At the foot of the Destiny Sacred Mountain stretched a vast, boundless plain.
The plain was now crowded with countless prisoners in tattered clothing, their faces etched with weariness and scars, some having endured a millennium of captivity and enslavement. Their numbers were so vast they formed a sea of humanity, impossible to count.
*Crack!*
The sound of a whip cut through the air.
“Move faster, you sluggards! You’re nothing but lowly prey, and now it’s time to serve your purpose,” a Bone Clan knight, astride a skeletal beast, lashed out with a whip crackling with lightning, striking the Barbarian Sword Great Saint.
The whip, inscribed with special divine patterns, pierced even an Immortal Sacred Body.
*Hiss.*
A deep, bone-revealing gash appeared on the Barbarian Sword Great Saint’s back, yet he endured it silently, clenching his teeth.
Zhang Ruochen, searching for the Barbarian Sword Great Saint, witnessed this scene, his eyes flashing with cold fury.
Xi’s gaze turned to Zhang Ruochen, a smug smile spreading across his face. “Even a Great Saint, once reduced to a slave, must behave, or they’ll face endless suffering. Great Saint Ruochen, fortunate to have half Immortal Blood Clan lineage and be a divine son, or you’d likely end up like them in the Hell Realm.”
Zhang Ruochen responded with a sharp, cold smile, refusing to engage in verbal sparring.
Nearby, Lanxi observed the slaves below the mountain. Some, once renowned Great Saints, were now tortured beyond recognition, their vitality drained, resembling beggars.
Among them were young prodigies she knew, once radiant and commanding, now gaunt, with clouded eyes and spirits utterly broken.
And so many more…
To the Hell Realm, this was a grand feast.
To the Heavenly Court cultivators, it was a scene of misery, deeply shaking those new to the path of cultivation.
What was the point of cultivation if even saints, even Great Saints, could be reduced to ants in the Hell Realm, suffering worse than mortals?
Lanxi glanced at Zhang Ruochen ahead, her emotions complex.
*Whoosh—*
Before each attending cultivator’s jade table, two orbs of white light appeared.
Within the light, a scroll and a diamond-shaped mirror materialized.
Zhang Ruochen picked up the scroll and flipped through it.
It detailed the rules of this Hunting Heaven Battlefield, the number of heavenly slaves, and information on some of them.
“Heavenly slaves: over 13 million.”
“Great Saint-level heavenly slaves: 2,274.”
Reading this, Zhang Ruochen’s heart stirred with shock.
Great Saints were top-tier forces in any realm, pillars of strength, emperors of the sacred path.
In a realm like Guanghan, there were only a few dozen Great Saints.
Over two thousand Great Saints captured by the Hell Realm as heavenly slaves was unimaginable. How many great worlds had the Hell Realm destroyed this millennium?
Reading further, Zhang Ruochen understood.
These heavenly slaves weren’t all captives from the Heavenly Court. They included cultivators from unaffiliated great worlds, ruin realms, cosmic secret realms, and ancient civilizations.
Even frontier creatures were among them.
Not all great worlds were vassals of the Heavenly Court.
Worlds without gods couldn’t qualify as vassals.
When discovered by the Immortal Blood Clan or Rakshasa Clan, such worlds were enslaved, ruled, or turned into blood farms. But when found by the Ghost, Bone, Corpse, or Asura Clans, only death awaited.
Some heavenly slaves were also traitors from the Hell Realm.
Gradually, Zhang Ruochen grasped why there were so many Great Saint heavenly slaves. Many weren puse came from strong realms, not weak ones.
Only a small fraction were captured on merit battlefields.
The Hell Realm and Heavenly Court’s myriad worlds clashed not only on merit battlefields but also across the cosmos, vying for cultivation resources, with high-tier cultivators—Saint Kings and Great Saints—often involved.
Thus, many Great Saints and Saint Kings were captured.
“Hm? Five Thousand-Question Realm heavenly slaves and one at the Myriad Deaths, One Life Realm. Are the Hell Realm’s gods so bold, unafraid of massive losses among this generation’s top cultivators?” Zhang Ruochen mused.
“Leader.”
The Xuetian Tribe’s attending cultivators, scrolls in hand, gathered around Zhang Ruochen.
Each Hunting Heaven Feast had slightly different rules, rendering prior discussions mere predictions.
Now, they needed to rethink and plan.
Gu Chenzi, seeing the page Zhang Ruochen was on, guessed his thoughts and said, “This is a passive hunt. No matter how strong these heavenly slaves are, they’re only prey.”
“What do you mean?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Gu Chenzi explained, “All heavenly slaves have their mental power restricted, unable to use it for scouting. We can use mental power to find them, but they rely only on eyes and ears.”
“More precisely, only eyes are useful. As for ears… any attending cultivator’s speed far exceeds sound by countless times.”
“If we’re outmatched, we can escape or hide. If they’re outmatched and try to flee, how can they escape our mental power’s range?”
He added, “Second, we have weapons, even Supreme Sacred Artifacts, but they have none. A Hundred-Shackle Realm Great Perfection cultivator wielding a Supreme Sacred Artifact could kill an unarmed Thousand-Question Realm Great Saint slave.”
“As for the lone Myriad Deaths, One Life Realm Great Saint, the scroll notes his hands and feet are bound by divine iron chains, severely limiting his speed and strength. Even if he tries to slaughter Hell Realm cultivators, how many can he kill? He’s just a caged beast, only able to take hits.”
Zhang Ruochen flipped to the scroll’s last page, dedicated entirely to the Myriad Deaths, One Life Realm Great Saint.
“Name: Emperor Chi.”
“Points: 10 million.”
“Age: 21,000 years.”
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen’s pupils constricted, spotting a striking note—“Purgatory Pavilion.”
This Myriad Deaths, One Life Realm heavenly slave was a member of the Purgatory Pavilion, a subordinate of Empress Thousand Bones.
“Empress Thousand Bones claims to be one of the Hell Realm’s most wanted gods. Over these hundred thousand years, how vast a force has she built? With so many powerful subordinates, the Purgatory Pavilion’s strength likely rivals a great world,” Zhang Ruochen thought.
The Hunting Heaven Battlefield’s ranking, like merit wars, used a points system.
Killing stronger heavenly slaves yielded higher points.
Xue Chen said, “I’ve roughly calculated the points. All heavenly slaves combined are worth about 600 million points. The entire Immortal Blood Clan needs 60 million points to reach the average among the ten clans.”
“Our Xuetian Tribe needs only 6 million points to hit the median.”
“Based on past Immortal Blood Clan rankings, 60 million points is a tall order. So, if we secure 6 million points, we’ll rank among the top ten clans.”
Great Saint Yixuan, flexing his wrists, grinned, “Killing Emperor Chi alone yields 10 million points. 6 million points is a breeze, isn’t it?”
His gaze turned to Emperor Yu, Gu Chenzi, and Zhang Ruochen, eager to act.
With their four powerhouses and a Supreme Sacred Artifact, they might take down that Myriad Deaths, One Life Realm Great Saint.
A big move would shake the Hell Realm.
Unaware that Yixuan and Gu Chenzi had reached Hundred-Shackle Realm Great Perfection, Xue Chen shook his head, “A Myriad Deaths, One Life Realm Great Saint, even with bound limbs, has terrifying combat power. Like tying your hands and feet, killing a Saint King would still be easy.”
“Emperor Chi is a challenge set by the gods for top figures like Lan Ying, Yan Huangtu, Luo Shengtian, and Wujiang. We don’t need to take it on.”
The Xuetian Tribe cultivators debated, analyzing this year’s Hunting Heaven Feast.
Zhang Ruochen studied the scroll’s rules, speaking only after finishing, “Points aren’t just accumulated; they can be deducted.”
“First deduction: Maliciously attacking allied cultivators, 5,000 points per attack.”
“Second: Deliberately killing an allied cultivator, 500,000 points per death.”
“Third: For every ten clan members in our territory who die, 1 point is deducted. If all clan members die, the tribe’s total points are halved.”
…
“So, offense is crucial, but defense is equally vital.”
The Hunting Heaven Battlefield, located in the vast starry expanse of the Wugui Cosmic Forest, contained massive life planets, countless asteroids, and stellar fragments.
Per the scroll, each of the Hell Realm’s ten clans had a clan star.
The Immortal Blood Clan’s star housed many low-tier clan members without Half-Saint combat power. Participating cultivators had to protect them from heavenly slave slaughter.
Reading this rule, Zhang Ruochen understood another layer of the Hunting Heaven Feast’s purpose.
The gods were clearly teaching them not only to attack and kill but to protect their clan.
*Boom.*
The Hunting Heaven Battlefield opened, a vast six-colored starry forest appearing on the mirror of the Myriad Realms Divine Eye above.
Seeing this, Zhang Ruochen frowned, sighing, “The battlefield is too vast. This will be troublesome.”
Other cultivators nodded in agreement.
Based on the grand starry expanse, they estimated the battlefield held at least a thousand planets and billions of cosmic dust particles and stellar fragments.
Cosmic dust wasn’t true dust; some were fist-sized, others larger than mountains.
Many could conceal a cultivator’s presence.
The battlefield’s diameter exceeded 100 million li, perhaps more. Even a mental power Great Saint could only probe a small area at once.
Finding heavenly slaves would be the hardest part, contrary to their initial assumptions.
The High Priest of Fortune and Prosperity’s voice rang out, “The Hunting Heaven Feast officially begins, lasting 100 days. Heavenly slaves will enter the battlefield one hour early. Within these 100 days, if you kill one attending cultivator or 100,000 low-tier Hell Realm cultivators and survive until the feast’s end, the Destiny Temple will grant you freedom.”
The heavenly slaves, believing death was certain, lit up with hope, their eyes gleaming with killing intent.
For freedom and vengeance against the Hell Realm, their murderous resolve was fully ignited.
*Whoosh!*
Spatial channels opened, and over 13 million heavenly slaves were teleported to various battlefield locations.
The High Priest’s gaze turned to the Fate Stream region, saying, “You have one hour to plan your hunt. Meanwhile, all cultivators must place all weapons, pills, and talismans into a spatial container on your jade table. Each may keep only one weapon or defensive armor.”
All cultivators complied, none daring to hide anything under the gods’ watch.
Zhang Ruochen placed everything into a spatial orb, wearing only a white robe and holding a purple-gold gourd, feeling suddenly unburdened.
Empress Feng glanced at him discreetly.
Seeing he kept only a gourd, she was deeply puzzled.
What Supreme Sacred Artifact was this gourd?
With her knowledge, she couldn’t discern its origin, guessing it might be a newly forged treasure by War God Xue Jue. But could a new Supreme Sacred Artifact rival those of the other nine clans?
“I hope nothing goes wrong,” she worried.
The High Priest pointed, and a massive hall materialized from space above the Fate Stream region.
He said, “The hall contains tailored robes, storage containers, and materials for each clan. Each cultivator may take up to 10,000 jin of materials.”
The clans’ cultivators flew into the hall.
Zhang Ruochen addressed the Xuetian Tribe, “Focus on materials for alchemy, formations, and talismans. Forging materials are too heavy and hard to craft into powerful weapons quickly on the battlefield.”
In the hall, Zhang Ruochen collected ten blood-red robes and a storage bracelet.
The robes, oddly, couldn’t block external attacks but could withstand the wearer’s own power bursts—lacking defense but highly resilient.
Uninterested in most materials, Zhang Ruochen was delighted to find divine stones.
Sadly, each cultivator could take only one.
He immediately messaged the Xuetian Tribe cultivators to each take one divine stone.
