Chapter 567: 9 Great Dao Kings!

Take it back?

Take back the power of a Dao King?

This was no longer just a provocation; it fundamentally denied the very foundation of the World Honored One’s existence since ancient times!

“Absurd!”

Before the World Honored One could speak, the Dao King representing the “Ultimate Returning Ruins” in the pitch-black rift above the Celestial Vault let out a muffled, harsh shout. His voice was like a Yin Wind howling from the Ancient Cold Abyss, carrying a soul-freezing fury and a trace of unbelievable dread.

Those crimson eyes locked onto Qi Yun. Darkness surged, as if wanting to swallow him and that patch of the void whole.

“The Dao Fruit is formed, establishing a Heaven and Earth of its own!

“The Dao Power belongs solely to oneself, a clear proof of transcending the Profound Yellow!

“By what right can you take it back?

“By this stolen, unstable status of the ‘Profound Yellow Lord’?”

“Because I am the Profound Yellow.” Qi Yun did not even look at the dark Dao King. His gaze remained calmly fixed on the World Honored One as he simply replied with a few calm words.

The moment his voice fell, his right hand—which was aimed at the World Honored One with slightly curled fingers in a “drawing out” posture—gently clenched.

There was no earth-shattering boom, nor any heaven-illuminating phenomena. There was only a soft POP, as if something had been “peeled away” from the deepest depths—a subtle noise originating from the very root of the Great Dao.

“Ugh—!”

Seated cross-legged upon the Twelve-Grade Golden Lotus within the golden rift, the phantom of the World Honored One experienced a violent fluctuation on his eternally unchanging, compassionate golden face for the first time!

An incredibly glaring dark gold, entirely out of place amidst the peaceful golden light surrounding him, rapidly surged up his cheeks like a rising tide. It even spread toward his Golden Body, which was condensed from pure Buddha Power!

Beneath him, the petals of the Twelve-Grade Golden Lotus trembled violently, emitting an overwhelmed CRACK. Fine cracks began to form at the edge of the lotus platform and spread toward the center! The peaceful Buddha Light radiating from the lotus platform—capable of bringing Enlightenment to a Grand Thousand World—flickered erratically and rapidly dimmed.

An even more terrifying change occurred deep within the massive golden rift stretching across the Celestial Vault.

Deep within that rift, the phantom of a vast, boundless Buddha’s Pure Land was faintly visible. Within it was Infinite Light, infinite life, and the phantom chants of countless Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. There were the Eight-Treasure Merit Pools and the Seven-Treasure Bodhi Forests, along with the Wish Power from the faith of countless devout believers that transformed into golden motes of light, swirling like a Star River.

In the void at the core of this Buddha’s Pure Land, a perfectly round, golden Dao Fruit hung high. It was as massive as a mountain. Its surface flowed with billions of Swastika Buddha Seals, and its interior seemed to hold the endless creation and destruction of scripture characters. This was the Great Nirvana Buddha Fruit!

This was the foundation of the World Honored One’s Dao Foundation! It was the core of his transcendence beyond a True Monarch, his establishment of his own Buddha’s Pure Land, and his ascension to the Status of a Dao King!

Yet at this moment, this eternally resplendent and indestructible Great Nirvana Buddha Fruit trembled violently under Qi Yun’s gentle clench!

BUZZ—!

The Dao Fruit buzzed. The light of the billions of Swastika Buddha Seals flowing across its surface dimmed and extinguished at a visible rate! Fine traces, like cracking porcelain, surfaced at the top of the Dao Fruit and snaked downward!

Inside the Dao Fruit, the endless scripture characters fell into disarray and disintegrated, turning into specks of fragmented golden light that drifted out from the cracks! These drifting specks of golden light did not dissipate into the void. Instead, as if drawn by some irresistible summons, they transformed into fine streams of golden light. Piercing through the barrier of the golden rift, they converged toward the palm of Qi Yun’s clenched right hand like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea!

No, it was not just this core Dao Fruit!

The phantom of the Buddha’s Pure Land also shook violently in tandem. Its Infinite Light dimmed, the Eight-Treasure Merit Pools dried up, and the Seven-Treasure Bodhi Forests withered. The phantoms of countless Buddhas and Bodhisattvas let out silent wails, becoming blurred and transparent!

The vast and majestic Origin Power of the Buddha Country, along with the Fundamental Laws and the foundation of Spiritual Qi originating from the Profound Yellow Origin Realm contained within it, were forcibly extracted and peeled away thread by thread. They transformed into an even thicker golden torrent that surged toward Qi Yun!

Even the light of the World Honored One’s Golden Body itself—condensed from pure Buddha Power and his Fruit Position—was rapidly draining, its golden hue turning dull and murky. His previously solid form, akin to immortal Divine Gold, now faintly exuded a sense of illusory unreality!

“You—!!!”

The World Honored One could no longer maintain his silence and tranquility. His eyes, which had been lowered for eternity in seeming indifference to all things, snapped open!

He attempted to stabilize his Dao Fruit and sever the invisible extraction force. Mighty Buddha Power surged from his Golden Body, repairing the cracks in the Dao Fruit and stabilizing the Buddha’s Pure Land. The golden rift spanning the sky erupted with blindingly intense Buddha Light. Like a true golden sun burning in the zenith, it illuminated the entire Profound Yellow into a field of gold. The terrifying Buddhist might sought to blast away and incinerate Qi Yun’s invisible “hand”!

However, it was useless!

Qi Yun simply stood there quietly, his right hand curled in a grasp. There were no powerful Spiritual Power fluctuations around him, nor any resplendent brilliance of Dao Principles. There was only a profound state of being thoroughly intertwined and united as one with the earth beneath his feet, the Celestial Vault above, and every inch of space, every wisp of Spiritual Qi, and every Daoist Law within this Heaven and Earth.

He was the Profound Yellow, and the Profound Yellow was him.

What he was grasping was not the World Honored One’s Dao Fruit, nor was it the World Honored One’s Buddha Country. Rather, it was the “nourishment”—the “roots”—that the World Honored One had extracted, transformed, and claimed as his own from the “mother tree” of the Profound Yellow over the past eons!

This was an absolute suppression of Status!