Yuanshi roared, demanding that Tongtian deploy the Immortal Slaying Formation immediately. Fearing his brother might make excuses, he quickly added:
"Third Brother, just do it! Your brothers will block them; I guarantee no one will disturb you."
"Indeed, Tongtian, set the array now! Do not delay, or we shall surely face a mortal peril!" Laozi echoed solemnly. The situation was dire; they were at the brink.
Tongtian nodded heavily, casting aside any hesitation. He knew that without the sword array, they could not break this deadlock. "I'll have to trouble my brothers to hold them off!"
"Hold us off? Do you think you can?"
Di Jun and Tai Yi were radiant, their presence like a celestial furnace that turned the surrounding Chaos into a boiling sea.
Slap!
A palm struck out, and the Void Realm was annihilated. The Divine Power (Divine Power) was supreme and boundless, transcending time to strike Yuanshi across the face. His cheekbone collapsed, teeth flew, and his skull cracked under the impact as he was sent tumbling.
Tai Yi withdrew his hand, his face cold. "Yuanshi, it seems the hardest part of your body is your face."
"Second Brother, I think the faces of those two old 'hybrid hairs' can compete for that title," Di Jun added seriously, even analyzing the situation. The "old hybrid hairs" he referred to were, of course, the Two Sages of the West.
"Ah! I want you dead!" Yuanshi was beyond enraged. He let out a long howl and unleashed the Pangu Banner with frantic desperation.
"I take it back," Di Jun said again. "The fact that you still feel shame and anger proves your skin isn't as thick as those two in the West."
At this, Jieyin and Zhunti finally snapped. They were about to run, but turned back to join the desperate fray.
Just then, four pillars of divine light shot into the sky, piercing the infinite Chaos. These four lights transformed into divine swords, each hundreds of millions of miles long, radiating a peerless sharpness. Great swaths of the Chaos were shredded as the howling gales and disordered elements were reduced to nothingness. The Sword Qi was as cold as the primordial light of creation, saturated with infinite killing intent.
"The Immortal Slaying Formation is complete!"
Di Jun and Tai Yi surveyed the cosmos. They felt themselves encased in a mysterious space where lethal intent lay in wait—a power that could easily grind a Grand Unity Golden Immortal to dust and wound a Quasi-Saint.
"We are finally safe! What a scare!" Jieyin and Zhunti calmed down. They were glad they hadn't run; otherwise, they would have missed out on the spoils when the Crows were finally defeated.
"Haha... we are invincible!" Yuanshi laughed. It was the frantic joy of a survivor. His shattered body reformed once more.
As his laugh fell, a faint, haunting voice suddenly rang out.
"Who dares to claim invincibility?"
That abrupt voice made Yuanshi's smile freeze. Laozi, Jieyin, and the others grew deathly still, a powerful sense of crisis erupting in their hearts. Their instincts screamed at them that their lives were in immediate danger.
In unison, they turned to look in one direction.
Standing there, silent and still as if he had always been part of the Chaos Void Realm, was a single figure.
"Ling Xiao?!"
The Sanqing and the Western Duo roared in shock, their minds reeling. In contrast, Di Jun and Tai Yi's smiles stretched from ear to ear.
"You... you're still alive?" Yuanshi asked, his face turning an even paler shade of white. His Divine Soul was screaming at him to flee, a primal reaction coming from the depths of his soul.
"Don't panic! We have the Immortal Slaying Formation!" Zhunti roared, his hair standing on end as he tried to prop up his own Dao Heart. The pressure was too much; remembering how Ling Xiao had single-handedly thrashed the Twelve Ancestral Witches, he felt his scalp go numb. They already couldn't beat the older two brothers; adding Ling Xiao made the outcome obvious. Their only comfort was the array.
The Dao Ancestor had once said that the Immortal Slaying Formation required four experts of the same realm to break. The Three Crows were only three. They still had the advantage!
Zhunti's words helped the Sanqing steady themselves. Right. We have the array. They told themselves that they only panicked because Ling Xiao's appearance was so sudden.
"The Immortal Slaying Formation..." Ling Xiao observed the array. He had only come because he sensed this specific presence. He pointed a finger, sending out a few wisps of Clear Qi.
In the next heartbeat, Tongtian felt as if he had been struck by lightning. The array covering the space-time began to vibrate violently before simply dissolving. The four divine swords fell from the sky, drifting aimlessly around Tongtian.
"This..."
Tongtian stood in a daze, his mind short-circuiting. This miracle of a feat had robbed him of his ability to think.
"What happened?!" The others were just as baffled. One moment the array was there, and the next, it was gone. Laozi, Yuanshi, Jieyin, and Zhunti looked at each other, their worldviews shattered.
"Your magic power is too low; this array is useless against me. Unless one day you Achieve Sainthood, only then... might you give me a slight headache," Ling Xiao said plainly to Tongtian. If the array alone made one invincible, Rahu wouldn't have been beaten like a dog by Hongjun and Raise Eyebrow back in the day. After all, Hongjun and the others weren't Saints back then either.
At Tongtian's current level, he couldn't even tap into a fraction of the array's true power. To Ling Xiao, finding a flaw and breaking it was as easy as lifting a finger.
"Did you... Achieve Sainthood?"
Ling Xiao's words made Laozi and the others catch a hidden piece of information. If he wasn't a Saint, how could he speak so arrogantly?
Di Jun and Tai Yi weren't surprised; instead, they looked at their brother with intense pride.
Ling Xiao didn't answer directly. He looked at Laozi and said with a smile: "Right now, you must be feeling incredibly unwilling. You're likely thinking that once you merge your three corpses and become a Saint, you will finally be my equal again, right?"
Laozi's face remained calm, but a flash of panic crossed his eyes. Ling Xiao had hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what he was thinking. Despite being seen through, Laozi maintained his dignity by remaining silent.
Ling Xiao ignored the silent protest and continued, but his next words shattered Laozi's composure entirely.
"It's a good thought, but it is destined to disappoint you."
"The Slaying the Three Corpses method Hongjun taught you has a problem. He hid a critical factor from you—one he never mentioned."
"What? What do you mean?" Laozi was flustered, no longer able to play the part of the steady master.
"The meaning is simple: the Spirit Treasures used to house the three corpses must share the same root and source. The conditions are extremely harsh."
"Do you understand now?"
Ling Xiao's eyes were deep, his face full of an amused smile. This was information he couldn't have shared before, but now, he could say whatever he pleased. Once this news got out, it wasn't just the Sanqing who would be restless; every great power in the world would be shaken.