That Profound Scripture Hall, which had existed on Heavenly Summit Mountain for countless ages, where all twelve stewards of Heavenly Summit Mountain had once lectured and taught the Dao, representing the inheritance and foundation of this former sacred land of cultivation on Chenping Continent, was just like that, smashed into ruins by the bronze tower that fell from the sky.

A lean cultivator clad in pure white daoist robes hovered in the sky above Heavenly Summit Mountain, his eyelids half-lowered as he gazed down upon the towering mountain over eight thousand zhang high beneath his feet.

A glazed-colored sword energy shot up from the ground, slashing towards Kong Yang who stood in the air.

Kong Yang remained motionless in place, merely watching the glazed sword energy slashing towards him with neither sorrow nor joy.

The next instant, the ten-thousand-zhang sea of clouds behind Kong Yang was horizontally sliced in two by this single glazed sword energy.

Sunlight emerged from behind the cloud layer, casting a golden halo around the silhouette of Kong Yang floating in the sky.

Immediately after, two more glazed sword energies slashed out towards the sky, tearing the air apart and even beginning to distort space.

Kong Yang moved.

He slowly raised his right hand, lifting his index finger upright before his chest, and then—

Halt!

The two glazed sword energies froze in mid-air.

Then, the Abyssal Tower that had just smashed into the Profound Scripture Hall began to slowly rise, flying towards Kong Yang's direction.

A glazed-colored rainbow light, at a speed almost impossible for the naked eye to follow, crashed towards the rising bronze tower, then used the bronze tower as a stepping stone to rapidly close in on Kong Yang's position.

A maiden, holding a long sword, wearing moon-white daoist robes, her dark hair wantonly fluttering in the wind, unleashed another glazed sword energy towards Kong Yang from an extremely close distance.

And Kong Yang retracted his raised index finger.

The moment his index finger was withdrawn, time seemed to be rewound.

The two frozen glazed sword energies tore through the solidified air, slashing towards the maiden's back with even greater speed and more treacherous angles than before.

The figure of the maiden in moon-white daoist robes was easily sliced into three segments by these two sword energies, then shattered like glazed glass, dissolving into scattered points of drifting light. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Her true body had already arrived above Kong Yang's head.

The maiden no longer unleashed magnificent sword energy, but condensed it to its extreme, a single point of glazed cold radiance bursting from the tip of her sword.

No sound, no echo, just in the snap of a finger.

Kong Yang still did not dodge. From the moment he appeared on Heavenly Summit Mountain, he had not moved a single step from where he stood.

He pointed his fingers like a sword, gently tapping the cold radiance at the sword's tip.

An extremely sharp sound rang out.

It was not the sound of metal clashing against metal, but the wail of space itself colliding with extreme force. A terrifying shockwave mixed with shattered glazed light and pure white Immortal Qi exploded violently with the two as its center.

The residual waves of Immortal Qi swept across the sky. The ten-thousand-zhang sea of clouds that had just been sliced open by the maiden's sword energy now shattered like a glazed mirror struck by a giant boulder.

The cloud floss filling the sky did not dissipate, but was utterly annihilated and vaporized by the violent force.

A deep, boundless azure sky appeared behind the two Immortal Ascension Realm great powers clad in different white daoist robes.

After this round of mutual probing, the two Immortal Ascension Realm cultivators quickly distanced themselves by nearly a hundred zhang in the sky.

"Kong Yang."

Qiu Siruo said coldly.

The long sword in her hand was a high-quality magic treasure, yet it still could not withstand the single point of glazed cold radiance she had just condensed. The blade was covered in cracks.

Qiu Siruo gave a slight flick of her wrist, completely shattering the long sword in her hand. The fragments fell from mid-air towards the ground.

Immediately after, all those fragments halted in mid-air, then coalesced back towards the sword hilt in Qiu Siruo's hand. Within a few breaths, a long sword with its blade perfectly restored appeared in her grasp.

The Abyssal Tower had now risen to mid-air, slowly rotating.

Qiu Siruo understood very well that if she did not break free from the restrictions of heaven and earth's laws, the hope of contending against True Person Caiyun wielding the Abyssal Tower was quite slim.

Therefore—

The sky before her was torn open, revealing a dark fissure about a zhang long. Then, a terrifying aura that dyed the azure sky glazed-colored flashed from within the fissure, slashing towards Kong Yang's direction.

Dao Rhyme.

This was the true essence, a great power involving cause and effect and the laws of heaven and earth.

For an Immortal Ascension Realm cultivator to wield such great power, damaging their Dao Basis was inevitable.

This glazed-colored terrifying aura was not slashing towards Kong Yang's physical body, but directly severing his causal connection with the Abyssal Tower.

Only then did Kong Yang finally shift half a step from where he stood.

Then, a dark fissure about a zhang long also appeared before Kong Yang, and from within emerged a wisp of pure white Dao Rhyme. Using the azure sky behind as a canvas, it intertwined with the glazed-colored Dao Rhyme.

Heaven toppled, earth overturned!

The laws of heaven and earth in the azure sky above began to crack and shatter, and the resulting causal price was entirely reflected back onto the Dao Basis of both Kong Yang and Qiu Siruo.

Qiu Siruo's face paled several shades. Her dark hair was disheveled, and her gaze became much more grave compared to before.

Kong Yang was the same. He still wore an expressionless face, but compared to Qiu Siruo, the price Kong Yang paid was clearly somewhat smaller.

Purple Mansion Art.

Back when Kong Yang had not yet regained his Immortal Ascension cultivation, the Immortal Dao had not yet revived, and he served as an elder of Caijun Tower, he had once thoroughly analyzed the Purple Mansion Kongshan Art left behind by Chen Yan.

Afterwards, he completely stripped it from the Kongshan Art, reorganized and summarized the technique, and named it the Purple Mansion Art.

This was also Kong Yang's greatest reliance, even greater than his reliance on the immortal artifact, the Abyssal Tower, which he had "borrowed" from the Mirage Palace back in the day.

The cloud floss filling the sky did not dissipate, but was utterly annihilated and vaporized by the violent force.

And this difference in operational method allowed Kong Yang to, to a certain extent, circumvent the backlash received when tearing the laws of heaven and earth to wield Dao Rhyme.

This began to give rise to a doubt within Kong Yang.

That was, whether from the very beginning, the path chosen by the cultivation world of Chenping Continent was wrong.

That there existed realms higher than Immortal Ascension was a well-known fact.

From ancient times to the present, the only one who truly reached a realm above Immortal Ascension was Immortal Venerable Fusheng alone.

Immortal Ascension Realm cultivators, from ancient times to the present, have only appeared thirty-one in total.

Every single one of them was a monstrous talent who shone brilliantly from the very day they began cultivation, practically crushing their entire era to ascend to the peak of immortality.

Why could others not touch the realms above Immortal Ascension?

And why, before the appearance of Heavenly Summit Mountain, the peak of the Chenping Continent cultivation world was only Dao Union?

The truth behind this was probably not that simple.

And Kong Yang believed that, in a certain sense, the Purple Mansion Art he currently mastered was one possible solution to this current predicament.

Although, the Purple Mansion Art was still not complete.