"You let them get away even like this? What are you good for!"
"These cultivators were too fast! They moved in perfect unison and were strictly disciplined—nothing like scattered stragglers."
"It wasn't speed. They vanished into thin air right before our eyes!"
A recorded transmission spread across the Sacred Dynasty's astral network.
Even though the pursuers of the Sacred Dynasty had been on the verge of catching those attackers, at the crucial moment, the assailants dissolved into nothingness, drifting away into the air.
The Sacred Dynasty soldiers initially assumed the enemy had teleported away and tried to track them, only to find no trace of spatial fluctuations whatsoever.
"Requesting reinforcements. The current garrison in Luoyan Province is stretched to its limit just holding the Heavenly City. We have no strength to pursue and purge the remaining Alliance forces in the province."
"Over here in Shilin Province, we've already wiped out all resistance. We can rush over!"
"We're almost done too! Hold on, brothers!"
...
Watching the stream of communications across the eastern theater, Sun Erlang was debating whether to dispatch more troops to launch a joint encirclement and purge in Luoyan Province.
Suddenly, like a flash of lightning tearing through his mind, Sun Erlang's heart gave a violent thump.
A wave of suspicion welled up.
He abruptly recalled something his master had mentioned in the past.
*No, that's not right. Luoyan Province... Luoyan Province should have been destroyed once before. Even though the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals later rebuilt it, there couldn't possibly be so many cultivators garrisoned there...*
*How did I forget such an important detail?*
A sharp gleam flashed through Sun Erlang's eyes. Sensing something amiss, he immediately issued an order to all soldiers of the Sacred Dynasty: "Suspend all reinforcements to Luoyan Province. I will send personnel to handle it myself."
"The Thirty-Sixth Cohort garrisoning Luoyan Province is to evacuate immediately."
Military orders were absolute as mountains.
No one raised questions; they simply carried out the command.
"This is Lan Xiangwen, commander of the Thirty-Sixth Cohort of the First Legion. I have led my unit in completing the evacuation, falling back to Lueying Province as ordered."
"However... I don't see any of our people here."
"What nonsense are you babbling, Lan Xiangwen? We've been waiting for you at the rendezvous point, but we haven't seen a hair of you! Where the hell are you?"
"Wait, Lan Xiangwen, your position indicator shows you're still within Luoyan Province! What is your Thirty-Sixth Cohort playing at?!"
...
A trace of confusion began spreading through the eastern theater's internal communications.
Wang Xuanba, commander-in-chief of the eastern theater, decisively isolated their channel and began interrogating them in detail.
At that moment, Sun Erlang's voice came through as well.
"Xuanba, something is bizarre about that place. By my confirmation, ever since the men of the Thirty-Sixth Cohort entered Luoyan Province, their coordinates have never shifted. It's as if they fell into a deep sleep."
"Do not trust any information they report. It is likely an illusion experienced in dreams."
Wang Xuanba was slightly taken aback. "I already sent one of my exotic beast bodies in to infiltrate, but couldn't find them. I truly didn't expect it to be an illusion."
"Earlier, they indeed breached the newly built Luoyan Heavenly City, and the troops transferred in the first wave did leave Luoyan Province. This must be some method the Alliance deployed afterward. Perhaps it's not even the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals..." Sun Erlang stated his conclusion.
"One of my puppet bodies has already entered the territory of Luoyan Province..."
Before Sun Erlang's eyes, images from Luoyan Province streamed in.
At the coordinates where the sea of stars sensed Wang Xuanba's exotic beast body, no figure could be seen.
In fact, across the entirety of Luoyan Province, not a hint of fighting was visible.
All was calm and peaceful.
*It can even drag a puppet body into an illusion?* Sun Erlang's heart grew heavy.
*A pity that falsehood can never become reality!*
The puppet, adorned with alternating black-and-gold patterns, extended an arm forward.
Energy surged through its frame, and a longbow composed of pure golden energy materialized instantly at its fingertips.
The bow drew back like a full moon, and a silver arrow formed along with it.
*Buzz!*
After a brief charge, the silver glow burst forward like a dragon, piercing through the sky.
The tremendous energy shredded all the space ahead, on the verge of exposing the reality beneath the illusory exterior.
Right at that instant, a pale hand reached out from the void without warning.
It gently caught the Sky-Patrolling Arrow.
No matter how the silver light on the arrow shaft erupted, the hand held it in an iron grip, completely immobilized.
Eventually, the light vanished entirely, leaving behind an ordinary arrow in that grasp.
The space shattered by the Sky-Patrolling Arrow mended itself once more.
The pale arm that had caught the arrow paid no heed to the puppet Sun Erlang was controlling, gradually growing dim and fading into nothingness.
Sun Erlang snorted coldly.
Wondrous golden energy surged from within the puppet's body.
*Pop!*
A pair of arms sprouted from behind the puppet.
Immediately after, another pair grew out from the left flank of its torso.
Only after a total of eight pairs—sixteen arms—had sprouted did the puppet cease changing.
With so many additional structures, the puppet's overall size had swelled by nearly a full circle.
The golden patterns seemed to come alive, flowing endlessly across its surface.
*Rumble!*
Like thunderclaps descending upon the world, eight longbows appeared one after another in the puppet's hands.
Their bowstrings were drawn to the full, and eight Sky-Patrolling Arrows pointed in different directions, poised to strike.
"Break!" Sun Erlang roared.
Eight silver dragons roared and howled, bursting outward simultaneously from the central puppet.
Gold and silver vied in brilliance, even briefly blotting out the light of the moon phase formed by Daqi in the sky.
It was as though only this brute-force creation existed between heaven and earth.
Wherever the eight Sky-Patrolling Arrows passed, space shattered layer upon layer like a broken mirror.
Yet eerily, those fragments did not tumble outward.
Instead, they hung frozen in midair.
The silver dragons continued charging forward at extreme speed, utterly pulverizing everything in their path.
Yet the space they destroyed appeared trapped in a state of suspended time.
Consequently, the true scene beneath the illusion never truly emerged.
What made Sun Erlang's pupils constrict was that the pale arm appeared once more.
Only this time, it did not move to stop the eight Sky-Patrolling Arrows.
Instead, unhurriedly yet with astonishing speed, it picked up the frozen fragments of the illusion one by one and set them back in their original places.
If that pale arm were permitted to continue the restoration, the grand, earth-shaking volley of Sky-Patrolling Arrows—potent enough to severely wound eight Dao Integration cultivators—would amount to striking a bale of cotton, accomplishing nothing at all.
Sun Erlang naturally would not let the adversary have their way.
"Even if this is merely a puppet body, to refuse to show your face from beginning to end..."
"Aren't you looking down on me a bit too much?!"
The eight pairs of arms shifted across the puppet's frame.
Writhing and fusing together, in the blink of an eye they turned into a single pair of immensely thick arms, nearly the size of the puppet's entire torso.
The puppet flashed across the distance, arriving directly before the pale arm.
It seized the arm with all its might!
Yet that seemingly slender arm harbored an unimaginable reserve of colossal strength.
*Creak, creak...*
The colossal puppet arms not only failed to halt its movement, but were dragged along as the arm forcefully continued along its original trajectory.
The dark gold patterns on the puppet operated at their absolute limit.
Sun Erlang could faintly sense that in this intense trial of strength, the puppet's body had reached the breaking point of what it could endure.
It was on the verge of disintegrating in the next breath.
A cold light flashed in the eyes of Sun Erlang's true self.
Long-range power support from other dark-gold puppets was instantly channeled into it.
*Bang!*
Shrouded in golden light, the puppet's body expanded several times over in an instant.
The surging burst of immense strength wrenched back the movements of that pale arm.
Pressing the advantage, its energy erupted to the peak, intent on dragging out the culprit pulling the strings from the shadows.
The intention was sound, but just as Sun Erlang felt he was on the verge of success, a sudden, inexplicable chill surged through his heart.
Immediately following that, he felt...
As if another pale, icy arm had come to rest upon the puppet's shoulder.
With a slight exertion of force, the puppet's previously strained equilibrium shattered.
The body stumbled, thrown wretchedly off balance.
Before he could even recover, Sun Erlang felt more and more pale hands reaching out from the void.
They pressed down upon the puppet's body.
The strength in each individual hand did not seem particularly formidable.
Yet they were unwavering, and joined together, they bore down on the puppet like mountains and oceans.
In an instant, the puppet was submerged under a thicket of white hands, unable to budge an inch.
*Buzz!*
A trail of blood leaked from Sun Erlang's eye as he forcefully severed his connection from controlling the puppet.
He had a premonition that if he continued to pilot the puppet and was dragged by those pale arms into that unknown place, his true self would suffer grave harm.
"The Longevity realm..." Sun Erlang had now confirmed the opponent's power.
It was no longer something he could handle alone. Though a sliver of indignation flickered through him, he did not force the issue.
"Step back. Leave this place to me." Fortunately, Qiaogong's voice rang out beside the puppet's ear.
"This treasure took me a great deal of effort to forge. I can't just let you have it..." Qiaogong muttered, his figure promptly appearing beside the dark-gold puppet.
A spinning blade of light in his hand made a simple sweep around the pale arms tightly gripping the puppet.
Countless arms snapped from the incisions like torn sheets of white paper.
"Go!"
Qiaogong patted the dark-gold puppet's shoulder, and it shrank back to its normal size.
Then, with a flash of light, it teleported away from the area.
At the very last moment, Sun Erlang noticed that the severed pale arms Qiaogong had cut through were actually pieces of willow branches.
*A willow tree?*
The same question crossed Qiaogong's mind.
He reached out to catch one of the severed willow branches, but his hand grasped nothing but empty air.
In the brief moment he hesitated, the thousands of densely packed pale arms dissolved back into the space and disappeared.
"Refusing even to show your hand now? You're not giving me, Qiaogong, any face at all."
There was no anger on Qiaogong's face. Instead, he drew a circular bronze plate from his robes.
Upon the bronze plate stood several figurines in comical poses.
The figurines had been frolicking a moment before, but as soon as Qiaogong brought them out, they grew tense and uneasy.
They pointed in various directions around them.
Without any visible movement from Qiaogong, rope-like shadows flew from his side.
Darting swiftly, they concealed themselves and vanished into the air.
Moments later, as though striking something, the black ropes began to sway.
Wherever the figurines on the plate pointed, black shadows shot forth continuously from Qiaogong's side.
Before long, an eerie, ominous black net had been woven with Qiaogong at the center.
The figurines on the bronze plate seemed to consider their duty fulfilled, patting their chests in relief.
Qiaogong, however, reached down and plucked one of them up.
Though utterly unwilling, the figurine had no choice. It blew a whistle, splitting from one into two.
Turning a somersault, the two became four.
Before long, the lone figurine had transformed into an entire regiment.
With grim faces, each figurine leaped onto the black ropes.
Then, amid a chorus of rhythmic work chants, the figurines began heaving in unison, dragging the black shadows before them.
The massive black net shrank inward in an instant.
The surrounding space trembled slightly, and the restored fragments shattered once more.
Something was about to be hauled out from beneath the illusory surface.
Qiaogong narrowed his eyes, waiting to see what would come, murmuring under his breath, "I could even haul the immortal puppet Ancestor; you think I can't handle you?"
A sigh arose out of nowhere.
The faint, distant sound of a zither seemed to drift from the edge of the sky.
The previously energetic figurines suddenly went limp and lethargic, slacking off one after another.
Qiaogong took on a wary look, scanning his surroundings.
"Why must we fight...?"
A sorrowful, mournful voice, weeping and plaintive, echoed repeatedly around Qiaogong.
Qiaogong rolled his eyes around, then laughed. "Well said! Why do we have to fight! I, Qiaogong, am certainly no good at brawling..."
"Since neither of us wishes to come to blows, why not sit down and have a proper chat?"
To prove his sincerity, Qiaogong went so far as to put away the bronze plate directly.
The figurines cheered and clocked off. Qiaogong smiled as he looked into the surrounding air. "I am Qiaogong of the Tianji Realm. May I ask the fellow daoist's name?"
The other party was undoubtedly an expert of the Longevity realm.
Yet during their brief clash, Qiaogong had sensed no trace of inverted principles of Heaven and Earth belonging to the Xuanhuang Realm.
He deduced that this being's identity, like his own, was that of a survivor from some other ruined cultivation realm.
After a moment of silence, that melodious, solemn voice spoke again: "I... do not remember."
"I only... do not wish to witness strife. I bear no malice."
Following the speaker's words, Qiaogong saw a scene in which all the cultivators in Luoyan Heavenly City—both of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Sacred Dynasty of Daqi—had fallen blissfully into slumber. Their lives were entirely safe.
Qiaogong secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Though he did not fear battle, it was always best to avoid making an enemy of a Longevity realm powerhouse if possible.
"Actually, we bear no malice either..."
Beaming, Qiaogong began chatting with the other party.
Over on Sun Erlang's side, upon receiving the message from Qiaogong, he sighed inwardly. *The gap between the Longevity realm and Dao Integration truly is like the gulf between heaven and earth.*
*Still, if all the dark-gold puppets had been on the field back then...*
*It might not have been an impossible fight.*
...
If the Sacred Dynasty's setback in Luoyan Province was merely an accident,
then what they encountered in Tianling Province proved beyond doubt that the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals possessed genuine foundation.
After expending no small effort to conquer Tianling City, the Sacred Dynasty forces were shocked to discover it was an empty husk.
The important cultivators within had long since evacuated.
Only a handful of backgroundless cultivators had been left behind to hold out using mechanisms and magical artifacts.
The soldiers of the Sacred Dynasty quickly realized this might be a trap, but before they could withdraw, all of Tianling City detonated with a roar.
The colossal floating city, along with nearly ten thousand cultivators from both sides, was blasted to ash in an instant.
In the sky above, death phenomena erupted simultaneously.
Numerous apocalyptic visions tangled and warped together, making it impossible to distinguish one from another.
Within a secluded mountain valley in Tianling Province.
"It is thanks to Brother Sun's warning that our Tianling Province was able to turn disaster into fortune," Tianling City Lord Song Mansheng stroked his beard, speaking with a smile.
Sun Liancheng's gaze remained fixed on the massive conflagration blazing on the distant horizon. "It was all thanks to the City Lord's brilliance. Had Your Honor not acted with such resolve, even if I had proposed the idea, the enemy casualties would never have been so great."
The other cultivators in the valley chimed in one after another: "Indeed. According to the scrying records we left in the city, at least ten thousand bandits perished in that blast."
"Heh, Fellow Daoist, you saw wrong. It was clearly twenty thousand!"
"...Er, quite right, quite right! I must be going senile! Twenty thousand, it was definitely twenty thousand! We have the recorded images to prove it!"
Everyone shared a knowing understanding.
"Speaking of which, what is the origin of these people? Striking without any warning, and most critically, they can even disrupt teleportation arrays and the Heavenly Profound Mirror." Sun Liancheng interrupted their celebration.
"It shouldn't be the Five Elders Association. I've fought cultivators from the Five Elders Association before, and the aura from these people is completely different."
"Who cares where they come from? Once the Alliance headquarters acts, every last one of them will die. They're just running rampant for a fleeting moment!"
"Lord Song, shouldn't we strike amid the chaos to claim even greater merits?"
One of the cultivators in the valley suggested.
Song Mansheng pondered for a moment without making a decision, turning his gaze toward Sun Liancheng beside him.
Sun Liancheng narrowed his eyes and remained silent for a long time.
After everyone had waited a good while, Sun Liancheng finally shook his head. "The situation remains unclear. This subordinate cannot make a sound judgment."
Song Mansheng nodded upon hearing this. "In that case, let us wait a bit longer. When the situation is murky, it is unwise to act rashly."
The valley crowd naturally agreed.
Song Mansheng, however, pulled Sun Liancheng aside to speak in private away from the others.
"Brother Sun, you weren't speaking the truth just now, were you?" Song Mansheng asked in a low voice.
Sun Liancheng smiled wryly. "I truly didn't dare say it in front of the others, lest it shake the army's morale!"
Song Mansheng's expression tightened. "Is it that severe?"
Sun Liancheng said, "Indeed. Your Honor knows that I was able to predict the bandits' sudden assault entirely through sensing our Sun Clan's fortune. That day, as I was chatting with my nephew, I suddenly felt our family's fortune flickering like a candle in the wind, tottering on the brink of collapse..."
"In utter terror, I expended a great deal of effort before determining the threat did not stem from the Alliance, but from outside. I initially thought it would be a surprise attack by the Five Elders Association, never expecting a band of unknown bandits."
"During this recent period, the clan's future fortune has been wavering incessantly. One moment it shows signs of soaring wealth and prominence, and the next, it portends the grave catastrophe of our bloodline being severed entirely. It truly makes one's heart tremble in fear..." Sun Liancheng sighed.
Song Mansheng's brow knitted even tighter.
Sun Liancheng urged, "Regardless, by virtue of the merit of blowing up the city, when the time comes to reward contributions, Your Honor's share will certainly not be small. The merits are already more than sufficient; why take such dangerous risks? In all likelihood, their reinforcements will arrive soon, and those bandits possess no small combat strength. Rather than gambling, it is better to lie low here in this valley."
"With the natural formation concealing us, the enemy shouldn't be able to detect us..."
Song Mansheng was ultimately persuaded, suppressing the restless urge in his heart.
Sun Liancheng's judgment appeared remarkably accurate.
Barely half a day later, Song Mansheng witnessed large bands of the bandits swarming in.
Their expressions were filled with wrath as they combed every corner of Tianling Province.
When they flew right over the valley in unison, the hearts of everyone below skipped a beat.
Fortunately, fortune was on their side after all, and they were not exposed.
"Just how many came? Did we poke a hornet's nest?"
"Why do we only see their reinforcements? Where are our people from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals!"
Inside the valley, everyone grew high-strung, glancing up at the sky and whispering in hushed tones.
All their previous ease and confidence had evaporated.
Sun Qi of the Sun Clan, however, quietly slipped over to Sun Liancheng's side.
"Uncle, something is wrong."
Sun Liancheng was taken aback, then cast a vigilant glance around. Only after ensuring no one was paying attention did he converse with Sun Qi via divine transmission.
"The wavering clan fortune has begun stabilizing toward one side. If we stay here, death is the only path."
Sun Liancheng's heart gave a violent jolt.
He placed immense trust in his nephew's words.
It was precisely thanks to Sun Qi's miraculous premonitions that they had laid the ambush, detonated the Heavenly City, and eliminated a massive wave of bandits.
Within the realm of Qiankun, spreading branches and leaves often led to scattered people and declining households.
Yet the *Record of Inverted Qiankun Derivation* cultivated by Sun Qi could invert this trend, consolidating the clan's fortune ever more tightly.
The price was that the more prosperous the family became, the more the accumulated forces of decline would concentrate on the cultivator of the technique.
Breaking through each minor boundary was as difficult as ascending the heavens, impossible for anyone short of a heaven-sent genius.
Sun Qi was precisely such a genius.
"We relocate immediately," Sun Liancheng decided with absolute resolve.
"Everyone has their eyes peeled right now; how can we leave? And there are so many of our Sun Clan," Sun Qi said, feeling uneasy.
"I have long prepared for this," Sun Liancheng replied with utter confidence.
Within the valley, the members of the Sun Clan gathered quietly.
Yet in the eyes of the others, they had not departed at all. They remained standing in place, continuing to chat with the rest.
"This Golden Cicada Molting Shell secret treasure is a find from an adventure in my youth. I could never bear to use it, but now the time has come where I must bring it out," Sun Liancheng lamented.
Without anyone in the valley noticing, the Sun Clan had slipped away through a secret tunnel known only to Sun Liancheng.
"Hurry. The treasure's concealment of our aura won't last long. We need to find another place to hide," Sun Liancheng urged.
Just as they were in the midst of retreating, several streaks of white light ripped through the sky, arriving from the distance.
Their destination was unanimous: the very valley where they had been hiding moments before.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
The white lights struck their mark, and unimaginable, terrifying energy erupted from the valley floor.
Amid the roar of the earth, the subsequent shockwave swept across the terrain,
knocking the fleeing members of the Sun Clan off their feet.
Fortunately, the concealing effect of the treasure remained active, so they were not exposed.
Sun Liancheng and Sun Qi stared in horror at the valley, which had turned into a massive circular crater of absolute void. Their bodies stiffened, their minds blank.
"A Dao Integration offensive! That explosion just now definitely carried the might of a full-power strike from a Dao Integration expert!"
"Were those... arrows?"
While Sun Liancheng stood dumbfounded, he was horrified to spot several more white arrow lights whistling through the sky.
He shrank his head back instinctively, and upon discovering the arrows were not headed in their direction, he frantically led the Sun Clan toward their next planned hiding spot.
"No, the entire Tianling Province is no longer safe. We cannot linger; we must flee elsewhere for refuge."
Trembling on the path, Sun Liancheng had a sudden stroke of inspiration and changed their route on the fly.
They fled at top speed toward Shanteng Province, which bordered Tianling Province.
Just as they were about to reach the boundary's White Mist Barrier, the ground of Tianling Province suddenly shook violently.
Immediately following that, a terrifying scene that the Sun Clan would never forget in their lifetimes unfolded.
In the sky above, five interlocking rings materialized from illusion into reality, descending upon the mortal world.
From the five rings extended countless tentacles, reaching downward toward Tianling Province below.
One of them came flying straight toward the members of the Sun Clan.
"Not good!" Sun Qi's face changed drastically, and he shouted in alarm.
Sun Liancheng, however, had already acted a step ahead.
He could no longer care about the clan.
All alone, he transformed into a streak of bloody light, shooting at top speed toward the nearby White Mist Barrier.
Yet this escape technique powered by the Soul Burning method visibly slowed down with every passing moment, as though countless tiny tentacles existed in the surrounding air, dragging and obstructing him.
The bloody light dispersed, and Sun Liancheng reverted to his true form.
As if he had lost the ability to fly entirely, he plummeted heavily from the sky.
The black, squirming tentacle in the air quickly locked onto him.
With a vicious thrust, it pierced into Sun Liancheng's body.
In a panic, Sun Liancheng tried to cast spells to resist, but the surrounding spiritual energy felt congealed, refusing to obey his command.
Incapable of the slightest resistance, Sun Liancheng was swiftly impaled through by the black tentacle.
Amid the screams of the Sun Clan members, they too were seized one after another by tentacles branching out from the sky.
The wailing lasted only a brief moment before Sun Liancheng's body was assimilated into the very same black tentacles.
Not even a death phenomenon appeared in the sky.
It was as if Sun Liancheng had not died, but had merely been transformed into that black tentacle.
One by one, the members of the Sun Clan were captured. Only Sun Qi felt an icy chill grip his heart.
He did not dare to move.
Indeed, out of the entire Sun Clan, only he, Sun Qi, had been spared.
For at the instant those horrific tentacles locked onto them, a sensation had faintly arisen within Sun Qi's heart.
Amid ten thousand paths of death, he had found the sole gleaming possibility of survival.
Thus, without the slightest hesitation, he had directly employed the Dissolving Chapter of the *Supreme Primordial True Scripture*, dispersing his entire cultivation.
Moreover, he expelled all the spiritual energy stored within his body.
Without holding back anything, he had become an absolute, thorough mortal.
A black tentacle as thick as an arm floated slowly before Sun Qi.
As if possessing intelligence, it circled Sun Qi once.
Only at such close proximity could Sun Qi see clearly that these black tentacles were composed of densely packed swarms of tiny black insects.
Not daring even to breathe, Sun Qi remained completely frozen.
Fortunately, after judging that Sun Qi was purely a mortal devoid of cultivation, the black tentacle let him go.
Carrying the entire Sun Clan—now likewise converted into black flying insects—it whistled away.
Sun Qi remained in his frozen stance, terrified to make a move.
Only half a day later did his strength give out, collapsing limp to the ground.
"What on earth is that thing...?"
Thoughts swirled endlessly through his mind, and only after quite some time did he muster a bit of resolve.
Looking at the nearby White Mist Barrier and the five rings that had gradually faded from the sky,
Sun Qi gritted his teeth and resumed cultivating once more.
Not long after closing his eyes to cultivate, Sun Qi opened them again.
He keenly sensed that the spiritual energy between heaven and earth...
was no longer the same as before.
Chapter 1293