Precious Shimmering Radiance Bodhisattva's stratagem was very simple.
He would make a move, attract everyone, and then flee, placing his escape gateway right on the passageway into Mount Bozhong that Lu Yang had asked the Patriarch to open beforehand.
The result was exactly as expected.
Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace was completely caught off guard and crashed right into the trap Lu Yang had laid. His pupils almost froze the instant he saw him.
"After today, you will be able to make a name for yourself in the world."
The calm voice sounded like a mere greeting to a Fellow Daoist, devoid of any killing intent. Even Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace didn't sense the slightest bit of danger.
But the more this was the case, the more terrifying it was!
'Making a name for myself in the world... using what to make a name for myself?'
Precious Shimmering Radiance Bodhisattva had colluded with foreign enemies and meticulously designed such a trap. Having reached this step with the fish already taking the bait, how could they leave any leeway?
They definitely intended to take his life.
It wasn't even just him. The Xin Ye, You Hai, and Perfected Lord Azure Firmament Radiance outside—the other party's target was the entire Dao Court, all the Great Perfected Lords present.
If they all died, how could he not make a name for himself in the world?
'Not good!'
In that instant, Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace understood his situation, and even grasped Lu Yang's plan. His frozen pupils flickered with shaken panic.
Go back, I have to go back!
With this thought, this Sword Pavilion Great Perfected Lord had already formed a hand seal, leaving behind a wooden puppet carved with his name in his original spot, while his figure rapidly became illusory.
[Substitute Death Return to Life Dao Fruit]!
This was also a Dao Fruit Secret Method, corresponding to the [Wellspring Water]. It was precisely by relying on this that he had rescued Great Perfected Lord Xin Ye and Great Perfected Lord You Hai earlier.
However, while this move could save others before...
Now, it couldn't save himself.
Almost simultaneously, Lu Yang also raised his hand. He didn't use any divine ability or execute any profound wonder, merely lightly and casually pushing the Daoist crown on his head.
[Mystic Heaven Orthodox Crown]!
In an instant, a muffled voice exploded like thunder, as if a teacher seeing a disciple running around wildly had exasperatedly yelled—
Halt!"
As the voice fell, a formless restraining power smashed down like a massive hammer, instantly shattering the Dao Fruit in Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace hands. All profound wonders were interrupted.
Such a change instantly made this Sword Pavilion Great Perfected Lord feel bone-piercingly cold. The chill crept up his limbs and bones like a venomous snake.
'How could this be!?'
He subconsciously activated the [Furnace Crucible Fire], using his Dao Fruit's profound wonder to analyze the Daoist crown on the other party's head, and then attempted to visualize a method to counter it.
But the [Furnace Crucible Fire], which had always been universally successful and which he regarded as his greatest reliance in artifact forging and alchemy, now yielded absolutely nothing when facing an unknown artifact.
It couldn't analyze anything. All that met his eyes was a patch of dazzling white light, shining so brightly it made him dizzy and his soul waver.
'Impossible...'
Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace didn't have time to think too much. When he finally managed to stabilize his mind and recover his vision, an enlarged sharp edge had already appeared in his eyes.
It was a sword.
It hadn't struck yet, only approached, but the moment he saw that sword edge, all his thoughts and ideas rapidly receded like the ebbing tide.
Resist? Evade? Block?
He forgot them all.
Neither arising nor ceasing, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither coming nor going, neither defiled nor pure. His thinking turned into a blank, pure sheet of paper as he stared blankly at the sword edge slashing over.
[Eight Negations Wisdom Sword]!
The sword edge lightly tapped right between Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace's eyebrows, then pierced skin and flesh, cleaving open his skull. Endless, boundless radiance spewed forth.
Only then did a thought finally arise in the heart of the Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace. From his nearly shattered glabella, a halo of light suddenly surged forth, rippling like water and forming an illusion. In the end, it transformed into a towering palace that stretched across him, sealing off that unparalleled sword edge outside.
The profound wonder of the [Rooftop Tile Earth] Dao Fruit—[Canopy of Qian Palace]!
Qi condensed into a tangible mansion, bringing all things to perfect completion. Under the protection of this profound wonder, foreign qi found it difficult to invade, finally buying him some time so he would not die on the spot.
'Good.. i can hold on!'
Looking at the sword edge close at hand, Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace took a deep breath, hope surfacing in his eyes:
'Hold on, support will be here very soon!'
He wasn't alone.
Outside, there was Perfected Lord Azure Firmament Radiance, who was also a Dao Integration Great Perfected Lord. Xin Ye and You Hai were also barely usable. More importantly... Emperor Cang would definitely make a move!
'As long as I hold on for a while and wait for Azure Firmament to come support, he and I can join forces to relieve most of the pressure and hold out until Emperor Cang makes his move.'
As long as Emperor Cang makes a move, everything will get better!
Thinking of this, his spiritual power instantly surged out like floodwaters opening a gate, continuously empowering the [Canopy of Qian Palace], only seeking to resist for a little longer.
As a result, the sword edge was actually blocked!
Even though the [Canopy of Qian Palace] continuously shattered, one side was ultimately a Dao Fruit profound wonder, while the other was merely an artifact; there was fundamentally a gap between the two.
Rather, the fact that the sword edge could force him to this extent was already due to the other party's cultivation being a notch higher than his.
'It can work!'
Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace felt uplifted in his heart, already beginning to ponder how he should counterattack later. But before he could figure it out, another bright light leaped into his eyes.
'That is... a Dao Fruit?'
A Dao Fruit he hadn't seen before; one attained through the Void?
Wait, there seemed to be the light and shadow of a Grotto-Heaven inside. The Grotto-Heaven Method? That's not right. Isn't this person a remnant of the Three Foundations who colluded with Precious Shimmering Radiance Bodhisattva?
Why would he cultivate the Grotto-Heaven Method?
He hadn't yet figured it out when he saw the young Daoist before him lightly part his lips, his voice echoing eerily—
"The [Heavenly Destiny Reckoning] now rests upon you; hold fast to the center with sincerity."
"Boom!"
In an instant, the sword edge—whose momentum he had only just managed to slow—suddenly surged with violent force. Its aura soared, and its power rose sharply, turning the pressure back onto him.
And that was not all.
The next moment, Lu Yang continued speaking, fixing his gaze on him with a chilling smile. The rolling Dao sound passed through the radiant light and struck him directly:
"If the Four Seas fall into poverty and distress, your heavenly allotment shall cease forever!"
As the words fell, Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace—already shocked and furious—suddenly saw that the [Canopy of Qian Palace] he relied on for survival was beginning to crumble.
His stature was falling!
The Dao Fruit's profound wonders were decaying, turning into scattered concepts. An originally orthodox Dao Fruit had turned into an Unorthodox Dao Fruit out of thin air, leaving him dumbfounded and in disbelief.
What method is this?
What Dao Fruit is that?
Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace saw clearly that the profound wonder of that Dao Fruit was neither the Five Elements nor Yin and Yang, but stature! What it commanded was actually stature!
This time, the sword edge faced no further hindrance. It directly shattered the scattered Dao Fruit concepts, plunged into Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace's niwan palace, pierced through the back of his head, and then lightly lifted upwards.
In an instant, his head was separated from his body. His headless body exploded with a bang, leaving only a single head hanging on the ghastly white sword blade.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
From the moment Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace charged into the trap, to Lu Yang striking and decapitating him with a single sword slash—it seemed like a long time, but in reality, less than an instant had passed.
Therefore, almost precisely at the moment he was decapitated...
Great Perfected Lord Xin Ye and Great Perfected Lord You Hai, who originally thought they could viciously beat a drowning dog—had just followed closely behind— by pure coincidence witnessed the exact moment of decapitation.
"...Ah?"
At this moment, the two Great Perfected Lords' first reaction wasn't terror or shock, but confusion—Are they trying to use an illusion to scare us off?
What a joke. At least make it look a bit more realistic.
Dying this fast, isn't that saying that the highly renowned Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace—who hails from the Sword Pavilion—couldn't even last three moves... no, not even a single move in your hands?
For a moment, the two only found it laughable.
However, as time passed, they looked at the head on the sword blade—its eyes wide open in death, still bearing traces of terror—and their smiles gradually stiffened.
Their divine sense, the nameless Daoist, the bone-piercing killing intent—everything told them the same thing—this was no illusion, but reality.
Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnace Who Smelts the World, who had been commanding wind and clouds only a moment ago, had been killed in a single strike.
Then the exact same thought that had once arisen in Great Perfected Lord Heavenly Furnance appeared in their minds as well.
'We have to go back…'
Boom!
The gateway leading to the outside world suddenly sealed shut. Only endless darkness surged forward, and the remaining light faded away with it—much like the meager vitality the two men had left.
"What are you staring blankly for?"
A laugh echoed over, causing the two Great Perfected Lords to wake as if from a dream. Looking up in a daze, they saw the youth before them holding a sword in one hand, pinching a light of a Dao Fruit in the other, and saying indifferently—
"Why aren't you hurrying over to die?"