However, due to the formidable nature of the Great Dao of Time, even with only forty percent mastery, Zhulong had now become a late-stage Hunyuan Golden Immortal.
The key difference that made a Hunyuan Golden Immortal more powerful than a Quasi-Saint was that the former based their power on controlling the laws of the Great Dao.
The divine abilities derived from such a foundation could often easily slay ordinary Quasi-Saints.
The divine ability Zhulong was currently unleashing, known as "Seeing Day and Closing Night," was precisely such an example.
Upon activation, this divine ability could dictate whether it was day or night in the outside world, based on Zhulong's own act of opening or closing his eyes.
It utilized the Great Dao of Time to shake the operations of the Lunar and Solar stars.
This act already delved into the domain of altering time itself!
As Zhulong closed his eyes, the entire Primordial World was instantly plunged into darkness.
The Solar star vanished, and the Lunar star manifested.
This was the power of time.
The might of the Great Dao of Time's laws.
The Wushi Bell chimed, its resonance echoing in all directions, nearly overturning the entire Eastern Sea.
The divine ability unleashed by Zhulong, imbued with the power of time, subtly involved temporal manipulation, aiming to freeze the might of the Wushi Bell at a specific moment, preventing it from reaching Zhulong's true form.
The two forces clashed, and wave after wave of ripples spread out, seemingly poised to engulf the entire scene.
"Not good!"
Even though Zhulong had closed his eyes and unleashed a grand divine ability that plunged the entire Primordial World into night, he still possessed divine sense and was naturally aware of the situation on the battlefield.
Closing his eyes did not mean he lost awareness of his surroundings.
The power of the Wushi Bell was immensely vast, capable of making the Nine Heavens tremble and all things perish.
Zhulong's power of time, despite his advancement to Hunyuan Golden Immortal and its status as his fundamental Great Dao, could only resist for a fleeting moment before beginning to crumble. It would not be long before it could no longer hold.
At that point, the power of time would be unable to suppress the might of the Wushi Bell, and its full force would be concentrated upon Zhulong.
It was this realization that terrified Zhulong.
His previous assessment of the Wushi Bell had been wrong!
While the Wushi Bell indeed lacked the wondrous ability to suppress destiny like the Chaos Bell, the Tai Chi Diagram, or Pangu's Banner, its sheer power far surpassed Zhulong's imagination.
Zhulong had initially believed the Wushi Bell to be of similar power to the Chaos Bell, but he was now gravely mistaken!
If there were indeed tiers among Innate Supreme Treasures, then the Chaos Bell, one of the three treasures that opened the heavens, was merely an ordinary Innate Supreme Treasure.
However, the Wushi Bell was a top-tier Innate Supreme Treasure, just one step away from the legendary Primordial Spirit Treasure, a tier that supposedly did not exist in the Primordial World.
The Wushi Bell, comparable to a top-tier Innate Supreme Treasure, possessed power far exceeding that of the ordinary Innate Supreme Treasure, the Chaos Bell! This power was something even the Great Dao of Time could not restrain!
Perhaps a Hunyuan Grand Unity Golden Immortal or a Hunyuan Limitless expert who cultivated the Great Dao of Time could easily freeze the time around the Wushi Bell.
However, Zhulong, a mere Hunyuan Golden Immortal who only controlled forty percent of the Great Dao of Time's laws, was already incapable of using his fundamental divine abilities to halt time around the Wushi Bell.
This caused Zhulong's expression to change drastically.
In a battle between powerhouses, even the slightest mistake could turn victory into defeat.
How much more so when Zhulong had made such a colossal error, mistaking the Wushi Bell for an ordinary Innate Supreme Treasure and attempting to restrain it with the power of the Great Dao of Time, only to find its might far surpassed that of typical Innate Supreme Treasures?
This was undoubtedly a major miscalculation on Zhulong's part, and he was now experiencing the consequences of his mistake.
A bell chime, imbued with the essence of beginning and end, had already broken free from the restraint of the power of time around the Wushi Bell and shot forth through the void.
The deity within the Wushi Bell had awakened, and the power of the ultimate Emperor Weapon was once again unleashed in its entirety.
As the bell chime swept across, under the Emperor's might, a Great Luo Dragon Tribe member caught in the residual wave of the chime instantly perished, shattered into dust by the resonance.
Then, from dust, they turned to ash, their life force completely extinguished and dispersed into the heavens and earth.
Even the residual wave was so potent that it could obliterate a Great Luo.
Zhulong, who bore the brunt of the Wushi Bell's might, despite his Hunyuan Golden Immortal physique, which far surpassed the physical strength of current Primordial Quasi-Saints, suffered extremely severe injuries.
Blood mist continuously exploded from his dragon body, each burst accompanied by a deafening sound.
Scales, along with flesh and blood, were torn from his body.
The dignified Zhulong, a top-tier Innate Divine Being and an ancient Hunyuan Golden Immortal.
Now, his blood rained down, filling the Dragon Palace and exuding a nauseating odor.
Blood fell like rain.
The blood of a Hunyuan Golden Immortal fell like rain.
Several Great Luo Dragon Tribe members watched this scene in stunned silence. Some even reached out to touch the blood.
"Ancestor Zhulong, how could you be injured?"
"How could the ancient methods be defeated by this Heaven-Shielding Art?"
"No! This is not real! I don't believe it!"
"That's right! We must not believe it! This is just an illusion our Ancestor is using to toy with this Human Emperor. Our Ancestor is invincible!"
"We must believe that the ancient methods are truly invincible!"
The numerous Great Luo Dragon Tribe members spoke in unison, their initially somber moods lifted, and they appeared jubilant.
Their capacity for self-deception was remarkable, effectively brainwashing themselves.
However, while they could engage in self-brainwashing, Zhulong, as the party involved, could not.
Zhulong's face remained pale and extremely grim.
This was not only because the numerous Great Luo Dragon Tribe members were incredibly dim-witted, spouting nonsense about their Ancestor using illusions to play around, which seemed to mock him, their Ancestor.
It was also because, moments ago, he had sensed another Emperor's might emanating from the Wushi Bell, a power far exceeding that of a Saint.
"This bell does not belong to you."
"It is an acquired item forged by someone, and it is a weapon refined by a being comparable to the peak of the Saint realm, perhaps even a being at the Heavenly Dao realm!"
Zhulong spoke haltingly, uttering these words.
It was as if he were stating that the owner of this bell must be an ancient powerhouse who had cultivated for tens of billions, even hundreds of billions, of years to forge such an ultimate Emperor Weapon.
His defeat was not proof that the theory of "the older, the stronger" was incorrect, but rather that Fang Ming's weapon had been forged by an even more ancient and powerful being.
Seeing the stubborn Zhulong still clinging to his theory of "the older, the stronger," Fang Ming sneered, "The first owner of this bell was indeed not me."
"It belonged to the Great Emperor Wushi."
"But do you know that the total cultivation time of the Great Emperor Wushi to achieve his Dao and become an Emperor, comparable to the Primordial Saints, was only a few thousand years?"
"A few thousand years was enough to cultivate to the level of Great Emperor, comparable to Primordial Saints, and surpass a so-called ancient Hunyuan Golden Immortal like you. Do you truly believe that achieving the status of Great Emperor requires hundreds of billions, even thousands of billions, of years of cultivation?"