What a joke this could end up being. Dyon had no idea whether Elder Nova was friend or foe, yet he was so weak that he knew he didn't have the luxury of finding out first.
This experience completely washed away the superiority he felt having awakened his soul. For three days, he had felt like the King of all existence, only for him to come crashing down like this.
Dyon roared once more even as his skin began to pale considerably.
At that instant, Elder Nova who had already been suppressed by almost 20% felt a crushing weight land on his soul.
Shock colored his features as he coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood. It seemed that Dyon had overestimated Elder Nova. Although his energy cultivation had already crossed into the dao formation realm, his soul was still at the celestial realm.
However, because Dyon had already mistaken his cultivation once, he didn't take a chance again, instead directly boosting his soul to the dao formation realm with the help of the formation cores.
The weight of a dao formation level soul on a celestial level one was absolutely devastating. Elder Nova couldn't move even a single finger. He could only watch as Dyon pulled out yet another earth-shattering treasure with a bitter expression on his face.
This was completely unlike when Dyon burned his soul against Elder Daiyu and Loki. At that time, his soul had just broken into sainthood, and was artificially raised to the dao formation stage. The gap was too large, making most of his cultivation hollow.
However, this time, Dyon's soul was already at the peak celestial realm and took a single step upward. The difference was like heaven and earth!
Back then, Loki and Elder Daiyu had only been unable to move. But, this time, Elder Nova directly took damage to his soul, coughing up mouthfuls of blood!
'It seems I shouldn't have underestimated the Legatee of the Celestial Deer Sect…' Was all Elder Nova had a chance to think as a brilliant array appeared before him.
It was intricately designed, laced with layers and gears as though it was a piece of godly machinery. It exuded an overbearing might, as though it could seal anything under the heavens!
That's exactly what it was, The Seal!
Dyon looked at Elder Nova's kneeling form. "SEAL!"
The Seal vibrated, trembling to life. Its gears turned and drained Dyon almost completely as it projected a divine light onto Elder Nova's forehead.
The last thing Dyon did before he completely ran out of energy and passed out was summon his Florence family manifestation, summoning a 70% clone to catch his body before he fell from the skies.
Dyon's clone sent his true body into the tower, and stood in the air, completely expressionless.
From beginning to end, not even a second had passed. The battle started and ended so quickly that the crowd below didn't even had time to run away, leaving them in an odd state of fear and attempted leaving, only for them to realize that everything was already over.
Seconds passed by without anyone saying anything. It was as though they were taking their time to comprehend what just happened.
Elder Nova's long-time rival and the very man Dyon made a bet with during the assessments was likely the most shocked. He was very clear on the fact that his rival had exuded the aura of a dao formation expert in that instant.
What hit his pride the most was that he was a mere saint. Even the fact that Elder Nova was equal to the former master was a huge hit to him, let alone the fact that he was actually a whole realm even above that!
Those who were there slowly started to understand what had happened, and those that didn't understand began to speak to those nearby them or eavesdropped on those around.
When they came to understand that Elder Nova was actually the hidden dao formation expert rumors had been fluttering around about for so long, they were endlessly shocked.
A small doorman from a mere Unseen Peak had such a lofty identity?!
Yet, that was when they suddenly realized something else. That same man with that same lofty identity was kneeling in the skies, coughing up blood and looking incredibly pitiful, while a boy of less than 34 years of age was responsible for his plight! That was too inconceivable!
Some vaguely understood that those mysterious things that Dyon brought out to attack with were amazing treasures, however, they had appeared and disappeared so quickly that they could hardly understand what it was they were seeing.
The only person who even remotely had the same level of thinking speed Dyon did, Elder Nova, was securely sealed, unable to tell the tale of what happened. Leaving the mystery completely unsolved.
The Seal was no less heaven defying in comparison to its counterparts. In fact, if it wasn't for it, it was unlikely that Dyon would have completed what he sought to do, no matter how many powerups he received.
Elder Daiyu, for example, who had fallen from the dao formation ranks, took Dyon's everything to injure, including burning his soul. Even if Dyon went all out, injuring even a high celestial would be almost impossible. In certain situations, even a middle celestial, if they were of the first grade, would take Dyon going all out to injure, nevermind kill.
Simply put, even if a dao formation expert sat, completely unguarded, killing them was nothing more than a dream if you were too weak.
Dyon's only hope was to take advantage of his stronger soul to place a contract seal on Elder Nova just like he had with the kitsune and Alidor.
However, it took his master a month to draw the contract seals for the kitsune, and they were mere saints. How could Dyon draw a contract seal capable of sealing a dao formation expert in the few seconds he had? Such a task should have been impossible.
That was where The Seal came in. At its absolute best, it could seal even the heavens, how could it care about a mere dao formation expert?
The moment Dyon's soul entered the dao formation realm, he poured almost all of his remaining soul strength into a contract seal, completely closing out Elder Nova's fate.
"Now I'll ask you again." Dyon's domineering aura didn't fade, even as a clone. "Who are you?!"
Elder Nova cough bitterly. "You didn't know who I was, yet you attacked so viciously?"
Dyon's gaze turned colder. He couldn't control the seal as a clone because the one restriction clones had was that they couldn't use soul techniques due to the fact they were birthed from the soul. If he could, he would definitely have started torturing Elder Nova for such a sarcastic response.
Elder Nova's eyes suddenly turned sinister as he stood quicker than anyone could react, turning his hand into a blade to attack Dyon's throat.
The former Master panicked. He had sworn allegiance to Dyon, so of course he wanted to protect him. If Dyon's clone died, then his real body would immediately become vulnerable. However, he wasn't anywhere near powerful enough to do anything.
However, Dyon's expression remained indifferent.
Before Elder Nova's attack could even fully form, he fell from the skies, holding his head and screaming out in pain.
To say Elder Nova was frustrated was an understatement.
The moment Dyon appeared, he immediately sensed the faint Celestial Bloodline within him. He understood very clearly that the only person who could have celestial deer blood within him as a human had to be the successor of the Celestial Deer Sect.
With his soul having reached the celestial level, of course he had divine sense. Coupled with the fact Dyon's soul was sealed at the time, there was no chance of anyone detecting that he was investigating Dyon's secrets.
Originally, he could have directly reported Dyon, or even killed Dyon. However, if he did so, wouldn't his thousands of years lying in wait go to waste? If they couldn't uproot the Celestial Deer Sect completely, it would make no difference if they killed Dyon. Maybe some time in the future, an even better successor would come along.
So, he went out of his way to befriend Dyon. Not only did he allow him to enter Unseen Peak with far greater ease than should have been possible, he even warned Dyon to not use the soul contract he was going to during the assessments.
From beginning to end, he even gave Dyon the impression that he was a hidden expert on purpose, so that Dyon would feel like he was hiding less.
When he revealed his dao formation cultivation just then, his plan was to pretend to be a hidden expert that protected Cathedral Universe. He wanted to tell Dyon the reason the Energy Path hadn't wiped out this universe yet was because they were wary of him, when in reality, this universe was nothing but bait. His mission here was uproot the last of the soul path…
But who would have known that Dyon would be so cautious? The worst part was that because of the seal placed on him, he lost the ability to lie about his origins. If he lied, his mind would be racked with the same amount of pain he felt when he attacked Dyon.
It turned out that Dyon's luck hadn't run out. If he had kept Elder Nova by his side, there was no thinking what kind of consequences that could have had…
What Dyon didn't know was that in an alternate timeline, those unimaginable consequences happened… In that timeline, Dyon hadn't met Evangeline yet, and because of that, his soul was still sealed… Because of this, he couldn't use his soul and thus couldn't use the formation cores or his 4 treasures of the 33 heavens… It wasn't that he was less intelligent in that timeline, but rather that he simply didn't have the means to deal with a dao formation expert… As a result, he had no choice but to pretend to trust Elder Nova, thinking that he'd string the elder along until he could understand his true motives or at least until his soul unsealed…
Unfortunately… In that timeline… It took 946 more years for Dyon's soul to unseal… Before Dyon could get the chance to expose Elder Nova for who he truly was, he paid a price too heavy to speak of…
Dyon's expression was incomparably serious after he tortured the story out of Elder Nova. He only slightly relaxed after learning that they didn't leave any other counter-measures behind.
However, how could Dyon's "good" mood possibly last? This was almost too much to take in all at once, even for him.
