Defiance

"Imperial Demon!"

Rushing forward with no plans of stopping, the Sect Leader of the Immortal Sect, the Living Immortal, charged at Cain with bursting killing intent.

Everything he planned, all his schemes, they were for naught. Cain had destroyed the hope he spent eons nurturing, in his mind, Cain needed to die in his hands, and only then could he go peacefully.

"Die!" The Immoral cried, wielding nature in the palm of his hand.

Branches, trees, roots. Wind, water, earth, fire. They all combined and assaulted Cain like a tidal wave.

"Dai Tian?!" Cain's face warped, he knew the person as a Peak Elder of the Immortal Sect, but now he was completely different, older, stronger.

Dai Tian was the new identity the Living Immortal had. He was far more surprised than Cain, he knew Cain was special but never thought he was an outsider. When he learned this truth he didn't believe it, but it was evident.

Recovering from the shock, Cain laughed the attack off, waving his hand and riling the fire in the Immortal's attack, causing the whole assault to collapse on itself.

"So, how's Daniels?" He asked with a sly smile. 

"He died to one of the red Titians you unleashed earlier." Dai Tian's tone was cold, Daniels was only a cover. The boy meant nothing to him.

"That's sad to hear," Cain revealed a hint of pity.

Dai Tian saw through the sarcasm, "Shut it, outsider! You don't care for anyone except yourself, I know your kind well."

"Then you understand you will die," Cain replied haughtily.

Narrowing his eyes, the Immortal sent out another attack but Cain used his understanding of the Dao to unravel it again.

It was Dai Tian's turn to be shocked. 'Damn it, with the Core I can't beat him anymore. How will I get my revenge?' As he was losing hope, a blue light shined and descended on him. After all, the enemy of thy enemy is a friend.

Blue light filtered through the old man's eyes as a screen popped up.

[Honorary Status given]

[Mission: Kill Anomaly]

[Reward: The Territory Core you Crave]

The wrinkles on Dai Tian's face lessened and he felt a fountain of strength enter him.

"Haha! I have a chance now!"

Protected by the System, Dai Tian roared, the heavens heard him and gave their own callback, the sky rumbling.

Cain was amazed, "Even with the core, the System can still intervene with the Territory....interesting. If that's the case I should just quicken the pace of this place's destruction!"

Along his hands, white wisps unraveled. Cain sent out these wisps, they entered the sky, the earth, the forests and rivers, the cities and hamlets. Everywhere where life existed the wisps went.

He abruptly clenched his fist. "Collapse."

Cracks swept the earth and sky. Earthquakes and tsunamis littered the mountains and valleys. The world's destruction accelerated.

Looking at Dai Tian, Cain smirked, "I am the holder of Heaven! This place belongs to me. Don't think you can stop me." He let out a chuckle. 

With the territory weakening, the System's interference weakened as well. But this still wasn't fast enough.

Bloodletter appeared in Cain's hand and he teleported away. He manifested above a large city, holding his sword, winding up to strike.

"Drink up!" Cain's eyes glowed. 

Wherever the sword passed, blood would form into rivers, lakes would fill and turn the cities into bowls of blood. People ran, but as the crimson sword passed they turned to red. Essence flowed like sand in an hourglass, only reverse, floating up and being eaten by Bloodletter.

'The 9th Seal is weakening, good.' Cain caressed the sword while he took in its exquisiteness.

"Demon!"

Catching up, Dai Tian passed an entire Province to reach him, but it was too late, the nearby cities were transformed into containers for liquefied corpses.

"You can't stop me old man, watch." Again, Cain vanished.

In another location, the young red-eyed youth continued. Soon, thousands of cities became art for his bloodbath. Cities without walls became tides that soaked the lands in blood while cities with weak walls burst and brought along blood and rubble that crushed anything in its path.

When Cain found cultivators, their heads would roll, when he found high-level mystical beasts, their carcasses would fall between the cracks in the earth. Everywhere Cain went became a land of death. All the while, Dai Tian chased relentlessly, but could never catch up even with the System's help.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all!"

Cultivators watched, they watched how the strongest of them could do nothing, and their hearts tightened.

"Sect Leader...." Using one of her methods, Moon watched the chase far away, using an artifact meant for recon, many Growth and Enlightenment Stage Cultivators had such artifacts to watch tournaments and similar events in their sects if they felt like it.

Yet now they were using it for something not so entertaining. 

"We can't do anything to him." Fang Yuan's face was stiff.

Bloodletter's glow continued to grow. Life after life its red would become deeper, its current state was close to black.

'Close, I'm so close to advancing it to the 9th Tier! Just one more victim, a strong one!'

Abruptly, Cain stopped running and turned back, charging towards Dai Tian.

"Arrogant!" The Immortal spurned Cain's actions.

Sword energy collided with the power of Nature. Shockwaves flew past the two as they drew closer.

Bam! Bang! Boom!

Bloodletter clashed with roots, cutting them to pieces. It defended against the onslaught of formless wind and persevered under the continuous pressure of water.

Cain noticed something, his understanding of the Dao helped him see Dai Tian's fatal weakness.

"Old man, I see now, your Dao is incomplete! Although it is far stronger than any Dao I've seen, you haven't completed it, you've only collected bits and pieces!"

Unlike the Dao of the Spirit Lands, the Dao of Cain and Dai Tian came from the Heavenly Dao, an Overlord of the Universe. Even fragmented, the Dao of the past was far stronger than a new Heavenly Dao still forming.

"Tsk, the young think they're so smart! Boy, you haven't properly walked the path of Cultivation. Let me show you the power I've cultivated for 1,000 years! The power that let me ascend to Immortality!"

Behind the Immortal's back, an image of a green leaf spread in the four cardinal directions.

"Behold! The power of nature! The Dao that turns everything back into itself, the power that everything comes from!"

Dai Tian's understanding of nature was wicked, in his eyes, nature was something everything returned to. Nature was the ultimate winner that would consume everything in the end, and his Dao projected that.

The leaf grew as its stem headed towards Cain, even the vitality in the air was sucked dry, the powerful winds turning stale, the overflowing water becoming stagnant.

As the stem reached Cain, Bloodletter lost mass amounts of energy.

'Shit!'

Cain pulled back, watching all the power he gathered leaving him and going to the old man across from him.

The wrinkles on Dai Tian's body vanished as he became younger. His hair grew while remaining white, but his face was now one of a 30-year-old at the peak of their life.

"Let me use you to rebirth!"

Gritting his teeth, the six images behind Cain's back lit up. First was a ball of fire, it tried to burn the stem but failed, its vitality sucked and the flames turned to smoke.

Next was the image of a sword that tried to cut the stem only to shrink into nothing. Again, another image went out, this time it was of a black widow, spinning webs and moving like a shadow, but its webs snapped and its power could do nothing, it retreated.

Finally, the image of a whirling distortion made into a human figure went out. It easily dodged the suction of nature and teleported to the source of the stem.

"What Dao is this?! It can't be space, but it has its properties?!" Dai Tian was alarmed, pulling back the suction force to focus on the Space Dao Image.

Trying to suck the distortion's vitality, Dai Tian's face lost color and he coughed out blood. His appearance began to age rapidly.

"What is this?! Why is it taking my power instead, this isn't the Dao of Space at all!" The Immortal pulled away, escaping the image of space.

Due to trace amounts of Chaos remaining in the Space Spirit when it was fused, even the Dao was contaminated. But it only revealed this property when attacked its fatal weakness, one Dai Tian didn't know.

Cain saw his chance, "This is the end of you old man!"