The Five Extremes Immortal King fell into absolute despair. Back then, facing Xu Ying's divine abilities had instilled in him a hopeless conviction that he could never withstand them and would die in the very next breath. Now, facing Xu Ying's divine abilities once more, that very same familiar despair gripped him!
The sword had arrived at his glabella. The chains of order woven from Immortal Dao runes clanged and shattered, disintegrating into nothingness.
Xu Ying's current divine abilities were even more exquisite than in the past—especially the Zhuxian sword qi, which had already transcended the conception of his former Sword Leveling the Unlevel.
Yet just as the Five Extremes Immortal King was about to perish, the Ninth Immortal King suddenly appeared. His fingers flicked repeatedly, striking Xu Ying's Three Purities Primordial Spirits.
After all, Xu Ying's Three Purities Primordial Spirits were formed from the One Qi. Struck by an Immortal King's divine ability, they let out three muffled pops and transformed into three wisps of origin qi that returned to Xu Ying's body.
Meanwhile, the Zhuxian sword qi thrusting toward the Five Extremes Immortal King's glabella was knocked off course by the Ninth Immortal King, grazing the side of the Five Extremes Immortal King's skull.
Blood gushed profusely from the Five Extremes Immortal King's skull. Having barely avoided having his head split wide open, he secretly counted his blessings.
He cast a grateful glance at the Ninth Immortal King. Still bearing the demeanor of an elegant, middle-aged scholar, the Ninth Immortal King said apologetically, "Fellow Daoist Xu, Fellow Daoist Five Extremes and I share a common bond of mutual survival; I cannot simply stand by and watch him fall. Thus, I have no choice but to join hands with him against you..."
The Ninth Immortal King burst into hearty laughter, taking up position flanking Xu Ying alongside the Five Extremes Immortal King as they prepared to double-team him.
Xu Ying's heart gradually sank. With a genial expression, he remarked, "No problem. When you ambushed me along the Heavenly Road back then, you were already thick as thieves. If the lips are gone, the teeth are cold; it's only natural for jackals of the same pack to collude."
Xu Ying's eyes flickered.
*Dong!*
A towering heavenly pass descended from the heavens, planting itself behind Xu Ying. In this single instant, all the advantages he had painstakingly gained by shaking the Five Extremes Immortal King's dao heart vanished without a trace!
After mastering the Heavenly Dao of the Penglai Immortal Realm, he possessed the Heavenly Dao Divine Person incarnation, elevating his strength to the pinnacle of a Heavenly Dao God King, capable of matching an Immortal King in combat.
Yet surpassing an Immortal King remained exceptionally difficult. Only by seizing upon the slightest flaw, exploiting their disadvantage, and shattering their composure could he hope to claim victory.
This was precisely why he and the Five Extremes Immortal King had traded verbal blows to undermine each other's dao heart.
Where there was no opening, one must create one—such was the tactical doctrine.
Now, not only had Xu Ying lost his upper hand, but with two Immortal Kings joining forces, their combat prowess doubled. How long he could hold out remained an unknown.
Suddenly, the two Immortal Kings moved in unison, charging at Xu Ying!
Standing beneath the heavenly pass, one tall and one short, Xu Ying and the Heavenly Dao Divine Person held their ground. Behind them, immortal light swirled and vibrant clouds steamed. Beyond the heavenly pass lay the Jade Capital, vast and magnificent, resembling a resplendent celestial palace of gold and jade!
Xu Ying raised the Third Heavenly Pass, joining forces with the Heavenly Dao Divine Person to clash head-on against the two Immortal Kings!
Meanwhile, beneath the monstrous eye of Weixu, numerous masters of the Hua family formed an array to manipulate tens of thousands of corpses, laying siege to the Penglai Immortal Mountain. Many immortal corpses even scrambled onto the head of the Black Tortoise divine beast, gnawing rabidly at this primordial divine beast.
Under their control, the fall of Hunyuan Palace was all but inevitable. Just then, they saw a fairy drifting toward them, her skin like ice and snow, her grace beyond compare.
"Penglai enchantress!"
Heedless of anything else, the Hua family masters prepared to strike her down with lethal force.
Suddenly, their vision blurred into chaotic disarray. Every guilty deed they had ever committed surfaced in their minds. More than that, they even saw the shameful misdeeds committed by others!
The Hua family was a sprawling clan in Weixu, filled with sleazy, underhanded dealings among its kin; otherwise, the Five Extremes Immortal King and Hua Cuoying would never have exhibited such so-called paternal affection and filial piety.
Internal feuds among family members were rampant. At this moment, karmic ties surfaced and magnified among them, causing long-buried grudges to erupt in an instant!
Some even had karmic ties falsely transposed onto them—deeds they had never committed were grafted onto their person, framing them and sowing discord!
The numerous Hua family masters were thrown into complete mental turmoil. Suddenly, malice surged in someone's heart, and he lashed out at his sworn enemy!
This chaos was no trivial matter; it ignited an inferno of bloodshed.
The Hua family members bared their vicious fangs, completely losing control once they had butchered their own kin. "Third Uncle, I killed him, and you saw it! Naturally, I must kill you to silence you!"
"Good nephew, since you intend to silence me, I'll naturally take you out first!"
"Cousin, I know you were planning to kill me first, so I made the preemptive strike. You won't hold it against me, will you?"
Fairy Gushe wielded her petite immortal sword, reaping those Hua family experts who posed a threat to her.
To her, anyone who had not transcended karma could be manipulated. Of course, if an opponent's cultivation was too formidable and their realm too lofty, they could also escape her karmic law.
For instance, the Immortal King corpses she had encountered on the Penglai Immortal Mountain were beyond the sway of her karmic law.
In just a brief moment, nearly half of the Hua family experts were killed or wounded.
Outside Hunyuan Palace in the Penglai Immortal Realm, as Yan Yu and the others were engulfed in despair, even Chu Xiangxiang—the strongest among them—no longer had the strength to fight.
She had already been injured from her battle with Hua Cuoying, and defending Hunyuan Palace now had only piled wound upon wound. Even channeling her Heavenly Dao cloak, she could not withstand the numerous Immortal King corpses!
Suddenly, all the immortal corpses froze where they stood, completely motionless, with only their own Immortal Dao continuing to pollute Penglai.
While the crowd looked on in suspicion and doubt, Yuan Tiangang looked up at the sky, his heart filled with delight. "My divination was right after all! We truly can turn misfortune into a blessing!"
Losing their coordination, the corpses ceased their siege on Hunyuan Palace.
Fairy Gushe breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, *Now, as long as I eliminate these experts, Penglai will be safe!*
Suddenly, she sensed her own karmic threads glowing with blinding brilliance. Startled, she leaped aside just as a streak of light ripped toward the very spot where she had been standing!
Though she dodged the strike, the aura around her roiled violently, shaken purely by the pressure of the aftershocks. A tremor of shock went through her heart.
She was an immortal of Penglai who had already transcended the mortal realm to become an Earth Immortal.
Yet a mere glancing blow from this newcomer was enough to destabilize her cultivation and rattle her aura—he was formidable indeed!
She darted swiftly, evading the attacker's second divine ability, and immediately dodged a third, pressed so hard she could barely catch her breath.
Glancing over in haste, she saw that the person attacking her was a youth in brocade robes. Behind him stood a manifestation of the Jade Pool, brimming with steaming immortal light and humming with the resonance of the Immortal Dao!
*Who is he?* Fairy Gushe had never met Nalan Du and naturally did not recognize him, but once Nalan Du unleashed his Immortal Dao Jade Pool, his cultivation and might were terrifyingly oppressive. Even an Earth Immortal like her could not withstand a single one of his divine abilities!
Fairy Gushe attempted to manipulate the karma clinging to Nalan Du, but shielded by his Immortal Dao Jade Pool, no matter how exquisite her karmic law was, it could not come close to touching him.
Nalan Du was equally astonished in his heart. He had intended to launch a surprise attack on Fairy Gushe!
He had assumed he would succeed in a single blow, yet who could have guessed that this woman seemed to possess foresight, anticipating his moves every time and evading divine ability after divine ability!
*Ever since I came to the demonic realm, I keep running into extraordinary figures! First I was taken hostage by... Xu Ying, then I was defeated by Chu Tiandu, and now some woman appears out of nowhere who can remain untouched by all arts!*
Filled with shock, he darted like lightning, lunging toward Fairy Gushe as an endless flurry of immortal arts and divine abilities rained wildly upon her, yet all to no avail.
Even though Fairy Gushe could divine where Nalan Du's attacks were coming from using her karmic threads, his strength was simply too overwhelming. Pressed relentlessly, she dared not pause for a second, let alone maintain control over the Hua family members.
The Hua family crowd immediately snapped back to their senses, hair standing on end as they realized over half their kin had been killed or wounded in mere moments!
"Penglai enchantress!"
One of the Hua family experts darkened his face and immediately commanded several Immortal King corpses to rise from the Penglai Immortal Mountain and charge toward Fairy Gushe!
At the same time, the other Hua family members re-formed their battle formation, resuming control over the immortal corpses to encircle the immortals of Penglai.
In just moments, the defenders suffered heavy blows!
"Get behind me!" Chu Xiangxiang roared. She flared her Heavenly Dao cloak, turning it into a Heavenly Dao domain that shielded everyone and held the palace gate. "Focus on recovering! I'll hold the line!"
Before them, expressionless Immortal King corpses strode forward, while floating corpses drifted slowly behind them in the sky.
Her face grim, Chu Xiangxiang summoned a great river that flowed out from the void to coil around her.
The true body of the Xiang River, the very wellspring of her divine power, had now been unleashed!
She, too, had reached her absolute limit!
Up in the sky, Fairy Gushe was besieged simultaneously by Nalan Du and several Immortal King corpses. Peril loomed at every turn. Even with her mastery of karmic law allowing her to foresee where each attack would land, she was frequently unable to dodge in time.
A corpse's finger pierced her shoulder, blasting straight through her flesh. With a loud snap, her shoulder blade shattered, drenching her back in blood and rendering one arm completely limp.
Despair crept into her heart, and she murmured inwardly, *The future predicted by my karmic law was not wrong. In the end, this is still a fatal trap. What a pity. Before, I could still have escaped, but now I have fallen into the dead end myself.*
Just as the thought crossed her mind, the heavens tore open, and a towering heavenly pass trailed blazing fire as it plummeted from beyond the sky, crashing down!
Within the pass were the silhouettes of Xu Ying and the Heavenly Dao Divine Person!
At this moment, Xu Ying and the Heavenly Dao Divine Person were battered and covered in wounds. Xu Ying's clothes were soaked with blood, his body riddled with transparent puncture holes through which gleamed the light of various Great Dao runes.
The Heavenly Dao Divine Person was in even worse shape, mutilated and shattered. The Heavenly Dao within it had been worn down; it was blind in one eye, missing a leg, and had several gaping holes blasted through its chest.
Half of its skull had been sheared open, the exposed wound steaming with radiant clouds and glowing like molten magma.
Fortunately, the Heavenly Dao Divine Person was not a flesh-and-blood lifeform, but a deity condensed from the Heavenly Dao of Penglai combined with the power of the immortal realm—essentially an avatar of Xu Ying. Even wounded to this extent, it could still fight.
*Boom!*
Xu Ying crashed into the ground along with the Third Heavenly Pass.
The Third Heavenly Pass remained standing proudly between heaven and earth in the Ziwei Remnant Realm, steady and unyielding, but beneath it, Xu Ying coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood.
Facing either one of Weixu's two Immortal Kings, he could hold his ground without falling into defeat. But against two Immortal Kings at once, he could do nothing but take a beating!
"Xu Ying! Did you really think you were still the man you were back then? Keep dreaming!"
The voice of the Five Extremes Immortal King echoed from the sky. Struggling to his feet, Xu Ying lifted his head as bitter, howling winds swept into the heavenly pass.
The sky hung low, and the monstrous eye of Weixu appeared ever more colossal, its massive eyeball virtually pressing down upon the boundless expanse of the Ziwei Remnant Realm.
The formidable figures of the Five Extremes Immortal King and the Ninth Immortal King stood within this monstrous eye, looking down upon Xu Ying from above.
The Five Extremes Immortal King laughed uproariously, five streaks of immortal qi bursting from his back like sword qi and shooting toward Xu Ying within the heavenly gate. "You have already died once! Your cultivation was shattered! You were hacked into fifteen pieces by us, and the only thing you preserved was your True Spirit!"
*Boom!*
The instant the five streaks of immortal qi pierced the Third Heavenly Pass, the Five Extremes Formation erupted, severing the qi of the five elements and cutting down the foundation of the Great Dao!
The five qis of the human body arose from the five viscera and six bowels, serving as the source of a person's origin qi. At the beginning of cultivation, one had to achieve the Five Qis Gathering at the Origin to refine origin qi before one could embark upon the path.
Severing the five qis and destroying the viscera and bowels meant cleaving the very foundation of the Great Dao!
Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao Divine Person charged forward to withstand the Five Extremes Formation and shield Xu Ying, but in its battered state, the formation still invaded Xu Ying's body, nearly shredding his internal organs to pieces!
Bursts of radiant clouds flared from within the Third Heavenly Pass, blocking the brunt of the blow.
"Xu Ying, for over forty thousand years, you've lived a life worse than a dog's!"
The Five Extremes Immortal King struck with a palm, his five fingers pressing down like five mountains upon the Third Heavenly Pass. Xu Ying and the Heavenly Dao Divine Person channeled the pass with all their might, yet they were shoved backward dozens of li.
Suddenly, five-colored immortal light flashed behind the Five Extremes Immortal King, striking him squarely in the back and making him stumble.
Shocked and infuriated, the Five Extremes Immortal King glared at Xu Ying. Beneath the heavenly pass, Xu Ying grinned, his teeth coated in blood.
"How does it feel to be wounded by your own divine ability?" Xu Ying chuckled.
The Five Extremes Immortal King flew into a rage, then suddenly glanced toward the Penglai Immortal Mountain and the Black Tortoise divine turtle. He sneered, "I'll kill your disciple first and send the Little Celestial Venerable to his grave!"
His divine ability descended from the heavens, blasting toward Penglai.
On the Penglai Immortal Mountain, Chu Xiangxiang was entirely spent. She looked up vacantly, seeing only a dazzling display of Immortal Dao light pouring down like vibrant, multicolored clouds, beautiful and mesmerizing, descending toward them.
Her face darkened with despair. But right at that moment, the towering heavenly pass interposed itself between Penglai and the Immortal King's divine ability. Xu Ying poured every ounce of his strength into blocking the strike head-on. Wounds burst open all across his body, and most of the Heavenly Dao Divine Person's head was obliterated.
Xu Ying collapsed with a thud, only to struggle back to his feet, muttering to himself, "I said... I won't let anyone hurt him..."
The Five Extremes Immortal King frowned. The five-colored immortal light roiled behind him, ready to blast down from the high heavens once more!
In the distance of the Ziwei Remnant Realm, the Zhuxian broken sword stood erect between heaven and earth. Xuan Yazi, the Sect Master of the Biyou Sect, looked grim as water. In one hand he held a straw figurine of Xu Ying, and in the other he clutched a handful of silver needles.
He gazed into the distance, where the monstrous eye of Weixu floated in the sky, bursts of five-colored immortal light detonating and illuminating the gloom-shrouded sky.
The corners of Xuan Yazi's mouth twitched. "You betrayed us. I will not step in to save you. You should have died long ago!"
At Incense Ash Mountain, in the nameless little shrine,
Daoist Wuliu swept the ashes scattered across the ground without expression. The shrine was crowded with refugees, who looked up at the flickering sky, whispering in hushed tones.
"That man... he's about to be beaten to death."
"I saw him before—the young man who came to offer incense at our shrine."
"May the shrine god protect him."
Carrying his shoulder pole laden with baskets of incense ash, Daoist Wuliu made his way up the mountain. After a moment, he reached the summit and gazed into the distance.
Muffled rumbles of thunder rolled across the realm as five-colored light plunged from the heavens, slamming into the third heavenly gate.
*"You betrayed us!"*
Daoist Wuliu's heart jolted violently. Silently setting down his carrying pole, he lowered his head to scatter the incense ash. Beneath his feet, smoke began to drift from the mountain of ash, followed by flickering flames, as incense smoke qi began to swirl around him.
Daoist Wuliu froze, whispering softly, "Why? Why are the dying embers reigniting? My heart was clearly dead..."
*Boom!*
All around him, boundless smoke and fire surged skyward from deep beneath the earth. The undying ambition buried within the mountain caught fire, and an enormous Primordial Spirit rose steadily, draped in smoke and flame, standing tall behind him!
"Why can't I let it go?"
Daoist Wuliu raised his hand. The shoulder pole flew up, and one end settled firmly into his grasp.
Stepping through the air, he strode toward the Penglai Immortal Mountain, slowly drawing a long sword from within the pole. Inch by inch, radiant sword light spilled from the wood, glowing brighter and brighter.
*Rumble!*
The mountain of incense ash exploded, and his Primordial Spirit, cloaked in smoke and flame, followed close behind.
"Perhaps... it's because I still remember those golden, fiery years!"
"Demon God Pan, aren't you supposed to guard the divine city? Where are you going?" In Jianmu City, the gods and demons guarding the other three corners of the divine city shouted in rebuke.
Shouldering his colossal Huntian Treasure Umbrella, Demon God Pan looked back and grinned, baring his teeth. "I have a sworn brother over there."
He pointed a thick, massive finger toward Penglai. "I can't just watch him get beaten to death."
Chapter 365