Compared to the tranquillity of Xinghuan Heaven, certain corners of the universe were undergoing cataclysmic upheaval.
A vast sapphire ocean stretched endlessly, waves rolling and surging.
Above the sea there were no clouds or rosy clouds, only endless night and scattered stars.
A heroic man in blue armour with loose white hair emerged from the waves, leading a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl in blue robes by the hand.
The man was handsome yet cold, exuding an indescribable noble aura.
The girl’s long hair flowed with misty light; seashells hung from the tips. Her eyes were extraordinarily lively, like two pure, flawless gems.
When they reached the shore, their fish tails automatically condensed into human legs.
At that moment, the beach was crowded with sea clans.
There were powerful cultivators bearing war weapons, unarmed elders and children, and brightly robed nobles. All stared nervously at the sky.
Boom! Boom! Boom…
Explosions louder than thunder came from beyond the heavens, shaking space and sending the sea into turmoil, waves rising dozens of zhang.
Bright stars in the sky occasionally turned into fireballs and hurtled away, destination unknown.
The black night sky was gradually dyed a ghastly red by blood mist.
Blood rain fell, punching holes in the ground. Mixed in were fragments of saint-realm cultivators’ corpses and bones.
The seawater slowly turned crimson.
A sea-clan cultivator knelt, tears streaming. “The final starry fortress of the Vast Sea Civilisation has fallen. Xiuluo Star Pillar Realm will soon crush the protective grand array and devour our homeland.”
“We can no longer stop Hell Realm’s slaughter. There is nowhere left to retreat. This time, only fight to the death remains, or our civilisation perishes and our world collapses.”
“It is all because of that Yuanhui arch-traitor Zhang Ruochen. Had it not been for him, Heaven’s armies would never have been defeated at Xinghuan Heaven. It is said that if Xinghuan Heaven had fallen, Heaven could have held the starry defence line, and Vast Sea Civilisation would have been spared this calamity.”
“If I survive today, I will slay Zhang Ruochen. I swear it by my blood, witnessed by heaven and man!” A young sea-clan cultivator slashed his palm and stood in the wind, vowing in blood.
The girl with seashells in her hair felt an inexplicable fear and shrank slightly. “Uncle Mian, is Vast Sea Civilisation truly suffering all this because of that Yuanhui arch-traitor?”
Mian Ning gazed at the firmament with tiger-like eyes, silent, as though deeply worried.
Boom!
Space shuddered violently.
An invisible qi barrier appeared around Mian Ning, divine patterns flowing, shielding him from the shockwaves descending from beyond.
A shattered divine hall fell from the starry sky, occupying a third of the horizon.
Divine flames burned upon it; sounds of collapse rang out.
Bang!
The hall crashed into the sea thousands of li away, smashing the surface into a depression and raising colossal waves.
Mian Ning’s body trembled. Pain filled his eyes. “That… that is the Heavenly Lord’s divine hall…”
Above, stars fell like rain.
Divine-seat planets split asunder!
Heaven and earth collapsed.
Corpses of saint-realm cultivators, including some gods, fell densely from beyond the heavens.
Some were stepped upon by Hell Realm cultivators.
A Hell Realm god radiated divine qi that condensed into a cyan divine sea above Vast Sea Civilisation. Within the sea loomed the colossal shadow of a cyan deer larger than a planet.
“The Heavenly Lord of Vast Sea Civilisation has been slain by this seat. Soldiers of Hell Realm, charge into Vast Sea. Kill without mercy!”
The vast divine voice resounded through heaven and earth, pronouncing a civilisation’s death sentence.
Learning of the Heavenly Lord’s fall, Vast Sea cultivators’ eyes reddened with rage. Gnashing their teeth, they piloted warships and wielded weapons, charging skyward to fight the enemy.
“Kill!”
“We have no retreat. Fight or die!”
“Vast Sea Civilisation has never invaded any race, always living in peace. Why is heaven so unjust? Why will it not spare us?”
…
Heaven had built the first starry defence line against Xiuluo Star Pillar Realm using the Giant Spirit, Yanyang, and Zangxu civilisations.
In front of that line had originally stood seven other civilisations.
Tianchu and Vast Sea were two of them.
After Xiuluo Star Pillar Realm began moving, each war saw the seven civilisations retreat step by step until they aligned with Giant Spirit, Yanyang, and Zangxu.
Only the combined defence line of the ten ancient civilisations had held back Xiuluo Star Pillar Realm and Hell Realm’s armies for decades.
Now the first ancient civilisation had fallen; a breach appeared in the line.
The destruction of the ten ancient civilisations and Heaven’s first great rout officially began today.
“Uncle Mian, is Grandfather truly killed by a Hell Realm god?” The seashell-haired girl’s eyes brimmed with tears, heartbroken.
“With the Heavenly Lord’s cultivation, how could he fall so easily?”
Mian Ning ground his teeth. A trident appeared in his hand, lightning crackling at its tips.
Swish!
He swung the trident, splitting the oncoming tidal waves.
Holding Princess Yinglian’s hand, he raced toward where the divine hall had fallen.
“There is still a Vast Sea god here!”
A blood-red cloud appeared above Mian Ning and Princess Yinglian.
An Immortal Vampire god hovered within the cloud, eight pairs of blood wings unfurling. With terrifying speed, he instantly reached Mian Ning.
Boom!
One clash.
Mian Ning was sent flying hundreds of li, divine blood flowing from his wounds.
Ignoring his injuries, he roared, “Yinglian!”
Princess Yinglian was also flung away, but she wore powerful defensive divine armour and was not killed by the divine force.
The Immortal Vampire god laughed. “So this is Princess Yinglian, the one who can communicate with the Vast Sea World Spirit. Excellent! This god has been searching everywhere for her!”
“Stop! With me here, you will never harm her!”
Mian Ning charged after them.
“With just you?”
The Immortal Vampire god sneered, raised a hand, mobilised rule divine patterns, condensed a divine ability, and struck, repelling Mian Ning once more.
Mian Ning’s chest exploded; he was hurled a thousand li.
As despair filled him watching the Immortal Vampire god close in on Princess Yinglian, a thread-like thousand-li sword light suddenly extended from the void, slicing the Vampire god’s divine body in two.
A white-robed woman stepped out of the void, veiled, surrounded by rings of white divine light. On her snow-white forehead was a vertical eye.
Yet this eye did not detract from her ethereal beauty; it made her even more unique.
Seeing her, Mian Ning finally relaxed. He pleaded, “Heavenly Maiden Luo, please take Princess Yinglian away. Mian Ning will be eternally grateful.”
Luo Ji supported the unconscious sea-clan girl. “And you?”
Mian Ning glanced at the rapidly rejoining halves of the Immortal Vampire god nearby. “This god will live and die with Vast Sea Civilisation.”
He swung his trident, charging the Vampire god.
Luo Ji knew his resolve was set. She looked down at the gravely wounded girl, then her figure gradually faded, vanishing into the void.
When she reappeared, she was at the edge of Vast Sea.
Vast Sea was an ocean floating in the cosmos.
Tianchu Civilisation’s armies were rapidly withdrawing, gathering here.
Saint warships were laden with corpses; morale was crushed, eyes dull.
Yue Tong was an upper god of Tianchu Civilisation, at the absolute pinnacle realm, only one step from great-god level.
Seeing Luo Ji return, Lord Yue Tong hurried forward. “Luo Ji, why have you only now left Vast Sea? Everyone was worried for your safety.”
Luo Ji handed the sea-clan girl to Li Miaohan, instructing her to heal and care for her.
Only then did she nod to Lord Yue Tong. “The Heavenly Lord of Vast Sea has fallen. Over a hundred gods and pseudo-gods of Heaven and Vast Sea Civilisation perished. After five months of bloody battle, we have lost utterly!”
Every Tianchu cultivator present was powerful and resolute, yet now all were pessimistic, bearing immense pressure in the heavy atmosphere.
Once a breach appeared in the starry defence line, Hell Realm’s armies could no longer be stopped.
Today it was Vast Sea; tomorrow it would be Tianchu.
And like Vast Sea, they had no further retreat—only fight to the death.
“If not for Zhang Ruochen crushing Heaven’s armies at Xinghuan Heaven, perhaps Hell Realm would have been the one routed. How could the starry defence line have been breached?” Lord Yue Tong’s eyes were dark with killing intent.
Other Tianchu cultivators gnashed their teeth in hatred.
After the war at Xinghuan Heaven ended, rumours quietly spread that the thirteen-realm armies had gone there for a great undertaking—to fight for a sliver of survival for the starry defence line and the ancient civilisations.
Had they succeeded, Hell Realm’s armies would have collapsed.
Now that Vast Sea battlefield was utterly defeated and the defence line breached, Heaven’s cultivators naturally blamed everything on Zhang Ruochen.
No one cared whether there were hidden truths behind it.
Luo Ji’s expression turned displeased. “With Zhang Ruochen’s cultivation, if he alone could alter the war between Heaven and Hell, how could this war have been so difficult? This is a war engulfing the entire universe; no single individual can change its course!”
“Depart. Order the full withdrawal of Tianchu armies. Next, we defend our own homeland. The fighting will only grow more brutal.”
Luo Ji glanced back one last time at the boundless Vast Sea. Hell Realm’s armies poured in relentlessly.
Rakshasa cultivators laughed cruelly, seizing sea-clan children and biting off their heads.
Immortal Vampire great saints roared, turning hundreds of thousands of sea clans into blood mist and absorbing it.
Death-clan pseudo-gods cast mile-wide nets, scooping billions of sea clans from the water to sell back in Hell Realm.
Corpse-clan gods cut their skin, dripping corpse fluid that instantly rotted countless sea clans’ flesh, extinguishing their life force and turning them into walking corpses that crawled ashore.
…
Luo Ji could bear to watch no longer. She tore through the void and flew away, resolve firm. Even if Tianchu Civilisation soon faced the same fate, she would fight to the death.
Live and die with her people.
