Lu Ya wore a fish-tail crown and stepped through the astral patterns. His expression was graver than ever; he was no longer the unfathomable, carefree Dao Lord he usually appeared to be.
To him, every step he took and every Rune Seal he burned felt like a life-or-death struggle against a powerful foe. There could be no room for the slightest mistake. He had to coordinate perfectly with the unseen pivot of the Great Dao, compressing all the time he had left into a few brief instants.
The straw figure gradually became veiled in blood-red light. Its face was beginning to take on the faint outlines of a handsome young man's, a sight both eerie and sinister.
The Devil Lord was a peerless fiend who had dominated the final years of antiquity and founded the Primal Demonic Way. Among the Great Divine Ability Users, he was spoken of in the same breath as Maitreya. Even temporarily deprived of the Demon Emperor's Claw and a demonic body, he was more than a match for the combined Three Treasures Ruyi of Shao Xuan, Xi E, Howling Celestial Dog, and Meng Qi. He had not appeared in person at all; only waves of Taishi Heavenly Demon Sword Qi came slashing from distant reaches, shifting between the real and the illusory to assault both body and mind. With effortless ease, he had blocked every attempt to interfere with the Seal Heaven Platform, giving Zhao Heng ample time to borrow a chicken to lay an egg.
Black light swept through the heights, nimble and murky like writhing demonic serpents. It entangled and kept at bay the blue-white-gold Ruyi and the Boat of Doom, which could ferry people across the Sea of Suffering. Just as Zhao Heng was about to place the golden-flashing Investiture of