“Buzz.” With the help of the sacred light from the Void Imperfection Physique, Saint’s holy light became increasingly stronger, no longer flickering, due to the addition of “firewood”. If this kept on going, the holy light from Saint would be able to reach Samsara’s origin.

“The dao is endless.” Samsara stared at Li Qiye and said: “Fellow Daoist, we aren’t enemies. Let me give you a piece of advice. The three of us have a perilous path ahead. If you wish to break the shackles of the world, you should look forward instead of seeing things in black and white. This is the same for me and old friend. Unfortunately, he cared too much about other beings. Otherwise, the two of us could have worked together and possibly start an unprecedented situation and prolong our epoch.” Samsara said.

His tone wasn’t rushed at all despite his current disadvantage in the battle.

“We had different aspirations and paths. The prosperity of all being is not something to be traded. I will never cease before ending the darkness.” Saint coldly added.

“Old friend, I have always admired your magnanimity.” Samsara chuckled: “I’m no match for you when it comes to saving others. The truth is that outside of wanting to break out of the shackles with my harvests, it is for me to survive. I won’t deny that I’m afraid of dying before success. There’s no shame in that. But old friend, have you ever thought about it? If the two of us had worked together; light and darkness; we could have swept through everything until the final battle. Perhaps we could have broken through the shackles and prolong our epoch. Now, it doesn’t even exist. Light, darkness? All a waste of time.” Samsara calmly said.

“If cycles of darkness and bloody harvests are necessary, I very much prefer for our epoch to end.” Saint was unyielding in his response: “You didn’t have the courage and determination to fight to the end and rather live a borrowed life through the harvests. Even if you were to win, so what? You would have still lacked the mind to change yourself and our epoch. Your dao heart had fallen, and will forever be so!”

“I guess there’s nothing else I can say and can only fight to the death.” Samsara was not afraid. He turned towards Li Qiye and said: “You and my old friend have the same beliefs, I can understand that. An era resplendent with the light, it is indeed worth longing for. But have you thought about how you can defeat the high heaven by yourself? Can you make it in the final battle and win? If not, why not change your perspective? I’m not trying to divide you two. It’s just that at our level, I also hope that you could make it to the final battle.”

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Samsara was straightforward and sincere, causing many emperors to stare at Li Qiye in anticipation. Working together with a dark overlord? It could indeed open a new door.

“You are mistaken.” Li Qiye smiled: “Light and darkness aside, if I want to participate in the final battle, it shows that I am confident in beating the old heaven, it’s that simple. My helping Saint today has nothing to do with light and dark. It is only to set an example for everyone to know that this is my era. Dark overlords and supreme progenitors? They better be smart as long as I am still alive and stop scheming in the darkness. Otherwise, kill without mercy!”

This leisure comment was a declaration of war towards those not on his side. The spectating emperors shuddered. The guy clearly wanted to go all out in this generation without showing any mercy.

“Back to the nature of our battle.” Li Qiye chuckled: “I agree with Saint’s perspective. So what if you are invincible if your dao heart has already fallen? Even if you were to win, it wouldn’t be a good thing for this world. Thus, our path is different, no need to plan together. There will only be one result today, your death!”

One would be hard pressed to find someone else in this world who would dare to announce the death of a supreme overlord like Samsara.

“Fellow Daoist, since you are so confident, it would be rude of me if I don’t go all out. We’ll see who will fall today.” Samsara smiled in response.

“Boom!” Endless darkness oozed from the altar deep in the wildland. A figure came out from the darkness, one step of his was enough to make the myriad ages tremble.

“There’s no going back to the past, but it can be stored.” This person spoke with grace.

“Samsara!” Many emperors palpitated.

This was another Samsara, exactly identical to the one before. It wasn’t an illusion either.

“Fellow Daoist, you are capable of copying yourself. I do not have such a treasure, but I have cut down my past self and left it here.”

This nonchalant revelation made the emperors shudder. It was prohibitively difficult to cut down one’s past self. It entailed cutting time and space, karma, and themselves in order to strip out the past completely. In the end, this allowed the user to store this past self without any damages.

The high-level emperors thought that they couldn’t replicate this task.

“I’m inferior to you in this regard. My copy is indeed more of a quick fix, but you only have a past self, no future.” Li Qiye chuckled.

“Right, and that’s where I fall short compared to you.” Samsara nodded: “Indeed, I do not have a future. However, your future self might not be able to win this battle for you. My past self will slay your present self today.”

Both of the ancestors smiled at the same time. The one on the altar began: “Quite a heaven-defying setup, perfect even, but there is still one flaw in my eyes, more than enough to destroy it.”

“Boom!” This past Samsara raised his hand without using any technique or dao.

Beneath his palm was nothing but emptiness. All were instantly crushed into powders then disappeared completely.

“Rumble!” This was indeed the case. Space, time, dao, and the myriad laws all crumbled.

It then headed for Li Qiye, the one from the present. He wished to kill this Li Qiye because then, there would be no future Li Qiye. This was the opposite of Samsara. If the present Samsara was killed, his past self would still exist.

“Boom!” There was nothing that could block Samsara’s palm. Even some emperors would instantly be crushed into mists of blood.

However, it couldn’t reach Li Qiye. The grand momentum exploded again with shiny lights. They came together to form the most powerful barrier and stopped his palm.

It wasn’t only a physical barrier. This was also repelling space and all powers. The momentum created earlier had separated Li Qiye and the seventeen emperors from all else.

If Samsara wished to kill Li Qiye, he must destroy this separation first.

This particular formation wasn’t only created by profound dao but also an unbelievable amount of chaos stones, refined jades, and precious metals. Most importantly, thirty fowl crystals were the leading materials and continued to give energy to the emperors and Li Qiye.

Under this formation and their own power, it was as tough as an impregnable fortress. Not many people in the world could actually take it down. However, Samsara was certainly in this group.