The Modern Martial Immortal

The two Void-Shattering Realm fiendish cultivators from the Yin Lunar Sect acted decisively. Having made their way to the Southern Capital, they unleashed their strongest life-bound Dao Techniques without the slightest hesitation, using Dao Artifacts to amplify their power.

What stood out most was that they did not stop at using Void-Shattering Realm cultivation against Yaoguang, a single Void-Refining Realm cultivator. They went further, attacking together without holding back, two against one.

From that alone, one could see how determined to kill him these two Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators were.

But since the moment Yaoguang’s Perception had registered that the arrivals included two Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators and five Void-Refining Realm fiendish cultivators, he had already been fully on guard.

As soon as they stepped into the southern domain and closed in on the domain lord’s residence, he fully activated the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array.

”Who gave you the nerve to set foot in the Southern Capital and raise a hand against me, the lord of the southern domain?” He swept his hand out sharply, and brilliant streams of light surged up from the earth like a curtain of rain. ”Is it those traitors of the Jing family? Did you really think that with them holding back the activation of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array you could rest easy?”

The streams of light rose at a speed never seen before. In the past, the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array had needed at least several breaths to go from activation to full deployment, but this time it had powered up incredibly fast.

Four years earlier, Yaoguang had already entertained the idea of catching all fiendish cultivators the Yin Lunar Sect sent for revenge with a single move.

So when he rebuilt the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, he modeled it on the Grotto Origin Technique the Penglai Dao Lord had taught him, allowing the array to remain in a pre-activated state so that, the instant it was truly needed, it could unleash its full power in moments.

The moment he realized that the fiendish cultivators along the Wu state’s border might have been trying to lure him out, he had quietly put the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array in that pre-activated state.

Because of this, when the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord and the Dark Fiend Lord led their group charging into the grounds of the domain lord’s residence, the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array fully activated within half a breath, trapping all seven Yin Lunar Sect experts inside.

”What is this?!”

”How did the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array activate so fast?!”

”We’ve walked into a trap! This is a killing snare set up by the Heavenly Dao Sect and the Jing family working together, meant to damage our sect!”

The Void-Refining fiendish cultivators began shouting alarmedly.

The Southern Capital’s protective array was famous throughout the region, and beyond. With a Void-Refining cultivator presiding over it, even a Void-Shattering expert could be trapped and killed, let alone the likes of them. Caught inside it now, the five Void-Refining cultivators were thrown into panic.

”Eight Desolations!” The Dark Fiend Lord was both shocked and furious. ”Wasn’t it agreed that the Jing family had already been contacted and that everything was arranged? Is this how you arranged it?”

”Don’t panic!” The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord’s psychic thought spread across the field, carrying a power that soothed the psychic mind. ”A few surprises have come up, yes, but we have two Void-Shattering and five Void-Refining cultivators on our side. Working together, what does it matter if this brat has the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array backing him? With our combined strength, we can force our way through the array’s defenses, kill Yaoguang, sweep up every resource and Dao Artifact on him, and leave at our leisure. Fortune favors the bold! If you want to seize resources worth tens of billions in one stroke, how can you expect no risk at all?!”

His words somewhat calmed down the Dark Fiend Lord and the five Void-Refining fiendish cultivators.

That’s right. As terrifying as the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array is, with the combined strength of all seven of us, we can still kill this Void-Refining cultivator Yaoguang even while bearing the array’s force.

”Strike with everything, end this quickly!” The Dark Fiend Lord made his decision at once.

A wave of clear light, visible to the naked eye, rippled out from above the array with a hum, and instantly slammed into the seven fiendish cultivators who had pushed into the grounds of the domain lord’s residence.

Under the clear light, the fiendish qi on the seven of them swiftly dimmed.

Nearly twenty percent of the fiendish qi was taken away from the two Void-Shattering fiend lords, and more than half was stripped from the five Void-Refining fiendish cultivators.

”The weakening power of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array...” One Void-Refining fiendish cultivator, who also seemed well-versed in array arts, blanched. ”How can this be?! Years ago I once faced the power of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, and it had taken away thirty percent of my fiendish qi at most. But now... half the fiendish qi is gone?! How is that possible?!”

The endless, rippling clear light was only the beginning. After weakening the fiendish qi of the seven cultivators, nine nearly transparent azure chains stretched out rapidly from the streams of light the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array had formed, lunging like great pythons to bind the fiendish cultivators.

”Void Chains! If we’re bound, the void power in them will make every move a struggle, turning us into living targets. Quick, shatter them!” the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord barked.

He was a Void-Shattering expert who had attained his realm through the Dao of void. His life-bound Dao Technique was the Eight Desolations Purgatory, a sealing technique somewhat resembling the power of the Heaven-Sealing Stele.

But the Heaven-Sealing Stele’s power centered on subjugation and sealing, while his technique trapped its target and then slowly refined them to death.

As the Eight Desolation Fiend Lord shouted that, the ability he had originally aimed to strike Yaoguang down with now turned around, wrapped up two of the azure chains, and sealed them straight into the purgatory space.

A bracelet on his wrist kept rippling with surges of void power, and the two azure chains began to show signs of breaking apart as they were pulled taut.

On the other side, the Dark Fiend Lord, who cultivated the Great Dao of darkness, could not trap the azure chains the way the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord did. But the Great Dao of darkness he commanded simply covered the azure chains, blinding them and even the perception of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array like a veil, letting him slip free of two chains entirely.

Even with the Dark Fiend Lord trapped within it, surrounded on all sides by its might, the array could not lock onto him again.

The two Void-Shattering experts each displayed their divine abilities and withstood the power of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, but the five Void-Refining fiendish cultivators were not so fortunate.

They had already been stripped of fifty percent of their fiendish qi, their strength halved in an instant, and though each faced only a single chain, three of them were bound immediately.

The moment their forms were locked, their perception of the Great Dao of void seemed to be peeled away. Both their sensitivity to the void and their perception of space plunged to lows they had never known. They felt like creatures born with a natural talent for the void suddenly robbed of that gift, going from gliding through the void as fish through water to barely able to take a step.

As their forms stalled and they showed multiple openings, Yaoguang’s figure appeared beside one of the Void-Refining fiendish cultivators, his Void Sword slicing through the air and releasing four streaks of sword light in an instant.

Under those four Void Swords, the Void-Refining cultivator had no time at all to dodge, and his fiendish body was torn into several pieces.

”Fiend Lord, save me!” the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator cried out.

”Calm yourself...” The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord growled low, aiming at the space where Yaoguang and the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator stood, striking out with a Dao Technique: Heaven and Earth Reversal!

In an instant, the space Yaoguang occupied and the space the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator occupied were swapped, so that Yaoguang’s figure appeared at once before the fiend lord.

”Chaotic Ten Directions Kill!”

As he completed the swap of Yaoguang’s space, the Void-Shattering expert roused his void power and stabbed down hard at Yaoguang, who was not at arm’s length. The patch of space around him was torn into ten pieces in an instant, every bit of matter and energy within it thrown into chaos and sliced apart.

The release of these two techniques was swift as lightning, laying bare the full might of a Void-Shattering expert. Even the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator whose fiendish body had been ripped apart felt an uncontainable surge of joy welling up through his roiling emotions.

But before he could gather his fiendish body back together, before he could even see clearly whether Yaoguang had been shredded by the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord’s Chaotic Ten Directions Kill, waves of Great Annihilation Sword Qi came crashing down on his several fragmented pieces of fiendish body. The one who had struck...

”Yaoguang?!” The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord and the Dark Fiend Lord both went pale with shock.

The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord, in particular, could not help but turn his gaze toward the patch of void he had torn apart with the Chaotic Ten Directions Kill, his eyes filled with disbelief.

How did he get across?! I have already moved the space Yaoguang occupied over here. How did he suddenly appear beside that Void-Refining cultivator again?!

”It’s his life-bound Dao Technique, Void Flicker! He used Void Flicker to escape the space of the Chaotic Ten Directions Kill, then struck out with the Great Annihilation Sword Qi!” The Dark Fiend Lord’s psychic thought shook. ”He doesn’t simply have a Dao Artifact attuned to this technique! He’s practiced the technique all the way to the mastery stage!”

The mastery stage? To have practiced the technique Void Flicker to the mastery stage while being at the Void-Refining Realm? And to have a Dao Artifact attuned to it as well?!

In that instant, the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord half wanted to curse out loud.

With Void Flicker at such a level, if Yaoguang truly set his mind on fleeing, who could catch him? Even he, a Void-Shattering expert skilled at sealing and locking down space, would not dare make any promises.

If it were the Dark Fiend Lord in the place of the Eight Desolation Fiend Lord, considering that he didn’t walk the Dao of void nor was he skilled at sealing, even two or three of him working together could only trail behind Yaoguang, eating dust.

”We have to cut him down no matter what. If he advances another step and reaches the Void-Shattering Realm, he’ll become a grave threat to our sect!” the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord growled.

While their psychic thoughts met, the Great Annihilation Sword Qi Yaoguang had unleashed tore through the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator who had failed to reform his fiendish body, ripping him apart. Under the might of the Great Dao of destruction, most of that Void-Refining fiendish cultivator’s fiendish body was annihilated in an instant, and the remaining portion was swept up and drawn straight into Yaoguang’s grotto-heaven.

”Sixth Peak Master?!” a Void-Refining fiendish cultivator cried out.

”It’s fine. He can’t refine a Void-Refining cultivator that quickly. As long as we can break his grotto-heaven, the sixth peak master will come out unharmed.” As he spoke, the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord again unleashed a Dao Technique to seal off the void. ”I’ll trap him! You land the killing blow on him!”

As his psychic thought passed between them, the Dao Artifact at his wrist released spatial waves once more, and a treasure mirror appeared above his head. A single flash of light from the mirror, and Yaoguang’s figure stiffened ever so slightly.

Seizing the chance, he sent the Eight Desolations Purgatory technique sweeping toward Yaoguang once again.

”Deputy Sect Master, careful!” A cry came from deep within the array.

The next second, a blade of void tore through space, its edge sharp enough to cut through anything, splitting the light of the treasure mirror apart.

Then, under the disbelieving stares of the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord and the Dark Fiend Lord, another void blade followed immediately, slashing hard into the void power that the Eight Desolations Purgatory had stirred up and shattering the technique once again.

By the time the Dark Fiend Lord’s prepared technique, the Dark Sky Veil, came sweeping in, Yaoguang had already flickered away, slipping straight out from under the two Void-Shattering experts’ joint assault.

Facing the encirclement of two Void-Shattering experts, he remained perfectly composed.