Dao Master Taiyi lunged toward Dao Lord Jiu Zeng, but his fingers caught only a cloud of bloody mist. Grief struck him to the core. He turned in haste toward Tianchengzi and Sacred King Xuannü, only to see the two standing in the chilling yin wind, bowing deeply to him.
"Fellow Daoists…"
Sacred King Xuannü said, "If it could move you to change your mind, I would gladly abandon my obsession, just like Jiu Zeng."
With those words, blood suddenly gushed from her seven orifices. Her flesh ran red with blood as well, and she melted straight into a pool of gore.
Dao Master Taiyi felt a tearing agony in his Dao heart. Staring at Tianchengzi, who still stood amidst the yin wind, he rasped, "Fellow Daoist, you could have escaped…"
"I cannot outrun the Great Dao of Cause and Effect."
Tianchengzi bowed to bid him farewell. "Now I can only appear before you as a wisp of a lingering thought. Beware Dao Master Lin. Turn back. Do not venture any further forward."
He, too, dissolved into a pool of bloody water, his obsession scattering into nothingness.
Dao Master Taiyi froze where he stood. The yin wind subsided, the murky haze gradually parting until clarity returned and the sky stretched out in pure azure.
He understood that the bloodstains from moments ago were merely the lingering obsessions of his disciple, Tianchengzi, and Sacred King Xuannü, who had ridden their Dao blood here just to urge him to halt and turn back.
An old man's tears traced down the corners of Taiyi's eyes. He recalled what he had encountered that day, as well as that mysterious being named Daoji, who had also told him not to enter the other shore and urged him to follow him to the Dao Alliance instead.
In the depths of his spirit, he had also felt an ominous premonition.
And yet…
"This is the other shore!" he growled low in his throat. "This is the land that gave birth to me and raised me!"
He strode forward.
"I have the certainty to turn the tide! I have the strength to stop all of this! The other shore can become better, far better! The people of the other shore need not struggle against calamitous destiny or be swallowed by nirvanic extinction! They need not live in terror, but in peace, joy, and plenty!"
A fierce, churning karmic fire raged within his heart, scorching his lungs and chest. *Yes, they should have died long ago. One hundred and twenty million years ago, they should have died. What Tianchengzi failed to accomplish back then, what I wished to do but could not—it is time to see it through!*
*I cannot alter the past as Xu Ying did, but I can seize the future! I can grant a future to the other shore, a future to the people of the other shore!*
Dao Master Taiyi arrived at Daoji Heaven. It was supposed to house twenty-six Dao Masters alongside countless Immortals, True Kings, Dao Lords, and Grand Dao Lords.
They had numerous disciples who frequently visited one another.
Yet at this moment, for reasons unknown, Daoji Heaven was completely deserted. It was utterly empty, as though everyone had vanished into thin air.
Dao Master Taiyi walked at an unhurried pace toward his She'an Palace. As a Dao Master, he had always treated others as equals. The other twenty-five Dao Masters were like him, each maintaining their own bodhimanda on the highest tier of Daoji Heaven, holding status comparable to Dao Masters Hua, Lin, and Luo.
At present, those bodhimandas were completely deserted as well.
Dao Master Taiyi paid them no heed and arrived at She'an Palace, which was likewise devoid of a single soul.
He sat down in silence. The light in his eyes slowly dimmed, concealed behind his lowered eyelids, yet a faint glint of sharp intent flashed through the slit of his lashes.
Suddenly, the surrounding heavens and earth collapsed with a thunderous roar! Twenty innate numinous treasures descended from every direction, slamming together onto Yaoguang Hall of She'an Palace!
Twenty Dao Masters emerged, their faces flushed with agitation as they watched the radiance of the Great Dao erupt from those innate numinous treasures!
The Dao light was blindingly brilliant. In an instant, it vaporized She'an Palace, directly reducing everything to fragments of Dao and annihilating the grounds entirely!
In this instant, Daoji Heaven seemed to undergo the creation of heaven and earth. The Dao light blazed as though hundreds of millions of suns had burst at once. The terrifying tremors of the Great Dao even shook the natural Great Dao of the other shore itself!
The stars and sun lost their color in that breath, and the cosmic boundaries of the entire other shore shuddered violently.
This was an all-out strike long plotted and prepared by the twenty Dao Masters, meant to tear Dao Master Taiyi into ten thousand pieces!
When the Dao light receded, the innate numinous treasures hung suspended in the air. Thick bands of spiritual radiance danced around them.
The spiritual radiance took the shape of Dao itself. The power of the Dao was sealed within the treasures, granting them supreme might comparable to, or even surpassing, that of a Dao Master!
Dao Masters such as Shi Lan and Qixian sensed powerful counter-shocks rippling from the treasures they wielded. Frowning, they looked toward the center encircled by the treasures.
There, a tall old man sat motionless, withered yet unbroken. The Taiyi Great Dao gleamed with resplendent colors, three thousand Great Daos united in pristine harmony. Though twenty innate numinous treasures had crashed into the Taiyi Great Dao and fractured the halo encircling him, the tall old man had merely been shaken until blood trickled from the corners of his mouth, staining his white robes crimson.
The twenty Dao Masters were astonished. "He didn't die even from that?"
Dao Masters such as Qixian and Lingyan had attained their standing by cultivating only a single Great Dao and harvesting the Daos of fifty-odd universes.
The Daos they cultivated were merely parts of the Taiyi Great Dao.
Dao Master Taiyi's Dao power had long since surpassed theirs!
Even if his realm lagged slightly behind them, they had not reached the mid-stage of the Dao Master realm either. Even when brandishing peerlessly potent innate numinous treasures, they had failed to slay the old man.
Both shocked and enraged, Dao Master Shi Lan raised her shrill, piercing voice: "Taiyi, you truly say one thing and do another! You are nothing but a sanctimonious hypocrite! You claimed time and again that you wouldn't harvest the myriad universes, yet what are you doing now? Without harvesting them, how could you possibly be this strong?"
Venerable Master Jiuyou sneered sinisterly, "Taiyi was always a hypocrite. He only preached the Dao without harvesting, yet what he imparted was deliberately flawed. That was utter deceit from the very start. If he could have kept up the pretense for a lifetime, I might have respected him a little. Clearly, he couldn't even manage that. What a laughingstock."
Dao Master Lingqin sneered, "He wanted to purge Hua, Lin, and Luo only to take their place, yet he insisted on painting a golden face for himself and claiming the moral high ground."
Dao Master Linghua yelled, "He must have harvested the myriad universes, or he couldn't possibly be stronger than us! A hypocrite is a hypocrite!"
Just as the words left her mouth, Dao Master Taiyi rose to his feet beneath their suppression.
Shocked and infuriated, the twenty Dao Masters channeled their treasures in unison, pressing down on Taiyi with all their might!
Those twenty numinous treasures had been thoroughly refined by them, their power immense. Surging Dao power crashed down upon Dao Master Taiyi, continually shattering the radiant splendor of the Taiyi Great Dao, yet it reassembled just as swiftly.
The Taiyi Great Dao held self-sufficiency within one's own nature.
In its state of self-sufficiency, his Dao was nearly indestructible!
Beneath the innate numinous treasures they wielded, the Dao Masters felt as if an uncontainable beast were stretching its limbs. The tremors shook their bodies uncontrollably, rattling their own Great Daos alongside it!
Taiyi's Dao power was simply too boundless!
Never before had they imagined that, as fellow Dao Masters—with Taiyi having attained the Dao even later than they had—the gulf between them would be so vast!
When they had attained the Dao back then, Taiyi had been nothing more than an insignificant Immortal, completely beneath their notice!
Had they known the disparity was this immense, they would never have rebelled!
"You should have died long ago," Taiyi's voice rang out.
*Whoosh!*
Taiyi reached out and caught Dao Master Linghua's treasure, hurling it back at her with a casual flick of his arm.
Dao Master Linghua channeled the Azure Dragon Great Dao. Behind her, visions of over fifty universes surfaced as cosmic Dao power flooded in from those realms to fill her body. She raised her hands to meet the spinning Innate Yin-Yang Cauldron crashing toward her!
The moment her palms brushed against the three-legged cauldron's surface, Taiyi's palm had already stamped onto the cauldron wall. An irresistible force surged through, grinding the ten fingers of Dao Master Linghua to powder!
Next to shatter were her arms, her chest, her limbs, and her head!
She smeared across the Innate Yin-Yang Cauldron like a puddle of rotting mud!
The twin qi of yin and yang flew out from the cauldron, sweeping her physical body, primordial spirit, and Great Dao into the vessel all at once.
Seeing that she was about to be refined to death, Dao Master Linghua shrieked, "Taiyi, you cannot kill me! I am a Dao Master of the other shore! So long as the Great Dao of the other shore does not perish, I will never perish!"
"Then let the Great Dao of the other shore perish!"
Taiyi pointed a finger, striking the mangled flesh within the cauldron. Before the mass could be completely ground away, his Dao power traced the matching Great Dao across the cosmos, traversing the universe to forcibly erase the natural Great Dao that Dao Master Linghua had cultivated!
At that moment, everyone across the other shore who cultivated the Azure Dragon Great Dao felt their cultivated Dao snap repeatedly. The Dao began to wither and die, stripped of all power!
Not only that, but all the insights they had ever comprehended became completely useless!
Between heaven and earth, Dao ash fluttered and drifted down like snow.
"I should have killed all of you back at the Qionghua Island assembly!"
Taiyi's figure flickered, appearing beside Dao Master Lingqin. What met him was the terrifying might of the remaining nineteen innate numinous treasures!
Ignoring the treasures, he raised the Luotian Dao Tree and swept it down toward Dao Master Lingqin!
The nineteen innate numinous treasures pierced through his Taiyi Great Dao, their horrific force crashing into his flesh and inflicting grievous injuries.
Under normal circumstances, even a Dao Master suffering such severe Dao wounds could never recover immediately, let alone maintain their peak condition.
Yet the self-sufficiency of Taiyi's nature meant that every subordinate Great Dao under his command also remained completely self-sufficient. Even if damaged, they could swiftly mend themselves and return to perfection.
Thus, even taking the brunt of nineteen innate numinous treasures head-on, Taiyi quickly restored himself to his peak!
At the same time, the Luotian Dao Tree swept through Dao Master Lingqin, shattering her Five Tones Great Dao completely!
Dao Master Lingqin coughed up blood, though she had not yet perished. Taiyi closed the distance and pressed a finger against the center of her brow. The next instant, the Five Tones Great Dao across heaven and earth ruptured. Melody ceased to exist, and all Dao tones fell silent!
Between heaven and earth, the Dao snow drifted down, falling thicker and heavier.
"It is still not too late to get rid of you now!"
Dao Master Taiyi raised his hand and cleaved Dao Lord Moji's skull in two. With a wave of his sleeve, he shattered the Yin Fiend Great Dao Moji had cultivated.
With the Yin Fiend Great Dao broken, all yin gods, yin souls, and parts of the fiendish path began to fracture and disintegrate.
The Dao power between heaven and earth churned in chaos as Dao snow swirled in a frenzy.
"Once I have killed you, I will mend the heavens! Let us see how you revive then!"
His eyes burned red with slaughter. Barehanded, he intercepted the Myriad Manifestations Chart, executed a Luotian Seal, and struck Dao Master Qixian dead with a single palm, shattering the divine dao of the other shore's universe!
Immediately after, he lunged toward the Qiankun Sword. The blade pierced his chest, yet he roared with open jaws, shattering Dao Master Taiying's primordial spirit!
Beyond Daoji Heaven, Dao Master Lin Chuanting looked on with dark, unreadable eyes.
Lu Yiren stood attentively at his side, watching the battle as his gaze flickered. "Master, we can strike now! Rescuing these Dao Masters will subdue them and earn their loyalty to you!"
"Loyalty?"
Dao Master Lin chuckled softly. "If I needed their loyalty, why go to such trouble? Besides, even if you combined all their Dao power, it wouldn't equal a single Taiyi. What joy is there in subjugating them?"
Lu Yiren was utterly bewildered. If not to win their loyalty, what was Dao Master Lin after?
"It is best that every last one of them dies. No, one must be spared,"
Dao Master Lin smiled and said. "The surviving Dao Master will serve like a hound I keep, striving with all their might to proclaim the evils Taiyi committed—and my monumental achievement in turning the tide, slaying Taiyi, and rescuing the other shore from the brink of ruin."
In a matter of breaths, of the twenty Dao Masters, only Dao Master Shi Lan remained alive. Not daring to confront Taiyi, she fled in panic.
Right then, her vision spun, and she found herself standing beside Dao Master Lin.
Dao Master Lin wore a grim expression. Watching Dao Master Taiyi charge toward them, he barked, "Taiyi, look at what you are doing! You have plunged the other shore into calamity! For the sake of all living beings on the other shore, I challenge you!"
Chapter 887