Hearing the command, all the cultivators in the army – from the Earthen Immortals all the way down to the Sky Human stage cultivators – fell silent. The atmosphere around them abruptly became sombre and every single one of them secretly gathered their power.
“In one breath"s time, we will attack!” Another wave of thought spread out.
At that moment, there was only a distance of 5,000 kilometres between them and the Sky Pillars Mountain Range. However, as there was a ma.s.sive stealth-type magic array enveloping the army – numbering over a million strong – the cultivators from Heavenly Firmaments Palace did not notice them.
Sou! Sou! Sou! Sou! Sou! Sou!
One breath"s worth of time pa.s.sed and all of them attacked at the same time. All their attacks were reinforced and transformed by the magic array before shooting towards the Sky Pillars Mountain Range in a more effective manner.
“Enemy attack!”
Even before the attacks arrived at the Sky Pillars Mountain Range, the cultivators from Heavenly Firmaments Palace who were there had already noticed it. Thus, a curtain of light instantly rose up from the mountain range before the attacks could make contact. It took the form of a s.h.i.+eld to block all the incoming attacks.
Boom!
It was as though a meteor had struck the land. A bright radiance flared out and a loud boom reverberated outwards. Following that, the s.h.i.+eld of light was overcome and the dazzling attack made its way through to the Sky Pillars Mountain Range.
“Earthen Immortals, attack! Human Immortals, at the ready!” Mu Cang ordered once again.
Within the army, the Earthen Immortals were the ones with the strongest cultivation bases. Their rate of reaction and attack was something that Human Immortals could not match up against. Due to that, in just the blink of an eye after the battle broke out, the Earthen Immortals had already joined forces to unleash their attacks.
After the attacks from the Earthen Immortals came the attacks from the Human Immortals. And so, their attacks flew forward non-stop to destroy a high number of the magic arrays on the Sky Pillars Mountain Range and its stronghold. Next, with Mu Cang in the lead, the Earthen Immortals charged forward. The 10,000 plus Human Immortals formed a ma.s.sive battle formation while the hundreds of thousands of Sky Human stage cultivators rapidly formed a perimeter around the peripheral area of the mountain range. Their actions were specifically for the sake of killing off the low-level enemy cultivators from the Sky Pillars Mountain Range.
As Lan Ling had surmised, the Ascendant Immortals that East Dragon Island sent forth for this operation were the Heavenly Premiers Everwind and Cavernous Void. The two of them hid in the dark, not taking action. Even so, the two of them were not acting carelessly. Should they discover any Ascendant Immortals on the other side taking action, they would not hold back.
“Cavernous Void, some time ago, Heavenly Firmaments Palace secretly sent someone over to contact me. They gave me a grand offer, wanting me to join Heavenly Firmaments Palace.” Heavenly Premier Everwind suddenly sent a Heavenly Premier Cavernous Void a secret vocal transmission.
Heavenly Premier Cavernous Void was taken aback to hear that. Next, he revealed a wry smile. “The same thing happened to me. They sure are putting a lot into this. They actually offered me an Immortal artifact. More, it is a defensive-type Immortal artifact.”
“They also offered me an Immortal artifact. Only, it is an offensive-type Immortal artifact. How tempting! What do you think about this?”
“What is there to think about? Joining Heavenly Firmaments Palace is impossible. East Dragon Island is more reliable. Besides, our disciples have been cultivating in East Dragon Island. We have benefitted a lot from East Dragon Island here. Additionally, do you think East Dragon Island would allow us to join Heavenly Firmaments Palace?”
“That"s true. Back then, Ascendant Immortal Green Lotus led his Green Mountain Pavilion to leave East Dragon Island. After that, however, Ascendant Immortal Green Lotus inexplicably disappeared while the million plus cultivators of Green Mountain Pavilion were scattered apart.”
“Though, Heavenly Firmaments Palace is truly very powerful. Even their offer is very tempting!”
“What? Are you tempted already?”
“I"d be lying if I say I"m not. That"s an Immortal artifact. Only, Heavenly Firmaments Palace has the support of the Immortal Plane. If we join them, we"ll just become cannon fodders.”
“Aren"t we cannon fodders now?”
“Be it as it may, Heavenly Yang and the others did get True laws. With a True law, advancing to the True Immortal stage in the future would not be an issue. Could Heavenly Firmaments Palace do that?”
“That"s true. Due to the support of the Immortal Plane, Heavenly Firmaments Palace can afford to offer some immortal pills and secret techniques, even immortal dao laws. However, all those are incomparable to True laws. Honestly, if it weren"t for the True laws, I would have been incapable of resisting the offer from Heavenly Firmaments Palace.”
“Enough! Let"s keep that to ourselves. Since we have decided to ally with East Dragon Island, we should not act like fickle-minded mobs. Furthermore, Absolute, Eternal, Heavensight and the others have already joined forces. They will not be easy to deal with. Although Heavenly Firmaments Palace is formidable, conquering the entire world of cultivation will still be a difficult matter.
“The way I see it, that Chen Feng is not a petty fellow. By the way, I hear that Chen Feng and Bi Qing are not from our Eternal World. Rather, they are from the Celestial Plane. What is that place?”
“The Celestial Plane. I am not sure about that myself, but the cultivators who came from the Immortal Plane appear somewhat fearful of Chen Feng.”
“Eh! The enemy have Ascendant Immortals, but they are not doing anything. Strange, Heavenly Firmaments Palace is clearly on the losing end here. Why are the two Ascendant Immortals on its side so calm about this? Could this be a trap?”
Heavenly Premier Everwind and Heavenly Premier Cavernous Void then sent their divine senses out to scan the Sky Pillars Mountain Range, covering a radius of 2.5 million kilometres with it. However, they failed to find anything strange.
The East Dragon Island Alliance had sent forth many elites for this a.s.sault. Some were experts capable of singlehandedly fighting ten other enemies on the same level as them. Take the cultivators from the Four Great Academies for example. Every single one of them possessed this kind of combat power. Thanks to this and the fact that they were the ones launching a sneak attack, they were able to gain the upper hand in the fight. Despite having more cultivators than the East Dragon Island Alliance, despite trying their very best to counter this attack, the cultivators from Heavenly Firmaments Palace were constantly forced to give ground.
Given how the situation was developing, it would not take long before the East Dragon Island Alliance took the Sky Pillars Mountain Range.
That was indeed the case. The army from the East Dragon Island Alliance gave it their all for this one charge and was able to swiftly enter the Sky Pillars Mountain Range. After a fierce round of melee confrontation, their army managed to gain the upper hand.
“Why do I feel like I am bullying others here? Aren"t these fellows just too weak?” Marquis Scarletfire brandished his spear. By then, he had already killed hundreds of enemies. Several of them were Earthen Immortals on the same level as him.
“These fellows are either loose cultivators or those who had their cultivation levels boosted by Heavenly Firmaments Palace using certain special methods. It is only natural for their combat powers to be low.” Lan Ling was also brandis.h.i.+ng a spear. Unlike Marquis Scarletfire, whose body was wreathed in flames thanks to his fire-type const.i.tution, Lan Ling"s body was wreathed in crackling lightning thanks to her lightning-type const.i.tution. She gave off an awe-inspiring air of might.
“These fellows are too weak!” With just one punch, Wu Hua shattered an Earthen Immortal apart.
Although it hadn"t been too long since they reached the Earthen Immortal stage, their combat powers were at the point where they could instantly kill off the average starter-level Earthen Immortal. By joining forces, they could even kill off a mid-level Earthen Immortal.
“Humph! These fellows are all boosted using heretical means. No matter how many I kill, it"s worthless. I want to kill a true elite.”
“That"s right. We have not met a single real expert.”
With Earthen Immortals like them gathered together, their charge became invincible and all who stood in their path were crushed. Any formidable opposing cultivators were killed while the scattered opposing cultivators were dealt with by the Human Immortals who came after them.
“Looks like there is no need to use the plan that we had prepared beforehand. We"ll be taking over the Sky Pillars Mountain Range soon.”
“I don"t care about that. I just want to fight! My cultivation base is still not stable. Only through battles can I hone my cultivation base.”
“Better to hold back on the killing. Just subdue them.”
“Don"t forget, we have a bet with the other three academies going on. Don"t become soft-hearted. We must never bring shame to our Absolute Academy.”
“Yes, we managed to obtain the immortal dao laws that Chen Feng s.n.a.t.c.hed. So, we need to put on a good performance here.”
The Earthen Immortals and Human Immortals had completely broken through, making their way into the Sky Pillars Mountain Range. Initially, they had been able to maintain their formation. Later on, though, as their fervour to kill off their enemies built up, their formation fell into chaos as they began hunting for the cultivators from Heavenly Firmaments Palace on their own.
By then, Heavenly Premier Everwind and Heavenly Premier Cavernous Void, who were keeping themselves hidden, had noticed something amiss. Within some of the Sky Pillars Mountain Range"s hidden valleys, large-scale magic arrays began appearing. Every time they flashed, a high number of cultivators would appear.
“Enemy reinforcements,” Heavenly Premier Everwind said, his tone serious.
“Not reinforcements, hidden forces. They had long since known that we would be attacking. They are prepared,” Heavenly Premier Cavernous Void replied.
“That"s not right. There are too few of them.” Originally, the two Ascendant Immortals had wanted to notify Mu Cang about this only to realize that the number of cultivators arriving through the magic arrays was not that high. The number of cultivators there could not do much to affect the battle.
They were right. The cultivators who came were all killed in the end.
Soon enough, the many captains of the army from the East Dragon Island Alliance had received the secret vocal transmissions from Mu Cang. Thus, they found out that enemy reinforcements had come. Even so, they were not feeling too concerned. Their morale was rising and they were having a blast killing off their enemies. Rather, they have not had enough of it.
“The number of cultivators is not high. Did Heavenly Firmaments Palace just sent their men here to die?”
Unbeknownst to all the cultivators from the East Dragon Island Alliance, the two Ascendant Immortals included, all the blood essence of the fallen cultivators there were silently evaporating. No, they were seeping into the soil. It was something that would not attract the attention of others.
Somewhere 10,000 zhang underground was a ma.s.sive altar. It was very ancient and somewhat dilapidated, built from a special type of jade stone. Four Ascendant Immortals were standing around it. It was clear from their actions that they were deploying a type of secret technique to absorb the blood essence from the surface, pulling the streams of blood essence onto the altar. Without fail, the altar devoured every drop of the blood essence fed to it.
“Is this secret technique even effective? We have already poured so much blood essence into it. Why isn"t there any movements yet?” one of the Ascendant Immortals finally spoke up.
“This is an ancient spatial-type summoning technique. Although incomplete, there should be no issues. I am just wondering how many Blood Troopers and Blood Generals we can summon.”
“No matter how many comes, they should at least be able to inflict some damage to East Dragon Island.”
Strands of b.l.o.o.d.y aura emerged from the altar and all four Ascendant Immortals instantly revealed looks of delight. After that, a serious look appeared on their faces again.
“It"s finally reacting, but the power of blood cannot keep up with its demands.”
“I knew this would happen.” After saying that, one of them brought out a small porcelain bottle. A tiny stream of water flowed out from it before transforming into a torrential wave of water. Only, those were all blood. The river of blood gushed out from the bottle to fall upon the altar, but every last drop of blood disappeared. It had failed to create even a single splash before disappearing.
Boom!
When all the blood inside the porcelain bottle had been poured out, the entire altar began roaring. Next, a thick layer of b.l.o.o.d.y light enveloped it.
A portal appeared on the altar. It was a spatial door, blood-red in colour, as though it was made completely using blood.
“Alright, it"s a success! It is time we leave. Eh, something"s not right! Why can"t I leave?” Suddenly, one of the Ascendant Immortals panicked.
1 li = 0.5 km
1 zhang = 3.333 m