The Eighteenth Prince transformed into a streak of light and shot straight toward the Water God's Golden Seal.
But at that moment, a sudden change occurred.
A vast, radiant aura suddenly rose from the statue at the center of the Water God Palace.
Immediately afterward, immortal music rang out, sweet rain fell from the heavens, golden lotuses sprang from the earth, and countless sacred phenomena made the statue even more majestic and divine.
The entire secret realm seemed to be cheering in jubilation.
The statue's originally mottled, dim spiritual light gathered anew, and before long, its features gradually came to life.
A deity manifested in the void, wearing a crown and dressed in azure robes, with endless rivers seeming to coil around him as surging water vapor endlessly formed.
He raised a hand slightly, and the Water God's Golden Seal automatically floated above his head, casting down myriad rays of light as a five-colored canopy gave rise to countless phenomena.
"Hahaha, after planning for several epochs, the day has finally come."
The deity looked excitedly at the Eighteenth Prince.
"An Innate Water Spirit attaining the Dao—though his foundation cannot compare to my previous life, it is not bad."
"Excellent!"
With that, the deity waved his wide sleeve, and the entire Water God Palace shook.
Layer upon layer of water surged into rolling waves.
The pressure in the void also grew increasingly heavy.
The faces of the living beings present flushed red.
They felt as if countless rivers were pressing down upon their Dao bodies.
Even the cavern-heaven universes within them showed faint signs of collapse and shattering.
The Water God Palace was itself an Exotic Treasure. Now that the deity was wielding it, its powers of suppression and sealing were displayed without reservation.
"Wei River Water Lord?!"
"A Grand Unity Great Sage."
The Eighteenth Prince's face turned deathly pale.
"Hadn't you already perished?"
The Wei River Water Lord gave a disdainful snort.
"Back then, that junior took advantage of the fact that my Dao Injury had yet to recover and broke into the Water God Palace."
"In the end, I slew him."
"Although my Dao body was shattered in that battle."
"The water manor's secret realm was originally formed from my cavern-heaven."
"Only by concealing a thread of indestructible essence and a wisp of primordial spirit within the statue was I able to survive until now."
As he spoke, the Wei River Water Lord clapped his hands and sighed.
"Come to think of it, I should thank you."
"If not for you sacrificing countless living beings, I do not know when I would have recovered from my state of lost self."
"Perhaps you truly would have taken the Water God's Golden Seal, and I would have lost my chance to take another step forward."
Though the Wei River Water Lord spoke thus, intense killing intent flashed through his eyes.
The Water God's Golden Seal burst with brilliant light.
Like a Primordial Divine Mountain, it crashed down upon the Eighteenth Prince.
The Eighteenth Prince's Dao body had already been immobilized by the Water God Palace.
Just as the golden seal was about to strike him, he suddenly murmured an incantation.
The white-haired Old God of the Tianshui Imperial Dynasty suddenly let out a shriek, then actually broke free of the palace's seal through sheer struggle and stood before the Eighteenth Prince.
"No... Ah..."
"I have shed blood for the imperial dynasty..."
The white-haired Old God's miserable cry came to an abrupt halt.
The golden seal descended, and the entire void fell silent.
Even as a Divine Demon Cultivator of the True One Realm, he was smashed into a pulp in an instant.
"Good, good, good!"
"For the Innate God Clan to produce such a talent as you."
"It is rare indeed to use a substitution technique on one's own people."
The Wei River Water Lord withdrew the golden seal, smiling pleasantly.
The other cultivators of the Tianshui Imperial Dynasty stared at their master in terror, their expressions shifting uncertainly.
The Eighteenth Prince's face darkened as he said coldly:
"To be able to sacrifice themselves for my great undertaking is their honor."
"But now, Your Divinity should worry about yourself."
The Wei River Water Lord's expression stiffened, and the smile on his face vanished instantly.
The Eighteenth Prince shook his body and regained his freedom.
"That strike just now must have exhausted the divine consciousness power Your Divinity had painstakingly gathered."
"Then now, the offense and defense have changed places."
With a shout, the Eighteenth Prince brought forth an array disk. Blood-red talismans flew from it one after another, filling the entire Water God Palace in the blink of an eye.
This generation's Wei River Water Lord was also an old relic who had survived from the Archaic Era.
If he intended to seize the Wei River Water Lord's legacy, how could the Eighteenth Prince have come unprepared?
"Boundless Blood River, sacrifice the gods."
"Blood River Great Array, rise."
He formed hand seals, and the array rose.
In an instant, it drew upon the mighty power of heaven and earth.
Before the beings of the Tianshui Imperial Dynasty caught on, all those within the Blood River Great Array turned into blood and pus, which the array absorbed.
For a time, heavenly fire and falling meteors filled the sky, Wind and Thunder roared, and the surging Blood River transformed into blood serpents joined head to tail, trapping the Wei River Water Lord firmly in the center of the array.
At the instant the people of the Tianshui Imperial Dynasty were annihilated, the image in Zhou Yuan's mind, where he hid in another palace, suddenly collapsed.
His final puppet had also been destroyed.
He slowly rose to his feet.
"If I did not have an Innate Supreme Treasure concealing karmic fate and fortune."
"I fear the Wei River Water Lord would have discovered me the very moment I stepped into the Wei River."
These old relics who had cultivated since the Archaic Era truly all had a hundred tricks up their sleeves.
"This farce will finally come to an end."
"And it is time for me to collect my debt."
The resources consumed in refining those puppets had been far from insignificant.
Someone had to settle this account.
Whether it was the Wei River Water Lord or the Eighteenth Prince of the Tianshui Imperial Dynasty.
One of them had to repay this debt.
With that thought in mind.
Zhou Yuan stepped lightly, shrinking the earth into an inch, and vanished from the spot in an instant.
The aura emanating from the Blood River Great Array provided an immense boost to combat power.
The Wei River Water Lord's expression changed drastically.
He had not expected to be schemed against by a mere junior today.
He then formed hand seals, intending to escape the array's range.
But how could the Eighteenth Prince possibly allow him to have his way?
He lightly raised his sleeve.
The blood serpents in the air let out hisses and swept toward the Wei River Water Lord like crimson ribbons.
The Eighteenth Prince smiled coldly.
His hands formed seals.
In an instant, the array shifted. Amid wailing ghosts and howling spirits, endless blood rain fell, swiftly drowning the Wei River Water Lord's divine body.
If they had been ordinary Dao arts or divine abilities, the Wei River Water Lord would not have feared them.
After all, his original body had attained Grand Unity and refined laws. He was a Grand Unity Great Sage of an exceedingly lofty rank.
But this blood rain eroded living flesh and corrupted living souls.
With only a remnant soul remaining, how could the Wei River Water Lord withstand such a violent storm?
After three waves of blood rain passed, the Wei River Water Lord appeared once more, but the divine light around him had dimmed greatly.
"Good. What a meticulous and ruthless little junior."
"Since that is the case, this god will stop pretending."
Before his words had faded, the Wei River Water Lord's aura abruptly changed.
He formed hand seals, and the vault of heaven instantly fell silent. It was as if heaven had collapsed and earth had sunk, while turbid waves flooded the sky.
All the spiritual energy in the Wei River secret realm surged toward the Wei River Water Lord.
"Myriad Spirits Soul Seizing Great Law..."
He had originally intended to severely wound the Eighteenth Prince, who had attained the Dao as an Innate Water Spirit, with a single strike upon emerging.
If the prince were gravely wounded and near death, his chance of possessing him would be absolute.
But plans could not keep up with fate.
Who could have known this junior would be so vicious?
He had actually used the old servant at his side as the medium for his substitution technique.
Now, however, the arrow was on the string and had to be released.
The Wei River Water Lord burned the reserves of the water manor's secret realm, vastly increasing his strength. His divine soul transformed into a vast ray of divine light and lunged toward the Eighteenth Prince with lightning speed.
A cruel, vicious smile spread across his face.
"Junior, in this life, I will bring you with me to attain the Dao of an Innate Dao Lord and glimpse the supreme Dao realm."
With that, he plunged headlong into the Eighteenth Prince's sea of consciousness.
Yet he did not see the strange smile on the Eighteenth Prince's face.
The moment he entered the Eighteenth Prince's sea of consciousness, the Wei River Water Lord's smile froze.
A treasure pearl flickering with dim light and surrounded by weak water floated within that sea of consciousness.
Innate Undying Spirit Light flickered atop the pearl, while the Great Dao of Water Element circulated without end.
It was the manifestation of an Innate Spiritual Treasure.
What terrified the Wei River Water Lord even more was this.
A figure wearing a crown and shrouded in rosy radiance appeared atop the spiritual treasure.
That figure merely glanced at him.
Then lightly flicked the Dharma sword resting before his knees.
He joined two fingers and slashed at the Wei River Water Lord.
"Those who seek to harm my son shall be slain!"
Clang! Clang!
A streak of sword light flashed.
An immense Great Terror, grave crisis, and Great Annihilation surged up within the Wei River Water Lord's heart.
"No..."
"Dao Lord, spare me..."
At the sight of this person, the Wei River Water Lord was so terrified that his soul nearly scattered.
He did not even have the thought of resisting.
As soon as his words fell.
His primordial spirit was utterly shattered by the sword light, and even that thread of indestructible essence was severed by it.
After unleashing that strike, the Dao Lord phantom attached to the Innate Spiritual Treasure also dissipated into nothingness.
Before you continue