It was as if light and darkness appeared for the first time in history. Heaven and earth separated from chaos, yin and yang no longer mixed. One became two, two became three, and three transformed into all things.

The creation of a new universe sent invisible ripples throughout the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System. Those who gazed into the sky, even during the day, would see a brilliant star.

It was a strange star that glowed a bright white, yet it would release a paradoxical black light at certain times. Cultivators, especially true immortals, who grasped the chance would gain insight into the myriad worldly laws that formed the world.

Although the birth of the new universe seemed destined, an unstoppable force was preventing it from continuing.

The Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation was continuously grinding away at the nascent universe. With each star born, the countless sword lights would strangle the new light before it could illuminate for long. Sword light shattered the molten planets that had yet to even cool down from the Big Bang into cosmic dust. Nebulas were blown away before they could even form a distinct shape.

It was clear that the newborn universe was being suppressed and destroyed by the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation, but neither the Concealed Emperor nor Perfected Huanglong felt it was a pity.

Tianyi’s Universe Reflection had invaded the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation’s domain. Before, no matter what the Concealed Emperor did from outside, he could not even dent the formation. Not to say he couldn’t, but the price he paid would not be worth it.

The Universe Reflection was different. It obviously contained a massive amount of energy—energy that the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation could not destroy in a short period of time.

The most surprised was Divinity Yanxu, who felt the full power of the Universe Reflection. Although using the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation was draining, that was only comparative. He only needed to inject his divine essence into the formation diagram and evoke the power contained within.

Compared to forming the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation without it, it was a drop in the bucket. Still, it was a drain on his essence reservoir. If the Concealed Emperor and Perfected Huanglong continued their stalemate, he would have to retreat first.

That would take days, if not a month, but now, Divinity Yanxu felt the sword formation destabilize because of Tianyi’s attack. The Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation Diagram was rapidly draining his essence reserves to combat the Universe Reflection.

If Divinity Yanxu received two or three similar attacks, he would no longer be able to maintain the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation. Luckily, in his opinion, Tianyi should have drained all his energy or used some secret method to increase his offensive capabilities. After using such a devastating move, he should no longer be able to create so many incarnations.

Divinity Yanxu controlled the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation to retreat. If he remained still, he would only bear more of the brunt. Retreating would decrease the damage received.

During this time, Divinity Yanxu also prevented Perfected Huanglong from escaping the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation. Once the divine dragon escaped, it would be hard to trap him again. If that happened, he would only be able to defend using the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation.

Because he retreated, the Universe Reflection’s range expanded. Thanks to this, it was no longer as concentrated, making it easier to deflect, and Divinity Yanxu felt the drain lessening.

Universe Reflection did not last long—only about a few minutes—but the area had changed. Broken landmasses filled the once empty void. Countless dust shrouded everything. Among these infinite specks of dust, countless motes of light flickered, as if they could extinguish at any moment.

Although it did not touch the Numinous Realm thanks to the results of Tianyi’s testing, it did not mean the realm was not affected. The Numinous Realm bobbled in the Vast Void, like a boat facing endless waves. The sky and land shook inside, but none of the participants in the Vast Void paid attention.

Divinity Yanxu continued to entangle Perfected Huanglong, trying to find a method to kill, or at least injure, him. Simultaneously, he defended against the Concealed Emperor’s disruption.

The sword god cursed the Buddhists. If they had not mysteriously disappeared, would the Immortal Court have dared to attack them? Even if the Immortal Court dared, only one of their two divinities would have appeared. If the other one left, it would have left the Primordial Realm defenseless.

In fact, Divinity Yanxu wanted to see the two divinities of the Immortal Court confront him. This would leave their headquarters defenseless. He wanted them to experience the rage and despair when the Sūryaḥ Buddha attacked them, while being unable to do anything about it.

It was the same feeling he was experiencing now.

Divinity Yanxu did not let his personal emotions dictate his actions. He continued to deal with the two divinities as stably as a mountain. As the battle continued, it was not heated. It was as if both sides were going through the motions.

‘Are the two waiting for the outcome in the Numinous Realm like me?’ Divinity Yanxu wondered. Although he was still searching for a chink in Perfected Huanglong’s defense, it was obvious that the stalemate would not change.

He was fine with this outcome. Although the Numinous Sword Sect lost a lot in this war, the Immortal Court lost more. Once they discovered that neither side could do anything to the other, they would retreat on their own and only attack when they figured out a new tactic.

However, Divinity Yanxu always felt something was off. It was like something gnawing at the back of his mind. For the life of him, he could not think of whatever plan the Immortal Court could cook up.

“Hm?” Divinity Yanxu noticed spatial fluctuations outside the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation. ‘Is it another emperor or sovereign skilled in the Law of Space or Law of Spacetime?’

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When Divinity Yanxu saw the figure that teleported into the Vast Void, his entire expression changed. ‘Impossible. How can such an attack be used again so quickly? Even a divinity would find it difficult to release such a move in such a short time unless he is willing to pay a considerable price!’

Divinity Yanxu’s ill omens came true as Tianyi slammed another sphere into the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation. The explosion destroyed his conduit, but that didn’t matter.

As Divinity Yanxu suspected, Tianyi had to pay a certain price in order to use Universe Reflection in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System. He couldn’t shoot it out through a portal like his Stellar Silences because it was not stable enough.

Instead, he had to construct it using his conduit and then have the conduit bring it out of the Nine Heavens Universe if he wanted to use it outside the inner universe. Not all conduits could bear the price to prepare it.

Of Tianyi’s three levels of conduits, only level two or three conduits could construct Universe Reflection. He could only have nine level two conduits simultaneously and one level three conduit.

So, each time he used Universe Reflection, he had to sacrifice a level two conduit. Since he used it twice, he only had seven level two conduits left, and it would take at least a week to replace them.

Divinity Yanxu’s response was more timely than before, but he still couldn’t avoid losing a large amount of divine essence.

Upon realizing that Tianyi could use Universe Reflection more than once, and at a much lower cost than he expected, the sword god drove the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation toward the Numinous Realm. He wanted to enter and merge it with the Allheaven Jianmu Formation to form an impregnable shell.

He didn’t believe Tianyi would dare to use Universe Reflection inside the Numinous Realm and destroy it, incurring an astronomical amount of Karmic Sin for himself and the Immortal Court. Although the proof and conjecture were wrong, he arrived at the correct conclusion.

Perfected Huanglong and the Concealed Emperor did their best to hinder this. Because of his previous caution, Divinity Yanxu had moved even farther away from the Numinous Realm, making it difficult to return in a short time.

Once in a while, Tianyi would appear again and unleash Universe Reflection. The duration between each attack was random. Sometimes, it would be extremely short. Other times, the wait lasted longer than all the previous periods combined.

After tanking one more attack, Divinity Yanxu expanded the Immortal Exterminating Sword Diagram by ten times. The offensive abilities decreased dramatically, easily allowing Perfected Huanglong and the Concealed Emperor to enter and exit as they liked.

The only one seriously affected was Tianyi. Not because the destructive sword lights would destroy his conduits, but because spacetime was disturbed by the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation. He couldn’t teleport inside and had to appear outside.

Because of the expanded range and decreased density of sword light, the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation was easily gouged by Tianyi’s Universe Reflection.

‘Although the damage looks worse, Divinity Yanxu should not have suffered much essence loss,’ Tianyi thought. He sighed. As expected, no divinity was simple. He made the most correct choice in this situation.

That didn’t mean it wasn’t devastating. Tianyi tried using Constellation Cessation against the expanded Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation, but it was easily destroyed by the destructive sword lights. In terms of damage, it was practically negligible. Not even Nebulous Negation worked, so Tianyi focused everything on Universe Reflection.

On the sixth Universe Reflection, the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation had already shrunk to a thousandth of its previous size. Tianyi thought that the next Universe Reflection would drain all of Divinity Yanxu’s divine essence, but he actually held on and forced him to use the eighth Universe Reflection.

At this point, it was no longer his battle, so Tianyi stayed far away and watched.

Even then, Divinity Yanxu did not perish. Burns, frostbite, and other myriad ailments covered his body, but his body still exuded a powerful life force. The Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation had fallen apart, and he held the Immortal Slaughtering Sword and Immortal Slaying Sword in his right and left hand.

“I never thought that I would become the first and last divinity of the Numinous Sword Sect,” he said. Divinity Yanxu knew that it was impossible for the Immortal Court to leave him alive. It was even more impossible for them to keep the Numinous Sword Sect.

Although he knew that the sect had already made sufficient preparations when they lost contact with the Buddhists, he still couldn’t help but feel sadness threatening to drown him.

Divinity Yanxu reviewed his actions. At first, he wanted to blame himself for the Numinous Sword Sect’s doom, but he knew that anyone else would have likely achieved similar results—or rather, failure.

True, he could have used the remaining Immortal Exterminating Swords to create two divinities, but would that have changed anything?

Even if two new divinities appeared, they would not have been the Concealed Emperor or Perfected Huanglong’s opponents without the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation. The loss of the remaining divine swords would have weakened the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation too much. Even with the addition of the divinities, it could not make up for that.

Furthermore…

Divinity Yanxu glanced at Tianyi. The biggest upset was because of this immortal sovereign’s existence. Without Tianyi, he had the confidence that the situation would not have spiraled so much out of control.

His eyes flashed with determination, and he turned into a streak of sword light. Both the Concealed Emperor and Perfected Huanglong attacked him, but Divinity Yanxu only did his best to dodge and did not counterattack.

Tianyi saw that Divinity Yanxu wanted to attack him. Although he was confident in his life-saving abilities, that did not mean he wanted to test them. So, he teleported away.

Or rather, he wanted to. Before his attempt, the two divine swords pulsed, disrupting spacetime.

It was this momentary lapse that Divinity Yanxu captured. Despite his speed, the sword god could not reach Tianyi, and his two divine foes were closing in on him.

Against all expectations, he threw one of the divine swords toward Tianyi.

Tianyi saw the apocalypse. Scenes of destruction filled his mind, as if wanting to destroy his consciousness. The four Immortal Exterminating Swords could not only inflict physical damage, but destroy souls too.

In Divinity Yanxu’s eyes, even if Tianyi was an incarnation, his mind must be connected. As long as he could destroy the mind, Tianyi’s soul would also perish, killing him.

He never expected Tianyi to wake up. Not only did he not wake up, but he did not move. Tianyi stood still and opened his arms, as if to embrace the divine sword.

‘Fool,’ Divinity Yanxu thought. The divine sword penetrated Tianyi as he expected, but when he wanted to activate the sword and kill Tianyi’s consciousness, he discovered that he couldn’t sense it anymore.

A nasty crack spread all over Tianyi’s body from the point where the sword penetrated. The parts around the hole disintegrated, spewing black, mist-like energy filled with countless motes of light.

Tianyi gave a mocking smile before turning around and flying into a portal.

Divinity Yanxu spat out a mouthful of blood as he endured Perfected Huanglong and the Concealed Emperor’s attacks, but his eyes were unprecedentedly bright. Cracks filled his body as he sped up. Before the portal closed, he slipped in.

“Hahaha. Not only will I kill you, but you also helped me escape!” Divinity Yanxu laughed, with a hint of madness. “Mark my words, the Immortal Court will rue this day!”

Opposite him, Tianyi gave him a strange look.