Chapter 490: Confidence

"Heavenly Fate Dao Lord... that name carries quite a lot of weight," Yaoguang remarked.

Only then did he get to the main point. "You said the Destruction Divine Venerable left the divine race territory with five divine venerables to intercept the Heavenly Fate Dao Lord... What about Light? Is he among them?"

"The members of the divine race naturally understand that you are keeping an eye on Light, so they did not let him set out. He and three other divine venerables are guarding the divine race territory," The Penglai Dao Lord said. "The system of the divine race is somewhat special. The divine venerables stationed at their headquarters can basically match the battle strength of renowned Dao Lords by relying on the power of their divine kingdoms. If they also set up top-tier arrays around those divine kingdoms, then even if they face a top-tier Dao Lord, they can still put up a fight."

Yaoguang naturally understood this point. The divine race’s cultivation system followed the path of earth immortals. And within their own blessed grotto-heaven, earth immortals possessed battle strength comparable to heavenly immortals.

"Even a top-tier Dao Lord can only fight them for a while. In other words, I cannot break through Light’s divine kingdom in a short period of time. And with three other divine venerables remaining at the divine race headquarters... This is troublesome," Yaoguang said.

"Divine kingdom? Why would you fight a Dao Integration cultivator of the divine race inside their divine kingdom?" The Penglai Dao Lord looked somewhat puzzled. "Didn’t the Destruction Divine Venerable take five divine venerables to ambush the Heavenly Fate Dao Lord? The Dao Lords of the Four Great Immortal Dynasties won't just stand by and watch.

"The Primordial Dragon Dao Lord of the True Dragon Dynasty has called upon the Origin Sword Dao Lord of the Heavenly Origin Immortal Dynasty, and he also paid a great price to invite the Azure Firmament Dao Lord of the Heaven-Reaching Sect, one of the Three Great Martial Dao Sects, to go and support the Heavenly Fate Dao Lord. In other words, the Heavenly Fate Dao Lord’s side also has four Dao Lords. Do you understand?"

Yaoguang was stunned for a moment, then realized what she was suggesting. "Should I respond to the Four Great Immortal Dynasties and join them in intercepting the six divine venerables led by the Destruction Divine Venerable?"

"Of course. Sooner or later, you will make your move against the Light Divine Venerable. In other words, the Light Divine Venerable is an enemy you must kill. The only reason you haven't acted yet is that you are worried the Ten Divine Races will join forces to attack you.

"But what if the divine venerables of the Ten Divine Races suffer heavy losses, or even the entire Ten Divine Races are scattered? At that time, without the banner of the Ten Divine Races behind him, with your strength, wouldn’t killing the Light Divine Venerable be an easy task?" the Penglai Dao Lord said.

Yaoguang listened and found that it made a lot of sense. The Light Divine Venerable had the Ten Divine Races backing him? Then he would destroy the Ten Divine Races. It was that simple.

"The Destruction Divine Venerable is going all out against the Heavenly Fate Dao Lord and the others, together with five divine venerables. You only need to kill one or two divine venerables during the fight. But if you kill three, or even four, that would be even better.

"That will cause severe damage to the Ten Divine Races. Once that happens, how would they still have time to care about your vendetta against the Light Divine Venerable? They might even hand the Light Divine Venerable over just to calm your anger."

"It is also possible that the Destruction Divine Venerable gathers the remaining divine venerables and fights me to the death."

"Then prioritize killing the Destruction Divine Venerable, followed by the Slaughter Divine Venerable. Do not give the influential divine venerables of the Ten Divine Races a chance to rally everyone together."

"That makes sense." Yaoguang nodded deeply in agreement, while also sighing slightly. "A battle involving ten Dao Integration Realm experts. Has the North Sea Star become this chaotic already?"

"The Dao contest is approaching, so clashes between Dao Integration cultivators have naturally become more frequent." The Penglai Dao Lord felt that battles of this scale were completely normal.

She paused for a moment. "The only problem right now is that we do not know whether the simultaneous actions of the six divine venerables of the divine race are actually a trap targeting you."

"A trap? Are you saying they might have joined forces with the void Dao Lords?" Yaoguang asked.

"Or perhaps the void Dao Lords have joined forces with the divine race?" the Penglai Dao Lord said. "This possibility cannot be ruled out."

Yaoguang fell into thought.

"So, do you plan to take action? If you intend to give it a try, I can help," the Penglai Dao Lord said. "But you must help me upgrade the Human Emperor Sword into a semi-immortal artifact."

"Upgrading a semi-immortal artifact was already part of the promise I made to you for your help back then," Yaoguang answered.

Penglai Dao Lord remained silent for a moment.

Yaoguang couldn't help but feel slightly surprised. Then he seemed to realize something. "You cannot provide the resources needed to upgrade the Human Emperor Sword anymore?"

"I've consumed a lot of materials during this period," the Penglai Dao Lord replied tactfully.

He thought of the many materials he had obtained from the Penglai Dao Lord, as well as the materials she had used to refine the two top-tier Dao Artifacts. Apparently, he had completely drained the Penglai Dao Lord...

After thinking it through, Yaoguang understood. The Penglai Dao Lord was not necessarily that wealthy. How long had it been since she became a Dao Lord? She had obtained most of her resources by taking them from the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion and the Nine Demon Race Lineages.

Previously, to support his artifact-refinement endeavors, she had invested no less than three hundred billion in him. For those veteran Dao Lords, this was almost their entire fortune. For a newly advanced Dao Lord like the Penglai Dao Lord, providing so many resources was already quite impressive.

Of course, this was also related to the fact that the Penglai Dao Lord herself was not good at managing resources. If she had known she couldn't even provide the materials needed to upgrade the Human Emperor Sword into a semi-immortal artifact, she wouldn't have asked him to refine the Horizon Diagram.

And she still called herself a Dao Lord. When it came to spending resources, she had no sense of planning. A complete spendthrift.

Although most of those resources ended up in his own hands, that didn't stop Yaoguang from giving the Penglai Dao Lord this evaluation.

After pondering for a while, Yaoguang asked, "This matter involves the Four Great Immortal Dynasties. The Four Great Immortal Dynasties shouldn't have joined forces with the Ten Divine Races, right? After all, they are human forces."

"The only concern is that the Four Great Immortal Dynasties may not know about this plan."

"Since you learned that the True Dragon Dynasty paid a great price to invite Azure Firmament Dao Lord to take action, did they also invite you?" Yaoguang asked.

"No." The Penglai Dao Lord denied it. But she immediately added, "I was the one who took the initiative to approach them."

"You took the initiative to approach them."

With that, his suspicions toward the Four Great Immortal Dynasties greatly decreased.

"Did they agree?"

"No. However, they only asked me to stand by on the North Sea Star and provide support. They will also give me a reward after the matter is over," the Penglai Dao Lord said.

Yaoguang nodded slightly. The Four Great Immortal Dynasties were not particularly trusting of the Penglai Dao Lord. Although the Four Great Immortal Dynasties and the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects both belonged to the human race, they ultimately had different development philosophies.

In addition, the Heavenly Fate Dao Lord, the Primordial Dragon Dao Lord, and the others felt that the four of them should already be able to safely bring the Heavenly Fate Dao Lord back, so they naturally were unwilling to spend another sum of money.

However, they were also wary of the Penglai Dao Lord's reputation as the number one Dao Lord on the North Sea Star. So they gave her a little protection fee to keep her satisfied.

That proved that the Four Great Immortal Dynasties had nothing to do with this matter. If there truly was a trap, the divine race and the void Dao Lords must have set it up between them.

The strength of the divine race... The Dao Lords of the Four Great Immortal Dynasties should be able to withstand it.

In other words, even if this were a trap, the only opponents he would need to deal with would be the void Dao Lords. Yaoguang smiled slightly. "I understand."

Then he said directly, "Then I ask the Penglai Dao Lord to act together with me. We will go and deal with the five divine venerables led by the Destruction Divine Venerable!"

"Good!" The Penglai Dao Lord agreed without the slightest hesitation. "This matter was started by the Four Great Immortal Dynasties and the Ten Divine Races. Even if the consequences are truly significant, the Four Great Immortal Dynasties will bear the burden. This time, we won't be the center of everyone's attention. Furthermore, with the Dao contest approaching, the deaths of some Dao Lords are considered relatively normal. We can act without restraint."

"That is indeed true," Yaoguang replied with a smile.

Actually, he already knew the Penglai Dao Lord’s true purpose in pushing this matter forward. She had run out of resources. But she still wanted to upgrade the Human Emperor Sword.

The Four Great Immortal Dynasties were willing to pay hefty prices to invite other Dao Integration cultivators to help. Yet, no matter how much they paid, they wouldn't go beyond one trillion.

But a Dao Integration cultivator's personal wealth could often reach two or three trillion, and most Dao Integration cultivators preferred to keep their valuable resources to themselves, so she set her sights directly on the divine venerables.

She called him along because such behavior would attract too much hatred and might make other Dao Lords wary, so she needed someone to share the spotlight with her.

Furthermore, she was a Dao Lord of the Great Dao of origin. In a direct confrontation, she could rely on the Great Dao of origin's strengths to hammer any opponent to death, or wear them down if she couldn't kill them immediately. But if the enemy tried to escape, she would be somewhat helpless.

But Yaoguang could easily catch up to any Dao Integration cultivator attempting to flee.

There was no denying that the Penglai Dao Lord was extremely bold. However, Yaoguang still simply said, "There's no time to waste. Let's go now."

"That was exactly what I had in mind."

"The battlefield is in the extraterritorial starry sky. It should take some time to get there. To prevent you from being unable to keep up later, shall I take you there?"

"Then I will trouble you."

The Penglai Dao Lord and Yaoguang quickly reached an agreement. Yaoguang packed his belongings and, with a single flicker, left the Heavenly Dao Sect like a ghost vanishing from sight.

The Penglai Dao Lord wanted to intercept and kill the divine venerables and even the void Dao Lords, then take their resources to prepare to upgrade the Human Emperor Sword.

As for Yaoguang himself, he also needed to hunt down opponents in order to quickly raise his Refiner branch level.

Otherwise, with the opening of the Gate of the Immortal Realm drawing closer and closer, he feared he would struggle to upgrade the Eight Desolations Mirror, Endless Tower, and Limitless Sword into true immortal artifacts in time.

His plan to sweep through all void Dao Lords during the Dao contest would likely become difficult to achieve. After all, there were far too many void Dao Lords. He wouldn't face just one or two Dao Lords, but forty or fifty, or even more.

So, since he now had a chance to rapidly improve the Refiner branch by hunting Dao Integration cultivators, he naturally wouldn't refuse.

Of course, this course of action involved some danger. If the divine race and the void Dao Lords had truly joined forces to set a trap, plenty of void Dao Lords would be taking action.

It would not be strange if there were more than ten. Such a lineup would be more than enough to kill any two top-tier Dao Lords.

However, his immortal-venerable-level attainments in the Great Dao of void and the two semi-immortal artifacts he had refined over these two hundred years had already given Yaoguang the confidence to directly face more than a dozen void Dao Lords.

If it isn't a trap, I will kill two or three divine venerables. But if it truly is a trap, with many void Dao Lords waiting for me to leave the North Sea Star and distance myself from the other Dao Lords of the Ten Great Immortal Sects, then I will have walked right into their trap... A sharp glint flashed through Yaoguang’s eyes. Even then, we'll have to see who is the hunter and who is the prey.