A World Worth Protecting

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After leaving the Realm of the Nine Spectrals, Wang Baole only knew the level of his cultivation but had no idea how powerful he truly was in battle. He could only make a guess based on past experience. The conclusion that he reached was… that even though he wasn’t at the Planet realm, any Planet realm cultivator who was thinking of killing him would have to think twice. It wouldn’t be an easy feat at all!

That was because the only difference separating him and a Planet realm cultivator was… that he didn’t possess a planet and its suppressive force. He hadn’t melded with a planet. That meant that his spirit energy was still at the level of the Spirit Immortal realm. His spirit energy was fundamentally less powerful than the spirit energy of a Planet realm cultivator.

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Normally, it would be almost impossible to bridge such a difference in power. But… Wang Baole had unimaginably deep stores of spirit energy. An ordinary perfected stage Spirit Immortal realm cultivator would only possess half of his spirit energy. He could easily kill a perfected stage Spirit Immortal realm cultivator with only 70% of his spirit energy. Now, he had unleashed his full spirit energy. His power wasn’t only boosted by his Emperor Armor but also augmented by his divine power, the Demonic Eye Art. They amplified the incredible cultivation that Wang Baole already had and allowed him to unleash unprecedented, incredible power.

His rich well of spirit energy gave him… the power to battle an opponent with higher-level spirit energy while he had lower-level spirit energy.

Everyone on the battlefield stared at the vortex that had materialized outside Wang Baole’s body. It was as huge as the Planet realm handprint and served as a backdrop for the cultivator. They stared as Wang Baole’s Divine Armament slashed downwards, sending a thunderous rumble across the cosmos and tearing the abyss into shreds.

The Demonic Eye Art unleashed its power then, in resonance with the million dead souls and twelve emperors around Wang Baole. The eyes that had materialized on the handprint exploded simultaneously, sending a shudder through the handprint. However, this was a Planet realm attack that the left-hand elder had unleashed with his full strength. Even though the Demonic Eye Art was powerful, its level of cultivation still wasn’t high enough for the divine power to destroy the Planet realm handprint completely. It only managed to weaken the handprint slightly!

The handprint continued to descend with a thunderous rumble. Wang Baole could sense waves of Planet realm spirit energy rushing out from the handprint like a tsunami. They charged at him, overwhelming waves that ate away at everything in their path, and eroded a good portion of his retaliatory attack.

They pushed Wang Baole back, preventing his Divine Armament from landing its downward slashing blow. He was forced to fall back as the Planet realm handprint continued its advance.

It was an awesome sight to behold. Everyone watched as Wang Baole was forced to retreat under the advancing handprint. They saw a man who was about to be crushed!

The Planet realm handprint was like a flaming ball of fire that was trying to burn away every trace of Wang Baole’s existence.

Wang Baole’s spirit energy, on the other hand, wasn’t strong enough. It couldn’t extinguish the fireball like water could. It resembled a fog more than it did water. But… even though it wasn’t water, it was still an incredible fog. And if thin wisps of fog couldn’t extinguish the fire, he could summon a cloud of fog. If that couldn’t do it, he could summon an entire sea of fog!

He had oceans’ worth of fog. He released it instantly and sent the fog towards what seemed like fiery, burning Planet realm power pulsing in the handprint. Fog enveloped the handprint. It might not have been powerful enough, and it might have disintegrated upon contact with the handprint, but Wang Baole’s incredible abundance of spirit energy seemed infinite. Since the first sea of fog he had released wasn’t enough, he would send forth ten or even a hundred more such seas!

His spirit energy could fill the heavens. It erupted from Wang Baole and rose to the skies!

“Destroy it!” Wang Baole let loose a thunderous roar. He shuddered in mid-air, blood showing in his eyes as he gave everything he had to fight back against the handprint. Spirit energy erupted from his body in a mad rush, fighting against the burning, fiery Planet realm handprint with incredible force.

It was like sending armies of ants against an elephant. The sheer number of ants made sure that the elephant didn’t stand a chance. The Planet realm flames gradually weakened, and the handprint started to turn blurry. Finally, as Wang Baole’s eyes flashed with murder, as he roared furiously, as his right hand tightened its grip on his Divine Armament and readied itself for the next attack, and as the cultivation inside him continued to rise, Wang Baole started to emit a bright light.

“Slash!” Wang Baole charged forward as he roared, his Divine Armament cleaving everything in its path. Thunder rumbled across the cosmos, and the increasingly blurry handprint was slashed into halves!

Another thunderous boom erupted in the air as the Planet realm handprint finally collapsed. Its destruction sent shock waves of spirit energy surging outwards. Cultivators on both sides who had moved far away from the battle didn’t escape the aftermath of the handprint’s collapse. They spat out mouthfuls of blood as they staggered back. At the same time, in the middle of the battlefield, vast empty space suddenly appeared.

Wang Baole was the only one standing in that wide, empty space. He looked up, his eyes shining with battle lust. This image was seared into the minds of everyone present. It was such a memorable sight that it was unlikely that they would ever forget it.

The look that Daoist Gu Mo, the butler, and the two perfected stage Spirit Immortal realm cultivators from the Heavenly Spirit Sect were giving Wang Baole at that moment was one of shock and awe. Killing a perfected stage Spirit Immortal realm cultivator wasn’t the same as fighting back a Planet realm attack. The former might have come as a surprise, but the latter… was worthy of awe and fear!

They weren’t the only ones who thought that. The Sovereign Patriarch of the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect, as well as the sect lord and left-hand elder of the Heavenly Spirit Sect, suffered the greatest shock. They were reeling with what they had just seen. The left-hand elder, especially, had shouted out instinctively, calling out a legendary title from his memory!

“Dao Disciple?”

“Dao Disciple? That’s impossible! This is just a remote area in our nineteenth domain. Only the Divine Eye civilization is located in this region. How could the legendary Dao Disciple have turned up in such a primitive world?” The sect lord of the Heavenly Spirit Sect gasped when he heard those words. Shock filled his eyes.

He knew that there was no mention of Dao-related titles at the Planet realm level, which meant that Dao Disciple wasn’t a title given to someone who was about to attain the Planet realm. The title was meant for prodigies found in certain powerful factions in the Dao Domain and in powerful family clans in the Never-Ending Clan!

Those prodigies were precious talents that the factions and family clans had carefully groomed and spent countless resources on. They were meant to take over as the head of their faction or family clan in the future. In the Never-Ending Dao Domain, such prodigies were referred to as… Dao Disciples!

That was because they were in a different class when compared to ordinary cultivators. They had the ability to fight enemies of higher cultivation realms, and they had unimaginably rich stores of cultivation. Should their transformative growth be successful, they would take over as the pinnacle of authority and power in their respective faction or family clan. When that happened… they would become a Dao Sage and lead their faction or family clan to greater heights!

And that was why they were called Dao Disciples!

The left-hand elder had just seen Wang Baole take on his attack successfully. He had also sensed that Wang Baole was only at the late-stage Spirit Immortal realm. Despite that, Wang Baole possessed a well of spirit energy so abundant that it had shocked the left-hand elder. Everything had culminated in the title popping into his head.

The Sovereign Patriarch of the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect was equally shocked. His circumstances differed from those of the left-hand elder, though. As a defender against an invasion, he was more concerned with his sect’s survival. He was the first to recover from his bout of shock, and he launched an attack immediately. The sect lord and left-hand elder of the Heavenly Spirit Sect were forced to refocus their attention and full efforts on the fight. The aggressive attack that the Sovereign Patriarch had launched meant that the Heavenly Spirit Sect’s sect lord and elder had no chance of striking at Wang Baole for the moment.

But… their lack of opportunity to attack Wang Baole didn’t apply to Wang Baole. He wasn’t going to allow the left-hand elder to keep him down. His eyes flashed brightly as he looked up and stared at the left-hand elder.

<em>There has to be give and take in everything we do!</em>

<em>Don’t think your daddy can’t do anything to you just because you’re at the Planet realm!</em> An icy light flashed in Wang Baole’s eyes, and he stuck his right hand up into the air. There was a buzzing in his mind as the Planet realm palm resting inside his Eternal Star Fire started shuddering violently. One of the three broken fingers inside the fire splintered off and vanished instantly, reappearing… outside Wang Baole’s body, above his head!

The finger was blood red and surrounded by lightning bolts, and it exuded madness and violence. The sight would turn anyone’s face pale!

Upon its arrival, it turned around suddenly and pointed… at the left-hand elder of the Heavenly Spirit Sect!

The cosmos thundered, and the abyss shuddered as Planet realm power rose to the skies, blanketing the entire cosmos and shocking everyone on the battlefield once again.

That was because… the power held within the finger was true Planet realm power. From the looks of it, it appeared to be slightly more powerful than the handprint that the left-hand elder had unleashed!

“It’s at the Planet realm!”

“Heavens, what kind of golden ticket did Long Nanzi win to get such a breakthrough in cultivation? Has he been concealing his true level of cultivation all this time?”

“He knows how to use the royal clan’s cultivation technique, and he can command the dead souls of the clan. He’s at the late-stage Spirit Immortal realm, but he has the power to kill a perfected Spirit Immortal realm cultivator and is able to hold his ground against a Planet realm attack. And now, he’s summoned a Planet realm broken finger!”

Cultivators on both sides of the battle had lost all composure. They emerged from the series of shocking events dumbfounded. Fairy Ling You and many other cultivators were similarly reeling. Of them all, the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect’s Sovereign Patriarch and the sect lord and left-hand elder of the Heavenly Spirit Sect seemed to have suffered the greatest shock. The left-hand elder, especially. He had an alarmed look on his face. Dread and doom gripped his heart while alarm bells blared loudly in his head.

“Kill him!” Wang Baole’s eyes flashed murderously as his right hand formed a series of hand seals, then pointed at the left-hand elder!