"If Xu Ying were disposed of, the mortal world would enjoy peace and tranquility. The ancient gods would rest in peace in death, the dregs of the ancient era wouldn't stir, and the immortals could sleep easy. Yet this little brat Xu Ying is still bouncing around all over the place. I suspect there are people in the Immortal Realm who simply don't want peace under heaven."
Meng Po retracted her gaze and said under her breath, "If there were peace under heaven, how could anyone earn merit? Without merit, how could they climb higher? And if a few old rivals at the top don't die, there wouldn't even be vacancies to climb into."
She sighed with feeling. "Some people are quite ambitious."
Xu Ying stood atop the leaf as it drifted down the Nai River. Behind him, the towering Dao tree of Wangxiang Platform rose lush and green, shooting straight from the earth, while Xuandu Jade Capital Mountain grew taller and more majestic by the moment.
From around Wangxiang Platform, which encircled Xuandu Jade Capital Mountain, massive fragments suddenly took flight—the shards of the Great Luo of the eight directions.
Back then, when Xuandu Jade Capital Mountain crashed into the Netherworld, fragments of Great Luo scattered along one side of the Nai River, forming a narrow strip of land. Many powerful beings discovered the extraordinary properties of this place and slipped in one by one to live in seclusion, gradually giving rise to Wangxiang Platform over the ages.
Even a portion of the Immortal Realm's experts knew of Wangxiang Platform. Whenever they fell in factional struggles, they would often flee here, which was why the sky over Wangxiang Platform was riddled with wounds and scars.
Now, the Dao tree atop Xuandu Jade Capital Mountain blazed with dazzling radiance, levitating those shattered fragments. How could the old monsters dwelling in seclusion on Wangxiang Platform sit still any longer?
Xu Ying looked up to see colossal, immensely powerful figures soaring into the air from those floating fragments of Wangxiang Platform. Ancient spacetime, dormant Great Daos, and ashrams long overgrown with bizarre flora sprang into motion!
There were even rust-encrusted bronze immortal palaces, tattered ancient ships, and battered immortal artifacts—relics that originally hailed from the Immortal Realm—now unleashing their full power in unison to guard Xuandu Jade Capital Mountain!
Thousands upon thousands of ancient, dreadful beings encircled Xuandu Jade Capital Mountain, while beneath the Dao tree of the Seven Treasures Palace, the Eastern Brightness Void Sovereign stood tall, gazing up toward the firmament.
The sky tore open. On the other end of the gigantic vortex, the Immortal Realm bared its ferocious fangs and claws. The Thirty-Three-Tier Grand Array of Ten Thousand Immortals was activated, and world-shattering might blasted down from that other world!
In that instant, blinding brilliance pierced the vault of heaven, shining so brightly that the Nai River could no longer maintain its ordinary appearance, revealing its true form.
A vast river composed of the souls of countless dead floated among the stars of the cosmos, stringing together tens of thousands of worlds, with boundless, giant planets drifting around this river of departed spirits.
Meng Po's colossal body blotted out the sky and sun as she sat presiding over the mouth where the Nai River linked the worlds; every departed soul had to pass through this place before entering the Netherworld.
Xu Ying, meanwhile, was drifting through the starry expanse, crossing from the Nai River of one world into the Nai River of another. The light cascaded down, plunging into Wangxiang Platform.
The stinging glare made Xu Ying's eyes tear up, blurring his vision. Only after the dazzling brilliance subsided did that breathtaking spectacle fade from his sight.
The Nai River returned to normal.
"Meng Po is truly powerful!" Xu Ying marveled inwardly. "With magic power like that, I might not be her match. Still, the gap shouldn't be too vast."
He looked back toward Wangxiang Platform. The sky there still shook without pause, surges of terrifying force hammering downward, yet it was receding further and further into the distance.
The Immortal Realm seemed to attach great importance to the Eastern Brightness Void Sovereign, unwilling to see him revived, which was why they mobilized such an immense force. Yet after observing for a while, Xu Ying could not help feeling suspicious.
"If the Immortal Realm has already mobilized the formations of the Thirty-Three Heavens—thirty-three Grand Arrays of Ten Thousand Immortals—why hasn't a single supreme expert on the level of the Imperial Monarch stepped forward to preside over the formations and launch an active offensive?"
He was thoroughly puzzled. If they truly wanted to eliminate the Eastern Brightness Void Sovereign, they would surely commit their top experts. Yet while the Immortal Realm had deployed countless troops, masters like the Imperial Monarch had not shown their faces. No matter how large the army was, what was the use?
He suddenly recalled the revival of the Dao Revelation Ground, where thirteen hundred immortal artifacts had suppressed the land. When Daoist Taiqing revived, the masters of those thirteen hundred artifacts merely made a token attack against the Dao Revelation Ground before calling it off.
Such behavior was truly bizarre, reeking of suspicion at every turn.
Xu Ying suddenly smiled and muttered to himself, "Looks like someone is angling for something big."
The leaf carried him further and further, drifting past unfamiliar mountains and rivers that were, in truth, different worlds. The Nai River flowed through the netherworlds of various realms, its main trunk and tributaries branching in all directions to weave an enormous network spanning the heavens and myriad realms. There were many pathways into the myriad realms—the Heavenly Road Spirit Root, the Abyss of Cangwu, Kunlun, Weixu, the Mysterious Sea, and the Third Heavenly Pass all led to other worlds. The Nai River was simply another among them.
However, without Meng Po's methods, one could forget about figuring out which world one had entered.
Xu Ying stood upon the water, traversing world after world, marveling at the vastness of the heavens and myriad realms as well as Meng Po's divine might.
Meng Po controlled the Nai River and enjoyed a ceaseless stream of incense and sacrifices from the living across myriad realms. Though she had been no match for the Netherworld's Four Big Giants back then, those four had been dead for over sixty thousand years, while Meng Po had continued absorbing incense all this time.
"With Meng Po's strength, she should be on par with the Four Giants by now, shouldn't she?" Xu Ying thought.
He had never witnessed the true battle prowess of the Four Giants of the Netherworld, but Meng Po's magic power was indeed awe-inspiring.
After an unknown span of time, the leaf beneath Xu Ying's feet gradually slowed, veering into a tributary and drifting toward an ancient continent.
Xu Ying's heart stirred. 'The Northern Emperor should be hidden in this world. I wonder whether he's in the realm of the living or the Netherworld.'
The Nai River fanned out here into thousands of tributaries, linking cities and ushering souls of the departed.
The leaf slowed further. Suddenly, a terrifying aura descended from above. Xu Ying looked up to see two colossal figures shattering the sky, plummeting from the living realm into the Netherworld!
"Wu Sansi, what gall! You dare hunt me down all the way into my world?!"
In the sky, the outer god God King Xuantian loomed tall, his boundlessly potent divine power warping the Netherworld's sky. He chuckled coldly. "I have operated in the Four Desolations world for over forty thousand years, worshipped with incense by hundreds of millions! My divine power is unrivaled! What's more, I forged Heavenly Dao divine artifacts—the Five Sacred Immortal Mountains—and cultivated the Five Sacred Immortal Dao Avatars! What do you have to fight me with?"
The moment his words fell, the sky shook violently as five immortal mountains shaped like a heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys plummeted from above! Dense incense smoke and divine power coiled around them, and atop each of the five mountains stood a god king who looked identical to God King Xuantian!
These were God King Xuantian's Five Sacred Immortal Dao Avatars. Because the Five Sacred Immortal Mountains belonged to the five elements—heart to fire, liver to wood, spleen to earth, kidneys to water, and lungs to metal—these five avatars were also known as the Five Elements Avatars.
God King Xuantian had forged the Five Elements Avatars and commanded the divine power of the five elements. As the immortal mountains and avatars descended together, surging divine power bore down from the sky! Opposite him was none other than the Imperial Monarch's disciple, Wu Sansi—a renowned expert in the Immortal Realm sent down by the Imperial Monarch's decree to assist Young Master Yuchuan.
He had slashed his own cultivation to descend to the lower realm, and after arriving, he underwent tribulation once more to become an immortal without ascending.
The two had fought fiercely all the way from Wangxiang Platform to the Four Desolations world.
Wu Sansi had initially held the upper hand, but upon reaching the Four Desolations world, God King Xuantian turned defeat into victory, his cultivation and power soaring to suppress him in one fell swoop.
Wu Sansi's expression was grim. Looking at the Five Sacred Immortal Mountains and the five god king avatars upon them, he asked warily, "Could these Five Sacred Immortal Mountains have been refined from Xu Ying's Qi Gathering realm?"
The Five Sacred Immortal Mountains were arranged according to the five elements of the Realm of Xiyi. The five god king avatars emanated surging auras, locking down surrounding spacetime into a Five Elements Tribulation Array.
Unlike the Five Elements arrays of the Immortal Realm, this array used five-elements power to manipulate heavenly tribulations, turning tribulation might into one's own power to refine the opponent to death.
At this moment, tribulation clouds massed thick and low in the sky, with myriad dragons of lightning slithering through the cloud banks.
God King Xuantian bore numerous wounds, having been badly injured earlier. Hearing this, he laughed. "Indeed! Back then, I was ordered alongside other god kings to lead the gods of the Heavenly Dao world to block the Heavenly Road, winning illustrious military honors. In that battle, our Heavenly Dao world suffered catastrophic casualties—even God King Xuanxiao was slain. But I survived. When treasures were divvied up, the other god kings, immortal kings, and immortals all assumed that the higher the realm, the greater its power. Yet I alone knew that Xu Ying's strongest realm was actually his Qi Gathering realm. That realm is the foundation of the Great Dao, the one he cultivated the longest. So I took his Qi Gathering realm and refined it into a treasure!"
Wu Sansi laughed out loud. "Xu Ying isn't dead yet! You used his realm to refine a treasure—aren't you afraid he'll take it back?"
"Xu Ying?"
Xuantian snorted. The five god king avatars activated their Heavenly Dao divine abilities, setting the Five Elements Tribulation Array into motion. Divine thunder crashed down from above, merging with the palm strikes of the five avatars. Pulling wind, rain, thunder, and lightning in their wake, the five avatars attacked Wu Sansi simultaneously!
The five immortal mountains burst with immortal dao power, their divine energy operating in tandem to crash down upon Wu Sansi!
Wu Sansi pushed his cultivation technique and divine abilities to their absolute limit. Yet with the weight of five immortal mountains bearing down on his physical body and Primordial Spirit, forcing him to shoulder five mountains while simultaneously contending against God King Xuantian's five avatars, one could imagine how disadvantageous the battle was for him!
The five mountains whirled, and the five avatars darted across the sky as bolts of heavenly thunder tore between the peaks, uniting with their palm strikes. The sheer power left even Wu Sansi hard-pressed!
Wu Sansi spurred his Immortal Dao ashram, struggling to hold on. Suddenly, God King Xuantian charged into the ashram, leaving Wu Sansi unable to hold out any longer; within a few blows, he was battered into coughing up blood repeatedly.
Right at that moment, the Heart Peak Immortal Mountain suddenly spun away and plunged downward.
God King Xuantian sneered, "What remarkable methods the Imperial Monarch has, to seize my magic treasure!"
Wu Sansi was bewildered, but with one less immortal mountain, the pressure on him eased considerably. Then he saw another mountain, the Lung Peak Immortal Mountain, plummet as well, lightening his burden even further.
God King Xuantian pressed his assault harder, driving the five avatars to spur the Five Elements Tribulation Array with escalating ferocity.
Suddenly, Kidney Peak dropped as well, splashing down into the Nai River below.
God King Xuantian's expression turned grave. Leaping back out of Wu Sansi's ashram, he barked, "Which fellow Daoist is playing tricks on me?"
The surface of the Nai River was draped in gloom, lit only by the eerie drift of will-o'-the-wisps.
The three immortal mountains bobbed on the water, rising and falling with the waves.
God King Xuantian had his five avatars keep Wu Sansi trapped so the immortal could not escape, while divine light beamed from his eyes, sweeping across the river below.
The divine light in his eyes was the Heavenly Dao divine light; everything within its gaze was laid bare and transparent, yet he found nothing. He attempted to recall the three immortal mountains, but his connection to them had been severed—even the imprint he had left in the peaks seemed to have been erased.
'It should be impossible for anyone to erase my imprint,' God King Xuantian thought, sweeping his gaze about. 'There are only three possible explanations for this. First, the other party's cultivation and power far exceed mine, allowing them to directly wipe out my imprint. Second, someone is using an exotic treasure to block my senses. Third, Xu Ying is hiding down there and has wrested control of the immortal mountains!'
The first possibility was the least likely. Though he was a god king, his strength was not inferior to an immortal king's.
'Then only two possibilities remain...'
God King Xuantian sneered and spurred the remaining Spleen Peak and Liver Peak. The two immortal mountains radiated overwhelming divine power and burst with waves of immortal might, crashing toward the surface of the Nai River below!
"This is the Netherworld of my Four Desolations world! How could Xu Ying possibly find his way here? Whatever is blocking my senses down there must be an extraordinary treasure! Come out!"
The power of the two mountains grew ever more terrifying. Even before they struck the water, the surrounding hills shattered continuously under their pressure, reducing spirits of the dead to dust!
Finally, an immense treasure revealed itself on the Nai River's surface. Boundless water and fire gushed forth, turning into an ocean and a sea of flame that swirled into a Water-Fire Taiji Diagram to meet the two falling mountains.
"A treasure, just as I thought!"
God King Xuantian flew downward, sneering, "Break!" Spleen Peak and Liver Peak crashed down with a thunderous roar, smashing the Water-Fire Taiji Diagram to pieces.
God King Xuantian laughed uproariously, raising his arms as he bellowed, "No matter who you are, anyone who dares steal my immortal mountains must die! Rise—"
Yet Lung Peak, Heart Peak, and Kidney Peak did not rise. Not only did those three mountains remain still, even Spleen Peak and Liver Peak, which he had just unleashed, refused to heed his command.
The two peaks dropped toward the river's surface, where a great cauldron brimming with Heavenly Dao majesty was breathing in water and fire. The Water-Fire Taiji Diagram that had just been shattered was drawn back into the cauldron.
The two mountains dropped into the cauldron as well, remaining motionless. God King Xuantian's expression changed slightly. "This cauldron... Rise!"
He curled his fingers, beckoning repeatedly, yet the five immortal mountains did not budge in the slightest. "Rise! Rise! Rise!"
God King Xuantian beckoned again. Suddenly, the five immortal mountains took flight, arranging themselves in the five elements of the Realm of Xiyi. Joy flared in his heart—only to see that rising alongside them was the Water-Fire Huntian Cauldron!
The five mountains came before him, floating in the air, with the Water-Fire Huntian Cauldron hovering behind and above them.
God King Xuantian slowly raised his head to look across. Above the Huntian Cauldron stood the Twelve-Storyed Mansions, its light gradually brightening to illuminate the Jade Pool above it.
Raising his gaze higher, he saw the Third Heavenly Pass above the Jade Pool. These terrifyingly potent treasures were arranged according to a peculiar logic, as though situated within an invisible Realm of Xiyi.
His eye twitched violently. He whispered, "The third possibility..."
He saw a slender silhouette floating before him.
Xu Ying!
God King Xuantian roared, struggling to recall his Five Elements Avatars, but they were trapped within Wu Sansi's ashram and could not break free in time! Xu Ying moved—and threw a punch!
The Five Sacred Immortal Mountains, the Water-Fire Huntian Cauldron, the Twelve-Storyed Mansions, the Immortal Dao Jade Pool, and the Third Heavenly Pass blazed with brilliant light at the same time. Three Immortal Realm cave-heavens roiled the sky behind the youth, descending from above to connect to his flesh.
Boundless power surged in tandem with him. In a flash, the crest of his fist arrived before God King Xuantian. In haste, God King Xuantian raised his right palm to guard the point between his brows.
*Crack!*
His palm exploded, the bone of his middle finger punched straight through, and that slender silhouette passed right through his hand.
Bloody light burst from between God King Xuantian's brows. In the next instant, the back of his head shattered. Blood and a slender figure erupted outward together, spraying gore across the firmament.
Chapter 408