War of the Emperor Clans (V)

The Dou Qi Continent had never lacked conflict.

Since ancient times, war had raged without end.

The war in which numerous ancient Emperor Clans had encircled and annihilated the Tunling Clan had lasted a hundred years before finally drawing to a close.

Gu Yuan and Hun Tiandi faced each other from afar in the void.

"Gu Yuan, you should know full well that neither of us can defeat the other." Hun Tiandi exhaled a breath of stale air. His high-tier Heaven-class cultivation method circulated rapidly, madly absorbing the energy between heaven and earth.

"Hmph, all you need to do is stay right here and behave!" Gu Yuan snorted coldly, then began regulating his breathing as well.

Whenever the two struck, they used their full strength. Neither dared grow arrogant or underestimate his opponent in battle.

Once half their Dou Qi had been depleted, they would draw apart in unspoken agreement and face each other from a distance, restoring their Dou Qi through controlled breathing while attacking each other with words.

This cycle of fighting and resting had already continued for a month.

Down below, however...

The war was far more brutal.

The battle between the Nihility Devouring Flame and the pair of Lei Ying and Yan Jin was the most savage of all.

Although the Nihility Devouring Flame was a Nine-Star Dou Saint, it had only barely entered the early stage, while Lei Ying and Yan Jin, the leaders of their respective clans, were anything but ordinary Eight-Star Dou Saint Late Stage experts.

Lei Ying conjured Black Demon Lightning in his hands, thunder roaring all over his body. Like a Thunder Emperor reborn, he clashed head-on with the Nihility Devouring Flame. Beside him, Yan Jin drew upon his Dou Di Bloodline and transformed into a flame giant three thousand zhang tall, relentlessly battering the Nihility Devouring Flame with strength infinitely close to that of a Nine-Star Dou Saint.

Although their Dou Qi cultivation lagged half a step behind the Nihility Devouring Flame, their combined assault still left it inwardly groaning. Had the second-ranked Heavenly Flame not possessed an extraordinary origin of its own, an ordinary early-stage Nine-Star Dou Saint would probably have fallen long ago.

Thus, the battle between these two men and one flame was the fiercest on the field, and they had also suffered the gravest injuries.

As for the other six- and seven-star Dou Sheng on the battlefield, they tangled with one another in paired duels, neither side able to overcome the other for the time being. Whenever their Dou Qi neared exhaustion, they would stop moving and begin trading verbal blows.

"Hmph, Hun Sha, we haven't fought in a thousand years, yet you don't seem to have improved at all!" One of the Three Immortals of the Gu Clan began his customary taunts while restoring his Dou Qi.

Hun Sha of the Four Demon Saints of the Soul Clan naturally refused to be outdone. Restoring his own Dou Qi, he retorted, "Hmph, I don't see much improvement in you either! All these years, and you're still a Late-Stage Seven-Star Dou Saint. There's no hope for you in this lifetime!"

"How dare you!"

"Arrogant fool!"

"Old dog!"

"Old relic!"

The two sides traded insult after insult. They were all old monsters who had lived for a thousand years, and none who had cultivated to this level were mediocre. With no clear gap in strength between the two sides, no one was willing to stake his life on a death match.

Thus, although the fighting was perilous, no mid- or high-level Dou Sheng had detonated himself at the outset. Whenever a low-star Dou Sheng could no longer hold on, someone else would take his place.

"Ancient Emperor's Mirror!"

"Thunder Hammer!"

"Emperor Flame Staff!"

Three Emperor Clan manifestations tens of thousands of zhang tall gathered once more with a thunderous roar, their furious cries resounding through heaven and earth. Both sides had just rested for half a day, and after taking some pills, their injuries and Dou Qi had recovered by seventy or eighty percent. Now they began bombarding each other again.

The two forces collided ferociously, and a storm of destruction immediately swept outward. Everyone's expression changed drastically. The Three Immortals of the Gu Clan, the Four Demon Saints of the Soul Clan, Fairy Fire Spirit, Thunder Mountain, and the other Seven-Star Dou Saints hastily retreated, terrified of being caught in it.

The Nihility Devouring Flame, Lei Ying, and Yan Jin, who had remained locked in combat, would also abruptly separate at such moments. Each took high-grade pills and raced against time to heal and restore their Dou Qi.

In these clashes between the four clans' supreme attacks, the Hun Clan was at a disadvantage. After every exchange, some of its weaker clansmen would die on the spot. Guided by some formation, the blood, flesh, and souls of those who died would all be sucked dry by a mysterious formation deep underground.

The two sides were competing not only in strength but also in reserves. At this moment, pills had become even more important than cultivation methods and combat skills.

Dou Wang and Dou Emperors filled the skies, constantly traveling through Spatial Passages to deliver freshly refined pills to every clansman, then carrying gravely wounded and dying companions to the rear for treatment.

With the Yao Clan's support, the allied army's supplies were fully secured. Lei Ying and Yan Jin even held dozens of Ninth-Grade Treasure Pills and several Profound Pills, which gave them the confidence to trade injury for injury with the Nihility Devouring Flame from the outset.

Clan Leader Yao Dan had also steeled his heart and brought out the Yao Clan's reserves to support the front. The Yao Clan's battle formation had yet to attack, remaining arrayed at the very rear. They served both as the allied army's reserve force and as protection for the newly opened space behind them, keeping it from being engulfed by the war.

Inside that newly opened space, countless Yao Clan members were frantically refining pills. Sixty percent were healing pills, thirty percent were high-grade pills for restoring Dou Qi, and the remaining ten percent were pills with severe side effects that could instantly increase one's strength.

This was the strategy once used against the Tunling Clan, settled upon after repeated deliberation between Gu Yuan and Yao Dan.

The campaign to annihilate the Tunling Clan had lasted a hundred years. Only after the Dou Qi Continent's finest resources had been exhausted and devastation lay everywhere had they finally worn the Tunling Clan to death. Even the Soul Xiao War a thousand years ago had taken three years to reach its final outcome.

For this campaign against the Hun Clan, the alliance estimated that all of the clan's resources would be exhausted within three to five years. To keep Hun Tiandi from leaping over the wall like a cornered dog, they would also have to loosen their grip occasionally before tightening it again.

This was the strategy the Hun Clan had once used against the Xiao Clan.

Back then, even after Xiao Xuan had failed his breakthrough and suffered Hun Tiandi's sneak attack, no one could have stopped him if he had wanted to leave. At worst, he could simply have gone to Gu Yuan's side. But the Hun Clan had surrounded the Xiao Clan without slaughtering them, repeatedly tugging Xiao Xuan back and forth. Unable to bear abandoning his clansmen, Xiao Xuan had fought to the death without retreating, until he finally perished by self-detonation.

Great clans naturally had their own way of waging war.

The Central Plains.

The Hall of Souls.

The Spirit Clan and Stone Clan's battle against the Hall of Souls should have been completely one-sided. Yet with Hun Xuzi and the Soul Demon Elder leading a host of experts to reinforce it, the hall had actually managed to hold firm.

Ling Ya and Shi Pan were fighting Hun Xuzi. The two Late Six-Star Dou Saint clan leaders were chasing down and battering the early-stage Seven-Star Dou Saint.

There was no helping it. The two clan leaders held the supreme inheritances of two Dou God Clans, and they could not possibly be treated as ordinary Late Six-Star Dou Saints.

The Soul Demon Elder's white hair also danced wildly. As a Six-Star Dou Sheng, he had single-handedly held back four Five-Star Dou Sheng from the two clans. Fortunately for him, none of the four were late-stage experts-there were two at the middle stage and two at the early stage. He even had strength to spare and could occasionally counterattack.

Hun Miesheng was embroiled in battle with six Four-Star Dou Sheng, and for the moment, neither side could break the deadlock.

Half the Spirit Clan and Stone Clan's experts had followed the Yao Clan to the Soul Realm, and half of those remaining had stayed behind to guard the Spirit Realm and Stone Realm. All the others were now fighting at the Hall of Souls.

"Ling Ya, Shi Pan, withdraw at once, and our clan will let bygones be bygones! Otherwise, you'll be the first we annihilate in the days to come!"

Hun Xuzi hurled threats as he fled.

"You scoundrel, take my Spirit Heaven Palm!" The Clan Mark between Ling Ya's brows suddenly flashed, briefly raising his aura to that of an early-stage Seven-Star Dou Saint as he unleashed a high-tier Heaven-class Dou Technique left by the Spirit Clan's Dou Di.

The Dou Sheng, Dou Zun, and Dou Zong of both sides were not fighting in one place, but engaged in a furious chase. Their battlefield had long since expanded beyond the Hall of Souls' territory to encompass the entire Central Plains.

Some charged into the Four Pavilions, some fought their way to Ice River Valley, and some even reached the Beast Region. Each side was tangled among the other, and the entire Central Plains had become a boiling pot of chaos.

Ling Ya and the other two fought their way from the Hall of Souls' Heavenly Dipper Hall to the skies above the Pill Tower's Sacred Pill City. A casual strike from these high-level Dou Sheng left the entire Sacred Pill City on the verge of collapse.

They had barely left before the Soul Demon Elder and the other four Five-Star Dou Sheng came fighting their way over. Before those combatants could leave, Hun Miesheng tore through space and followed, dragging six Four-Star Dou Sheng along with him.

At that moment...

Fan Tian lay naked beneath his bed, clutching the Pill Tower's two peerless beauties and trembling uncontrollably.