Chapter 494: Trust

"The secrets on Yaoguang belong to the Great Dao of void, and they can only be known by the void Dao Lords!" The moment the Chaotic Void Dao Lord, a renowned Dao Lord of great standing who had lived for many years, appeared, his formidable psychic thought flooded the surrounding area. Nonetheless, the Eight Desolations Heavenly Realm's power swiftly eroded it.

Yaoguang watched the teleportation array that had just transported the Chaotic Void Dao Lord begin to stutter lightly; it would need a brief cooldown before a second teleportation.

He could not help but gasp. This teleportation array could only bring those void Dao Lords over one at a time? Never mind that it didn't send them all at once! The real problem was that the cooldown looked to be two or three breaths long.

How dare these Dao Lords come to ambush him and the Penglai Dao Lord with such inadequate preparation? Did they really believe they could kill them like this?!

By now, the Chaotic Void Dao Lord, suddenly trapped within the Eight Desolations Heavenly Realm, had noticed something was off.

"Destruction, what kind of trick are you pulling!?" the Dao Lord growled, clearly having no grasp of the situation on this side.

Still, it was only natural. Who could have imagined that six divine venerables would prove so utterly unable to hold their own? Especially since they were only facing two top-tier Dao Lords, and had even set up an ambush! In little more than a dozen breaths, they had not only suffered a total rout but lost four of their six?

Yaoguang fell silent for a moment, but his movements did not slow. Channeling the array's power, he brought a Great Disintegration Technique crashing down.

As the technique struck, the surrounding void power was held firmly in Yaoguang's grip, who didn't allow any of it to escape.

If the void Dao Lords who had faced him earlier had felt their strength suppressed by fifty or sixty percent, now it was starting at seventy percent!

"Yaoguang!?" The Chaotic Void Dao Lord detected his attacker's aura the instant he struck, and as his expression shifted violently, he quickly channeled the Great Dao of void, trying to pull away and dodge.

But the moment he drew on that void power...

"How is this..." the Chaotic Void Dao Lord started.

"So, is there nothing else you have to say?" Yaoguang asked coldly.

The Great Disintegration Technique pressed down, instantly shattering every inch of space around the Chaotic Void Dao Lord and making it collapse on itself.

With a loud humming sound, secret techniques and treasures similar to those the Voidlight Divine Venerable had used to increase his control over the void erupted from the Chaotic Void Dao Lord's hands.

But they still could not break through Yaoguang's absolute dominion over the void. And even if they had, it would have served little purpose.

Yaoguang's command of the Great Dao of void left other void Dao Lords utterly countered in his presence, with no room to flee.

No matter how fast they fled, they could not outpace Yaoguang, whose life-bound Dao Technique was Void Flicker.

"No!" Amid a despairing roar, the renowned Dao Lord, whose form had fully merged into the void, was blasted out again by the violent tremors in the Great Dao of void.

The void-shattering power of the Great Disintegration Technique tore his control over the void to shreds, nearly knocking him from Dao Lord all the way back down to the Void-Shattering Realm.

"A reincarnated immortal! A reincarnated immortal! You are absolutely the reincarnation of a true immortal of the Great Dao of void! Otherwise, your control over the Great Dao of void could never reach this level!" The Chaotic Void Dao Lord despaired as his void power slipped from his control, and he broke into a somewhat deranged laugh.

"Even if you are a reincarnated immortal... If I must die today, I will drag you down into death with me..."

A power so violent and vast it defied description surged forth from the Dao Lord. Its sheer destructive intensity almost reminded Yaoguang of the Dao-Destroying Fire the Penglai Dao Lord unleashed when she slew the Unchained Dao Lord years ago.

"Suppress!" But before that destructive power could peak, Yaoguang clenched his fist toward the Chaotic Void Dao Lord's position, and void power verging on absolute dominion instantly froze the Chaotic Void Dao Lord in place.

The next moment, the Great Dao of void trembled, then shattered outright.

Self-destruction! In a way, this was like self-destruction! Thanks to his absolute control over the power of the Great Dao of void, Yaoguang had completely annihilated a portion of that power by forcing it to self-detonate.

The Chaotic Void Dao Lord took the full brunt of the Great Dao's collapse. His essence, qi, and psyche scattered instantly.

The residual tremors traveled on to strike Yaoguang himself without losing momentum, but the Endless Tower's power blocked them entirely.

Moreover, as Yaoguang absorbed the Chaotic Void Dao Lord's share of the Great Dao of void with all his might, the tremors caused by the Great Dao's collapse were quickly smoothed over.

Yaoguang briefly sensed his own condition; he had lost roughly 0.2 of his share of the Great Dao of void. But as he continued cultivating and absorbed a portion of the Chaotic Void Dao Lord's share, his own share surged by approximately 0.8.

That omnipresent power, which felt like the origin of the void, once again drew away the remaining 0.2, as though making it become part of the whole universe.

As Yaoguang killed one void Dao Lord after another and absorbed their shares, that vast power, seemingly representing Void Origin, projected influence toward this corner of the starry sky, its intensity growing stronger as it competed with him.

A void immortal king in the Immortal Realm? Yaoguang had a realization.

When Dao Lords clashed, if the distance was great, those at the Void-Shattering Realm could barely detect it. But other Dao Lords would surely feel something.

Even separated by billions or tens of billions of light-years, other Dao Lords of the same kind would still have a vague sense of a Dao Lord's fall or birth. Distance would only affect how clear that perception was.

If Dao Lords could sense the fall and birth of their own kind across billions or tens of billions of light-years, what about immortals? What about the immortal venerables, who wielded one percent of a Great Dao's authority? And what about the immortal kings, arguably the most powerful individual beings beneath the Dao Ancestors?

It wouldn't be strange for them to sense a Dao Lord's fall or birth in the lower world, even while in the Immortal Realm. And the moment they felt it, they would use their far greater share to absorb the fallen Dao Lord's share.

The more frequently Dao Lords fell in a region, the more likely their deaths would draw the attention of top-tier figures intent on absorbing more shares.

Yaoguang even thought of the Gate of the Immortal Realm. Is the gate the node through which those top-tier beings in the Immortal Realm absorb shares?

After all, if Dao Lords were scattered across the universe, with the barrier between the two realms acting as an additional obstacle, even immortal-king-level beings might not be able to compete with a nearby Dao Lord.

But if all Dao Lords were concentrated in one region and periodically "harvested", every opening of the Gate of the Immortal Realm would, without a doubt, be a feast for those immortal venerables and immortal kings of the Immortal Realm.

"When I absorbed the first few void Dao Lords, that vast, inspiring power was clearly far away from me, barely able to compete with me for shares of the Great Dao of void. But now it is much closer."

The thought sent a chill through Yaoguang's heart. Fast! I have to move faster!

"Next." Yaoguang turned his gaze back to the reactivated teleportation array. Before long, the array took shape, and another void Dao Lord stepped forth. Once more, Yaoguang's Great Disintegration Technique was the first thing it saw.

Several breaths later, Yaoguang had refined their share as well. Sure enough, that vast power competing with him for shares seemed to have drawn even closer. Yaoguang even felt a faint, prickling sense of danger, like a thorn pressed against his back.

He glanced at his Dao Lord share, which had risen to 5.7, then fixed his gaze once again on the void teleportation array engraved upon that specially crafted Dao Artifact. This time, after the array activated, not a single void Dao Lord emerged.

A thought struck Yaoguang, and he quickly guessed what had happened. Every void Dao Lord is selfish. Chaotic Void and the other Dao Lord rushed over. If things had gone smoothly on this side, Penglai and I would already be lambs to the slaughter.

Those two void Dao Lords would absolutely have found a way to stop the teleportation array from opening again. But they did not. Instead, they let the array activate again and again. That kind of behavior is clearly off...

Perhaps the second Dao Lord sensed something was wrong before he came over and arranged some kind of code word with the other void Dao Lords. Because of the short distance, they might also have exchanged messages via communication jade talismans.

Knowing the situation had changed, the other void Dao Lords would naturally no longer risk their lives by leaping out one by one to their deaths.

Since they haven't destroyed the teleportation array just yet, it proves they still have some hope. Heh. After all, there were six Divine Venerables and about eight to ten void Dao Lords! A massive force if compared to two top-tier Dao Lords. Who would believe they could lose so quickly?

Even if they really did receive a message transmitted by the Destruction Divine Venerable, they would suspect it was just him trying to hoard the secrets on my body for himself. Yaoguang finally understood.

At the Dao Lord Realm, everyone trusted their own judgment too much that they could barely listen to anyone else's advice. Since these void Dao Lords didn't dare to come over, he would cut them down at the source to prevent them from making a comeback...

I'll go over there myself! Yaoguang thought.

With that decision made, Yaoguang instantly informed the Penglai Dao Lord of his plan. At the same time, he asked her to do her utmost to pin down the Destruction Divine Venerable and the Slaughter Divine Venerable.

As for himself, he retracted the Eight Desolations Heavenly Realm, stepped through the void, and vanished into the teleportation array.

This teleportation array didn't cover much distance. Otherwise, a somewhat unusual top-tier Dao Artifact could never have sustained it so easily. Mere moments after entering the array, Yaoguang emerged in another stretch of starry sky.

From here, he could still faintly sense the endlessly trembling Great Dao of destruction, the Great Dao of slaughter, and the Great Dao of origin further in the distance.

The five void Dao Lords on this side wore expressions of utmost caution and wariness. Only five remained because two had sensed something was wrong and left early.

The remaining five, however, firmly believed wealth and glory came only through risk and refused to let the opportunity slip by.

The five occupied positions in five directions, yet they had entered a formation. What trust could possibly exist between void Dao Lords who had allied only halfway? Without trust, working together in a formation was naturally out of the question.

"Yaoguang!?" At the sight of the figure emerging from the teleportation array, the five fully alert void Dao Lords erupted in an uproar.

"It's him!? How is the one teleporting out of the array him? Where are Chaotic Void and the others?!"

"Damn it! Could Yaoguang's move against the divine race have been nothing but a grand play they orchestrated themselves? And the real purpose of staging it was to lure us void Dao Lords into taking the bait, so they could wipe us out and reduce the risks during the Dao contest?!"

"Whether or not Yaoguang is in league with the divine race and putting on a show for us, destroy the teleportation array first. That way, he can neither rendezvous with the divine race in time nor escape from our encirclement through the array! I refuse to believe that the combined might of five void Dao Lords cannot deal with a newly advanced Dao Lord who has been at the Dao Integration Realm for barely two hundred years!"

Naturally, these Dao Lords were unwilling to believe that the six divine venerables of the divine race, followed by Chaotic Void and his companion, could have fallen so quickly. Their psychic thoughts churned with endless speculation.

Yaoguang watched it all and let out a heartfelt sigh. "A rabble."

The next moment, he alone, radiating a predator's aura, surged straight toward the five great void Dao Lords.