Chapter 408: Beaten into Submission

"You..." Zhen Xuanyuan's face changed at being berated so mercilessly. But having regained his reason and recognized just how powerful Yaoguang was, he did not strike again, only said gravely, "Yaoguang! Jing Yuntian may have been in the wrong, but you should not have killed him. He was a supreme elder of the Heavenly Dao Sect, part of our sect's foundation. And as the Heavenly Dao Sect's chief supreme elder, it falls to me to answer for every supreme elder of the Supreme Elder Council..."

"Since you insist on shielding Jing Yuntian, who colluded with the fiendish cultivators of the Yin Lunar Sect, I can only assume you had a hand in it too. I'll send you off together!" Yaoguang replied.

Yaoguang turned, starlight flickering across his whole body, raised his right hand high, and slashed down through empty air toward Zhen Xuanyuan.

With that slash, the Wandering Dragon Sword let out a resounding cry, a roaming dragon of golden light that stirred the Great Dao of void as it came crashing down on Zhen Xuanyuan!

"You?!" Zhen Xuanyuan's eyes flew wide. "You dare raise your hand against me?! Yaoguang, have you gone mad?!"

A bracelet on his wrist rippled with another ring of white light, sweeping out to bind the strike of the Wandering Dragon Sword, while in his other hand appeared a palm-sized spike, a terrifying energy capable of shattering the void rapidly originating from within it.

"A high-grade Dao Artifact, and... the Great Void Disintegration Technique."

Back in the day, Yaoguang had considered practicing that Dao Technique himself. In the end, with too many Dao Techniques demanding mastery, he had set that Dao Technique aside, but he still understood it thoroughly.

It was one of the Dao Techniques unique to the Great Dao of void, and one of the most lethal killing techniques the Great Dao of void had to offer, if not the most lethal!

Every Great Dao required the void as its vessel. By collapsing the opponent's Great Dao of void, this technique directly pulverized the foundation on which a cultivator's Dao existed, destroying their grotto-heaven and Dao Seed in a single move.

Going for the kill with a technique like this... The chief supreme elder was clearly nowhere near as fair and impartial as his grand words made him out to be.

But amplified by the Limitless Sword, Yaoguang's Void Sword was far beyond anything the Firmament Suppression Dao Technique could withstand.

The blazing white ring of light that could seal the void was cut straight through, and with Firmament Suppression shattered, the Void Sword's keen momentum carried on undiminished toward Zhen Xuanyuan.

"Something isn't right!" The sight made the chief supreme elder's face shift slightly.

Earlier, when Yaoguang used the Great Dao of void to shatter his Firmament Suppression, he had assumed it was thanks to the Heaven-Sealing Stele. But now that he had clashed head-on with Yaoguang's Dao Technique, he realized with a jolt that its power defied all logic.

Especially when the Void Sword came slashing down at him. The heavy Dao resonance stirred by the power of the void made it seem as if the power of the Great Dao of void itself had manifested and projected onto the Void Sword, hammering down in the form of the Dao Technique.

"A Dao Lord?! No! If a Dao Lord had struck, would I still be breathing? A life-bound Dao Technique! One practiced to perfection, then pushed to the grand perfection stage through a void Dao Seed!" Zhen Xuanyuan seemed to grasp something, and his face changed dramatically. "Your life-bound Dao Technique was never Void Flicker! The Void Sword is your true life-bound Dao Technique!"

Convinced he had uncovered the truth, he abruptly reversed the Great Void Disintegration Technique he had been condensing and slammed it into the descending Void Sword.

Two void Dao Techniques, both built for slaughter, collided and instantly tore space apart, leaving a pitch-black gash between them like a scar split open across the sky, shocking to behold.

A collision of void power at that level seemed almost more than even the Twelve-Fiend-God Heaven-Sealing Array could suppress. Countless streams of light shot skyward, washing over this stretch of void, continually canceling and devouring the shockwaves to keep the escaping energy from wreaking greater havoc on the surroundings.

When the exchange ended, the power of both Dao Techniques dissolved into the void. They had fought to a draw.

That caught Yaoguang somewhat off guard.

"So your life-bound Dao Technique isn't the Firmament Suppression the world knows about, but this Great Void Disintegration. A high-grade Dao Artifact paired with the Great Void Disintegration at the grand perfection stage... No wonder you've sat securely as the chief supreme elder of the Heavenly Dao Sect." At a glance, he had seen through Zhen Xuanyuan's real trump card.

His Two-Realm Ruler and Heaven-Sealing Stele had been leveled up to high-grade Dao Artifacts, but the Wandering Dragon Sword had yet to be nurtured that far.

He had assumed that once he had the Limitless Sword, it could stand in for the Wandering Dragon Sword. He had not expected the nature of a top-tier Dao Artifact to be different from that of a high-grade one.

Even after breaking through Firmament Suppression, his Void Sword had failed to crush Zhen Xuanyuan's Great Void Disintegration, a Dao Technique at the grand perfection stage.

For his part, having realized the true power of Yaoguang's Void Sword, Zhen Xuanyuan lost all will to continue. To keep fighting would mean staking his life.

"Yaoguang! That's enough!" Zhen Xuanyuan said in a low voice. "I will convene the Supreme Elder Council over this matter later..."

"It's not enough. You were the ones who struck first and started this fight. As for when it ends...that's for me to decide." Yaoguang swept a hand through the air, and amid flickering sword light, a Void Sword condensed once more.

"Yaoguang, you have no respect for anyone!"

"You're the ones with no respect." Yaoguang shook his head. "Talk is useless. Once you've tasted fear, you'll remember how to speak properly."

"You!" Zhen Xuanyuan bellowed in fury, then barked at Gu Li, who was standing close by, "What are you waiting for?! Move! Take him down!"

At the same time, he blasted out a psychic thought. "Yaoguang has been corrupted by the Fiendish Dao! He dares run amok against me, the chief supreme elder! Lineage leaders of the four lineages, activate the Twelve-Fiend-God Heaven-Sealing Array!"

"Yes!" The four lineage leaders answered without hesitation and streaked toward the array's key nodes.

Already half active from the violent energy fluctuations spilling through the sect, the sect-guarding grand array immediately blazed with streams of light, and in the void, the dim silhouettes of twelve fiend gods began to take shape.

At the sight, the supreme elder Chi Yun could no longer sit still. "Perfected Lord Xuanyuan, why let it come to this? Must we fight to the death inside our own sect before you'll let it rest?"

He quickly turned to Yaoguang next. "Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang, Jing Yuntian is dead. Let's stop here!"

"Stop?" Yaoguang looked up at the twelve fiend god silhouettes slowly condensing across the sky. "Do you really think this array can restrain me?"

He merged his deputy sect master token with the Heaven-Sealing Stele, then hurled the newly transformed high-grade Dao Artifact into the sky. Void-suppressing power, carrying a faint trace of the array's authority, rippled out from the artifact in waves visible to the naked eye, sweeping across the entire Twelve-Fiend-God Heaven-Sealing Array.

Under those spreading ripples, the sect-guarding grand array that had been on the verge of full operation seemed to become rusted and jammed. The condensing of the fiend god silhouettes immediately slowed by a wide margin. At that rate, the array would need at least a dozen more breaths to get running.

"What's going on?" Supreme Elder Gu Li's eyes filled with disbelief. "The array won't start?"

"It's your doing?!" Zhen Xuanyuan's gaze snapped straight to Yaoguang. "Who leaked the secrets of the Twelve-Fiend-God Heaven-Sealing Array to you?! Who?!"

Yaoguang paid him no mind at all. The fully formed Void Sword came crashing down.

"You..." Zhen Xuanyuan was perfectly aware that things were slipping out of control. Yaoguang can actually interfere with the operation of the Heavenly Dao Sect's own sect-guarding grand array?! How is that possible?!

But however heavy his heart grew, his hands never slowed. The power of the Firmament Suppression arranged itself around his body in a layer of spatial defense while another Great Void Disintegration rapidly took form.

"Your life-bound Dao Technique is, at best, a match for mine. But I am not fighting alone!"

Even as he spoke, he looked at Gu Li on the other side, who had readied a different, formidable Dao Technique. It became a greatsword that crossed the void and slashed down at Yaoguang to kill, leaving an aurora behind it.

Yet Yaoguang's expression stayed as calm as ever, as though every move lay within his expectations.

The next moment, having already released one Void Sword, he condensed a second with unbelievable speed, releasing it and having it follow right after the first.

Zhen Xuanyuan, who had just strained to bring out the Great Void Disintegration within the Firmament Suppression's sealing domain and intercept Yaoguang's first Void Sword, felt his pupils constrict.

How?!

As his thoughts raced, one void Dao Artifact of his worked in concert with a Dao Technique similar to Void Flicker, wrapping around him, and in a blink he appeared in another spot.

But Yaoguang was already using the True Spirit Light. The instant Zhen Xuanyuan used his Dao Technique to teleport away, the second Void Sword changed direction and chased after him, releasing a wisp of power that shook space itself and threw the surrounding void power into disorder.

"No!" Watching the Void Sword chase him, Zhen Xuanyuan deployed another Dao Artifact, one much like the Heaven-Sealing Stele, which instantly formed a sealed space and swallowed the void blade whole.

It was ripped apart a second later, but he had seized the chance to retreat at full speed while rushing to condense the Great Void Disintegration technique once more.

"A pointless dying struggle," Yaoguang muttered.

Yaoguang's figure flickered. Casually shaking off Supreme Elder Gu Li's strike, which had been closing in from behind, he appeared before Zhen Xuanyuan and raised his hand, a new Void Sword condensing into shape.

Under the boost of the Torrent of Time, a second Void Sword surfaced right behind it.

At the sight of two Void Swords forming at such an impossible speed, fear finally showed in Zhen Xuanyuan's eyes.

"A time Dao Technique?!" He cried in shock, trying to teleport away again.

But as the first Void Sword slashed down, the tremors its edge sent through the void made it nearly impossible for him to break through space and escape.

With the Void Sword closing in, he flung out his hand, and a clone appeared in the void to absorb the killing strike while he condensed yet another Great Void Disintegration and blasted the Void Sword apart.

But behind that one came the second. And worse, in Yaoguang's hand, a third and a fourth were already condensing.

Even if he used every trump card he had and managed to break this second Void Sword, how was he supposed to withstand the third, the fourth, and possibly the fifth and sixth?!

At that thought, regret over meddling in what was never his business welled up in his heart.

"Stop! Yaoguang, Jing Yuntian and the Jing family colluded with fiendish cultivators. He deserved to die at your hand! If you have other demands, we can sit down and talk them through. We're Void-Shattering cultivators belonging to the same sect, bound to see each other every day. Why must this come to open bloodshed?!"