Routed

"It held!" Uncontrollable ecstasy surged in Dao Lord Wudi's eyes. Although, strictly speaking, both sides were merely locked in a deadlock with the outcome still undecided, nevertheless... He had to proclaim their advantage first. As long as the might displayed by their sixty-one Dao Lords inspired confidence in the rest, and the remaining hundred and twenty or so Dao Lords struck ruthlessly, this unsettled contest would be decided immediately. When the wall fell, everyone would give it a push. Formidable as a Dao Sovereign might be, he would still be thoroughly drowned beneath a torrent of fury formed by the combined might of over a hundred—nearly two hundred—Dao Lords. Carrying this thought, the leader of the Wuguang Alliance immediately unleashed his divine sense. Bristling with exhilaration and laced with the subtle ripple of a soul-beguiling Dao art, his voice rapidly swept across the entire expanse: "Yaoguang has been stopped by us! He is not invincible! Everyone, attack with all your might! Together, we shall suppress and slay him here!" Under the influence of his divine sense rippling with a soul Dao art, several Dao Lords who were already excited by the sight felt their morale soar even higher. Perhaps on ordinary days they would have realized their judgment was being manipulated, but at this exact moment and under these circumstances, similar thoughts had already taken root deep in their hearts. All that was missing was the final straw to tip the scales. Right now, Dao Lord Wudi provided that final push. And so, willingly enchanted and swayed by this soul Dao art, they followed their inner desires, brazenly striking out and throwing themselves into the fray. "A Dao Sovereign may be able to stand against a hundred alone! But if he truly faces a hundred fearless Dao Lords fighting to the death, no Dao Sovereign can triumph over such power! What's more, our side has nearly two hundred Dao Lords! Kill! Victory is ours!" "It has been less than a thousand years since Yaoguang became a Dao Lord. I don't believe that someone who took only a thousand years can truly possess the power of a Dao Sovereign! He might be unimaginably strong, surpassing even invincible Dao Lords! But claiming to match an era-dominating Dao Sovereign must be nothing more than a bluff! Today, let me shatter your pretenses once and for all!" "From the Central Star Domain I fled to the Leixiao Star Domain, and from the Leixiao Star Domain I fled to the Beihai Star Domain! The entire way, I have done nothing but run! Every single Gate of the Immortal Realm has a master, and every single ascension slot is monopolized! It is like this throughout almost the entire cosmic starry sky! If we do not stake our lives in a desperate struggle, how can we ever set foot in the Immortal Realm?! The slots for the Gate of the Immortal Realm are our credentials to break through the encirclement and ascend to the Immortal Realm! Today, why should I hesitate to die?!" One Dao Lord after another channeled the Great Daos, stoked their convictions, displayed their determination, and swarmed toward Yaoguang. Even some Dao Lords who had hesitated initially felt swept along by herd mentality when they saw the others take action, unable to hold back from joining the encirclement. After all, their very presence here proved their intentions and stance. Those who were timid and terrified had long since fled far from Beihai, vanishing without a trace. Under such circumstances, following the feat of Dao Lord Wudi leading sixty elites to withstand a strike from Yaoguang's Grand Dao Pagoda, more than sixty more Dao Lords joined the assault. Over a hundred Dao Lords exerting their strength simultaneously produced an upheaval so immense that it shook the entire starry sky. Drawn forth by the power of the Great Daos, the entire starry sky seemed brighter than ever before. Dozens of Great Daos intertwined, making this stretch of the cosmos look as though the three thousand Great Daos had converged at the heart of the universe. Witnessing that sheer scale and energy, Dao Lord Juntian, Dao Lord Dihui, Dao Lord Taiqing, and the other members of the Ten Immortal Sects turned pale at the same time, feeling an urge in their hearts to turn and flee. "Terrifying!" "An attack like this... who could withstand it?!" "Over a hundred Dao Lords besieging one man... will Dao Sovereign Yaoguang truly hold his own against a hundred and dominate the era, or..." The Dao Lords of the Ten Immortal Sects widened their eyes. Whether Yaoguang had instructed them in advance not to intervene or out of sheer terror of such a battlefield, not one stepped forward to aid him. Everyone stared fixedly at Yaoguang, waiting for his next move, wanting to see clearly how he would break through the impending torrent of Dao arts brought forth by over a hundred Dao Lords striking at once. Soon. They saw it. Yaoguang's response came as a slight surprise, yet it was completely reasonable. He did not clash head-on or grind against these Dao Lords at all. Upon realizing that the Grand Dao Pagoda could not immediately crush the battle formation formed by the sixty-one Dao Lords led by Dao Lord Wudi, he made an illusory grabbing motion and recalled the Grand Dao Pagoda. Then, facing the torrent of Dao arts unleashed in frantic competition by the hordes of Dao Lords... His figure flickered. Relying on a mastery over the void that approached near-sovereign control, virtually none of them could capture the slightest trace of him. They watched helplessly as he broke free from their lock-on using Void Flicker. No matter how sensitive those cultivators were to the void, or whether they practiced soul-sensing Dao arts, they detected no omen when Yaoguang vanished and flickered. Still less could they predict where he would appear after disappearing so as to set up an ambush in advance. Whoosh! A second later, Yaoguang's figure emerged in the midst of the disorganized Dao Lords. Before Dao Lord Wudi up front could even react, the Grand Dao Pagoda was unleashed once more, brilliant radiances of various Great Daos circulating across this supreme sacred artifact. Like a chaotic fiendgod manifested from the Great Daos, it barreled headlong into the nearest Dao Lord. That Dao Lord had virtually no room to resist. Struck directly by the power of the Grand Dao Pagoda, he was instantly ground into dust. After obliterating that Dao Lord, the Grand Dao Pagoda did not alter its course. With unabated momentum, it smashed toward another Dao Lord. "No!" That Dao Lord let out a terrified shriek and brought out a life-saving treasure without hesitation. Yet as the Grand Dao Pagoda closed in, the Grand Dao of Souls contained within it swept across. The Dao Lord, who had not practiced soul Dao arts, found his thoughts noticeably slowing. In the end... He too was struck by the Grand Dao Pagoda, reduced to nothingness by the destructive power imbued within it. Only at this moment did Dao Lord Wudi, at the very front, finally react. "Not good!" he roared. "Shift formation!" Under his command, the sixty Dao Lords made the Six Harmonies Yaoli Formation alter its course and charge toward Yaoguang once more with great efficiency... Yet because they had only practiced together for ten years, its transitions were far from seamless. During this process, Yaoguang, driving the Grand Dao Pagoda in the midst of the dozens of Dao Lords, had already blasted three Dao Lords to death in succession. For all the Dao Lords, contact meant death and a brush meant injury. Not a single one could withstand even one exchange against him. Of course, if every single one of those Dao Lords were united in purpose, working together to fight him to the bitter end and desperately entangle his movements, he might not have achieved such swift killing efficiency. However, when Yaoguang abruptly flickered and appeared among the Dao Lords, their first reaction was not to form a defensive array, but rather to scatter and flee in total disarray. Not a single person had the time or inclination to rescue the Dao Lords under Yaoguang's attack. Every Dao Lord thought only of saving their own skin, fleeing as far from Yaoguang as possible. The notion of "better you die than me" flooded everyone's mind. Under such conditions, even though Yaoguang was technically encircled by dozens, even a hundred Dao Lords, each time he struck, he only ever had to deal with the one or two Dao Lords he singled out. "Stop him! Intercept him!" Dao Lord Wudi's divine sense vibrated as he tried to rally the others into a formation to block Yaoguang. Yet the Wuguang Alliance had been formed for far too short a time, and his prestige as alliance leader was limited. Marshalling sixty Dao Lords to practice the Six Harmonies Yaoli Formation with him had already been his absolute limit. Why would the remaining Dao Lords heed his orders? Especially when blocking Yaoguang was virtually equivalent to throwing away one's life—who would obey his commands and trade their own life just to give others an opening to attack Yaoguang? Even... Even if one or two Dao Lords truly sacrificed themselves generously, other Dao Lords would not necessarily respond or cooperate to pin Yaoguang down. Those Dao Lords might even curse them silently as fools—if your life was gone, what good was claiming the Gate of the Immortal Realm even if Yaoguang was defeated? They were all shrewd. Only the living could have everything. Under these circumstances, by the time Dao Lord Wudi led the Six Harmonies Yaoli Formation over, as many as five Dao Lords had already perished at Yaoguang's hands. Furthermore, just as Yaoguang was about to be ensnared by the Six Harmonies Yaoli Formation, his figure vanished once again. Just as before, without a trace. Even though many Dao Lords who were well-versed in void Dao arts, soul Dao arts, investigative Dao arts, and perception Dao arts had prepared their senses in advance, they still failed to capture any trace of Yaoguang's Void Flicker. Not until he reappeared on another section of the battlefield and pulverized two more Dao Lords with the Grand Dao Pagoda did the others barely snap back to their senses. Instantly, the local Dao Lords who knew Yaoguang well realized the truth simultaneously. Ever since the Void Piercing realm, Yaoguang's most proficient Dao arts and combat methods had never been frontal clashes, but elusive, unpredictable Void Flickers. As he reached the Dao Lord realm and his comprehension of the Grand Dao of the Void reached the pinnacle, his understanding and application of Void Flicker had long surpassed everyone's limits. Whether it was Dao Lord Wudi or the other Dao Lords, every plan they had conceived was based on the premise that Yaoguang would engage them in a frontal confrontation. If over a hundred Dao Lords swarmed him at once, who could withstand such power? The problem was... One hundred and sixty-six Dao Lords represented different individuals and one hundred and sixty-six different wills. They were never a single entity. When Yaoguang chose not to clash head-on with them and instead maximized his speed advantage, fighting one hundred and sixty-six Dao Lords at once became no different from fighting sixteen. Whoosh! After annihilating six more Dao Lords with devastating force, Yaoguang executed another Void Flicker, shaking off Dao Lord Wudi and the others who had altered their formation to charge at him. When he reappeared, another Dao Lord met misfortune, instantly obliterated with thunderous momentum by Yaoguang manifesting right beside him. This sight threw Dao Lord Wudi into a panic. "Yaoguang! You are a dignified Dao Sovereign! Have the guts to fight us head-on!" The divine sense of the Wuguang Alliance's leader erupted, his will permeating the entire battlefield. "Fight head-on?" Yaoguang shifted his gaze. After blasting four more Dao Lords to death, he flickered once more... This time, he appeared directly at a node within the heart of the Six Harmonies Yaoli Formation formed by the sixty-one Dao Lords. A grand formation practiced for merely ten years by sixty-one Dao Lords who had previously been strangers could hardly be commanded as smoothly as an extension of one's limbs. Across several formation shifts, Yaoguang—whose formation mastery had reached level seventeen—directly saw through its flaws. The moment he flickered into view, the Grand Dao Pagoda crashed outward. The two Dao Lords maintaining that node of the formation were instantly swept over and pulverized by the Grand Dao of Souls, the Grand Dao of the Void, and the Grand Dao of Destruction circulating across the pagoda. Immediately afterward, just as Dao Lord Wudi frantically attempted to shift the formation once more, Yaoguang's figure vanished, reappearing among the panicked outer Dao Lords. Wherever the Grand Dao Pagoda passed, not a single person could withstand a single blow. Seeing this, Dao Lord Juntian and Dao Lord Dihui, who had initially harbored concerns for Yaoguang's safety, let out long exhalations. They understood: the Wuguang Alliance was finished.