One Finger Across the Cosmos

This move from the Grand Dao Master's skeleton came out of nowhere. No one present had anticipated it, and Yinyuanzi had anticipated it least of all. When the finger landed between his brows, not a wisp of outward force leaked out. Space did not shatter; stars were not blasted apart. To an outsider, it looked merely like a gentle tap against his brow. Yet inside Yinyuanzi's body, the moment the finger touched down, all the Daos within him shrank and converged toward the tip of the Grand Dao Master's finger. Yinyuanzi's heart pounded violently. When Xu Ying had ambushed him, and when those ruin masters had besieged him—even when he had suffered wounds as a result—he had not felt the slightest twinge of panic. He knew none of them could truly do anything to him; even if the attackers doubled in number, they would never bring him down. But a Grand Dao Master was fundamentally different. This was a being beyond the Indestructible realm, one whose attacks were already beyond his comprehension. A Grand Dao Master did not merely wield Dao methods; he commanded the Grand Dao itself. He existed on an entirely different plane, separated from Yinyuanzi by a gulf as vast as heaven and earth. The instant the finger struck him, his primordial spirit abandoned his physical body, fleeing into the darkness behind him! Discarding his flesh was certainly a massive loss, but as long as his primordial spirit endured, he could survive. All he had to do was seize the body of one of his countless disciples or grand-disciples scattered across the myriad universes. He had disciples without number throughout the myriad universes, all cultivating his *Heaven Concealment Dao Attainment*. Naturally, the art he had imparted was not the genuine technique; within it lay hidden harvest pathways. By picking an exceptional disciple, descending through their cave abyss, and taking possession of their body, he could preserve his life. His primordial spirit moved with immense speed, quickly penetrating one of the cave abysses and descending toward a universe on the other side of the Chaos Sea! At the same time, within that dark expanse, one cave abyss after another located far away in the myriad universes began to shrink. They, too, were affected by the force of the Grand Dao Master's finger! The Heaven Concealment Grand Daos inside those cave abysses condensed, flying toward the Three Realms. The Heaven Concealment cave abysses rotated alongside them, shrinking continuously until they vanished from their native universes! In the next instant, one cave abyss after another flew out from those universes across the Chaos Sea, materializing in all their reality behind Yinyuanzi! Behind Yinyuanzi had originally been pitch-black darkness, showing only faint silhouettes of those cave abysses. But now the darkness was swept away in a flash, replaced by incomparably brilliant cave abysses! One Heaven Concealment cave abyss after another appeared in succession, densely packed in their thousands—truly a breathtaking, magnificent sight. Yinyuanzi's primordial spirit had already entered one of those cave abysses. The moment he sensed the anomalies unfolding, he knew things were grim and bolted out of it at full speed. Behind him, the cave abyss collapsed and contracted rapidly, condensing into a single singularity before vanishing without a trace! That particular cave abyss had been summoned by his disciple in this universe. That disciple had already attained the eighth realm of the Dao and was formidable in his own right. The cave abyss's sudden disappearance and the emergence of Yinyuanzi's primordial spirit startled the disciple. But he reacted swiftly, reaching out to grasp Yinyuanzi's primordial spirit with a shout: "Who are you?!" Yet the moment he struck, his divine power was dismantled. In the very next breath, Yinyuanzi's primordial spirit descended into his body, seizing his flesh and devouring his primordial spirit outright! Before the disciple could even comprehend what was happening, his body was completely usurped and his consciousness eradicated. "I raised you for ten thousand years to use you in a single moment, Zhikong. Now that your True King faces peril, I can only wrong you." Yinyuanzi breathed a sigh of relief, silently ruing his earlier actions. *If not for my greed, I wouldn't have suffered such a catastrophic setback. Still, at least my life is preserved. As for my flesh and realm, I can simply cultivate them back. With my attainment, regaining them will take only a thousand years at most...* Suddenly, a piercing pain flared between his brows. He raised a hand to touch it, only to find his palm covered in blood. Terror seized his heart. He broke through the void and fled, trembling in sheer horror. *How can this be? How can this be?! I clearly escaped to another universe—why can the Grand Dao Master's divine ability still hunt me down? How did he lock onto me?!* He tore through the void like lightning, desperate to outrun the might of that single finger. Yet the power of that strike was like an inescapable calamity, cleaving to his heels. With calamity hanging over his head, Yinyuanzi could endure it no longer. He screamed, abandoning this newly possessed body and shooting out through the flesh to flee into the distance. The instant he deserted the vessel, he heard a crisp pop as the brow of that body burst apart, pierced through by the force of the Grand Dao Master's finger. *A Grand Dao Master's divine power is potent enough to track my location across other universes?!* Terror consumed him. As he sped away like a streak of lightning, an inexplicable finger force suddenly punched through the glabella of his primordial spirit, gathering all the Heaven Concealment Grand Dao within him into a tight ball. *Boom!* The Heaven Concealment Grand Dao detonated within the brow of his primordial spirit, collapsing completely and thoroughly annihilating his spirit. Far from leaving behind three ethereal and seven corporeal souls, not even an Undying True Spirit remained! At the same time, throughout the myriad universes where Yinyuanzi's disciples resided, every single practitioner who cultivated his *Heaven Concealment Dao Attainment* suddenly felt their cultivated Heaven Concealment Grand Dao coalesce between their brows before exploding violently in ruin! Across the myriad universes, all his disciples met calamity at that very instant, their lives ended and their Daos extinguished! In those universes, anyone who had cultivated the Heaven Concealment Grand Dao using other shore script perished without exception, regardless of race or strength. Not a single soul survived! Even in the Heavenly Immortal Realm, several dragon elders who had guarded the Dragon clan without abandoning their original cultivation—and had yet to replace the other shore truth patterns with new dragon patterns—dropped dead one after another, as though erased from existence altogether! *** Back within the Three Realms cosmos, after the Grand Dao Master tapped his finger against Yinyuanzi's brow, Xu Ying and the others saw Yinyuanzi freeze in place, completely motionless. Suddenly, Yinyuanzi's head burst open with a deafening blast. His flesh collapsed, his Dao realm crumbled, and in the end, only a mass of chaotic qi remained. Suspended in the Three Realms, that mass of chaotic qi abruptly erupted with a bang, transforming into boundless spiritual energy and immortal mountains that drifted across the cosmos, dispersing to form a continent composed of blessed lands and celestial peaks. Xu Ying was startled. He immediately gathered his three thousand swords and vaulted backward, terrified that the Grand Dao Master might give him the same treatment. While he had not witnessed the terrifying devastation that finger had wrought across the myriad universes, he had seen Yinyuanzi struck dead with his own eyes. *The Grand Dao Master isn't dead! Our Three Realms might be finished!* Xu Ying's expression shifted erratically before he suddenly adopted an open-minded outlook. *If I were to acknowledge him as my adoptive father... or even as his disciple...* Yet after striking Yinyuanzi dead with that single finger, the Grand Dao Master's skeleton let its arm drop. It remained seated where it was, unmoving once more. The Abyss Sea, which had been churning in violent and unpredictable shifts, gradually settled into tranquil calm, stripped of all its terrifying might. The ruins surrounding the skeleton shattered with a resounding crash. One ruin after another transformed into streaks of light, hurtling downward toward the Three Realms. The Grand Dao Master's skeleton tumbled along with them, crashing toward the Three Realms as well. The Holy Venerable, Dragon Emperor Mingdao, Waste Qingxuan, and the others hesitated for a moment before giving chase. The Ancestral God and Far Ancestor hurried to follow. Yuan Weiyang was about to steer the golden ship to pursue the falling ruins when, with a violent clatter, the World-Crossing Golden Ship shattered completely into pieces. Fortunately, atop the golden ship was an emerald rock multi-decked vessel they had captured during their previous encounter with other shore scouts in the ruins. Yuan Weiyang leaped onto the vessel at once, calling upon the powerhouses of the Earth Immortal Realm and the dragons of the Heavenly Immortal Realm to board and follow. "Ah Ying! Board the ship!" Yuan Weiyang looked back and saw Xu Ying still standing in place, waving to him in a hurry. Xu Ying hesitated. Instead of following them, he turned his gaze toward the direction from which Yinyuanzi had arrived, thinking, *How did Yinyuanzi reach the Three Realms?* Looking into the distance, he spotted a flash of emerald-green light flying toward the outer rim of the Three Realms cosmos. *** Within the Three Realms, in the Mortal Realm. People laboring in the fields were startled by the sudden brilliance in the sky. Looking up, they watched blazing fireballs descend from the heavens, crashing into the northwestern corner of the Mortal Realm. Regions shrouded in night were illuminated as bright as day. Even after the fireballs fell, crimson light continued to pulse from the northwest, dyeing the sky a blood-red hue. This abnormal celestial phenomenon persisted for more than ten days before it gradually subsided. The Holy Venerable, Dragon Emperor Mingdao, the Ancestral God, the Far Ancestor, and others descended from the sky one after another, landing in the northwest of the Mortal Realm. This bitter, frigid region stretched for tens of thousands of li without a single human inhabitant, desolate and lonely. It was plagued constantly by sandstorms or blizzards. Nowadays, the Mortal Realm was vast and rich in resources, yet sparsely populated. Demons and spirit beasts were not overly numerous, and fertile farmland could be found everywhere, so very few people ever came here to settle. As a result, the crash of those ruins caused virtually no casualties. The Holy Venerable, Dragon Emperor, and the others stood in the distance, observing where the ruins had landed. They watched alien Daos expand from the debris, gradually taking root and altering the natural Daos and geography of the land. What filled them with dread was the Grand Dao Master's skeleton sitting at the center of the ruins, with the Abyss Sea floating quietly above it. "What do we do now?" the Far Ancestor murmured. "The Grand Dao Master's might is truly terrifying. He eradicated Yinyuanzi with a single finger. Given our strength, we aren't even worthy to be seen in his eyes." The Ancestral God hesitated, then said, "The Mortal Realm is vast and sparsely populated. It wouldn't be a problem if they kept to this corner. But my fear is that they won't. They've only just landed, yet they're already altering the Heavenly Daos of the northwest. In the future, I fear they will push their boundaries step by step." Waste Qingxuan smiled and said, "But time is on our side." At those words, the others nodded in silent agreement. Time truly was on their side. Now, the New Dao was flourishing by the day, the Three Realms was expanding, and spiritual energy was abundant, with celestial peaks and blessed lands everywhere. In time, more and more Sovereigns and Indestructible experts would emerge under heaven. The more time passed, the stronger the Three Realms would become, and the threat posed by the Immortals within the Former Court ruins would diminish accordingly. "But what if they refuse to stay in the northwest?" Yuan Weiyang asked. The Holy Venerable and the others furrowed their brows. If those Immortals marched out of the northwest, who among them could match their might? "Where is Dao Ancestor Xu?" Wei Xu glanced around. "Where did Dao Ancestor Xu go?" *** Xu Ying moved faster and faster, tearing across the void like a streak of lightning as he pursued that emerald-green light. The light was indeed an emerald rock multi-decked vessel. Aboard were two scouts and a tall, strange alien clad in peculiar armor. The armor on the tall alien was extraordinarily bizarre. It looked like bones growing directly out of his own body, covering his frame while offering zero resistance to his movements, making him exceptionally agile. The bone armor was intricately constructed from numerous plates, especially around the joints, where many thin plates had sprouted to facilitate bending, connected to one another by membranes. It was the first time Xu Ying had ever seen armor that grew out of a person's body. The male and female scouts and the bone-armored alien noticed him as well. From afar, they unleashed their other shore divine abilities, blasting toward Xu Ying with terrifying force that shook the surrounding space-time, sending violent ripples cascading outward! Xu Ying's brow twitched slightly. Without a word, he flicked a finger, and the three thousand immortal swords behind him shot through the void, forming the Zhuxian Sword Formation that crushed their divine abilities like dry weeds! The formation carried an aura of absolute extermination, thick with chilling murderous intent. Reaching the emerald rock vessel a step ahead of Xu Ying, it enveloped the ship and detonated with devastating force! In the next instant, the surrounding space-time was shredded by the terrifying sword formation. Ten thousand li of space-time shattered, turning into strands of chaotic qi before breaking down into celestial mountains and immortal spiritual energy. Inside the sword formation, the commander guarding the Chaos Sea ferry of the other shore displayed astonishing strength. Though not an Indestructible expert, he managed to withstand the onslaught of the Zhuxian Sword Formation. Standing at the prow, his body shifted, and hundreds of arms sprouted outward, each brandishing a different treasure as he struck in all directions to ward off the lethal formation! *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* A dense barrage of deafening clangs rang out. The man had actually managed to deflect most of the formation's strikes. The stray sword qi and immortal swords that breached his guard were subsequently repelled by his bone armor! Yet the Zhuxian Sword Formation was the foremost killing formation of the Three Realms—an Indestructible-tier array devised by the Tongtian Sword Master when he had been merely in the eighth realm of the Dao. Though the commander held his ground, pieces of his bone armor were shaved away one after another, exposing his true body beneath. His cultivation technique was bizarre indeed; as he circulated his energy, the bone armor rapidly regrew, allowing him to endure the first wave of the sword formation's assault. Suddenly, the sword formation ceased its rotation. The commander halted the movement of his thousand arms. The various treasures in his grasp were covered in sword gouges, battered and scarred by the array. *What a terrifying slaughter formation!* The commander felt a chill in his heart. Looking around, he saw the three thousand immortal swords suspended silently around the emerald rock vessel, maintaining the array with a menacing, bone-chilling aura. Earlier, the indiscriminate attack of the sword formation had annihilated the surrounding starry sky, and the vessel had been trapped within the barrage as well. Yet because the ship was carved from emerald rock, even a formation as terrifying as the Zhuxian Sword Formation had failed to damage it. *Where did those two scouts go?* The commander looked around and saw neither scout, his heart sinking. The sword formation had been so terrifying that in the span of a breath, both scouts had likely been shredded to pieces, refined into chaotic qi, and dispersed into the cosmos. Looking beyond the ship, he indeed saw several celestial mountains floating in the void, evidently formed from the remains of the two scouts. At that moment, a youth drifted out from behind an inverted immortal sword, landing lightly upon the deck of the emerald rock vessel. The commander glared at the youth, tightening his grip on his treasures, poised to unleash a thunderous strike to obliterate him at any second. Xu Ying surveyed the vessel. Only after a moment did he shift his gaze to the commander's face, murmuring softly, "Master Sword, complete the formation." The Zhuxian Sword flew from his Martial Dao cave abyss, taking its place within the Zhuxian Sword Formation. With its arrival, the formation's power doubled instantly. "This blade belongs to Daoist Tongtian," Xu Ying said in the other shore Dao language. "Do you wish to live, or do you wish to die?" "Daoist Tongtian?!" The commander's face paled drastically.