Advance or Fall Back; Fail and Die

The God-Demon Battlefield was, as its name suggested, a battlefield where Immortal Gods fought and slaughtered one another.

Here, Marquises were everywhere, and Kings were worth less than dogs.

Besides Immortal Experts who went there of their own accord, driven by a strong desire to grow stronger and hone themselves in battle, there was another group who were conscripted to fight.

Newly ascended Immortals were exempt from conscription. As for the ancient Immortal Gods, every long stretch of time they would be forcibly conscripted to fight on the God-Demon Battlefield for a period.

The God-Demon Battlefield was nothing less than a meat grinder for Immortal Gods.

It was hell for the weak, and heaven for the strong.

To the weak, the God-Demon Battlefield was undoubtedly a despairing hell full of endless nightmares, a place they would do everything in their power to escape.

Here, slaughter was the order of the day. There was no mercy or forgiveness, only the merciless crushing of the weak by the strong.

The weak fled and struggled amid the deafening collisions of divine power, seeming so insignificant and helpless—like a speck of dust drifting in a gale, liable to vanish without a trace at any moment.

Yet to the truly ambitious strong, the God-Demon Battlefield was the paradise of their dreams.

Here, they could unleash their power to their heart's content, challenge formidable foes, test what they had learned, and pursue higher realms.

Every battle was the ultimate test of their will and ability, and every victory brought them closer to the throne of a Universe Venerable.

On this brutal battlefield, strong experts broke through their limits every so often, emerged from their cocoons transformed, and escaped their shackles to become Universe Venerables.

They wrote their own legends on this battlefield, becoming heroes whose stories would be told for generations to come.

Universe Venerable. In the Eastern Emperor Holy Land Universe, those four words seemed to hold a special kind of magic.

That was because only by becoming a Venerable could one truly obtain an eternal place in the Holy Land Universe.

From an ordinary life-form to a Universe Master, no one could fully control their own life.

Those who lived in the Prime Universe had their life origins rooted there. After the Great Destruction of the Prime Universe, they could only entrust their life origins to a Miniature Universe.

And if a Miniature Universe became a Holy Land Universe, then in theory, the Immortal Gods, Universe Venerables, and Universe Masters within it could all exist eternally, without any such thing as a lifespan limit.

But that was only in theory.

The Holy Land Universe was simply too small—too small to accommodate all the powerful beings accumulated over such a long span of time.

So in reality, only those at the Universe Venerable level could exist eternally and truly enjoy life as members of the Holy Land Universe.

Immortal Gods—

Unless they had an immense backing or a remarkable stroke of fortune, few lived through ten Reincarnation Eras.

The God-Demon Battlefield, where Immortals were forcibly conscripted to fight at regular intervals, was the Holy Land Universe's best means of honing its powerful beings while keeping the number of Immortals under control.

In the incomparably brutal and bloody God-Demon Battlefield, even Peak Kings with astonishing combat strength couldn't be sure they would return alive from every battle.

Spend enough time by the river, and you were bound to get your shoes wet.

No matter how powerful you were, over the course of a long life, you were bound to encounter enemies of equal strength or even greater.

Advance or fall back. Fail to become a Universe Venerable, and one day you would die in battle.

Of course, this brutal culling on the battlefield meant that many geniuses and powerful beings fell before they could ever shine.

Perhaps many of them could have become Venerables.

But the higher-ups didn't care at all!

So what if they died? As time passed, more geniuses and powerful beings would be born and enter the battlefield.

To the Universe Masters of the eternally existing Eastern Emperor Holy Land Universe, time was the least valuable thing in existence.

A single closed-door cultivation session could last several Reincarnation Eras for them.

They were naturally delighted when a new Universe Venerable emerged, but they didn't mind if none did.

To put it bluntly, the Eastern Emperor Holy Land Universe wasn't short on powerful beings. Many mighty Venerables at the Quasi-Universe Master level were still waiting in line for a chance to become Universe Masters.

Scarce resources, complete inheritances, and a brutal battlefield—this was the lot of Immortal Gods in the Eastern Emperor Holy Land Universe.

People all said it was good to be a god, but who knew that even gods had their troubles?

The Immortal Gods of the Eastern Emperor Holy Land Universe had far less freedom than Immortals in the Prime Universe. They didn't even have the right to give up and do nothing.

The competition was fierce!

Absurdly fierce!

In the Eastern Emperor Holy Land Universe, ordinary Dongdi Clan Members could easily choose to coast through life.

Even those with the most ordinary bloodlines could become Domain Lords without ever cultivating of their own accord, simply by eating and waiting to die.

After that, they could live carefree and happily for a million years.

Those with superior bloodlines could reach the World Lord level with ease and enjoy themselves for even longer.

With the support of a highly developed cultivation civilization, their quality of life and standard of living were certainly not low.

Of course, they would inevitably face the limit of their lifespans and die when their time was up.

The Holy Land Universe's higher-ups were quite tolerant of these ordinary clan members, who would die of old age after a while and consumed few resources.

But if they wanted to work hard and pursue eternal life—

Then they had to face incomparably brutal and intense competition!

In the cramped Eastern Emperor Holy Land Universe, where resources were scarce, anyone who wanted to advance had no choice but to compete like mad!

World Lords competed to become Venerable-level candidates, and to win one of the limited slots for ascension to Immortal Godhood.

After becoming Immortals, they competed for scarce resources and trained on the brutal, bloody God-Demon Battlefield.

Along the way—

Those without enough talent—died!

Those who didn't work hard enough—died!

Those who were unlucky—still died!

They had chosen this path themselves. No matter how hard it was, they could only grit their teeth and keep going.

Only those with exceptional talent, a drive to keep advancing, and enough luck could stand out, become Universe Venerables, and enjoy eternal life.

As for those who lacked the talent, aptitude, and comprehension, unless they honed themselves relentlessly in the brutal God-Demon wars, amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood, advancing fearlessly on the edge of life and death, they would likely never have a chance to become Universe Venerables.

Seeing the somber mood, Teacher Wala forced a smile.

"Don't worry. I'm not heading to the God-Demon Battlefield right away. Though I don't plan to take him as my disciple, I intend to teach the little fellow well while I still can, passing on all my secret techniques and skills."

"With his talent, even if I fall someday, the secret techniques I've devoted my life to creating won't be lost."

"Besides, I plan to have him compete in the Eastern Domain Tournament ninety years from now. If he gets a good ranking, I'll receive a reward too, and I'll be better prepared when I head to the God-Demon Battlefield."

"The Eastern Domain Tournament? Isn't that too soon?" the stern-looking middle-aged man said.

"Our Eastern Domain holds the tournament once every ten thousand years. Many of those who compete in each tournament are peerless geniuses who have cultivated for thousands of years, or at least hundreds."

"Feng Hui is certainly a genius, but he's been cultivating for such a short time that it'll be difficult for him to compete with those prodigies. He'd be better off entering the next tournament."

Teacher Wala shook his head. "Time waits for no one. If he misses this tournament, he'll have to wait another ten thousand years. He'll be much older by then, and may not stand out."

"What's more, with his talent, staying at our academy would be a waste of time."

"You can't raise a true dragon in a shallow pond. It took him only a year to become the best student in our academy. There's little point in keeping him here any longer; we'd only bury his talent. He needs to go out into the wider world to receive better training."

"And that will be the first lesson I teach him—compete!"

Teacher Wala seemed lost in memory as he murmured to himself:

"The great path is a struggle. Advance or fall back; fail and die!"

"If I'd seized that opportunity back then, I'd probably be a King-level Immortal God by now, with a chance of becoming a Venerable..."