Only then did the kings sense Lin Yue beginning to move. His steps out of the heavenly pit were etched into their memories, for in the next instant, time flowed like water behind him, engraving overlapping images of his figure. It utterly defied heaven.
His movements looked slow, yet these kings of the Foreign Realm simply could not react.
A single instant was eternity!
With the force of Mount Tai crushing an egg, his divine fist swung out. Apart from ripples spreading through the void like waves on water, there were no phenomena, no Thunder Dragons sweeping forth. Only the two qi of yin and yang circled it, evolving supreme Dao rhythms. It was merely a simple punch, like one thrown by an ordinary man!
The greatest Dao was the simplest!
Yet this simple punch could neither be blocked nor evaded, because this hand was like the Great Dao itself! It was everywhere, reaching everything.
Boom...
The boundless flame realm was blasted apart by a single punch, exploding in the void like a golden crow bursting and sweeping across heaven and earth. The divine fist continued unabated toward Immortal King Yan Cang.
"Dodge, Yan Cang!"
Wu Shang's hair flew wildly. Divine essence erupted throughout his body, and crimson blood qi washed across heaven and earth. He unleashed every means at his disposal, moving later yet arriving first, crossing directly in front of Yan Cang to block Lin Yue's blow of the Great Dao!
Seeing Wu Shang move, the others likewise unleashed their divine essence to its utmost. They knew the terror of Lin Yue's flesh attaining the Dao. Even a joint strike from supreme kings could not effectively injure him.
But now, they only wanted to blast Lin Yue back!
Boom...!
Terrifying divine power struck Lin Yue, attempting to drive him back and save Yan Cang!
Unfortunately, things did not unfold as they had imagined!
Without his primordial spirit, Lin Yue was actually even more terrifying than before. Acting on his body's instincts, he ignored the World Annihilation strike jointly unleashed by Wu Shang and the other kings. Without retreating even half a step, he swung his fist at Immortal King Yan Cang!
Even the terrifying repulsive force instinctively emanating from Lin Yue's flesh, together with the aura he naturally released, threw the laws into chaos and drove Wu Shang and the others back. Their kingly bodies were cracking. It was simply world-shaking.
Bang...!
Like an egg bursting, Immortal King Yan Cang's kingly body exploded beneath that single punch before he could even react! The king's blood shone with golden light above the skies of Great Red Heaven.
"Ah...!"
A soul-chilling scream resounded through heaven and earth. Reduced to his primordial spirit, Immortal King Yan turned and fled, already driven mad.
"Such a terrifying body. Has it reached the utmost solidity of heaven and earth?"
Watching Lin Yue's world-destroying divine fist ignore everything, Willow Deity was utterly horrified!
He was simply an invincible machine without consciousness or thought.
Within Lin Yue's left eye, the Great Yin-Yang Chengli Sword Qi, which had fused with the Extreme Yin Dao Body and the will of heaven and earth to destroy primordial spirits, now shot out as black light-a secret art that attacked primordial spirits alone. Its power was greater still!
As the black light swept over Immortal King Yan Cang, who had only his primordial spirit left, his primordial spirit was extinguished. Like a shattered crystal, he vanished between heaven and earth!
From Lin Yue stepping forward and swinging his divine fist to Immortal King Yan Cang's annihilation, it seemed that a long time had passed. In truth, it had been only an instant. Ten thousand years in a glance, Instant Eternity!
Willow Deity was stunned. Even at her peak, she could not have killed a supreme king so easily. Yet beneath Lin Yue's divine fist and annihilating black light, the king's body had exploded and his primordial spirit had shattered!
"He holds the king realm in contempt. Has he become an emperor?"
Willow Deity spoke in horror. Lin Yue's performance simply defied heaven, surpassing all imagination.
Lin Yue turned again, and the kings trembled.
"Fall back!"
Immortal King Wu Shang roared, then charged at Lin Yue, unleashing the utmost divine power of his flesh!
"Heavenly Dao-Shocking Slash, Might Annihilating All Forms!"
Immortal Kings An Lan, Yu Tuo, and Gu Xiu followed Wu Shang's Dao-destroying strike, joining forces to slash at Lin Yue!
Unhindered by anything, Lin Yue raised his hand and unleashed a majestic punch that dominated heaven and earth!
As the main attacker, Wu Shang had his Bronze Battle Halberd broken beneath Lin Yue's punch. Even his right hand was split apart by the impact, and Lin Yue's divine fist struck his chest.
Wu Shang's entire treasured body cracked like a spiderweb. Together with his broken halberd, he was blasted away, instantly vanishing from Great Red Heaven. No one knew where he had been hurled!
As a titan with an invincible body, Wu Shang undoubtedly possessed the strongest flesh among the Immortal Kings. His body had not exploded even after taking a punch from Lin Yue's Dao-attained flesh. That alone was already a heaven-defying physique.
Seeing Wu Shang's kingly body cracked by a single punch and even blasted out of Great Red Heaven, the remaining three kings fled. They had already despaired and no longer dared exchange blows with Lin Yue.
Immortal Kings An Lan and Yu Tuo were the fastest. Their faces were utterly bloodless. These kings who had once stood at the pinnacle of the Immortal Dao and looked down upon heaven and earth were now fleeing for their lives.
They instantly widened the distance between themselves and Lin Yue! Even their shattered kingly bodies could not affect their speed. Neither time nor the passing years could etch their figures. In a single instant, they vanished from Great Red Heaven. Even titans would shake their heads at such speed.
Immortal King Gu Xiu! A king who pursued truth, whose plain, unadorned Sword Dao pointed straight toward the Great Dao. Yet after witnessing Lin Yue's savagery, he was trembling with terror. Now, he wanted only to survive! That was his true thought.
But countless willow branches suddenly appeared before him, blocking his escape. Some even wound around his Dharma Form.
When Willow Deity saw Lin Yue blast Wu Shang away, she had, despite her shock, mustered all her strength and used her movement art again to intercept Immortal King Gu Xiu. No matter how fast Lin Yue was, he could not blast Wu Shang away and simultaneously catch a supreme king fleeing through blood escape.
"You meddlesome willow tree, get out of my way!"
Gu Xiu unleashed his divine essence to its utmost. A supreme king's full eruption broke free of the secret art Willow Deity had cast while grievously wounded, snapping her willow branches.
In an instant, Willow Deity's art collapsed. But in that single instant, terror descended.
Some strange power seemed to envelop his surroundings, throwing the laws of heaven and earth into chaos. No matter how hard he tried, he seemed to be slipping in place. He even began moving backward. This was an Immortal King's blood escape, which surpassed the flow of time!
"Damn it, move forward!"
Unfortunately, he could not escape this suppressed domain! Lin Yue had already swung his divine fist!
Boom...!
Following Immortal King Yan Cang's destruction, the kingly body of Gu Xiu, an Immortal King of the Foreign Realm, exploded.
Unfortunately, it was not over yet. Annihilating black light shot from Lin Yue's left eye, slaying every intangible spirit between heaven and earth. It swept across his opponent's primordial spirit, destroying the king's primordial spirit.
After slaying Gu Xiu, Lin Yue stopped acting. He could no longer sense the auras of any other kings of the Foreign Realm. His towering Dharma Form slowly stepped into the deep pit from before.
Willow Deity was also slowly approaching that pit. The two gazed at each other.
Willow Deity was deeply curious. Why could he move through bodily instinct alone? What kind of art could have created such a heaven-defying being?
Yet Lin Yue remained expressionless, his eyes vacant. Black and white light spread from them, and after seemingly confirming that Willow Deity's life was no longer in danger, he slowly closed his eyes.
Then, beneath Willow Deity's astonished gaze, he slowly lay down.
The Foreign Realm's army had already withdrawn when Lin Yue gathered the cultivators of the Nine Heavens into his internal Divine Universes and began the battle of kings.
The once-clamorous Great Red Heaven actually fell silent.
Chapter 85: A wordless victory
Through endless ages, the azure sky remained.
Only the dead were left to lament their sorrow.
Now the Nine Heavens rose in might.
No kings were seen crossing the boundary to invade.
From the wars at the beginning of Immortal Ancient until now, after the Primordial Ancient World had fractured, its lands had fallen, its Immortal Kings had died, and countless undying beings had been buried throughout the Nine Heavens. From the beginning of the epoch, the Nine Heavens had begun sinking into ruin, suffering defeat after defeat ever since.
For this battle in Great Red Heaven, everyone had come prepared to die from the outset. In the end, the Immortal Domain would not fight to the death as the Nine Heavens did.
Before the might of kings, no one spoke of victory!
Yet from the very beginning, Lin Yue had displayed invincible prowess, striking down immortals as a mortal. Then, through a hundred years of bloody warfare, he had shown even greater contempt for immortals. When Immortal King Uya descended, Lin Yue remained invincible, suppressing an Immortal King with his flesh's divine power alone. Again and again, he had upheld the faith of the Nine Heavens.
Then the kings of the Foreign Realm descended, their might surging to the heavens, and Lin Yue was ruthlessly suppressed. They had thought the Nine Heavens would perish then and there, but heaven never barred every path. He had escaped through a stroke of fortune. Yet that had drawn even more kings to pursue him.
The cultivators of the Nine Heavens had thought Lin Yue would vanish forever. After all, the Foreign Realm was well versed in encircling and killing its foes. Most kings of the Nine Heavens had fallen that way.
They had never expected Lin Yue to return in overwhelming might from the Boundary Sea years later, marking his return with the domineering spectacle of an Immortal King's death and the extinction of his Dao.
Although the surviving cultivators of the Nine Heavens in Great Red Heaven slept within Lin Yue's body, they could sense everything he did, for their primordial spirits perceived it from within him.
Then Lin Yue once again drew the kings of the Foreign Realm to surround and kill him. When they sensed him being suppressed and his primordial spirit destroyed, their primordial spirits shed tears of blood and wailed in grief. The Nine Heavens had finally produced a king, only for him to be surrounded and killed again. They hated their own helplessness, their inability to offer even the slightest aid. At that moment, they wished to die in Lin Yue's place, exchanging their lives to bring back the faith of the Nine Heavens.
Then they sensed the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit's arrival and found a little hope again. Their king even slowly climbed to his feet just as the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit was about to be suppressed.
At that moment, although they still slept, their primordial spirits fully awakened from slumber and cheered. They did not know why, nor did they want to know. They needed only to know that their king had not fallen never to rise again, like the kings of ancient history. After standing, he had even slaughtered the kings of the Foreign Realm, sending those insufferably arrogant Immortal Kings fleeing for their lives.
Throughout the ages, few had survived being surrounded and attacked by kings. Even mighty figures such as Lord Wuzhong and Lord Reincarnation had been surrounded and killed.
Today, the wheels of history veered from their course.
Lin Yue's flesh had attained the Dao. Defying heaven, he had slaughtered the Immortal Kings of the Foreign Realm and looked down upon heaven, earth, and the eight wildernesses. The kings of the Foreign Realm fled like mice before a cat. It was so dreamlike and unreal that, for a time, they thought it an illusion.
They no longer wanted to tend their wounds. They wanted only to leave his internal Divine Universes as soon as possible and pay homage to their king.
After slaughtering the Immortal Kings of the Foreign Realm, Lin Yue had actually stopped attacking. His enormous body returned directly to the original pit and lay down, eyes closed in repose, utterly motionless, like an object.
They thought their king was injured and were deeply worried.
Willow Deity had slowly approached Lin Yue's side. Her peerlessly graceful figure stood beside him, and as she looked at this young man with his invincible flesh, she did not know what to say!
Then Willow Deity sat cross-legged and began recovering from her injuries as well. Her wounds were truly too severe. Back then, in her fury, she had stormed into the Foreign Realm alone. That she had emerged alive truly owed something to luck.
After that battle, she had been gravely wounded and near death. She had even begun searching for a place to heal and undergo Nirvana anew. Yet through the leaf from her previous Nirvana, she had mysteriously sensed that a young man like Lin Yue was in danger. She had come directly, suppressing her injuries, and another bloody battle had compounded them.
No one knew how much time passed-a year, ten years, or longer still. Group after group of cultivators awakened and were transported out of Lin Yue's body. No one made a sound. Many even knelt on the ground and refused to rise, until eventually everyone was kneeling. Even the Heavenly Horned Ant siblings were transported out of his internal Divine Universes.
Over these years, the few remaining pieces of Great Red Heaven's territory slowly drew together from every direction. After all, Lin Yue himself was like a great world. Centered upon him, terrifying gravity drew the land toward him, gathering it once more into a new continent. Bones lay in heaps, blood flowed in rivers, and the corpses of cultivators from the Nine Heavens and the Foreign Realm were piled together. The sight was staggering.
Ordinarily, even the bravest would have felt their legs weaken. But they had grown numb, their bodily instincts allowing them to ignore the blood!
The earth was stained black. The ground, once covered in Immortal King blood and radiating golden light, was now buried beneath the blood of beings below the king realm. This was king's blood. It was impossible to imagine how many living beings' blood it had taken to cover and suppress the divine might of an Immortal King's blood.
Looking at Willow Deity before them and Lin Yue's towering Dharma Form, plain and unadorned as a mountain, the cultivators of the Nine Heavens all prostrated themselves. Even the surviving forces of the two lineages from the Immortal Domain that had participated in the battle knelt!
They said nothing and simply remained kneeling. There were no cheers, either, because their king had not yet spoken.
As long as their king did not speak, they would remain kneeling. Even though they had achieved the greatest victory in all the ages, they would not cheer until their king took up the banner of victory and waved it.
Because to them, their king mattered most!
Company after company began returning from the other scattered Ancient Worlds, each voluntarily coming to pay homage to their king! After an unknown stretch of time, Willow Deity suddenly rose. She looked across all of Great Red Heaven, then at the army of the Nine Heavens!
"Look! The Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit has awakened!"
"Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit, are you all right?"
"Wonderful! The Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit has finally awakened. Our king should awaken soon too, shouldn't he?"
In an instant, everyone began asking Willow Deity questions.
"May the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit be well! How is our king?"
The speaker was an elderly man, very advanced in years, who had returned from another Ancient World. He was also a supreme being at the peak of the Human Dao Domain. Beneath the Dao rhythms emanating around Lin Yue's Dharma Form, his wounds had completely healed, and he had even advanced further. Had Lin Yue been awake, he would certainly have recognized this old man named Feng Yi.
After greeting Willow Deity, he directly asked the question whose answer everyone wanted to know. It was far too important.
They were more concerned about their own king than Willow Deity. It was not disrespect toward her. Rather, compared with Lin Yue, Willow Deity was too transcendent and detached, as though untouched by the smoke and fire of mortal life! Their feelings toward her resembled ordinary people's reverence for a deity.
Lin Yue, however, had been like a bright lamp from the moment he began to rise, bringing hope again and again through the dark, silent years of the Nine Heavens. Everyone present had fought shoulder to shoulder with him for hundreds or thousands of years. He was their spiritual pillar, their faith.
After the Immortal Kings of the Nine Heavens died, the throne stood empty. They had long awaited a king of their own, and Lin Yue had fulfilled their hopes. With incomparable might, he had slaughtered kings and ascended the throne of the Nine Heavens, bringing victory. To them, no one could replace him now.
In an instant, no one even dared breathe loudly. They feared hearing bad news!
"I have never seen anything like this either!"
Willow Deity's ethereal voice rang out!
At those words, everyone nearly burst into tears. Willow Deity spoke again!
"Do not worry. His flesh has attained the Dao and cannot be destroyed by myriad tribulations. One day, he will return! As long as you believe he will return, he certainly will."
Everyone looked at one another. Their king's primordial spirit had already been destroyed, yet he had acted on instinct and then slaughtered the kings of the Foreign Realm. Was such a thing truly possible? One by one, they stared wide-eyed at the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit.
Yet the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit said their king would return one day. It sounded like a fantastical tale! But they could not help believing it, because their king had indeed moved earlier and slaughtered Immortal Kings of the Foreign Realm!
They did not know what to do next!
"Sacrificial Spirit, are you leaving?"
Willow Deity looked at Lin Yue's enormous Dharma Form, then at the army of the Nine Heavens!
"Take this victory home. It is the greatest victory in all the ages!"
After Willow Deity finished speaking, ripples spread around her. She stepped into the void and vanished. Her injuries were too severe to recover in such a short time. She had to undergo Nirvana again!
"My two lords! What should we do next?"
Before you continue