Dao Sovereign

Dao Lord Juntian proved exceptionally efficient. In just a single day, he compiled all the records regarding Dao Sovereign Hongmeng and delivered them over. While Yaoguang browsed through the dossiers concerning Dao Sovereign Hongmeng, Dao Lord Dihui and Dao Lord Taiwei learned from Dao Lord Juntian that he was gathering materials on various Dao Sovereign-level figures to prepare for truly stepping into the Dao Sovereign realm. Without waiting for Dao Lord Juntian to visit them, the two Dao Lords proactively sent over records of their own sects' Dao Sovereigns. The momentum Yaoguang currently displayed was already unrivaled across the Beihai region. Even if he failed to become a Dao Sovereign in the future, he was bound to stand as a leading figure among the Ten Immortal Sects. And if he truly managed to step into the Dao Sovereign realm... He would reign supreme over all of Beihai! For a long time to come, everyone would have to tread carefully around his every breath and whim. Under such circumstances, both factions naturally seized the opportunity to foster good relations. Not only Dao Lord Dihui and Dao Lord Taiwei—once the other powers among the Ten Immortal Sects caught wind of the matter, they also swiftly delivered the records they possessed on other Dao Sovereign-level figures. These dossiers covered not just Dao Sovereigns from Beihai Star, but also rumors and legends of Dao Sovereigns from other star domains. The Great Shang Celestial Dynasty was especially eager. Dao Lord Tianming of the Great Shang Celestial Dynasty not only sent over a star chart spanning over thirty billion light-years that detailed numerous power distributions, but also offered three portions of immortal artifact materials to express gratitude for the timely assistance of the two Dao Lords, Yaoguang and Penglai. Although Yaoguang and Penglai had confronted the God Race with the intention of hunting Dao Lords, and the six God Race Venerables had targeted Dao Lord Tianming merely as bait to lure Yaoguang in, nevertheless... Dao Lord Tianming had ultimately been caught in the middle of it. To a certain degree, had Yaoguang and Penglai not stepped forward, the six God Venerables might well have played along with the situation and devoured Dao Lord Tianming outright. Viewed from this angle, the two had saved Dao Lord Tianming's life. Yet after the danger was lifted, Dao Lord Tianming and the other Dao Lords of the Four Great Celestial Dynasties not only failed to aid Yaoguang and Penglai against the six God Venerables, but fled in haste back to the four celestial dynasties. If Yaoguang and the six God Venerables had fought to mutual destruction, it might not have mattered. But in that very battle, Yaoguang and Penglai demonstrated an invincible might that dominated Beihai, slaying eleven Dao Lords in a single engagement... Such ferocity thoroughly terrified the Dao Lords of the Four Great Celestial Dynasties. If Yaoguang decided to hold them accountable for abandoning an ally after the fact... Even if all the Dao Lords of the Four Great Celestial Dynasties joined forces, it would not be enough to stop the slaughter. Furthermore, Yaoguang would have every justification and the moral high ground on his side; if he wiped out the Dao Lords of the Four Great Celestial Dynasties, everyone else would applaud the deed. Once Dao Lord Tianming realized the dire implications, he naturally dared not hesitate for an instant, immediately turning the Great Shang Celestial Dynasty's treasury inside out. He even borrowed a portion of immortal artifact materials from the other three celestial dynasties, hurrying to the Heavenly Dao Sect to apologize and make amends under the guise of offering thanks. To this, Yaoguang showed no hesitation in accepting. Indeed, Dao Lord Tianming and the Four Great Celestial Dynasties were at fault first, so he accepted these apologetic gifts with a clear conscience. With the full-throated assistance of nearly half of Beihai Star's top powers across the Ten Immortal Sects and the Four Great Celestial Dynasties, Yaoguang gained an intuitive picture of the Dao Sovereign-level figures born throughout the history of Beihai Star and the surrounding starry expanse. *** "A full thirteen Dao Sovereigns have been born in the history of Beihai Star. Yet across the surrounding star domains—stretching as far as forty billion light-years away—the legends of Dao Sovereign-level figures... mention only six!" As Yaoguang spoke, he glanced at the six legends of Dao Sovereigns beyond the Beihai Star Domain. The most distant Dao Sovereign had been active more than forty billion light-years away... The diameter of the cosmos was only three hundred billion light-years, with a radius of just one hundred and fifty billion. Of course, this did not mean the universe was strictly limited to this size. Rather, beyond the innermost hundred-billion-light-year core, the farther one traveled toward the periphery, the scarcer the rules and matter evolved from the Great Dao became. Fifty billion light-years away from the cosmic center, spatial nodes capable of spatial traversal grew sparse. By one hundred billion light-years out, spatial nodes were virtually extinct, leaving the final fifty billion light-years entirely to the Dao Lords' manual flight. Even so, the expanse charted by Dao Lords still spanned only a diameter of one hundred and fifty billion light-years. Its central position was occupied by a colossus known as the Everlasting Life Sect. It lay twenty billion light-years from Beihai Star. "The Everlasting Life Sect," Yaoguang murmured. All by itself, this behemoth occupied three Gates of the Immortal Realm, with its core sphere of influence spanning more than ten billion light-years. As for beyond that... For Dao Lords to cross over ten billion light-years often required a thousand years of time. Regions beyond ten billion light-years exceeded the reach of the Everlasting Life Sect's power projection. If they dared to throw their weight around in star domains beyond that distance, the local Dao Lords would not hesitate to teach them that even a mighty dragon could not crush a local snake. The Everlasting Life Sect likewise worried about provoking public outrage and drawing the enmity of all Dao Lords, so they rarely set foot in star domains outside their reach of power projection. Yet that was not the crucial point. The crucial point was the name of the Dao Sovereign born within the Everlasting Life Sect. "Dao Sovereign Changsheng?" Next, Yaoguang shifted his gaze to the legends of the other five Dao Sovereigns. Two of them seemed somewhat familiar. Buddha Fanjing, who hailed from Mount Fanjing. Among the nine great conglomerates of the Immortal Realm, there was a Brahma Group. There was also Dao Sovereign Huanyin, who hailed from the Star Sun Sect, and among the nine great conglomerates of the Immortal Realm was the Star Sun Group. "Additionally, there are quite a few familiar yet foreign figures on Beihai Star as well. The most glaring among them is Dao Sovereign Creation! And among the nine great conglomerates of the Immortal Realm, there is also a Creation Group." Yaoguang set down the dossiers in his hand. If he had previously only harbored conjectures about whether the Dao Sovereigns were reincarnations of Immortal Kings, at this very moment, he was almost certain of it. His true question now did not lie in the reincarnation of Immortal Kings, but rather... Why were Immortal Kings clustering together to reincarnate on Beihai Star? Although Beihai Star had a Gate of the Immortal Realm, based on the information he possessed, the number of Gates of the Immortal Realm was by no means small. They either totaled three thousand, or eighty-one. Having a Gate of the Immortal Realm did not make Beihai Star unique. As for the center of the cosmos... The cosmic center was occupied by the Everlasting Life Sect, not Beihai Star. Beihai Star lay twenty billion light-years away from that so-called central region. Under these circumstances, why were there thirteen recorded Dao Sovereigns on Beihai Star, while the other star domains had merely six? "Either the information I have is too sparse and one-sided, or... Beihai Star holds something special," Yaoguang pondered. Soon, as if an idea struck him, he quickly unrolled one of the star charts. On this star chart, there was a "circle" spanning a diameter of one billion light-years. Spatial nodes formed this immense circle. Yaoguang recalled the initial guess that had flashed through his mind upon first seeing this "circle"... "A cosmic cataclysm, or..." Yaoguang paused. "...the fall of a great being." And Beihai Star happened to sit right within this circle of one billion light-years in diameter. After a long while, Yaoguang withdrew his gaze from the star chart and stored it away into his storage treasure. Then, he put away all the dossiers on the Dao Sovereigns and focused his consciousness on his spiritual world. Eleven Dao Lords. Along with the trillions in wealth accumulated across those eleven Dao Lords, all of it had become Yaoguang's spoils of war. On the Glazed Ancient Tree within his spiritual world, both the [Demon Hunting] branch and the [Merchant] branch hung heavy with energy as thick as pitch-black ink. Whether he invested this energy into [Artifact Crafting] or [Dao Integration: Void], either progress bar would surge dramatically. However... Yaoguang sank his mind into the Grand Dao of the Void. Ordinary Void Dao Lords were relatively weak and might fail to sense it, but with the realm of an Immortal Venerable, he could clearly perceive the terrifying entity coiled within the entire Grand Dao of the Void. That entity had yet to depart. For the time being, Yaoguang had no choice but to turn his gaze toward [Void Shattering: Time]. "I'll first raise the Dao of Time to the Dao Integration level. Regardless of the Dao, advancing from Void Shattering to Dao Integration marks a qualitative transformation. Moreover, elevating the Dao of Time will yield an immediate boost to my combat prowess." With a thought, a portion of the energy was channeled and poured into the [Void Shattering: Time] branch. Because the branch had long since grown to the point of bearing blossoms and fruit, in mere moments, Yaoguang felt a qualitative leap in his realm. Yet this breakthrough and enhancement primarily manifested in Shaohua. At this moment, he seemed to become the darling of time; no matter how the years washed over him or time slipped away, he remained entirely untouched. Vaguely, his perception of all things in the world was no longer confined to the realms of "vision" and "awareness," but had ascended to the fourth dimension—time. The shifts of all creation gradually revealed discernible trajectories before his eyes. Yet these traces remained insufficiently distinct, so much so that what he could actually do seemed no different from when he was at Void Shattering. By pushing "time" forward, he could strip away the "temporal" process required for certain Dao arts to be prepared and unleashed, casting them in advance. "I can only accelerate Dao arts. As for immortal arts... that is, source immortal arts, I'll have to wait until the Dao of Time also evolves into a source Dao art..." Yaoguang made an assessment and reached a conclusion: "This transformation will only make me stronger when facing Dao Integration opponents. But at the Dao Sovereign level... or the level of immortal arts, it still has virtually no impact." He could crush weaklings faster now. Faced with true powerhouses, he would still be forced to yield. "Never mind. Throughout history, a Dao Sovereign only appears once every several hundred thousand years, and any who do might not emerge on Beihai Star. The odds of running into one are still exceedingly slim..." Yaoguang murmured, then paused. Sensing that terrifying presence coiled within the Grand Dao of the Void... Immediately afterward, he rapidly advanced the progress of the [Dao Integration: Time] branch, raising it in one breath to the 10/10,000 mark. Having done that, he turned his focus to the [Artifact Crafting] branch. "The cultivation of a Human Immortal is exceptionally reliant on external objects like immortal artifacts. Without an immortal artifact of sufficient strength, even if I possessed a void Dao share of 10 or even 100, I wouldn't be able to refine it. Therefore..." A vast flood of "experience" surged into the [Artifact Crafting] branch, propelling it at breakneck speed to 100% of the sixteenth rank, where it bloomed and bore fruit. After a brief pause, the progress climbed straight to the seventeenth rank. Beyond the seventeenth rank, the boost provided by a single Dao Lord had dropped to around 10%. However, considering the gains from trillions worth of materials and supplies, he did not halt, channeling every last bit of energy into this branch. Finally... Just as the energy was on the verge of exhaustion, the [Artifact Crafting] branch, having newly reached the seventeenth rank, bloomed and bore fruit once again, and then... "Eighteenth rank," Yaoguang murmured softly. Such mastery in artifact crafting... Was comparable to an Immortal King!