Zhangsun Shenghai did not return immediately to She'an Palace in Daoji Heaven, but steered his ship directly toward the place where Daoist Tongtian had fallen.
Not many knew that Daoist Tongtian had perished. Dao Master Hua's ambush on Daoist Tongtian back then was hardly an honorable deed.
When Grand Dao Lord Taiyi led the multitude to besiege Emperor Haotian and execute him, no one claimed Grand Dao Lord Taiyi had done wrong.
For Emperor Haotian had wanted to leave the other shore and return to the Three Realms with the other shore's cultivation techniques, violating the rules of the other shore.
Yet Dao Master Hua's sneak attack on Daoist Tongtian was a far uglier affair for the other shore.
After all, although Daoist Tongtian was also from the Three Realms, he had never shown any inclination to return there. Dao Master Hua making a direct move smacked of envying talent and ability.
Two-thirds of the Immortals on the other shore hailed from other universes. If they learned how Dao Master Hua had dealt with Daoist Tongtian, they would inevitably feel the sorrow of the fox mourning the hare.
Therefore, Dao Master Hua himself had actively suppressed the news, preventing leaks to keep his own reputation from being tarnished.
That Zhangsun Shenghai had managed to obtain Daoist Tongtian's inheritance was also a stroke of fortune; taking Tongtian as his master had been the turning point of his life.
From Daoist Tongtian, he learned the Dao of Slaughter and discovered that other Daos existed in this world that could stand shoulder to shoulder with it.
He had thus searched everywhere for cultivation methods of these Daos, putting bitter effort into nine Daos, and had even apprenticed himself under Taiyi.
"Deserving of ten thousand deaths..."
Xu Ying frowned slightly. The Dao of Slaughter here had still not fully recovered; it was still lacking that final measure of heat.
Having sacrificed so many Immortals, True Kings, and Dao Lords, the Dao of Slaughter had become exceptionally vibrant, yet it remained just a hair shy of a true revival.
Through observing this battle, Xu Ying's Dao of Slaughter had also advanced to the Dao scenery level, but it still lacked a bit to attain the Dao and become a Supreme.
Just then, amid the forest of stone peaks, a gleam of sword light flashed. A broken sword flew in from who knew where—it was precisely the Zhuxian broken sword. Its slaughter aura was even fiercer than before; who knew what it had experienced during this time.
"With just one cultivation technique, you sought to ruin the lives of so many masters of our other shore and throw the other shore into chaos! If you are allowed to live, who knows how many more powerhouses on the other shore will be harmed by you..."
Dao Lord Wuchen panted heavily. Wounds burst open all over his body, and his towering frame was hunched. His injuries were too severe, an arrow at the end of its flight, yet his momentum remained astonishingly formidable.
He raised a hand, and a tattered colossal hammer flew toward him, wobbling and unstable in its flight.
This Dao-attaining treasure of his had also suffered horrific damage in the fierce combat just now and the eruption of the Dao of Slaughter, yet his killing intent was still vast and thick.
Xu Ying spurred the Zhuxian broken sword and strode toward him.
Dao Lord Wuchen wore a vicious expression. Blood steamed from the hundreds of wounds across his body, making him resemble an ancient god shrouded in red bloody mist.
"Selecting experts from the myriad universes to enter the other shore was a mistake to begin with. These people have no loyalty to the other shore."
He panted with ragged gasps, striding toward Xu Ying, before suddenly leaping into the air, leaning back, and pouring every scrap of his remaining strength into swinging the colossal hammer down upon Xu Ying!
"Cleansing the foul air of the other shore begins with slaughtering this fiend!"
The damaged Dao within his body roared, and the residual Great Daos harbored within the colossal hammer erupted with bright Dao light, pouring forth its remaining might almost like burning!
At the same time, Xu Ying's killing intent rose to the peak. It carried the bearing that if Heaven and Earth were unjust, he would slaughter the ten thousand Daos, annihilate the universe, reopen Heaven and Earth, and re-establish earth, water, fire, and wind!
"What the Dao of Slaughter lacks, I shall supply!"
The Zhuxian broken sword clashed with the colossal hammer in midair. At this instant, the Dao of Slaughter suddenly became extraordinarily potent and vibrant, as though all the killing aura in this place had converged upon this single strike.
Dao Lord Wuchen's attack was still immensely powerful; with the Saint Clan physique combined with immortal Dao power, he could still crush Xu Ying to death in a single strike!
Yet that incomparably bright sword light cut through the fissures in the battered hammer, passing through the wounds in the Dao to slice open its principle texture structure!
He sensed the Great Dao structure inside the colossal hammer suddenly disintegrate into fragments, decomposing into the tiniest particles!
Before his Dao power could even detonate, the Great Dao began to collapse!
This sword strike of Xu Ying's was not Executing Immortals, but Executing the Dao!
Executing the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth!
Faster than words could tell, the instant hammer and sword collided, the colossal hammer exploded into powder, dispersing across Heaven and Earth!
*Chhh—!*
The sword light severed Dao Lord Wuchen's hands gripping the hammer haft, sending his fingers flying one by one, disintegrating in midair. The skin on both his arms cracked under the fierce killing aura, his flesh evaporating into red vapor, and then the sword light pierced through the center of Dao Lord Wuchen's brows, shooting out from the back of his head!
Xu Ying came to a halt. The killing aura in this fallen land reached its boiling crescendo at this very moment. Dao Lord Wuchen's corpse fell downward, as though becoming the final sacrificial offering to the killing aura permeating Heaven and Earth!
Carrying that vast, resolute killing aura, the Zhuxian Sword soared into the sky, forming an incomparably radiant beam of sword Qi that pierced beyond the heavens, churning the starry expanse!
As the Dao in Daoist Tongtian's fallen land revived, Xu Ying instantly felt the Dao of Slaughter he cultivated begin its Dao attainment at this moment!
To cultivate the Grand Dao of Slaughter to the Supreme realm in such a short time was truly godspeed!
Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing was still comprehending the Xuanhuang Dao Realm Scripture and had not awoken; there was no one to share Xu Ying's achievement of Dao attainment. Fortunately, the Grand Dao of Slaughter here was waking in full, and as Xu Ying's essence, energy, and spirit roamed with the Dao, his delight only deepened!
The Zhuxian broken sword also roamed amidst the reviving Dao of Slaughter. Radiant light welled continuously from its broken portions, surprisingly seizing this opportunity to restore its blade!
With the revival of the Dao of Slaughter, its missing Daos were mended as well.
Not only that, the Zhuxian Sword's might climbed steadily—one could even say skyrocketed!
Back then, when Sword Master Tongtian forged it, he was only in the Wondrous Realm of Great Luo. When the sword master departed the Three Realms, he left it behind in Biyou Palace; the Zhuxian Sword had remained a Wondrous Realm treasure, unable to advance.
It had even been broken by Qingxuan, the Holy Venerable, and others.
Though its sharpness was peerless, the sharpest sword in the world, in terms of sheer power it had fallen somewhat behind, inferior even to Master Bell.
After Master Bell acquired the folds formed by the Chaos Sea's bell toll, its might surpassed the sword's, as did its cultivation, with a trend of growing ever stronger.
Yet now, along with the revival of the Grand Dao of Slaughter, the Zhuxian Sword's power surged madly! Its might quickly surpassed Master Bell's, rising to another plane, as if undergoing a complete metamorphosis!
Right at that moment, the heavens suddenly lit up with brilliance. A cherry-blossom-hued light illuminated the starry sky, and an indescribable aura rushed over them.
The various Daos within Xu Ying's body suddenly fell silent—Taiyi, Chaos, Primordial Beginnings, Reincarnation, Wuji, Karma—as though they had lost all Dao power, turned into dead wood, motionless!
His divine sense and magic power both turned completely like dead ashes.
Even Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing, who had been in the midst of comprehending the Dao, was pulled straight out of his enlightened state, alarmed and bewildered.
With the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth no longer present, how could one comprehend the Dao?
"Dao Ancestor Xu, what is going on?" Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing asked.
Xu Ying looked up at the cherry-blossom-colored light and said, "A Dao Master has made a move."
"A Dao Master has made a move?"
"Why would a Dao Master make a move against us? How could figures of that stature ever deign to notice us?" Qingxuan the Good-for-Nothing blurted out.
To a Master of the Grand Dao, anyone else—even a Dao Lord or Grand Dao Lord—was an ant not worth a glance.
And Xu Ying and his companion were ants among ants, not worth bothering with.
Such beings rarely took the initiative to strike against ants; at most, when they made a move, they might casually squash a few or a few dozen ants as collateral damage.
The cherry-blossom light arrived with immense speed, and its destination was clearly this peculiar land where Xu Ying and his companion stood.
Seeing this, Xu Ying could not help feeling apprehensive. "Could it be that because I wrote the Xuanhuang Dao Realm Scripture here and set up a scheme to sacrifice dozens of Immortals, True Kings, and Dao Lords, a Dao Master of the other shore noticed and has come to kill me to vent their fury?"
Under the threat of that cherry-blossom light, the Grand Dao of Slaughter grew increasingly intense, nearly boiling over.
In the sky, a divine axe appeared, spinning as it plunged toward the fallen land.
Wherever the axe light reached, all Daos fell silent, devoid of the slightest power. Even the Grand Dao of Slaughter subsided beneath the axe light, powerless to contend against it.
Seeing this, Xu Ying knew that this axe was definitely not aimed at him, for killing him would never warrant using a treasure of such terrifying power.
Of course, killing him could just be incidental.
Facing this axe, one could only feel despair, because it was incomprehensible—one could not comprehend what Dao methods were contained within the axe light at all, nor did one know how to dodge or break through the suppression.
Facing this axe, there was nothing to do but bare one's neck to the blade and wait for death.
Beneath the pressure of that divine axe, stone peaks and sword forests began to fissure and crumble into rock. These stone mountains and sword forests had remained completely undamaged even during the clashes between Dao Lord Wuchen and the others.
Yet the divine axe had merely flown in from afar, not even having arrived, and had already destroyed these stone mountains and sword forests!
Yet the Zhuxian Sword remained defiant. It still vibrated strenuously, its blade humming, as if trying to break through the divine axe's suppression and soar up to strike at the axe in the sky!
It possessed indignation, killing intent, and the resolve to dare confront tyranny and injustice!
Yet the disparity was too vast. It could not take flight at all, much less contend against the divine axe descending from the heavens.
The only thing within Xu Ying that was not suppressed was his Martial Dao. He let out a furious roar at once, attempting to summon the big bell. Even if he was powerless, he had to make a stand!
Lifting the big bell, he leaped into the air, meeting the descending axe light head-on.
His Martial Dao had already incorporated over two hundred kinds of Daos; it was by no means weak!
Yet his figure leaping up to meet the divine axe seemed so terribly frail.
At the very moment he leaped, he saw a slender figure emerge from the collapsing stone mountains and sword forests, carrying an archaic and venerable air, completely distinct from the burly, imposing physiques of the other shore's Saint Clan.
The man seemed like an ancient figure stepping out of a scroll painting, clad in long robes of cyan, lean yet hale, his long beard reaching down to his chest.
By comparison, the Saint Clan of the other shore was far too massive. The branching patterns of principle textures gave them the physique of ancient gods, often sprouting numerous heads, arms, wings, joints, and other bizarre appendages.
Yet this cyan-robed elder suited Xu Ying's aesthetic much better.
His hand lightly grasped the Zhuxian Sword. The sword light was like a pool of clear water, reflecting the Dao heart without a single ripple.
His form soared into the heavens, quickly passing by Xu Ying. Xu Ying watched in astonishment as he carried the Zhuxian Sword into the high skies, followed closely by the boiling Dao of Slaughter!
Just moments ago, this Great Dao had been suppressed by the aura radiating from that divine axe, but now it was roaring and exulting, even stirring the killing intent in Xu Ying's heart and activating the Dao of Slaughter he cultivated! Xu Ying's slaughter cave abyss revived and circulated, turning exceptionally lively!
"Sword Master Tongtian... No, Daoist Tongtian!"
Xu Ying held the big bell in his hand and looked up, only to see the lean Daoist's sleeves fluttering in the wind, the Zhuxian Sword in his grip like the brightest light in the world as it met the cherry-blossom divine axe!
The instant axe light collided with sword light, the blinding radiance forced tears from Xu Ying's eyes, and he hastily closed them.
The big bell clanged loudly, blocking the shattering fragments of axe light and sword light, spinning as it was knocked downward.
When Xu Ying opened his eyes again, he saw Daoist Tongtian appearing to fight an invisible enemy in the void. That enemy wielded the divine axe with dizzying mastery, yet the sword light remained calm and plain, unfailingly warding off every attack from the divine axe.
"Dao Master Hua, if your true body does not arrive in person, you can no longer do anything to me!" Dao Master Tongtian thrust his sword out, and in the next moment, the cherry-blossom divine axe was actually pierced through by the sword light.
Damaged, the divine axe slashed backward abruptly, cleaving open space and disappearing into a rift in space-time.
"Now, I too am a Dao Master. I return three sword strikes to you!" Gripping his sword, Dao Master Tongtian thrust three consecutive times—swish, swish, swish—stabbing into the closing space-time rift.
Chapter 770