Battle for the Cave
Gu Yuan sneered and instantly opened a spatial rift, summoning the remaining patriarchs of the Ancient Clan at the same time.
Seeing that Gu Yuan seemed prepared, the Hun Tiandi was shocked, then sneered, "So what if there are many of you?!"
In the midst of the fierce battle, the spies that the Hun Clan had planted long ago began to act.
A moment later, a message arrived. "Clan leader, the Tou She Ancient God Jade has been obtained."
"Gu Yang, you treacherous beast!" Seeing that a member of their clan was actually offering jade to the Hun Tiandi, the members of the Ancient Clan cursed loudly.
"Withdraw!" The Hun Tiandi smiled slightly, quickly disengaged from the battle, and left the Ancient Clan with the Gu Yang.
Not long after the Hun Tiandi disappeared, the other clan leaders all received news that their clan's Ancient Jade had been stolen, and that it was all done by their clan elders.
It's done. Looking in the direction where the Hun Tiandi left, Gu Yuan smiled silently to himself.
The Hun Clan's schemes over a thousand years have ultimately benefited other clans.
While the Hun Tiandi was on his way, Xiao Yan had already returned to the Jia Nan Academy and was arranging for the students to evacuate...
Several days later, dark clouds, as black as ink, filled the sky, and in an instant, daylight turned into darkness.
From the depths of the churning clouds came a sense of oppressive force, like mountains collapsing. Under this invisible pressure, the entire Black-Corner Region cracked open with spiderweb-like patterns.
Those stubborn outlaws who clung to this place gripped their blood-stained weapons, letting out beast-like growls from their throats—they had seen too many mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and the mere change in the celestial phenomena was nothing more than adding a few more wisps of bloodshed.
"They've arrived."
Xiao Yan looked up at the sky, and the thick clouds suddenly tore apart. Countless figures shrouded in black mist swept through like a swarm of locusts, with four decaying auras at the forefront distorting the space into a vortex.
Gu Yuan shattered the void as he arrived, with lightning behind him transforming into a three-thousand-foot-long river of thunder.
"The elite Ancient Clan have all been deployed!" Within the nine-colored crystal floating in his palm, one could vaguely see 100,000 armored soldiers arrayed and ready to go.
The Purple-Lightning Dragon Spirit coiled around Lei Ying's shoulder raised its head and roared, causing the Hun Clan vanguard formation in the distance to become slightly disordered.
The Hun Tiandi stepped forward slowly, treading on the ripples of the void, with each step causing a crimson lotus to bloom beneath his feet.
A jet-black Fire Python, formed from the Nihility Devouring Flame, coiled around his left arm, its forked tongue spitting out light with each flick of its tongue. "The legacy of the Ancient Emperor will ultimately belong to the Hun Clan."
Before he finished speaking, the four withered old men behind him suddenly let out a shrill scream, and the sound waves solidified, shattering the mountains within a hundred miles into dust.
Xiao Yan unleashed his Heavenly Flames, sketching a dazzling starry river between heaven and earth.
A deafening roar erupted from the allied forces, and countless beams of Dou Qi pierced the sky, tearing golden cracks through the dark clouds that shrouded the heavens and earth.
Just as the two torrents were about to collide, the earth veins of the entire Black-Corner Region suddenly emitted a roar like an ancient dragon awakening—30,000 feet underground, a giant gate that had been sealed for thousands of years was slowly opening.
"There are living things in the Magma World?" Lei Ying's dragon scales on his shoulders suddenly stood on end, and purple lightning exploded into tiny sparks in his pupils.
The Nine-Colored Ancient Jade in Gu Yuan's sleeve emitted a buzzing sound. This ancient monster, who had lived for over ten thousand years, now had a face as cold as frost in a deep pool. "Since the Primordial Era, the Dou Qi Continent has never recorded a non-human Nine-Star Dou Saint." He lightly tapped the void with his fingertips, creating ripples of time-like traces. "That thing may have been born even earlier than the Tou She Ancient God."
Before the words were finished, a sound like tearing silk, like a dragon's roar, came from the sky.
The Hun Tiandi descended slowly down the void steps, his blood-red robes billowing like clouds, each step leaving a crimson footprint in the air. His gaze swept over the allied cavalry, lingering on Gu Yuan and Xiao Yan, a mocking smile playing on his lips, "Gu Yuan, the choice I gave you still stands."
"The Hun Clan's barking is quite clear." Gu Yuan pointed his fingers like a sword across the sky, and the Nine-Colored Ancient Jade instantly transformed into a pillar of light ten thousand feet tall.
Thirty spatial rifts simultaneously tore open behind the allied forces, and thirty ancient figures with auras as deep as the abyss stepped out, their Dou Qi fluctuations shattering the clouds into stardust.
The Lei Ying Ying's shoulder transformed into a thunderous spear, Yan Jin. The oppressive aura of the reclusive ancestors of the three races rivaled that of the Four Demon Saints of the Hun Clan.
Looking at the suddenly boiling battlefield, the Hun Tiandi chuckled and shook his head.
A faint light flashed from the Storage Ring on his fingertip, and a jade piece engraved with mysterious runes floated in the air, causing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to rush in frantically.
Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the jade piece, and an ancient aura surged out as if the world had been created. The phantom of a hunchbacked old man appeared in the void, and the power of the origin of heaven and earth flowed between his hair.
"The remnant soul of the Tou She Ancient God!" Gu Yuan's pupils contracted sharply, and the Nine-Colored Ancient Jade in his palm emitted a mournful sound.
The old man's illusory figure raised his hand and lightly tapped, and suddenly, towering pillars of fire erupted from the magma within a radius of ten thousand miles, turning the ruins of the Jia Nan Academy into a boiling crimson ocean.
The Hun Tiandi pointed his fingers into a sword and slashed at the sea of lava. Suddenly, the lava flowed backward, forming a canopy that revealed a giant gate that had been sealed by lava for thousands of years.
The dragons and phoenixes carved on the surface of the giant gate stretched their bodies in the magma, and the golden mist seeping from the cracks in the gate made all the Dou Sheng present feel their very essence tremble.
Hun Tiandi dripped his essence blood from his fingertips, outlining ancient runes in the void. The runes transformed into blood-red chains that wrapped around the giant gate.
As the final chain took shape, a muffled thud, like the beating of a heart, suddenly resounded throughout the entire world, and dense patterns of Dou Qi qi appeared on the surface of the giant gate.
Wherever the Hun Tiandi's palm wind passed, Jia Nan Academy and the surrounding earth veins were transformed into a crimson abyss thousands of feet deep. Magma burst forth from the earth like angry dragons, sweeping across the Black-Corner Region with the power to burn the heavens and boil the seas.
Broken Dou Qi inscriptions floated and sank in the boiling magma waves. Those forces that once dominated this place now looked at their homeland, which had been turned into a furnace, and hastily retreated, their faces ashen, urging their Dou Qi.
Faced with such immense power of heaven and earth, their methods of killing, which they were so proud of, were nothing more than children playing.
"Stop the Hun Clan!" Gu Yuan's nine-colored robes fluttered, and the Ancient Jade in his palm emitted a dazzling light.
Lei Ying's shoulder was adorned with a thunder dragon that transformed into a thousand-foot-long purple lightning spear, while Yan Jin's back was covered by the wings of a fire phoenix that blotted out the sky. Several reclusive ancestors of the various clans simultaneously shattered the void, and torrents of Dou Qi qi surged toward the Soul Clan Army like a celestial river pouring down.
Three hundred thousand Dou Shi in the allied forces shouted in unison, their Dou Qi qi beams weaving into a dazzling star network, illuminating the entire sky as if it were daytime.
Suddenly, thousands of black mist chains rose from within the Hun Clan's camp, their interconnected surfaces swirling with strange runes, forming a vast net covering hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye.
Sparks flew where the chains clashed, shattering most of the allied Dou Qi' fighting spirit.
The Four Demon Saints stood at the eye of the chain array, blood-red patterns appearing on their withered faces. Behind them, in the phantom of the Death Realm, countless wronged souls wandered and wailed among the chains.
"A mere trick." Gu Yuan pointed his fingers as a sword, slicing through space, and the Nine-Colored Ancient Jade transformed into a stream of light that disappeared into the chain array.
In an instant, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the locked chain, and the black mist dissipated like morning fog in the glow of the sunset.
Before he could press his advantage, the void in front of him suddenly tore open, and the Nihility Devouring Flame, carrying black flames that could devour heaven and earth, rushed towards him. Behind him, two old men were surrounded by the laws of death, and when they struck out with their withered hands, the space itself rippled.
"Emperor-Realm Soul?" Gu Yuan's pupils contracted slightly, and the nine-colored Dou Qi in his sleeve transformed into a three-thousand-foot-tall phantom of an ancient tree.
The Nihility Devouring Flame opened its mouth and spewed out a torrent of black flames, distorting space like a shattered mirror wherever it passed. The two old men simultaneously formed hand seals, and countless pale skeletal hands reached out from the phantom of the Death Realm, grabbing at Gu Yuan's vital points.
The energy shockwaves from the clash between the three actually forced a vacuum out of the magma ocean within a radius of a thousand miles.
The Hun Tiandi stood atop the magma canopy, his blood-red robes billowing without wind, and Ancient Jade in his palm emitted a blood-red beam of light that pierced straight to the earth's core.
The moment the beam of light pierced through the ocean of magma, the entire continent's ley lines roared like dragons, and the sealing runes on the surface of the bronze gate below lit up one after another. The golden mist seeping from the cracks in the gate made all the Dou Sheng present feel their very essence tremble.
He suddenly opened his eyes, his scarlet pupils reflecting Gu Yuan's fierce battle with the Nihility Devouring Flame. A cold smile curled at the corner of his lips, "Gu Yuan, do you really think you can stop this Emperor?"
A deafening crash of breaking chains echoed from the depths of the magma, and the last sealing rune on the surface of the bronze gate shattered in response.
Gu Yuan's lips curled slightly, and his figure suddenly became ethereal like light and shadow, before solidifying again to be three inches between the eyebrows of the Hun Clan elder.
The nine-colored light bursting from his fingertips did not directly target his physical body, but instead transformed into ripples of spatial annihilation—the void within a hundred feet in radius collapsed into a chaotic black hole, the old man's protective battle Dou Qi shattered like glass, and the blood beads seeping from his seven orifices were shredded into blood mist by the violent spatial turbulence before they could fall.
"Nothing special." Gu Yuan flicked his sleeve, dispersing the remaining spatial fragments, and suddenly felt his fighting Dou Qi sink into a quagmire.
The Nihility Devouring Flame stepped out from the void, and the devouring black hole that appeared behind it suddenly expanded to a thousand feet in diameter. The wails of billions of wronged souls emanating from within it even caused the magma below to solidify.
Taking advantage of the moment, the two elders formed hand seals, and the Law of Death materialized into a gray-white chain that wrapped around Gu Yuan's limbs and bones.
"So what if Emperor-Realm Soul?" Nihility Devouring Flame grinned and opened his arms, the power of devouring transforming into a hurricane that swept across the sky.
The nine-colored light between Gu Yuan suddenly surged, and the space around him was like a mirror layered upon layer. When the swallowing hurricane crashed into the spatial barrier, it even stirred up a continuous sound of glass shattering.
He drew a profound trajectory with his fingers, and his soul power condensed into a materialized golden giant sword. When the sword struck down, the death laws surrounding the two old men snapped in response.
On another battlefield, Xiao Yan's eyes suddenly blazed with Emperor Flame. In his Emperor-Realm Soul perception, two figures shrouded in dense death energy were tearing through space and attacking.
"You little beast!" Hun Yuantian's hair and beard bristled, and his deathly aura transformed into thousands of bone spears.
Four pitch-black coffins flew out from the sleeve of the old man beside him. The moment the coffin lids were opened, four remnant souls of Eight-Star Dou Saint, carrying the law of death, crashed down upon him.
Xiao Yan took seven steps in the void, and with each step, a lotus flower of Heavenly Flames bloomed. The seven lotus flowers formed Heaven-Burning Flame Formation, which actually burned the Law of Death with charred cracks.
"Even Seven-Star Dou Saint dares to act so arrogantly?" Hun Yuantian formed ancient hand seals, and a broken fragment of the Gate of Silent Death flew out from between his eyebrows, resonating and trembling with the three coffins summoned by his companions.
In an instant, the world changed color, and the ocean of magma for thousands of miles around rolled back into a curtain that blotted out the sky. From the phantom of the Death Realm that appeared behind the curtain, billions of skeletons swung their bone blades and slashed at Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan's long roar shattered space, and his Emperor-Realm Soul, carrying the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, surged upwards into the heavens.
Where the flames passed, the laws of death melted away like spring snow. He made a grasping motion with his left hand, and the Emperor Flame condensed into a ruler. When the inscriptions on the ruler resonated with the Heavenly Flames, they triggered a celestial phenomenon—nine fire dragons rose from the depths of the earth's veins, their heads intertwined, transforming into Heaven-Burning Purgatory that tore apart the illusory Death Realm.
On the surface of the magma sea, the two sides' Battle Dou Sheng Expert collided and separated like meteors.
A Hun Clan elder was pierced through the chest by Lei Ying's lightning spear. The moment his mangled body fell into the lava, he was swallowed whole by a raging Fire Python.
Within the allied forces, a senior member of the Flame Clan detonated his innate flame, blasting three Hun Clan Dou Zun into dust. Blood rained down, mingling with lava, staining the entire sky crimson.
"Binding these two old ghosts is to buy the allied forces a chance to survive." Xiao Yan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and his Emperor Flame condensed into seventy-two fire rings around his body.
He glimpsed that the battle on Gu Yuan's side was becoming increasingly fierce. The devouring black hole of the Nihility Devouring Flame had expanded to cover thousands of miles. Spiderweb cracks appeared in the spatial barrier around Gu Yuan, but his nine-colored robe remained unyielding. The glow emanating from the Nine-Colored Ancient Jade was forming a strange balance with the devouring power.
In the midst of the fierce battle, the surface of the crimson magma sea suddenly collapsed, and a whirlpool thousands of feet deep slowly opened like the eye of a god. Dark golden runes lit up one after another from the depths of the whirlpool, and each rune that appeared caused ripples in the space.
The colossal magma wave, spanning tens of thousands of miles, hovered in mid-air against gravity, as if an invisible giant hand had pressed the pause button. Only the ancient heartbeat emanating from the depths of the vortex shook the souls of all the Dou Sheng present.
"Heh heh, you little beast are quite alert."
Half a skeletal hand suddenly emerged from a magma fissure. Hun Shengtian, disheveled, crawled out of the magma, the death laws surrounding him now as thin as wisps of smoke.
"Boom!"
Nine spatial rifts suddenly burst open in the sky, and Gu Yuan shattered the void and flew backward, his nine-colored robes stained with black flames.
The Nihility Devouring Flame transformed into a ten-thousand-foot-long black flame python, relentlessly pursuing them, while the two Hun Clan elders behind it had already been reduced to charred remains.
"Gu Yuan, do you really intend to fight my Hun Clan to the death?" Emperor-Realm Soul appeared at the seven-inch mark of the Nihility Devouring Flame, and a phantom image of Ancient Emperor's Cave actually emerged from the black flames.
Gu Yuan merely sneered.
At this moment, the magma vortex reached its critical point, and the dark gold runes condensed into a solidified pillar of light that shot straight into the sky.
The dragon's head, thousands of feet long, slowly rose from the depths of the vortex. The chaotic energy swirling between its horns actually forced back the devouring power of the Nihility Devouring Flame.
"Stop it!" The Nihility Devouring Flame suddenly roared and lunged at the vortex, its black flames transforming into a gigantic hand that reached for the dragon's head.
Gu Yuan stepped forward to block the way, his nine-colored rays of light solidifying into a giant axe that cleaved the black flame hand in two.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, the two Hun Clan elders formed hand seals, and the Law of Death transformed into chains that wrapped around the dragon's horns, but they vanished into nothingness the moment they touched the chaotic energy.
The magma sea boiled completely at this moment, and amidst the roar of dragons, the space within a radius of tens of thousands of miles began to collapse inch by inch.
The moment that roar, seemingly from ancient times, was uttered, even the Hun Tiandi's expression changed drastically. This kind of aura... was actually no weaker than his!
"Hahaha, I, the Emperor, have finally seen the light of day again!"
A towering mass of magma shot into the sky, and a ferocious aura that caused the heavens and earth to change color also surged forth from the Magma Sea!
The crimson magma seemed poised to devour the heavens and earth. As far as the eye could see, the entire world was filled with towering waves of lava, and the terrifying heat turned the world into a furnace.
Both armies hastily retreated due to the towering waves of lava.