Time for This to End

Manifesting a Dao domain was not actually complicated; at their core, those secret arts all adhered to a single rule. Use qi as flesh and soul as bone, allow one's own charm to form the spirit, and let the three fuse and engender one another. So long as a cultivator achieved this, they satisfied the conditions to break through to the Transcendent Realm. Xu Yuan was in precisely such a state. From the moment he awoke, he had already possessed the prerequisites to break through to the Transcendent Realm, but there remained a most crucial step in the breakthrough process—triggering a resonance with the Dao charm of heaven and earth. Relying solely on the Dao charm integrated within a cultivator's own body could hardly sustain the immense consumption of a Dao domain; hence, one had to borrow the power of heaven and earth's Dao charm. For ordinary cultivators, once qi, soul, and charm were fused, mobilizing the Dao charm of heaven and earth came naturally as water flowing into a channel. Yet Xu Yuan could not do so. Because the death Dao charm was unique—even more unique than the life Dao charm. Unlike Dao charms that lingered permanently in the mortal world, death Dao charm manifested in reality only when living beings died. If he wished to unfold his Domain of Life and Death, his feet had to tread upon the corpses of myriad living beings. The more lives perished, the more formidable his Dao domain became. In theory, the death Dao charm dispersed from the lives lost in the war across Zhenxi Prefectural City was already enough for him to condense the most complete Domain of Life and Death. Unfortunately, that brat Mu Nuo had snatched it all beforehand. Every deceased being had been incorporated into the creature's Domain of the Living and the Dead, directly resulting in not a shred of death Dao charm between heaven and earth remaining for Xu Yuan to harness. And Xu Yuan had never entertained the thought of confronting a Saint head-on with an Origin Realm body. That was utterly unrealistic, even if the opponent was a Saint devoid of Intent and Dao charm. Thus, only two choices had lain before him. First: unfold his Dao domain by relying on the Domain of the Living and the Dead. Continue the parasitic approach from before. As long as the Domain of the Living and the Dead remained unbroken, Xu Yuan's Domain of Life and Death would not disperse. That way, the clash would devolve into a battle of attrition. It was very safe, but Xu Yuan had abandoned it. While that choice was safe, it was safe only for him personally; he would have a hard time stopping Mu Nuo from slaughtering others. Furthermore, there existed a minuscule probability of an outcome that, should it occur, would lead to complete collapse. Unfolding the Domain of Life and Death by latching onto the Domain of the Living and the Dead essentially meant Mu Nuo was fighting himself. Conversely, the creature could also sense Xu Yuan's Dao charm of life and death. If Mu Nuo managed to comprehend it during the process, the battle would unravel in an instant. Therefore, Xu Yuan chose the second, relatively risky plan. Scheme against Mu Nuo and force the brat to dispel the Domain of the Living and the Dead, releasing the vast death energy condensed from the deceased humans and the insect tide. And now, he had succeeded. The Domain of Life and Death manifested in its complete form before Mu Nuo's eyes. A mighty river surged toward the end of the wilderness, like the twilight boundary of sunset, cleaving the world into starkly divided black and white. Bathed in the River of Life and Death, Mu Nuo looked up at the man—possessing only a lower body—suspended high in the sky, a hint of shock flickering in the brat's clear black pupils. Under his gaze, the dead man's upper body began to gradually coalesce, and a reverberating voice echoed from all directions: "I told you: with your death, I shall lay the foundation of my Dao domain." As the words fell, Mu Nuo saw Xu Yuan's eyes. They were eyes that struck instinctive dread into the living. The left eye gleamed with dazzling white radiance, while the right was a heart-stopping, pitch-black abyss. After a moment's silence, Mu Nuo examined his own body, slowly levitated up from the great river, and sighed: "This Dao charm of yours is truly troublesome. It can actually turn you temporarily into a corpse to evade lethal strikes. It seems once this is over, I will also need to learn a strand or two to keep in reserve." Xu Yuan looked levelly at the delicate youth rising into the air. "I don't think you will have the chance." Boundless saint origin coalesced around his form, and Mu Nuo's voice grew cold: "Xu Changtian, it is not your place to grant me opportunities." A smile tugged at the corner of Xu Yuan's lips. "Then you can tr—" Before he could finish, the brat turned and bolted. The escape light he transformed into was so fast it left countless afterimages in the air. "..." Xu Yuan. Frowning, Mu Nuo fled at breakneck speed. During the battle of Zhenxi Prefectural City, he had seen the Dao domains of the other Saints and had not cared much. But the Dao domain Xu Changtian unleashed stirred an instinctive sense of crisis within him. Though he did not believe he would lose inside this domain, there was truly no need to clash head-on within it over a fleeting impulse of pride. Having not yet mastered a Dao charm, he should play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses. The maximum diameter of any Dao domain was no more than a hundred zhang or so. He would first break out, nullifying Xu Changtian's advantage, before launching his counterattack. Amid these thoughts, Mu Nuo fled like lightning across an untold distance. In theory, with his speed, he should have already shot far past Zhenxi Prefectural City. Yet when he regained his bearings, he found himself still hovering over that same river. Seeing this, Mu Nuo formed a rough guess. His light came to an abrupt halt, and he looked back, sneering: "A disgusting teleportation art." Suspended high in the void, Xu Yuan replied noncommittally: "Done running? My Source Qi is limited, while your saint origin is virtually boundless. You can try a few more times. Exhaust my Source Qi, and you might survive." Standing against the pure white sky, Mu Nuo fell silent for a moment. He lowered his gaze to his own body, feeling the vitality draining away within him: "My life force is constantly being siphoned away by your domain. Continuing to flee is not a wise choice." Xu Yuan paused for an instant, then raised his hand slightly as a white halo began to coalesce in his palm: "I thought it would take you a while to notice. Though this bit of vitality shouldn't mean much to you." Life Dao charm: stripping away vitality. So long as a target remained within, their life origin would continuously be siphoned away by Xu Yuan. Though it could be guarded against, this newly born brat of a Saint clearly lacked the relevant arts and experience to counter it. Mu Nuo said no more. He suddenly raised an index finger, pointing it straight at Xu Yuan. The next moment, a beam of pure energy shot forth from his fingertip! Xu Yuan neither dodged nor deflected, allowing the beam to pierce clean through his torso as blood welled forth. Yet in the next instant, with a surge from the white halo in Xu Yuan's palm, the wound across his abdomen rapidly closed and healed. The Domain of Life and Death was unfamiliar to Xu Yuan as well; he needed time to explore its applications. The strike just now had allowed Xu Yuan to gauge the upper limit of the healing power within the domain—a recovery speed on par with an aberrant ghost's, or perhaps even greater. Having confirmed this, Xu Yuan's gaze toward Mu Nuo took on a hint of hesitation. Now that his Dao domain had just formed, using Mu Nuo—a Saint possessing raw cultivation but lacking depth—to test its uses and upper limits was undeniably ideal. Thinking of this, Xu Yuan suddenly changed his mind and cast the thought aside. He could not afford delay; he needed to end this quickly. The White Emperor's stance remained uncertain, and the sects still had an uncommitted Saint who had yet to appear. He had to wrap this up swiftly. Just as the thought crossed his mind, Xu Yuan, positioned outside the western city wall, suddenly sensed an eerie fluctuation coming from the direction of Zhenxi Prefectural City. Subconsciously looking back, through the boundary of his Domain of Life and Death, he saw an unfamiliar woman appear in the sky above the prefectural city. She was clad in an azure Liuxian dress, gentle and refined, with brows like flowing water and skin surpassing jade. Seeming to sense Xu Yuan's gaze, the woman looked across the distance and pressed her lips into a faint smile toward him. The watery gentleness in her features gave him a pang of deja vu, but Xu Yuan had no time to ponder where he had seen it before—because he spotted the heart clutched in her hand. *Thump, thump.* The reverberation of a heartbeat echoed between heaven and earth. The next instant, "Awoooo——!" A wolf's howl rang across the vault of heaven! Amid billowing plumes of dust rising from the Zhenxi Prefectural Yamen, a hundred-zhang giant wolf suddenly swelled into manifestation, its eyes crimson and out of control. Disregarding all bodily injury, the boundless saint origin surging from its frame leveled the entire Zhenxi Prefectural Yamen in the span of a breath. That was the heart of Dachao's former king. Linlang had run amok. In a flash, Xu Yuan realized what the woman intended to do. The sects' goal was to kill Li Junwu and Jiayi, and right now, there was no one left in the yamen capable of restraining Linlang. Amid the frenzy of the wolf's howls, the woman surnamed Wen looked at Xu Yuan with curving eyes. Her red lips parted, and a gentle, delicate voice carrying a smile drifted into his ears: "Xu Changtian, it is time for this farce to end."