Amidst a massive explosion like muffled thunder, the night mist tore apart. Golden Lion's burly figure flew backward, his beard and chest stained red with blood.
Beneath the vast expanse of the sky, atop the densely packed birds of prey and flying beasts, the hunters' bodies all grew taut.
Golden Lion was still hurtling backward, unable to halt his momentum yet; aside from the impact of Leng Mingkong's punch, he was also deliberately accelerating to disengage from the battlefield.
A few people knew what he was doing, but no one spoke or tried to stop him.
Suddenly, Golden Lion's expression shifted slightly. Resistance met his back as layered ripples of runes undulated, expanding outward from the edge of the desert.
He realized that the legendary, deeply storied ancient artifact—the Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stakes—had already taken effect. Breaking through them would be exceedingly difficult.
His opponent did not dare to unleash the stakes' taboo power fully, yet they still temporarily sealed off all four directions.
He was testing the pressure while his body continued to retreat.
Leng Mingkong stood calmly and poised beneath the night sky. "Old lion," he said, "how long do you plan to keep acting? You won't escape today. Feigning a grave injury only makes you look ridiculous!"
Golden Lion halted. He knew he had been locked onto; his opponent wouldn't give him the chance to test the pressure or break the formation, and was about to launch a thunderous strike.
At their level, though they seemed to stand at opposite ends of the night sky, such a distance was not enough to shake off the other's terrifying spiritual field.
Sure enough, Leng Mingkong charged!
With a single thought, wind and thunder surged wildly, and the entire night sky was illuminated by the immortal light radiating from his body.
Along the path, shouts of men and shrieks of beasts erupted as all the hunters shrank back in horror. From the youngest warriors to renowned figures, they spread their wings like startled night birds and fled to both flanks.
Leng Mingkong hailed from the outer yang land, a renowned pathfinder of the contemporary immortal path whose immortal might was unfathomable.
Along the way, other sixth-realm powerhouses of the non-human races naturally wanted to intercept him.
Yet with more than a dozen ancestral masters on the immortal path's side alone, divine light immediately flashed in several pairs of eyes, locking onto their targets with conscious spiritual light.
Leng Mingkong seemed to teleport, arriving at the horizon in the blink of an eye.
"Roar!"
Golden Lion's massive frame and golden beard and hair made him truly resemble an old lion who had attained godhood. As he let out a muffled roar, golden light poured from his entire body, bathing the night sky.
His soundwaves condensed into tangible runes, crashing like tidal waves across the expanse of the sky. Had this been inside a city, this soundwave alone would have brought about bloody calamity and slaughtered countless innocents.
Leng Mingkong merely let out a soft rebuke, and the golden runes beneath the night sky were instantly checked across the board, thrown into chaos, and then blown apart.
He stood suspended in midair, gazing upon the burly figure charging toward him with a spiked mace, as serene as a figure in a painting.
With a loud roar from Golden Lion, the desert shook violently. Howling gales and rolling thunder accompanied the black spiked mace in his grip as it crashed down with city-destroying might.
The light he radiated filled the night sky, turning the long night into day.
Leng Mingkong stood tall and straight, his waist-length black hair flowing. Looking no older than twenty-five or twenty-six, his eyes shone as bright as stars as he stood quietly in the void, his whole body pure and luminous.
Facing an attack that felt like Feixian Mountain crashing down, his legs did not budge an inch. He merely raised his right arm to meet it, pressing his index and middle fingers together and thrusting them toward the spiked mace.
Hearts trembled; even sixth-realm powerhouses took on grave expressions.
This was an all-out clash between the leadership of both sides. The opening bout would dictate their overall morale, yet Leng Mingkong dared to face his foe with two fingers. It seemed utterly reckless and overconfident.
Clang!
In the night sky, the mountain-heavy spiked mace gleamed with a cold, dark metallic luster, yet it was held fast by those two fingers, unable to press down a fraction of an inch further.
At Leng Mingkong's fingertips, blinding light blazed forth, violently rattling the spiked mace.
"The legendary Immortal-Slaying Finger... you actually mastered it!" Cross-shaped runes appeared in Golden Lion's eyes, his heart reeling with shock.
Crack!
Before everyone's shocked gazes, Leng Mingkong's pristine white fingers sent fractures racing through the spiked mace until it shattered with a resounding crash, black metal shards flying in all directions.
In the distance, a high-ranking flying beast struck by a flying fragment exploded into a cloud of bloody mist on the spot.
Shock rippled in all directions!
Those from the nomadic hunting civilization, in particular, felt a chill run down their spines. They had studied this old monster from the outer yang land extensively, yet he was even more terrifying than imagined.
Around the Immortal Tomb, however, morale soared, and a roar of cheers broke out.
Elsewhere, Helian Chengyun's second volley of arrows streaked out. In his youthful state, he looked delicate yet stern. Divine radiance bloomed from his red-gold armor; he resembled a phoenix reborn from ashes.
Opposite him, the powerhouse of the two-headed werewolf race was utterly outmatched in the archery duel. His shoulder blew apart into mangled flesh, and half his scapula was blown clean off.
Both sides were fighting with everything they had. Every arrow carried vast Daoist resonance and crushing pressure, and the two-headed werewolf ancestral master of the sixth realm had already been heavily wounded.
Helian Chengyun stood holding his bow, intimidating many non-human experts ahead.
Present Rulai strode forward. His broad figure began emitting heavenly light, tearing through the night mist like a colossal blazing sun crossing the sky.
Earlier, someone had called out his name as well. Though he said nothing now, his actions spoke for everything.
When Rulai descended in person, all that was needed was to throw a punch.
The leadership of the nomadic hunting civilization could not help thinking of Past Rulai; back then, even that old fellow had not possessed blood qi as boundless and terrifying as the man before them.
The resolve of several non-human powerhouses wavered. Coming east this time had been an utterly disastrous mistake.
At this moment, a powerhouse of the giant race who had integrated into the nomadic hunting civilization stepped forward. Towering like a mountain, burly and ferocious, he cast a massive shadow across the desert, exuding a suffocating pressure.
As the sixth-realm giant strode forward, the desert shook. Blood qi surged violently from his entire body, forming crimson clouds around him that radiated into the void with an impact so fierce that even distant onlookers could barely endure it.
Dark clouds roiled above his head; his blood qi stirred the very weather.
Present Rulai uttered not a single word. With a swish, he was right before him.
Both struck almost simultaneously.
The giant walked the Giant Spirit path. His blood qi blended with divine force, as though about to blow the night sky apart, his fist wind howling with rumbling thunder.
When his fist came smashing down, it was like a mountain peak plummeting—massive, horrific, billowing with blood qi, striking dread into all who saw it and making souls quiver.
Present Rulai appeared far smaller in stature, yet he blocked his foe completely. Before his fist, immeasurable heavenly light surged with unstoppable momentum.
The instant their fists collided, both soared into the sky. With a thunderous boom, the blanket of dark clouds across the sky was shattered by the radiance of their punches.
Many felt their hearts palpitate and involuntarily fell back repeatedly.
"Roar!" The giant bellowed. Mobilizing the blood qi of his entire body and burning with divine power, he was like a deity steaming with crimson haze, peerlessly valiant, his every move carrying wonders of heaven and earth.
Rulai remained calm and composed, repeatedly unleashing punches.
Everyone saw vast sprays of blood rain down. The sixth-realm expert, the giant ancestral master, grimaced in pain as flesh tore away from his right hand.
In this exchange of blows, he was actually unable to withstand Present Rulai, whose frame was far smaller than his own. His right hand trembled, coated in blood, white bone exposed on several fingers.
In these opening clashes, the immortal path and the Newborn path held a commanding advantage, immediately boosting everyone's confidence and filling countless young disciples with thrilling excitement.
"The ancestral masters fooled us so terribly!" someone couldn't help blurting out.
Their emotions today had truly been a wild rollercoaster of highs and lows.
Some even wept tears of joy, feeling as though they had ascended straight from hell to heaven.
In truth, someone had mentioned a month ago that the ancestral masters had slain a mirage immortal thirty-four years earlier; evidently, not everyone had been completely kept in the dark, and some had noticed clues.
Once the mirage incense was lit, the images were false, but some of the energy ripples were by no means illusory—that heavenly light, those immortal Dao runes, had all been genuinely released.
Earlier today, the ancestral masters had merely been loosening their joints and stretching their limbs to prepare for the true decisive battle, while some had been polishing weapons and testing their hands.
"I cried my eyes out for nothing," someone said, eyes rimmed red.
Immediately, a personal disciple of an ancestral master glared over, as if to say: Did you really wish for the ancestral master to pass away?
One ancestral master spoke calmly: "A little more despair does you good. In the past when pioneering the wastes and battling god-like beings and Feathered Immortals, the true desperate plights our predecessors faced were far more terrifying and bloody than what you felt just now. Endure a little more tempering. We didn't bring you out here to admire foreign scenery, but to be baptized in blood, cross the boundaries of life and death, and see your true inner self."
Many nodded, wiping their weapons and summoning rare treasures, fixing their gazes on the densely packed birds of prey and flying beasts in the night sky. Those were their opponents.
"So all those omniscient passersby were ancestral masters!" someone remarked with deep emotion.
At this moment, thunderous roars echoed from the night sky ahead as ancestral masters from the immortal path, esoteric sect, and Newborn path shouted in unison:
"Today, we decide the realm in a single battle and wipe out our foes completely!"
Across the Immortal Tomb region, young disciples, able-bodied warriors, renowned figures, and grandmasters all bellowed along: "Decide the realm in a single battle, wipe out our foes!"
In an instant, flying swords shot skyward, spiritual artifacts chimed together, rare treasures spanned the void, and the clatter of vibrating armor rang out incessantly.
At this moment, even youths who had never witnessed such a grand spectacle felt their blood boil with passion.
"Bone-Illuminating Mirrors, rise!"
Several ancestral masters called out as treasure mirror after treasure mirror soared into the sky, hovering high above and shining toward the opposing ranks. Any figure harboring terrifying energy within was instantly revealed.
The ancestral masters were screening for sixth-realm powerhouses—those would be their opponents.
Sure enough, some non-human ancestral masters had hidden among the young knights hoping to slip by unnoticed, but now they had nowhere to hide.
In a flash, heavenly light pierced thick dark clouds, divine power shredded the desert ahead, and immortal lotuses bloomed layer upon layer across the void.
The ancestral masters of the Newborn path, esoteric sect, and immortal path charged forward from the heavens and the earth, each locked onto their chosen target.
The world ahead seemed torn apart; blinding radiance shone, making the entire fabric of space and time appear to warp and collapse.
A clash of ancestral-master caliber fully erupted!
As for the sky-blotting birds of prey and flying beasts, they all fled the main battlefield, terrified of being swept into the storm of a confrontation between sixth-realm powerhouses.
Some non-human ancestral masters were bent on avoiding battle, but once they fled into the ranks of the young knights, those juniors were doomed to a grim fate, bursting into pieces amidst the dazzling radiance.
The ancestral masters of each path looked solemn, by no means underestimating their enemy. The nomadic hunting civilization opposite them had absorbed multiple races, and the sixth-realm powerhouses they had gathered were considerable in number—nearly twenty in total.
"The ancestral masters are valiant and have led the way for us! It is our turn to strike!" the grandmasters shouted.
They also used Bone-Illuminating Mirrors, projecting light onto the figures atop the densely packed mounts.
"Kill!"
Beyond the main battlefield, the grandmasters struck.
From behind, the able-bodied warriors roared, "Cross the boundary of life and death, see your true inner self, and temper the road ahead with blood and fire!"
"Repel the enemy on our borders; the time to forge glorious deeds is here!" older figures encouraged the youths, telling everyone that rewards would be meted out according to merit after the battle—secret scriptures, miraculous medicines, rare treasures, everything was up for grabs.
At this moment, morale here soared to the absolute peak.
Even Qin Ming, Xiao Wu, Xiang Yiwu, and the others were boiling with excitement, charging forward to seek out suitable opponents!
"Are there Vajra fruits?" Qin Ming shouted.
"There are!" an elder senior actually answered in earnest.
Xiang Yiwu, resembling a youthful Rulai as heavenly light surged skyward from within him, shouted along, "Senior, you must prepare at least three Vajra fruits!"
Wu Yaozu, every strand of his short hair gleaming, also roared, "Sap from the Vajra treasure tree—we need that very much, too!"
"As long as your performance exceeds expectations, you can have anything!" an old man laughed heartily.
Even at this tense, critical juncture of battle, their banter and laughter instantly infected many around them.
Chapter 309