And so, the three mighty cultivators fought as one.
"Ahhh! Damn it! Damn it!"
"Heaven has no eyes! Heaven has no eyes! If Heaven favors you, I'll kill you!"
Watching the towering figure, over a hundred thousand zhang tall, the dwarf-like Dragon-Kin Giant's eyes grew ever redder, filled with jealousy and venom. Despite the Heavenly Dao's curse suppressing him, he wished he could tear the two brothers apart and swallow them whole.
However, though the Dragon-Kin Giant was powerful, that had been when he was at his peak.
After enduring the Heavenly Dao's curse and countless years of erosion in the Return to Ruins, the power he had left could barely reach Grand Unity Golden Immortal Perfection. He was even weaker than Candle Dragon had been earlier. How could he possibly stand against Xuanyuan and Tongtian, who were fighting at full strength?
Xuanyuan and Tongtian were only Late Stage Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals, but they possessed both Clear Qi Nascent Souls and Turbid Qi Physical Bodies. Together, they were practically Little Pangu. On top of that, they had so many treasures that their strength was downright terrifying.
Even when the Dragon-Kin Giant managed to land a blow now and then, he couldn't even pierce the defenses of their Ancestral Shaman True Forms!
The Nine Revolutions Profound Technique had nine stages, each with nine levels, for a total of eighty-one levels. Completing the fourth stage granted the power of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal.
Since the Twelve Ancestral Witches had been born as Grand Unity Golden Immortals, the technique had been derived with the first four stages already complete. After Xuanyuan and Tongtian discussed the Dao with them, the fifth stage had also been completed and perfected.
Once the fifth stage was mastered, the physical body could enter the Primordial Golden Immortal realm!
The first three stages were of little use to the Ancestral Witches, but they were of great use to the Great Witches, Lesser Witches, and the weaker races they had subdued, providing them with guidance for cultivation.
First stage: Temper the mortal body. The first three levels reached the Human Immortal realm, the middle three corresponded to Earth Immortal, and the seventh level touched upon the Heavenly Immortal realm.
Second stage: Stabilize the immortal foundation. The first three levels corresponded to the True Immortal realm, the middle three to Profound Immortal, and the sixteenth level touched upon the Golden Immortal realm.
Third stage: Illuminate the Dao Heart and enter the Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm.
Fourth stage: Unite all laws and ascend to the Grand Unity realm.
Fifth stage: Complete the Primordial foundation and become a Primordial Golden Immortal.
Though Xuanyuan and Tongtian had only just gained their bloodlines of law and Ancestral Witch bodies after refining the Pangu Jade Marrow, their talent for cultivating the Nine Revolutions Profound Technique surpassed even that of the Twelve Ancestral Witches.
In just a few Eons, their physical bodies had completed the thirty-fifth level of the fourth stage. They had crossed seven major realms—Human Immortal, Earth Immortal, Heavenly Immortal, True Immortal, Profound Immortal, Golden Immortal, and Grand Unity Golden Immortal—and were only one level away from completing the fourth stage at level thirty-six.
"Damn it! How can your bodies be so indestructible?! The Heavenly Dao is unjust! The Heavenly Dao is unjust!"
The Dragon-Kin Giant leaped up and punched Tongtian in the ankle, but he couldn't even leave a mark. His composure shattered even further, and he flew into a furious rage.
"If my strength can't break your bodies, then I'll use the Heavenly Dao's curse to make you taste my suffering!"
The three mighty cultivators fought deep within the Return to Ruins. Chaos Qi churned like boiling water, while the pressure left on the Chaos Fragments by Pangu Opens Heaven intertwined with the Heavenly Dao's curse runes, forming one blood-red, ominous vortex after another in the void.
The curse marks wrapped around the Dragon-Kin Giant blazed with dazzling golden light. With a wave of his hand, the baleful qi of the Return to Ruins condensed into a colossal claw tens of thousands of zhang across, lunging straight at Xuanyuan and Tongtian.
"Yin and Yang, Cleave Twice! Upper Clarity Divine Thunder!"
Tongtian roared, all six eyes wide as all six arms moved at once.
The Qing Ping Sword cleaved through the void, its blade's Innate Dao Rhyme crashing into the giant claw.
The Coiling Dragon Flat Crutch swept out, wrapped in Heaven-Opening Merit. The Great Dao of Strength Law ravaged everything in its path, shattering the Chaos Qi, while Samadhi True Fire fiercely scorched the Dragon-Kin Giant's nascent soul.
The Purple Lightning Hammer and Fishing Drum rang out together, their thunder and sonic waves shaking the space and time of the Return to Ruins.
Xuanyuan's treasures were even more powerful. The Primordial Measure Heaven Ruler expanded to ten thousand zhang, the Great Dao Patterns carved into its body swallowing Chaos Qi and releasing countless strands of primordial energy, forming a vast net that covered the sky and earth.
The Chaos Pearl bobbed up and down within his nascent soul. The Chaos World it projected swallowed and refined the space-time in every direction, from ancient times to the present.
Xuanyuan nocked a Zhentian Arrow to the Qiankun Bow. The arrow gathered the sharpness of Heaven and Earth Opening. The nature of Pangu's Ribs resonated with Pangu's Residual Might here, aiming straight for the Dragon-Kin Giant's brow.
"Dragon-Kin True Form, manifest!"
The Dragon-Kin Giant roared. The curse runes all over his body lit up, and the baleful qi of the Return to Ruins gathered behind him into a Demonic Shadow that stood between Heaven and Earth. At a glance, it seemed almost ten million zhang tall!
It was a projection of his full power!
"Destroy!"
Xuanyuan and Tongtian acted in perfect unison.
The attacks unleashed by the treasures in Tongtian's six arms transformed into streaks of light and merged into Xuanyuan's Primordial Measure Heaven Ruler. The Chaos World projected by the Chaos Pearl abruptly contracted, trapping the Dragon-Kin Giant firmly at its center.
Xuanyuan drew the Qiankun Bow to its full moon. Twelve Zhentian Arrows, wrapped in the power of Pangu Opens Heaven, fused with Tongtian's attacks and the might of the Chaos Pearl, finally becoming a golden beam that pierced through the space-time of the Return to Ruins.
"No! I refuse to accept this! Damn Heaven!"
The Dragon-Kin Giant frantically swung his halberd to fend them off, but he disintegrated inch by inch beneath the beam.
"Bang!"
With a deafening roar, the giant projection shattered, and the dwarf-like body exploded within the beam.
The power of the curse, Pangu's Residual Might, Chaos Qi, and the baleful qi of the Return to Ruins intertwined into a devastating storm of chaos that swept across the entire Return to Ruins.
Xuanyuan hurriedly used the Primordial Measure Heaven Ruler to open up space-time and shield himself and his brother, struggling to withstand the storm of chaos.
Only after a long while did the Return to Ruins gradually settle down.
"That Dragon-Kin Giant was truly hard to deal with," Tongtian said with a sigh.
The Heavenly Dao's curse on the Dragon-Kin Giant had damaged several of his treasures. They would need a long period of nurturing before they could recover.
"The gap between a Primordial Golden Immortal and a Grand Unity Golden Immortal is still too great," Xuanyuan said, shaking his head.
Though the Dragon-Kin Giant had been cursed by the Heavenly Dao, that final projection had still wielded a portion of a Primordial Golden Immortal's power.
If the brothers hadn't had powerful bodies and a pile of treasures to protect them, then even with the Dragon-Kin Giant suppressed to Grand Unity Golden Immortal Perfection, he could still have threatened their lives.
"Voom!"
The instant the Dragon-Kin Giant's physical body and nascent soul were both blasted apart, the Chaos Qi above the Return to Ruins suddenly churned into a huge vortex, thirty-six million li across.
Wisps of golden merit light poured down like a reversed Milky Way, piercing the endless space-time barrier between the Return to Ruins and the Primordial World. They gathered above Xuanyuan and Tongtian into dazzling pillars of merit.
In that instant, the brothers felt their whole bodies relax. The power of merit became a warm, gentle current that pierced their protective radiance and seeped into their limbs, bones, and nascent souls.
"Heavenly Dao merit." Xuanyuan's eyes lit up.
That was right. The Dragon-Kin Giant had fished up the Golden Ao, causing two immortal islands to drift into the Return to Ruins. As a result, the Five Immortal Islands had lost two of the Five Elements, damaging the Primordial World's Five Elements Origin.
Now that the brothers had joined forces to kill him, they had benefited the Primordial World Heaven and Earth, so of course they had earned a reward from the Heavenly Dao.
Heavenly Dao merit was one of the best things in existence, a universal panacea within the Primordial World. It could not only improve one's cultivation and refine treasures, but if one had enough of it, one could even follow the path of Proving Dao by Merit!
Nuwa created humanity, Laozi Established Teachings, and Zhun Ti and Jie Yin Established Teachings and made grand vows, borrowing merit from the Heavenly Dao and Hongjun...
After being tricked by Severing Three Corpses, the Heavenly Dao Saints had all ultimately taken the path of Proving Dao by Merit!
"Heaven has bestowed a great boon! Hahahaha, Fourth Brother, this is surely our great opportunity!"
Tongtian laughed heartily, all three heads and six arms trembling.
Then the golden merit light swiftly divided between the two according to their contributions to killing the Dragon-Kin Giant.
Xuanyuan received sixty percent, and Tongtian received forty percent.
The brothers exchanged a glance. Without another word, they both sat down and began to focus on refining the Heavenly Dao merit.
The profound clarity qi rising around them clashed with the baleful qi of the Return to Ruins, causing thousands of auspicious signs to burst open in the void. It was a magnificent sight of myriad rays of rosy light and countless colors of good fortune.
The process of refining the merit felt like being reborn.
Within Xuanyuan's sea of consciousness, his nascent soul absorbed the Heavenly Dao merit, and his Profound Clarity Qi continued to grow stronger. Every inch of his physical body was reshaped by the power of merit, faintly reflecting the image of Chaos when Pangu Opens Heaven.
In the blink of an eye, a thousand years passed.
Two-tenths of the Heavenly Dao merit sorted out his Turbid Qi Physical Body, broke through the bottleneck of the Nine Revolutions Profound Technique, and brought the fourth stage to perfection at level thirty-six. His physical body reached Grand Unity Golden Immortal Perfection.
Two-tenths of the Heavenly Dao merit nourished his Clear Qi Nascent Soul and accumulated Grand Unity Magic Power, leaving his Dao Heart clear and pure.
"Boom!"
As the final wisp of merit merged into his nascent soul, Tongtian opened all six eyes. The might of Grand Unity Golden Immortal Perfection erupted, and deep within the Return to Ruins, even the Innate Restrictions of the second immortal island trembled.
"Fourth Brother, you can use this extra merit to form a Merit Golden Wheel. Then, when you travel through the Primordial World, no one will dare harm you," Tongtian said with a smile.
Killing someone of great merit was an ill omen. It brought Karmic Force upon the killer and earned them the world's hatred.
The greater the sins committed by the Dragon-Kin Giant Clan, the greater the Heavenly Dao merit the two of them received for joining forces to kill him.
The remaining two-tenths might not seem like much, but it was still enough to serve as a means of saving his life.
Before you continue