Chapter 42

Zhunti, Zhunti... I never expected you to be so utterly weak, defeated by Taishang in a single strike. What a disappointment.

Your performance now is worse than even that of your own disciple at the same realm.

I am a Saint like you, yet I feel too ashamed to show my face.

At that moment, Yuanshi's voice rang out after he repelled Jieyin, like thunder crashing beside their ears.

Then Zhunti let out a "Pfft!"

followed by the sound of blood being spat out. It was unclear whether it was due to his injuries or Yuanshi's words provoking him.

In today's battle, you have been completely defeated. Not only you personally, but the entire Western Sect has become the loser before the Chan Sect and the Daoist Lineage.

Yuanshi spoke forcefully. "What a disciple of Taishang!"

Zhunti already understood that the situation could not be salvaged, and he admitted defeat. "Yuanshi... today, I, Zhunti, have lost."

As Zhunti's words fell, the Daoist Lineage fortune of the Western Sect instantly weakened by ten percent.

This was the power of a Saint's divine ability. Although Zhunti had lost his Saint position, this divine ability was still bestowed by heaven and earth.

Thus, Zhunti's words represented the price of surrender.

Ten percent of the Western Sect's Daoist Lineage fortune in the Primordial World was stripped away and transferred instead to the Chan Sect and the Daoist Lineage.

Countless Quasi-Saint giants were shocked by this sight.

Facing this scene, Yuanshi directly ordered, "Since you two have already admitted defeat today, then get lost!"

He showed Zhunti no mercy in driving him away, and no one felt any sympathy for Zhunti's schemes today.

Zhunti knew the situation clearly. Faced with the current circumstances, he chose to remain silent and merely snorted coldly.

He understood the principle that

the victor became king, while the loser became a bandit.

Thus, he did not act rashly.

However, regarding his grievance with the Chan Sect, he chose to leave this place and return to Western Mount Sumeru.

Yet an ethereal voice sounded beside his ear. "Zhunti, why are you in such a hurry to leave? Have you forgotten my Daoist Lineage?"

This was a warning from someone of the Daoist Lineage. A powerful Taishang aura came from the Eight Sceneries Palace, making Zhunti feel a deep threat.

He understood that his scheme had not completely escaped the Daoist Lineage's entanglement.

A chill rose in Zhunti's heart. What he feared most was Li Er's appearance.

He had thought that after being severely wounded, he could escape the Daoist Lineage's reckoning, but Li Er's appearance shattered his plan.

Li Er's voice was like a cold iron hammer striking his heart. "The Daoist Lineage cannot be insulted! Since some dare to scheme against it, they must understand the price!"

Li Er's words seemed to carry a certain magic, filling Zhunti with fear.

He felt Li Er's resolve and power and knew that Li Er truly intended to slaughter a Saint.

This fear left him unable to resist. He could only instinctively choose to flee.

Gritting his teeth, he fled without hesitation.

Li Er's words completely shook heaven and earth, even shocking Saints such as Yuanshi.

They knew that Li Er's existence seemed to defy common sense. He dared to do what the other Saints did not dare to do.

At this moment, Li Er's words seemed to proclaim, "I will slaughter a Saint and let everyone know the price of scheming against the Daoist Lineage!"

Taishang!

Jieyin's Dao heart churned like a storm-tossed lake, while Zhunti's heart trembled.

Such ruthless methods were truly astounding.

At this moment, he could barely suppress the urge in his heart, as though a curse was already on the tip of his tongue.

Faced with Li Er's mercilessness, he was helpless. Even at his peak, he would have struggled to contend against Li Er.

Now that his Saint Dao Fruit had shattered and his Saint position had fallen, escape was hopeless.

As Li Er's words fell, time and space froze. Only a great bell descended from the heavens.

As the bell rang, time and space were imprisoned.

The Chaos Bell, an Innate Supreme Treasure. At this moment, Zhunti felt everything drifting away as his six senses were completely stripped away.

A screen of light flashed across the Chaos Bell, enveloping Zhunti within it.

A flash of light appeared inside the bell. Time and space twisted, and the power that inverted yin and yang reversed in an instant.

Li Er wanted to reverse-refine Zhunti and thoroughly slaughter a Saint.

Zhunti finally understood that Li Er's ruthlessness surpassed all imagination.

With his Dao foundation destroyed and his Saint position cast down, Zhunti let out an enraged roar from within the Chaos Bell.

He questioned Li Er, asking whether Li Er was unafraid of Heaven's displeasure and Dao Ancestor Hongjun's punishment.

However, Li Er was utterly dismissive. His actions had never feared Heaven.

From refusing to establish the Human Sect to preventing Buzhou Mountain from collapsing, which matter had not displeased Heaven? He had not been afraid even when Slaying Three Corpses to Attain Dao. Now, at the peak of the Saint realm, he feared no threat whatsoever.

Zhunti trying to use Dao Ancestor Hongjun or Heaven to suppress Li Er was simply absurd.

The entire situation had become a joke.

Li Er wanted to slaughter Saint Zhunti.

Zhunti was incomparably anxious in the face of this situation, yet he responded fiercely, willing to perish together with Li Er, even if it meant severely damaging Li Er's primordial spirit.

He knew well the importance of a Heavenly Dao Saint to the Primordial World, so he decided to use his own death to force Dao Ancestor Hongjun or Heaven to appear.

However, Zhunti's move was more like a strategy, retreating in order to advance.

Though he appeared to have reached the limits of his endurance, he was actually using his life and death to force Dao Ancestor Hongjun to save him.

This dangerous gambit also revealed his helplessness before Li Er.

Yet Li Er seemed not to care about Zhunti's maneuver. He only wanted to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys.

He directly replied that there was no need for such trouble. He could simply send Zhunti to his death.

In the end, after a muffled boom, Zhunti ultimately failed to escape the fate of being shaken to death by Li Er with the Chaos Bell.

The might of slaughtering a Saint stunned everyone present.

Retold version:

Jieyin's gaze completely lost control as he looked at the scene before him in utter grief, while Yuanshi also drew a deep breath.

Had Zhunti truly been slaughtered alive by Li Er? This time, Li Er's methods had truly frightened him.

The void no longer contained any trace of Zhunti's aura. Only Taishang's overwhelming presence and the Chaos Bell floated silently.

The distant Chaos Bell left Quasi-Saint giants from all corners of the Primordial World speechless, their thoughts turbulent.

With Zhunti's fall, a drizzling rain of blood began to descend from heaven and earth.

Every drop was bright red. When a Saint fell, heaven and earth mourned together.

Within the vast void, only the Chaos Bell stood proudly alone, bathed in the rain of blood.

This scene was incomparably terrifying.

Previously, when they heard that Xuandu intended to slaughter a Saint, they had only treated it as a joke.

Yet Xuandu had proved everything with his own strength.

Zhunti, likewise a Quasi-Saint, had been utterly vulnerable before Li Er.

They realized that this Saint of the West had been shaken to death by Li Er within the Chaos Bell, dead beyond all doubt.

A cold chill rose from the depths of their hearts and shot straight to their heads.

News of Zhunti's death instantly swept across the entire Primordial World, causing an unimaginably great shock.

Having witnessed the battle of slaughtering a Saint today, everyone finally understood Taishang's true strength as the foremost of Heaven's Saints.

Even without manifesting his true body, he had killed Zhunti, who was likewise at the Saint level, with only the might of the Chaos Bell.

Such a shocking sight was truly astounding.

However, although senior brother Jieyin was anxious within, his spiritual platform remained clear.

He firmly believed that junior brother Zhunti, as a Saint, would never fall so easily.

Even in the face of such desperate circumstances, Jieyin still held absolute faith in the words "Saint"

and firmly believed in the truth that Saints were undying and indestructible.

However, Zhunti's experience today had clearly gone far beyond a battle between equals. He had been crushed by Taishang's absolute power.

Everyone understood that Heaven did not wish to see such a scene.

Yuanshi shared the same concern as Zhunti. He feared that Zhunti's fall would cause the Primordial World to lose a Saint position.

And Dao Ancestor Hongjun had now merged himself with the Dao, so he likely could not interfere in this matter either.

Just as everyone doubted whether Zhunti had truly fallen completely, Li Er's voice suddenly came from within the Chaos Bell. It contained only three words: "What a pity..."

This filled everyone with confusion. What could make him sigh in such a manner?

At that moment, purple light suddenly flickered within the Chaos Bell. It was Zhunti's Primordial Violet Qi.

The Primordial Violet Qi trembled the instant it appeared, as though bowing toward the Thirty-Three Heavens beyond.

Sure enough, Dao Ancestor Hongjun's figure had descended upon the Primordial World at some unknown time.

At his summons, he waved the whisk in his hand, and a branch of the Bodhi Wonderful Tree flashed out from the western lands, merging into the Primordial Violet Qi.

The Primordial Violet Qi churned without end.

A figure emerged from within it. It was the resurrected Zhunti.

Yet after his resurrection, his cultivation was like that of a newborn, remaining at the initial stage of cultivation—the Heavenly Immortal Realm.

Clearly, he had been resurrected through the Primordial Violet Qi and a branch of the Bodhi Wonderful Tree, but as a result, he had to begin his path of cultivation anew. He had even lost his former Quasi-Saint realm and needed to cultivate again from scratch.

Zhunti had once been cast down from his Saint cultivation by Li Er, so he had established the Eight Treasures Merit Pool at Spiritual Mountain in the West.

This time, upon returning to Mount Sumeru, as long as his senior brother Jieyin acted and used supreme power to guide him across, rebuilding his cultivation would only be a matter of time.

Only then did everyone understand the meaning behind that earlier sigh of regret from within the Chaos Bell.

After Zhunti was resurrected, he immediately knelt before Hongjun and tearfully accused Li Er of his actions.

He avoided mentioning his own scheme against the Daoist Lineage, speaking only of his death today and insinuating that Li Er's strength was too great and might threaten the other Saints.

He hoped Hongjun would restrict Li Er's strength.

However, Hongjun ignored Zhunti's tearful complaints. He calmly stated that Zhunti being slaughtered alive this time was due to his own actions and could not be blamed on others.

Hongjun sternly warned Zhunti and the other Saints that a single conspiracy had already filled him with rage.

Zhunti had lost his Dao Body because of his trickery. Though he had fortunately recovered this time, there would not be another opportunity.

Taishang had displayed extraordinary strength today. His status was no longer merely the greatest among the Saints; he seemed to have stepped into a higher level.

The identity of a Saint had begun to blur. Had he already touched the Half-step Heavenly Dao Realm?

After the Witch-Demon Calamity, only a short time had passed, yet he had already drawn the attention of all Saints.

Li Er's strength seemed to have touched a new realm, though he had not truly broken through.

When Dao Ancestor Hongjun answered Jieyin's question, he revealed Li Er's true strength.

Though Li Er had not completely entered the realm of Heaven, he had already touched its threshold.

Regarding Li Er's level of strength, Hongjun called it the "Half-step Heavenly Dao Realm."

This answer shocked all the Saints, including Tongtian and Nuwa.

They understood why Li Er, though likewise a Saint and supreme being of heaven and earth, displayed such terrifying strength.

The five Saints had joined forces against Li Er, yet he had brutally suppressed them with a turn of his hand.

Li Er had even defeated Saint Zhunti and taken away his Saint Dao Fruit.

Facing all of them, Li Er showed no fear and met their challenge head-on.

The reason was simply that Li Er had already stepped into the Half-step Heavenly Dao Realm.

This realm was not that of a Saint, yet it surpassed Saints and reached an entirely new level.

Li Er had fought one against five and slain Saint Zhunti. The gap between them was like a heavenly chasm.

The Saints finally understood where Li Er's limits lay.

However, this realization was more like a blow to them.

For none among them possessed Li Er's strength. Even though he had refused to establish a sect and lacked the fortune empowerment of a Daoist Lineage, Li Er's strength still surpassed them all.

The shock in the Saints' hearts was beyond words. They could not accept such a reality.

Yet they had no choice but to accept this fact.

Taishang stood above them. This was an unchangeable fact.

Thinking of this, they felt profound helplessness and unwillingness.

Especially Yuanshi, Jieyin, and Zhunti. As they looked toward the Chaos Bell in the void, their expressions had completely changed.