Immortal-Exterminating Divine Venerable

"A perfect chance!"

Seeing the array vanish and Yang Xiao appear before him, Yuan Haowen—now in possession of the Desolate Divine Fruit and with nothing left to fear—decisively lunged toward Yang Xiao with a palm strike.

He was using the Immortal Skill he had mastered: the Godslaying Palm.

'I'll only attack once. If I can kill him, perfect. If not, I'll rip a hole in the void and flee. I'll let the Vast Heaven Immortal Sect deal with him personally. I refuse to believe he'd survive that!'

As this thought crossed Yuan Haowen's mind,

the power in his palm intensified.

He believed that even an expert at the Void Immortal Realm would be slain on the spot by such a sudden attack.

However…

When Yang Xiao saw the palm strike coming,

he simply smiled, as if he had anticipated it all along.

'I knew you'd try this. Your current strength is only comparable to an ordinary expert of the Void Immortal Realm. What can you possibly do to me?'

For the current Yang Xiao, an ordinary Void Immortal Realm expert was someone he could fully deal with just by using his Golden Roc True Body.

After all, the Golden-winged Roc was a Divine Beast. At the Peak of the Great Divine Power Realm, it could absolutely contend with an ordinary Void Immortal. And when it came to speed, with the Heart of Time, even an ordinary True Immortal might not be his match.

This was one of the reasons Yang Xiao had the confidence to challenge and fight a True Immortal.

As for taking down the God Suppression and Immortal Slaying Array, Yang Xiao had done it on purpose.

The goal was to lure this guy into attacking.

It seemed his plan

had succeeded.

'Since I'm going to disguise myself as this guy and return to the Vast Heaven Immortal Sect, I'll need to understand his fighting style.'

Yang Xiao smiled faintly.

With a flicker of his form, he dodged Yuan Haowen's Godslaying Palm, circled behind him, and landed a palm strike of his own on Yuan Haowen.

This palm strike looked remarkably similar to the Godslaying Palm—about seventy percent so.

The sight left Yuan Haowen momentarily stunned.

"What kind of Palm Technique is that?"

Yang Xiao remained silent, launching another palm strike. This one bore an even stronger resemblance to Yuan Haowen's own Godslaying Palm—so much so that he nearly forgot to defend himself.

"Just what is that Palm Technique?"

Yuan Haowen roared as he barely managed to dodge.

Thrown off by this interruption, Yuan Haowen, who had originally planned to flee immediately if his sneak attack failed, completely forgot about it. In fact, even if he had remembered,

he wouldn't have been able to get away.

Because Yang Xiao had already struck with another palm.

Moreover, its similarity had now reached eighty percent. It looked so real that Yuan Haowen almost believed it was his own Yuan Family's secret Ultimate Skill, the Godslaying Palm.

"No, that's not the Godslaying Palm! It's just a shallow imitation! You're trying to copy me…"

Finally, Yuan Haowen saw what was happening.

But by this point, he couldn't retreat even if he wanted to.

Yang Xiao struck with one palm after another.

Meanwhile, his own cultivation was slipping away bit by bit. The more power he used, the faster it drained. Having lost his Immortal Dao Will, the Power of the Void Immortal within him had become like a tree without roots.

Once unleashed,

he could no longer call it back.

Yang Xiao, however, felt increasingly exhilarated as the fight went on. Under the constant barrage of attacks, especially as Yuan Haowen grew weaker and weaker, he had managed to get a rough overview of the man's fighting style and techniques.

Combined with the ability to alter his aura, granted by the Heaven and Earth Origin Flame, Yang Xiao was confident that as long as he didn't get into a life-or-death battle with someone extremely familiar with the old man,

probably no one would suspect he wasn't Yuan Haowen.

As time passed, a pleasant surprise arrived.

The Immortal Dao Aura he had just devoured with the Mysterious Furnace Cauldron had finished refining. A full thirty wisps of mysterious aura had merged into his body.

Yang Xiao's Physical Strength once again increased by the Three Thousand Flood Dragon Power.

No, it was an increase of three-tenths of his Flood Dragon Power, because this energy directly merged into the Visible Flood Dragon formed by the Emperor Golden Dragon Secret Technique.

Yang Xiao's Physical Strength surged by a full thirty percent.

The exhilarating feeling compelled him to immediately activate this power.

He blasted out a punch.

It struck Yuan Haowen, sending him stumbling backward.

Even Yang Xiao himself was stunned by this level of power.

'Even with his cultivation constantly fading, that old man still had strength comparable to Daoist Tier One. And I managed to beat him back using only my Physical Strength?'

'It seems this Emperor Golden Dragon Secret Technique is no simple Secret Technique. But that makes sense. It's a true inheritance from the Flame Emperor, one of the Three Great Human Emperor's Secret Techniques; how could it be ordinary? Back then, my so-called father, the Flame Emperor, probably only let me read this Secret Technique and countless other scriptures because he saw that I couldn't cultivate. If not for that, with my status as a mere Emperor's Son, I probably wouldn't have been qualified to learn such a Secret Technique.'

Yang Xiao couldn't help but feel a little fortunate.

In his second life, he was born with an Innate Daoist Body, but it was sealed. Although his status was noble, he wasn't particularly valued within the Flame Emperor's lineage.

If he hadn't later researched Alchemy Techniques, refined some Divine Pills for the Flame Emperor's lineage, and earned the approval of a few old fossils from the Human Race—who then opened the entire Secret Scripture Library of the Human Race to him, hoping he could glean more pharmacological knowledge from it—he probably would have never even laid eyes on the Emperor Golden Dragon Secret Technique.

The fact that he wasn't qualified to view the other two Human Emperor Secret Techniques was a clear testament to this.

However, Yang Xiao didn't really care about this.

Although such Secret Techniques were precious, having one more or one less didn't make a huge difference. Learning too many, becoming too varied, wasn't necessarily a good thing. Just like now, the Cultivation Techniques and Secret Skills he possessed were already a bit of a mix.

Unlike in his first life, when his path was more focused.

'Master of Nine Yang once said that mastery through specialization is one path, and mastery through variety is another Dao. There is no inherent superiority between them. It's like in his Nine Yang Celestial Skill, within the Divine Power Chapter, he recorded seventy-two Small Divine Techniques and thirty-six Great Divine Techniques. In reality, all one hundred and eight of these Divine Techniques can be fused into one, transforming into the two Supreme Sacred Skills needed to attain the Saint Emperor Realm: the Indestructible Golden Body and the World-Destroying Divine Wheel. If that's the case, I wonder... could my Glazed Golden Body be fused and used together with this Emperor Golden Dragon Secret Technique?'

Yang Xiao's expression changed.

Instantly, the Glazed Golden Body Seed that was already integrated into the Visible Flood Dragon activated.

In that instant,

Yang Xiao blasted out another punch.

This time, Yuan Haowen, who had already grown even weaker, was dealt a miserable blow.

He was sent flying by the punch.

If his physical body hadn't been protected by the Power of Time from the Desolate Divine Fruit, that single punch would have been enough to blast him into a bloody pulp.

Even so,

Yuan Haowen had now exhausted the last shred of his strength.

He no longer had the strength to fight back.

"You... what in the world are you trying to do?"

Having lost all his power, Yuan Haowen was in despair as he watched Yang Xiao approach step by step.

His face was filled with regret.

'If I'd known, I should have just run from the start! Why did I have to provoke this monster?'

Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets now.

"I don't want to do anything. I just want to borrow a few things from you."

After speaking, Yang Xiao stepped forward, plucked the Storage Daoist Ring from his hand, and used his Spiritual Power to forcibly break the seal on it.

He saw the contents inside.

"Not bad, there are some good things in here. Emperor's Weapon Spirit, can you let this guy into the Inner Realm and watch him for me?"

Yang Xiao calmly put on the Daoist Ring. His aura began to change, and finally, even his appearance transformed.

He became identical to Yuan Haowen.

"You... you... I understand! You want to impersonate me…"

Yuan Haowen cried out.

But it was too late.

A Gate of Realm opened out of thin air. Clearly, the Emperor's Weapon Spirit had agreed to Yang Xiao's request.

Yang Xiao kicked him through it.

With a flicker of his form, he flew toward the Vast Heaven Immortal Sect.

If this plan succeeded, the rewards would be absolutely incredible.