The two worlds collided with a deafening crash. The colorful radiance and golden light cloaking the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World dispersed instantly, laying bare its true nature as a pale-green grotto-heaven. A pale-green world was generally unworthy of being called a grotto-heaven, qualifying only as a blessed land.
This sudden change stunned the Mirage Demon clan and sent ripples through the aloft immortal wills. In Immortal Heaven, another grotto-heaven glowing with colorful radiance and golden light appeared, racing at full speed toward a battlefield where slaughter had raged for ages.
On that battlefield, one of Yanshi's grotto-heavens had been fighting one against seven, battering five of its adversaries—one gold, one silver, and three blue—until their brilliance dimmed. Now that an ally had abruptly joined the fray, panic swept through the enemy ranks. A deep-blue grotto-heaven actually broke away from the fight and took to flight. Its retreat meant entirely abandoning all its connected lands and warriors.
Both the Wise King of the Left and the Little State Preceptor were appalled, yet they had no cards left to play. Their uncommitted grotto-heavens were all heavily damaged and undergoing urgent repairs; even if deployed, they would be no match for Yanshi's long-rested, primed grotto-heaven.
In a flash, the Wise King of the Left's will descended, snapping at the pure-white-haired Mirage Demon, "You are given thirty breaths to repel the enemy, then rush to reinforce the others!"
Immediately after, all the Northern Liao grotto-heavens surrounding Wei Yuan wheeled around and flew toward the distant battlefield.
Undercurrents surged within Immortal Heaven as the immortals intervened directly. The Wise King of the Left and the Little State Preceptor both let out furious roars, having realized that Yanshi had employed time arts. Nothing showed within Immortal Heaven, but on a certain battlefield, the flow of time suddenly accelerated—a single day outside was already several years within.
Unaware of everything unfolding in Immortal Heaven, Wei Yuan remained fully focused on the swelling green patch across the firmament. Endless seawater began to surge, coalescing into a watery curtain that swept toward the green patch in the sky, completely defying common sense.
Through his divine sense scattered across that region, Wei Yuan clearly perceived the transformation of heaven and earth: up and down inverted, gravity warped, and the two realms were connecting into one as their Great Daos merged at the seam.
Viewed from a distance, that stretch of heaven and earth was thoroughly distorted. Yet standing there within ordinary human sight, the world still felt level, save for the waves upon the sea growing somewhat larger.
Inside the Forest of Stars, a rustic little axe hovered before the pure-white-haired Mirage Demon. Beside her, a young Mirage Demon asked, "Great-grandmother, why are we still using only eighty sub-arrays? The other side is just bait. Shouldn't we activate all one hundred and twenty and cleave them to pieces with one strike?"
The white-haired Mirage Demon replied, "What seems false is real, and what seems real is false. What if they are the true main force? Once I bring this axe down, there will be no turning back."
"How could that be?"
"The opposing immortal possesses formidable methods. If he could disguise pale green as colorful gold, why couldn't he disguise colorful gold as pale green?"
By now, the union between the two worlds had entered its final moments, and the patch of light had spread across more than half the vault of heaven. Looking up at that looming shadow like an overturned world, many Mirage Demons turned pale. One suddenly remarked, "Could a pale-green grotto-heaven really be this vast?!"
Before the words faded, the heavens parted like a theatrical curtain, and an endless deluge crashed down from the sky!
The deafening roar drowned out everything; not a shred of other sound could be heard.
Having witnessed countless cataclysms, the white-haired Mirage Demon remained unfazed and hurled the small axe from her hand.
An instant later, the torrential water descended, swallowing the entire peak!
Within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, the sea level actually sank a notch. The sheer size of the enemy world caught Wei Yuan greatly by surprise.
Then the sea extending into the sky abruptly split open, and a thousand-zhang axe carrying boundless might chopped straight down overhead!
If this blow landed, it would cleave even Central City straight down the middle!
Wei Yuan was horrified. Experiencing the offensive arts of immortals firsthand for the first time, he never imagined it could be so terrifying. With no time to think, he flicked his wrist and hurled the Xuanhuang Bell. Across the land, the radiance of all two hundred and fifty-six arrays dimmed at once.
The Xuanhuang Bell grew as it soared, yet when it brushed past the Heaven-Cleaving Axe, it was merely several dozen zhang across, only deflecting the axe slightly. Wei Yuan's heart sank into icy dread.
Seeing the Heaven-Cleaving Axe completely unstoppable, despair welled in the hearts of all living beings in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, each sensation echoing directly into Wei Yuan's mind.
If this axe struck, more than half the inhabitants of Central City would perish, and the higher one's cultivation, the faster they would die.
Yet whenever life and death hung by a thread, Wei Yuan always felt as though he became another person. A shiver welled from the deepest recesses of his body and spread across his entire frame. In this moment, there was no life, no death, no fear—nothing at all.
Boundless brilliance erupted from Wei Yuan. Gathering the strength of the entire world into himself, he transformed into a blazing meteor and slammed violently into the Heaven-Cleaving Axe!
A soundless shockwave rippled far into the distance. Waves at sea rose a hundred zhang high, and every living being collapsed in agony, writhing on the ground. This time causality inverted: the weak coughed blood from their mouths and noses, falling helpless.
The meteor split in two, then fused back together. The Heaven-Cleaving Axe lost seventy percent of its luster in an instant, leaving only a hazy phantom falling toward a corner of Central City.
Beams of light of varying sizes rose from Central City as a host of cultivators led by Han Li and Jun Mozhi moved to resist. Yet the Heaven-Cleaving Axe was forged from the power of a grotto-heaven, something far beyond the reach of mere Dharma Idols.
Though countless Dao arts converged into a raging torrent, they reduced the axe's might by only another ten percent. In the end, it cleaved into Central City, gouging a chasm ten-odd zhang wide and a hundred zhang deep across the earth! Every building within ten-odd zhang on either side was obliterated into dead ground. From this single strike alone, tens of thousands of mortals in Central City were killed or wounded.
By this point, Wei Yuan's form had expanded to a hundred zhang tall. A streak of blood abruptly appeared between his brows and extended downward, after which his body split open along the bloodline, nearly severed in two! Fortunately, a final thread of flesh and blood held him together.
Agony tore at Wei Yuan's mind, and his consciousness went nearly blank. Yet he wrapped his arms around his chest. Despite the intense repulsion along the wound, he forced his body back together bit by bit. Then, opening his bleeding mouth, he let out a savage roar that shook heaven and earth!
In that breath, all living beings above and below the heavens understood Wei Yuan's will: What does not kill me will only make me stronger!
His divine sense remained tied to a speck of distant golden light—the Xuanhuang Bell, on the verge of crossing the boundary into the enemy world. No longer calculating or weighing gains and losses, Wei Yuan pointed a finger, sending a torrent of a million strands of azure mortal luck surging into the bell.
Within the Star Forest Grotto-Heaven, the deluge continued to pour relentlessly, drenching the highest peak from directly above before sweeping out in all directions. Its terrifying force was hardly inferior to a world-ending flood.
The arrays atop the peak shone bright and steady, encasing the entire mountain. Countless Mirage Demons stared in stunned disbelief as the torrent rushed past the barrier.
The destruction such a flood would inflict upon a world was readily apparent. If the water continued to surge, the very nature of their grotto-heaven might be altered, potentially causing its grade to fall.
Before the demons could devise a countermeasure, a speck of golden light surfaced within the floodwaters. In the blink of an eye, it expanded into a ten-thousand-zhang bell standing between heaven and earth!
Every sentient being, regardless of location and across thousands of mountains and rivers, saw that colossal bell.
The giant bell shuddered, and heaven and earth warped. Most sentient beings lost consciousness before the tolling could even reach their ears.
Atop the isolated peak, countless ice-like fissures spread across the arrays' brilliance. Then, before the horrified gazes of the Mirage Demons, the barrier shattered with a roar!
The white-haired Mirage Demon's expression finally cracked, and she blurted out, "With power like this... he actually broke through?!"
As the deluge crashed down upon them, her hair grew frantically until it stretched a thousand zhang, coiling around the surrounding demons before vanishing on the spot.
The torrential waters thundered down, tearing the isolated peak to pieces.
The exchange between the two sides had taken only an instant. Wei Yuan sensed that the Xuanhuang Bell had activated, though he remained uncertain of its outcome. His divine sense throbbed with agony and his body felt utterly hollowed out, while the lingering force of the Heaven-Cleaving Axe continued to wreak havoc within him, refusing to be subdued.
With a thought from Wei Yuan, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World trembled as the two worlds began to pull apart. Under the pull of grotto-heaven power, the vast waters sent into the opposing world surged backward, immediately kicking up colossal waves across the sea.
Fortunately, Wei Yuan had planned ahead: not only had he elevated Central City, but he had also constructed seawalls beforehand. Several waves struck without inflicting serious damage upon the city, causing only a few thousand mortals to dissipate.
Yet the boundless deluge surging into the enemy's world and tearing back caused far greater devastation than the strike of the Heaven-Cleaving Axe. After the flood peak receded, hardly a blade of grass survived, and as the waters withdrew, no one knew how much debris had been swept along. Wei Yuan reckoned that virtually anything protruding from the ground had failed to escape.
Watching the columns of water pouring back into the sea from the vault above, Wei Yuan soon saw a bizarre assortment of things emerge: spirit plants, spirit beasts, houses, furniture, and... countless Mirage Demons!
Wei Yuan felt a jolt of alarm. A golden grotto-heaven was formidable indeed, capable of pressing an attack by riding the flood! He immediately issued orders for warriors to board ships. Fleet after fleet, bolstered by immortal plants, sailed out of the harbors, awaiting only the calming of the waves and the complete detachment of the two worlds to wage a fight to the death on the open sea!
As the two grotto-heavens began to separate, Wei Yuan watched the mountain of debris swept back by the deluge. He suddenly felt this approach was rather marvelous—extraordinarily efficient, stripping the earth three feet deep. If only the Mirage Demon army hadn't been swept along with it...
Yet Wei Yuan quickly noticed something amiss. Only a small fraction of the Mirage Demons could move freely; most were bobbing helplessly in the sea, seemingly unconscious. Moreover, both sides were decoupling, and within half an incense stick's time, they would separate entirely. Did these several hundred thousand Mirage Demons intend to stay in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World?
Just then, Maiden Yin-Yang appeared beside Wei Yuan, holding a piece of Phoenix blood moss toward his mouth. Wei Yuan was shocked. Judging by its size, it was fully half of what remained! To consume such a massive piece of immortal medicine—he couldn't bear to part with it. This was the prime ingredient for longevity pills!
Wei Yuan felt he could endure his injuries with a little patience; there was no need to squander such a precious medicine, and he adamantly refused to eat it.
Maiden Yin-Yang merely rubbed her hands together, reducing the Phoenix blood moss to powder before kindling a bright-red, gold-shot phoenix fire. Her eyes glowed, and her yin-yang twin qi bound Wei Yuan firmly in place. She then evenly smeared the phoenix fire across his wounds.
In terms of hierarchy, the lingering energy of the Heaven-Cleaving Axe was far inferior to ancient phoenix blood, and Wei Yuan's injuries rapidly mended. Yet now that the frenzy that emerged only in mortal peril had ebbed, though his body healed, his heart bled with sorrow.
The sole comfort was that his lifespan had increased by a dozen-odd years.
By now, the water columns in the sky had dispersed, and the two grotto-heavens had completely decoupled. Wei Yuan immediately maneuvered the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World into a retreat. Seven or eight blue and green grotto-heavens were already rushing over at full speed, bent on pinning this pale-green upstart in place.
Right at that moment, an imposing aura surged from the sea as a Scenery Command Mirage Demon soared out of the water. Startled, Wei Yuan hastily mobilized the power of heaven and earth to press her back down into the depths.
Chapter 802