Righteous and Demonic

"Slay without exception!" Spoken with chilling, murderous intent from Yaoguang's lips, yet not a single soul dared look down on the command. He was a Dao Sovereign acknowledged by all. When such words were uttered by a paramount expert who had just eradicated the monster race, wiped out the god race, crushed the demonic factions, and slain over thirty Dao Integration masters, no one dared turn a deaf ear. Still... "Dao Sovereign, please think twice, " Dao Lord Juntian could not help but urge. "If you truly do this, it may well provoke the hostility of every Dao Lord on Beihai Star. A portion of Beihai Star's Dao Lords have departed, but more than a hundred still remain. If they rally those who left recently and have not traveled far, they might assemble a force exceeding two hundred! Although past Dao Sovereigns were said to stand against a hundred alone... the desperate fury of two to three hundred Dao Lords... is likely something no one can easily withstand." "Indeed, " Dao Lord Dihui nodded slightly. Although having Yaoguang banish all other Dao Lords meant they would face almost no risk in the Dao Contention when ascending, they could not let all the resentment and conflict fall upon Yaoguang alone. "Even if you manage to force those Dao Lords to back down through your sheer might, Dao Sovereign Yaoguang, once you ascend... everything you leave behind will face their frantic vengeance. Therefore, we implore you to reconsider, " he said, cupping his hands in warning. Hearing this, the other Dao Lords secretly hoped Yaoguang would drive out everyone else so they could monopolize the ascension spots, yet they still felt obliged to chime in: "The hidden perils of doing this are indeed too great; it effectively places you in opposition to every Dao Lord." "Dao Sovereign, caution is paramount. Two hundred, or even two to three hundred Dao Lords... that is a colossal force. No one can stand against it." Several Dao Lords offered disingenuous counsel. Yaoguang heard them out, but paid it no heed. "Since ancient times, a Dao Sovereign is called a Dao Sovereign precisely because he can dominate his era and suppress all voices of resistance. It is precisely because they displayed such overwhelming supremacy that the title of Dao Sovereign gained universal recognition. If people still turn a blind eye when I issue this order and choose to oppose me to the bitter end, it only proves I have not yet proven myself worthy of being a Dao Sovereign. In that case..." He said calmly, "Let me see whether I truly possess the strength to sweep over this era and crush every will to resist." Dao Lord Dihui wanted to say more, but Yaoguang waved a hand. "My mind is made up. There is no need to say anything further." The Dao Lords of the Ten Immortal Sects exchanged glances. Finally, Dao Lord Juntian said, "While it is true that one to two hundred Dao Lords remain entrenched on Beihai Star and in the surrounding cosmos, our human forces are not weak either. Combined, our ranks number more than twenty Dao Lords. If we fight with our lives on the line, we can hold off forty to fifty Dao Lords for Dao Sovereign Yaoguang. As for the rest..." With a solemn expression, he continued, "Though they are numerous, they are by no means fully united. After all, only thirty or so can truly ascend in the end. Once they suffer heavy casualties, they may not continue fighting. Thus, we still have hope." Dao Lord Dihui also nodded slightly. "To obtain an opportunity to ascend to the Immortal Realm, the battle of the Dao Contention is inevitable. Let this battle—led by Dao Sovereign Yaoguang, pooling the strength of our twenty-plus Dao Lords against the others—serve as the ultimate showdown of this Dao Contention." The Dao Lords of the Ten Immortal Sects nodded. The Dao Lords of the Four Great Celestial Dynasties and Three Immortal Martial Sects pondered silently for a moment, yet they had to concede that Dao Lord Dihui made sense. The Dao Contention had always been brutal. Life and death were seldom within one's own control. No one could guarantee they would not perish once the Dao Contention arrived, or that they would definitely secure a spot to ascend to the Immortal Realm. Though their numbers were currently few, they were united under the leadership of a Dao Sovereign like Yaoguang. Facing the one or two hundred Dao Lords who had banded together in haste... A battle was by no means out of reach. Naturally, the crux of this battle rested upon Yaoguang. If he could display overwhelming power to crush the first wave of over a hundred, or even two hundred Dao Lords head-on and shatter their morale, victory would be virtually within grasp. However, if Yaoguang fell into dire straits as soon as the battle commenced... Well, one should pack one's belongings beforehand. If things went sour, they would immediately abandon their foundations on Beihai Star and flee into the cosmic starry skies. ... Many people, many minds. Everyone had their own calculations. Yaoguang had never placed his hopes on these Dao Lords to begin with. He merely used them to convey his will. As for the reactions of the remaining Dao Lords... Once the word spread from the Ten Immortal Sects, the Four Great Celestial Dynasties, and the Three Immortal Martial Sects, all the Dao Lords on Beihai Star erupted into an uproar. Although many had guessed that the sudden emergence of a Dao Sovereign-level figure on Beihai Star would exert a colossal impact on this Dao Contention, none anticipated that the impact would be this violent. That Dao Sovereign Yaoguang had actually ordered everyone to leave Beihai Star?! Even if Yaoguang demanded resources in exchange for spots to enter the Gate of the Immortal Realm, they had planned to endure it and comply obediently. But now... He was giving them no chance at all! Everyone had to leave! Otherwise, they would be slain without exception! Such tyrannical, overbearing conduct—treating Beihai Star's Gate of the Immortal Realm as his private property and showing utter contempt for hundreds of Dao Lords—instantly infuriated all the remaining Dao Lords. Powerful divine senses rapidly darted across every corner of Beihai Star. Dao Lords conferred in righteous fury, eager to unite and put pressure on Yaoguang. A few who had ties with the Ten Immortal Sects quickly contacted their Dao Lords to inquire about Yaoguang's true stance. When they learned that Yaoguang was not merely posturing to extract concessions, but genuinely intended to expel every Dao Lord from Beihai Star, they could no longer keep their composure. They swiftly relayed Yaoguang's unyielding attitude to the others. This thoroughly snuffed out any lingering wishful thinking in the minds of the Dao Lords. Even though they were utterly reluctant to make an enemy of Dao Sovereign Yaoguang, who had just crushed the monsters, demons, and gods, their ascension was on the line. Forced into a corner, they banded together and rapidly formed a grand coalition—the Wuguang Alliance—to oppose Yaoguang's tyranny. Those who were genuinely faint of heart and unsettled had already retreated ahead of time, terrified by Yaoguang's reputation when the three great factions fell. The Dao Lords who remained had mostly prepared themselves mentally. Furthermore, anyone who dared participate in the Dao Contention was more or less resigned to risking their lives to seize an ascension slot. Under these circumstances, within less than a month of the Wuguang Alliance's founding, its roster of Dao Lords surged past one hundred and twenty. When Dao Lords who had previously departed into outer space sensed an opportunity and returned to Beihai Star, the alliance swelled to an astounding one hundred and sixty. The leaders were all illustrious figures among Dao Lords. The one serving as alliance leader was a pinnacle Dao Lord from the depths of cosmic space who cultivated the Great Dao of Destruction and was rumored to have once stood against the Yongsheng Sect—Wu Rendi. A month was neither long nor short. When the day finally arrived, over one hundred and sixty Dao Lords assembled in the starry sky. They did not choose Beihai Star itself as the battlefield; in a clash of this magnitude, once the war erupted, even Beihai Star—stabilized as it was by the Gate of the Immortal Realm—might be shattered to pieces. After all, Beihai Star was not shielded by a Level 16 immortal formation. Of the one hundred and sixty-plus Dao Lords, those who would actually strike in the first wave were not that many, yet there were still over sixty. Furthermore, using secret treasures, these sixty-odd individuals had briefly drilled a combined-strike formation, elevating their combat prowess another notch. This was the source of their confidence in confronting Yaoguang, a suspected Dao Sovereign. While over a hundred Dao Lords stood ready in tight battle array, within the Heavenly Dao Sect on Beihai Star... Yaoguang wore a placid expression. He looked down at the pinnacle Dao artifacts in his hands. Creation, Chaos, Five Elements, Truth, Yin-Yang, Mind, Illusion, Oath, Darkness, Slaughter, Order... All the dozen or so common Great Daos were represented. He had crafted them on his journey back to Beihai Star from the Xingri Sect. With his Level 19 Artifact Crafting mastery at the time, coupled with the hundreds of immortal artifact materials acquired from selling ascension slots for the Xingri Sect's Gate of the Immortal Realm, forging Dao artifacts had naturally been effortless. "A wicked path, " Yaoguang murmured. Or to put it more severely, a demonic path. However... Desperate times called for desperate measures. The war between the Ancient Immortal Realm and the Hunyuan Realm had in truth already been lost. Were it not for the Nine Great Conglomerates vying for power and influence—even igniting limited civil conflicts among themselves—the Three Thousand Great Daos of the Ancient Immortal Realm would have been completely devoured by now. All living beings and all things in the Ancient Immortal Realm were constructed from the Three Thousand Great Daos; once those Daos were consumed, everything would vanish into nothingness. Therefore, even if this was a demonic or extremist act, he had to see it through. A compassionate general could not lead an army! In a war between two worlds where survival was at stake, so-called benevolence and moral rectitude had to be cast to the wind. One could hardly imagine a war between two nations where a decisive battle was raging ahead, yet the general leading the nation's relief army was a man of lofty morals: "There are crops here; we cannot trample them, so detour around. There are herders and flocks over there; we cannot disturb them, so detour around. A wedding procession is passing; detour around. People are queuing at the pass ahead; ah, the general will have his army queue in an orderly fashion too." If one truly acted that way, by the time the army reached the front lines, the enemy would have already breached the capital and conquered the nation. Thus... Weighing pros and cons, Yaoguang knew perfectly well what he had to do next. And he would execute it with neither remorse nor hesitation. "Dao Sovereign." At that moment, Dao Lord Juntian appeared outside Tianqi Valley, his expression grave. "According to our intelligence, a total of one hundred and sixty-six Dao Lords from the Wuguang Alliance have completed their assembly and are on high alert in the starry sky. Furthermore, their leader, Wu Rendi, gathered sixty Dao Lords and utilized a time treasure to turn ten days into ten years, drilling a combined-strike formation called the Six Harmonies Yaoli Formation. It is said to be a pinnacle formation passed down from the Yongsheng Sect!" "Are they all gathered?" Yaoguang asked, bypassing the rest of Juntian's report, and gave a calm, unhurried response: "Then let us go."