Chapter 476: Formidable

A top-tier Dao Lord!

Hearing the Azure Crow Dao Lord use that term, the Pill Cauldron, Taiwei, Central Heaven, and Sovereign Radiance Dao Lords all revealed looks of longing.

"Top-tier Dao Lord" was a phrase that circulated only within Dao Lord circles. The gaps between Dao Lords were not large, and given how two Great Dao might counter each other, relative strength was genuinely hard to judge at times.

Even so, every Dao Lord had at least a rough sense of where the others stood, and over time the term had come into use.

Below top-tier Dao Lords came renowned Dao Lords and ordinary Dao Lords. Ordinary Dao Lords were the common ones of the domain, and Central Heaven, Taiwei, and the rest of those present all sat at that level.

A renowned Dao Lord either had strength good enough to clearly outclass their peers, acknowledged by ten or more Dao Lords who all but conceded to them, or they had the record to prove it, having actually killed a Dao Lord and laid the foundation of their name in a Dao Lord's blood.

The Taiqing Dao Lord of the Three-Qing Temple, the Destruction Divine Lord of the Destruction Divine Race, and the Innate Fiend Sovereign of the Heavenly Fiend Sect belonged to that tier.

Above them came the top-tier Dao Lords, the ones other Dao Lords looked at with dread. That, or those who had killed at least two Dao Lords.

Before Yaoguang, only one figure on the North Sea Star had earned that recognition: the Penglai Dao Lord.

There were, admittedly, long-established Dao Lords who had not returned to the North Sea Star and might well possess such strength, but their number would not exceed the fingers of one hand.

And now, alongside the Penglai Dao Lord, there was at least one more.

Even if he was a new Dao Lord. Even if he only barely met the standard. Whoever earned that title would have a level of influence on the North Sea Star in the years ahead that other Dao Lords could only dream of.

"A top-tier Dao Lord." The Taiwei Dao Lord turned the words over and finally let out a long breath.

He was at a loss for words. This time, he truly had nothing left to say.

Contesting the Dao against a top-tier Dao Lord, one who had cultivated for a mere two hundred years yet had such terrifying power, was simply digging one's own grave.

And the opening of the Gate of the Immortal Realm was still seven or eight hundred years away. After seven or eight hundred more years, only heaven knew what Yaoguang's power would be like.

That was a figure who should not be provoked, a figure who should be courted in every way.

"I wonder where Dao Lord Yaoguang has gone."

"Void Dao Lords come and go without a trace, and we can't track them. My guess is that he's gone to help the Penglai Dao Lord chase down the Jade Scale Demon Paragon."

"Kill Kunpeng first, then wipe out Jade Scale. That would be an enormous blow to the demon race's arrogance. Having Dao Lord Yaoguang really is a blessing for our human race."

The Dao Lords kept sharing their thoughts. Between the Unchained Dao Lord's death and the Kunpeng Demon Paragon's, their attitude toward Yaoguang had shifted without any of them quite noticing.

"We obviously can't catch up to Dao Lord Yaoguang, and even if we could, with two top-tier Dao Lords like him and the Penglai Dao Lord on the job, wiping out the Jade Scale Demon Paragon is trivial. We'd be no help at all. Rather than that, let's head back and wait for Daoist Yaoguang to return triumphantly," the Sovereign Radiance Dao Lord suggested with a smile.

The Central Heaven Dao Lord and the others nodded in agreement, and one by one they started heading back.

As they left, though, several of them couldn't help but glance back at the site where the void had been thrown into disorder and shattered until all manner of terrifying celestial phenomena manifested. You could almost still see the brutality of the demon paragon's death in that area.

After today, Yaoguang's name will spread across the whole North Sea Star, across the whole starry sky. There won't be a soul who hasn't heard it. The Taiwei Dao Lord thought, then vanished from that stretch of space.

***

Elsewhere, Yaoguang used Void Flicker to return to the other battlefield with astonishing speed.

There, the Jade Scale Demon Paragon had used a life-saving treasure and actually fought its way out of the encirclement of the Penglai Dao Lord's Great Dao of origin.

It still hadn't shaken her off, but it was clear the demon paragon had come prepared to be beaten into a headlong rout, having stocked several escape treasures in advance. Otherwise, it wouldn't have appeared in front of her.

At the rate things were going, it might genuinely have gotten away with its life thanks to those treasures.

Unfortunately, it was not facing the Penglai Dao Lord alone this time. Yaoguang was there too.

Appearing on the scene without warning, he only needed one glance to read the situation.

He waved a hand and threw out the Heaven-Sealing Stele. To a Dao Lord, high-grade Dao Artifacts were essentially useless, as they added nothing to their strength. What they could still do was change the properties of the power running through them.

Just like now. Using the Heaven-Sealing Stele, Yaoguang locked down the void the Jade Scale Demon Paragon occupied.

As it ran for its life, the demon paragon felt its body seize up, and the ocean of origin power the Penglai Dao Lord had raised came sweeping in.

"Yaoguang?!" Looking at the figure blocking its path, the Jade Scale Demon Paragon let out a low roar of shock and rage. "Out of my way!"

It manifested its heavenly demon true body and charged toward the spot where Yaoguang stood.

The instant it moved toward him, Yaoguang stabbed a finger at the space ahead: a Great Void Disintegration Technique took shape from a great mass of condensed void power and crashed down on the charging Demon Paragon.

Even with its heavenly demon true body manifested, the Jade Scale Demon Paragon was blown open, flesh and blood flying, its heavenly demon body all but torn apart by the force.

Then the Penglai Dao Lord's Great Dao of origin arrived behind it, not giving it a single break as it washed over him.

Under those two energies, the demon paragon's mighty body melted like ice and snow left out under a blazing sun. It kept shifting its shape, trying to break clear, yet the origin power held it firmly in place.

Ahead, Yaoguang, having landed the Great Void Disintegration Technique, was already condensing a Void Sword without hesitation. It was a sword countless times larger than the ones before, the same kind of colossal blade the Unchained Dao Lord had once brought out against him. Once it was ready, Yaoguang brought it down.

"Crap!" The Jade Scale Demon Paragon thrashed.

But the Penglai Dao Lord, seeing the incoming strike, released even more origin power, until the demon paragon was caught as though in turbulent waters, unable to control its own direction at all. In the end, it could only watch the enormous Void Sword come down.

"No!" The Jade Scale Demon Paragon howled at the sky.

The next second, the sword split its heavenly demon true body wide open, and the void energy within, having shredded that body, condensed into a black hole and went on absorbing and devouring, grinding what remained of the heavenly demon body to nothing.

Moments later, like a Primordial Void filled past capacity, it burst, releasing energy in a shockwave that swept outward far enough to reach tens of thousands of kilometers, perhaps fifty thousand and more. Neither Yaoguang nor the Penglai Dao Lord were damaged by it, though.

Yaoguang reached out, took hold of the Primordial Void that had swallowed the Jade Scale Demon Paragon, and sealed it with void power. That section of space was cut away and congealed into a black pearl shimmering with starlight.

"Dao Lord." Yaoguang tossed the black pearl to the Penglai Dao Lord.

She caught it on reflex, then looked surprised. "Why give it to me? You're the one who killed the Jade Scale Demon Paragon."

"True enough, but if you hadn't bound it at the critical moment, I might not have put it down so easily. If it had one more life-saving item nobody knew about, it might really have gotten away." Yaoguang smiled. "Besides, you spent your own trump card helping me kill the Unchained Dao Lord. Consider this little thing a gift, by way of compensation."

Hearing that, the Penglai Dao Lord did not stand on ceremony. "Then I'll take it."

She turned the black pearl over with a smile as she spoke. "The Jade Scale Demon Paragon never had a scrap of a Dao Integration cultivator's bearing. Ever since I broke into its ancestral ground, it refused to face me head-on. Wherever I was, it made sure to be somewhere else. All I ever needed was to corner it once, and it would've been dead, but I never got the chance... And for all that time, it kept sending its demon emperors and demon sovereigns to stir up trouble in the Deep-Blue Sea, and they killed more Penglai Immortal Sect disciples than I can count. With you killing it today, at least I can answer to those disciples."

Yaoguang nodded. He understood all that, which was why he had given her the Jade Scale Demon Paragon, refined down into demon paragon quintessence, so she could offer it to the spirits of every Penglai Immortal Sect disciple the demon race had killed over the years.

"Speaking of which, what about the Kunpeng Demon Paragon?" The Penglai Dao Lord looked at him, a flicker of delighted surprise in her eyes. "Don't tell me it has already died at your hands too?"

Yaoguang nodded. "If I'm reading you correctly, your own comprehension of the Great Dao of origin runs far higher than an ordinary origin Dao Lord's. With that advantage, you should know exactly how much of an edge I hold over a void Dao Lord whose comprehension sits below mine."

"I knew it!" Light filled her eyes. "Just as I guessed. Your understanding of the Great Dao of void has already passed what a normal Dao Lord holds, which is why you could complete the Dao Integration process so fast, and also the reason you are so overwhelmingly superior compared to other Dao Lords, even if you just became one."

"Only in the Great Dao of void," Yaoguang said with a smile. "Against Dao Lords of other categories, it wouldn't work."

"The Dao Contest is about fighting Dao Lords of your own type. With that advantage, there's hardly a void Dao Lord left who can stop you from rising to the top." She looked at him, all smiles. "If things go well, the next time the Gate of the Immortal Realm opens, the two of us might just get our chance to ascend together and enter the Immortal Realm."

"Ascend to the Immortal Realm..." Yaoguang gave a small nod.

Whether to go through at this opening, or to spend a ten-thousand-year cycle in the lower starry sky first and clear out all other void Dao Lords before ascending, was something he was still weighing.