Slaying

Trembling! As this sword swept down, the resonance between its edge and the Grand Dao of the Void forged a sharpness that sent a shiver straight through Jing Yuntian's soul! That edge... It felt just like when he had yet to embark upon the path of cultivation, staring up as a ten-meter-wide glass mirror plunged from a thirty-meter-tall building. The angle, the trajectory, the falling glass—it had lined up perfectly with where he stood. Only... Back then, sheer luck was on his side; a passing cultivator had casually saved his life. Yet this time... He could only watch helplessly as this colossal Void Sword, bearing an unstoppable, razor-sharp edge, slashed directly into his Myriad Manifestations Fiendgod body. Beneath this Void Sword—whose keenness made the very soul shudder—the formidable Myriad Manifestations Fiendgod was cleaved in two as easily as snapping dry twigs. It was like the world's sharpest blade slicing through silken bean curd delicately sculpted by a master chef. Pfft! Without a sound, the body of the Myriad Manifestations Fiendgod was split clean open. The instant the fiendgod collapsed, unprecedented terror erupted from the depths of Supreme Elder Jing Yuntian's soul. "Ah!" He let out a furious roar, his divine sense detonating to its peak as he tried to maneuver his body with all his might, retreating at full speed. Yet... Too late! Having severed the Myriad Manifestations Fiendgod, the Void Sword carried onward unabated, plunging straight into the Myriad Manifestations Grotto-Heaven world behind it. Before this peerless edge, this grotto-heaven world—representing a cultivator's very core essence, energy, and spirit—was as fragile as paper, torn apart in an instant. "How can this be?!" Jing Yuntian's erupted divine sense instantly brought forth three Dao artifacts from within his grotto-heaven world! The three Dao artifacts surged simultaneously, striking toward the Void Sword gleaming with a faint golden light. Yet even something as mighty as a Dao artifact could not halt the sword's advance in the slightest. Bang! Bang! Bang! Almost simultaneously, the three Dao artifacts were cleaved in twain. And just as those three Dao artifacts shattered, a treasure manifested from deep within his grotto-heaven. The treasure transformed directly into a Dao seed, seemingly endowed with a miraculous power that lured the Void Sword—originally meant for his true Dao seed—to strike it instead. Bang! In the next second, the false Dao seed shattered. Its residual power erupted like a primal cavern devouring all things, consuming everything around the seed. "Oh?" Recognizing what had occurred, Yaoguang's eyes flashed with a hint of surprise. "A puppet seed?" Once a cultivator reached the Void Refining stage, their most fatal vulnerabilities became the grotto-heaven and the Dao seed. To be precise, the Dao seed was the true core. It was solely due to the Dao seed's presence that the grotto-heaven could be sustained. Without a Dao seed to anchor it, a grotto-heaven would slowly collapse. And once the grotto-heaven collapsed, the cultivator's essence, energy, and spirit would dissipate entirely, ushering in death. For this reason, the Dao seed was the absolute crux for anyone at Void Refining or beyond. A puppet seed could simulate a Dao seed, taking a fatal blow in place of the cultivator at critical junctures. Because of this, every puppet seed was priced exorbitantly—so rare that no one would trade one away even for several Dao artifacts. Of course, puppet seeds had their flaws. They were only effective against single-target strikes. If the opponent unleashed an attack like the Destructive Sword Qi that could forcefully collapse an entire grotto-heaven, having a puppet seed would be pointless. With the entire grotto-heaven shattered, where would a Dao seed even reside? "Not bad. Having spent so many years in the Void Shattering realm, you've indeed gathered quite a few life-saving treasures." Yaoguang activated his True Spirit Light, locking onto every subtle shift in Jing Yuntian's aura. "Withstand one more strike. If you live, you live. If not, you die." Hearing Yaoguang's words, Jing Yuntian felt his soul almost leap from his skin in terror. Yaoguang's second strike had not only routed his Myriad Manifestations Fiendgod, but had heavily damaged his grotto-heaven, wrecking its internal structure. Had the Void Sword not been so exceptionally sharp, leaving only a hairline incision, his entire grotto-heaven would have been on the brink of total collapse right now. Hearing that Yaoguang intended to strike a third time, he retreated desperately while projecting his divine sense: "Sect Master Yaoguang, the Jing family was in the wrong! I am willing to offer compensation on their behalf! We are both Supreme Elders of the Heavenly Dao Sect. Everything can be discussed calmly. Why must we resort to blades and drive things to the absolute brink?!" At the same time, his divine sense swept toward where Zhen Xuanyuan, Gu Li, and the others stood: "Two Supreme Elders, save me!" The Wuji Sword within Yaoguang was, after all, only a top-grade Dao artifact, and what it channeled was merely a Great Dao projection; its Dao charm was far from comparable to a true Dao Lord's. Unless one faced it directly, observers outside the battlefield like Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li had no idea how dire Jing Yuntian's plight truly was. Even now, they were wondering why Jing Yuntian, who had seemed capable of barely parrying Yaoguang's Void Sword a moment ago, had suddenly become so fragile that his Myriad Manifestations Fiendgod and Myriad Manifestations World were sliced clean through. It even appeared that he had fallen into peril and burned a life-saving treasure. Only when he cried out for aid did the two realize something was amiss. Seeing that Yaoguang was about to bring down a third strike, both Supreme Elders executed movement arts and tore through the void. "Sect Master Yaoguang, please stay your hand!" "We are of the same sect, yet it has come to drawn blades and bloodshed! What decency is there in this?! Cease at once!" Their divine sense pulses arrived before their bodies did. Zhen Xuanyuan in particular spoke with an air of reprimand. Yet Yaoguang's hands did not slow in the slightest. Golden light shimmered over the Swimming Dragon Sword as a fresh Void Sword coalesced, locked onto Jing Yuntian. This time, guided by the True Spirit Light, even if this Void Shattering Supreme Elder produced another puppet seed, there would be nowhere left to hide. "Presumptuous!" Arriving on the scene and seeing that Yaoguang dared to strike to kill despite his explicit demand to halt, Zhen Xuanyuan could not help but shout furiously. He clenched an empty hand, and a halo of searing white light carrying an intense sealing power descended toward Yaoguang. This was his innate Dao art—Suppressing the Firmament! He, too, was a Void Shattering cultivator walking the Dao of the Void. Having brought Suppressing the Firmament to perfection, it possessed the power to seal the void and suppress all energies. On the other side, Gu Li appeared closely behind, slashing his saber downward. A dazzling saber arc radiating scorching, violent heat lunged straight at the Void Sword forming on Yaoguang's blade. As Gu Li appeared, Supreme Elder Chiyun also arrived. However, although Chiyun sided with Yaoguang, he had never expected matters to escalate to the point where Yaoguang would ruthlessly slaughter Jing Yuntian. Swallowing up the Jing family and forcing them to pay a price was something he could understand and accept, but if even a Supreme Elder like Jing Yuntian died, it would be a severe blow to the Heavenly Dao Sect's overall strength. Furthermore, Gu Li's saber strike was clearly aimed at the Void Sword Yaoguang was swinging, not at Yaoguang himself. Weighed down by such considerations, his actions slowed by a beat. Yet he failed to account for Zhen Xuanyuan simultaneously unleashing Suppressing the Firmament on the opposite flank. The instant the area-of-effect Dao art enveloped him, Yaoguang's movements visibly hitched, momentarily suppressed. Consequently, the rainbow-like saber arc landed squarely upon Yaoguang's body. Intentionally or otherwise, the two Supreme Elders had executed an exquisite, seamless coordination. "Watch out!" Supreme Elder Chiyun cried in alarm. In the next instant, resplendent starlight erupted from Yaoguang. The seven-colored radiance dispersing from the Starlight Glazed Body blocked the speed-oriented saber arc entirely. At the same time, the power of the Heaven-Sealing Stele rippled out from Yaoguang. Empowered by the projection of the Grand Dao of the Void, not only was the suppression from Suppressing the Firmament weakened against him, but the power of the high-grade Dao artifact, the Heaven-Sealing Stele, was also enhanced. The halo of searing white light enveloping him was halted and frozen by the stele's might. Seizing this opening, the sharpness of the Void Sword atop his descending Swimming Dragon Sword fully unleashed itself. Buzz! The perfected sealing Dao art Suppressing the Firmament was ripped apart and shattered like deadwood before the Void Sword. Having torn through the art, the edge of the Void Sword descended relentlessly, once again plunging with deadly precision into Jing Yuntian's grotto-heaven world. That sharpness—capable of cleaving anything, destroying all—chilled the Supreme Elder to the bone. "Not good!" He snarled, instantly extracting a strand of his essence, energy, and spirit from his grotto-heaven. He was prepared to abandon his grotto-heaven entirely to seize a chance at soul possession and rebirth! At this moment, never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that merely following Sect Master Zong Wenxian's intention to suppress Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang, who governed the Southern Domain, would invite such terrifying retribution. Not only might ten thousand years of the Jing family's glory vanish like smoke after today, but even he himself was in peril of perishing body and soul. Had he known Yaoguang would grow this fast, he would never have involved himself in this contest for the sect master's seat. Squelch! In a flash, Jing Yuntian's Dao seed shattered. Yet... Guided by the True Spirit Light, the unstoppable Void Sword shifted its edge after pulverizing the Dao seed, slashing directly toward another patch of empty space. "No!" Amid the Supreme Elder's utter terror, the strand of essence, energy, and spirit he had painstakingly detached from his grotto-heaven via secret technique was once more engulfed by the Void Sword. In the next second, the Void Sword collapsed into a primal cavern, instantly grinding everything in that space to dust. "Yaoguang!" Seeing this, Zhen Xuanyuan's eyes went wide, his divine sense erupting in a roar of mingled fury and disbelief. Dead?! Jing Yuntian was actually dead?! A Supreme Elder of the Heavenly Dao Sect, an existence who had cultivated for thousands of years to attain the Void Shattering realm and stood at the very pinnacle of Beihai, had been slain by Yaoguang right before the eyes of the Chief Supreme Elder! An unprecedented humiliation and rage surged into his chest! "You dare kill a Supreme Elder of our Heavenly Dao Sect... You..." Yet before this humiliated roar could fully carry, Yaoguang's incoming divine sense made him shudder violently, sending a bone-chilling frost through him that instantly restored his clarity and composure. "Zhen Xuanyuan, Gu Li, as Supreme Elders of the Heavenly Dao Sect, how dare you strike against me in league with the Jing family, who colluded with the demonic cultivators of the Shadow Moon Sect!" Having weathered the attacks of two Supreme Elders with his Starlight Glazed Body and the Heaven-Sealing Stele, Yaoguang—having boldly slain Supreme Elder Jing Yuntian—turned around. His gaze pierced directly toward Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li. "What... audacious insolence!"