It was chaos in the vast battlefield at this very moment. Tens of thousands of powerful cultivators battled within. One could only focus on the enemies right before them, there was no choosing one’s opponent. The number of people that failed was increasingly rapidly as well. A constant stream of people left the battlefield, having admitted defeat.
Many important figures observed the ongoing events from the top of the sky stairwell and the other side of the battlefield. Naturally, the insanely powerful geniuses whose talents were top-notch got the most attention.
Bai Ze from White Cloud City, who was the younger brother of Bai Luli, was an obvious target for observation. He was mind-bogglingly talented, and as he stood proudly in the sky, no one dared to approach him. It was clear to all that some people were simply not to be trifled with.
Chi Meng from the Demon God Clan marched into the crowd. His arms were powerful as a dragon’s, and when he grabbed at the crowd, several cultivators were sent flying. The attacks of those from the Demon God Clan have always been savagely violent. Chi Meng was a large burly man. Leading other powerful figures from his clan into the crowd, Chi Meng sent the people around him flying with yet another powerful swing. He was like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep, no one was able to hold their ground against him.
The insanely powerful figures of Zhongzhou City were also under great scrutiny.
At this moment, streaks of golden light gleamed from the middle of the crowd. The light was especially dazzling and attracted countless gazes. Several extravagantly dressed young men stood there, bathed in a sovereign glow. Streaks of light swept across the place, turning into dragons and phoenixes. No one could defend against them.
The young man in the center of that group had an impossible elegance to his features. His aura was unmatched by most people. This young man was Huang Jiuge, an insanely powerful figure of Zhongzhou City’s Sovereign Family.
The Sovereign Family was one of the most powerful families in Zhongzhou City and even the Barren State. They were so powerful that even the prestige of the Holy Zhi Palace meant little to them. They claimed to be descendants of Renhuang, and were arrogant beyond measure, calling themselves the Sovereign Family.
But everyone else thought that the Sovereign Family thought too highly of themselves. There were countless powerful figures in the world. The vast Divine Prefecture may have figures like the Emperor and Renhuang, but the Barren State did not have the capacity to contain such figures.
However, the people of the Barren State still recognized the strength of the Sovereign Family. Those from the Sovereign Family who had come to the Divine Road were not aiming to enter the Holy Zhi Palace to train. Instead, their motivation was to see the talent the Barren State had to offer and to barrel through all competition effortlessly in order to prove how powerful the Sovereign Family was. It was also a good opportunity for them to train and improve their own abilities.
Other than the Sovereign Family, those from the Tingxue House in Zhongzhou were equally frightening as well. Murderous energy emanated from an area in the battlefield—those from the Tingxue House were carrying out vicious attacks there. A large empty space quickly emerged around them. The people around them had fallen to the ground, defeated and bloodied. No one else dared to approach those from the Tingxue House.
The Ximen Clan and the Lightning Court were also one of the most influential powers in Zhongzhou City. Their younger generations of members were all brilliant, and they wanted to take this opportunity to shine amongst their peers by defeating them all.
But they had not started clashing with each other yet. This large messy free-for-all was but the first stage of elimination. The real battles lay towards the end. As such, they were not too hasty about things, knowing that the fight now was only a prelude to greater things at the end.
Other than the powerful figures from the three different paths of the Divine Road who were under the most scrutiny, there were other insanely talented people from the other paths as well.
The abundance of talented people on the battlefield made it a dizzying sight to see. There were so many powerful figures, and they had not even displayed their full abilities yet.
In the battlefield, the Nine Swords glinted behind Yanjiu, and after scaring the competition, no one else dared to touch him again. The same went for many powerful figures from the Mortal World and Nantian House. Their gazes turned towards Ye Futian, who was being hunted down, and a peculiar expression settled on their faces.
When Ye Futian wielded the Divine Destruction Polearm, his battle ability was definitely top-notch. And with Yuan Zhan and Yi Xiaoshi by his side, he had no need to run from being hunted down.
Chu Shang from the Mortal World and Nan Feng from the Nantian House knew about the bad blood between Du Ao and Ye Futian. The Sacred Fire Sect had gone to the eastern region of the Barren State as well back then, and Du Ao seemed to still be unaware of Ye Futian’s abilities now. Watching Du Ao chase after Ye Futian into the chaos alone, they knew that Du Ao was in trouble. Ye Futian was obviously sure of what he was doing.
Hua Jieyu stood in the sky. She was watching Ye Futian as well. However, the battlefield was chaotic, and her sight was obscured at times. Ye Futian seemed to be intentionally heading towards the center of the crowd as well.
“He seems to be being chased,” Zhuge Xing commented, looking over at Hua Jieyu who was next to him. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“There’s no need,” Hua Jieyu replied calmly, not looking at Zhuge Xing. She saw that Yi Xiaoshi was not rushing to defend Ye Futian. Since the Cottage disciple was not worried, she understood that Yi Xiaoshi believed in Ye Futian’s ability to solve this himself. Ye Futian was probably intending to take revenge on behalf of Du Ao’s victim back then.
Looking at Hua Jieyu’s profile, Zhuge Xing did not comment any further. He turned back to where Ye Futian was. Ye Futian had run to the middle of the chaotic battlefield on the dried-up path. He saw the gleam of starlight before meteorites began to appear in the sky. It seemed like that part of the sky had been sealed off.
Ye Futian stopped and turned to look at Du Ao. Bathed in dark fire, Du Ao was a frightening sight to see. Staring at Ye Futian, he spoke, “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. At most, I’ll just permanently destroy your powers. I heard that your girlfriend is a Divine Spiritual Sorcerer now and that she’s unmatched in her looks. There are many people out there who want a taste of her. Maybe she’ll become someone else’s woman once your powers are destroyed.”
Du Ao leered at Ye Futian. He believed that if it hadn’t been for Ye Futian’s meddling back then, he would have managed to secure Hua Qingqing, a startling beauty within the eastern region of the Barren State. Hua Qingqing was beautiful enough to bring down cities, and she was pure without a single blemish. Her aura was deeply attractive to him. It was a pity that Ye Futian had gotten in his way twice—once on Sky Mountain and the other time at the College.
“Do you know why I brought you here?” Ye Futian asked.
A flicker of hesitation flashed across Du Ao’s face before he asked, smiling, “Why?”
“It’ll be easier to kill you without anyone following us,” came the reply, before a burst of lightning exploded from under Ye Futian’s feet. Ye Futian’s body swayed to the wind and lightning around him, and shadows of his figure appeared in the sky. It was the Thundering Illusion Step.
In an instant, Du Ao felt an incredibly strong surge of Noble Will descend upon him. Within his mind, it was as if a starry sky had appeared and was pressing down upon him, covering his body and his Spiritual Will. He felt suffocated.
A rumble was heard, and Du Ao’s expression changed slightly. He didn’t understand how Ye Futian’s energy could be so powerful when he clearly hadn’t reached the Noble plane yet.
In his mind, powerful Flame Intent was released. A dark figure appeared, covered in dark fire that consumed all and pushed back at the immense pressure. At the same time, a shadow of the dark flames appeared behind him. Upon the release of a spell, dark flame dragons writhed in the air towards Ye Futian.
The Divine Destruction Polearm whistled through the air with a shocking might. Ye Futian was using the Nine Heavenly Attacks. It was clear that Ye Futian was aiming for Du Ao’s life by using the most powerful technique he had on hand.
The flame dragons were reduced to nothing with one strike of the Divine Destruction Polearm. Du Ao’s face darkened, before a Sage’s flame scepter appeared in his hand. Holding the scepter out, endless dark flames began to gather before him and form a giant dark handprint. The handprint was filled with frightening dark flames and could incinerate in an instant if it were to hit someone.
The Divine Destruction Polearm was just about to land a strike again when Ye Futian spun in the air and dealt a second attack through the space. The rapid attacks rained down on the handprint, and it exploded.
Du Ao’s expression completely changed. Since when had Ye Futian become so strong? Back then, Ye Futian had been of a plane way lower than his. Du Ao gripped on to his scepter, and the shadow of the dark flames behind him seemed to solidify into a tangible mass. The dark flames spread rapidly and covered the surrounding space, almost like an invader preparing to massacre a city.
At this moment, Ye Futian launched a third strike as he spun in the air. The distance between the two was great, and Du Ao laughed at the fact that Ye Futian was attacking from so far away. But then, he saw that the Divine Destruction Polearm was rapidly increasing in size as it descended upon him like a polearm from heaven.
“No…” Du Ao’s face contorted in shock as the Polearm struck down upon him. His flames may have been strong, but they would not be able to incinerate the Polearm. His specialization in flame attacks was being countered squarely by the violence of Ye Futian’s attack.
Du Ao sent out one defensive spell decree after another. When the Divine Destruction Polearm descended upon him, the spell decrees glowed with a brilliant light and blocked part of the attack. However, Du Ao was still sent crashing to the floor by the impact. The ground trembled with the force of which Du Ao had crashed into it, and Du Ao’s arm hung by his side, broken. He spat mouthful after mouthful of blood.
With his left arm, Du Ao reached for the storage ring on his right hand. At the same time, he was retreating quickly, ready to admit defeat and pull out of the situation. However, Ye Futian was planning to end everything right here and right now.
“Get lost!” Du Ao shouted, and frightening flames surrounded the crowd that was in his way. Someone was incinerated in an instant by the flames. However, enormous ancient vines curled towards Du Ao from behind, and at the instant Du Ao took out his spell decrees, the vines passed through the flames and stabbed through his arm, making him drop the spell decrees in his hand.
In the next moment, his body was surrounded by the ancient vines, and they crept up the sky with him.
Ye Futian, who had been preparing to kill Du Ao, was taken aback. It had not been him who had attacked Du Ao, but a powerful figure from the dried-up path. Ye Futian looked behind Du Ao to see a copper-skinned young man in tattered clothing standing there, staring coldly at Du Ao.
“I admit defeat,” Du Ao howled. “I’m a disciple of the Sacred Fire Sect!”
The young man paid him no attention. A sharp vine pierced straight into Du Ao’s heart, killing him in mid-air. Ye Futian’s expression changed. Du Ao had died in the hands of a powerful figure from the dried-up path.
Shifting his gaze, Ye Futian saw the person who had been burned by Du Ao’s flames. He seemed to be dressed similarly to the young man. A woman had appeared by the person’s side and a dazzling jade green glow could be seen. The glow enveloped the body, as though healing it.
Then, powerful figures from the Sacred Fire Sect rushed over. Their expressions upon seeing Du Ao’s body were ugly. Du Ao had held great status within the Sacred Fire Sect. He possessed outstanding abilities, but he had still died on the spot.
In the sky, a flash of dark fire shot through the eyes of Xie Ji, who was from the Sacred Fire Sect. The dark flames went straight for the young man who had killed Du Ao. Xie Ji was the best of his generation in the Sacred Fire Sect, and he was scarily powerful. The power of his will shot through his eyes, infused with the Burning of Silence flame intent. However, the young man looked up to meet his gaze without hesitation.
Xie Ji’s body began to burn with frightening flames, and the many-hued flames merged into dragons that charged towards the young man. But ancient vines appeared on the young man’s body and curled towards Xie Ji as well. There were questioning looks on many people’s faces at the young man using wood-elemental spells to fight flames. Furthermore, those were no ordinary flames, but flames that came from Xie Ji.
The flames started to burn on the ancient vines in an instant. However, the ancient vines remained intact and even became more frightening as they continued heading for Xie Jie, flames and all.
Xie Ji took a step back, and his expression changed. Looking at the young man, he asked, “Which part of the southeastern region are you from?”
“The Immortal Village,” the young man replied calmly.
“The party from the Immortal Village is here as well,” the important figures who were on top of the sky stairwell as well as a distance away from the battlefield had noticed the developments here as well. Du Ao of the Sacred Fire Sect was probably the first top-notch powerful figure to have fallen in this chaotic battle.
The Immortal Village was situated within the southeastern region of the Barren State, where it was just a wasteland. They had no contact with the outside world and had never come to the Divine Road before. But this time, they too had arrived.
“Seems like the Undying Old Man is having a pretty satisfactory time,” someone commented calmly. The Undying Old Man was one of the higher-ranking individuals within the Barren Sky Ranking.
“Look at the girl,” someone said, noticing that the woman who had been healing her companion had finished her work and stood up. She raised her head to look at everyone. Dressed in simple white clothing, she was extremely clean and unblemished. While she had seemed very plain before, upon closer inspection, her features were actually stunningly beautiful and she seemed to have a mystical glow about her.
“It’s been rumored that the Undying Old Man has had a successor. It could very well be this girl,” someone from the Holy Zhi Palace speculated. There was a new belle in the Barren State now.
“The ritual implement that guy’s using seems to be an extraordinary one,” someone commented, looking at Ye Futian.
“It should be the precious Divine Destruction Polearm from the Zhaixing House,” someone replied, seeming to know everything about the Barren State. “That young man is probably the Son from Divine Sky City we heard about in the rumors. Since he’s Zhuge Mingyue’s junior, he should be from the eastern region of the Barren State.”