the youth into the air, his voice vicious: “I am your master!”
Choked so hard he could barely breathe, Zhou Yashu struggled and gasped, “Do you still remember... the sacred mountain behind me when I took you as my master?...”
Meng Wuhuai froze for a moment, recalling the mountaintop from which a massive chunk had vanished.
Zhou Yashu seized the opportunity: his Primordial Spirit flew forth, channeling the Taiyin Void Sky Technique that Xu Ying had just taught him. Overturning his hand into a Void Sky Cauldron seal, he slammed it down onto Meng Wuhuai's forehead, screaming with all his might, “That was my sect! Within that sect were my two thousand eight hundred fellow disciples—senior brothers, junior brothers, senior sisters, junior sisters—and my master!”
This blow was insignificant to Meng Wuhuai, yet it detonated the hundreds upon thousands of finger beams lingering within his body.
He had desperately suppressed those finger energies until now. Triggered by this seal, Xu Ying's finger force erupted all at once. Dense explosions like firecrackers crackled from within his flesh and Primordial Spirit, and both blasted apart on the spot—his body destroyed, his Dao extinguished, and his soul scattered to nothingness!
Chapter 353