Annihilation

"How could this be..." Not only did Dao Lord Jimie's conviction shatter from the clash, but even Demon Saint Kunpeng, fiercely locked in combat with Dao Lord Penglai, and Dao Lord Taiwei, watching from far beyond the battlefield, wore expressions of utter disbelief. "This is impossible!" Although Dao Lord Jimie was well over a hundred thousand years old and his thought processes were slightly slowed, he still maintained at least eighty percent of his peak condition. Even if Dao Lord Penglai faced him, she might be able to defeat him, but it would never be this effortless. It was not merely an easy victory—it was an absolute rout! "How could such a thing happen?!" Dao Lord Taiwei found it impossible to accept. Yaoguang could achieve Dao Integration, yes. But... how could he possibly be this strong?! Unlike the others, Dao Lord Penglai seemed to realize something. A brilliant light sparkled in her eyes. "Realm," she murmured. It was his realm. Just like her, Yaoguang had achieved a profound, peerless comprehension of his Dao long before achieving Dao Integration, far exceeding the realm possessed by many true experts of the Dao Integration Realm. It was precisely this realm and insight, vastly outstripping anything ordinary people could grasp, that allowed him to unleash combat strength surpassing other Dao Lords despite having just broken through. Against Dao Lords of the same Dao, this suppressive dominance was especially immediate. "No! I don't believe it! I refuse to believe this!" Dao Lord Jimie roared, his convictions in tatters. He frantically mobilized every shred of void power he could muster, coalescing it into the sharpest, most lethal Void Swords that slashed out in relentless succession. "You are a newly integrated Dao Lord, elevated through heterodox shortcuts! How could you be this strong?! How could you possibly reach such a level?! I don't believe it! I will not believe it!" Having already gauged the full extent of his current power, Yaoguang had no intention of playing sparring partner any longer. At this moment, his mastery over the Grand Dao of the Void had reached its pinnacle. He was like an absolute sovereign of the void, ruling over the very flow of the Grand Dao of the Void in this region. Relying on a staggering realm bordering on an Immortal Venerable, he forcibly stripped Dao Lord Jimie of more than half his control over the Grand Dao of the Void. Facing the barrage of Void Swords slashing down in desperate frenzy, Yaoguang calmly advanced. The keen sharpness of Void Swords similarly materialized along his own hands. Yet he kept that sharpness bound to his forearms without unleashing it, merely waving his hands one after another at the frantic Void Swords crashing toward him. The motion was as casual as swatting away gnats. Yet every time he swung his arm, the razor sharpness gathered there utterly crushed the collapsing Void Swords that Jimie desperately cleaved downward. No matter how Jimie struggled or how fiercely he exerted himself, the slashing Void Swords could not touch Yaoguang in the slightest. Advancing straight into the crazed onslaught of blades, Yaoguang walked directly in front of Dao Lord Jimie. A gaze carrying the supreme authority of a ruler—and an absolute natural predator—bore down upon Jimie. That look... Finally, terror gripped the broken Dao Lord, who was already on the verge of madness. Jimie's eyes widened in horror as he stared at Yaoguang standing mere inches away. His entire being froze, his mind and consciousness suffocated beneath an unspeakable dread. In this instant, he could not move even half an inch. Paralyzed, he watched as Yaoguang stepped up to him and slowly raised an arm, his pupils dilating with horror. "Jimie!" Demon Saint Kunpeng's furious, panicked roar echoed from the side. Yet Dao Lord Jimie remained frozen, his face ashen, staring in absolute terror at Yaoguang's raised hand. *Bang!* The next instant, the sharpness concentrated in Yaoguang's hand erupted with energy akin to the Great Void Collapse Art, reducing the Dao Lord to fine dust. From beginning to end, Dao Lord Jimie had been so utterly terrified that he offered no resistance at all! "What the f—!" Witnessing this, Dao Lord Taiwei's pupils shrank violently. His mouth dropped open unconsciously as if to cry out in shock, but his voice deserted him, leaving only half a syllable strangled in his throat. As for the other Dao Lords—such as Juntian, Dihui, Qingya, and Danding—their hearts violently shuddered. Dead?! Dao Lord Jimie... was dead?! Yaoguang, a newly integrated Dao Lord who had just broken through, had displayed terrifying combat prowess far eclipsing any veteran Dao Lord, instantly pulverizing Jimie—an ancient Dao Lord renowned for nearly a hundred thousand years—like dry tinder?! This was simply... "Damn it!" "He... he's dead already?!" "Jimie, you useless trash!" On the other side, Demon Venerable Black Moon, God Venerable Radiance, Demon Saint Kunpeng, and Demon Saint Yulin, who were each locked in battle with their respective opponents, cursed in unison. The plan had failed. Worse, Yaoguang had displayed power far exceeding their wildest calculations! Jimie had been beaten to death on the spot! Facing such a monster, how could these Dao Integration experts possess even a sliver of courage to fight to the bitter end? Every one of them made an instant decision, disengaging and retreating at top speed. "Retreat! Fall back!" "Run! Leave this newly integrated Void Dao Lord to the Void Dao Lords to deal with! What does this have to do with us?!" "Leave the territory of the human race!" Amidst violent ripples of divine minds, demon saints, demon venerables, and god venerables turned into streaks of light and plunged through the void, fleeing with all their might. "Leaving? Think you can escape?" Dao Lord Penglai gave a cold huff. She clenched her hand, and boundless Origin power surged like an ocean, sweeping out to bind Demon Saint Kunpeng and Demon Saint Yulin. Faced with mortal peril, the two demon saints acted decisively, each deploying their ultimate life-saving treasures. One used a Void Origin to escape the battlefield, just like Dao Lord Wujin before him. The other triggered pure destructive power through a secret treasure, forcefully corroding a breach through the boundless ocean of Origin power. Just as Dao Lord Penglai hesitated over which one to pursue with full force, Yaoguang's divine mind transmitted a message. "Leave Kunpeng to me! Yulin possesses two pinnacle Dao artifacts—it is time for you to settle things with him, Dao Lord." Hearing this transmission, Dao Lord Penglai's eyes lit up. Without a moment's hesitation, she drove her Origin power to engulf and tear toward Demon Saint Yulin. Meanwhile, Demon Saint Kunpeng triggered his Void Origin and traversed the void, vanishing from the battlefield in the blink of an eye. Yet almost the instant he initiated his void traversal, Yaoguang had already sensed his path through his keen, absolute mastery of the Grand Dao of the Void. Void Flicker. Within half a breath, his figure flickered several times in succession. When Yaoguang's silhouette solidified once more, Demon Saint Kunpeng was just emerging from his void traversal right behind him. Seeing Yaoguang blocking his path, Demon Saint Kunpeng froze in shock. However, his instincts were razor-sharp, and he immediately prepared to traverse the void again to escape. Yet just as he was about to initiate another traversal, Yaoguang pressed down with an empty hand. Even though the demon saint was currently enhanced by Void Essence, he felt an indescribable, crushing pressure bearing down on him. Ultimately, it forcefully squeezed him out of that wondrous, transcendent state of merging with the void. This shocking shift made the demon saint's eyes bulge. "How is this possible?!" Yaoguang did not answer. Having knocked Demon Saint Kunpeng out of his special state, he brought both hands together. The power of the Grand Dao of the Void was immediately drawn by a terrifying force, violently coalescing toward Yaoguang's cupped palms. As the Grand Dao of the Void was stirred, Demon Saint Kunpeng could distinctly feel all the void energy coming alive, spontaneously converging toward Yaoguang. "Not good!" Demon Saint Kunpeng forcefully ramped his resonance with the Grand Dao of the Void to the absolute limit, attempting to channel vast void might for an ultra-long-distance void traversal back to the territory of the Nine Demon Immortal Lineages. However, the moment he mobilized his void power with everything he had, he realized that the feeling of void power converging toward Yaoguang on its own accord was entirely real. With all void power flocking to Yaoguang, the amount of void power Kunpeng could manipulate plummeted drastically. His desperate attempt to execute an ultra-long-distance void traversal was like a carp leaping into the air, dreaming of crossing the Dragon Gate, only to slam violently onto a chopping board. His void traversal failed. He did not even have time to switch his movement Dao art into a defensive or offensive technique. All he could do was watch in despair as Yaoguang, having concentrated the void power to the extreme, pointed a finger down at him. "Great Void Art... Great Collapse Art!" The power of the Grand Dao of the Void that Yaoguang could command was still insufficient. He could not yet fully execute the core Origin Dao art of the Grand Dao of the Void—the Great Void Art. He could only settle for the Great Collapse Art, which focused solely on slaughter and destruction. Yet even so, when this attack containing a trace of the Origin Dao art was unleashed, it descended with the crushing weight of an entire mountain range. The rolling power of the void, bent on annihilating all existence, crashed forward with a suffocating, apocalyptic dread that made Demon Saint Kunpeng's scalp tingle with absolute horror. "Ah!" he roared, manifesting his Heavenly Demon True Body. He transformed into a terrifying phantom spanning tens of thousands of meters, straining with all his might to stir the void power and flee. Yet before his Heavenly Demon True Body could even fully unfurl, the all-annihilating might of the Great Collapse Art unraveled his form inch by inch, turning it into blood and gore. That overwhelming, effortless destruction finally made Demon Saint Kunpeng understand why Dao Lord Jimie had been so pathetic before Yaoguang. He had assumed Jimie was simply too old, his thoughts sluggish, a useless failure. Only now did he truly understand: it was not that Jimie was weak, but that Yaoguang was too strong! A newly integrated Dao Lord... was absurdly overpowered beyond all reason, possessing strength that had no business existing outside the Immortal Realm! "No!" Amidst a scream of utter despair, this demon saint of the Void Dao was completely torn apart and disintegrated by the Great Collapse Art. Aside from a few droplets of demon saint blood essence that Yaoguang intentionally gathered and preserved, nothing remained. The instant Demon Saint Kunpeng perished, Yaoguang's powerful divine mind shuddered violently. His resonance with the Grand Dao surged at a breathtaking speed. This was... the Origin allotment of the Grand Dao of the Void. Vaguely, a far grander power seemed to tug at this allotment, seeking to draw it back to some distant place. However, it was too far away. That magnificent force was so distant that it seemed to exist in an entirely different dimension from this starry sky. No matter how profound and vast it was, it could not compete against Yaoguang, who was right beside the prize and possessed a realm rivaling that of an Immortal Venerable. Before long, an even richer void Dao charm welled up from his body. Yet Yaoguang had no time to savor the transformation. After sensing his surroundings for a brief moment, he quickly locked onto Dao Lord Penglai's aura. Void Flicker. His figure vanished without a trace.