Void Shattering

"Although much of the Heavenly Demon Origins from the two Void Shattering demon cultivators and five Void Refining demon cultivators was scattered and lost, with the refinement of top-grade star cores worth more than three billion Pure Yang Great Pills, my grotto-heaven has finally reached the verge of Void Shattering." Yaoguang sensed the state of his grotto-heaven. At this moment, the grotto-heaven had grown powerful enough to touch a certain threshold. Having reached this point, the next step upward was to comprehend a Dao art to shatter the void and peer at the Three Thousand Grand Daos lying behind the Grand Dao of the Void. If the Grand Dao of the Void was a wall that carried the Three Thousand Grand Daos, then Void Shattering required temporarily breaking through this wall to behold the true Three Thousand Grand Daos, rather than merely observing them manifested through the Grand Dao of the Void. With this thought, Yaoguang waved his hand. Clouds and mist surged across Hundred Refinings Peak. Over the past fifteen years, the Heavenly Capital Dragon-Slashing Formation, optimized into a rank-fourteen formation, surged into motion, swiftly enveloping all of Hundred Refinings Peak. Since Yaoguang had achieved his Dao through the Grand Dao of the Void, the interior of the rank-fourteen Heavenly Capital Dragon-Slashing Formation had formed a void of its own. As he stood there, he still appeared to be atop Hundred Refinings Peak, but in truth, it was as if he were situated within another vast starry sky. Three hundred and sixty powerful star cores dotted this starry expanse. If any one of these star cores were placed in the outside world, it could collapse into a black hole. In other words, the energy grade of these three hundred and sixty star cores was equivalent to three hundred and sixty Void Piercing Battle Immortals. Once integrated and unified through the formation, not only would a Void Shattering supreme elder be helpless against it, but even if an entire top-tier sect mobilized in full force—with over a dozen Void Shattering experts, dozens of Void Refining experts, and hundreds of Void Cavern cultivators joining hands—shattering this starry world would still demand immense effort. With that much time, unless the people of the Heavenly Dao Sect treated the rules established by Venerable Golden Book as nothing and insisted on mutual destruction, reinforcements would arrive no matter how slow they were. "Void Shattering." Yaoguang took a deep breath. The grotto-heaven quivered, releasing energy equivalent to that of a massive primal cavern. At the same time, Dao rhythm belonging to the Grand Dao of the Void surged forth through his Dao seed. The powers of the Dao seed and the grotto-heaven complemented each other, radiating continuously in all directions and forcing aside all the void power capable of supporting the manifestation of the Grand Daos, turning the void into true nothingness. And behind that nothingness, laid bare before Yaoguang, were the true rules that composed the entire world. "The Three Thousand Grand Daos!" Like the underlying logic of the universe, the Three Thousand Grand Daos formed a network so dense that it contained all variations and rules of the world, constituting reality itself. Even a fleeting glimpse would allow a cultivator to perceive the supreme truths embedded within these Grand Daos. If one could maintain this state and continuously comprehend them... one's cultivation of Dao arts would advance by leaps and bounds. With his grotto-heaven holding open the power of the void, Yaoguang quietly observed the Three Thousand Grand Daos presented within his perception. "Having reached this step, one is truly in the Void Shattering realm." He spoke with a trace of emotion, wanting to reflect upon this breakthrough in realm. Yet in the end, only one phrase remained. "Effortless." The entire breakthrough was natural and seamless, falling into place like water flowing into a channel, devoid of the slightest danger or thrill. After a long while, Yaoguang smiled. Coming naturally as water to a stream—wasn't that only to be expected? Void Shattering? Child's play. Anyone with hands could manage. What was there to make a fuss about? He turned his gaze back to the Three Thousand Grand Daos. "No wonder... it is so easy for a Dao Lord to elevate a cultivator's realm. After Dao Integration, they are virtually equivalent to the Three Thousand Grand Daos themselves—a part of the entire world, the entire universe..." Yaoguang thought of an exam and a student. The Dao Lord was the test maker; if he personally instructed a student on how to take the exam, how could that student fail to get a high score? At the same time, after witnessing the Three Thousand Grand Daos, Yaoguang deeply understood why Dao Lords were vastly more powerful than Void Shattering cultivators. No matter how powerful a Void Shattering cultivator was, their power still originated from their own grotto-heaven. A single grotto-heaven... Even at the Void Shattering level, just how massive could its mass be? "For a grotto-heaven, if fully unleashed by a Void Cavern cultivator, its energy is roughly equivalent to a primal cavern one thousand li in diameter! Though Void Refining and Void Shattering increase that diameter, at most it reaches ten thousand li, and many Void Shattering cultivators cannot even attain that figure! But Dao Lords... they integrate their bodies with the Dao, channeling energy releases on a 'cosmic' scale through the power of the Grand Dao. Converted into primal cavern power... it could probably reach the level of a million-li primal cavern!" How immense was this gap? It was not a hundredfold, nor a thousandfold, but a millionfold! Granted, life-and-death battles among Void Cavern cultivators did not hinge solely on whose primal cavern possessed greater mass; Dao arts and Dao artifacts were also crucial. Yet when the energy disparity reached a factor of one million, no amount of skill or equipment held any meaning. The opponent could simply mobilize enough "cosmic mass" through the power of the Grand Dao to crush forward, annihilating any obstacle in their path. Such a level... was galactic-level power! Moreover, simply comparing the mass of a galaxy to a Dao Lord offered no real comparison. With the methods wielded by a Dao Lord, destroying a galaxy was merely a matter of time. If they so wished, they could easily become the overlord of a galaxy, ruling across tens or even hundreds of thousands of light-years. "Truly... a magnificent form of life," Yaoguang murmured to himself. In his past life, even exhausting his imagination over a lifetime, he would never have dared dream that he could reach such a stage one day. "Never mind a Dao Lord. In my past life, even reaching Foundation Establishment would let me rule the world as an uncrowned king." Yaoguang let his thoughts wander: "Hunting in a tropical rainforest in the morning, having a barbecue atop the world's highest peak at noon, swimming in Antarctica in the afternoon, and gazing up at the galaxy in the desert at night..." Of course, that was still nothing. In his past life, the prominent figures at the pinnacle of the world could achieve similar feats through technological creations. However... what if he took it a step further and attained a Golden Core? In the morning, he could tease the rabbits on the Moon; at noon, inhale some carbon dioxide on Venus; in the afternoon, stroll on Mars; and at night, sunbathe on the Sun. As for the fact that there were no rabbits on the Moon... Having attained a Golden Core, would building an actual Guanghan Palace on the Moon and creating an environment where living beings could survive be difficult in the least? "A Golden Core's footsteps are still confined to the solar system, but once at the Void Cavern realm... warping the surrounding space with one's grotto-heaven to perform spatial jumps... traversing an entire galaxy is merely a matter of time. At that point... one can witness sights that no one in my previous life could ever imagine, even at the limits of their minds... And I am now at a realm far mightier than Void Cavern and Void Refining—Void Shattering!" Yaoguang reflected upon his current achievements... For the first time, he felt that he, too, truly deserved the appraisal of a "magnificent lifeform" in the eyes of countless people and even countless civilizations. As long as he was willing to step beyond Beihai Star and leave this superplanet where the Gate of the Immortal Realm stood, the countless civilizations across neighboring star fields would become his playground, open for him to roam freely. Yaoguang remained where he was, immersed in the glory of achieving such "magnificence." Had he possessed no higher ambitions... he truly could have kicked back and relaxed from now on. However... "It's still not enough." Only after a good while did Yaoguang gather his senses. "How vast the universe is... Even over an entire lifetime, Void Cavern, Void Refining, and Void Shattering cultivators likely cannot traverse a whole galaxy. Their lifespans are a pitiful ten thousand years. Even a Dao Lord, with a lifespan of 129,600 years and far greater divine abilities, can at best visit a mere tip of the cosmic iceberg in a single lifetime. If I truly want to endure alongside the world, set foot in every corner of the starry skies, and behold every brilliance and wonder across the universe, I must take at least one more step forward!" Become an immortal! Become an immortal, renowned for eternal, imperishable life and boundless longevity. When that day arrived, free from worries over lifespan, where couldn't he go? What kind of spectacle couldn't he behold? In that boundless life, he could pause for a hundred years just to await a supernova. He could observe two black holes devouring each other for ten thousand years. He could linger for a million springs and autumns, waiting for two massive galaxies to collide. "So... just this small goal: become an immortal, achieve eternal life, and be able to roam the Northern Sea at dawn and Mount Cangwu at dusk. That will suffice." Yaoguang smiled, reigning in his impulse to wander out into cosmic space. In his mind, information pertaining to Void Sword and Void Flicker was continuously dredged up. To achieve Dao Integration from the Void Shattering realm, one had to cultivate a Dao art to perfection. Only when a perfected Dao art altered the very nature of the entire grotto-heaven could a cultivator "integrate" into the Grand Dao and gain the Grand Dao's acceptance. When Yaoguang drove his Void Shattering realm to 100%, it naturally involved a small amount of information regarding Dao arts cultivated to perfection. Not much, but... his natal Dao art, Void Flicker, happened to be among them. After all, practitioners of void-type Dao arts were exceedingly numerous. Even though Void Flicker and Void Sword were considered exquisite among void-type Dao arts, the massive practitioner base still provided "perfected" information on both arts. His other natal Dao art, Torrent of Time, did not show even a hint of reaching perfection. He probably wouldn't see it emerge right away even upon reaching Dao Lord. If luck was poor, it might not appear until 20% or even 40% progress. "Void Flicker." Around Yaoguang, the Grand Dao of the Void circulated endlessly. As the Grand Dao of the Void flowed, the Dao seed of his natal Dao art, Void Flicker, grew rapidly. The Dao rhythms radiating from it spread outward in ring after ring, filling every corner of his grotto-heaven. With the continuous washing of these ripples of Dao rhythm, a cultivator's grotto-heaven would increasingly take on the characteristics of the "Grand Dao." When these "Grand Dao" characteristics reached a certain extreme, they could "deceive" the true Grand Dao of the Void, allowing one to attempt merging into the Grand Dao of the Void—the most crucial step in advancing from Void Shattering to Dao Lord: integrating one's body with the Dao. However, no matter how much a cultivator cultivated, an individual's "Dao rhythm" remained incomparably minuscule compared to the Grand Dao of the entire universe. Over ninety-nine percent of Void Shattering cultivators would have their minds scattered by the cosmic-level Grand Dao of the Void during that step of integrating their bodies with the Dao, losing all sense of time and space, forever sinking into the Grand Dao of the Void, never to awaken again. This was the so-called Dao assimilation. So difficult was this step that if ten Dao Lords who had already succeeded at Dao Integration were asked to attempt it again, nine would fail, and the last would rather die than try again. Even Yaoguang, whose Void Shattering progress had reached 100% and contained copious experience in attempting Dao Integration, still felt lingering dread after glancing through it. "Unless I raise my realm to the Dao Integration level—or rather, to 100% Dao Integration—I will never take that step lightly," Yaoguang thought to himself. Shortly after Yaoguang quietly stepped into the Void Shattering domain, news brought by Li Hanqiu interrupted his continued secluded cultivation. "Sect Master, the sect's tribute envoy team has arrived... However... this time, they have made an additional demand."