While Emperor Venerable was tearing into Annihilation Heavenly Venerable, Longevity Heavenly Venerable and Carefree Heavenly Venerate quickly joined forces and forcibly opened another passage.
They did not dare waste a single minute. In an instant, their figures vanished from the Road to Immortality.
As they traveled through the boundless chaos, Longevity Heavenly Venerable and Carefree Heavenly Venerate also felt their divine senses being severely disrupted.
By the time their five senses returned, they had already rushed out of the Road to Immortality.
Although they had escaped with their lives, they felt not the slightest joy. Instead, their hearts had turned ice-cold.
A powerhouse like Emperor Venerable had become so terrifying, as though a strange evil spirit had taken root inside him. They did not know whether he would unleash mountains of corpses and seas of blood upon this world.
In a daze, they seemed to see boundless darkness enveloping the world, heaven and earth dyed blood-red, a true landscape of corpse mountains and blood seas.
It was as though a terrifying monster had awakened.
Longevity Heavenly Venerable and Carefree Heavenly Venerate agreed that, whenever they went to see Emperor Venerable or he summoned them in the future, at least two of them would go together. They could never give Emperor Venerable the chance to pick them off one by one.
The two of them had witnessed Emperor Venerable's corruption with their own eyes, and that monster was so powerful. If he really came to settle accounts with them, they truly had little confidence.
After they came out, the two immediately went to contact the other Dark Supremes, their hearts heavy with worry.
Emperor Venerable was feasting, tearing chunks from Annihilation Heavenly Venerable's legs and crunching them down raw. All the while, he urged Annihilation Heavenly Venerable to hurry up and repair his body, so as not to delay his meal.
Annihilation Heavenly Venerable had been eaten until only his head remained. Emperor Venerable was just about to crunch it down and swallow him whole when he suddenly shuddered.
The surrounding chaos abruptly boiled, endless killing intent surging through it until the chaos itself was filled with murderous intent.
Heaven and earth suddenly turned blood-red.
The Kunlun Immortal Bell floated in the chaos, now entirely blood-red, the result of several Dark Supremes performing a blood sacrifice together.
Countless densely packed, mysterious Great Dao Runes covered the Kunlun Immortal Bell. A peculiar Immortal Dao presence circulated across it, flowing with immortal radiance.
That terrifying Immortal Dao presence made Emperor Venerable's heart pound in alarm.
By comparison, although Emperor Venerable's Immortal Ascension Cauldron was also an immortal artifact, it seemed inferior to both the Desolate Pagoda and the Kunlun Immortal Bell.
"Kunlun Immortal Bell!"
Looking at the Kunlun Immortal Bell, which he had sought for years without finding, Emperor Venerable showed excitement on his face.
He had long wanted to obtain this Immortal Bell, but even after conquering Mount Kunlun, he had not seen it.
He had not expected it to appear before him now.
Behind the Kunlun Immortal Bell stood six astonishing figures, their presences vast and boundless. They were clearly six Dark Supremes.
"Emperor Venerable, you dared attack Kunlun, our clan's sacred land. We will not rest until one side is dead," the Dark Supremes said in icy voices.
"Emperor Venerable, today is the day you die!"
All six Dark Supremes came from the Kunlun Immortal Clan.
Emperor Venerable stood with his hands behind his back. Although he still gave off a faint, strange dark presence, he had already become much more normal.
"So it's you pieces of trash from Mount Kunlun. I looked for you for a long time, but never found you."
"You really are a pack of dogs who've lost their homes, a bunch of trash," Emperor Venerable said mercilessly.
The Dark Supremes who had come here were not incarnations. All of them had come in their true bodies.
The six Dark Supremes of the Kunlun clan came from different races: Huashe, Taowu, Taotie, Qiongqi, Hundun, and Kui Ox.
They knew how powerful Emperor Venerable was and that none of them could match him one-on-one, so they attacked together without hesitation.
The Kunlun Immortal Bell shook violently, annihilating vast swathes of chaos, and the bodies of four Dark Supremes also became clear.
Had they not encountered Emperor Venerable, the Kunlun clan's foundations might not have let them sweep across the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, but they could easily have built a vast organization like the Heavenly Court.
Kunlun had been so prosperous in those days. It possessed several Extreme Dao Weapons as well as the Kunlun Immortal Bell, an immortal artifact, and its might could be said to have shaken the entire universe.
But ever since Emperor Venerable appeared, and especially after he broke into Mount Kunlun's secret realm, numerous powerhouses had fled in panic, and they had utterly lost face.
"Excellent. The Kunlun Immortal Bell is mine," Emperor Venerable said calmly.
"How laughable. He actually says the Kunlun Immortal Bell is his."
"Arrogant Emperor Venerable, your time has come."
Every one of these Dark Supremes born on Mount Kunlun had once shaken the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands with their might.
Ever since Emperor Venerable conquered Mount Kunlun, their Kunlun Remnant Clan had been in decline. How could they swallow that insult?
"You want our Kunlun Immortal Bell? We want your Immortal Ascension Cauldron too."
"Everyone, attack together. Once Emperor Venerable is dead, we'll split his Immortal Ascension Cauldron equally."
"What wishful thinking," Emperor Venerable said with a cold snort.
To nurture the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains back then, Emperor Venerable had turned who knew how many Ancient Life Stars into ordinary planets, reducing them to deserts. His heart had long since become as firm as iron.
He felt not the slightest guilt over razing Kunlun. All he had was the pursuit of the Great Dao.
Facing six Dark Supremes wielding the Kunlun Immortal Bell, Emperor Venerable remained full of confidence.
Rumble!
Killing intent lurked all around the Kunlun Immortal Bell, nearly clearing away all the chaos in this place.
Xiao Ping'an held the white bone saber and supported the Bronze Immortal Palace with one hand as he continued toward the depths of the chaos.
Thud! It was as though something else terrifying had collided with something.
Countless densely packed Immortal Dao runes covered heaven and earth. Besides those of the white bone saber and the Bronze Immortal Palace, a third kind of Immortal Dao rune lit up in dense ranks.
"This is... the Desolate Pagoda..."
Xiao Ping'an was startled. The Desolate Pagoda had appeared only briefly before, and although he had continually tried to follow it, he had never found its whereabouts.
He had not expected the Desolate Pagoda to seemingly be here.
There was an imprint here that belonged solely to the Desolate Pagoda.
After Xiao Ping'an's white bone saber touched the Desolate Pagoda's imprint, the pagoda seemed to awaken at once.
The Desolate Pagoda flew out of the chaos, turned into a streak of light, and vanished in a flash.
Xiao Ping'an did not even have time to pursue it.
Xiao Ping'an had not expected to encounter the Desolate Pagoda here after finding the Bronze Immortal Palace.
At that thought, Xiao Ping'an could not help growing curious. Could the Kunlun Immortal Bell also be hidden on the Road to Immortality?
Although the Kunlun Immortal Bell was said to have an owner, it had actually remained hidden in Mount Kunlun all along. Some said it had been born from Mount Kunlun, while others said it had fallen from the Immortal Domain and was merely recovering from its injuries on Mount Kunlun.
The Kunlun clan had always regarded it as their treasure, but in truth, the Kunlun Immortal Bell's weapon spirit came and went as it pleased. They had no ability to control the bell at all.
For example, when Emperor Venerable attacked Kunlun back then, the Kunlun Immortal Bell had slipped away ahead of time.
If it had used even a little of its power, it would have given Emperor Venerable plenty of trouble, since the Immortal Ascension Cauldron had not yet become an immortal artifact. Like the Bronze Immortal Palace, the Desolate Pagoda currently had no owner, and the Bronze Immortal Palace now belonged to Xiao Ping'an.
That meant the Desolate Pagoda was almost the only ownerless immortal artifact left.
Xiao Ping'an also remembered that the Ruthless Great Emperor seemed to have an immortal sword in her possession, another immortal artifact.
There seemed to be no records of that immortal sword at present, and Xiao Ping'an strongly suspected that it too had fallen from the Immortal Domain.
By rights, the Desolate Pagoda's weapon deity should at least have the strength of a Heavenly Emperor-level powerhouse.
But for some reason, whenever anyone pursued it, it fled like a startled rabbit.
This was already the second time the Desolate Pagoda had escaped before Xiao Ping'an's eyes.
Xiao Ping'an broke the Desolate Pagoda's seal and gave chase.
The endless chaos immediately concealed every trace of the Desolate Pagoda's presence.
Green light from the Bronze Immortal Palace danced across the sky, while the scarlet light emitted by the white bone saber resembled the rosy glow of dawn. The divine light of the Great Dao danced everywhere, furiously carving a path through the chaos as Xiao Ping'an pursued the pagoda.
Since the Desolate Pagoda was also an immortal artifact, Xiao Ping'an found it hard to lock onto its exact location.
Watching the Desolate Pagoda fly toward the depths of the Road to Immortality, Xiao Ping'an could not help frowning after pursuing it for a long time.
The world within the Road to Immortality was actually extremely vast, not the narrow passage people imagined.
It was just like the Cosmic Frontier, where the chaos sea was nearly endless.
Only because Xiao Ping'an was strong enough did he not worry about losing his way in this chaos sea.
But chasing the Desolate Pagoda through the chaos sea was like fishing a needle from the ocean. It was truly difficult.
If he could catch up to it, the Bronze Immortal Palace and white bone saber should have been enough to suppress it.
After all, Xiao Ping'an had already lived a third life. He believed he was no weaker than the Azure Emperor of later ages, and even far stronger.
Since the Azure Emperor had been able to suppress the Desolate Pagoda's weapon deity, Xiao Ping'an should theoretically have been able to do the same.
Rumble!
As Xiao Ping'an pursued it, an earth-shaking crash came from ahead.
A tremendously vast rift in spacetime had appeared in the chaos, giving off terrifying power.
Spacetime there was in utter disorder. Even Xiao Ping'an, severing time with one hand and space with the other, could barely protect himself.
Trying to catch the Desolate Pagoda was like standing on shore and watching a whale swim through the sea. The danger was not the fish, but the boundless ocean.
Xiao Ping'an watched the space rift, vast as an ocean and black as ink, slowly close after the Desolate Pagoda rushed inside.
Xiao Ping'an could not help feeling a pang of regret. It was like the time he had found a big fish by the river and thought he could catch it with one easy grab, only for it to flip over and escape right before his eyes.
That big fish had weighed at least twelve jin. Whenever he remembered it, his heart ached. Even after he grew up, he still remembered that fish.
Seeing that the Desolate Pagoda would rather plunge into a spacetime rift than follow him, Xiao Ping'an felt somewhat disappointed.
But Xiao Ping'an soon adjusted his outlook. He already had two immortal artifacts, far more than anyone else.
Moreover, the weapon with which he had proven his Dao would surely become a new immortal artifact as his cultivation grew.
At that thought, he felt that the Desolate Pagoda was nothing special after all.
"Desolate Pagoda, what's so great about you? The Desolate Heavenly Emperor didn't even take you with him when he entered the Immortal Domain. You're a piece of trash he cast aside," Xiao Ping'an shouted at the nearly closed spacetime rift.
Rumble!
Nine-colored light shone on the other side, seemingly in response to Xiao Ping'an.
And just like that, the Desolate Pagoda escaped.
The nine-colored light it emitted erased every trace it had left, making it hard to deduce where it had gone.
Xiao Ping'an turned and left without the slightest hesitation.
Then he continued wandering through the chaos, looking to see whether there were any other treasures.
One day, he suddenly discovered another terrifying rift in the chaos. At the same time, the chirping cry of a phoenix rang out, and a strange fragrance wafted into his nose.
Xiao Ping'an looked up and saw an incomparably deep rift in the sky ahead.
Countless streams of Northern Pole Immortal Light cascaded from it like waterfalls.
The Great Dao laws of the two worlds collided there, causing an earth-shaking explosion.
Brilliant divine light surged, while the Great Dao laws from the Immortal Domain and the presence of the Immortal Domain spread in every direction.
Xiao Ping'an was greatly shocked as he looked at the rift leading to the Immortal Domain ahead.
Although he was powerful, he did not dare take a rash risk in the face of the collision between the Great Dao rules of two worlds.
If he rushed into that rift to the Immortal Domain now, he would most likely be crushed by the Great Dao rules of both worlds at once and reduced to dust.
In theory, since matter from the Immortal Domain could pour through this suddenly appearing rift, matter from this side should also have been able to pass over there.
But in reality, that was not the case.
The Immortal Domain was a higher-level world. Upon entering it, one would face terrifyingly powerful suppression from its Great Dao rules.
The conversion of the Great Dao rules within one's body also took a long time. During that conversion, the rift might close before it could be completed.
One would inevitably be trapped between advancing and retreating, dying with one's Dao extinguished.
No wonder True Immortals had descended into this world. These mysteriously appearing rifts to the Immortal Domain really did allow so much matter to pour into this world.
Every Road to Immortality was a place where a rift to the Immortal Domain was most likely to appear.
Light flickered in Xiao Ping'an's eyes as he stared intently at the Northern Pole Immortal Light and the endless chaos, hoping to find something.
Just then, a dazzling blaze flew out of the immortal spiritual Qi.
It was an incomparably brilliant phoenix, its entire body ablaze with raging flames.
Five-colored light flickered across its body, and its chirping cry was wonderfully clear. It also gave off a strange fragrance.
"Is that the Undying Heavenly Emperor?" Xiao Ping'an was extremely excited. He had long wanted to catch the Undying Heavenly Emperor.
"No, something's wrong. This enticing fragrance definitely can't be immortal spiritual Qi. This is the presence of longevity..."
"This is the legendary Divine Phoenix Immortal Medicine!"
Xiao Ping'an was certain that it was definitely not the Undying Heavenly Emperor, but the Divine Phoenix Immortal Medicine.
He immediately piloted the Bronze Immortal Palace toward it.
With a sweep of his great hand, he grabbed the little bird wreathed in five-colored flames.
"I caught it!" Xiao Ping'an shouted excitedly.
(End of chapter)