Chapter 448: Intent
Time flowed on. One after another, core personnel from the southern domain arrived at the Heavenly Dao Sect through the teleportation array, which was bustling about in preparation for Yaoguang's succession ceremony.
During that period, Yaoguang received countless answers. Many factions shared the Taiyi Immortal Sect's reasoning, and agreed to part with a portion of top-tier Dao Artifact material, generously indicating that paying the normal market value for it would be fine.
It might mean a gap of a billion or more in price, but at least it bought goodwill. If they ever had something to ask of that mysterious artifact paragon, they would have grounds to open the conversation.
Some were also drawn by the high price he offered, and were willing to sell top-tier Dao Artifact materials. But since so many powers wanted to build goodwill, Yaoguang grew picky about those asking for twice the market value.
Unless the quality was exceptional, something special enough to serve as auxiliary material for an immortal artifact, he barely gave it a glance.
***
"Nine portions of top-tier Dao Artifact material and two portions of auxiliary immortal artifact material. About fifty billion in total." Yaoguang ran the numbers.
Fifty billion for those materials was a bit of a loss. Still, given that the other factions hadn't wanted to sell them in the first place, a premium of nearly twenty billion seemed reasonable enough.
"Besides those nine portions of top-tier Dao Artifact material and two portions of auxiliary immortal artifact material, the supplies the Penglai Dao Lord gave me earlier include two portions of auxiliary immortal artifact material I can use, plus sixteen portions of usable top-tier Dao Artifact material. The rest doesn't match well enough unless I want to forge a Dao Artifact attuned to the Great Dao of origin."
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Yaoguang took stock of what he had received. Counting the Guixu Mystic Crystal, he had one portion of primary immortal artifact material, four portions of auxiliary immortal artifact material, twenty-five portions of primary top-tier Dao Artifact material, and hundreds of portions of auxiliary top-tier Dao Artifact material. That was nearly enough.
"All I'm short of is one primary immortal artifact material. The Taiyi Immortal Sect has a portion, but they want a face-to-face talk with that 'mysterious artifact paragon.'"
Their reservation was cut from exactly the same cloth as the Heavenly Dao Sect's. The Central Heaven Dao Lord wanted a word with him too.
Unlike the Heavenly Dao Sect, however, the Taiyi Immortal Sect was not sending a Dao Lord to talk with him, but an artifact paragon at the Void-Shattering Realm.
That left room to work with.
He didn't dare meet a Dao Lord, but a Void-Shattering artifact paragon was another matter. Certain Dao Techniques derived from the Great Dao of truth could seal the lips of anyone at the Void-Shattering Realm who hadn't yet integrated with the Dao, and the Great Dao Golden Book had exactly that capability.
He only needed to add a clause to it forbidding the Taiyi Immortal Sect's paragon from leaking any information whatsoever about the "mysterious artifact paragon" behind him, and secrecy should be secured for a good while.
And he only needed another century or so. Once the Dao Artifact meant for fusing with his essence and psyche was finished, he would head into the depths of the starry sky to launch his assault on Dao Integration. By then, even if word got out that he was the mysterious paragon, his safety would be assured.
"Dao Integration." Yaoguang turned the words over on his tongue.
He could already glimpse some of the mysteries behind Dao Integration, but if he were to try to break through, his success rate would be far too low.
Walking the road of the human immortal, gaining a "Dao" of his own before attempting integration, amounted to having three top-tier Dao Artifacts helping him fend off the risk of Dao transformation. Only with that could he truly dare to attempt Dao Integration.
"Dao Integration is the single greatest transformation on the road of cultivation. This breakthrough will even bring my cultivation level up to the comprehension realm I already reached. That'll be the first time the two are matched." Yaoguang smiled.
Right. Once I integrate with the Dao, I will try using "Dao Lord," or borrowing the Refiner and Merchant branches, to push the progress on the Dao Integration branch. If all goes smoothly, I should be able to make it in time for the Dao contest eight or nine hundred years from now.
With that thought, he went back to his preparations for refining the Endless Tower.
***
While Yaoguang's succession ceremony and his trade in top-tier Dao Artifact materials had the North Sea Star in an uproar, far away in the starry sky beyond, two vast psychic thoughts settled over a planet the Yin Lunar Sect kept purely for communication.
One belonged to the Yin Lunar Sect's greatest backer, the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign, who had become a Dao Lord through the Great Dao of darkness. The other belonged to the Penglai Dao Lord's greatest enemy, the Jade Scale Demon Paragon, whose living space had been squeezed to almost nothing.
The two Dao Integration Realm beings waited with endless patience. Their true bodies had not yet reached the North Sea Star, after all, so whatever they intended to do, discussion had to come first.
Hum!
Just then two more powerful psychic thoughts appeared over the planet, one after the other. The distinctive resonance of Dao Integration radiated from them, enough to make any Void-Shattering cultivator who sensed it bow their head in salute of their own accord. But everyone present was a Dao Lord, so no one made a fuss.
"Abyssal Ruins and Light, you are here?" The Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign greeted them, then added, surprised, "Origin isn't coming?"
"Something about how the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects are branches of one tree and he won't turn on his own house. Heh. A coward, if you ask me. Penglai beat him once, and he lost every scrap of courage to stand against her. He shames the title of Dao Lord," the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord said with a sneer.
"If he isn't coming, so be it. With the strength of the four of us, success remains guaranteed," the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign said mildly.
"Light can't make it in time either. He's still a long way from the North Sea Star," said the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord.
The Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign and the Jade Scale Demon Paragon turned their gazes on the Light Divine Venerable at once. "Yaoguang killed that many of your divine race elites out in the starry sky, and you'll just watch it happen? Feel nothing at all?"
"If I had a hundred years, I would act myself. But in this short span, I really cannot get back," the Light Divine Venerable said.
"A hundred years is far too long. Word has it Central Heaven is on his way back as well. A hundred years... If he returns in the meantime, that's one more variable we don't need," the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign said.
"Light can't get back in time? And Origin won't lift a finger? So it falls to Black Lunar and me to handle the Penglai Dao Lord, huh?" The Jade Scale Demon Paragon was displeased. "You cultivate the Great Dao of darkness, Black Lunar. Once you slip into the dark, the Penglai Dao Lord would have a hard time laying a hand on you. Your talent for surviving is remarkable. But what about me? Am I supposed to face her directly, and by myself? Heh. If I could fight her, I wouldn't be hiding in holes! So... Is it off, then?"
"Be at ease, Jade Scale Demon Paragon. I'll move very fast. Hold Penglai for a moment, and Yaoguang, a mere Void-Shattering cultivator, will easily fall into our hands," the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord said.
"Yaoguang is the sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect now, and he'll certainly be presiding over it. The Heavenly Dao Sect has the Golden Book Venerable, an artifact spirit nurtured over countless years. With the Venerable in the way, you think you can breach the Heavenly Dao Sect faster than a heartbeat and carry off their sect master?" the Jade Scale Demon Paragon rebutted him without sparing his feelings
Then he went on, "Look at the lot of you. Light and Black Lunar are here for revenge. You, Abyssal Ruins, are here for the riches he possesses, and for that artifact paragon. Oh, and for your own appetites, strangling a genius who is on the path of the Great Dao of void in the crib. I'm the only one who came for the Penglai Dao Lord's sake, and if putting a thorn in her side and sinking her investment means risking my life, then forgive me, but count me out!"
The Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign urged, "Demon Paragon, moving against Penglai alongside the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign does carry some risk. But once the Penglai Dao Lord has a top-tier Dao Artifact in hand, your position will only grow harder to bear. For the sake of the life you'll be living afterward, it's worth the gambleβ"
He hadn't finished before the Jade Scale Demon Paragon laughed coldly. "Afterward? The Penglai Dao Lord will certainly enter the Gate of the Immortal Realm this cycle. I can't fight her, but I can hide from her. Once she's through that gate, I'll slaughter the Penglai Immortal Sect, uprooting it and cutting off every branch! Not one of them will live. That'll wash away my humiliation just as well!"
The Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign and the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord frowned at that.
The mysterious artifact paragon behind Yaoguang was refining a Dao Artifact for the Penglai Dao Lord, which meant she would be there the whole time, guarding him. To move against Yaoguang, against that artifact paragon, and against materials worth a hundred billion or more, a confrontation with the Penglai Dao Lord was unavoidable.
Without the Jade Scale Demon Paragon fighting her head-on, neither the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign nor the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord could hold the Penglai Dao Lord in place. Neither of them was any good in a frontal clash.
She would simply leave with Yaoguang, the mysterious artifact paragon, and all those top-tier materials, and every last one of them would face her endless retribution afterward.
The Yin Lunar Sect would be finished for certain.
As for the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord himself, if he failed to seize this chance to force that artifact paragon to refine a top-tier Dao Artifact for his own desperate gamble, the Penglai Dao Lord might well strike him down on the spot.
He was old, his combat power a shadow of what it had been, and unlike the Jade Scale Demon Paragon, he had no Nine Demon Immortal Lineages behind him and nowhere to hide. For him, this venture could only succeed. Failure was not an option.
"Enough, enough. Since we're all gathered here, clearly we stand on the same side and want to take the gamble." The Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord turned his gaze to the Light Divine Venerable. "The problem now lies with your divine race. Do you have any way to solve it?"
Then he added, "Seven divine sovereigns are dead, including Divine Sovereign Yinghuo, the one with the best hope of achieving Dao Integration in your Light Divine Race. I don't believe you're as indifferent as you're pretending to be."
The Light Divine Venerable's eyes glowed. It was a while before he spoke, "At the end of the day, what worries you is that the Penglai Dao Lord can't be pinned down long enough for Abyssal Ruins to breach the Heavenly Dao Sect and take Yaoguang and that mysterious artifact paragon. But every member of the divine race who attains Dao Integration refines his earthly divine kingdom into the Great Dao he merges with, making it a heavenly divine kingdom. I'll have someone set up a guiding array laid down. It won't take longer than twenty years to complete, and then I'll be able to project my heavenly divine kingdom to support you. Its power will be equal to a top-tier level 14 confinement array."
Something seemed to occur to him then. "That's a system that circulates within the Heavenly Dao Sect, dividing array arts, alchemy, and refining into numbered levels. I find it reasonably accurate, so I've borrowed it."
The others nodded. Only once they understood the strength of such a confinement array did the Jade Scale Demon Paragon turn to the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord. "How much time do you need to breach the Heavenly Dao Sect?"
"One incense stick of time will do," the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord answered at once.
"Fine. Then Black Lunar and I will buy you an hour," the Jade Scale Demon Paragon said heavily.
Seeing the Jade Scale Demon Paragon accept the hardest task, the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign broke into a smile. "Very good. Then, gentlemen, let us sign a Great Dao pact. May every one of us get what he came for and return with full hands."