Xu Zimo slowly lifted the jade flute. The moment it sounded, a light yet violent tone spread out.
It was like the surging waves of the sea. Unlike the structured style of ordinary zither notes, this sound was chaotic, as though countless waves intertwined, countless fragments of the void tangled together, like a ball of messy threads with no order.
A tune of madness and violence, so much so that even those who had covered their ears around the arena couldn’t help but feel its force.
“Great sound leaves little trace,” Baili Xiao frowned deeply on the other side.
The melody from her zither was constantly shifting.
“The highest refinement is formless. The Grand Dao has no strings.”
With a few sharp chants, her jade-like fingers moved swiftly, forming countless afterimages across the strings.
But Xu Zimo remained unhurried. He blew softly into the jade flute, his white robes fluttering with the wind.
The Infernal-Creation Eternal-Canon, Nirvana, the breaking of the boundary between immortal and demon, the supreme divine song.
This Infernal-Creation Eternal-Canon was a melody of rebirth and destruction.
He may rage, yet I remain as the breeze brushing the mountain ridge. He may domineer, yet I remain as the moon shining over the river.
Xu Zimo stood at the very center. No matter how hard Baili Xiao pushed, her zither notes could not approach within three meters of him.
Suddenly, as the flute’s melody shifted, at times maddened like a demon, at times ethereal like an immortal, all the zither’s notes mixed within it and completely erupted.
With a thunderous boom, the entire arena forged from Dao Crystals shattered apart.
The shockwave sent Baili Xiao flying once more.
Xu Zimo stood calmly, lowering the jade flute.
Looking down at the zither before him, he lifted his foot and stomped hard.
With another boom, the classical zither splintered into fragments.
“That’s it?” he glanced at Baili Xiao with a faint smile.
She rose to her feet, wiping the blood from the corner of her lips.
Her eyes remained calm and unfathomable as they stared at Xu Zimo, but her aura surged even more violently, like towering waves crashing one after another.
“Time and space like flowers.” She raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
The world fell silent.
True silence, in which both time and space froze completely.
Petals formed from the power of time and space drifted from above.
Each flower bloomed with three petals, reflecting eternity.
One after another, they descended and fused into Xu Zimo’s body.
He frowned slightly, realizing he could not feel anything.
As more petals fell, Baili Xiao extended her hand.
“Through the ages in haste.”
The petals within his body were like seeds, sprouting and growing roots one by one.
In an instant, Xu Zimo felt himself being enveloped and filled with dense time energy.
“All eternity becomes void.” Baili Xiao snapped her fingers again.
The previously frozen void resumed, but this time time itself flowed backward, while the power of the petals within him flowed forward.
As though the flow of time had split in two, one backward, one forward.
When the two collided within him, Xu Zimo felt himself being torn apart.
Endless power wrapped around him, accelerating his time.
It was like someone who had one hundred days to live but, under tenfold acceleration, only ten remained.
Now Xu Zimo’s time was accelerating not just tenfold, but far beyond that.
He glanced at his body, already starting to turn illusory.
He smiled faintly. “Just scraps of the Dao of time and space, and you dare flaunt them before me?”
He waved his right hand, and with a thunderous boom, time and space themselves froze completely.
In an instant, before Baili Xiao could react, Xu Zimo’s palm pressed heavily on her shoulder.
Her body was once again sent flying.
The power of time and space bent even more obediently in his hands than in hers.
Looking down at her from above, Xu Zimo shook his head slightly.
“I was hoping you’d surprise me. But this so-called progress of yours, it’s not worth mentioning.”
Baili Xiao bit her lip, silent, her aura shifting once more, from heavy and vast to sharp and cutting.
“One Sword Across Ages.”
Her right arm turned into a sword, the supreme technique of Grand Emperor Chang Kong.
The sword intent howled forth, boundless, annihilating all the void around Xu Zimo.
Yet still it was useless. Xu Zimo simply extended his hand and crushed the sword intent into fragments.
At that moment, it seemed Baili Xiao had been waiting for this very opening.
A burst of radiance erupted from her body, and from within split off a second figure.
That shadow was another Baili Xiao. Before Xu Zimo could react, it struck his abdomen, blasting him away.
He rose again, brushing the dust off his white robes.
“Your True Fate is reincarnation? As expected from one who has returned from a past life.”
Reincarnation, the most direct path upon the Path of Immortality.
Baili Xiao had split herself into two parts: one stepping into the Path of Immortality, the other seizing Heaven’s Will through the Path of Dao.
If successful, the immortal path would merge with Heaven’s Will itself, immensely powerful.
At this moment, that immortal-shadow shone like a bright moon.
Xu Zimo slowly drew Shadow Tyrant.
Its razor-sharp aura resonated through the void.
Both of Baili Xiao’s figures lunged at him together.
One moved like a phoenix soaring across the nine heavens, vast and overwhelming.
The other like waves cleaving through the sea, growing stronger the longer it fought.
The two cooperated seamlessly, practiced to perfection.
While countering their attacks, Xu Zimo noticed something unusual.
One of the figures brimmed with life, the other radiated death.
“Life-Death Samsara Art,” Xu Zimo sneered.
“So, the Lord of Samsara was willing to hand this to you.”
Seeing this, Xu Zimo’s Shadow Tyrant erupted with overwhelming might, suppressing both figures under its absolute force.
One of the Ten Primordial God-Scriptures, the Aryan-Swastika God-Scripture.
The giant swastika condensed into substance, crashing down with suppressive force.
Both figures were crushed beneath it.
Xu Zimo swung again, Nineteen Forms of Dao-Seeking, all crashing forward.
Both Baili Xiaos were sent flying.
Yet they erupted with powerful samsara force, merging into a black hole before him.
It tried to drag Xu Zimo inside, into eternal samsara.
“Is this all you’ve got? How boring.” Xu Zimo’s voice thundered coldly.
His blade swept again, annihilating the black hole. Both of Baili Xiao’s figures fell beneath its edge.
With a single slash, blood burst forth, scattering into the void in a crimson spray.