Chapter 866 – The Cultivator Duan Yan

In this battle, Divination Magic, Blessing Magic, and Curse Magic had proven themselves indispensable.

Without Divination Magic’s clear reading of “great fortune,” given Mo Lan’s habitual caution and her knowledge that the giant plane was very likely a world surpassing the Thirteenth Rank, she would never have risked remaining in place after severing its Ascension Passage.

Without Blessing Magic continuously boosting her luck, without Curse Magic constantly eroding the enemy’s fortune, she might not have severed the passage at such a perfectly timed moment — the instant before her opponent was about to arrive — inflicting the most severe spatial backlash upon him. That formidable void energy storm might not have so “coincidentally” passed through the battlefield and precisely destroyed the enemy’s physical body. And that Dao Ancestor realm powerhouse, in his final desperate moment, might not have “luckily” found a sliver of hope for survival, nor “decisively” chosen to attempt possession — the one path of reversal that posed the least threat to her.

It was precisely this chain of interlocking “coincidences” that sent a Ninth Rank powerhouse — someone three full major realms above Mo Lan — hurtling headfirst into the one domain where she feared him least, the domain that could even be called her home turf: her mental sea.

Had his primordial spirit not entered her mental sea, she would have had no way to deal with him.

After this battle, Mo Lan finally understood firsthand just how extraordinary and formidable the power of fate truly was.

Divination Magic could glimpse the trajectory of fate, allowing her to know in advance what awaited her at certain nodes of destiny — granting her the courage to go all in and the foresight to avoid danger.

Blessing and Curse Magic could shift fate’s inclination, making destiny favor her while letting “accidents” befall her enemies. Even in hopeless situations, fate’s bias would reveal a sliver of hope, and attacks that should have been flawless would develop fatal oversights.

Standing within these memories, viewing events from the perspective of the cultivator Duan Yan, this should have been an effortless demon-slaying excursion.

He had broken through to the Dao Ancestor realm just last year, becoming the illustrious seventeenth Dao Ancestor of the Immortal Realm.

From that moment on, he was in communion with the Heavenly Dao. His words became law, and his every gesture contained the supreme principles of heaven and earth. In the Immortal Realm, he was an existence whose lifespan matched that of the Great Dao itself.

Today, he had suddenly received a warning from the Heavenly Dao, informing him that the Celestial Profound Realm under his jurisdiction was being invaded by an extraterritorial evil demon at the Golden Immortal level, and requesting that he descend to eliminate it.

At the Dao Ancestor level, there was no longer any need for the arduous cultivation that lesser cultivators endured.

They had merged their being with the Dao; their strength was tied solely to the Great Dao they controlled.

And a stronger Immortal Realm meant a stronger Heavenly Dao, a stronger Heavenly Dao meant a stronger Great Dao, and a stronger Great Dao meant stronger Dao Ancestors — this was the consensus of all Dao Ancestors.

How could he allow extraterritorial demons to erode the foundations of the Immortal Realm? He immediately descended through the Ascension Passage.

However, disaster struck without warning!

Before he even reached the Celestial Profound Realm, the Ascension Passage connecting it to the Spirit Realm was severed from within!

Caught completely off guard, he was violently hurled from the Heavenly Dao-protected passage into the endless void, teeming with corrosive forces. The chaotic spatial currents around him sliced at his Dao body like hundreds of millions of blades. The Heavenly Dao of the Immortal Realm could no longer shelter him. His Dao body was instantly damaged, and his strength plummeted.

But reasoning that his enemy was merely a Golden Immortal — a full three major realms below him across the Taiyi, Daluo, and Dao Ancestor stages — and that he was already within arm’s reach of the Celestial Profound Realm, he suppressed his injuries and resolved to finish this quickly before restoring the Ascension Passage between the Celestial Profound Realm and the Spirit Realm.

Yet everything that followed utterly shattered his understanding.

The evil demon was indeed only at the Golden Immortal level, but the depth and magnitude of its “immortal power” was comparable to those veteran, long-established Dao Ancestors of the Immortal Realm.

Countless low-rank divine techniques rained down like a torrential storm, painting the entire void in a dazzling array of colors. The barrage continued for an entire incense stick’s time, yet the opponent showed no sign of fatigue whatsoever.

Fortunately, these were ultimately just “Golden Immortal techniques.” Even gravely wounded, his protective immortal radiance could still withstand the relentless bombardment. Just as he was about to push through the onslaught, lock onto the demon’s true form, and deliver a killing blow, a massive void energy storm swept in at precisely that moment.

The violent energy currents merged with those countless “Golden Immortal techniques,” and together they shattered his already unstable protective immortal radiance with devastating force!

Under the dual onslaught of the energy storm and the divine techniques, his Dao body disintegrated inch by inch like shattering porcelain.

By sheer fortune, because he had long known his primordial spirit cultivation was slightly weaker than his physical body, he had acquired an Immortal Soul Stone years ago to constantly nourish his spirit. This alone prevented his complete annihilation on the spot.

His plan was to feign total dissolution, lure the demon closer to investigate, then strike without warning. He would use a secret art to seize her physical body — as long as he could obtain a vessel, he would be able to contact the Immortal Realm and escape this accursed void.

But this extraterritorial demon’s caution and cowardice were infuriating beyond measure!

Even though his physical body had already shattered and his aura had completely dissipated, the opponent still refused to relent.

Its “immortal power” seemed utterly inexhaustible, transforming into various techniques that continued to bombard this stretch of void for several more minutes!

Under this frenzied assault, the Immortal Soul Stone’s power was rapidly depleted, its surface covered in cracks. His primordial spirit, hidden within the stone, felt as though it were being roasted over an open flame. If this continued, he truly would be annihilated in both body and soul.

Duan Yan was shocked and furious, yet could only grit his teeth and endure, relying on the Immortal Soul Stone’s last vestiges of protection.

Finally, in the moment just before the Immortal Soul Stone shattered completely, the attacks ceased.

He sensed the “mobile grotto-heaven” where the demon was hiding slowly approaching.

The moment had come!

He gathered every last bit of the Immortal Soul Stone’s remaining power, and the instant the enemy drew near, he burned his very essence without reservation and slammed into the extraordinarily sturdy grotto-heaven barrier.

In the instant his primordial spirit collided with the barrier, he felt a heart-rending, soul-splitting agony — yet he forced open a crack!

His divine sense unfurled like a tidal wave, instantly locking onto the position of the demon’s true body.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he charged straight for it. In the instant the demon became aware, surging with the excitement of imminent vengeance, he plunged viciously into the space between her brows.

He had assumed that seizing the body of a Golden Immortal-level extraterritorial demon would be child’s play. Though his primordial spirit was damaged, a Dao Ancestor’s primordial spirit crushing a Golden Immortal’s should be like a boulder smashing an egg.

However, the moment he burst into her sea of consciousness, every expectation crumbled to dust.

Before him stretched a boundless silver ocean. Waves of psychic power surged and roiled, and every single drop of “seawater” was refined to a near-solid density.

He almost thought he had stumbled into the sea of consciousness of some ancient Dao Ancestor senior — no, even the most powerful Dao Ancestor in the Immortal Realm didn’t possess divine sense this absurd.

This was a sea of consciousness that even Dao Ancestors could only look up to in awe!

The waves of divine sense surged toward him, effortlessly engulfing his primordial spirit. He couldn’t even put up the slightest resistance.

In the final instant before his consciousness was completely assimilated and devoured, the only thing remaining in Duan Yan’s fading thoughts was a single overwhelming question — one he would never receive the answer to:

“A mere Golden Immortal demon… how could it possibly possess… such a vast divine sense…”