Chapter 469: Breakthrough

"I overdid it. Nothing survived except a few remnants of the Void-Sealing Tower, and only because the Ten Hells Dragon-Imprisoning Array had it pinned," the Penglai Dao Lord said.

"As long as the Mystic Spirit Resonance Crystal is still usable, that's enough," Yaoguang said, glancing over the chaotic void power filling the region.

That kind of power was terrifying beyond words. It was likely no weaker than a true immortal's power.

"Killing the Unchained Dao Lord cost me everything I had. That annihilation fire seed took me painstaking work to refine, and now I've used it... I'll go into the Dao Contest without a killing move and lose a fair bit of my deterrence. You'd better hurry up and achieve Dao Integration. Down the line, you owe me at least one semi-immortal artifact to make up for my loss," the Penglai Dao Lord said with a smile.

Yaoguang nodded.

The Unchained Dao Lord had held the Void Origin as his life-saving trump card, and if the Penglai Dao Lord hadn't so resolutely spent her annihilation fire seed on the Dao-Destroying Fire, that Dao Lord would truly have walked away.

Even Yaoguang himself had run out of ideas and could only accept that the ambush had falied.

And once the ambush failed, and the world learnt he could lay down a level 15 array, luring another void Dao Lord into a trap would have been no more than a foolish dream.

Any future attempt at Dao Integration would then have to wait for the Dao Contest itself, and for the instant a void Dao Lord fell, as only then could he advance to the Dao Integration Realm.

But that path might not leave him enough time to refine his top-tier Dao Artifacts into semi-immortal artifacts, let alone true immortal artifacts.

And without the power of a semi-immortal artifact behind him, while fighting for the most fiercely contested slot in the whole Dao Contest, the one belonging to the Great Dao of void, a man with reserves as shallow as his might well fail to get through the Gate of the Immortal Realm. In the worst case scenario, that meant another ten thousand years of waiting.

Of course, he still had the option of gambling on the other Gate of the Immortal Realm, the one billions of light-years away.

But he knew nothing whatsoever about conditions over there: If that gate had an even longer opening cycle, or even fiercer competition, it would be a losing deal.

So the Penglai Dao Lord's decisive killing stroke had done him an enormous favor.

"Thank you. Once I've achieved Dao Integration, the first thing I do will be finding a way to refine a semi-immortal artifact for you," Yaoguang said.

"Then I'll look forward to it," the Penglai Dao Lord said with a slight smile. "When do you plan to find an opportunity for Dao Integration?"

"My opportunity for Dao Integration?" Yaoguang was smiling too. "Right now."

"Now?" The Penglai Dao Lord blinked, then said, puzzled, "Weren't you going to refine a semi-immortal artifact first, sublimate your heart and mind, and only then attempt Dao Integration? What happened to..."

"It's enough as it is," Yaoguang said. "In that fight, I traded blows with the Unchained Dao Lord for some time without giving ground. My mental state right now has never been better, so I'm confident I can attempt Dao Integration immediately."

He looked at her. "A state like this passes in a blink. I'll trouble you to act as my protector, Dao Lord."

"Trading blows with the Unchained Dao Lord..." The Penglai Dao Lord looked at Yaoguang.

She could see he hadn't been carrying the Great Dao Golden Book! To hold his own against a Dao Lord for a while without leaning on a semi-immortal artifact was an achievement and a display of talent rarely seen in the world.

Confronted with such a genius... Whatever Yaoguang wanted to do, mediocre people like the rest of them could only do as they were told.

The Penglai Dao Lord smiled faintly. "Alright. I'll protect you!"

She waved a hand, and the void around Yaoguang filled swiftly with the power of the Great Dao of origin.

Yaoguang, for his part, released Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li from his protection. "Supreme Elders, you saw it. I just held my own against a Dao Lord, and my mental state right now is as good as it has ever been. I'm not willing to waste an opportunity like this, so I'm going to attempt Dao Integration immediately. I'll have to leave the reception of the Central Heaven Dao Lord to the two of you, and please also ask the Central Heaven Dao Lord on my behalf to act as my protector!"

He gave neither supreme elder a chance to answer. With a flick of his hand, both of them, along with the warship prepared for the reception, were transported five thousand kilometers away by void power.

The battered Ten Hells Dragon-Imprisoning Array then rose around Yaoguang, shrouding his figure and shining in response to the Penglai Dao Lord's Great Dao of origin, and a profound Dao resonance erupted from him.

"Today, I will achieve Dao Integration right here!"

***

Far off, five thousand kilometers away, Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li felt the world spin, their thoughts struggling to keep up.

One moment ago, they had been guessing that their sect master might be using himself as bait, working in concert with the Penglai Dao Lord to lure a void Dao Lord in and blood his blade, lowering the risk of his human tribulation.

Next, the guess was confirmed. The Penglai Dao Lord had appeared out of nowhere and caught the Unchained Dao Lord dead to rights, and even after he brought out the Void Origin, a supreme treasure refined over tens of thousands of painstaking years, she had blasted him apart with the Dao-Destroying Fire.

A disturbance like that had certainly shaken the entire North Sea Star. Everyone would be stunned that two void Dao Lords had fallen in such quick succession, and their deaths would cow every remaining void Dao Lord, so none would dare act rashly against Yaoguang.

And before either of them could recover from such a shocking event, Yaoguang was going to attempt Dao Integration?!

The Unchained Dao Lord had barely died, and Yaoguang was going straight into Dao Integration?

This was Dao Integration! The single most important step in any cultivator's long life, with nothing else even close! A moment that decided whether you truly achieved great success, and he wasn't going to spend decades, a century, making sure he was in peak condition and preparing thoroughly first?

Could a man really treat Dao Integration this casually?

More unbelievable still, before the warship carrying Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li had put even fifty thousand kilometers behind it, Zhen Xuanyuan, a Void-Shattering cultivator of the void Dao himself, had already sensed something.

"This is..."

He could faintly sense ripple after ripple spreading through the Great Dao of void, and those ripples seemed to carry a kind of joy, welcoming the arrival of some great being into their number.

Every cultivator of the Great Dao of void could feel their own power running more responsively, more actively, than it had a moment before.

"It's started?! I-It's started already?!" Disbelief covered Zhen Xuanyuan's face.

It was fast, far too fast!

He had decided to attempt Dao Integration a few breaths ago, and a few breaths later he was already in the Dao Integration state?!

And Zhen Xuanyuan was hardly alone.

***

Outside the North Sea Star, aboard the warship that had just completed its void transit, the Taiwei Dao Lord, the Central Heaven Dao Lord, the Pill Cauldron Dao Lord, and the Azure Crow Dao Lord all sensed it at once and exchanged looks, alarm rising in every face.

"This is..."

"Dao Integration! A Void-Shattering cultivator of the void Dao is attempting Dao Integration!"

Below, many perfected lords who cultivated the Great Dao of void could not help but cry out. Other Void-Shattering cultivators felt nothing, but every last one cultivating the Great Dao of void felt it in their heart.

It was said that for Dao Lords, this perception even transcended distance. However far away a Dao Integrator hid, a void Dao Lord could pinpoint their location exactly, and what followed was what every Dao Integrator feared most: the descent of the human tribulation. Any Dao Lord of the same Dao, seeing a Void-Shattering cultivator try to ascend to their rank, would move to kill them.

This seemed to be partly a rule handed down from ancient times. And, more concretely, it came down to the Dao Contest.

Every eye turned at once to the Taiwei Dao Lord, the void Dao Lord among them.

"Find out who the Dao Integrator is and who his protector is first, then we decide," the Taiwei Dao Lord said.

The Central Heaven Dao Lord nodded. The one attempting Dao Integration was not of the truth Dao, but this was happening in the sky above his own sect, so he naturally had to involve himself to some degree.

Something reached his senses just then, and he added at once, "People from my sect have arrived. Since this Dao Integrator chose to do it directly above the Heavenly Dao Sect, my people are bound to know something about him. I'll summon them over and ask."

"Good." The Taiwei Dao Lord nodded his head slightly. "I'd like to know myself which young talents cultivating the void Dao our North Sea Star has produced these past years."

Dao Integration was never simple. Depending on the cultivator's strength, the process could take as long as a century, so this void Dao Lord did not mind a short delay.

Before long, the warship carrying Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li drew up before the vessel the Taiwei Dao Lord commanded.

The two Heavenly Dao Sect supreme elders had not even had time to set out their ceremonial honors when Perfected Lord Ni Chang's psychic thought reached them. "This is Ni Chang. Elders, board the warship at once. My master and several Dao Lords have questions for you."

"Perfected Lord Ni Chang!"

Her name, of course, rang like thunder in both men's ears. Her talent was said to run even higher than Perfected Lord Jinghong's, something you could infer from the fact that the Central Heaven Dao Lord took her along on his travels.

He was clearly nurturing her as the Heavenly Dao Sect's next Dao Lord.

Neither of them dared show the slightest hesitation in answering her. Ordering the rest of their people to wait aboard their own vessel, they descended as fast as they could onto the warship carrying several Dao Lords and, under Perfected Lord Ni Chang's guidance, soon made their way inside.

The sight of five Dao Lords waiting there left no room for the arrogance a Heavenly Dao Sect supreme elder might otherwise carry. Both men stepped forward and bowed at once. "Greetings, Dao Lords. Greetings, Taiwei Dao Lord, Pill Cauldron Dao Lord..."

"That's enough, no need for ceremony." The Taiwei Dao Lord waved a hand and glanced at the Central Heaven Dao Lord. These were Heavenly Dao Sect people, and even with a void Dao Lord's stake in the matter, he wouldn't overstep.

The Central Heaven Dao Lord naturally also wanted to give the Dao Lord of the Three-Qing Temple some face.

"Ask whatever you wish, Dao Lord," he said, then turned to Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li. "I imagine you already know why the Taiwei Dao Lord has called you here. Whatever he asks, the two of you will answer truthfully."

Zhen Xuanyuan started, then understood. "Dao Lord, you want to ask about the Dao Integrator's identity?"

"Correct. The Dao Lords of the North Sea Star haven't all returned yet, but I'd estimate there are still fifteen or twenty here." The Taiwei Dao Lord inclined her head slightly and cast a look toward the North Sea Star. "I'd very much like to know which young talent of the void has the nerve to attempt Dao Integration in the sky above the North Sea Star. And which Dao Lord is confident enough to serve as his protector."