The cosmos was vast.
Thanks to the presence of void nodes, a Void Piercing cultivator aided by a Dao artifact flying boat could cover tens of millions of light-years in a year along a relatively fast route.
Yet...
Transmitting information across thousands of light-years remained extraordinarily difficult.
Consequently, the spread of news across the starry expanse suffered from immense delays.
In particular, for individuals who lived year-round in the extraterritorial stars and rarely made contact with other cultivators, it was not unusual for their knowledge to lag a century behind.
This Void Piercing demonic cultivator was the perfect example.
It was unknown when he had betrayed Demon Lord Jinni to side with the Light God race...
Of course, it was also possible that the Light God race had captured him decades ago upon discovering this Dao Lord's secret trove, and he had submitted to preserve his own life.
Originally, his purpose should have been to lure Demon Lord Jinni into this trap so the Light God race could monopolize the secret realm once the demon lord was eliminated. Yet in the end...
Demon Lord Jinni had already fallen beneath Yaoguang's blade.
And this Void Piercing demonic cultivator had no idea who Yaoguang was, blindly leading him right into the trap.
Furthermore, the Light God race had been thoroughly entangled with Zong Wenxian during this period, leaving their information similarly delayed. Just like right now...
Upon seeing Yaoguang, not only did they not flee, but with three God Emperors present, they dared to send only two to besiege Yaoguang while leaving the remaining one to continue contending against the secret trove's grand formation to prevent it from self-repairing.
Delivering themselves up in waves like this...
One really had to admit...
"You are quite bold," Yaoguang remarked.
He did not bother with the Void Piercing demonic cultivator who hastily fled with the help of the trap.
Although this trap, possessing the peak power of a Level 12 formation, could not hold him in the slightest...
He was in no rush.
Two God Emperors of the God race at the Void Shattering realm were the main course.
"Let me see just how much of your capability remains when you are far from your earthly divine kingdom."
Yaoguang instantly activated the Wuji Sword.
"It matters not how much remains, so long as it is enough to capture you!"
"Enough, let us resolve this swiftly. First, see if we can take him alive. Doing so would be best—he is the deputy sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect. If we convert him into our believer and send him to disrupt Zong Wenxian, Zong Wenxian will no longer have the time or energy to deal with us."
"Still, be cautious. Yaoguang managed to slay two demon lords, Bahuang and Dark, with the aid of a formation. His combat prowess is likely no less than an ordinary Void Shattering cultivator's! We must not hold back or grow careless! Zong Wenxian has hounded us like a madman these past few years. If this boy escapes and relays the news to Zong Wenxian, we will be in serious trouble."
After a brief exchange, one God Emperor transformed into flowing light and surged toward Yaoguang.
The other prepared a Dao art.
Behind him, nine precious pearls manifested, each swirling with Dao rhyme—nine distinct Dao artifacts.
As the Dao rhyme circulated, the power of the nine Dao artifacts seemed to merge into a single formation, exuding an aura that slightly surpassed even an ordinary high-grade Dao artifact. If he truly managed to unleash this Dao art...
He would not get the chance!
Wielding the Wuji Sword, Yaoguang activated the Torrent of Time!
Two Void Swords instantly slashed toward the two God Emperors of Light.
The traits of the God race shared some similarities with demonic cultivators.
The core of a demonic cultivator was the heavenly demon origin, whereas the foundation of the God race was Eternal Divine Fire.
The difference lay in the fact that a god's divine body was far more vital than a demon's demonic body, and even slightly greater in power.
Yet, facing the two Void Swords surging forward astride a torrent of void energy, both the God Emperor charging in a beam of light and the God Emperor preparing his ultimate Dao art simultaneously sensed a razor sharpness within those strikes that could slice through any matter.
"We can't block it!"
The realization struck both God Emperors at once.
Unless they stood at the very center of an earthly divine kingdom, they...
Simply could not withstand it.
"Suoka!" the God Emperor transformed into light barked out, quickly coalescing into a colossal halo that moved to bind one of the Void Swords.
Meanwhile, the other God Emperor unleashed his Dao art ahead of schedule. A rainbow beam thousands of meters in diameter swept across the void, striking the other Void Sword at six hundred thousand li per second.
And then...
It was like hurling a snowball against a flying blade.
The instant they collided, whether the colossal halo or the pillar of rainbow light piercing the void, all was shattered to dust in a single breath by the incisive edge inherent to the Void Sword.
Countless streams of light exploded outward, releasing a terrifying brilliance rivaling a supernova.
Yet even the glare of that explosion could not halt the Void Sword's unstoppable momentum; the God Emperor who had taken the form of a halo had his divine body cleaved apart.
"A Void Sword at the Great Perfection realm!"
That God Emperor's divine sense quivered in horror as his body once again shifted into a spark of life-bearing flame, turning substance into illusion to "leap" out of the devouring force contained within the Void Sword.
Even so, nearly five percent of his fire of life was torn to shreds by that devouring force.
The other God Emperor immediately drove the nine Dao artifact pearls hovering before him, bombarding the surging Void Sword one after another like cannonballs.
Each blast was inevitably accompanied by the destruction of a Dao artifact.
Under this barrage, the sharp momentum of the Void Sword was finally brought to a halt. When only four of the nine pearl Dao artifacts remained, it was just barely battered into pieces.
By that time, however, Yaoguang's second wave of hybrid bombardment—combining the Void Sword and Great Annihilation Sword Qi—was already upon them.
"How could it be... so fast?!"
Having sacrificed five Dao artifacts just to stop a single Void Sword, God Emperor Suoka's divine sense reeled. He had no choice but to gather his Dao art anew, once more firing an incandescent beam of light to blast the Void Sword.
On the other side, the God Emperor who had previously turned into a halo to bind Yaoguang was not so fortunate. Under the onslaught of the Great Annihilation Sword Qi, the myriad rays of radiance around him shattered at a visible rate.
"Qiming!" that God Emperor immediately cried out for help to the God Emperor contending with the Dao Lord's secret trove, simultaneously moving to trigger a formation to trap Yaoguang.
Yet his formation was only at the level of a Level 12 formation, an entire tier below the Heavenly Capital Dragon-Slashing Formation before its modification.
Even the cleverest cook could not make a meal without rice.
Under unfavorable conditions, laying down a Level 13 formation was by no means an easy task.
Against such a Level 12 formation...
As Yaoguang summoned the Heaven-Sealing Stele, the power sealing the void rippled out, shattering the grand formation on the spot.
"A high-grade Dao artifact!"
Feeling the terrifying power of the Heaven-Sealing Stele suppressing the void, both God Emperors paled.
*Whoosh!*
Transforming into golden light, the Swimming Dragon Sword slashed down, carrying the razor edge of the Void Sword.
Amplified by the Torrent of Time, the frequency of these attacks reached an extreme, giving the two God Emperors no room to breathe—a sheer, torrential onslaught.
In just a few breaths, Yaoguang unleashed five consecutive bursts of the Torrent of Time, cutting loose six Void Swords and eighteen strands of Great Annihilation Sword Qi.
Every strike was delivered with full force.
Attacks at the Great Perfection and Perfection realms were exhibited to their absolute limits. In single combat, every single Dao art surpassed these God Emperors who, far from their earthly divine kingdom, could not bring their full might to bear. Combined with the keen combat perception granted by Hunting Instinct, the lethal threat of his Dao arts climbed to the pinnacle.
As the sixth wave of the Torrent of Time erupted, the God Emperor who had first transformed into a halo had his Eternal Divine Fire utterly scattered. The remaining less than thirty percent of divine fire was dragged into Yaoguang's grotto-heaven to be suppressed and refined.
Meanwhile, the other God Emperor, Suoka, after exhausting all his protective treasures and having sixty percent of his divine body obliterated, was likewise suppressed beneath the high-grade Dao artifact, the Heaven-Sealing Stele.
The reason he was suppressed rather than killed outright...
Was that the final God Emperor, Qiming, had realized how dire the battle had turned and intended to flee.
However, before he could even finish building up momentum for a void traverse aboard his Dao artifact flying boat, Yaoguang appeared before him with a Void Flicker.
The projection of the Grand Dao within the Wuji Sword allowed him to manipulate the power of the void to absolute perfection.
With merely an empty press of his hand, the Grand Dao of the Void in this region was thoroughly disrupted, bringing the fully charged Dao artifact flying boat—poised to traverse countless hundreds of millions of li in a single breath—to a dead halt.
Before he could withstand this void disruption, golden light from the Swimming Dragon Sword darted and leaped through the void, lancing out from an impossible angle to pierce clean through the flying boat God Emperor Qiming was piloting.
The clash of Dao rhymes formed what seemed like a black hole at the artifact's core, devouring and annihilating all surrounding matter and instantly crippling the vessel.
"Heavenly Dao Sect, are you trying to start a war with our God race?!" God Emperor Qiming roared at the sight.
Yet what greeted him was another Void Sword, slashed down by Yaoguang without the slightest hesitation.
Wherever the sword light pointed, none could stand in its way.
Even far from his earthly divine kingdom, this God Emperor possessed strength close to that of Demon Lord Tianyu, yet he was forced to expend his protective Dao artifacts and protective Dao arts on the spot!
Fully aware of the Void Sword's sheer sharpness, he dared not fight to the death. With a violent wave of his hand, he unleashed a Great Teleportation Divine Talisman, vanishing from this patch of starry sky in an instant.
Yet from his battle with Demon Lord Jinni, Yaoguang had already prepared himself mentally to counter such talismans. Bathed in the light of his true spirit, he quickly relocated the God Emperor's coordinates and executed Void Flicker in succession.
If one were to stretch the scale of space infinitely at this moment, one would clearly see Yaoguang's silhouette flickering continuously, covering tens of billions of li with every jump.
Each flicker was virtually equivalent to traversing the expanse of an entire stellar system.
Through these rapid flickers, he quickly caught up with God Emperor Qiming, who had fled using the talisman.
"Such strength..."
Despair crept into God Emperor Qiming's eyes.
Unwilling to accept his fate, he retaliated with all his might, deploying every lethal weapon and measure at his disposal.
Yet the outcome remained unchanged.
Before long, this God Emperor's divine body was once again shattered by the combination of the Void Sword and Great Annihilation Sword Qi, and his Eternal Divine Fire was extinguished.
Having accomplished this, Yaoguang executed Void Flicker to return to the battlefield.
By then, God Emperor Suoka had still not broken free from the suppression of the Heaven-Sealing Stele.
As for the handful of remaining Void Refining and Void Piercing members of the Light God race, they had not managed to flee very far at all.
After several dozen Void Flickers, every aura of the God race's experts within his range of perception across this entire starry expanse had vanished without a trace.
Chapter 434