478: Ruins

Every weapon glowed, and within those lights, Vague figures gradually emerged—

An armored old general knelt on one knee, his battle spear supporting his tottering body; a young female Cultivator detonated her Natal Dao Artifact, perishing with three Tianyang aliens; and there was even a complete battle formation, all the soldiers frozen in time in a charging posture... At this moment, the gazes of these heroic spirit phantoms were remarkably consistent, devoid of resentment or fear, only an extreme, pure steadfastness and indomitable will.

Their sight seemed to pierce through space and time, gazing at this majestic Pass bought with blood.

Unbeknownst to who started it, a low chant gradually rose within the city.

At first, it was just a few scattered voices, but it quickly spread like a prairie fire.

It was "Ruins' Fall," a song that had been passed down through countless epochs in Tianyang Pass:

Crimson clouds press upon the desolate land; iron armor splits the frosty sky.

Myriad Races hold torches aloft; bones build the majestic Pass.

Black tide swallows the setting sun; alien blades howl through the cold river.

A lone city hangs with starlight; every inch of land branded with bloodstains.

Bow broken, arrows pierce throats; flag snapped, grip on a broken pole.

Father dies, son dons armor; brother perishes, sister takes up the bowstring.

Sword breaks, cleaving mountains; arm severed, flinging golden bricks.

Teeth shattered, devouring enemy chiefs; soul burns, illuminating the remnants of night.

Ruin Stele carves my name; the setting sun gilds chilled bones.

Wind recites over unnamed tombs; Eternal is this place.

At this moment, all living beings in Main City Number One, whether Dao Ancestors or ordinary beings, regardless of the grievances between their races or their inner thoughts, at least displayed reverence on their faces.

Xu Qing saw Zhan Tian Dao Ancestor gently tapping his chest with a gilded halberd, each strike precisely landing on the rhythm of the song.

This usually unrestrained Dao Ancestor now had specks of golden light flickering in his eyes.

Most shocking were the floating Dao Artifacts.

With the singing, they began to arrange and combine in an orderly fashion, piecing together magnificent war paintings in the Void Realm: moments of Cultivators self-detonating their Dao Foundation to obstruct enemies; scenes of soldiers using their bodies to fill gaps in the city walls; and even the backs of a squad of death-seeking warriors moving against the Chaos torrent... "Honor the heroic spirits!"

After the battle song concluded, the Giant Spirit Dao Ancestor proclaimed loudly.

All Cultivators on the cloud platforms, whether Human Race or alien, regardless of their cultivation level, performed the same action at this moment—right hand over heart, bowing three times.

At this moment, racial animosities and personal grudges were temporarily set aside.

Even the dark existences peering from the Chaos Sea maintained an eerie silence.

This was why they did not harass Main City Number One during the Tianyang Competition.

At this time, Main City Number One was filled with towering Battle Intent; provoking these people could very likely ignite a war of the century.

After all this was done, billions of Dao Artifacts slowly descended back to the plaza.

But they were no longer silent; each weapon emitted a faint glow, as if waiting for new masters to pick them up and continue the endless war of guardianship.

This was also the last wish of those fallen heroic spirits.

Xu Qing gazed at the plaza, which had returned to tranquility. Here, death was not the end; the wills of those departed heroic spirits had long merged into every brick and every inch of land, becoming the most solid barrier of Tianyang Pass.

As the afterglow of the Heroic Spirit Ceremony gradually dissipated, a universe-shaking bell chime suddenly resounded above Tianyang Pass.

Thousands of sky-reaching battle platforms simultaneously erupted with brilliant divine light, each beam containing complete power of creation, interweaving into a heaven-shrouding Law net in the Chaos Sea.

"Boom—"

The ancient array patterns on the surface of the battle platforms lit up one by one, and the battle marks left by previous powerful individuals seemed to come alive. Xu Qing saw a sword mark a hundred zhang deep on the nearest battle platform, now exhaling a terrifying sharpness.

Dried bloodstains still remained beside the sword mark, still exuding a faint pressure despite countless years passing.

Suddenly, three jade steles simultaneously rose from the center of all battle platforms.

The steles were crystal clear, each inscribed with the ancient Dao characters "King," "Supreme," and "Immortal Grade."

As the inscriptions lit up, countless names flowed across the stele surfaces like a star river: "Xing Wuya, Huo Lingyue, Qing Lin, Ying Jiu..."

As each name appeared, the corresponding participant's waist jade token would automatically activate.

Xu Yuan also looked down at his jade token, only to see the words "Immortal Grade" emitting a dazzling golden light.

"Big brother, look at mine!"

"Go!" Xu Qing said with a smile.

The next moment, spatial fluctuations enveloped him, and when he opened his eyes again, he was standing in the center of a battle platform.

"Is this the world created by a Dao Ancestor?" Xu Qing looked around.

A huge light screen floated above the battle platform, displaying the Coming soon battlefield—the "Trial Realm" jointly opened by Dao Ancestors.

The entire world was divided into three layers by a Chaos barrier: the bottom layer was blood-red, the battlefield for the Dao Severing Realm; the middle layer glowed with a green light, where Dao Lord Qi flowed; and the top layer was enveloped in a golden mist, accessible only to Dao Lords.

And there was one such world for each sky-reaching battle platform.

Too many Prodigies participated this time, with the combined number of Prodigies from the three Realms exceeding billions, so it was naturally impossible to select them one by one. Instead, an elimination mechanism was chosen.

Therefore, each battle platform created a corresponding world, into which billions of Tianyang aliens were placed. Each world was divided into three parts, corresponding to the Dao Severing, Dao Lord, and Dao Lord levels respectively.

The rules were also very simple: participants entered to kill Tianyang aliens. Killing one alien would reward one to ten points.

The top one hundred in points would enter the next round. This way, after the first round, out of hundreds of millions of participants, only one hundred thousand would remain for each Realm.

During this process, if one died within the world, they would be teleported out. Furthermore, no methods were prohibited in the competition; one could snatch points from others. If one's strength was insufficient and they were killed by someone, their points would be plundered by others.

This was not to be blamed on others.

Life and death were irrelevant; the strongest was revered! This was fully embodied!

Of course, if killed by an alien, the points would not disappear and could be counted as one's own score.

Soon, Xu Yuan noticed that the battle platform he was on had already gathered hundreds of thousands of beings. The seemingly small battle platform had clearly utilized the Grand Dao of Space!

Among these beings were giants entwined with chains, mysterious existences shrouded in shadows, and also top Prodigies from various factions of the Human Race, with every Realm represented.

When the battle platform gathered a million beings.

"Buzz—"

Thousands of battle platforms simultaneously erupted with teleportation divine light.

Xu Yuan only felt a blur before his eyes, and when he regained his senses, he was in a golden desert.

Three blood-red suns hung in the sky, and terrifying roars came from afar.

"Is this the battlefield of the Immortal Grade?"

Xu Yuan's Dao sense swept out and found at least dozens of Tianyang alien auras within a hundred million li radius. The weakest barely reached the Dao Lord Realm, and some even reached the Middle Stage threshold of the Dao Lord Realm!

Suddenly, the jade token at his waist grew warm.

Xu Yuan looked down to check, only to see a line of small text appear on it:

[Current Points: 0]

[Realm Ranking: Not on list]

[Remaining Participants: 1,487 people]

"As expected of the Chaos Sea, just one sky-reaching battle platform has such a number of Dao Lord Prodigies!"

"The aura of the Eternal Human Race!"

"Kill!!!"

At the edge of the desert, the nearest few Tianyang aliens had already smelled living beings and were surging forward, bringing with them a sky-high yellow sand.

They were humanoid in shape but covered in bone spurs, and a strange blood-red crystal was embedded in their foreheads.

Xu Yuan stood with his hands behind his back, sword light flowing in his eyes.

This elimination round had just begun...