Chapter 1218: The Battle to Seize the Dao Look at Me, Fallen One

In the land of Jue Jin Huo Yu, beneath the molten lava.

"Gurgle... Cough!"

Bai Lian was still blowing bubbles when he suddenly stumbled, getting fully submerged at the bottom and choking on several mouthfuls of lava. He flailed about as if drowning in fire before finally struggling back to the surface.

"Shizun, this feels like big trouble?"

Mu Lin kicked his legs upward a couple of times and quickly surfaced, his face filled with shock as he looked up at the sky. Dark clouds had suddenly gathered overhead.

There were fully four layers of Lei Jie, overlapping and blotting out the sky.

"Sheng Jie? Or a Ban Sheng tribulation?" Bai Lian swallowed hard, sensing something was off— a Ban Sheng tribulation shouldn't feel this oppressive. "It's not Sheng Jie." Mu Lin, with his vast experience, was also a bit puzzled at the moment.

But he was certain that even a single layer of this Lei Jie was beyond anything a Ban Sheng tribulation could compare to. That left only one possibility...

"Zu Yuan Di Jie?"

After saying it, Bai Lian was stunned, then exclaimed in alarm, "It can't be, right? Someone on Xu Kong Dao sealing as Ban Sheng was one thing, even multiple sealing as Sheng, but how could anyone dare to seal as Sheng Di?"

Mu Lin looked utterly shocked; the four layers of Sheng Jie had startled him too, and he murmured in disbelief, "And it's four people at once, sealing as Sheng Di..."

"Where would they get four Sheng Di positions?" Bai Lian rubbed his eyes frantically, confirming it wasn't a hallucination. "Even one is absurd! It has to be someone from Sheng Shen Dian Tang, sealing as Sheng Di here, right?"

"Impossible." Mu Lin shook his head.

"Then who, if not from Sheng Dian?"

"People from Sheng Shan wouldn't seal as Sheng Di on Xu Kong Dao. This has to be an accident, or someone was forced into it..." "And four people forced at the same time?" Bai Lian was greatly alarmed.

Mu Lin slapped him across the face.

Now that he'd figured it out, he scolded angrily, "Are you stupid? Weren't there three layers of Sheng Jie appearing one after another before?"

"Some special taboo?" Bai Lian pondered, perhaps it was due to treasures or the attributes of some forbidden area. Thinking that way, it wasn't so surprising. "So, Shizun, do you think that person who's been forced into this corner has a Sheng Di position?"

"Absolutely not! Even if they did, they wouldn't seal like this without the approval of the five great Sheng Di families. This is them gambling with their life."

"Then they're definitely going to die?"

"Without a doubt!"

"Then... Shizun, should we keep soaking?" Bai Lian glanced at the lava, feeling too anxious to continue— though he wasn't sure exactly what he was anxious about, he just was.

"Keep soaking my foot!" Mu Lin sprang up at once, grabbed his clothes from the rocks, and put them on. Bai Lian followed suit, and they quickly packed everything. "Shizun, where are we going?" The question left Mu Lin stumped.

Where indeed? To find Xu Xiaoshou?

Xu Xiaoshou was surely out there parading around as a Sheng Nu, and this huge commotion might even involve him. But people from Sheng Gong going there couldn't help him at all— this was Xu Kong Dao, who knew how many eyes were watching everything, or might review it later!

As for the Zu Yuan Di Jie... such a massive event would inevitably drag in a Sheng Zhan.

Mu Lin did want to go take a look; observing the ceremony would be quite the spectacle. But he feared that this Zu Yuan Di Jie carried some ill omen, and going could get them caught in the Sheng Zhan and killed.

Thinking about it, there didn't seem to be anywhere they could go.

Mu Lin was in the middle of tightening his belt when he suddenly sighed, loosened it, and tossed it onto the rock. Then he started undressing again. "Nothing worth going for. Let's just keep soaking."

"Ah?" Bai Lian was bewildered— how could you still feel like soaking? You're really something!

"Don't forget, we're just here in the Yun Lun Shan Mai to check out potential future disciples for Sheng Gong. Getting pulled into Xu Kong Dao was just an accident."

"Oh, yeah, I guess so..." Bubbling sounds rose again from the lava.

At that moment on Xu Kong Dao, almost no one could stay as calm as these two bathers.

The instant the four layers of Zu Yuan Di Jie appeared, nearly every Lian Ling Shi on the entire island was forced to their knees under the pressure.

If earlier Sheng Jie had drawn people to watch and perhaps hope for some extra Dao foundation from a sealing, now those in the know were all terrified. "A Lei Jie that surpasses Sheng Jie..."

Leng Qi and Xiu Ming Yue got up from the ground, grateful they'd met a good person and left Zui Yi Dian early. "Zu Yuan Di Jie..."

The Gu Jia brothers, now out of that dire situation and somewhere on Xu Kong Dao seeking a way out, exchanged worried glances about the safety of a certain Chen Xiong.

Amid the widespread panic where people worried over nothing and the sky seemed to fall, there were still a few who remained composed and even eager to get involved.

"It's here!"

In the Gu Jin Wang You Lou, Ba Zun An gazed out the window, downed his cup of wine, and nodded lightly to Kong Yu Hen. "I need to step out for a bit. We'll talk more later."

Kong Yu Hen stood up quickly, pulling his eyes away from the shocking Lei Jie waves in the distance. "Go ahead."

Ba Zun An walked toward the wooden door without looking back, but as he was about to push it open, a voice came from behind: "Mr. Ba Zun An, can I go take a look?"

"Whatever."

Ba Zun An pushed the door open and left without turning around. "You're one of the uncontrollable variables too. If you're curious, go; if not, don't. No need to ask me."

Kong Yu Hen watched Ba Zun An's figure disappear beyond the wooden door and silently sat back at the table.

He poured himself a cup of wine and held it, lost in thought for a long time. After a while, he stood up, then sat down again.

Glancing back at the waves outside the window, he nodded to himself, made a decision, and strode toward the wooden door. With a creak, light and shadow shifted.

"Kill him!"

At the ruins of Zhen Huang Dian, Huang Quan looked indifferent, as if unbothered by the fact that he'd just been controlled once. Jiang Bu Yi... Hah!

To make someone perish, first drive them mad.

Mei Si Ren naturally wouldn't take that step, as it would make his hatred the strongest. Huang Quan didn't care.

He had to kill Jiang Bu Yi— not just for the San Jie Nan Yan, but to take his Ban Sheng position entirely, stripping him clean from inside out. Of course, now he had an extra goal: that San Yan Tong Mu.

As for Jiang Bu Yi undergoing the tribulation to seal as Sheng Di, it was inevitable and exactly as Huang Quan had expected. It was the only way he could break free.

But Jiang Bu Yi definitely didn't have a Sheng Di position, so this tribulation would kill him for sure.

—If he did, that would be even better; in his current weakened state, sealing as Sheng Di would let Huang Quan reap the benefits effortlessly.

" Me?" Tian Ren Wu Shui was stunned to realize Huang Quan was speaking to him.

"Who else but you?" Huang Quan glanced at him indifferently, saying no more. Tian Ren Wu Shui felt like he'd been seen through. Sealing with the Xue Shi Zhu required killing Ye Xiao first.

Huang Quan had fought Jiang Bu Yi earlier in Zhen Huang Dian, where Ye Xiao had sealed as Sheng.

Connecting the dots, Huang Quan wasn't entirely sure what had happened to Tian Ren Wu Shui, but he had a rough idea.

In this situation, for the sake of Yan Wang, this Jiang Bu Yi sealing as Sheng Di— Tian Ren Wu Shui had to fight, whether he wanted to or not.

"Sigh."

Feeling like a mere tool, Tian Ren Wu Shui sighed and flew after Jiang Bu Yi. As an undead being, he was the perfect match to fight someone sealing as Sheng Di.

"Hand over the cauldron to me."

With a wave of his hand, Huang Quan made Tian Ren Wu Shui pause, releasing the bronze cauldron holding the headless body of Yu Ling Di, which was snatched away.

"Die!"

"All of you, die for me!"

In the void, Jiang Bu Yi looked ferocious, holding the four layers of Zu Yuan Di Jie above him, but his body was trembling. One layer was the cost of using San Jie Nan Yan, and the other three were the consequences of being targeted by it.

Even four layers of Zu Yuan Di Jie— at his peak and with a Sheng Di position— Jiang Bu Yi couldn't have survived it. Seeing Tian Ren Wu Shui daring to provoke him now, he erupted in fury, flipping his hand to send a sweep of clouds.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The four layers of Lei Jie from the nine heavens crashed down.

Tian Ren Wu Shui felt a chill run down his spine; as the cloud-based power entangled him, he felt no immediate harm. But those four reddish-purple Zu Yuan Di Jie pierced through Jiang Bu Yi and struck him, as he'd been tainted by the cloud power.

"Ah!"

The void echoed with Jiang Bu Yi's pig-like screams, his body, spirit, and will all in torment. There was no escape!

Tian Ren Wu Shui was horrified to find himself locked by the Lei Jie too.

At his speed, he couldn't reach Jiang Bu Yi before the Lei Jie struck.

"Thud!"

Just hit by the residual waves of the Di Jie, Tian Ren Wu Shui's body exploded with blood flowers, in agony. The physical pain he could endure.

But this Di Jie, even the first strike, carried the attributes of a heart tribulation.

Demons flashed through Tian Ren Wu Shui's mind, demonic energy surged from his body, nearly driving him into demonic possession in an instant.

"Hehehehe..."

At the center of the Di Jie, Jiang Bu Yi was half-collapsed and half-mad, covered in blood and mangled flesh, laughing wildly as demonic energy filled the sky, matching his disheveled hair blowing in the wind.

"Demons!"

"All demons!"

"You all deserve to fall into hell!"

Tormented by the Zu Yuan Di Jie and the force of demonic possession, Jiang Bu Yi seemed half-insane but still clung to a thread of sanity.

That thread, however, was now ignited by his raging fury. Jiang Bu Yi felt like he was about to explode!

The whole world was about to explode!

Everything here was so unfair!

He refused to believe that in his liberated state, Tian Ji Shen Shi would be controlled for so long under Mei Si Ren's sword— it was just that Number Two didn't want to play his last card yet.

He refused to believe Huang Quan couldn't see his final trump card but still forced him to this point, leaving no way out, just to strip him bare.

Everyone here, including Mei Si Ren, was waiting for an external force to intervene.

An external force that could break the stalemate at the smallest cost, without them lifting a finger.

And he, Jiang Bu Yi...

Was that "external force"!

The gun they swung around!

As a Sheng, a dignified Ban Sheng, forced to undergo a Di Jie... Jiang Bu Yi was furious beyond words.

"Die!"

"All of you, die for me!"

He waved his hand, sending cloud power rampaging, part of it toward Luo Ying Jie.

"This guy's completely lost it."

Xu Xiaoshou's expression trembled.

He'd seen Sheng Jie before, but the terror of Di Jie was even more heart-pounding.

He felt that if he went over, he'd end up like Tian Ren Wu Shui— taken out in one hit. And that was just the aftermath of the first strike of Zu Yuan Di Jie!

"Xu Xiaoshou, calm down." Mei Si Ren turned to him, his face serious. "What you're seeing now is the struggle for the Great Dao, the war to seize the Dao."

Xu Xiaoshou nodded solemnly.

Deep in the sea, the Water Ghost had once told him that struggles above the Wang Zuo were all battles for the Great Dao. In such battles, blood was inevitable, and one success meant thousands of deaths.

Now, Jiang Bu Yi had become one of those bones, driven to madness by everyone's manipulations— whether he'd wither or not was unclear, but he had no way out!

"He's not crazy yet; he still has a path to redemption. Don't underestimate any Ban Sheng. Think about what his backup plan could be." Mei Si Ren's words were shocking.

But he had no time to explain further to Xu Xiaoshou. As the cloud-based Sheng force approached, he turned and said, "Huang Quan, I've done more than enough. I won't help you again, and I can't."

"You created this mess; you solve it yourself."

Huang Quan's indifferent gaze swept over, but he said nothing, teleporting to intercept the cloud-based Sheng force before it reached Luo Ying Jie, swirling time power in his palm.

All the forces receded, not touching Luo Ying Jie.

Seeing Huang Quan suddenly act so "benevolent," and recalling Mei Si Ren's words, Xu Xiaoshou thought: Backup plan? Where could Jiang Bu Yi have one? With Zu Yuan Di Jie already here and no Sheng Di position, he was doomed. Wait!

If Jiang Bu Yi wasn't crazy, he was faking it; if the Lei Jie could disappear without being overcome, the only option was... the Secondary Realm Gate!

A lightning bolt flashed in Xu Xiaoshou's mind as he realized Jiang Bu Yi's entire plan.

"Use the Zu Yuan Di Jie to affect Luo Ying Jie, break Mei Si Ren's sword, and release Number Two— but under Di Jie, it's hard to handle."

"When Tian Ren Wu Shui attacked, Huang Quan had already taken Yu Ling Di into his inner world, so Huang Quan thought of this too— Jiang Bu Yi's backup is to stir the waters completely, awaken Yu Ling Di, and use the Secondary Realm Gate to cut off the Di Jie?"

Xu Xiaoshou's scalp tingled.

Ban Sheng were all masters of schemes.

Even at this stage, there was still a chance to fight for survival?

"Tian Ren Wu Shui!" After reversing the cloud force's interference with Luo Ying Jie, Huang Quan shouted.

In the distance, Tian Ren Wu Shui's body trembled, as if just snapping out of the Di Jie's aftermath.

"Huff..."

He exhaled deeply, a flash of crimson in his eyes. Things had gone too far; there was no holding back now.

Jiang Bu Yi was going all out, so his side had to as well.

Mei Si Ren wasn't fighting, Huang Quan wasn't, so it was all on him...

But conveniently, the Ban Sheng position was exactly what he needed!

With a screech of an owl, the cry pierced the Lei Jie's darkness.

A massive black maw split open behind Tian Ren Wu Shui, from which emerged a colossal shadow of a black-robed Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper swung a hooked scythe across the sky.

"Scythe of Soul Severing!"

Xu Xiaoshou looked shocked— this was clearly Ye Xiao's ability. Had Tian Ren Wu Shui successfully possessed it? Inherited all of Ye Xiao's powers? And could use them directly?

Number Two's "box" trembled with a faint light, but remained silent.

"Power of the Grim Reaper?"

Jiang Bu Yi was stunned to see Ye Xiao's Zu Yuan power from Tian Ren Wu Shui— it was a final shock before his death.

"Then let's all die together!"

He didn't bother blocking, sinking straight toward Luo Ying Jie's position.

When the Scythe of Soul Severing struck him, its power would inevitably reach Luo Ying Jie too.

Mei Si Ren had no extra energy to resist, so Number Two could break free. Did Tian Ren Wu Shui dare to swing that scythe?

If not, he'd face massive backlash. "Hehehe, gambling with me?"

Tian Ren Wu Shui let out a sinister laugh, a flash of crimson in his eyes, embracing mutual destruction.

But while he'd lost his reason, Huang Quan was still thinking.

"Stop it!"

"You idiot, retract your divine ability!"

Tian Ren Wu Shui's eyes cleared, realizing the damned Xue Shi Zhu was acting up again. He quickly canceled the Scythe of Soul Severing, spitting out a mouthful of reverse blood and temporarily withdrawing.

Huang Quan was right there at Luo Ying Jie, having waited for this moment.

As Jiang Bu Yi fell, Huang Quan flashed to his side, channeling spatiotemporal power in his hand.

"Disorder."

The palm struck Jiang Bu Yi's chest directly. Boom!

The void shattered for miles.

Jiang Bu Yi aged in an instant, his body withering, hair turning white, all his strength drained by the power of time.

"Die!"

He didn't dodge, enduring the strike and wrapping his arms around Huang Quan, the San Yan Tong Mu cracking open from his forehead.

"Urgh..." Huang Quan shuddered; this madman was trying to control him even in death.

"Fall into Guidance!"

From the nine heavens, Tian Ren Wu Shui swallowed a mouthful of blood and quickly formed seals with his hands, shooting a beam of foul light that hit Jiang Bu Yi.

Jiang Bu Yi erupted with decaying mist, like a god of fall descending, and intoned, "Gaze upon me, fallen one!"

Jiang Bu Yi couldn't withstand the pollution of his fate, plus the guidance of Xue Shi Zhu and the power of decay, his body stiffening as he slowly turned toward Tian Ren Wu Shui.

Tian Ren Wu Shui lifted his right eye, the three flowers revolving, issuing two commands: "Release control!"

"Coalesce the Ban Sheng position!"