BOOM!!!
As the Azure Dragon's colossal illusory body rammed into Lu Jin with great force, Lu Jin drew upon the power residing inside of the bead of heaven. Keeping just a small amount for defence he gambled channelling the rest of the bead's power towards the invisible wall.
CRUMBLE!
"*Ugh*Cough!Cough!"
Lu Jin grunted in pain and spat mouthful of blood, watching the invisible wall crumble with the help of his spiritual sense.
He had suffered severe injuries—injuries that would require him decades to heal. His hand was completely charred, remnant power of heavenly lightning lingered inside his body and meridians. Even the laws inside his Dao Platform felt suppressed.
'Hmph!! I hate this Xi Li. If only he had just done his job and protected me when I had asked... then I would have easily absorbed the Immortal Qi from the Heavenly Court's main camp.'
He cast a hateful gaze towards Xi Li and the Immortals from the Heavenly court's side before escaping on a flying treasure powered by Spirit Stones.
'A gentleman's revenge can wait ten years... I will make sure to have my revenge.'
Watching Lu Jin fly away Overseer Cui panicked.
If Lu Jin escaped then the Heavenly Emperor would personally make sure to escort him and the others to King Yama himself.
"The wall's been broken... follow him. I will increase the compensation ten times."
The others nodded and started chasing after Lu Jin, ignoring the Illusory Beasts heading for them.
They knew. It was not about compensation anymore. To avoid punishment they needed to capture this cursed Lu Jin.
Meanwhile Xi Li watched all this with cold eyes. He had successfully thwarted the plan of heaven, even if by a little.
"Dao of Liberation: Devourer of Destiny." He muttered under his breath as he unleashed the Dao that had helped him overturn fate itself time and time again.
The conditions to tap into this particular branch of Dao of Liberation were very stringent, most basic of which required one to overturn one's fate before activating it.
Immortal Qi surged out of his gate of immortality, filling his Dao Platform before flowing outward to cover him.
The Immortal Qi turned into an ominous shade of black, transforming his body.
Xi Li's body expanded, the black Immortal Qi covered his body in lustrous black scales, his limbs turned into claws, majestic horns grew at his temples.
Soon he was completely transformed into a colossal black dragon.
"ROOOAAARR!!!"
He opened his massive maw and roared. His roar split the heavens itself. The already dark world turned even darker. Pitch black darkness shrouded the 2,000,000 Li (approx. 1,000,000KM) of area with him as the center, breaching even the invisible wall, blinding Overseer Cui, others and even Lu Jin, with the Heaven Defying sect being the only exception to this new darkness.
Silence—
The darkness began receding from the outer edges, dragging everything present inside the darkness along with it— trees, grass, land, the clouds, the remaining Illusory Beasts.
Overseer Cui and the other Immortals felt the pull of the darkness and started resisting with everything they had left in their Gate of Immortality.
"W—what!!! The Dao of Liberation?! We need to escape and report to the Heavenly Emperor." Overseer Cui shouted in a panicked voice, but no voice came out of his mouth.
He tried using his divine sense but still couldn't voice out his thoughts.
As the power of the pull increased, their desperate efforts proved futile.
In the darkness, Laws didn't manifest, the Qi inside their body was erratic.
Thier Gate of Immortality closed shut against their will. Cracks started appearing on their Dao Platform.
Powerless against the pull of darkness they were dragged towards the open jaws of the black dragon before disintegrating into nothingness.
Lu Jin who was also being dragged by the darkness felt helpless.
He could not enter the space inside the bead, nor did the bead have any power left to resist the pull.
'NO! I DON'T want to die yet. I am destined for greatness.'
But his thoughts did nothing to help him in resisting against his impending doom.
"Nooooo!" He shouted, but just like Overseer Cui and the others, no voice came out of his mouth.
Soon he reached the mouth of the colossal black dragon.
His body started to disintegrate.
His charred hands were the first. Followed by his legs, abdomen.
BUZZ!
When only his chest and head were remaining.
A sound echoed in the darkness.
A bead about the side of a head jumped out of Lu Jin's heart and started revolving.
'The bead of Heaven'
As he consciousness was about to disappear he felt his soul being sucked by the bead.
Silence—
The buzzing died out and the bead disappeared as if disintegrating into nothingness.
Xi Li closed his jaw. Around him was nothing. Everything that the darkness had touched was now gone, leaving a void.
Crumble!
As the voice crumbled, Xi Li still in his dragon from turned around and flew out in the direction where the Heaven Defying Sect should be.