“How unfortunate, I am still incapable of advancing to the Demon Deity (Earthen) stage, otherwise we"ll be able to hold on for a while longer,” the Frost Serpent said with a twinge of regret.
“Even if you are already a Demon Deity, you won"t be able to do too much. At most, you can just delay our defeat for a while longer.”
“Originally, I had a.s.sumed that with the Immortal-tier Great Wave Blade in my hand, I should have no problems defending the Starry Islands. Unexpectedly, our enemies would also mobilize an Immortal artifact. They are well prepared. We should just retreat for now. After the Island Lord leads our men back, we can talk about attacking again,” the Two-headed Windbolt Wyrm said. That said, anyone could tell that – with this retreat – it will be difficult for them to attack into the Starry Islands again in the future. In front were the many far-ocean forces while the first-rate sects from the Central Plains were behind them. This was a very big disaster for East Dragon Island.
“By the time the Island Lord returns… sigh, it might already be too late.”
Suddenly, a mote of golden light flew over from afar. Next, it abruptly erupted with power, firing out countless sword beams. Like a tempest, the sword beams swept forward and over a thousand of the water yaos pursuing East Dragon Island"s cultivators were grinded into pieces.
Next, the Frost Serpent felt something weighing down on his hand and found that there was a sword in his grasp. The sword shone with golden light.
“Immortal artifact!” Both the Two-headed Windbolt Wyrm and Frost Serpent cried out in shock.
“This is an Immortal artifact that I refined myself. It should be easier for you fellows to use.” Chen Feng"s voice rang out from the Steel Enigma Sword.
“That"s the Island Lord"s voice! He actually sent over an Immortal artifact from the Planar Battlefield!” the Frost Serpent said, excitement in his voice.
“If so, there is no need for us to retreat anymore.”
“With two Immortal artifacts, defending the Starry Islands should not be an issue anymore.”
Truth be told, Chen Feng was feeling somewhat frustrated as well. While he did possess several other Immortal artifacts on his person, the Steel Enigma Sword was the only one that he had personally refined up to the Immortal tier. As for the other Immortal artifacts, those had been forcibly s.n.a.t.c.hed over. Without the suppressive effect from the Longevity Tower, Chen Feng feared that some other issues might pop up. That was the reason why he had only sent over the Steel Enigma Sword.
“With Senior Bi Qing there to defend East Dragon Island, there should be no major issues. If that doesn"t work as well, I will just have to take the risk and return.” Next up, however, East Dragon Island no longer asked Chen Feng for help. Due to that, Chen Feng gradually grew relieved.
After resting for a time, East Dragon Island"s army in the Planar Battlefield then moved on, joining forces with other sects to fight another three times. It was against Median World, Primal World and Spirit Orb World. And so, this phase of the Planar War came to an end.
Naturally, this was just the war in this battlefield. After this, they will have to enter another battlefield and continue fighting. The Planar War would go on for 100 years.
The cultivators under Chen Feng"s command, including those from East Dragon Island and loose cultivators, totalled up to over 20,000 men. After this phase of the Planar War, however, only 10,000 men were left. East Dragon Island lost 40% of their men. Even so, every one of the survivors made significant progress. Four managed to break through to the Earthen Immortal stage while tens of them managed to break through to the Human Immortal stage.
This high-level combat power was what a sect needed the most.
With the phase over, they had a year to rearrange their forces. And so, Chen Feng led his men back to East Dragon Island. As for the several thousand loose cultivators who joined East Dragon Island"s side for the Planar War, most of them chose to join East Dragon Island. Naturally, Chen Feng would not reject them. Those who could survive the Planar War were undoubtedly elites.
By the time Chen Feng led his men back, East Dragon Island had returned to a state of tranquillity. With Bi Qing, an Ascendant Immortal, there to provide protection, all the surrounding forces fell silent. Warlord Pavilion attempted to attack East Dragon Island several times only to lose in the end.
Originally, as Chen Feng was returning, he had planned on dealing with Warlord Pavilion. After further consideration, though, he finally decided to only do so after the war was over.
This time, despite coming under attack, East Dragon Island had managed to turn defeat into victory. More, they managed to stabilize themselves. They even managed to fully occupy the entire Starry Islands. Due to that, Chen Feng decided to replenish his army for the Planar War.
This time, the number of Human Immortals was increased to 150 while the number of Sky Human stage cultivators was increased to 20,000. Chen Feng had witnessed the benefits of partic.i.p.ating in this war.
One year quickly went by. As for Chen Feng, he had spent all that time tempering himself, but he did not a.s.sail the Earthen Immortal stage. In addition to tempering himself to make himself stronger, all he did was to refine his weapons and magic treasures.
It had to be said, the magic treasures within Chen Feng"s body were either Immortal artifacts or Dao artifacts. Every single one of them contained world-obliterating powers. All of them were gathered within Chen Feng"s body. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that they had fused to become one with Chen Feng"s body, becoming part of Chen Feng"s strength.
Due to that, even if Chen Feng had to enter cultivation retreat for a thousand years, he would not begrudge it as too long.
Next, Chen Feng led East Dragon Island"s army into other Planar Battlefields. There, they faced the cultivators from Nine Abyss World, Astral Lightning World, Blood Malice World, Great Ocean World, Flame World and various other worlds. Again and again, they fought for 100 years.
Every time they changed to a new battlefield, Chen Feng would rotate the cultivators in his army and replenish their numbers. After the Planar War was over, the overall number of casualties for East Dragon Island was close to 100,000. However, East Dragon Island"s strength also rose in a world-shaking manner.
The number of Earthen Immortals had risen to nearly 100 while the number of Human Immortals had risen up to 3,000. More, every single one of them had been baptized by blood.
East Dragon Island"s strength had exceeded that of many first-rate sects in the world of cultivation. Naturally, East Dragon Island was not the only one that benefitted from this large-scale war. Some other sects also managed to obtain a great deal of benefits from it. In fact, some Earthen Immortals managed to directly break through to the Ascendant Immortal stage in the Planar Battlefields, where they then ascended to the Immortal Plane.
After the Planar War was officially over, the world of cultivation began to – even though Chen Feng had yet to do anything himself – fall into a state of chaos. Wars broke out everywhere and many sects were swept up into it. Firstly, it was due to the strength of the sects. Some sects enjoyed a great rise in strength from the Planar War. Due to that, the time was ripe for them to expand their territory. Meanwhile, some sects had lost badly in the Planar War, affecting their overall strength as a result. Thus, the other sects would not let go of this opportunity. Secondly, enmity. During the Planar War, some cultivators ended up becoming resentful of one another. Although the Planar War was over, the cultivators did not have enough of it just yet. And so, they decided to continue fighting.
East Dragon Island, on the other hand, simply watched for half a year before they too could not stop themselves from joining the fray. The reason for that was territory. Should they choose to not join the war, the good territories might end up in the hands of others instead.
As most of East Dragon Island"s forces were in the ocean region, this was a good opportunity for them to expand to land.
In the past, Warlord Pavilion, Divine Demon Grotto, Heartless Heaven Sect and some other sects had joined forces to attack East Dragon Island. Due to that, there was a grudge between East Dragon Island and them. Chen Feng used that as an excuse to mobilize his forces against them.
In the beginning, Warlord Pavilion had suffered from a defeat in the Planar Battlefield. Later, the incident with East Dragon Island caused its strength to plummet. Due to those factors, the other sects had been keeping predatory gazes at Warlord Pavilion. By the time East Dragon Island began moving against Warlord Pavilion, Warlord Pavilion had already suffered from many crus.h.i.+ng defeats. In the end, it was only able to retain a handful of its original territory.
East Dragon Island"s army did not hold back. Since they had decided to attack, they simply moved forward to seize Warlord Pavilion"s territory. When they encountered friendly forces from other sects, they would discuss how to split the spoils peacefully. However, should they encounter those with whom they had no relations.h.i.+p with, they would simply attack and crush the other party.
East Dragon Island displayed an overbearing att.i.tude, a very overbearing att.i.tude.
It was then that the entire world of cultivation saw that East Dragon Island had become incredibly powerful. Although East Dragon Island can already be considered a formidable force before this, some of the first-rate forces had still – from the depths of their hearts – looked down on East Dragon Island. They were of the opinion that East Dragon Island was just an upstart, one that could only develop thanks to the support of Absolute Academy and Heavenly Sword Faction. Only now did they understand that East Dragon Island had become a behemoth, one that most first-rate forces could not even match.
It did not take long before Warlord Pavilion was destroyed and East Dragon Island took advantage of the situation to seize a tenth of Warlord Pavilion"s territory for itself.
Immediately after that, Divine Demon Grotto was ripped apart. Once again, East Dragon Island seized a tenth of its territory. Additionally, Chen Feng also raided everything of value in Divine Demon Grotto"s headquarters.
Heartless Heaven Sect was also destroyed. This time, East Dragon Island failed to obtain anything. They were simply too late to get in on the action. Two forces that suddenly emerged had wiped out Heartless Heaven Sect.
Eternal World was in a state of chaos as sects kept facing destruction. Some of them were those with a legacy lasting up to tens of millions of years. At the same time, new sects rose to power. Furthermore, hidden sects also emerged from hiding while those that had once been powerhouses in the past were resurrected.
In short, chaos reigned throughout Eternal World. Chen Feng was quick to see that there was absolutely no way East Dragon Island could keep itself away from the chaos. Even if they were to avoid attacking others, others would still choose to attack them. As such, it was better for them to make use of the present chaos to attack and seize a piece of the pie, expanding their territory even further.
Although East Dragon Island had been giving a display of arrogance, it was also aware of its limits. It did not seize too many territories. However, those were all important places. Chen Feng knew that he needed to keep East Dragon Island"s actions within it scope of power, otherwise even if they managed to temporarily seize more territories, it would only cause problems for them in the future.
That said, there was a certain issue that caused Chen Feng to become wary. And that was none other than the actions of the Three Palaces of the Northern Plains, Nine Firmaments Palace, Purple Firmaments Palace and Transcendent Firmaments Palace. All three sects had kept themselves very quiet, not involving themselves with the ongoing wars. Even when some of their territories were taken over by some other forces, the Three Palaces did not say anything about it. Seeing that, many believed that something had gone wrong for the Three Palaces. Perhaps, the war with Extreme Celestial Sect had taken a serious toll on their forces. Some other sects probed them a few more times. Seeing no reaction from the Three Palaces, they grew emboldened. All this time, the other first-rate sects in the Northern Plains had always had to put up with the Three Palaces" oppressive actions. To be able to do it to the Three Palaces instead felt quite good.
Despite constantly losing one territory after another, the Three Palaces continued to stay silent. Chen Feng, who was far away in the Central Plains, knew that it was not as simple as it looked. Thus, Chen Feng set aside some time to head to the Northern Plains. After conducting an investigation, he released a lengthy sigh. He knew then that the situation in the Northern Plains was about to become even more chaotic.
Extreme Celestial Sect, on the other hand, did not send its forces out to fight for more territory. At that very moment, Extreme Celestial Sect"s goal was to focus all of its strength on developing its forces. Unless absolutely necessary, it would not start a fight with another force. And although the war with Nine Firmaments Palace had seriously damaged Extreme Celestial Sect, it was still a first-rate sect. Its foundation was still there. Thus, some sects dared not look down on it.
“A mess! This is a complete mess!”
On this particular day, Chen Feng was entertaining a group of cultivators in East Dragon Island. These cultivators were all from Absolute Academy. They were Chen Feng"s fellow students and good friends. Speaking of which, despite being the strongest existences within the world of cultivation, the Four Great Academies did not partic.i.p.ate in this chaos. They did not mobilize any forces to seize more territory. Likewise, the other forces dared not provoke the four academies. The Four Great Academies" territories were the most tranquil places in the entire world of cultivation.