303: Chapter 301 The Vast Demon Realm

Two balls of light hung in the Nine Heavens, confronting each other.

The light on the left was dim and dusky, exuding an aura of twilight. The light on the right was blood-red, exuding an aura of tyranny and ferocity. The collision of these two pressures made the entire sky tremble slightly.

Yun Ming did not know exactly who those two people were, but he could feel that those two pressures had already exceeded the scope of the Nascent Soul Stage—not Soul Transformation, but Void Refining.

Above the Nine Heavens, the blood-red light on the right spoke first. The voice was hoarse and sharp, like claws scratching across an iron plate, carrying undisguised triumph: "You have lost."

The dim, dusky light on the left was silent for a moment before slowly opening its mouth. The voice was old and weary: "I am not dead yet. How can there be a winner or loser?"

Yun Ming's heart shook. The one on the left who called himself "Zhen" was the Emperor of the Zifu Immortal Dynasty.

The Demon Void Refinement Divine Monarch let out a sharp laugh, and the crimson light surged violently: "Your Tianyuan City has already been destroyed, your subjects are already dead, and your court officials have either scattered or perished. The Zifu Immortal Dynasty exists in name only. What are you still holding on for?"

"Holding on until you die."

"This seat admits, that move of detonating the illusion array was indeed beyond this seat's expectations. A million Yao Race elites, three Soul Transformation Dao Lords, all fell here. But look at your feet—what is left of your Tianyuan City?"

The Old Emperor did not answer.

The Demon Void Refinement Divine Monarch continued, the triumph in his tone growing thicker: "Your Crown Prince is dead. Your several princes have either fled or surrendered. Those Soul Transformation Sects, the Shenduan Sect, the Xuanhuang Pill Mansion, have all shrunk back into their own Sect grounds, with their Mountain Guardian Arrays fully activated, not daring to show their heads. What do you have to fight this seat with?"

"Myself alone."

Yun Ming listened, terrified. He had only left Tianyuan City for ten years; how had it become like this? He pricked up his ears, trying hard to capture information from their conversation, but he could not understand many of the details. He did not know when the Second Prince had allied with the Yao Race, did not know who the Swallowing Toad was, and did not know how that Grade 6 Illusion Array had been detonated. He only heard the result: Tianyuan City was gone, and the Zifu Immortal Dynasty was finished.

In fact, after Yun Ming detonated the Floating Life Dream Illusion Array and left Tianyuan City ten years ago, the situation had plummeted.

The Second Prince's collusion with the Yao Race had already been foreshadowed when he launched his rebellion. But he only truly reached an alliance with the Yao Race after Yun Ming left. Driven to a dead end, the Second Prince secretly sent people to contact the Yao Race, promising to cede half of the Zifu Immortal Dynasty's territory to the Yao Race in exchange for their military aid. The Yao Race had long coveted the resources and Origin of the Xuanhuang Small World, and they hit it off immediately.

The Yao Race's army arrived faster than anyone had imagined. They did not come from any one direction, but surged in from all sides simultaneously. Spies from Tianyuan City reported that large-scale Yao Race armies had appeared in the East Region, North Region, and Ximing Continent simultaneously, in numbers never seen before. These Yao Race Cultivators wore uniform black armor, moved in perfect unison, and advanced and retreated with discipline, completely different from the scattered, chaotic Yao Beasts of the past. Because behind them was the Cangmang Monster Realm—a world identical to the Xuanhuang Small World.

The Crown Prince led the army to battle. He mobilized all the forces the Zifu Immortal Dynasty could muster, including the garrison troops of various states, Cultivators from major Sects, and volunteer armies composed of Loose Cultivators. The Crown Prince's command ability was unquestionable; he set ambushes several times and annihilated many Yao Race vanguards. But the Yao Race's troops were continuous, seemingly endless. No one knew how many Cultivators they had brought from the Cangmang Monster Realm; they only knew that after one batch was killed, another came, and they could never be killed off completely. The Zifu Immortal Dynasty's army gradually weakened under sustained attrition, and the front line retreated step by step.

Just at this critical juncture, the Demonic Cultivators of the Ximing Continent seized the opportunity to loot. The Hall Master of the Heavenly Demon Hall personally led an army of Demonic Cultivators, killing their way out of the Ximing Continent and capturing several prefectures in the western part of the Zifu Immortal Dynasty. They were not there to help either side; they were purely there to plunder resources. Spirit Stones, Spirit Medicine, Magical Artifacts, Cultivation Techniques, and even the Golden Cores and Nascent Souls of Cultivators were all their targets. The Zifu Immortal Dynasty was attacked from the front and back, with both the eastern and western fronts reporting emergencies.

A Soul Transformation Dao Lord of the Yao Race—the Swallowing Toad—instantly captured this point. Its true form was a giant toad, with a Small World inside its mouth, capable of holding a million people. It used that mouth to swallow a million Yao Race elites and three Soul Transformation Dao Lords into its belly, then disguised itself as an ordinary Yao Beast, approaching Tianyuan City silently.

When news spread that the Swallowing Toad had appeared outside Tianyuan City, it was too late.

Its mouth opened, and the million Yao Race elites and three Soul Transformation Dao Lords it had swallowed surged out like a tide, rushing toward Tianyuan City, covering the sky and earth. Tianyuan City's defenders resisted to the death; the No-Fly Array and defensive Formations on the city walls were all activated, and Cultivators stood on the ramparts, meeting the attack with Spells and Magical Artifacts. But there were too many enemies. One million Yao Race elites—not ten thousand, not one hundred thousand, but one million. They climbed the city walls like locusts and poured into the city gates like an ant colony. The defenders' Spiritual Qi was quickly exhausted, Medicinal Pills were insufficient, Magical Artifacts were not enough to use, and the Spirit Stones of the Formations shattered one after another.

Tianyuan City had fallen. It was not breached; it was submerged.

The common people in the city fled in all directions, but very few managed to escape. The Teleportation Array was destroyed by the Yao Race at the first opportunity, and the retreat route outside the city was also cut off. Countless Cultivators and Mortals died in the chaotic army; corpses piled up in the streets, and blood flowed like a river. Those once-prosperous shops, restaurants, and markets were all swallowed by fire. Those pavilions, stages, and gardens floating in the air fell one after another, crashing onto the ground and creating deep craters.

The Old Emperor only made his move when Tianyuan City was on the verge of total collapse. He could have acted earlier, but he had been waiting. He was waiting for the Swallowing Toad to spit out all its troops, waiting for all three Soul Transformation Dao Lords to appear, waiting for all the Yao Race elites to enter Tianyuan City. He had a trump card in his hand—the Grade 6 Floating Life Dream Illusion Array that Yun Ming had left behind.

He did not suppress the Formation; instead, he secretly controlled it, refining the Formation Eye and grasping the core spiritual essence of the Formation in his own hands. When a million Yao Race elites and three Soul Transformation Dao Lords had all entered Tianyuan City, he detonated the Formation. The self-destruction power of a Grade 6 Illusion Array was enough to drag a radius of a hundred miles into an endless illusion. But The Old Emperor used a great Divine Ability to precisely control the range of the explosion, targeting only the Yao Race. The million Yao Race elites and three Soul Transformation Dao Lords were instantly plunged into the illusion, never to be reborn. Not only were their Physical Bodies annihilated, but their Divine Souls were also trapped in the illusion, never to wake up.

However, Tianyuan City was also completely destroyed in this explosion. The city walls collapsed, buildings turned into ruins, and the surviving common people in the city also died in the aftermath of the explosion. Only a very few people escaped before the explosion. The Old Emperor stood on the ruins, looking at the devastated imperial capital, with no expression on his face.

After that, the Demon Void Refinement Divine Monarch personally took action, wanting to fight The Old Emperor to the death. The Old Emperor did not retreat and met him head-on. The two fought fiercely above the Nine Heavens, fighting from the ground to the clouds, from the clouds to the Void Realm, and from the Void Realm to the Star Sea. Spells collided, Laws clashed, and the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi for ten thousand miles around was thrown into chaos. They fought for three full years, with no clear winner.

In the years that followed, the two clashed many times, and each time was evenly matched; neither could do anything to the other. The Demon Void Refinement Divine Monarch could not break through The Old Emperor's defensive line, and The Old Emperor could not kill the other party. The war reached a stalemate.

Meanwhile, other parts of the Xuanhuang Small World were also retreating steadily. The Heavenly Demon Hall of the Ximing Continent had completely defected to the Yao Race, and the Hall Master was titled "Demon Commander" by the Yao Race, leading an army of Demonic Cultivators to conquer cities and seize land for the Yao Race. Many Sects in the Tianbei Region surrendered under the coercion and inducement of the Yao Race, and the few that resisted were wiped out. The defense line of the Tiannan Region was collapsing, and the Sea Race from the depths of the Endless Sea had also joined the Yao Race's camp. The Xuanhuang Small World was falling inch by inch.

Yun Ming knew nothing of these things. He only heard fragments in the ruins and could not piece together the full picture. He did not know that the Formation he left behind had been used by The Old Emperor as a trump card, did not know that a million Yao Race elites had already been buried in the illusion, and did not know whether Xue Ji and the Princess Royal were dead or alive. He could only continue to listen.

The voice of the Demon Void Refinement Divine Monarch grew higher and higher, carrying the excitement of a victor: "Your Xuanhuang Small World cannot hold out much longer. By then, the entire world will be turned into nourishment for my Cangmang Monster Realm. Your Spiritual Qi, your subjects, everything you have, will all be swallowed."

The Old Emperor was silent for a long time, so long that Yun Ming thought he would not speak. Then he spoke, his voice not loud but very clear: "As long as I am still alive, don't even think about taking a single step out of these ruins."

The Demon Void Refinement Divine Monarch's laughter stopped abruptly: "You think you can stop this seat?"

The Old Emperor did not answer. That dim, dusky light moved slowly, approaching the blood-red light by one step. The two Void Refining stage pressures collided again, and the entire sky trembled.

Yun Ming crouched in the ruins, driving the Fuli Heaven-Concealing Record to its limit. His mind was in a mess, but he knew that Tianyuan City was gone, the Zifu Immortal Dynasty was finished, and The Old Emperor was the last line of defense. He could not help, and he dared not move. He could only wait. Wait for a result, wait for an opportunity, wait for one of those two balls of light to extinguish. Then he could go find Xue Ji, and only then could he figure out what on earth was going on.