Chapter 461: Persuasion
"You really mean to ambush the Unchained Dao Lord?" The Penglai Dao Lord went silent for a moment, and only after a good while did she shake her head. "It isn't that I don't want to help you. Dao Lords of the void are very shrewd. I can't kill him."
"And if I used myself as the bait, and laid down a level 15 grand array to trap the Unchained Dao Lord so he couldn't draw on void power to escape the battlefield, would you have a way to strike him down?" Yaoguang said.
"Yourself as the bait?" The Penglai Dao Lord's brows knit. "What exactly are you trying to do? Why does it have to be this Unchained Dao Lord?"
Yaoguang considered things for a moment, then decided not to tell her about the fixed number of Dao Lords. He could not guarantee that what he had learned was entirely correct; not so long ago he had still only been guessing that a Dao Lord's breakthrough had something to do with fate.
Beyond that, news like this was far too shocking. It did not circulate widely even among immortals, and only a handful of high-tier immortals and immortal venerables ever truly knew that secret. Telling her early might not be a good thing.
"Word outside has it that I intend to take advantage of the moment a top-tier Dao Artifact is completed and achieve the Great Dao through that moment of enlightenment. There's some truth to that. Only what I'm refining isn't a top-tier Dao Artifact, but..."
"A semi-immortal artifact?" the Penglai Dao Lord asked.
Yaoguang nodded, then brought out the Endless Tower. "The reason I used immortal artifact materials to refine this Dao Artifact when a top-tier Dao Artifact was already within reach was to leave nothing to chance. The moment I get the Void-Sealing Tower and break out the Mystic Spirit Resonance Crystal inside it, this artifact in my hands will transform immediately. And by then I'm ninety percent sure that I can become a Dao Lord on the spot!"
"Ninety percent?! A Dao Lord on the spot?!" Shock crossed the Penglai Dao Lord's face.
Breaking through to the Dao Lord Realm was never easy. Integrating oneself with the Dao took a year or two at best, but could also take several decades at worst.
Yet Yaoguang wasn't just claiming he could become a Dao Lord on the spot; he was also claiming his odds were as high as ninety percent!
If she, the strongest Dao Lord of the North Sea Star, attempted Dao Integration again, her odds would be no better than fifty-fifty.
Ninety percent. That was hardly different from being handed the position outright.
And once Yaoguang cultivated his way to Dao Lord, immortal artifacts and immortal arrays might be too much to expect, but semi-immortal artifacts and quasi-immortal arrays would be almost easy to create.
Even after she left for the Immortal Realm, the Penglai Immortal Sect's legacy could rest easy. More than that, staying on good terms with a Dao Lord peerless in both arrays and artifacts meant that once they were both in the Immortal Realm, they could support each other and press toward higher realms together.
"You are really ninety percent sure?" the Penglai Dao Lord could not help asking again.
"Yes!" Yaoguang nodded gravely.
"Good!" the Penglai Dao Lord said. "Then we'll do it your way! Lay a trap, draw out the Unchained Dao Lord, kill him, and take the Void-Sealing Tower from his body."
She looked at Yaoguang, and an almost eager flicker crossed her eyes. "What's your plan?"
Yaoguang could not help giving this Dao Lord a second glance. She did not seem like a particularly well-behaved sort either. Still, he spoke quickly, "My Endless Tower can transform into a semi-immortal artifact by absorbing Mystic Spirit Resonance Crystal. But if the Unchained Dao Lord were to obtain my Endless Tower, he could transform this top-tier Dao Artifact just as easily. In other words, we only need to let that news reach him. No enticement required. He won't be able to stop himself."
He paused. "The critical part is getting you out of the way."
"Me?" The Penglai Dao Lord glanced at him. "If I'm drawn away and Unchained sets his sights on you, wouldn't that..."
"Exactly the same as with Abyssal Ruins," Yaoguang said with a smile. "As long as I can hold Unchained off for a short while and you come to my aid, every problem resolves itself."
"You're thinking about this far too simply," the Penglai Dao Lord said bluntly. "Dao Lords are more cautious than you imagine, and they have countless methods. With the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord's fate as a warning, the next one to move will want to be absolutely certain he can succeed. Which is to say, unless they know for a fact that I'll have no chance to rescue you, or unless they really have the power to kill you before I can react, they will never repeat Abyssal Ruins' mistake of charging into an array in person and getting caught in it."
"It's not about charging recklessly into an array," Yaoguang said. "It's about the ability to kill me before I can react. Dao Lords are extremely careful with experts at their own level. Facing you, no amount of caution would be excessive. But they hold absolute confidence toward every cultivator below the Dao Lord Realm, condescendingly looking down on them. The moment you appear in the Deep-Blue Sea and those Dao Lords know you aren't with me, and at the same time I happen to have left the Heavenly Dao Sect or the Southern Capital, any Dao Lord harboring ill intent will act without hesitation."
"I won't deny that," the Penglai Dao Lord said with a nod. "Because the moment they move, there's no outcome for you other than being immediately captured. With no danger to themselves, of course they wouldn't hesitate."
She finished and looked at him. "Don't tell me you can hold off a Dao Lord for even a short while without the arrays of the Heavenly Dao Sect or the Southern Capital, and without the Golden Book Venerable's strength."
"That's right." Yaoguang nodded. "That's exactly where my confidence in using myself as bait comes from."
"Impossible. You have no idea how overwhelming a Dao Lord's power is." The Penglai Dao Lord shook her head at once. "Dao Lords are beings with more power than stars, beyond even black holes! No single celestial body can compare to them. The Great Dao power they call upon means that in the end, what you'd be fighting is the whole starry sky, the whole universe!"
"I know," Yaoguang said. "I faced the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord. When that heavenly abyss came crashing down, it was indeed beyond anything a cultivator could resist. But before me, I doubt anyone ever dared claim ninety percent certainty of achieving Dao Integration. Since I dare say such a thing, naturally I have something to back it up."
Hearing that, the Penglai Dao Lord looked him over once more. It took a while before she spoke. "Wait...you're serious?"
"When I've finished my preparations, you're welcome to test me, Dao Lord. If you think I can't hold you off even briefly, it won't be too late to reject my proposal then," Yaoguang said with a smile.
Seeing how earnest Yaoguang was, the Penglai Dao Lord hesitated. Reason told her the gulf between a Dao Lord and a Void-Shattering cultivator was so vast that, forget putting up some resistance... A Void-Shattering cultivator surviving a Dao Lord's pursuit for a few moments would be enough to go down in the history of the North Sea Star.
And yet Yaoguang had never been someone ordinary reasoning could account for.
Before her, who would have believed anyone could become a Dao Lord in so short a time? And yet, compared to her, Yaoguang, who had reached Void-Shattering in a century, was the more gifted of the two.
At that thought, the Penglai Dao Lord smiled. "All right, I accept what you say. Geniuses can't be measured by ordinary standards. Even so, capturing and killing a Dao Lord this way remains very difficult."
She went on plainly, "Dao Lords of the void are extremely nimble by nature, free to advance or withdraw as they please. The moment the Unchained Dao Lord finds he can't take you down quickly, caution might prompt him to retreat. And once a void Dao Lord like him sets his heart on fleeing, even I may not be able to stop him."
"I can't. But what about a level 15 array on top of me, one created with the sole aim of trapping him?" Yaoguang said.
"A level 15 array?" The Penglai Dao Lord stared.
"As I said, exactly as we handled the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord. We recreate that scene," Yaoguang said.
"You can't be saying you want to set up a level 15 array somewhere in advance! The energy a level 15 array needs to operate would have to be gathered from at least five thousand kilometers around it, even on the North Sea Star. It would require drawing on the earth vein qi and a large number of people to operate it. How could a Dao Lord fail to notice such a large disturbance?" The Penglai Dao Lord looked at him, puzzled.
"I have a way to carve out a level 15 array inside my own body and unfold it at the critical moment. But I'll need your help for it," Yaoguang said. "Help me refine another top-tier Dao Artifact."
"Using an artifact as the array?" The Penglai Dao Lord had clearly heard of the approach before.
Yaoguang was said to be peerless in both artifacts and arrays, so refining a level 15 array into a top-tier Dao Artifact did seem within reason.
"Alright then." She nodded, studying him with even more curiosity. "I really would like to know how you plan to resist a Dao Lord with Void-Shattering Realm strength. Even if you refine me a speed-type top-tier Dao Artifact, it would take me a little time to rush over from my sect. How do you intend to withstand the Unchained Dao Lord's first wave of attacks and hold him in an array that long?"
"Once we've refined this Dao Artifact and I've made my preparations, you'll see for yourself, Dao Lord," Yaoguang said with a smile.
The Penglai Dao Lord nodded. "Fine. I'll wait patiently."
Yaoguang nodded as well. "Which kind of speed-type Dao Technique are you skilled in, Dao Lord?"
"Speed techniques are mainly void or streaming light. Years ago, to hunt the Jade Scale Demon Paragon more conveniently, I took up a void-type technique on the side, Horizon Within Inches," the Penglai Dao Lord said.
Yaoguang had already guessed as much from the speed she showed rushing from the Deep-Blue Sea to the Heavenly Dao Sect's aid. The technique was slower to activate and less responsive than Void Flicker, but a single step could reduce the distance to the far horizon to just a few inches.
"Then I'll prepare a top-tier Dao Artifact for you built around that technique."
"Good. Anything you need from me?"
"I'll let you know when the time comes, Dao Lord," Yaoguang said, and the Penglai Dao Lord nodded.
With the arrangement settled, she did not linger in Heaven-Forsaken Valley. She had already been away from the Penglai Immortal Sect for more than a decade to help Yaoguang.
If the Jade Scale Demon Paragon had not been cornered by her not long ago, and if it weren't too afraid of walking into a trap, leading it to spend all this time obediently hiding in the depths of the Nine Demon Race Lineages, it would surely have come out to stir up trouble by now.
Then again, she had just acquired a top-tier Dao Artifact. Perhaps she could turn the demon's own scheme against it and lure the Jade Scale Demon Paragon out.
Lost in thought, the Penglai Dao Lord slipped away quietly.
Only once she had gone did Yaoguang turn his attention back to the other top-tier Dao Artifact embryo already prepared in Heaven-Forsaken Valley.
"The Eight Desolations Mirror," Yaoguang said, looking at it.
Once he refined this one, only the level 15 array would remain. And he had already worked out where to place it. Unlike anyone else's grotto-heaven, his had the Void Heart fused into it. With a few repairs and adjustments, it would serve perfectly as the vessel for a top-tier grand array.