Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Yun Xuli's expression was horrifying to look at. Despite being a Heavenly Spiritless Golem, his facial expressions were incredibly lifelike and genuine, reflective of his true emotions. As such, one could see the frustration and fear within his eyes. This was temporary, however. As an owner of a middle-tier Mortal Dao, how could his mental strength be so weak?

With a thought, the inner formations of the Heavenly Spiritless Golem activated. By paying a certain amount of his heavenly-infused true-essence, his feet and the small portion of his legs regrew instantly. His reserves dropped by at least ten percent from this. The cost was worth it.

To cultivators, they circulate their true-essence throughout their entire body, without a body part, their meridians and qi network would be severed limiting their strength considerably.

In normal fights, this would have reduced his strength by twenty to thirty percent. Luckily, this was a fight utilizing external golems with regeneration mechanisms.

His eyes grew sharper than ever before as they released scintillating silver light. It was as if his eyes had turned into suns of swords. Brandishing his sword once more, he swung viciously towards Yan Zaizen. The world was shrouded in a silver light that seemed to slice and crush all things simultaneously. This silver light condensed into a thick line, about the size of a finger, the length of which was about one hundred meters. It sped towards Yan Zaizen fueled by Yun Xuli's cultivation base and fury.

However, this attack wasn't his only move. His eyes of silver light turned a brilliant sky-blue that seemed to brighten the entire world within. His aura underwent a drastic shift. His back grew straighter, his chin higher, and his eyes more tyrannical. It was as if he was above all and below none.

Yan Zaizen eyes constricted slightly. "A Mortal Dao!" He recognized this aura. In truth, he felt it quite similar to his own, but there was a slight difference. "Tyrannical Ferocity?!"

The Mortal Dao of Tyrannical Ferocity was a lower-tier Mortal Dao that could be considered frightening amongst its tier. Those who possessed it was innately tyrannical and their domineering attitude was as high as the heavens. In particular, the Mortal Dao of Tyrannical Ferocity focused on the ferocity aspect. When executed, one would be as fierce as a tiger, cruel as a predator, and domineering as a ruler. Regardless of who stood in their way or questioned their ideals, they would ferociously eliminate this obstacle.

"That's not all!" Recognizing the difference, it looked as if Tyrannical Ferocity was only a part of this Mortal Dao. "A fusion dao?" As he looked at Yun Xuli's eyes that seemed to radiate innate supremacy, he couldn't help but chuckle. That's right, chuckle.

"Haha! Your dao, the Dao of Tyrannical Supremacy?!" When he shouted those words, Yun Xuli's expression changed but grew more colder and domineering. His expression was as if he disregarded Yan Zaizen's insignificant existence. To him, Yan Zaizen was nothing but a bug on his road to the peak.

Yan Zaizen laughed even louder to the point that the space trembled and the clouds dispersed. The sword slash from earlier was still incoming, but he was actually in the mood to laugh. This caused all those watching to feel odd in their hearts. If it was them, they wouldn't spare a moment doing such a reckless thing! Yet, Yan Zaizen continued ignoring the sharp silver light.

"Interesting! Let me show you a REAL Dao!" As he said this, his aura seethed and erupted in an explosion!

BOOM!!!

His eyes flashed with dark-amber, the entire sectional hemisphere of the Dao Arena shifted into a dark-amber hue, and the world was shrouded by a stiflingly oppressed air. As if a Sovereign had descended into the world! The world trembled, welcoming the arrival with cries of excitement!

"What?!" At this point, the upper echelon was shocked to numbness. A miniaturized heaven, the ability to change one's true-essence at will, and a dao that could change the world!

Syi, the divine beast with crimson-eyes and a frightening aura, felt his heart tremble. "An...upper-tier Mortal Dao?!" The moment those words were said disbelievingly, the others reeled in shock, a few even had cups in their hands which dropped to the ground. In this cultivation world, especially heavenly cultivators, the tier of a dao was important!

A lower-tier dao could establish a lower-tier foundation for heavenly cultivators, and the greater one's tier, the greater the foundation and the more heavenly law liquid that can institute in each floor of their pillar!

Lang Xue had the weakest foundation with a bestowed lower-tier Mortal Dao and a Mortal Law. In the 27th Heaven of the Extreme Rebirth Heavenly God, this was common amongst forty percent of the entire population's heavenly cultivators! As the dao tier and law grade rise, the percentage of people with the standard drops dramatically. For those with an upper-tier dao and any law, they'll be in the top of the top, even one ten thousandth of a single percentage was too much. As for bestowed? The numbers would rise, but not by much.

Yun Xuli was considered a genius that could not be denied due to owning his own true Mortal Dao that was at the middle-tier, but the difference between tiers was monstrously huge. It couldn't even be described as the dirt and the clouds. As one's cultivation into the Heavenly Path continues, so did the relevance of their dao.

To put it plainly, even if a seventh-floor Heavenly Genesis expert with a World Law and Middle-tier Mortal Dao were to face a fourth-floor Heavenly Genesis expert with a World Law and Upper-tier Mortal Dao, they would be evenly matched if all other factors were the same.

This was the huge difference.

This was a VAST difference!!

The moment Yan Zaizen's Mortal Dao of Sovereign Ascension erupted outwards, Yun Xuli's dao collided in a formless way with it. The collision was brief but intense. The world chaotically spiraled slightly as if in deep conflict with itself.

The silver sword light reached Yan Zaizen.

With a clenched fist, he threw it forward. This fist was enhanced with vital energy infused with his dao. As it was thrown, the air grew turbulent and chaotic, and the world seemed to halt its conflict in the face of this single fist.

BOOM!!

An explosion occurred as fist met sword light. The light dissipated into the wind like sand. In the face of Yan Zaizen's fist, that sword light was like an egg meeting steel!

Yan Zaizen was still laughing, his expression turning more and more imperialistic. "You may be tyrannical, but I'm a Sovereign!" A regal charm emanated from him as he stepped forward. His momentum sky-rocketing into the sky! The Mortal Dao of Tyrannical Ferocity had similarities to Imperial Ferocity, but it held one slight yet critical difference. One was like a cruel animal while the other was a MONARCH!

Even if their daos were simply alone, Yun Xuli could never hope to compete with Yan Zaizen. After all, Imperial Ferocity was a peak lower-tier dao while Tyrannical Ferocity wasn't.

With a newly nocked arrow, he pulled his bow back as his Mortal Dao infused with his true-essence. No longer was the arrow purple, suffused with destruction, but deep black. It wasn't inky, but truly and deeply black as if it contained nothing, including life or essence.

Yun Xuli grimaced, his dao wavering heavily. To meet someone with a similar but more powerful dao than your own could be fatal, but it was rare. After all, how many upper-tier daos actually had ferocity within?! How many had supremacy or sovereign-based characteristics?!

"Let's see if this works," Yan Zaizen laughed even more brazenly, his eyes towards Yun Xuli was as if he was watching a child play with a sword. His eyes contained no respect, only deep imperialism and sensation of superiority. When he first met Yun Xuli, this was the feeling he received, and he was almost sure Yun Xuli felt something similar. And yet, it couldn't be truer.

RELEASE!

Yan Zaizen let loose his black arrow, sending it flying towards Yun Xuli with a rather slow speed. After all, this arrow wasn't powered by destruction or laws of archery.

Yun Xuli's eyes flickered, his sky-blue gleam returning and being driven further by himself. With a thunderous roar, he erupted with a glow of sky-blue that shielded him from the dark-amber aura. "Your dao may be higher than mines, but you ARE NOT MY SUPERIOR! I AM SUPREME!!!" He shouted with all his might, his dao attempting to stabilize as his convictions and belief resonated with his soul. Immediately, his dao started to push back and regain control.

Yan Zaizen stopped laughing, his eyes narrowing. This was his first battle of the dao and it was amongst two true daos. He was shocked to see that his dao aura was being pushed back by Yun Xuli's. That being said, he didn't feel threatened. In fact, this battle was already over.

Yun Xuli flourished his blade in a ferocious manner, his eyes filled with a will of supremacy and disdain. It was as if all before him, Yan Zaizen included, was nothing but ants meant to be stepped on. He slashed outwards, his dao infused into his true-essence, and aiming to destroy Yan Zaizen's arrow. This will not only confirm his supremacy but his superiority! His theory was correct.

If he could exert his supremacy over Yan Zaizen, it's possible Yan Zaizen's dao may falter slightly, allowing for him to strike even harder with his ultimate art. However, if he failed the consequence would be far more damaging. Unfortunately for him…

The arrow, that looked as if it contained its own space, suddenly vanished. When it did, everyone who was watching its trajectory or sensing its aura was startled. Even the Heavenly Commanders had furrowed brows, unsure of where it went. After all, they didn't lock onto its presence outside of an overall sense of the battlefield. For this arrow to disappear from their senses felt nearly impossible.

PUCH!

"What?!" Yun Xuli's eyes widened. There was a hint of surprise and disbelief. "I...I…" His words were slow and he tried to say something. However, his head was experiencing an odd form collapse, as if the head was being ripped apart.

"Impossible!" The others in the crowd shouted nearly simultaneously. Between Yun Xuli's brows was an arrow!!!

Before they could react, Yun Xuli's head collapsed and exploded oddly and without any clear direction. It was like a turbulent cyclone or seven was in his head causing pieces to surge in all directions.

Yan Zaizen always wished to transport an arrow into chaotic space and attack in a stealth, assassinating strike since he created the Infinite Chaotic Immersion Art. After he comprehended the Realm of Chaotic Space, he now had the means to do so.

"Hmph! Lang Xue is supposed to be with this for one hundred and fifty thousand years? With her looks, are you, an insignificant ant, even worthy?" Yan Zaizen transmitted to Yun Xuli's protected soul. The golem had taken a fatal blow to the head and therefore he had won according to the rules of combat. Unfortunately, the golems protected the soul and thus could not be killed, but his words were far more damaging than any soul attack.

Yun Xuli's dao orb cracked within his soul.