Chapter 460: The Target
The Taiyuan Perfected Lord sighed emotionally upon receiving the news. "The Penglai Dao Lord is as sharp as ever. Even before this, she beat the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion into sealing its gates and sent the Jade Scale Demon Paragon fleeing with its tail between its legs. So much time has passed since then. It's only natural her cultivation took another step forward, bringing her into an entirely new domain."
"I just didn't expect the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord would stoop to bullying someone beneath him and attack Yaoguang outright," the Supreme Jade Emperor said.
"Isn't that perfectly normal for Abyssal Ruins? And it isn't only him. Dark Sky, Extinction, Unchained... Which of them isn't a madman? The Extinction Dao Lord above all. Twenty thousand years ago, he supposedly planned to slaughter every Void-Shattering cultivator of the Great Dao of void across the whole North Sea Star. If the Taiqing Dao Lord hadn't stepped forward to stop him, the two void Dao Lords who broke through afterward would never have existed," the Taiyuan Perfected Lord said calmly.
"Dark Sky, Extinction, Unchained..." Hearing his sect master name those Dao Lords, the Supreme Jade Emperor felt his scalp prickle.
There were simply too many Dao Lords cultivating the Dao of void. Every time the Gate of the Immortal Realm opened, of all the Dao Lords who came from across the world, those of the void Dao made up three or four out of ten.
Yet the void path had only a single slot available to enter the Immortal Realm. From that alone one could tell how ruthless the internal competition among void Dao Lords had become.
Even an ordinary person might break down and act rashly when facing crushing pressure, let alone Dao Lords, who held boundless might.
"The Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord counted among the more notorious and ancient Dao Lords, and yet he's been cut down by the Penglai Dao Lord. Hopefully this will cow the ones who run amok during every North Sea Star Dao contest." The Supreme Jade Emperor said, then couldn't help but sigh again. "The Gate of the Immortal Realm shows no sign of opening yet, the Dao contest hasn't even arrived, and a Dao Lord has fallen already. That's a bad omen..."
"The Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord was, after all, an ancient Dao Lord who had lived 120,000 years. His age had eroded his mind, and his thinking, as well as the turning of his psychic thought, wasn't as quick as it once had been. He was like an old machine. However advanced it may have been to begin with, time wears it down and all sorts of problems surface. So even with a Dao Lord like that falling, I'm afraid it won't deter the others much..." the Taiyuan Perfected Lord said.
Then he raised his head and looked at the sect-protecting grand array overhead. "Still, our Dao Lord will be back soon, and with our sect's array and the mutual defense pact we signed with the Heavenly Dao Sect, getting through this Dao contest shouldn't be difficult."
The Supreme Jade Emperor nodded, though the worried expression on his face refused to fade.
For those standing at the very peak of the Void-Shattering Realm, the figures on the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings, the arrival of the Dao contest was both a danger and an opportunity.
But for an ordinary Void-Shattering cultivator, the years ahead would be an ordeal. The Supreme Jade Emperor himself was already weighing whether to apply for a garrison post somewhere out in the starry sky beyond.
"By the way, a true disciple of the Heavenly Dao Sect has advanced to the Void-Piercing Realm, and the ceremony is about to be held. Do you want to send someone over?" the Taiyuan Perfected Lord asked.
The Supreme Jade Emperor was briefly at a loss for words. "It's just a true disciple reaching the Void-Piercing Realm. Can't we just have the department in charge of these protocols send an elder to make an appearance? Do we really need to—"
"The newly advanced Void-Piercing cultivator is Su Yaoxue, Sect Master Yaoguang's younger sister." The Taiyuan Perfected Lord paused, then added, "His birth sister."
The Supreme Jade Emperor's words cut off halfway.
"I'm sending Zhao Yang to represent me. If you don't plan to go yourself..."
"I'll arrange it right now."
***
The fall of a single Dao Lord left the North Sea Star unsettled for a long while afterward.
Even a Void-Shattering cultivator like the Supreme Jade Emperor, who was backed by one of the ten top immortal sects and a level 15 sect-protecting grand array, was thinking of keeping his head down, to say nothing of the Void-Refining and Void-Piercing cultivators.
Over the following stretch of time, many of them led their core clansmen away from the North Sea Star. Some returned to the ancestral lands they came from; others sought out a hidden planet or world where they could lie low for a thousand or two thousand years, and return only once the North Sea Star had calmed.
In the past, such an exodus would not have come until a few centuries later, but this time the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord's death brought it forward.
When it came to Dao Lords, the slightest movement from one of them sent ripples across the entire North Sea Star. The death of one such figure was bound to cause a massive stir.
Outside, the world churned over it. But inside the Heavenly Dao Sect, everything went on exactly as before.
Su Yaoxue's Void-Piercing Realm advancement ceremony was a prime example.
A Void-Piercing cultivator was considered an expert in any top faction on the North Sea Star. One appearing turned heads, and holding a ceremony for their advancement was reasonable enough; usually, though, only friendly factions would send representatives to offer congratulations, and the real participants were the various factions inside the honoree's own sect.
Su Yaoxue's ceremony was different. Presiding over it was none other than the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master, the man who not long ago had "joined forces" with the Penglai Dao Lord to cut down a void Dao Lord. With a figure of that standing as the host, which power would dare to treat the occasion lightly?
And yet the guest of honor was a mere Void-Piercing cultivator. For a time the leaders of every top faction racked their brains over who would be appropriate to send.
By the time the ceremony drew near, though, the representatives had all taken their places. Everywhere one looked, stood young sect masters, deputy sect masters, or Void-Piercing direct disciples who were in line to inherit a sect master's mantle.
The less important ones were still the most treasured descendants of some supreme elder. The weakest cultivation among them was the Void-Piercing Realm, and many stood at the Void-Refining Realm.
Moreover, the powers in attendance were more numerous than ever. The other nine of the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects, the Three Great Martial Dao Sects, the Four Great Immortal Dynasties—not one was absent. Even the Six Buddhist Temples, who rarely moved beyond their own gates, were no exception.
A Void-Piercing Realm advancement ceremony ended up larger in scale than a deputy sect master's investiture, on par with an emperor's coronation in the Four Great Immortal Dynasties.
A man's reputation precedes him. Even the immortal cultivation world was no exception.
During the ceremony, everyone truly grasped the weight of Yaoguang's influence on the North Sea Star. If someone called him the most consequential figure on the North Sea Star below the Dao Lords, no person nor any power would question their words.
***
The celebration ran the better part of half a month before dispersing.
All members of the Nine Cauldrons Sect had shown their faces before all the major powers on the North Sea Star, doing their best to leave an impression. Many of them quietly spurred themselves on to reach the Void-Piercing Realm as soon as they could.
They didn't expect the same treatment as Su Yaoxue—with Yaoguang presiding over their advancement in person—but who wouldn't want to taste that kind of blazing glory?
Especially since the time was nearly ripe.
The Nine Cauldrons Sect lineage was indeed about to see its new generation rise. Within a century, it would surely become a force with real weight inside the Heavenly Dao Sect.
Azure Golden Cores rose one after another in the Nine Cauldrons Sect, a hundred boats racing the same current.[1]
Yaoguang, back in Heaven-Forsaken Valley, had his hands completely full. Not long after, the Penglai Dao Lord, whom he had called over to put to work, joined him.
The work lasted more than a decade. During those years, the two of them barely caught a breath, pouring every hour and every scrap of energy into refining the Human Emperor Sword and the Endless Tower.
Their efforts were not wasted. After a full twenty years of tempering, both the Human Emperor Sword and the Endless Tower completed their transformation.
Endless, intense Dao resonance poured outward in all directions, held in check only by Heaven-Forsaken Valley's reinforced arrays, and the two top-tier Dao Artifacts shot into the sky together.
The Penglai Dao Lord beckoned, and the Human Emperor Sword dropped into her hand, while Yaoguang leaped up and caught the Endless Tower as it climbed toward the clouds.
"It's finished," Yaoguang said.
"Very nice." The Penglai Dao Lord held the Human Emperor Sword and flicked it with a finger, sending a formless Dao resonance rippling out.
The next moment, the power of the Great Dao of origin washed over it again and again until the top-tier Dao Artifact flowed like water and sank into her body.
Once fused with it, her command of the Great Dao of origin visibly rose by more than a tenth.
"Congratulations, Dao Lord. You finally have a top-tier Dao Artifact that suits you," Yaoguang said with a smile.
"Are you angling for me to praise you?" the Penglai Dao Lord said, all smiles.
She pointed with an empty hand, and a thread of origin power spilled loose. After sensing it for a moment, she sounded a little regretful. "A top-tier Dao Artifact does raise combat strength, but the effect isn't immediate. If only it were a semi-immortal artifact, or a true immortal artifact. Give me a semi-immortal artifact like the Great Dao Golden Book, and I could immediately fight my way into the Nine Demon Race Lineages and kill that Jade Scale Demon Paragon, since he keeps causing trouble."
"Once I achieve Dao Integration, I'll try for you, Dao Lord. I can't promise an immortal artifact, but a semi-immortal artifact... So long as you can supply the materials, refining one wouldn't be beyond me," Yaoguang said.
"Materials aren't so easy to gather." The Penglai Dao Lord glanced at the Endless Tower in his hand. "How could our Penglai Immortal Sect's foundation compare with those top great sects? Everything I've obtained over the years went into the Human Emperor Sword and that Dao Artifact of yours."
"If a semi-immortal artifact is out of reach, another top-tier Dao Artifact is still worth attempting," Yaoguang said with a smile. "There's a fair amount of the relevant material left. If you're willing, Dao Lord, I could refine one more for you."
"Oh?" The Penglai Dao Lord looked Yaoguang over, studying him. "Offering to refine me a top-tier Dao Artifact of your own volition? What are you after?"
"A favor, Dao Lord." Yaoguang did not hide it and spoke plainly. "I've heard the top-tier Dao Artifact in the Unchained Dao Lord's hands, the Void-Sealing Tower, was made with Mystic Spirit Resonance Crystal. By blending that crystal into any void-type material, its quality rises to immortal artifact level. Blend it into a material already at immortal artifact level and the quality climbs higher still..."
"The Void-Sealing Tower is the Unchained Dao Lord's darling. If you want to take it and pry the Mystic Spirit Resonance Crystal out of it, you may as well say straight out that you want his life," the Penglai Dao Lord said, laughing.
"You're right." Yaoguang gave a fist-and-palm salute, his expression grave. "If it can be done, I hope to borrow your strength, Dao Lord, to ambush and kill the Unchained Dao Lord."
1. "A hundred boats racing the same current" is a Chinese idiom used to describe a sea of competitors racing to the top. ☜