A Single Strike

"What did they just say? Cult Master Yun of the Heavenly Court Cult is an immortal?" For the first time in his life, City Lord Liu doubted his own hearing. In an era where even half-immortals did not walk the world, an immortal had actually appeared? Even in the Battle of Hanshui City, the one who had manifested was merely a wisp of Dou Tianzun's immortal sense, not her true body. Yet here in Chunjiang City, having two half-immortals show up had been crazy enough—and now a true immortal had emerged? Venerable Yiqi gave a composed nod. "There is no mistake. Only an immortal could unravel that technique with such effortless ease." Now that things had reached this point, he had completely abandoned any thought of an ambush. Faced with an immortal, all schemes and methods were useless. Whether the people of Chunjiang City lived or died depended entirely on the Heavenly Court Cult's whim. *** "Who would have thought... the ancient Heavenly Court actually possesses two immortals." Void Supreme narrowed his eyes as ancient, arcane runes quietly crept up his wrists. "Fellow Daoist, if the two of us join forces to crush this person, our names will surely be remembered for eternity. What do you say?" Nightmare Supreme showed no fear. This was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity to slay an immortal. Stall her with words, then launch a sneak attack—there was a chance of success, so it was worth a shot! Slaying an immortal would grant the greatest opportunity in the struggle of the Golden Age! "Agreed." The two exchanged a glance and struck at the exact same moment! *Boom!* They attacked each other and ran for the outside world as fast as their legs could carry them! Both wanted the other to stall Yun Zhi while they slipped away. Facing an immortal, there was no chance of victory at all! Not the slightest shred! Only by fleeing could there be a sliver of hope to survive. The two tore open their respective worlds; one unraveled the Void Realm, the other unraveled the dreamscape. Both the Void Realm and the dreamscape split open into colossal rifts. Just as they had half their bodies outside, Yun Zhi suddenly clapped her hands. The rifts snapped shut, and an invisible pair of hands hauled them back. The immense disparity made them realize escape was utterly impossible; only by risking everything in a desperate stand was there any way out! "Man follows Earth, Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows Nature!" Void Supreme vanished, fusing into one with the Void Realm. At this moment, he was the Void Realm, and the Void Realm was him! Whatever his consciousness willed, the Void Realm would manifest for him—including slaying Yun Zhi! This form was exceedingly perilous; the slightest misstep, and he could be swallowed by the Void Realm, reduced to nourishment for it. "Great is the Dao, great is Heaven, great is Earth, and great am I as well!" Nightmare Supreme employed a similar technique, fusing with the dreamscape. While gaining power, he also ran the risk of becoming part of the dream, never to wake again. Two colossal human faces materialized in the sky above Chunjiang City, roaring in unison: "You forced our hands! You are fated to suffer a mortal tribulation, and today it shall come to pass!" They were the Void Realm and the dreamscape incarnate; every word they spoke carried the will of both realms, and within that will lay karma. This was neither a threat nor intimidation, but a genuine karmic curse! Spiritual energy violently churned without cause, forming a vortex that triggered a massive spiritual energy detonation—a spiritual catastrophe with a one-in-a-hundred-million probability of occurring! In the history of Great Qian, the population of an entire city had once perished in such a disaster. Space distorted into turbulent currents; nothing with form could remain intact within spatial turbulence. This was a spatial anomaly with a one-in-a-billion chance of occurring. Once, a peak Tribulation Transcendence expert had lasted a mere three seconds in spatial turbulence before being shredded into mincemeat. Phantoms of past and present emerged—a million-strong army, fluttering banners, a landscape strewn with corpses... Time lost all meaning at this moment. This was a temporal displacement with a one-in-a-billion probability! The descended army roared as they charged toward Yun Zhi, their banners proclaiming to the world that they were the army of Great Yu! The million-strong army of Great Yu that Nightmare Supreme had slain within a dream at the end of the Great Qian era! One statistically impossible phenomenon after another manifested in succession, unleashing every manner of adverse factor upon Yun Zhi. Even worse, a colossal shadow loomed over Yun Zhi—a rolling expanse of black mountains materialized from the void, extraordinarily dense and immeasurably heavy, causing signs of spatial collapse all around it. Faced with doom and the black mountains, Yun Zhi remained unfazed. She sighed softly, reached out a slender, delicate jade-like hand, and brought it down in a chop. Utterly ordinary, yet the Great Dao is simple. The spiritual catastrophe, spatial distortion, temporal displacement, black mountains... dissolved into nothingness, as if they had never existed. Heaven and earth cleared at once. Two bloodcurdling screams rang out. The Void Realm and the dreamscape were cleaved straight down the middle by Yun Zhi, split in two. Chunjiang City saw the light of day once more, returning to the original world as colors rushed back, and the azure sky reappeared overhead. Heavily wounded, the two fused Supremes were forced out of their merged states, sliced in half at the waist, and crashed into the ground, gouging out two huge craters. Venerable Yiqi swallowed hard. A single strike. With just one strike, she had dealt with two ancient half-immortals. Was this the might of an immortal? Having returned to the original world, the two Supremes still refused to resign themselves to defeat. They transformed their lower bodies into duplicates of themselves while their upper bodies turned transparent, fleeing in different directions. They had barely flown a few zhang before Yun Zhi slapped each of them into the ground, unable to get back up. Next, they tried to project their primordial spirits. A primordial spirit projected outside could travel millions of li in a single thought, impossibly swift, impossible for anyone to catch. This was their ultimate life-preserving art—the very technique that had allowed them to survive the founding Emperor Yu and First-Generation Emperor Xia. Yet unexpectedly, they had barely risen two chi before Yun Zhi shoved both their primordial spirits right back down. "Who would have thought this time it would be two half-immortals." Yun Zhi reattached their bodies, grasped Void Supreme by one ankle and Nightmare Supreme by the other, dragging them behind her as she vanished on the spot. Before vanishing, she sent a voice transmission to Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou: "Once you wrap up the aftermath in Chunjiang City, come find me on the hillside thirty li east of the city." Hearing this, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou shuddered in fright. Even though they considered themselves constantly acting with righteous bravery and doing good deeds in Chunjiang City, being summoned like this by Eldest Senior Sister still filled them with an inexplicable sense of guilt, as if they had done something terrible in the city. *** "I-It's over?" "The Heavenly Court Cult's master left?" Seeing the three figures suspended in the sky vanish, the people of Chunjiang City broke into cheers. Having taken a walk through the Gates of Hell and survived the catastrophe, they had every reason to celebrate. "Did the Cult Master of the Heavenly Court Cult save us?" "Yes, it must be her!" "Strange... why can't I remember the battle just now? I still clearly remember everything up through the fight between the two half-immortals." "Now that you mention it, me too." "Look at your memories! Good thing I wrote it down just now... Huh, that's weird. Why is there nothing on the paper?" Forgetfulness spread throughout the city. "Venerable, do you still remember Cult Master Yun's fighting style?" Venerable Yiqi shook his head and let out a long sigh, tinged with inexplicable melancholy. "I cannot remember. It seems the legends were true. No wonder the ancient texts contain no records of battles between immortals—it wasn't that people didn't want to record them, but that it is simply impossible to record them." "By the way, where did Ye Xiao go?" City Lord Liu remembered they had originally planned to escort Ye Xiao away. "Don't bother looking. He got caught in the crossfire when the two half-immortals were fighting and was reduced to ashes. That Vice Pavilion Master is still alive, though. I'll go look for him." Venerable Yiqi stretched his aging waist; going after the Vice Pavilion Master would be just the thing to restore his confidence.