Up in the sky, a dragon of sword qi that’d transformed into a real dragon clashed repeatedly with a purple creature that bore a dragon head, tiger body, and two pairs of wings on its back. Water ripples continuously shimmered over the sword dragon and took form as tangible arcs of sword energy that ricocheted at the purple beast.

Snarling and tearing at the air, the purple beast flared with intense netherfire and ignored the arcs of sword energy slamming into it. Instead, it latched onto the sword dragon with sharp claws and shredded the sword energy that formed its body.

The stunning battle shook heaven and earth. Both beasts set aside their combat arts to meet each other in the most primitive method of body combat.

As the fight went on, the purple beast started going out of its mind. The tiny human before it was just a peerless immortal—it could crush that ant in a split second with its power of the mind! However, the mewling human’s unknown connate treasure was too strong. A ripple of sword energy lopped off the bale spirit’s power as soon as it extended it, rendering its usual tactics useless.

Their combat shook the land and pierced straight through the moderately sized continent beneath their feet, enabling the surging seas to slowly seep in and sink it. Miao and Luan Qi had taken to the air and were closely observing the great battle from a distance.

The fight not only destroyed several large continents in the main world of the Quiet Realm, but it also obliterated the boundless tide of dead spirits in this world. As the brawl dragged on, the purple bale spirit reached the end of its stamina and its netherfire began to dim.

“This isn’t possible! You’re just a minor peerless immortal, why can you deploy the strength of a connate treasure?!” As the purple bale spirit didn’t recognize Quietus, it didn’t know what level the treasure was.

It’d first suspected that this ordinarily looking youth was the legendary headmaster of the Dao Academy in the world of immortals. After all, rumors put Headmaster Lu Yun’s primary body at peerless immortal realm.

However, apart from his customary Vast Dragon Seaturner, Lu Yun was using none of his usual combat techniques. He actually fought with an entirely different style.

In the eyes of the general public, his ultimate moves stemmed from Worldcarver, Heavenfall, and the great combat art of spacetime reincarnation. Apart from those, his sword dao and terrifying Sword Atlas combat art were also his signature moves. When he deployed Sword Atlas, he filled the air with eighteen thousand flying swords arranged in a dominating formation that annihilated his enemies!

Lastly, the magical nascent spirit observation method that could project anything was his final trademark weapon.

All he displayed now, however, was the strength of a pure sword immortal. His Vast Dragon Seaturner had long become a mainstream technique in the world of immortals and the opening move of many sword immortals on their own path of sword dao.

Able to shift through a kaleidoscope of changes, a multitude of sword dao combat arts and other permutations were derived from the Vast Dragon Seaturner.

Lu Yun was highly skilled in formula dao and specialized in deriving new combat arts. After returning from the great wilderness and melding into the immortal dao at peak empyrean realm, he brainstormed countless new arts and techniques from his new knowledge and experience.

Many of them were too complicated and profound to be made available to the greater world, so it was impossible to identify who he was on pure basis of what combat arts he deployed in battle.

Returning to human form, Lu Yun twisted in the air and summoned all of the sword light zigzagging through the air. They combined into an enormous sword and swung ponderously at the bale spirit.

Horrified by the heaven-defying stroke, the dreadful purple bale spirit’s courage completely deserted it and it abruptly withdrew the leaping netherfire, fading into a cloud of purple smoke that dispersed in all directions.

“Trying to get away?” Lu Yun smirked, revealing his position and splitting Quietus into ten thousand strands. They scattered around the void, sealing off everything within five thousand kilometers.

Strands of sword energy swept through the air in a maddened drizzle of rain drops, slicing through every wisp of the purple bale spirit’s smoke.

Hummm.

The enormous palace outside the main world suddenly came to life, firing a pillar of radiant golden light down to the planet and protecting the purple bale spirit from Quietus’ devastating final slash.

With only a tiny wisp of smoke left to it, the purple spirit fled the main world and vanished into the palace.

Lu Yun summoned Quietus back with the wave of a hand. He stood in the void, sneering at the palace overhead. “You come provoking me when I haven’t gone looking for you. Do you really think I’m afraid of you?”

The purple bale spirit had ruined everything in the Quiet Realm. Apart from the exiled races on the newly formed star, there was no other life to be found in the entire realm. Lu Yun wouldn’t rest today before he executed that bastard spirit!

“Don’t go!” The little fox and Luan Qi came flying over. “Ignore that palace and purple bale spirit for now, the little girl’s made a new discovery.”

“Wait for me here, I’ll be right back.” Lu Yun flew out of the main world with his sword and arrived in front of the palace in the stars.

When he’d observed the palace before, all he saw were mirages and illusions. In the falsehoods he’d seen, the palace was opposing the dead spirits in space. Now that the little fox had awoken him to the truth of the matter, the illusions that the palace put out could no longer beguile him.

The palace was magnificent, splendid, and spectacular. It hovered around the main world like the moon did around Earth, but it was many times bigger than the moon.

Dense clusters of dead spirits traveled in and out of the palace, a far cry from the resolute defense against the enemy that Lu Yun had caught sight of earlier. The golden palace stood in stark contrast to the teeming mass of black spirits. No one would believe that such a glorious structure would be the nest of the dead spirits!

“The Dao Palace?” Lu Yun’s expression darkened when he read the signboard over the palace doors.

The Dao Palace!

He hadn’t named the main Dao Academy that even though it stood at the foot of Mount Xuanhuang! How dare this festering den of dead spirits call itself a dao palace!

“Since you dare call yourself that, watch me split you apart!”

Hum!

Quietus suddenly swelled hundreds of millions of times bigger, expanding itself into a giant sword as large as the main world beneath them. Its impossibly keen sword light undulated in all directions, pulverizing the space around them and crushing the pieces into void storms that swirled around the blade.

Sensing the sword’s strength, the Dao Palace began to tremble and emitted layers of concentrated golden light, forming numerous defensive boundaries. It seemed to possess its own thoughts and consciousness, like it was alive.

“Don’t!” screamed the little fox when she saw the scene. “Don’t forget that your fortuitous opportunity, your dao fruit should be in there!”

“I’ll pass on an opportunity like this, thank you very much!” Two gouts of black flame roared in Lu Yun’s eyes. He could see every detail of life and death through the Spectral Eye, and he located the death notices of the academy disciples that’d entered the palace earlier.

They’d all died inside, but their information didn’t indicate how they’d died.

Whoosh!

Lu Yun flung his hands downward and sent the mammoth sword falling down, drilling into the center of the Dao Palace.