Releasing twenty sword atlases broke Lu Yun out of Sword Divine’s restraint and granted him the space he needed to retaliate. He’d been completely at the divine’s mercy and unable to fight back with only ten of them.

All 21,600 immortal swords from the atlases knocked the divine’s sword light back and formed a protective circle around Lu Yun. One of his arms dangling uselessly, the other formed hand seals to manipulate the twenty atlases, launching an unrelenting volley of attacks against the divine.

Eyes glinting with frost, Sword Divine howled with rage. Qing Han had gone on a mission to kill and eliminate the geniuses of the world of immortals. Once all the top geniuses were kicked out of the competition, his plan would fail.

He hadn’t expected Qing Han to use the combat arts of the creators of immortal dao and resonate with the Sovereign Arena!

The arena was a creation of the immortal dao, so it only made sense that the dao creators’ combat arts would draw out the arena’s power. The thirty-five returned void realm cultivators, Zi Chen and Mo Qitian included, couldn’t fight back at all.

Sword Divine was caught completely off guard.

For certain reasons, the divine was able to sway the Sovereign Meet to achieve his goal, but his influence had its limit. He didn’t have full control over everything, and Qing Han’s sudden rampage was completely derailing his plans.

It was he who’d gathered the thirty-six returned void realm cultivators together. Now, only a handful of geniuses whose power hadn’t come into fruition were left. Once Qing Han eliminated them as well, Sword Divine’s efforts would’ve been all for nothing.

Lu Yun occupied the divine’s attention with his twenty sword atlases as Qing Han wandered through the arena, its power amplifying hers as it was drawn by the great might radiating from the three seals.

The more she fought, the more powerful she became. She’d surpassed the height her cultivation should’ve allowed her to reach, owing to the might of the immortal dao with her. Even she was surprised by the sheer power of the three seals and how they allowed her to tap into the power of the arena.

The three seals had been hidden in the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals. Emerald Mistfire, Lucent Voidfire, and Daevic Skyfire had once divided the scroll into three paintings and sealed them away. Once the Profile of Harmony, Panorama of Clarity, and Portrait of Emptiness had merged into a singular scroll, the three immortal fires’ remaining marks had turned into the three seals.

Qing Han had given the three seals to Lu Yun, but for whatever reason, Lu Yun wasn’t able to grasp them. They were now her greatest tools in eliminating the geniuses in the arena.

“They don’t need me anymore.” Wanfeng smiled faintly at Lu Yun and Qing Han before transforming into a flash of emerald light, the bamboo shadow behind her fading away.

Qing Han had pushed her power to the limit, her eyes glowing faintly with luminescence. With the three seals empowering her, nothing in the arena could escape her attention. Like a ghost, she flashed in and out of existence in the arena. Every time she struck, she eliminated another cultivator.

Her targets were either developing geniuses or powerful cultivators who had exceeded perceived void realm and reached unravelled or returned void realm. No one could survive her attack while she was empowered, despite her severe injuries.

Eventually, the arena fell silent. The most powerful geniuses had all been killed and eliminated. The hundreds of surviving cultivators were mostly initial perceived void realm cultivators. Although they were considered top geniuses in the world of immortals, they were no match for the contestants who’d been eliminated by Qing Han.

Countless immortals in Destiny City were enraged by the proceedings, and seven reclusive origin dao immortals emerged from hiding to encircle Jadeite manor. What Lu Yun and Qing Han had done in the arena had garnered them a lot of enemies, and they’d offended numerous top factions of the world in one fell swoop.

Scarlet Ape’s fire incarnation sat atop the roof of the manor, throwing the origin dao immortals a silent glance.

None of them cared about the arena anymore. For them, the Sovereign Meet had already ended. Those great geniuses were even more talented than Wu Tulong and the other youth sovereigns. Their goal was to ascend the Sovereign Ranking and become one of the thirty-six sovereigns. Now that they’d been eliminated, the gathering was no longer worthy of their attention.

……

“I’ve dealt with them all!” Qing Han went up to Lu Yun and took a position by his side.

Lu Yun had now released thirty sword atlases, and still he was barely holding his ground against the increasingly powerful Sword Divine.

“Let’s go then,” Lu Yun said with a relieved sigh.

“Oh, the two of you aren’t going anywhere,” the divine said in a chilling voice. “Since you’ve eliminated all of the geniuses, you’ll have to take their place.”

“Seal them!” A terrifying presence surged from Sword Divine and transformed his body. In his place above the arena floated a giant, dark-cyan sword.

“What is that?!” someone yelled. “Where did that sword come from and how did it get up there?!”

Those surveilling Jadeite Manor looked up at the arena, startled.

“That’s… the sword of legends,” muttered an old divine, his gaze bright. “Before the divine race’s fall from our greatest glory, we forged a sword, imbuing it with the last hope of our race… It’s finally descended upon the world.”

……

Lu Yun and Qing Han were frozen, like flies trapped in amber.

“No wonder, no wonder!” Realization dawned on Qing Han. “No wonder the owner of the Sword of Chaos can manipulate the will of the immortal dao. The sword contains one of its shards! To complete itself, the immortal dao needs the shard in the sword!”

The ancient divine court had once destroyed the immortal dao to create the divine dao. In the process of doing so, they’d acquired the broken shards of the immortal dao. One of those shards had been incorporated into the Sword of Chaos that the divines had forged before their destruction, which became a sliver of hope that the race needed to continue their fortunes.

“The will of the immortal dao is now complete because the shard in the sword has merged with it. The Sword of Chaos allows its owner to influence the immortal dao’s will!” Lu Yun tightened his jaw.

Fortunately, the shard of immortal dao within the sword wasn’t that large, or the sword’s owner would have the immortal dao do his bidding at will. And now, the divine had turned himself into the Sword of Chaos itself to entrap Lu Yun and Qing Han!