Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Storing Bai Lufeng directly in his Meteor Ring, Yan Zaizen utilized the Chaotic Immersion Art. With a step, he vanished from the surroundings. As he stayed within chaotic space, his eyes flickered.

"I need to capture Guàn Yao, leave no trace, and depart without anyone knowing." If anyone heard of his words, they'd be struck with disbelief. Guàn Yao was the direct disciple of Guàn Yin, a first-floor Heavenly Genesis expert, and has the entire White Crane Sect standing behind her. Thankfully, to Yan Zaizen, this actually wasn't an issue. After searching the soul flame that belonged to one of her trusted subordinates, he knew where she slept, where she cultivated, what she does and when, and her aura signature.

One could say, Yan Zaizen's Chaotic Immersion Art was the greatest tool for assassination and escape. He could exit and leave without a single fluctuation, he could sense a vast layer of his surroundings in complete stealth, and stay in its time-flow for long periods of times. There were zero disadvantages to it, at least, from his point of view.

In truth, it wasn't invincible. If a Heavenly Genesis expert deduced his action of entering entered chaotic space, they could rip open the fabric of space to enter as well. For example, the Xiantu Emperor ripped a slit in space towards the Asura Phantom Realm without building his heavenly shrine off spatial laws. The only benefit is that they'll have to constantly defend against chaotic space's ripping force. This could be done for both spatial void and chaotic space, however, the latter consumes far, far more energy to do so.

That wasn't all, despite being within chaotic space, he was always a part of the heavens. Therefore, an experienced expert could sense his location and track him down with the appropriate art. It had its weaknesses, but it also held unimaginable advantages.

He took a step forward. With this step, he traveled several li across chaotic space. He took another step.

-----

Holy Crane City, the Capital City of the White Crane Territory. At the center of this city stood a pure white palace as if it contained the holiest of existences in the Xiantu Realm. Residing in this palace was a woman. This woman was dressed in a white gown without a single stain touching its surface. Her body was willowy, her height capable of matching Yan Zaizen's, her chest contained two small yet perfectly supple peaks, and her hair and eyes were blacker than the River Styx.

She seemed to exemplify all things pure, containing profound elegance and heavenly grace that could barely be matched. As she breathed, the heavens seemed to resonate with her. The surrounding space subtly trembled, but not in fear or joy, but in acquiescence of her presence. She silently sat on a jade bed, her legs crossed, and her body radiating a faint heavenly aura.

This was Guàn Yin, the White Crane Sect's sectmaster. As a first-floor Heavenly Genesis cultivator, she held extraordinary sway on the way of the realm, her every word was imperial decrees, and her every movement was idolized and worshipped by all.

The moment Yan Zaizen killed Guàn Yao's subordinate, her eyebrow faintly twitched. Her eyes opened, looking at the area Yan Zaizen was located at. As if she could penetrate the heavens itself, she observed Yan Zaizen soul searching Chen He. However, she didn't take action, only closing her eyes once more. To her, Chen He was only the subordinate of her disciple, and not something she felt responsible for. As always, her disciple should be the one to handle the situation.

However, her eyebrows twitched once more. She looked towards the area again and noticed Yan Zaizen had disappeared. Not only this, he vanished like a ghost in the wind with no trace whatsoever.

"This…" She grew concerned at that point. For someone to be able to enter and exit her territory without her noticing, killing whoever he wished, and doing whatever he wished wasn't a suitable situation she desired. A soft sigh resounded.

"This once I'll deal with this issue for you." Her words were soft and filled with indifference. As if killing Yan Zaizen was as simple as taking out the trash. She decidedly re-entered her cultivation state.

A minute later, her eyes that revealed a calm purity widened with absolute shock and disbelief. Her eyes flashed with golden light, piercing through the heavens to discover Yan Zaizen had entered her disciple's room. He bypassed the formations that prevented spatial shifting, bypassed the sensory formations, and bypassed physical walls without a single disturbance, and yet, he reached her room with little issue.

Not to mention, he was in her room!

As the sectmaster of the White Crane Sect, how could she not have a sensory formation that could monitor the entirety of her sect, specifically important areas or the sudden deaths of her members? Not to mention, as a Heavenly Genesis Realm cultivator, she could pierce through the heavenly layers of physical substance and observe areas from an unimaginable distance away. Unless there was a specific formation that prevented her from observing, she could do so easily.

How could she allow her disciple to be in such danger? She waved her hand, her true-essence infused with the essence of the heavens surged outwards. The space in front of her ripped open into a slit, interconnecting her room with Guàn Yao's, and with a step, she entered without delay. As she did, her eyes flickered with killing intent.

Guàn Yao was cultivating quietly within her room, preparing for the Xiantu Dao Trials, and refining the primal yang she obtained. As Yan Zaizen saw this, his eyes flashed with an intense murderous light. However, as it did, Pinaka's voice resounded.

"Someone's coming! Someone powerful! They know you're here, hurry!" Even Pinaka, who has experience with Heavenly Genesis experts, didn't expect Guàn Yin to have seen Yan Zaizen kill Chen He. Then, afterwards, decided to pay close attention to her disciple's room after discovering that he vanished into thin air without a trace.

What?

How?!

He was shocked but didn't hesitate. At this point, if someone knew he was here, then they already knew who he was. In that case, why hesitate?

With a step forward, he activated his Herculean Avatar Art. His speed traversed the short distance from where he landed to where Guàn Yao cultivated in a blink. Guàn Yao didn't even get a chance to open her eyes before a silver-blue light flashed across Yan Zaizen's eyes. Her soul was directly impacted by his soul art, causing her to lose consciousness immediately. With that, he reached out to grab her, but a spatial slit formulated directly in front of him.

With widened eyes, he was in disbelief. A true-essence that seemed to be infused with the heavens shot out of the slit with speed that made his mind spin, but he didn't back down. He knew that the expert had to travel from where she was to here, and that'll take time, and even if it'll take a second - that was more than enough!

Dao of Sovereign Ascension!

His body erupted with potent vital energy that was further amplified by his Mortal Dao. As it did, the color of his vital energy was tinged with a dark-amber, but its power was several hundreds of times greater than normal. As the true-essence arrived in front of him, he waved his hand to meet it, smashing violently causing space itself to crack.

BOOM!

The resulting collision seemed as if it was two planets colliding. The entire room collapsed in a millisecond, as for Guàn Yao, she was protected by two spheres of heavenly-infused true-essence and dark-amber vital energy. Despite their collision, both of them consciously protected Guàn Yao's body from any harm. They each did so with their own reasons.

Yan Zaizen with the intention to extract all her primal yin for Bai Lufeng, therefore needing her soul and body alive to do so.

Guàn Yin with the intention to protect her disciple from harm.

"What?!" Guàn Yin was shocked as she witnessed her true-essence come in contact with Yan Zaizen's body from the spatial slit, but as for his body, he was still and unaffected.

"What?!" Yan Zaizen was equally shocked. This true-essence came from a first-floor Heavenly Genesis cultivator, but he deflected it with so much ease. It was like smacking a marshmallow. In truth, Yan Zaizen had barely any idea how strong he was if he went all out.

His physique had been refined by the lifeforce energy that was equivalent to the materials needed to construct a two-floor Hell Altar, enough materials to reconstruct an Infernal Forger's body and a vast quantity of space itself. With all this, his physique had been refined to a phenomenal level.

Not to mention, what was his Mortal Dao? A peak upper-tier Mortal Dao! The amplification effect it has on the body, vital energy, and arts was unsurpassable amongst upper-tier daos! With the Dao simultaneously amplifying all of these effects, while they also bolstered their own strength, Yan Zaizen's strength reached a stupendous degree.

Therefore, the comparison of him slapping a marshmallow was not an exaggeration.

"..." Even Pinaka was shocked.

This shock left him visibly stunned, and he lost half of second of time, but he recovered immediately. His current state easily made up for lost time as he stepped forward, and his hand pierced through Guàn Yin's sphere of true-essence like a hot knife through butter. He violently grasped Guàn Yao's throat.

"HALT!" From the spatial slit, Guàn Yin's holy appearance was immediately replaced with a venomously violent expression, her true-essence erupted with such intensity that it seemed as if she was using a divine art to bolster her strength. Even Yan Zaizen was shocked by her fluctuations, but he felt very little fear as she headed towards him. In truth, he even had a smirk on his face.

With a wave, Guàn Yao's body was directly stored in the Meteor Ring, and he dashed directly into the spatial slit.

WILLINGLY!

"Your disciple dares to harm my subordinate?! You'll pay as well!" His voice was filled with a tyrannical ferocity that caused space itself to tremble vigorously. Within his dark amber-gold eyes held a trace of unyielding confidence! Even while facing a Heavenly Genesis expert, he held absolutely no fear!