The war spear struck the edge of the dark gold scales with unerring precision.
The blood-colored war spear, wreathed in immortal laws, abruptly stopped in midair the instant it touched the scales.
Not even the slightest ripple stirred between its tip and the dark gold skin.
Immediately afterward.
"Hum."
A physical vibration, too deep for the ears to hear and perceptible only to the soul, rebounded along the spear.
Chi Meng did not even have time to react.
The damaged immortal weapon disintegrated inch by inch from its tip, becoming the most fundamental atomic dust.
The recoil spread straight into Chi Meng's hands.
His arms, chest, and head, along with the imperial clan true blood and primordial spirit within him that he took such pride in.
Within one millionth of a breath, they were crushed into nothingness.
Without so much as a scream, he evaporated completely from the world!
He Ziming and the three remaining prodigies froze in place.
The blood throughout their bodies seemed to plunge into an ice cavern ten thousand fathoms deep.
Dead?
An imperial clan prodigy who had exhausted every trump card and wielded a damaged immortal weapon had been reduced to nothing by the recoil, without harming so much as a hair on the other party?
This was no opportunity at all!
This was an altar of death that could crush all the heavens at any moment!
"Run!"
He Ziming's mind went blank. The silver wings on his back beat frantically, and he even burned his lifespan, trying to activate a Void-Piercing Talisman to escape.
But it was too late.
Chi Meng's presumptuous strike had been too weak even to count as scratching an itch on this body.
Yet the touch of that external force instinctively provoked a faint physical stress response from the sleeping Gu Xian.
Just as a sleeping person's muscles would naturally twitch when an insect brushed their skin.
On the enormous stretch of tail lying across the Heavenly Abyss, the surface of the dark gold scales contracted by one ten-millionth of an inch.
That mere one ten-millionth of an inch of muscular contraction.
The space throughout the Heavenly Abyss instantly collapsed.
A physical shock wave a hundred times more powerful than before became a transparent tsunami visible to the naked eye, surging wildly toward the Foreign Realm army.
He Ziming and the other two prodigies bore the brunt of it.
Before even a thought of despair could arise, the transparent tsunami swept over their bodies, turning them into blood mist on the spot.
Then even the blood mist was scoured away completely.
Without pausing in the slightest, the transparent tsunami charged straight toward the main formation of the Foreign Realm's army of ten million, carrying world-destroying might that swept through everything like rotten wood.
Deep in the desert.
An Lan's manifestation had been quietly watching the Heavenly Abyss.
Suddenly, unprecedented horror flashed across his face, which had remained unruffled through the ages.
"All troops, form up! Defend!"
An Lan let out a furious roar that shook the Nine Heavens.
He seized his golden spear and drove his Immortal King essence to its utmost limit, holding fast at the very front of the army of ten million.
The next instant, the transparent physical tsunami slammed into An Lan's screen of light.
At that moment, every sound between heaven and earth vanished.
The collision was so extreme that it completely annihilated the rules throughout the desert, forcibly erasing even the medium through which sound traveled.
Immediately afterward, a visible ring of black ripples exploded from the point of collision.
An Lan's face, unruffled through the ages, instantly twisted.
The Immortal King laws he took such pride in seemed to strike an insurmountable wall of bronze and iron the moment they touched the transparent tsunami.
There were no exquisite transformations of divine abilities.
There was no interplay of waxing and waning Great Daos.
There was only physical crushing, pure and violent to the absolute extreme.
"Hold it back!"
An Lan roared, his thick, long hair dancing wildly.
Holding aloft in one arm the golden spear whose fame resounded through the ages, he frantically poured all the immortal true blood within his body into it.
The spear erupted with dazzling divine radiance, transforming into a golden True Dragon with bared fangs and brandished claws, holding firm against the screen of light ahead.
But it was utterly useless.
The physical shock wave caused by that one ten-millionth of an inch of muscular contraction bore down viciously on the golden spear with unsurpassed power that swept through everything like rotten wood.
"Creeeak... crack!"
The teeth-grating screech of twisting metal rang through the clouds.
That supreme Immortal King weapon, which had once pierced the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands and impaled countless True Immortals, bent into a terrifying arc.
Every muscle in An Lan's right arm bulged, and countless fine bloody fissures instantly split across his skin.
Golden immortal blood sprayed like rain.
His feet were planted firmly in the desert, yet he still could not steady himself.
Under the utterly terrified gazes of the Foreign Realm's army of ten million, their supreme Ancient Ancestor An Lan was actually pushed sliding backward by that transparent tsunami.
His feet plowed two bottomless chasms ten thousand fathoms deep through the desert.
"How is this possible..."
An imperial clan commander of the Foreign Realm fell to his knees as his legs gave way, his eyes filled with the despair of shattered faith.
What an invincible existence Ancient Ancestor An Lan was!
Yet now, a shock wave that did not even qualify as a divine ability was forcing him back step by step!
Behind the screen of light, despite An Lan's desperate resistance, faint residual tremors still seeped through.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Among the Foreign Realm's vanguard, swathes of elite armored soldiers did not even have time to scream before the sweeping shock waves turned their bodies into blood mist that filled the sky.
The army collapsed in defeat amid the wails of ghosts and howls of gods.
At the critical instant when An Lan was about to give out and his golden spear was about to snap completely.
Space exploded with a thunderous crash.
A withered hand containing boundless power suddenly reached out of nothingness and pressed against An Lan's back.
Yu Tuo had arrived.
This Immortal King, whose fame equaled An Lan's, could no longer remain composed.
He drove his own immortal essence to its peak and poured it without reservation through his palm into An Lan's body.
"Hold on!"
Yu Tuo let out a roar that shook heaven and earth.
The two Immortal Kings joined forces, their vast Immortal Dao Laws becoming two divine pillars that reached the heavens, firmly supporting the tottering defensive screen of light.
Violent ripples spread across its surface, finally slowing the physical tsunami's advance a fraction.
But Yu Tuo's face instantly turned deathly pale.
Only upon truly coming into contact with this power did he understand the terrifying pressure An Lan had just endured.
This was no attack of the Great Dao.
It was an utterly boundless universe crashing straight into them through sheer mass.
Before absolute mass, their laws were as fragile as thin paper.
"What in the world left this aftershock?!"
Yu Tuo bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood essence, which became a sky full of blood-colored runes that affixed themselves to the screen of light.
An Lan gasped for breath. The webbing between his thumb and forefinger had long since split, and golden blood dripped down the spear shaft.
He stared fixedly at the far end of the Heavenly Abyss.
There, the dark gold tail still lay quietly, as though that heaven-destroying, earth-shattering blow had nothing to do with it.
As the two Immortal Kings struggled to hold on.
Several terrifying sighs that shook the ages suddenly sounded from the ancestral land in the deepest reaches of the Foreign Realm.
"Are heaven and earth about to topple?"
With those sighs, a plain, ancient Heavenly Halberd cleaved straight through the great universe, crossing over from the farthest end of the Foreign Realm.
Terrifying Dao resonance impervious to all arts coiled around the Heavenly Halberd.
Wu Shang had emerged from seclusion.
This peerless demon king, renowned for his immunity to magical power and unmatched physical body, had been in sealed seclusion, deducing a higher realm.
Yet the physical kinetic energy at the desert's edge, powerful enough to overturn the entire Foreign Realm, had forcibly startled him awake.
Wu Shang took one step, instantly crossing endless galaxies to descend beside An Lan and Yu Tuo.
Without asking a single question, he swung the magic-immune Heavenly Halberd with one hand and hacked heavily into the transparent physical tsunami.
"Boom!"
Wu Shang had thought his immunity to magical power would let him easily neutralize this assault.
But the instant the Heavenly Halberd touched the tsunami, his pupils abruptly contracted.
No magical power!
This tsunami contained not the slightest fluctuation of magical power!
It was entirely physical strength, pure to the absolute extreme!
"Damn it!"
Wu Shang grunted, the webbing between the thumbs and forefingers of both hands gripping the Heavenly Halberd splitting at once.
Under these physical tremors, the immortal body he took such pride in actually let out the mournful cries of bones unable to bear the burden.
Wu Shang dared not overestimate himself. He immediately stood shoulder to shoulder with An Lan and Yu Tuo, pouring his strength into the defensive screen of light.
Three Immortal Kings had gathered.
Such a lineup could have flattened the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands ten times over.
Yet now, they could only hold desperately against a shield like three mortals swaying in wind and rain, resisting a storm with no end in sight.
The skies of the Foreign Realm turned completely dark red.
The Great Dao wailed, and laws snapped.
The terrifying commotion here finally disturbed all the ancient beings still sleeping in the Foreign Realm.
The River of Time churned.
A boundlessly enormous scarlet beast of time came riding the waves.
The Scarlet King appeared.
Immediately afterward, an ancient, mottled Immortal Refining Pot shattered space.
Kun Di, the oldest and most senior Immortal King of the Foreign Realm, also awakened from the ancient hall where he had secluded himself and descended upon this desert.
A full five Immortal Kings.
Every one of them was a supreme titan who had left a fearsome name during the Immortal Ancient Era.
Now, all of them stood at the very front of the Foreign Realm army, their expressions grave to the utmost.
"Strike together!"
Kun Di's aged voice echoed between heaven and earth, carrying unquestionable resolve.
The five Immortal Kings exerted their strength at once.
Five pillars of Immortal Dao light, each a different color yet equally boundless in terror, shot into the sky and converged in midair into a supreme divine shield that blotted out the heavens and sun.
Upon the divine shield were branded all the highest laws the Foreign Realm had possessed throughout the ages.
"Rumble!"
The physical tsunami finally collided with the divine shield that gathered the full strength of five Immortal Kings in the fiercest clash yet.
The entire desert beyond the realm sank millions of fathoms at that moment.
Endless yellow sand became magma, then was annihilated into the most primordial particles under the terrifying pressure.
The five Immortal Kings shuddered violently from head to toe.
The earth beneath their feet cracked madly.
Five beings, five peerlessly invincible kings, were actually pushed backward thousands of miles in perfect unison by this power.
An ear-piercing grinding rang through the clouds.
Cracks kept bursting across the divine shield's surface, only to be forcibly repaired by the immortal essence the five frantically poured into it.
This tug-of-war between pure strength and supreme laws lasted a full half an incense stick's time.
Finally, after exhausting all its kinetic energy, the transparent tsunami caused by one ten-millionth of an inch of muscular contraction slowly dissipated between heaven and earth.
Silence lay over the desert.
The five Immortal Kings maintained their defensive stances, remaining motionless for a long time.
A breeze swept past.
The golden spear in An Lan's hand gave a mournful cry. Several fine cracks that could not heal had appeared along its shaft.
Yu Tuo's chest heaved violently, and a trace of golden blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
Wu Shang's hands still trembled faintly and uncontrollably around the Heavenly Halberd.
Though the Scarlet King and Kun Di were in slightly better condition, neither could conceal the horror in his eyes.
They had stopped it.
By joining forces, five Immortal Kings had finally stopped this impact powerful enough to destroy heaven and earth.
But not one of them felt fortunate.
A suffocating oppression filled the air.
Kun Di slowly turned his head toward where those imperial-clan prodigies had long since been reduced to drifting ash.
He had lived far too long; a single glance let him see through everything that had just happened.
"Was it those juniors who touched that thing in the Heavenly Abyss?"
Kun Di's voice was dry and hoarse, betraying neither joy nor anger.
An Lan drew a deep breath, hid his trembling hands inside his broad sleeves, and slowly nodded.
"Chi Meng used a damaged immortal artifact, trying to pry off a scale."
At those words, the corner of Wu Shang's eye twitched violently, and he could not help bursting into curses.
"Fools!"
"Were they courting death?!"
Wu Shang glanced at the split wound in the web of his hand, and a wave of lingering fear rose within him.
It had merely been a trace of bodily reflex triggered by an external touch no greater than a mosquito's bite.
Yet it had forced the five of them, all Immortal Kings, to join forces just to barely withstand it.
If that being truly opened its eyes and raised that tail to lash at them...
Wu Shang dared not think any further.
That was undoubtedly an ultimate power beyond the Immortal King realm, enough to reformat the entire world.
The Scarlet King gazed at the stretch of dark gold tail lying across the depths of the Heavenly Abyss, his tone grave.
"Just where did that thing come from?"
"How could this world give birth to a physical body that defies the fundamental principles of the Great Dao like this?"
Yu Tuo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and gave a bitter laugh.
"We don't know."
"We don't even know whether this colossal stretch lying across the Heavenly Abyss is its tail or one of its feelers."
At those words, the five Immortal Kings sank into another long silence.
Indeed.
Even a glimpse of a leopard through a tube revealed one of its spots.
Just the small portion exposed had already crushed the Laws of the Heavenly Abyss.
How vast, then, was its true body, hidden deep within the Chaos?
"Pass down my command."
As the most ancient king, Kun Di finally delivered his verdict.
"The Foreign Realm's army is to withdraw within our borders immediately."
"From this day forward, the area within a radius of billions of li of the Heavenly Abyss shall be designated the Foreign Realm's foremost forbidden zone."
"Any living being, even a descendant of an imperial clan, who dares set so much as half a foot inside the forbidden zone shall have their nine clans exterminated outright, without trial."
Even Kun Di, a hardliner who had fervently advocated razing the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, chose to compromise completely at this moment.
Rather than conquering the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.
What they most needed to consider now was how to avoid waking this world-destroying behemoth coiled beyond their borders.
Just as the five Immortal Kings were about to turn, tear open the void, and return to the Foreign Realm's ancestral land.
The chaotic mists deep within the Heavenly Abyss suddenly began to churn violently.
That churning was not caused by a storm.
Rather, something unimaginably immense was slowly moving.
The five Immortal Kings abruptly froze in their tracks.
They all turned their heads in unison, staring fixedly at that expanse of churning Chaos.
At that moment, even their hearts seemed to stop.
Across the vast desert, the surviving millions of soldiers of the Foreign Realm's army did not even dare breathe heavily, and countless people collapsed limply to the ground.
"Is it... waking up?" For the first time, a trace of a tremor entered An Lan's voice.
The chaotic mists were pushed aside little by little.