With two of her maidservants slain, Ling Siyi was shocked and furious. She immediately cast forth her willow branch. Leaf after leaf expanded, unfurling to colossal size as they swept toward the iron-tower-like immortal god!
The immortal god stood firmly in midair, motionless. Behind him, the void suddenly parted to reveal a dark, towering Primordial Spirit of boundless proportions. It flicked its fingers repeatedly against the willow leaves, sending them tumbling back!
Ling Siyi spun rapidly through the air, barely deflecting the terrifying force reverberating back through the willow branch.
This immortal from the Dou Department's West Palace is terrifyingly strong! she thought in shock.
With her strength, ordinary immortals stood no chance against her—especially given that her willow branch was a bough from the Demon Emperor's Dao tree, possessing tremendous might!
Yet Ying Tianci of the Dou Department possessed exquisite prowess, forcing back the willow branch with his Primordial Spirit alone.
In the sky behind him, a vision of the Immortal Realm manifested. Before their eyes appeared a sprawling heavenly palace, the plaque above its main gate bearing the words "Juwei Palace of the West Dipper."
Before the Juwei Palace of the West Dipper stood rows of immortals radiating solemn, chilling killing intent—the elites of the Dou Department's West Dipper!
Xu Ying's gaze bypassed them, sweeping the surroundings. Suddenly, his eyes paused. Floating high above was an immortal raft, upon which stood a woman in red.
"Xiao Xixian again!" Xu Ying's face darkened slightly.
Overhearing this, Ying Tianci's face clouded over, and he sneered, "Xu Ying, you truly don't remember me? It seems the Imperial Monarch's seal is indeed miraculous—to have sealed away an unscrupulous hero like you."
"Me, an unscrupulous hero?" Taken aback, Xu Ying drew back his gaze and looked at him.
Ying Tianci burst into loud laughter. "Celestial Venerable Xu of the Three Realized Ones of the Central Dipper, of course you're an unscrupulous hero! When you ascended to immortality back then, you were just a rogue cultivator with neither background nor backing—mere scraps among immortals. Yet relying on your good looks, you somehow managed to hook up with the Primordial Monarch and have Her promote you. Your stomach must have been too weak for anything but living off a woman!"
Xu Ying's face flushed crimson, and he laughed out of sheer fury. "That is pure slander!"
Ling Siyi blinked her pretty eyes, turning a questioning look toward Xu Ying.
She had heard of Xu Ying; in fact, his fame had preceded him for a long time.
In the Ancestral Court, Xu Ying was viewed as two diametric extremes.
Some hailed him as a great hero who, back when the Ancestral Court was battered and ruined, probed its deepest secrets and led a cohort of that era's powerhouses to revitalize it. Even though Xu Ying later defected and ascended, the sparks he left behind never went out, paving the way for Little Celestial Venerable to inherit his ambitions.
Others claimed he was a traitor—that Xu Ying had betrayed himself, betrayed everyone, sold out the Ancestral Court, and ascended to the Immortal Realm to become a lapdog of the immortals.
For Ling Siyi, having grown up listening to stories of Xu Ying, she had her own discernment. If Xu Ying had not reorganized the Ancestral Court, it would have long since turned into barren ruins. She would never have had the chance to cultivate, let alone catch the eye of the Demon Ancestral Court and become a rising star among demons.
In her heart, Xu Ying was a hero. That was why, when given the opportunity to be alone with him earlier, she had ducked into the carriage to change into slightly revealing clothes—it had been a gesture of intimacy.
Yet in the words of Ying Tianci of the West Dipper, Xu Ying was blatantly an opportunist who rose to power by living off a woman!
"Innocent?"
Ying Tianci roared with laughter, his expression suddenly darkening. "Were you ever?"
His air of righteous indignation was so convincing that Xu Ying actually felt for a moment as though he truly might not be so innocent after all.
Ying Tianci said coldly, "You rose up by clinging to the Primordial Monarch—who doesn't know that? Once you secured a foothold in the Immortal Realm, only then did you jump ship to our Dou Department. And after establishing yourself in the Dou Department, you still kept lingering ties with the Primordial Monarch, often being summoned to her manor! As for what went on there, the whole world knows!"
Ling Siyi blinked, glancing at Xu Ying.
Noticing her gaze, Xu Ying said solemnly, "Never believe a single word from an enemy."
Ying Tianci snorted and continued, "Back when you were in the Central Dipper, you threw your weight around, stepping on your brothers across the various Dippers to forge your peerless fame. Have you forgotten how you snatched the girl I fancied, fought your way into the West Dipper, and trampled me underfoot?"
High in the sky, the immortal raft drifted. Sitting aboard, Xiao Xixian watched quietly, taking in every word before spitting in disgust, "Scum!"
She hated Xu Ying to the bone. "Last time you could slip away from Ding Simu and Hao Kaiyang," she muttered, "but this time is different. An Immortal King of the Dou Department is personally taking action. Capturing you will be child's play!"
Just then, a faint sigh came from behind her.
Xiao Xixian froze. Without looking back, she knew Little Celestial Venerable had appeared behind her.
Little Celestial Venerable started to step onto the immortal raft, then paused and said, "Senior Sister, you know full well that Master rebelled against the Dou Department, only to be branded a traitor and persecuted to this day. Why did you reveal his whereabouts to the gods of the Dou Department?"
Xiao Xixian sneered. "The Thunder Department is useless, cowards who dare not descend to the mortal realm. So naturally, I had to inform the Dou Department. Only the Dou Department hates him enough to claim his life!"
Little Celestial Venerable frowned slightly. "I have always trusted Master. I have always believed that he had his own hardships and reasons for ascending to the Immortal Realm."
Xiao Xixian's eyes reddened, and she sneered, "The hardship of living off a woman?"
Suddenly, Ying Tianci swung his massive hammer and charged fiercely at Xu Ying, sneering, "Celestial Venerable Xu, Realized Lord Xu of the Three Realized Ones of the Central Dipper—nothing more than a soft-bellied wimp who climbed up on a woman's coattails! Back then, I feared the Primordial Monarch behind you and let you step on me, but today I will avenge that humiliation! Dou Combat Five Thunders Hammer!"
The colossal hammer crashed down. Immortal light shuddered with peerless ferocity, bearing down so heavily that the world Little Celestial Venerable had mended once again showed signs of cracking apart.
He was the master of Juwei Palace among the five palaces of the West Dipper, possessing the cultivation of an Immortal King. Entwined in Dao chains and commanding boundless magic power, his brute force was immense!
The Dou Department ranked first in combat strength among the Six Departments of the Celestial Court, excelling in battle arts. Anyone capable of entering the Dou Department was a battle maniac—first-rate combatants whether casting arts or fighting hand-to-hand!
The West Dipper of the Dou Department was also known as the White Tiger Dou Department, in charge of slaughter.
For Ying Tianci to become the master of a West Dipper palace, he naturally possessed extraordinary methods. When unleashed, the moves of the Dou Combat Five Thunders Hammer were utterly domineering—a premier immortal art of slaughter!
Spiritual light swirled around Xu Ying as he activated his new cultivation technique. All six caves behind him opened wide, and the five great magic treasures, including the Five Sacred Immortal Mountains, arrayed behind him, transforming into the empowerment of five great realms!
Xu Ying raised a hand, meeting the Dou Combat Five Thunders Hammer with his bare palm.
Before this Immortal King's colossal warhammer, his palm seemed unimaginably tiny. Even his physical body looked minuscule; the thick Dao chains coiled around the Five Thunders Hammer were several times thicker than Xu Ying's waist!
The runic Dao principles forming the Dao chains were far larger than Xu Ying himself!
Boom!
Xu Ying's palm met the Dou Combat Five Thunders Hammer with a dull thud. The space around Xu Ying fractured and exploded, while the runic Dao principles wrapped around the surface of the Five Thunders Hammer shattered with crisp cracks, leaving a massive palm print caved into the hammer's face!
Ying Tianci's upper body shook. The webbing between his thumb and forefinger tore open, and his eyes bulged as he swung the hammer down like a raging tempest!
Xu Ying stood firmly in place without budging an inch. As hammer fell and palm rose, he clashed dozens of times in succession against the Dou Combat Five Thunders Hammer!
The space around him annihilated into rolling thunderfire that swirled endlessly about him, expanding with every passing breath!
Ling Siyi was shaken and hastily retreated, steering clear of the terrifying shockwaves.
The savage clash between the two made her heart pound in terror. Had it been her, standing firm to trade blow for blow with such a foe would have been out of the question.
Even if I cast forth the willow branch, I could only take two strikes at most, she thought to herself.
And yet, when she first encountered Xu Ying, her cultivation had clearly surpassed his. In just a few short years, Xu Ying had surpassed her by leaps and bounds, even trading raw blows with an Immortal King of the Dou Department like Ying Tianci!
Though both of Ying Tianci's hands were battered and bloody, he laughed uproariously like a mad tiger. Bringing the great hammer crashing down once more, he shouted, "Exhilarating! Exhilarating! Celestial Venerable Xu, I must admit, for someone living off women, your methods aren't soft at all! I thought the Primordial Monarch had drained you hollow!"
Boom!
As this hammer strike fell, the Dou Combat Five Thunders Hammer suddenly blasted apart into fragments!
Xu Ying soared into the sky straight through the shattered remnants of the Dou Combat Five Thunders Hammer, meeting Ying Tianci's gigantic form head-on with a cold sneer: "My methods aren't soft at all—they're hard! Hard enough to break you!"
He struck out with a fist. Ying Tianci laughed wildly, excitement glinting in his eyes. "Charging into my bodhimanda means entering my Immortal Realm! Here, I will show you what a true Immortal King is capable of!"
Inside and outside his bodhimanda, the massive Dao chains erupted with endless might. Ying Tianci stood like the master of the bodhimanda, dominating every living being that stepped within!
Yet Xu Ying's punch had begun gathering force outside the bodhimanda; wherever it passed, Dao chains shattered and disintegrated. When the blow landed, Ying Tianci's bodhimanda was forcefully torn open, creating a massive gash like a heavenly rift that ripped through his domain!
Ying Tianci's right ribs lay along the path of that rift. His clothes shredded instantly, his skin burst apart, and his ribs snapped with sickening cracks!
Xu Ying charged into his bodhimanda with unstoppable momentum, gunning straight for his life.
Faced with imminent peril, Ying Tianci did not panic, roaring, "Where are the immortals of my Juwei Palace?"
In the Immortal Realm, outside the heavenly palace of Juwei Palace, thousands of Dou Department immortals waved immortal banners and laid down a battle array. A beam of radiant light descended from the heavens like a rainbow, pouring into Ying Tianci's body!
Ying Tianci's physical body swelled exponentially, and his Primordial Spirit expanded alongside it, transforming him in an instant into a towering giant supporting the heavens. He laughed boisterously, "Celestial Venerable Xu, did you think I came to face you alone? I have numbers on my side—I can crush you under sheer weight!"
His body became colossal, and his bodhimanda expanded just as vastly. Standing before him, Xu Ying was as tiny as an ant. Just flying across the bodhimanda to reach him would take an eternity.
And that time was more than enough for Ying Tianci to react leisurely!
In other words, Xu Ying could not reach him, but he could strike Xu Ying at will!
"Not necessarily!"
Xu Ying summoned his Primordial Spirit. It was merely about twenty feet tall at first, but in the next moment, through the Universal Form of Heaven and Earth, it bowed and surged outward, expanding into a myriad-zhang Primordial Spirit with imperishable spiritual light dancing around it!
His Primordial Spirit suddenly shrank rapidly, took a step forward, and stepped into Xu Ying's body.
Xu Ying bowed forward, then rose. As he straightened, his physical body towered ten thousand zhang tall, standing eye to eye with Ying Tianci.
"Toppling Mount Buzhou!"
Xu Ying raised both hands high, clasping his fingers together, and brought them crashing down.
Boom!
The vault of heaven exploded. A colossal Mount Buzhou breached the sky of the Ancestral Court and smashed violently into Ying Tianci's bodhimanda, the atmospheric friction igniting boundless thunderfire.
Mount Buzhou crashed into the bodhimanda, shattering the thick Dao chains and pressing directly onto Ying Tianci's head!
Blood sprayed from Ying Tianci's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. The Universal Form that required the joint chanting and empowerment of thousands of Juwei Palace immortals collapsed in an instant. His body and Primordial Spirit shrank rapidly as he plummeted from the sky, crashing hard into the dirt.
Dazed and battered, he was just about to scramble up when a foot stepped on him, grinding his head deep into the dirt.
Xu Ying asked indifferently, "Palace Master Ying, was this how I stepped on you back then?"
"No," Ying Tianci muffled through the dirt. "Back then, after you snatched my girl and beat me down, you stepped on my face."
Xu Ying shook his head. "Still stubborn, are we? I, Xu, am upright and open. How could I be the lecher you claim?"
As killing intent welled within him and he prepared to strike, his body suddenly stiffened, locked onto by a surge of murderous aura.
"Celestial Venerable Xu, whether you are a lecher has long been settled."
A crisp voice rang out. "Palace Master Juwei did not lie. I grew up as childhood sweethearts with Immortal Monarch Tian's daughter, yet wasn't she stolen away by you as well?"
Xu Ying looked up to see another rift tear open in the sky. An elegant, refined male immortal descended through it, backed by another celestial palace inscribed with the words "Gaoyuan Palace."
Xu Ying ventured tentatively, "Was it not mutual affection?"
Palace Master Lin Shoujun of Gaoyuan Palace bristled with killing intent, his voice icy: "Then why did you abandon her later?"
Xu Ying thought for a moment and said, "Could our feelings have simply fallen apart?"
Aboard the immortal raft, Xiao Xixian sneered, "Did you hear that? That's how muddleheaded and degenerate he is. There were no 'hardships and reasons' like you claimed—he is just an unscrupulous hero!"
Little Celestial Venerable frowned.
A murderous glint flashed in Palace Master Gaoyuan's eyes. Even after parting ways with Xu Ying, Immortal Monarch Tian's daughter still pined after Xu Ying and refused to spare him so much as a second glance.
That was the real reason his shame and resentment burned so fiercely that he wanted nothing more than to slaughter Xu Ying.
Just as he was about to strike, another aura locked onto Xu Ying. Another rift split the heavens, spilling immortal light as another Immortal King descended from above. Behind this person loomed the Huangling Heavenly Palace.
Palace Master Yun Wanli of Huangling Palace wore a look of admiration and said, "Celestial Venerable Xu, three hundred years after your ascension back then, you cultivated to become an Immortal Monarch whose name shook the Immortal Realm. You fawned over the Imperial Monarch, curried favor with Heavenly Venerables, flattered the Heavenly Venerables of every department, and cultivated vast connections. You knew the Immortal Monarchs and Heavenly Monarchs of every quarter; all were your friends. Even when Immortal Kings mentioned Celestial Venerable Xu, who didn't give a thumbs-up and praise you as a loyal minister?"
He sneered, "Had you continued down that path, Celestial Venerable Xu, you would have remained an evergreen pillar of the Immortal Realm, never to fall. But you were still too young and exposed your wild ambition. As it turned out, you were a remnant of Kunlun all along!"
The sky split open once more, and another beam of immortal light cascaded down. This time, the one who stepped out was Hao Jiangfeng, the master of Baibiao Heavenly Palace. Solemn-faced, he stroked his beard and said leisurely, "Back then, the Imperial Monarch was ordered to investigate your background, only to discover that you were also a rebel of the demonic realm."
In the sky, another beam of immortal light fell as Feng Yanqiu, master of the South Dipper's Siming Heavenly Palace, said calmly, "As one of the demon race and a Kunlun remnant, you underwent tribulation to ascend and climbed the ranks by leveraging the Immortal Realm's resources. Your schemes were vast. And when the Imperial Monarch investigated you, you actually caught wind of it."
Sun Yuanjiang, master of the South Dipper's Silu Heavenly Palace, strode out from the Immortal Realm with his hands clasped behind his back, saying placidly, "And so, cunning as you were, you began plotting your retreat. You stole the three great immortal mountains of the Immortal Realm—Fangzhang, Penglai, and Yingzhou—and smuggled them down to the lower realm."
Zheng Dabiao, master of the South Dipper's Yanshou Heavenly Palace, shouldered a massive executioner's blade, striding like a bear and pacing like a tiger as he chuckled, "You descended to the lower realm six times and underwent tribulation six times, pushing the heavenly tribulations to the level of super heavenly tribulations in an attempt to forge an Undying True Spirit against the grain through the momentum of those six tribulations."
"You came within a hair's breadth of cultivating your true spirit to immortality."
Liu Yunpeng, master of the South Dipper's Yisuan Heavenly Palace, strode forward with a longsword strapped to his back. "Just a hair shy, and you would have achieved an imperishable true spirit, reaching the Supreme level ahead of everything else. Unfortunately, your calculations still fell short."
Chapter 464