Five Factions

After two thousand years, Yaoguang stepped out of Creation Immortal City, once again traversing the endless firmament of the Immortal Realm. If Creation Immortal City was a dreamlike metropolis seamlessly blending cultivation and technology, then the lands outside it undeniably revealed to people the harsh truth of the world. Although much of the scenery remained magnificent and steeped in natural splendor, it lagged more than a few tiers behind Creation Immortal City. This was especially true for the countless mortals living upon the earth; in some places, they still lived by rising at dawn and resting at dusk. Crossing the vast expanse of mountains and rivers was akin to traversing the gulf between antiquity, modernity, and the future. The sheer disparity was far beyond imagination. During his earlier journey toward Creation Immortal City, Yaoguang had already seen nearly half the Immortal Realm's sights. Though feelings stirred within him now, he did not tarry, rushing at top speed to the coordinates provided by Xuanqing and the others. As he shuttled forward, he could also sense Xuanqing and a host of Creation Group directors trailing behind, waiting to swarm in and surround Immortal King Tianyu the moment he showed himself. He could predict the entire sequence of events almost to the letter. He would strike first to hunt down Immortal Venerable Black Leaf. Immortal King Tianyu would step forward under the pretext of bringing him to justice for butchering immortal spirits. Then Chairman Xuanqing and the other Creation Group directors would pop up, concentrating all their firepower to obliterate Immortal King Tianyu with thunderous force. "I only hope no surprises crop up," Yaoguang murmured softly. A level-nineteen authority holder... And dying just as the Lord of Yuanxi decided to step out of the Immortal Realm. If all went without a hitch, he might even be able to seize the precious window while the Lord of Yuanxi was "lagging" to glean more data on level-twenty authority. "I don't expect to decipher the operational logic of level-twenty authority in one breath. Just filling in that final 0.5 would satisfy me. Then, after dealing with another level-nineteen immortal spirit, I should be able to simulate the Lord of the Heavenly Dao to a degree comparable to a level-twenty Sovereign. With the authority empowerment of a level-twenty Sovereign combined with the power of the spacetime Daos..." Yaoguang estimated. Self-preservation should no longer be an issue. Unless the Lord of Yuanxi was willing to abandon the Ancient Immortal Realm within his grasp and divert all manpower and computing power to deal with him. Amid these thoughts, the coordinates Xuanqing and the others provided were right before him. Yaoguang reined in his aura, seemingly fading completely into nothingness. If one put on a show, one naturally had to make it convincing. However, this degree of concealment was still maintained at the level of a Void Immortal King; if another Void Immortal King sensed closely nearby, they would still detect his presence. As he concealed his aura and waited for that precious moment, in the virtual immortal realm, discussions among millions of immortal spirits filled every corner. Well over a hundred thousand immortal spirits were waiting for the barrier between the two realms to be broken, ready to charge down into the lower-realm starry sky at top speed to hunt down native Dao Lords. To an ordinary immortal spirit, every Dao Lord equated to immense wealth. And if they wished to advance to level sixteen or even level seventeen in the future, it was through accumulating such wealth bit by bit. Of course, most immortal spirits also realized that during the brief window when the Lord of Yuanxi could not maintain control over the Immortal Realm, factions might seize the chance to settle old scores, so they kept a low profile to protect themselves. As time ticked by, Yaoguang checked information in the virtual immortal realm while waiting for the crucial moment to arrive. In addition, he remained fully vigilant, scanning his surroundings in search of Immortal King Tianyu's whereabouts. In truth, he had been treating the enemy far too formidably. While Immortal King Tianyu was still a considerable distance away, Yaoguang had already sensed the king's presence through the power of a Void "Dao Lord." Although Tianyu seemed to have specially borrowed two top immortal artifacts containing the Grand Dao of Darkness and the Grand Dao of the Soul to mask his aura to the absolute limit, as he drew rapidly closer, the Void shares upon his person shone like a beacon in the night, clearly exposed to Yaoguang's perception as a "Dao Lord." "He really came," Yaoguang mused inwardly. It had to be said that Immortal King Tianyu was decisive. The moment Yaoguang, a Void Immortal King, departed Creation Immortal City, Tianyu immediately followed, eager to nip in the bud this Immortal King who might threaten his future ascension to Void Dao Ancestor. Naturally, it was also because Tianyu possessed supreme confidence in his own strength. Level-nineteen authority! The Grand Dao of the Void, one of the Supreme Grand Daos! Plus nearly four thousand Void shares! With such assets combined within a single person, even if his strength did not rank among the top ten in the Ancient Immortal Realm, he was definitely on the list of the top twenty. Yaoguang felt Immortal King Tianyu lurk into hiding once he reached a single void-shuttle jump away. He knew Tianyu was waiting too. Not just Tianyu—Yaoguang himself, Immortal King Xuanqing, and the others were all waiting for that crucial moment: the Lord of Yuanxi descending to the lower realm! At that moment, both sides focused their minds... "Wait, it doesn't seem to be just Immortal King Tianyu." At this moment, Yaoguang seemed to detect something else. The path of the Void was originally the foundation upon which all other Daos manifested. Although the auras of the three Immortal Kings following close behind were even more concealed, as Yaoguang focused his gaze, they were exposed to his senses with nowhere to hide. "The auras of these three Immortal Kings... Two belong to Immortal King Longxiang and Immortal King Diyi of the Tianyuan Group, and the other... Immortal King Wumu of the Star Sun Group?" He was not entirely certain. After all, he had never truly met these three Immortal Kings. However, Immortal Kings Longxiang and Diyi were Tianyu's greatest supporters; that Tianyu could swiftly gain a firm foothold in the Tianyuan Group and challenge Immortal King Yuankun's position as chairman was largely thanks to their staunch backing. As for Immortal King Wumu, word was that he had always wanted to concurrently cultivate the path of Time. He had likely joined forces with Immortal King Tianyu for the shares of the Grand Dao of Time that Yaoguang possessed. "Immortal King Tianyu truly is cautious enough... But then again, my abrupt departure did look suspicious, like a trap. If that guess held true, the trap was obviously aimed at Tianyu. To break through it, he would naturally drag three other Immortal Kings along to ensure success." Yaoguang was not surprised. He merely pondered whether to inform the other Creation Group directors of the arrival of the three Immortal Kings. Yet after a moment, he suppressed the thought. "No big problem." A gleam flashed in Yaoguang's eyes. "Immortal Kings Longxiang, Diyi, and Wumu are trailing Tianyu to serve as backup. In other words, even if they notice an issue, they won't be able to intervene in the battlefield immediately. When Xuanqing and the others launch their attack, I can directly use my 'Dao Lord' power to disrupt Tianyu's state, ensuring they slay him in a single strike. By then, the three Immortal Kings won't have time to rescue him." As for whether his interference with Immortal King Tianyu would arouse suspicion among the Creation Group board members... He was, after all, an inheritor of both the Time Dao Ancestor and the Void Dao Ancestor; having a few hidden trump cards was only natural. Besides, things had come to this point. Even if they noticed something amiss, they would not lightly abandon the benefits about to fall into their grasp. Settling his mind, Yaoguang continued to wait. Yet before this wait had lasted even a few minutes, his expression turned peculiar once more. "Good grief... This is..." A third faction had arrived! And the scale of this faction was equal to, if not greater than, Tianyu's group of four. There were five Immortal Kings! One of them even gave him an eerie feeling. Even his "Dao Lord" senses struggled to perceive that one clearly. "Native cultivators?!" Based on the intelligence provided by the Creation Group, Yaoguang quickly deduced the identity of this third group. Native Immortal Kings! Or rather, Immortal Kings of the Ancient Immortal Alliance? Good grief. Over a mere Immortal Venerable Black Leaf, three hegemonic forces and nearly twenty Immortal Kings had mobilized en masse? No, wait! If Immortal King Wumu and Yaoguang himself were counted as separate camps, that amounted to five factions. What was this? So many people wanting to play the mantis stalking the cicada, or the oriole lurking behind? This scene... It was practically like a single room packed with a dozen burly men hiding in wait. He wondered what Immortal Venerable Black Leaf would think if he knew of his current predicament. Just as Yaoguang was about to carefully discern which figures from the Ancient Immortal Alliance those five native Immortal Kings were, he suddenly sensed something. Having attained the status of a Spacetime "Dao Lord," he keenly detected that the rules of the three thousand Grand Daos experienced a momentary stall at this very moment. It was as though the operation of the entire universe was abruptly disrupted and halted. How vast was a universe! To bring such an immense, majestic universe to a standstill required an incalculable amount of energy. Yet the Lord of Yuanxi of the Hunyuan Realm had truly accomplished this feat. And at the very moment the colossal universe of the Ancient Immortal Realm ground to a halt and the Great Daos stagnated, the Lord of Yuanxi—lauded as supreme intellect—shattered the barrier between the Immortal Realm and the starry skies, permeating his power outside the Immortal Realm with full force. Rumble! In the next second, the universe of the Ancient Immortal Realm seemed to resume its operation. During this resumption, Yaoguang could clearly feel a violent clash between the power of the Ancient Immortal Realm's three thousand Grand Daos and the power of the Lord of Yuanxi! It was like an apocalyptic tsunami slamming fiercely against towering pillars erected along the shore. No matter how wild and furious the tsunami raged, it could not damage those pillars in the slightest. In the end... The waves receded, bypassing the colossal pillars and surging ever forward. The difference was that Yaoguang knew those pillars were not real pillars, but passages leading from the Immortal Realm to the lower realm. And that tsunami was no tsunami, but the fundamental logic of cosmic operation—the three thousand Grand Daos. The Lord of Yuanxi had withstood the impact of the three thousand Grand Daos head-on, breaching the barrier between the Immortal Realm and the lower realm, forging an unbroken expanse connecting heaven and earth between two previously disconnected worlds. "Strike!" Right then, Xuanqing's shout rang out in Yaoguang's mind, urging him not to let this precious opportunity slip away. Yaoguang's gaze swept covertly across the positions of the four factions: Immortal King Xuanqing, Immortal King Tianyu, Immortal King Longxiang, and the Ancient Immortal Alliance's Immortal Kings. Fine, fine, fine. Let's all play together then. In the next instant, he materialized openly, unleashing a brazen strike against Immortal Venerable Black Leaf within the valley palace.