402: Plundering Daoyuan

Originally, after the Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord realized that everyone harbored killing intent towards Xiao Shi, he had considered personally taking Xiao Shi to a safe location and hiding him.

But if he did that, he would certainly not be able to hide it from the others.

After all, they could all sense each other's locations.

At that time, the others would undoubtedly be displeased with him.

And his stance had to remain impartial.

He could not show obvious favoritism to any one party.

If he showed favoritism and caused dissatisfaction among the others, then his investment in them would become invalid.

This was also a drawback of The Dao of Goodness.

While casting a wide net, he had to maintain a delicate balance; at least on the surface, he had to be fair.

Therefore, he could only tell Xiao Shi about this safe location and let Xiao Shi go there himself.

He himself would remain "out of it."

Now, after telling Xiao Shi the location of the safe place, he began to pay attention to the movements of Xiao Shi and the others.

He clearly sensed that Xiao Shi had already begun to approach his safe location.

However, a doubt arose in his heart.

"Why are you so slow?"

He found that although Xiao Shi was heading towards the safe location he provided, his speed was not fast.

In fact, it could be described as slow.

In response, Xiao Shi said:

"If I were too fast, they would surely notice and might act prematurely. I'll observe for a bit; if they start to move, it won't be too late for me to speed up."

The Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord nodded, thinking that Xiao Shi's consideration made a lot of sense.

But he vaguely felt that something wasn't quite right... Regarding this, he watched Xiao Shi while also keeping an eye on the other few people.

Indeed, he found that the other few people had not made any moves.

This made him breathe a sigh of relief.

But gradually, he began to notice a problem.

If he could understand why these people didn't act at first, now that Xiao Shi had traveled some distance and these people were still indifferent, it seemed unreasonable.

Given that they could sense each other's positions at any time, it was impossible for these people not to have noticed Xiao Shi moving.

If they truly harbored killing intent towards Xiao Shi, they would most likely seize the opportunity to act at this moment.

However, under the Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord's perception, he found that these few people had remained in place from beginning to end, taking no action.

"Could it be that I was overthinking? Did they not actually have killing intent?"

The Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord fell into deep thought.

If these people did not have killing intent towards Xiao Shi, that would naturally be the best situation.

But the Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord felt that, based on his understanding of them, they couldn't be indifferent.

"Could it be..."

The Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord suddenly thought of a possibility!

His entire mind trembled violently.

He quickly sent a message to Xiao Shi, urgently saying:

"They haven't acted for so long, they must have used some kind of concealment method, preventing us from sensing their location!"

"What we're sensing now is definitely not their true location!"

"They've most likely already come to kill you! Quick! Immediately head to the safe location at the fastest speed!!!"

No sooner had the Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord finished speaking than Xiao Shi's voice came through.

"No need, I've already seen them."

The Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord's expression suddenly changed.

At the same time, he clearly perceived that Xiao Shi's words contained no panic or urgency, but rather were filled with calm.

This was completely different from the state Xiao Shi had previously shown!

This made him instantly understand.

"You were doing it on purpose!!!"

The Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord was filled with anger.

He had been worried about both sides, only to find that both were playing him.

He clearly felt what it meant to be "the clown is me."

"Damn it!"

"I don't care anymore!!!"

The Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord was angry... Xiao Shi threw the sound-transmitting jade slip into the storage space of the Azure Calamity Ancient Tree.

His gaze calmly watched the several figures sweeping in from all directions.

In his perception, these people were still at an extremely distant location.

Yet now, they had all come before him.

Clearly, they had long since used some kind of shielding method to block the perceptions of both Xiao Shi and the Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord.

Now, as they appeared before Xiao Shi, they immediately surrounded him, preventing him from seeing them and choosing to flee directly.

Not only that, the boy with the golden scorching sun pattern on his glabella, the moment he arrived, the golden scorching sun pattern on his glabella shot out large swathes of blazing golden light.

These blazing golden lights were like countless threads, weaving into a large net that covered and enveloped everyone within it.

This caused the sounds and visuals here to be obscured and isolated.

Even if they fought fiercely here, no one outside would perceive any movement.

At the same time, it would prevent Xiao Shi from escaping to the greatest extent.

Everyone at this moment looked down at Xiao Shi with the gaze of hunters, completely treating him as prey.

However, this prey did not show the panic they had imagined.

Instead, his face was calm.

For some reason... when everyone saw the calmness in Xiao Shi's expression, a strange irritation arose in their hearts.

There was even an absurd feeling that the one hunting was not them, but Xiao Shi.

"Putting on an act!"

The old man with three sword sheaths on his back let out a cold snort.

After all, he was the only one present who had fought Xiao Shi, and he believed he had a clear understanding of Xiao Shi's strength.

He immediately made his move.

From the sword sheaths on his back, numerous majestic and surging sword qi suddenly erupted, rapidly condensing in the air.

The others also unleashed their strongest killing moves without reservation.

As Half-Step Dao Lords, their killing moves all contained a certain degree of Dao intent.

Such killing moves were already beyond what ordinary Saints could withstand.

However, facing everyone's attacks, Xiao Shi not only showed no panic but instead, the corners of his mouth curved upward, revealing a smile.

"Just right..."

"I'll use you all to test my Dao of Slaughter!"

Buzz!

In an instant, Xiao Shi's skin was covered and entwined with black threads.

The moment they saw these black threads, everyone unexpectedly experienced a loss of control over their killing intent.

They clearly felt their own killing intent constantly draining away, and as it drained, it was continuously absorbed by the black threads on Xiao Shi's body.

Originally, their killing intent towards Xiao Shi was incredibly strong.

But as their killing intent drained, it caused all of them to feel a reluctance to kill Xiao Shi anymore.

This led to a certain degree of weakening in the power of the attacks they unleashed.

After all, an attack without killing intent... was like someone who was originally going for a fatal blow suddenly becoming soft-hearted, and the power of their strike would naturally be reduced.

"This is... a Dao!!!"

The woman from the Martial Corpse Era, dressed in a black elaborate gown and wearing a black fine-mesh veil, exclaimed in shock.

The intense fluctuation of her emotions made her voice sharp and piercing.

Everyone else's minds also surged with colossal waves at this moment!

"This... how is this possible!!!"

They all cried out in horror, feeling that this scene before them was too absurd.

In their understanding, successfully mastering a Dao was an incredibly difficult feat!

Although they had not experienced eight resets like the Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord, the least experienced among them had gone through at least three resets.

In each reset, they could only accumulate a certain amount of Dao Source, and only after multiple resets, with the continuous increase of Dao Source on their bodies, could they finally transform the Dao Source into a Dao!

Including the Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord, he also only gained enough Dao Source to form the causal-type The Dao of Goodness after experiencing multiple resets.

But now, Xiao Shi, as a newcomer who had come to The Primordial Martial Era for the first time, hadn't even gone through one reset, yet he had already mastered a complete Dao of Slaughter. This had completely exceeded their understanding and imagination.

Even though they all knew that Xiao Shi had previously eliminated all the Saints in the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom, based on their understanding of the Dao of Slaughter, they clearly knew that under normal circumstances, even eliminating all the Saints of the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom would not allow one to directly Grasping the Dao!

At this moment, they couldn't help but recall the Dao Ancestor's previous evaluation of Xiao Shi.

Only then did they realize what the four words "incredibly compatible" from the Dao Ancestor's mouth truly meant!

They also understood why the Dao Ancestor's evaluations of them over the years had always been words like "average" or "barely passable."

Compared to Xiao Shi's situation... they indeed could, at most, only be considered average and barely passable.

In an instant, the powerful killing moves they had unleashed earlier were already shattered and collapsed under the powerful killing intent spreading from Xiao Shi's body.

Xiao Shi didn't even need to make a move.

Just the manifestation of his Dao of Slaughter directly caused everyone's killing moves to completely collapse.

The extremely intense life-and-death crisis left everyone no time to be shocked.

It was then that they realized their earlier feeling was not wrong.

The true hunter was not them, but Xiao Shi!

The opponent had already completed the mastery of the Dao of Slaughter.

He had already ascended to become a Dao Lord!

"Form the array!!!"

The colossal beastman, covered in steel-needle-like black fur, immediately let out a low roar.

He immediately activated the combined attack formation they had prepared earlier.

They knew very well that even though they, as Half-Step Dao Lords, were stronger than ordinary Saints, there was still an indescribably vast gap between them and a true Dao Lord.

This gap could not be compensated for by numbers.

Of course, they also knew that in this situation, there were no other better options.

Fleeing would be the most foolish decision.

Before a Dao Lord... they would not have the slightest chance to escape!

They would surely be killed one by one.

Now, only through the combined attack formation could they hope for a sliver of survival.

Boom!

As the formation activated, lights illuminated beneath the feet of all four of them, gradually merging into the light.

Four different lights converged, transforming into a massive, glowing beastman!

At the same time, on this giant glowing beastman, there were four completely different Dao intents.

This was precisely the power of this combined attack formation.

It could merge their four Half-Step Dao Lords into one, enabling them to possess the power to contend against a Dao Lord!

Originally, in their initial plan, this formation was to be their ultimate killing move to defeat Xiao Shi!

For this, they had even devised many tactics.

However, the moment they saw Xiao Shi... all their devised tactics became ineffective, and they could only immediately use this strongest killing move!

Moreover, their current use of this killing move was no longer about trying to kill Xiao Shi.

They only sought to preserve their lives.

As long as they could survive Xiao Shi's hands this time, they could then seek the protection of the Silver-Haired Silver-Eyed Dao Lord.

This way, they wouldn't have to worry about Xiao Shi annihilating them.

But the premise for everything was that they could survive Xiao Shi's hands this time!

Therefore, after deploying the combined attack formation, they quickly made their move.

Although this combined attack formation was quite formidable, it also had a flaw: it could only be maintained for a maximum of two minutes.

After two minutes, the combined attack formation would automatically dissipate.

The glowing beastman raised its hand and pointed towards the sky.

Rumble!

A massive vortex suddenly appeared in the sky.

A heavy sword roared out from within the vortex, causing a huge explosion as it descended from the sky, carrying terrifying power that seemed capable of destroying the world, and struck down towards Xiao Shi below.

At the same time, upon this heavy sword, there were four distinctly different Dao intents. Although they were merely Dao intents and not true Daos, the convergence of these four Dao intents gave the descending heavy sword the power to contend against a Dao!

Facing this majestic heavy sword, Xiao Shi's expression was calm.

He raised his hand and gently grabbed, and the entire heavy sword was instantly caught in his hand.

The originally immense heavy sword, now in Xiao Shi's hand, had transformed into a toy the size of a palm.

"Too weak."

Xiao Shi shook his head with a look of disappointment.

He clenched his palm, instantly crushing the heavy sword in his hand.

The minds of the four Half-Step Dao Lords simultaneously churned with stormy waves.

Their full-strength strike, combined by the formation... was so easily neutralized by the opponent!

"He's no ordinary Dao Lord!!!"

They all felt their scalps tingle.

When they combined through the formation, they were capable of contending with an ordinary Dao Lord.

But now, even their full-strength attack had no effect whatsoever before Xiao Shi.

The two sides seemed to be on completely different levels.

This caused a deep sense of despair and powerlessness to emerge in their hearts.

Buzz!

The black threads covering Xiao Shi's skin lit up simultaneously.

His figure flashed, and he instantly teleported in front of the glowing beastman.

In his hand, he held [Plunder's Breath], constantly absorbing [Plunder's Breath] into his body.

Thus, before [Plunder's Breath] dissipated, he possessed the ability to plunder Dao Source.

Xiao Shi spread his palm, aiming it at the beastman in front of him.

There was no fancy attack, just his palm aimed at the beastman.

With a bang!

The entire beastman's body trembled violently, exploding and shattering on the spot!