The entirety of the second forward basecamp was shocked by Zhou Tang’s aurelian force. Even the giant corpse king was surprised by the threatening aura.
Zhou Tang’s appearance of a vagabond had been completely shattered, and a domineering and peerless aura emanated from him. He approached the massive corpse king step by step and said, “Aurelian force creates a region of control within the void. Its all-consuming energy is invincible.”
It seemed as though the man was speaking to himself, though it was also possible that he was speaking to Lu Yin. After making this statement, he suddenly charged the enormous corpse king, his passage causing the void to tremble. At that moment, Lu Yin clearly sensed that the void itself was assisting the older man. The void had somehow submitted to Zhou Tang.
The giant corpse king released a low growl as it threw a punch at Zhou Tang. However, the man responded with his own punch in kind.
The incredible resulting bang of the two attacks’ impact rang throughout the entire battlefield. Everyone felt fuzzy, and some people almost fainted from the jarring sound. The void had been torn in two, and there was an incredibly eye-catching spatial tear that seemed to stretch out forever like a bolt of lightning.
Lu Yin kept his eyes glued to Zhou Tang and managed to see the man blast a hole through the enormous corpse king’s fist and to the creature’s elbow. Cracks spread out across almost half of the corpse king’s body. However, Zhou Tang himself spat out a bit of blood as well, and there was more blood dripping from his body. It was clear that he had suffered the more severe injuries. Regardless, someone whose strength was greatly inferior to the corpse king’s had been able to seriously damage the creature through brute force and aurelian force.
The massive corpse king spun around and slammed a palm towards Zhou Tang. Just when Lu Yin was about to make a move, Zhou Tang lowered his head, and his left arm slashed upwards through the air. His action caused a wild whirlwind to blow upwards towards the monstrous corpse king. The ground shattered where the wind passed over, and the second half of the corpse king’s body cracked before crumbling apart.
Fresh blood splattered everywhere, painting both the plains and Zhou Tang red.
Lu Yin promised himself that he would never forget what he had just witnessed for the rest of his life. He had just seen a man who was practically indomitable, a man who possessed a peerless authority.
This man’s presence and bearing demanded respect.
Battle force was the embodiment of ambition. Those who cultivated battle force had to enjoy fighting itself and also possessing a powerful ambition and spirit, which was what battle force constituted from. This ambition and spirit had to come from within the cultivator themselves, but it could also be rooted in their faith in humanity or their own personal ambitions. This ephemeral force was capable of both attacking or defending, and it allowed a person to overcome their limits, tear through the sky, and break through the void. And in addition, to Lu Yin, it was invincibility itself.
Just when everyone’s attention was focused on Zhou Tang, a current of energy struck out from behind Marquis Green Bamboo. It was the Divine Martial Armor’s energy.
Marquis Green Bamboo whipped around, his eyes piercingly sharp. “Xia Yan, as a general, don’t you find it embarrassing to ambush someone?”
While speaking, the marquis raised a hand and caused the Divine Martial Armor’s energy to suddenly vanish. Right after that, Marquis Green Bamboo and Xia Yan both disappeared.
Colonel Zuo let out a sigh of relief; the general had finally arrived, and the battlefield would stabilize. “Immediately repair the sourcebox array and then start repairing the teleportation device.”
After speaking, he looked over towards Zhou Tang.
Zhou Tang’s head was still hung low, which caused Colonel Zuo to frown. That man had overused his aurelian force, which meant that he would no longer be of any use on the battlefield.
Lu Yin hastened over to Zhou Tang, but there was someone else who moved even quicker. It was the Envoy swordsman.
As Lu Yin was making his way towards Zhou Tang, he suddenly heard a voice call out, “Long Qi, immediately move to the teleportation device. No delays can be risked. Hurry!”
It was Xia Yan’s voice. Lu Yin looked around and saw that quite a few people were rushing towards the teleportation device. Why had Xia Yan asked him to do the same?
High above everyone else, Marquis Green Bamboo’s figure appeared before almost instantly disappearing once more. He then said, “Xia Yan, how dare a junior like you challenge me? Can someone like you measure up to the countless years of experience that I have accumulated?”
“If we’re comparing years, then not even the Xia family’s ancestors can compare to you, but do you dare to compare yourself to those living in the Dominion Realm?” Xia Yan refuted.
“I may not be able to compare to Progenitors, but you? You pose no threat to me. The second array base’s headquarters isn’t doing so well right now either, is it?” Marquis Green Bamboo said casually. He appeared to be completely relaxed.
Despite the calm conversation being held by the two men, the void exploding around them was proof of the exact opposite. They were actually standing at the center of the most intense portion of the entire battlefield, and even Colonel Zuo was afraid to move closer.
“I know what you’re planning, but so what? Just try me,” Xia Yan growled in challenge.
Above the metallic plains of the second forward basecamp, the broken sword suddenly began to tremble as it synchronized with the void. Another Xia Yan appeared. He was using the Xia family’s Nine Clones Secret Technique.
Lu Yin caught a glimpse of that moment.
Xia Yan’s clone scanned the battlefield from above, and he saw Lu Yin still standing in place, so he loudly shouted, “Go NOW!”
Lu Yin looked over towards Zhou Tang, only to realize that the two men were still standing in place. Had Xia Yan not given the two powerhouses the same orders as everyone else?
“Brother Zhou, was that really necessary?” the Envoy swordsman let out a sigh.
Zhou Tang coughed up a mouthful of blood and struggled to speak. “I will not… embarrass… the… Lu family.”
An astral chessboard appeared beneath Lu Yin’s feet, and he moved. He had to take Zhou Tang away.
At that same moment, another pair of scarlet eyes opened beyond the void. Their appearance sent chills running down Colonel Zuo’s spine. “General! It’s Marquis Midday.”
Xia Yan was shocked. He maintained a tight grip on the hilt of the broken sword and glanced down at Lu Yin one last time. After that, he discarded all hesitation and slashed the broken blade across the metallic plains, only avoiding the teleportation device’s location. After the sword sliced through the entire metal plain, it subsequently trembled before falling down towards the New World below.
By the time Lu Yin managed to reach Zhou Tang’s side with the Ce Secret Art, the second forward basecamp was already falling. He lifted his head to look at Xia Yan, only to see Xia Yan entering the void along with the broken sword. At that sight, the Envoy swordsman turned as white as a sheet of paper. “This is bad. We’ve been abandoned.”
The second forward basecamp fell down extremely quickly. There were multiple Envoys who wanted to enter the void to escape and return to the teleportation device, but all such attempts failed; another giant corpse king showed up and stopped everyone.
Since everyone had been abandoned, it was considered impossible for any of them to return.
The second forward basecamp plummeted and began to fracture as Lu Yin subconsciously held onto Zhou Tang. The Envoy was already injured, so Lu Yin could not allow the man to be swept away by the raging winds.
“Who are you?” the swordsman asked as he stared at Lu Yin. The youth was tight holding onto Zhou Tang as they fell.
Zhou Tang raised his head to look at Lu Yin, and he studied Lu Yin with tired eyes.
Lu Yin answered quietly, “There’s no point speaking about such things right now. Rather, where are we falling to?”
“The New World,” Zhou Tang answered in a hoarse voice.
Lu Yin’s heart sank. “The New World? There should be humans there, right?”
Closeby, a corpse king charged forward to attack Lu Yin, but the Envoy swordsman slashed it in half without even looking as he replied, “You should be thinking about how you can keep yourself alive. There’s no way there are any humans where we’re headed, just corpse kings. We’re all already dead.”
Lu Yin went pale, and he then squeezed his cosmic ring. Master, please give me strength!
Given the strength of the cultivators fighting on the battlefield behind the Mother Tree, the impact from their landing would not be enough to harm them much. However, just as the swordsman had said, the true threat that they would face was not from the fall or the impact, but rather from the endless number of corpse kings that would surround them.
After quite a while, there was a deafening thud as the ground cracked apart. They had crashed into the lower landmass, and the impact sent shockwaves rippling out in every direction and destroying countless creatures.
Even though the cultivators who defending the second forward basecamp would not be injured from the landmass striking the New World, there had still been corpse kings and terror ants with them as they had fell down.
Such creatures had no fear of death since they could not even understand the concept of pain. Even as the second forward basecamp cracked and shattered into pieces, the monsters continued attacking, and they managed to kill quite a number of humans at that moment.
Fortunately, when Xia Yan’s clone had sliced through the second forward basecamp with the broken sword, he had specifically sliced through the void as well, killing off all of the Envoy level corpse kings with his own strength as a Semi-Progenitor. That had at least allowed the experts from the Star Alliance to regain control of the situation during the fall.
The Envoy realm swordsman and the nearby Star Alliance members all attacked as one, and they eliminated all of the corpse kings and ants that had fallen with them within the time that it took half a stick of incense to burn.
Lu Yin took advantage of the opportunity when the Envoys were slaughtering the corpse kings to look around. He saw an endless maroon mountain range, planets revolving around the mountains, boiling red seawater, and odd gases that gave him a sense of danger.
Was this the New World?
The universe was a cruel place, and it was not easy for ordinary humans to find hospitable planets. The New World was clearly not a place meant for humans to live. Lu Yin was even able to sense that toxins permeated the air that were so strong that ordinary humans could not survive for more than a second.
“Is this the rumored New World? It’s over. We’re all done for. We’re going to die,” an male Enlighter whispered to himself in a corner. His face had gone completely pale, and his eyes radiated thick fear.
Elsewhere, many people were trying to climb up the crumbled ruins of the second forward basecamp. They were surrounded by nothing but desolate, maroon mountain ranges, while up above them stood the enormous second array base. Even though the second array base was so large that it was connected to the Mother Tree, all that they could see from their vantage point down below was a mere shadow.
“There are rumors that the New World is those monsters’ playground. They’ve built cities here, and they’ve modeled the whole place after the Perennial World itself. This is the enemy’s forward basecamp,” someone blurted in terror.
His words stirred up even more fear amongst everyone.
Lu Yin extended his domain to his limits, and his expression soon stiffened.
“Defend!” he warned.
There were countless corpse kings closing in on them from all directions. What the Envoy swordsman had mentioned turned out to be true; they really had fallen into a place where they were surrounded by corpse kings.
The battle did not let up for even a moment for the human forces, as corpse kings streamed towards them in an endless horde and launched all-out attacks against the humans.
An estimated tens of thousands of people had fallen with the second forward basecamp, and a few Envoys had already dealt with the corpse kings and ants that had fallen with them. Everyone else gathered into a defensive formation that protected them from all directions so that they could resist the attacks from the endless corpse kings.
Golden battle force twined around Lu Yin’s body, and after he raised his hand, he emptied out a large area of corpse kings with a Vacuum Palm. The power of his Vacuum Palm was incomparable to his other attacks.
The corpse kings that raced towards the humans could not compare to the monsters that had assaulted the second forward basecamp, but that was only if one compared the monsters’ average strength. The occasional Envoy level corpse king still showed up from time to time, and those monsters were dealt with by the powerhouses from the Star Alliance.
The wounded all fell back to the center of the circle to be protected by the others, and that was where Zhou Tang had been left. He had not moved a single muscle after they had fallen to the New World. He would not be able to recover any time soon after overexhausting his battle force earlier.
Seeing countless pairs of scarlet eyes staring straight at him caused Lu Yin’s scalp to go numb from fear. Stars revolved around him, and then 726 stars exploded towards the corpse kings. Lu Yin perfectly defended the area that he had been given, and he did not allow even a single corpse king to pass by. The young man actually did better than many of the Envoys from the Star Alliance.
One day later, countless corpses filled the land around them, and the circle of humans that had fallen down with Lu Yin had shrunk by a noticeable amount. Many of their comrades had died, which had left them with no choice but to fall back and shrink their circle.
There was a loud swoosh, and countless stone pillars shot up from beneath the ground. Lu Yin stepped forward with a foot, and he stomped down to shatter the ground. Fissures cracked open in the ground and spread far away. As that happened, he raised a hand to attack with a Vacuum Palm once again. He managed to clear out a large number of corpse kings this way.
Suddenly, Lu Yin’s expression tensed, and he turned to look some distance away, where he saw a cultivator who had been defending another area, just like Lu Yin. The man was attacking the corpse kings with his full strength even though half of his body was missing. Before long, another cultivator took the man’s place to join the bloodbath.
“Fall back!” shouted an Envoy. Right after he shouted, the void began to churn, and a blood-red claw scratched down the entire length of the powerhouse’s arm, and two other humans instantly disappeared.
Lu Yin had no choice but to retreat, watching as yet another group of people died during their desperate fight.
