Unless seen with their own eyes or experienced firsthand, no one would believe that a Void Shattering cultivator who had advanced only a century ago possessed the strength to suppress top-tier Void Shattering experts.
Much like how, even with countless videos circulating among the populace, no one would believe that the extraordinary truly existed in this world.
It defied common sense.
Compared to concepts drummed into them by others, people were always more inclined to believe what they wanted to believe.
Demon Lord Guiye was the prime example.
Of course, with the precedents of Demon Lords Bahuang and Hei'an before him, Guiye had still reached out immediately to Demon Lord Tianyu and Demon Lord Shanie—with whom he had good relations—to request reinforcement.
Between the two demon lords, however, Demon Lord Tianyu was in a better position, being relatively close by.
Demon Lord Shanie would clearly still take some time to arrive.
Thus, when Yaoguang crossed the border into Demon Lord Guiye's territory, what awaited him were two demon lords poised and ready.
"Yaoguang, what colossal audacity! Did you truly think you were invincible under the heavens just because you advanced to Void Shattering?"
In the void above a mountain range, Demon Lords Guiye and Tianyu blocked Yaoguang's path.
"Two demon lords?"
Yaoguang was slightly surprised. "Four demon lords have already fallen in succession, yet this time, only two have come to intercept me? I thought you would at least dispatch three or four demon lords to ambush me."
Demon Lord Guiye and Demon Lord Tianyu exchanged glances.
Believing he had discerned something, Demon Lord Guiye said at once, "Is this luring the tiger away from the mountain? You deliberately exposed yourself to draw out more demon lords to deal with you, thereby buying opportunities for your Heavenly Dao Sect's operations? Seeing how confident your Heavenly Dao Sect is... has True Monarch Jinghong arrived?"
Hearing this, Yaoguang could not be bothered to explain.
Earlier, when Demon Lords Chihun and Zhanpo perished, the Heavenly Dao Sect had also seen the loss of True Monarch Buzhou. While the Shadow Moon Sect would be on guard, they would not mobilize their entire force.
However, once he slew the demon lords before him, no matter how slow the Shadow Moon Sect was to catch on, they would realize his true strength.
When that happened, they would withdraw into their sect like turtles in their shells. At that point, breaching the Shadow Moon Sect's formidable level-fifteen sect-guarding grand array would be exceedingly difficult.
Even with better luck, killing one or two more demon lords before they retreated into their sect would only yield a total tally of three or four demon lords.
That did not match his original plan of gathering eight demon lords from the Shadow Moon Sect.
'Whatever. When the time comes, I'll just have to make up the numbers from the demon race. As for the Shadow Moon Sect... I'll kill as many as I can,' Yaoguang thought to himself.
Immediately afterward, he summoned the Heaven-Sealing Stele directly, sealing this pocket of space. Taking a step through the void, he materialized beside Demon Lord Guiye in an instant.
Although the demon lord had already raised his vigilance to the absolute limit, he still failed to sense the slightest anomaly.
It was only when Yaoguang's Void Sword slashed down that he detected something amiss.
Faced with the hair-raising sharpness on the Void Sword, the demon lord did not dare block it at all, instantly transforming into darkness.
'Demon Venerable Heitian walks the Grand Dao of Darkness, leading to more than half of the Shadow Moon Sect's demon lords cultivating this Dao... Isn't that Demon Venerable worried about entering into a Dao Contention with his sect's juniors when the time comes? Or perhaps... to avoid a Dao Contention, he took every Void Shattering cultivator practicing the Grand Dao of Darkness under his wing beforehand?'
Thoughts flashed through Yaoguang's mind.
Almost simultaneously, the brilliance of the Light of True Spirit illuminated his inner world.
Just as his Grand Dao of the Void had previously been countered by the Grand Dao of Truth, the Grand Dao of the Soul represented by the Light of True Spirit clearly possessed a prominent counter-effect against the Grand Dao of Darkness. Yaoguang had already amassed rich experience in countering dark Dao arts using the Light of True Spirit.
Guided by the radiant Light of True Spirit, he instantly caught the location of Demon Lord Guiye's true body. The edge of the Void Sword shifted, and accompanied by the void suppression power rippling down from the Heaven-Sealing Stele, the strike cleaved Demon Lord Guiye's demonic body with pinpoint accuracy, slicing his form in half.
"How did you lock onto me?!"
Demon Lord Guiye's heart jolted in shock. His severed demonic body erupted into demonic flames, attempting to reconverge.
Practiced and at ease, Yaoguang drove two streaks of Great Annihilation Sword Qi through the Torrent of Time, piercing the demonic body that Demon Lord Guiye was trying to reassemble.
At the same time, the Swimming Dragon Sword unleashed another Void Sword, slashing straight toward Demon Lord Tianyu, who had realized something was wrong and moved to reinforce his ally.
Where the Void Sword passed, gods and demons parted.
Amplified by the projection of the Grand Dao of the Void channeled by the pinnacle Dao artifact Wuji Sword, no Dao art could match the sharpness of this sword strike unless it was a natal Dao art that also specialized in offense.
Demon Lord Tianyu cast two Dao arts in quick succession, hoping to neutralize the Void Sword's sharpness, yet the irresistibly fierce Void Sword shattered both Dao arts head-on. He was forced to rely on a high-grade Dao artifact similar to the Boundary-Crossing Ruler to disengage from this stretch of void, only then dodging the lethal strike.
Yet by doing so, he naturally could not provide timely aid to Demon Lord Guiye.
In the end, he could only watch helplessly as Demon Lord Guiye's converging demonic body was struck by the Great Annihilation Sword Qi. Thirty percent of the heavenly demon origin within was annihilated on the spot by the destructive power of the sword qi.
"Not bad," Yaoguang remarked, glancing at Demon Lord Tianyu.
If Demon Lord Guiye was at the same level of Void Shattering as Chiyun, Gu Li, and Jing Yuntian, then this Demon Lord Tianyu's strength...
was already close to Zhen Xuanyuan.
His combat strength was likely around ninety million.
Without hesitation, Yaoguang flicked his sleeve, directing the Heaven-Sealing Stele's power to heavily suppress Demon Lord Tianyu's body.
Simultaneously, the Torrent of Time surged, and the Swimming Dragon Sword once more carried a Void Sword, slashing toward the demon lord.
Yaoguang himself guided the two streaks of Great Annihilation Sword Qi to relentlessly bombard the demonic flames Demon Lord Guiye had become, giving him no opportunity to reform his demonic body. Throughout this process, Demon Lord Guiye's demonic body structure, variations, and all kinds of information on how to strike to inflict maximum damage flowed through his mind.
It was as though...
the Void Shattering cultivators who practiced the Grand Dao of Darkness and had died by his hand were not just one or two, but dozens, hundreds, or even thousands.
'It's the Dao fruit talent granted when [Demon Hunting] advanced to level fifteen—Hunting Instinct.'
Yaoguang quickly realized what was happening.
After suppressing and killing Demon Lord Chihun and refining Demon Lord Zhanpo to death, he had allocated all the experience gained from [Demon Hunting] to that branch, raising it to level fifteen.
The level-fifteen [Demon Hunting] branch had not granted him any direct increase in raw strength, nor did Hunting Instinct directly boost his numerical stats. However, this "combat talent" bestowed by the Dao fruit made him far more adept at fighting demons and alien races.
Just like now, even with only two streaks of Great Annihilation Sword Qi, he could still precisely pin down Demon Lord Guiye, preventing his demonic body from reforming and leaving him purely on the receiving end of punishment.
Likewise, relying solely on a Void Sword coupled with the aid of the Heaven-Sealing Stele, he could beat Demon Lord Tianyu to the point where Tianyu could not even draw near him, let alone rescue Demon Lord Guiye.
Before long, Demon Lord Guiye's heavenly demon origin had been depleted by more than half.
Sensing the timing was right, Yaoguang swept his grotto-heaven outward, drawing the demon lord straight inside and suppressing him using the power of the grotto-heaven alone.
In the distance, witnessing this scene, Demon Lord Tianyu's pupils shrank violently.
In truth, the moment they crossed swords, he had realized that the rumors of Yaoguang's strength were not exaggerated in the least.
Not exaggerated at all.
Yaoguang definitely possessed the strength to fight two opponents at once and defeat Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li.
Not only that.
When dealing with Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li, he had likely held back. Otherwise, those two Void Shattering cultivators would never have escaped with their lives.
Yaoguang's combat prowess...
was unquestionably on par with the invincible Void Shattering cultivators on the Candidate Dao Lord Ranking!
Therefore, upon seeing Demon Lord Guiye suppressed by Yaoguang in such a short time, Tianyu lost all courage to continue fighting. Falling back abruptly, he summoned a warship-like flying vessel and tore through the void, disengaging from the battlefield.
Fleeing frantically, he produced a jade talisman to call for aid: "The information is wrong! The lad Yaoguang is extraordinarily powerful—he isn't far behind even True Monarch Jinghong! Guiye has been suppressed! Fellow Daoists, please come to my rescue at once!"
*Hum!*
Not a moment after his message was sent, Yaoguang's figure flickered and appeared in the void ten thousand li behind him.
This pursuit speed caused Demon Lord Tianyu's face to pale drastically. Pushing the speed of his vessel to its absolute limit, ripples flashed, and he crossed over a million li in a single burst.
Yet flying a vast distance of over a million li in one breath failed to grant him even the slightest respite.
He almost instantly felt that Yaoguang's figure appeared several hundred thousand li away, and in the very next moment after he felt Yaoguang, his figure was already a mere tens of thousands of li away.
By the time Tianyu hurriedly tried to activate the warship to jump through space once more, Yaoguang's figure was already standing right before his vessel.
"Void Flicker!"
A flicker of despair surfaced in Demon Lord Tianyu's eyes.
Void Flicker was not the main issue!
The crux was that Yaoguang's Void Flicker could not only traverse several hundred thousand li in a single leap, but could also be executed multiple times within a single breath.
Though his Dao artifact vessel could cross a million li in one jump, that was only because vessel-type Dao artifacts possessed massive output.
However, every jump with such a Dao artifact required a cooldown period.
Using it for routine travel was one thing, but when employed in a life-or-death battle, it lacked any flexibility whatsoever.
Compared to Yaoguang's Void Flicker, it was vastly inferior.
Unable to beat him, unable to dodge him, unable to hide from him, unable to escape him!
How could this not drive one to despair?
"Let's see how many strikes of my sword you can endure," Yaoguang said calmly.
With no interference from Demon Lord Guiye, the Torrent of Time was fully applied to the Void Sword this time.
Two Void Swords slashed toward Demon Lord Tianyu's demonic body almost one after the other in the exact same timeframe.
Simultaneously, the power of the Heaven-Sealing Stele was fully unleashed. Visible ripples radiated from the high-grade Dao artifact, and the space surrounding Demon Lord Tianyu seemed to solidify into iron and brass, rendered completely unshakeable by any void-traversing power.
Straining to his absolute limit, Demon Lord Tianyu managed to withstand the first Void Sword.
Yet when faced with the second Void Sword, even though he sacrificed a substitute talisman item, it was still shattered irresistibly by the sword's edge, which continued forward with unabated momentum to tear through his true demon body.
With his demonic body crushed, the ensuing battle naturally became simple.
Weakened by the Great Annihilation Sword Qi, and once weakened enough, a sweep of the grotto-heaven's power suppressed this demon lord as well.
The entire process flowed like moving clouds and flowing water, imbued with a seamless, effortless grace.
Chapter 420