"What am I doing?"
Lu Yiren was utterly bewildered, staring blankly at his own hands. Moments ago, he had been entirely oblivious to what he was doing before suddenly snapping the neck of the outlander before him!
"How could I kill one of my own kin?"
In a panic, he rushed to support the outlander's neck, but he had struck with too much force—the neck was broken, completely limp, impossible to prop up.
Right then, the outlander's Primordial Spirit surged from the body, opening its mouth to shout. Without thinking, Lu Yiren thrust a finger through his forehead.
That outlander was also an Eighth Level Dao Realm being whose cultivation was hardly inferior to his own, yet he died in utter disgrace, drawing his last breath with deep indignation.
Lu Yiren hurriedly pulled back his finger, panic overwhelming his heart as he murmured, "Don't blame me, I didn't want to strike... I just didn't want you to cry out. I don't want you to destroy the three realms. I don't want to become a murderer like you..."
His mind was a tangled mess. Unwittingly, he seemed to return to ten million years ago. Back then, he had been cast into the Mortal Realm by Dragon Court Heavenly Prime Minister Bi Yanhai.
He crashed into the Mortal Realm, grievously wounded and reduced to a crippled invalid unable to move freely.
Back then, the Mortal Realm was a living hell. Countless souls were in far more miserable plights than he; bones lay scattered everywhere, flames burned everywhere, corpses littered the land, and emeraldized skeletons committed slaughter across the world.
The sky collapsed, the earth burned, cast in an ashen haze as darkness engulfed the mortal world.
A band of refugees discovered him. They took in this outlander who clearly did not belong to the human race, taking him along as they searched everywhere for clean water and food.
They shared with him what little food and water they had risked their lives to find, taught him the language and script of the Mortal Realm, cleansed his wounds, and treated his injuries.
Lu Yiren witnessed the immense catastrophe his parents had wrought, and he became one of the many struggling to survive amid the disaster. Never could he have imagined how protracted this catastrophe would be; he had originally thought it would end in a few months, or a few years at most.
Yet this disaster in the Mortal Realm lasted a full ten million years.
During the first few years, the refugees around him died one after another. Familiar faces passed away, plunging him into profound grief. But among the refugees, more stood up to shoulder the burden.
Lu Yiren gradually grew up as well, growing taller and taller until he surpassed the adults, becoming the mainstay of their foraging parties.
Finally, one day, the elderly clan patriarch called Lu Yiren to his side, passing the position of patriarch to him and entrusting him to lead the clansmen to survive within this darkness. Having said his piece, the patriarch passed away.
Lu Yiren wept bitterly and took up the heavy burden, leading clansmen who were not of his kin to fight for survival across that early era of catastrophe.
Generations of his clansmen died, yet new life was constantly born. He would take babies from their young mothers, cradling them as though cradling himself in his childhood. He gave them names, taught them to fight, and taught them survival skills.
He looked after those who had once looked after him, surviving within the incomparably brutal environment of the Mortal Realm.
He found the Emerald Rock that had caused this catastrophe and strove to decipher the script carved upon it. He believed his parents' intentions had been good, that something had merely gone awry along the way.
He wanted to learn the script and Great Dao of the other shore, to spread the civilization his parents brought to every corner of the three realms!
His cultivation grew stronger with each passing day. At last, one day, he bade farewell to his clansmen, determined to venture to the Earth Immortal Realm and Heavenly Immortal Realm to seek out the other two Emerald Rocks.
During that journey, he met Haotian of the Earth Immortal Realm. Later, he arrived in the Heavenly Immortal Realm by chance, where he witnessed the immense power of the dragons after undergoing complete emeraldization.
He realized that the three realms would eventually be unified. When that day came, the Earth Immortal Realm and the Mortal Realm would be utterly incapable of resisting dragon invasion and enslavement. Only then did he conceive the thought of complete emeraldization.
He wanted to fulfill his parents' unfinished dream: to spread the civilization of the other shore across the three realms, turning them into another other shore!
And yet, the truth was so grotesque, so dripping with blood!
"My parents were harvesters of the other shore as well, not messengers bearing civilization."
Lu Yiren looked up toward the immortal palace where Immortal True King Yinyuanzi resided. Now, to save the Earth Immortal Realm, there was only one path: destroy all the summoned cave abysses and sever the connection between the Heavenly Immortal Realm and the other shore.
And the prerequisite to achieving this was to first eliminate this Immortal True King!
Lu Yiren set his feet in motion, striding toward that immortal palace.
Xu Ying and Princess Mingman arrived at Shanglin Dragon City, which was still far from the Dragon Court Imperial Capital. Intending to rest here for a day, they suddenly saw dragon experts whistling past one after another, while other dragon masters dove deep into the earth as if searching for something.
Beyond that, there were even several outlanders from the other shore, radiating murderous aura as they barked, "Seal off Shanglin! No one gets out!"
A host of dragon immortals raised their dharma treasures, from which glowing halos of light surged forth to cast an inescapable net, locking down the space and time around Shanglin.
Other dragon elders unfurled their Dao Realms, spreading them out layer upon layer to envelop the heavens and earth. Anyone who appeared within their Dao Realms would be immediately detected.
Xu Ying and Princess Mingman also fell within these overlapping Dao Realms, and in an instant, dozens of divine senses swept across them.
"He's injured, he can't have gotten far!" an outlander shouted.
"Found him!"
A dragon expert called out in the distance, and numerous dragon immortals swarmed over like locusts, followed in haste by the outlanders.
"What are these dragons and outlanders looking for?"
Xu Ying and Princess Mingman paused and looked around. Suddenly, the residual shockwaves of a divine ability surged from afar. Viewed from a distance, a white wall of light rushed rapidly across the horizon, slamming into Shanglin Dragon City the very next moment.
The dragon city rocked like a lone skiff amidst tumultuous waves, pitching and rolling violently in all directions. Space and time were stretched incomparably thin and long, only returning to normal once the divine ability's shockwave passed.
Xu Ying was utterly astonished. "A divine ability of such power, nearly immortal! Who possesses such terrifying might? Could it be Emperor Mingdao?"
With a thought, he sent Princess Mingman into his Martial Dao cave abyss and gave chase in the direction of the divine ability. Faced with such horrifying residual shockwaves, the slightest misstep would mean death for Mingman; hiding within the cave abyss was her only way to stay safe.
Xu Ying caught up with the dragons and outlanders. He saw that many present were wounded, and one dragon elder had already perished. Evidently, the one fighting back was astonishingly powerful, still capable of injuring them even when besieged by so many formidable figures!
"A divine ability from the other shore! Could an expert from the other shore have rebelled? No, that's not the technique of the other shore, nor is it a dragon divine ability. Instead, it seems somewhat like the style of the Earth Immortal Realm..."
Xu Ying examined the imprints left by the clash and grew thoroughly perplexed. This divine ability seemed to carry the legacy of the two Emerald Rocks from both the Earth Immortal Realm and the Mortal Realm. But aside from themselves, had any other master from the Earth Immortal Realm reached the Heavenly Immortal Realm?
"Could it be him? But why would he be under attack by dragons and outlanders?"
Puzzled, Xu Ying continued forward.
Another dreadful tremor from clashing divine abilities echoed ahead. The dragon elders moved to block it one after another, though to Xu Ying, shockwaves of this level were of little concern.
He accelerated forward and saw a group of dragons and outlanders besieging Lu Yiren. Lu Yiren was retreating as he fought, in a rather wretched state.
"My guess was right—it really is him!"
Xu Ying's eyes flickered. He had sensed earlier that the traces of the divine ability were very likely from Lu Yiren's hand. He simply could not fathom why Lu Yiren, who had always moved in secret and was a member of the sacred race from the other shore, had ended up in such a predicament.
Back then, Lu Yiren had approached Xu Ying, intending to use Xu Ying's status as the Dao Ancestor to promote complete enlightenment in the Earth Immortal Realm. After being refused, he planned to eliminate Xu Ying, the Ancestral God, the Holy Venerable, and the others to sweep away obstacles—a truly ruthless move.
However, the white-bone divine dragon aboard the World-Crossing Golden Ship was the Dragon Court Heavenly Prime Minister Bi Yanhai, who had spared his life back then and sent him to the Mortal Realm. Because of that, Lu Yiren had spared Xu Ying, the Ancestral God, and the others.
Xu Ying had believed Lu Yiren harbored malicious intentions regarding the complete emeraldization he advocated, and had always remained hostile toward him. Seeing him in dire straits now, Xu Ying felt inclined to sit back and watch.
"The outlanders from the other shore dealing with Lu Yiren is just dog eat dog. No need to interfere," he thought to himself.
Lu Yiren fought as he fled. He possessed immense strength, yet among the dragon elders were figures as formidable as the Holy Venerable, worsening his injuries step by step.
Furthermore, the outlanders from the other shore were all disciples of Immortal True King Yinyuanzi, and their cultivation and prowess were in no way inferior to Lu Yiren's.
Besieged by so many experts, he was pushed into dire straits.
Xu Ying joined the ranks of the dragon elders cheering them on and asked an elder beside him, "What did this Lu Yiren do? How did he manage to anger the sacred race of the other shore?"
The elder asked in surprise, "You don't know?"
Xu Ying smiled. "I'm from Shanglin City, so I'm not aware of this."
The elder explained, "This Lu Yiren has audacious courage. He murdered a disciple of the Immortal True King and even attempted to assassinate the True King himself! The True King was caught by his sneak attack, but struck back and severely wounded him. The scoundrel managed to escape, which is why we are leading this encirclement!"
As they spoke, Lu Yiren suddenly made a sweeping gesture, and the distance between him and his pursuers instantly stretched farther and farther away, shaking everyone off once again as he fled into the distance.
The elder said, "Little brother, that fiend's divine ability is a spatial technique. We dragons cannot break it, but the young masters from the other shore can... Little brother?"
Before he could finish, he saw Xu Ying already stepping forward, striding directly into the spatial divine ability Lu Yiren used to escape.
The elder was utterly astonished. Entering Lu Yiren's spatial divine ability alongside Xu Ying were several outlander young masters from the other shore, and this young dragon from Shanglin City moved at a speed matching those outlander young masters step for step!
The elder clicked his tongue in wonder, thoroughly baffled. "When did our dragon race produce such a great master?"
Xu Ying had cultivated the Heavenly Space Dao Attainment and wielded spatial arts with supreme finesse. Passing through the boundless space birthed by Lu Yiren's fluttering sleeve, he reached the other side almost simultaneously with the outlanders.
The three outlanders glanced at him in surprise, clearly astonished that the dragons harbored such a master.
"What is your name?" one of the outlanders asked as he drew closer to Xu Ying.
Xu Ying smiled. "I am Xu Ying. May I ask your name, sir?"
"Xu Ying?"
The outlander paused, feeling the name sounded familiar. "I am called... Xu Ying! So you are Xu Ying!"
He suddenly realized that Xu Ying was the barbarian master who had killed his junior brothers Qixuan and Hongbo!
One of the reasons his master, Yinyuanzi, had descended upon a barbarian land like the Heavenly Immortal Realm was precisely to bring Xu Ying to justice!
Just as he was about to strike, radiant axe light burst before his eyes, like an unmatched giant swinging a world-opening divine axe to cleave him in two!
This was the first method of the Eight Immortality Methods, executed by Xu Ying through the new dragon patterns. Dragon scales even surfaced on the divine axe's haft, and the spine of the axe resembled a dragon's body, augmenting its power even further!
The outlander did not panic in the face of peril, immediately channeling the Mysterious Art of Heavenly Concealment. His Mysterious Art of Heavenly Concealment was no defective version cultivated by the dragons of the Heavenly Immortal Realm, but the authentic art!
As the technique circulated, a Heavenly Concealment cave abyss manifested, its Dao charm profound, its Dao force immense, and vast spirit energy surged from the cave abyss to pour into his body!
Yet he was still a step too slow, having lost the initiative to Xu Ying. Before he could raise his cultivation and strength to their peak, Xu Ying's axe light had already fallen.
The outlander scrambled to meet the strike. Normally, he would have been able to parry the blow, but with a flash of axe light, his divine ability was severed, and his arm parted from his body!
Without hesitation, he retreated, watching his severed arm turn into pure energy like a newly opened world of the heavens, giving rise to the magnificent scenery of sun, moon, mountains, and rivers!
The next instant, that world of the heavens with its sun, moon, mountains, and rivers transformed into a divine ability that came roaring toward him with a ferocious, indomitable momentum he had never seen before!
Xu Ying threw out this punch, unleashing the second method of the Eight Immortality Methods: All Heavens!
The outlander's severed arm had become part of the power fueling this strike, magnifying the might of All Heavens!
The outlander raised his other arm to defend, but his decline was even more pronounced. He was battered into spitting blood and sent flying backward, whereupon a great dragon of spiritual light formed from the Dragon Dance struck into his body!
Seeing his dire straits, the other outlanders rushed over in a panic. But before they could draw near, agony twisted the outlander's face, and his physical body and Primordial Spirit exploded with a tremendous boom!
Xu Ying closed in on another outlander, executing Immortal Slaying, Ten Thousand Daos, and Years in quick succession. That outlander was driven back step after step, on the verge of following in his predecessor's footsteps!
The other outlanders charged forward in haste, joining forces to besiege Xu Ying. Striking left and right, Xu Ying unleashed the pinnacle intent of the Martial Dao, taking on all the outlanders at once and churning heaven and earth into turmoil!
This was the first time he had unleashed his full power since attaining the Dao in the Supreme realm. The Great Dao of heaven and earth imprinted in his cave abysses boiled, making his combat prowess climb ever higher!
The outlanders felt his cultivation did not actually surpass their own, yet the power of his divine abilities grew increasingly terrifying, filling them with secret alarm.
Just then, the dragon experts caught up in pursuit. Seeing this, Xu Ying abruptly triggered the Samsara divine ability. The outlanders were immediately trapped within Samsara, plunging continuously as they faced attacks from reflections of themselves.
The dragon elders arrived and hastily shattered Samsara, rescuing the outlanders.
The outlanders were shaken and bewildered. Looking up, they found that both Xu Ying and Lu Yiren had vanished without a trace.
Their faces turned ashen. As members of the sacred race of the other shore, descending upon a barbaric wasteland like the Heavenly Immortal Realm should have meant standing high above all else, where a single divine ability would have barbarians prostrating in reverence.
Yet not only had their senior brother been killed and their master ambushed, but they had also run into an exceedingly terrifying master who nearly trapped them in Samsara!
Observing their expressions, a dragon elder realized the embarrassment of these young masters and consoled them, "Rest assured, young masters. True King Cangzhu has already pursued them. Those two will certainly not escape their doom!"
Xu Ying was like a wisp of light smoke, pursuing Lu Yiren at extreme speed.
Lu Yiren was exceptionally fast as well, and catching up to him was no easy feat. However, his wounds were simply too severe. While his ambush had gravely wounded Yinyuanzi, he had also suffered Yinyuanzi's counterattack. It was truly a wonder he had held out this long.
Suddenly, Lu Yiren's figure disappeared.
Xu Ying stopped and looked around, sneering, "Fellow Daoist Lu, everything you've learned, I have learned as well. This divine ability of yours cannot hide from me!"
He stamped his foot, and the surroundings instantly grew incomparably gloomy—he had entered the Netherworld of the Heavenly Immortal Realm.
Lu Yiren stood not far away, his face pale as he chuckled softly. "To think I would die at the hands of the dragons. Ah, so be it, so be it. Dying by your hand is better than dying at the hands of my own kin."
Xu Ying currently bore the head of a dragon and the body of a man, so Lu Yiren failed to recognize him, mistaking him for a dragon master.
Just as Xu Ying was about to disperse the dragon patterns and reveal his true form, the Netherworld of the Heavenly Immortal Realm shook violently. Sharp claws tore through the ashen sky, and massive emeraldized dragon heads squeezed one after another into the rent heavens!
"Lu Yiren, how dare you ambush the True King! You court death!"
True King Cangzhu's colossal frame squeezed into the Netherworld, his aura boundlessly heavy. Looking around, he cast a surprised glance at Xu Ying and remarked, "To think a dragon youth managed to chase all the way here. Youth, you... are you the Far Ancestor?"
He was taken aback, having sensed the aura of the Far Ancestor from Xu Ying.
Xu Ying laughed aloud. "Indeed, I am the Far Ancestor! Evil creature, why haven't you scrammed yet?"
True King Cangzhu scrutinized him up and down before suddenly laughing. "A close one—I was almost fooled by you. You indeed have the aura of the Far Ancestor, but your Far Ancestor aura is different from that of our dragon race's Far Ancestor! Who exactly are you? Reveal your true form!"
Xu Ying smiled faintly, dispersing the dragon patterns to restore his true appearance, and said with a laugh, "Your Far Ancestor and I are brothers, so calling me Far Ancestor is fine too."
True King Cangzhu flew into a rage. "So it's you, you little barbarian Xu Ying! Today, I shall send you both on your way!"
Xu Ying looked at Lu Yiren and smiled. "Join hands?"
Suppressing his injuries, Lu Yiren smiled faintly. "It would be my honor."
Chapter 702