“You’re quite capable,” the Dragon Maiden said.
“It’s you who’s a little disappointing if that’s all you’ve got,” Xu Zimo replied with a faint smile.
“No need to rush. You won’t be leaving the North Sea today,” the Dragon Maiden answered coldly.
Behind her, a half-dragon, half-immortal celestial phantom slowly rose, it was her True Fate.
It was called half-dragon because, from the neck down, her True Fate’s form was covered in a thin layer of dragon scales. Two ancient dragon horns curved atop her head, massive and gray-brown, with exposed dragon bones intertwined and layered upon each other.
It was half-immortal because, apart from her dragon’s might, there was also a distinct immortal aura about her, a purity that was almost never seen in the Mortal Ascension Heaven.
Her face was flawless as frost, serene and cold, like a celestial maiden descending from the Ninth Sky. She wore the Purple Silk Immortal Garment, ranked ninety-second among the Grand Thousand Treasures.
Though it lacked offensive power, its defense was extraordinary. More than that, it was a thing of beauty, envied by every woman in the world, impervious to all forms of harm, as if blessed by divinity itself. It was both an amplifying and defensive divine artifact.
To possess two of the Grand Thousand Treasures at once, and in the Mortal Ascension Heaven of the Nine Heavens no less, made it clear that this Dragon Maiden’s origins were far from ordinary.
Brilliant light radiated from the Purple Silk Immortal Garment, colorful and dazzling like a rainbow, illuminating everything around her.
Her jade feet stepped lightly on the air as she closed her eyes, merging her body with her True Fate.
When she opened them again, it was as if heaven and earth were reversed, sun and moon overturned, the entire North Sea churned violently.
Xu Zimo immediately felt the crushing weight of her aura. His blood seemed to freeze within his veins; every hair on his body stood on end. A deep sense of peril gripped him.
The Dragon Maiden’s face was calm, neither joy nor anger showing.
She flicked her fingers lightly, and the sea before her split open, forming a sky-reaching corridor.
A condensed sphere of water shot forth, exploding against Xu Zimo’s chest and hurling him backward with overwhelming force.The Dragon Maiden raised her hand again. The Torch Dragon Staff shot up into the sky and instantly expanded, turning into a colossal pillar that pierced through heaven itself.
From above, it came crashing down like the weight of the world.
The pressure pinned Xu Zimo to the ground; his body refused to move. Finally, the massive staff slammed down squarely onto his back.
The Dragon Maiden walked toward him with calm, deliberate steps, her voice cold and even.
“You’ve lost. According to our wager, you will remain sealed in the North Sea for a hundred thousand years.”“It’s not over yet,” Xu Zimo said with a quiet smile.
Bracing his hands against the enormous staff, his bent back slowly straightened. He stood tall again, gaze deep and emotionless, his calm as still as dead water.
The demonic aura surrounding him faded, replaced by the power of creation itself.
Behind him, a vast azure planet slowly rose into view.
When it appeared, the very void around them shattered, as though two powers from entirely different dimensions were colliding.
The Dragon Maiden stepped back several paces, eyes narrowing as she stared at the mysterious planet.
The Torch Dragon Staff was blasted away upon contact with it. Xu Zimo raised a hand, and the planet began to rotate slowly.
Each turn radiated the resonance of the Grand Dao itself, so dense with divine meaning it was terrifying to behold.
“What... is that thing?” the Dragon Maiden demanded.
“A thing?” Xu Zimo chuckled. “You could call it the greatest creation of this era.”
As the azure planet ascended, the aura of the Grand Dao around Xu Zimo surged beyond measure, so strong his body trembled at its limit.
He raised his blade. Dao intent merged with blade intent, the two fusing into one.
He struck.
A single arc of blade light, billions of miles long, split heaven and sea alike.
It cleaved half the North Sea and half the sky, leaving the Dragon Maiden nowhere to hide.
Her jade finger pointed forward, summoning her Sea Dragon once more. The Purple Silk Immortal Garment blazed brighter, ribbons fluttering like waves of color around her.
The blade’s energy shattered the sea dragon in half, continuing on unabated.
The Dragon Maiden thrust both palms forward, her Primal Dao of Water flaring outward to form another barrier. The barrier broke, but the blow had weakened. When the strike finally landed upon her immortal garment, it barely stirred.
Yet as the blade’s energy faded, the azure planet above began to descend.
Xu Zimo stepped into the air, one foot pressing atop the planet. With the force of a collapsing planet, it fell.
Before it even landed fully, its sheer gravity bent the world around it. The Dragon Maiden could barely lift her head under the immense weight.
“Sun-Moon Converge!” she cried.
The heavens above twisted. Day and night divided the world, half blinding light, half endless shadow.
The sun and moon appeared together in the same sky.
Bathed in their dual light, the Dragon Maiden’s rigid body slowly moved again.
Then the azure planet crashed down.
She raised her arms, catching it head-on, her body driven deep into the sea under its crushing might.
She sank millions of meters before the fall stopped.The power of Primal Dao surged through her body as the light of her Purple Silk Immortal Garment dimmed.
“Heavenly Dao, Devour!” Xu Zimo roared.
Before the Dragon Maiden could react, Xu Zimo summoned the Heavenly Dao of the God World itself, opening a rift in space. A vortex appeared, pulling her toward it.
The Dragon Maiden’s face hardened. She poured all her strength into resisting the pull. The two forces deadlocked.
Xu Zimo took a deep breath. A Pseudo-Saint is already this formidable… if she were a true Saint Sovereign, I’d have no chance at all.
At these heights, a single realm of difference was an unbridgeable chasm.
“Primordial Chaos Bead,” he said softly.
With a flick of his hand, the Primordial Chaos Bead broke through the void, spinning three times in the air.
A mysterious force descended. For a brief instant, the Dragon Maiden’s consciousness faltered.
When she came to her senses, she was already somewhere else.
……
“Welcome to my God World,” Xu Zimo said with a faint smile as he approached.
The Dragon Maiden looked around, still prepared to fight, but when she saw the Heavenly Dao suspended high above, and sensed the Saint Sovereign realm auras of Paimon and Seven-Face beside Xu Zimo, all thoughts of resistance vanished.
“If you have Saint Sovereigns like these, why didn’t you summon them earlier?” she asked coldly. “Why go through all this trouble?”
“Well.. Our wager was between you and me,” Xu Zimo replied. “It had nothing to do with anyone else.”
“What is this place?” the Dragon Maiden asked.
“First,” Xu Zimo said, drawing both the Grand Pivot God-Sword and Shadow Tyrant from his side, “you’ll honor our agreement. I want you to help me fuse these two weapons.”
“I must say... You’ve got quite the ambition,” the Dragon Maiden said with a wry smile. “The Grand Pivot God-Sword is no ordinary thing, and that blade of yours, it’s clearly not normal either.”