The last time Wei Zhao had beheaded him with a single stroke, it was because he had been bound fast by the chains of the Academy of the Sin God, with no chance to resist—and because he had been imprisoned for three hundred years and was then at his weakest.

Today was different.

He had recovered the greater part of his strength. Even without his own flesh and blood, he could still unleash at least sixty percent of the fighting power of his prime.

And under those circumstances, he still could not beat Wei Zhao?

How?

What truly galled him was not merely that he could not beat Wei Zhao, but that Wei Zhao had cut him down with a single stroke!

That meant that even in his true prime, facing the Wei Zhao of this moment, he would in all likelihood still come off the worse.

He, and no one else, was the invincible existence of Tianjun.

Every skilled hand in all of Tianjun, added together, was nothing but a school of minnows—not enough to fill even one of his hands.

That included Wei Zhao, this so-called Lord of Tianjun who had sprung up from nowhere: just a slightly larger minnow, utterly incapable of shaking him in the least.

So how was he to explain what he was seeing?

Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow in some surprise. "Still alive after taking that stroke of mine—you really are rather formidable."

The remark was not entirely mockery.

Among the three blade forms Wei Zhao kept as his final reserves, the Earthshaker Blade was unquestionably the one with the greatest killing power.

By Wei Zhao's reckoning, this stroke should have—if not killed the man outright—at the very least left him gravely wounded.

Yet judging by what he saw now, though Xing Jun's head had indeed been shaken off, it had done him no damage of a catastrophic order.

The sheer thickness of his hide was truly alarming.

What followed was even more unforeseen.

Xing Jun's head had clearly left Tao Zhibai's body. By any reasonable account, Tao Zhibai should by now have shaken off his influence and come back to his senses.

He did not.

The next instant, Tao Zhibai lunged forward, snatched up Xing Jun's head, planted it directly upon his own neck, and in a flash had fused with it once more.

Wei Zhao narrowed his eyes. "So such a thing is possible?"

To swallow even the Earthshaker Blade head-on—this fellow across from him truly had the makings of a cockroach that would not die.

His hands, however, were not idle.

If the Earthshaker Blade would not serve, then he would switch to the Myriad Forms Blade.

The Myriad Forms Blade was born to counter and subdue; against crooked, heterodox arts whose workings could not be fathomed, it was naturally the most effective.

Even as Wei Zhao struck, Xing Jun, controlling Tao Zhibai's body, wrenched himself back in headlong retreat.

The Earthshaker Blade had not slain him outright, but the carnage it had wrought was real enough. Should it land once more, he might well meet his end here today.

For all that his face was a study in refusal, at this moment he could only run.

The result: another stroke caught him squarely across the neck.

Without the least surprise, Xing Jun's head was again hacked clean off.

This time, however, before the head could fall, Tao Zhibai caught it one-handed—and then simply carried it by the hair and charged out.

Just then, Zhou Yuan and Gu Tianque barred his way at once, poised and ready to strike.

From the very start, at Wei Zhao's instruction, the two of them had sealed off the only exit of this secret realm.

Wei Zhao knew full well that they had been able to find Xing Jun's head this time entirely thanks to Tao Zhibai.

If the man slipped away now, digging him out again afterward would be far more than a small difficulty.

Even though the other's true body was already in his hands, if the fellow were simply left to squat in Tao Zhibai's flesh, he would inevitably become a monstrous hidden danger in the days to come.

This time, no matter what, he had to be stamped out for good.

Zhou Yuan and Gu Tianque were both going all out; with the two of them joining hands, their might was in no way inferior even to Wei Zhao himself.

The crux was that both were true prodigies of battle—their grasp of timing alone was exquisite to the highest degree.

In his haste, Xing Jun had no room to dodge and could only grit his teeth and take it head-on.

And in his present state, to take such a blow head-on meant, nine parts in ten, death.

Then, at that very moment, a spatial passage abruptly unfurled before Xing Jun.

Snagged at the final instant before Zhou Yuan and Gu Tianque's assault fell, it swept him neatly into the void.

And then, without giving Wei Zhao and the others even a breath to react, the spatial passage snapped shut.

"Oh?"

Zhou Yuan could not help cursing aloud.

Gu Tianque clicked his tongue at the sight. "A spatial passage can be opened like that? What sort of person has such skill?"

Wei Zhao frowned slightly. "The smell of this one does seem a little familiar."

Gu Tianque caught on at once. "Sikong Dao?"

Under Tianjun's many layers of restriction, all manner of spatial abilities were essentially locked down, with no room left to exercise them.

That the other side could manage such a move showed that his level of power stood far above Wei Zhao and the rest.

Sikong Dao, that great figure of the Academy of the Lord God—even the Lord God of the Dao Race had once been his student. In both strength and stature he was sufficiently transcendent; that he could achieve such a thing was hardly surprising.

Wei Zhao was not taken aback. "This whole affair with Xing Jun was his doing from behind the scenes. That he would step in today and pull Xing Jun out is hardly worth wondering at."

Zhou Yuan scratched his head. "Isn't that a bit of a breach of the rules?"

Wei Zhao shook his head with a laugh. "Rules are still made by men."

Strictly speaking, this was not even the first time the other side had meddled in Tianjun. By any measure, it had already gravely violated the divine decree left behind by the Creator God.

Were it anyone else, even if they did not pay in blood, they would never be permitted to meddle whenever they pleased as this—a striking display of zero accountability.

Just then Zhang Baiyu came in to report: "There is no trace of damage to the formations outside."

To ensure nothing went wrong this time, besides summoning Zhou Yuan and Gu Tianque, Wei Zhao had laid down layer upon layer of formations outside the secret realm.

Even if Xing Jun had broken out by some fluke, he would inevitably have been caught in the end.

Unfortunately, Sikong Dao's methods simply could not be measured by common sense.

Wei Zhao waved a hand. "Let's call it a day."

Zhang Baiyu glanced over the traces at the scene. "Xing Jun alone would be one thing, but now that Sikong Dao is fanning the flames from behind, we must be on our guard."

Wei Zhao gave a low laugh. "He's a great man, and he's throwing his dignity aside to pull stunts like this. Even if we wanted to guard against him, how could we?"

Zhang Baiyu asked, "What does the lord intend?"

Wei Zhao's tone was quiet and drawn out. "His opponent is not me. One or two moves, and no more; but if he keeps making moves, this side will naturally match him with an opponent of a higher grade."

Zhang Baiyu nodded deeply. "That is so."

For that matter, Wei Zhao was the Lord of Tianjun, but the one who truly had Tianjun's back was that Lord God of the Dao Race.

Even a Lord God of the Dao Race who had already fallen was not someone just anyone could hold down.

Sikong Dao was no exception.

Zhang Baiyu then asked, "Does the lord mean to keep fishing?"