The Disparity

Troops were valued for their quality, not their quantity. With the assistance of quasi-Dao Sovereigns like Gu Yan, Qianran, and Shenghui, Dao Child Zhuanlun selected a total of seventy-seven Dao Lords. Combining their strength with the four of them, eighty-one practitioners in all, they laid out the Nine-Nine Empyrean Immortal Slaying Formation and drilled in it rigorously. Naturally, alongside their drills, they never let down their guard regarding any stirrings in the surrounding area. After all, compared to the past, the lower-realm starry sky of the last millennium had become vastly different. Immortal spirits had descended one after another, intending to coordinate with the Lord of Yuanxi's plan and make grand moves across the lower-realm starry sky. The strongest among these immortal spirits could easily achieve the realm of Dao Sovereign. Soon, Dao Sovereigns—figures who were once rare to behold in hundreds of thousands of years—would number more than five in the lower realm. Under these circumstances, even though Dao Child Zhuanlun possessed Dao Sovereign-level strength himself, he still dared not underestimate anything in the slightest. For that very reason, when the void within dozens of light-years centered on Beihai Star began contracting and collapsing in one direction faster than light, Qianran—who cultivated the void dao extensively and happened to be within those dozens of light-years—quickly noticed something amiss. "Something's wrong! The void ripples feel off!" Dao Lord Qianran murmured in a low voice, his gaze sweeping restlessly around his surroundings. This abnormality caused Gu Yan to pause his movements as well. "What happened?" His divine sense expanded swiftly. Yet... The contraction and collapse brought by a void "Dao Master" was like a natural phenomenon of the cosmic workings. It was like the rotation of a planet; even if it moved hundreds of meters every second, the living creatures on its surface remained entirely oblivious. Such was the case for Gu Yan and the others trapped in this starry sky at this moment. However, as a Void Dao Lord, Qianran could sense that the void was being bound up at incredible speed. Yet the underlying mechanics behind this binding were completely beyond his imagination. The sense of the unknown bred by this incomprehension made him deeply uneasy. "Something is wrong! Something has happened!" He attempted to forcibly merge into the Grand Dao of the Void to intervene. He even tried utilizing the profundities of the Grand Dao of the Void to escape this patch of starry sky and see what was happening further away. Yet as soon as he attempted to merge, he discovered to his utter horror that he could no longer invoke the power of the Grand Dao of the Void. As a Void Dao Lord, it was as though he had been stripped of his resonance with the Grand Dao of the Void, cast straight down below the level of a Dao Lord. No! Not merely below a Dao Lord! He had been reduced to the level of a Golden Core cultivator below Void Piercing! At the Void Piercing realm, one could still draw upon spatial power to traverse the void, but right now, he could not even mobilize the most ordinary void power! "Not good! Disaster! The Grand Dao of the Void—I can't channel the power of the Grand Dao of the Void! Someone has sealed this void!" Dao Lord Qianran cried out in alarm. His divine sense immediately drew the attention of Gu Yan, Shenghui, and Dao Child Zhuanlun. They, along with every Dao Lord forming the Nine-Nine Empyrean Immortal Slaying Formation, followed his words and rapidly probed the void. Several Dao Lords who did not cultivate the Grand Dao of the Void also cast void Dao arts, trying to execute spatial leaps. Without exception, every attempt failed. "What is going on?" "Our void has been locked down!?" "Dammit! I'm not a Void Dao Lord, but I have a high-grade void Dao artifact on me, yet right now it's acting like a scrap of useless iron! I can't draw out any void profundities at all!" In an instant, panic began to ripple through the Dao Lords. Anyone could tell that this was entirely unnatural. Right then, a Dao Lord suddenly cried out, "Look at the starry sky!" At his shout, many Dao Lords looked up. Only then did they discover in horror that countless stars, meteorites, and even suns that had originally been vastly distant from them were currently closing in at terrifying speed. And the speed of their approach was pushed to the absolute extreme. At this rate... Before long, those suns, planets, and meteorites would slam straight into their bodies. "Is someone trying to draw celestial bodies to attack us? But the impact of these stars shouldn't even be enough to harm us!" One Dao Lord was thoroughly bewildered. "No! That's not it!" At that moment, Dao Lord Gu Yan seemed to realize something, terror flashing through his eyes. "Someone isn't drawing those stars to crash into us! It's... space is contracting! We, along with these suns, moons, and stars, are situated in space that is rapidly shrinking—from dozens of light-years to several light-years, to trillions of kilometers, and down to hundreds of millions of kilometers! This violent shift is what's creating the illusion that these celestial bodies are hurtling toward us at blinding speed!" Having said that, his voice cracked in horror: "This is the Gate of the World divine ability! Someone is trying to take dozens of light-years of starry sky, including all of us Dao Lords, into the palm of their hand and crush it in one stroke!" At this Dao Lord's horrified cry, the others came to understand as well. Yet every face was etched with sheer disbelief. Gate of the World! How could a single Gate of the World divine ability thoroughly annihilate dozens of light-years of starry sky!? To say nothing of Dao Lords, even for those at Void Piercing, destroying a star was an ordinary feat. Even when caught inside a black hole, they could calmly withdraw. Yet shrinking the space of dozens of light-years into a single point, causing it to completely collapse and be annihilated—such a technique was impossible not only for Void Piercing cultivators, but even for Dao Lords and Dao Sovereigns. At most, Dao Sovereigns could take advantage of cosmic conditions to stir up celestial catastrophes, sweeping across and obliterating a region of starry sky like a surging tsunami! This kind of method... "How is this possible!?" Even Dao Child Zhuanlun's eyes were filled with disbelief. Yet now was clearly not the time for shock and awe. "Quick, Qianran, break this void open!" Dao Lord Gu Yan's gaze snapped immediately to Dao Lord Qianran. Pain surfaced in Dao Lord Qianran's eyes. "I can't." Even though his past comprehension and mastery over the void dao had reached the Immortal Venerable level, facing this collapsing, contracting void at this moment, a profound feeling of powerlessness welled up within him. "I can't do it. This method of spatial contraction is far too powerful. I cannot shake this void in the slightest!" "How could anyone apply void power to such a degree!?" Despair crept into the eyes of the other Dao Lords skilled in the void dao as well. "Even if you can't, you must try!" Dao Child Zhuanlun roared, his formidable divine sense carrying a calming force that instantly reverberated through the consciousness of every Dao Lord. "Heed my command! Join forces and form the Nine-Nine Empyrean Immortal Slaying Formation! Shatter the blockade on this void!" He immediately added, "The lower-realm starry sky cannot permit excessively powerful entities to exist! No matter how strong an opponent is, they can only be a Dao Sovereign at best. And I, too, am a Dao Sovereign! With our combined might, as long as we work with one heart and mind, we will certainly break through!" These words, alongside his reassuring divine sense, gave the flustered Dao Lords an anchor. Soon, the Nine-Nine Empyrean Immortal Slaying Formation was assembled. Yet by this time, the contraction of dozens of light-years of void had reached an extreme. The Dao Lords could already clearly see countless planets, meteorites, and more than a dozen blazing suns. Further outward, a force capable of crushing everything surged forward like a rolling tide, frantically compressing this space and obliterating every living creature and trace of matter within this contracted void like crushing dry weeds. "The Great Void Art!" Dao Lord Qianran screamed in terror. "It's a torrent of Great Void Arts! How could anyone wield the Great Void Art to this extent!?" "It's him! It's him! It's that man!" Dao Lord Shenghui growled, "It's that mysterious Dao Sovereign! No—in fact, he is Yaoguang! The one who ascended before was merely the mysterious Dao Lord who received the Time Dao Ancestor's legacy, ascending through the Gate of the Immortal Realm under Yaoguang's name! Because the Immortal Realm has a Void Immortal King but no Time Immortal King, sending the successor of the Time Dao Ancestor to ascend was far safer and more secure than sending Yaoguang!" Believing he had uncovered the truth, this Dao Lord spoke in a rush: "Yaoguang, having inherited the Void Dao Ancestor's legacy, stayed behind in the lower realm all along! Relying on his attainments in the void dao as the Void Dao Ancestor's inheritor, he has been rapidly traversing every corner of the starry sky, hunting Dao Lords and amassing shares of the Grand Dao... and now, he's making a move against us... intending to—" "This is a misunderstanding!" Dao Lord Gu Yan yelled, "We are not enemies with Dao Sovereign Yaoguang! On the contrary, we belong to the same camp! We shouldn't be slaughtering each other; we should be working hand in hand! Quick! Quickly convey our true intentions to Dao Sovereign Yaoguang and tell him to stop!" "It won't go through! My divine sense can't reach outside at all! The void is contracting too fast—faster than our divine sense can travel!" Dao Lord Qianran felt the unending deluge of Great Void Arts bearing down upon them, his expression one of despair. "Then break through this spatial lockdown! As fellow Dao Sovereigns, I refuse to believe he can be that much stronger than me! Six Paths Wheel, shatter!" Dao Child Zhuanlun gave a long howl. The power of the Grand Dao of Reincarnation was pushed to its absolute limit as he channeled all the strength of the other Dao Lords from the Nine-Nine Empyrean Immortal Slaying Formation into himself. "Six Paths Wheel, break!" He pressed his hand down through empty air. Above the celestial canopy, a colossal millstone seemed to manifest, within which six whole Grand Daos circulated. The might of this composite immortal art violently slammed into the barrier compressing the void, thoroughly grinding away the cascading Great Void Arts. "Good!" This sight instantly gave the Dao Lords a glimpse of hope for breaking through, their spirits lifting. "As expected of the Dao Child! To be able to unleash a composite immortal art combining six Grand Daos with the aid of a formation in the lower realm!" Dao Lord Shenghui's eyes shone brightly. Yet their joy and excitement lasted for only a fleeting moment before the cascading Great Void Arts shifted. It transformed directly into the Spacetime Collapse Art! Moreover... It was a composite immortal art incomparably more powerful than any conventional Spacetime Collapse Art! Under the impact of this composite immortal art, the Six Paths Wheel unleashed by Dao Child Zhuanlun and the Nine-Nine Empyrean Immortal Slaying Formation was pulverized in an instant. The force of spacetime collapse swept downward with devastating momentum, instantly grinding Dao Lord after Dao Lord into fine dust. "No!" Dao Lord Gu Yan, Dao Lord Shenghui, Dao Lord Qianran, and the others shrieked in despair. "Dao Sovereign Yaoguang, stay your hand! I am Dao Child Zhuanlun, disciple of Immortal King Tianming! I came to seek cooperation—" Dao Child Zhuanlun frantically projected his divine sense, its immense power piercing toward the clouds. However... The void contracted too swiftly! The overwhelming momentum of the Spacetime Collapse Art bearing down upon them was far too vast. Before this message of divine sense could even transmit outward, it was thoroughly crushed to ash. This sight plunged Dao Child Zhuanlun into unprecedented despair. "Why is it like this!?" In the next instant, he, Dao Lord Gu Yan, Dao Lord Shenghui, Dao Lord Qianran, along with every living creature and ounce of matter within this contracted void, were engulfed by the Spacetime Collapse Art, reduced to dust, and ground into nothingness. Unto death, they never even came face-to-face with Yaoguang, nor did they manage to exchange a single word.