Terror

"Wait for an opportunity to strike?" Dao Lord Zhuanhe hesitated upon hearing this. The torrent of destruction constantly radiating from the clash between Yaoguang and Jinguang remained vivid in his mind. That... That was simply not a power an ordinary Dao Lord could stand against! If an ordinary Dao Lord drew near, a mere brush meant death, and a touch meant grievous injury. However, while he knew it was perilous—and that when two titans clashed, the third party was often crushed in between—he also recognized deep down that this situation was truly a once-in-a-millennium opportunity for the Star Slayer Alliance. "Regardless of the outcome, let us leave first." In the end, Dao Lord Zhuanhe decided they would make their final move based on how events unfolded. The dozens of Dao Lords from the Star Slayer Alliance had already held the upper hand in their brawl against the Xingri Sect's Star Radiance, Dark Moon, and Sky Patrol squads. Wiping out all eighteen Dao Lords across those three squads had only been a matter of time. Now that they wished to pull back, they did so with utter composure. Before long, the thirty-odd remaining Dao Lords of the Star Slayer Alliance had completely withdrawn. The sudden lifting of pressure left the three squads, who had been clinging desperately to life under a siege by enemies three times their number, momentarily dazed. To say nothing of the other Dao Lords, even pinnacle Dao Lords like Qianjie and Wanjie felt the overwhelming relief of having survived a catastrophe. "We... held out?" "We lived! We survived..." "The battle fluctuations over there... Reinforcements are here! The Sect Master brought the sect's elites to save us!" If not for knowing that the reinforcements led by the Sect Master would arrive soon, combined with the fact that the Star Slayer Alliance's Dao Lords valued their lives and attacked rather conservatively, they could never have held out this long. And now... "We won!" Once the initial relief passed, the eight surviving members across the three squads could not help but cheer, venting the joy in their hearts. Dao Lord Tianyan, commander of the Sky Patrol Guard, was the exception. Cultivating Dao arts suited to perception, he had not only monitored their own battlefield but had also kept a close eye on the other one. Even though the eight surviving Dao Lords had narrowly escaped death and were all utterly exhausted, he spoke with a heavy voice: "The situation is wrong! That Dao Lord Yaoguang... seems more like a foe than a friend!" "More foe than friend?" Dao Lord Qianjie was slightly taken aback. "Of the eleven Star Slayer Alliance Dao Lords we killed, four fell by his hand. He is clearly loyal and devoted to our Xingri Sect. How could he be a foe rather than a friend?" "He does not belong to the Star Slayer Alliance, nor is his heart necessarily aligned with our Xingri Sect... Perhaps he merely wished to win our trust, and then..." Mid-sentence, Dao Lord Tianyan suddenly sensed something. "Where is the Sect Master?! I clearly felt the aura of the Sect Master unleashing his full power earlier. Why can't I sense it now?" With that, he probed the unresolved battle in the distance and urgently added, "Quick, we must rush to aid the Sect Master!" "Tianyan, are you out of your mind? Don't tell me you think Yaoguang's ultimate goal in all of this was to win our trust just to get close and assassinate the Sect Master?" Dao Lord Wanjie waved a hand weakly. "What kind of figure is the Sect Master? A Dao Sovereign-level existence standing above invincible Dao Lords, a supreme hegemon who once single-handedly suppressed every dissenting faction within the Xingri Sect! No matter how formidable Yaoguang is, he could never assassinate the Sect Master!" The others nodded in deep agreement. Under the Star Slayer Alliance's relentless siege, their vitality had been nearly drained dry, and they had exhausted their trump cards just to survive until now. At this moment, they had no desire to move an inch. Even less did they wish to rush into action over Tianyan's absurd conjecture. They simply could not endure any more turmoil. "Incredible as it may sound, this is what the current intelligence suggests! Didn't you see how the Star Slayer Alliance retreated of their own accord? That proves they believe the Sect Master and his group might fight Yaoguang to mutual ruin. Therefore, the Sect Master and the others need our help," Dao Lord Tianyan said urgently. "Perhaps it is merely a temporary conflict of interest," Dao Lord Qianjie suggested. "Yaoguang probably wants a spot to ascend to the Immortal Realm. At worst, when the time comes, we can persuade the Sect Master to grant him one." "I fear that might be difficult. From what I have seen, Yaoguang cultivates the Grand Dao of the Void, and the quota for the Grand Dao of the Void has already been allocated to Vice Sect Master Youxu... Could that be the reason they clashed?" "Youxu has already reached the position of Vice Sect Master and holds immense power. If we ask him to defer by one round and enter the Immortal Realm in the next cycle, he might not refuse," another Dao Lord chimed in. Seeing this, Dao Lord Tianyan could not help but press, "Everyone, the Sect Master needs our aid over there..." The conversing Dao Lords exchanged glances. Finally, Dao Lord Wanjie turned his gaze back to Tianyan and let out a sigh. "Can you really not see it? We... no longer possess the strength to reinforce the Sect Master! He has Youxu and the elders by his side. Even if Yaoguang wished to rebel, he would be easily suppressed... And if they cannot suppress him, that only proves one thing: he is far more powerful than we imagined. Under such circumstances, what would be the point of a bunch of Dao Lords with virtually no combat strength left rushing over?" At these words, Dao Lord Tianyan froze. In his haste, he had completely overlooked this reality. If they did not go, they could feign ignorance and seize the time to recover their strength to deal with whatever came next. At the very least, they could preserve some vitality for the Xingri Sect. Yet if they went... Should Yaoguang truly be powerful enough to frighten off the Star Slayer Alliance and suppress the Sect Master's contingent, would they intervene or not? Right then, an intense ripple of Great Dao energy spread outward. Faintly, the Dao Lords seemed to hear a mourning wail within the Dao. This was... A Dao Lord had fallen?! Earlier, when their three squads had been locked in a death match against the Star Slayer Alliance, no fewer than twenty Dao Lords had perished between both sides. Tremors caused by the fall of a Dao Lord had erupted every so often, and they had had no leisure to dwell on them. But now, their battle with the Star Slayer Alliance had temporarily ceased, yet a Dao Lord had still fallen. Above all... "It isn't the Grand Dao of the Void!" Dao Lord Qianjie's expression turned grim. He was a cultivator of the Grand Dao of the Void, as was Yaoguang. Now, the incessantly trembling Dao was not the Grand Dao of the Void. That proved only one thing... "The Grand Dao of Nirvana. It is Elder Yufei," another Dao Lord whispered. On the Sect Master's battlefield... A Dao Lord had actually fallen?! "More than one Dao Lord has fallen over there," a Dao Lord proficient in divination suddenly spoke up. "Led by the Sect Master, thirteen Dao Lords set out to reinforce us, intending to coordinate from within and without to eradicate the core forces of the Star Slayer Alliance and shatter our greatest rival in this cycle. But now, I can only sense seven auras..." Before he had even finished speaking, another tremor of the Great Dao rippled through the void. However, because so many Dao Lords had fallen during this period, leaving the various Daos constantly trembling, everyone was growing numb to it. Had these Dao Lords not been relatively close and actively probing, they would scarcely have noticed the subtle trace of that tremor. "Six..." the Dao Lord corrected himself. "How is that possible?!" Dao Lord Qianjie had considered that an unforeseen disaster might have struck the Sect Master's side, but he had never imagined it could be this catastrophic. Out of thirteen Dao Lords, only six remained?! Such a loss was in no way inferior to the brutal clash their three squads had just endured against dozens of Dao Lords from the Star Slayer Alliance. "Commander, what do we do next?" The remaining Dao Lords turned their eyes toward the three commanders. The expressions of the three commanders shifted rapidly. If the thirteen elites led by the Sect Master could not withstand this outsider named Yaoguang, then charging in themselves... would likely be nothing more than throwing their lives away. Yet... "How could this be?! How is this possible?! How could Yaoguang be so powerful? The Sect Master... The Sect Master is a Dao Sovereign, a figure standing at the pinnacle of the universe..." Qianjie refused to accept the reality before him. "It is just as we guessed earlier," Dao Lord Tianyan said tersely. "A sneak attack." "If it was a sneak attack, that explains why Sect Master Youxu and the others have not fled!" Dao Lord Wanjie stood up, his voice grim. "We need to reinforce Sect Master Youxu! That Yaoguang only managed to slay the Sect Master through a treacherous sneak attack, or perhaps by deploying bizarre artifacts to grievously injure those around him. His true strength cannot be that overwhelming! That is precisely why Sect Master Youxu and his group have not retreated, choosing instead to fight him to the bitter end—because they still have hope of victory! If we head over now, we can swiftly turn that hope into reality, execute this madman who committed an unforgivable atrocity on the spot, and restore the glory of our Xingri Sect!" Though these Dao Lords were thoroughly exhausted, their sect pride and the boundless confidence forged by countless eras of supremacy spurred them to respond in unison. "Let's go!" "No one may challenge the majesty of our Xingri Sect!" "Our Xingri Sect has towered over this starry sky for millions of years! What violent storms have we not weathered? Over all these years, we have endured and survived calamity after calamity. To this day, the Xingri Sect remains the undisputed hegemon of this starry sky! It is now, and it will remain so in the future!" Without a single exception, all eight Dao Lords swiftly sped toward the battlefield in the distant stars. A sect's greatest core was its inner spirit. It was precisely through this state—one that outsiders viewed as sheer arrogance—that the Xingri Sect forged its immense cohesion, endowing its members with the conviction to fight to the very last moment no matter the danger. And it was this very conviction that had allowed the Xingri Sect to stand atop this starry sky through countless tribulations. Soon, the party of eight arrived at the starry expanse they had pinpointed as the battlefield. Yet here... There seemed to be no Dao Lords present. It was as though the battle had already concluded, and whether Xingri Sect or Yaoguang, everyone had departed. "What is going on?" Dao Lord Wanjie could not help but ask. Puzzled, Dao Lords Qianjie and Tianyan quickly began their investigation. Right then, however, the tremor of another Dao Lord's fall rippled outward through the Great Dao. And the epicenter of that tremor... was right within this very expanse of stars! At once, Dao Lord Qianjie, who cultivated the Grand Dao of the Void, caught onto something. "No, there is something wrong with this space..." Almost simultaneously, the space ahead surged violently. Immediately afterward, a figure appeared to break through the spatial barrier via a forbidden art. A phantom silhouette painfully materialized, his potent divine mind transmitting a despair-filled cry: "He's a Dao Sovereign! Run!"