"Very good, brat. You've succeeded in enraging me." The great cultivator of the Gu Clan rose into the air, his face shifting between light and shadow.
His battered body restored itself in an exceedingly strange manner. Even the hole through his chest vanished, as though time itself had reversed.
"Die!" he roared.
"Time flies like a shuttle, and the years become swords! Sever the years of life, steal away your allotted span one sword at a time!"
His smile was icy. Dense light of time shone from his right hand, which he swept sharply toward He Xian. That power of time transformed into boundless sword light, filling every corner of the battlefield.
This was the Gu Clan's Severing Time.
The massive swords of time resembled the King of Hell's life-reaping brushes. Each could make a being in the prime of life vanish like a shooting star. Vast beyond measure and stretching without end, they seethed with murderous intent that made the myriad Daos of all the heavens tremble!
Time was king; space reigned supreme.
These were two particularly unanswerable Daos.
Yet the Gu Clan possessed both. This was the foundation of their heaven-defying power.
"Hahaha! This is exactly what I wanted from you!" He Xian laughed.
"Strike across the divide, defy those above! My fate is mine, not heaven's!" Golden symbols streamed from his entire body, no longer unfolding as golden light. This was his Dao, his foundation. With the Indestructible Scripture as its basis, it distilled the mundane into simplicity. As the saying went, one Dao arose, and myriad Daos evolved. Body cultivators had been extraordinarily powerful since ancient times.
He swung his world-shaking fists, unleashing rumbling tremors as though overturning an entire great world.
Mountains crumbled and the earth split, seas dried and rocks decayed. Beneath those terrifying fists, everything would be destroyed, and nothing would remain. The void became black holes, and chaotic light erupted, as though heaven and earth were being born!
Dense, imperishable golden light spread like mist. He Xian broke Dao through sheer strength.
"What a pity! Brat, you truly are a freak of nature. Even I can barely bear to snuff you out." Regret surfaced in the great Gu Clan cultivator's eyes. He truly intended to kill now.
Under ordinary circumstances, he would have had many reservations and would not have dared strike to kill. But this was a battle for rankings, a struggle over fortune and Dao lineages. Time and fate had decreed it.
No one would know he had snuffed out a prodigy of an Emperor Clan.
"If only you were a child of my clan! These swords strike at the primordial spirit. You cannot block them." The great Gu Clan cultivator's gaze was frigid.
Great cultivators like him, only one step from becoming a Supreme, usually had steadfast Dao hearts. Once they decided something, they would not easily change their minds.
His attack was a killing blow from the outset.
Even a great cultivator of an Emperor Clan at his level would have to brace for this strike. It was a killing blow on the level of an Emperor Clan.
Rumble!
In a flash, a sword of time met He Xian's fist and passed straight through him, leaving his flesh unharmed.
The Gu Clan cultivator likewise remained unharmed. He Xian's full-force strike seemed to have hit nothing but air.
A tremendous, muffled thunderclap sounded, leaving emptiness before him.
"How is that possible?" The great Gu Clan cultivator's face filled with astonishment.
"You have a long-lost Primordial Divine Artifact protecting you?!"
He Xian did not answer. Instead, he lunged forward.
He unleashed a relentless assault, golden light surging with every strike as chaos churned. One true spirit after another burst from his hands. No one at his level could withstand an onslaught like this.
"How exhilarating!" He Xian fought with sweeping, unrestrained movements and threw back his head in a long howl.
He truly fought to his heart's content.
He had also gained a spark of enlightenment. His path was about to emerge. The great Gu Clan cultivator's swords, which struck at the primordial spirit, had inspired him!
What would happen if the primordial spirit and flesh were completely fused? The weakness of body cultivators lay in their frail primordial spirits.
It was a bold idea.
If he could pioneer it, he would truly have the confidence to contend with the Desolate Heaven Emperor.
Become the progenitor of all body cultivators in the world?
"How dare you!" He really was treating him like a whetstone! He belonged to an Emperor Clan. Defying those above him-was this brat lost in some beautiful dream?
Opposite him, the great Gu Clan cultivator flew into an utter rage. He mustered two hundred percent of his essence, energy, and spirit, attacking with all his strength and throwing caution to the winds. Disregarding his dignity, he channeled time and space through both hands, seeking to end the battle and kill his opponent as quickly as possible.
That was the best way to preserve his pride.
Rumble!
In an instant, two supreme Great Daos swept through the eight wildernesses, flattened the six directions, and pierced the depths of the underworld and the azure heavens!
Time and space became one. Who in the world could rival them?
"Sublimate to the utmost and strike against those above! Only a victory like this is worthy of being sung from my lips."
He Xian erupted with all his strength and stopped thinking about anything else. Bringing this great battle to a perfect close was what he most needed to consider now.
Boundless light burst from his body. All his profundities manifested at that moment, and a majestic, gigantic furnace appeared before him.
"Heaven Devourer! Suppress!"
This was the supreme Ancestral Art he had created from the Red King Lineage after earning a place on the golden rankings. It already possessed seven-tenths of the original's essence, and its ferocious might overshadowed the world!
There were no words, only the unceasing sounds of slaughter.
"Break!" The great Gu Clan cultivator once again invoked the power of Severing Void.
With a sweep through the void, waves rose across ten thousand miles, becoming torrents of spatial force that shredded everything. A crashing roar rang out like collapsing mountains and roaring tidal waves, like a hundred thousand ancient stars plummeting. All their radiance gathered together.
He Xian's Heaven Devourer Furnace shuddered violently.
Then fine cracks spread across its surface, and it slowly crumbled.
Crack!
It shattered, and He Xian was hurled away with it. Huge wounds split his body, hideous and terrifying, bleeding without cease.
"Cough, cough! Is the gap in combat strength really that great?" He coughed up blood. Once his opponent stopped underestimating him, he indeed could no longer gain the upper hand.
"No! Today, I will defy those above me and proclaim my name beneath the heavens!" He Xian let out a long howl. He was going to use a forbidden secret art.
It was like Chi Menghong's Red King Incense, which granted the blessing of an ancient Sacrificial Great World once lit.
It came from Kundi's lineage.
It was the first forbidden secret art he had learned!
"Three Bodies, Three Lives! All heavens dissolve into illusion; only my body remains!"
He Xian's body abruptly grew towering, as though bearing the Dao fruits of three lives and making him invincible in this one. His entire body was covered in laws of the Great Dao, beyond words and impossible to describe.
A long, shimmering river descended from infinite heights, spanning past, present, and future. Every wave that rose was an epoch.
Two similar figures strode toward him from its upper and lower reaches, like two heavenly emperors whose heavenly might overshadowed the world, imperishable through myriad tribulations.
In that instant, both time and space fell silent.
The great Gu Clan cultivator's expression changed several times.
"Three lives as one!" At that moment, He Xian truly possessed world-surpassing divine might.
He roared. "Good! Good!" He felt incomparably good at that moment, with tremendous power surging alongside him.
At that moment, he almost felt he had touched the domain of a Supreme.
"What if I'm a whole major realm below you? I do not speak recklessly. I shall reign supreme in this world. Even if an Undying King began a second life, I would slaughter him like a pig or sheep in a battle at the same level!" He Xian's eyes shone with unparalleled brilliance. His conviction of invincibility erupted fully within his heart.
He feared no one anymore. Even if he fought the Desolate Heaven Emperor at the same level, he would die without regret.
"Be defeated! Become an ornament on my glorious path!"