South of the Second Southern Pass.
Above the Endless Wasteland.
The instant that rift tore open the sky, Perfected Taiyi moved.
He swept his sleeve, wrapping Ji Yuan and the Hanging Gourd Loose Immortal in a soft cloud glow. With one step, he reached the very front of the battle line.
Ye Wuzhen followed close behind, his Sword Qi drawn inward.
Three Spirit Transformation Cultivators stood shoulder to shoulder in the void.
Ji Yuan stood half a step behind them. His gaze passed over the seniors and fixed on the widening rift above the City of the Celestial God.
The moment the rift appeared, the cultivators locked in battle on both sides stopped their attacks as one.
It was like two packs of beasts fighting over territory suddenly hearing the footsteps of a stronger predator.
Instinct drove them apart and back to their respective camps.
The Nascent Soul Cultivators of the Barbarian God Continent retreated into the City of the Celestial God.
The cultivators of the Desolate Ancient Continent gathered behind Perfected Taiyi.
Ji Yuan never took his eyes off the rift.
It widened bit by bit.
It was not ripped open all at once, but slowly, laboriously forced apart.
As though something inside were struggling with all its might to squeeze into this world.
The rift's edges were jagged, with the texture of a living wound. Each time it widened, a tearing sound followed.
Black blood poured from the rift.
More and more of it.
At first, only a few thin streams trickled down its edges.
Then they became rivulets, and then a cascading waterfall.
Thick blood gushed from the rift, drenching the walls and streets of the City of the Celestial God.
The walls began to corrode.
Those walls stood a thousand zhang high, covered in shamanic patterns