The Preaching Squad launched several fierce assaults and made several probing attempts, only to hit a wall every time.
They suffered neither crushing defeat nor grievous injury, yet felt a deeper helplessness.
The five stood silently, their auras withdrawn to the utmost.
They settled their minds and reviewed the details of every exchange.
They had to admit that on the level of "myriad laws," they fell far short of their opponent.
He was the embodiment of myriad laws united, a Dao Fruit forged from condensed rules.
They were cultivators who wielded myriad laws, challengers who borrowed the Dao to advance.
One commanded the rules; the others relied on them.
The gulf between them was as vast as heaven and earth.
Against opponents in the same realm, their Dao arts allowed them to fight above their level.
When contesting the principles of laws at the same rank, they could defy the odds.
But against myriad laws themselves, all their Dao arts, all their principles, and all the foundations of their cultivation became pieces in their opponent's hand.
Pitting techniques against the Dao, laws against their source, they had taken the inferior position from the outset.
Contending head-on with myriad laws was nothing but trapping themselves in a cage.
Once they understood this, the weight in their hearts grew heavier still.
Their earlier opponent, the True Martial Great Emperor of the Heaven-Reaching River, had likewise been a monster of mechanics, an enemy governed by rules.
But True Martial's mechanics still had boundaries, thresholds, and the possibility of collapse through overexertion.
The Immortal Lord of Myriad Laws was different.
He was myriad Chaos Demon Gods smelted into one, then structured and shaped by the immortal path order.
One man bore myriad Daos; one body encompassed myriad laws.
His level, scope, and dimension utterly