The entire Being As It Is Secret Realm was instantly filled with such carnage. In the ancient forest, flocks of Star Bone-Winged Beasts swept through the treetops, engaging in a chase and battle with thousands of cultivators.
On the edge of the Crimson Flame Continent, hundreds of Fire Vein Ancient Dragons surged out along the long river of lava, their roars shattering the layers of clouds in the sky; near the Inverted Ocean, Heavenly Whales with crystalline peaks swung their massive tails, whipping up towering curtains of water that crashed into the sect's group that had just landed;
On both banks of the golden river, tens of thousands of Four-Winged Thunder Beasts rushed out of the valley, each flap of their wings attracting a dense waterfall of lightning; between the black mountains, an unknown divine beast supreme being with a body made of ring-shaped bones rolled over, its central giant eye shooting out beams of dark golden light that collided violently with the supernatural powers of the cultivators in the sky.
Almost simultaneously, multiple deployment areas within the entire secret realm were engulfed by the beast tide. The roars, howls, sword cries, and angry shouts of cultivators mingled together, and the mesmerizing grandeur and silence that had captivated visitors upon entering the secret realm had completely vanished.
Meanwhile, in another illusionary realm extremely far from Qin Yu, the Blue-Gray Mountain Plain where the Shangguan Lineage family was located had transformed into a completely boiling battlefield.
This is a vast, grayish-blue mountain plain stretching for countless miles, with massive columnar rock peaks dotting the ground. After the tens of thousands of disciples of the Shangguan Lineage were separated by the black hole, a considerable number of them happened to fall into a nearby area. Initially, while everyone was still quickly searching for their clan members, the beast tide had already pressed in from behind the three mountain ranges at the same time.
Shangguan Wan'er, standing at the forefront, frowned. Her deep purple robe fluttered in the oncoming wind. She glanced at the dense shadows of beasts in the distance, then suddenly raised her right hand. Her deep, resonant voice, possessing the power of the Eternal Silence Realm · Supreme, overwhelmed the deafening roars of the beasts, echoing throughout the entire mountain plain.
"All disciples are forbidden to hold back any tricks. Go all out and slay the Primordial Divine Beast and the Supreme Divine Beast!" "Yes!!" Tens of thousands of responses resounded simultaneously.
But the moment the voice fell, Shangguan Wan'er felt a strange sense of disorientation deep within her Fate Soul. The beast tide before her was ferocious and overwhelming, its killing intent, blood energy, and Daoist aura all incredibly real. Yet, that sense of disorientation felt like a fine needle piercing the deepest part of her Fate Soul —it didn't hurt, but it just wouldn't go away.
Her brows furrowed almost imperceptibly. The battle was urgent, and there was no time to think. In the next moment, the Fate Soul essence behind the Shangguan Lineage disciples unfolded almost simultaneously.
Buzz! The entire Blue-Gray Mountain Plain was suddenly illuminated by the light of the Dao. One after another, phantom images of Fate Souls rose from above the crowd. There were long swords in the sky, giant wheels hanging in the sky, ancient bells hanging down, scrolls of mountains and rivers unfurling among the clouds, Fate Souls of giant beasts hundreds of feet tall raising their heads and roaring, and ancient seals of various shapes spinning rapidly around their masters.
The primal auras released by tens of thousands of cultivators overlapped, directly tearing open several huge gaps in the thick clouds above. The first few thousand people quickly spread out to the left and right, while the disciples behind filled the center, and the originally scattered crowd formed several intertwined formations in a matter of breaths.
"First column, block the front!" Shangguan Wan'er suddenly swung her hand downwards.
Boom!! At the forefront, thousands of disciples attacked simultaneously, unleashing thousands of divine powers across the sky. A torrent of swords poured down like a silver river, hundreds of giant seals crashed down in layers, a crimson-gold spear split into thousands of spear shadows in mid-air, and black and white Dao wheels pushed forward along the ground.
The first batch of ancient divine beasts that rushed up the mountain collided head-on with this torrent of divine power. Dozens of True Annihilation Realm · Initial Stage ancient beasts were the first to have their armor plates shattered and their massive bodies rolled over. Behind them, True Annihilation Realm · Intermediate Stage divine beasts continued to charge forward despite the overwhelming onslaught.
A three-headed black lion leaped into the air amidst the tide of swords, its three massive mouths roaring simultaneously, the sonic waves violently deflecting hundreds of sword lights directly in front of it. Just as it landed, the attacks from the second row of Shangguan Lineage disciples had already passed over the heads of the first row.
"Fall!"
Clang! Hundreds of giant swords, formed from the essence of Fate Soul, slashed down simultaneously, tearing open the backs of the three-headed black lions in an instant. Amidst the spray of blood, a disciple of the Shangguan Lineage rushed out, stepping on the path of light left by his companion's divine power, and wielded a longsword with both hands, slashing down from the side of one of the lion heads. Swoosh! The huge beast head rolled away on the spot.
"Right wing! There's a divine beast supreme on the right wing!" someone shouted a warning. The mountain peak on the right suddenly exploded, True Annihilation Realm · Supreme soared into the sky from the rubble. Its entire body was covered in purplish-black scales, and thick arcs of lightning were wrapped between its eight bone wings. Three vertical beast eyes appeared on its forehead. The moment the central eye opened, a beam of purplish-black lightning swept across the formation.
"Defense!" Hundreds of Shangguan Lineage disciples turned around simultaneously, their Fate Soul essence rapidly weaving together in front of them, layers of light barriers just beginning to form—
Boom!! The purplish-black lightning struck the array wall head-on, shattering the outermost layer of defense on the spot, and causing the second layer to cave in violently. Dozens of disciples standing in the front row slid backward, their shoes leaving deep marks on the rocky ground, and some of them were already bleeding from their mouths.
But they did not retreat. More Shangguan Lineage disciples quickly filled in, and hundreds of streams of essence poured into the array wall at the same time, forcefully holding the beam of lightning in mid-air.
"Kill!" Three cultivators from the Shangguan Lineage at the Eternal Silence Realm leaped up from the formation at the same time. One of them attracted the Eight-Winged Divine Beast Supreme from the front, while the other two flanked from the left and right. A sky full of sword light sealed off the eight bone wings first.
One of them slammed his palms together, causing two colossal primordial peaks to coalesce from the void on either side, launching a deafening attack. The Eight-Winged Divine Beast Supreme roared in fury, its four bone wings protecting its body while the other four slashed out horizontally. Swoosh! The colossal peaks were sliced open, but the Eternal Silence Realm cultivator in front of it had already passed through the lightning, his spear piercing the first beastly eye on its forehead.
"Roar--!" Blood gushed out.
The offensive of the Shangguan Lineage's tens of thousands of disciples did not stop. The first wave of beasts fell, and the second wave immediately followed. After the second wave was torn apart by the overwhelming divine powers, the third wave surged out from behind the mountains.
One after another, ancient divine beasts of the True Annihilation Realm lay dead on the Blue-Gray Mountain Plain, their massive corpses gradually piling up into mounds, their blood flowing along the cracks in the rocks into dark red streams. Only occasionally would some of the blood seep into the depths of the rock crevices, and before it could solidify, it would quietly transform into a wisp of extremely faint light mist and dissipate, so quickly it seemed like an illusion.
Shangguan Wan'er glanced at it out of the corner of her eye, and that sense of disorientation stirred again in her heart, but she was focused on maintaining the array's core and had no time to be distracted.
The Shangguan Lineage's formation was constantly deformed with each attack. The injured disciples in the front line retreated to the rear, and the unharmed ones in the rear immediately took their place. The elders moved through the various formation points, and their angry shouts echoed throughout the battlefield. Tens of thousands of Fate Soul essences rose and fell under the sky. Each large-scale combined attack would cause a large part of the sky to light up suddenly.
"Three hundred feet to the left, attack together!" Boom!! Second formation in the center, suppress! Thud--!" Rear ranks, don't panic, hold them down! Clang! Boom! Bang!!
Wave after wave of beast tides were shattered by the Shangguan Lineage, and even several True Annihilation Realm · Supreme fell one after another under the siege of numerous elders and disciples.
Many of the young disciples had their faces stained with beast blood, their breathing was heavy, and their hands gripping their weapons trembled slightly, but the fighting spirit in their eyes grew stronger and stronger. Some even began to feel that this sudden beast tide could be slaughtered bit by bit.
At that very moment—"Roar—!" A furious roar suddenly came from the far distance.
The moment the sound appeared, the entire battlefield seemed to be slammed down by an invisible giant hand. The ground suddenly sank, and dozens of columnar rock peaks in the distance simultaneously exploded.
Rumble--! A large number of the charging ancient divine beasts simultaneously lowered their bodies, and some True Annihilation Realm · Initial Stage ancient beasts even lowered their heads.
The originally frenzied and chaotic beast tide underwent an extremely strange change after this roar. The giant beasts that were fighting with the Shangguan Lineage in front began to part to the sides, and from the Fang Chen, a ferocious aura far more terrifying than those True Annihilation Realm divine beasts and supreme beings was rapidly approaching along the earth.
Shangguan Wan'er was standing at the front, suddenly turned her head. The murderous intent on her face froze, her eyes were fixed on the Fang Chen, her pupils suddenly contracted, her face lost color at a visible speed, and her hands clenched tightly in her sleeves, her knuckles turning pale.
The aura that had not yet fully revealed itself sent a chill down her spine, instantly shattering the composure she had built up from slaying the beast tide. What alarmed her even more was that the sense of disorientation deep within her Fate Soul suddenly amplified, as if reminding her that the owner of this aura had some connection with this world that she had yet to fully comprehend.
"Back off!" Her voice was noticeably urgent for the first time. Several disciples nearby turned around in surprise. Shangguan Wan'er whirled around, veins bulging on her forehead, and roared at the entire Shangguan Lineage formation with almost all her might—
"All Shangguan Lineage disciples, form a battle formation immediately!!" The expressions of tens of thousands of disciples changed simultaneously. No one pursued the retreating beast horde any longer.
"Form ranks!! Form ranks!!" "Return to positions!" "Contract the front line!" "Quickly!!" Figures frantically retreated to the center, and the original formation that stretched for dozens of miles quickly contracted inward. Wounded disciples were carried back by their fellow disciples, and the outer cultivators swiftly returned to their positions, stepping on the shattered rocks.
At the forefront, thousands of people knelt on one knee and pressed their palms down on the ground simultaneously. The middle-level disciples stood in an alternating pattern, while the cultivators behind quickly filled the gaps. Several Shangguan Lineage landed in different directions, their robes billowing as they simultaneously activated their Fate Soul essence.
Whoosh! The first Fate Soul soared into the sky. The second followed closely behind. Then came hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands...
The entire sky was instantly covered by the vast primordial radiance. The Fate Soul essence of tens of thousands of Shangguan Lineage disciples unfolded simultaneously. Sword souls rang out across the sky, ancient bells shook mountains and rivers, giant cauldrons hung high in the sky, Dao wheels intertwined in layers, ancient beast Fate Souls lay dormant outside the formation, and star-shaped Fate Souls spread out a vast star curtain at an even higher place.
One after another, primordial patterns lit up from beneath each disciple's feet, extending wildly along the shattered earth, connecting, converging, and closing with each other, instantly linking tens of thousands of cultivators into a massive formation.
"Stabilize the Fate Soul!" An elder thrust his palms forward, veins bulging on his forehead. "Keep the connection of the source, do not break the formation!"
Whoosh! Tens of thousands of Fate Soul essences flowed along the array patterns simultaneously, and a thick light screen rose up first on the outermost layer. Then, the second, third, and fourth layers rose up one after another, with countless phantoms of Fate Soul wandering within each layer of defense.
At the very center, several elders poured their own essence into the array's core without reservation, causing the entire array to expand rapidly. Eventually, it resembled a vast sky inverted on the Blue-Gray Mountain Plain, enveloping all the Shangguan Lineage disciples within it.
No one spoke again within the formation. The young disciples, who had been so eager to fight just moments before, now gripped their weapons tightly, their faces still wet with the blood of the beast. All their eyes were fixed on the distance, piercing through the layers of formation walls.
Rumble—rumble—rumble—The terrifying aura was approaching. With each step closer, the earth trembled. The beast tide ahead continued to retreat to the sides, countless ancient divine beasts and supreme divine beasts lowering their bodies to make way for an ever-widening path. And at the end of that path, the churning dust was slowly splitting open to both sides—
Shangguan Wan'er stood at the forefront of the great formation, her face so solemn it was almost gloomy, cold sweat slowly trickling down her temples. The sense of dislocation deep within her Fate Soul still throbbed faintly, and she vaguely felt that this being about to emerge from behind the veil of dust might be the true master of this world.
She did not look away, but continued to channel her own Fate Soul essence into the formation. Behind her, tens of thousands of disciples were also firmly rooted to their respective positions. The light of the entire formation grew brighter and brighter, and everyone was waiting for the roaring divine beast to appear from behind the veil of dust.
What she didn't know was that this world was not a real secret realm, but one of the Twelve Zodiac Illusion Realm. The beast blood turning into mist and the displaced Fate Souls were all subtle traces left by the laws of the illusion. Only by passing this test could the illusion truly return to nothingness, and the being behind the dust curtain that had not yet appeared was the guardian of this test.