Showdown

Nearby, the Lord of Creation looked upon the clamoring Immortal King Yuxiao, seemingly finding his display utterly disgraceful. *Bang!* With a flick of the ruler's hand, Immortal King Yuxiao, who possessed only the strength of a Dao Sovereign, instantly collapsed into nothingness, without even having the chance to utter a last word. The ruler stepped forward and stared coldly at Yaoguang. "It appears you have been an undercover agent planted into our Nine Great Groups by the Ancient Immortal Realm all along. Now that you've exposed yourself, do you think your wings are fully grown? That you can stand against us? Since that's the case..." *Bang!* The next moment, before the Lord of Creation could finish his sentence, the Dao rhymes enveloping him shattered with a deafening roar. Like a planet struck by an extrasolar meteorite, he burst into countlessly scattering rays of light. His body, woven from countless powers of the Grand Dao, flew backward violently, nearly disintegrating midair. No! It wasn't merely 'nearly'! The Grand Dao powers across the Lord of Creation's body were truly undergoing widespread collapse! That was... The Grand Dao of the Void stripping those Grand Daos of the authority to manifest externally. And the one who had unleashed this strike... Was none other than Yaoguang, who had abruptly materialized where the Lord of Creation had just stood. He seemed to still hold the posture of throwing a punch—an action entirely unnecessary at their level of existence. He appeared... even somewhat to relish it. Watching the Lord of Creation sent flying, Yaoguang blew away the nonexistent dust on his fist. "I've wanted to give you rulers a thorough beating for a long time! In the past, I lacked the power, or perhaps my time on stage hadn't arrived yet. But now... I finally don't have to hold back!" Yaoguang radiated his divine sense without reservation. This spectacle caused the expressions of the rulers present to darken with humiliation. "Insolence!" The Lord of Xiyu barked sternly. Yet before he could say another word, Yaoguang's divine sense swept out like a tempest, engulfing the entire battlefield in an instant: "Insolence?! Me, insolent?! Then what are you waiting for?! I believe I've already made myself quite clear: the one I want to fight was never just a single ruler! It's all nine of you! So..." Within his body, the Dao Lord powers—including the Void Dao Fruit, the Time Dao Fruit, and the Karma Dao Fruit—were stimulated simultaneously. In the next instant, nearly all the shares of the Void, Time, and Karma across the entire Ancient Immortal Realm were drawn by the power of the Dao Fruits, converging into him in an endless torrent. Because they were currently situated around the Gate of Fate, the area where the Ancient Immortal Realm's power was most formidable, and because the power of Fate stood as the foremost among the three thousand Grand Daos, holding the authority to govern all of them— Now, as he stimulated the three Dao Fruits with all his might, the efficiency of drawing in the infusion of these three Grand Daos was several times higher than in any other region. The momentum generated by these surging, mighty powers of the Grand Dao was as though the entire Ancient Immortal Realm had been manifested into reality, raging toward the perimeter of the Gate of Fate. The scale of the disturbance was so colossal that it actually surpassed the virtual Hunyuan Realm that the Nine Rulers had opened up through their combined spirituality upon descending! Endless streams of Grand Dao power poured into Yaoguang's body, prompting him to open his arms wide, as though embracing the descending world of the ancient immortals. "What are you waiting for?! All of you, come at me together! Hahaha!" "Boastful fool!" The Lord of Tianyuan snorted coldly and stepped forward. Yet looking at Yaoguang, whose aura was skyrocketing as he channeled three Grand Daos into himself, his expression grew thoroughly solemn. Even as he shouted, the spiritual power across his body surged to its peak. Under the wash of this spiritual power, the many Grand Dao powers he mobilized seemed to be tamed, coalescing into an unspeakably intricate composite immortal art that blasted toward Yaoguang. Seeing the Lord of Tianyuan strike, the remaining rulers hesitated for a moment and did not make a move. The Nine Rulers joining forces against a mere Immortal King? Even though Yaoguang at this moment... could no longer be described with the power of an Immortal King, they still could not bring themselves to abandon their dignity. "You had best strike together," the Lord of Yuanxi's voice sounded in timely warning. "Yaoguang possesses the power legacies of the Void Dao Ancestor, the Time Dao Ancestor, and the Karma Dao Ancestor all at once. Furthermore, he himself holds sufficiently powerful resistance and control over spiritual power. Right now, I am battling the Fate Dao Ancestor and have no leeway to grant you computing power amplifications. In single combat, you truly cannot stand against Yaoguang." As He spoke, He turned His gaze toward the battlefield. "Just like right now." The composite immortal art from the Lord of Tianyuan—so complex it exceeded the computational limits of any Immortal King—seemed to lose control as it drew near Yaoguang, unraveling and reverting into individual Grand Daos. These reverted Grand Dao powers then had their foundations of existence stripped away by the Grand Dao of the Void, returning to nothingness. Ultimately, Yaoguang smashed through the Lord of Tianyuan's attack with an exceedingly simple Spacetime Collapse Art, slamming with unabated momentum into the ruler body that the Lord of Tianyuan had formed by condensing numerous Grand Dao shares with great amounts of spirituality. In a single blow, thousands of Grand Dao shares were shattered and stripped away from the Lord of Tianyuan. One had to know that even beings as formidable as the rulers, who used spiritual power to control and harmonize, could only bind and command somewhere between tens of thousands and over a hundred thousand Grand Dao shares. If empowered by the Lord of Yuanxi, the Grand Dao shares they could control could reach hundreds of thousands, but currently... they generally ranged between eighty thousand and one hundred and twenty thousand. Take the Lord of Tianyuan, for instance: the Grand Dao shares he possessed were barely over a hundred thousand. This strike immediately battered the Grand Dao power upon him below one hundred thousand shares. "Tianyuan, step aside! Let me take him!" At this moment, the Lord of Creation had recovered from the sudden surprise attack. The Grand Dao power of nearly a hundred thousand shares surged around him as well. Immense spirituality neutralized the powers belonging to different Grand Daos, unifying them into one. As he boldly charged forward, he manifested a miniature universe that resembled both the Hunyuan Realm and the Ancient Immortal Realm. This miniature universe collapsed upon itself, unleashing power sufficient to pierce through the Ancient Immortal Realm as it descended toward the void where Yaoguang stood. Fortunately, this was near the Gate of Fate, whose power suppressed the surroundings; otherwise, this all-out eruption from the Lord of Creation would have been enough to reduce the surrounding void entirely to chaos. "A single ruler dares to think of challenging me? Who gave you the courage?!" Connected to the "Lord of Heavenly Dao," Yaoguang rapidly calculated the spiritual energy the Lord of Creation used to neutralize the various Grand Daos. In his hands, the Spacetime Collapse Art—evolved from the fusion of the Grand Dao of the Void and the Grand Dao of Time—was like a sword sweeping across everything. Especially once the "Lord of Heavenly Dao" discerned the flaws and detonated them through the power of Karma, the Spacetime Collapse Art sliced through like a divine blade cutting into tofu, piercing through the miniature universe manifested by the Lord of Creation in an instant. Clearly, the combined total of the Grand Dao shares of Void, Time, and Karma that Yaoguang commanded barely exceeded twenty thousand, yet the immortal art he displayed held an absolute advantage against the Lord of Creation, who possessed nearly a hundred thousand Grand Dao shares. After piercing through the miniature universe manifested by the Lord of Creation, the Spacetime Collapse Art struck the Lord of Creation's body with unabated force. Instantly, the Lord of Creation, who had just pounced forward to kill, flew backward once again at a speed scarcely slower than when he had charged in. Countless Grand Dao shares dissipated from his massive form, like a repelled behemoth crashing into the earth and kicking up vast devastation and dust. "Useless trash!" Yaoguang laughed heartily and unrestrainedly. "I thought you rulers were supposed to be so mighty, but it turns out that once you lose the empowerment of the Lord of Yuanxi, you're nothing but a bunch of useless trash! What a waste of all the time I spent playing along with you!" "You..." The Lord of Xiyu, the Lord of Shenluo, the Lord of Xingri, and the other rulers all erupted in fury simultaneously. Meanwhile, the Lord of Yuanxi said calmly, "Can you still not see? Yaoguang's power has already surpassed that of any single ruler! What is more, this is not even his strongest state. He is continuously gathering the Grand Daos of Void, Time, and Karma from across the cosmos of the Ancient Immortal Realm. Once he truly converges the entire power of these three Grand Daos into himself, he will be equivalent to the fusion of three Supreme Dao Ancestors. At that point, even if the nine of you join forces, whether you can defeat him will be an even toss-up!" The other rulers exchanged glances. Sensing the Grand Dao power that was indeed steadily growing within Yaoguang, they ultimately... acknowledged the Lord of Yuanxi's words. If Yaoguang were truly allowed to integrate the power of three Dao Ancestors into himself, combined with the fact that he seemed able to utilize "computing power" to assist in combat, it was quite possible that even all Nine Rulers joining forces might not easily bring him down. At that thought, the rulers no longer cared about their lofty dignity and pride from the past. One by one, they boldly struck, joining the siege against Yaoguang. "Hahaha, splendid! In today's battle, an outcome between us must be decided: either you Nine Rulers will be broken by my hands, or I shall die at yours! Every gift of karma shall be returned to heaven and earth!" Yaoguang laughed wildly. At this moment, he cast aside all reservations and shed all shackles. He only wished to fight a thoroughly exhilarating, all-out battle. To unleash to the absolute limit all the power his body had accumulated over a full fifty thousand years of cultivation. Victory or defeat did not matter! The outcome did not matter! Because the final outcome had long been foreordained. ... In the distance, all the Immortal Kings and Immortal Venerables looked upon the unfolding situation with stunned disbelief. Especially Immortal King Taiyi, who had previously fought side by side with Yaoguang and had even harbored thoughts of settling scores later; his face was filled with utter astonishment. "How could he be... this strong?!" When Yaoguang unleashed his full might without holding back, how could he be powerful to such an extent?! Not only him, but the other Immortal Kings felt the same. Particularly the surviving Immortal Kings of the Changsheng Group and the Star Sun Group; in this moment, they felt immensely fortunate. Fortunately, Yaoguang had harbored reservations about the Nine Rulers back then, fearing early exposure and not daring to unleash his full might. Otherwise, with the methods he possessed now, if he had gone all out, how could any of them have survived? As for Immortal King Nizhuan, Immortal King Alpha, and the others of the Creation Group, they broke into a cold sweat from sheer terror. The Ancient Immortal Realm's greatest "spy" had been right by their side all along?! And he had even risen to become the Chairman of the Creation Group?! At this moment, they couldn't help but think of Chairman Xuanqing. Originally, they had thought the demise of Chairman Xuanqing and the other directors was just an accident. Looking back now... How was that an accident? It was clearly Yaoguang's deliberate doing! The final boss had been right beside them?! That the two of them had managed to survive that massive battle was purely by a stroke of heavenly luck. Terrifying! Far too terrifying! The two Immortal Kings had already made up their minds in secret: if the Ancient Immortal Realm and the Hunyuan Realm returned to a stalemate after this war ended, they would not stay in the Ancient Immortal Realm under any circumstances. It would be far better to return to the Hunyuan Realm and live their lives in peace.