Chapter 384: Subjugation

"Eight Desolations?!"

"How can this be... the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord has been subjugated?!"

"Damn it, I knew it. There had to be something off about the fiend lords' cooperation with the Heavenly Dao Sect! Why would they ever be willing to deliver a deputy sect master with the potential to reach the Void-Shattering Realm right to us, only to be killed? This was plainly a trap! A trap to lure out and slaughter our sect's experts, to reduce our sect's strength and leave us unable to reclaim the thirteen border states!"

As the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord was subjugated by the power of Yaoguang's grotto-heaven, the four Void-Refining fiendish cultivators on the Yin Lunar Sect's side couldn't help but become alarmed.

The Void-Refining and Void-Piercing cultivators on the southern domain's side, by contrast, broke into wild joy, their morale soaring.

"Hahaha, suppressing a Void-Shattering fiendish cultivator! Truly worthy of Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang. Winning against a Void-Shattering expert while being at the Void-Refining Realm! In all the history of the North Sea Star, how many have ever managed such a feat?!"

"Good! This is wonderful! After this battle, let's see who will still dare run wild in the southern domain!"

"Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang is unmatched at the Void-Refining Realm!"

With their spirits lifted, the Void-Refining and Void-Piercing cultivators of the southern domain pressed their encirclement of the Yin Lunar Sect's four Void-Refining cultivators with ever greater ease, the assault raging like wildfire.

Compared to the rest, however, the Yin Lunar Sect's other Void-Shattering expert, the Dark Fiend Lord, kept his composure far better.

Though Yaoguang's victory over the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord had shaken him considerably, that shock lasted only a moment before he recovered.

The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord had merely been subjugated after Yaoguang shredded his fiendish body. He was not really dead. As long as he could break Yaoguang's grotto-heaven, not only could the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord escape with his life, but even the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator suppressed earlier could keep his life, losing nothing more than a bit of face.

As for his confidence in breaking Yaoguang's grotto-heaven...

"In the state your grotto-heaven is in, how many more times can it support you releasing techniques at such a frequency?" The Dark Fiend Lord watched Yaoguang, his mood lighter now than it had been at the start when he was first caught in the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array.

Yaoguang did not answer. He raised the Heaven-Sealing Stele high, and the power to suppress the void rippled outward.

At the same time, the array light of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array flowed once more, and azure chains spread out from the heavens, locking onto the Dark Fiend Lord.

Above his head, the Wandering Dragon Sword drifted ceaselessly, yet it gave birth to no Void Sword. Yaoguang simply pinched his fingers into a sword, and the destructive ripples of the Great Annihilation Sword Qi spread across his fingertips.

A fiendish cultivator's true body belonged to the heavenly fiend origin, a formless, shapeless state, completely different from the heavenly demon true body of the demon race, the grotto-heaven of the human race, or the divine kingdom of the divine race.

Against them, the Void Sword's killing effect was actually less useful than the Great Annihilation Sword Qi.

As he prepared the Great Annihilation Sword Qi, his True Spirit Light shone out, clearly locking onto the Dark Fiend Lord's form.

Just as the Dark Fiend Lord sank into the darkness, seemingly vanishing entirely into the mysterious and the unknown, the True Spirit Light pierced straight through the darkness and pinned the fiend lord's form. Right after, the Heaven-Sealing Stele's void-suppressing power came rolling down, making the Dark Fiend Lord's form stiffen.

The next moment, four bolts of Great Annihilation Sword Qi crashed in one after another, striking his fiendish body.

"You also command a perception-type Dao Technique?! And an extraordinarily strong one at that?!" The Dark Fiend Lord quickly realized something. He abruptly swung a cloak-like Dao Artifact in his hand, and the Dark Sky Veil formed a layer of pitch-black darkness that barred all things, sweeping toward the Great Annihilation Sword Qi.

But the essence of the Great Dao of destruction within the Great Annihilation Sword Qi was to destroy all things.

Though Yaoguang lacked a matching Dao Artifact, so the technique's might could not rival that of his Void Sword, his mastery-stage attainment in the technique meant that under the power of the Great Annihilation Sword Qi, the Dark Sky Veil the Dark Fiend Lord had raised with the amplification of a Dao Artifact was still torn apart.

The last bolt of sword qi even struck the Dark Fiend Lord's body. Hard as he tried to dodge, under the Heaven-Sealing Stele's sealing, he was still a beat too slow, and nearly ten percent of his fiendish body was destroyed by the Great Annihilation Sword Qi.

After taking that blow, the Dark Fiend Lord's expression turned ugly.

But Yaoguang presided over the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, and the Dark Fiend Lord had nothing like the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord's Boundless Divine Void Lightning that could shatter a level 13 array in a single strike. Therefore...

"Let's see how long you can hold out for!" the Dark Fiend Lord shouted.

In his hand, he clutched a jade talisman tightly, one he had begged a Dao Lord for, waiting only for the moment Yaoguang's grotto-heaven reached its worst to unleash it and deal Yaoguang the fatal blow.

No matter what, a Void-Refining cultivator is only a Void-Refining cultivator! How could his methods and foundation compare to those of us Void-Shattering experts, who already stand at the peak of the cultivation world, second only to Dao Lords? Victory will be mine in the end!

"Hold out?" By now, Yaoguang had understood the reason for the Dark Fiend Lord's confidence all this while. He looked at the Void-Shattering fiendish cultivator. "Releasing mastery-stage techniques really is an enormous burden on a Void-Refining cultivator. But if you think this will drain me until I have nothing left, you're badly mistaken."

The next moment, the power of the Great Dao of origin, drawn forth by the Sovereign Human Emperor, washed over Yaoguang's grotto-heaven in an endless stream.

Under that washing, his grotto-heaven, trembling without pause from releasing technique after technique, and his dim, dwindling void Dao Seed seemed to come alive anew. In less than a single breath, they were fully restored, recovering from the brink of exhaustion straight back to their peak state.

This sudden change left the Void-Shattering expert, still clinging to hopes of turning the tide, dumbfounded. Only then did it strike him: the rumor that had circulated all along in the outside world, the one they had ruled out...might have been true.

Rumor had it that Yaoguang was a chess piece groomed by the Penglai Dao Lord.

After he reached the Void-Piercing Realm, the Penglai Dao Lord had not only guided his cultivation of the Dao of the void step by step, letting him reach the Void-Refining Realm in a very short time, but had also gifted him a vast number of Dao Artifacts so he could grow strong quickly, all so he could compete with Zong Wenxian for the position of the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master.

If the Dao Lord had personally guided his cultivation of the Dao of the void step by step, then it wouldn't be surprising for Yaoguang to have also learned the Penglai Dao Lord's famed technique, the Sovereign Human Emperor, which pointed straight at the Great Dao of origin. It would instead be perfectly natural.

Yaoguang had just restored his own state by relying on the Sovereign Human Emperor technique, related to the Great Dao of origin... But what about him? What was he supposed to do?!

He had gone to such lengths, sacrificing his own ally, the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord, just to drain Yaoguang's power, waiting to unleash his final killing move and deliver the fatal blow, and the result...

Yaoguang had used the Great Dao of origin to restore his state to the peak in an instant?! How was he supposed to fight this?!

"Sovereign Human Emperor!" The Dark Fiend Lord growled in unwillingness. The Dao Seed within him shook without cease, drawing on the power of the Great Dao of darkness to its very limit, turning it into an abyss that could drag a person's psyche and consciousness into Infinite Descent, meaning to pull Yaoguang down.

But under the shining of the True Spirit Light, the surrounding darkness was quickly being driven off. Holding this state, Yaoguang once more released the Great Annihilation Sword Qi with the Torrent of Time, pushing down with it with the intent to kill the enemy.

This time, again, it was four bolts of Great Annihilation Sword Qi. Four mastery-stage techniques, each containing enough destructive power to grievously wound the Dark Fiend Lord's fiendish body.

However unwilling the Dark Fiend Lord was to believe it, he had to accept that Yaoguang had truly mastered the Sovereign Human Emperor technique, and through it he had fully restored his own strength.

"Get away from me!" he shouted.

The Dark Fiend Lord abruptly flung up the cloak on his body, and the Dark Sky Veil swept all four bolts of sword qi away. As they were swept off, his form shot forward, stepping past the darkness to appear right before Yaoguang and strike at him. The jade talisman in his hand was suddenly unleashed, crashing toward Yaoguang's grotto-heaven.

In the True Spirit Light state, Yaoguang's perception of danger was extraordinarily keen.

Although the Dark Fiend Lord, at the cost of damaging his Dao Artifact, had used the Dark Sky Veil to withstand the four bolts of Great Annihilation Sword Qi and had also concealed his body, the True Spirit Light still gave warning as he closed in on Yaoguang.

And facing a Void-Shattering expert, no amount of caution was too much. Yaoguang used Void Flicker at once, appearing several thousand kilometers away.

"No!" A surge of fierce unwillingness erupted from the Dark Fiend Lord's psychic thought.

The jade talisman he had shot out released a might that seemed able to split apart every structure of the void.

The void where Yaoguang had just stood collapsed, the space in the area seemingly torn apart by force at its very foundation. Grotto-heavens, and even the very basis that Dao Techniques and the Great Dao relied upon, ceased to exist there.

Void-Shattering! This was the true power to shatter the void!

Despite having moved several thousand kilometers away, Yaoguang felt a chill in his heart. "Just as I thought. Having reached the Void-Shattering Realm, they already stand at the peak of the North Sea Star, second only to Dao Lords. Standing at the peak for so many years has given every Void-Shattering expert a foundation far surpassing Void-Piercing and Void-Refining experts, and each likely holds some hidden killing method..."

Yaoguang no longer dared approach the Dark Fiend Lord. His whole figure seemed to melt into the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array.

The Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array sent down four more chains. But of these four chains, only two were azure. The other two brimmed with purple light, and what they carried was unmistakably destructive qi.

This was the Great Annihilation Sword Qi that Yaoguang had released through the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array.

"Yaoguang!" The Dark Fiend Lord growled, casting his Dao Techniques to resist the strike of the Great Annihilation Sword Qi.

But earlier, in order to seize the chance to slay Yaoguang, the Dao Artifact most attuned to his own techniques had been severely damaged, its might greatly reduced. Add to that the guidance that True Spirit Light provided to Yaoguang, and he could not fully evade even the two bolts of Great Annihilation Sword Qi.

With a bang, the fiendish flames shook. Though the Dark Fiend Lord shattered one bolt of Great Annihilation Sword Qi, in the end he had no time to dodge the other.

Destructive power erupted, annihilating nearly another ten percent of his fiendish body.

Yet, even as he withstood this sword qi attack, his form once again appeared right before Yaoguang, a Dao Technique about to be unleashed again.

In response, Void Flicker was activated again, and Yaoguang's form appeared once more several thousand kilometers away.

Having nearly had his grotto-heaven shattered moments earlier, Yaoguang refused to meet the Dark Fiend Lord head-on. Having flickered thousands of kilometers off, he again used the power of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array to release Great Annihilation Sword Qi and slashed down at the fiend lord.

Darkness and destruction collided fiercely once again, but once more it ended with darkness pierced through by destruction!

The Dark Fiend Lord's body shook, his fiendish flames weakening further. His strength had already fallen by nearly half.

"Yaoguang! Is dodging here and there all that you, the deputy sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect, can do? Come fight me head-on if you've got the nerve!" The Dark Fiend Lord's composure was beginning to crack.

"So..." Yaoguang did not indulge him. He looked at the Void-Shattering fiendish cultivator. "You, a Void-Shattering expert who has cultivated for eight thousand years, say something like that to me, a Void-Refining cultivator who's cultivated for less than a hundred? Where's your face?"

With a flicker, he opened the distance between them again, and at the same time released more Great Annihilation Sword Qi through the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array. "Oh, I forgot. You old thing, you could join with another Void-Shattering expert and five Void-Refining cultivators to gang up on me, a newly risen Void-Refining cultivator. With shamelessness on that scale, what face is there left to speak of?"

"You..." The Dark Fiend Lord's psychic thought brimmed with fury.

Yet he could only watch helplessly as the Great Annihilation Sword Qi hit him once again, destroying another length of his fiendish body and further reducing his heavenly fiend origin.

"That's about enough!" After several more exchanges, Yaoguang suddenly cast the Heaven-Sealing Stele into the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, and a sealing force unlike any before pressed down.

No matter how hard the Dark Fiend Lord tried to rouse the power of darkness to throw off the lock, he could not manage it.

"I..." The Dark Fiend Lord's spirits plunged into a bottomless abyss.

"A fiendish cultivator's heavenly fiend origin is a precious natural treasure to any cultivator, not to be wasted! Once I've refined the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord, you'll be next," Yaoguang said coldly.