The Immortal Emperor Supreme stood where he was. More than five hundred thousand years as Immortal Emperor had long cultivated in him a presence that looked down upon all under heaven, yet this presence was being suppressed by Xu Ying!
The Earth Immortal Seal surged forward like overturning mountains and seas, carrying supreme might as it crashed down. The entire space surrounding him was sealed tight, making him feel like a dead soul beneath the Earth Immortal Realm awaiting the fate of having his skull shattered!
All his life, he had only been the Immortal Emperor of the Immortal Realm, not of the Earth Immortal Realm. Facing Xu Ying's Earth Immortal Seal, he felt a distinct sense of suppression.
With his very first strike, Xu Ying had unleashed his full strength!
At the same time, his Mortal Realm Seal and Heavenly Immortal Seal were also taking form, the phantoms of the Mortal Realm and Heavenly Immortal Realm emerging behind him!
These were his Three Heavenly Dao Seals, the three great seal arts he had comprehended on his own from the Heavenly Dao after transcending the heavenly tribulations of the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Man!
The Immortal Emperor Supreme's white hair fluttered, and in the next instant, his aura transformed. Physical Body Supreme, Primordial Spirit Supreme, Primordial Qi Supreme, Divine Consciousness Supreme, Yin-Yang Supreme, and Heart Power Supreme—six dimensions of the Supreme realm manifested simultaneously within his body!
Behind him towered a ten-thousand-zhang Primordial Spirit, shimmering all over with spiritual light, while his physical body blazed with dazzling radiance!
He met Xu Ying's strike, six Dao landscapes—including the Chaos Sea, the Black and Yellow Dual Qi, and the Glazed Pure Sky—manifesting around him on an extraordinary scale!
Of Qingxuan's technique, the Ten Absolute Supreme Emptiness Dao Landscapes, he had already mastered six absolutes. These six absolutes were enough to bring him to the Supreme realm, putting him on par with the Wondrous Realm of Great Luo—or even slightly above it!
Yet there were two other Supreme realms that people often overlooked: one was cultivation technique, and the other was divine ability!
The Immortal Emperor's cultivation technique was Emperor Qingxuan's technique, and his divine abilities were also Emperor Qingxuan's divine abilities. In these two aspects alone, he stood superior to Xu Ying.
Xu Ying's cultivation technique was merely self-comprehended, and his divine abilities were likewise self-comprehended.
If Xu Ying had still been using the former Taiyi Innate Technique, the Immortal Emperor would not have needed to duel him at all; he could simply have harvested the leek right then and there. For the Taiyi Innate Technique had originally been passed down to the Xu family by none other than the Immortal Emperor himself.
Boom!
The forces of the two collided. At this moment, everyone present felt the earth quake and the mountains shake. The waters of the Heavenly Sea cascading down into the Heavenly Abyss actually began to flow backward, soaring toward the heavens!
The colossal torrent was magnificent beyond compare, lifting the sea surface along both banks and sweeping it into the sky.
As their magic powers met, dazzling spiritual light erupted from within Xu Ying as well, blindingly bright. His entire body looked like a figure formed of indestructible spiritual light, radiant as a peerless god of war!
His Taiyi Indestructible True Scripture had also been deduced by him to the Supreme level. Although it was slightly inferior to the Ten Absolute Supreme Emptiness Dao Landscapes, its strength lay in being his own creation, fusing the power of thirteen Dao landscapes; the power it unleashed was by no means weaker than the Immortal Emperor's!
His attainments in the physical body and the primordial spirit had already reached the Supreme level. In other aspects he lagged considerably behind, but he held the advantage in sheer numbers.
The Immortal Emperor possessed six paths of Hunyuan, whereas he possessed thirteen paths of Hunyuan!
The instant the two clashed, the violent power continued to mount. The two Taiyi cave abysses behind Xu Ying suddenly erupted, providing him with peerless power and driving his palm force to skyrocket wildly!
In particular, the Emerald Rock Dao Landscape among the thirteen Dao landscapes, nourished by the spiritual qi and spiritual power of the Taiyi cave abysses, grew even larger and its Dao might grew even stronger, the Emerald Rock Dao even faintly influencing the outside world!
What was most important within the Taiyi cave abysses was not the spiritual qi or spiritual power, but the Great Dao of Taiyi. Xu Ying had been able to unify the thirteen Dao landscapes so quickly into the Great Dao of Taiyi precisely because he held command over the Taiyi cave abysses.
In these past two years, as he contemplated the Great Dao of Taiyi within the Taiyi cave abysses, his comprehension of this Great Dao had grown deeper and deeper.
The might of his Earth Immortal Seal surged exponentially, on the verge of crushing the Immortal Emperor. But in the next instant, a Supreme cave abyss emerged behind the Immortal Emperor, spinning madly as the Taicang Dao gushed forth, turning into his seventh Dao power!
The spiritual qi and spiritual power welling from this Taicang cave abyss boosted his strength by a massive margin as well. The instant their Dao powers clashed, the Heavenly Sea waters rushing skyward were severed in an instant; the seawater evaporated, and billowing clouds surged in all directions, kicking up gusts of terrifying Yang Wind.
Daoist Taiqing's expression shifted slightly. He summoned the Eight Trigrams Alchemy Furnace and suspended it in midair, steadying that expanse of space and greatly weakening the Yang Wind to prevent the shockwave from engulfing the Earth Immortal Realm.
Dao Lord Xuhuang planted the Primordial Banner in the air, instantly restoring clarity to heaven and earth; the seawater fell back down, no longer evaporating.
Daoist Yuxu raised his horsetail whisk, Daoist Yuqing summoned his Taiji Ring and Wuji Ring, and the Last Lord of Ziwei lit his lamp, illuminating a stretch of the void.
The Demon Ancestor stood in place, an entity as unyielding as a Supreme-grade magic treasure, completely motionless.
As for the big bell, it summoned itself and hung in the air.
Once these powerhouses had stabilized the shockwaves on their side, they saw across the Heavenly Abyss several Dao trees suddenly light up the opposite shore, dispelling the mist and steadying the space across the way.
Those Dao trees were varied—some ancient, some imposing, some gnarled and jagged—each hanging with Dao fruits.
As for the Supreme on the opposite shore, he did not take action at all. He neither revealed a Dao tree nor summoned a Supreme magic treasure; standing simply amid the mist, he was like an invisible wall holding back the impact of Xu Ying and the Immortal Emperor's divine abilities.
The crowd exchanged glances, shocked in their hearts.
Compared to the effortless composure of the opposite side, their own side appeared overly cautious.
Just then, a series of cracking sounds rang out from within the Heavenly Abyss. The abyss was actually being torn open by the force of their palms, widening further!
Bang!
The Immortal Emperor Supreme was driven thousands of li back along the Heavenly Abyss under the weight of Xu Ying's seal. Wherever their footsteps fell, the Heavenly Abyss rumbled with thunderous booms and split apart to both sides, as though on the verge of being burst open by the two of them!
The onlookers on both shores suddenly felt space itself retreating, forcing them—along with their Dao trees, Dao fruits, and all those Wonder Realm treasures—to fall back.
"The Immortal Emperor is being suppressed!"
Everyone along both banks was astonished. They hurriedly shifted their positions, moving alongside Xu Ying and the Immortal Emperor.
Those who remained along the banks of the Heavenly Abyss were mostly Heavenly Monarch-level experts, though some had brought family and followers; all shifted sideways across the expanse, displaying their extraordinary capabilities.
Xu Ying's second seal, the Mortal Realm Seal, had already reached the Immortal Emperor Supreme. This blow was even more powerful than the preceding Earth Immortal Seal, and hard on its heels came the third seal: the Heavenly Immortal Seal!
Although Xu Ying had never been to the Heavenly Immortal Realm, the heavenly tribulations contained the Heavenly Dao of the Heavenly Immortal Realm. As the saying goes, a long illness makes a good doctor; he had crossed countless three-realm heavenly tribulations, and specifically Purple Firmament Tribulation Thunder, struck by lightning again and again.
When it came to understanding the Heavenly Dao of the three realms, it could be said that barring the Ancestral God, none surpassed him.
The Immortal Emperor's expression remained composed. He raised his hand once more to take the blow head-on, but Xu Ying's Mortal Realm Seal felt as if the entire Mortal Realm were crushing down upon him. The force that erupted in an instant far exceeded what had come before.
His body shook violently, his aura destabilized, and his six-path Hunyuan physical body actually showed signs of being battered apart!
Yet in the next instant, six ancient cave-heavens emerged behind him. On the other end of these cave-heavens lay the six other shores within the realm of Supreme Emptiness!
Those six other shores were Emperor Qingxuan's six Dao landscapes. For forty-eight thousand years, countless Nuo masters and Nuo immortals had regarded them as the other shores, siphoning the Dao power—the immortal medicines—from within those six Dao landscapes.
And the fountainhead of all Nuo masters and Nuo immortals was none other than Immortal Emperor Meng Shanming.
Back then, when the Immortal Emperor taught the ancestor of the Xu family, Xu You, the Taiyi Innate Technique, he had also imparted the ancestral method of the six other shores. From then on, the Xu family passed it down from generation to generation, yet the ancestral method of the Six Secrets never left Kunlun. It was not until the Immortal Emperor ordered the Heavenly Venerable to annihilate Kunlun that the ancestral method spread outward as the Undying People of Kunlun fled.
Now, as the Immortal Emperor invoked the ancestral method, the immortal medicines produced by the six other shores were drained dry by him in almost a single breath. Across the entire world, all practitioners of the Nuo method suddenly felt the immortal medicines of the other shores empty out, unable to draw upon even a shred of power!
Yet the Immortal Emperor's strength surged wildly. Beneath Xu Ying's Mortal Realm Seal, he emerged unscathed, merely pushed back several thousand li.
The two figures slid along the Heavenly Abyss while powerful beings along both shores drifted parallel, keeping close pace with them.
Xu Ying's third seal, the Heavenly Immortal Seal, crashed down thunderously. The Heavenly Immortal Seal was like the shadow of another space-time descending, towering above the Earth Immortal and Mortal realms, the supreme summit of this native realm!
At the same time, Xu Jing, sheltered by Daoist Taiqing, Daoist Yuqing, and the others, saw this. Without a second thought, he too activated the ancestral method of the Six Secrets, competing with the Immortal Emperor Supreme for the power of the Six Secret other shores!
Every fraction of power he wrested away was a fraction less for the Immortal Emperor to command; two fractions wrested meant two fractions lost to the emperor.
Xu Jing had obtained a Ginseng Dao fruit and possessed a Dao fruit of his own. His magic power was profound, and he pushed the ancestral method of the Six Secrets to its absolute peak, contesting with the Immortal Emperor without conceding an inch.
Suddenly, the Immortal Emperor's voice sounded in Xu Jing's ear: "Good son-in-law, did you really think I left no loopholes in the ancestral method I taught your family?"
Hearing this, Xu Jing's expression changed abruptly. He felt his own magic power running wildly out of control, surging backward through the six cave-heavens and flowing into the six other shores!
Those six other shores were like six bottomless pits, extracting six kinds of Dao power from his body as if intending to drain him dry!
At the same time, beside the Heavenly Abyss, Imperial Monarch Xiao, who was watching the battle, went pale with horror. A deep humming arose behind him as six cave-heavens emerged involuntarily, on a scale no smaller than Xu Jing's!
Those six cave-heavens devoured his vitality, divine consciousness, primordial qi, soul power, heart power, and Yin-Yang dual qi, as though poised to suck him completely dry!
And at the Heavenly Sea Ferry, Zulong Zhao Zheng's six mechanical cave-heavens were also running in reverse, treating him as a humanoid other shore and siphoning his power.
Almost simultaneously, across the myriad worlds of the Earth Immortal Realm, the cave-heavens of Qi Refiners who dual-cultivated Nuo and qi spiraled out of control one after another, turning into shackles that stole their cultivation and held them captive!
This was the golden age of the Nuo method. Xu Ying's New Dao had not yet begun to spread widely, and to boost their cultivation and confront heavenly tribulations, many had taken up the Nuo method.
More crucially, the Xu family's ancestral method had also spread. Qi Refiners practicing the ancestral method were a cut above the rest, so their numbers were naturally vast.
At this moment, these millions upon tens of millions of Qi Refiners all became individual "other shores" manipulated by the Immortal Emperor.
Not only them, but countless immortals had also cultivated the Nuo method and opened the six cave-heavens.
Now, these Qi Refiners and immortals were like stalks of thriving leeks, standing ramrod straight, heads tilted back toward the sky, six cave-heavens emerging involuntarily behind them!
Controlled by their cave-heavens, their bodies were paralyzed. They could only widen their eyes in horror, watching helplessly as their cultivation and magic power transformed into varieties of immortal medicine and were swallowed by the cave-heavens!
Those cave-heavens hung in the sky, linked to the other shores, ceaselessly drawing their cultivation into the worlds of the other shores, where it then poured from the six other shores straight into the body of the Immortal Emperor Supreme.
This was a harvest—a harvest calculated six hundred thousand years ago for this very day!
A great harvest that no practitioner of the Nuo method could escape!
The Master of the Niwan Palace harvesting all the anglers and leeks of the Yuanshou world had been enough to shake the realm. The Heavenly Venerable, wielding the Heavenly Dao, had intended to harvest the cultivation of all immortals crossing heavenly tribulations to break into the Supreme realm—a formidable scheme that failed only because Xu Ying altered the Heavenly Dao.
Yet compared to the Immortal Emperor's harvest, their deeds paled into insignificance, utterly incomparable!
"Leeks! All of us are leeks planted by him!"
Xu Jing gritted his teeth and suddenly unleashed his Dao fruit. A beam of sword light shot forth, shearing away all six Nuo ancestor cave-heavens controlling him from behind!
Severed, the colossal Nuo ancestor cave-heavens tilted and tumbled into the Heavenly Abyss, still spinning endlessly as though trying to draw Dao power from the open air.
On the other side, "Imperial Monarch Xiao" of Beiluo Shimen suddenly split apart, violently bursting open to reveal a titan. With long arms swinging, he struck backward in a series of fierce, overbearing slashes, remarkably severing those six massive cave-heavens as well!
At the Heavenly Sea Ferry, Zhu Chanchan leapt into the air and unleashed six swift, heavy strikes—bang, bang, bang! The six mechanical cave-heavens behind Zulong Zhao Zheng shattered with a clatter, fragments of various magic treasures raining down to the ground.
Xu Jing and the Master of the Niwan Palace possessed boundless cultivation, counting among the few powerhouses in the Immortal Realm who could command their Dao fruits to sever the connection themselves. Zulong also had the aid of an artifact-refining master like Zhu Chanchan. But not everyone had their strength or their good fortune.
Across the myriad worlds, and even in the Immortal Realm, utter chaos reigned. People who had cultivated the Nuo method floated helplessly in midair, towed by their respective cave-heavens like drowned fish.
It was a scene both bizarre and horrifying!
Their cultivation continued to drain away; the power being siphoned from them had already far surpassed whatever power they had ever drawn from the six other shores!
"The Immortal Emperor's harvest is utterly flawless, truly beyond reproach!"
Restored to his true form, the Master of the Niwan Palace looked toward the Immortal Emperor Supreme holding his ground against Xu Ying in the Heavenly Abyss, an expression of admiration on his face. As the most successful angler, he knew just how magnificent this harvest of the Immortal Emperor's was, his heart brimming with appreciation and awe for him.
Boom!
Accompanied by an earth-shattering roar, the Heavenly Abyss split wildly to both sides. Space itself shoved everyone backward, along with the magic treasures, Dao trees, and Dao fruits that had been steadying the surrounding space.
Heavenly Monarchs with slightly lower cultivation were jostled until their figures flickered unstably, like candle flames in the wind.
Ravaged and crushed by their divine abilities, the Heavenly Abyss ceased to swallow all things; instead, it began gushing outward, spurting jets of spiritual qi and spiritual power from its sea eye that formed ribbons of brilliant rainbows across the sky.
Bent double under the weight of the Heavenly Immortal Seal, his legs trembling, the Immortal Emperor nonetheless smiled. Slowly straightening his posture, he chuckled, "Good grandson, have you run out of your three strikes...?"
Smack!
Without a word, Xu Ying raised the Landscape Heaven-Measuring Ruler and smashed it against his forehead. Blood instantly bathed the Immortal Emperor's face, and a surge of furious, blinding rage flared up from the bottom of his heart!
Chapter 624