Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 1275: Annihilation (2)
Boom!
With a heaven-shattering boom, Tang Jie’s palm slammed onto the top of the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth.
His hand pressed on the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth like it was an upturned bowl, pausing right on its border—the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth’s inside was countless times larger than its outside, so attacks from the outside were clearly more effective.
A moment later, a golden light spread out from the center of his palm, exuding a holy aura.
As this holy glow spread, the outer shell of the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth began to splinter, cracks spreading across it like spider webs.
“No!” Yu Cheng and the Buddha Ancestor cried out in despair and terror. Yu Cheng’s sword was stopped by Wang Yao’s White Tiger Divine Fist, but the Western Heaven Buddha Ancestor’s palm slammed into Tang Jie’s back. Tang Jie could have endured the strike with the Heavenly Dao Realm, but he chose to rely on his toughness. As the palm struck, he grimaced, and his massive body instantly shrank. This single strike had obliterated much of the power contained in his body. At the same time, Immortal Ji Yao’s spatial blade fell on the Buddha Ancestor, and there was an explosion of sacred light as the Buddha Ancestor’s face darkened.
But all the injured people didn’t seem to feel it, worrying more about the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth than their own safety.
In the center of that world of twinkling starlight, a black dot had appeared, but it grew larger and larger, devouring its surroundings.
It was Tang Jie’s World Devourer.
The Heavenly Dao Realm combined with his palm had not been able to completely shatter the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth, but it had carried a World Devourer imbued with all of Tang Jie’s strength into the world within the labyrinth. To maintain it, Tang Jie kept his hand on the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth while also drawing power from the Gigantes core. In addition, the Heavenly Dao Realm had conferred the power to infinitely devour to the World Devourer.
Thus, the World Devourer began to devour worlds.
What started as an unremarkable black hole grew larger and larger as it devoured more and more, growing at a frenzied rate.
If this were in the main world, then even with the Heavenly Dao Realm and the Gigantes core, Tang Jie wouldn’t have been able to do this.
But this was a small world, and Tang Jie wasn’t using brute strength to destroy it, instead using the Heavenly Dao Realm to plant a seed of destruction within this small world.
What was really destroying the world was the world itself, Tang Jie simply exploiting it to terrifying effect.
As the black hole grew and grew, stars went dark, the fabric of space was obliterated, and all was rapidly annihilated.
Standing in the center of this world, watching the black hole grow, the Gigantes King suddenly understood something.
He understood that this was the end of his race.
And then he laughed.
He suddenly seized Yu Cheng’s Divine Will and simply stood there, watching the black hole get closer and closer.
Aghast, Yu Cheng shouted, “Release me!”
The Gigantes King ignored him.
Yu Cheng suddenly realized that the Gigantes King was ready to die, and that he wanted to bring along a companion.
Alarmed, he desperately tried to break free, but how could he be stronger than the Gigantes King? As the World Devourer neared, through Tang Jie’s efforts, the entire labyrinth was starting to collapse. If he didn’t escape now, he would be obliterated along with it. He grew increasingly frantic, but the Gigantes King held him tight. Yu Cheng immediately hardened his resolve, his true body back in the court suddenly turning around and swinging the Xuanyuan Sword, evading Wang Yao’s attempt to block and striking at the labyrinth. His attack pierced through its veil and sliced into his soul, severing his arm. The Xuanyuan Sword was able to directly attack the soul, and this blow dealt so much damage that Yu Cheng screamed. But it allowed his soul to break free of the Gigantes King’s grip, and in a flash, he had flown out of the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth and back into his body. As he looked back into the world within the labyrinth, he saw that the black hole had already devoured the Gigantes King…
“Bastard!” Yu Cheng yelled in fury as he stood up from his throne, his face snow-white.
With his soul returned, he could finally use his full strength, but striking at himself with his sword came with a heavy price. It meant that even though he had recovered his strength, he was in a heavily injured state.
But a moment later, the Buddha Ancestor thrust a finger at Yu Cheng, upon which his complexion rapidly improved.
The Western Heaven Buddha Ancestor was also called the Guiding Buddha, as he was the only one in the mortal plane able to fight over souls with the Nether Domain and send them through reincarnation. He was extremely capable in the Dao of repairing souls, which was not under any one of the Twelve Great Daos.
In the light of the Buddha, Yu Cheng’s Divine Soul rapidly recovered.
But Yu Cheng’s soul was so strong that it greatly taxed the Buddha Ancestor, so his recovery resulted in immense exhaustion for the Buddha Ancestor.
And even the Buddha arts could not avert the shattering of the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth.
Just as the World Devourer was about to completely destroy the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth, Yu Cheng suddenly pointed a finger and shouted, “Stop!”
A golden beam of light fell on the labyrinth, causing it to freeze right at the moment of collapse.
This golden light was not some kind of Divine Connection or Immortal Art, nor was it a power that even Saint Immortals possessed.
The labyrinth world’s collapse was halted!
It had to be understood that destruction was always easier than construction. Tang Jie had needed his Heavenly Dao Realm and the Gigantes core to destroy the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth, so the fact that Yu Cheng could stop its collapse with a word was utterly mind-blowing.
Tang Jie’s eyes flashed as he muttered, “So this is your real trump card.”
Tang Jie had seen that the golden beam had actually contained the power of all Twelve Great Daos.
If there was any other power in the world that could compare to it, it could only be Tang Jie’s Heavenly Dao Realm.
One could say that Yu Cheng was also using the Heavenly Dao Realm. It was just that its nature was different from Tang Jie’s. One had been achieved by betraying the Dao, the other by uniting the Daos, but they were both the ultimate manifestations of their respective paths.
The endpoint was the same!
As the collapse of the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth was stopped, Yu Cheng shouted again. “Open!”
The stars in the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth burst out with light.
It was their final burst of starlight.
With this explosion of starlight, the crack was opened a little wider.
Yu Cheng was clearly trying to open the crack at all costs.
“That’s the spirit.” Tang Jie smiled, taking out the Sovereign Blade and swinging it at Yu Cheng.
He was using this chance to attack Yu Cheng.
“Despicable!” Yu Cheng had no attention to spare on defending himself, all of his power focused on stabilizing the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth. Only now did he understand that Tang Jie destroying the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth was only a means, that the real target was him. All that he had done was to push Yu Cheng into a state where he couldn’t hit back.
Yu Cheng had fought against humans, demons, and even the heavens themselves, so Tang Jie could consider it quite the achievement to have earned a “despicable” from him.
As he spoke, his body flashed with golden light to stop Tang Jie’s Sovereign Blade.
Yu Cheng was going all-out to hold back Tang Jie. He was maintaining the labyrinth, opening the fissure, and defending against Tang Jie at the same time, and while he was managing to do all three of these extremely difficult things at once, the Fourface Crown of Omniscience was working at maximum capacity, his calculation ability pushed to its limits.
The Western Heaven Buddha Ancestor once more took action, but this time, he was stopped by the Three Sages Ancestor. Meanwhile, Wang Yao, Tang Jie, and Immortal Ji Yao, together with a host of Devil Chiefs, were converging on Yu Cheng. It seemed like the demons were about to slay the Immortal Emperor, and the Immortal generals of the Court of Myriad Domains courageously moved to defend their liege. A bitter battle erupted around him. Gone were the attempts to skirmish or test, leaving only a mortal struggle. Thousands of Divine Connections clashed around Yu Cheng, and as the generals and soldiers of the court shielded him with their own bodies, blood rained down from the heavens.
Oceans of divine power ravaged the skies, and both Immortals and devils lost their lives at a rapid pace.
But in this clash, it was always the Court of Myriad Domains that would pay the greatest price.
Because they had to protect Yu Cheng, they were always on the defensive.
Pure defense could not equal a full-throated offensive, and no number of barriers could withstand the tens of thousands of demonic arts. Violet, black, and gray energies burned away all obstacles in their path, and one Immortal general after another fell under their barrage.
“Tang Jie! You’re helping the demons!?” Yu Cheng shouted.
“I’m merely acting on behalf of the heavens.” Tang Jie smiled. “This is the will of the heavens.”
“The Heavenly Dao is demonic, so why serve it? We should go against the heavens!”
“Forget it,” Tang Jie said in disdain. “You took the path of uniting the Daos, trying to usurp power, which isn’t going against the heavens at all. If not for the Gigantes taking the Heavenly Dao’s attention, both you and I would have been exterminated by the Heavenly Dao long ago. Now that the Gigantes are gone and you used the Dao Unity Realm, the Heavenly Punishment should be coming soon, no?”
Yu Cheng chuckled. “You really do know a lot, but there’s still a lot you don’t understand. ‘Heavenly Punishment’… haha, I’d like to see how the heavens punish me!”
As Yu Cheng spoke, he pointed at the crack. “Open up!”
The crack completely opened, revealing a bottomless black hole.
At the same time, the collapse of the Heavenly Dao Labyrinth could no longer be held back, and the World Devourer expanded to devour the entire labyrinth…
