Translator: CinderTL
At this moment, Heng Guang, the chairman of the Starry Sky Group and an Ultimate Powerhouse, along with the group's Supreme Sovereigns and Dao Venerables, all wore expressions of burning fury.
As one of the Nine Great Institutions, the pinnacle of power within the Human Territory, when had they ever suffered such humiliation?
But...
The reincarnated bodies of the Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse and the Supreme Powerhouse Gui Ling stood before them.
The recent examples of a Reserve-Tier Supreme Powerhouse and a top-tier Supreme Sovereign from the Supreme Council served as stark warnings.
Despite their rage, they rationally suppressed their anger, refraining from intervening as Li Chunjun plundered Immortal Artifact after Immortal Artifact.
Some even began retreating, avoiding direct confrontation.
"Evade?" Li Chunjun murmured. "Can you truly evade?"
After using the profound abilities of the great unification realm to reverse-engineer the Explorers Guild's Infinite Divine Mirror and glimpse the situation on the other side, Li Chunjun knew his time was running out.
The Nine Great Institutions had convened the Supreme Council to discuss how to deal with him. He had no intention of waiting passively to be cornered.
Strike first, strike hard!
He wouldn't foolishly wait for all the Human Race's Ultimate Powerhouses and Supreme Sovereigns to fully assemble, even practicing their combined attack formations, before engaging in a final showdown.
Instead, he would launch a preemptive strike, accelerating his plans and eliminating all obstacles in his path.
This shift in mindset led him to appear at the Starry Sky Group and destroy the Human Race's Ultra-Long-Range Teleportation Formation, which served a function equivalent to "transportation and logistics."
"Li Chunjun!" Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse's expression turned icy.
Having only recently emerged from the great dao river, his understanding of Li Chunjun was far less comprehensive than that of Tian Wen and Gui Ling, the two Ultimate Powerhouses who had directly clashed with him.
At the Supreme Council meeting not long ago, Heng Guang had remained ambivalent about whether to convene all Ultimate Powerhouses and top-tier Supreme Sovereigns to practice the Heavenly Evolution Forty-Nine Boundless Tribulation Formation. He even secretly thought Tian Wen and Gui Ling were making too much of the situation.
But then, through the Infinite Divine Mirror, he personally witnessed Li Chunjun annihilate Primordial Origin, a Reserve-Tier Supreme Powerhouse of the Supreme Council, and Sundial, a top-tier Supreme Sovereign, with overwhelming force. Only then did he begin to take this opponent seriously.
Subsequently, Li Chunjun deciphered the Explorers Guild's Infinite Divine Mirror at an astonishing speed and even managed to perform Ultra-Long-Range Teleportation without relying on an Immortal Artifact formation base. This display of comprehension, learning speed, and mastery of the Dao finally made the Supreme Powerhouse realize the true extent of Li Chunjun's terrifying potential.
Now...
He was forced into a direct confrontation with Li Chunjun.
"Don't be rash!" Tian Wen's voice suddenly rang out just as Heng Guang was about to engage.
A Dao Heart Divine Avatar had already materialized beside him. "You saw how Gui Ling and I joined forces against him. With his mastery of the Great Unification Realm, his power is beyond what one or two Ultimate Powerhouses can withstand. Even though the Starry Sky Group has three Supreme Sovereigns and dozens of Dao Venerables besides you, this lineup is no stronger than when we and thirteen Foreign Race Dao Venerables ambushed Li Chunjun."
He continued urgently, "Our only hope lies in the Heavenly Evolution Forty-Nine Boundless Tribulation Formation. Only by using it can we deliver a fatal blow. Otherwise, sending waves of us against him will only result in pointless sacrifices. Worse, it will allow him to further refine his understanding of the Grand Dao, seize more Immortal Artifacts, and perfect his combat system."
"So we should just stand by and watch him rampage through the Starry Sky Group, slaughtering our people without lifting a finger?" Chairman Heng Guang demanded coldly.
"We both know that circumstances dictate our actions," Tian Wen replied. "Your habit as an Ultimate Powerhouse makes it difficult for you to accept retreat, your mind unable to adapt. But the current situation is precisely this dire. Even if you charge in, the outcome won't be any better, and you'll be putting yourself at tremendous risk."
Hearing this, the Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse gradually calmed his turbulent thoughts.
"Let it fall," Tian Wen urged. "The Starry Sky Group can be rebuilt in a few million years, or even just a few hundred thousand! As long as we can execute our final strike against Li Chunjun and uncover the truth of the great unification realm, everything will be worth it!"
The Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse, maintaining his precise assessment of the situation, nodded.
"Withdraw!"
As Tian Wen had said, the Starry Sky Group was expendable.
The group's greatest assets were its Star Gates and interworld star gates.
Even if Li Chunjun had gone mad, he wouldn't destroy these vital gateways.
With the Star Gates intact and their Dao Venerables and Supreme Sovereigns still alive, rebuilding the Starry Sky Group would be a matter of time.
"Yuan Yin, activate the emergency ultra-long-range teleportation gate! We're heading to the Supreme Research Institute! We'll use the Dao of Time to deploy the grand formation for our final battle!"
The Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse immediately issued the command.
"Understood," Supreme Origin Sovereign Yuan Yin replied respectfully, relaying the order swiftly.
Within moments, a backup emergency Star Gate was activated, its coordinates rapidly aligning.
However...
Almost simultaneously with the activation of this ultra-long-range emergency Star Gate, Li Chunjun, now wielding fifteen Immortal Artifacts, made a sweeping gesture with his void hand.
Among the fifteen Immortal Artifacts, five—those associated with the Void, Destruction, Flowing Light, Chaos, and Time—flashed with brilliance, drawing upon the power of the Grand Dao.
The Five Great Daos shone in harmonious brilliance, amplified by Void Travel, flowing light, and time acceleration. A destructive beam of light, capable of reducing all rules to chaos, suddenly pierced across the Star River, instantly targeting the Starry Sky Group's emergency-activated super star gate.
This move...
The message was clear.
Retreat?
Not even that was allowed!
This wasn't just arrogance; it was outright trampling on their dignity, seizing control with a swift counterstrike.
"Li Chunjun!"
The Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse, having barely regained his composure, was forced to abandon it once more.
Li Chunjun's attack was aimed directly at the emergency star gate they were using for retreat. If he didn't intervene immediately, the gate would be destroyed, leaving them with no choice but to fight to the death.
The Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse sighed at the sight.
He immediately turned to Yuan Yin: "Let's attack together!"
Then, as if having made a decisive choice, he declared: "Heng Guang, focus on stalling him. All reserve star gates within Human Territory will be activated immediately. We'll all converge here at maximum speed!"
His expression turned icy. "Since the progenitor divine being has seen through our plans and won't give us time to prepare, let's grant his wish and initiate the final battle now!"
Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse nodded slightly.
Behind him, Immortal Artifacts materialized one by one.
Leveraging the power of these artifacts, the Ultimate Powerhouse, though only mastering nine great daos, ultimately manifested the profound mysteries of fourteen different daos.
This was just one fewer than Li Chunjun's fifteen.
However, the Starry Sky Group still had three Supreme Sovereigns stationed here, in addition to the one Li Chunjun had ambushed and killed earlier.
Furthermore, dozens of Dao Venerables were assisting them.
At Tian Wen Supreme Powerhouse's signal, these Supreme Sovereigns and Dao Venerables launched their attacks simultaneously.
Vastly different great daos were unleashed in a chaotic torrent, converging like a tidal wave upon Li Chunjun, threatening to completely engulf him.
"Does quantity... matter?"
Li Chunjun observed the scene calmly.
Though only fifteen of his great daos possessed Immortal Artifact mysteries to unleash their full power, the very act of wielding fifteen great daos already placed him far above the Ultimate Powerhouse.
The gap between them was no less significant than that between an Ultimate Powerhouse and a Supreme Sovereign.
Moreover, Li Chunjun had leveraged these fifteen Great Daos to mobilize the power of another thirty-four Great Daos. Even though the strength of these additional Daos was slightly diminished, their unified coordination through the great unification realm transformed them into a colossal phantom of a Great World, descending with the crushing force of Mount Tai.
Faced with this Great World-like assault, the attacks of the three Supreme Sovereigns and dozens of dao unification experts seemed like a disorganized rabble, utterly annihilated and reduced to nothingness.
Only the Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse, drawing upon his profound understanding of the Flowing Light Dao's source, forged it into a piercing blade. Combined with the power of eight other Great Daos, he managed to breach the Great World phantom manifested by Li Chunjun.
Furthermore, exploiting the hierarchical suppression of upstream Daos over downstream ones, he traced the Flowing Light Dao manifested by Li Chunjun, surging upstream layer by layer.
His momentum threatened to pierce through the entire Great World phantom and annihilate Li Chunjun's true body within.
But...
Though the Great World phantom was being relentlessly breached by the Flowing Light Dao, Li Chunjun continuously mobilized the remaining forty-eight Great Daos to reinforce it. As the power circulated, the Flowing Light Dao—the spearhead of the Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse's assault—was gradually worn down, growing weaker and weaker...
Until the Flowing Light Dao shattered.
With the Flowing Light Dao destroyed, the remaining eight Grand Dao Powers rapidly sank into a quagmire. Guided by Li Chunjun's Void Power as its foundation, the corresponding Grand Dao Powers swiftly enveloped and dissolved them.
This scene left Heng Guang, the Ultimate Powerhouse who had initially harbored doubts, with an utterly mortified expression.
It wasn't just them. Yuan Yin, Han Lan, and the other Supreme Sovereigns and Dao Venerables of the Starry Sky Group were equally incredulous.
Three Supreme Sovereigns, dozens of Dao Venerables, led by an Ultimate Powerhouse, had unleashed a concentrated assault on Li Chunjun, yet...
They hadn't managed to inflict even a scratch on him!
This combat power...
Could no longer be described as merely that of an Ultimate Powerhouse!
It was clearly a level beyond the Ultimate Powerhouse realm!
"He's grown even stronger!" Tian Wen's heart sank rapidly.
Too fast.
Almost every time he saw Li Chunjun, the man had become noticeably stronger.
Whether it was ten years, a year, a month, or even a single day, Li Chunjun would have surpassed his previous level by a significant margin.
This rate of growth left the Ultimate Powerhouses, who were accustomed to handling major affairs over millennia or tens of millennia, utterly disoriented.
But now...
They had no choice but to adapt.
The times were changing too rapidly, leaving them no room for their usual slow-paced approach.
"Focus on close-quarters combat! Stall for time! I've alerted everyone; they're rushing here at full speed!" Tian Wen transmitted telepathically.
At this moment, he felt a pang of regret.
He should have prioritized securing the Starry Sky Group's Ultra-Long-Range Teleportation Formation base from the start.
If that formation still existed, summoning the Ultimate Powerhouses from the other major institutions would have taken mere dozens of breaths.
But now...
Even activating the emergency backup Star Gate—regardless of whether it could withstand the high-frequency activations—and granting it full priority, gathering reinforcements would still require a day or two.
Everything now depended on whether the Heng Guang Supreme Powerhouse and his elite force of dozens of Starry Sky Group warriors could hold out until then.
(End of the Chapter)
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