Chapter 675: Leader of the Heavenly Court Sect

"A dream realm?" Venerable Void raised an eyebrow, surprised that the opponent possessed a Dao Fruit so similar to his own.

"Are you the Nightmare Sovereign?"

As a Half-Immortal from the twilight of the Great Yu Dynasty, he possessed greater knowledge regarding the secrets of the Nightmare Sovereign.

This figure was the absolute hegemon of the dreamscapes; his enemies would perish in their sleep through methods of agonizing torment. There had even been an instance during a clash between two vast hosts where he forced a million-strong enemy army into a state of sleepwalking, thereby seizing control of them and compelling them to slaughter one another.

The opposing commanders had ultimately perished amidst the somnambulant fury of their own million troops.

Had the First Emperor of Yu not been aided by the State Preceptor, the outcome of that war would indeed have been far from certain.

The Nightmare Sovereign offered no reply, though his icy gaze conveyed everything.

Awakening from ancient epochs, he had been dispersing pendants throughout this region to harvest the dreams of mortals, using them to fortify his rudimentary Dream Dao Fruit.

For the prototype of the Dream Dao Fruit to achieve completion, it required the collection of every conceivable variety of dream.

Ever since his defeat at the hands of the First Emperor of Yu during the late Da Qian Dynasty, he had remained in dormant slumber, awakening across various eras.

Each era bore its own distinct characteristics, and these unique traits forged vastly different dreams.

The dreams of the current era had immensely enriched the prototype of his Dream Dao Fruit. Augmented by the Twin Rivers—a creation of the immortals—no one among the Half-Immortals could stand as his match!

For now, he would first dispose of the Void Sovereign.

Shi Zhan and Meng Jingzhou regained consciousness one after the other from their dreamlike, illusory state; as Shi Zhan was versed in dream-entry techniques, he awoke slightly earlier than Meng Jingzhou.

To call it awakening was not entirely accurate, for they had not truly departed from the realm of dreaming; currently, the Void Realm and the Dream Realm had fused into one, leaving them in a state of "lucid dreaming."

"Two ancient Half-Immortals?" Meng Jingzhou was profoundly startled upon hearing Lu Yang's explanation; this affair was escalating beyond all proportion.

Taking advantage of the interval while the two ancient Half-Immortals locked horns, Venerable Yi Qi rescued City Lord Liu and the others from their cage, swiftly clarifying the situation.

Upon hearing the revelation, City Lord Liu nearly choked on his own breath, his composure utterly failing him.

What virtue or capability did a minor locale like Chunjuan City possess to draw the cataclysmic conflict of two great Half-Immortals?

"Venerable, who do you believe will emerge victorious?"

Venerable Yi Qi shook his head, for it was a meaningless inquiry: "Regardless of who triumphs, now that we have witnessed their methods, neither will permit us to live. Our sole recourse is to wait until they have fought to mutual exhaustion, whereupon I shall strike with thunderous force to take them by surprise. Only then is there a chance of victory."

"Then we shall rely entirely upon you, Venerable!" City Lord Liu expressed his gratitude in haste, knowing the fates of the million citizens of Chunjuan City hung in the balance.

Venerable Yi Qi offered no response to City Lord Liu, being entirely devoid of the mood for pleasantries.

Only he understood the immense difficulty of the task and how abysmally low the probability of success truly was.

Both of these individuals were Half-Immortals who had hacked their way through mountains of blades and seas of flames; though they were the vanquished contenders for supreme rule over the world, one had to consider exactly whom they had lost to.

The combat experience of these two was likely so vast it would make one's scalp tingle with dread; the probability of them fighting to a standstill and exposing a fatal flaw was miniscule.

Be that as it may, he could only attempt it.

"Freeze."

The spatial vortex pulling at the Nightmare Sovereign was halted by a single spoken word from the Nightmare Sovereign himself; space solidified as though time had stopped, and the tearing force of the void vanished.

He was the absolute ruler of the dreamscape, where his words carried the weight of absolute law.

As for the nearly one hundred varieties of Dharma treasures manifested by the Void Sovereign, he could replicate them just as easily.

"Manifest!"

Behind the Nightmare Sovereign, an identical array of nearly one hundred Dharma treasures materialized.

A dazzling display of treasures clashed in midair, generating a din so deafening it seemed poised to rend the very fabric of space apart.

"Heavenly Manifestation, Earthly Form."

"Heavenly Manifestation, Earthly Form."

Both Sovereigns simultaneously invoked the grand transformation, their heads brushing the azure vault and their feet treading the firmament, wielding divine armaments capable of deflecting ten thousand spells, remaining impervious to all magical arts.

While the Nightmare Sovereign commanded immense renown, he, the Void Sovereign, was no mediocre figure either; had the Jiang and Meng families not joined forces ten thousand years ago, it remained uncertain who would rule the realm today!

"Infestation of a Hundred Maladies, Five Decays of Heaven and Man." The Nightmare Sovereign unleashed a cruel, withered curse.

This was a technique he could only employ within the confines of a dream; so long as one had not attained true immortality, no cultivator could escape the destiny of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man. No matter if one possessed a longevity that rivaled the heavens, they would ultimately suffer the torment of the Five Decays, unable to withstand the inexorable might of time.

In an instant, the Void Sovereign transformed into a hoary, white-haired elder, his spine bent double and his body radiating an aura of decay. Countless aggrieved spirits swirled around him, blotting out the sky in numbers too vast to reckon—the innocent souls he had slaughtered throughout his life.

"Let the talisman dummy bear the calamity; let all misfortunes depart to distant lands."

A palm-sized straw effigy appeared in the Void Sovereign's hand; he wrapped a single strand of hair around it, and the effigy spontaneously ignited, turning to ash.

The Void Sovereign reverted to his original form, and the myriad aggrieved spirits dissolved into black raindrops, cascading down upon the earth.

The Straw Substitute Technique could preserve a life against almost any catastrophe, provided it was not a tribulation on the scale of an Ascension Tribulation.

"Locust-Dispelling Immortal Thunder, Purge the Mortal Realm!"

An azure-purple immortal lightning descended upon the world, a mere step away from genuine celestial thunder; before this immortal lightning, all living creatures and spirits appeared as mere locusts, nothing more than a disorganized, insignificant rabble.

Venerable Yi Qi watched with a tingling scalp; he possessed no means to protect himself before immortal lightning of this caliber, and even if it failed to kill him, he would be grievously wounded!

"Nothing more than a trivial display. Withered Wood Meets Spring, The Return of Verduous Life!"

The Nightmare Sovereign took a single step forward, and a rootless, colossal tree abruptly erupted beneath his feet. Its branches and leaves swayed, emitting ripples of temporal fluctuations; the Locust-Dispelling Immortal Thunder progressively shrank until it vanished entirely, as though it had never existed.

Witnessing this scene, the Immortal Fairy grew highly amused: "Before the Immortal Ying Tian and the Immortal of Time attained immortality, they used to fight exactly like this. Ying Tian would strike with lightning, and Time would reverse the flow of chronology, preventing the lightning from ever landing. It drove Ying Tian half to death with sheer frustration."

The battle the Immortal Fairy referenced was recorded in historical annals; though those records had vanished by the present day, they still existed during the Da Qian Dynasty. The Nightmare Sovereign had devised this countermeasure precisely after reading the accounts of that ancient duel.

Within the Void Realm and the Dream Realm, the methods available to both individuals were nigh inexhaustible; they could employ any technique below the level of an immortal. They could even conjure the one hundred and eight varieties of True Fire, burning until space itself collapsed, while their diverse divine abilities were too numerous to count.

Precisely because their capabilities were so evenly matched, the battle had reached a gridlock, making it difficult to determine a victor.

Meng Jingzhou, however, was growing rather anxious: "Old Lu, which side do you think will win?"

Lu Yang shook his head: "It won't be up to them to decide the victor."

"What do you mean?"

Lu Yang did not speak, merely pointing toward the sky above. There was nothing there, yet when the Nightmare Sovereign had forced his way into the Void Realm moments ago, a rift had formed, establishing a temporary connection with the outside world.

Lu Yang had seized that exact opportunity.

Suddenly, both contending parties ceased their actions simultaneously. The Void Realm and the Dream Realm had severed all contact with the outside world, yet an ominous sensation inexplicably arose within their hearts, as though a colossal threat were rapidly drawing near.

Crack—

High above the pitch-black space, directly over the heads of the two ancient Half-Immortals, a rift manifested abruptly without the slightest warning, just wide enough to accommodate a single person.

The Void Sovereign's pupils dilated instantly.

When the Nightmare Sovereign had breached the Void Realm, he had at least felt the process of the opponent violently striking against the boundaries.

Yet this time, he had sensed absolutely nothing before the newcomer simply tore open an aperture.

It was as though the barriers of the Void Realm and the Dream Realm were entirely nonexistent, breached with an ease comparable to tearing a sheet of paper in two.

A graceful female silhouette stepped unhurriedly through the spatial rift, which remained open, unable to heal for a long time.

The silhouette possessed an indifferent gaze, her expression completely devoid of any emotional fluctuation, treating the two ancient Half-Immortals as though they were mere air. When her eyes fell upon Lu Yang below, her expression softened marginally, only to swiftly revert to its cold, detached state.

"Who are you!" The Nightmare Sovereign stared at the newcomer with supreme vigilance.

The figure before him did not match any supreme powerhouse within his memory.

Her graceful silhouette swept over the two supremes, her tone remaining as changeless as eternity itself, as though even the collapse of heaven and the sundering of earth could never stir her mind:

"The Cult Leader of the Heavenly Court, Yun Mengmeng."

(End of this chapter)