"Celestial Venerable Xu is truly a man of his word!"
The Eastern King was utterly astonished. He had originally thought that Xu Ying came to Wuzhuang Temple having colluded with the two Dao attendants, Qingfeng and Mingyue, intending to eliminate everyone here and hoard the treasures for himself. Never had he expected Xu Ying to genuinely come to his aid!
Yet for some reason, whenever he tried to divine Xu Ying's fortunes, the readings always turned out hazy and obscure. He knew in his heart that there had to be a master beside Xu Ying who was equally well-versed in divine divination.
He had not come in his true body, so his calculating power had not reached its peak, leaving him no way to learn who this divine diviner beside Xu Ying actually was.
The Imperial Monarch's expression remained calm. Turning around to face Xu Ying, he smiled faintly. "Xu Ying, do you truly believe you are a match for me now? You are no longer your former self. You still have five seals left unbroken—what do you have to fight me with?"
Xu Ying strolled forward with a half-smile. "Do you think your five-character seal can trap me? My attainment in the Dao surpassed yours long ago; I simply did not wish to undo it. In fact, I even reinforced the seal for you."
The Imperial Monarch's pupils shrank. His eldest disciple, Jiang Zhongfu, had already reported this to him, and at the time he had suspected that the one who reinforced the five-character seal was Xu Ying himself.
That suspicion had turned into an inner demon, tormenting him for a time until he finally had to sever the demon and cast it into Weixu.
He had never expected that today would confirm that deduction.
The question of why Xu Ying had reinforced the seal was rapidly becoming a new inner demon for him.
"Xu Ying, had you not been defeated back then and squandered fifty thousand years, you and I could still contend as equals today," the Imperial Monarch remarked with a sigh of emotion. "Yet you wasted fifty thousand years of time, while during those fifty thousand years, I continually progressed. My achievements over these years have already reached heights beyond your wild hopes of catching up."
Xu Ying smiled. "Yet to this day, you have still failed to destroy my Undying True Spirit."
"Not necessarily."
The Imperial Monarch replied with an indifferent expression, "You must have already seen my Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array Diagram, haven't you? Deployed by Bai Yuchuan, was that immortal array diagram sufficient to obliterate your Undying True Spirit? What if it were deployed by me instead?"
Xu Ying's expression shifted slightly.
When Young Master Yuchuan activated the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array, even after he had died, that immortal array had still severely injured Xu Ying. The Dao wounds it inflicted on Xu Ying were only healed after he comprehended the Indestructible Primordial Spirit!
If the Imperial Monarch deployed the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array in person, its might would only be far greater than Yuchuan's, its variations would be far more numerous, and naturally the danger would be far graver!
This immortal array was a formation painstakingly conceived by the Imperial Monarch over the past forty-eight thousand years specifically to crack his Undying True Spirit. It truly possessed the potential to obliterate it!
The Imperial Monarch continued, "I heard that back then, the few Immortal Kings and Divine Kings I dispatched down below carved you apart, harvesting your nine realms to forge them into treasures. To think that you actually gathered those treasures back together and treated them as external realms to bolster your cultivation and strength. Xu Ying, you still haven't stepped out from the shadow of your first lifetime."
A playful smile played upon his lips. "Your first lifetime ended in wretched defeat. By retracing his old path, you will only suffer an even more miserable defeat. Tell me—stripping away those nine treasures, what else do you have? You have nothing! You are nothing more than a pathetic wretch at the Divine Bridge realm, an ordinary Qi Refiner who is not even the lowliest Human Immortal!"
His words were razor-sharp, striking directly at the weakest point of Xu Ying's Dao heart in a ruthless attempt to shatter his confidence and conviction!
Xu Ying found himself unable to retort, for he had indeed been introspecting: had he grown overly reliant on the nine great treasures? Had he inherited too much of the fortune of his first lifetime? Was he truly unable to step out from the shadow of his first lifetime?
Yet once he made use of the nine great treasures, he could never bear to abandon them.
After all, they provided a solid, tangible surge in power, representing his hope of vanquishing formidable adversaries!
Cast aside the nine great treasures, and he could at best contend with Earth Immortals and Heavenly Immortals; any random Immortal King that showed up would be enough to send him fleeing in disgrace!
How could such a Xu Ying inspire the hearts of the Ancestral Court? How could he rally the strength to resist the Immortal Realm?
How could he rival and stand shoulder to shoulder with the Xu Ying of his first lifetime?
The Eastern King frowned slightly. He keenly sensed that Xu Ying had been swayed by the Imperial Monarch's words and was wavering in his conviction.
"Xu Ying, as you are now, how do you expect to face my Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array?"
The Imperial Monarch roared with laughter. "You are nothing more than a replica of that failed self, a mere imitator! The you of the first lifetime already suffered crushing defeat—you will only fall even harder!"
Xu Ying's eyes gradually brightened, his mind regaining its serenity. He said placidly, "You are wrong. I am stronger than the me of my first lifetime! With you deploying the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array, I am all the more eager to experience it. As you are now, you are merely an avatar. If I lack even the courage to face your avatar, how could I ever hope to slay your true body?"
The Imperial Monarch's avatar raised an eyebrow.
With a faint smirk, Xu Ying said, "Besides, do you dare use your true trump card and expose your underlying capital?"
Xu Ying's words struck the Imperial Monarch right where it hurt.
Indeed, he dared not reveal his bottom-line methods.
Over the past forty-odd thousand years, he had long surpassed the constraints of the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Demon-Breaking Secret Art. His cultivation method had advanced ahead of time into the Supreme tier, transcending the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths to evolve the Twelve Dao Wheels, which were formed from twelve bodhimandas combined into one grand bodhimanda.
He possessed twelve Dao flowers, and the Great Dao harbored within each flower was distinct.
Each of the twelve bodhimandas was governed by one of his external avatars, and those twelve external avatars, while not Heavenly Monarchs, were comparable to Heavenly Monarchs!
If he engaged Xu Ying in combat and exposed the Twelve Dao Wheels, his rivals would take precautions well in advance and might even lay plans targeting his Twelve Dao Wheels, causing all his efforts to collapse at the final hurdle.
To squander his opportunity to vie for the throne of Supreme merely to deal with a paltry Xu Ying would be utterly foolish!
"If you dare not expose your true capital, facing me means certain death."
Xu Ying slowly activated the nine Immortal King treasures, transforming them into nine realms suspended behind him. With razor-sharp eyes, he said softly, "If you do deploy your bottom-line techniques, then in the future your true body will face certain doom. So many of your adversaries have gathered here in Wuzhuang Temple, and they are all watching you from the shadows. Imperial Monarch, what will your choice be?"
By now, he was already capable of fully commanding the power of these nine treasures. Not only did they serve as his external realms, but they also supplied him with the dharmic power of nine Immortal Kings, propelling his cultivation to the level of an Immortal Monarch!
In the sky behind Xu Ying, ten cave heavens rotated, connecting to the Immortal Realm and shimmering with all manner of bizarre hues—the radiance of the Dao.
The ten cave heavens elevated his cultivation once more!
If he merged the ten into one and deployed the Taiyi Cave Abyss, his cultivation and strength would see yet another substantial increase. However, he had to remain wary of the Supreme and dared not use the Taiyi Cave Abyss.
The Taiyi Cave Abyss was his true capital.
Xu Ying strode toward the Imperial Monarch, speaking leisurely, "If you choose the first path, I will slay your avatar, stripping you of this chance to claim the Ginseng Fruit Tree. Without the Ginseng Fruit Tree, your future bid for Supreme will inevitably leave you a step behind the others. If you choose the second path, you will not even have the chance to survive."
His gaze was profound, his voice laden with a strange potency that unsettled the mind. "How will you choose?"
Beads of cold sweat broke out on the forehead of the Imperial Monarch's avatar. His mouth felt parched, and he desperately wished to sever another inner demon; yet this was Wuzhuang Temple, and even if he severed the inner demon, it would have nowhere to be cast.
"All you can deploy is the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array."
Xu Ying steadily channeled the Ruyi Great Luo Heaven. The ring-shaped radiance behind his head spread smoothly downward from above, forming a Great Luo bodhimanda that enveloped him.
The Ten Scenes of Taixu drifted throughout the bodhimanda, shifting without fixed course and gleaming in concert with his ten great cave heavens.
Xu Ying smiled faintly. "Yet your Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array fell into my hands. Having killed Bai Yuchuan and acquired the array diagram, how could I not study it? If you deploy the Extermination Immortal Array, can you truly defeat me?"
He advanced with slow, measured steps, his Great Luo bodhimanda already beginning to make contact with the Imperial Monarch's bodhimanda.
This avatar of the Imperial Monarch was an Immortal Monarch, possessing an exceptionally profound and solid bodhimanda. Dao chains intertwined within it, forming the tens of thousands of massive roots of a Dao tree!
Though his Dao tree was neither towering nor robust, its root system was truly astonishing.
Xu Ying continued forward, invading the Imperial Monarch's bodhimanda, and chuckled, "Imperial Monarch, what will you do? Your sealing arts were thoroughly broken by me long ago, and your Nine Heavens Ten Earths Demon-Breaking Secret Art and Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array are as clear to me as the back of my hand. So then, will you use your Supreme techniques or not?"
The two bodhimandas collided, tangling with one another. Xu Ying instantly felt the immense dharmic power brought forth by the Imperial Monarch's Nine Heavens and Ten Earths; even as an Immortal Monarch avatar, it was remarkably formidable!
The Imperial Monarch hesitated. Suddenly, a golden bridge manifested within his bodhimanda. The instant the golden bridge descended, he felt his bodhimanda split clean in two, while his bodhimanda and Dao tree showed signs of being dissolved!
The suppression of the golden bridge even caused the operation of his Dao tree's root system to turn sluggish.
"A Supreme divine art?"
The Imperial Monarch's expression altered. Shifting his stance, he landed on the golden bridge. The instant his foot came down, countless Dao patterns fluttered into motion, and the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array unfurled in an instant!
In a single breath, the phenomena of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths manifested inside and outside both their bodhimandas. Whichever direction Xu Ying looked, he could see layer upon layer of firmaments—the phenomena of the various heavens!
During the battle in which he slew Young Master Yuchuan, Xu Ying had witnessed the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array; the moment the array was unleashed, it had given him the sensation of falling into irrecoverable damnation.
Now, that sensation came rushing back.
He could see hanging high above the nine heavens streaks of purple blade qi—the divine art contained within the Purple Nether Saber!
There was only one Purple Nether Saber, yet its divine arts could manifest in the tens of thousands!
As the Extermination Immortal Array roared to life under the personal control of the Imperial Monarch's avatar, the subtleties of its operation surpassed Young Master Yuchuan's by an untold margin!
Standing in the midst of the Extermination Immortal Array, Xu Ying unleashed a sudden burst of sword light, his Zhuxian sword qi rising to intercept the incoming streaks of Purple Nether blade qi. Having received guidance from Sword Monarch Jinhe and cultivated the Nine Essentials of the Sword Monarch, the might of the Zhuxian sword qi erupting from his hands was greater than ever before, cleaving through streak after streak of blade qi!
Snowflakes swirled densely around him, forming a sphere of snow that grew larger and larger. Let the purple blade light assail him from east, south, west, north, above, and below—none could harm him in the slightest!
Yet the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array consisted of far more than just the Purple Nether blade qi. The outer layer of the immortal array suddenly ruptured, transforming into surging chaos qi that crushed directly through the first layer of heavens, followed immediately by the second, and then the third and fourth, moving faster and faster with increasingly ferocious might!
Once it compressed down to the ninth heaven and the tenth earth, all that world-ending power would converge upon Xu Ying, marking the moment of his utter annihilation!
This was the extermination array the Imperial Monarch had devised specifically against Xu Ying's Undying True Spirit. Under such overwhelming might, even an Undying True Spirit would be obliterated by that supreme, unyielding momentum!
Yet the moment Xu Ying's golden bridge descended, the Imperial Monarch's avatar's bodhimanda had already begun to disintegrate, resolving into the two qis of Xuanhuang on either side of the bridge, which then transformed into Wuji qi.
When the Imperial Monarch's avatar stepped onto the golden bridge, this transformation intensified violently. Along both banks of the golden bridge, the two qis of Xuanhuang roiled upward, faintly coalescing into a Xuanhuang Taiji Diagram.
As the golden bridge turned, the Taiji Diagram shifted toward a Wuji Diagram. Just as the Imperial Monarch activated the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Immortal Array, the underlying heavens and earths had already begun breaking down, dissolving into the two qis of Xuanhuang and Wuji qi!
Though Xu Ying's Taiyi Golden Bridge appeared simple, it had in fact integrated two classics of the Great Luo Marvelous Realm tier—the Yellow Court Scripture and the Shangqing Great Cavern True Scripture—making it unfathomably profound.
The two clashed in magical combat upon the golden bridge. In the briefest span of an instant, the might of the Extermination Immortal Array converged upon a single point—a force capable of grinding innate indestructible spiritual light to dust and shattering the Great Daos of the world—submerging Xu Ying entirely!
Boom!
The golden bridge snapped. Rays of death light shot out in all directions, cleaving heaven and earth. Wherever they passed, the Jade Pool cracked, the four cardinal pillars tilted, and gash after gash was carved across sky and earth, the wounds glowing with scorched traces!
"Xu Ying, you lied to me!"
Upon the broken golden bridge, the Imperial Monarch's avatar was covered in sword wounds, his face livid with rage. "You never broke my Extermination Immortal Array at all!"
He was overcome with shock and fury. In that fleeting instant, nearly half of the Dao chains in his bodhimanda had been dissolved away by Xu Ying, and the roots of his Dao tree were almost completely severed, leaving it a rootless tree!
As the death light of the Extermination Immortal Array cleared away, Xu Ying's mortal body was completely pulverized; yet upon the broken bridge stood a Primordial Spirit glowing with brilliant amber radiance, resplendent and dazzling!
This was precisely his Indestructible Primordial Spirit!
"Yet you believed it, didn't you?"
Xu Ying channeled the Taiyi Indestructible Scripture, and his mortal body regenerated from his Primordial Spirit.
His mortal body had failed to withstand the Extermination Immortal Array, but fortunately, the array's foundation had been undone by his golden bridge, preventing the immortal array from unleashing its full might and causing it to fall short at the decisive moment!
Had the golden bridge not unraveled the array's foundation, the outcome of the battle would still have hung in the balance.
Xu Ying splayed his fingers, a ferocious gleam flashing in his eyes. "Imperial Monarch, this avatar of yours serves as the interest for all the suffering I endured over these forty-eight thousand years. As for the principal, I will come to collect it from your doorstep in person!"
The Imperial Monarch's expression shifted, and he leaped into the air. Yet the moment his body took flight, both of his legs rapidly dissolved into the two qis of Xuanhuang.
By the time he reached midair, the dissolution had already climbed to his waist, the two qis of Xuanhuang cascading down like a torrent from his torso.
Xu Ying raised his hand and pressed down heavily. The Imperial Monarch's avatar crashed from the sky, and by the time it struck the half-bridge, it had completely dissolved into a mass of Xuanhuang qi, dissipating with a thunderous roar!
Xu Ying's eyelids twitched as the broken bridge reconnected. With a rumbling roar, the Dao tree of the Imperial Monarch's avatar collapsed continuously into the ground, turning into billowing Xuanhuang qi!
Soon, the entire Dao tree seemed to sink away, submerging past its crown and treetop until it vanished completely!
Xu Ying turned around, raised his left arm, and gave his sleeve a vigorous flick. The billowing Xuanhuang qi behind him cleaved in two, parting upward and downward—the clear qi rising to form the sky, the turbid qi sinking to form the ground—fashioning a brand-new heaven and earth above the Jade Pool. It was a magnificent spectacle, all born from the remains of the Imperial Monarch's avatar.
The fierce light in Xu Ying's eyes faded, replaced by an affable expression. Slender and poised, he walked toward the Eastern King and smiled. "Your Highness, fortunate not to have failed the assignment. What does Your Highness think of Xu's helping hand?"
The Eastern King's blood surged in alarm. Immediately hopping backward on his single leg, he gave a strained laugh. "Xu Ying, you want to make a move on me? Don't forget that this prince learned the arts of my father, the Immortal Emperor, and broke your golden bridge before!"
Balancing on his lone leg, he bound away in a series of frantic hops, his voice drifting back from afar: "If you mean business, I will drag you down with me!"
Xu Ying hesitated for just a fraction of a second, and in that time the Eastern King's avatar had already hopped completely out of sight, vanishing without a trace.
"Was my expression not genial enough, or did you fail to hoodwink the Eastern King for me, Divine Mother?" Xu Ying asked in surprise.
Chapter 519