Aether sparked within Lei Daozi’s eyes, a celestial fire ignited for the first time within his orbs. He dared to imbue his very sight with arcane power, piercing the veil of reality to gaze upon Wang Ping, hidden behind the imposing form of Wang Lin.

Under that piercing gaze, a chill ran through Wang Ping, as if the secrets of his very being were laid bare, every corner of his existence exposed for judgment.

Wang Lin’s formidable power had finally pressed upon Lei Daozi’s deepest reserves. He was loath to unleash his Yuan Force, a divine energy so precious, so tightly held.

For one of his cultivation, the use of such power was reserved for the precipice of life and death. Each expenditure prolonged his stay within the illusory realm of Yin and Yang, a stagnation he could ill afford. Should he fail to break through within the next millennium, his cultivation would be forever stunted.

Time, alas, was a dwindling flame, granting him less than three centuries. Thus, he guarded his Yuan Force as a miser guards his gold.

The element that truly unsettled him was Wang Lin’s command of thunder. Lei Daozi surmised that it must be intrinsically linked to the man’s cultivated Intent. If he could shatter that Intent, victory might yet be grasped without resorting to the dreaded Yuan Force.

“Let this old one see further… Ah! A resentful infant! I sensed a disturbance, a mystery as to how a mortal could resist my divine sense. I had attributed it to that puppet, but I was mistaken!” Lei Daozi chuckled, his words tinged with a subtle venom. However, his pupils contracted abruptly, the cruel words dying in his throat. Gazing into Wang Ping’s eyes, a raw, primal terror threatened to consume him.

“That… that is Sword Qi!” His voice was a mere gasp. “Such terrifying Sword Qi!” Lei Daozi recoiled, a cold sweat prickling his skin. Through his magically enhanced vision, he had glimpsed two searing blades of pure Sword Qi nestled within the child’s frail form!

“A madman! This one is a lunatic! To use Sword Qi of such potency to solidify a soul, to create a physical form! I cannot face him! Retreat!” Lei Daozi shuddered, abandoning all pretense of composure. With unnatural speed, he turned and fled towards his thunderous beast.

The two ethereal swords within Wang Ping had utterly shattered his bravado.

Wang Ping stood silent, watching his father’s retreating back, his youthful face etched with a confusion too profound for words.

Wang Lin’s eyes burned with an incandescent fury, locked upon the fleeing Lei Daozi. Were the protective aura of Ling Tianhou not binding him, he would have unleashed it without hesitation, cleaving the man asunder.

Instead, he acted with brutal efficiency. Raising his great sword high, he brought it crashing down! A fragment of the power woven into his very soul, his connection to the Nothingness, the boundless Void, surged into the blade, then dissipated into the fabric of reality.

As Lei Daozi retreated, his face twisted with renewed alarm. He sensed a terrifying presence descending from the heavens, a power that threatened to obliterate him.

“Yuan Force Divine Ability! You… how can you possibly wield Yuan Force?!” Lei Daozi’s voice trembled with disbelief, a chilling premonition of his own demise washing over him. Unlike the ancient patriarch of the Huan family, whose true cultivation had touched upon the early stages of the Peering Nirvana realm, Lei Daozi possessed no such foundation. Though diminished, the patriarch had retained a resilience far exceeding that of ordinary Yin-Yang Void-Reality cultivators.

Driven by desperation, he stabbed a finger towards his brow, unleashing a surge of blinding white light from his eyes. This light, soft and yet brimming with cosmic power, drew upon the Yuan Force dormant within his being, expelling it through his crown chakra.

In that instant, the very fabric of reality shuddered. An ethereal, almost imperceptible energy permeated the air. Lei Daozi’s face paled, the expenditure of such power taking a visible toll.

“Heaven… Force… Thunder Cauldron!” Lei Daozi roared, drawing upon ever more Yuan Force from the font of his crown. The heavens themselves began to shift!

This was no illusion, no trick of the eye, but a fundamental reshaping of existence. The sky slowly lowered, while the land beneath began to rise. With a deafening rumble, the ground shifted beneath Lei Daozi’s feet.

The transformation was swift and complete. Heaven and earth vanished, replaced by a colossal azure cauldron!

The sky became its lid, the earth its base. This was the very essence of a Yuan Force Divine Ability!

At that moment, the Thunder Immortal Palace’s beast, locked in a furious battle with Wang Lin’s thunderous guardian, roared in response. Its mangled form, crackling with residual lightning, lunged forward, merging with the cauldron’s surface. Where moments before there had been only smooth, unadorned metal, intricate carvings began to appear, depicting the thunderous beast in all its glory.

“Xu Mu! This is my Yuan Force Divine Ability! Let us see who survives this ordeal!” The heavens themselves spoke through Lei Daozi, his voice resonating with the weight of the cosmos.

Within the cauldron, thunder boomed endlessly, a maelstrom of lightning unleashed from the divine forge. As the intensity of the celestial fire increased, the cauldron began to refine, to consume all within.

Wang Lin’s feet landed with a soft thud, yet the strange energy he exuded now permeated every corner of the cauldron. The sword, imbued with a touch of celestial Law, was not aimed at any physical object, but at the very rules of reality that held the cauldron together!

Bolts of lightning crashed down upon Wang Lin, not born of natural forces, but manifestations of Lei Daozi’s will, infused with his power and imbued with his Dao Intent!

As the Luo Slaying Sword descended, Wang Lin saw through the facade of the cauldron. It was as if the giant vessel was an illusion, and it transformed into a web of azure lines crisscrossing each other to form a colossal, magical diagram. It was these lines that held the cauldron together!

With a single, decisive stroke, Wang Lin cleaved through the web of azure lines, shattering its integrity. From outside, Lei Daozi gasped in pain. More Yuan Force poured from his body, reinforcing the lines and struggling to maintain the cauldron’s structure.

Then came the onslaught of divine lightning, each bolt striking Wang Lin and sending tremors through his being. Had he not possessed a mutated Yuan Spirit, any ordinary Ascendant cultivator would have been vaporized in an instant.

Wang Lin’s eyes hardened, his resolve strengthened. The Xianwei puppet, too, sprang into action, its fists striking out with savage fury. Each blow sent tremors throughout the vessel.

Though the lightning within was formidable, the Xianwei puppet’s flesh was tougher still, impervious to the searing energy. Each punch carried the force of an Yin Void Divine Ability, a dire threat to the integrity of the cauldron.

The thunderous beast roared in concert, its entire body radiating blinding light. The silver on its horns flickered with a hint of gold, as torrents of electricity surged from its being. The cauldron shook and trembled, its stability wavering.

Lei Daozi gasped again, pain etched on his face as yet more Yuan Force bled from his body, feeding the insatiable maw of the cauldron.

“Be refined, all of you!!!”