The Modern Martial Immortal

Seven Void-Shattering cultivators! Seven Void-Shattering fiend lords of the Yin Lunar Sect, dead!

Had the same thing happened to the Heavenly Dao Sect, it would have been the equivalent of losing half of its supreme elders.

Supreme Elder Gu Li could not suppress a shudder. Even though Yaoguang was present only as a psychic-thought projection formed by the arrays, he still made Gu Li feel an indescribable dread.

Zhen Xuanyuan, beside him, fared little better. He was not frightened to the point of trembling, but he now truly understood just how powerful Yaoguang was.

Seven Void-Shattering fiend lords of the Yin Lunar Sect!

"No! Wait! It isn't ONLY seven fiend lords!" Supreme Elder Chi Yun suddenly cried out.

Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li quickly made the connection as well. Counting the Eight Desolations and Dark Fiend Lords who had died during the attack on the Southern Capital, Yaoguang had single-handedly killed nine Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators!

The three supreme elders of the Heavenly Dao Sect stared at Yaoguang in horror. What kind of slaughter machine was he?!

And if one added Jing Yuntian, and possibly even Perfected Lord Bu Zhou, who had died without any witness, then Yaoguang, despite having been on the North Sea Star for less than a century, might have already cut down eleven cultivators at the Void-Shattering Realm!

Eleven! The Four Great Immortal Dynasties and the Three Great Martial Dao Sects each counted fewer than eleven Void-Shattering cultivators in total.

Weren't his actions basically equivalent to wiping out an entire generation of a top power's Void-Shattering cultivators? Or even destroying one of the North Sea Star's orthodoxies, other than its Dao Lord?

The Yin Lunar Sect's fiend lords? Who was the real fiend lord here?!

"I summoned the three of you to inform you of this. Perfected Lord Bu Zhou's death has been avenged. As for what comes next, whether to continue the war with the Yin Lunar Sect, or report to the Central Heaven Dao Lord and completely destroy them, discuss it among yourselves and just let me know what you decide..." Yaoguang said.

"No, no, there's no need to go as far as destroying them completely. The Dao Contest is almost here. At a time like this, the Dao Lord would never lightly open full war with the Yin Lunar Sect. Even if war comes, it will come after the Dao Contest," Zhen Xuanyuan said hastily.

Yaoguang nodded.

The period immediately before the Gate of the Immortal Realm opened, as well as the time it was open, and the period after it closed had always been the most chaotic eras on the North Sea Star. And each could last a thousand years or more...

Many top orthodoxies would be outright destroyed or dissolved during that time of great upheaval, and new orthodoxies would rise on the North Sea Star to carve up what the fallen left behind. The destruction of the Yin Lunar Sect would have to wait for that window of time.

If the Central Heaven Dao Lord prevailed in the Dao Contest and stepped through the Gate of the Immortal Realm, or if he unfortunately perished, the Heavenly Dao Sect would immediately pull back from most territories, fighting to the death to defend the sect with the Great Dao Golden Book's support, and not expanding an inch no matter how weak the Yin Lunar Sect and the surrounding factions became.

If instead it was the Yin Lunar Sect's Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign who entered the Immortal Realm or died in the contest, then the Yin Lunar Sect could be finished.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

And if neither the Central Heaven Dao Lord nor the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign managed to enter the gate, and both kept their lives, then whether the two sects came to blows would depend on the Dao Lords' decision.

Whatever the outcome, neither the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master nor its supreme elders had the authority to launch a war with the goal of completely annihilating another faction.

"Then so be it," Yaoguang said. "Publicize the matter. It will lift our Heavenly Dao Sect's morale, and when the southern domain swallows another sixteen states from the Yin Lunar Sect, we'll meet a lot less resistance. I'll trouble you three supreme elders with these arrangements."

"We will release the news at once," Zhen Xuanyuan said immediately.

So long as Yaoguang was not bent on pushing the Heavenly Dao Sect into open war with the Yin Lunar Sect, everything was negotiable.

"Will you need our help annexing the sixteen states?"

"Just send some forces from each of your commands to bolster the effort. The war itself will be the southern domain's responsibility. The southern domain has developed rapidly in recent years and grows stronger by the day. With the Yin Lunar Sect's Void-Shattering, Void-Refining, and Void-Piercing cultivators having withdrawn into the sect's headquarters, the various states are essentially defenseless. Annexing those sixteen states with the southern domain's strength will be easy," Yaoguang said.

"Then it shall be as Sect Master Yaoguang says." The supreme elders nodded as one.

"Go and prepare. In three months, the war begins." With his instructions given, Yaoguang withdrew.

The three supreme elders nodded one after another. Though Yaoguang remained a mere deputy sect master, a status a full level below their own, that tone of command, one even the sect master would not have dared use, struck none of the three as the least bit improper.

The essence of the North Sea Star was reverence for the strong. The strong commanding the weak was simply the order of heaven and earth. Those who rejected that truth, or failed to read the situation, had long since become cold corpses.

Jing Yuntian and Bu Zhou were the best examples. With only the obedient left alive, the orders of this deputy sect master were naturally carried out to the letter.

***

Within the Heavenly Dao Sect, as Yaoguang's projection dissolved, the three Void-Shattering supreme elders Zhen Xuanyuan, Chi Yun, and Gu Li let out breaths of relief.

None of them had imagined that merely facing the projection of a fellow Void-Shattering cultivator could carry such crushing pressure.

Just then, Zhen Xuanyuan received a message. He snatched out his communication jade talisman, and after sensing it for barely a moment, he could not help but cry out. "The Yin Lunar Sect has sealed itself?!"

"Sealed?!" Supreme Elder Chi Yun froze, then quickly contacted his own hidden agents in the Yin Lunar Sect through his talisman.

Soon, he received his confirmation and stammered in astonishment, "They really have sealed the sect?!"

He looked up at Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li in horror. "The Yin Lunar Sect, one of the Six Great Fiendish Dao Sects, forced to seal itself by Yaoguang alone?!"

Zhen Xuanyuan found it absurd and struggled to believe it. But considering the events of the past decades...

Yaoguang had first killed the Dark and Eight Desolations Fiend Lords, and now stormed the Yin Lunar Sect and killed seven more Void-Shattering fiend lords... Nine of the Yin Lunar Sect's Void-Shattering cultivators were dead.

Facing such enormous losses, the Yin Lunar Sect being forced to seal its gates seemed rather reasonable.

Once that sank in, Zhen Xuanyuan found himself rooted to the spot, unable to collect himself for a long while.

As for Gu Li, his first action was to send word to the disciples preparing the gift bound for the southern domain. He had just realized the gift was far too small, and utterly failed to convey the sincerity of his apology! Its value would have to be increased.

By then, Zhen Xuanyuan had steadied himself, and his gaze returned to Gu Li. "So... Yaoguang really does have the strength to stand against Supreme Jinghong?!"

"Yes." Gu Li gave a bitter laugh. "I told you when I returned. Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang did indeed exchange some blows with Supreme Jinghong, and by conventional means, Supreme Jinghong seemed to have no certainty of taking him down.

"Rather than see both sides seriously injured, he no longer wished to continue. I saw which way the wind was blowing and got out first. The moment I returned, I began preparing gifts to apologize to Yaoguang, a powerhouse on the level of those in the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings. And who could have guessed... in the short time since, he has gone and done something of this magnitude."

Zhen Xuanyuan let out a long breath. After their last great battle, he had already recognized that Yaoguang's strength exceeded all expectations, reaching the level of the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings.

But the rankings held thirty-six places, with the strong and the weak mixed among them, and Jinghong ranked in the top ten, indisputably among those standing at the very summit.

Zhen Xuanyuan had always thought that, however strong Yaoguang was, having only just advanced to the Void-Shattering Realm, he could not possibly rival Perfected Lord Jinghong. But now...

"Even Supreme Elder Jinghong could not manage what he did, storming the Yin Lunar Sect by himself and cutting down seven of its Void-Shattering cultivators in succession," Chi Yun could not help but say.

It was not that Jinghong could not kill seven Void-Shattering cultivators. A powerhouse on the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings, as long as he was not surrounded by several Void-Shattering cultivators at once, could absolutely wear them down one by one by keeping his distance.

But Void-Shattering cultivators were no fools! The moment they sensed an unbeatable foe, they would flee and call for reinforcements. Especially within the Yin Lunar Sect's territory, those survival-hardened cultivators needed only to hold their ground for a moment before other fiend lords poured in through the teleportation arrays.

Moreover, while an expert on the rankings could fight ordinary Void-Shattering cultivators ten to one, against peak existences of Zhen Xuanyuan's caliber, a few joining hands would be enough to pin him down.

All things considered, even someone as strong as Perfected Lord Jinghong would have to withdraw at once after storming in and killing one or two fiend lords that he had caught off guard. Otherwise, he'd risk death once surrounded.

But to slaughter seven great fiend lords without pausing, as Yaoguang had...

"Don't forget, Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang's life-bound Dao Technique is the Void Flicker!" Gu Li said gravely. "Anyone else facing Perfected Lord Jinghong could at least run if they couldn't win, or by using their life-preserving means and relying on a little luck, they could even hold out until other fiend lords arrived. But before Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang's Void Flicker... if you cannot win, only death awaits you."

He added, "Especially with the Heaven-Sealing Stele in his hands. I'm sure that mighty Dao Artifact's void-suppressing power left those fiend lords no path of escape at all."

At his words, Zhen Xuanyuan and Chi Yun felt their hearts go cold. It was true. Facing Yaoguang, who had practiced the Void Flicker as his life-bound Dao Technique, was, in some respects, more terrifying than facing Perfected Lord Jinghong.

"The Yin Lunar Sect has lost seven Void-Shattering fiend lords, and it has been beaten into sealing its gates... The last one to boast such a feat was the Penglai Dao Lord!" Chi Yun drew a deep breath. "When Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang moved against the Yin Lunar Sect, its fiend sovereign was absent, so it cannot quite compare to the Penglai Dao Lord overpowering the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion, but... once word spreads, I really can't say where on the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang will place."

Zhen Xuanyuan nodded slightly. Whatever the placement, a single sect with two Void-Shattering cultivators on the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings was an honor that only the Three-Qing Temple had ever held, and it would make the Heavenly Dao Sect's name resound across the world.

"Well then, there's no time to lose. Let's send out the news, so that when Sect Master Zong returns, the transfer of power within the sect can proceed smoothly, without any waves," Chi Yun said.

Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li understood that he wanted to rapidly build Yaoguang's prestige and establish his rule over the Heavenly Dao Sect as a fait accompli.

Neither had the slightest intention of stopping him. For one thing, he could not be stopped. For another, having someone of Yaoguang's strength and ability as sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect would truly serve its development far better than Zong Wenxian, who only knew how to oppress the sect's deputy sect masters to preserve his own position.