“What should we do? At this rate, the resources we have to use to maintain the array is becoming too much,” said the Origin Rune Palace’s Insurgent representative.
“What other choice do we have? If we stop now, then only death and destruction await us,” replied Headmaster Song Li, stating the Academy’s stance on the issue.
“This level of attack could only be the result of an Immortal Sovereign. Are they willing to go this far to stop us?” asked Jian Yi of the Sword Casting Villa.
“Apparently, so.”
“The issue is whether we should counter-attack?” asked someone from the Dao Worshipping Academy.
“Before an Immortal Sovereign, that would be suicide,” commented the Taiyi Profound Gate. “The best course of action is to have people controlling the array to increase its defensive power. As long as we last a few hundred thousand years until the Heaven Will Battle, everything should be fine.”
“Indeed, this is the best option in the current situation.”
“Luckily, we activated the Protective Array in time. Otherwise, the result might have been catastrophic.”
Everyone gave Origin One a glance, thankful someone in this generation was wise enough to predict this possible future and prepared beforehand. Simultaneously, these people were envious that it was not their Heaven Chosen who had this level of foresight; they even wished it was someone from the older generation who had this idea instead of Wang Wei.
“I’m curious who is responsible for this attack?”
“Probably a collection of worlds. However, there is definitely someone who leads the fray.”
“That’s not important for now, and we can search for the culprit later on.”
“True.”
“Origin, you’ve been very quiet. Is something in your mind.”
“Something on my mind,” reassured Origin One. “But you don’t have to worry about the situation: we will take care of it.”
“And exactly will you accomplish this?” Emperor Lineages with six or above Emperors suddenly shift their focus on the Dao Opening Sect. They sensed that something that would further affect the world’s power balance was about to happen.
“It’s best to show you.” Origin One changed the array to display the image outside of the plane in the void. Initially, he pondered whether to use this opportunity to get some benefit from these people. However, considering the need to keep the peace and stability, he chose otherwise. The purpose of this meeting is a demonstration of the Dao Opening Sect’s strength and further reinforce the status quo.
In the Image Displaying Array, everybody saw a man dressed in black bombarding the Protection Array with potent attacks. Oddly, no one could see what the person looked like.
Suddenly, the man stopped attacking as a glorious and brilliant sword light came out of nowhere and enveloped him. He reacted swiftly, and with one step, he evaded the attack.
A woman with a silver mask appeared before him, holding two swords.
“Impossible,” said the black-robed man.
“Surprise, little rat,” said Sword One.
“You did not have this power a while ago. So how come? Unless–” Elder He seemed to have thought something. “I guess I should have expected this from the Dao Opening Sect.”
“You know a lot about us? Yet, you are a mystery. If you dare commit the crime, have the balls to admit it,” sneered Sword One.
“Junior, there is such thing as manners and custom. Shouldn’t your demeanor reflects your position?”
“Don’t you see the irony in lecturing me about respect and manner when you’re too ashamed to even show your identity?”
“It’s not the same,” replied Elder He.
Sword One suddenly moved and appeared before her opponent, slashing downward with her right sword. It was a simple move but contained the profound mystery of the sword that would grant any talented swordsman a chance at enlightenment.
The Sword cut through Elder He’s body but did not cut him. Instead, he turned into a gas cloud before rematerializing a hundred meters.
[Heavenly Dark Flame]
Ten dark flame balls appeared before them, each the size of a star. Furthermore, each of these flames could annihilate an Eternal Emperor if they were not careful.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Sword One cut them with her two swords, but these flame balls transformed into humongous dragons to continue attacking her. She swung her sword to generate a tornado of sword energy, disintegrating the flame into tiny particles.
And with incredible speed, she followed with another attack, not giving her opponent. Sword One turned into a silver streak, traveling at a speed too many times faster than infinite.
She appeared in front of Elder He as if she had teleported before slashing down. Elder He calmly summoned a shield, and the sword cut through it as if it was tofu. However, when the shield broke, it released a repulsive force that sent Sword One flying away–albeit uninjured.
“You indeed have the power of an Eternal,” commented Elder He. “However, you are not as difficult an opponent as any of them.”
He had experience fighting other Eternal Emperors and even killed one. Of course, he had to use the help of Dao Will Artifacts to accomplice such a feat. As such, he knew how disgusting it was fighting Eternal Emperors.
Their Dao Will boosted their power and prevented healing. They had terrible regenerative capabilities, making them an even more nuisance. However, Sword One did not have these abilities–only the strength.
“So what? I’m still enough to stop you.”
Elder He shook his head with great disappointment; his emotions were not directed toward Sword One but himself. His power was severely limited in the lower dimension. Once he summoned strength above a certain threshold, he would find himself in a quagmire-like feeling where it was extremely challenging to mobilize his Immortal Qi.
If he ignored that feeling and continued to mobilize his strength, he would receive a terrible warning in his mind, and he knew the consequences of disobeying that warning.
‘Only if I could use Energy Dominance,’ thought Elder He. In the upper dimension, Immortal Sovereigns can use a method called Energy Dominance, where they release all the Qi inside their bodies to the surroundings to essentially form a domain.
Inside the domain, their control of Energy is elevated to a higher level, allowing them to better utilize the energy inside their bodies and the one between Heaven and Earth. This method is a way to elevate their power, but it has the side-effect of suppressing lower Tier individuals.
The domain has little to no effect on Dao Rulers and Empyreans, but it is a significant suppression for a Great Emperor or Eternal. With this method, Immortal Sovereign can kill most Eternal Emperors and even Eternal Supreme with relative ease.
Unfortunately, they cannot do so in the lower dimension.
“Enough playing around,” said Elder He. “I’ll show you my power.”
[World Displacement]
Sword One’s face under the mask suddenly changed as hundreds of thousands of space channels appeared around her, with each one having a world coming from them. She did not care about these worlds but their identity: they were the Great Thousand Worlds of this community.
“You want to destroy our World Community?”
“Me? I”m not doing anything but simply moving these planes. You cannot blame this karma on me.” Elder He’s action is ‘only to move these worlds into her direction,’ essentially using this technicality and a Karma Protection Artifact to bypass the rules and regulations.
“You want to be serious? I’ll be serious,” she exclaimed with gritted teeth. The aura of Sword Dao flashed around her body as she gently moved her wrist to swing the sword; her actions were gentle and barely perceivable.
Then, Elder He sensed something directly inside his body, to be precise, his Immortal Mansion. A powerful Sword Will suddenly manifested inside his dantian, trying to annihilate his Immortal Mansion and destroy his cultivation. He did not sense any warning or anomaly; the attack bypassed his passive defense.
‘Since when did her Dao become so complex and subtle?’
Elder He knew of Sword One’s Target Dao. It’s a Sword Dao that involves the concept of hitting the target with the sword. Before a sword can use Sword Slashes, they have to class head-on with its opponents to cut or stab them. However, their attack is not guaranteed to reach the enemy, so Sword One practices Target Dao, which guarantees she would hit the opponent. She later developed her Sword Dao to ignore distance and defense, targeting whatever she desires–including concepts.
Elder He mobilized a significant quantity of his Immortal Qi to defend against such a direct attack. Meanwhile, Sword One took the opportunity to control the Protective Array to boost her strength.
She acted swiftly while her opponent was distracted. She sent all the 100,000s Great Thousand World back to their coordinate, perfectly intact, without any loss or anyone dying.
Then, she targeted Elder He’s head to cut it off.
“What a shame,” she muttered as she saw she only left a scar of blood on his cheek, which healed after a few seconds.
“It seems I underestimate you,” commented Elder He. “Consider this your victory.”
Sword One watched him disappear with squinted eyes. Then, she waved her hand to collect something and returned home.