Inside [Nourishing Life Master].
Lu Yang's true body remained in secluded cultivation; only the incense incarnation moved a chair over, dragging Mu Changsheng along to share his perspective and silently spy on the present world.
He was just missing a bucket of popcorn.
Fight, all of you fight!
The fiercer you fight, the more trump cards you expose, and the easier it will be for me to deal with you later.
Lu Yang pondered in his heart, even silently complaining a bit about Sky-Shrouding.
You guy, why seek the Nascent Soul so early?
TheThousand Year Great Tribulation hasn't even started yet. Why not just drag it out for a few hundred years, let me take a good look at what trump cards each faction is hiding, and then seek it? Isn't that better?
Unappreciative!
I'm adding you to my little notebook; I will settle accounts with you in the next life!
Compared to the relaxed Lu Yang, Mu Changsheng, acting as the live broadcaster, was much more nervous, whispering, "This battle formation is of a much higher level than in my time."
"Oh?"
Lu Yang showed curiosity upon hearing this. "What was the battle formation like in Fellow Daoist's time?"
"Uh, back then... it was actually not quite the same."
A look of embarrassment appeared on Mu Changsheng's face. "In all the Thousand Year Great Tribulations before this battle, Mysterious Wall, the Star Palace, and the Immortal Nexus didn't actually fight fiercely."
"At most, the Celestial Court fought the Immortal Nexus once, and didn't even win."
"Other times, mostly each faction fought their own battles."
As soon as these words came out, Lu Yang was stunned for a moment, then reacted. Each faction fighting their own battles? Fighting whom? Undoubtedly, it must be the Unorthodox paths!
"I understand."
Lu Yang laughed loudly. "So the previous Thousand Year Great Tribulations were just each faction tacitly cleaning up the small World Realms in the sea of light to accumulate strength for this final battle? And also to sweep away other neutral variables, ensuring the final victor emerges from among these few faction, right?"
Mu Changsheng nodded.
"No wonder!"
Lu Yang rubbed his chin, feeling this was a correct decision. Killing neutrals before a big war—and Unorthodox ones at that—who else was there to bully if not them?
Now, the neutrals were mostly killed off.
So the three factions—Immortal Nexus, Mysterious Wall, and the Star Palace—stopped playing fancy tricks. They came out and fought directly; the opening move was a fight to the death!
At the same time, in the Overseas region of the Immortal Nexus.
[Sky-Shrouding] stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze empty, his spirit seemingly wandering beyond the heavens. Only the ink-colored light and shadow originating from the Netherworld under his feet continued to spread.
However, just at this moment, a weird scene appeared.
Right around him, the void shattered. Gateways cast from starlight opened with a boom. Behind the gateways, vast auras were unmistakably revealed.
This change was extremely sudden.
One must know that the current Immortal Nexus was long different from the past. Each faction was on high alert, with formations locking the sky; absolutely nothing ordinary could intrude directly. However, these Star Gates passed through unimpeded. Just opening and closing, they created passages within the now iron-bucket-like Immortal Nexus!
Even more than that.
At this moment, a full thirty-six Star Gates surrounded [Sky-Shrouding]. Behind every gateway, shockingly, stood a towering stone statue.
The next second, all the stone statues revived instantly!
Every stone statue that could be displayed in the Star Palace was an Ancient Method Golden Core cultivator with extremely high achievements in the Spiritual Power Dao back then. The worst cultivation among them was at the mid-stage!
Among them, the leading six were uniformly late-stage Golden Core, possessing the stature of a Great Perfected Lord!
This wasn't just the strength of the Star Palace itself, but because they came from that era when the Grotto-Heaven Method hadn't appeared yet, and all cultivators had long lifespans.
The Golden Age when the Immortal Dao prospered!
Even if the threshold for cultivation back then was much higher than now, under the massive base number of the sea of light, a large number of strong individuals were still nurtured.
These thirty-six stone statues were the cream of the crop, existences qualified to have their vitality sealed and preserved by the Dao Lord of the Spiritual Power Dao with his supreme spiritual power.
And at this moment, they lost an instant of lifespan simultaneously, but also erupted with full spiritual power the moment they unsealed. Whether operating divine abilities, deploying spiritual treasures, or using other unique means, they shockingly constructed a vast brilliance at this moment, submerging [Sky-Shrouding]'s figure!
Rumble!
In an instant, all Perfected Lords paying attention to this direction felt their divine sense go empty, as if heaven and earth had collapsed, falling into endless dimness.
This was the manifestation of divine sense being destroyed.
At this moment, the place where [Sky-Shrouding] was located seemed to turn into a huge hole, devouring everything. No divine sense could perceive its changes.
Only after a long time did such an anomaly disperse.
Looking over again, the ocean of this 'earth's end' had completely turned into land. Even all uneven rocks and mountains were wiped flat.
Fish, shrimp, and demons were turned to flying ash.
Within a million li, no living thing existed.
Seeing this scene, the expressions of all Immortal Nexus Perfected Lords changed slightly. Even the few Great Perfected Lords, except for Feixue, revealed solemn looks.
Was this move brilliant?
Actually, there was nothing brilliant about it. To put it bluntly, it was a wave of focused fire. But if you calculated with intent against the unprepared and suddenly launched such a strike, who among those present could withstand it?
Early-stage Golden Core cultivators were, needless to say, certain to die.
Even mid-stage Golden Core cultivators, known as undying and indestructible, facing this kind of focused fire would probably have their souls scattered instantly, without even a chance for Netherworld reception!
Even Great Perfected Lords were in danger!
After all, among the thirty-six stone statues acting at this moment, there were also six Spiritual Power Dao Great Perfected Lords.
Joining forces, they were not weaker than Grotto-Heaven Method Great Perfected Lords.
However, surprisingly, as the concepts annihilated and brilliance dimmed, [Sky-Shrouding]'s figure emerged, standing perfectly fine on the spot.
That wave of terrifying focused fire just now seemed to have missed when falling on him. He stood there, the smoke around him surging constantly, making him appear increasingly ethereal, as if transcending the mortal dust, not within the Three Realms. His eyes revealed mockery even more:
"Your methods are not bad. If you were just a little bit stronger, you could have injured me."
—This was a lie.
In fact, he was a little panicked in his heart. After all, he was far from his peak period at this moment. That strike just now had actually injured him.
But his reaction was fast.
Smoke expanded and contracted, erasing the not-heavy injury instantly, incidentally creating an image of an expert to suppress the opponent in momentum first.
Of course, this was just fooling outsiders like the Star Palace.
If it were some people who knew him, if they were still watching the battle, they probably guessed the details already.
"Hahahaha!"
Inside [Nourishing Life Master], Lu Yang slapped Mu Changsheng's thigh hard, laughing. "He's injured! Acting tough while bleeding inside. Who the hell are you trying to fool?"
After laughing, he rubbed his chin again.
"But I have to say, this evil old ghost is still ruthless!"
"What audacity!"
Ordinary people might not see what exactly [Sky-Shrouding] was doing, only knowing he was seeking the Nascent Soul.
But Lu Yang was different; he could see some clues.
"Is this his original plan?"
"The land of the Immortal Nexus is the core of the entire sea of light. So even if Immortal Nexus dao fruit go to other places, they can still display wonders just the same."
"...The Netherworld follows the same principle."
"The previous Netherworld was limited to the single location of the Immortal Nexus. But now it's different... This old ghost, does he want to sink the entire sea of light into the Netherworld?"
Rumble!
Just at this moment, the sea of light suddenly shook violently. The ink-colored light and shadow spreading under [Sky-Shrouding]'s feet also seemed to finally reach a certain limit.
[Sky-Shrouding] stretched his arms, laughing toward the sky without concealment for the first time:
"Sea of light has fallen, and life and death are reversed. From now on, all faction shall respect the Netherworld Dao together."
"And I am the Dao Lord of the Netherworld!"
(End of Chapter)