Reeling from the damage to the Dao Flower, Lu Yun spewed up a mouthful of blood.

While everyone had expected the crimson-furred monster to target him, it’d instead pierced the flower with a thrust of its spear. Although the projection still hovered in the air… there was no hope left for Lu Yun to refine and integrate it within him even if he were to successfully weather the tribulation.

On the flip side, many took pleasure in his misfortunes as they recovered from the shocking turn of events. Such an outcome both delighted and relieved the mind. After establishing his dao, Lu Yun most likely would’ve obtained a legitimate mandate from the world to reinstate the ancient immortal court.

……

“Kill!” the crimson-furred monster uttered in human speech as it suddenly broke into an ear-splitting warcry. The ancient spear in its hand flared with a misty blue halo that swelled into an enormous illusory spear stabbing straight at Lu Yun.

His mouth filled with blood, Lu Yun clenched his teeth tight as sword radiance poured out of the Sugato Sword above him. Like a flood of seawater, it thundered toward the illusory spear.

Boom!

A great ball of light inflated in the air, the terrifying energy within exploding into a prodigious shock blast that surged outward.

At the same time, the three hundred sixty-five cities inside Dusk Province lit up and sent three hundred sixty-five golden beams of light connecting the sky and the land. The entire province began shaking, but the pillars defused the shock blast before it could reach the ground.

Deathly pale, Lu Yun couldn’t stop trembling. The crimson-furred creature’s strength was immeasurable. Not even dao immortals were its match, let alone a cultivator.

He’d powered the Sugato Sword with ten billion immortal crystals. The resulting power brought to bear was beyond imagine, yet all it’d achieved was forcing the creature back!

The Sugato Sword had birthed its own spirit and been augmented with its crowning jewel, thereby negating its sole flaw. As the foremost man-made treasure, it was a weapon as terrifying as the Skyturning Seal, but it couldn’t even scratch this monster!

With a wave of his hand, Lu Yun conjured the black water jar he’d obtained from the fur seals, the one Lu Feng called the Demonic Sovereign Jar.

In the span of a breath, the jar’s demonic energy gushed into his body and dramatically heightened the pre-immortal energy inside him, granting him the strength of a genuine void-ascended immortal.

At the same time, a figure slowly walked out of nothingness: Xing Chen, returning after being pummeled into the North Sea by Yin Jiuying’s blow. His wounds were now healed, thanks to his heart and lungs and the power of the yin arcane fruit he’d fused with.

Rays of violet sword light lingered around him as a hundred and eight thousand swords once again emerged behind his figure. But he wasn’t looking at the crimson-furred monster. Instead, his eyes landed on Yu Hengluo, who’d set foot on the blood-stained path.

She, too, was covered in long black hair. If it weren’t for Lu Yun remembering her presence, he never would’ve guessed her identity.

“Sure enough, her presence distracts you. Die!” The crimson-furred monster snarled as it pointed its spear at Lu Yun and thrust forward.

Springing into action at the exact moment the monster attacked, Xing Chen jumped onto the bloody path and chased after Yu Hengluo.

For his part, Lu Yun swooped down on the crimson monster, dao weapon in one hand, water jar spinning in the other, and the Sugato Sword floating over his head. He was well aware that what made the monster so threatening wasn’t the creature itself, but its ancient spear.

Without a doubt, the unremarkable-looking weapon was also a dao weapon, one that magnified its wielder’s power and struck with the might of the dao itself.

The black axe could also attack with the essence of the dao when wielded by the black monster, and while Lu Yun could achieve the same feat, it drained too much of his energy, so much so that his entire reserve would be gone after a few blows.

Likewise, the same applied to the spear.

True to its straightforward style, the crimson-furred monster simply stabbed forward. The stab contained the essence of the dao, just like the axe, but it was even more elusive in nature. As it flew forward, time itself seemed to lose all meaning.

Indeed, time!

Puncturing time and bypassing the time continuum, the attack was impossible for Lu Yun to defend against, leaving his figure drenched in blood. While he hadn’t been fatally injured, thanks to the Sugato Sword’s protection, he still made for a very sorry figure.

“Time? Space?” An idea suddenly popped into his mind as he thought of something. If the ancient spear’s power represented time, then the black axe in his hand must contain the power of space!

Through the simplest essence of the dao and the trajectory of space, it combined all spatial dimensions to deliver an attack of prodigious destructiveness.

“Time… Space… Yu Hengluo! The celestial master tomb, the underworld!” The look in Lu Yun’s eyes suddenly turned sharp. “Does all of this originate from the underworld?”

Boom!

Abandoning all forms of defense, Lu Yun casually tossed the Demonic Sovereign Jar aside and brandished his dao weapon with both hands. The black axe glowed with a dim black as it drew a crude, wobbly line through the air.

This time, he carefully immersed himself in his dao weapon, using his nascent spirit to resonate with it. Against all odds, the feedback from the black axe was identical to the one he’d received from Vastspace Mountain.

His heart throbbed as a familiar sensation surfaced from his nascent spirit. Behind him, the projection of a towering azure mountain came into existence and ensconced his figure in its midst, as well as the Sugato Sword above him.

Moreover, as if his attack had been enhanced in some way, the shaky trajectory spontaneously became a perfectly straight line, radiating spine-chilling ripples in a display of the essence of the dao’s true might.

Boom!

In a sudden burst of dazzling radiance, six giant globes of light appeared above him. All six shone with magnificent, exquisite luminescence. As it turned out, the illusory azure mountain’s insubstantial existence was emanating out of these very six globes. They were none other than the six paths of his nascent spirit, ones that embodied the six paths of reincarnation!

Lu Yun had yet to deploy his nascent spirit to its full potential since cultivating it, but he now employed every weapon in his arsenal against the crimson monster. His nascent spirit drew the image of Vastspace Mountain and enhanced his attack into a brand new combat art: Spatial Reincarnation!

Hum!

The Dao Flower’s projection trembled. On the verge of breaking, a moment prior, it began healing little by little, while dao light spilled down from it like a waterfall and gushed into Lu Yun. In that moment, his nascent spirit erupted with sheer brilliance, melting the azure mountain projection into a stream of light that blended into his figure.

“Down you go!!” he thundered. With savage momentum, the axe hacked down and heavily struck the spear.

Bang!