An ultimatum!
If this ultimatum had not been set by the North Thearch, the Sword Thearch, the Beast Thearch, and Xing Mo, many people would probably have scoffed. According to their calculations, Jiang Yi and the Buddha Thearch had enough battle skills to completely suppress the other side; and yet what Xing Mo was saying was not, in the least, a bit funny!
Jiang Yi’s battle power was comparable to a nine-star formidable martial artist. The Buddha Thearch was also a nine-star martial artist as was the Saint Emperor and the Saint Empress! Tang Shenji and the others were obviously standing on their side, along with the heads of the Xuan Clan, the Mo Clan, the Freedom Sect… Jiang Xiaonu.
The North Thearch had one divine weapon with him. Xing Mo’s soul spirit was also terrifying. However, apart from the two of them, only Xing Mengwan could rely on her battle formations to fight nine-star martial artists. If the entire group attacked together, many people thought that Xing Mo and the North Thearch would not be their match.
What was wrong?
Jiang Yi had no idea; neither did the Buddha Thearch, the Saint Empress, or any of the elderly folks. The entire group dared not move, but no one surrendered as well; neither did anyone fly toward the Buddha Thearch and company.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
After about thirty seconds, someone finally moved. A few great family clans that had been relying on the Wu Clan, the Jiang Clan, and the Tu Clan all this time finally flew toward their Heaven Fate Ship and got down on one knee, showing their greatest respect.
In reality, they were extremely clear that by going down on one knee, they could be embarking on a path of no return. However, they also knew that even if they chose not to follow the North Thearch and company any longer—when Jiang Yi finally emerged victorious and counted their losses, they would have nowhere to run either. All they could do was be as stubborn as mules and stick with the North Thearch.
Swish! Swish!
A few other great family clans and smaller family clans flew over to the North Thearch’s Heaven Fate Ship as well, but most of them decided to stay where they were and not move. A few family clans flew toward Jiang Yi’s Heaven Fate Ship as well. Xing Mo did not bother to stop them this time. He wanted to wait for everyone to make their decision before he acted.
Five minutes passed very quickly.
The line was drawn very clearly. Close to a million people were kneeling beneath the North Thearch’s Heaven Fate Ship. Apart from the warriors of their own clans, there remained tens of clans who chose to surrender to them. The remaining soldiers either did not move or choose to stand alongside Jiang Yi, the Buddha Thearch, and the others.
Of course… most of them stood in the middle, choosing neither team. Before the situation became clear, many clans did not want to make a move; for fear that they would make a mistake and perish.
“Alright, your time is up!”
Xing Mo shouted, his voice ringing like thunder. Everyone fell dead silent. Jiang Yi’s expression hardened, becoming very somber. He was waiting for Xing Mo to make his move.
Xing Mo did not. Xing Mengwan raised her jade-like hand and waved it gently, carrying up the people below their Heaven Fate Ship and arranging them around the ship. The North Thearch, the Beast Thearch, and the Sword Thearch all turned to look at Jiang Yi, their smiles mocking.
“Jiang Yi, I admire your talent. I’m asking you one last time: will you choose to submit to me or die?”
Xing Mo looked to Jiang Yi, giving him one last chance. However, the Fire Dragon Sword appeared in Jiang Yi’s hand, and the Mystic Divine Armor appeared around his body. Using his actions, he showed Xing Mo his choice. At last, the latter sighed in frustration and waved his hand. In a low voice, he gave the orders. “Wan’er, send them on their way!”
“Lay the formation!”
Xing Mengwan’s body shot upward. Behind her, forty-nine elders dressed in black robes followed closely. All fifty of them took their positions in mid-air, forming a strange formation. They did not form a hexagram or a circle. Instead, from the bottom, it looked like… a sickle?
Buzz!
Everyone’s bodies lit up. This time, however, the light was not white… but black! Black gas emanated from their bodies, entering Xing Mengwan’s instead. Jiang Yi and company widened their eyes. They felt deeply uncomfortable as if something huge was about to happen.
“Black gas? This is not black essence force; it’s corpse aura! What kind of array is this? What do they want?”
Jiang Yi muttered to himself, still not moving. Neither Xing Mo nor the North Thearch moved. They were sure that nobody would be able to interrupt this formation. They chose instead to wait for Xing Mengwan and the rest to finish forming the formation. It was scarier not to know the enemy’s power than to see their true colors being revealed.
Tsk! Tsk!
Xing Mengwan’s white dress danced around in the wind, making her look like a fairy. However, at that moment, the black gas that surrounded her made her feel like a Death God from hell. She looked infinitely powerful and extraordinarily terrifying. She started to conjure a weird seal in her hand. At once, the black gas congealed to form a huge sickle.
“Break!”
This sickle measured three kilometers in length. It looked just like a Death God’s sickle. Xing Mengwan controlled the sickle and caused it to strike downward hard. That’s right… she struck downward, not at Jiang Yi and company. She used the sickle to strike the empty ground below her!
Boom!
Heaven and earth kept shaking as the impact from the huge sickle caused a huge crack to appear in the ground. Everything within a five-hundred-kilometer radius shook. Even the Saint Mountain was vibrating non-stop. The crack spread quickly into the distance. It was as if this one blow from Xing Mengwan was causing the entire Snow Region to be split into two.
“What’s going on?”
Many people felt confused. Why did Xing Mengwan strike the ground? Why didn’t she attack Jiang Yi and company or even the alliance team underneath? Was she breaking the ground to scare them off? This power alone did not scare the formidable martial artists present. Many seven- or eight-star martial artists could achieve similar things.
The next moment…!
The mystery was solved.
They could feel movement from beneath the ground. As the movement got more and more vigorous, all the ground within a five-thousand-kilometer radius shook. It felt like they were in the middle of a great earthquake. The shaking got worse and worse until some people could no longer hold their balance. The mountains on either side of the crack kept swaying as rocks fell down from them. There was a series of incessant crashing as dust filled the air.
Tsk-Tsk!
Gusts of black Qi emerged from the crack, condensing in the air. All the hairs on the back of their necks stood. They were witnessing a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
Howl-howl! Tsk-tsk! Swish-swish!
Black, giant vines began to shoot out from the crack, transporting zombies and zombie beasts out from underground. The earth nearby kept cracking apart, black vines kept appearing, carrying countless zombies and zombie beasts above the earth. In several minutes, at least a million zombies and zombie beasts were above ground!
All of them were covered in black blood and had red eyes. They bared their teeth and waved their claws around. The zombie soldiers were dressed in battle armor, carrying weapons, and engulfed in black aura. Their bodies resembled hills, and the authority they carried was akin to that of demon sovereigns and demon thearchs’ corpses.
At that moment, it was almost as if the gates of hell had been opened. All the creatures in the Netherworld Realm were let out into the earth, crawling out of hell and threatening to tear all mortals into pieces. They were threatening to destroy the mortal world.
“Devil Star Vines! The creatures under the earth!”
Jiang Yi’s body trembled as he stared at the black vines. His face was drained of all color. He felt like he finally understood why Xing Mo was as confident as he was. Jiang Yi finally understood the hidden meaning in Xing Mo’s words.
Xing Mo said that the Stellarsky Domain was filled with beasts that he reared. He could kill whoever he wanted to and even… cause the entire Stellarsky Domain to go up in flames if he wanted to and recreate civilization!
These were not crazy words!
Other people might not have understood, but Jiang Yi knew full well that underneath the countless of continents was a terrifying Underground World. That world contained countless Devil Star Vines, which were meant to bring the corpses into the Blood Sea. After that, those corpses were turned into zombies, zombie soldiers, and zombie beasts.
Jiang Yi had no idea how long the Underground World had existed for, but he once went in to explore and found that there were no boundaries to that realm. It seemed like there was an endless supply of zombie soldiers and zombie beasts! As for Xing Mo or the controller of the entire Netherworld Realm and the Underground World, he could control any of these zombie soldiers and bring them into Stellarsky Domain to destroy saint spirits and the entire Stellarsky Domain as a whole.
