Chapter 226: Ling General Remembers the Past

The immense thunderous power struck the Sea Spirit General's trident squarely, countering the golden light with equal force.

"Ridiculous," Xu Yang mocked, "Do you intend to use your power to fight against the power of heaven?"

Xu Yang smiled, pointing to the sky. Under the Empress's gaze, his pupils instantly turned a profound purple.

"I will make you understand how absurd your attempt to judge us is."

In an instant, in the center of the endless dark clouds above, a massive yet intricate ethereal face suddenly materialized. It was Xu Yang's current imposing kingly visage, transformed by his powerful Dao energy into a celestial phenomenon. Like a god, it audaciously mocked the humble, almost pathetic, golden light and shadow in the sea.

"What! You..."

The Sea Spirit General had no idea he had provoked the most formidable person on the entire continent—a man who had only cultivated to the first stage of Qi refinement, yet could overturn everything in an instant.

"Myriad Juns, kill!!"

The colossal face in the void roared in fury, unleashing a tide of destruction!

From its pupils, two streams of two-toned purple lightning, with the power of a myriad of thunders, intertwined into crackling arcs. They spiraled downwards, striking the trident once more.

No!!

The Sea Spirit General roared in despair. His trident, caught in the incredibly dazzling purple lightning, was blasted into oblivion, vanishing into the endlessly churning sea around them.

Without his trident, the Sea Spirit General appeared to have lost his soul. His formidable aura from the Divine Infant realm instantly weakened by more than half.

"Heavens... Xu Yang, this man, has actually grown powerful enough to destroy the life-bound artifacts of Divine Infant realm cultivators?" marvelled the Empress.

The Empress Xue Qinghan, standing beside him, was utterly bewildered.

In fact, from the moment Xue Qinghan first saw Xu Yang at Qianyun Sect, she was intrigued by his unique aura. However, it was merely curiosity, not even a hint of admiration.

It wasn't until Xu Yang, wielding a single sword, defended the powerful factions on Qianyun Sect's peak and single-handedly repelled the entire Northern Jin Sword Alliance that the Empress truly began to view him in a new light.

Yet, even then, she merely regarded Xu Yang as a cultivator at the Nascent Soul Grand Perfection stage.

When suppressing the Profound Fire Titan, Xu Yang, for the first time in front of the Empress, unleashed the unique power inherited from the demonic race. He perfectly suppressed the 100,000-year-old Titan spirit beast, which was at the Nascent Soul Grand Perfection level.

But this time, as Xu Yang unleashed his fury, crushing the Sea Spirit General's pride on the vast sea, the Empress truly found herself unable to comprehend the man before her.

He seemed to be the type who grew stronger when facing a formidable opponent, his limits utterly imperceptible.

The Empress even had the distinct impression that the man before her was truly a god from another world—a king capable of dominating all.

With his trident gone, the Sea Spirit General was no longer a threat. The Empress finally managed to tear her gaze from Xu Yang's face. Immediately, she channeled her power, and the Frigid Moon Art's Illusion Dream Space descended. The raging sea around them instantly became still. Xu Yang and the Empress stepped onto a plain, where the distraught Sea Spirit General stood not far ahead.

"You have completely lost your ability to resist," Xue Qinghan stated. "Now, can you open the passage to the secret realm beneath the sea for us?"

Xue Qinghan's voice was soft but still imbued with a characteristic coolness. This woman seemed to reveal that rare trace of tenderness only when interacting with Xu Yang.

"Hmph! Do you truly believe coercion will make me yield?" the Sea Spirit General sneered. "Now that the Sea God has lost his trident, the passage will never be opened. You can simply drift on this sea until you perish!"

The Sea Spirit General seemed filled with resentment towards Xu Yang, yet, powerless to defeat him, could only confront him with a vicious tone. Unbeknownst to him, Xu Yang appeared to have been prepared; with a wave of his palm, the golden whisk reappeared.

"Your master, Taotie, once fought me to the death over this!" Xu Yang declared. "If you don't cooperate, I will make it vanish forever!"

Upon seeing the whisk, the Sea Spirit General suddenly became incredibly agitated, as if countless past memories had flooded back.

"My heavens, it truly is this whisk!" the Sea Spirit General exclaimed. "Mu Qingtian, you never would have imagined it, would you? The little Taoist priest, the sole survivor of the Dragon Slaying War, truly took this whisk out! Six thousand years have passed in a flash, and this day is finally upon us again!"

The Sea Spirit General rambled on as if in a frenzy. Xu Yang and the Empress exchanged confused glances.

"What exactly happened?" Xu Yang wondered aloud. "Why did the Qingtian Dao Sect, once hailed as the world's foremost Daoist lineage, perish in that battle? Was the True Dragon's power truly so terrifying?"

Xu Yang was puzzled by this. After all, he had slain dragons before; while a True Dragon's power was immense, it wasn't insurmountable. Even if Mu Qingtian and his people lacked Xu Yang's formidable strength, what did six hundred-plus Nascent Soul realm experts represent? Such a force alone could easily decimate over half of the Three Thousand Dao Provinces!

How could such a formidable force fail to conquer even a dragon that wasn't at its peak? That seemed highly improbable.

"Actually, the Qingtian Dao Sect's fate back then wasn't solely due to the True Dragon," the Sea Spirit General began. "After the Dragon Slaying War started, this lineage wasn't the only one besieging the True Dragon. Another force, the Ghost Shadow Asura Gate, which had been dormant in the East Sea region for a century, suddenly attacked. They released a 'Corpse Soul Gu poison' across the entire Dragon Slaying battlefield, causing those Daoist masters to lose their human souls and viciously turn on each other."

"Witnessing his disciples being massacred, Mu Qingtian erupted with heaven-defying power in his rage. He personally slew the True Dragon and consumed its entire Dragon Core."

"What!"

Hearing this, even Xu Yang found it difficult to believe.

How incredibly potent and volatile was a Dragon Core? Even if Mu Qingtian possessed a cooling method, for a human to consume an entire Dragon Core without being obliterated was already a miracle.

"As far as I know," Xu Yang questioned, "how could a mere human body withstand the full power of a True Dragon?"

The Sea Spirit General scoffed, "He alone certainly couldn't! But if you combine him with an Asura War Goddess, also at the Divine Infant Grand Perfection stage, their two bodies coexisting could perfectly withstand this power. However, it was precisely because of this that the battlefield descended into utter chaos..."

"That female Asura, through unknown means, somehow merged with Sect Master Mu's physical body, becoming a monstrous entity with two souls sharing one form. Combined with the power of a complete Dragon Core, an unprecedentedly colossal half-beast emerged, cruelly slaughtering all the cultivators of the Qingtian Dao Sect. The Ghost Shadow Asura lineage, skilled in stealth, fortunately managed to escape."

It was unclear how the Sea Spirit General knew so much about those past events, but hearing his account, Xu Yang and the Empress's understanding was suddenly illuminated.

"What happened in the end?" Xue Qinghan couldn't help but ask. This was clearly what Xu Yang was most concerned about as well.

"Mu Qingtian was, after all, the leader of the continent's foremost Daoist sect, with the welfare of all beings at heart," the Sea Spirit General continued. "Fearing he might lose control of his berserk half-beast body, and before his consciousness faded, he unleashed the sect's most profound technique—the Six Paths Boundless True Formula. Using its power to reverse yin and yang and overturn heaven and earth, he forcibly sealed the entire slaughter battlefield, thereby transforming this Dragon Lair into an inescapable abyss."

"So that's how it is..." Xu Yang murmured.