The Thirty-Six Heavens Battle Formation operated in the Chaos beyond the heavens like a colossal machine in perpetual motion, channeling, dissolving, and converting the Chaos Giant Beasts flooding into the defensive line according to their different law attributes into pure law fragments. Zhao Gongming stood at the center of the formation, thirty-six Sea-Settling Pearls revolving steadily around him like the core of a stable galaxy. Though the vicious beasts surging from deeper within Chaos were constantly dissolved within the Thirty-Six Heavens, their numbers showed no sign of dwindling. Like a continually churned body of water, its surface kept roiling, yet its overall depth remained unchanged.
Just as the ceaseless beast tide was about to bear down upon the center of the defensive line on an even greater scale, a dark-golden radiance lit up from the barrier of the Great Desolation World. Like an unfurling river, it carried the heavy texture unique to flowing metal. Daoist Duobao's figure emerged at the center of that dark-golden light. Clad in a golden Daoist robe, his expression was calm and composed, and he held a pagoda in his hand, rotating at a uniform speed. The law patterns across its surface flowed, renewed, and reshaped themselves without pause, like a design being continuously woven.
After the Martial Arts Tournament, his aura had accumulated sufficient foundation. Now, within the Chaos beyond the heavens, he naturally crossed the threshold into the Hunyuan Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm. The crossing was not dramatic. It was like a river naturally flowing into broader waters after passing over a long, gentle slope, without raising any great waves. The pagoda in his hand faintly lit up with a radiance unlike before at the instant he crossed that threshold. The law patterns on its surface continued to flow at a more even