The Modern Martial Immortal

"I'd planned to wait another year or two, until the second Annihilation Sword I'm forging was finished, before moving against the Yin Lunar Sect's fiend lords. But plans never keep up with change. Perfected Lord Jinghong delivered Perfected Lord Bu Zhou, the perfect pretext, to me, so the schedule simply moves up."

Yaoguang trailed behind Perfected Lord Bu Zhou, giving chase without haste. The man might possess a flying Dao Artifact, but against Yaoguang, whose life-bound Dao Technique was Void Flicker, no target below a Dao Lord could outrun him or shake him off.

With the Limitless Sword boosting him, a single Void Flicker could cross over a hundred thousand kilometers; even traveling from the Heavenly Dao Sect's headquarters to the southern domain would hardly take any time at all. Perfected Lord Bu Zhou didn't have the slightest chance of escape.

Still, to leave the man a little hope, and to draw out enough of the Yin Lunar Sect's Void-Shattering fiend lords, Yaoguang paused briefly at the border between the southern domain and the Yin Lunar Sect, deliberately letting Bu Zhou gain some distance.

Only when the gap stretched to fifty thousand kilometers did he resume the chase, suppressing his aura and faking caution.

Perfected Lord Bu Zhou was truly Zong Wenxian's most stalwart supporter; neither Gu Li nor Jing Yuntian's support could ever be compared. If he lived, he would go on and cause trouble from the starry sky.

Granted, with his limited ability, whatever storms he whipped up out there could hardly wound Yaoguang. But he'd still be just like a mosquito; one bite would hardly hurt, yet the endless buzzing near the ears would leave you irritated. And for that kind of creature, the best remedy was one slap.

"Hmm?!" Mid-thought, Yaoguang's True Spirit Light picked something up. "Void-Shattering cultivators approaching?"

He lifted his head slightly. The Yin Lunar Sect's fiendish cultivators had come; the timing was almost perfect. With a few Void Flickers, he appeared about a thousand kilometers behind Perfected Lord Bu Zhou.

By then, Bu Zhou's path had been blocked by two Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators. One stood in front of him, one stood behind.

Fiendish cultivators excelled at survival, but weren't particularly strong in battle; when dealing with Void-Shattering cultivators of other camps, they traveled in pairs to leave nothing to chance. These two were the perfect example: one to intercept Perfected Lord Bu Zhou, the other remaining at a distance to support the first.

The one barring Perfected Lord Bu Zhou's way was the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord, and he was already threatening the cultivator from the Heavenly Dao Sect. "Bu Zhou! You dare set foot in my sect's territory? Do you really think we're scared of you?! Get out of our territory this instant, and I may yet spare your life. Otherwise, don't blame my blade for showing no mercy!"

"Foolish Soul Fiend Lord, I mean no harm at all. I've come to offer the Yin Lunar Sect a partnership..." Perfected Lord Bu Zhou said hurriedly.

But the word "partnership" had barely left his mouth when the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord erupted. "Partnership? Like the one that lured the Eight Desolations and Dark Fiend Lords into the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array at your Southern Capital and got them killed? You think we'd fall for that twice?"

Perfected Lord Bu Zhou froze, then scrambled to explain. "That wasn't our doing! Supreme Elder Jing Yuntian genuinely wanted to join hands with your sect against Yaoguang. Who knew... We all misjudged him. His strength already rivaled the Void-Shattering Realm back then, and with the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array on top of it, the two fiend lords fell. But this time I've come in complete good faith..."

"Enough! We won't make the same mistake twice! Get off the Yin Lunar Sect's territory right now, or you die here today!" the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord snarled.

"I'm telling the truth! You must have heard the truth! Yaoguang answers to no one. Ever since he advanced to the Void-Shattering Realm, he's done whatever he pleases inside our sect by abusing his strength. Even Supreme Elder Jing Yuntian died at his hands! Doesn't that prove I'm not lying? It's not that we wouldn't deal honestly with you. Yaoguang is simply too strong. That's how he's broken out of every trap—"

"Hahaha!" The Foolish Soul Fiend Lord's mocking laughter cut Perfected Lord Bu Zhou off. "Bu Zhou, do you take us all for fools? Forget whether a man who reaches the Void-Shattering Realm at a hundred would even have time left to polish his Dao Techniques. Even if he did, since when does the Heavenly Dao Sect stand by and watch someone butcher one of its supreme elders in its headquarters? You wrote this sad story, you staged it yourselves, and you expected us to swallow it? The moment we heard the news, we knew that it was impossible! It was just another plot, probably aimed straight at us. And sure enough, barely any time passed, and here you are, offering a 'partnership' again. Does the Heavenly Dao Sect think the whole world is stupid?"

"It's not that we didn't want to stop him. No one there could stop him—" Perfected Lord Bu Zhou pleaded.

"Pah! Couldn't stop him? This is obviously a show you people put on, making Jing Yuntian disappear for a while! When the news reached us, we guessed the truth right away!"

As the words left his mouth, a long spear, a Dao Artifact, appeared in the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord's hand. "Since you're begging to die, I'll grant the wish!"

The spear swept out, and a vast and mighty martial aura was released with it. All that martial force fused into one, forming what seemed like an army of ten thousand galloping horses that crashed down on Perfected Lord Bu Zhou, swallowing him whole in an instant.

This was the Great Dao of war.

"You've lost your mind!" Perfected Lord Bu Zhou was screaming. "Believe me! I really came to work with you—"

"Die!" the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord growled, and the thousand armies and ten thousand horses conjured from his Great Dao of war crashed down in full on Perfected Lord Bu Zhou. Even with protective Dao Techniques activated at once, the perfected lord was pushed backward step after step.

But at the very moment the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord committed his full strength to that furious blow, a figure materialized at his side.

Without a heartbeat's pause, a Void Sword came down. The fiend lord wore a protective Dao Artifact, but before an edge sharp enough to destroy all things, it shattered instantly into streaks of scattering light, and the Void Sword continued straight through the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord's body, cleanly cutting it in two.

"You are all despicable!" the fiend lord howled, finding himself ambushed.

The two halves of his fiendish body dissolved into fiendish qi, gathering to re-form, but almost in the same instant, the Torrent of Time surged, and four strands of Great Annihilation Sword Qi fell upon his dissipating form.

"No! Soul Slayer! Help me!" the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord roared his defiance, fiendish flames thrashing as he fought to tear free of that stretch of void.

But the pure Great Dao of destruction destroyed more than his fiendish body; it ground away the surrounding Dao resonance, and for a moment no Dao Technique of his would answer.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Seizing the opening, Yaoguang's grotto-heaven unfurled and rolled up the fiend lord's broken body, and the fiend lord, most of his fiendish body already shattered, was swiftly suppressed into the grotto-heaven's depths.

"Well done, Perfected Lord Bu Zhou. You kept this fiendish cultivator's attention and got him angry enough to commit everything, which handed me the opening for a one-strike kill." Having sealed away the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord, Yaoguang beamed his approval at Bu Zhou. "Beautifully played!"

In the distance, the Soul Slayer Fiend Lord, who had been covering the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord's flank, watched his fellow fiend lord ambushed and destroyed in an instant under the "combined assault" of Perfected Lord Bu Zhou and Yaoguang, and his soul nearly fled his body.

Without hesitation, he launched himself into retreat at full speed. Rescuing the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord? The thought never brushed his mind; all he wanted was to preserve his own life.

Even as he fled, he took out a jade talisman, using it to send a message. "The Heavenly Dao Sect has invaded us as retribution for our strike on the Southern Capital! The Foolish Soul Fiend Lord is dead, ambushed by Yaoguang and Bu Zhou together! The enemy is showing no mercy! Summon every fiend lord, now!"

Even as the message flew, Yaoguang had already used Void Flicker, appearing in front of him and blocking his path. A Void Sword and Great Annihilation Sword Qi, amplified by the Torrent of Time, descended once more.

"How..." Perfected Lord Bu Zhou stared at the figure now fighting five thousand kilometers away, an indescribable chill crawling over his whole body.

By all means, he should have been fleeing at top speed while Yaoguang was tied down by the fiendish cultivator, yet his thoughts seemed to be frozen; for a long moment, his limbs didn't respond to any command.

The scene he had just seen up close, the sight of the Foolish Soul Fiend Lord broken like rotten wood and sealed into Yaoguang's grotto-heaven in the midst of battle, struck madly at his nerves.

For the first time, he understood, truly understood, that Yaoguang's strength had reached the point where he could casually kill experts at his level, without needing to put in any real effort.

He had known about Yaoguang killing Jing Yuntian. He had personally watched Yaoguang trade blows with Perfected Lord Jinghong, a Dao Lord Candidate Rankings expert. But neither came anywhere close to the shock of seeing a powerful Void-Shattering cultivator be killed right in front of him, close enough that he could've touched him by simply extending his arm.

That shock left him frozen, rooted to the spot. Only now did he start grasping how close death had been. Yaoguang could kill him at any moment he pleased. And he, with nothing whatsoever to back him, had been provoking a man who could take his life on a whim.

"Is the Heavenly Dao Sect really set on total war with the Yin Lunar Sect?!" The Soul Slayer Fiend Lord's terror-soaked psychic thought rippled outward.

The pulse of it jolted Perfected Lord Bu Zhou back to himself. He dared not hesitate a heartbeat longer, running for his life at the fastest speed he could.

He pushed himself to his absolute limit, wanting only to be far from this region, far from Yaoguang, as far as his cultivation could carry him.

Under the pressure of death, this Void-Shattering cultivator's speed reached the peak. In a dozen breaths, he had crossed nearly five hundred thousand kilometers.

And yet all that distance didn't make him feel any safer. The psychic thought that followed him a moment later made him feel like his heart was sinking into a bottomless chasm.

"Perfected Lord Bu Zhou. Can't you see I'm in the middle of a fight with a fiendish cultivator? It's fine if you don't want to help, but running off in such a hurry... Where exactly do you think you're going?"