78: Entering the battlefield of the new era

“Line up, everyone, line up!”

“You bastard, what are you looking at? This area is reserved for the important figures.”

“You wretched Loose Cultivator looking for a beating, get lost!”

“If the entire city wasn't forbidden from fighting today, I'd make sure you paid dearly!”

Zhenhai City was bustling now for one simple reason: today was the day the Epoch Battlefield opened.

Starting today, a craze would sweep across the entire Southern Border, allowing many Loose Cultivators and even Sect Cultivators to enter the Epoch Battlefield.

In the center of Zhenhai City, tens of thousands of Cultivators had already gathered, shoulder to shoulder.

A massive stone gate stood there, measuring over fifty feet high and more than thirty feet wide.

The stone gate was engraved with intricate patterns and runes, emitting bursts of dazzling golden light under the sun.

In front of the stone gate stood two bronze pillars, about three meters long, covered in dense, complex carvings.

These patterns seemed chaotic, yet they secretly conformed to the rules of heaven and earth.

Standing before this stone gate were a thousand guard Disciples from the Sacred Corpse Sect.

Each of them wore armor, carried a long sword at their waist, and held Magical Artifacts like shields and long spears, their expressions solemn.

The Cultivators waiting to enter the Epoch Battlefield adopted various postures, standing or sitting, their gazes occasionally sweeping toward the high platform in the distance.

On the platform were five elevated seats, occupied by five male Cultivators dressed in luxurious robes.

These five Cultivators were the supervisors responsible for opening the Epoch Battlefield in Zhenhai City this time.

Soon, a Middle-aged Man with a kind, amiable smile stood up first.

“Fellow Daoists, welcome to the Epoch Battlefield for your trials.”

“The one opening this time is the Lower Battlefield!”

“Cultivators whose cultivation is above the Spirit Manifestation Realm, do not enter!”

His opening remarks were simple and clear. After he finished speaking, the other male Cultivators also stood up and walked together toward the stone gate.

The five of them each took out a token and simultaneously tossed them into the air.

After tracing a few circles in mid-air, the tokens all hovered in front of the stone gate.

Next, a faint light flashed across the surface of the five tokens simultaneously, and then all five tokens lit up.

With a loud boom, the five tokens merged into the stone gate together.

Immediately afterward, intense light and fluctuations intertwined.

A void passage leading to an unknown world appeared before everyone's eyes.

Having completed this, the Middle-aged Man Cultivator bowed slightly toward the many Cultivators before him.

“Welcome! Enter the Epoch Battlefield!”

“Go forth to the Epoch Battlefield and seek your Opportunities!”

“May you all soon achieve the Heavenly Demon Great Dao!”

The Middle-aged Man Cultivator's speech made the blood of the Loose Cultivators boil with excitement.

Immediately, the numerous Loose Cultivators positioned in the front row rushed forward, yelling as they squeezed into the stone gate.

“Two Fellow Daoists, wait a moment.”

Just as Tang Heng was taking Yao Yian to follow the crowd ahead, a pleasant female voice suddenly came from behind.

The two turned their heads and saw two women approaching side by side from the rear.

One woman appeared to be fifteen or sixteen years old, while the other looked to be over thirty.

Both wore blue robes and possessed an outstanding demeanor, clearly indicating they came from a small Family or minor faction.

“Are the two of you also heading to the Epoch Battlefield?”

“We are. May I ask what the matter is?”

“I see the two Fellow Daoists are alone; presumably, you plan to venture into the Epoch Battlefield just the two of you.”

“As far as this humble one knows, the Epoch Battlefield is fraught with danger. Why don't the two Fellow Daoists travel with us? We can look out for each other.”

The young woman pointed behind her. Tang Heng looked in the direction she indicated and saw three more male Cultivators there.

“How can we look out for each other?”

“Isn't this teleportation Formation random?”

“Fellow Daoist, you don't know something. While it is random teleportation, if Cultivators exchange True Qi during the transmission process...”

“...the teleportation Formation will then transport those Cultivators together, allowing them to stick together as a group.”

Tang Heng suddenly understood and quickly cupped his fists in thanks.

However, he did not intend to group up with them, as he could not easily trust strangers.

“Farewell!”

“Alright, the two Fellow Daoists take care.”

The two women were not annoyed and led the Cultivators in their group toward another area.

It seemed they were preparing to find others to form a group with.

Ahead, people continuously entered the stone gate, and the speed of the entire queue was extremely fast.

Outside Zhenhai City, Cultivators were still rushing in continuously, eager to enter the stone gate.

In less than fifteen minutes, Tang Heng and Yao Yian were pushed to the front of the stone gate by the Cultivators behind them.

Following the method described by the young woman earlier, Tang Heng controlled Yao Yian to exchange True Qi after entering the stone gate.

The teleportation Formation under their feet lit up, a flash of light passed, and the two vanished from the spot... Darkness followed by light, Tang Heng felt as if he had fallen into the deep sea, with various turbulent currents filling the surrounding space, making it impossible for him to stabilize his body.

At this moment, Yao Yian beside him felt the same way.

But soon, this sensation disappeared.

Because the surrounding environment changed, they had arrived at an unfamiliar location.

In the wilderness, the sky was a dark crimson color.

There were no stars or moonlight; the surroundings were gloomy, giving off an uncomfortable feeling.

Most strangely, the ground beneath their feet carried a slight stickiness, which seemed to be the residue of congealed blood.

Surrounding them was a large group of Cultivators who, like the two of them, looked slightly bewildered.

A rough count showed there were four or five hundred people.

“Hahaha, the Qi of blood fiends in heaven and earth is so rich.”

“Is this the inside of the Epoch Battlefield? This smell is truly sweet and delicious!”

“Excellent! This place is meant to be where I find my Opportunity!”

“Huh, why is there a hand on my chest...”

Pfft...

A bald Cultivator was the first to strike, unleashing a fierce claw that pierced the chest, instantly killing the chattering Cultivator in front of him.

He then leaped up violently, summoned a long halberd, and launched an attack toward a nearby Cultivator.

Chaos erupted in less than ten breaths.

The teleportation landing spot instantly turned into a chaotic battleground. The Cultivators with higher cultivation levels tacitly avoided each other.

Instead, they all turned their butcher knives toward the weakest Cultivators.

However, those weaker Cultivators were by no means pushovers, driving Gu worms, Zombies, and other evil creatures to fight in a chaotic mass.

Looking at Tang Heng's side, the two of them originally wanted to escape this battlefield immediately, but they were targeted by a Cultivator at the Nascent Light Realm Ninth Layer.

The opponent stepped forward, their long sword flashing with dazzling ink-black light, stabbing fiercely toward Tang Heng.

Tang Heng raised an eyebrow, cursed the opponent as foolish internally, and could only brace himself to meet the challenge.

With a wave of his hand, a long spear instantly appeared in his grasp.

“Boom!”

After a fierce collision, both parties simultaneously flew back several dozens of feet.

Tang Heng did not linger in the fight and quickly bypassed him. After he shook off his pursuer, a group of Cultivators wearing unified attire suddenly surged toward them from all directions.

They all wore black and white tight-fitting clothes and stepped on Flying Swords. Besides this, they all shared one common feature: a sinister dark-gold collar around their necks.

Their aura was very powerful; every single one was a master comparable to the Kai Guang Realm Ninth Layer Perfection.

Among them were quite a few whose strength Tang Heng could not discern.

More crucially, there were many of them—a dense mass of over a thousand people surrounding them.

Their current encirclement likely meant they had some scheme.

Everyone engaged in the fighting was seeing red, and only a small fraction of people paid attention to the unfamiliar Cultivators gathering around.

“Stop!!!”

“I ordered you to stop! Didn't you hear me?”

With a loud crash, a burly figure leaped out from the group of Cultivators and plunged straight into the crowd, slaughtering everyone around.

He killed one Cultivator with a single punch, immediately followed by another punch smashing into a second person's skull... In the crowd, every punch he threw was accompanied by a scream... Seeing this, the rest of the people's expressions changed slightly, and they unanimously retreated a dozen steps, yielding the battlefield to the man who had suddenly charged out.

This man's eyes were blood-red, and his entire body was covered in bulging, knotty muscles, making him as robust as a small hill.

A few Kai Guang Realm Ninth Layer blood Zombies attacked him, but their bodies were instantly shattered by his two punches.

“Terrifying!”

Tang Heng showed surprise: “To dare to use his Physical Body to forcefully strike evil creatures, this person must surely follow the path of Body Refining.”

The burly man only stopped after consecutively killing more than twenty Cultivators in the crowd.

The many Cultivators who had been fighting showed fear and quickly dispersed.

He stood in the center of the clearing, coldly surveying his surroundings:

“Whoever moves recklessly again will be killed without mercy!”

With a bang, the burly man's aura spread out; he was clearly a Spirit Manifestation Realm Cultivator.

At this moment, another woman in blue robes descended, gently chiding:

“Zheshuo, how can you be so heavy-handed? These people will be our companions later.”

She wore an elegant blue dress, and her features were delicate and beautiful.

“Fellow Daoists, welcome to the Epoch Battlefield.”

“Congratulations, congratulations! You have encountered a great piece of good fortune right after arriving at the Epoch Battlefield.”

“However, Fellow Daoists, please bear with us for a moment.”

“Do not struggle.”

The woman in blue robes covered her mouth and chuckled softly, then the many Cultivators behind her swarmed forward.

They took out silver collars from their spatial rings and placed them around everyone's necks.

If someone among the crowd had taken the lead to break out of the encirclement at this moment, there might have been a sliver of a chance to escape.

But they were all evil Cultivators who only harmed others without benefiting themselves, and at this moment, they were all waiting for others to make a move.

But until the very end, no one took the lead to charge.

“Let us go!”

“What is this thing? I don't want to wear this!”

“Fellow Daoists! Let's fight our way out!”

“Yes! If we don't leave now, we won't have another chance!”

Two Kai Guang Realm Ninth Layer Cultivators stood up, seemingly trying to rally the group to break through the siege.

“You two Dog Things are truly courting death!”

Suddenly, the burly man took a step forward and violently smashed his fist onto the heads of the two Cultivators.

With two bangs, red and white splattered out.

Instantly, the scene quieted down rapidly, and no one dared to shout in resistance anymore.

Naturally, Tang Heng was not going to stick his neck out either, and he obediently stayed put.

Soon, everyone had the collars placed on them.

Only after putting on the collars did they discover their sinister nature.

Their cultivation levels were all suppressed down to the Kai Guang Realm First Layer.

Yao Yian was startled, realizing that as his cultivation was suppressed, it became even harder to resist the controlling force within his soul.

“It's over, completely over. We can't escape.”

Seeing this, the Cultivators all looked dispirited and bitter.

With their cultivation suppressed, their lives were now entirely in the hands of the opposing party.

The woman in blue robes scanned the crowd and nodded in satisfaction: “Everyone, settle down. As long as you are obedient.”

“When we reach our destination, if you feel the Opportunity isn't suitable, we will naturally let you leave.”

“Our Aether Coral Fortress is fair and honest!”