Just a Useful Pawn in the Stain Sect

Chapter 70: Chapter 70: Combatting

The moment Lü Yang appeared and spoke, Celestial Capital City faded to black and white. An indescribable ripple expanded in all directions.

Wherever the ripple passed, there was only annihilation.

Buildings vanished. Pedestrians vanished. It was as if none of it had ever existed. It made no difference whether one was a street-side beggar or a Celestial Martial Artist—all were treated as equals!

”How can this be!?”

A Celestial Martial Artist roared in terror, finding it impossible to accept.

Yet no matter how they reacted—whether by fleeing, staring in a daze, or screaming hysterically—they could only dissipate silently within that ripple.

The sole exception was the Saint Heart Scholar, Wang Boyuan. This peerless genius who had pioneered the Fourth Step of Martial Arts was, surprisingly, calm. He simply gazed at the sky, a hint of relief on his face. ’See fate and observe the heavens... Heh. How can a frog at the bottom of a well speak of seeing fate, let alone observing the heavens?’

Wang Boyuan had realized something was wrong long ago, back when he first broke through to the realm of Celestial Beings.

Wang Boyuan had created the Fate-seeing Technique. Yet, when he exhausted his life’s work to peer into Heaven and Earth, he discovered a great and terrible discrepancy.

He had seen that Heaven and Earth were flawed!

Though exquisite, the world was not self-consistent. It was like a meticulously crafted counterfeit!

For a time, he thought he had miscalculated, that his Fate-Seeing Technique was incomplete. But no matter how many times he redid the calculations, the result remained unchanged.

’Are Heaven and Earth truly flawed? Is the mortal world just a fleeting dream?’

After that, the once dashing and debonair Saint Heart Scholar devolved into a slovenly man who did nothing but drink and squander his days.

Now, he had seen the truth.

Only now did Wang Boyuan finally recover a measure of the Saint Heart Scholar’s former heroic spirit. He gazed at the sky, his relief tinged with regret.

’A pity... If only I could have seen the true Heaven and Earth. That would have been a joyous occasion...’

The next second, his form vanished.

Just like that, the entire Celestial Capital City disappeared from the face of the earth. All its inhabitants were gone, leaving only the residence where the Ancestor stood and Lü Yang, floating in mid-air.

In the blink of an eye, Lü Yang had used his authority over the Secret Realm to erase the entire Celestial Capital City. All Living Creatures were taken into the depths of the Simulation Realm, there to wait for a future disciple to release them. As for the space within the Secret Realm that had held the city, he compressed it entirely around the Ancestor.

With the space so highly condensed, the Ancestor had no way to tear through the void and escape.

”Lü Yang...”

The Ancestor’s voice was laced with dread and bitter frustration.

The dread was because Lü Yang’s current power was far beyond what he could afford to underestimate. The frustration... was because this entire situation was, in fact, his own fault!

Without him, even if Lü Yang had succeeded in cultivating Theft to Sainthood, it would never have reached such a perfect state!

How could he not be consumed by frustration?

However, the Ancestor quickly suppressed his negative emotions. In a low voice, he said, ”By erasing Celestial Capital City, aren’t you afraid your Theft to Sainthood will lose the support of its Qi?”

”You worry for nothing, senior,” Lü Yang said with a faint smile. ”Now that Theft to Sainthood has reached Major Mastery, the Qi of the world is no longer important to me. It’s a ’theft,’ after all. Why would I ever give it back? You, on the other hand, should worry more about your own current situation.”

”...Are you threatening me?”

The Ancestor’s expression grew darker. His previously contained Qi trace began to radiate outward, suffused with chilling killing intent. ”You dare speak so brazenly to me, all by yourself?”

”A reincarnated Foundation Establishment is all you are. What’s so impressive about that?”

Lü Yang retorted, refusing to yield an inch. ”I just so happen to need the soul of a reincarnated Foundation Establishment to research a Secret Technique. Your timing of arrival is impeccable, senior. You can aid my cultivation.”

”Junior, you’re courting death!”

Beyond his rage, the Ancestor also assessed the situation clearly. He even felt a sliver of relief that Lü Yang hadn’t left the Secret Realm and had chosen to fight him instead.

If Lü Yang had left the Secret Realm to report him, his death would have been certain.

But since he had come alone, perhaps there was still a chance to salvage the situation!

The Ancestor furiously channeled his Power, and a brilliant golden radiance erupted above his head. The light bloomed into three colors—gold, silver, and jade—that intertwined and instantly illuminated the sky.

The Golden Flower!

Unlike Yun Miaozhen’s half-mastered attempt, the Ancestor’s Golden Flower was the complete, successfully refined version—a true Legendary Technique!

In an instant, the vast golden light surged forth. Heaven and Earth bent to its will wherever it passed. It swept up the Heaven and Earth Qi, creating a monstrous wave that came scouring down upon Lü Yang.

Immediately, Lü Yang’s vision filled with a golden blaze, as if he had been sealed off in another world. His Essence began to drain away, his body shriveled, his Qi depleted, his Power weakened, his Divine Will scattered, and his spiritual perception dulled. The golden light had scoured away his entire Spiritual Essence!

Yet, the very next second, Lü Yang stomped his foot.

RUMBLE!

In that moment, the entire Secret Realm seemed to shudder violently, like the inevitable tremor caused by someone jumping from a great height and landing hard.

At almost the same instant, the Ancestor’s spiritual perception was violently shaken.

The once-condensed Golden Flower exploded and scattered the moment Lü Yang stomped his foot, and all the Spiritual Essence it had scoured away flew back into Lü Yang’s body.

The next second, Lü Yang moved.

He gave a cold smile and swept his sleeves wide. Countless streams of smoke and fire shot from his body, swirling and coiling before erupting with a tremendous BOOM. The sound caused the Ancestor’s eyes and ears to throb with pain. Looking up, he saw a magnificent Golden Body rising from the ground, as immense as a mountain and wreathed in an aura of smoke and fire resembling the bustle of ordinary lives.

”Steal the Qi of the world, forge the Golden Body of a Saint!”

Only now was Lü Yang truly brandishing the power he’d gained from achieving Major Mastery of Theft to Sainthood. His ’Law’ had borrowed Qi to take form, manifesting a ’Saint Appearance’!

Seeing this, the Ancestor hurriedly channeled the Golden Flower.

For a moment, the Golden Flower filled the sky, splitting into three lights that took on the aspect of the sun, moon, and stars. Heavier than a mountain range, it came crashing down toward Lü Yang.

But before the Golden Flower could land, the heaven-propping Saint Appearance extended a magnificent hand. Its palm was full and round, as flawless as jade. It descended from the sky, and with a simple closing of its five fingers, it snatched the majestic Golden Flower—and the Ancestor along with it—right out of the air!

”How dare you!”

The Ancestor let out a muffled grunt. The Golden Flower expanded relentlessly, blazing with such intensity that it nearly transformed into a golden sun, trying to force open the hand of the Saint Appearance.

On the other side, however, Lü Yang saw this and performed a hand seal of his own.

His own body began to grow illusory, while the Saint Appearance behind him became increasingly solid, solemn, and majestic—and ever more impervious to external forces.

The bursts from the Ancestor’s Golden Flower landing on the Saint Appearance could, at most, scour away a layer of its flesh. But no sooner was it gone than Lü Yang would regenerate it. The result was a war of attrition—one side consuming Power, the other vitality—and the Ancestor could gain no advantage whatsoever.

’Delays could lead to unwanted results... I must take him down as quickly as possible!’

The Ancestor’s thoughts raced. He was keenly aware that Lü Yang had used him to obtain a great Creation. His Theft to Sainthood was now approaching the extreme, already comparable to a Legendary Technique.

’To defeat him, I’ll have to use even more powerful means.’

With this in mind, the Ancestor immediately took out a spherical Artifact. It was the Prophetic Orrery.

The Ancestor presented the artifact to the air and bowed respectfully.

”I beseech the Heavenly God to act.”

As his voice fell, the Prophetic Orrery began to spin, dragging the surrounding space along with it until up, down, left, right, front, and back were all instantly inverted!

Within the area covered by the Prophetic Orrery, all sense of position was thrown into chaos. Forward was now backward, left was now up, and up was now forward... all determined by the wielder’s will. The moment he activated it, the Saint Appearance’s Qi slackened and its strength bled away, allowing the Ancestor to seize the chance to break free.

Immediately after, he aimed the Prophetic Orrery at Lü Yang and activated it.

Instantly, Lü Yang felt a violent tremor run through his body. The Saint Appearance seemed to have been frozen by a Great Power, unable to move and locked in place.

The Ancestor had remapped the direction of all of Lü Yang’s movements to result in ’no movement at all’.

After immobilizing the Saint Appearance, the Ancestor didn’t stop. He continuously scoured it with the Golden Flower, clearly intending to break it apart with this death-by-a-thousand-cuts method.

’So strong... far too strong...’

Lü Yang smiled in admiration. The Ancestor’s power was undeniable; he was, after all, a reincarnated Foundation Establishment cultivator who possessed a Supreme Treasure like the Prophetic Orrery.

’In terms of raw power, if we were to engage in combat a hundred times, I’d probably lose all one hundred.’

’However, our combat isn’t decided by power alone. Just as a chess player can be beaten on the board, there are also ways to win from outside it.’

Meanwhile, outside the Simulation Realm, Lü Yang’s Primal Qi Avatar traveled without pause, arriving directly before the entrance to Master Yin Shan’s secluded Cave Mansion.

”Perfected Person! I wish to file a report!”

”There’s a villain in the Secret Realm!”