There was no sound of collision or the feeling of a sword piercing through his body. The only thing Fang Zhengzhi heard was the sound of a heart beating, and he couldn’t help but open his eyes again.


    Then, he found a sword that stopped half an inch away from his chest.


    There was a jade-green glow on the sword and the gloomy cold light chilled the surroundings a little. However, that sword seemed to have stoppedpletely.


    "Eh?" Fang Zhengzhi’s blurred vision prevented him from seeing clearly, but he could vaguely feel a mighty strength restraining the sword before him.


    Silk-like threads of light had coiled around the sword and evenpletely entwined the arm holding it.


    "It’s Yan Xiu!? Has he recovered?"


    "He didn’t die after all. But, what’s with that light on his body?"


    "Something seems off, it appears that..."


    The astonished discussions from the disciples of Heaven Dao Pavilion were heard.


    Fang Zhengzhi was startled to hear them. "Yan Xiu," he thought. At the thought of that, a harsher pain struck him and he couldn’t help but furrow his brows.


    However, he eventually saw an indistinctive figure behind the Fifth Elder.


    Multiple blood-red halos revolved around the figure as if it was surrounded byyers of ripples.


    The thing was...there was a dark aura amidst the blood-red halos that felt extremely evil.


    More importantly, the eyes of the figure stood out. One of them was red, the other ck.


    It was red as fresh blood and ck as the abyss.


    Its ckness was like that of a bottomless pit without a trace of light, pulling people towards its depth.


    "Yan Xiu!" Fan Zhengzhi struggled to lift himself up with his hand against the ground, but the intense pain at his heart trembled his arm.


    At this moment, a cold voice was heard.


    "Die!"


    Rays of crimson light, infused with a dark aura, shot out from the ground like ws from hell.


    In a brief moment, almost a hundred rays appeared.


    "Yan Xiu, you..." the Fifth Elder sounded surprised, but he was quick to react. Countless beams of jade-green light covered his body, forming a spherical shield.


    "Boom!" a deafening bang was heard.


    The jade-green shield flew up as if it was struck by multiple impacts. It rose into the air, beforending heavily on the ground.


    Meanwhile, a gigantic painting formed in the sky.


    There were mountains, streams, and trees.


    It was the Bloody Landscape.


    However, unlike the previous Bloody Landscape, the current one had a fathomless darkness in it, apart from the bright-red blood.


    A terrifying suction force was unleashed from the Bloody Landscape. With an incessant buzzing, countless strands of light shot out at high speed.


    "Crack!"


    The strands of light struck on the Fifth Elder’s jade-green spherical light shield.


    The light shield was soon pulled over and into the Bloody Landscape painting at a faster speed.


    It was definitely a shocking scene.


    All the disciples of Heaven Dao Pavilion, as well as the three emperors sitting on the Heaven Academic Altar, and even Mu Qingfeng who had his eyes closed all these while, opened his eyes at this moment.


    "What’s going on? How is he so powerful all of a sudden?"


    "Did he break through? Did Yan Xiu enter the Rebirth State as well?"


    "It should be! Look at the light that gathered around him instead of copsing, that’s a symbol of the Rebirth State!"


    "But, even if he has reached the Rebirth State, there’s no way he could be that powerful. Even the Fifth Elder seemed defenseless against that suction force!"


    The disciples of Heaven Dao Pavilion were taken aback and could hardly react to this sudden change. After all, even they could vividly sense that terrifying power.


    However, they were certain that Yan Xiu had broken through and entered the Rebirth State.


    "He broke through?" The Fifth Elder’s expression changed slightly.


    Although his body was shrouded by the jade-green light, he had never expected to be forcefully pulled back.


    Most importantly, even the light shield on his body had cracked after the attack just now and it seemed to be at its limits.


    Moreover, he clearly sensed that the dark aura on Yan Xiu was getting denser.


    Coils of dark aura circled up Yan Xiu’s legs and fused with the crimson aura, giving off an air of extreme evil.


    "Boom!"


    The Fifth Elder collided with the Bloody Landscape and the impact shook his body.


    At the instance when he collided with Bloody Landscape, the crimson lights and dark aura violently crashed into him, each feeling like a sharp w.


    "Crack! Crack!" the jade-green light on his body started to shatter, and the crimson lights that were infused with the dark aura went through the cracks and headed toward him.


    "Begone!" a dark-green shock wave that was more intense than the jade-green light burst out of his body.


    With the shock wave, he broke free of Bloody Landscape’s control and fell to the ground nearby.


    However, it was a hardnding.


    "Powerful!"


    "How is he so powerful?!"


    "Didn’t he just break through to the Rebirth State?"


    The disciples of Heaven Dao Pavilion eximed with disbelief.


    Mu Qingfeng suddenly stood up from his white-jade chair, as his white robe danced to the wind, an unconceble astonishment could be seen in his eyes.


    "Dao of Asura? Is it really that strong?"


    "Although the Dao of Asura is always known to be the strongest of the Six Rebirth Dao Techniques, this is too..."


    "Yan Xiu..."


    The three emperors stood up as well with their gaze fixated on Yan Xiu, apart from shock, there was a strong suspicion on their expressions.


    "No, this isn’t the Dao of Asura, it’s the Fallen Asura!" Many horrifying cuts appeared on the Fifth Elder’s body after he had fallen and blood was dripping off his body. He was sweating profusely and he looked traumatized.


    "Fallen Asura?!"


    "What? Fallen Asura...could that dark aura be the legendary Hell Killing Aura?"


    "Oh crap, this would not end well if that’s really it..."


    The disciples’ face changed when they heard the Fifth Elder. As disciples of Heaven Dao Pavilion, they naturally knew the meaning of that phrase.


    Dao of Asura - One of the Six Rebirth Dao Techniques


    It was also the only Dao Technique that incorporated both good and evil, boasting the most fearsome power. At the same time, it’s also the most dangerous Dao Technique.


    This was because one needed to kill to ess the Dao of Asura. As recorded in the "Law of Dao", one must equip himself with killing desire and sense the will of Asura whilstmitting murder, in order to ess the Dao of Asura.


    However, that would easily waver the person’s conscience.


    After all, it was almost impossible to maintain one’s goodness in the process of endless ughter. This resulted in many people who tried to master the Dao of Asura eventually falling into the depths of the Asura Hell, bing a puppet of the will of Asura that knew nothing but killing.


    ’Fallen Asura’ was the name given to such puppets.


    "Fallen Asura?! Yan Xiu..." Fang Zhengzhi was equally shocked when he heard the Fifth Elder and the disciples.


    He too knew the meaning of that phrase. In fact, he knew clearly about the severe consequences of falling into the depths of the Hell of Asura.


    A human controlling the Asura, and the Asura controlling a human, werepletely different.


    This was a simple logic. When a person controlled the Asura, he’s channeling his own Origin Energy to activate the Asura’s power. However, once he’s controlled by the Asura, that wouldn’t be needed anymore, because he himself became the Asura.


    Fang Zhengzhi wanted to stop this. He had purposely asked the Heavenly Oasis Saint before about the Dao of Asura, so he knew that the dark aura on Yan Xiu’s legs was the evil aura of Hell of Asura. Once the Asura’s evil aurapletely assimted the blood-red lights, Yan Xiu’s mind would bepletely under the control of the will of the Asura. There would be no chance of separation then.


    "Pfft!" Fang Zhengzhi spat out another mouthful of blood as the eagerness increased the pain at his heart.


    His vision was getting blurrier and the sound of a heart-pounding at his ears was getting heavier. His sweat was pouring out like the rain.


    At this moment, Yan Xiu looked at Fang Zhengzhi as well.


    His ck and red eyes seemed to be startled, following which, an extreme pain could be seen from his eyes.


    "Ah!!!" Yan Xiu let out a painful cry, the red eye seemed to be polluted by the dark aura at this moment.


    "Yan Xiu, don’t be rash!" As Emperor Lin Mubai’s voice was heard, a tremendous golden light lit up on his body.


    Without much hesitation, he shot out a beam of light from his hand, towards the center of Yan Xiu’s brows.


    But Yan Xiu suddenly moved at this instance, he waved the silver blood fan in his hands, and the Bloody Landscape in the sky came to protect his entire body.


    "Boom!" the golden light was blocked by Bloody Landscape.


    Meanwhile, Yan Xiu approached the Fifth Elder with an extreme speed, appearing before him in an instant.


    "Die!"


    A beam of red light infused with the dark aura emerged from beneath the ground and broke through the white-jade pavement and entwined the Fifth Elder’s right leg.


    Asura Hell.


    It attacked from the beneath the ground, as opposed to the patterns of all other Dao Techniques, making evasion incredibly difficult. Not to mention it brought about an enormous suction force that felt like it could drag someone to hell.


    However, the Fifth Elder was a Sage State cultivator after all.


    Even in such a scenario, he was quick to react and pped the light that was coiling around his right leg without hesitation.


    "Boom!" The red light which was infused with the dark aura trembled and loosened.


    The Fifth Elder and shot up into the sky in the meantime.


    However, as his legs left the ground, two more beams of light came out and coiled around his legs like lightning.


    As he was in the air, he couldn’t attack the light again, with the addition of the terrifying suction force, his movement stopped.


    "Boom!’ he crashed onto the ground.


    "Fifth Elder!"


    "Is this Fallen Asura?! Powerful! It’s almost like he’s someone else!"


    "He had just entered the Rebirth State!"


    The disciples of Heaven Dao Pavilion couldn’t help but tremble at the sight of such a scene. Facing the fearsome power Yan Xiu disyed, and the evil aura on him that was getting stronger, the disciples felt a chill up their spines even though they were far away from the battlefield.


    Yan Xiu moved again. He closed the Silver Blood Fan and brandished it like a sword to stab at the Fifth Elder’s throat.


    "Yan Xiu!" The Fifth Elder sounded angry. At the same time, his right hand pressed against his waist and instantly pulled out a shade of rich green color.


    It was a real thorn-vine.


    The vine was thick as a finger and jade-green in color. Countless thorns were scattered across the vine, each shiny like a jade.


    ’That’s the Fifth Elder’s Source of Dao!"


    "It’s the Heavenly Vine, Great Barren Heavenly Vine!"


    "For all these years that I’ve spent in Heaven Dao Pavilion, I’d never seen the Fifth Elder using his Great Barren Heavenly Vine in any fight before!"


    The disciples of Heaven Dao Pavilion all gaped at the vine in the Fifth Elder’s hand.


    Source of Dao – something that almost everyone who reached the Sage State would possess, and it’s also the most important thing to them.


    It’s the foundation for bing a master of the Sage State.


    Buzz! An intense aura flowed from the Great Barren Heavenly Vine to the Fifth Elder’s arm as soon as it appeared, following which, a terrifying aura burst out of his body.


    Coils after coils of rich green aura dispersed from his heart,pletely washing away the red light that entwined his legs.


    His arm that was cut off by Fang Zhengzhi earlier, was now growing at a visible rate as if he was regenerating.


    Even his jade-green runes that grew dim suddenly became eye-blinding, almost twice as bright as it was at the start.