This time, Lu Yun made a perfect swing embodying the greatest simplicity of dao!
It came across as unassuming and powerless, as crude as a forester chopping wood. If that were the case, however, then everything in the world would be his firewood!
All of his internal energy was focused on the axe, leaving him drained and exhausted. He was expending energy far too quickly for the recovery pills burning in hell to replenish.
Bam!
A blow from the enormous, clumsy black axe flung the four hairy monsters away despite their three-hundred-meter tall bodies. Lu Yun sagged weakly on the ground as well.
“The ultimate simplicity of dao originates from the dao weapon, rather than being a realm the hairy monsters have reached!” Lu Yun stared at the black axe in his hand, his chest heaving violently. It’d taken all the pills he had in hell, and a hundred breaths, for him to recover fully.
“My strength is only enough for a single swing!” He rose into the air with the greataxe. “Once I ascend to the void realm and become one with the world, I’ll be able to tap into the endless supply of energy from the land and make these swings one after another!”
The four hairy monsters were void realm cultivators, which was why they could wield the dao weapons without resting.
“I thought you’d reached the peak of ultimate dao and became unrivaled among your peers, but you’re just relying on the weapons!” A scoff tugged at Lu Yun’s lips.
To find simplicity in dao was a terrifyingly tremendous height to reach. Returning complicated combat arts and techniques to their purest origins and following the original trajectory of the dao would allow one to strike down anything in the world. Lu Yun couldn’t reach that height yet, even with the help of the Tome of Life and Death. It would be mind blowing if the hairy monsters could do that.
Howling, the four monsters brutally came at Lu Yun with their axes.
Hum.
Violetgrave manifested and shielded Lu Yun with a tidal wave of sword energy, like the stars guarding the moon.
Clang!
A piercing sword hum rang throughout the vicinity. This time, he seized the initiative rather than waiting for them to approach. Vast Dragon Seaturner and Peng of Kun slashed at two of the hairy monsters from tricky angles.
Lu Yun had attacked with the dao weapon before, so he knew how to disrupt the simplicity of ultimate dao. Although the four monsters were void realm cultivators, they possessed a grave weakness: they could only attack with their axes!
“Rooooaar!” Growling, one of the hairy monsters swung its axe awkwardly to meet the cerulean dragon. However, Lu Yun had sent it in such an unorthodox manner that the monster had to change the way it swung its axe, thus disrupting that marvelous trajectory.
Bam!
Another enormous monster hurtled backward, black blood splattering everywhere. Meanwhile, the first monster didn’t face the cerulean dragon head-on, but twisted its body to dodge the slash instead. However, the sword energy still left an ugly wound on its body.
“Stop!”
Lu Yun ignored the other monsters and targeted the one that’d been thrown off its feet. It was severely injured, with a large gash running from its shoulder to its lower abdomen, almost bisected by Lu Yun’s attack. Lu Yun slashed at its right arm—the hand holding a black greataxe—with Violetgrave.
“No!!” The other three monsters panicked. Lu Yun had already gotten one dao weapon, he mustn’t get his hand on another!
“Stop him!” they spoke in a clunky language as they sprang at Lu Yun.
“And here I thought you were actually strong. You’re nothing but trash that relies on your weapons.” Lu Yun cut through the monster’s right arm with a single slash before the other three could reach him.
Thud!
Another dao weapon fell into his hand. Sword energy flared into the air and formed a sparkling stream of stars, cutting the monster into pieces.
“We need to leave!” The other three monsters immediately retreated toward the four blood-stained paths.
“Stop them!” Qing Han suddenly yelled, “if you let them go, cultivators will have to face them when ascending to the void realm! You must kill them, Lu Yun, and destroy the four bloodied paths!” He was too weak to move at the moment. All of his strength had been drained by the Dao Flower. “Without destroying the paths, there will be more hairy monsters like them!”
“Got it!” Qing Han’s words prompted Lu Yun to act and he quickly rushed after the three monsters in a flash of light.
The assembled crowd shuddered when they heard Qing Han. If Lu Yun didn’t kill the monsters and destroy the paths, all of them would have to face those terrible monsters themselves when they ascended to the void realm. They’d all seen what the creatures were capable of; one of them had killed an immortal with an offhanded swing!
It was only a true immortal, but to regular cultivators, true immortals were superiors they could never rival. Since the monsters could kill immortals, cultivators wouldn’t stand a chance against them upon setting foot in the void realm!
“The path of cultivation was severed, and those monsters appeared when it was restored. Did past celestial emperors and peak dao immortals face similar monsters when they attempted to ascend to that fabled realm?” The question suddenly came to everyone.
It’d been a hundred thousand years since the ancient war of immortals. Since then, no immortals or divines from this world or any other had ascended beyond dao immortal realm. All celestial emperors who attempted the breakthrough died a terrible death, with no exception.
Qing Han's words had revealed an ugly, bloody truth. The celestial emperors had been killed by hairy monsters that were more powerful than these ones!
“If Lu Yun fails to kill them, the path of cultivation will remain severed,” someone muttered. “Worse, we won’t be able to even become immortals....”
“No, we just can’t enter the void realm. We can still skip it and become immortals that way.”
“Hopefully he’ll succeed in killing the monsters and shattering those paths!”
……
“Kill!” Lu Yun growled as he made three three sword strokes.
Vast Dragon Seaturner!
Peng of Kun!
Starstream Stroke!
Three enormous sword shadows simultaneously reached the three monsters with the goal of causing certain death.
“Roaaaar!!” The long-haired monsters snarled and whirled around, swinging their weapons to meet Lu Yun’s three slashes. With the trajectory of the ultimate dao disrupted, they could only rely on their own strength.
Quickly covered in open wounds and dyed crimson with blood, they would’ve died from the sally if it weren’t for their weapons protecting them.
“Again!!” Lu Yun thoroughly let loose and unleashed both Violetgrave and the Sugato Sword. A giant pagoda soared into the sky and exploded with hundreds of millions of strands of sword energy, enveloping all of Dusk City in an ocean of sword qi.
“Down!!” He shifted targets to the four paths, instead of the three monsters. As long as the paths remained, there’d be more of them. Thus, higher priority should be assigned to the paths!
Bam!
Vast Dragon Seaturner, Peng of Kun, and Starstream Stroke slammed into the bloodied paths, severing the monsters’ escape routes.
Great rumbles rang through the world. Lu Yun’s chest heaved violently as blood streaked down his chin, injured by the recoil from the three paths. They trembled uncontrollably and began to crack.
The three monsters visibly despaired. Paths dyed red by the blood of generations of geniuses of all worlds were falling apart.
“Break!!” growled Lu Yun as he sent out three more sword shadows with a brilliant flare from Violetgrave and the Sugato Sword.
“Grrrraw!!” The three monsters lost their minds and attacked Lu Yun’s strokes with reckless abandon.
The paths were supreme treasures that even celestial emperors would have trouble destroying. However, as the guardian of the Dao Flower, Lu Yun and his attacks were imbued with its power.
That was enough to destroy the paths.
“Die!!” Lu Yun’s eyes widened and blazed with hellfire; the Tome of Life and Death bursting into a black haze as well. Wreathed in a cacophony of wails from vicious ghosts and the pained cries of immortals and gods, layers of chilling wind whipped up around him. Both were then suppressed by the multicolored glow radiating from the six paths of his nascent spirit. They, too, circulated madly in his Purple Manor.
“Hell....” The three hairy monsters stared at Lu Yun’s nascent spirit with deep despair. “Hell has been restored....”
Boom!
Imbued with the power of the Dao Flower and hellfire, three sword shadows rammed into the three blood-stained paths. The earth shook and skies trembled; it seemed the very world would deteriorate!
All three paths shattered and vanished into thin air, and it seemed like some sort of road to this world was severed. The three hairy monsters disintegrated as well.
“Lu Yun!!” Qing Han shouted. “There’s another path!”
Lu Yun spun around to face the fourth white path. Something at the end of the path was chanting an ancient litany to retrieve it. It blurred, and the portal leading to this dimension began closing.
“Gahhhhh!” Lu Yun slashed out another stroke.
Bam!
In his exhaustion, the slash only managed to shake the path. The Sugato Sword and Violetgrave clattered to the ground. Lu Yun looked on with angry frustration, but he was bleeding out of every pore and all his meridians and bones cracked. He couldn’t move a muscle; there was nothing more he could do.
The white path blurred and gradually vanished, and wretchedness settled heavily on everyone’s heart. They’d failed. It had all been for nothing.
If the fourth path was retrieved, it would descend again when a cultivator was ascending to the void realm!
Lu Yun had been able to destroy the other three paths only with the power of the Dao Flower. Next time, even he, Qing Han, Wu Tulong, Mo Qitian, and Zi Chen together wouldn’t be able to even shake the path!
The void realm had been restored, but no one would be able to survive it.
“Kekekeke…” a peal of sinister cackling traveled from the faint shadow of the path and reverberated in everyone's hearts—chilling, malicious, and hateful.
Clang!
Suddenly, a penetrating sword hum whistled through the sky. An enormous sword shadow with a vast presence and great power descended from the sky to slam into the white path.
Rumble!
That slash... destroyed the last path.
On the border of Dusk Province, a figure cast a cool glance at the capital before disappearing.