Abandoning your long-range artifacts? Clever. Wu Yuan thought, realizing their intentions. If they had hesitated to recall their artifacts for defense, he would have slaughtered them all with his divine sword of Space. They had no choice but to act quickly or face certain death.
Even so, can you block me? Wu Yuan shook his head slightly, giving a mental command. A hundred thousand li away, the sword array assembled into a single entity once more, striking out once again from a higher spatial dimension. This time, the attack was launched from a thousand li away.
Spatial Rift! Wu Yuan’s gaze turned cold as he applied the profundities of the Spatial Rift technique.
Whoosh! The sword cleaved through space itself, leaving behind a black fissure that seemed to split heaven and earth asunder as it hurtled toward the three Earth Immortals.
Though the sword array he cultivated wasn’t too powerful, Wu Yuan’s mastery of the Law of Space had reached an extremely high level. Relying solely on his Dao comprehension to activate it, the sword’s might was already immense. His understanding of the Law of Space rivaled that of a Seventh Tribulation Archimmortal.
The combined power of a hundred high-grade spirion artifacts under his control was no weaker than that of a typical High Immortal’s artifact, perhaps even stronger. In terms of raw attack power, Wu Yuan’s qi refiner self’s mana body was nearly on par with a Fourth Tribulation High Immortal.
“This is bad.”
“Block it!” The faces of the three Earth Immortals paled. Their strongest artifacts had been temporarily abandoned, and there wasn’t enough time to unleash powerful arcane arts. Desperation fueled their efforts as they joined forces to resist.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Six consecutive collisions rang out as the divine sword swept through their defenses with unstoppable momentum, as sharp as a needle piercing tofu.
The defensive artifacts of the three Earth Immortals shattered under the sword’s onslaught, and their bodies followed suit.
All were slain; none escaped.
Kill! With another mental command, the divine sword of Space howled as it tore through tens of thousands of li, streaking like lightning towards the Scimitar Divine Beast and the two Earth Deities.
In that moment, panic set in among the remaining five Earth Immortals and two Earth Deities. They had all witnessed Wu Yuan’s terrifying strength and realized he was the greatest obstacle in this mission. In a head-on clash, their chances of victory were slim.
“Flee.”
“Quick, retreat!” The Scimitar Divine Beast and the two Earth Deities instantly decided to escape. A failed mission was just a failed mission. If their mana bodies were to perish, the loss would be far too great.
The divine sword of Space tore through the sky, blasting one of the Earth Deities backward. Another sword stroke followed, ripping the deity apart.
The separate parts of the Earth Deity’s body frantically gathered in an attempt to reassemble. But at that moment, chains appeared in the air, wrapping around the scattered body parts and preventing them from rejoining.
The Earth Deity’s vital ether rapidly depleted. When the ether was exhausted, death would follow.
“Please have mercy!” the Earth Deity pleaded desperately.
“Is it truly necessary to go this far?” the Scimitar Divine Beast growled anxiously, swinging its claws to fend off the repeated strikes of the divine sword. But with Metal Devil launching frenzied attacks from the side, the divine beast’s speed was greatly hindered, making escape nearly impossible.
“Spare us!” The other Earth Deity likewise struggled desperately against the onslaught of several chains.
“It’s just a spacetime mission, after all. We’re willing to hand over half of our artifacts. What do you say?” the Scimitar Divine Beast transmitted again.
“We want all of them,” Wu Yuan’s voice was cold and detached as dozens more spirion flying swords materialized at his side.
Sword qi billowed out, enveloping an area of hundreds of thousands of li. The sheer might of this domain surpassed even that of Purple Secret’s. Utter despair engulfed the Scimitar Divine Beast and the two Earth Deities. They saw no hope of escape.
“Fine.”
“We’ll hand over all our treasures. Just let us leave.” The Scimitar Divine Beast transmitted repeatedly. “But you must swear a spacetime oath.”
“You have no choice,” Wu Yuan barked, his assault growing even more ferocious.
Another strike flashed by, suddenly severing one of the divine beast’s limbs. The beast stumbled, nearly losing its footing in the air.
“Alright! Alright! We agree,” transmitted the silver-haired youth, the commander of the divine beast array. “We’ll deactivate the array now. You mustn’t kill us.”
“Rest assured,” said Purple Secret.
“We understand the rules,” Metal Devil growled. “But don’t try any tricks.”
Under the pressure of the sword array, the Scimitar Divine Beast vanished, and five streaks of light flew out.
The two Earth Deities, one with greatly diminished vital aura and the other on the brink of death, stood fearfully in place.
Meanwhile, Wu Yuan, Metal Devil, and Purple Secret also ceased their attacks. However, they did not put away their artifacts. They maintained their battle stances, ready to strike at any moment.
“Fellow Daoists, you’re truly ruthless,” the silver-haired youth said with a bitter smile, his gaze falling on Wu Yuan. “Especially you, Fellow Daoist. Despite your overwhelming strength, you waited until the very end to act, and then slaughtered five Earth Immortals’ mana bodies in an instant.”
While destroying a mana body wouldn’t cause the true self to perish, the loss was still immense. Though everyone who came to the Spacetime Dao Realm was a genius, not everyone was as wealthy as Wu Yuan. Most could only afford to use the Immortal Life Pill once or twice.
“This is a confrontation mission, yet you speak of ruthlessness? Weren’t you also aiming to kill from the start?” Wu Yuan spoke calmly. “Hand over all your treasures, and you’ll be allowed to leave. But if I sense you’re hiding anything, don’t blame us for what happens next.”
This was an unspoken rule in spacetime missions. If imprint bearers from opposing teams had no deep-seated grudges, when one side was utterly cornered, they would usually choose to surrender and hand over all their treasures.
For the victors, pursuing total annihilation would only breed enmity, with no other benefits. Thus, over time, this unspoken rule had formed.
“Of course. At this point, we won’t try any tricks,” the silver-haired youth shook his head resignedly, turning to his six teammates. “Let’s hand over the treasures. At least we can preserve the lives of our mana bodies.”
Under Wu Yuan’s intimidating pressure, the four Earth Immortals and two Earth Deities nodded obediently. By now, they were all terrified of Wu Yuan.
Swiftly, the five Earth Immortals and two Earth Deities handed over a large number of artifacts, primarily high-grade spirion artifacts and storage artifacts. There was only one piece of low-grade celestial equipment.
This was typical. For short-term missions like this, they wouldn’t carry too many powerful artifacts.
“Farewell, everyone,” the silver-haired youth, now clad only in robes formed from artifacts, cupped his hands. He led the Earth Immortals and Earth Deities away in retreat.
The sky regained its calm.
We’ve held our ground. Wu Yuan smiled faintly, his gaze sweeping across the distant void. With a thought, waves of spatial fluctuations descended. He swiftly gathered all the artifacts from the five Earth Immortals he had slain earlier.
“Daoist Ming Jian, I’m impressed,” Metal Devil said in a deep voice.
“Incredible,” Purple Secret sighed sincerely, her gaze towards Wu Yuan now different.
At the start of the mission, they had been somewhat worried Wu Yuan might hold them back, as having a big reputation didn’t necessarily mean possessing great strength. But after this battle, they truly witnessed Wu Yuan’s terrifying power.
“Daoist Ming Jian,” Purple Secret suddenly spoke up, “Have you mastered Space True Intent?”
“Space True Intent? Is that for real?” Metal Devil was stunned.
“Yes,” Wu Yuan hesitated briefly before nodding. There was no need to hide it. The other imprint bearers weren’t fools; after several more spacetime missions, they would naturally come to learn of this. Purple Secret, with her deep comprehension of the Law of Space, could clearly discern it.
“It’s truly Space True Intent?” A flash of shock crossed Purple Secret’s eyes.
“Space True Intent? An Earth Immortal mastering Space True Intent?” Metal Devil looked at Wu Yuan with utter astonishment.
Wu Yuan understood why they were so shocked. An Earth Immortal like Senior Brother Chang Hong comprehending an Intermediate Law to the Dao Field stage—equivalent to a Seventh Tribulation Archimmortal’s Dao comprehension—was already considered top-tier among Earth Immortals.
While Space True Intent seemed equivalent to the Seventh Tribulation Archimmortal-level, the difficulty of comprehending the Law of Space was far greater. Few could achieve it.
“Truly amazing!” Purple Secret marveled, “A friend from the Taiyuan lineage told me that you’ve only been cultivating for a few hundred years, Daoist Ming Jian. No wonder you were granted a Dao Master Imprint.”
“Only cultivated for a few hundred years?” Metal Devil was even more shocked. He prided himself on his extraordinary talent, but it had taken him thousands of years to reach his current level of power. Compared to Wu Yuan, he was trash!
“Haha, no need to dwell on such things,” Wu Yuan laughed. “Fellow Daoists, let’s divide these spoils of war first.
I’ll take these two low-grade celestial artifacts. You can split the rest of the artifacts between you. How’s that?” Wu Yuan proposed.
“Sure.”
“No problem.” Metal Devil and Purple Secret had no objections. Although the remaining equipment consisted only of spirion artifacts, when added up, each person’s share was equivalent to hundreds of divine crystals. It wasn’t a small amount.
Moreover, they had primarily relied on Wu Yuan to win the battle. Without him, forget about getting any spoils—they might have failed the spacetime mission and even lost their mana bodies.
The three quickly divided up their spoils.
“Next, we wait for a day to pass, then kill Earth Immortal Yin Yan,” Wu Yuan transmitted his voice to Metal Devil and Purple Secret.
“Mm.”
“One Yin Yan is nothing to worry about. We just need to make sure he doesn’t escape,” Purple Secret transmitted.
“With Daoist Ming Jian here, he won’t get away,” Metal Devil said with a chuckle. Clearly, he had great confidence in Wu Yuan.
Wu Yuan, Metal Devil, and Purple Secret swiftly returned to the core space of the ruined planet, which wasn’t affected much by the battle.
“You won so quickly?” Earth Immortal Yin Yan seemed overjoyed. “Thank you for your help, my three Daoist friends. Yin Yan is deeply grateful.”
However, in his heart, Yin Yan felt a trace of dissatisfaction, grumbling to himself. With such strength, why did they wait until the enemies had destroyed most of my planet’s arrays before taking action?
Imprint bearers? Protecting me? Hmph! They probably have ulterior motives.