Chapter 477: Congratulations

"Let's see how fierce this Dao contest turns out to be," Yaoguang answered. "There are far more void Dao Lords than those of any other Dao, and just as many variables."

The Penglai Dao Lord nodded.

Only forty-nine Great Dao circulated on the North Sea Star, and most of them had no more than three to five Dao Lords each.

For her own Great Dao of origin, she was aware of only two rivals. There might be one or two more in hiding, but with her current strength, even if they all came at her together, she could walk through the Gate of the Immortal Realm unimpeded.

That was exactly why she was so preoccupied with arranging the Penglai Immortal Sect's future. The odds that she would pass through the gate and ascend were very high.

The Great Dao of void was another matter. In any given contest, the Dao Lords competing for slots numbered a hundred to two, and even if the void Dao did not account for half, there were still at least sixty or seventy. Against such a large base, forget top-tier Dao Lords; even the invincible ones who could take on ten at once wouldn't claim to be entirely sure they could step through the gate.

"In the time ahead, you'd do well to spend more effort with the void Dao Lords of the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects, the Three Great Martial Dao Sects, the Four Great Immortal Dynasties and their affiliates. Build those relationships, so the world doesn't grow so wary of your strength that they all come at you at once," the Penglai Dao Lord advised.

"All at once?" Yaoguang's thoughts stirred. "Do you mean the void Dao Lords might join forces to eliminate me from the Dao Contest early on?"

"It's rare among Dao Lords of other Dao. Every Dao Lord of a type is a competitor, and they all have to guard against being used to kill for someone else's benefit, so alliances are hard to form. But on the crowded Dao, the Great Dao of streaming light and the Great Dao of void, it's happened more than once," she said.

"Got it." Yaoguang nodded.

On this point, he saw further than she did, which was why he was hesitating about whether to ascend.

Dao Lords of the same type were natural enemies by position. The secret of "shares" might be known only among a handful of immortals and within immortal venerable and immortal king circles, but was surely unknown to most immortals and certainly to Dao Lords.

But because those shares existed, every Dao Lord carried an almost instinctive malice toward others of its own kind, driving them to kill each other and take what they held.

And by ordinary reasoning, the higher a Dao Lord's share, the more intense that malice from his peers became. People who lack something turn groundless spite on those above them, wishing to see the elevated fall and the beautiful ruined. It was no different with Dao Lords.

So a certain vigilance remained essential.

Part of the reason the North Sea Star only fills with Dao Lords when the Gate of the Immortal Realm is about to open is that other Dao Lords are a danger to have around. Though there's a prettier way to put it. Kings do not meet kings.

With that in mind, Yaoguang raised his head slightly. "The battle my Dao Integration set off has finished. I owe my advancement to your help from start to finish, Dao Lord. Would you come and be a guest at my peak?"

"Some other time. You've just integrated, so I imagine you have many matters to handle, and your sect's Central Heaven Dao Lord and the others are waiting on you. Once you've dealt with the small business, I'll come." She paused for a moment. "Also, now that you've become a Dao Lord, you might want to think about your own arrangements. It isn't that a top-tier great sect can't hold two Dao Lords, only that..."

She paused again. "It depends on whether you choose to go through the Gate of the Immortal Realm and ascend. If you're in no hurry, the question isn't urgent either."

Yaoguang understood her meaning. He thought briefly, then said, "I'm the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master, but I came out of the Nine Cauldrons Sect. If I'd failed to integrate, that would be one thing, but since I succeeded, it's only right that I split the Nine Cauldrons Sect off."

He smiled slightly. "I'll take the Yin Lunar Sect's territory when the time comes. Their Lunar Fiend Empire nearly destroyed the Great Cangwu World back then. Taking the Yin Lunar Sect now and letting the Nine Cauldrons Sect grow and flourish on their former land would make for a fitting turn of the wheel."

"You mean to move against the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign?" The Penglai Dao Lord didn't find it strange.

Most of the Yin Lunar Sect's land had already been taken by the southern domain, and the only reason they had not been wiped out entirely was that the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign had returned.

With Yaoguang having broken through and already having the power of a top-tier Dao Lord, making plans to drive the Yin Lunar Sect out for good and to kill the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign was only normal.

"If you need help, just say the word," she said.

"I will." Yaoguang smiled. "And whenever you decide to move on the Nine Demon Race Lineages, don't need to be too polite with me either."

"Gladly. Thank you."

The Penglai Dao Lord had indeed long intended to give the Nine Demon Race Lineages a thorough beating before she ascended.

If she could kill another demon paragon or two in the process, and stir internal strife within the Nine Demon Race Lineages, those demons would have no attention to spare for the Penglai Immortal Sect for a long time to come.

They talked a while longer, and then she took her leave.

As for Yaoguang, a few Void Flickers brought him back above the Heavenly Dao Sect.

The warship carrying the Central Heaven Dao Lord, the Taiwei Dao Lord, and the rest was still waiting there, everyone aboard glancing now and then toward where Yaoguang and the Penglai Dao Lord had been.

Every battle between Dao Lords was earth-shaking, and within a space as small as the North Sea Star, every Dao Lord could feel the energy fluctuations coming from such battles.

They could pinpoint where the two of them were, and they could equally well grasp what the sudden disappearance of the Jade Scale Demon Paragon's aura meant.

"Another being who had reached Dao Integration has fallen," the Pill Cauldron Dao Lord said emotionally.

This time, the one who died was a demon paragon of the demon race, which was good news for humanity. Still, it had been an existence comparable to them in terms of power.

"The Jade Scale Demon Paragon... Counting that one, the Dao Lord battle set off by Dao Lord Yaoguang's Dao Integration has brought the number of fallen Dao Lords to four. That's a staggering number..." the Azure Crow Dao Lord added.

"It isn't as simple as four." The Taiwei Dao Lord could not keep quiet. "If we count the Abyssal Ruins Dao Lord that the Penglai Dao Lord killed back then, within this past century the Dao Lords who have died after coming in contact with Yaoguang and Penglai already number five."

Saying it aloud left the Dao Lord shaken in a way he could not put into words.

Five Dao Lords! Five, and all of them gone forever!

Since when had Dao Lords, lofty beings who could be called the peak of the universe, been this cheap?

He was truly glad he had taken a neutral position during Yaoguang's Dao Integration and had not joined Unchained, Extinction, and Kunpeng in trying to kill this prodigy.

Otherwise, following those three, as well as Abyssal Ruins, who had died decades ago, he, Taiwei, might well have met the same fate as the four of them: the fifth void Dao Lord to fall to Yaoguang and Penglai.

"This is one for the record books." The Sovereign Radiance Dao Lord glanced toward Yaoguang. "Even without the spectacle of becoming a Dao Lord at two hundred, the bones he piled up walking the road to Dao Lord would be enough to write him into the historical records of the North Sea Star."

The others nodded firmly, fully in agreement.

In this age, plenty of Dao Lords had faced their human tribulation during Dao Integration. But which of them had ever had four Dao Lords buried to pave their road, the way Yaoguang had?

If anything deserved the phrase "no precedent in history," it was this.

Amid all that wonder and reflection, when they felt the Penglai Dao Lord's aura recede and Yaoguang appeared abruptly among them, the Dao Lords all stepped forward at once, cupping their hands, faces full of smiles.

"Congratulations on your Dao Integration, Dao Lord Yaoguang. From today, you stand at the peak of the universe, with 129,600 years of life before you."

"Achieving Dao Integration at two hundred years of age, Dao Lord Yaoguang, you may be called the first in the North Sea's history! Congratulations!"

"Congratulations, Dao Lord Yaoguang!"

Every voice was warm and carried goodwill.

Yaoguang smiled at the sight and returned each greeting in turn.

The Central Heaven Dao Lord stepped up as well. "Dao Lord Yaoguang, let me make some introductions."

He drew him straight into the Dao Lords' circle, where the talk and laughter flowed.

***

Below the warship, Zhen Xuanyuan and Gu Li were still dizzy and disoriented, as if the whole world had turned into a dream.

They had come out to receive the Central Heaven Dao Lord, and in the blink of an eye, in under an hour, Yaoguang had become a Dao Lord? Anyone with a weaker constitution would have assumed they were dreaming.

If two Void-Shattering supreme elders were in that state, then the perfected lords fared no better.

Every one of them was a Dao Lord's direct disciple with a place on the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings. Even so, a Dao Lord remained a great being they could possibly only look toward, a rank they were not guaranteed to reach.

Perfected Lords Ying Feng and Jing Mo had the thought firmly in mind.

So what if one made the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings? Across every edition of that list, forget the names near the bottom; even the top three, even the first name, had only a twenty- to thirty-percent chance of ever achieving Dao Integration.

That meant a man as strong as Perfected Lord Tian Xiao had perhaps a ten- or twenty-percent chance of ever becoming a Dao Lord.

And even if he did, what then? Could he be compared to Yaoguang? Compared to a man who, immediately after his advancement, fought multiple veteran Dao Lords head-on and made his name known by taking the lives of one Dao Lord after another?

In that moment, both Perfected Lord Tian Xiao and the Martial Paragon Perfected Lord felt that the gulf between them and Yaoguang had become as wide as a chasm.

As for Perfected Lords Ying Feng and Jing Mo, who had so loudly declared they would challenge Yaoguang and take his second place on the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings, they fell silent as cicadas in winter and did not dare speak. The blow had cost them even the courage to look at Yaoguang directly.

Once a man integrated and became a Dao Lord, he belonged to a different world. The two sides no longer belonged to the same tier of the world.