Chapter 490: Chapter 490: This Broken Place, Truly a Land of Outstanding Perfected Persons

’This Ang Xiao... I’ve worked so hard. Why won’t you just die...’

Lü Yang sighed, but he also felt a sense of admiration.

In this world, no one is ever just an NPC. Everyone is the protagonist of their own story. Different circumstances and experiences give rise to infinite variables.

The same was true for Ang Xiao.

Even though he had relied on the cumulative knowledge of ten lifetimes to dig up nearly all of Ang Xiao’s secrets and used them to set this trap, Ang Xiao hadn’t just sat back and waited for his doom.

He was also trying to find a way to break free!

And he had to admit, Ang Xiao had succeeded... No Heaven had only just appeared and hadn’t spread yet. At this point in time, it couldn’t force a Perfected Lord into seclusion.

’If I’d had another year... no, just half a year! Half a year would have been enough for No Heaven to expand. Then, no matter what other cards Ang Xiao had up his sleeve, I could have forcibly driven him into seclusion, making all his schemes come to nothing. In the end, he would have been completely under the control of my Fake Holding of the Fruit of Lamp-Cover Fire...’

Unfortunately, Ang Xiao hadn’t followed his plan.

’This Broken Place... it truly is a land of wonders and heroes. No matter how many times I restart, it always manages to surprise me... This time is no different, kicking up such a massive storm.’

After a brief moment of regret, Lü Yang’s face showed no sign of dejection. Instead, he broke into a smile:

’Plans never survive contact with reality, and that’s fine! It just means I’ll have to counter you move for move. Let me see what you’re trying to do, and just how far you can go...’

With this thought, Lü Yang continued to strain his eyes, gazing into the distance.

........

Overseas, Ang Xiao stood in the air, his hands clasped behind his back.

The forces of the Pure Land were only the first to arrive. As he stopped concealing his Qi trace, the second to appear was World Purger Fei Xue, whose vast Divine Sense instantly locked onto him.

"So it was you!"

The next second, a graceful figure with long legs stepped out of the Broken Void. Beneath her elegant, classical smile was a hidden, intense rage.

Ang Xiao was not surprised to see her. He had privately done a great deal of research on this Perfected Lord, the Stain Sect’s other pillar who had risen after him, and knew of her vengeful nature. However, he had his own pride, and the current Fei Xue was not yet someone he needed to take seriously.

"Is that all?"

Ang Xiao scanned his surroundings, his gaze turning toward the Four Seas Sect. He was waiting... If he wasn’t mistaken, that mysterious Foundation Establishment cultivator should be connected to the Old Dragon Monarch.

「Meanwhile, inside the Four Seas Sect.」

’Are you nuts? Why are you looking at me?’

Sensing Ang Xiao’s gaze upon him, the Old Dragon Monarch’s survival instincts, honed over many years of cautious survival, made him curl up and completely ignore the chaos unfolding outside.

’After all, this is a fight between Human Cultivators. What does it have to do with me?’

’The only reason he and the True Dragon Race had managed to survive since the great change in the Heavens was because he never worried about things that weren’t his problem. Meddling could get a dragon killed.’

This reaction surprised Ang Xiao. ’It’s not him? Did I guess wrong?’

For a moment, Ang Xiao’s mind raced, but he quickly regained his composure. Since he had already gone all-in, he would simply deal with whatever came his way.

’So be it. I will walk my own path.’

Thinking this, Ang Xiao hesitated no longer. His main body in the Netherworld slowly raised its hand, pulling the lit Fruit of Sand-Within Earth toward the Netherworld!

But in the next moment, World Purger Fei Xue made the first move. Her crimson lips parted slightly, her voice laced with the sound of the Dao, and a sharp cry instantly echoed across the four corners of the world:

"Ang Xiao!!!"

As her voice rang out, his True Name was exposed. The Veil of the Trees that had shrouded the world immediately wavered, and many Perfected Lords revealed looks of shock.

"Ang Xiao... That’s right, Ang Xiao!"

"What has he done?"

’This Qi trace, this Position... Late Stage of Golden Core!?’

"The Fruit of Great-Forest Wood... the only person to attain an Emperor Fruit after the change in the Heavens, and I don’t even remember him? The Veil of the Trees... Wait, something seems off with the Earth of Chen..."

World Purger Fei Xue’s voice of the Great Dao was remarkably effective, almost instantly exposing Ang Xiao to all the Perfected Lords of the world. But at this point, Ang Xiao no longer cared. From the day he faked his death to smuggle himself into the Netherworld, he had been prepared for the day he would become an enemy to the entire world.

’Earth-Walking Avatar!’

In the next instant, Ang Xiao’s main body in the Netherworld tossed a puppet into the Current World. The moment the puppet appeared, it erupted with billowing purple qi.

This purple qi alone displayed Abilities that surpassed most of the Perfected Lords in the world!

HISS...

In the East, Lü Yang drew in a sharp breath. ’This purple qi... When the Ninth Reincarnation of Master Chong Guang failed at Seeking Gold, this is how Ang Xiao appeared.’

Back then, he fought more than a dozen Golden Cores by himself!

That group included powerhouses like World Purger Fei Xue, and yet he still won. It just went to show how terrifying Ang Xiao’s true combat strength was.

At this moment, purple qi filled the sky. Ang Xiao was multitasking, using the Earth-Walking Avatar to intercept World Purger Fei Xue while simultaneously manipulating the Dragon and Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva to begin drawing in the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth. Before everyone’s eyes, the Dao Fruit began to fall, bit by bit, toward the Netherworld...

"Amitabha!"

The Pure Land Bodhisattvas were making their move.

In an instant, several more Fruit Position Stars lit up in the vault of heaven.

Lü Yang looked over and saw the Fruit of Willow-Poplar Wood, the Fruit of Pine-Cedar Wood, and the Fruit of Hairpin-Brace Metal. A surprised thought rose in his heart: ’The Pure Land only has three Bodhisattvas? Of course, adding the Dragon and Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva made four.’

’But... three Fruit Positions. Two Wood, one Gold. That can’t form the Three Elements... In other words, the Pure Land doesn’t actually have anyone in the Late Stage of Golden Core!’

This was a major discovery.

At the same time, Lü Yang also understood the Pure Land’s reason for moving against Ang Xiao: if they could obtain the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth, they would be able to form the Three Elements!

It concerned the path to the Late Stage of Golden Core—a struggle over the Dao itself.

How could they possibly back down?

However, Ang Xiao had schemed for the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth for so long, viewing it as the final, decisive move of his plan. How could he have left any openings?

BOOM!

The next second, Ang Xiao’s Daoist Hand Seal changed, and the Dragon and Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva under his control immediately brandished the Outer Dao Fruit Position it carried.

Under the temptation of the Outer Dao Fruit Position, the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth instantly went from resisting to actively cooperating.

In a flash, while fending off the fierce assault from World Purger Fei Xue and the others with one hand, Ang Xiao had already seized the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth with the other.

’Success!’

The next second, he pulled the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth into the Netherworld.

This single change caused a qualitative leap in Ang Xiao’s Qi trace, as if a missing piece of a puzzle had been put into place, making him more complete.

Seeing this, the auras of other Perfected Lords immediately began to stir throughout the world.

From the Sword Pavilion, in particular, a certain dormant Qi trace reawakened, as if a pair of sword-like eyes had opened, turning a razor-sharp gaze toward Ang Xiao.

Yet Ang Xiao paid it no mind.

’Continue...!’

Meanwhile, seeing that Ang Xiao had clearly obtained the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth and accomplished his great task, yet still hadn’t retreated, Lü Yang instantly understood his opponent’s intentions.

’The Fruit of Lamp-Cover Fire has Fortune, the Fruit of Long-Flow Water has the Summon, the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth has the Pure Land’s Bodhisattvas... how could he not have left a contingency for the Fruit of Pewter Metal?’

As if in response to Lü Yang.

The next second, Ang Xiao’s consciousness focused on the palm of the Dragon and Snake Coiling Shadow Bodhisattva. There, beneath the layered shadows of temples, was an iridescent, unhewn rock. A golden light shimmered within the stone, and one could faintly see a human figure bobbing inside—it was an Immortal Spirit close to Perfection!

And the Fruit it pointed to was precisely the Fruit of Pewter Metal!

Countless Arhats and Bodhisattvas under the Bhagavat had spent days and nights using Scripture to grant it Enlightenment, long ago freeing it from the Heavenly God’s control. It was one of the Pure Land’s most precious treasures.

Now, however, Ang Xiao had staged a Cuckoo’s Nest, and held it in his hand.

This was the very reason Ang Xiao had insisted on sending a Split Soul into the Pure Land: not just for the Fruit of Sand-Within Earth, but more importantly, for the Fruit of Pewter Metal!