Doubts Erupt

The surrounding void was shattered time and again, then mended beneath the restoration of heaven and earth's laws. Destruction and rebirth repeated endlessly as the laws of heaven and earth were churned into fragments, space-time descended into utter chaos, and spatial-temporal torrents surged forth without restraint.

The aftershocks of this earthshaking battle spread wildly, directly engulfing a region hundreds of billions of li across. The earth collapsed with a roar, the firmament tore and overturned, Qiankun reversed, the sun and moon lost their light, mountains and rivers evaporated entirely, and all living things turned to ash. This entire stretch of heaven and earth had become a brutal battlefield.

The two fought savagely for hundreds of years, from the vast void to the Broken Wasteland. Their divine abilities and techniques grew ever fiercer and more ruthless. The thunderous roars of colliding Daos echoed through the nine heavens, and every clash sent the laws of heaven and earth trembling violently. The battle only grew more intense.

Relying on his profound cultivation foundation, the old man unleashed both the Netherworld Venom Dragon Sword and the Netherworld Soul Banner. Poison mist blotted out the sky, ghostly souls obscured the sun, and sinister, venomous techniques emerged one after another as he sought to suppress Yuan Jie with his realm.

Yuan Jie, meanwhile, relied on the supreme mysteries of the World Dao and Space-Time Dao. The World Cauldron guarded his true body, making it unbreakable, while the Cosmos Pearl controlled space-time and gave him the initiative at every turn. Though his cultivation realm was two minor stages lower, not only had he not fallen into a disadvantage, he pressed forward step by step, unleashing killing moves in succession.

However, at the Great Firmament Golden Immortal realm, unless the gap was enormous, defeat did not come so easily. And even if one was defeated, death was not so easily achieved.

After hundreds of years of life-and-death combat, both men had sustained several injuries of varying severity. Yet none had harmed the foundations of their Daos; at most, they were superficial wounds. The battle remained deadlocked.

During a brief lull in the fierce battle, doubts could not help but arise in Yuan Jie's heart:

They had fought to such an extent, so why had this old bastard still not revealed his true trump card? His current performance was far too mediocre. He possessed none of the overwhelming might a Perfected Great Firmament Golden Immortal should have. It was simply too abnormal.

The reason he had gone all out in a frontal battle was to restrain the old man and buy time for his true body, Yuan Lun, and Yuan Ling to secretly arrange their plan. Once their preparations were complete, they could completely seal off every route of retreat, ensuring the old man's death and eliminating all future trouble.

But with the old man acting so abnormally, what exactly was he enduring? What was he waiting for?

As thoughts raced through his mind, Yuan Jie, who faced the enemy head-on, and Yuan Yan, Yuan Lun, and Yuan Ling, who were hidden deep within the void and silently laying down a killing formation, all tensed at once. They restrained their auras to the utmost limit, their vigilance rising to its peak.

Yet the old man was beset by an entirely different storm of thoughts. The longer he fought, the more alarmed he became. His eyes were filled with disbelief, boundless fury, and a trace of terror buried so deeply it was nearly undetectable.

He was a genuine Perfected Great Firmament Golden Immortal! Even though he had suffered irreversible Dao Injuries during the Three Clans War and, after dozens of Epochs of devoted recuperation, still had not fully recovered; even though he had borne an immense amount of Bloodshed Karmic Force after the war, causing his condition to decline drastically—

His combat strength still far surpassed that of a Late Great Firmament Golden Immortal and was no weaker than that of an ordinary Perfected Great Firmament Golden Immortal. Logically, crushing a Middle Great Firmament Golden Immortal cultivator should have been effortless.

Yet now, he and Yuan Jie were locked in an inseparable battle, evenly matched. How could such a heaven-defying living being exist in this world?

This scene could not help but remind him of a figure he would never forget for the rest of his life—Torch Dragon!

They were both Innate Fiendgods. The difference was that Torch Dragon was a Top-Tier Innate Fiendgod, while he was merely a Middle-Rank Innate Fiendgod.

Their first meeting had been when Ancestral Dragon wished to unite the clans of the East Sea against the ferocious beasts and had sent Torch Dragon to invite him and the Netherworld Sea Serpent Clan to join them.

At the time, due to certain fortuitous opportunities, his cultivation realm had been only one minor stage below Torch Dragon's. He had believed that, with the advantage of terrain, he could contend against him.

But he had been wrong. Horribly wrong!

One move! Only one move! Torch Dragon had not even used an Innate Spiritual Treasure, yet he had defeated him with ease. He had possessed no power to fight back!

It was also because of that crushing defeat that he and the entire Netherworld Sea Serpent Clan had been forced to submit to Ancestral Dragon.

Although the current battle was utterly different from that of the past, he could clearly see Torch Dragon's shadow in Yuan Jie. Not in temperament, not in Dao attributes, but in that invincible combat strength that crushed opponents of the same rank and fought beyond one's realm!

Yuan Jie was two minor stages below him, yet could still battle him to a draw. One could imagine that if Yuan Jie were at the same realm as him—or even one minor stage higher—he would likely be completely defeated in a single move!

At this thought, the old man's fury nearly burst from his chest. Why did Top-Tier Innate Fiendgods exist in this world? Why was he only a Middle-Rank Innate Fiendgod, forever denied the chance to reach the summit?

At the same time, even deeper terror swept through his body. Yuan Jie was merely a Middle Great Firmament Golden Immortal, yet he could already match him evenly. If he were allowed to grow and break through to the Late Great Firmament Golden Immortal realm, or even the perfected realm, the old man would likely have no ability to resist and would be easily slain!

Moreover, given the heaven-defying combat strength Yuan Jie had displayed, his foundation and aptitude must be extraordinary. He was most likely a newly born Top-Tier Innate Divine of this era. With his aptitude and Fortune, in as little as two or three hundred Epochs, or at most four or five hundred, he would certainly break through to the Perfected Great Firmament Golden Immortal realm.

By then, given the Karma between them, he would have no path to heaven and no gate to earth. Death would be inevitable!

At once, the old man could not help but entertain thoughts of making peace. Yet in the next instant, they were replaced by jealousy and ruthlessness!

Why? He had cultivated bitterly for twenty thousand Epochs, yet remained stuck before the threshold of the Primordial Golden Immortal, unable to advance even a single step!

Why could a newly born Innate Divine, one who had existed for so short a time, fight beyond his realm and so easily surpass him in the future?

If he did not want to be hunted down in the future with nowhere to hide, he had to strangle Yuan Jie in the cradle before he had fully matured!

By killing Yuan Jie, not only could he seize several High-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasures, he might even obtain the Primordial Origin of a Top-Tier Innate Divine. Perhaps he could use it to break through his bottleneck and glimpse the Dao of the Primordial Golden Immortal.

As for the fact that Top-Tier Innate Divines possessed overwhelming Fortune and were difficult to kill, and that even if one succeeded, one would surely suffer Fortune's backlash and be burdened with Karmic Force—at this moment, calamity and malice had long clouded his mind. Blinded by jealousy and greed, he completely cast these fatal dangers aside.

"Die!" At that moment, the old man no longer cared about the Dao Injuries within him that had yet to heal. He forcibly burned his own Origin Essence Blood and activated a secret art, driving his condition to its absolute peak!

The might of the Nether-Poison Dao around him surged by seventy or eighty percent. Pitch-black nether poison transformed into venom dragons hundreds of millions of zhang long. Wherever they passed, the void corroded and Daos withered. Every move carried world-destroying might, effortlessly forcing Yuan Jie back.

Though Yuan Jie was protected by several High-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasures, the sudden onslaught of savage attacks still drove him back again and again. He could only exert his full strength to activate his treasures and barely defend himself.

So this was his true strength? Under immense pressure, Yuan Jie did not panic. Instead, he grew ever calmer and steadier.

The World Cauldron floated above his head as he operated the World Dao with all his strength. Boundless Dao light bloomed from the cauldron's body, eternally unmoving as it firmly guarded his true body and withstood every attack;

The Cosmos Pearl circulated with the Dao rhythm of space-time. Space-time folded, and teleportation and reversal were under his control at will. Even though he had fallen into a disadvantage, whenever danger struck, he could always use the Space-Time Dao to shift away and escape, remaining entirely composed.