Chapter 895: Dao Realm

Yang Guang, Mo Xing, Tian Yu, and the others felt the surge of that familiar power. Desire burned in their eyes.

"This is the power! The power to control the universe and rule over the laws!"

"This is without a doubt a path more correct than that of the Supremes or the Highlords!"

"If I can break through to the Divine Emperor Realm on this path, why should I fear ordinary Supremes or Highlords? Even if they discover the destruction we've caused in the Astral World, what can they do to us? They might even come begging, just to walk this path themselves..."

Back then, it was this very power that Divine Emperor Qiu Yu had used to persuade them, one after another. That was how the Astral Lord Council had grown to its current scale.

Even when the Eternal Oblivion Disaster broke out, the number of Divine Emperors and Heavenly Emperors in their ranks soared. They had become the most dominant force in the Astral World.

"Now..."

The power of laws gathered around Divine Emperor Qiu Yu, stirring matter, energy, space, and time into unprecedented activity. That power had even begun stripping away Li Pin's control over them, just like how the Abyssal Rift would erode a cultivator.

But this was different. The Abyss dissolved. This one stripped.

"Tell me your choice. Join us, and share in eternal life. Refuse, and be reduced to dust."

Li Pin felt the growing rejection and suppression from the surrounding laws. In his eyes, a rare light of anticipation emerged. "Excellent."

He couldn't tell whether Divine Emperor Qiu Yu was truly using the power of the Dao Realm, but... just this level of absolute control over matter, energy, time, and space alone had already made the trip worthwhile.

He reached out his hand, made a beckoning motion, and said seriously, "Come. Use your full strength. Make sure I'm reduced to dust."

Yang Guang, Mo Xing, Tian Yu, and Zhong Yan all looked at Li Pin in surprise.

Is he really this bold? Even after seeing Qiu Yu reveal the correct path, he still wants to resist until the end?

"Since you've made your choice..." Qiu Yu suddenly stepped forward and reached toward Li Pin with a powerful grasp. "Then I'll grant it!"

In the next instant, matter and energy twisted together with time and space, forming what looked like a newborn world. It wrapped around Li Pin, trying to trap him completely.

But before the power could bind him, the Six Paths Wheel burst into brilliant light. It too unleashed a torrent of matter, energy, time, and space. The two forces collided fiercely in space.

The clash lasted only a brief moment.

As the jewel Qiu Yu had summoned grew brighter, his control over the laws deepened. His suppression of Li Pin's rules became even stronger.

The other Divine Emperors could clearly see the tide of laws turning one-sided.

It was like two crashing waves, one endless and overwhelming, while the other was being stripped away and crushed. It was only a matter of time before it vanished completely.

Whoosh!

Li Pin drew his sword.

The Eternal Swordlight carried transformed matter and energy. Through the flow of time and space, it shot forward, aiming to tear through that tide of laws.

But before it could even touch the tide, its temporal and spatial properties were already broken down and dissolved, reduced back to raw matter and energy.

Worse still, these forms lost their ability to transform. Their energy level plummeted from the Astral World's hundred-billion mark, to ten billion, a billion, a hundred million, then ten thousand.

In the end, his Eternal Swordlight had been weakened to nothing more than a gentle breeze. When it struck Divine Emperor Qiu Yu, it only stirred the hem of his robe, without causing the slightest harm.

"Was that supposed to tickle? With power like this, it's not even enough to scratch an itch."

Divine Emperor Qiu Yu opened his arms wide, then slammed them together.

The power of law released from the jewel surged violently, drawing in even more law to sweep toward Li Pin. In an instant, it sealed off the space around him completely.

Once sealed, that section of the universe began to destabilize. It looked like a full-scale cosmic explosion was imminent, one that would crush and reshape everything within.

Li Pin couldn't help but feel a deep sense of awe. "Incredible control... this is what it means to rule the laws."

Faced with this level of mastery, even ordinary Divine Emperors would run for their lives. Heavenly Emperors wouldn't stand a chance at all.

Just like him now. Despite wielding Divine Emperor-level power, he was still being suppressed head-on by Divine Emperor Qiu Yu.

And because he hadn't fled right away, even the chance to escape with his life had been completely cut off.

But if he had tried to run, Mo Xing, Zhong Yan, Tian Yu, and Yang Guang, who had been holding the perimeter, would never have stood by.

That, most likely, was why Qiu Yu had brought them here in the first place.

Yang Guang's eyes burned with faint heat, mixed with a trace of regret. "It's over. All he can do now is take it head-on. This strike is close to the upper limit of the Astral World. But with his control over the laws so completely suppressed... there's no way he can withstand it."

Divine Emperor Tian Yu remained cautious. "Be careful. If Origin was able to kill Zhu Zhao and Xuan Huang, he must have other hidden methods. Be ready. He might try to break out at any moment."

He thought,

As a Divine Emperor, you can never really disregard everyone. Anyone who dares to act arrogantly, treating others with contempt, could only do so for one reason—because they have the power to back it up.

Just as the four Divine Emperors steeled themselves for the changes to come, a beam of clear light quietly emerged from the closing universe. It wasn't dazzling or blinding, just clear and pure.

Yet what spread out wasn't just light. It was laws, shaping an entire universe.

Matter, energy, time, and space began to circulate once more in front of Li Pin, colliding with the Dao-like power Qiu Yu had used to seal and strip him of everything.

The shift made Qiu Yu pause for a moment, though he didn't seem surprised. "As expected... you've come into contact with one of

Them

and received

Their

power."

"

Their

power?" Li Pin replied calmly. "I think you've misunderstood something."

A surge of even purer light expanded outward from him, instantly dispersing the embryonic universe Qiu Yu had formed from laws.

At the same time, the stolen matter, energy, time, and space began to change subtly. The laws shifted slightly, no longer identical to those of this universe.

Yet despite the difference, it didn't trigger any backlash from the Astral World.

Qiu Yu instantly realized what was happening. "You're analyzing

Their

power?"

He shook his head. "Our power shares the same essence. That kind of analysis is meaningless."

"It's not meaningless," Li Pin replied. "From

Them

, I learned a new way to use the power of laws. It's no longer just mimicking how laws work. I'm mimicking how laws are controlled, how they're ruled."

As he spoke, he raised a finger. A beam of Eternal Swordlight tore through the air once more.

Just like before, the bead above Qiu Yu's head released waves of divine light, and he immediately took action to try stripping away the laws within the sword light using his Dao-like power. But this time, none of it worked.

The laws within the sword light were now fully ruled and controlled by Li Pin's will.

Buzz, buzz

!

Qiu Yu's figure flickered, turning into a phantom in an instant.

This was his innate trait as a Unique Lifeform. He could redirect incoming attacks into his internal Qiu Yu domain and use the living beings trapped there to take the blow in his place.

Even so, when the Eternal Swordlight swept past him, his phantom form still wavered, like a projection with a weak signal.

The time-space ripples the swordlight carried was simply too hard to cancel out completely. That was why his form had shaken.

Despite having blocked the attack using his natural ability, he no longer dared to be careless. The bead above his head released an even stronger wave of energy, spreading laws outward in an attempt to seal off the entire space like an iron fortress.

But the Great Dao Radiance from Li Pin surged relentlessly. The two forces clashed in space again and again.

This time, neither could overpower the other. The battle had turned into a war of attrition.

Li Pin looked up at the bead above Qiu Yu's head, still pulsing with Dao Realm-like fluctuations. "All your power is just a rootless drifting weed. It all comes from that artifact. And there isn't much power within it. Calling it scarce wouldn't be an exaggeration.

"At this rate, that so-called Dao Realm energy will be exhausted in ten breaths at most. When that happens, you won't be able to block my attacks anymore."

He paused slightly, then said, "Let the one behind you come. Let him use his Dao to truly clash with mine. If he wants to defeat me, let him do it."

Divine Emperor Qiu Yu's expression turned grim.

He knew Li Pin was telling the truth.

"The one behind you... actually gave you this much Primordial Abyss Force..." His gaze grew colder. "But fortunately, I'm not the only one from the Astral Lord Council taking action this time."[1]

As he finished speaking, his inner spirit surged across the battlefield, sweeping toward the other Divine Emperors. "What are you waiting for? While I've got him tied down, attack with everything you have!"

Tian Yu, Yang Guang, Mo Xing, and Zhong Yan exchanged glances. They all knew that once the Primordial Abyss Force within Qiu Yu ran out, the situation would turn against them.

Among the five of them, at least one or two might fall here.

Without hesitation, the four Divine Emperors, who had already been building up their strength, launched their attacks at once. Supreme Divine Weapons burst forth, each releasing divine brilliance on par with ultimate laws, blasting straight toward Li Pin.

In an instant, terrifying phenomena erupted across the battlefield. Even in the outer edges of the Abyssal Rift and the core of the Astral World, the shockwaves spread freely. Just a trace of those waves could send any Heavenly Emperor fleeing in fear.

And yet, faced with the combined strike of the four Divine Emperors, Li Pin didn't move.

No one could tell whether he failed to react in time, or simply didn't care.

Tian Yu shouted, unable to contain the excitement as Li Pin's figure was completely swallowed by their attacks, "He's hit!"

1. Take note, the Primordial Abyss here is not to be confused with the Primordial Abyss True Demon Form Technique. It represents a completely different concept of power. ☜