Lan Xiaobu took less than a day to set up a top-tier trapping-killing barrier. To be safe, he also had the sixteen guards at the void plaza make quick repairs to it, ensuring that at first glance, no one could tell a battle had taken place.
However, for someone like Hui Zhi, stepping into this void and sensing the changes in its rules would reveal whether a fight had occurred. That didn’t matter. Lan Xiaobu only needed a few moments to seize the initiative.
In his view, since Hui Zhi had convinced the Tianmeng Clan to deploy their ambush early, he would surely arrive soon. But to his disappointment, after waiting five days, not only did Hui Zhi not show, but even Hui Wan was nowhere to be seen.
With no other choice, Lan Xiaobu returned to the void plaza.
“Senior…” The dozen or so guarding cultivators hurried to greet him as he approached.
Lan Xiaobu nodded and said, “I’m going to rearrange the protective array at this entrance, then enter the Great Cosmos. You lot guard this place together, but spread out to multiple positions. If you spot any Tianmeng Clan powerhouses or armies approaching, immediately activate the warning array…”
He was worried they’d be wiped out in one go, as before.
“Rest assured, Senior Lan, we’ll guard this entrance well,” the sixteen remaining guards replied almost in unison.
Lan Xiaobu wasn’t entirely reassured, as their strength was still too low. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “I’ll leave sixteen warning jade talismans. If trouble arises and someone activates their talisman, I’ll ensure they have a chance to step into the fifth step of the Great Dao.”
Turning a public duty into a personal pursuit for their own Great Dao would undoubtedly yield different results. The strongest guard here was only at the fourth step of the Great Dao, with most at the Derivative Realm or Creation Realm.
At the mention of the fifth step of the Great Dao, the guards were so excited their scalps tingled. Having reached their current realm, they were at their limit, with no hope of advancing further in their lifetime under normal circumstances. Lan Xiaobu’s promise of a chance at the fifth step was so enticing that even if it cost them half their lives, none would hesitate to crush a warning talisman.
Though he entrusted the warning task to the sixteen guards, Lan Xiaobu still set up over a dozen void monitoring arrays. He couldn’t afford to have his escape route cut off.
With the Cosmic Tree in the Great Cosmos, staying there was a danger within dangers. The Seven Heavens’ exit in the Great Cosmos was his only way out. Otherwise, like his last teleportation, he might encounter issues mid-journey and fall into the chaotic void currents.
If he was lucky, as now, he could return. If not, he’d be sliced to pieces by planar dislocations.
As Lan Xiaobu entered the Great Cosmos, his heart sank.
The Great Cosmos’ vital energy remained rich, but its heaven-and-earth rules had changed again. Though he hadn’t relied on these rules for cultivation or advancement, he could still feel that the constraints on human cultivators were growing heavier.
Even if the Seven Heavens cultivated their own Great Dao, holding onto the human world here would be incredibly difficult.
Wherever his divine sense reached, devastation abounded. Apart from the still-rich vital energy, the Great Dao principles between heaven and earth were fractured. Shattered law fragments were everywhere, and destroyed planets lay scattered, resembling an apocalyptic scene.
His divine sense swept across a million li, yet he saw not a single soul.
Lan Xiaobu frowned, certain this was the Cosmic Tree’s doing. The World Tree kept altering the rules here, tilting them further toward the Tianmeng Clan, accelerating the extermination of human cultivators.
He couldn’t fathom why the Cosmic Tree would do this. As the life tree of the Great Cosmos, its veins were the pulse of this realm.
Didn’t the Cosmic Tree know that, to it, all life in the Great Cosmos—human or Tianmeng—should be equal? Its role was to preserve the Great Cosmos’ pulse, not to meddle in racial conflicts.
Besides, though the Cosmic Tree was considered part of the Tianmeng Clan, it was entirely different from the actual clan.
Lan Xiaobu took a deep breath. Even if the Cosmic Tree was aiding the Tianmeng Clan, the human race had totriangular field to this point, he should have joined Mo Wuji to destroy the Cosmic Tree then.
At the edge of his divine sense, Lan Xiaobu finally spotted the Seven Heavens. Seven Heavens, Kong Xinjian, and Qi Manwei were jointly holding off over a dozen Tianmeng Clan Great Dao powerhouses. Since Seven Heavens had switched to cultivating his own Great Dao, and Qi Manwei practiced a spatial Great Dao derived from Lan Xiaobu’s Longevity Dao—though advanced in the Great Cosmos, her principles were largely independent of it—her combat strength was nearly as strong as Kong Xinjian’s. Together, the three could barely hold their ground. What puzzled Lan Xiaobu was that he didn’t see Jing Xizhen.
Gazing at the dark, overwhelming mass of Weiju World cultivators and the endless Tianmeng Clan army in the distance, Lan Xiaobu raised his hand and drew out his Longevity Halberd.
Slaughter? He could do that too. Since the Tianmeng Clan and the Weiju World’s lackeys loved killing so much, he’d let them taste his Great Severing Technique, followed by his Great Destruction Technique and Great Demise Technique.
