With a single sentence, the truth became clear. Sword immortals truly existed in this world.

Wang Sheng clasped his hands behind his back and slowly rose into the air. Faintly, he formed a triangular formation alongside Erlang and Qinghua. Several Great Daos gradually manifested around them.

The Great Dao of Creation was the very first Dao born from primordial chaos at the beginning of existence; it was the source from which all heaven and earth came into being. Right now, it appeared as swirling seven-colored mist coiling around Wang Sheng.

The Great Dao of Death resembled a pitch-black dragon wrapped around Qinghua. The pure and suffocating Dao Rhythm it emitted spread throughout the entire Nether Realm.

Golden light shone around Erlang, and the divine eye upon his forehead flickered faintly. Even among these overwhelmingly dominant Great Daos, he remained dazzling in his own right.

What he cultivated was himself. The path he walked belonged to the physical cultivators of the Ancient Era. Even in the present age, he was the strongest physical cultivator alive. Hence, his combat strength far surpassed that of ordinary Primordial Spirit cultivators.

Behind Wang Sheng, the Ziwei Star shone brilliantly. Above the mist floated three sword phantasms. They represented the three sword intents he currently possessed the greatest mastery over, and the only ones that could withstand the coming battle.

Heavenly Ziwei Sword Intent, Myriad-Slaying Sword Intent, and Pure Yang Sword Intent.

The sword phantasms formed from the three sword intents trembled softly. Three-colored radiance spread across heaven and earth, suppressing the countless cultivators on both sides.

Wang Sheng, who rarely revealed his true name, had now stepped forward openly and stood face to face with Feng Jiu.

Truthfully, he had little confidence that they would win. He still had many more plans and arrangements that he hadn't been able to put into play, including the Human King, the immortal dao fleet his younger sister had created, the several great sword intents he still had not fully comprehended and refined...

But time no longer allowed him to wait. Hence, he was left with no other choice.

A massive gathering of experts from the Immortal Saint Realm and the four great sky regions surrounded him. If Feng Jiu succeeded in killing or controlling them, the situation would become a hundred times more difficult.

Now that Houtu had successfully exposed Feng Jiu's true nature, stepping up to unite every force that could still be united was already an opportunity that the enemy herself had given.

Yuan Tu returned to Wang Sheng's left hand as threads of seven-colored light emerged from his right arm and slowly formed Spiritless. He grasped it firmly as well.

The Dao of Creation, two swords, three sword intents.

Radiant light burst from Wang Sheng's eyes as his Daoist robe fluttered wildly. Even though he didn't use divine abilities and deliberately kept his pressure sealed, an immense and razor-sharp aura still surged repeatedly across heaven and earth, as though it sought to destroy the entire world.

It did not lose to Qinghua's or Erlang's in the slightest.

He still felt lacking compared to the mysterious "Queen Mother" standing opposite them, whom nobody could fully understand, though.

Feng Jiu smiled faintly. In a tone so gentle that others found it impossible to hate or resent her, she remarked, "Fei Yu."

Countless flowers seemingly bloomed throughout heaven and earth.

"I truly believed you had disappeared forever. I even mourned over it for quite a while. Who would have thought that it was just one of your and Star Deity Wenqu's schemes?"

Wang Sheng sneered slightly. "With your level of ability, I doubt you were ever truly deceived. I still remember the last time you came to see me. You said all sorts of things that made my scalp crawl.

"You claimed that within the Immortal Saint Realm and the four great sky regions, only the two of us possessed the power to shape heaven and earth. At the time, I still didn't know who you truly were. Looking back now, though, I treated your words like a joke, while you treated me like an idiot.

Feng Jiu revealed a charming smile that had a touch of faint allure. "That's going too far, Daoist Friend. You are the child of heavenly fate in this era and the man Holy Mother Nuwa had chosen to represent the Three Realms. I originally stole your fate and gained an early victory over you. Now, we compete fairly against one another. I see nothing wrong with that."

Wang Sheng was rendered speechless.

Did she just admit it herself?

"You killed a child still wrapped in swaddling cloth, yet still allowed that child's divine soul to escape." He laughed coldly. "Your victory really sounds quite honorable."

He flicked a finger lightly. A screen of light appeared in the skies above the Nether Realm, revealing a scene from the Ancient Era. After Nuwa returned to the Sea of Dao Laws, a shadowy figure launched sneak attacks against the other two attendants before killing the infant "Holy Child."

The methods used were incomparably cruel. The scene itself was bloody and vicious.

Still, what drew the most attention was the strange nature that the shadowy figure displayed.

Those twisted black "Daos" resembling tangled tree roots made the immortals present feel deeply uncomfortable, even though they were merely projections.

One ill-tempered expert cursed loudly, "What kind of fucking monster is that?!"

"An external devil? A devil from beyond the universe?"

"So the Immortal Emperor managed to unite the Three Realms back then because he stole the Holy Child's heavenly fate and took his place? Then, after the truth was exposed, the Three Pure Ones personally erased him?"

"The Heavenly Court truly is a joke!"

The commotion spread not only through Fengdu City itself, but also throughout the forces surrounding it outside.

Feng Jiu, however, remained completely unconcerned. "I originally thought that after hiding for ten thousand years, you would possess some guaranteed method to defeat me today. Yet in the end, you still rely on the same tricks from ten thousand years ago."

A hundred years on Earth equaled ten thousand years outside.

Wang Sheng smiled. "With only ten thousand years, I naturally could not find a flawless method to deal with you. You have operated in secret for countless millennia. Your claws and fangs already spread throughout the four sky regions, and half the forces of the Immortal Saint Realm are secretly under your control.

"You wanted to play a game of conquest with me, yet you had already occupied the entire chessboard long ago. In the end, you only wished to toy with me once more.

"Truthfully, I never cared about fighting for dominance. Whether this world possesses order, whether the people receive protection, whether the balance between strong and weak collapses, none of it has much to do with me. But what you seek does not seem to be the position of Immortal Emperor. You already sat upon that throne once before, after all.

"In fact, if you had not deliberately destroyed yourself and exposed your own existence, the Three Pure Ones would never have erased you. Nevertheless, you secretly arranged everything to lead to this moment. The so-called Heavenly Court rebels were merely forces who hid behind the curtain.

"You also stirred up a large number of cultivators who were already dissatisfied with the Heavenly Court. The reason those cultivators hated the Heavenly Court in the first place was that you intentionally pushed things in that direction."

Wang Sheng paused briefly before asking curiously, "Feng Jiu, what exactly do you want?"

"I want this world," Feng Jiu answered calmly, "to free itself from this false order. Do you know what the Three Pure Ones truly are?"

Wang Sheng remained silent.

Feng Jiu indifferently added, "They are cultivators as well, but unlike us, they obtained the seeds of the Great Dao of Origin at the beginning of heaven and earth's evolution. Their Daos are the only difference between them and us.

"When they reached the peak of their respective Great Daos, they fused themselves into those Daos and monopolized them completely, forbidding other cultivators from comprehending them. In doing so, they maintained their supreme status forever.

"How does Earth phrase it again? Ah, right. The macro remains eternal, while the micro constantly changes. Between illusion and reality lies the Three Pure Ones' Dao. So tell me, Fei Yu. How are countless living beings and cultivators supposed to hold against beings like them?"

A trace of sharpness flashed through Feng Jiu's eyes. Her tone gradually rose as the shadow of a divine phoenix and a golden azure dragon appeared behind her.

She loudly added, "The Three Pure Ones control the Sea of Dao Laws. They stand high above all existence and couldn't care less about the lives or deaths of living beings. In their eyes, only stability matters! To them, living beings are no different from weeds—from stones! The reason they do not erase all life is not that they are compassionate or merciful. It is because living beings strengthen the Dao itself!

"Using Earth's terms, living beings positively influence the evolution of the natural environment. They are an indispensable part of the universe's flow of energy. Fei Yu, Her Imperial Majesty's Holy Child, did you know that the instant Holy Mother Nuwa returned to the Sea of Dao Laws, the Three Pure Ones trapped her between the Great Daos forever, never allowing her to escape?!

"The reason she gradually grew weaker and could never recover her peak strength was that they deliberately severed her connection to the Sea of Dao Laws!

"They forced her to her death. They wanted the one who represented all living beings, protected all living beings, and originally stood above them, to become nothing more than a wandering soul within the Sea of Dao Laws! That is the true reason I defied fate back then, killed you, and stole your position!

"Do you truly believe Holy Mother Nuwa, wielder of the Great Dao of Creation, could not see through my identity as an outsider? Do you truly believe I somehow infiltrated her side through my own methods and became one of the three attendants meant to assist you?

"The moment I arrived, she immediately found me. I fought her, and she ended up capturing me. At the time, I carried within me a soul capable of destroying heaven and earth. Holy Mother could not bear to let us vanish alongside the others. Hence, she protected us instead.

Feng Jiu shouted using countless male and female voices, "I wasn't the one who betrayed you. It was the Three Pure Ones, this heaven and earth, this so-called supremacy of the Great Dao! Heaven and earth themselves are merciless!"

The whole world trembled violently. Right after, the entire Nether Realm fell silent.

Wang Sheng stood in the air, frowning at Feng Jiu.

Beside him, Qinghua coldly asked, "Then why did you lead the Heavenly Court into tragedy?"

"The Heavenly Court was merely one of the steps in my plan against the Three Pure Ones." Feng Jiu laughed coldly. "If the Three Pure Ones wished to maintain balance between the tangible world and the intangible world, then the tangible world had to submit to order. Do you know what lies at the end of absolute order? Deathly stillness.

"I established the Heavenly Court with the support of the Three Pure Ones behind me. Many battles that should have ended in defeat were secretly turned around by the Three Pure Ones themselves, allowing the Heavenly Court to win. Do you know why?"

"Why?" Qinghua asked.

Feng Jiu's smile turned bleak. "Because under the guidance of the Three Pure Ones, I tarnished the Holy Mother's name and created the false myth of Pan Gu to conceal the true origin of heaven and earth.

"The beginning of heaven and earth came from One. It came from the Great Dao of Creation rejecting Chaos itself. One Great Dao and true spirit after another escaped from the formless emptiness and disorder of Chaos. Holy Mother Nuwa emerged from the Sea of Chaos during that era.

"She was a spirit born from chaos itself, pure, sacred, and supreme. Using the Great Dao of Creation, she shaped the earliest form of heaven and earth before allowing it to evolve naturally on its own.

"To gain the support of the Three Pure Ones and carry out my plan, I fabricated a story about Pan Gu. I spread that story throughout heaven and earth to elevate the status of the Three Pure Ones and strengthen their control over the Sea of Dao Laws.

"In return, under the guidance of the Three Pure Ones, I unified the Three Realms. How could ignorant and foolish mortals like you possibly understand that I, the Immortal Emperor, had already stepped halfway into the Sea of Dao Laws?

"In the end, though, I still could not save her. She turned into what seemed like a necessary part of heaven and earth's evolution, eventually fading into silence within the myths and legends passed down among mortals.

"Now, I shall answer why I destroyed the Heavenly Court. Qinghua, carefully sense it for yourself. Has the gate to the Sea of Dao Laws closed?"

Qinghua froze briefly. He closed his eyes and focused his senses. A moment later, his brows knit deeply.

Feng Jiu threw back her head in laughter. "Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha! The Three Realms! The Three Pure Ones! The Sea of Dao Laws! The tangible world! None of you understands the connection between them, so allow me to educate you! Back then, the Three Pure Ones transferred their control over the tangible world to the Heavenly Court itself. They transferred it to me, the Immortal Emperor!

"I deliberately provoked the Three Pure Ones and allowed them to destroy me, causing the immediate collapse of the order that the Heavenly Court had established. The Three Pure Ones attempted to stabilize it, but the rebel army I secretly prepared afterward crushed the Heavenly Court completely!

"The moment the Heavenly Palace fell, the Three Pure Ones lost most of their control over the Three Realms! The fact that I can stand here saying all of this today without interference from them is proof enough. If you accuse me of disregarding the deaths of the Heavenly Court's immortals and gods, I will not deny it. I harmed them. You could even say I personally killed them.

"Ziwei, your master, fell to one of my incarnations. When he saw all of this within my eyes, he ultimately chose to end his own life. Fei Yu, you should have already met his remnant soul.

"But if the Heavenly Court had advanced any further back then, it would have begun erasing all powerful beings from heaven and earth. It would have erased every immortal lifeform, stripped away most of the world's primal qi, and handed control over it to the Sea of Dao Laws so the Three Pure Ones could recreate heaven and earth whenever they wished.

"All living beings within the Three Realms would have lost every trace of uniqueness. They would have lost their spiritual light and become nothing more than part of the universe's energy cycle.

"Life and death would become mere gatherings and dispersals of energy and matter. No flowing radiance would remain within heaven and earth. The stars themselves would become eternally motionless.

"So now, tell me. What is good, and what is evil? What is order, and what is chaos? What is righteous? What is corruption? Ridiculous. Utterly childish!"