Annihilation

"Penglai?!" Dao Lord Wujin felt as if an electric shock had struck him. A sudden chill surged from the base of his spine straight to the crown of his skull, making his head feel as though it were about to burst. *How could she be this fast?!* It was simply too fast! Before Yaoguang walked out of the Heavenly Dao Sect and Wujin prepared to strike, he had repeatedly cross-checked multiple sources—Demon Venerable Black Moon, his own disciples, deep-cover moles he had personally planted, and his followers. Every report confirmed that Dao Lord Penglai was currently patrolling the territory of the Shadow Moon Sect, hunting down Demon Venerable Black Moon. Furthermore, he had gathered intelligence on Dao Lord Penglai numerous times beforehand and calculated that even if she rushed toward the Heavenly Dao Sect from that hunting ground at full tilt, it would take her at least the burn of an incense stick. If Yaoguang were slightly delayed in sending word, or if Penglai were held up by something, it wasn't impossible for that window to stretch to half an hour. Yet how much time had passed now?! The time to drink a single cup of tea! No! Not even that! In such a short span, Dao Lord Penglai had actually crossed the vast expanse between the Shadow Moon Sect's headquarters and this extraterrestrial starry void, once again joining forces with Yaoguang to strike him in a pincer attack from within and without?! *How is that possible?!* Wujin's mind raced at the absolute limit, and he instantly realized the terrifying truth behind this sudden turn: *A trap! This is a trap!* He had originally intended to deploy a supreme ancestral treasure capable of posing a mortal threat to Dao Lords to crush the Ten Hells Dragon-Imprisoning Formation in one blow and obliterate Yaoguang along with it. But now, he immediately swapped it for a life-saving trump card. Shifting from attack to defense. Switching from battle to flight. He did not hesitate or waver for even half a heartbeat. In the next instant, within Yaoguang's perception, the Dao Lord seemed to vanish. Be it the Ten Hells Dragon-Imprisoning Formation or the Heaven-Sealing Stele, both completely lost all trace of him. *Wujin—Unbounded!* It was as though he had truly transformed into a unique life-form that could never be confined, slipping effortlessly right through the rank-fifteen formation, poised to break free from the battlefield. *Void Origin?!* The name of that supreme treasure instantly leaped into Yaoguang's mind. This was a Void Origin! A single-use treasure that required the purest void-type immortal artifact materials and tens of thousands of years of refinement by a void Dao Lord to produce. A void Dao Lord who unleashed such a treasure would genuinely merge into one with the void—omnipresent, uncontainable, capable of using the power of the Void Origin to teleport to any corner of the world. *We can't catch him.* Recognizing that Wujin had actually prepared such an item, Yaoguang instantly understood that they could no longer trap him. A Dao Lord! Every Void Shattering cultivator had one or two life-saving treasures up their sleeve, let alone a Dao Lord. Dao Lords had lived for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years; after countless millennia, no one knew what kind of hidden cards they possessed, and their combat strength could never be judged by conventional standards. Kill one? How could it be that easy! The fall of Dao Lord Yuanxu was an exceptional anomaly! For a Dao Lord like Wujin to escape unscathed using life-preserving treasures even in the direst circumstances was the normal state of affairs. *The plan failed.* A wave of profound regret welled up within Yaoguang's heart. Yet before that emotion could show even slightly on his face, a divine sense ripple carrying a touch of temper diffused into the void. "What I hate most is fighting you void-path Dao Lords. Slippery as eels." As that divine sense spread, an expanse of magnificence and blazing heat—so immense that no words could describe it—erupted. "Flames of Dao Extinction!" In that split second, Yaoguang felt as though he had been reduced to a frail, insignificant mortal. A mortal witnessing the detonation of a high-yield hydrogen bomb right before his eyes. Endless radiance intermingled with a terrifying heat capable of annihilating all matter flashed in an instant, like a sun blazing within arm's reach. It flooded his entire field of view, consuming his perception and cognitive senses entirely. *Extinguishing the Dao!* *Extinguishing the Dao!* This was... The power of the Grand Dao of Annihilation! By instantly unleashing power far beyond the carrying capacity of the Grand Dao of the Void, it broke the Grand Dao of the Void in an instant, obliterating the very foundation of its existence! It forced all things in the world—even the purest, most fundamental force of the void—to return completely to nothingness. Though... Such a return to nothingness was theoretical. As one of the four supreme Grand Daos, no matter how formidable a force was, it could never completely erase it. Yet... To Yaoguang, and to Dao Lord Wujin, the power Dao Lord Penglai demonstrated at this moment was absolute destruction—utter and total ruin. No matter how high a Dao Integration cultivator's utilization of a Grand Dao was, it would never exceed one-thousandth. Even with Dao Lord Wujin deploying the Void Origin, at most he doubled his utilization of the Grand Dao of the Void, which was still far from one-thousandth. Yet the Flames of Dao Extinction ignited and wielded by Dao Lord Penglai inflicted nearly a one-thousandth level of erosion and annihilation upon the Grand Dao of the Void in that singular instant. This... This was an origin Dao art infinitely close to an immortal art! "No—!" Within that space where even divine sense could no longer transmit, Dao Lord Wujin let out a cry of utter despair. Everything—every last shred of existence—was incinerated into ash and reduced to nothingness before this roaring explosion of the Flames of Dao Extinction. Dao Lord Wujin had his reserves and trump cards! So did Dao Lord Penglai. Though she was newly ascended, her talent was peerless. Moreover, she seemed to have prepared thoroughly for the upcoming Dao Contention. Revealing the trump card originally reserved for the Dao Contention to produce a strike bordering on an immortal art... Under such horrifying power, someone as mighty as Dao Lord Wujin was reduced to ashes in an instant. Not only was Dao Lord Wujin wiped out, but even Yaoguang's Ten Hells Dragon-Imprisoning Formation was instantly shattered and pulverized by this pure, Dao-obliterating force. Fortunately, the Ten Hells Dragon-Imprisoning Formation had been there, and fortunately, Dao Lord Wujin had absorbed the brunt of all the damage from the Flames of Dao Extinction for Yaoguang and the others. Otherwise, the shockwave of scattered energy after demolishing the formation would certainly have spread outward. At that point, let alone Zhen Xuanyuan, Gu Li, and the other Heavenly Dao Sect Supreme Elders who had accompanied him, even Yaoguang would have risked having his Endless Pagoda shattered, facing the peril of perishing on the spot. Even so, when the shockwave generated by the Flames of Dao Extinction obliterating the Grand Dao of the Void rippled in all directions through the void, it still alerted every Dao Lord, Void Shattering cultivator, and even the Void Refining and Void Piercing practitioners of void Dao arts across the entirety of Beihai Star who possessed keen sensitivity to the power of the Grand Dao. In unison, everyone turned their gazes toward the sky above the Heavenly Dao Sect—the region bordering the outer reaches of Beihai Star's atmosphere. In their perception, the blazing radiance and boundless energy had blasted that expanse of void into a barren wasteland. A dead zone devoid of the Dao, a veritable forbidden zone for all living beings. The energy released in that instant and the violent tremors sent through the three thousand Grand Daos registered vividly in the depths of their perception, shaking their souls and plunging them into involuntary panic. "What happened?!" "A battle of Dao Lords! This is definitely another battle at the Dao Lord level!" "Those Dao tremors... Is that Dao Lord Penglai?! And the other... Dao Lord Wujin?!" "What on earth is going on? First Dao Lord Yuanxu, and now Dao Lord Wujin! The Dao Contention hasn't even fully begun, yet Dao Lord Penglai has already gone on a slaughter spree?!" Countless strands of divine sense intersected in the void. Sensing the rapidly fading aura of Dao Lord Wujin amidst that blazing white light and barren void, not only were the Void Shattering and Void Refining cultivators horrified, but even the Dao Lords who had returned to Beihai Star ahead of schedule—or had never left—felt their hearts tremble with terror. Terrifying! How much time had passed?! Two Dao Lords were already dead?! Did this Dao Lord Penglai... Did she really have to be this ferocious?! ... Beihai Star was not the only place shaken. Dao Lord Juntian, who was already near Beihai Star, along with the several Dao Lords traveling beside him, stood up involuntarily at this moment. Sensing the tremors echoing through the Grand Dao of the Void, they also swiftly cast their gazes toward Beihai Star, which had already entered their field of vision. Thanks to their vantage point, they could faintly "see" the blazing white light flashing above Beihai Star. Like a bubble, it pushed open the extraordinarily dense atmosphere of Beihai Star, generating an aftershock that threatened to sweep across almost the entire planet as it rippled and spread. Such terrifying destructive might... "A battle between Dao Lords? A Dao Lord-level battle is taking place on Beihai Star?!" "That scale of energy release... It's definitely an ultimate trump card meant to slay a Dao Lord! And since a trump card was unleashed... I'm afraid a Dao Lord has fallen." "What in the world is happening on Beihai Star? The moment we arrive... we're greeted with such an astonishing sight?" The Dao Lords were utterly dumbfounded. Deep, inescapable concern and gravity weighed on everyone's faces. The Dao Contention hadn't even begun, had it? The opening of the Gate of the Immortal Realm was estimated to be seven or eight centuries away. Why had... Why were Dao Lords already hurling their trump cards at each other and exhausting every lethal measure? Were they giving up on the Dao Contention? What kind of feud could possibly be more important than standing out during the Dao Contention and ascending to the Immortal Realm? "That location... seems to be directly above our Heavenly Dao Sect?" Just then, True Monarch Nichang noticed something from below and suddenly spoke up. "The Heavenly Dao Sect?" Dao Lord Juntian's expression changed instantly upon hearing this. Immediately, he said, "Fellow Daoists, I shall take the lead to see what has happened!" "We'll go together. I also want to see which fellow Daoist possesses such a bloodthirsty nature!" "I'll accompany you all so we can watch each other's backs." "Since we're all going, let us force a void traversal with the battleship; that way, we will arrive directly outside Beihai Star." The Dao Lords chimed in one after another. Once a consensus was reached, Dao Lord Taiwei, who was skilled in the path of the void, stepped forward to operate the battleship. "The power of the Grand Dao of the Void in the outer space of Beihai Star has been almost entirely obliterated and shattered. The surrounding void power is currently rushing in to fill that annihilated void region, and this backflow will generate a violent void storm. We cannot pass straight through; we can only reach the outer layer first," Dao Lord Taiwei warned. "No matter. Once we reach the outer layer, at our speed, crossing the rest will take only a dozen breaths," another Dao Lord replied. The others nodded slightly in agreement. As Dao Lord Taiwei channeled the power of the void, ripples swiftly spread across the space ahead of the battleship. In just a few breaths, the ship completed its preparations, and with a single traversal... It emerged directly at the outer perimeter of Beihai Star.