Consequences

Though the Great Collapse Art was not the Great Void Art, its power still surpassed any Void Dao art, including the Void Sword. In particular, not only had Yaoguang’s share of the Grand Dao of the Void reached the utmost limit the lower realm could accommodate, but he had also refined two immortal artifacts. Bolstered by such power, so long as he did not run into a true Dao Sovereign who was the reincarnation of an Immortal King, he could roam the vast cosmos entirely at will. “Courting death!” Confronted by Yaoguang’s brazen, preemptive strike, the Destruction Dao Lord unleashed his divine mind. He swung his Destruction Battle-Axe through the air—a weapon bearing the might of a pinnacle Dao artifact—shaking the void and driving the power of the Grand Dao of Destruction to its peak. A single cleave looked capable of carving an entire river of stars across the void. Yet before the river of stars cleaved by this blow could spread outward and engulf the surrounding sea of stars, the all-annihilating might of the Great Collapse Art crashed down. In a single impact, regardless of whether it was Destruction Dao arts or Destruction Dao artifacts, everything fell apart in total collapse. The colossal axe he swung down with thunderous fury disintegrated at a visible rate, splintering into countless shards. The exploding power tore through the Dao-artifact-grade battleship like dry rot, sending even more dazzling, brilliant torrents of light blasting in all directions. Whether it was True Monarch Fuhai and True Monarch Huangfeng right nearby, or the True Monarch who had been so arrogant earlier, all were swept up in this stray Void torrent. In the very next second, their flesh and souls would effortlessly be smashed into fine powder. Yet right at this moment, Yaoguang seemed to “see” something. The materials used to forge this great axe were surprisingly of immortal-artifact grade. Destroying such materials directly would be a terrible waste. For a moment, he could not help holding back slightly. The remnant force of the Great Collapse Art did not entirely shatter the great axe, which also meant the Destruction Dao Lord behind it only had a small fraction of his body collapsed and destroyed, allowing him to seize the opportunity to violently pull back. The True Monarchs beside him who were on the verge of being swept away and killed by the aftershocks were spared their lives as a result. Such terrifying Dao Lord combat and violent release of energy scared the surviving Void Shattering cultivators out of their wits. Every single one fled with all their might, frantically deploying forbidden arts, secret techniques, and treasures, wanting nothing more than to get as far away from Yaoguang as possible. Right at this moment, Yaoguang seemed to sense something. The Void power he commanded appeared to be suppressed by another Grand Dao. At the same time, an incantation delivered in a somewhat sacred tone echoed in his ears: “The void is eternal, the void is forever silent, the void is vast, the void is boundless; the great void slumbers across countless ages, never decaying, never diminishing, never fading, never wearing away, forever unique and unchanging.” The Grand Dao of Truth. Under the interference of the Grand Dao of Truth, the Grand Dao of the Void seemed to grow thoroughly “inert,” showing every sign of sinking into slumber, eternally unchanging, unable to be stirred by any Dao Lord. In a one-on-one scenario, this Grand Dao was indeed extraordinary. Especially since the Dao Lord wielding the Grand Dao of Truth also possessed a pinnacle Dao artifact. Stacking the two together, any other pinnacle Dao Lord would likely have had the Void power they could mobilize sheared away by half. Even though every Dao Lord often cultivated other Grand Daos on the side, having the Grand Dao most attuned to oneself suppressed would instantly slash their combat strength by thirty or forty percent—an invincible Dao Lord would be dragged down to a pinnacle Dao Lord, and a pinnacle Dao Lord would only be able to perform on par with an established Dao Lord. Such a method was sufficient to reverse the outcome of a battle. Unfortunately... Before Yaoguang, whose realm was as high as an Immortal Venerable’s, the Grand Dao of Truth proved useless. Even truth had to yield to sheer power! Or rather, there was only one true truth—and that was overwhelming might! Buzz, buzz! Under Yaoguang’s guidance, the Grand Dao of the Void—which had grown slightly inert—erupted in an instant with incomparable ferocity. Like an enraged beast, bearing thunderous momentum, it unleashed a power that shook the starry sky. As Yaoguang gathered up the preserved core materials with one hand—only their outer layers having been shattered—his other hand made an empty grasping motion. Another Great Collapse Art coalesced in that fleeting span of time and came crashing down toward this pinnacle Dao Lord. “Such strength...!” The Dao Lord cultivating the Grand Dao of Truth widened his eyes in horror. Rumble! The unstoppable force surged like a tsunami crashing onto a continent, instantly obliterating every structure built along the shore. This Dao Lord was like a mortal of flesh and blood facing a nuclear explosion; more than half his body was annihilated in an instant. Had Yaoguang not deemed the pinnacle Dao artifacts in their hands to be of some value, making it a pity to smash them outright, he would have switched to the Great Void Art to shatter their bodies along with their artifacts completely. Even so, the cultivator of the Grand Dao of Truth, who was nearly blasted out of his wits, was filled with terror. Sacrificing a life-saving treasure, he instantly fled toward the far ends of the starry sky! The Void Dao Lord, who was a step slower, was frightened nearly out of his mind by the scene before him. “An invincible Dao Lord! This is definitely the strongest invincible Dao Lord... No! A Dao Sovereign! You are Dao Sovereign Po Suo?! It's a misunderstanding—this is all a misunderstanding!” The Void Dao Lord shouted frantically, stripped of even the slightest shred of his earlier arrogance as a Dao Lord. Yet Yaoguang paid him no heed at all. With a sweep of Void Blink, he caught up to the Destruction Dao Lord, who had possessed the greatest confidence, in an instant. His speed far exceeded anything this Dao Lord, who specialized solely in frontal combat, could imagine. “Dao Sovereign Po Suo, show mercy...” The Destruction Dao Lord immediately projected his divine mind while once more channeling the power of the Grand Dao of Destruction. Furthermore, likely due to using some rare treasure, the speed at which this round of destruction Dao power gathered far surpassed the comprehension of ordinary Dao Lords. If given merely a moment to catch his breath, he would likely be able to rely on the rare treasure to instantly unleash a powerful Destruction Dao art capable of clashing head-on and overwhelming even the Great Collapse Art. However, Yaoguang did not give him that chance. Everyone who managed to become a Dao Lord was among the most pinnacle existences across the starry cosmos. Against an opponent like this, one either didn't strike, or struck with everything they had. Thus, the Ten Directions Heavenly Realm within him had already been activated the moment he unleashed the Great Collapse Art, and now it formed a visible ripple that swept across the area at high speed. As it swept over the Destruction Dao Lord, the formulation of his nearly complete Destruction Dao art—one capable of instakilling an ordinary Dao Lord—slowed down by a clear fraction. His soul awareness had been disrupted! By that single fraction of a difference, another round of the Great Collapse Art descended right behind it. This time... With his soul awareness disrupted, the Destruction Dao Lord did not even have the chance to activate an escape treasure. In fact, under the influence on his soul, he couldn't even leave any dying words before he and the surrounding space were shattered, collapsed, and annihilated into nothingness by this strike of the Great Collapse Art. Fallen! Among the three Dao Lords, the first to fall was actually the strongest, the Destruction Dao Lord whose frontal combat prowess rivaled a pinnacle Dao Lord! “No!” Not far away came the desperate screams of True Monarch Fuhai, True Monarch Huangfeng, and that Void True Monarch. They had already been doing everything in their power to flee the battlefield. Yet their definition of a battlefield differed from a Dao Lord’s. Just as now, when Yaoguang smashed down a single Great Collapse Art, what collapsed was an expanse of starry space spanning hundreds of millions of li. In such a brief span of time, even cultivators as strong as Void Shattering could not escape hundreds of millions of li away. In the end, they could only watch helplessly as the aftershocks of the Great Collapse Art that killed the Destruction Dao Lord rolled out in all directions, sweeping over their bodies with casual ease and crushing them into nothingness like ants. “Dao Sovereign, we are not enemies...!” Seeing this, the Truth Dao Lord vibrated his divine mind and brought out a Void secret treasure that could allow him to retreat unscathed even if trapped within the Xingri Sect's mountain-protecting grand array. This Void secret treasure... seemed to distort space-time. Though he appeared to be right before one's eyes at this very moment, in reality, as time flowed, his figure had already fled more than a dozen breaths away. In other words, this secret treasure could confound a cultivator's perception of time. “Not just time, but also the subtlety of a Soul Dao art... This is River of Time water!” Yaoguang quickly identified what it was. It had to be said that none of these Dao Lords could be underestimated; none could predict what kind of trump cards they would reveal when hovering between life and death. Unfortunately, whether it was the power of time or the power of the soul, Yaoguang was far from deficient. As he used the power of “Shaohua” to see through the Truth Dao Lord’s trajectory of flight, he stepped forward once more, pursuing him. On the other side, a glimmer of agony flickered in the eyes of the sole surviving Void Dao Lord, Yunmiao. “How could this happen?! Why did it turn out like this?!” In his heart, he hated that disciple of his to the bone. If not for that disciple's initial insolence, they would not have put on such an aggressive front. And had they not acted so overbearing, the situation would never have collapsed to this point. Yet now, anything said was utterly meaningless. “Flee!” Seeing Yaoguang give chase to the Truth Dao Lord, he cast a Void Dao art without the slightest hesitation, fleeing the battlefield in the opposite direction at top speed, not caring in the least about rescuing the Truth Dao Lord. Better a fellow daoist die than poor Daoist himself. This was the shared consensus among nearly every Dao Lord in their alliance. ... Whiz! On the other side, although the Truth Dao Lord had distorted more than a dozen breaths of time with the River of Time water and vanished directly from the battlefield, he was ultimately seen through by Yaoguang, whose attainment in time had reached the Dao Integration level. Once a trace was found, with Yaoguang’s mastery of the Void, no Dao Lord could ever hope to escape from his grasp. In merely an instant, his figure appeared behind the Truth Dao Lord. With another flicker, he blocked right in front of the frantically fleeing Dao Lord. “How could this be...” The eyes of this Dao Lord of the Grand Dao of Truth were filled with disbelief. He seemed unable to fathom that Yaoguang could actually track him down. Jolted back to his senses, he immediately trembled as he projected his divine mind: “Dao Sovereign Po Suo, please give me a chance to redeem myself with service! We—” Boom! What awaited him was a Great Collapse Art smashed down without the slightest hesitation. Everyone had to bear the consequences of their own choices. ... A few breaths later, Yaoguang gathered the spoils left behind by this Dao Lord, and with a few flickers, returned to the battlefield. On the battlefield, Dao Lord Yunmiao was nowhere to be seen. No matter... Yaoguang reached out into the void, plucking at the Grand Dao of the Void like strumming the strings of a zither. In merely a moment, through the vibrations and resonance of the Grand Dao of the Void, he discovered something. “Found you.” Void Blink. His figure gave chase right after Dao Lord Yunmiao.