As Joe Di used the protective array to seal away the Taiji Diagram, a wave of unease gnawed at his heart—a sense of looming crisis.
At this critical moment, Joe Di no longer cared about revealing his Ninth World. He opened it directly, activating the grand array to sweep the Taiji Diagram into the Ninth World.
Once the Taiji Diagram entered the Ninth World, Joe Di immediately activated the teleportation array talisman.
As spatial ripples surged, Joe Di was swept away; at the same instant, Jaden Dai's figure appeared atop the shattered ruins of Harmony Hall.
Witnessing the devastation before him, Jaden Dai's eyes blazed with fury, barely contained.
The nine supreme Dao veins had all been swept away, not a single one remaining. Yet even this, nor the utter destruction of Harmony Hall, could drive Jaden Dai to madness. What truly enraged him was that Joe Di had even taken his prized Taiji Diagram.
The Taiji Diagram was his most treasured artifact. He had always sat upon it to cultivate and comprehend the Dao. It was his true weapon for advancing to Union Dao. Though he had prepared the Celestial Realm's fortune as support, the real treasure was always the Taiji Diagram.
Now, his Taiji Diagram was gone, taken by an ant he had been hunting. This was what truly drove him to madness.
What shocked and enraged him even more was: How had Joe Di managed to take away the Taiji Diagram?
He had left the Taiji Diagram in Harmony Hall not only for his own secluded cultivation, but also to gather the Dao Domain's fortune and clarify the world's rules.
He dared to act this way because he knew no one else could take the Taiji Diagram. What kind of treasure was the Taiji Diagram? Such an artifact couldn't be stored in a ring unless it was refined and absorbed into one's spiritual sea. Otherwise, it was impossible to move.
Refine the Taiji Diagram? Ha! No matter who you are, if you haven't refined the first layer of restrictions, he would have already returned to Harmony Hall.
Now, the impossible had become reality—the Taiji Diagram had truly been taken, and it happened just moments ago.
Enraged anew by the scene, Jaden Dai spat out a jet of blood. Never in all his years of cultivation had he lost so much blood in a single day.
Aside from the Union Dao cultivator from Purewide Saint Sect who had made him cough up blood before, it was this ant named Joe Di who now made him shake with rage. No one else knew how vital the Taiji Diagram was to him. He could give up the Five Directional Banners, but never the Taiji Diagram—it was his key to standing atop the universe.
In just a few breaths, Jaden Dai calmed himself. Anger would do him no good now. He closed his eyes and quickly sensed the spatial fluctuations. Not only was there the ripple from his own teleportation, but also another fluctuation leaving this place.
Jaden Dai's figure dimmed in an instant, and then he vanished without a trace.
What Jaden Dai used was the true Five Elements Escape Technique, far superior to the one Joe Di had seen before. Too bad Joe Di wasn't here—if he were, he could have used the spatial law fluctuations to pinpoint the flaws in his own escape technique.
Even if it meant damaging his Dao foundation, he would capture this ant Joe Di today.
Almost at the same time Jaden Dai chased in Joe Di's direction, another explosion erupted in the center of Harmony Hall—the last Blast Array Joe Di set had detonated. A row of giant characters appeared above the ruined remains of Harmony Hall.
"Jaden Dai, you little punk! I smashed up your mangy den. Next time you want to bully someone, keep your dog eyes wide open and don’t mess with me!"
Too bad Jaden Dai isn’t here. If he saw the explosive message left behind, he’d probably cough up another mouthful of blood.
The moment Joe Di stepped out of the teleportation array, he didn’t even have time to destroy it—he immediately unleashed his Rule Escape Technique in a frenzy.
That suffocating sense of crisis clung to him with every breath, leaving Joe Di with absolutely no feeling of safety.
Joe Di’s divine sense was far stronger than most cultivators at the peak of Union Dao—almost comparable to those at the threshold of Dao Origin. When he used his Divine Sense Escape Technique, even a Hunyuan expert might not catch up. What’s more, Joe Di was using the even more powerful Rule Escape Technique.
Even so, Joe Di couldn’t shake that ever-present sense of danger, making him all the more wary of Jaden Dai’s terrifying strength.
The only thing that could make him feel this threatened was Jaden Dai closing in. Nothing else could possibly cause it.
He’d first used the teleportation array to escape a good distance, then switched to Rule Escape. Jaden Dai was tracking him by the spatial fluctuations—this gap couldn’t be measured by mere physical distance.
The farther Joe Di fled, the more alarmed he became. His speed could only be described as shifting in an instant, yet that sense of crisis grew even stronger.
At this moment, the one still hot on his heels could only be Jaden Dai—this bastard was fast, closing the gap between them with frightening speed. Good thing he’d used a teleportation array; otherwise, Jaden Dai would’ve caught him by now.
Flattening Jaden Dai’s lair had been a rush, but this desperate flight was its own kind of bitter thrill.
Joe Di had figured out Jaden Dai was chasing him, but hadn’t realized Jaden Dai was already gravely wounded. If not for those injuries, even with the Rule Escape Technique, Joe Di would’ve been caught.
Joe Di was on the run, Jaden Dai was in pursuit, and now the entire Dao Domain was in utter chaos.
The reason? Jaden Dai, notorious for exterminating sects, had his own sect wiped out. Harmony Hall might not have been a traditional sect, but its status was second to none, and its location was among the finest in the Dao Domain.
Not only was Harmony Hall destroyed, but even its Dao veins were stripped away. And if that wasn’t enough, the cultivator who did it left a taunting message atop the ruins.
"Jaden Dai, you little punk! I smashed up your mangy den. Next time you want to bully someone, keep your dog eyes wide open and don’t mess with me!"
Who had the guts to do this? That kind of sky-high audacity was unheard of. It was one thing to provoke Jaden Dai, but to destroy his Harmony Hall and leave a message? Unthinkable.
It didn’t take long to find out who’d done it—Joe Di. Jaden Dai was now hunting Joe Di across the Dao Domain, and wanted posters were plastered everywhere. But Joe Di, annoyed by the whole thing, simply turned around and destroyed Harmony Hall in retaliation.