A World Worth Protecting

Within the world of Earth Dao, a tempest raged, and endless roars could be heard.

There was no heaven or earth here, only endless yellow sand that filled the entire world. Within the world, the vortex formed by the blood-colored young man was extremely violent, and blood-colored lightning bolts shot out in all directions, the vortex spun rapidly, as if it wanted to break through the yellow sand and shatter the world.

From a distance, the blood-colored vortex looked like an enormous source of pollution. As it attempted to pollute everything, the air around it began to distort.

Terrifying ripples spread out from within the vortex. They were so powerful that they could wipe out any universe-level cultivator within the stone stele world. If the Xie clan patriarch and the others were here, they wouldn’t even have a chance to get close to the vortex, they would go crazy, and their consciousness would collapse.

It was just like how a God couldn’t look directly into the vortex. At that moment, due to the emperor’s gaze within the vortex... it was a god.

Even so, it was still difficult for the blood-red youth to escape. The gravel around him covered the area, causing the blood-red youth’s roars within the vortex to grow more anxious.

The reason for this was because... there was another god in the Earth Dao World, and that was Wang Baole!

There were countless gravel in the Earth Dao world. Every single one of them contained Wang Baole’s will. Wang Baole’s face appeared on them, and as it swept across, it seemed like it was going to drown everything, it was about to bury the blood-colored vortex.

A loud boom reverberated in the sky. The yellow sand and the vortex clashed, causing the world to shake.

As the world shook, a portion of the sand gathered in the sky, forming a figure. It was Wang Baole. He stared at the blood-colored vortex beneath him, a profound look in his eyes.

Wang Baole knew very well that without the emperor’s gaze, it wouldn’t have been difficult for his clone, the blood-colored youth, to suppress him with his current combat strength. After all, the blood-colored youth was no longer at the peak. He had been weakened by his senior brother, Chen Qingzi, he had also sustained injuries that wouldn’t heal in a short period of time.

Therefore, suppressing and killing him was something that could be done.

However, the appearance of that gaze made even Wang Baole wary. If he was even slightly careless, the entire stone stele world would collapse. Such an outcome, even if he were to kill the blood-red youth in the end.., it wasn’t what Wang Baole wanted.

He had already lost his past and future. Wang Baole didn’t want to lose the stone stele world again.

Furthermore... at his current level, Wang Baole could already vaguely sense the relationship between himself and the stone stele world. This relationship had started when his original body.., during the battle between the Weiyang Dao Domain and the vast dao domain, which was the predecessor of the stone stele world, he had been tightly bound by the Weiyang Dao domain ever since it had summoned him from the real Weiyang Dao Domain.

This was what the Empyrean Lord did, and it was also how he treated his injuries.

Therefore, once the stone stele world collapsed, Wang Baole himself would be greatly affected.

Similarly, there was another reason why the stone stele world couldn’t collapse. That was... The stone stele world was the only thread connecting him to the Empyrean Lord!

Countless eras ago, the Empyrean Lord had been injured, and the black wooden spike that had appeared between his brows had nearly destroyed him. However, he had thought of a way to save himself. That was to split the hundred thousand divine thoughts into seeds and spread them throughout the universe.

The 100,000 divine thoughts formed 100,000 worlds, or 100,000 unending dao domains. After they took shape, they performed a ritual to summon the black wood. They split the black wood spike between the emperor’s brows into 100,000 portions, each of them was bound to the 100,000 unending dao domains.

Their goal was to use this method to destroy the suppressive power of the Black Wood.

His method of saving himself had been successful. Other than the stone stele world, the other 99,999 unending dao domains had all taken shape. Within them, the unending race had been born, and the unending son had appeared, he successfully devoured the entire world, including... 1/100,000 of the power of the Black Wood.

After that, these Wei Yangzi fused their worlds together and became one. They returned to the true Wei Yang Dao Domain, to the imperial emperor’s body, and to nourish it. As the imperial emperor recovered from his injuries, the black wood spike on his forehead was also severely weakened, the black wood spike on his forehead was also severely weakened.

However, even if all 99,999 Weiyang Dao domains successfully returned, as long as one did not succeed, the black wooden nail between the emperor’s eyebrows could never be resolved.

Once the black wood between his eyebrows is forcibly destroyed, the effect on him, though not fatal, will make him no longer have the possibility of reaching a higher level, and the latter... is the reason why he is nailed to the black wood.

Therefore, to a certain extent, it was possible to view the black wood nail as a kind of tribulation, a tribulation that one would have to face... if one wanted to reach the highest realm!

The Black Wood Tribulation!

Once the imperial emperor successfully transcended the tribulation, his realm would be able to break through.

But unfortunately, the appearance of the stone stele world reduced the possibility of him successfully transcending the tribulation.

In the stone stele world, first, there was a change due to Gu and Luo, and then because of Wang Yiyi’s father, this change was magnified infinitely. Of course.., there had been the push of other unknown people with ulterior motives. In the end... The evolution of the stone tablet realm had deviated from the fate bestowed upon it by the Empyrean Lord’s divine thoughts.

That had led to Wang Baole’s growth and the birth of his consciousness.

As a result, after the Empyrean Lord had sensed it, his split-up clone, the blood-red youth, had personally arrived. To him, he had to either adjust everything and bring everything back to its original path.., or... he had to destroy the stone stele world and completely sever the karmic connection between it and the emperor.

The severing of the latter would cause the emperor to fail his tribulation, but if he didn’t, the stone stele world... due to its connection with its true form, would become the emperor’s fatal flaw.

Therefore, to a certain extent, Wang Baole’s appearance had caused the blood-red youth to suffer a huge loss no matter what he did if he failed.

Wang Baole seemed to be... a weapon, a weapon that would make it impossible for the emperor to achieve perfection, and a weapon that had flaws.

Wang Baole didn’t fully understand the cause and effect, but he had more than half of it figured out. To him, no matter what, the stone stele world could not collapse.

As such, what Wang Baole needed to do was to continuously weaken the power of the gaze from the emperor’s actual body. With the five elements reincarnation, the gaze would gradually dissipate until it could no longer affect the stone stele world, that would be... when the blood-red youth was completely suppressed and killed.

Naturally, the blood-red youth had a clearer understanding of everything. That was why, in the Water Dao world, if he wanted to escape, in the Fire Dao world, he would do whatever it took to break out.

That was his only way out.

He could either be suppressed by Wang Baole, or... he could break out of the five elements reincarnation and destroy the stone stele world. That way, he would be able to stop the damage to his body. Even if his actual body failed to break through, there wouldn’t be any flaws!

His greatest regret was that he hadn’t decisively destroyed the stone stele world before then. After all... This represented the hope of his main body breaking through. Not only was it a last resort, he didn’t want to.

It was precisely this mindset that led to the current situation.

As he stared, Wang Baole narrowed his eyes and suddenly raised his right hand. Instantly, the entire Earth Dao world rumbled, and countless grains of sand gathered rapidly. In front of him, they formed a gigantic palm that seemed to be able to cover the sky, it descended directly towards the blood-colored vortex below!