The moment the black sword’s tip struck the golden scale, everything froze. It was as if space and time jammed to a stop. Xi Tianyi, who had always been calm and composed, finally showed a shocked expression. In the next moment, the purple-robed cultivator was flung back by a rebound. His attack, which would have been fatal had he succeeded, had been reflected back onto him several folds.

Xi Tianyi flew back several hundreds of meters. His robes became shredded patches and lacerations appeared all over his body. The lacerations manifested as black lines and the Dragon Emperor did not let go of this chance.

Although he reversed the situation in one moment, the Dragon Emperor was not happy at all. He roared and charged forward. There was an unmistakable anger in his roar. After exposing the scale, he no longer had any choice but to silence Xi Tianyi.

Two faces grew on the side of his head and two more pairs of arms grew out of his shoulders. His hands grasped a total of six sabers that appeared. He descended upon Xi Tianyi, all six of his sabers’ edges coated in condensed saber intent. “Die!”

The edge of the Dragon Emperor’s blade sliced the black lines and cut through with no resistance. Xi Tianyi’s body turned into chunks of meat, but no blood or organs fell out. Instead, they turned into black mist and merged with the surrounding space.

The Dragon Emperor frowned. All traces of Xi Tianyi disappeared. His sword had disappeared and not even a patch of his violet robe remains. ‘Did he escape?’

Had it been before the Dragon Emperor revealed the golden scale, he would have accepted driving Xi Tianyi to flee. But now, if Xi Tianyi revealed his possession of the dragon scale, greed would force him to become a bereaved dog, forever hiding in the dark. Even if he became an immortal sovereign, people would still hunt him down.

And he couldn’t be sure if the Buddhists would allow him to keep it. No, they definitely wouldn’t. The Sūryaḥ Buddha would force him to hand it over. If he refused, that buddha would just steal it from him. Such was the attractiveness of the golden scale.

The Dragon Emperor looked around, searching for any signs of Xi Tianyi. He let out a snort when he saw none. His only choice was to hide away like a rat now. “Just wait. The day I become a divinity, I’ll make you pay for your actions.”

“If I bled, that would’ve looked like something out of a horror film,” a voice suddenly said behind the Dragon Emperor.

The Dragon Emperor’s eyes widened and turned around. There, he saw an unharmed Xi Tianyi. Not even a single strand of his hair was out of place.

Furthermore, the Dragon Emperor couldn’t sense Xi Tianyi’s presence at all. Most immortals used their eyes or immortal sense to keep track of their opponents, but the Dragon Emperor discovered that Xi Tianyi seemed to use a concealment technique that prevented immortal sense from locking on. However, the Dragon Emperor could also sense his opponent’s willpower. All intelligent life will have willpower, so even if Xi Tianyi hid from immortal senses, he couldn’t conceal his willpower.

But the Dragon Emperor couldn’t sense Tianyi at all, aside from his sight and hearing.

“Still, I never expected you to carry a divine artifact with you. That was my oversight,” Xi Tianyi said, looking at the scale on the Dragon Emperor’s forehead. “No, it can’t exactly be called a divine artifact, but part of a divinity’s corpse.”

The Dragon Emperor’s expression showed no changes. He had already expected his arch nemesis to discover the nature of scale from the moment he exposed it. The scale came from a deceased divine dragon he discovered in the Broken Primordial World.

After the many landmasses of the Broken Primordial World crashed and rained down like meteors, he had been injured and forced into a dangerous area. His newly created dragon clone had been too weak, and couldn’t help out, while he himself was injured during the process.

Although the situation was perilous, the Dragon Emperor survived. Because he survived, he encountered his greatest chance, turning misfortune into fortune. It was the scale of a fallen divine dragon. It took a lot of effort for him to grab it. Ignoring the environment warping effect of the scale, those too weak of will would be driven insane by it.

Had the Dragon Emperor not have had his previous experience as a half-immortal sovereign, it would have been impossible to secure this heavenly opportunity. After obtaining it, the Dragon Emperor had done everything in his power to prevent anyone from discovering the dragon scale, and he became even more low key in the Buzhou Immortal Sect because of it.

For some, a divinity’s body part was much more useful than a divine artifact. Because, like immortal monarchs and above, a divinity’s body is formed from their mastered law. As long as an immortal could absorb the body part, their cultivation would improve by leaps and bounds.

Of course, there were drawbacks to this method. Those who directly absorb would become reliant on it. They would become shackled, and improvement would become difficult. Their only choice would be to search out for more of the divinity’s body part and absorb it.

The Dragon Emperor wasn’t the type to become shackled to anything or anyone, even a deceased divinity.

In order to safely absorb the divine essence within the body part without becoming reliant on it, the Dragon Emperor would have to be in the Origin Immortal Realm at the very least. Only essence qi could withstand the divine essence of a divinity.

Still, that wasn’t its only use. After being nourished for eons after the end of the primordial era, the dragon scale became a sort of pseudo artifact. Thanks to his Dragon Emperor Immortal Body, he could resonate with the scale. And because of that, his strength would dramatically increase for a limited amount of time.

“Hmpf, so what if I do?” the Dragon Emperor asked. A sneer appeared on his face. “Don’t think I don’t know you are a mere illusion.”

Xi Tianyi blinked, seemingly stunned by the Dragon Emperor’s deduction. “Did you really think you could hide the lack of willpower in this facade? If you’re only here to talk, I’ll be leaving.”

The Dragon Emperor turned around to leave, but just as he started to move, Xi Tianyi appeared in front of him with a fist reared back. The Dragon Emperor sneered, not even bothering to slow down. He could not sense any willpower from the Tianyi in front of him. “Parlor tri—GUH?!”

Against his expectations, Xi Tianyi’s fist embedded itself into stomach. Of course, he was still empowered by the divine dragon scale, so he suffered minimal damage from the punch. It was more shocking than anything.

“You’re not an illusion?” the Dragon Emperor asked, eyes boring into Xi Tianyi’s own.

Xi Tianyi waved his hand. “Can’t you tell?”

The Dragon Emperor snorted. “So what if you found a way to hide yourself even more? That just proves how much of a coward you are. Did you really think you had a chance to win once I exposed my trump card? You should have run away when you had the chance.”

The surrounding spacetime converged in Xi Tianyi’s hand, forming a black sword. That was his answer.

“Since you chose death, don’t blame me.”

“Stop pretending that you don’t want to kill me,” Xi Tianyi shot back.

The Dragon Emperor smiled. “Yeah, if I kill you, no one will know. You served yourself on a silver platter. The only trouble I’ll have is if that bitch finds out and chases after me. But, I’m a nice guy. You won’t be lonely in death. I’ll send your mother to accompany you.”

Xi Tianyi said nothing. His soaring killing intent was more than enough for a statement. Without warning, he shot toward the Dragon Emperor, spacetime bent around him, and his figure blurred.

With that, the Dragon Emperor shot forward. Energy rolled off his body, forming a pressure an immortal could never replicate. His speed reached the limit of what an immortal could accomplish, yet he and Xi Tianyi met in the middle.

He swung all six of his sabers at Xi Tianyi. They deflected Xi Tianyi’s sword and struck his body, but he felt no resistance. They sliced through Xi Tianyi’s body as if it was a mirage. “What?”

At this time, Xi Tianyi flicked his wrist. The black sword swung toward him, causing the Dragon Emperor to snort. He sent out a slash, but to his shock once more, the black blade phased through his golden saber and continued slicing toward him.

The Dragon Emperor retreated, allowing the blade to harmlessly slash past him without even grazing his scale armor. Yet, his body flinched back as if something had actually struck him. There was a faint white line on his body, yet he was sure that Xi Tianyi hadn’t actually touched him.

He roared and a sonic explosion sprung forth. The space around him trembled, but Xi Tianyi remained untouched.

The Dragon Emperor attacked with all six sabers, not letting Xi Tianyi get another chance as he charged over. The six sabers and sword did not clash as the previous phenomenon repeated itself. “Xi Tianyi, you coward! Outside, they all praise you for your limitless qi and your devastating technique. Only now did I know that your true speciality lies in concealment. Are you that afraid?!”

Xi Tianyi stopped and allowed the six golden sabers to phase through him. He didn’t say anything, and his gaze was glacial. The next thing the Dragon Emperor knew, Xi Tianyi had disappeared.

The Dragon Emperor inserted his immortal sense into the dragon scale on his forehead, but all he sensed was danger everywhere around him. He could not pinpoint Xi Tianyi’s exact location. With no means of detecting his foe, he would become a sitting duck.

His body twitched as it shot down by itself. Just a moment before, the Dragon Emperor felt something slash his back. ‘Behind?’

He unleashed a crescent-shaped slash of saber intent at where he once floated. However, the golden crescent just passed through the space as if nothing was there. He tried again, but in mid attack, something struck him again. And again, and again, and again.

An endless amount of sword slashes struck his body from everywhere. Unless Xi Tianyi had a thousand arms, it should have been impossible. Everywhere, white marks covered his scales, changing the golden hue to a lighter shade.

“Damn it all!” the Dragon Emperor roared. Golden essence qi surrounded him like a sphere, he shot away. Although he was unwilling, he could only escape and wait to get revenge the next time he faced Xi Tianyi.

Although he didn’t know how Xi Tianyi was able to attack him from all angles, he had confidence that Xi Tianyi could not catch up with him in terms of speed. However, the Dragon Emperor had no feeling but shame. With the boost of the divine dragon scale, he should have possessed the raw power of a pseudo-divinity, but for all his power, he couldn’t do a thing to Xi Tianyi.

It was a feeling worse than punching cotton.

The Dragon Emperor frowned as he felt the surrounding space condensed. It became harder to fly, and he felt the energy of the five elements appear out of nowhere and gather with him at the center. He roared, and the golden aura covering him flickered. With a burst of pure speed, he flew tens of kilometers away.

And not a moment too soon as a planet materialized out of nowhere in the space he occupied.

“What?” the Dragon Emperor couldn’t comprehend what happened. He couldn’t see the mystery behind the appearance of the planet. Teleportation could not explain it. It was as if it had been spontaneously created.

His figure flickered once more as he felt the surrounding space condensed again. Another planet appeared in the space he once occupied.

The Dragon Emperor felt like he was going crazy. ‘Just what is going on? Those planets don’t seem fake, and I can even feel their gravitational pull. How can all this be real? Unless Xi Tianyi is actually a master illusionist? It would explain how I couldn’t sense him. If I was in an illusion, everything would be easily explained, but that’s impossible. Not even the divine dragon scale could affect me thanks to my willpower. It’s impossible for Xi Tianyi to be an illusionist at the divine level.’

As his mind spun madly to figure out the reason behind all the strange phenomenons, his body continued to dodge. It only stopped when the ninth and largest planet formed. However, the Dragon Emperor only felt a greater sense of danger.

“Huh? It’s getting hotter,” the Dragon Emperor muttered. In the Vast Void, there was nothing to retain the solar star’s heat, so everything was chilling. Yet, he could feel the temperature rising. The heat soared past the peak of spring and even summer, reaching an unbearable temperature that would even drain immortals dry of their will.

The Dragon Emperor saw the source of the heat. The nine planets that had formed were turning red from their core. ‘They’re going to explode!’

Without a second thought, the Dragon Emperor turned and fled. Alas, another change occurred. The eight smaller planets started orbiting the largest planet, and a grand formation that reached millions of kilometers appeared. Even with the Dragon Emperor’s pseudo-divinity power, his speed was lowered.

“Just what is happening? It’s like the heavens are trying to kill me? Is it a divinity? Don’t tell me the Immortal Court also has a divinity!”

Those were the last words he uttered before the nine planets turned stars exploded, engulfing the surrounding millions of kilometers in a supernova.