Long Yi and Long San’s eyes narrowed when they looked in the direction of the Deep Sea Royal Hall.
Long Bai’s order was probably unnecessary. At this point, anyone who was paying the slightest attention to the battlefield would notice that something was amiss.
The two Venerable Withered Dragons immediately rose higher into the sky and gathered a surge of energy that literally warped the world around them. At the same time, a terrifying pressure capable of annihilating a star pressed down toward the Deep Sea Royal Palace.
The sudden, drastic change in air current immediately drew everyone’s attention. A withdrawing Chi Wuyao sighed in her heart as she looked back at the palace.
In the end, it had come to this.
If they hadn’t drawn the battle away from the Deep Sea Royal Palace as far as possible, the structure would have crumbled due to the power of the Divine Masters and exposed the barriers beneath it.
However, the opposite choice was barely any better. When the battle had progressed for some time, and everything in the Deep Sea God Realm had crumbled into dust and ruin, the unusually intact royal palace was sure to attract the enemy’s attention. It was only a matter of when.
It was an impossible situation. In the end, they chose the one that bought them more time, but it was only a small amount of time.
Chi Wuyao inhaled slightly—her devilish aura shivering unnaturally as she did so—and issued the loudest, most shocking order she ever had in her life. “DEFEND THE BARRIER!!”
Chi Wuyao’s shout stabbed into every northern region profound practitioner’s taut nerves like a knife.
The barrier of the royal palace was the one thing they were tasked to defend at all cost. Even in death, they had to stack their dead bodies on top of one another to form a last line of defense.
The Venerable Withered Dragons were incredibly fast. In just a moment, they had approached the airspace of the Deep Sea Royal Palace and unleashed their devastating draconic energy in unison.
RUMBLE!
At almost the same time, a screeching black light tore apart the roof of the royal palace and flew straight toward Long Yi and Long San.
Yan Two had been gathering his strength the moment he felt the touch of Long Bai’s draconic soul. Ten Yama Devil black talons instantly shredded Long Yi and Long San’s energy blast before a screaming Yan Two attempted to pierce the two Venerable Withered Dragon’s throats.
Long Yi and Long San pushed out their arms casually. At the same time, the gray white image of a Dragon God’s talons flashed above their arms.
Bang!!
There was a loud bang, and the space where the three energies had collided shattered into a million pieces. Over half of the divine stones used to construct the palace crumbled instantly and revealed the outermost barrier.
The seven-layer barrier had been constructed with the darkness profound energy of the three Yama Ancestors, Chi Wuyao, Qianye Ying’er and the Yama Emperor. Yun Che had then used Eternal Calamity of Darkness to remove its presence to the greatest degree. Not only did the seven-layer barrier isolate sound and aura completely, it isolated light as well.
Therefore, as long as the barrier remained standing, no one could glimpse what was hidden behind it.
No matter how powerful Yan Two was, he couldn’t possibly fend off two Venerable Withered Dragons by himself. As a result, the shadow talons he conjured were torn apart, and he fell through the barrier like a meteor.
The Venerable Withered Dragons’ attacks couldn’t penetrate the barrier, but the leftover energy was still enough to leave a 3-meter long crack on the outermost barrier.
It was only natural. Even the Deep Sea Barrier was unable to withstand the Venerable Withered Dragons’ power for long, much less the temporary dark barrier.
The next instant though, Yan Two was out of the barrier again with the shadow of the Yama Devil trailing behind him. He rushed toward Long Yi and Long San with far greater power than before.
The order he had received was to defend the barrier and Yun Che to the death. Any enemy who wished to lay their hands on the Eternal Heaven Pearl had to step over his shattered corpse first!
Meanwhile, a huge change had suddenly taken over the entire battlefield.
Chi Wuyao’s order had turned the minds of every northern profound practitioner with the blood of darkness running inside their veins temporarily white. Then, countless darkness profound practitioners suddenly detonated their power and rushed toward the barrier at maximum speed.
The reason they had chosen to stay behind despite the hopeless situation was to protect their final ray of hope, Yun Che. If the barrier was breached, that hope would be completely extinguished, their faith and determination would dissolve into dust, and everyone would have died for nothing.
That was why they surrendered their lives just to maintain the final defense line for even a breath, no, an instant longer.
Every northern region profound practitioner freed themselves from their opponents no matter the cost and rushed to the Deep Sea Royal Palace at the center of the realm. While the western region profound practitioners were still confused, they swiftly erected a defense line that was made from their own blood-drenched bodies.
Long Bai raised his arm and ordered imperiously, “All profound practitioners, release your foes and blast that barrier with everything you’ve got!”
The order cused every northern region profound practitioner’s hearts to sink like a rock.
The winds of the battlefield began to literally twist. Soon, devastating storms of energy started attacking the royal palace from every direction.
The bones of the northern region profound practitioners began creaking audibly. Their expressions turned incredibly savage as well.
In a head-to-head battle, even if the enemy was far greater in power, numbers or both, the disadvantaged practitioner could choose to counter attack, defend, dodge, or escape until a better opportunity presented itself.
However, this wasn’t the case when the objective was to defend a barrier to the death. It meant that they would have to guard against the enemy’s strongest attacks with their power and bodies directly!
Even if they were blasted to bits, the enemy’s attacks could not be allowed to hit the barrier.
The battle was desperate to begin with, but now the battlefield was relocated to the Deep Sea Royal Palace, and the despair many, many times worse than before.
Yan One and Yan Three were able to knock their opponents away and rush to the royal palace.
Mu Xuanyin and Chi Wuyao couldn’t, however. Their opponents were the two great Venerable Withered Dragons, some of the strongest profound practitioners on this entire battlefield. The moment they tried to leave, two overlapping draconic domains immediately sealed all the space around them. Even the Venerable Withered Dragons themselves couldn’t leave this domain.
Mu Xuanyin immediately changed her mind and attacked the two Venerable Withered Dragons using the Moon Splitting Cascade. Keeping these two occupied was probably better for the barrier.
“Yama Ancestors, guard the west side. Yama Emperor, Jie Xin and Jie Ling, guard the north side. Realm kings—”
RUMBLE!!
Long Si interrupted Chi Wuyao’s sound transmission before she could finish. The Devil Queen slowly turned around to stare at him, and the Venerable Withered Dragon suddenly broke out in goosebumps, and his heart turned as cold as ice. At the same time, her black ribbon began spawning many nightmarish black lotuses that chewed hole after hole in the dragon’s domain.
She didn’t send any more sound transmissions because it was no longer necessary. The only thing keeping everyone standing was their final hope and faith.
And the only thing that could decide the final outcome was fate.
All the space within five hundred kilometers of the Deep Sea Royal Palace was distorting violently. The building had inevitably become the center of the battlefield; the focus of the worst battle the God Realm had ever seen since its inception.
The Yama Devils, Burning Moon Devils, and Soul Stealing Devils had all returned to the barrier to defend it with their lives. Even the Dragons of Absolute Beginning had flown over to guard one side of the barrier. When all the powers of the Western Divine Region and the Northern Divine Region became focused in one place, a kind of brutality like nothing the world had ever seen before was wrought.
The Withered Dragons, the Dragon Gods, the Dragon Sovereigns, the Chi Dragons, the Hui Dragons, the Blue Dragons, Myriad Manifestations, Qilins… despair wasn’t an adequate word to describe what the devils were feeling when the full might of the Western Divine Region truly bore down on them.
BOOM!
RUMBLE!
Two Yama Devils joined hands and blocked the attack of four Dragon Sovereigns, but the price they paid was their arms tearing themselves apart in dozens of places. However, the Dragon Sovereigns attacked again in no time, forcing the two Yama Devils to thrust their spurting arms forward and unleash a stream of bloodstained Yama Devil power once more. Their eyes looked savage, and the concept of fear and pain didn’t seem to exist in their minds.
BANG!
This time the two Yama Devils were sent flying, but they forcefully canceled their momentum and charged toward the Dragon Sovereigns’ energy blasts again. Since their power was spent, they used their own bodies to block the attack, literally sacrificing flesh, blood and bone to stop it from reaching the barrier.
BOOM!!
The sky erupted in a shower of blood. The four Dragon Sovereigns’ attacks still reached the barrier, but they only had thirty percent of their power left.
All the northern region Divine Sovereigns who had been avoiding the battle until now; the profound practitioners who had no place on the battlefield of the greatest, roared out their hearts and rushed to the defense of the royal palace. They used both their powers and their bodies to protect the barrier as best they could.
It didn’t amount to much, however. Their bodies might be unparalleled in the eyes of a mere mortal, but against a Divine Master? It was barely any better than paper. It took only a moment for the shattered bits and pieces of their corpses to cover the barrier completely.
“Hold the line… HOLD THE LINE!!”
Yan Tianxiao screeched like a beast and sent three Chi Dragons and their energy blasts flying far, far away, even if it meant worsening the wound Long Bai had left on his person earlier.
Rumble… a darkness profound formation shattered, and both Yu Wu and Chanyi crashed to the ground. Yao Die and Qing Ying immediately teleported over and took over their positions.
All nine Witches including Jie Xin and Jie Ling were injured at this point… Jie Xin and Jie Ling especially were half-drenched in blood and blurring in and out of consciousness because they had to take the attacks of the Pure Dragon God and Purple River Dragon God head on. Even then, the devilish blades in their hands refused to dim their light.
Long Bai raised his arm and pointed his palm at the distant Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning.
A chain of space distorted with a dull groan, and the Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning was blown back another fifty kilometers despite having received the attack from fifty kilometers away. He then lifted the Azure Dragon God over with the same draconic aura.
The Dragon Emperor of Absolute Beginning rose back to its feet and ordered all of its dragons to protect the Deep Sea Royal Palace. However, it remained where it was because protecting Caizhi was its top priority.
Caizhi was completely exhausted and unconscious right now. There was no way it would seek out an opponent on its own, much less step into the killing ground that was the Deep Sea Royal Palace right now.
There was a blue-and-gray flash, and the Azure Dragon God returned to its human form. Almost half of its bones were completely broken, his skull was covered in cracks, and his face was barely recognizable. However, the terrifying life force and physique of a Dragon God actually allowed him to rise to his feet despite his broken spine and speak in an unusually clear voice, “Your Majesty… Azure… has failed…”
Long Bai didn’t respond to him. His gaze continued to stay locked on the Deep Sea Royal Palace.
BANG!
A sudden noise that shook everyone’s heart appeared. It was the first layer of the barrier shattering into bits amidst a rain of blood.
“Yun Che has to be inside!” declared the Azure Dragon God.
His reminder was completely unnecessary. The northern devils had chosen to stay behind and fight them despite knowing that they were coming… it was clear now that they weren’t buying time for Yun Che to return to the Northern Divine Region. They remained to protect the barrier!
The only thing that would cause so much concern for the northern region devils was their “Devil Master”, Yun Che!
As for why Yun Che had stayed in this barrier despite the obviously grave circumstances, there could only be one explanation. The Devil Master was in the middle of some sort of secluded cultivation that couldn’t be interrupted.
To the south, Qianye Wugu was battling Long Er alone and had suffered some minor injuries. However, it would be a while before he lost the battle, so in a sense he was keeping one of the greatest enemy threats in check.
Qianye Bingzhu looked at the barrier at the center before attempting to teleport away from the five great Qilins by force.
However, the Qilin Emperor let out a sigh and lowered his voice. “Don’t. If you stay, it will look like you’re holding the five of us back from attacking the barrier. If you return, we will have to obey orders and join in on the assault. It would only make things worse.”
The Qilin Emperor was the strongest god emperor of the Western Divine Region besides the Dragon God Realm. His cultivation might be weaker than Qianye Bingzhu’s, but he was supported by 4 Ink Qilins, all level ten Divine Masters. If they had gone all out from the start, Qianye Bingzhu would have been defeated a long time ago.
The Brahma Ancestor cast the Qilin God Emperor a long look. Wordlessly, he stopped retreating and attacked the god emperor again with his full power.
The Dragons of Absolute Beginning were large and powerful. The barriers they formed with their own bodies should be some of the most indestructible barriers in the entire world. Unfortunately, the ones attacking these barriers were also the greatest powers in the entire Primal Chaos, the Western Divine Region.
Draconic blood kept spilling across the sky. By now, the mist of blood floating above the royal palace was so thick that it resembled a dark, city-sized cloud.
BANG!
There was a sorrowful groan, and three Dragons of Absolute Beginning were snapped in half cruelly and ruthlessly. At the same time, the second barrier collapsed into bits as well.
The bones on the ground and the pungent stench of blood had fully awakened the brutal, animalistic side of everyone in this battle. Even the western region Divine Masters’ cowardice had been twisted into something horrifyingly violent in the face of the desperate northern region devil people. Eventually, kill or be killed became the only thought in everyone’s heart.
