To cultivate the Ten Landscapes, be a disciple of the Shangqing Dao Sect, master both the Yellow Court Scripture and the Shangqing Scripture of the Great Cavern, and achieve Taiji and Wuji—was this not his own master, Daoist Qingxuan?
Only sheer terror remained in Wei Xu's heart.
Daoist Qingxuan had been dead for a very long time. He had already been dead for twenty thousand years before Wei Xu was ever suppressed!
Moreover, it was impossible for Qingxuan to return from the dead, because the figures who had moved against him were far too formidable. They would never have left him the slightest chance of resurrection.
Yet in this world, nothing was completely free of exceptions. What if Qingxuan hadn't died?
Xu Ying's wits stirred instantly, and he chuckled. "Silly child, you finally realized. That's right, I am Qingxuan. Come, let me impart this art to you. Once you cultivate it, you shall attain the Supreme realm."
He had made up his mind to teach Wei Xu a cultivation art riddled with disastrous backdoors. If Wei Xu dared to practice it, he was guaranteed to perish on the spot!
Hearing those words, Wei Xu grew suspicious. He carefully scrutinized the Taiyi Divine Bridge, and the heart suspended in his throat finally settled back down.
He chuckled. "I was possessed for a moment there, actually mistaking you for Master's reincarnation. But this divine ability of yours is still far too crude. If Master had forged this golden bridge, he would have striven for absolute perfection, making it far more flawless than this."
Unwilling to let it go, Xu Ying barked, "Insolent wretch! Think again, and do not fail your master's test!"
Wei Xu closely observed Xu Ying's Luotian Ten Landscapes and shook his head. "Your Luotian Ten Landscapes are indeed ingenious, yet they still fall short of Master's. Still, your Primordial Spirit is remarkable. Forging an Undying True Spirit Primordial Spirit is truly formidable. Forget Heavenly Immortals—even if Immortal Kings and Immortal Monarchs pitted their Primordial Spirits against yours, they would fall far short of you."
Instead of pummeling Xu Ying, he began heaping praise upon him, giving Xu Ying a distinctly uneasy feeling.
"You bastard, come over here and hit me!" Xu Ying shouted.
"Your divine abilities touch the threshold of the Supreme realm, your Primordial Spirit touches the threshold of the Supreme realm, and your Luotian Ten Landscapes represent Dao attainment that also nears the edge of the Supreme. What you lack is cultivation realm and physical body."
Wei Xu turned a deaf ear to his taunts and continued, "You have clearly cultivated a peculiar technique capable of refining the foreign Daos of others to boost your own cultivation and strength. You took such a brutal beating from me and never died, yet your cultivation kept rising. This must be a body-refining technique."
Seeing that Wei Xu refused to come strike him, Xu Ying swung the Heaven-Measuring Ruler and charged straight at him, shouting, "You worthless coward who got suppressed for over five hundred thousand years, hit me!"
Blue veins throbbed furiously across Wei Xu's face. He sneered, "Hit you? You're not worthy..."
*Smack!*
Xu Ying brought the ruler down hard on his head, bellowing, "Coward, hit me!"
Blood instantly washed over Wei Xu's face, making him tremble with rage.
He roared savagely. Xu Ying looked on with keen anticipation, only to see Wei Xu refrain from attacking him; instead, his mountain-like fist smashed down toward the Taiyi Divine Bridge.
Although the Taiyi Divine Bridge was a Supreme-grade divine ability, Xu Ying was not a Supreme after all. A single punch covered the bridge in fractures. Wei Xu brought down a second fist, and even more cracks spread across the divine bridge!
"Your body-refining technique converts external attacks into your own power to strengthen your physical body and Primordial Spirit. The more times I strike you, the stronger you become."
Wei Xu took several more blows from the ruler, beaten black and blue, yet he sneered, "But I have already figured out how to crack it!"
Xu Ying spurred the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler, assailing him like a torrential tempest. Yet Wei Xu threw a third punch, and with a thunderous roar, the Taiyi Golden Bridge shattered!
The Taiyi Divine Bridge could no longer hold him. With a leap, he broke free of this spatial expanse!
In just that brief span, Wei Xu had taken more than a dozen strikes from the ruler, leaving his flesh torn and his state utterly battered.
To Chen Chaosheng, Zhongyi Imperial Monarch, and the onlookers, it clearly appeared that Wei Xu had been outmatched by Xu Ying, trapped upon the bridge, thrashed senseless across head and face, and forced to flee the divine bridge in disgraceful ruin.
A chilling awe gripped their hearts. *Xu Ying is this formidable? Even Wei Xu was no match for this scoundrel! If he comes for us next...*
Wei Xu's form grew ever more towering. Suddenly thrusting a hand out, he plunged it straight into Xu Ying's Yingzhou Cave Abyss, intending to tear the cave abyss apart, sneering, "Junior Brother, what are you hiding inside the Yingzhou Cave Abyss?"
Within the Yingzhou Cave Abyss, the Divine Mother, Gushe, Yuan Tiangang, and the others were desperately calculating Wei Xu's moves. Xu Ying's ability to evade Wei Xu's fatal strikes time and again and survive thus far owed immensely to their frantic deductions.
Guided by their pointers, Xu Ying had dodged lethal moves and minimized the fatal damage dealt by Wei Xu's divine abilities, allowing him to preserve his life.
The Divine Mother's calculating power alone had been insufficient to pinpoint Wei Xu's every motion, but with the aid of Gushe and Tiangang, their combined deductions had surged, successfully anticipating fifty to sixty percent of Wei Xu's moves and divine abilities.
That fifty to sixty percent accuracy, coupled with Xu Ying's Leakless Golden Body, was enough to keep him alive.
Yet this sudden strike from Wei Xu, tearing open the Yingzhou Cave Abyss, exposed them all.
Panic seized everyone. Wei Xu's overwhelming aura crashed into them, throwing their qi flow into disarray and rendering them powerless to resist his pressure!
This man was simply too terrifying—so powerful that he could dictate their life and death without even lifting another finger!
"So there were divine diviners calculating my every move!"
Wei Xu sneered and reached out to seize them. Just as the group seemed doomed to annihilation, the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler swept in, knocking Wei Xu head over heels.
Before the group could fully recover from the shock, Xu Ying charged forward with the Heaven-Measuring Ruler, executing the sword Dao taught to him by Sword Monarch Jinhe. The long ruler swept horizontally and vertically, trailing unfathomable phantoms of mountains and rivers. Xu Ying laughed. "How do you know this move of yours wasn't foreseen by the diviners as well? Wei Xu, you were suppressed for hundreds of thousands of years! Your cultivation is a shadow of what it was, and you couldn't even tell you were being calculated. Today, you are doomed to fall!"
Although Sword Monarch Jinhe was at the Immortal Monarch realm, his Dao attainment had long reached the Heavenly Monarch level. Because of his upright nature, he had suffered endless petty sabotage in the Immortal Realm, leaving him without enough resources to advance to Heavenly Monarch.
Yet his sword Dao was truly exquisite. Xu Ying was already a grandmaster of the sword Dao himself, and with his self-comprehended Immortal-Slaying Sword Qi added to the mix, he could attack and defend with fluid mastery while wielding the ruler against Wei Xu.
The Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler in particular unfurled outward once catalyzed, splitting from one into two, two into four, four into eight, continuously multiplying. With each sweep of sword light, landscapes blanketed the surrounding space, ensuring an inevitable strike that tormented Wei Xu to no end.
Wei Xu attacked frantically, thrusting his hand toward Yingzhou several times, only to be parried by Xu Ying on every occasion.
Inside Yingzhou, the crowd's hearts leapt into their throats. The Divine Mother urgently barked, "Gushe, Tiangang, quickly deduce his moves with me! Not a moment to lose!"
Fairy Gushe and Yuan Tiangang had been momentarily frozen by Wei Xu's sheer intimidation, forgetting to continue their calculations. Shaken awake, they swiftly refocused their minds.
During that lapse just now, Xu Ying had put his life on the line to block the entrance of Yingzhou and keep them alive. He could hold out for a short while, but over a prolonged fight, his Leakless Golden Body would hardly withstand Wei Xu's relentless onslaught!
Fairy Gushe waved her hand gently, and threads of karma emerged upon Wei Xu's body. She used karma to anticipate Wei Xu's strikes. Every thread of karma represented a move Wei Xu was about to unleash; the karmic connection between these moves was faint, and the karmic threads were exceedingly fine, almost imperceptible.
Moreover, the karmic threads constantly shifted, liable to change with the unfolding tide of battle, making them extraordinarily difficult to grasp.
Rooted in Wei Xu like cobwebs, these threads were impossibly slender. Wei Xu was like a marionette controlled by them, deploying divine abilities according to the moves dictated by each thread.
The higher a cultivator's realm, the finer and more undetectable such karmic threads became.
Fairy Gushe would normally have been unable to perceive Wei Xu's karmic threads. However, having entered Yingzhou and absorbed its spirit energy during this period, her cultivation had progressed tremendously, now reaching the Heavenly Immortal realm.
Furthermore, Wei Xu had been scorched in the Eight Trigrams Crucible for over five hundred thousand years and had not even restored a tenth of his cultivation. Striking with deliberate preparation against an unsuspecting target, she was able to draw out those karmic threads.
*If I can alter these karmic threads and force Wei Xu to execute the moves I prescribe for him, wouldn't that defeat him?*
At this thought, Fairy Gushe immediately attempted to rearrange the sequence of the threads, thinking anxiously, *I wonder if this will work?*
Clashing with Xu Ying for dozens of exchanges, Wei Xu's eyes gleamed with savage ferocity. *My junior brother hasn't deployed the golden bridge all this time, which means it takes an immense toll on him and cannot be cast again so quickly! Since he can't use it, he won't be able to stop me from breaching Yingzhou! Once I devour this Yingzhou and consume all those fortune-tellers, I can toy with him at my leisure!*
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the divine ability he unleashed struck empty air, blasting a distant mountain peak into powder.
Seizing the opening, Xu Ying channeled Immortal-Slaying Sword Qi through the Heaven-Measuring Ruler and thrust forward.
Wei Xu took a strike from the ruler. He promptly surged his cultivation, erasing every trace of the invading Immortal-Slaying Sword Qi, and chopped his palm against the Heaven-Measuring Ruler. The impact tore open Xu Ying's thumb cleft, nearly dislodging the weapon from his grip!
Just as Wei Xu reached out to snatch the ruler, his hand caught nothing but empty air. Stunned for an instant, he suddenly realized: *Someone dares to manipulate me?*
His divine consciousness was immensely potent. Even with only a tenth remaining, it still pierced through the void, detecting Fairy Gushe meddling with his karmic threads. He immediately surged his divine consciousness, intending to trace those threads back and obliterate her!
Right then, Xu Ying swept his ruler across, severing the karmic strands—the Divine Mother had calculated Wei Xu's intention and prompted Xu Ying to strike preemptively.
Thwarted from killing Gushe, Wei Xu took two more hits from Xu Ying's ruler. Though the blows did not slay him, the power of this Supreme treasure repeatedly breached his body, chipping away at his cultivation.
Meanwhile, Xu Ying's cultivation climbed steadily under the beating, filling Wei Xu with a sense of foreboding.
*My junior brother has diviners helping him plot against me, while my cultivation hasn't even recovered by one-tenth. If I could recover just twenty percent, I could beat him to death with my bare hands!*
Murderous light flared in his eyes. Suddenly abandoning Xu Ying, he vaulted into the air and landed beside an Immortal Monarch who was locked in a life-and-death struggle with the big bell!
The several Immortal Monarchs brought by Zhongyi Imperial Monarch were currently besieging the big bell—or rather, they were trapped within the bell's bodhimanda and being pummeled by it.
Having refined the Ginseng Dao fruit, the big bell had also formed an azure Dao fruit, making it effectively half a pseudo-Daluo Golden Immortal.
This Dao fruit was a treasure capable of helping Imperial Monarchs and Heavenly Venerables step into the next realm, attain the status of a pseudo-Daluo Golden Immortal, and forge their own Dao fruits. The power it contained was vast beyond measure; otherwise, it would never have lured Emperor Changsheng into attempting to seize it.
It was only because the big bell did not know how to properly wield the Dao fruit that the battle had dragged on; otherwise, it would have crushed those Immortal Monarchs long ago.
Wei Xu landed beside the Immortal Monarch with a savage glare. Grabbing the man, he opened his maw and inhaled, pulling the man's Primordial Spirit, bodhimanda, vitality, and magic power out in a torrent that surged into his mouth!
In mere moments, the Immortal Monarch was reduced to a desiccated husk of white bones, meeting an unnatural end!
Wei Xu squeezed hard, crushing the bones in his grip to powder, and swept his gaze toward the big bell.
He leapt into the air, landing before the big bell in the next instant, when the Heaven-Measuring Ruler abruptly flew in and knocked him head over heels. Xu Ying caught up, shouting, "Master Bell, stash the Dao fruit and lend me a hand!"
The big bell hurried to draw the Dao fruit inside its body and hovered above Xu Ying's head. With a resonant chime, the bodhimanda within the bell cascaded down, turning into a curtain of light that enveloped Xu Ying.
Xu Ying was startled. *Master Bell's bodhimanda is barely any different from my Great Luo bodhimanda!*
The bell's bodhimanda also contained the Great Luo Ten Landscapes, though they were not real, but rather visualized Dao phenomena. Even as mere phenomena, their power was extraordinary!
Xu Ying spread his Ruyi Great Luo Heaven to shield his surroundings. Bolstered by two great bodhimandas, he felt impregnable—yet in the very next instant, Wei Xu's palm pierced straight through!
"Immortal Master, step back to the left: Sweep Rivers and Mountains with the Sword!" the Divine Mother's voice rang out.
Xu Ying stepped back to the left, leveling the Heaven-Measuring Ruler to execute Sweep Rivers and Mountains. He swung the move into empty space, yet a moment later, Wei Xu materialized right beneath its sweep!
*Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!*
Taking four ruler strikes in a row, Wei Xu's head broke open, blood streaming down. Shocked and enraged, he took a fierce step back to exit Xu Ying's bodhimanda, flashing behind another Immortal Monarch.
That Immortal Monarch was just about to flee when Wei Xu seized him, draining him completely in an instant until only bone fragments remained.
The other two Immortal Monarchs, who had still contemplated teaming up with Wei Xu to besiege Xu Ying, were scared out of their wits and fled into the distance, vanishing without a trace.
Driven by desperation, Wei Xu bounded across the field and suddenly landed behind Zhongyi Imperial Monarch. Zhongyi's hair stood on end. *This fiend wants to eat even me!*
He had already trapped Little Celestial Venerable inside the Myriad Bells Immortal Formation. Even though Little Celestial Venerable had cultivated the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art, he could not hold out in the formation for long and would soon be refined to death.
Yet at this moment, Zhongyi Imperial Monarch could no longer care about refining Little Celestial Venerable. He took a sudden step forward, diving into the Myriad Bells Immortal Formation.
Little Celestial Venerable seized the chance to raise his Heavenly Halberd and rest it against Zhongyi's neck. Zhongyi hurriedly blurted out, "Little Celestial Venerable, we're on the same side!"
With a deafening crash, Wei Xu shattered the Myriad Bells Formation with a single punch and reached both hands in to seize them both.
Little Celestial Venerable abandoned any thought of slaying Zhongyi and soared into the air; Zhongyi Imperial Monarch flew up as well. Yet the two found the world spinning and heaven and earth distorting. The two mighty experts could not fly even half an inch outward; instead, they tumbled helplessly toward Wei Xu's hands.
Wei Xu wore a savage grin. "Devouring the two of you, added to those two Immortal Monarchs just now, will let me recover ten to twenty percent of my cultivation—more than enough to slaughter my junior brother!"
Right then, Xu Ying's Heaven-Measuring Ruler struck. Boundless ruler phantoms transformed into mountains and rivers, slamming into Wei Xu's back.
Wei Xu coughed up blood and stumbled, the magic power he had just cultivated shaken into disarray by the blow.
Xu Ying roared, "Fellow Daoists, lend me your strength! Cast your treasures and slay this wretch!"
He flung the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler into the air. As it soared, Little Celestial Venerable channeled all his magic power into the ruler. Behind Xu Ying, within Yingzhou, two to three hundred immortals of Penglai Immortal Mountain likewise poured their magic power into the ruler.
The big black dog broke away from Chen Chaosheng, shook its body, and transformed into a ten-thousand-li behemoth, pouring its own boundless magic power into the ruler!
Zhongyi Imperial Monarch hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and poured his magic power into the Heaven-Measuring Ruler as well, thinking, *This old fiend devoured three of my mighty experts! How can I tolerate him?*
Chen Chaosheng paused, halted in his tracks, and chose not to pursue the big black dog. He thought, *This Wei Xu, whom Master ordered me to save, has committed countless atrocities. A man like this is not worth saving. Better to let him die right here...*
In an instant, the Heaven-Measuring Ruler blanketed the void, filling heaven and earth and trapping Wei Xu within.
Wei Xu's heart lurched. *I'm finished!*
He had slaughtered too indiscriminately, making no distinction between friend and foe, leading everyone to turn against him. Now they had united to confront him, trapping him in an inescapable death trap!
Seeing this, the Divine Mother breathed a sigh of relief. She thought to herself, *I deliberately refrained from warning the Immortal Master that Wei Xu would go eat those two Immortal Monarchs, all to make him forsaken by all. Now, has my divine deduction surpassed Lan Suying's?*
She considered it, then shook her head.
After witnessing Lan Suying's divine calculations, she had turned her shame into resolve, improving her art even further. Yet she still felt she fell short of Lan Suying.
Just as the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler was about to crush Wei Xu to death, a fluttering sash descended from the Nine Heavens. With a gentle sweep, it parted layer upon layer of mountains and rivers as effortlessly as brushing away clouds and mist!
A surging force of the immortal Dao bore down from above. Everyone groaned under the crushing weight. Within Yingzhou, the immortals of Penglai coughed up blood from the pressure. Little Celestial Venerable and Zhongyi Imperial Monarch trembled, clenching their teeth to hold their ground.
In the blink of an eye, the sky over the Ancestral Court was overrun by immortal Dao pollution, turning into a kaleidoscope of bizarre colors. The immortal Dao pollution seeped into the panoramic painting formed by the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler, causing countless plants within the landscape to run wild, draping the sky in twisted, monstrous tangles!
The sash swept straight toward Wei Xu to pull him away, when suddenly the chaotic immortal Daos in the sky converged into a multicolored hand. With a flick of its finger, the sash was struck as if by an arrow and sent flying into the distance.
The multicolored hand reached down, grabbed Wei Xu, and retracted toward the outer heavens, quickly vanishing without a trace!
Xu Ying looked up. The multicolored hand was gone, the sash nowhere to be seen, leaving only the scar of the fissure to the Immortal Realm across the sky.
Beside his ear came the Divine Mother's terrified voice: "Immortal Master, I didn't foresee anything! I couldn't calculate a single thing!"
Xu Ying's heart sank slightly. A prominent figure from the Immortal Realm had made a move.
Chapter 537