The white-robed youth walked a different path, he sought to prove the Dao through the fusion of edicts.

Yes, fusion.

Among the thousands of edicts, many could be merged such as the Five Elements, Yin and Yang, Light and Darkness. Edicts could oppose, complement, restrain, or generate one another. This “generation” was the key. When he eventually sought enlightenment, he would neither prove the Dao of Life nor the Dao of Death. Instead, he would merge the two into a new rule, and attain the Grand Dao through that.

The benefit was obvious.

The Dao Fruit born from such fusion would be stronger, far stronger than a Dao Fruit built on a single edict.

But there was a catch.

Not all edicts could be fused. The requirements were extremely strict. For example, the Life edict could fuse only with the Death edict, none of the other edicts could merge with it at all.

Because of this, when the youth unleashed his life-and-death sword intent, its edge wrapped in world-shattering Life-Death edicts, Xu Zimo felt true shock in his heart. The earlier two moves were mere probes. This third one was where the white-robed youth finally got serious.

The youth watched him with interest, curious how he would respond. If Xu Zimo failed to resist, he would die beneath this sword intent.

Xu Zimo struck instantly, swinging Shadow Tyrant thousands of times with the Sky-Split Blade. But when his blade intent met the sword intent, it was like spring sunlight melting winter snow, his blade intent was the snow, rapidly dissolving the instant it touched the youth’s sword.

He couldn’t even block for a breath, let alone break it.

Xu Zimo frowned. The power of edicts was troublesome, especially in the hands of someone who wielded it so naturally. His Blade Dao wasn’t inferior to the man’s Sword Dao; what he lacked was pure strength.

The sword intent continued falling. He couldn’t delay any longer.

He unleashed all ten great scriptures at once, yet they still had no effect. To defeat edicts, one needed edicts.

As the sword intent neared, Xu Zimo transformed into a giant, using brute strength to hold it back. The ten scriptures surged through him, but the fused edict was unstoppable. Even with all his might, he could only slow its descent, not halt it.

The red-robed woman and youth watched with fascination.

“What do you think he’ll do?” the youth asked.

“He’s definitely going to die,” she said.

“Should we spare him? If he admits defeat, I can withdraw the sword intent,” the youth mused.

The woman clearly had no desire to kill Xu Zimo either. Despite her sharp words, she wasn’t murderous.

“Sure, why not? Let him stay. He can become a living corpse like us. At least we’d finally have someone to keep us company.”

The young man let out a helpless laugh. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”

“What’s not simple? Don’t tell me you haven’t felt lonely all these years,” she retorted.

He didn’t answer. Instead, he looked at Xu Zimo and asked, “If you concede, I’ll retract the sword intent.”

“It’s far too early for that,” Xu Zimo said with a small laugh.

In the next instant, he called upon his True Fate World, drawing a thread of edict from the God World. He slashed once.

Shadow Tyrant flared with edict power. The power of the strike multiplied billions of times. Wind and thunder burst. Water and fire roared, drowning the heavens. The sword intent shattered instantly.

Both guardians were stunned.

“There’s something strange about him,” the white-robed man said in surprise.

Just now, a trace of edict power had appeared on Xu Zimo’s body. It was faint, but edict power was edict power. A Saint Sovereign was absolutely incapable of touching it, he hadn’t even formed a Dao Fruit.

Xu Zimo now stood in place, panting heavily. Without a Dao Fruit, using edict power by force consumed him terribly. Yes, he had the God World and could theoretically draw on limitless edict power, but his physical body simply couldn’t withstand it.

It was like having powerful software but extremely weak hardware.

“Do you still want to fight?” Xu Zimo asked, lifting his head.

If he had to continue, he would be forced to unseal the previous Infernal Lord’s power. And if he did that, neither this youth nor the entire Abyss of Oblivion could stop him, he would simply crush everything.

But he didn’t want to.

That power was too precious.

“You’ve passed the trial. I keep my word,” the white-robed youth said with a smile. “Go on ahead. That lord may be interested in you now.”

He waved his hand. The darkness ahead scattered, revealing a radiant path of light.

Xu Zimo was stunned. The darkness of this realm was overwhelmingly strong. Even his Primal Dao of Light could barely illuminate a short distance. Yet this youth parted it easily, opening an entire road.

Xu Zimo bowed to him and stepped into the light.

As his figure disappeared, the red-robed woman pouted. “What a bore. I thought something exciting would happen.”

“Junior Sister… do you think he can escape this place?” the youth suddenly asked.

“That lord couldn’t escape. What makes you think he can?” she replied. Clearly, she didn’t believe in Xu Zimo at all. That lord’s strength was terrifying.

“Enough. It no longer concerns us,” the young man said, dismissing his thoughts. Then he smiled faintly. “Come. Let’s sleep. Only by sleeping can we avoid loneliness. Hopefully… he’ll be an exception.”

Walking on the radiant path, Xu Zimo felt the surrounding darkness grow increasingly hostile. Previously, the darkness simply obscured everything. Now, it felt alive, trying to swallow him. Fortunately, he walked within the light, and the darkness couldn’t touch him.

Eventually, he stopped.

He had reached the end.

A colossal figure sat ahead.

The giant was asleep. His size dwarfed even the two immortal giants Xu Zimo had seen before. His appearance was bizarre. A tiger’s head on a human torso. He had no arms. In their place were two thick, vicious yellow serpents.

Tiger head, human body, serpent arms.

And he was wrapped in lightning, violent, boundless lightning stronger than anything Xu Zimo had ever witnessed.

Even the True Martial Progenitor could not have commanded lightning to such an extreme.