Destruction

"A Dao Lord of Time." Yaoguang locked onto one of the twelve Dao Lords maintaining the formation with pinpoint precision. Not only was there a Dao Lord of Time, but beside him stood a Dao Lord of Samsara as well. It appeared the Xingri Sect had summoned every single Dao Lord they had, including those kept solely to preserve and pass down their lineages. This was the entirety of their power. Led by Dao Lord Changqing, these Dao Lords stood around the periphery of the formation. Through a palace he held aloft, they resonated with one another, forcefully elevating the formation's might to an even higher tier. Even if it had not reached the standard of an immortal formation, it was likely not far off. Relying on this formation, even though the Xingri Sect had suffered catastrophic losses—having lost thirty-one Dao Lords in a single battle—they were still capable of defending the Gate of the Immortal Realm to the death, holding off an attack by several times their own number of Dao Lords. "We guessed you wouldn't let things rest, so we deliberately left the teleportation gate leading directly into our heartland open. Yet we never imagined... you would truly be daring enough to come to exterminate us all!" Lifting the palace that radiated vast Dao resonance and brimmed with the might to warp the void, Dao Lord Changqing glared fixedly at Yaoguang. "If your hostility toward our Xingri Sect had not reached such an extreme, and you had chosen to bide your time—striking and killing whenever someone from our Xingri Sect left headquarters—without sufficient external revenue to sustain the formation, the Xingri Sect would have collapsed on its own within a few thousand years! But you shouldn't have been so impatient to uproot our Xingri Sect before our sect's foundation was depleted, walking straight into the trap we prepared for you—and for all those Dao Lords who thought they could take advantage of our misfortune!" This top Dao Lord who had always presided over the sect gave a long roar. His divine sense instantly merged with the entire formation. "Right now, the time has come for me to avenge the fellow Daoists of the Xingri Sect who perished, and let the world truly witness the foundation of our Xingri Sect! Heavenly Punishment Immortal Slaying Formation! Slay immortals! Slaughter demons!" Rumble! As this Dao Lord set the formation in motion, the entire grand formation surged violently. His power and the power of the remaining eleven Dao Lords seemed to link into a single whole. Through the formation... or more precisely, through the palace held aloft by Dao Lord Changqing, all their power condensed, manifesting a towering, majestic silhouette. This was... "Dao Sovereign Huanyin!" Yaoguang, who had reviewed the Xingri Sect's records, recognized him immediately. His gaze shifted toward that immortal artifact-grade palace, sensing the Dao Sovereign's aura within it. Just as Dao Sovereign Hongmeng had forged the Golden Book of the Grand Dao for the Heavenly Dao Sect in the past, Dao Sovereign Huanyin had likewise left behind an immortal artifact for the Xingri Sect. However, whether it was because Dao Sovereign Huanyin had arrived in this starry sky in an era far more ancient than Dao Sovereign Hongmeng, or because the Xingri Sect had monopolized a Gate of the Immortal Realm and possessed more resources to nurture far more Dao Lords, the Golden Book of the Grand Dao had only grown to the level of a peak semi-immortal artifact over all these years. It would take at least tens of thousands—if not hundreds of thousands—of years to truly transform into an immortal artifact. Yet this palace had already evolved into a genuine immortal artifact. With the aid of the formation and this immortal artifact, the twelve Dao Lords of the Xingri Sect manifested the silhouette of Dao Sovereign Huanyin, which was clearly the Xingri Sect's greatest trump card. "Dao Lords are divided into newly ascended Dao Lords, ordinary Dao Lords, renowned Dao Lords, top Dao Lords, and invincible Dao Lords, and the same holds true for Dao Sovereigns! Our Xingri Sect's sect master may have only been a newly ascended Dao Sovereign, while you... are at most at the level of a renowned Dao Sovereign! But our Xingri Sect's founder, the great Dao Sovereign Huanyin, was without question the strongest existence among Dao Sovereigns, an invincible-grade powerhouse!" Dao Lord Changqing's eyes were filled with fanaticism. "Even if this is merely a phantom of him, an avatar, with our home-field advantage, crushing and slaying you is child's play!" The moment his words fell, the entire formation ran at full throttle. The silhouette of Dao Sovereign Huanyin stepped forward, clenching an illusory hand. Guided by a rule that seemed to transcend Dao Lords, flowing light condensed across the entire expanse with him as the center. This was... He was unmistakably a Dao Sovereign of the Grand Dao of Flowing Light. What he was unleashing now was the signature origin Dao art of the Grand Dao of Flowing Light—the Great Flowing Light Art! As this Dao art coalesced, Yaoguang felt the "speed" around him grind to a halt. Friction generates heat. The essence of high temperature was derived from the high-speed motion between molecules. Yet when the Great Flowing Light Art was about to be unleashed, molecular motion seemed to freeze, directly stripping cultivators of their ability to use any energy and making it difficult for any form of energy to manifest. This included the physical bodies maintained by Dao Lords. "To some extent, the Grand Dao of Flowing Light is subordinate to the Grand Dao of the Void. When your Xingri Sect's Dao Lord Jinguang clashed with me, it was already proven that such a Dao art is inferior to the origin Dao art I wield!" There was no fear in Yaoguang's eyes. Since this palace... and the silhouette of Dao Sovereign Huanyin manifested by it were the Xingri Sect's final reliance, he would crush them completely. As the Grand Dao of the Void was stirred by the Ten Directions Heavenly Abyss Pagoda and the Wuji Sword upon him, a Great Void Art coalesced and blasted directly toward the Great Flowing Light Art gathered by Dao Sovereign Huanyin's silhouette. Instantly... All aspects of the Grand Dao of Flowing Light seemed to lose their foundation for existence, stripped of the qualification to manifest in this world. The flowing light across the void scattered immediately. Seeing this, Dao Lord Changqing felt terror in his heart. Yet he did not retreat. "An immortal art! Dao Sovereign-level power!" He knew very well that even if mortal beings could display combat prowess of this tier with the aid of external objects and claim to be Dao Sovereigns based on such strength, they could not sustain it for long. This had been true for their Xingri Sect's sect master, Dao Sovereign Jinguang! The same held true for Yaoguang before him. The key was to see who could hold out until the end! "I refuse to believe that a newly ascended Dao Sovereign like you... a Dao Sovereign who at most is only a fraction stronger than a newly ascended one, can overcome several million years of our Xingri Sect's foundation!" Resolution hardened in Dao Lord Changqing's eyes. He once again activated the power of the palace, forming a new round of the Great Flowing Light Art to flood Yaoguang's Great Void Art, using flowing light to saturate the void as it continued washing toward Yaoguang. Seeing this, Yaoguang fearlessly struck out with another Great Void Art! Back before the Wuji Sword had transformed, he could already unleash eight to ten Great Void Arts in succession! Now that the Wuji Sword had transformed into an immortal artifact, and the Ten Directions Heavenly Realm and Heavenly Abyss Pagoda had fused into the Ten Directions Heavenly Abyss Pagoda—a supreme sacred artifact with staggering potential—how could his strength be compared to before? It was not merely a fraction stronger. Not only was casting the Great Void Art smoother than before, but unleashing it a dozen or twenty times in a single breath was nothing difficult. Instantly, the Great Void Art and the Great Flowing Light Art clashed once more in the void. The collision of the two immortal arts once again triggered a sweeping, torrential flood of destruction. At first, this destructive torrent, capable of sweeping across the starry sky, could still be devoured and neutralized by the formation. However, as the clashes between immortal arts multiplied, the leaking energy grew continuously stronger, quickly exceeding the limit the formation could contain. As the body of one Dao Lord—who seemed to have broken through not long ago—shook violently, his resonance with the merged Dao was forcefully broken. "Sect Master!" Amid that Dao Lord's terrified cry, he and the sector of the formation he occupied instantly collapsed. The destructive torrent of energy poured downward and swept outward like a supernova explosion. Infinite radiance washed over everything, wiping out that swath of starry sky. Yes, wiped out. As if that starry sky had never existed. Flowing light washed over, the void was extinguished, reducing everything to nothingness. "Yaoguang!" Seeing another Dao Lord of his sect perish at this moment, Dao Lord Changqing's eyes turned bloodshot. He was unwilling to accept this! He refused to accept it! "Why! Why is it like this?!" He glared furiously at Yaoguang, who was still casting the Great Void Art as if this immortal art-grade attack—an attack powerful enough to serve as the ultimate trump card for top Dao Lords—was something he could cast effortlessly, just like a regular Dao art! "Our Xingri Sect has accumulated power for millions of years! Why should we lose to your mere tens of thousands of years of cultivation?! Why?!" He suddenly mobilized even more energy, going so far as to extract power from the Xingri Sect's headquarters—the very planet meant to power the Gate of the Immortal Realm—and madly poured it into the formation. For a moment, the silhouette of Dao Sovereign Huanyin, which had grown illusory from the successive clashes, condensed once again, unleashing yet another Great Flowing Light Art. "Why?" Yaoguang looked at the crazed Xingri Sect Dao Lord. "In this world, what brings about change has never been the accumulation of great sects like yours! The accumulation of great sects only obstructs the progress of the world! But one day, someone will stand up, inject new vitality into this world, and shatter everything you take for granted—turning heaven and earth upside down!" He reached forward with an illusory hand, and the phantom of the Ten Directions Heavenly Abyss Pagoda materialized behind him. Immediately following that, he condensed and blasted out another Great Void Art. Only, as this Great Void Art collided with the Great Flowing Light Art, the Ten Directions Heavenly Abyss Pagoda clearly rippled with a subtle wave. Under the impact of this wave, Dao Lord Changqing and the Xingri Sect Dao Lords maintaining the formation were momentarily dazed. Their souls had been interfered with. The moment this daze occurred, the Great Void Art drove straight in, crashing onto the immortal artifact-grade palace. Hum! Hum! Soundlessly. A full three Dao Lords who were maintaining the formation and supplying power to the immortal artifact palace were wiped clean away. Like a failed painting erased to be redrawn. Like an insignificant piece of data wiped and deleted. Dao Lord Changqing practiced soul Dao arts on the side, yet even so, he only recovered after a brief lapse of consciousness. Upon regaining his senses, he looked at the three Dao Lords who had vanished instantly, erased by the Great Void Art, and let out a sorrowful cry. "No!" At this moment, he finally realized what a foolish decision he and the Dao Lords had made. Because they could not bear to give up the glory the Xingri Sect had preserved for millions of years, could not bear to surrender the immense benefits of the Gate of the Immortal Realm, and could not let go of the Xingri Sect's supreme dominion over this starry sky, he had chosen to fight this terrifying Dao Sovereign to the bitter end even while knowing full well that Sect Master Jinguang and the others had been completely wiped out. And the result... At this very moment, he and every Dao Lord who had answered his call would pay the price for their decision. That price was destruction. Just like the rebellious forces they had extinguished one after another in the past, they would be completely swallowed up by the long river of history.