Alan was an ordinary cultivator who hailed from a barren but beautiful planet. Originally, his life had been very peaceful, but one day, a group of youths claiming to be trial takers had suddenly descended. From that moment on, his life completely changed.
Out of the billions of people on his planet, only a meager few had emerged to follow those trial takers into the greater universe. Alan had been able to leave his planet because he had managed to awaken an innate gift… of attentive listening. That’s right, attentive listening. It was an innate gift that was either very useful or completely useless.
Alan was able to hear the heartbeats of nearby people, and from that, determine their strength.
When those youths had been participating in their trial, he had tried to use his innate gift to take advantage of a low-profile person who had seemed to be in dire straits. However, that person had eventually eliminated all of the other trial takers, becoming the brightest star of the trial. With him, Alan had also successfully stepped into the greater universe.
Unfortunately, reality did not turn out to be as great as Alan had expected. The person who he followed had turned out to be someone from the Dark Phoenix family, and they did not care about Alan at all. Thus, he had been tossed aside in a random place. He had been left stranded at the border between Endless Weave and the Technocracy.
The Technocracy would occasionally attack Endless Weave, and the people defending the border were already accustomed to such attacks. However, Alan knew a secret: this time, the Technocracy’s invasion into the border defenses had been instigated by one of the defenders, and on top of that, the instigator had even been someone who Alan recognized. Although he had no idea why that person would attack the Technocracy in a suicidal manner, the battle had still been instigated by that person.
Alan hated war, as he could die at any time during the battles. Fortunately, the fighting had not gone on for too long before ending this time.
Alan was leaning contentedly against a wall as he stared into the dark sky. In the distance, there was a star on the verge of collapsing.
Suddenly, Alan’s expression changed drastically. His pupils shrank in an instant, and he reflexively covered his ears. What had he just heard? He had just heard a heartbeat that could shock the universe! He had never heard such an intense heartbeat before in his life. Even the almighty powerhouses he had met before did not have such a powerful heartbeat, and the difference was overwhelming. He did not know how wide the gap between him and that powerful being was from hearing their heartbeat, but his intuition told him it was an enormous difference.
Alan looked up, but he saw nothing. Still, he was absolutely certain that in the previous moment, someone had passed by, and that person’s strength had been so high that they had completely bypassed the defensive forces at the border.
Alan’s face went pale; should he report this incident?
In the end, he decided to remain silent since nobody would believe him anyway.
The war between the Technocracy and the Human Domain had lasted from ancient times to the present, and nobody could even recall why the two domains fought. It was similar to the Human Domain’s war against the Astral Beast Domain; the war between the domains had already become instinctive.
The majority of people did not have any understanding of the Technocracy’s situation. Even the great powers of the Human Domain such as the Daynight Clan were clueless. It was rumored that the Technocracy was controlled by something called the Master Brain, which had the ability to monitor everything within its territory, making it impossible to sneak into the Technocracy’s territory.
Humans wanted to know more about the Technocracy, but the only way for them to do so was to periodically send a super powerhouse to explore the domain.
Those who could barge into the Technocracy had to at least be in the Envoy realm. The Technocracy was already accustomed to such trespassers, and they had long since established methods to deal with the humans’ powerhouses.
However, this time around, every method that the Technocracy had prepared to deal with any intruding human powerhouses collapsed. Those towering and powerful super weapons that stood at the Technocracy’s border directly crumbled into pieces, and all of their monitoring systems were completely ineffective, unable to send back any images.
Elder Lohar’s teacher had charged into the Technocracy completely unobstructed, and every step that they took distorted both space and time as they crossed an incalculable distance all at once.
Suddenly, the entire Technocracy trembled, and a pair of eyes opened. “Human super powerhouse. Protect the hub.”
Somewhere within the Technocracy’s domain, a figure suddenly appeared, and layers of ripples appeared in the void, apparently unable to withstand this figure’s pressure.
“Really, it has been a long time since I last visited.” An aged voice rang out from Elder Lohar’s teacher, who was also known as Yuan Shi.
Yuan Shi looked around, focusing on a few particular directions where he could feel terrifying presences.
The Technocracy had fought against the Human Domain for so many years, and they similarly had many powerhouses whose strength could not be estimated. Despite that, the mysterious Master Brain was still what made Yuan Shi feel the most wary. Even at present, nobody had managed to discover the Master Brain’s location or even its full strength.
Yuan Shi’s eyes flashed, and he stepped forward once again, suddenly vanishing from the region.
In a corner of the Technocracy, machines were rapidly being assembled to form spacecraft after spacecraft. Nearby, there were other vessels, each of which were carrying humans. They were truly humans and not androids. It would typically be extremely abnormal to encounter any humans within the Technocracy, but these people were different. They were from the Sixth Mainland.
Lu Yin had not guessed wrong. Since one of the Sixth Mainland’s Progenitors had moved, the invasion could not be called off until they achieved something of note. The battle in the Innerverse was extremely intense, so the ones in control of the war had naturally shifted their attention towards the Outerverse, which they had already been planning to invade. Their current connection to the Fifth Mainland even bypassed the Astral River, and they were able to invade the Outerverse from the Technocracy.
Countless cultivators from the Sixth Mainland sat inside these vessels as they made their way towards the human’s Outerverse.
Within one ship, Huang San swallowed his saliva as he carefully peered out. “This is definitely the Fifth Mainland. The sky seems so dark, but it’s not connected. Sure enough, this place was definitely shattered.”
“This is just a corner of the Fifth Mainland, as its main part is the Human Domain. The Technocracy’s territory should be much smaller than the Human Domain’s Outerverse,” Yan Xiaojing calmly explained as she appeared behind Huang San.
Huang San turned back to her. “Xiaojing, will we be able to return alive?”
Yan Xiaojing remained silent.
If this was the past, they would have absolutely answered that question affirmatively and without any hesitation. Not only would they have been confident in their survival, but they would have also proclaimed that they would do so while slaughtering the Fifth Mainland’s cultivators and destroying their cultivation system. They had maintained this self-confidence in their mainland for many, many years.
However, after the fighting in the Innerverse, where even their Martial Progenitor had been severely injured, their beliefs had been changed just like how the Innerverse’s environment had been drastically altered. The Sixth Mainland’s cultivators no longer felt that the Fifth Mainland was such a pushover.
“Relax, this is the weakest region of human territory within the Fifth Mainland. It’s called the Outerverse. With the strength of our Bloodburn Realm, we should be able to easily mow over their forces,” Yan Xiaojing said.
Huang San’s expression grew complex. The Huang family had once been an Imprinter’s family, but even though they had fallen, they had still been able to hear some important information. There were reports that the war in the Innerverse was not going smoothly. Apparently, many Sixth Mainland cultivators had died, especially those of their generation’s age. Too many youths had died, and the Innerverse was basically a cemetery in their mind. Would the Outerverse become their Bloodburn Realm’s cemetery?
Within another vessel, Autumnfrost Qing wore a proud expression that was completely different from Huang San’s. He was filled with lofty aspirations, and even though he knew that the war being waged in the Innerverse was bitter, he still maintained his confidence. After all, they were only invading the Human Domain’s Outerverse; if their Bloodburn Realm could not even take down that place, then it would be a tragic failure.
He wanted to obtain some achievements in this war and to overcome those of his generation who were hunting down the Title Holders in the Innerverse.
Many people could only dream of going to the Innerverse to kill the Fifth Mainland’s Title Holders, and even the Realmling, Di Fa, was one of those people. However, Autumnfrost Qing was not like them, as he enjoyed crushing others. If he was not able to crush the cultivators of the Fifth Mainland’s Innerverse, then he would crush the people of the Outerverse.
Not too far from Autumnfrost Qing was another spacecraft, and in it there was a man with cold eyes that contained a trace of excitement. If Lu Yin was nearby, he would definitely recognize this man as Butcher. This was the expert who Lu Yin had seen back in the Daosource Sect’s ruins. This was the man who had absorbed the dismemberment bloodline.
The Bloodburn Realm was one of the Sixth Mainland’s nine realms, and their strength was unfathomable. At this time, the one who was leading the invasion into the Human Domain’s Outerverse was Ancestor Mo Jiang, who was a World Imprinter.
A World Imprinter was someone with a power level that surpassed 800,000. They were all incomparably terrifying powerhouses.
The Sixth Mainland had been under the belief that there were not any powerhouses of this level in the entire Outerverse, or at least until Yuan Shi suddenly appeared.
Ancestor Mo Jiang’s eyes suddenly went wide, and the universe in the area trembled. “Not good!”
He then took a step out.
The next moment, quite a number of cultivators from the Sixth Mainland felt an 0immense pressure descend upon them, especially the cultivators who had received their imprint from Ancestor Mo Jiang. For them, the pressure was even more oppressive.
In the distance, Ancestor Mo Jiang met Yuan Shi.
“Get lost,” Yuan Shi ordered, his voice reverberating across space as it tore through the stars. His voice left many of the Sixth Mainland’s cultivators overwhelmed, and those who had not reached the Explorer realm all spat out a mouthful of blood at the same time, as they could not endure the force of the voice.
Yan Xiaojing’s face went pale as she looked up into outer space. How was this possible? This was the Technocracy, so was the Master Brain about to move against them?
“You’ll be destroyed sooner or later, so why struggle? If you surrender, I promise that you will be accepted into my Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect’s elders,” Ancestor Mo Jiang offered, his voice also traveling across space.
The two were just having a conversation, but this region of the universe was unable to endure even that from them, and space itself shattered.
“I already said, get lost!” Yuan Shi barked at the man confronting him, causing the void to collapse. Everyone from the Sixth Mainland felt like the sky was collapsing, and the terror that welled up from their innermost being left them all overwhelmed.
“Then fight me!” Ancestor Mo Jiang shouted back.
Following that, many cultivators from the Sixth Mainland witnessed an unforgettable scene. Two palms collided, and space itself quivered. Countless spatial cracks spread out so far into the distance that their ends could not even be seen. The fleet of spacecraft carrying the Sixth Mainland’s cultivators was mercilessly torn apart, and many vessels exploded as countless cultivators wailed in agony.
Within one ship, there was an old woman who was another Imprinter. She yelled mournfully and then charged towards the battlefield, but she was instantly reduced to nothing more than a blood puddle.
An Imprinter was someone whose power level had surpassed 500,000, and such powerhouses were known as Envoys within the Fifth Mainland. However, even an expert on that level did not qualify to enter this battlefield.
The universe seemed to change, tearing apart like a thin sheet of paper. Beyond the tear, there was another region that could not be moved. Nobody had seen this part of the universe before, but it somehow felt more real.
All of the cultivators from the Sixth Mainland were knocked unconscious, and so nobody witnessed this scene.
After an unknown amount of time, Huang San woke up, and he saw multiple powerful cultivators discussing something in outer space. He checked his surroundings and saw that Yan Xiaojing was still out cold, so he hurriedly tried to awaken her.
Yan Xiaojing rubbed her temples. “What happened to us?”
Huang San shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Yan Xiaojing looked around at their region of outer space. She saw multiple senior cultivators, but none of them had good expressions on their faces. In particular, she noticed Ancestor Mo Jiang.
Ancestor Mo Jiang’s expression was quite ugly, which indicated that the situation was not very good for them.
Yan Xiaojing’s heart sank; the invasion had not even begun yet, but had they already failed?
On another vessel, Autumnfrost Qing rubbed his head, slowly stood up while panting heavily, and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He had clearly been injured even though that powerhouse had only glanced at him. That strength had reached the World Imprinter level, and it turned out that the Fifth Mainland’s Outerverse had a powerhouse who could contest them.
But it did not matter. Even if they were more powerful, they still would not be able to stop the Bloodburn Realm. Ancestor Mo Jiang was just one of their World Imprinters, and the Autumnfrost family’s ancestor was also a World Imprinter. The three strongest families of the Bloodburn Realm all had terrifying powerhouses among them, and above them, there was an even more powerful Cosmic Imprinter as well as the fabled Empyrean Imprinter. How could this paltry Outerverse even try to resist such experts? With what?
Outside the border of the Technocracy, a border patrol that was battling against members of the Human Domain suddenly collapsed, and Yuan Shi walked out from the Technocracy’s territory. His pale expression from before had already been restored to his original appearance.
During the battle with Ancestor Mo Jiang, he had intentionally hidden his strength, out of fear that Ancestor Mo Jiang would retreat and call for even stronger powerhouses from the Sixth Mainland to join the battle. Yuan Shi had even feigned injury in order to lull the Sixth Mainland into a sense of complacency. At this moment, he needed to buy as much time as he could so that they would be able to assemble the strength of the entire Outerverse to defend against the Sixth Mainland’s impending invasion.
