The Gap Between Extreme Dao Experts

"Become an immortal? A lifetime of seeking, all in vain!"

Yuangeng's words drew a faint, bitter smile from the Qilin Emperor. Becoming an immortal sounded easy, but only a Dao Prover knew how heavily those words weighed. Even invincible throughout the universe, even after a lifetime of searching, he could see not the slightest hope.

The Qilin Emperor, for instance, had been just over a thousand years old when he proved his Dao. Before then, he had been majestic and spirited. Though enemies filled the road ahead and wounds were inevitable, he had firmly believed in his invincible path. With a Qilin Staff in hand, he could sweep aside every prodigy.

But after he proved his Dao, everything seemed to change.

The bearer of the heavenly heart imprint was the undisputed protagonist of an era, but ultimately, he was only its protagonist for twenty or thirty thousand years.

During the first ten thousand years of his life, the Qilin Emperor had never considered himself ordinary. The feeling of reigning over the universe was truly intoxicating. The Myriad Races revered him as their emperor, his own race worshipped him as their ancestor, and every secret and taboo in this universe lay exposed before him, opening itself to him.

The Qilin Emperor had been so confident then. Even after proving his Dao, he could feel himself improving every day. His Dao laws grew stronger by the day, his blood and vital energy steadily increased, and his invincible arts became ever more complete...

The young Qilin Emperor had often thought that talent like his was unique throughout history. Surpassing the Ancient Heavenly Venerables of the Mythological Era and standing shoulder to shoulder with the god of the Myriad Races in the future had hardly seemed difficult.

As for those Self-Slashed Supremes in the Life Forbidden Zones who had abandoned the dignity of a Dao Prover for longevity?

Nothing but a pack of mediocre failures!

Yet as the years passed, and his second life gradually approached old age, the Qilin Emperor finally discovered that he seemed little different from those mediocre fellows.

When old age arrived after more than ten thousand years, the Qilin Emperor discovered that he could not live a second life through his own power. He had no choice but to rely on the Immortal Medicine. Even then, he had felt disappointed. He seemed no different in essence from those Ancient Emperors.

Then his second life lasted another ten thousand years and more. The Qilin Emperor had achieved modest success in both his longevity arts and his immortality arts, yet still made no great breakthrough. Neither confident of forcing his way through the Road to Immortality nor capable of living a third life, he could only watch helplessly as his second life approached its end.

Now, although the Qilin Emperor still had at least two or three thousand years of Flawless Emperor Lifespan remaining, he seemed already to see himself decrepit with age, powerless to reverse his fate.

Becoming an immortal was hard!

"Become an immortal."

Yuangeng rested a hand on the Qilin Emperor's shoulder and repeated those words. His voice held none of the Qilin Emperor's heaviness, as though he were speaking of something perfectly ordinary, calm and matter-of-fact.

The next instant, Heaven and Earth around them overturned, and space and time reversed. In a single moment, they left the Qilin Ancestral Star and arrived at the Supreme Battlefield on the Other Shore of the starry sky.

In the Qilin Emperor's eyes, Yuangeng's aura had grown unfathomable without his noticing. With a sweep of his hand, Yuangeng dragged the Qilin Emperor into an Unknown World. Above the firmament, an immense black sun shed Dao light, shrouding him completely in bone-piercing cold, silence, and death.

"You should know that having no opponents is a cruel thing. Becoming an immortal is indeed difficult. Building a carriage behind closed doors is never going to take you far."

As he looked around, Yuangeng's figure had already merged into the darkness. Only his voice remained, seemingly issuing from the Netherworld Burial Soil, terrifyingly cold.

"Little fellow, let me see your strength!"

Absolute lunar essence laws enveloped the Qilin Emperor. Even united with the heavenly heart imprint, even after nearly twenty thousand years immersed in the imperial realm, he could not escape that intense sense of danger.

"Roar!"

The terrifying pressure forced an instinctive roar from the Qilin Emperor. Ten thousand Daos exploded, heavenly flames scattered, and an Azure Great Qilin towering between heaven and earth rose from the ground. Supreme imperial Dao laws surged, forcibly tearing open that dark world and breaking free.

At the same time, an azure ray of immortal light hurtled in from the edge of the universe. It was the Eternal Blue Gold Qilin Staff. It merged into the great qilin's brow, making his aura utterly whole and flawless.

"Not bad!"

The great qilin looked back. From the darkness-shrouded void behind him came Yuangeng's voice. Then a pitch-black hand reached out, lunar essence Dao laws surging as it manifested the ultimate deathly stillness and struck at the great qilin!

This was no immortal art, but a move Yuangeng had comprehended while studying that realm's origin in the Burial Domain.

The great qilin, spanning ten thousand li, vanished in an instant and returned to the Qilin Emperor's form. His gray-white hair turned entirely azure as he forcibly raised himself to his prime. He lifted the Eternal Blue Gold Qilin Staff high and smashed it against that pitch-black hand.

Clang!

The clash of metal shook the entire Supreme Battlefield. The qilin's origin fire collided furiously with the black light of lunar essence before both exploded. The pitch-black hand and the Qilin Staff were hurled backward at the same time.

"Cough!"

Steadying himself, the Qilin Emperor flushed and abruptly coughed up a mouthful of emperor's blood. The crimson blood froze and shattered in midair. Clearly, the Qilin Emperor had suffered a small loss in their first exchange.

Yet not a trace of dejection showed on the old emperor's face. Facing the formidable enemy before him, he felt his heart pounding wildly and pain coursing throughout his body. His hot blood boiled with a fervor he had not felt in years.

"Again!"

He held the Eternal Blue Gold Staff across his body and actually strode toward the dark void where Yuangeng stood. Such was the spirit of an invincible man: fearless before mighty enemies, seeking life in the jaws of death.

"Caw!"

This time, a towering immortal bird sprang from the darkness wreathed in lunar essence mists. Its entire body was pitch-black, its wings blotted out the sky, and its three feet obscured the sun. Its two silver eyes resembled bright moons hanging high above, while the markings on its back looked like a cassia tree reaching into the heavens.

This was a Lunar Essence Immortal Crow, a manifestation Yuangeng had refined by practicing the Heaven-Covering Immortal-Burning Art in reverse.

The moment the immortal crow appeared, pitch-black lunar essence Dao fire ignited across his lush wings. With a beat of those wings, the Dao fire instantly swallowed the entire region around the Qilin Emperor.

"Roar!"

Facing such an opponent, the Qilin Emperor refused to yield an inch. He swept the Eternal Blue Gold Staff in his hand, forcibly dispersing the pitch-black Dao fire with the mighty power of the heavenly heart imprint. Then he leaped, once again assuming a Qilin Method manifestation ten thousand li long, and raised his hoofed claws to trample the immortal crow.

"Caw!"

The pitch-black crow cried out, transforming in an instant into a black sun that thundered toward the Qilin Emperor.

Once again, the Qilin Emperor took the initiative to meet him. This time, however, ripples of the Great Dao flowed across the towering Qilin Method manifestation. In addition to his original Qilin horns, another pair of enormous, winding horns grew out, turning the Blue Qilin into a four-horned form. His aura bore fifty or sixty percent of the resemblance to Yuangeng's master's Four-Horned Qilin Aspect.

He truly deserved to be the reigning emperor. Though he had seen the Ink Qilin manifestation for only a moment, he had already imitated a rudimentary version of its method.

But it was useless.

Standing deep within the lunar essence mists, Yuangeng revealed a faint smile. In the distance, the Lunar Essence Immortal Crow spread his wings, his three feet treading upon the sun, and bore down on the Azure Great Qilin with relentless force.

A long while later.

"Huff! Huf-

f!"

Leaning on the Eternal Blue Gold Staff, the Qilin Emperor barely managed to stand on the Supreme Battlefield. He could not stop himself from gasping for breath. Across the Cosmic Frontier, countless stars were extinguished by him, transforming into vast quantities of vital energy that poured into his body through his mouth and nose.

To drive the reigning emperor to this state with a single Dao body-the Qilin Emperor could scarcely imagine Yuangeng's strength. This ancient being was far too astonishing. Both the resources he commanded and his power defied all reason.

Yet although the Qilin Emperor had been thoroughly suppressed in this battle, his gains were equally immense. After nearly twenty thousand years of building a carriage behind closed doors, this was his first all-out clash with a cultivator at the same level. As their paths corroborated one another, he suddenly felt that the road of cultivation ahead had grown considerably brighter.

"I told you before: becoming an immortal is difficult, and building a carriage behind closed doors is doomed to fail. After this battle, fellow Daoist, you must have recognized the gap between Extreme Dao experts."

The dense lunar essence mists dispersed, and Yuangeng came to the Qilin Emperor's side. With both hands clasped behind his back, he showed none of the exhaustion of someone who had just fought a great battle. Instead, he looked perfectly calm and composed.

Thump!

As his words fell, Yuangeng's brow shone, and densely packed supreme runes emerged. The runes interwove and combined, tracing out a vast array of characters in the void. Each was profound and abstruse, pointing directly to the origin of the Great Dao.

Then Yuangeng reached into the starry sky. He bound a river of stars with his power and forcibly refined it into a Star Stele half a person's height, fusing it with those abstruse characters of the immortal ancient script.

"This is..."

The Qilin Emperor frowned. The characters on that Star Stele did not belong to their era. Like individual True Immortals, some sat, some reclined, some raged, and some seethed. They were even more abstruse than the language of the Mythological Era, their Dao mysteries profound and extraordinary.

"The Immortal Ancient Pact."

Yuangeng was brief and to the point.

"I need companions on this path. Swear upon your primordial spirit and seal the pact with blood, and you will be one of us."