The participants could see two spheres wrestling in the sky: one white-grey and the other golden. Their clashes spent powerful shockwaves throughout the entire Small World where the trial took place, forcing everyone to generate shields to protect themselves.
On each side of a sphere, Chu Luo and Shi Ruolan looked at each other. The clash of their Domains was to determine who had absolute control over the environment and whose Domain would give the most significant boosts.
At first, the two spheres appeared equal, but after a few minutes of confrontation, the white area began to overwhelm the others. Shi Ruolan gritted her teeth as she mobilized her spiritual strength, Qi, and law to help sustain her Domain.
Unfortunately, since Chu Luo outclassed her in the Law department, his Domain was the victor. As such, he took over three-quarters of the sky and left the rest for Shi Ruolan to barely defend herself.
Creation Domain: Myriad Dao Blade Work
Chu Luo waved his hand, and millions of swords appeared in his Domain. They were many swords with different attributes: Flame Sword, Thunder Sword, Sword of Death, Sword of Time, Sword of Karma, etc. He created each sword with a different attribute before dropping them on his opponent.
Shi Ruolan’s face changed as she reacted.
[Dragon Protection]
Countless dragons appeared in her Domain, covering her. Unfortunately, the swords destroyed anything that stood in their way. Some dragons were burned, some aged and died, and some underwent Samsara; they died in diverse ways, but they all still died.
So, Shi Ruolan acted to increase her power.
[Myriad Race Protection]
She summoned not only dragons but races like phoenixes, rocs, and other demonic races.
Pewsh!
A sword pierced her shoulder before igniting into a red flame. She could even sense the flame was using her Karmic Sin as fuel. Shi Ruolan hurriedly used the technique [Sovereign’s Pride].
As a Sovereign, she would never apologize for her actions–no matter how atrocious; her pride transcended karma. As a Sovereign, karma did not affect her. Shi Ruolan created this technique to deal with Karma-based attacks.
The flame extinguished, and she mobilized her blood energy to heal the damage. At the same time, she also focused on the swords that seemed infinite.
[World’s Protection
As a ruler above the mundane and extraordinary, all sentient beings worshipped and strived to protect her, as such, it is their duty to protect her.
A glass bead the size of a football field appeared in Shi Ruolan’s Domain; it was an entire world at least the size of a few billion galaxies. The glass bead blocked 90% of the upcoming swords while Shi Ruolan punched the others with her fleshly body. Then, she went on the offensive.
Boom!
[Sovereign’s Fury]
With one punch, a terrifying pressure emanated from her. Then, the golden side of Domain suddenly turned darker as clouds manifested before dropping lightning bolts on Chu Luo; it was as if the Heavens itself was angry and wanted to punish.
‘A Sovereign’s fury eclipses the Heaven,’ thought Chu Luo before sneering. He waved his hand to create a round shield with a black tortoise engraving. The shield then released a force field that protected its creator and the Domain.
Chu Luo then created another sword: a Space-Time Sword. The sword pierced the marble, creating cracks before exploding. Although it appeared as if it was just an ordinary marble destroyed, the participants could see an entire world in shamble.
The sword generated a powerful wave of space-time energy that tore apart the entire world inside the marble. Then, the sword headed toward Shi Ruolan, who tried to evade.
In her Domain, Shi Ruolan is a god and can bend reality at will. So, she should be able to teleport anywhere her Domain touched. Unfortunately, she could not outrun space and time–at least not the one Chu Luo controls.
Subsequently, Shi Ruolan dodged the sword, which cut off her right hand. What’s more, the cut-off arm instantly aged before disappearing. She then felt a Will preventing her healing capabilities.
‘7th stage Duyi Realm? Luckily, it appears his application of it is lacking.’
The Duyi Realm is somewhat rare in the lower dimension but not so much in the upper dimension as there is more knowledge and even classification. There are 9 stages, each increasing strength and the ten percent probability of casting the Dao Will.
Moreover, the higher the stage, the more powerful Dao Will a Great Emperor can cast.
The stages can be increased through repeated training or by making more than one cultivation stage unique.
Shi Ruolan only had a 5th Stage Duyi Realm. Nevertheless, she had more knowledge and control of it than Chu Luo. So, he removed the latter’s power before focusing on the spatial-temporal energy remaining on her body that was trying to age the rest of her body.
Shi Ruolan gritted her teeth to create a few more World Marbles to prevent her opponent from taking advantage of her weakness. Her face turned pale in the process, but she gritted her teeth.
Then, she mobilized one aspect of her Sovereign Dao: Control. She used the Law of Control to control the energy in her body and remove it. She wanted to control and use it for her own use. Unfortunately, this power had Chu Luo’s imprint, and she could not control it unless she overpowered him.
The rings behind Shi Ruolan shone as her blood energy activated, instantly growing another arm.
Meanwhile, Chu Luo watched as his swords destroyed world after world.
‘Let’s end this,’ he thought.
“What is a sovereign without its people–its citizen–to rule over,” Chu Luo said as he created an ordinary sword. As soon as the sword appeared, everyone could feel it was the embodiment of the people’s wish, of their desire to reject the power of any ruler.
Then, the sword–which embodied rejection of monarchy and rebellion–flew toward Shi Ruolan, making her face change. She knew she would lose if that attack hit, as it was the antithesis of her Dao.
So, she activated the Court Corruption Spell to affect Chu Luo’s Laws. And for a moment, it worked. His Domain shook, and it appeared it would shrink. However, Chu Luo reacted in time by creating a pen full of Righteous Qi; he used the power of righteousness to counter Shu Ruolan’s corruption.
The People Sword easily pierced through all of Shi Ruolan’s techniques before stopping an inch before her throat. She looked at me with gritted teeth without saying anything. Then, the sword moved slightly, drawing blood from her neck.
“Fine, I lose.”
Crack!
Shi Ruolan heard a sword indicating her Invincible Heart was shattered. Her mighty and invincible aura rapidly declined. She looked directly into Chu Luo’s eyes and muttered: “So, this is my path forward. Find a way to be both a Sovereign of the People and an independent Sovereign not bound by Heaven and Earth.”
Shi Ruolan entered a brief state of enlightenment, and her aura sublimated. Upon completion, she sensed her path of achieving 5-Leaf Immortal Venerable was not far.
Wang Wei watched the battle with great concentration. He watched every move Chu Luo made, storing the latter’s understanding and control of Creation Dao for later in his cultivation journey. He knew he would not have to worry much about his breakthrough in the Empyrean Realm after this battle.
Wang Wei also paid attention to Shi Ruolan. Her Emperor Bone’s ability reminded him of Di Tian’s Pseudo-Domain. The main difference was Di Tian could bring people on the same to the same realm as him. The weakness is that realm was not the same as the strength.
Most Heaven Chosen could fight above their realms. So, reducing their realms could indeed drastically increase them. However, Shi Ruolan’s ability will bring them the same strength–meaning stats like Qi, fleshly body, spiritual strength, etc.
The only thing she could not reduce was a person’s control or understanding of laws. She can control the level of destruction their technique or Laws could make (4-Leaf), but not the subtle or ingenious applications; this is why she lost this battle.
Another difference between these two techniques was that Di Tian’s Domain could be avoided, nullified, or countered. However, Shi Ruolan’s ability seemed to involve Order Power back by the power of a Great Emperor.
So, unless a mortal has the strength of a Great Emperor, they cannot nullify her ability. The only way to defeat Shi Ruolan is to beat her in the same realm.
‘I could probably use my Order-Disorder Law to recreate their ability,’ thought Wang Wei. Of course, he knew his method would, at best, be on the same level as Di Tian’s; he could never reach Shi Ruolan’s level unless he had reached the Tenth Extremity Foundation.
But at that point, he has the strength of a Great Emperor. Why would he need to use this technique?
‘No, it can be useful. If the technique could work on a Great Emperor, I could lower their cultivation realm to the same as me and easily defeat them.’
If he had the Ten Extremity Foundation and lowed a Third-Class Emperor’s realm to the Quasi-Emperor Realm, he would easily slaughter the latter.
Wang Wei mentally shook his head as he realized such a technique was too impractical given all the requirements to be useful.