Chen Shi only felt waves of vast and pure Mana surging from behind him, like walls of bronze and iron standing in front of him, blocking the aftershocks of the Divine Skills from the two peerless experts rushing in from ahead, giving him an indescribable sense of reassurance.

Behind him, ancient existences such as Chang Chun Emperor, Niang Po Primordial Monarch, Yangshuo Mountain Man, Shantang Scholar, and Elder Tianye appeared one after another, each exerting their Mana to block the aftershocks for Chen Shi, so that the master of the house could watch the battle with complete peace of mind.

For them, to witness the battle between the Emperor of Gouchen and the Upper Pure Realm Master was also a rare opportunity, something that could only be encountered, not sought.

Even if they did not need to protect the master, they would still have taken the initiative to appear and witness this battle.

Having cultivated to their level of Realm, the experience of their predecessors could hardly give them guidance; they mostly groped forward alone. It was fortunate if there were fellow Dao companions with whom they could exchange insights. If one was averse to social contact, then one could only delve into things alone, with nowhere to test and verify.

A battle between two supremely powerful existences could allow them to verify many things.

Emperor Gouchen's aura surged; in the span of a mere instant, he raised his own Immortal Dao to the height of the Second Layer Heaven of the Daluo Dao Realm. His own Great Dao condensed, and in the void above his head there appeared a Luotian World.

It was a world constructed purely by Dao, as if it were another Heavenly Market.

To use one's own Great Dao Law to construct a complete world—that is Daluo.

All the Heaven and Earth Daoist Skills are mine to command.

The Wind and Thunder Stick in his hand carried the Power of the Great Dao of an entire world, no need for Daoist Skill.

With one strike of his stick, the space around Yun Zhongzi violently trembled, then suddenly shattered like a calm lake; the space-time on which Yun Zhongzi stood collapsed, and Chen Shi saw the layers upon layers of world-space in which Yun Zhongzi resided collapsing one after another!

This strike from Emperor Gouchen had a trend of shattering all Daoist Skills; no matter how secretly Yun Zhongzi concealed his figure, he still could not escape the might of this one stick!

The power of the Wind and Thunder Stick ground to dust all the space around Yun Zhongzi, leaving his figure standing in the void with nothing to rely on!

Yet Yun Zhongzi's Daoist Skill also struck Chen Shi as profoundly mysterious.

Yun Zhongzi was clearly standing right there, yet his figure was like an Ancient Tai Mountain, existing simultaneously within countless worlds of the Xuanhuang Sea.

When the Wind and Thunder Stick shattered the space-time of one layer of the world, his figure was in the space-time of another layer of the world; when it shattered that other layer of space-time, his figure was already in the space-time of yet another world.

He seemed to be omnipresent, yet also seemed not to exist at all—mysterious beyond mystery.

However, when Emperor Gouchen swung this stick, he still broke this Daoist Skill that seemed impossible to break; in the next instant the Wind and Thunder Stick arrived before Yun Zhongzi.

Yun Zhongzi raised his hand to take this blow head-on; his aura surged, his black hair bristled upward, and the jade crown on his head was blasted to pieces.

Emperor Gouchen followed the momentum to change techniques; as he chopped and swept, infinite power erupted, destructive force filling all of heaven and earth. When he twisted and covered, the sky was like golden Stars revolving, grinding down from above!

His techniques were utterly simple—thrust, stab, flick, cloud, crash, block, parry, sweep—yet their power surpassed any Divine Skills Chen Shi had ever seen before!

In his Refining of these techniques, he had returned to simplicity, casting aside Divine Skills, casting aside Daoist Skill, not using any Daoist Field, not using the Primordial Spirit, but purely bringing out the weapon properties of the Wind and Thunder Stick—yet the power was unimaginably great.

Daoist Field and Primordial Spirit had already become trifles within his achievement, not worth mentioning, not worth using.

With every strike he delivered, any Daoist Divine Powers Yun Zhongzi displayed had no room to be used, all shattered cleanly by these simple techniques.

Chen Shi's eyes lit up; from Emperor Gouchen he saw another path of battle.

One force shatters ten thousand techniques!

When one has mastered sufficient Heaven and Earth Dao Power, and even constructed a world with one's own Dao, then the Spell comprehended by understanding the natural Great Dao, and the Divine Skills comprehended by understanding the Dao Image of the Divine, can no longer easily bear the Dao Power of a Cultivator.

On the contrary, the simplest moves more easily release one's own Heaven and Earth Dao Power.

Thus, when one cultivates to Daluo Golden Immortal, one must take this path of returning to simplicity.

To employ Divine Communication Skill and Daoist Skill is merely to manifest one's status; only by returning to simplicity does one reveal one's true Cultivation.

"One force shatters ten thousand techniques; no need for complex moves, the power already fills all directions, leaving the enemy nowhere to evade, nowhere to hide—a level of achievement Divine Skills can hardly reach. Add to that the Wind and Thunder Stick's thirty-six hundred thousand years of incense worship; I fear it has already become the foremost treasure beneath the supreme treasures themselves. The two as one, they complement each other perfectly."

Chen Shi's gaze flickered; Emperor Gouchen was not without a chance of victory!

He had just thought this when he saw a peach branch appear in Yun Zhongzi's hand, rising to meet the Wind and Thunder Stick.

He did not reveal his own Great Luotian, and the peach branch in his hand also seemed utterly ordinary, without any talismanic Daoist patterns, as if it had just been plucked from a peach tree. A few not-yet-opened peach buds still hung upon it.

Yet it was precisely this peach branch that matched the Wind and Thunder Stick, which bore the history of thirty-six hundred thousand years of incense worship. At the instant when the peach branch and the Wind and Thunder Stick touched, there burst forth a gigantic sound like great bells and mighty drums, as if two worlds were colliding with each other, Heavenly Thunder and earthly fire erupting!

This sound, even after being resisted and filtered by Chang Chun Emperor and the others before reaching Chen Shi's ears, still left him reeling, his head buzzing.

One could well imagine that, if he were exposed directly to that sound, Chen Shi would be gravely injured if not dead!

The peach branch in Yun Zhongzi's hand was used somewhat like Swordsmanship, yet also somewhat like a short stick.

When he used stick technique, the stick was like an old wolf—if it did not strike, then so be it; once it struck, it wounded, never missing. When he used Swordsmanship, his body followed the sword's movement; the sword seemed to become his brain, and his body merely the vessel under its command.

His figure was as light as a startled swan, as supple as a swimming Dragon; he had the elegance of a cultured scholar, the detachment of a Taoist, and the unrestrained freedom of a madman, making one involuntarily praise the magnificence of his Daoist Skill.