The Oriole

"The power of fate?" Yaoguang extended his hand, attempting to gather this force within his grasp, only to discover that he could not touch it at all. This power... It was distinct from time and the void, and even more distinct from karma. Though it was not as tangible as time or the void, and its influence on the battlefield was not immediately apparent, it was far more profound and eerie. After witnessing the marvels of the Grand Dao of the Void and the Grand Dao of Time, Yaoguang had assumed the four Supreme Grand Daos belonged to the same tier. Yet now... He had faintly arrived at a conclusion. Fate stood a tier above time, the void, and karma. *Truly worthy of being the head of the Three Thousand Grand Daos,* Yaoguang thought to himself. The Grand Dao of Fate governed the Three Thousand Grand Daos. That dominion encompassed karma, time, and the void within its scope. He raised his eyes and gazed straight toward the Gate of Fate. *No wonder time, the void, and the other two thousand nine hundred and ninety-six Grand Daos collapsed completely within just a few million years under the assault on the Ancient Immortal Realm, and even the two Dao Ancestors of Time and Void fell as a result. Yet the Gate of Fate and the Gate of Karma, formed from fate and karma, held out against the Hunyuan Realm's offensive for three million three hundred thousand years.* He looked back toward the battle where Immortal King Xuanqing, Immortal King Longxiang, Immortal King Wumu, and the other Tier 18 and Tier 19 immortal spirits were locked in combat. In this fight... More Immortal Kings would inevitably perish. Especially once word spread that he had obtained the legacy of the Time Dao Ancestor, the clash among the three great conglomerates would by no means conclude—it would only be the beginning. Profit moves the hearts of men. Even setting aside vengeance for the likes of Immortal King Tianyu and Immortal King Wumu, Tianyuan Group and Shenluo Group would surely step forward to claim a share simply because of him, the inheritor of the Time Dao Ancestor. If things escalated... Groups such as Changsheng Group, Star Sun Group, Xiyu Group, and Brahma Group would also be drawn into the fray. No! That was not right! Changsheng Group and Star Sun Group had already been pulled in long ago because of Dao Sovereign Guangcheng and Dao Sovereign Huanyin. They had held back only out of caution, unwilling to escalate the conflict without evidence. Otherwise, having lost Tier 18 immortal spirits, how could they have remained indifferent? And once Changsheng Group and the Xingri Sect entered the field, it could easily turn into a scenario where four great conglomerates joined forces to besiege Creation Group. If Creation Group found itself outmatched, seeking cooperation with Xiyu Group and Brahma Group to confront the four conglomerates was highly probable. The ultimate outcome would be an all-out war among the Nine Great Groups, leaving them with no spare attention to deal with the native cultivators. *So I myself am a crucial piece manipulated by the power of fate to incite this civil war within the Hunyuan Realm? Even the legacy left behind by the Spacetime Dao Ancestor—the Glazed Treasure Tree—was factored in?* Sensing the profound, elusive power swirling around him, Yaoguang deeply felt the immense might of the power of fate for the first time. This might did not manifest as direct confrontation, nor as physical annihilation. Yet, like poison seeping to the marrow, it permeated everywhere, ceaselessly swaying every aspect of an individual until they ultimately acted toward the outcome It desired. For a moment, even Yaoguang could not help but clap in admiration. "Splendid, truly worthy of the Grand Dao of Fate, the foremost of the Three Thousand Grand Daos. Everything was already foreshadowed all along. Profound beyond measure." Of course, everything he contemplated was mere conjecture without proof; it was quite possible he was merely pitting his own wits against himself. Yet... The melee among the eleven Immortal Kings of the three conglomerates before him was undoubtedly influenced by the Gate of All Mysteries—the supreme treasure in the Ancient Immortal League said to wield the authority of fate. Since this supreme treasure possessed such miraculous power... *Then that makes it all the better for me to use it to thoroughly study what fate truly is.* Yaoguang focused his attention on the Immortal Kings of the Ancient Immortal League. ... The battle of the Immortal Kings unleashed far too immense a disturbance. Every full-powered activation of an immortal art not only triggered violent celestial phenomena, sending shockwaves across tens of millions of miles, but also resonated with True Immortals and Immortal Venerables who practiced the same Grand Dao. In the past, an engagement between Immortal Kings of this scale would have drawn the gaze of the Lord of Yuanxi, and True Immortals, Immortal Venerables, and Immortal Kings alike would have watched with keen curiosity. Now, however, the power of the Lord of Yuanxi had expanded into outer space, fiercely contending against the Three Thousand Grand Dao rules of the Ancient Immortal Realm itself, leaving Him no leeway to intervene. Meanwhile, the other True Immortals and Immortal Venerables, including Immortal Kings, understood that during the Lord of Yuanxi's absence, beings of the Hunyuan Realm would seize the opportunity to settle scores and exact vengeance. Exercising self-preservation, even when they clearly sensed an unprecedented scale to the conflict, no one rushed to investigate. Although no outsiders came to probe or interfere, Immortal King Xuanqing grew anxious as the assault dragged on without breakthrough. The longer it took, the more variables would arise. If Immortal King Longxiang and the others managed to broadcast the news that Yaoguang was the inheritor of the Spacetime Dao Ancestor for all to know, profiting in secret would no longer be easy. *Damn that Yuankun! Tianyu had two Immortal Kings from Tianyuan Group trailing behind him, yet he never mentioned a word to us! He clearly wanted to use them to set us up!* Xuanqing seethed with anger, but things had already reached this point; giving in to fury was meaningless. Without hesitation, the Immortal King sent out his divine sense: "Since we have already struck, do you still intend to hold anything back?! Everything in the Ancient Immortal Realm is fleeting; only elevating our clearance is real! What are you all waiting for?!" Hearing his divine transmission, the other Immortal Kings of Creation Group exchanged quiet glances and reached their resolution. Instantly, top-tier immortal artifacts and varied exotic curios were unleashed from their hands. At this moment, Immortal King Longxiang, Immortal King Diyi, and Immortal King Wumu also realized that life and death hung in the balance. "Xuanqing, you truly intend to exterminate us all!" With a furious roar from Immortal King Longxiang, the three Immortal Kings began to fight with their lives on the line. In an instant, the battle reached a fever pitch. The might stirred by the power of the Grand Daos overturned seas and shattered the earth at every turn. A mere ordinary Dao of Fire caused torrents of flame to rain from the sky, surging like dragons and easily incinerating hundreds of thousands of miles even within the environment of the Immortal Realm. The Dao of Yin and Yang inverted rules, alternating hot and cold and shifting space, rendering the application of power entirely unpredictable. As for the Dao of Destruction, words were scarcely needed. Wherever that Dao passed, all things were ground to dust by the domineering, unrivaled power of destruction; nothing could remain intact, not even objects as formidable as immortal artifacts, immortal bodies, or immortal arts channeling the origin of the Grand Dao. When these Immortal Kings unleashed their full might without reservation, the gap between an Immortal King with Tier 19 clearance like Xuanqing and ordinary Immortal Kings gradually became apparent. Although none of the combatants could draw upon computing power support from the Lord of Yuanxi, virtually erasing the advantages granted by clearance, a Tier 19 clearance holder's deductions of cultivation realms and comprehension of immortal arts were still distinctly a tier above those of a Tier 18 Immortal King. Even though the Dao of Yin and Yang favored by Chairman Xuanqing was ill-suited for direct melee slaughter, he still relied on the technique of reversing yin and yang to seize an opportunity, delivering a fatal blow to Immortal King Diyi. *Rumble!* The Grand Daos surged. At the moment Immortal King Diyi fell, and the account that had taken millions or even tens of millions of years of painstaking cultivation to reach Tier 18 clearance was "deleted," Immortal King Longxiang and Immortal King Wumu were consumed by boundless fury. "If you want us dead, Creation Group will pay the price! Alpha, this was all caused by your false information! Today, I will make you pay for what you have done!" Immortal King Longxiang let out a long cry, and over three hundred immortal artifacts manifested behind him simultaneously. As they appeared, every single artifact was detonated, unleashing an unprecedented deluge of Grand Daos. Guided by Immortal King Longxiang, this torrent of Grand Daos poured entirely into his own body. The force of over three hundred Grand Daos nearly tore the Immortal King apart! Yet he forcibly commanded this unprecedentedly vast power, risking the collapse of his immortal body to enact a supreme immortal art forged from the convergence of a full three hundred and sixty Grand Daos. "Heaven's Execution!" Three hundred and sixty Grand Daos! What a terrifying number! Even Immortal Kings possessing Tier 19 clearance reached their absolute limit when mobilizing one hundred and fifty Grand Daos! Now that an ultimate strike drawing upon three hundred and sixty Grand Daos—one deserving to be called the strongest among supreme immortal arts—was unleashed, the faces of all the Creation Group Immortal Kings drained of color. "Not good!" "Look out!" "Quick, strike with everything you have!" Led by Chairman Xuanqing, the other seven Immortal Kings unleashed their might in unison. Accompanied by resplendent immortal light, the roar of the Grand Daos reverberated as they attempted to interrupt Immortal King Longxiang before he could execute the supreme immortal art. Yet at that moment, Immortal King Wumu was also swept up by surging bloodlust; instead of seizing the chance to flee, he threw himself forward to block the eight Immortal Kings of Creation Group. "Seeking life through death! Today, either you die, or we perish!" The Immortal King laughed heartily as the Five Elements Daos circulated across his body. Earth condensed into towering peaks to suppress the void, metal sharpened into blades piercing heaven and earth, flora blossomed in the wind radiating boundless vitality, and frost intertwined with raging fire to envelop the firmament. At this very moment, Yaoguang distinctly sensed that, from the direction of the Ancient Immortal League, the power of what seemed to be the supreme treasure, the Gate of All Mysteries, was pushed to its absolute limit. *Rumble!* Immortal King Wumu attained the death he sought, his immortal body shattering. Only a wisp of a remnant soul fled toward the horizon. Yet at the cost of abandoning millions of years of cultivation, he caused the coordinated strike of the eight Immortal Kings led by Xuanqing to falter for a fleeting instant, ultimately buying precious time for Immortal King Longxiang to unleash the supreme immortal art—Heaven's Execution. As Immortal King Longxiang's millions of years of cultivation were likewise wiped out in an instant, this supreme immortal art, brought forth with the power of one hundred and eight Daos, finally came crashing down. "Hold it off!" "Myriad Tribulations Dharma Wheel! Break!" "Center upon my Universe Inversion Art to shatter this immortal art!" Rallied by Immortal King Xuanqing, all the directors pushed their power to the limit. Amidst the roaring of countless Grand Daos, the two colossal forces were about to unleash an unprecedented collision within the void. Yet... Perhaps out of mortal selfishness, or perhaps under the influence of the Gate of All Mysteries, when the collision truly erupted, Immortal King Nizhuan and the targeted Immortal King Alpha visibly showed fear. They shrank back. As a result, the Universe Inversion Art, which by all rights should have broken the supreme immortal art Heaven's Execution, developed a glaring flaw! With that flaw exposed, people from Creation Group were genuinely about to die. "Alpha! Nizhuan!" Xuanqing's divine sense erupted with fury, burning like a raging inferno that nearly scorched the void. Yet... This was not even the worst of the situation. For at that very moment, the five Immortal Kings of the Ancient Immortal League, who had been lurking in the shadows all along, struck under the leadership of their alliance master, Immortal King Tianming.