The entire firmament was shrouded by the shadows of countless demonic beasts.

Their figures began to blur, and along with it, the Hidden Ox Emperor’s flute grew weaker and weaker, until it could no longer be heard.

Beasts surged forward in their millions, tens of millions, roaring endlessly, as though without limit.

“This is…” the Hidden Ox Emperor frowned. “The Infernal-Creation Eternal-Canon, one of the Ten Primordial God-Scriptures.”

The Ten Primordial God-Scriptures represented the ultimate apex of all techniques, perhaps not the strongest, but unquestionably among the highest of realms.

“You’ve come into contact with the Ten God Bloodlines?” the Hidden Ox Emperor asked.

But Xu Zimo had no time to answer.

As the Infernal-Creation Eternal-Canon unfolded, it filled the heavens, the power of the beasts growing ever stronger. So long as Xu Zimo could withstand it himself, he could give birth to an endless tide of demonic beasts.

The next moment, billions of beasts charged toward the Hidden Ox Emperor.

The Hidden Ox Emperor’s figure stretched across mountains and rivers, traversing the length of Thousand-Ox Dao Court.

It was as though he walked upon the far shore, rending the void amid lightning and thunder.

“Trying to flee?” Xu Zimo laughed heartily. “Since I first bore Heaven’s Will, I have rarely had the chance to fight someone of my own realm. Now I’ll see just what strength an Outer Heavens Grand Emperor possesses.”

On the Primordial Heartlands, Grand Emperors arose by shouldering the Heaven's Will for their era.

But the Nine Heavens were different, the Heavenly Dao here was completely unrestricted, near-infinite laws and principles filling the void. So long as one could comprehend a Dao Source, one could ascend to Grand Emperor.

The two paths differed, but their essence was the same.

This was the sorrow of smaller worlds.

For one of a smaller world, becoming strong was far harder. On the Primordial Heartlands, a Saint Sovereign could never appear, unless the world’s shackles were broken. Grand Emperor was the limit. The decline of its gods in the Legendary Era was tied to this truth.

Xu Zimo soared through the sky, following close behind.

The jade flute shook the heavens, the tide of beasts surging without end.

He too spanned the skies, suppressing everything in his path.

Seeing this, the Hidden Ox Emperor’s brows furrowed.

The Hundred-Life Flute in his hands transformed into a flood, brilliant, rainbow-hued, as if woven from silk.

Before him, it became a great chasm, as though severing the void itself.

“Hundred-Lives Samsara!” the Hidden Ox Emperor intoned.

The stampede of beasts rushed forward, but every beast that touched the seven-colored flood was devoured.

A scene of shocking grandeur unfolded across the heavens.

No matter how many beasts Xu Zimo summoned, the flood devoured them endlessly.

The two were locked in stalemate.

Xu Zimo frowned, putting away the jade flute, continuing like this was meaningless.

Shadow Tyrant returned to its sheath, and with a wave, the Codex of Life and Death emerged from the void.

His palms pressed together, like a god of death himself. The tome floated before him, pages turning.

“You wield the Dao of Samsara. Do you also understand life and death?”

A torrent of life-and-death aura erupted forth, pressing down the Hundred-Life Flute.

For the Codex of Life and Death, too, was among the Grand Thousand Treasures, ranked eighteenth, far higher.

Chains of life and death spread outward from its pages.

“Truly troublesome,” the Hidden Ox Emperor growled coldly.

He retreated further, leaving Thousand-Ox Dao Court behind, crossing the skies to hover above the Mountain-Dragon God-Dynasty.

The rainbow flood surged downward.

The chains of life and death lashed through the void.

Each strike pierced space itself, leaving behind lingering deathly energy.

Each time the flood was struck, a mark of life and death was imprinted upon it.

When the marks reached a certain number, the flood would be forcibly dragged into the Codex.

The Hidden Ox Emperor fought as he retreated.

Below, the citizens of Mountain Dragon God-Dynasty looked up, horrified.

“At first I thought the heavens were collapsing!”

“Look, it’s two Grand Emperors fighting!”

“A sight once in a thousand years! That’s the Hidden Ox Emperor, but who is the other?”

“How exhilarating!” Xu Zimo laughed, his Codex of Life and Death turning page after page.

With each turn, the chains shifted form, some became dragons, others descended like tigers.

Still others transformed into vines, evolving into all things of the world.

The Hidden Ox Emperor, pressed down relentlessly, grew visibly irritated.

His figure crossed vast distances again, buying himself a moment’s respite.

Around him, Nomological Truths surged.

The green ox at his side bellowed, its Dao sounds echoing across the eight desolations.

And then, it dissolved into essence.

This was no ordinary beast, but the manifestation of an esoteric principle.

The ox was born from the Nomological Truth of Time and Space.

Now, with that Nomological Truth in hand, the Hidden Ox Emperor fused with the void, his form becoming one with it.

The entire sky bent to his control.

Xu Zimo chuckled lightly.

“You would compare Nomological Truths with me?”

As the creator of the God World, he held countless laws at his fingertips.

Lifting his hand, the Nomological Truth of Time and Space surged in his palm.

The two did not move, only gazed across the void.

Yet the space around them shattered soundlessly, like glass splintering apart.

The destruction spread wide, nearly blanketing the western heavens.

Countless ancient immortals awoke, staring upward in shock.

“Again!” Xu Zimo shouted.

His right hand blazed with Nomological Truth of Fire, his left brimmed with the Nomological Truth of Ice. Around him, destruction itself circled.

Nomological Truths shifted endlessly.

The Hidden Ox Emperor grew more and more unsettled. What kind of monster was this man, to comprehend so many?

For a Grand Emperor, even one Nomological Truth sufficed.

To master several was the mark of true brilliance.

But Xu Zimo’s arsenal seemed inexhaustible.

Their battle spanned the entire West.

From Thousand-Ox Dao Court to Martial Heaven Sacred Ground, to the very borders of the West, and back again.

Above the land of Dao Source, Xu Zimo stomped downward.

The Hidden Ox Emperor crossed his arms to block.

Boom!

The heavens and earth quaked as his body plummeted like a meteor.

Xu Zimo’s right hand blazed with the Nomological Truth of Fire, his left froze with ice, and then, incredibly, the two began to merge.

The fusion of Nomological Truths, an act of madness. For different truths repelled one another.

Yet in Xu Zimo’s hands, this wild force took shape.

“Whoever blocks me, dies!”

The dual Nomological Truths struck down like a thousand suns of ice and fire. Like the explosion of a million nuclear blasts, half the Dao Court was reduced to ruin.

Disciples were shattered by the shockwaves, vomiting blood as their organs crumbled to dust.

The earth lay in devastation, as though half the continent had been pierced through.

Xu Zimo stood in the void, overlooking the place where the Hidden Ox Emperor had fallen.

Storms of dust raged, forming countless sandstorms.