Confrontation

Ascension was forbidden! Exercising the power of a Dao Master of the Void, Yaoguang severed the passage between the immortal and mortal realms in a single stroke. Even straining with every ounce of his might, Dao Sovereign Huanyin could not ascend to the Immortal Realm. He could only watch in terror as immortal art after immortal art, manifested from dozens of Grand Dao powers drawn upon by the Grand Dao Pagoda, came crashing down. Even if this was only equivalent to an ordinary strike from the Grand Dao Pagoda and the various Grand Dao immortal arts had not fused into composite immortal arts, the torrential onslaught still instantly shattered the defense of the immortal artifact Dao Sovereign Huanyin had summoned, blasting into his immortal body in rapid succession. "Stop! Yuxiao! You are butchering your own! Once I report this to the Lord of Yuanxi, you will never escape the blame!" Dao Sovereign Huanyin fell into sheer panic. "I admit defeat today! Let me go, and I swear not half a word of what happened in the lower realm will ever pass my lips!" "Immortal King Yuxiao butchering his own—what does that have to do with me, Yaoguang?" Yaoguang clenched his hand through empty air. The Grand Daos of Spacetime, Void, and Destruction were summoned simultaneously, coalescing into the Spacetime Collapse Art and engulfing Dao Sovereign Huanyin in an instant. "Yuxiao!" Dao Sovereign Huanyin let out a roar of rage and indignation, and his entire body disintegrated into ash. Yet for an immortal spirit, being reduced to ash was merely equivalent to having one's account wiped clean. For Yaoguang, however, this marked the beginning of his bid to pry into the Lord of Yuanxi's Level 18 clearance. With a shift of his thought, the glazed treasure tree stirred... By now, Yaoguang's utilization of the glazed treasure tree had already exceeded the tree itself. Emerald threads swiftly plunged into the void where Dao Sovereign Huanyin had perished. As his Level 18 clearance dissipated and was recalled, the threads traced that retreating power upward, climbing relentlessly. Unlike before, when everything had been veiled in haze, he now possessed the essence of "existence" and could perceive the Ancient Immortal Realm in its entirety. He clearly sensed these streams of power surging directly toward the mist that had encroached upon the Immortal Realm, seemingly bound to return into its depths. Yaoguang was in no hurry to intercept it. Instead, following the fallen spiritual essence of Dao Sovereign Huanyin, he probed deep into the mist. The instant he entered the mist, he sensed countless conscious minds. Some of these consciousnesses were formidable, comparable even to the Level 17 immortal spirits he had refined before. Others were weak, no more significant than mayflies and entirely negligible. Countless conscious minds were gathered together, engaging in all manner of thought and cognition. Driven by certain peculiar forces, these mental activities coalesced into an extraordinary power—spiritual energy. All of this spiritual energy was in turn drawn by powerful individuals, aggregating into even vaster collectives. Vaguely, Yaoguang could sense that there were nine such collectives in total. If ordinary conscious minds were fireflies, these nine collective consciousnesses were like blazing suns suspended in the heavens—radiant, majestic, and terrifyingly powerful beyond the reckoning of mortal beings. "The Nine Rulers!" The number and the sheer magnificence immediately revealed the identities of these nine sun-like collectives. Yet... If the nine collective consciousnesses were the Nine Rulers, where was the Lord of Yuanxi? Where was the Lord of Yuanxi situated? Yaoguang searched swiftly. Within moments, however, realization struck him. His attention snapped to the essence of "spiritual energy" itself. *Could it be that the Lord of Yuanxi represents the very spiritual energy formed by the aggregated activities of all conscious minds?!* Shock rippled through Yaoguang's heart. Right at that moment, he seemed to "see" something. His essence of "existence" immediately detected a trace of something that should not have "existed" upon him. Alarmed by the sudden development, he hurriedly plunged his awareness back into himself, only to find... Spiritual energy! While he was probing deep into the spiritual energy of the mist in the Hunyuan Realm and sensing the Nine Rulers, the mist—which was composed almost entirely of spiritual energy—had begun imperceptibly seeping into him. The thickest branch, [Artifact Crafting], was already nearly smothered by it. Had this spiritual energy not attempted to seep further into his [Chaos · Rebirth] branch, he might not have noticed the intrusion at all. It was like a human thought: the moment a specific word sprang to mind, it could no longer be banished. The Lord of Yuanxi was precisely the same. The moment one genuinely made contact with the Lord of Yuanxi, one was inevitably touched by Him in return. "Not good!" Yaoguang promptly withdrew his power from the mist of the Hunyuan Realm. At the same time, the power belonging to a Void "Dao Master" flared repeatedly, seeking to seal off the spread of the Lord of Yuanxi's spiritual power. Yet... it was useless. Though the power of a Void "Dao Master" briefly slowed the Lord of Yuanxi's energy, that spiritual force soon washed over and overwhelmed it. It was as though... He was intimately familiar with this void power. As a result, He could bypass the void barriers as if they were nothing, continuing to permeate and cover the Glazed Ancient Tree. *The Grand Dao of the Void has been completely decrypted...* Yaoguang felt a chill run through him. Against this lingering power of the Lord of Yuanxi inside his body, nearly every method in the Ancient Immortal Realm—save perhaps for Destiny and Karma—would prove entirely ineffective. With that realization, he mobilized his essence of "existence" without hesitation, relentlessly scouring away the remnant spiritual energy of the Lord of Yuanxi. This time, the spiritual energy finally met an irresistible force. Under wave after wave of scourging by the essence of "existence," it was instantly worn down to nothing. Yaoguang breathed a sigh of relief. Yet as he watched the spiritual energy dissipate entirely, an inspiration struck him. With a thought, the purified spiritual energy coalesced once more, pouring into the [Immortal Spirit] branch. Before long, an energy structure reminiscent of the Lord of Yuanxi took shape upon the [Immortal Spirit] branch, ripening and maturing with astonishing speed, like a Dao fruit. At present, this structure housed only a single conscious mind: Yaoguang himself. In essence, he had forged a "Lord of Yuanxi" centered around his own consciousness—or rather, condensed a Dao fruit that mirrored the Lord of Yuanxi. "A Dao fruit!" Yaoguang murmured. His gaze fell upon the miniature "Lord of Yuanxi" Dao fruit, his expression tinged with marvel. This was the very first time he had utilized the power of the glazed treasure tree to condense a Dao fruit! In fact, the power of this "Lord of Yuanxi" Dao fruit exceeded the scope of the glazed treasure tree itself; he had merely recorded it through a familiar form—a Dao fruit. "The Lord of Yuanxi..." Yaoguang attuned himself to the wonders of this Dao fruit. In an instant, his perception shifted into an extraordinary dimension. In this dimension, all sapient beings and all mortal life across the world appeared as a unified whole. Though myriad species—demons, immortals, fiends, gods, buddhas, shamans, and more—possessed distinct cultures, physical structures, perceptions, and thoughts, they were all reconciled and subsumed under a single shared designation: living beings! In this state, he was both the one and the myriad. He was the individual, and he was the collective. He was singular, yet boundless. "I am the collective; I am the infinite!" Enlightenment dawned upon Yaoguang. At that moment, his gaze suddenly shifted toward the [Demon Hunting] branch. Viewing the Demon Hunting branch from this vantage—hunting other races, alien gods, Demon Saints, and Fiend Lords in the guise of humanity—felt no different than white blood cells engulfing red blood cells in the palm of a hand. It was nothing more than natural metabolism. Once aged red blood cells were consumed, the body grew healthier and stronger. The underlying principle was identical! It was neither slaughter nor destruction. Nor was there any distinction between kin and foreigner. All living beings were merely parts of the same whole. The ultimate purpose of hunting alien races came down to perhaps one thing alone... Growth. Just as he could obtain "energy" by hunting alien races. "Is this how the world appears in the eyes of the Lord of Yuanxi?" Yaoguang muttered to himself. He began to grasp the true nature of the war between the Hunyuan Realm and the Ancient Immortal Realm. The collective will of all living beings in the Hunyuan Realm had coalesced into the Lord of Yuanxi. The method by which the Lord of Yuanxi assaulted the Ancient Immortal Realm was the erosion of the Three Thousand Grand Daos. For the Three Thousand Grand Daos were the very foundation upon which the Ancient Immortal Realm was built. All things and all beings were constituted by the Three Thousand Grand Daos. His process of devouring the Three Thousand Grand Daos was never about eradicating any specific sect or race. He simply... wanted to consume this world. To make this world a part of His body. Throughout the entire process, there was neither righteousness nor wickedness. There was neither hatred nor wrath. Just as humans ate, drank, and breathed air, would anyone hold an emotional stance toward acts so fundamental? If any emotion existed at all, it was at most the urge to eat a little faster before the meal went cold. Having understood this, Yaoguang already saw a way to bring an end to the war between the Hunyuan Realm and the Ancient Immortal Realm. He could step forward, using the "Lord of Yuanxi" within himself to coordinate the collective will of the Ancient Immortal Realm, transforming its nature to match that of the Hunyuan Realm, and then integrating it into the Hunyuan Realm. When that time came, he and the Hunyuan Realm would become one. And he would become a new Ruler within the Hunyuan Realm! A Ruler mighty enough to stand as an equal to the Lord of Yuanxi. Yet... "Would there be any meaning to that?" Yaoguang murmured. If the Ancient Immortal Realm was truly restructured into the Hunyuan Realm and merged into it as one, what meaning remained? How would that differ from the Ancient Immortal Realm being devoured by the Hunyuan Realm? Well, at least the myriad beings of the Ancient Immortal Realm would survive. They would survive in a form akin to "spirits of wisdom." It was slightly better than having the Ancient Immortal Realm devoured and digested, only to give birth to different sapient beings later. "Perhaps the Lord of Yuanxi even wonders at times why the Ancient Immortal Realm resists. Wouldn't it be wonderful to merge into the Hunyuan Realm and become part of it?" Yaoguang whispered. Yet... That was pure bandit logic. It was like seeing someone living in hardship, killing them outright, and saying, *I am delivering you from your suffering; you ought to thank me.* However... Whether something was good was never for the Lord of Yuanxi to decide, nor was it His right to strip away at will. The greatest difference between living beings and inanimate matter was that living beings could decide their own lives. "Just like me... I simply want to live well and enjoy life." Yaoguang composed his mind. Though described at length, his confrontation with the Lord of Yuanxi had taken place in the span of an instant. Only now had Dao Sovereign Ronglian sensed that something was amiss and attempted to flee. Yet when even Dao Sovereign Huanyin—a reincarnated Immortal King—had failed to withstand a single blow, how could this Level 18 immortal spirit, who had merely downloaded an Immortal King's experience without ever attaining true kingship, hope to resist Yaoguang? With a single downward press of the Grand Dao Pagoda, he was instantly reduced to ash.