Although it was unclear what Lu Ya intended by having Yuan Hong continue to guard Golden Turtle Island, Yuan Hong was certain that this place held significant importance for Him. Therefore, when faced with the current leader of the Jade Void Palace and a newly ascended Great Divine Power, it did not hesitate to crush an ancient, mottled jade pendant, transmitting the predicament to Lu Ya.
Upon first hearing the news while deep within an ancient secret realm, Lu Ya’s initial thought was to seize the opportunity to kill Su Meng. How dare this newly ascended figure of Creation dare to challenge Him directly? Such audacity! However, this fleeting notion dissipated without a ripple, for Su Meng represented far more than just himself.
He was the current leader of the Jade Void Palace, the direct disciple of the Primordial Heavenly Lord. Among his peers were several Great Divine Powers, with figures like Guangchengzi and Manjusri Dharma Heavenly Venerable even ranking among the Nine Daoist Venerables, not far inferior to Lu Ya himself. Add to that the Slaying Immortals Sword Formation, and their side was incomparably stronger than his own.
Even if no other Jade Void Palace powerhouses were currently visible, it did not mean they were absent. They might be lurking in the shadows or waiting elsewhere, ready to descend through the Cause of All Effects at a moment’s notice. If Lu Ya acted rashly, the one most likely to fall would not be Su Meng, but himself.
As a sect leader, every word and action often embodied the will of an entire faction!
Wary of this, Lu Ya sent a message through the shattered jade pendant to Yuan Hong:
“The Green Touring Palace has been relocated, and the restrictions on Golden Turtle Island have long lacked their core. Despite years of repairs and attempts at refinement, many flaws remain. After all, none of us are of the Other Shore, nor are we direct disciples of the Green Touring Palace. We cannot fully comprehend the island’s layout to make targeted repairs. If we merely defend, Su Meng may uncover the flaws. Instead, take advantage of his recent ascension to Creation and his current confidence—provoke him into a one-on-one duel. Meanwhile, I will quietly relocate Golden Turtle Island into the true Chaos.”
A one-on-one duel while you secretly move the island? So you want me to fight for my life while cutting off my retreat? Yuan Hong seethed inwardly, but with his innate spiritual light under another’s control, he had no choice. Reluctantly, he replied, “As the Dao Lord commands, I dare not disobey.”
Lu Ya, ever shrewd, easily guessed Yuan Hong’s thoughts and reassured him: “When the time comes to move the island, I will notify you in advance. With your near-indestructible physique, once Su Meng and the others react in shock and anger to the island’s sudden disappearance, you will have ample opportunity to escape.”
Yuan Hong, always proud of his strength and talent, nodded slightly. “The Dao Lord speaks wisely.”
No sooner had he spoken than he shook his body, shedding countless white hairs that transformed into countless monkeys, each rushing to different parts of Golden Turtle Island to take control of key nodes in the restrictions, using his clones to maintain the grand formation.
Then, a white rainbow shot into the sky, piercing through the island’s restrictions as a thunderous roar scattered the surrounding mists of time:
“Young upstart! Dare you face me in single combat?”
His voice dripped with contempt, disdain, and mockery, infused with demonic arts to provoke Su Meng into recklessness.
Su Meng’s towering golden form, dwarfing Golden Turtle Island, stood unshaken by the void’s tempests, his body flickering but unscathed. In his hand, he held a heavy purple lightning blade that seemed to contain the weight of countless universes. He laughed heartily in response:
“Perfect! You’re nothing but a walking corpse—how many strikes can you withstand?”
His long hair billowed as he swung his blade, guiding the chaotic currents around them into a directed torrent. To be caught in this flow without knowledge of past or future would mean eternal damnation.
“Come at me!” Yuan Hong, who had not engaged in such direct combat for ages, felt as though he had returned to the era of the Investiture of the Gods. With a fierce cry, he transformed into a towering white ape, even larger and more ancient than Su Meng.
Gripping a black staff with both hands, he swung it, trailing a path of flickering dark sparks—each capable of devouring countless starry rivers if unleashed upon the cosmos.
**Clang!**
The collision was deafening even to Su Meng, and the resulting shockwave seemed to freeze the world for an instant before the chaotic currents silently swallowed it, preventing further repercussions.
Both combatants staggered back, shattering countless ancient stellar remnants floating in the void—a deadlock in strength.
“Again!” Su Meng manifested three heads and six arms, charging with blade and fists. Yuan Hong, refusing to yield, mirrored the transformation, lunging forward with the force to bear the heavens.
**Clang! Bang! Boom!**
Blade met staff, fist met flesh, creating countless world-containing voids and obliterating all existence in the turbulent gaps between. Were it not for Golden Turtle Island’s protective formations, even it would have been swept away by the aftershocks. Both combatants glowed incessantly, their bodies marred by streaks of white and red, yet every wound healed instantly, leaving no trace.
Yuan Hong, exhilarated by the rare challenge, fought with abandon while subtly stalling for time. Realizing he could not gain the upper hand in direct combat, he abruptly transformed mid-clash into a crimson, serpentine primordial deity—Zhulong, the Torch Dragon—with a human face and the character “Dao” inscribed upon its body.
Zhulong opened its maw, altering the heavens and earth as time surged forth like water, slowing everything to near stillness—a display of the Seventy-Two Transformations’ divine might.
Unfazed, Su Meng mirrored the transformation, becoming an equally massive Zhulong. With a blink of his eyes, seasons shifted and years passed.
The battlefield crystallized into a prison of glass, trapping both Zhulong before shattering into countless fragments.
As the “glass” exploded, Yuan Hong transformed again, soaring into the sky with wings that blotted out the gaps between temporal currents—a golden-winged roc, its hooked beak exuding an aura that cowed all serpentine kin.
It swooped down with talons outstretched, a natural predator to dragons and serpents—albeit weaker than others of its rank.
Su Meng shifted forms once more, becoming a resplendent five-colored phoenix.
Behind it, visions of the Heaven-Earth Black-Yellow Pagoda, the Scroll of Virtue, and the Tome of Sage Virtue materialized, weaving into the patterns of the Five Virtues. With a single cry that echoed through the heavens, the golden-winged roc trembled, its ferocity extinguished.
The phoenix, progenitor of all birds and origin of virtue, commanded the reverence of all avian-kind with its call.
More importantly, Su Meng had once gathered three virtues to cultivate his Fist of Will. Now, reversing the Primordial Chaos, his Five Virtues were far more profound and closer to their origins than Yuan Hong’s imitation roc.
Yuan Hong surged upward once more, shifting into a formless primordial fiend—Chaos itself, a massive, faceless hound devoid of organs or virtue.
This “Chaos” descended, seeking to engulf the phoenix in its abyssal despair.
Yet, a blade’s gleam—like the first light of creation, like the ancient banner that split darkness to bring forth life—cleaved Chaos asunder, forcing Yuan Hong back into his white ape form.
To manifest Chaos before the master of the Heaven-Splitting Seal was like flaunting one’s axe before Lu Ban!
The blade’s momentum did not wane, carrying an inescapable inevitability that left Yuan Hong feeling as though all possible futures had been predetermined—there was no dodging this strike. A sense of powerlessness and dread surged within him.
Had Su Meng’s exploration of the Other Shore reached such heights?
Could he influence fate and claim the future?
After his journey to Zhixu Mountain, Su Meng had spent years refining his insights, integrating all his gains regarding the “future” into his “No Need for the Next Life” strike. Though he could not yet truly claim all possible futures, he could shape destiny to create an unavoidable, inevitable momentum!
Yuan Hong, ever fierce, roared and charged headlong into the blade.
**Crack!**
His body split in two, yet light surged as a lotus bloomed and withered, restoring him to wholeness—his flesh truly near-indestructible!
Seizing the moment, he swung his iron staff, only for it to meet emptiness, his force vanishing without a trace.
In his vision, Su Meng now stood beneath a primordial chaos-like canopy, streams of dark light cascading like a waterfall. His attacks merely rippled its surface.
This Su Meng was a far cry from the one who had fought him earlier with all Eight-Nine Arcana unleashed. The Su Meng he had struggled to match seemed to have wielded but half his true power.
These thoughts plunged Yuan Hong into despair.
Then, his heart stirred—Golden Turtle Island was shifting. A golden Buddha, pointing to heaven and earth in supreme dominance, had reduced all his clones back to white hairs, exposing flaws in the restrictions. Four sword lights—Slaying, Absolute, Trapping, and Annihilating—descended, churning the island into chaos.
“Wasn’t this a one-on-one duel?!” Yuan Hong bellowed, swinging his staff.
“That was my incarnation, executing a strike where you are most vulnerable,” Su Meng replied coolly, catching the black staff with his bare hand.
As he spoke, the earlier “Su Meng”—now colossal, golden, and godlike—appeared beside Golden Turtle Island, bending slightly to grip its sides.
**”RISE!”**
With a thunderous roar, he wrenched the island free from the void.
Light blazed—a feat of Herculean might!
His true target had always been Golden Turtle Island, not Yuan Hong.
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