"Yan... you...!"
"Perhaps dying in battle is our greatest glory. Father is out of danger, and our little brother is still alive. My only regret is that I cannot fight He Wushuang again, proclaim our clan's might, and wash away this humiliation."
"Then let our little brother fulfill that wish for us someday?"
"Very well!"
Having spoken, the two ignored their cracked, precious bodies and once again burned their vital essence to elevate themselves. Terrifying blood energy spread outward. Above the Great Red Land, the fallen stars seemed to feel an endless pull and slowly began to float upward. Heaven and earth themselves were rising.
"Dao-Destroying Divine Fist! Kill!"
Two heaven-shaking roars shattered heaven and earth. Like two crimson suns, they shot straight upward.
"Arising and Perishing. Let me bring an end to this clan's last blaze of glory!"
Immortal King Gu Xiu's expression remained unruffled. Azure pulses from the longsword in his hand spread across the sky with countless overlapping shadows, beginning to take form.
"Soul-Shaking Sword Strike!"
Whoosh...
Sword light descended from the sky. The Soul-Shaking Sword Strike fell like the collapse of heaven, spreading the overwhelming pressure of a supreme king throughout the world. Below, some lost their souls merely from glimpsing a sliver of its light.
"Lord Heavenly Horned Ant...!"
A supreme king's strike annihilated all things, tangible and intangible.
Just as the sword light was about to descend upon Yan and Yu, heaven and earth seemed to fall still. All sound was drowned out, time stopped, and space froze. Even the passage of ages could no longer leave its mark.
To their own astonishment, Yan and Yu saw themselves as they had been a second earlier, as though they stood outside the ages. Then time rewound once more by a billionth of a second.
A great hand reached out from the rippling void and seized the seemingly frozen sword light.
Boom...
The supreme king's strike was crushed outright in that hand. Under the exploding energy, space caved in and collapsed.
"Who dares defy heaven!"
An Immortal King would not stand there in a daze. The Immortal King who had previously fought Yu strode across the sky in his heaven-reaching Dharma Form. His great sword unleashed an unrivaled strike with the resplendent might of heaven, as though the Heavenly Dao itself had moved to exterminate every antlike living being.
"Life-and-Death Ultimate Intent, shatter all and return to the void!"
Upon the divine fist, the Life-and-Death Ultimate Intent and the two energies of yin and yang evolved worlds simultaneously. Their interwoven power broke the boundary between the intangible and the tangible, annihilating everything outright.
Boom...
Sword light shattered, and the king's body exploded. The space where the Immortal King stood became a blasted-open black hole, spilling chaos energy. His golden blood covered heaven and earth, and some stars began to radiate vitality after absorbing it.
Before the gathered cultivators could react, black light tore across the sky and struck the Immortal King's remaining primordial spirit. Its light dimmed, fell silent, and finally shattered.
In a mere instant, a king's might rose and then vanished. An Immortal King of his generation perished between heaven and earth, his death seeming to exist only in people's memories, in ages already past.
Only then did the cultivators on both sides see a heaven-reaching Dharma Form spanning the Great Red Heaven World. Dao resonance flourished all around him, and immortal energy filled the air. He resembled an unrivaled Immortal King, with primordial stars slowly floating around his Dharma Form. The place where he stood was like the Immortal Domain.
Before him, the siblings Yan and Yu stood stunned.
A chill was already running down Immortal King Yan Wang's spine, while Gu Xiu felt cold seep through the soles of his feet. The pressure of a giant of the king realm kept him from acting rashly.
The other king's fate preserved what little reason he had left.
Chapter 76: Battling All Sides
"A king! Whose... king is this!"
"He is our Nine Heavens' king... isn't he?"
The cultivators of the Nine Heavens froze, as did those of the Foreign Realm. Both sides instinctively fell into a stupor, unable to believe that everything before their eyes had surpassed all they knew.
One punch shattered a king's body, and black light destroyed his primordial spirit. An unrivaled king of his generation became history in an instant. When had the cultivators of the Nine Heavens ever known such happiness? Nothing like this had ever happened before!
"Lord Lin Yue?"
Someone whispered cautiously, uncertainty in his voice!
The cultivators of the Nine Heavens suddenly seemed to realize something. They straightened their backs and opened their eyes wide, trying to make out the face of the heaven-reaching Dharma Form before them.
Lin Yue did not conceal his face. He openly showed his true appearance. The Nine Heavens needed faith.
"It's Lord Lin Yue! Lord Lin Yue has become a king...!"
"Hahaha... he's the king of our Nine Heavens! Our king has returned! Do you see him? Sob...!"
Some cheered, some danced with joy, and some wept bitterly. Some even cast aside their weapons in celebration, pouring out their emotions.
The Nine Heavens had suffered under the Foreign Realm's Immortal Kings for far too long!
"Lin Yue!"
In that instant, sensing the familiar aura spreading behind them, the siblings Yan and Yu's eyes trembled, their pupils contracting.
"It's me!"
Lin Yue gazed at the cultivators of the Nine Heavens with a smile. The king's smile touched them all, and at that moment, every heart and mind found peace.
Two drops of a king's blood essence fell and merged into the siblings' bodies. This was the supreme blood essence Lin Yue had produced by tempering his body to the utmost and unearthing its potential through the Human Immortal Martial Dao, refined from the fusion of several powers pushed to their strongest extremes. Their bodies healed almost instantly.
Then Lin Yue swept his great hand, gathering the siblings and the Nine Heavens cultivators on the Great Red Heaven battlefield into the world of divine universes within his body. The moment they entered, they felt as though their entire bodies were immersed in hot springs, as though they had entered the Immortal Domain. Even their primordial spirits began to fall asleep. They were simply too exhausted. Through ten thousand years of bloody battle, willpower alone had kept them fighting.
"To become a king in merely a few tens of thousands of years is indeed remarkable. The Nine Heavens truly have created countless miracles and legends. Unfortunately, what can you do against a host of kings?"
Immortal King Gu Xiu, a king who pursued truth, did not flee before Lin Yue's unmatched divine might. So what if he faced a giant? Even that could not make a supreme king retreat without a fight. Such was the pride of a king.
Besides, four radiances belonging to supreme kings were approaching from behind him at a speed that surpassed time.
Before their figures arrived, divine fire blazed and flames surged into the sky. Immortal King Yan Cang's exquisitely handsome face was frighteningly dark. Even now, recalling how he had abandoned his dignity as a king and fled last time twisted his face.
A bank of black mist surged from the River of Time, blotting out the sky and covering the earth. It swept through all eight wildernesses, extracting every intangible soul and casting heaven and earth into deeper gloom.
After Lin Yue shattered their ancient artifacts, Immortal Kings Yan Cang and Yin Sha had actually advanced further in strength. It was hard to imagine. Indeed, no supreme king could be underestimated.
A longsword manifested from the Heavenly Dao, descending with the resplendent heavenly might unique to the Foreign Realm and forcing back the laws of the Nine Heavens. Unable to tolerate it, those laws even chose to yield.
The Heavenly Dao remained hidden, and all things fell silent.
Then a heaven-reaching golden war spear manifested in the sky. An immortal golden ancient beast trod upon primordial stars, with chaos energy trailing the carriage wheels as it slowly approached. It only appeared slow; in truth, space and time were standing still.
"To become a king in a few tens of thousands of years-in talent, across all three realms, I, An Lan, am willing to call you the strongest. Such talent. What a pity."
The Foreign Realm had long been prepared. After Immortal Kings Yan Cang and Yin Sha returned from the Boundary Sea, they not only tended their wounds but also informed the other kings that Lin Yue already possessed the might of a giant. They would need to act together.
Once Lin Yue unleashed his aura, the kings of the Foreign Realm arrived one after another, intent on once again destroying such a giant of the Nine Heavens.
"Kill! Melt heaven and refine earth!"
Immortal King Yan Cang gave the order without another wasted word. The kings had descended precisely to destroy this young man. He transformed into an endless Flame World that swept over everything, shattering heaven and earth.
"Soul Returns to Heaven and Earth!"
"Soul-Shaking Sword Strike!"
Amid successive roars, a divine sword bearing heaven's might and a heaven-reaching war halberd struck. Five peerless kings suppressed heaven and earth, seeking to destroy the great world in a single blow.
"Human Immortal Martial Dao, rise! Gods within my body, awaken!"
Caw...
The gods within Lin Yue rose to their feet. A Golden Crow took form above his head to confront Yan Cang's Flame World.
"Overturn heaven and earth, Yin-Yang Reversal, Eight Wastelands in Chaos!"
As the divine essence throughout Lin Yue's body erupted, he drew upon almost all the power of his divine universes. Yin and yang energy intertwined with the Life-and-Death Ultimate Intent, breaking through boundaries to affect heaven and earth directly.
Space around his heaven-reaching Dharma Form actually began to overlap, shutting out every external force. Within this domain, time twisted, yin and yang reversed, and the ages flowed backward.
Before the kings' attacks could reach Lin Yue, something uncanny happened across the distance between them. They themselves were distorting. Yin became yang, and advance became retreat. The harder they exerted themselves, the farther they moved from Lin Yue.
This was neither an art nor a technique, but law. Within this domain, the rules and laws of the Inner World were thrown into chaos. The power that broke through boundaries surpassed the natural rules by which the world operated.
After his flesh attained the Dao, the world within his body was disrupting the outside world's rules. After all, Lin Yue alone decided how his inner world worked. If advance meant retreat, then retreat it was.
With a single move, he neutralized the kings' combined strike. Yet Lin Yue did not have an easy time of it either. Even now, such an eruption was difficult for him to wield, and it covered only this area.
"Damn it! What kind of technique is this! How can such an uncanny technique exist in this world!"
Immortal King Yan Cang roared. Having fought Lin Yue for so long, he was almost at his breaking point. Every battle overturned his understanding of Lin Yue.
"Retreat!"
Immortal King Gu Xiu, a king who pursued truth, immediately withdrew the sword strike he had yet to unleash.
"Hmph! Life-and-Death Ultimate Intent, Void Shattering!"
The instant his opponent withdrew, an opening appeared. His divine fist opened heaven and earth, reducing life and death to emptiness. Its supreme pressure engulfed the entire Great Red Heaven World as it hurtled toward Gu Xiu.
"Quick, strike together!"
Immortal King Yin Sha roared. A single supreme king could not possibly withstand this punch. Together with Yan Cang, the three directly confronted the giant's strike.
Their blood energy erupted, nearly solidifying space. Although they caught Lin Yue's punch, they had no strength left to attack.
But there were more than three of them.
"Die!"
The war spear and divine sword of Immortal Kings Bo Lan and Yu Tuo had already arrived. The slowest attack belonged to Immortal King Yan Wang's war halberd.
"Hmph! Yin-Yang Reversal, Treading the Void!"
The ages flowed, but he chose only to evade the two kings' attacks. One could never be careless when facing a supreme king's attack, for one did not know whether an opponent possessed a secret art capable of inflicting harm.
Immortal King Yan Wang's attack struck Lin Yue's true body directly. This was also Lin Yue's best choice. Compared with taking a combined strike from supreme kings like An Lan and Yu Tuo, enduring Yan Wang's blow was clearly the better bargain.
Boom...
Without kingly might sufficient to contend with a giant like Lin Yue, the war halberd snapped under the recoil from the power of his Dao-attained flesh.
"Get out of the way! Fool! Heaven and earth become fire, burn all myriad Daos! Kill!"
Yan Cang unleashed his utmost power. The fire of heaven and earth responded, forming from the void. The three lunged forward again, but alas, they were still a step too late.
"Yin-Yang Eye-Shocking Tribulation!"
His eyes, which fused his Yin-Yang Dao Body with the will of heaven and earth, unleashed divine light that slew and shattered everything. White light cleaved Yan Wang's kingly body apart, while black divine light struck his primordial spirit directly. A king of his generation perished there.
Such was a giant. The slightest carelessness meant death and the extinction of one's Dao.
"Die, Lin Yue!"
The three supreme kings' attacks likewise drove Lin Yue back by brute force. Unfortunately, their utmost power now seemed insufficient to break such a body. Confronting Lin Yue, whose flesh had attained the Dao, was like confronting an entire great thousandfold world.
"Hmph... Heaven and earth without limit, shatter all and return to the void."
Lin Yue would not stand there in a daze. He unleashed another divine punch.
"I am a king. There is no road of retreat behind me. I, An Lan, refuse to believe your divine strength is truly invincible. Let me face it."
As Lin Yue's divine fist bore down on him, Immortal King An Lan roared and thrust the great shield in his right hand forward, concentrating all his kingly might upon the Immortal Escape.
Yu Tuo's King Body passed over An Lan's head. His divine sword slashed down, seeking to cleave straight through Lin Yue's brow.
The other three directly unleashed secret arts of unrivaled slaughter.
Boom...
Invincible divine strength, carrying two interwoven powers, smashed countless cracks into An Lan's Immortal Escape and sent him flying backward.
"Die!"
They did not waste that instant. The Flame World engulfed Lin Yue, while black mist enveloped his body, desperately tugging at his primordial spirit. Azure sword light and a divine sword bearing heaven's might descended upon him.
Boom...
Even a giant could not disregard a head-on combined strike from four supreme kings.
At that moment, Lin Yue's primordial spirit actually began to leave his body. Having advanced further, Yin Sha wielded a soul-refining art that could almost seize the soul of heaven and earth itself. It nearly brought disaster upon Lin Yue.
"Martial Dao Divine Infant, suppress it!"
Steadying himself, Lin Yue raised his hand and shattered space with a punch. With a backhand sweep, he scattered the divine fire of heaven and earth and countless rays of sword light, once again driving back the four kings who had closed in.
Since their last battle, Lin Yue had not stood still. Moreover, after becoming familiar with his own power, he could now wield many secret arts.
Above Great Red Heaven, five supreme kings surrounded Lin Yue to kill him. An ordinary giant would likely have shown signs of exhaustion long ago. Unfortunately for them, Lin Yue's flesh had attained the Dao. With every movement, his divine strength repelled every attack.
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