“What is this?!” Aghast, the Crimson Firmament elder discovered with great dismay that the reborn Sugato Sword was stronger than his faction’s ultimate weapon!

Shimmering sword radiance and limitless might shook the sword cauldron, carving one deep mark after another onto the cauldron’s surface.

Hummmmm.

The sword cauldron keened with distress.

Clang!

Busy clashing with the Skyturning Seal on the other side, the sword bell quaked violently and tolled resonantly, sending a purple bell shadow to clap down protectively over the cauldron. The bell tolls carried on, firing ripples of sword energy at the Sugato Sword.

“This isn’t possible! The Sugato Sword didn’t showcase this level of strength ten thousand years ago in the hands of Lord Sugato!” Panting heavily, the elder directed the sword cauldron in a joint defense with the sword bell.

“The Sugato Sword was buried in the human emperor’s Last Repose for ten thousand years. It’s absorbed the strength of humanity’s sacred land, so it’s no surprise that it’s returned to its peak and even surpassed its previous form.” The purple-clad youth of the Purple Firmament stared fixedly at the jewel embedded in the hilt of the Sugato Sword—that wasn’t its own jewel, but one that’d once belonged to the Sword Pagoda.

It hadn’t been present when Lord Sugato wielded the treasure. Countless aeons ago, when the Green Firmament’s Sword Pagoda was demolished, its jewel had fallen to the underworld. Yet somehow, it’d found its way to the Sugato Sword refined from the corpse of the Sword Pagoda and become one with it again.

Add to that ten thousand years of soaking in the energy of the human emperor’s Last Repose, the Sugato Sword was now a king of weapons that boasted strength superior to the cauldron and bell. The latter had to work together to barely fend off the sword’s attacks.

……

Battle raged on between the other participants; Lu Yun was holding off the two scarlet apes by himself. Though he was a peak origin dao immortal, he didn’t come off any worse for the wear against two scarlet apes that’d long broken through origin dao realm!

An unsheathed Violetgrave scattered violet sword energy through the air like a drizzle of rain. The two scarlet apes had taken their original forms and were physically throwing themselves at Lu Yun. The head of the Dark North Sword Sect, master of Ingress Island, Yin Jiuying, and celestial emperors of the nine majors, ten lands, and four immortal seas charged toward the Central World with an army of dozens of crippled origin dao immortals and countless other dao immortals.

Qing Yu could not be allowed to fully refine the Central World, even at the cost of their own lives.

There were simply too many treasures in it—just a single one of the Immortal Subjugation Seal, countless heritages, or the Dao Tree that could no longer be spoken of was enough to turn men mad with greed, to say nothing of them all together.

The thirteen merchant alliance leaders and five forefathers of the Star Demon Sect couldn’t hold them off. Each spewing mouthfuls of blood when they were defeated, they were all bombarded into the East Sea.

“Kill!” Qi Hai yelled. His pill furnace had arrived beneath the Central World and was larger than the facet itself. Flames raged as he prepared to refine Qing Yu along with the Central World.

“You can fuck right off!!”

Wham!

An enormous palm descended from the heavens and smacked the furnace out of the area. Qi Hai vomited a mouthful of fresh blood as his body crackled like a porcelain vase.

“Senior brother!!” shrieked the Destiny city lord from his position in his city. Instead of participating in the battle for the Central World, he’d remained behind to protect home ground.

Qi Hai’s body shattered to reveal... another Qi Hai beneath. Incredibly different from the first, he now looked like a young man with an extraordinary vigorous presence. It wasn’t the power of immortal dao that wreathed around him, but another more tyrannical and imperious might.

The strength of human dao!

This moment marked the official switch from the Qi Hai that the world knew, to the one of human dao—city lord of the greatest human capital!

“Who goes there?!” Muscles rippled over his body—a stark contrast to his usual ethereal and genteel air. Glaring around with widened eyes, he settled frostily on a figure manifesting in the air.

“Why, me, of course.” Xing Chen came into full view.

He, too, was peak origin dao realm at the moment. Violetgrave’s corpse puppet bestowed strength to Lu Yun’s nascent spirit, not his body. As his primary body and replica shared the same six paths of his nascent spirit, the same strength was passed on to Xing Chen as well.

More importantly, Xing Chen had taken advantage of the general distraction to enter the world of the Emperor Sunflower and obtain the kidneys. He’d refined them with the power of the heart, lungs, and liver—making him stronger than his primary body.

“Lu Yun!” Glaring viciously at the replica, Qi Hai stood in the void and refrained from further action.

Eighteen ponderous beings formed in the air behind him—the eighteen origin dao monster spirits of Levitating Island. Though they’d plucked only one fruit each, they were bonafide origin dao immortals of the Primordial Era, thus many times stronger than their contemporary crippled peers.

Further off in the distance, the big fur seal, Ge Yanxia, and teeming hordes of fur seals had broken through any resistance and surrounded Lu Yun and the Central World.

“Oh?” Xing Chen cocked his head at Qi Hai and couldn’t help a snort of laughter. “Qi Hai, you were the city lord of the foremost human capital in the Primeval Era, discriminator against all races and adherent to the belief that humanity is the most supreme. In your eyes, humans are the natural masters of heavens and earth. So how is it that you ally with monster spirits and those incredibly disgusting fur seals today?”

“It is up to the capabilities of each race as to whether humans or monster spirits should reign over all. But no matter what, you will not be the master of the world!” Qi Hai’s response rang loud and clear as he leveled a bronze broadsword at Lu Yun.

“That’s right, it’s each to their own when it comes to who will wield the greatest power. Our current goal is to take back the Central World on behalf of everyone in the world of immortals!” sneered the celestial emperor of Primus Major.

“Look at you running your mouth when you haven’t even comprehended the heart of a celestial emperor.” Lu Yun shook his head. “If you’d grasped the true meaning of your title, you would immediately receive nine origin dao fruits and become a powerhouse among origin dao immortals…

“But if you did so, you’d probably instantly retreat as well. You’d focus on protecting the world of immortals and not harassing me like this.”

Xing Chen conjured a long black robe for himself and stood quietly in the air. He suddenly waved a hand and summoned a silver longsword. Starlight sparkled upon its blade—the Cosmic Skycarver!

“You’re right, Qi Hai, I do only have four hours. But if I kill you all within that time span, that solves my problems as well.” Xing Chen took in a deep breath as killing intent flashed through his eyes.

“Fellow daoist!” a childish voice sounded crisply as the master of Ingress Island slowly approached on the back of a blue cow. “Fellow daoist, why refine the Central World on a selfish whim if your desire is to establish a sacred land of immortal dao? The twenty-fourth facet belongs to everyone in the world of immortals. I still have high hopes for you and hope that you will not set foot on that demonic path.”

“Fellow daoist.” Lu Yun inclined his head at this great senior and continued, “Our ideals are different and thus our paths are different—what need is there for further discourse? In the current world of immortals, he who has the greater fist is the one who walks the right path. There is no point to labeling one thing as the proper dao and another as demonic dao.”

“In that case, we shall have to beat you into acceptance,” sighed the master of the island.

“As is my intention!” Xing Chen laughed heartily and flicked his fingers, sending thirty-six shimmering golden beans across the sky.

Thirty-six golden armored warriors appeared out of nowhere and landed in front of Lu Yun. They all possessed peak origin dao strength—in other words, they were thirty-six celestial emperors!