“BOOM—CRACK!!!”
A bolt of thunder unlike any before shot skyward from the crown of his head!
This thunder was no longer simply white or purple, but displayed a chaotic hue. Within it was both the destructive power of heavenly lightning punishment and a trace of the fortune and vitality that nourished all things!
This was precisely the Chaotic Divine Thunder born after he had comprehended his true self and preliminarily harmonized the “good” and “evil” within him!
Chaotic Divine Thunder was supremely firm and yang, and contained the profundity of the cycle of life and death. It was the bane of all yin evils and inner demons!
As the lightning shone everywhere, the Shadow Heart Domain enveloping him was like ice and snow cast into a blazing sun. It let out shrill screams as it rapidly melted and receded!
Hidden within the shadows, Youyan let out a pained hiss. He felt as though his very origin had been placed beneath the thunder to be scorched!
“Impossible! Your state of mind… actually sublimated in the midst of battle?!”
Youyan found it impossible to believe.
“Heart demons? Beneath my righteous thunder law, all are mere illusions!”
The Thunder Emperor’s voice was like a great bell, his gaze as firm as a boulder.
He raised his hand and grasped at the air. The Chaotic Divine Thunder condensed in his hand into a Dao sword of lightning!
“Slash!”
The Dao sword swept out. It did not point toward Youyan’s illusory shadow body, but followed the omnipresent power of the heart demon and slashed directly toward his core consciousness!
This sword contained the Dao of self he had comprehended, representing heavenly punishment and new life!
“No—!”
Youyan let out one final, despairing shriek. His shadow body twisted and contracted violently within the chaotic lightning, and in the end, with a bang, it completely exploded.
It transformed into countless strands of pure dark divine will power, which were immediately purified into nothing by the supremely yang thunder!
The Shadow Heart Domain completely dissipated.
The Thunder Emperor stood alone on the battlefield. The chaotic lightning around him slowly withdrew, yet his aura was even vaster and more majestic than before.
Though he had not formally broken through, anyone could sense that the barrier to the Immortal King realm was now as thin as window paper to him! He had successfully severed his inner demon in battle and clarified his own Dao!
The third battle: Primordial Ancient Realm, Thunder Emperor, victory!
Three battles, three victories!
The alliance of the Immortal Realm and the Ancient Realm had crushed the three quasi-Immortal Kings carefully selected by the Foreign Realm with absolute superiority!
Above the Imperial City, cheers thundered, and morale soared to its peak!
As for the Foreign Realm’s camp, it was deathly silent.
The faces of the four great Immortal Kings were so gloomy they seemed about to drip water.
The power of time around Chi King raged violently; he was almost unable to restrain himself from acting personally.
Wushang stopped him and slowly shook his head. Bound by the Great Dao oath, they could not make a move.
Kundi took a deep look toward the Immortal Realm’s side, especially at the ever-calm Good Corpse incarnation, and at the depths of the Golden Crow clan territory, where the aura had grown ever more unfathomable.
The star prayer beads in his hand stopped turning.
“Leave.”
Under the leadership of the four great Immortal Kings, the Foreign Realm’s army carried with it clouds of defeat and humiliation as it slowly retreated toward the mist of the Realm Sea.
That oppressive silence was even more unsettling than the murderous tension from before, like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
Just as the Foreign Realm’s vanguard was about to sink into the mist, and giants such as Chi King and Wushang were preparing to tear open the void and depart—
“Wait.”
A calm yet unquestionable voice, like the decree of the Great Dao itself, instantly spread throughout the Realm Sea, freezing the surging waves and stopping the footsteps of every living being of the Foreign Realm.
The source of the voice was not the Imperial City, but the Good Corpse incarnation who had been standing there quietly all along, holding the Glazed Heart Lamp.
At some point, he had soundlessly appeared directly in front of the Foreign Realm army’s path of retreat, blocking their way home.
His face was still compassionate, his aura peaceful, but what flowed within those eyes was the same supreme majesty as the original body.
“Donghuang! What do you intend to do?!”
Chi King abruptly turned around. Chaotic currents of time surged violently around him, and his blood-moon-like eyes stared fixedly at the Good Corpse incarnation. His suppressed fury was almost about to break through the restraints of the Great Dao oath.
“The Great Dao oath has been established, and victory and defeat have been decided. Do you still intend to violate the oath and provoke a battle of kings?!”
Wushang, Pu Demon King, and Blade King also turned around at the same time. Four terrifying pressures belonging to giants descended upon that seemingly slender Good Corpse incarnation like four invisible demonic mountains!
Space groaned under the burden, as if it might completely collapse at any moment.
Facing the wrathful pressure of the four great Immortal Kings, the peaceful Dao rhythm around the Good Corpse incarnation was like a spring breeze brushing over hard ice, silently dissolving it.
The Glazed Heart Lamp in his hand brightened slightly, illuminating a region of the void, untouched by all laws.
“The oath only restricts kings from attacking juniors. Since when did it stipulate that you may come and go as you please?” the Good Corpse incarnation said calmly, yet with a forcefulness that seemed only natural. “You came with great fanfare, and now return defeated. How could it be so easy? Do you take the borders of my Immortal Realm for a training ground where you may come when you wish and leave when you like?”
Kundi finally raised the face hidden beneath dark runes ever so slightly, his voice hoarse and cold. “Donghuang, do not push others too far. Do you truly think that with a single incarnation, you can keep us here?”
“Keep you here? Perhaps I cannot.” The Good Corpse incarnation smiled faintly, yet that smile made the kings of the Foreign Realm feel a chill in their hearts. “But making you leave behind a little ‘something’ is not difficult.”
Before his words had even faded, the entire atmosphere of the Realm Sea suddenly became incomparably heavy!
Chapter One: Time and Space Stagnate, One Thought Halts Ten Thousand Armies
The Good Corpse incarnation said no more. He slowly raised his left hand—not to attack, but to press lightly toward the void in front of the Foreign Realm army.
“Still.”
His word became law!
It was not a powerful impact of energy, but a binding force originating from the source of the Great Dao!
With his palm as the center, invisible ripples spread outward. At that moment, time and space seemed to freeze!
The rolling waves of the Realm Sea solidified in midair. The pervasive dark matter stopped squirming. Even the propagation of light and sound became exceedingly slow!
The dark army of the Foreign Realm charging at the very front, whether powerful immortals or ferocious skeletal behemoths, all maintained the actions of the previous instant and stood rigidly in place, like mosquitoes trapped in amber!
This was not mere suppression by strength, but absolute control over rules!
It was a deeper understanding and application of the laws of time and space derived from chaos after the method of “severing the Three Corpses” clarified the self and harmonized yin and yang!
The faces of the four great Immortal Kings changed drastically!
They themselves were unaffected, but the countless millions of troops under their command had actually been frozen in place by a single word from the other party’s incarnation! What kind of cultivation was this?!
“Break!” Chi King roared, invoking the laws of time in an attempt to distort this frozen stretch of space-time.
Wushang threw out a punch, his mighty power that no law could invade attempting to forcibly shatter the confinement.
Pu Demon King released demon sunflower seeds that filled the sky, devouring the laws. The blade of law in Blade King’s arms emitted a dazzling edge!
The four giants acted at the same time, their power enough to annihilate countless great realms! The frozen space-time began to tremble violently, cracks appearing one after another.
However, the Good Corpse incarnation’s expression did not change. The Glazed Heart Lamp held in his right hand shone brilliantly, its gentle yet steadfast purifying Dao rhythm spreading like mercury poured across the ground and merging into the frozen space-time, actually stabilizing for the moment the confinement that was about to shatter!
Although he could not hold the four giants in place for long, delaying the army’s retreat for a short while was already enough!