A passage of chaos unfurled through the void like a heavenly road spanning endless star fields. The border gates of the Immortal Domain opened wide, and countless troops poured out, their numbers stretching beyond sight, dense immortal light swirling around them.
The Heavenly Phoenix Immortal King stood at the forefront of the army, her phoenix robes snapping in the wind. The crimson-gold immortal light around her dyed half the sky a fiery red.
Behind her, the vast army of the Immortal Domain stretched for tens of thousands of miles. It included dozens of True Immortals and tens of thousands of cultivators at the Supreme realm or above.
More than a dozen Immortal King-level beings each commanded a contingent, advancing in battle formations. Only two supreme Immortal Kings had come this time; the others were either Quasi-Immortal Kings or those with flaws in their cultivation.
These people had achieved little in the Immortal Domain, which was why they had been sent here to die. Their ultimate objective was to drive out the Foreign Realm's army and establish a buffer zone for the Immortal Domain.
Qin Feng stood in the middle of the ranks, beside True Immortal Firefeather and dozens of other Supreme cultivators assigned to the same battle formation. This battle would be fought in small groups, with one True Immortal leading dozens of Supremes to hunt down the Foreign Realm's Undying Ones and Supremes.
Lower-realm cultivators, such as those at the Escape One and Self-Severing realms, would operate freely in the lower world, tasked with killing ordinary cultivators from the Foreign Realm.
The Immortal King-level experts, meanwhile, would fly into the chaos to fight the Undying Kings in paired battles.
In truth, the Immortal Domain's Immortal Kings had an advantage in this battle, because the Undying Kings here had just fought a brutal war. The Primeval Ancient Realm was no soft persimmon ripe for squeezing, but a mighty realm with dozens of Immortal Kings.
Every one of the renowned Ten Fiends possessed Immortal King-level combat strength, and the strongest among them, the True Dragon, possessed the strength of a titan.
There were also the famed Six Paths Reincarnation Immortal King and Immortal King Wuzhong, as well as Second Under Heaven and Immortal Gold Daoist.
Each of these powerful Immortal Kings had required the Undying Kings to confront them in person, and even then, they had needed to surround them and attack together. This brutal war had claimed the lives of nearly all the Immortal King-level experts, while most of the Foreign Realm's Undying Kings had suffered grievous wounds.
The Immortal Domain had launched its counterattack at precisely this moment to exploit the Foreign Realm's period of weakness. If they waited any longer and allowed the Undying Kings to recover, the Primeval Ancient Realm would be swallowed whole by the Foreign Realm.
The Immortal Domain experts attacking now were merely the vanguard. Large numbers of supreme Immortal Kings, titan-level Immortal Kings, and ordinary Immortal Kings had already assembled in the Boundary Sea by the world embankment amid the chaos.
They intended to create an immense barrier, using a ruined great universe as its material, to prevent experts at the immortal level and above from entering the ancient realm.
Before that, however, they had to drive out every Undying King. Once the Undying Kings were gone, the other immortal-level experts could be picked off one by one.
The instant he crossed the border gates, Qin Feng felt an indescribable sense of oppression. It came from the changes in the rules of heaven and earth, from the incompleteness of the laws of the Great Dao.
The Primeval Ancient Realm, a vast world that had once stood alongside the Immortal Domain, had now been ravaged beyond recognition by war. Even half of the world had been shattered.
Huge cracks scarred the void everywhere, as though some terrifying power had forcibly torn it apart, leaving wounds that still could not heal. What seeped from those cracks was not spiritual energy, but nauseating dark matter carrying an evil aura that corroded everything.
This was nothing like the Primeval Ancient Realm people remembered, whose cultivation environment had rivaled that of the Immortal Domain.
"Is this... the Primeval Ancient Realm now? How did it become like this?" a young female Supreme murmured, unable to conceal the shock in her voice.
Her name was Liu Ruoxi, a prodigy of the Immortal Domain's Liu Family. She had entered the Supreme realm after cultivating for only thirty thousand years. When she had first become a Supreme, she had traveled through this world, and the Primeval Ancient Realm had rivaled the Immortal Domain in every respect. She had never imagined that upon returning, she would find it in such a miserable state.
The army continued advancing, crossing one ruined star field after another.
Everywhere they passed, devastation filled their eyes.
"These Dark Lifeforms from the Foreign Realm are truly terrifying."
"Just how many people have they killed?"
Most of the once-prosperous ancient planets teeming with life had been reduced to ruins. Some entire planets had been cleaved in half, their remains floating lifelessly through the void. Former sacred cultivation grounds, once rich in spiritual energy, now could not support even a blade of grass. Dried blood and shattered bones littered the ground.
Countless living beings had been slaughtered, and blood rained everywhere from the sky. In barely a hundred years, countless immortal-level experts, Supreme-realm experts, and Immortal Kings had fallen. This world was weeping, and even its tears of blood had run dry.
"The dark beings of the Foreign Realm are even crueler than the rumors say," True Immortal Firefeather said heavily. The immortal light around him trembled faintly, betraying his anger.
He came from the Phoenix clan and had always possessed a fiery, unyielding temperament. At the sight of this devastation, the fury in his heart was almost beyond restraint.
He could hardly wait to encounter the Foreign Realm's army and fight them.
"Immortal King, Foreign Realm scouts have been spotted ahead!" Just then, a shout rang out.
A streak of golden light shot back from the front of the army. It was a Supreme cultivator tasked with scouting the route. He dropped to one knee before the Heavenly Phoenix Immortal King and reported urgently, "An army of roughly thirty thousand from the Foreign Realm is surrounding and slaughtering the remaining cultivators of the Primeval Ancient Realm. Three Undying Ones are leading them!"
The Heavenly Phoenix Immortal King narrowed her phoenix eyes, her voice icy. "Kill them. Leave none alive!"
At her command, more than a dozen True Immortals at the front of the army moved at once, streaking away as golden light. Qin Feng was among the Supremes who followed them.
Dozens of streaks of immortal light tore through the void like heavenly punishment descending upon the world, blasting toward the star field occupied by the Foreign Realm's army.
Looking from afar, Qin Feng saw densely packed black figures besieging a group of cultivators in ragged clothing within that star field.
The cultivators' battle robes were in tatters, making it clear they had endured a long struggle. Yet not one of them retreated. They stubbornly defended an ancient life-bearing planet behind them, more than half of which lay in ruins.
On that ancient planet, countless ordinary beings could faintly be seen: the elderly, children, and young people who had only just set foot on the path of cultivation.
They had nowhere to flee and no path of retreat.
The Foreign Realm's army surged forward like a tide. Darkness pervaded heaven and earth, shrouding the star field in despair.
"Listen, feeble creatures!
"The great Undying Kings, the great ancient ancestors, have slain every Immortal King in your world. Prepare to face your final judgment!" an Undying One from the Foreign Realm declared.
"Pah! You filthy bastard! Kill us all if you have the guts!" a grievously wounded Supreme from the ancient realm roared.