Beneath the brilliant yet ever shifting light paths of the Reincarnation Disc, Da Hai descended towards the isolated battlefield where Luohu was tied down. His skin gave way to scales, his hair connected to ferocious snake heads, his face locked in a maniacal grin. Qi tinged with bloodlust oozed off of his body like a serial killer or a fanatical avenger.
“LUOHU! I’LL KILL YOU!”
Da Hai’s roared emanated throughout the Netherworld, drowning out all other noise. It deafened countless cultivators below the Chaos Immortal realm, nearly causing Golden Immortals’ to also fall into a state of bloodlust along with Da Hai.
By this point, all ghost devils vanished due to the Reincarnation Disc swallowing their rebirth system. But countless living devils still remained.
Even across the Netherworld, Haotian who was defending the injured against devils, felt an oceans worth of bottled resentment. The innate god felt sweat trail down his face.
For so many years, Da Hai always held on to that hatred. The pain, the anguish he felt at losing what he perceived as the light guiding him in his early life. That hatred fuelled vengeance he’d always had never went away.
Hongjun schemed against Huoyun, Luohu dealt the final blow. They put him in the position where he ultimately met his demise. For someone like Da Hai who valued relationships like precious jewels? A collision course was the expectation.
Training himself, trying to come up with a plan despite never being a methodical type. Eventually raising disciples and creating a linage made him value relationships again. But that burning hatred never went away.
At the core of his Dao heart, the very basis in his reasoning to seek the Dao, was the desire to see the two he held responsible for Huoyun’s demise be destroyed. He learned to bury it, ignore it in order to see to much more important goals.
He bore with standing next to Hongjun without lashing out in order to carry out the necessary steps to help his disciple win the war. He practised self control and excised said skill more so then he’d ever done in the past.
But with the Reincarnation Disc completed, he can finally unleash. Unfortunately, Hongjun was not a valid target at the moment, but Luohu was far higher on his hated list anyway. This man was also responsible for the death of his third disciple.
As a being connected with Da Hai on a fundamental level, he perceived everything Da Hai had felt with much more scrutiny than most. Da Hai’s hatred was immense, only growing beneath the sheer powerlessness he’d felt in completing said goals. There was even disdain for his clone.
A lot of the barriers Da Hai had up were thinner now that he’d been so consumed by that thirst for vengeance. It allowed his disappointment turned disdain for Haotian to leak through.
‘Planting him for so many years, but he never learned anything substantial. Expunging myself from the Primitive World for such a waste.’
It wasn’t as if Haotian wasn’t aware of such a conclusion. One would only need to look at their conversations over the years. But the confirmation did hurt.
“Disciple,” Hongjun’s voice ranged through Haotian’s ear. “This battle looks to be settling into its finale soon. I suggest you retreat back to Zixiao Palace.”
“Master, you know I can’t. If I’m not here, who will protect the invalidated from the blasts spilling over from that battle?” He pointed at Da Hai approaching the Immortal Extermination Formation. “Don’t worry, I know my capabilities. I will not approach where I am unqualified.”
“Hm good disciple, good disciple,” Hongjun’s incarnation nodded. “Then chose what you feel is best. Our journey of cultivation is all about choosing for ourselves. It’s your choice.”
…
Luohu did not have time to grieve. Battling against Yang Mei hindered his ability to kill the three sovereigns, but also prevented him to slip out from the Four Symbols in time. The interference of this one man was the main reason he could not reach the Reincarnation Pagoda.
‘If I deactivate the formation, I could’ve…’ he quickly shot down that line of thought. If Yang Mei was fully subdued, probably. But the two were still fighting in the heart of the formation.
The sword light within trailed everywhere, the image of the four divine beasts hung atop both godfiends’ heads. Spear in hand, lotus in the other, Luohu clashed again and again with Yang Mei.
The older looking godfiend roared fiercely. His palm strikes failed to injure Luohu, being repelled time and time again by the sword light. But whereas his clash with Luohu were relatively even, he can’t hurt the Devil Ancestor but he can hurt him.
A spear strike shot past, slicing through Yang Mei’s finer and grazed his shoulder. Starry Dao essence bled out from his flesh, but was instantly destroyed by the Immortal Extermination Formation’s sword light.
Roots, spacetime attacks, palm strikes, nothing seemed to be able to pierce Luohu’s defences. In the great distance, the three sovereigns could potentially help him rectify this issue. But they were also preoccupied with surviving in the formation.
“RARGH!” Yang Mei chose to reveal his true form.
His body began stretching out, high into the sky until it reached the roof of the formation. Much like Wangshu, Yang Mei was also a tree based lifeform. His current body was a willow tree born at the beginning of the first yuanhui of the Primitive World.
His body emitted heavy amounts of qi stemming from his Dao. He began the effort of pushing apart the Immortal Extermination Formation by force, hoping to tear it apart.
“You think you can pierce my formation with size? Dream on!” Luohu stabbed into the bark of Yang Mei causing him to groan.
Tendrils of roots reached out to perform powerful magics at Luohu. Two more stretched out to hold him in place. Within the formation, the sword light could not pierce his body, but they can tie down his offensive means.
The Devil Ancestor struggled a bit with pushing Yang Mei down with the help of the formation. The black lotus in his hand spun into a wheel, then generated a ball of destructive gas. He begun tearing away at Yang Mei’s vitality.
“Such a great and powerful godfiend, always looking down on the rest of us because you were top four,” Luohu sneered. “But what did you amount to in the end? Did we not all end up the same? And look at you now? No match for me alone, had to resort to besiegement to fight me.”
“Don’t make me laugh Luohu, your foundation was built upon the labours of others. You led an army here because you were too scared to fight alone, just like you hid behind Hongjun’s skirts in the Chaos Sea,” Yang Mei bit back. “You killed someone you should never have, and you did so when they couldn’t even fight back. I swear I’ll tear you apart!”
“Huoyun had it coming, I’ll make sure you two can reunite in oblivion,” Luohu replied. “What a four great godfiends? Yang Mei, Huoyun, Shichen, Demon Ape, I alone have killed three. The last didn’t even make it to the new world.”
“Patting yourself on the back already?” Yang Mei grew furious at being wrote off so readily.
THOOM!
Luohu’s eye leaned sideways and glared. He did not let up the pressure on Yang Mei, but Da Hai had just lashed out against the surface of the formation. Luohu quickly ordered the formation to tighten it’s surface so as to not let him penetrate his way through.
Metallic clashes followed by wave crashes were heard as Da Hai smashed into the Immortal Extermination Formation with the Xuanyuan Water Control Flag. His maddened gaze pierced through numerous veil to look at Luohu’s physical form.
“Luohu, roll out here and face me!” He demanded. Water surged around him to a dragon and impacted the dome around the formation.
The disdainful glare of the Heavenly Dao switched from Luohu to Da Hai. The four divine beasts from the Four Symbols Formation growled his way. The sight of the Azure Dragon of the East roaring at him momentarily froze Da Hai, a sense of guilt washed through him.
“Great one please.” The Heavenly Dao’s consciousness slackened slightly as its chosen partner’s voice called out to him in a pleading way. Hongjun’s voice placated the pride of the Heavenly Dao who deigned to hear him out.
“I know you hate him for his betrayal. But we must stop Luohu first. Until I can complete my breakthrough, we need to work with him,” Luohu explained. In another location, a sitting Hongjun stopped his cultivation and kowtowed towards the Heavens.
The four beasts stopped growling at Da Hai and continued to press down on Devil Ancestor’s formation. Da Hai narrowed his eyes, but he otherwise ignored them as well. Unexpectedly, a pain equal to the loss of Huoyun welled up inside him at such close proximity to his disciple’s corpse.
“Master, you’re here,” Zulong called out from within the formation. The dragon coiled in on himself after a barrage of attacks launched his way.
“Hold on Zulong.” Da Hai gripped his flagpole with both hands and stabbed down. Sparks from the impact alarmed Luohu who was still fighting Yang Mei.
Even if he’d been much stronger than the sea god in the past, Da Hai was the first to become Limitless Supreme. Luohu could never doubt Da Hai as being weak either. He raised a finger and pointed Da Hai’s way.
Each successive strike of Da Hai contained all his understanding towards the Dao. Distant Seas, forever in sight, forever out of reach. Concepts like impossible distance, closeness, water movement, unreachability all merged into a primordial origin similar to the archaic state of a Chaos World.
“HAH!” Da Hai smashed down with the tip of the Xuanyuan Water Control Flag. It’s tip formed into a spear head by way of water. Da Hai’s Dao fruit manifested around him, resembling a brilliant yet haunting body of water forever out of reach, but eternally in sight.
The sheer force of Da Hai’s Dao was enough to cause ripples throughout the Primitive World. Not only the Netherworld, but the Great Wilderness and the Starry Skies felt the tremors. Since time immemorial, the Primitive World had grown to withstand destructive forces once capable of ripping apart it’s layers of reality. But to Da Hai, these layers might as well be paper.
PAH!
The Immortal Extermination Four Swords simultaneously vibrated from the final strike. Da Hai breathed out a long breath, feeling the mental fatigue of exerting so much. But he’d broken the outer shell.
“You want to come into my formation?” The launched his chaos spiritual treasure, the Destruction Mill towards Da Hai.
“ROAR!” The four divine beasts controlled by the Heavenly Dao descended along with Da Hai. Unlike the godfiend who’d entered into the formation, the Four Symbols Formation squashed itself along the Four Swords. They resembled two pieces of different coloured slime merging into one another.
The Destruction Mill’s complete name was Absolute Nothing Mill of Destruction. As it moved, sent out waves of gas at Da Hai. The sea god waved his hand to create Pellucid Divine Water, allowing the gas to pass through him.
But the mill wasn’t without it’s own tricks. It began to grind down at the divine water surrounding Da Hai. Despite shifting its creator constantly through numerous different dimensions, trying to prevent him from touching the mill. The chaos spiritual treasure reduced each one to nothingness at accelerating speed.
“Destruction is a misnomer,” Da Hai spat. “You should have used grinding.”
“Master catch!”
Da Hai flinched feeling his sword sail through the formation’s depths. His snake head reached out and grabbed the handle of the Heavenly Cloud Gathering Sword with its teeth.
The Dragon Sovereign on the other hand was left disarmed. He turtled in even more as a result of the barrages.
With sword in hand, Da Hai immediately began channeling Chaotic Sword Qi. Unlike the sword light of Luohu, or the deteriorating gas of the Destruction Mill, Chaotic Sword Qi was a fiercer violent force.
It didn’t grind things down, or stab in squads of quintillions, it simply wanted to tear things apart.
Da Hai’s snake head swerved around the formation, allowing countless sword light to bounce off his scales. Against a cultivator of his stature, the Immortal Extermination Formation had no ability to hurt him in the first place, it’s greatest strength was it’s stability and defensive capabilities.
The top grade xiantian spiritual treasure sword armed full of Chaotic Sword Qi stabbed into the back of the Destruction Mill. Chaotic Sword Qi channeled into it causing the the greater treasure to jolt away. It’s flinch gave enough time for Da Hai to move to Zulong’s location.
His eldest disciple was struggling against chains of sword light that were trying to pull him apart. It enraged Da Hai to see his disciple like so. Zulong was supposed to be a fierce warrior, an emperor among peasants, it was humiliating to be forced so far into a turtling in on himself to resist attacks.
“Leave.” Da Hai said as he threw his all into striking the Immortal Trapping Sword.
BOOM!
The entire formation trembled while Luohu felt a sense of dread. The Immortal Extermination Formation was to meant to have so many malefactors against it like now. Yang Mei truly was an unpredictable nuisance.
Da Hai grabbed Zulong and helped him up. “You okay?”
“Of course, I just need to catch my bearings,” he said. “Zufeng and Qi An, they are in a similar situation as me.
