The injuries suffered by the Grand Dao Lord of Life and Death and the Void Sovereign were quite similar; in fact, the Void Sovereign's Dao injuries were even slightly more severe.
Yet after the Void Sovereign was injured, he had refrained from clashing with anyone further, devoting himself wholeheartedly to tending his Dao injuries and only chiming in with a remark now and then.
The Grand Dao Lord of Life and Death, on the other hand, had to face a being of Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang's caliber, forcing him to mobilize his full might.
Had his opponent's strength merely matched his own, he would not have exposed his old wounds. However, Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang possessed profound strength and even higher Dao attainment, and recognized that he was the weak link among the four.
The reason his injuries had erupted this time was that in clashing head-on with Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang, he discovered that the Dao laws embedded in the Dao wound left by the Void Sovereign suddenly multiplied tenfold, a hundredfold!
This Dao injury was not only within his physical body and primordial spirit; it had also seeped into his Great Dao and even stretched out into the myriad universes, threatening to manifest inside every single one of his cave abysses!
This development scared the living daylights out of him, leaving him no choice but to flee.
If he did not leave, the Dao injuries left behind by the Void Sovereign alone would be enough to tear him to shreds!
His departure was no small matter. The four Grand Dao Lords' seamless synergy immediately collapsed, and the next to suffer was the Grand Dao Lord of Gods and Demons.
His Supreme Dao Ode of Gods and Demons was also an arcane technique that cultivated both the divine and demonic paths to the Dao Pole level. Cultivating both the Divine Dao and Demonic Dao simultaneously, the two Great Daos complemented each other, each serving as the other's shadow.
The divine was the demon's shadow; the demon was the divine's shadow.
Light was the shadow of darkness; darkness was the shadow of light.
Divine and demon coexisted in a single body. The waning of the divine and waxing of the demonic, or the waxing of the divine and waning of the demonic, all answered to his single thought.
Yet the moment he circulated the Supreme Dao Ode of Gods and Demons now, he felt the Demonic Dao grow uncontrollably wild. The cyclic balance of divine waning and demonic waxing instantly shattered!
Panic seized the Grand Dao Lord of Gods and Demons. He immediately reversed the Supreme Dao Ode of Gods and Demons to make the divine wax and the demonic wane.
Yet in the split second his Dao heart faltered, Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang pressed a finger against the center of his brow. With a thunderous boom, the Grand Dao Lord of Gods and Demons' physical body split in two—one half a divine body, the other half a demonic body.
Divine and demonic divided, incapable of rejoining.
The Grand Dao Lord of Gods and Demons could feel himself split apart yet found it impossible to close the rift, terror gripping his heart.
As his body tore apart, the divine-demon cave abysses behind him snapped and ruptured one after another, dividing into two to become Divine Dao cave abysses and Demonic Dao cave abysses!
Not only that, across the myriad universes, all the cultivators of his lineage who cultivated the twin paths of gods and demons found the cave abysses they summoned splitting apart.
What was more terrifying was that these cultivators subsequently split apart as well, cleaving into two halves that could not rejoin!
"He ruined my lineage, making it impossible for me to harvest!" the Divine Grand Dao Lord and Demonic Grand Dao Lord shrieked in unison.
Before the words had even settled, the Grand Dao Lord of Yin and Yang pulled away and fled, overwhelmed by terror, not daring to pit himself against Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang.
The Grand Dao Lord of Yin and Yang cultivated the twin Daos of Yin and Yang, which followed a path of mutual complement and mutual engendering. While the means Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang used to counter the Grand Dao Lord of Gods and Demons could not be used against him directly, Xuanhuang would undoubtedly have a method tailored to counter him!
With his flight, only Grand Dao Lord Taiyi remained to face Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang.
Deprived of the assistance of the three Grand Dao Lords—Life and Death, Yin and Yang, and Gods and Demons—Grand Dao Lord Taiyi's momentum grew even more formidable instead. His Taiyi Grand Dao had reached an unprecedented height, synthesizing myriad Dao arts and fusing all manners of Great Daos into a single seamless Taiyi, indivisible from one another!
Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang was indeed a Grand Dao Master, but having only just revived, the worldly Great Daos were incomplete.
In terms of cultivation base, Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang's current cultivation was still inferior to his; in terms of Great Dao, Taiyi's Grand Dao naturally possessed certain traits of the Grand Dao Master realm.
Such as the myriad Daos returning to One, and the One manifesting as myriad Daos.
Within only a few exchanges of combat, Grand Dao Lord Taiyi's cultivation and strength grew increasingly potent, his battle will surging ever higher.
Suddenly, Grand Dao Lord Taiyi coughed up a huge mouthful of blood, his aura instantly flagging.
Witnessing this, Xu Ying grasped the reason at once and blurted out, "Emperor Haotian!"
At the same time, Zhuo Daochun also gasped, "Grand Dao Lord Haoyi!"
The two exchanged a glance before looking away. Both had realized at the exact same moment: the only defeat Grand Dao Lord Taiyi had ever suffered in his life was at the hands of Emperor Haotian. Emperor Haotian's divine power, the Firmament of Divine Powers, was the culmination of countless Dao methods; it had inflicted catastrophic wounds on Taiyi, leaving him injured for years.
Although he had erased that Dao wound, Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang, in the course of exchanging blows with him, had reawakened it, causing it to erupt anew.
It was equivalent to suffering another devastating blow from Emperor Haotian's Firmament of Divine Powers, making his sudden decline inevitable.
"Even to this day, Grand Dao Lord Taiyi has still not cracked Emperor Haotian's divine power," Xu Ying and Zhuo Daochun thought to themselves simultaneously.
Grand Dao Lord Taiyi turned and fled, but Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang caught up with him in the very next instant. After a few more exchanges, Grand Dao Lord Taiyi was struck square in the back by one of Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang's divine powers.
Boom!
Grand Dao Lord Taiyi exploded on the spot. His body shattered, and each fragment transformed into a Great Dao, which then manifested into a miniature Grand Dao Lord Taiyi.
Grand Dao Lord Taiyi shattered into countless pieces, and the Taiyi Cave Abyss fractured alongside him into the same number of pieces, each harboring its own Great Dao.
Not only that, this phenomenon even rippled out into the myriad universes, where every successor of Grand Dao Lord Taiyi felt as if their very being was on the verge of splitting apart.
Right at that moment, each of the smaller Grand Dao Lords Taiyi snapped back together, returning into the original body—transforming from countless fragments into the singular One!
This technique of Myriad Daos Returning to One far surpassed the Grand Dao Lord of Gods and Demons, leaving onlookers in awe.
Watching this, Xu Ying murmured, "The true Taiyi heritage! Three Qis penetrating mystery, Nine Mysteries returning to One. Not even a Grand Dao Master can break his Taiyi Grand Dao!"
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Grand Dao Lord Taiyi was struck, spitting blood as he tumbled backward through the air, his body exploding once again.
Xu Ying promptly shut his mouth. Considering the severity of Grand Dao Lord Taiyi's injuries, he felt he had spoken too soon.
It was entirely possible that the Grand Dao Lord would not hold out much longer before being slain by Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang, and even his lineage would be wiped out entirely!
Just then, the sky suddenly dipped low, and the silhouette of an outlander descended from the heavens, arriving in front of Grand Dao Lord Taiyi to intercept Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang's fatal blow.
The moment this outlander's figure appeared, thunder and lightning erupted across the entire Tianjing Ruins. Countless lightning bolts banished the darkness, yet places of even deeper gloom surged forth!
Xu Ying looked toward those pitch-black areas, only to see countless withered bones rolling and shrieking within the dark, their billowing resentment coalescing into baleful fiend energy. Even a Dao attainer like him could not help shivering at the sight!
Billions of skeletons churned, struggled, and surged within pockets of darkness. Towering resentment suddenly converged in droves, empowering Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang!
"The skeletons of the exterminated Tianjing people!"
Xu Ying came to a sudden realization. "This outlander was the prime culprit behind the great massacre of Tianjing back then! His arrival has awakened all the aggrieved souls of Tianjing!"
The other shore possessed Dao arts regarding the netherworld, but it had no underworld. With nowhere to go, these aggrieved souls could only gather here, their resentment growing heavier and heavier.
Now, this resentment was bestowed upon Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang as he met the outlander's attack head-on!
At this moment, the power unleashed by the two Grand Dao Masters warped the Dao laws and upended the cosmos. Spacetime annihilated where the two divine powers collided, revealing glimpses of the Chaos Sea!
Yet before the Chaos Sea could even invade the Tianjing Ruins, its waters were forced into continuous retreat by the terrifying might of the two Grand Dao Masters!
Some chaotic qi was even vaporized, transforming from chaos into blooming, spinning pockets of spacetime resembling flowers, tumbling into the Tianjing Ruins like miniature Hongyuans.
"The power of Grand Dao Masters is too terrifying—get away, quickly!"
Without waiting for discussion, the Void Sovereign circulated his magical power. The group flew upward involuntarily and landed inside his cave abyss, fleeing into the distance at top speed.
Behind them, the ripples in spacetime stirred by the two Grand Dao Masters' divine powers came spinning toward them alongside peculiar spacetime flowers. Wherever they passed, everything was shredded and reassembled.
Whatever was reassembled was distorted beyond recognition—even their own parents would not have recognized them.
"Grand Dao Lord, faster, faster!" Taiqing Dao Ancestor urged.
Xu Ying's eyes lit up, and he cried out, "Quick! Fellow Daoists, gather those spacetime flowers! They are of immense use!"
Hearing this, the group felt doubtful yet intrigued. Taiqing, Yuqing, Yuxu, Taiyi, the Ancestor of Earth Immortals, and the others took action one after another, reaching out to pluck the flowers within the spacetime ripples.
Unexpectedly, the spacetime ripples were extraordinarily terrifying; the giant hands manifested from their divine powers were ground to dust the instant they entered the ripples!
Only the Ancestor of Earth Immortals possessed the greatest cultivation and strength, managing to pluck a spacetime flower before his divine power shattered.
With the flower in hand, everyone looked closely, only to see what seemed to be a minuscule universe forming and opening within, various Great Daos brewing and coalescing inside!
"It is similar to a Hongyuan, yet not a true Hongyuan; rather, it is a creation born of divine power."
A single glance was enough for the Ancestor of Earth Immortals to recognize its value. Smiling, he said, "This treasure can no longer absorb chaotic qi to grow, but possessing it is still equivalent to possessing an Immortal-grade cave abyss!"
Hearing this, the others were filled with envy and struck out once more to snatch at the spacetime flowers. However, the aftershocks of the two Grand Dao Masters' divine powers were simply too formidable, leaving even the Void Sovereign with no choice but to focus entirely on fleeing with everyone.
The Ancestor of Earth Immortals acted again, plucking several more spacetime flowers and giving them to the others. Even Zhuo Daochun, Wei Yi, Nangong Hao, and Shi Yuting each received one.
The Ancestor of Earth Immortals also intended to give one to Xu Ying, but the nearby spacetime flowers had already been plucked. Reaching for flowers elsewhere would require dashing across, and there was simply no time.
Whoosh—
The aftershocks of the two Grand Dao Masters' divine powers finally caught up to the Void Sovereign. Though the violent spacetime ripples had weakened substantially, they still tossed his body around, sending him tumbling and rolling within the waves, unable to steady himself.
Hiding within his cave abyss, the others were similarly thrown into a tumble, unable to keep their footing.
After a moment, the shaking of the cave abyss finally ceased. Everyone steadied themselves and looked outward, only to see the entire Tianjing Ruins had turned a hazy white. It was no longer dark, illuminated by light, yet one could not see very far, as though spacetime were veiled behind a layer of mist or sheer gauze.
The Dao laws of heaven and earth had also turned bizarre and fragmented. Though broken, the Great Daos radiated an extraordinarily vigorous vitality.
Such vitality in the Great Daos was utterly abnormal.
Unease filled their hearts, and the Void Sovereign sped up, rushing in one direction in an attempt to escape the battlefield of Grand Dao Masters.
Suddenly, a second wave of spacetime ripples crashed forward—clearly, the two Grand Dao Masters were still locked in combat!
The resentment filling heaven and earth caused Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang's strength to climb ceaselessly, approaching his battle prowess at his prime!
Even in the midst of their flight, the Void Sovereign, Xu Ying, and the others could still feel his overwhelming might.
This was power capable of deciding the fate of an entire universe!
A third wave of spacetime ripples followed immediately, stacking one atop the other at even greater speed. It overtook the Void Sovereign and the others, sweeping them into the ripples once more.
After these three waves of spacetime ripples passed, all suddenly fell calm, and the terrifying might of beings at the Grand Dao Master level could no longer be felt.
"Is the battle over?"
Everyone was startled. Looking in all directions, they saw the light grow even brighter, yet no one could discern where it originated.
Spacetime had been pulverized into fine dust that refracted these gleams of light.
Xu Ying said suddenly, "These lights are likely the Dao radiance bursting from the divine powers of the two Grand Dao Masters, ceaselessly refracting through spacetime that has been crushed to dust, creating this hazy, misty effect. This refraction may well continue here for millions of years without ceasing."
Suddenly, Dao Ancestor Yuxu flew out from the Void Sovereign's cave abyss, plunging into the mist.
"Yuxu, come back quickly!" Taiqing Dao Ancestor cried in alarm. "It's perilous outside! You cannot withstand the aftershocks of a Grand Dao Master's divine power on your own!"
Dao Ancestor Yuxu had vanished from sight. Buddha Ancestor said, "I will go find him!"
He had barely taken flight when Dao Ancestor Yuxu emerged from the mist, clutching a plucked spacetime flower, a smile gracing his gaunt face.
"Dao Ancestor Xu, this is for you."
He presented the spacetime flower to Xu Ying and said with a smile, "Everyone else had one except you."
"Patriarch..."
Xu Ying looked up at the old man, his eyes brimming with deep emotion. "Thank you, Patriarch!"
Seeing him accept the spacetime flower, Dao Ancestor Yuxu felt immensely joyful inside.
Xu Ying actually possessed the far superior chaos lotus and Hongyuan, but Dao Ancestor Yuxu had always harbored guilt over having abandoned the ancestor of the Xu family and departed alone in the past. Accepting this spacetime flower would allow Dao Ancestor Yuxu to lay down some of that emotional burden.
Great Dao Lord Xuhuang turned and walked toward the place where the two Grand Dao Masters had battled. Seeing this, the group felt somewhat uneasy and warily surveyed their surroundings.
After a long time, they returned to the site of the clash between the two Grand Dao Masters. Looking around, they saw that heaven and earth had become extraordinarily flat—flatter than a mirror. Even if Daoist Yuji were to come and lie flat on the ground to inspect it meticulously, he would not find the slightest unevenness!
Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang sat upon the mirrored surface, his demeanor solemn and supremely dignified.
His gaze fell upon the approaching Void Sovereign and the others, still brimming with overwhelming pressure.
"The Chaos Sea is a realm of darkness, where universes wander through the gloom, drifting with the wind and waves. When two universes meet, propriety, civilization, and mercy will not bring peace."
Grand Dao Master Xuanhuang lifted his head and looked toward the hazy sky. "By the time I realized this, it was already too late."
His physical body began to shatter, and his Great Dao dissolved into dust.
"Carry on Tianjing's civilization."
He looked at Zhuo Daochun, Wei Yi, and the others with eyes that almost pleaded, his voice hoarse. "Never forget the grudge of our clan's extermination, even if only a single Tianjing person remains!"
Crash!
With that, this Grand Dao Master shattered, dissolving before their eyes into countless particles of light that melted away into heaven and earth.
Chapter 749