It was true saintly might—like the sky caving in. Beneath a Saint, all beings were born a head lower; only those who had proved the Dao could truly stand before them. Ordinary cultivators couldn't even raise a thought of resistance.
But Yi Tianxing wasn't "ordinary."
The colossal foot and the Heaven-Breaking Spear met with a sun-snuffing blast. Black demonic blood pattered down from the clouds, and the spearpoint—now stained—had bored a hole straight through the sole. Look closely and you could see the wound: raw, gaping, enough to make scalps prickle.
"When you stomp with your foot, you won't always crush an ant," Yi Tianxing said coldly. "Sometimes, you step on a nail."
He had pierced Motian Dao Venerable's foot—something even many innate spirit treasures couldn't do. But the Heaven-Breaking Spear was no common treasure. With spear-intent poured in and the Hongmeng Heavenly Emperor Pagoda's blessing behind it, its force had brushed the realm of an innate supreme treasure. Even iron would've been skewered.
Shock rippled through the onlookers.
"A Saint… wounded by Yi Shengwang?"
"He's really that strong—strong enough to make the world remember his name!"
"Yet this path only ends in no-retreat, no-survivors. Nine Dao Venerables… if they strike together, worlds fall."
Even the old monsters twitched at the corners of their mouths. Demon Heaven had still only stuck a foot through—he clearly sensed risk in entering Great Yi's bounds. At that level, seeking fortune and avoiding calamity was almost instinct.
"A 'Dao Venerable' who still turtles in his shell," Yi Tianxing sneered. "Fine. Then I'll haul you out myself."
The Death God's fishing rod flashed back into his hand. The line whispered; the hook vanished into the void toward Motian.
"Naïve," Motian smirked. He had already dismissed this trick. With a slight shift of his body and aura merging into the void, he let the hook slide past—
—and the hook curved.
Like it had pegged cause and effect themselves, it arced behind him and struck with a speed a hundredfold greater than before.
Puft!
Pain lanced his soul.
For a heartbeat, the true spirit he had anchored in the void was wrenched loose—forced back toward his body—before Heaven's mechanism tugged it outward again. The hook remained buried; the pain was a hundred times worse.
"Impossible!"
His saber flashed—space itself split—yet when steel met line, the thread turned illusory, insubstantial; the blade passed through without resistance. The line remained—untouched.
"Nothing's impossible," Yi Tianxing said. "Get. Over. Here."
A mountainous force surged down the line. Seizing that instant where spirit and heaven had not fully re-fused, it dragged body and soul together—out.
Crack—!
A vast vortex irised open above Great Yi. An enraged roar boomed, and a man in black—Motian Dao Venerable—was yanked bodily from the Demon Heaven World, just like a fish from the sea. Demonic might rolled out in a world-drowning tide.
The world gaped.
"He really… hooked a Saint."
"Alive. Motian Dao Venerable—right there!"
"Am I dreaming?"
On a distant ridge, Ming He and company almost cheered. However Yi Tianxing had done it, the "how" didn't matter. What mattered was that the Dao Venerable had left his home ground. That changed everything.
Yi Tianxing finally let out the breath he'd been holding. The first cast had been a feint—to numb Motian's vigilance. The real trick was the Hongmeng Heavenly Emperor Pagoda: for a fleeting instant it could flood a single Heaven-Opening artifact with the Pagoda's world-origin, letting it leap a rung in grade. The Death God's rod—ordinarily an innate spirit treasure—had, for that heartbeat, struck with innate supreme power. Against a Saint off guard, it was enough to land the hook and rip him free.
The boost couldn't last—anything but the Pagoda itself would be ruined if overcharged too long—but one instant was all he needed.
"Look—the Bitter Sea!"
"The Immortal Gate! It's appeared!"
Cheers erupted across Great Yi. In the Bitter Sea, time bled differently; their Destiny True Dragon had shrunk again, down to a million zhang. But in the wake of its latest near-miss, the elusive Immortal Gate had reappeared—this time not ahead, but right behind the dragon.
So close.
A heaven-sent chance.