165: Changes in national warfare

The dust settled, and the clamor within Yangyuan Cave gradually subsided, restoring the silence of the past.

Song Moting, Chen Miaoyin, and Qi Yunling each had missions to guard resource points, and with frequent battles across various fronts recently, the situation was tense.

The three rested in Yangyuan Cave for a day before bidding each other farewell and temporarily returning to their respective posts.

Su Ling took advantage of this free time to make a trip back to the base city.

He handed over all the lower-quality spoils gained from this operation, exchanging them for over thirty million Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

This finally allowed his wallet, which had become empty from exchanging for Materials, to be replenished.

Afterward, at the city's exchange office, he traded for many top-tier Yin-attribute Materials, including the ten thousand year unmelting yin wood.

As well as a large batch of Medicinal Pills needed for Cultivation, making full preparations for his upcoming Cultivation.

After returning to the Yangyuan Cave resource point, Su Ling found a corner with relatively dense Spiritual Qi near Lu Tao's Immortal Cave and opened up a temporary Immortal Cave.

He specifically went to greet Lu Tao, then went straight into the Immortal Cave, set up an isolation Restriction, and began closed-door Cultivation.

The core of this closed-door Cultivation was to re-refine the ten thousand souls banner using the newly acquired ten thousand year unmelting yin wood.

The quality of this ten thousand year unmelting yin wood was more than a grade higher than the thousand year soul-nurturing wood he had used before.

Once re-refined, the power of the ten thousand souls banner would certainly see a qualitative leap.

Su Ling was full of anticipation for this.

While the flames of war from the various factions of the Nether Prison Plane swept across every resource point, and Cultivators fought fiercely for points and territory.

In the deep space countless billions of miles away from this planet, there was an asteroid belt spanning hundreds of thousands of miles.

Against the pitch-black background of the Universe, countless asteroids of varying sizes floated.

Some were as towering as small mountains, their surfaces covered in thick stardust.

Others were as fine as pebbles, drifting slowly in the Void Realm.

Yet this silence was completely shattered by a suddenly erupting, majestic power.

Two distinct beams of spiritual light collided in the center of the asteroid belt, and terrifying energy fluctuations spread like ripples, causing even the stable Void Realm to tremble and twist slightly.

The next moment, dazzling Spell brilliance bloomed in the deep space like fireworks.

A crimson-gold fire Dragon bared its fangs and brandished its claws, its scales burning with flames capable of melting metal, and wherever it passed, even cold asteroids were baked until they melted.

The other was a sky-blue wind-element Spell, a violent tornado like a hurricane passing through, grinding the incredibly hard asteroids into dust.

The two extreme-attribute Spells collided with a bang, heat waves and strong winds intertwined, and the resulting shockwave instantly blew away dozens of surrounding asteroids.

Several of the smaller asteroids were directly shattered into powder, turning into stardust and dissipating into the Universe.

A searing white sword light flashed across the Void Realm, striking the void like lightning and causing ripples to spread.

A dreamlike mist spread out, attempting to shroud the Void Realm, but it was blocked by layers upon layers of space.

Every Spell collision was accompanied by earth-shattering roars, and even in the void where there was no air to carry sound, the pressure brought by that power impact felt as if it could pierce through time and space to reach the heart.

This asteroid belt, which had been silent for billions of years, had now become a battlefield for top experts, and every clash of power was rewriting the form of this area.

At some unknown moment, accompanied by large splashes of purple blood falling into the Void Realm, a figure standing a zhang tall with three horns growing from its forehead erupted with the power to shatter the void.

It brazenly broke through a rock-solid spatial barrier and fled straight into the distance.

"Damn it! This beast's spatial Spell is truly too strong!"

"Quick, pursue! We cannot let it escape again!"

"Rest assured, it has used the blood-burning secret technique several times and is already at the end of its rope."

"Fairy Qinglian, it is up to you!"

A sword light cut through the Void Realm, and Immortal Venerable Mochen appeared, looking solemnly at Immortal Venerable Qinglian not far away.

Four figures with majestic Auras appeared immediately after.

Immortal Venerable Xuanji and Immortal Venerable Nightmare were among them.

The other two were Immortal Venerable Yichen of the Qingming Sword Sect and the founding Immortal Emperor of the Shenwu Imperial Dynasty, Shenwu Immortal Emperor.

"Good!"

Fairy Qinglian nodded slightly, and the illusory rainbow flying cloud bell released an invisible spatial ripple.

It instantly enveloped everyone, carrying them as they tore through the Void Realm to pursue.

The six Immortal Venerables had been working together to surround the Void-Rending Monarch for several years; if not for Immortal Venerable Xuanji's expertise in spatial sealing and Fairy Qinglian's high attainment in spatial Laws.

They would never have been able to corner this top-tier Demonic Lord who excelled in the three Laws of space, metal, and wind.

Even so, it had still managed to escape repeatedly.

This was enough to show just how formidable this Demonic Lord's innate spatial Spell was.

In terms of individual strength alone, the Void-Rending Monarch Zera was already comparable to a Peak Golden Immortal, stronger than any of the Immortal Venerables present.

If the three Laws it mastered advanced further, its strength would rise to the Taiyi realm.

By then, even if the six Immortal Venerables joined forces, they would not be its match.

Unfortunately, Zera had used the blood-burning secret technique to escape several times, already damaging its Foundation.

It was almost impossible for it to advance any further.

The reason they had been unable to slay the Void-Rending Monarch for several years was mainly because the six Immortal Venerables wanted to wear down its will and strength as much as possible.

If pushed too hard, once the Void-Rending Monarch brazenly self-detonated...

Then, even if the six Immortal Venerables were not dragged down with it, they would very likely be affected and suffer heavy injuries.

Once a Golden Immortal expert was heavily injured, the time for healing would be calculated in centuries or even millennia.

It was truly not worth the loss.

Therefore, this battle of the trapped beast would very likely drag on for some time.

Ten years of time passed quietly amidst the smoke of war, like a white horse passing a crevice.

The National War that once swept across the Nether Prison Plane, after long battles and maneuvering, finally saw the situation gradually clarify, and the strength of the various factions became increasingly distinct.

At this time, the Qingming Faction continued to maintain its peerless Aura of slaughter, standing head and shoulders above the many other factions with its top-tier overall strength.

However, this dominance was not without flaws.

In the border regions bordering the Azure Wave and Haoyang factions, both sides remained locked in a stalemate, with victories and defeats alternating between offensive and defensive, and the struggle for every inch of land was accompanied by tragic casualties.

But on other battlefields, the Qingming Faction's advantage was displayed to the fullest.

On the front lines bordering the Nightmare and Wuji Factions, the Qingming Cultivators were like sharp blades cutting through thorns and thistles, firmly controlling the initiative of the war.

Especially in the Nightmare Faction's defense zone, the Qingming army was unstoppable, directly breaking through the buffer zone the opponent had painstakingly managed, advancing over ten thousand miles, and tearing the Nightmare Faction's defense line to shreds.

Over ten years, the Qingming Faction successfully seized seven or eight resource points, each one like a nail wedged into the heart of the Nightmare Faction, constantly compressing the opponent's living space.

The Nightmare Faction, with the Nightmare Sect Disciples as its backbone, was not good at frontal combat to begin with.

Long-term defeats had long since stripped away their past sharpness, and they could only be forced to contract their forces, concentrating all Cultivators to fully defend the remaining ten resource points and the core base city.

The ambition to expand outward had been completely extinguished, and now, being able to hold onto their remaining territory was their greatest hope.

In contrast, the situation of the Wuji Faction was slightly better.

Facing the strong offensive of the Qingming Faction, although they failed to hold the defense line, they managed to barely curb the opponent's rate of advance.

The Qingming army only advanced over four thousand miles in this area, seizing three resource points, while the Wuji Faction still retained most of its core territory and still had a chance to catch its breath.