Dao Lord Wuchen presided over the emerald rock multi-decked vessel, driving it toward the other shore.
He possessed a tall, burly physique bearing the manifestations of an ancient god, a member of the other shore's Sacred Clan of pure bloodline, not one of the new Sacred Clan who had migrated from other universes.
Under his oppressive might, Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing dared not make any untoward moves. Wuchen had a brutal temperament; should they inadvertently offend him in the slightest, he would likely execute the two of them on the spot.
Grand Dao Lord Taiyi had uses for Xu Ying and could thus tolerate and even indulge him, but Wuchen certainly would not.
Xu Ying inquired, "Dao Lord, once you return to Daoji Heaven this time, how do you plan to deal with the Tianjing Ruins?"
Dao Lord Wuchen glanced at him sideways and said, "You and the rebels in the Tianjing Ruins both hail from the Three Realms. If I tell you how to deal with them, you will immediately tip them off."
Xu Ying adopted a solemn expression. "I have already bowed into discipleship under Grand Dao Lord Taiyi. I am now a person of the other shore, utterly loyal to it! Were I to harbor two minds, Grand Dao Lord Taiyi would be the first not to tolerate me!"
Wuchen naturally did not believe his words. He sneered, "The Grand Dao Lords are muddle-headed, and the Dao Masters do not bother with worldly affairs, actually permitting inferior beings from the myriad universes to come study in our other shore—even granting them status as the other shore's Sacred Clan! Utterly preposterous!"
He gave an arrogant smirk. "The true Sacred Clan is like me, born with the physique of an ancient god! This is true noble blood, the true Sacred Clan! Those other so-called new Sacred Clans are lower-class scum, beasts to be driven and commanded by us, the true Sacred Clan! As for you people of the Three Realms..." His gaze turned cold and stern, falling onto Xu Ying's face. "...you are not even as good as beasts! You might fool the Grand Dao Lord, but you cannot fool me. From the very first glance I laid upon you, I knew that just like Haotian, you are a rebel!"
Wuchen snorted coldly. "The moment I return to Daoji Heaven, I will report the fall of the Tianjing Ruins to the Four Great Dao Lords, and then submit it to the Three Great Dao Masters. I shall ask them to make a decree, to flatten the Tianjing Ruins and eliminate future troubles once and for all! Even if you know what I intend to do, it will be of no help."
A chill ran through Xu Ying's heart. Leave alone four Grand Dao Lords, even just a single Grand Dao Lord together with the forces under their command would be enough to sweep across the Tianjing Ruins!
If Wuchen truly did so, then the Tianjing Ruins would not be far from utter destruction.
Just as this thought crossed Xu Ying's mind, Wuchen suddenly leaped into the air with a violent surge. With a shake of his body, he expanded boundlessly, his physique becoming far larger than a sun!
Beside him, the emerald rock multi-decked vessel was like an insignificant speck of dust!
From all around the vessel came the sounds of exploding spacetime—the turbulence caused by Dao Lord Wuchen crushing spacetime apart as he revealed his true form!
Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing looked up to see that Dao Lord Wuchen had transformed into a peerless colossus with ox horns atop his head and ferocious musculature. Letting out a roar, he reached out with a hand and grabbed!
From somewhere in the void, a gigantic hammer flew into view. Dao Lord Wuchen gripped the handle with both hands, leaned back, and swung it forward with savage, explosive force!
"Dao Ancestor Xu, this move of his is virtually identical to the first form of your Eight Immortality Methods!" Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing exclaimed in astonishment.
He instantly recognized that Xu Ying's Earth-Opening method was a divine ability enlightened from Dao Lord Wuchen. Relying on this single Earth-Opening technique, Xu Ying had defeated numerous thorny, formidable adversaries, a divine ability that was domineering beyond measure.
Yet when Dao Lord Wuchen executed this move, only then was it truly domineering, like a colossal god cleaving open heaven and earth, smashing everything into obliteration!
Only then did they notice a pagoda spinning and crashing toward them at blistering speed through the starry sky. Countless stars danced around the pagoda like glittering grains of flying sand, constantly merging into it.
This pagoda had astonishingly been refined using countless stars as grains of sand, its might not in the least inferior to Wuchen's giant hammer.
Pagoda collided with hammer. Dao Lord Wuchen grunted, the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers bursting open and dripping with blood, his arms trembling uncontrollably.
Nor was the pagoda unscathed. Cracks fractured across the tower's body, and countless treasures hanging upon it—jewels, colored glaze, agate, jadeite—were shattered.
Through one fracture in the pagoda's body, one could faintly glimpse a galaxy coiling within each tier, extraordinarily magnificent.
At that moment, a sharp crack resounded from the starry sky. A figure with both arms fractured tumbled out from the void—none other than Dao Lord Hongxi, whose fame rivaled Wuchen's!
Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing's expression changed abruptly. Only now did he truly witness how terrifying the cultivation and might of the other shore's Immortals were! The Immortals of the Three Realms were like toddlers still learning to walk in front of them, utterly fragile, he thought to himself.
"So it is you beast, Hongxi!" Wuchen sneered. "Even you dare to ambush me?"
Without a word, Dao Lord Hongxi stowed away the cracked Universal Sand-Gathering Pagoda, turned on his heel, and flew away as a streak of starlight. Dao Lord Wuchen watched Dao Lord Hongxi depart into the distance. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly coughed up a great mouthful of blood. Hastily shrinking his ancient god true body, he sat cross-legged and circulated his cultivation to heal his wounds.
After a moment, having suppressed his injuries, he muttered in bewilderment, "Hongxi is merely of the new Sacred Clan, nothing more than a beast reared by our Sacred Clan. Why would he suddenly ambush me?"
Suddenly his expression shifted drastically as he understood the underlying reason. He cast an unfriendly glare at Xu Ying, thinking to himself, "This brat knows a cultivation method of the Grand Dao Master level. Hongxi came to ambush me in order to seize him!"
He had just thought of this when a flame flew head-on toward the emerald rock multi-decked vessel. Dao Lord Wuchen's face changed again: "The Fire of Heaven-Opening, Dao Lord Panyan?"
That flame was the first flame of heaven and earth's creation, born of chaos and capable of burning even jade of chaos, evolving the myriad Daos of heaven and earth—truly incinerating all things!
This flame had not been refined by Dao Lord Panyan, but was a divine flame he had found, and it was by relying on this divine flame that he had ascended to the rank of Dao Lord!
The domain enveloped by this divine flame grew ever wider and its temperature soared ever higher. Dao Lord Wuchen took a deep breath and once more wielded his giant hammer.
If Dao Lord Panyan's fire was the flame of heaven-opening, then his hammer was the hammer of earth-opening; under his hammer technique, earth, water, fire, and wind were quelled, and all fluctuations of the Great Dao were flattened!
The might of the two treasures erupted, sweeping across everything!
At the same time, Dao Lord Panyan's figure abruptly materialized upon the emerald rock multi-decked vessel. With a thrust of his hand, the Nine Dragon Divine Fire surged forth, transforming into a colossal canopy that clamped upside down over Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing.
Dao Lord Panyan lifted the canopy. Trapped like caged birds, Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing were hoisted up as Panyan turned to depart!
"Panyan, do you think you can get away?"
Dao Lord Wuchen sneered and blasted forward with a fist. With the Dao equal to his body, he required no intricate divine abilities; any strike from any part of his flesh, any unfurling of a single thought, was inherently a Great Dao divine ability of utmost domineering power.
Dao Lord Panyan raised his hand to meet the blow head-on, only for the garments across his back to burst open from the shockwave. He was inwardly startled: "This bastard Wuchen has reached such formidable strength!"
Wuchen charged in with a flurry of fists and kicks. Dao Lord Panyan was struck until the clothes on his body shredded to pieces, and the Nine Dragon Shroud held in his other hand exploded with a sharp snap.
Dao Lord Panyan knew that the situation was untenable. Flying backward in retreat, he sneered, "Wuchen, you dream if you think you can monopolize a Dao Master-level technique! Beware that failing to swallow it whole brings your own ruin instead!"
Wuchen did not pursue him. Instead, his gaze swept toward Xu Ying, brimming with chilling murderous intent.
Xu Ying's face remained composed as he said, "Dao Lord, they covet the Mystic Emperor Dao Realm Scripture and made a move against you to snatch it. It has nothing to do with me."
Wuchen snorted, his eyes vicious. "Taiyi is muddle-headed to accept you as a disciple, but I am not. Had you stayed inside She'an Palace, no one would have thought of snatching you away. Yet you and this boy simply had to appear out of nowhere at the Tianjing Ruins. You want to use yourself as bait to make us slaughter one another!"
Xu Ying stared, dumbstruck.
Wuchen's eyes glinted. "This scheme of yours is indeed magnificent. You yourself run no risk at all, for everyone seeks to capture you alive, fearing that should you die, they will not obtain the Dao Master-level technique. All you need to do is sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight, bringing grievous casualties upon the Immortals of our other shore. What a ruthless heart! What a venomous plot!"
Xu Ying argued, "The reason I went to the Tianjing Ruins was to—"
"You wanted to use the Tianjing Ruins as a breach, sparking this turmoil there first," Wuchen interrupted. "You knew that rebels like Xuhuang could not hold out much longer, so you came up with this insidious scheme to wipe out our other shore's Immortals without lifting a finger."
The more he spoke, the heavier his murderous intent grew.
A chill gripped Xu Ying's heart. Others might spare his life for the sake of the Grand Dao Master technique, but Wuchen was different.
Wuchen was ruthless and considered Xu Ying, just like Haotian, to be a rebel with treacherous intentions. Given any opportunity, he would eliminate Xu Ying with his own hands!
Wuchen said coldly, "All these new Sacred Clans ought to be slaughtered! Only by preserving the purity of the other shore Sacred Clan's bloodline can the other shore remain mighty and unyielding!"
His gaze fell heavily upon Xu Ying. Xu Ying offered a faint smile. "The Grand Dao Lord is muddle-headed, but fortunately you are not, Dao Lord. I can transmit the Mystic Emperor Dao Realm Scripture to you. Once you cultivate this technique, you will surely become a Grand Dao Master. By then, how could you worry about being unable to ensure the other shore's everlasting prosperity?"
Wuchen's gaze wavered, evidently weighing whether to kill Xu Ying outright to end the trouble, or to kill him only after learning the Mystic Emperor Dao Realm Scripture.
Just as he was contemplating this, the emerald rock multi-decked vessel jolted violently as it sailed into a killing formation! Treasures of immense power floated in the void like stars, forming distinct killing arrays collectively known as the Supreme Nine Palaces Killing Calamity!
The one who laid this formation was none other than Dao Lord Qingzai, clearly also here for the Mystic Emperor Dao Realm Scripture.
Dao Lord Wuchen rose to his feet, lunged into the Supreme Nine Palaces Killing Calamity, and said in a deep voice, "Xu Ying, I will carve out a path first; you two seize the chance to break out of the killing formation!"
He swung his giant hammer in sweeping, powerful arcs. At times the hammer erupted with limitless might in his hands, and at times it hurtled outward, shattering the formation-bearing treasures in the distance and razing the surrounding arrays!
Suddenly, Dao Lord Wuchen hurled his hammer. Boom! Boom! Boom! It blasted clean through the killing array ahead, knocking aside the surrounding treasures... Seeing this, Xu Ying immediately propelled the vessel outward through the passage.
The Supreme Nine Palaces Killing Calamity was extraordinarily formidable, and the formation quickly obstructed Wuchen's path once more, sweeping him back into the array.
"Dao Lord Qingzai cultivates the Tribulation Great Dao!" Xu Ying's eyes lit up, his breathing quickening slightly. Zhangsun Shenghai had told him of the nine highest Great Daos: Taiyi, Chaos, Primordial Beginning, Samsara, Wuji, Karma, Nirvanic Extinction, Tribulation, and Slaughter. Tribulation was one of them!
What Dao Lord Qingzai cultivated was precisely the Tribulation Great Dao!
"This is no place to linger!"
Though Xu Ying felt intense yearning toward the Tribulation Great Dao, he also knew that if they did not leave now, escaping later would be nearly impossible. He immediately put away the emerald rock multi-decked vessel and sped away alongside Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing.
The emerald rock multi-decked vessel was slower than their own speed. Soon, the two had left Dao Lord Wuchen and Dao Lord Qingzai far behind. At that moment, the starry sky ahead grew brilliant; astonishingly, mountains and waters appeared amid the stars, with immortal peaks hanging inverted like a celestial paradise.
Then, their surroundings also brightened. Immortal mountains materialized across the starry sky, progressively lighting up like celestial bodies, yet their colors were far more dazzling than ordinary stars.
Xu Ying's heart sank, and he said in a low voice, "The Taiying cave abyss."
Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing looked forward, seeing a starry sky spanning far more than myriad myriad li, vaster than the entire Earth Immortal Realm. How did this look anything like a cave abyss?
Yet this was the cave abyss of a Dao Lord; for a Dao Lord who harvested the myriad universes, their cave abyss was unfathomably vast!
Xu Ying said, "The moment we laid eyes on this cave abyss, it meant we had already entered it. I wonder which Dao Lord took action to lure us into his cave abyss."
"How do we leave?" Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing asked.
Before his words had finished echoing, spacetime around them violently churned, throwing them off balance as they fell in the same direction! Past the flanks of their vision, immortal mountains whizzed by, spanning myriad myriad li in the blink of an eye—truly terrifying!
Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing each attempted to steady themselves, yet they could not stabilize at all, their bodies continuing to plummet. Just then, they plunged into a realm of gelatinous matter, their speed drastically slowing.
"This Dao Lord wants to send us to another universe to hide us away!"
Xu Ying suddenly realized: this Dao Lord who cultivated the Taiying Great Dao must have felt that, surrounded by so many rivals, he could not secure the Mystic Emperor Dao Realm Scripture alone, and so resolved to send them into another universe.
By then, Xu Ying would become his personal possession, unable to escape ever again!
Gelatinous matter was precisely the substance one had to traverse when passing from a cave abyss into another universe. This bizarre substance resembled amber gel; once a cultivator entered it, they would be bogged down. The deeper one went, the stronger the viscosity and the slower the speed.
Especially for beings such as Immortals, the viscosity upon entering was even greater, making departure arduous.
However, the cultivation of that Dao Lord who cultivated the Taiying Great Dao was truly profound and boundless; their dharmic power surged unceasingly, pressing against Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing and shoving them toward another universe!
Xiuhuixian said in surprise, "Brother Wuchen, why do you speak thus? I was ordered to suppress the rebel Xuhuang and suffered defeat. I am currently on my way back to Daoji Heaven to report on my mission. What do you mean by hiding someone?"
Dao Lord Wuchen said nothing further, unleashing his giant hammer in a ferocious smash. Xiuhuixian's expression warped drastically, and she moved to parry without a second thought.
Suddenly, with a sharp crack, Dao Lord Wuchen thrust a hand out, plunging it directly into her cave abyss!
Inside the cave abyss, Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing suddenly heard an earth-shattering boom. They saw an enormous hand reach from afar, penetrating deep into the Taiying cave abyss and grabbing into the gelatinous matter, scooping the two of them out!
"This bastard Wuchen's combat prowess is terrifyingly high!" That was the shared thought of Xiuhuixian, Xu Ying, and the others.
Dao Lord Wuchen scooped out Xu Ying, and with a light flick of his palm, the two were flung outward, straight toward Xiuhuixian's incoming attacks.
Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing hurriedly sped forward to keep well clear of them. Suddenly, the starry sky warped as yet another Dao Lord made a move, attempting to seize them.
Right then, Dao Lord Wuchen's giant hammer hurtled over, shattering the distorted starry sky as he sneered, "Gu Daochan, you've also come to snatch my cultivation method?"
Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing accelerated their pace, fleeing non-stop as they drew closer to the other shore. However, the surrounding geography was drastically different, bearing no resemblance to any place he knew.
Behind them, Dao Lord Wuchen battled Dao Lords and True Kings one after another, shaking the heavens and tearing the earth.
At that moment, the Zhuxian broken sword flew out of Xu Ying's Martial Dao cave abyss, piercing through the void!
"Grandpa Sword!"
Xu Ying hurriedly gave chase. Seeing this, Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing hastily kept up. They saw the Zhuxian broken sword fly faster and faster, cave abysses manifesting around it one after another, transforming it into a streak of emerald-green chill that left even Xu Ying and Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing far behind.
At the Chaos Sea ferry, an emerald rock multi-decked vessel glided slowly into the harbor. Zhangsun Shenghai stood at the prow, suddenly displaying a look of surprise:
"Master's murderous aura!" he exclaimed in astonishment.
Chapter 767