Li Yi fought with growing exhilaration, crushing ferocious beasts and Demon Domain cultivators like a relentless meat grinder. Gradually, he forgot himself. His body instinctively directed the Twin Lotuses to launch attack after attack, and his eyes slowly closed.
He had entered a state of sudden enlightenment. Li Yi had actually reached enlightenment on the battlefield. Countless cultivators looked on with envy. Even after a million years of meditation, many would never encounter such a rare opportunity, yet it had come to Li Yi.
Sudden enlightenment was a mysterious state, one few could describe in detail. All they knew was that it had little to do with the depth of one's cultivation or Dao. An ordinary Heavenly Immortal might suddenly attain it one day, while a Grand Unity Golden Immortal could meditate for millions of years without even finding the threshold.
But all cultivators knew that sudden enlightenment was an extraordinary opportunity, one that could not be sought or forced. Every cultivator who experienced it would improve in some way, though the extent varied from person to person. Some cultivators of exceptional talent even created supreme divine abilities during their enlightenment.
Li Yi felt as though he had fallen into a wondrous world, free of thought and desire. Many things he had struggled to understand suddenly became clear with a single thought.
Countless truths about slaughter and life revealed themselves one by one. Li Yi's understanding of slaughter and life grew clearer, and he continued to refine and perfect it.
In a daze, the Twin Lotuses appeared before Li Yi. As his understanding of slaughter and life was refined and perfected, BOOM!!! The entire Twin Lotus burst apart. Its petals scattered along mysterious paths, then began to reassemble. This time, the lotus stem was gone. A spinning Taiji Diagram appeared in the void.
Half of the Taiji Diagram was green, the other half black. At the positions of its two yin-yang eyes sat a profound black twelve-petal Lotus Platform and a verdant green twelve-petal Lotus Platform.
But Li Yi's enlightenment did not end with the formation of the Taiji Diagram. It spun faster and faster, until it became a blur.
Nirvana meant transcending life and death and entering a state of stillness and nonaction. Nirvana was absolute tranquility, entering a state beyond birth and death. Nirvana was eternity: from life to death, from death to life, life and death in an endless cycle—and the space between those cycles was nirvana...
Thoughts about nirvana flashed through his mind one after another, and Li Yi, still in his state of enlightenment, comprehended them.
The Taiji Diagram spun at its utmost speed, forming a ball of light that seemed to be nurturing something. At last, BANG... The ball of light burst, and a new Taiji Diagram appeared.
This Taiji Diagram was different. All the green and black light had withdrawn into the two Lotus Platforms, leaving the diagram a gradually shifting shade of chaos. It seemed both moving and still, real and unreal, radiating an eternal aura that was mysterious and unfathomable. The two Lotus Platforms spun in opposite directions.
At that very moment, the Taiji Diagram inside Li Yi's body also began spinning wildly, slowly matching the one formed during his enlightenment. The Power of Slaughter and the Power of Life had fully harmonized and could now shift freely, with death within life and life hidden within death.
As Li Yi fought on the battlefield, his body suddenly stilled. He opened his eyes, delight showing on his face. "That was no easy feat. At last, I've achieved the Nirvana Sword Dao."
Li Yi glanced at the ferocious beasts nearby and curled his lips into a faint smile. "Good. I've just comprehended the Nirvana Sword Dao, so I'll use you to test its power."
Black and green light rose from the Green Lotus Ancient Sword, winding around each other like two dragons. Slowly, they formed an archaic Taiji Diagram above the ferocious beasts, covering an area more than ten miles wide.
The Taiji Diagram pressed down slightly, and a strange sight unfolded. The ferocious beasts, usually vicious and savage, suddenly fell silent. The blood-red light in their eyes slowly faded, replaced by a calm and peaceful expression.
Strands of black light descended. The beasts seemed to have lost their souls and paid no attention as the light fell upon them. Before long, countless sword auras split off from the black light and swept across all the beasts, turning the area into a dense cloud of blood mist. The mists gathered, and countless green specks seeped from them, forming a beam of light that poured into the green Lotus Platform.
In an instant, the black pillar of light doubled in size and split into even more sword auras, creating a virtuous cycle.
"Too bad my soul and will can only sustain the Taiji Diagram across an area about fifty kilometers wide, and even then, only for a limited time. Otherwise, this one move could wipe out nearly every cultivator below the Grand Unity level." Li Yi could draw the Power of Life from slaughter, so he wasn't short on Magic Power. But his willpower was constantly being drained.
It was like the stamina and mental strength of an ordinary person. Stamina could be replenished with food, but mental strength could not. Once it fell below the limit one could bear, the mind would collapse, and the person would die.
Li Yi watched countless ferocious beasts turn to dust beneath the Taiji Diagram and felt fairly satisfied with the test.
What Li Yi didn't know was that the Grand Unity Golden Immortals of the Fierce Beast Domain and Demon Domain had already set their sights on him. Though the battlefield was packed with cultivators, the spectacle he created was impossible to miss. Wherever he went, he left a swath of empty ground, with countless ferocious beasts and Demon Domain cultivators annihilated.
Compared with most cultivators, who killed their enemies one by one, he stood out far too much. There was no way he could go unnoticed.
As Li Yi focused on killing his enemies, a sudden sense of danger seized him. "Not good!" He had no time to think and immediately merged with his sword, escaping his position.
Sure enough, a blood-red demonic blade swept across the spot where he had been.
"If I hadn't dodged in time, I'd have been cut in half," Li Yi thought, seething with anger.
"Hmph. You're pretty quick." A burly man radiating an aura of slaughter appeared before Li Yi.
"Grand Unity Golden Immortal?" Li Yi stared at the man in confusion. Why would a Grand Unity Golden Immortal go out of his way to target a mere Golden Immortal like him? He quickly figured it out: he had attracted the man's attention by making too much of a spectacle.
"Forget it. This Grand Unity Golden Immortal certainly won't let me go. My only choice is to fight." Having weathered countless battles, Li Yi quickly sorted out his thoughts.
"Die!" Li Yi roared, sending a sword beam to unleash the Taiji Diagram and envelop the burly man.
"Hmph!" A cold glint flashed through the man's eyes. A mere Golden Immortal dared to make the first move? Despite his contempt, he studied the oncoming Taiji Diagram with a grave expression. He had noticed how strange it was, and suspected it had some kind of illusionary effect.
Facing the countless black sword auras, the burly man remained unruffled. Though they were immensely powerful and would trouble most Grand Unity Golden Immortals, he only waved a hand, and a barrier of blood-red light blocked them.
"Hm?" The burly man let out a startled cry. He realized that his vitality was constantly draining away. Even the vitality within the blood-red barrier was slowly vanishing, growing weaker.
"The Taiji Diagram—it's the Taiji Diagram devouring my vitality!" Remembering how strangely the ferocious beasts had died, the man quickly understood what was happening. His expression turned grave.
"I can't let this continue, or I'll end up a dried corpse!" The burly man discovered in horror that his vitality was draining faster and faster. Even his soul was growing weaker, while the sword auras outside the blood-red barrier grew denser by the moment.
"Die!" The burly man's eyes widened. A blood-red demonic blade flew out of his body, grew to ten zhang, and howled toward the Taiji Diagram.
BANG...
The entire Taiji Diagram shuddered, cracks appearing across it. PFFT! Li Yi spat out a mouthful of blood. A deep murderous glint flashed in his eyes as he stared at the nearly shattered diagram.
"Seal!" Li Yi poured the Power of Life and the Power of Slaughter into the Taiji Diagram without pause, then poured in his willpower as well. The cracks slowly vanished.
The Taiji Diagram glimmered with a hazy light. The burly man suddenly felt as though he had entered a silent world, one suffused with an eternal aura. It seemed to be the final destination of all living beings.
Gradually, a blankness crept into the man's eyes. His blood flowed slower and slower, and even his thoughts seemed on the verge of stopping. His vitality continued to fade, his body began to decay, and he took step after step toward Return to Void.
CLANG!!!!!!
A blade's cry sent towering waves surging through the burly man's mind. Sensing that it was decaying, the demonic blade let out a mournful wail.
He was, after all, a Grand Unity Golden Immortal. Having endured the River of Destiny's tempering, his soul was incomparably solid. At the sound of the blade's cry, he immediately came to his senses, drenched in cold sweat.
"An artistic conception—how can it be this terrifying?" The man was horrified to find that a full third of his vitality had vanished. If he had been any slower, he might have fallen.
The burly man didn't dare hesitate. He took out hundreds of Houtian Spiritual Treasures, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "Explode!"
"Not good!" Li Yi sensed what the man was doing through his thoughts and tried to retreat, but it was too late.
RUMBLE!!!
The Taiji Diagram was completely shattered. PFFT! The backlash was too great. Li Yi spat out several mouthfuls of blood, his spirit growing listless. Cracks appeared in his internal organs, and his injuries were worse than when the Golden Eagle King had hunted him down. The damage to his will was especially severe; it would take thousands of years to recover.
Li Yi had been wounded by the backlash, but the burly man was hardly unscathed. He had first lost a third of his vitality, then suffered another blow when his treasures exploded. Now he had, at most, half his strength left.
"AH!!!! I'll tear you limb from limb and make your soul endure the flames of the Nine Netherworlds for billions of years!" Two dark beams shone from the burly man's eyes as he glared at Li Yi with venom.
"Hmph." Li Yi couldn't be bothered to answer. This was a fight to the death. "Hmph. I'll show you what the Nirvana Sword Dao can do."
Li Yi held his sword in one hand. The Power of Life and the Power of Slaughter twisted wildly around the Green Lotus Ancient Sword. "Slash!"
A gray arc of light, more than ten zhang long, appeared in the air, radiating a profound aura of nirvana. It shot toward the burly man without a sound.
"Kill!" The blood-red demonic blade sent a ten-thousand-zhang beam of red light flying toward Li Yi.
What happened next left the burly man utterly aghast. The red light on his demonic blade was forcibly ground away, and the gray arc reached him without the slightest resistance.
"I'll come back for you!" the burly man roared in defiance, glaring at Li Yi with hatred.
BANG!!!!
The burly man blew up his own body, and a blood-red soul flew out of the mushroom cloud.
"Cough, cough!!!" Li Yi watched the blood-red soul but no longer had the strength to pursue it. "I can't keep going. I need to get out of here. If another Grand Unity Golden Immortal shows up, I'm finished."
Li Yi turned into a streak of light and swiftly flew to a black giant coffin. He quickly formed a hand seal and slipped inside.
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