"Fellow Daoist Shi, I am doing this to save you. If I hadn't killed them, and they discovered you were colluding with me, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on in the other shore," Xu Ying said. "Back then, I promised that so long as you cooperated, I would spare your life. Now that you've brought me to the other shore, I will honor that promise. From this day forward, you are free. If you wish, you may travel with me."
Shi Tianyang burst into laughter. "Travel with you? Roam to the ends of the earth together? Dao Ancestor Xu, in the Three Realms you may be a Dao Ancestor, but here in the other shore, you're merely an uncivilized savage from the Three Realms! If I hang around with you, I'll end up on the wanted list sooner or later and get captured and beheaded!"
Xu Ying smiled. "A share of the credit for collecting the Primordial Source belongs to you as well. Are you really willing to part with it?"
Hearing that, Shi Tianyang stood frozen on the spot, hesitating.
Seeing his reaction, Xu Ying strode away.
*The other shore already presumes I'm dead,* Shi Tianyang thought. *If I show up here, I won't escape an interrogation. Who could possibly hold up under the interrogation of an Immortal True King?*
He hurriedly ran after Xu Ying, thinking to himself, *After all, Dao Ancestor Xu is an uncultured native from the Three Realms. Having arrived in our other shore, he'll surely tread with absolute caution and wouldn't dare cause trouble everywhere. He is bound to be more careful than anyone else, so following him is guaranteed to be safe!*
"Dao Ancestor Xu! Wait for me! A share of the Primordial Source is mine—you can't hoard it all to yourself!" he shouted, dashing forward at high speed.
No sooner had the two left than an emerald rock tiered ship sailed out of the Chaos Sea. Before the garrison generals of the ferry could even step forward to receive it, True King Jiuquan soared from the vessel, crossing the void to land directly on the pier.
"Not a single ship has returned!"
True King Jiuquan swept his gaze all around, only to find that every garrison general who should have been stationed here had vanished without a trace!
"They even eliminated the guards! Inversion of Space-Time!"
True King Jiuquan let out a shout and mobilized his magic power. At once, time seemed to flow backward at the ferry, receding from the present into the past!
Soon, the figures of Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang appeared. Xu Ying released a sweep of flowing light, suddenly leaped backward to land beside Shi Tianyang, and the two retreated onto an emerald rock tiered ship, which then receded along divine light back toward the Chaos Sea.
Yet throughout this rewound time, not a single silhouette of the garrison generals appeared.
"Shi Tianyang? He's still alive? As for the youth beside him, he isn't from the other shore. Instead, he resembles the likes of Daoist Tongtian and Xuhuang—he must be a human barbarian from the Three Realms!"
True King Jiuquan was quite astonished and muttered in a low voice, "Another savage from the Three Realms has come to the other shore? Could Shi Tianyang, that traitor, have brought him over? The flowing light that Three Realms savage conjured is peculiar indeed. It appeared to strike empty space, but in truth, it struck right where the garrison generals were stationed."
His gaze fell upon the spot where the big bell had reverberated. Nothing remained there. His Inversion of Space-Time divine power had failed to reveal the figures of the garrison generals because that sheet of flowing light had directly disintegrated them into chaotic qi! Those generals had been completely erased from space-time by that treasure, making it impossible to trace them back through time!
"Even so, they won't escape!"
His divine power surged, inverting the surrounding space-time once more.
The scene of Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang parting ways materialized in midair, followed by the scene of Shi Tianyang chasing after Xu Ying.
"A dispute over dividing the spoils! Shi Tianyang went to hunt down that Three Realms barbarian in an attempt to seize my Primordial Source! But the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind!"
His divine consciousness flooded forth like a boundless heavenly sea, billowing in all directions and stretching into the far distance, scouring for any trace of Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang!
His divine consciousness was so overwhelming that in an instant it enveloped ten thousand li of space. Above in the sky and below on the earth, every blade of grass and every tree fell completely under his grasp!
Moreover, the reach of his divine consciousness continued to extend, expanding outward at extreme speed!
At the same time, within the domain blanketed by his divine consciousness, every person's slightest movement, even their voices and features, was mirrored with crystalline clarity in his mind!
"Their speed is remarkably fast!"
Even with his divine consciousness pushed to its limit, True King Jiuquan still failed to locate Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang. He couldn't help feeling amazed. For these two to be able to flee beyond the reach of his divine consciousness in such a short time, their strength was truly formidable!
Above his head, nine qis surged into the sky, transforming into the Nine Springs Great Dao that pierced into the clouds. Twisting through nine bends and eighteen curves, it reached deep into dark, nether realms.
One after another, figures of True King Jiuquan, sharing identical appearances yet distinct temperaments, emerged from the Nine Springs Great Dao and pursued the direction in which Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang had departed.
These nine Daoists were his Great Dao avatars, possessing immense strength, each embodying one of the Daos of the Nine Springs Great Dao.
Every one of these Daos was at the Indestructible realm, and each Dao avatar was not inferior to the Great Dao avatar that Yinyuanzi had once sent down to the Heavenly Immortal Realm.
The nine Dao avatars traversed the heavens, the earth, the void, and the netherworld, exhaustively scouring every span of space through which Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang might have passed, dreading that they might lose their trail.
Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang were utterly unaware of this, though putting distance between themselves and the ferry as swiftly as possible had been their mutual consensus.
Shi Tianyang followed behind Xu Ying, watching as Xu Ying fled into the void at one moment, dove into the netherworld at the next, abruptly veered directions, or even used the technique of One Qi Transforms into the Three Purities to split into different directions and flee. Shi Tianyang couldn't help admiring him greatly: *Following him was definitely the right choice! I don't have nearly as much experience running for my life. With Dao Ancestor Xu being this cautious, True King Jiuquan will never be able to track us down!*
"I am not a reckless person," Xu Ying said to Shi Tianyang. "My coming to the other shore is not to seek death, nor do I intend to raise havoc here. I came to seek refuge with kin and friends."
Relieved upon hearing this, Shi Tianyang smiled and said, "I knew Dao Ancestor Xu was someone who understood propriety. You have kin and friends in the other shore?"
Xu Ying nodded and said, "Dao Ancestor Taiqing holds the favor of being half a master to me. Dao Ancestor Yuxu also holds the favor of being half a master to me. There are also Dao Ancestor Yuqing, Great Dao Lord Xuhuang, and Heavenly Venerable Taiyi, who are likewise half-masters to me. My visit this time is to seek refuge with them. Oh, and Buddha Ancestor once gifted me a string of Buddhist prayer beads to help me overcome tribulations, so he counts as kin and friend as well."
Shi Tianyang blinked, feeling uneasy. "Your kin and friends seem to all be infamous villains on the other shore's wanted list."
Xu Ying smiled. "That must be your misunderstanding of them. In our Three Realms, they are revered as Dao Ancestors. How could they possibly be villains? Ah, right—Sword Master Tongtian is also half a master to me."
Shi Tianyang felt hesitant in his heart, wondering whether he should continue following him. After all, wonderful as the Primordial Source was, life was far more precious.
If he followed Xu Ying to meet villains like Daoist Tongtian and Great Dao Lord Xuhuang, not only would his reputation be ruined, but he might also end up dead without a burial ground!
"We've fled this far, altered our tracks, and changed our appearances. True King Jiuquan shouldn't be able to trace us now," Shi Tianyang said. "True King Jiuquan isn't among the top True Kings in the other shore. His ranking is actually not very high. If he fails to find us, he will return to Daoji Heaven, where the Immortal True Kings reside."
Having exhausted every life-saving trick at his disposal, Xu Ying was confident that True King Jiuquan would never find them, so he slowed his pace and asked with an open mind, "What is Daoji Heaven?"
Shi Tianyang looked up and said, "Daoji Heaven is the supreme heaven of our other shore, the dwelling place of the Immortal True Kings. All the Immortal True Kings gather there. Their Great Daos pierce through universe after universe, eternal and indestructible, shielding our other shore from tribulations and disasters. It is a world composed purely of the Great Dao."
Xu Ying raised his head to gaze upward. High in the firmament, a realm of supreme, sacred Great Dao faintly revealed itself, ethereal, boundless, and extraordinarily divine.
"Eternal and indestructible, free of tribulations and disasters..."
He couldn't help feeling a sense of yearning. Though the other shore harvested thousands of universes, the lives of the people here had to be immensely blissful.
Suddenly, a foul, reeking stench drifted from ahead. The two looked over and saw a barren crimson expanse stretching for a thousand li. Spears were thrust into the ground, each impaling a severed human head.
The scalps had all been sliced off these heads, exposing bare skulls.
Xu Ying looked at Shi Tianyang. Shi Tianyang's expression remained unchanged as he said, "The folkways of our other shore are simple and pure. These must be heinous criminals executed and displayed to the public."
Xu Ying chose to take his word for it for now.
As the two continued forward, magic treasures and divine powers suddenly whistled through the air ahead, shattering heaven and earth in their clashes. Two factions of outlanders had come into conflict and were locked in combat. One of the outlanders continuously beat a giant drum, blowing apart the physical bodies of surrounding foes into clouds of gore!
"We surrender! We surrender!"
Seeing this, the outlanders on the losing side threw down their treasures and fell to their knees.
The outlanders who had gained the upper hand did not make things difficult for them either. Instead, they stepped forward, grabbed their hair, and carved off their scalps.
Xu Ying looked at Shi Tianyang. Shi Tianyang laughed and said, "This is precisely why our other shore possesses such martial virtue and remains ever-victorious."
As they walked along, they encountered skirmishes from time to time—some murdering for loot, some fighting over territory, some trafficking people, and others smuggling pills. At the slightest disagreement, battle broke out, with all manner of magic treasures whistling through the sky.
It was an eye-opener for Xu Ying. Despite the other shore possessing such rich spiritual energy, there were actually poor people, and in massive numbers.
Witnessing this, Xu Ying felt suspicious and looked up toward Daoji Heaven.
Noticing his gaze, Shi Tianyang felt a bit embarrassed and said, "In recent years, the customs have indeed turned somewhat sour. It must be savages from your Three Realms who ran over here, committing all sorts of evil and corrupting our other shore's way of life!"
Xu Ying sneered. "Could it be that the savages from my Three Realms came over just to scalp your outlanders?"
Shi Tianyang said as if it were only natural, "Scalping is a custom of our other shore. Ridiculing our customs is rather lacking in courtesy."
Xu Ying hurried forward. From afar, he spotted a golden figure darting up and down, fighting over a dozen other-shore powerhouses all at once, shaking heaven and earth with the clash!
The figure was agile and ferocious, sometimes taking on ten alone, sometimes multiplying into ten thousand. His strikes were incomparably fierce and domineering, filling the sky with shadows of a cudgel!
"Daoist Wukong!"
Xu Ying was astonished. Daoist Wukong's cultivation and strength had leaped considerably since they had met in the Heavenly Immortal Realm. His combat technique was known as the Victorious Fighting Method, fighting with ferocious violence!
Meanwhile, the dozen-odd other-shore powerhouses besieging him were by no means weak. Most had reached the seventh or eighth realm of Dao scenery, their cultivation profound and robust. And surprisingly, what they cultivated was also the Taishang Dao!
Daoist Wukong's Leakless Golden Body also originated from the Taishang Dao, belonging to the same Great Dao as his assailants, yet their cultivation arts and divine powers differed vastly.
Both sides fought on the move through the air, covering ten thousand li in an instant. Deploying their divine powers, they caused the skies to rupture continuously.
The dozen-plus Taishang Dao powerhouses sacrificed their respective treasures, bearing down on Daoist Wukong all at once. Fighting desperately to resist, Daoist Wukong was suppressed and forced downward, unable to contend with all of them simultaneously.
Taking advantage of the opening, another person sacrificed a jade bottle and shouted, "In!"
Pulled by a bizarre spatial force, Daoist Wukong was instantly stretched into a slender golden thread and drawn into the jade bottle.
The outlander burst into hearty laughter and moved to plug the bottle. Suddenly, the bottom of the bottle exploded, and Daoist Wukong broke free. With a single strike of his cudgel, he severely injured the outlander!
Plunging into their midst, Daoist Wukong engaged in close-quarters combat. Soon, one Taishang Dao powerhouse after another suffered grievous wounds and plummeted from the sky!
"The Taishang Dao I obtained in the Three Realms wasn't the true transmission, and your true transmission was supposed to be in the other shore. Who would have thought that not even you lot received the true transmission!"
The golden ape stowed his cudgel, his wide sleeves fluttering as he prepared to leave.
Suddenly, the firmament ruptured, and a towering figure descended from the heavens, bellowing, "Monkey, you crawled out of the Three Realms through my cave abyss, injured my disciples, and dared to defame my heritage. You shall not be spared!"
The figure possessed a colossal physique, extraordinarily developed joints, and muscles hard as stone. Behind his head floated a fractured Taishang Cave Abyss.
As his palm pressed downward, the surrounding space-time congealed, freezing Daoist Wukong in place.
"True King Yu Xuantong!"
Xu Ying was slightly taken aback. *Could he be that Immortal True King of the Taishang Dao? No, why isn't his strength as terrifying as I imagined? That's it—he must be merely a Dao avatar! If it were his true body, he would have cave abysses of all sizes behind him, connected to myriad great universes!*
Daoist Wukong bared his teeth, his expression twisting in struggle as he strained to swing his golden cudgel down toward that towering figure!
Yet within the frozen space-time, his movements appeared agonizingly slow.
This was precisely why Xu Ying felt that the other shore's True King Yu Xuantong wasn't as formidable as expected. Had it been a genuine Immortal True King, Daoist Wukong wouldn't even have had the chance to move; he would have been helpless before death!
In that split second, just as Daoist Wukong was about to perish under Yu Xuantong's palm, a radiant brilliance surged directly toward Yu Xuantong!
Yu Xuantong focused his gaze and saw a big bell within the radiance. Upon the bell's surface were wrinkled textures that seemed to contain the ultimate wonders of the Dao at a glance.
The next instant, billowing chaotic qi gushed from Yu Xuantong's eyes!
"What manner of treasure is this?"
Greatly alarmed, he hurriedly raised a hand to strike it!
*Clang—*
The chime rang out, and the big bell spun backward through the air. Yu Xuantong's palm instantly dissolved into chaotic qi that cascaded downward, filling him with even deeper dread.
*The architecture of this Great Dao far surpasses the architecture of our other shore!*
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than a brilliant sword light charged from behind the bell. Three thousand immortal swords converged in midair into a torrent, piercing with a squelch straight into his palm that was decaying into chaotic qi!
At the core of the surging sword qi sat the Zhuxian broken sword as the eye of the formation, carrying an aura of supreme annihilation. It drove through his palm and plunged into his arm. The sword formation spun and shifted frantically, and wherever it passed, Yu Xuantong's five fingers were shredded, his palm was pierced through, his wrist bones shattered, and strands of sword qi stabbed outward from beneath his skin, whistling through the air!
Enraged, Yu Xuantong abruptly halted his other hand, which was striking toward Daoist Wukong, and redirected it toward Xu Ying behind the sword light.
Behind Xu Ying, Shi Tianyang manifested his thousand-armed divine demon form, brandishing all manner of treasures to boldly meet Yu Xuantong's palm!
Though immense, he was still tiny compared to Yu Xuantong—barely the size of Yu Xuantong's palm. Yet he braced himself and caught Yu Xuantong's blow!
At the same time, freed from the suppression, Daoist Wukong leaped into the air and swung his cudgel savagely against Yu Xuantong's forehead. Under the blow, Yu Xuantong's forehead caved in!
The big bell came whistling back, shouting, "Master Ying, sacrifice me!"
Xu Ying shouted fiercely, his primordial spirit rising behind him as he spurred the big bell with all his might.
*Dong!*
The big bell smashed into the glabella of Yu Xuantong's Dao avatar, splitting open his skull and plunging straight into his brain.
Muffled chimes rang out continuously from within Yu Xuantong's brain, dull yet imbued with unfathomable Dao rhymes. Even though they were not aimed at Xu Ying, Shi Tianyang, and Daoist Wukong, the chimes shook the three so violently that chaotic qi seeped from their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses!
The three hurriedly leaped back. Suddenly, with a deafening boom, Yu Xuantong's colossal body collapsed, and all the Daos within him dissolved completely into chaotic qi!
Within Xu Ying's Chaos Cave Abyss, inside that small pond, the wondrous chaos lotus stirred his Chaos Cave Abyss once more, absorbing the chaotic qi left by Yu Xuantong's Dao avatar!
Daoist Wukong cried out, "Let's go, quick! It won't be long before Yu Xuantong's true body arrives!"
With a whoosh, he had already broken through the void and vanished into the distance.
Chapter 728