Chapter 493: Strength

The roles of hunter and prey flipped so swiftly that even the Destruction Divine Venerable couldn't react in time.

Only when the Void Divine Venerable was struck down with devastating ease, and the six divine venerables were reduced to four, did the Dao Integration powerhouse leading the divine race finally understand how dangerous their situation was.

Yaoguang... how can he be this strong?! The Destruction Divine Venerable was shaken to his core.

"It's the suppression of the Great Dao of void!" The Slaughter Divine Venerable, who had been silent for a moment, said quickly, "Yaoguang's command of void power far surpasses that of any other void Dao Lord. So when they face him, they are inherently suppressed, letting him defeat them easily."

He had already reached his conclusion. "Yaoguang's comprehension of the Great Dao of void must be extraordinarily profound. Otherwise, he could never pull this off."

The Destruction Divine Venerable's expression shifted slightly and growled, "No matter what, notify the other void Dao Lords and tell them to come at full speed. We have paid such a terrible price; we cannot return with empty hands now."

The Slaughter Divine Venerable nodded and was about to act when the Thunderbolt Divine Venerable suddenly spoke up, "What are these? They seem to be blocking my perception."

The Slaughter and Destruction Divine Venerables looked around and saw a bank of gray mist that had somehow appeared in the vast, empty starry sky. The mist spread out, shrouding several million kilometers of space in every direction.

Its scope was not large; they could have stepped clear of it in a single stride, but it interfered with their perception, and the four divine venerables found their awareness of one another growing indistinct.

"This is Yaoguang and Penglai's doing!"

"Whatever it is, we'll smash through it first!"

"A few million kilometers of gray mist, what good is that? Child's play!" As the Destruction Divine Venerable spoke, he instantly unleashed a wide-ranging destructive Dao Technique, the Annihilation Aurora.

A blaze of light so brilliant it defied description erupted from his hand and spread outward, its brightness outshining a star by untold orders of magnitude and illuminating tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, of kilometers in every direction.

At the same time, relying on the power of the Great Dao of destruction, it annihilated every last trace of matter and energy within that zone.

Yet almost as soon as he unleashed the Annihilation Aurora, he sharply sensed a terrifying power barreling toward him at extreme speed, carrying the same aura of destruction.

He had no choice but to redirect the Annihilation Aurora's full force to intercept it.

Upon intercepting it, he was stunned to discover the attacker was none other than the Thunderbolt Divine Venerable. The Thunderbolt Divine Venerable, in turn, realized that the one assailing him was the Destruction Divine Venerable.

Both had clearly intended to destroy the gray mist zone, yet their Dao Techniques had somehow been turned against their own allies.

Still, the divine venerables of the divine race trusted one another enough not to turn on each other over it. Instead, they quickly realized what was happening.

"This mist doesn't just interfere with our perception; it affects our judgment too!"

"Is it the power of the Great Dao of dreams?!"

As the two divine venerables exchanged psychic thoughts, the powers of the Great Dao of origin and the Great Dao of void surged forth simultaneously.

With that, they abandoned all further communication and unleashed their own techniques in counterattack.

However, they did not know that the very powers of the Great Dao of origin and the Great Dao of void they used to strike back seemed wrapped in a layer of deception as well.

Or rather, they had been tricked at the soul level, making it nearly impossible to accurately determine what kind of Great Dao power was assailing them, or which opponent it came from.

As a result, in Yaoguang's and the Penglai Dao Lord's eyes, the four divine venerables were fighting entirely for themselves. Each had become every other's enemy.

Had Yaoguang and the Penglai Dao Lord not been interfering, the four of them could have quickly calmed down and sorted out the situation. But the two of them gave the divine venerables no such opportunity.

Amid the chaotic clash of their opponents' Dao Techniques, Yaoguang and the Penglai Dao Lord wove in genuine attacks, real and fake blending into one.

Unable to tell whether an assailant was another divine venerable, Yaoguang, or Penglai, they had no choice but to throw everything they had into blocking every Dao Technique aimed at them, even though they knew their perception and judgment were being tampered with.

"Is this the power of that supreme treasure of yours?!" The Penglai Dao Lord was astonished. Then, as if realizing something, she suddenly said, "For it to have this kind of power... A semi-immortal artifact?!"

Yaoguang did not deny it. He nodded. "Indeed, it is. My first semi-immortal artifact."

"It really is a semi-immortal artifact!?" Although she had long known Yaoguang would eventually refine one, the Penglai Dao Lord couldn't help but widen her eyes.

"Isn't it right before your eyes?" Yaoguang said. "A semi-immortal artifact of the soul Dao. Unless a Dao Lord has merged with the Great Dao of soul, it is nearly impossible to see through its true nature. Even those who have mastered the Great Dao of soul can, at best, only ensure their own safety..."

With that, his gaze settled on the Slaughter Divine Venerable. This divine venerable had clearly retained enough clarity to remain unaffected by the Eight Desolations Heavenly Realm, and was concealing himself, waiting for an opening to break through the mist manifested by the semi-immortal artifact.

"Move him out. I'll handle him," the Penglai Dao Lord shared her thoughts with Yaoguang.

Sensing her confidence, Yaoguang did not refuse. The Great Dao of void trembled, and the Slaughter Divine Venerable's body was instantly cast out of the Eight Desolations Heavenly Realm, plunging directly into the heart of the sea of origin that the Penglai Dao Lord had raised.

The moment he fell out of the gray mist zone, the divine venerable realized he had been discovered and targeted.

"A semi-immortal artifact! This is a semi-immortal artifact!" the Slaughter Divine Venerable roared, immediately trying to send a transmission.

To prevent Yaoguang from calling the Dao Lords of the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects for help, they had chosen a battlefield some distance from the North Sea Star.

At that range, a dedicated transmission array could have kept them in timely contact with the North Sea Star, but now no one could guess whether the message would even get out. Especially with the sea of origin summoned by the Penglai Dao Lord engulfing him and intercepting all forms of power and communication.

"Finish this quickly! We can't let those void Dao Lords get suspicious!" Yaoguang's psychic thought carried a hint of urgency.

Compared to these divine race members, he would much rather be fighting void Dao Lords. Whether ten, a dozen, or more, void Dao Lords posed less of a threat in his eyes than the divine venerables before him!

Receiving the message, the Penglai Dao Lord likewise intensified her assault. The Slaughter Divine Venerable was effectively the second-ranked figure of the divine race, and his combat power was by no means weak.

She could not simply kill him whenever she wanted. To settle this quickly, the outcome would depend on Yaoguang.

Within the gray mist zone manifested by the Eight Desolations Heavenly Realm, Yaoguang summoned the Endless Tower, and layer upon layer of streaming light settled over his body. As the radiant light swirled, the void power within him gradually grew stronger.

The moment the two void Dao Lords had perished, he had used his immortal-venerable-level comprehension to rapidly increase his share of the Great Dao of void.

Though the vast power that seemed to uphold the rules of the world still seized a tiny fraction of that share, the total share of the Great Dao of void he commanded reached 4.6 out of 10,000. For other void Dao Lords, most of whom held barely a single share and only a rare few two, this was already an overwhelming advantage.

Thanks to his defensive supreme treasure, now evolved into a semi-immortal artifact, he could almost ignore the attacks of several divine venerables and clash with them head-on, Dao Technique against Dao Technique.

With Yaoguang "putting his life on the line", how could the remaining three divine venerables, each fighting alone, possibly hold out?!

In mere moments, the Thunderbolt Divine Venerable and another had perished. In exchange, Yaoguang took nine Dao Techniques head-on. Fortunately, attacks of that caliber were not enough to shatter the Endless Tower.

Just as Yaoguang had slain those two divine venerables and was about to take on the Destruction Divine Venerable, the hardest nut to crack, the specially crafted Dao Artifact he had obtained, representing the pinnacle of both array art and artifact refinement, started releasing ripple upon ripple of void energy.

Yaoguang raised a hand, and the Dao Artifact appeared before him. One glance was all he needed to understand what was happening.

The Dao Artifact has been activated on its own? In theory, only the divine race on this side could activate it to form a teleportation array and bring the void Dao Lords from the other side over. Yet it seems they can actually remotely activate it from over there, forming a receiving array? Yaoguang's thoughts raced.

The void Dao Lords over there could not wait to activate the array, even at the cost of exposing their hidden hand. He glanced toward the deeper reaches of the starry sky.

Had those void Dao Lords sensed the Great Dao of void growing unstable from the repeated collisions here and realized Yaoguang had already engaged the six divine venerables? Yet, instead of fleeing, they now wanted to intervene in the battlefield on their own initiative?!

After the battle began, the divine race never activated the teleportation array to bring these void Dao Lords into the fight. Could it be that they think the divine race wants to deal with Penglai and me alone? Are they afraid they won't get a share of the spoils, so they rushed to activate the array themselves? Yaoguang thought.

These Dao Lords apparently assumed the best of every situation and never considered that the divine race hadn't activated the array because the divine venerable in charge of the Dao Artifact had died before he even had the chance.

But on further thought, it wasn't so hard to see why they would make those assumptions. Who would believe that someone like the Voidlight Divine Venerable, whose combat power was close to that of a renowned Dao Lord, could be struck down by him with such devastating ease in just a few exchanges?

People tended to believe only what they wanted to believe. Dao Lords, who had absolute confidence in themselves and their judgment, were especially prone to this. Even when it was not the truth.

"Since you're in such a hurry..." Yaoguang placed the specially crafted Dao Artifact within the Eight Desolations Heavenly Realm and allowed the teleportation array to activate.

Meanwhile, he channeled the void's vast, surging power and, relying on his immortal-venerable-level command of it, forcibly condensed an amplification array from the surrounding void.

Time was short, conditions were limited, and forming an array in the void meant its power level wouldn't be high, but it could still boost Yaoguang's combat strength by another ten to twenty percent.

With a buzz, from activation to a complete teleportation array, the teleportation Dao Artifact took only a single breath, astonishingly fast.

The instant the array took shape, a Dao Lord strode out of it without delay. It was the Chaos Void Dao Lord!

"Destruction, you won't hog Yaoguang's secrets for yourself!" he roared.