Xu Ying immediately withdrew his Dao bodies and sped toward Daoshengzi's location.
Daoshengzi was indeed a Dao Lord among the Immortals, yet his cultivation and prowess were unimaginably terrifying. His Dao power was already diffusing into the starry sky, pulling galaxy after galaxy into his reincarnation!
Scattered across the cosmos were worlds of all sizes, home to hundreds of millions of living beings. The inhabitants found their worlds turning gossamer-thin, tumbling toward a halo of light.
They, too, seemed to stretch paper-thin, falling alongside them.
Once plunged into the halo, however, they discovered they had returned to normal.
Yet things were not entirely normal. As Xu Ying passed one of these worlds, he found everything in it horribly twisted—countless people were undergoing bizarre transformations.
From human form, they swiftly morphed into livestock. This metamorphosis was not a result of entering the cycle of reincarnation after death; rather, under the influence of the reincarnation Dao power, they were transformed straight from living humans into beasts! Meanwhile, birds, beasts, insects, fish, flowers, grass, trees, rocks, metals, and minerals were also mutating, altering their physical forms!
Birds landing on the ground became human yet continued pecking at worms. Beasts shed their skins yet walked upright.
Embryos formed within flowers, giving birth to infants. Trees cast off their branches to become wooden dragons. Even ores, stones, and crags turned into living creatures capable of leaping, walking, and speaking.
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than the entire world seemed to plummet at high speed, abruptly plunging into the next form of reincarnation.
The people who had turned into livestock suddenly hunched over as the skin on their backs split down both sides. Their flesh, blood, and bones shed their outer hides and crawled out, resembling malevolent ghosts.
The spirits and oddities born of rocks and trees also underwent a violent convulsion at this very moment, transforming into hideous, nightmarish apparitions that slaughtered and devoured one another!
A mountain range spanning several thousand li even shook violently, morphing into a dripping, blood-soaked draconic monstrosity that unleashed a murderous rampage, gorging on other lives!
That world plummeted once more, entering the third form of reincarnation.
This time, it became like an inferno. The earth convulsed violently, and subterranean vents erupted, spewing molten lava!
Then it fell further into the fourth form of reincarnation. The living beings of this world seemed to merge into a single entity; the entire world came alive, turning into a grotesque eye that opened its pupil and stared fixedly at the passing Xu Ying.
Xu Ying did not linger to watch. He pressed on toward Daoshengzi, but along the way, he witnessed world after world sinking and tumbling. Caught in reincarnation, every living soul was stripped of free will.
At the same time, the world where the Taiyi Dao Sect resided in the Jing Realm began to distort. Sect Master He Ying mobilized her cultivation and channeled her cave abyss to resist this dreadful reincarnation Dao power.
At once, numerous disciples and elders stepped forward—three to five hundred in total—and followed her out of the Taiyi Dao Sect.
Leading the assembly, Sect Master He Ying channeled her magic power and hoisted magical treasures, gathering as many people around the sect as possible and transporting them to safety within the Taiyi Dao Sect.
Yet Daoshengzi was a Dao Lord from the other shore after all; his cultivation was simply too staggering.
The primary continent of the Jing Realm was this realm of Jingtian, the supreme immortal world equivalent to the Heavenly Immortal Realm of the Three Realms.
Suddenly, the land of Jingtian shook violently as rumblings echoed from deep underground. Then rocks burst apart, and a pillar of reincarnation light several thousand li thick erupted from the earth, glowing with dazzling multi-hued radiance as it shot into the sky!
That light pillar, a Dao beam wrought from reincarnation Dao power, gradually curved across the heavens, arced downward, and formed a giant ring that slammed into the ground!
Within the influence of this ring, all living things—humans, livestock, beasts, fowl, fish, vegetation—and all inanimate things—water, fire, earth, wind, mountains, stones—fell under the sway of the reincarnation ring and were turned into rings of reincarnation.
"Rumble!"
Nearby, another brilliant, dazzling reincarnation ring tore up from the ground. Seeing this, despair gripped Sect Master He Ying's heart. Calling back the disciples and elders who still intended to rescue more people, she said, "The situation is beyond saving. We return!"
Everyone fell into somber silence.
Everyone in the Beixuan Dao Sect had already lost control of themselves. Struggling and warping within the reincarnation Dao power, they transformed into other creatures, ultimately merging with the immortal mountains to form an enormous, spinning mountain-body reincarnation ring in the air. Sect Master He Ying watched as countless magical treasures within that ring detonated one after another, dissolving into its loop.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she rushed back to the Taiyi Dao Sect, calling out, "The Taiyi Great Dao is not inferior to the Reincarnation Great Dao, but we cannot hold out for long! Everyone, transport the people we saved to the Reincarnation Dao Sect! There might still be hope there!"
The crowd took heart at her words. Elders of profound cultivation activated the Six Righteousness Circlet Moon, surrounding this bright moon-shaped magical treasure as six radiant halos rotated around it in every direction. Others hoisted immortal mountains crowded with the multitudes they had rescued.
Sect Master He Ying floated before the Taiyi Cave Abyss, channeling it to endlessly draw immortal spiritual qi and sustain the disciples' cultivation.
They flew through the air, only to see the earth of Jingtian quivering incessantly as one brilliant reincarnation halo after another burst from the ground, traced an arc across the sky, and plunged back into the earth. In the distance, holy grounds, major Dao sects, and great clans saw their mountain-protecting and sect-guarding treasures explode. Immortal mountains shattered, sweeping away countless people to form rings composed of rock and reincarnation Dao power suspended in midair.
Beyond the heavens, the stars had vanished, replaced by rings of every size.
At last, Sect Master He Ying led them to the Reincarnation Dao Sect.
The Reincarnation Dao Sect of the Jing Realm was Daoshengzi's lineage in this realm, cultivating the Reincarnation Great Dao, and their treasure was the Six Daos Treasure Wheel.
"It truly is safe here!" A smile touched Sect Master He Ying's face. Yet right at that moment, the Six Daos Treasure Wheel abruptly detonated, disintegrating along with the reincarnation cave abyss and falling into reincarnation!
Immediately afterward, the Sect Master of the Reincarnation Dao Sect lost control of his own Dao. His physical body distorted, stretched, and was sucked into the sky!
The disciples and elders of the sect were equally powerless against this overwhelming force. They manifested their Primordial Spirits, attempting to flee in spirit form.
Yet their Primordial Spirits tumbled into reincarnation as well, helpless to resist!
In an instant, the Reincarnation Dao Sect vanished before their eyes, replaced by reincarnation rings forged of flesh, blood, mountain debris, and the Reincarnation Great Dao.
Sect Master He Ying struggled with all her might to escape the reincarnation Dao power, yet she was bound fast, unable to break free.
"Keep a speck of true spirit untarnished!" she shouted toward the people and disciples. "No matter how many lifetimes pass, no matter what shape you take, keep a speck of—!"
The immortal mountains, the Taiyi Cave Abyss, and the magical treasures together transformed into a reincarnation ring.
Sect Master He Ying was, after all, an existence of the Immortal realm. Though she had not cultivated the true method, her realm was a solid Immortal realm, allowing her to hold out longer than the others.
She suddenly recalled Xu Ying's repeated hints, and a pang of regret seized her heart.
*If only I had been a little bolder, trusted him a little more, and sought him out to learn his Dao methods, could I have saved them? Could I have saved myself?*
"Boom!"
Her physical body and Primordial Spirit were invaded by the reincarnation Dao arts, the booming Dao sounds drowning her consciousness.
"My name is He Ying, my name is He Ying, my name is He Ying..."
She chanted inwardly, her true spirit struggling within reincarnation, waiting for the moment to leap out of the cycle.
If she could still retain her sense of self, she could make a comeback.
At the same time, Xu Ying's strides grew steady. All the surrounding stars and cosmic void fell under the reign of the reincarnation Dao power, collapsing into halos of reincarnation.
He could sense the various Great Daos of the Jing Realm universe tumbling into reincarnation—wind, rain, thunder, lightning; water, wood, earth, fire; Taiyin and Taiyang; the Eight Trigrams and Nine Palaces; the Vermilion Bird, Azure Dragon, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger; the three Daos of Soul, Spirit, and Vigor; the Primordial Spirit Great Dao—all were subjugated into parts of the Reincarnation Great Dao.
Even the higher Daos of this universe—the Five Elements, Yin and Yang, Gods and Demons, the Five Tai, Xuanhuang, and Creation—were plunging toward the space of reincarnation, becoming parts of reincarnation, turning into reincarnations of time and space!
Had spacetime completely fallen into Daoshengzi's reincarnation, he would have become the sovereign of the Jing Realm's Great Dao. Yet he was not a Lord of the Great Dao and could not achieve this feat.
Though Xu Ying marveled at Daoshengzi's formidable might, he felt not the slightest panic. While the Jing Realm had already been hollowed out by the other shore, its resources greatly depleted, and its Great Dao of Heaven and Earth diminished from its prime, it was still a universe. Even for light to travel from one end to the other would take tens of thousands of billions of years!
With Daoshengzi's cultivation, it was impossible to master the Jing Realm entirely and turn it into his own Hongyuan.
However...
"I have a Hongyuan!" Xu Ying mobilized his Chaos Cave Abyss. In the Chaos Pond, the Hongyuan supported by the Chaos Lotus was like a cave abyss that gathered all the Great Daos of Heaven and Earth, blazing Dao power surging outward in an instant!
"Ah Ying, this karma is massive!" the big bell shouted. "You are drawing upon the Dao power of a Hongyuan. In the future, when this Hongyuan matures and evolves into a universe, you will have to repay this karma!"
Xu Ying continued forward, his cultivation aura swelling ever stronger.
"The greater the karma, the stronger the cultivation!" He seemed to stride through hundreds of millions of years, traveling from an ancient universe to the present, walking from the primordial chaos of unstable earth, water, wind, and fire into the future.
Yet whether past, present, or future, none could trap him. He passed through them as if through dreamlike illusions and bubbles, never pausing for a second.
By the time he stepped out of these reincarnations of spacetime, they seemed infected; their Dao structures shifted at dizzying speed! The principle scripts of these spacetime reincarnations were rapidly mutating into new Dao patterns!
Before long, he had completely converted these reincarnations of spacetime.
At once, various concepts of the Great Dao from the spacetime reincarnations flooded into his mind, especially the concepts of the Reincarnation Great Dao, which were profoundly mysterious.
The technique Daoshengzi cultivated was the *Scripture of Passing a Thousand Tribulations to Attain Reincarnation*. Xu Ying had once learned this art from Mingman, but it was merely a fragmented text embedded with backdoors. As a result, his Reincarnation Great Dao had always remained incomplete, easily unified beneath Daos such as Taiyi and the Martial Dao.
Now, however, what Xu Ying gleaned from these reincarnations of spacetime was the genuine scripture, the true transmission!
Within it lay the insights Daoshengzi had gained over vast eons of comprehending the Reincarnation Great Dao across the Great Thousand Universes!
One could say that not even Daoshengzi's disciples or dao companion had learned as much as Xu Ying did at this moment.
Xu Ying's new Dao patterns acted like a terrifying source of contagion, spreading from these spacetime reincarnations to the other shining rings of reincarnation!
Controlling these cycles of reincarnation, Xu Ying vied with Daoshengzi for dominance over the Great Dao of the Jing Realm universe.
Behind him, more and more Dao reincarnations were altered, transforming into reincarnations governed by the new Dao patterns and falling under his control, bringing an influx of even deeper Dao realizations.
Xu Ying's comprehension of the Reincarnation Great Dao climbed higher and deeper.
This trend had already reached Jingtian, infecting ring after ring of reincarnation throughout the realm.
Sect Master He Ying suddenly awoke from reincarnation. Looking around, she saw immortal mountains floating in an orderly scatter across the air, forming an enormous ring.
Millions of mortals and disciples of the Taiyi Dao Sect stood upon these immortal mountains, gazing around in bewilderment.
They were still within a reincarnation ring, but the ring was no longer so perilous. Even the Taiyi Cave Abyss and the Six Righteousness Circlet Moon had been restored, though their Dao structures had undergone a fundamental change that left her utterly baffled.
*Our lives and deaths are entirely at the whim of the powerhouses from the other shore. This cannot go on,* she thought to herself.
Meanwhile, Xu Ying arrived at the edge of the universe. Beneath the shala tree stood Daoshengzi.
The Jing Realm universe seemed split in two, turning into two peerlessly bright halos hanging behind the two figures, silent and mysterious.
A look of astonishment crossed Daoshengzi's face, and he probed, "Xu Ying, what you used—are those the spirit runes of the Spirit Realm universe? The invasion of reincarnation was actually stopped by them!"
"You are mistaken. These are new Dao patterns," Xu Ying said leisurely. The new Dao patterns were synthesized from the strengths of various Dao patterns, including spirit runes, principle scripts, and primordial runes.
Short of being a Dao Master, all would be invaded by them.
Daoshengzi shook his head. "Xu Ying, you are too confident. The depth of Dao attainment does not depend on how powerful one's Dao patterns are. Dao attainment is Dao attainment. My Dao attainment surpasses yours; even if your new Dao patterns invade, I will soon learn your new Dao patterns and make them my own."
No sooner had his voice fallen than the new Dao patterns that had just invaded his Reincarnation Great Dao suddenly multiplied once more.
Only this time, they were no longer controlled by Xu Ying, but by Daoshengzi.
Xu Ying's expression changed instantly. He had seized the other's Reincarnation Great Dao, yet the other could actually seize his new Dao patterns as well!
*I cannot give him the chance to completely convert them!* Without a second thought, Xu Ying immediately mobilized the Hongyuan and activated the Firmament of Divine Powers. In an instant, countless phantoms of Xu Ying flickered, tens of thousands of divine powers merging into one as he blasted them toward Daoshengzi!
Daoshengzi laughed heartily. "Xu Ying, your mastery of reincarnation is still lacking—to think you would resort to divine powers of the Taiyi Great Dao rather than reincarnation divine powers! Let me teach you how to channel the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth in the Jing Realm and turn it into a reincarnation divine power!"
Chapter 780