Defeating the Great Dao Qiniu; The Primordial Imperial Court Appears!

Dao Qiniu did not charge again.

The beast stood where it was, its four limbs sunk deep into the cracked earth, its entire body bathed in blood.

Its aura dwindled rapidly. The desolate ancient brute force great dao swirling around it flickered, its dark red glow like a candle guttering in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.

"Someone of the Emperor Clan..."

It had lived for over a million years.

Since the dawn of the primordial age, it had occupied this forbidden zone, absorbing the chaotic energy left over from the world's creation to temper a body and brute strength far beyond those of its kin.

In over a million years, no living creature had ever driven it to such a desperate state in a head-on clash!

Yet this white-robed young man had not only done so, but had kept it pinned down almost throughout the entire battle!

"Human!"

"We are creatures of the forbidden zones! Do you truly think you can kill me so easily?!"

Dao Qiniu let out a furious roar, its aura surging once more!

"I have dwelled here for a million years, yet I have never provoked your Emperor Clan, the Su Family!"

Su Linxian watched it without speaking.

With the Diya Sword in hand, he walked toward it, step by step.

With every step, golden desolate ancient divine markings spread beneath his feet, driving the dark red pools of blood back several yards.

Su Linxian stopped before Dao Qiniu and looked up at the enormous beast, dozens of times taller than himself, his gaze as calm as still water.

"There are thirteen Life Forbidden Zones across the heavens."

"Dao Qiniu, you have lived a very long time."

"Longer than any creature I have ever seen. Your body and brute force great dao are also exceptionally pure. Had I met you elsewhere, I might have considered sparing your life."

At this, Su Linxian said evenly,

"But you happen to possess something I need."

"The path of the Divine Emperor I cultivate requires myriad great daos to return to one source and converge."

Dao Qiniu's beastly eyes flickered.

"No wonder..."

"So it is my great dao power you covet?"

Su Linxian said, "Correct."

"I know a Primordial Forbidden Beast like you will not perish so easily. I will take only your great dao origins."

"Ten thousand years from now, you, Dao Qiniu, will still exist."

Dao Qiniu growled softly. Its voice held no anger now, only the calm of an ancient creature facing its end.

"So that is how it is."

"Man of the Emperor Clan... what is your name?"

"Su Linxian."

Dao Qiniu fell silent for a moment, then suddenly lifted its head and let out a desolate cry.

That cry pierced the lingering gray-white mist of the forbidden zone and ten thousand miles of space, echoing between heaven and earth for a long time.

Then it lowered its head, meeting Su Linxian's gaze with its dark golden eyes.

"Do it."

Su Linxian said nothing more.

He raised the Diya Sword, and every dark golden inscription lit up.

With a single slash, the dark gold sword intent sank into Dao Qiniu's brow with unerring precision.

Boom!

The enormous beast's body went rigid. The light in its dark golden eyes rapidly faded, and its massive body toppled forward, striking the earth with a heavy crash.

[Ding! Slain Peak Emperor Realm Primordial Forbidden Beast: Dao Qiniu. Obtained 1,000,000 villain points!]

[Ding! Obtained extreme-rank great dao law: Desolate ancient!]

[Ding! Obtained upper-rank great dao: Mountain shatterer!]

A string of system notifications exploded in Su Linxian's mind.

He sensed the great dao origins pouring into his sea of consciousness.

One extreme-rank great dao and six upper-rank great daos.

A single Qiuniu had fulfilled more than half his needs.

Su Linxian opened his eyes and let out a long breath of stale air.

He lowered his head to look at the enormous carcass at his feet and fell silent for a moment.

"It certainly lived up to the name of Dao."

"Quite a haul indeed."

This Primordial Forbidden Beast had occupied the forbidden zone for over a million years, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth across countless eras. The wealth of great dao origins within it far exceeded his expectations.

Every great dao it possessed was a pure, innate creation, older and more complete than those stripped from human Great Emperors.

Su Linxian crouched and pressed his palm against Dao Qiniu's corpse.

[Ding! Extract the great dao origins remaining within Dao Qiniu?]

"Extract."

A warm power flowed from the carcass into his palm. These were the residual origins of the desolate ancient brute force divine law and the earth pulse divine law. Though less complete than the system's rewards, they were still astonishingly rich.

He guided the residual origins of the two order divine laws into his sea of consciousness, merging them with the two complete divine laws from earlier to make his framework of laws even sturdier.

Once the extraction was complete, Su Linxian rose.

Yuan Feng and the others came forward to congratulate him.

"Congratulations, Divine Son, on slaying a Primordial Forbidden Beast and advancing your cultivation further! Given time, the Divine Emperor Realm will be within reach!"

Su Linxian waved a hand.

"Enough. I only learned of this after emerging from seclusion myself."

"I will seek out the great daos on my own. You need not take action again."

The creatures of the forbidden zones were immensely powerful. Even he could not guarantee that he would emerge completely unscathed.

"Return to the clan, all of you."

"I have one more thing to do next."

Su Linxian did not rush to begin.

Standing on the ravaged earth deep within the forbidden zone, he gazed at the distant ruins, torn apart by the aftershocks of battle, and suddenly felt something stir deep within him.

The creatures within these Life Forbidden Zones often lived for countless eras, occupying the depths of the great forbidden zones and greedily drawing nourishment from the myriad worlds across the heavens.

They cultivated no divine abilities and sought no understanding of the Heavenly Dao. With only their innate bodies and brute strength, they could run rampant without restraint.

Dao Qiniu had been just such a creature. Over a million years of cultivation had all been concentrated in that terrifying body and a single brute force great dao.

Su Linxian lowered his gaze to his palm.

The fully realized body of his Desolate Ancient Sacred Body was likewise immensely powerful.

Yet during the battle, he had discovered something.

Though his body was formidable, he lacked a combat method that truly suited him.

The Tai'e Sword Art was the Tai'e Sword Emperor's path, while the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body was an innate gift. He had always used another man's path to wield his own body.

But to enter the Divine Emperor Realm and create a great dao of his own, he needed a cultivation art truly tailored to himself.

Create my own cultivation art!

Su Linxian sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and sank into his sea of consciousness.

His contemplation began.

In the first year, he studied the original dao markings of the Tai'e Sword Art, attempting to uncover the reasoning behind the Tai'e Sword Emperor's creation of the art.

The essence of Tai'e Return to Origin was the unification of four forces, gathering four distinct origins into a single point to unleash destructive power far beyond one's own limits.

The essence of this sword art lay in "convergence," but Su Linxian felt that convergence alone could not unleash the full potential of his Desolate Ancient Sacred Body.

In the second year, Su Linxian began to reassess the origin of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body.

The law of strength was pure bodily order, representing the pinnacle of physical power. Yet in battle, he had sensed that the power of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body extended far beyond this.

Dao Qiniu's brute force great dao had inspired him—pure strength cared nothing for reason or variation; one overwhelming force subdued ten masterful arts. His Desolate Ancient Sacred Body could follow the same path, refining its physical power to the utmost and turning it into absolute suppression.

In the tenth year, Su Linxian suddenly recalled something.

The Tianxuan Orthodoxy.

The founding patriarch of the Tianxuan Orthodoxy had left behind a fragmentary text recording an ancient sealing art called the "Tianxuan Seal."

The core of the Tianxuan Seal lay in "restriction." It used one's own dao laws to construct a closed force field, sealing an enemy's vitality, cultivation, and soul entirely within its confines.

His cultivation had been too low to comprehend it back then, but as he reflected on it now, the reasoning within that fragmentary text gave him tremendous inspiration.

I've found a lead!

Su Linxian's eyes lit up as he recalled his battle with Dao Qiniu.

Three threads of thought lit up at once.

A rudimentary form appeared within his sea of consciousness.

A closed force field that radiated outward with himself at its center.

Within that force field, his will would be the Heavenly Dao, and his strength would be the laws.

Every enemy that entered it would be sealed, suppressed, and crushed!

That rudimentary form grew ever clearer and more complete.

Su Linxian named this cultivation art the Heavenly Prison Art.

Within Su Linxian's sea of consciousness, the final form of the Heavenly Prison Art at last took shape.

He opened his eyes and rose from the ground.

His aura abruptly changed at that moment. An invisible force field spread from his body, covering a radius of ten thousand zhang.

Within that force field, the wind stopped, the mist dispersed, and even the light grew heavy.

Under the pressure of the force field, the lingering gray-white mist in the forbidden zone actually condensed into liquid, pattering onto the ground!

"Heavenly Prison Art!"

Su Linxian raised his hand and made a grasping motion toward a surviving stone mountain in the distance.

Hum!

The stone mountain was instantly sealed within the force field. Dense golden dao markings appeared across its surface, and the entire mountain was crushed to dust from the inside out.

Rumble!

After the stone mountain collapsed, that region of space remained sealed. Space had solidified into a block of transparent amber, everything within it frozen in place. Even time could no longer flow.

Su Linxian withdrew his hand, nodded slightly, and said with a broad smile,

"That should do."

Yuan Feng and the twenty-odd Great Emperors of the Su Family still stood at the edge of the battlefield, each as dumbstruck as a wooden chicken.

What had they just witnessed?

A stone mountain a thousand zhang tall had turned to dust with a single grasp from His Highness the Divine Son, and even space itself had frozen!

Such power already lay beyond their understanding.

"Divine Son... did you just create your own cultivation art?!"

"We offer our congratulations, Divine Son!"

Su Linxian walked up to Yuan Feng and gave a slight nod.

"That should do. Back to the clan."

Yuan Feng abruptly came to his senses and hurriedly bowed in acknowledgment, his voice trembling with barely concealed excitement.

"Yes!"

Meanwhile.

Seven days before the Ancient Emperor Festival, deep within the former site of the Imperial Court.

Within an ancient secret realm shrouded in golden mist, Shenkong Ye sat cross-legged atop an enormous Imperial Court altar.

The entire altar had been cast from primordial divine gold, its surface covered in densely packed Imperial Court dao markings. Every marking pulsed with ancient light.

Nine enormous stone steles floated around the altar, engraved with the inheritance imprints of successive Divine Emperors of the Primordial Imperial Court. Each stele radiated a terrifying pressure strong enough to crush a Quasi-Emperor.

Shenkong Ye had sat motionless here for a full forty-nine days.

Forty-nine days earlier, he had followed the lingering resonance of the Primordial Imperial Court to this place. With his Divine Emperor Physique as the guide and his resilient soul, tempered by those two strands of dark gold sword intent, as the key, he had opened this inheritance altar, sealed away for countless eras.

Bang!

The nine stone steles lit up simultaneously, and nine Imperial Court inheritance origins poured into his body at once.

"Aaaah!!!!"

Shenkong Ye screamed.

It was a transformation that felt as though he were being torn apart.

The Divine Emperor Physique was a supreme constitution among the ten primordial sacred bodies, reputed to be impervious to all arts.

Its awakening required nine rounds of soul tempering, each equivalent to crushing the soul and reconstructing it.

Shenkong Ye had endured countless years in darkness. Those two strands of dark gold sword intent had long since honed his soul to a strength ordinary people could not imagine.

Though the nine rounds of tempering were agonizing, after each one, his soul became more complete and resilient than before.

The ninth round of tempering ended.

Atop the altar, Shenkong Ye's eyes snapped open.

Dark golden light exploded from his two empty eye sockets, transforming into two pillars of light that pierced heaven and earth and shot straight into the highest heavens.

Boom!

His aura surged at that moment, climbing relentlessly through the Supreme Realm and into the Quasi-Emperor Realm.

Golden Divine Emperor dao markings emerged across his skin, each radiating the profound aura of invulnerability to all arts.

In the sky behind him, an enormous divine emperor phantom took shape. Its features were indistinct, yet its majesty rivaled heaven itself. The phantom lowered its head to gaze down upon the earth, as though the will of the Primordial Imperial Court had descended upon the mortal world once more.

A Centurylong Quasi-Emperor!

Outside the Primordial Imperial Court ruins, proud prodigies of every emperor clan raised their heads simultaneously to look toward that direction where golden light pierced the heavens.

Some complexions changed drastically, and some cried out in involuntary shock.

"The inheritance of the Primordial Imperial Court! Someone has opened it!"

"That direction... it's deep within the Emperor Court Secret Realm!"

"Who is it?! Who obtained the Primordial Imperial Court's inheritance?!"

Shenkong Ye stood up from the altar, his golden robe snapping loudly in the gale.

He raised a hand to touch his hollow eye sockets, his fingertips brushing the scars along the edges of the sockets as the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.

"Su Linxian."

"One hundred and forty years... I've kept these blind eyes for you for a century."

"Now, it's time to settle the score!"

He stepped out of the secret realm, his figure appearing outside the Emperor Court site.

Proud prodigies from all sides had long gathered in this place: the Yun Family, the Ji Family, the Upper Clarity Dao Sect...

The instant Shenkong Ye landed, everyone's gazes were drawn toward him.

"It's him!!"

"This is the person who obtained the Emperor Court's inheritance!"

Dense golden divine light swirled around Shenkong Ye, and within that light, ancient Imperial Court Dao Markings circulated, every single one radiating a profound aura impervious to all spells.

"Who is this?!"

"The Divine Emperor Physique?! This person actually awakened the Divine Emperor Physique!"

"He is Shenkong Ye! That same Shenkong Ye whose eyes were crippled and whose Desolate Ancient Sacred Body was extracted by the Yun Family's divine son a century ago!"

"What?! Not only did he not die, but he also awakened the Divine Emperor Physique?!"

The sounds of discussion surged like a tidal wave.

Yun Qi stood within the Yun Family's formation, his complexion changing drastically.

"How could it be this fellow!"

He recognized Shenkong Ye, that young man a century ago in the Yun Family's grand hall whose eyes were pierced blind with a single sword strike by Su Linxian, and whose Sacred Body Origin was personally extracted by Miao Yin Yun.

At that time, he was merely in the Jijie Realm, but after recuperating in the Yun Family for a century and breaking through to the Saint Realm, he could already be considered of no small talent.

Yet the aura on Shenkong Ye at this moment made him feel a bone-deep chill!

Shenkong Ye's gaze swept across the crowd, finally landing on Yun Qi.

"The time for reckoning has arrived."

Yun Qi: "Shenkong Ye! What are you trying to do?"

"What am I doing?" Shenkong Ye raised his hand, pointing a fingertip toward Yun Qi.

Puchi.

Golden Imperial Court Dao Markings condensed at his fingertip, transforming into a slender golden ray of light that landed with absolute precision at Yun Qi's feet.

That ray of light carved a straight line across the ground, separating Yun Qi from everyone else.

"Yun Qi."

"A century ago, what your Yun Family owes me should be paid back as well!"

"Today, I'll start with you as the appetizer."

Yun Qi's complexion turned ashen.

He was, after all, a proud prodigy of the imperial Yun Family, now possessing Quasi-Emperor cultivation. If he backed down when challenged publicly, where would the Yun Family's face go?

Yun Qi gritted his teeth and stepped forward, his aura bursting forth without a shred of reservation.

"Shenkong Ye! You are merely a Quasi-Emperor, yet you dare to be this arrogant!"

"Ungrateful wretch!"

Shenkong Ye did not reply.

He merely raised his hand and gently clenched it toward Yun Qi.

"BOOM!!!"