Ever since stepping foot into the Heavenly Immortal Realm, Xu Ying had never actively undergone Zangification; he had confronted every foe in his human form. However, Yuan Heng was, after all, the Heavenly Prime Minister of the Dragon Court, a figure at the Dao Realm eighth-fold Grand Completion. Without resorting to Zangification, clinching victory would be difficult.
Heavenly Prime Minister Yuan Heng had grown somewhat overly arrogant.
Back in Yuanshou, no fisher or chive farmer dared to suffer injury lightly, lest they be harvested by others until nothing was left but a human skin.
In the Earth Immortal Realm, being injured meant one might receive "timely assistance in the snow," leaving them no choice but to accept the harsh terms attached to their allies' aid.
Yet here in the Heavenly Immortal Realm, he actually dared to confront Xu Ying before his injuries had fully healed. Xu Ying had never encountered such a situation in the Earth Immortal Realm.
Their clash was exceptionally brief. The moment Xu Ying moved, he directly unleashed the Earth Cleaving Method of the Eight Immortality Methods. Like an unmatched giant cleaving open Heaven and Earth, he forcefully split Yuan Heng's primordial chaos asunder!
This strike was grand and imposing. When Yuan Heng braced himself against it, he felt his blood and vital qi surge violently, his Dao realm fracture, and his entire being teeter on the verge of tearing apart and disintegrating into the Dao!
He should not have fared so wretchedly, but Xu Ying had never once undergone Zangification in battle, leading Yuan Heng to misjudge his strength.
Once Zangified, Xu Ying was significantly stronger than in his normal form, his power surging dramatically.
As Yuan Heng forcibly parried Xu Ying's technique, he felt the divine art seep directly into the Dao injuries he had suffered earlier, using them as breaches to tear him apart from within!
*What a divine art! Now that he has undergone Zangification, His Highness Mingxi is definitely no match for him!*
The thought flashed across his mind like lightning, but Xu Ying's second method, All Heavens, and third method, Dragon Dance, were already unleashed, domineering beyond measure. Forcibly taking both strikes, Yuan Heng only felt his Dao injuries torn open even wider!
Had he not been wounded, he could have fought Xu Ying on equal footing; with his cultivation and attainments, he might even have held a slight upper hand. Yet Xu Ying seized upon his wounds, compounding injury upon injury and plunging him into absolute passivity.
Both traded moves with lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, Xu Ying executed four great divine arts: Immortal Slaying, Myriad Daos, Years, and Reincarnation. By the time the Reincarnation divine art burst forth, wounds ruptured all over Yuan Heng's body.
Xu Ying's final Reincarnation divine art incorporated the Heavenly Immortal Realm's Sutra of Attaining Reincarnation Through a Thousand Tribulations. Mingman had passed this scripture to Xu Ying, perfectly making up for the deficiencies in his Reincarnation divine art.
Cultivating this technique required undergoing a thousand tribulations before one could comprehend the profound mysteries of reincarnation and thereby attain the Dao through it.
This technique proved to be the smoothest Xu Ying had ever cultivated—for he had not merely experienced a thousand lifetimes of reincarnation, but ten thousand!
With his background, attaining the Dao of reincarnation was effortless!
In particular, when Xu Ying unleashed Reincarnation, the seventh method of the Eight Immortality Methods, Yuan Heng tumbled involuntarily into reincarnation. Halo after halo of light flashed before his eyes. With each plunge, a figure identical to himself charged forward to kill him.
Yuan Heng fought back fiercely and slew the person, only to tumble into the next reincarnation immediately, where yet another duplicate charged at him.
This time, Yuan Heng was slain, only to awaken inside the body of the duplicate across from him and continue falling deeper into reincarnation.
Only then did true terror seize him. Seeing a third version of himself lunging forward, he frantically shouted, "Stop! You are me, and I am me!"
Turning a deaf ear, that duplicate charged. Left with no choice, Yuan Heng fought with all his might. In the end, he killed the third version of himself, only to die at the hands of a fourth. Awakening in the fourth's body, he saw a fifth duplicate rushing to attack.
This single Reincarnation divine art not only ensnared Yuan Heng, but also utterly stunned Man Kongming.
Man Kongming stared blankly as Yuan Heng struggled within the reincarnation space ahead. He watched as Yuan Heng fell from one reincarnation space into another, slaughtering another self, only to plunge once more into yet another reincarnation space.
And this was merely the tip of the iceberg.
Xu Ying's grand divine art had formed a colossal wheel composed of a thousand reincarnation spaces. At this moment, the wheel was turning at an unhurried pace. Each rotation advanced one slot, and each slot was precisely a single reincarnation space.
Within every reincarnation space, there was a Yuan Heng falling through reincarnation.
Every single Yuan Heng was real. Existing in different reincarnations, they met within the slots and engaged in fratricidal slaughter!
Every one of them believed himself to be the true Heavenly Prime Minister Yuan Heng, and every one did everything in his power to eliminate the other and survive.
As reincarnation spun, the number of Yuan Hengs within the slots grew fewer and fewer, while the surviving Yuan Hengs accumulated more and more wounds, their injuries growing increasingly severe.
These were wounds he inflicted upon himself, not injuries dealt directly by Xu Ying's Reincarnation divine art.
Standing before this colossal wheel, Xu Ying resembled a sinister deity reigning over reincarnation. His Zangified features were grim and cold as he watched the life-and-death struggle within the cycle.
*How fortunate I was to lose to the barbarian Xu Ying in a single move,* Man Kongming thought.
He was belittling himself, believing he was far inferior to Xu Ying. In truth, when he fought Xu Ying, Xu Ying had not yet been this formidable.
The reason Xu Ying had made such rapid strides was Princess Mingman, an extraordinarily knowledgeable princess who had taught him various techniques from the other shore.
Before meeting her, Xu Ying truly had been a barbarian with little exposure to the Dao arts of the other shore. Only after meeting her did his cultivation and strength undergo a second explosive leap, welcoming a second spring of cultivation.
As the cycle spun, one of the final two Yuan Hengs finally collapsed. Only then did the Reincarnation divine art break apart. Yuan Heng tumbled out, covered in Dao injuries. Struggling into the air, he fled in haste.
Xu Ying rallied his magic power, intending to deliver a fatal blow, but a wave of emptiness swept through his reserves. He stayed his hand and refrained from speaking for a moment before praising, "This Yuan Heng's cultivation and strength are truly formidable to have endured up to the seventh method of my Eight Immortality Methods."
Man Kongming was filled with boundless admiration.
Mingman, however, looked somewhat suspicious. She knew how formidable her little master was, and along their journey, Xu Ying had fought many major battles. Yet she had noticed that he had never once displayed the eighth method of the Eight Immortality Methods; every time, he stopped abruptly at the seventh.
"Little Barbarian Master, the Eight Immortality Methods do have an eighth method, right?" Princess Mingman asked curiously.
Xu Ying laughed aloud. "Silly girl, why would you ask that? Of course your master has an eighth method. It is just that I haven't met an opponent worthy of me using it."
Princess Mingman expressed deep skepticism. "Back in Longhua City when Master was beaten half to death, you only used Reincarnation and never the eighth method. I suspect you came up with the name Eight Immortality Methods first, and haven't created the eighth method at all."
Xu Ying chuckled, offering no reply, and looked down the mountain.
The thirteen supreme experts who had besieged Former Emperor Ming Xun were currently sprawled across the ground; not a single one could stand.
Xu Ying could not help but sigh in praise. "Fighting a single wounded Yuan Heng was already so taxing that it nearly depleted my cultivation. Yet the old Dragon Emperor fought thirteen such experts with complete ease. The Immortal realm truly lives up to its name."
Former Emperor Ming Xun had not dealt a finishing blow. Leaving the thirteen severely injured experts behind, his figure had vanished without a trace.
Man Kongming and Princess Mingman were itching to move, eager to scalp those thirteen elders, but with Xu Ying present, it was awkward to act.
*The scalps of thirteen top clan elders would fetch a handsome price on the other shore!* both thought.
Xu Ying was unaware of their thoughts. Clashing with Yuan Heng this time had led him to discover a major question: since both were immortality techniques, why were the immortality techniques of the Heavenly Immortal Realm so simple, whereas the Immortal Mystic Technique carved onto the Emerald Rock by Dao Lord Xuhuang was so complex and profound?
The Dao arts carved onto the Emerald Rock by Dao Lord Xuhuang had required Xu Ying, Yuan Weiyang, and others several years of study without fully deciphering their mysteries.
Moreover, they had been deciphering it further on the foundation of what the Grand Dao Lord had already translated into Dao patterns, yet it had still been so difficult.
Deciphering the script of the other shore directly would undoubtedly have been even harder!
Yet when Xu Ying learned the immortality techniques passed down to the Heavenly Immortal Realm from the other shore, it was exceedingly simple; he could easily attain initial mastery. Whether it was the Sutra of Attaining Reincarnation Through a Thousand Tribulations, which recorded the wonders of reincarnation, or Heavenly Realm Attaining the Dao, which explained the wonders of space, or other Dao arts detailing causality, time, life, Yin-Yang, the Five Elements, and chaos, he could grasp them with ease.
Were it not for this, Xu Ying could never have advanced by leaps and bounds upon arriving in the Heavenly Immortal Realm.
Of course, this "simplicity" was only in comparison to the immortality technique on Dao Lord Xuhuang's Emerald Rock. For anyone else, every single technique was exceptionally obscure and difficult to master; dedicating an entire lifetime to just one might not even bring them to the pinnacle.
The reason Xu Ying found it simple was partly his natural talent, and partly his accumulated foundation.
*The techniques from the other shore must omit crucial parts; they never received the true teachings.*
He suddenly wondered whether guiding the dragon race of the Heavenly Immortal Realm to cultivate according to the New Dao would patch this loophole and prevent the other shore from harvesting them.
Of course, the prerequisite was first converting the Li script of the other shore into dragon patterns or Dao patterns.
"Still, my strength after Zangification remains far superior to my strength when un-Zangified. This proves that the Dao arts of the Three Realms still cannot compare to the other shore." His expression darkened slightly. Failing to match the Li framework at the underlying structural level meant his strength still could not be considered invincible in the same realm.
The only reason he could achieve invincibility in the same realm within the Heavenly Immortal Realm was that its dragon immortals all cultivated flawed techniques from the other shore—nothing more.
Suddenly, glowing rosy clouds burst forth from beneath Danxia Mountain into the sky, illuminating the firmament. Within the glow, the phantom of a Dragon Emperor was projected, standing amid the radiance and wailing in sorrow toward this world.
Aroused by this mournful dragon roar, Xu Ying looked toward the Dragon Emperor's phantom.
The dragon's roar echoed with grief, resounding across the mountains.
Man Kongming and Princess Mingman clapped and cheered one after another. "What a rare spectacle!"
Princess Mingman smiled. "Little Master, you have such great luck! To encounter such a magnificent sight on your very first visit to Danxia Mountain—many dragon immortals wait here for thousands or tens of thousands of years without seeing it once!"
Xu Ying felt a surge of absurdity.
The heroic spirit of this Dragon Emperor mourned the destruction of the Dragon Court era, yet later generations of the dragon race treated his sorrowful wail as a rare spectacle of Danxia Mountain.
Losing all interest in tomb-raiding, Xu Ying told the two, "Let us go. We should not disturb his peace. It is time to meet Mingxi."
His eyes flickered as he thought to himself, *I wonder how much of the Ancestral God's cultivation has recovered, and whether he has mastered the Heavenly Dao? And the Holy Venerable—have his injuries healed?*
As for Big Dragon, a fleeting thought was enough; he did not dwell on it. That Big Dragon was probably playing with a dragon pearl inside its sea of consciousness.
In the distance, Heavenly Prime Minister Yuan Heng revealed himself. Watching them depart, he finally hobbled out and approached Yuan Bugui and the others.
The fourteen supreme experts were all heavily wounded. They looked at one another in silence.
Yuan Heng sighed and said, "Now, our only hope rests on the other immortal of our Heavenly Immortal Realm."
"True King Cangzhu?"
The expressions of Yuan Bugui, Long Tingyu, Meng Santong, and the others shifted abruptly. Long Tingyu said in a deep voice, "True King Cangzhu is exceedingly tyrannical! To pin our hopes on him is to invite turmoil upon the world! If he learns that Xu Ying's cultivation and strength are so terrifying, and that he has the Retired Emperor backing him, he will surely seize the opportunity to launch an attack against His Majesty! With his cruel nature, he is unfit to be the emperor of our Dragon Court!"
Yuan Heng replied heavily, "If we do not want him to become the Dragon Emperor, then under no circumstances can we allow Xu Ying to win. But we have already failed."
"What should we do now?" Yuan Bugui asked.
Yuan Heng's eyes flickered. Pausing for a moment, he said, "Rest assured, I will never let Xu Ying ruin the grand future of our Heavenly Immortal Realm—even if it costs me my name and standing!"
Limping, he hurried away.
Supporting one another, Yuan Bugui, Meng Santong, Long Tingyu, and the rest struggled toward the Dragon Court Imperial Capital.
Shortly after they left, True King Cangzhu's disciple, Qiu Haitang, stood gracefully in midair. After pondering for a moment, she muttered to herself, "Xu Ying's cultivation is so potent that he could even defeat the Heavenly Prime Minister. Clashing with him, my odds of victory are slim..."
Just as she was about to leave, her body suddenly froze.
Former Emperor Ming Xun had appeared behind her without a sound, leaving her terrified of making the slightest move.
"Little girl, is your master Cangzhu still at Myriad Dragon Nest?" Former Emperor Ming Xun asked.
Qiu Haitang answered affirmatively.
Suddenly, the crushing pressure vanished. When she turned her head, Former Emperor Ming Xun was already gone without a trace.
*Master said Emperor Ming Xun is nothing more than rotten wood of antiquity whose Dao foundation is ruined, and that defeating him would be effortless. Now that he has gone to see Master of his own accord, could he be courting death?* Utterly bewildered, she thought, *Why would he seek his own death?*
"Yuan Yu!"
A group of dragon immortals barged into the Holy Venerable's convalescence quarters and barked, "We come by order of His Highness Mingxi to treat your injuries! His Highness Mingxi demands you be brought to him for a duel!"
The Holy Venerable rose slowly from his sickbed. Seeing those dragon immortals step forward, channeling the power of their cave abysses to heal his wounds, he raised a hand to stop them and sneered, "A mere trivial injury—why would I need your help!"
He surged his nine Supreme cave abysses, causing Dao resonances to thunder within his body. Rosy light erupted from each wound, merging with the Dao injuries and absorbing them!
In mere moments, the Holy Venerable's injuries were refined away. Restored to his peak and radiating vigor, he walked outward and said in a deep voice, "Where is His Highness Mingxi?"
His cultivation rose in explosive bounds, climbing steadily until his aura surpassed what it had been before.
This time, he had clashed with twenty-seven Grand Completion figures across thirty-seven battles, suffering twenty-seven defeats—unquestionably the greatest string of defeats in his life.
Yet he had not come away empty-handed.
The reason he could refine away the Dao injuries on his body so easily was that he had already seen through the principles embedded within them.
He had always been a grandmaster among the myriad worlds, one who studied myriad Daos. To him, these Dao injuries were practically a secret scripture helping him elevate his cultivation!
Seeing his extraordinary aura, the dragon immortals could not help being awed. Hurriedly taking out fetters and handcuffs, they watched as the Holy Venerable allowed himself to be bound, quietly following behind them.
Before long, the Holy Venerable accompanied them into a small realm of the heavens within the Dragon Court Imperial Capital.
Imperial Son Mingxi, steeped in murderous aura, had long been waiting inside the realm.
Just as the dragon immortals moved to unlock the fetters and handcuffs, the Holy Venerable lightly jolted his aura. The restraints instantly disintegrated into fine powder, and he strode into the small realm of the heavens.
The dragon immortals stared at him in disbelief.
Entering the small realm, the Holy Venerable looked Imperial Son Mingxi up and down and said, "Your murderous aura is so heavy, yet you feel tense upon seeing me. Clearly, you have a major battle imminent, but you lack confidence and need to kill an expert to bolster your intent and morale. Unfortunately, you chose the wrong opponent."
Imperial Son Mingxi said nothing, lunging forward with ruthless ferocity.
The Holy Venerable channeled myriad Daos, conjuring a forest of Great Daos behind him. On their first exchange, they clashed evenly; on the second, the Holy Venerable already gained the upper hand; by the third, Imperial Son Mingxi showed signs of defeat beneath his terrifying murderous intent; on the fourth, Imperial Son Mingxi spat blood.
By the sixth exchange, Imperial Son Mingxi was already lying motionless on the ground, his eyes wide and bewildered as he stared at the sky. The sky was spinning.
The Holy Venerable said indifferently, "One realm lower than me, yet you imagined you could defeat me? Who do you think you are—Xu Ying? Even Xu Ying wouldn't dare fight me in a life-and-death struggle while a realm below me!"
Around them, the patriarchs of the Dragon Court frowned, at a loss for what to do.
This little barbarian, Holy Venerable Yuan Yu, had fair skin and red lips, yet his strength was exceptionally profound, far greater than when he had first arrived in the Heavenly Immortal Realm. Imperial Son Mingxi should have been able to defeat him handily, but after these past days, his cultivation and strength had actually seen an astonishing rise!
Right then, an uproar erupted from outside, with countless voices shouting in clamor.
"The barbarian Xu Ying has entered the Dragon Court Imperial Capital!"
Chapter 692