The millions of kilometers around Shangri-La froze, as if someone had encased the entire area in amber. The only movement within this field of frozen time was on Shangri-La.
The immortals who witnessed this couldn’t help but feel wary. They couldn’t sense anything outside of the range of the mobile fortress. It was as if they had been cut off from the world. What if this was a trap by the Immortal Court to reduce the Numinous Sword Sect’s combat potential?
How could the high echelon of the Numinous Sword Sect not think of such a plot? So, they armed the leader of this expedition with a few trump cards. The leader of the sword immortals was an immortal emperor by the title of Northsword. He was older than Sovereign Yanxu, and although he hadn’t reached the end of his willpower yet, the hope of him reaching the Origin Immortal Realm was infinitely low.
The grand formation continued to operate, expanding the frozen field around. Although it appeared like the group of immortals was cooperating to form the formation, it was actually only Tianyi. The other immortals present were just to mask this fact.
The formation used required an extremely large amount of energy to activate. If they used immortal stones, an artificial version of spirit stones with higher energy density, to activate it, it would cause the Immortal Court to bleed. It might not cost a hundredth of the Immortal Court’s wealth, but it would definitely cost a thousandth or two thousandth.
More importantly, it required the use of essence stones. For the current cultivation world, essence stone was a nonrenewable resource that could not be used lightly. Most of them had already been used in the first million years after the primordial era. It would not be a lie to say that the Buzhou Immortal Sect destroyed many forces just to take their essence stones.
In that case, why not let Tianyi activate it by himself? He had no shortage of qi, after all.
The frozen field kept expanding and expanding until an obstacle stopped it. Although most of the field expanded, there was a certain part that remained the same, almost as if someone had taken a bite out of it.
It was the first barrier protecting the Divine Beast Pseudo System.
Naturally, this alerted the Demon Clan hidden within. Although Tianyi did his best to hide Shangri-La, it couldn’t stop them from noticing the grand formation he operated. The Demon Clan immediately realized that someone found their location and wanted to root out the spies or the source of the information, but now was obviously not the time.
The Demon Clan immediately dispatched three of this generation’s Four Divine Beasts and a whole slew of demons to prevent the humans from breaking their barrier.
Once the horde of demons emerged, the immortals immediately mounted a defense. The demons would also waste energy and slow down within the frozen field, but after all, the formation was still in its preparation stages. Once someone reached the formation masters operating the formation, all their efforts would be for naught, and the difficulty of the battle would increase.
The first demons to attack were the insect demons. Contrary to the mortal world, insects were the rarest demons to reach the Demon Lord Realm. Insects were inherently weaker than larger demons and had much less intelligence, so the chances of a demon rising from them were pitiful.
However, they also had their own advantages. Most insect demons were average and not outstanding, but those of certain types, such as colony insects, were one of the more threatening demons.
The individual combat power of these colony insects wasn’t high, but they had a certain characteristic. They were queen insects, and as queens, they could give birth to a plethora of offspring specialized for any task. It wasn’t like ordinary insects, where they were only soldiers and workers.
In addition to workers and fighters, Demon queen insects could give birth to formation insects, too. As long as the queen was a formation master, they could directly give birth to insects and have them act as the nodes and resources. The level of these offspring depended on the queen insect.
For example, a demon king insect queen could produce offspring at the demon king level. However, if the queen insect was a third-step demon king, she could not produce an offspring in the fourth-step. In fact, only the most outstanding of insect queens could produce offspring at the same level of cultivation as themselves.
The most important aspect was their domination ability. All offspring born of the insect queen would be completely under her control. This was also a reason for why their offspring could not exceed the queen insect’s cultivation base. Once exceeded, they bore the risk of betraying the queen insect.
Another downside was the amount of resources needed to produce the offspring. The stronger the offspring, the greater the resources. In general, the amount of resources was lower than what it required a regular beast to become a demon lord, but once born, their potential was set. Unless the insect queen was willing to consume a vast amount of resources to create an offspring with high potential, they were destined to be used as cannon fodder.
The price didn’t seem much, since many demon lords were born, but once one individual needed to provide all the resources, it became a different matter altogether.
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Although the ability was powerful, there were not actually that many insect queens with a high cultivation base. As insects, they weren’t part of the three major demon lineages, and they could only be considered second-rate. Still, that didn’t mean they weren’t to be feared.
The three demon clans ruled the Divine Beast Pseudo System, but there was a fourth faction. It was weaker than any of the three clans, but it was still a sizable force. In this faction, the insect queens had a large influence. Though that didn’t prevent the three major clans from using her as a spearhead against the humans at this moment.
The immortals suffered a small loss when they fought against the insect demons. Because of their rarity, the humans didn’t have much experience with them and never expected them to focus entirely on offense and leave themselves open to attack.
Although the immortals had to leave the mobile fortress, they weren’t at a disadvantage. With immortal monarchs at the head, they quickly formed many war formations to counter the demons rushing them. Because they were in the Vast Void, they didn’t have an environmental advantage, but as the defending side, they automatically possessed the upper hand.
The demons erupted like crazy. As long as they destroyed the formation, the humans would not have an easy time breaking their barrier. With them already knowing the human’s intent, how could they not be wary? As for whether they would continue to war or flee, that was a story for another time. They had to overcome this trial first.
Soon, the other demons rushed in after the first wave of insect demons. The insect queens were valuable combatant producers, so they did not appear on the battlefield. Not only that, but the Demon Clan will give them resources to produce more cannon fodders. Of course, this will only last a limited time.
Demon Emperor Redraco, Demon Emperor Blacktiger, and Demon Empress Bluefeather also took action. Aside from them, there were also other demon emperors joining the charge, just not as plentiful. The Demon Clan also had a method of extending lives, just not as perfect as the human’s method. It took time to awaken those sleeping demons. Not only that, but the population of demons was far smaller than humans, so although they generally possessed greater longevity, they were also less numerous.
The demons with powerful innate abilities used them one by one, not conserving their power at all. Because of the unique and myriad methods, many war formations broke apart, but the majority still resisted. Chief among these war formations was Meng Tingfeng commanding the Myriad Star War Formation. Coupled with his combat prowess and the divine artifact, Seven Star Sword, he was like a shining star on the battlefield.
How could he not place his best efforts? Disregarding the fact that he wanted to use the war against the Demon Clan to temper himself, this was also a battle of protection. Protection for his one and only son. So, if the other immortals were using a hundred percent of their effort, he put one hundred and ten percent.
Tianyi saw Meng Tingfeng’s effort, but his heart was as calm as a lake, with no ripples. Meng Tingfeng’s rising strength only made him want the latter to disappear even more. If Meng Tingfeng grew to a certain point, he couldn’t suppress the latter, much less ignore him.
He just didn’t want this damn outsider to interfere with his life. Was that too much to ask?
Still, Tianyi knew the importance of the war. It wasn’t time to split with the Numinous Sword Sect yet. He focused wholeheartedly on the grand formation. Although he had a lot of qi and essence, it still took time to summon them from the Nine Heavens Universe.
While he was charging up, a few demons broke through the barricade of immortals. They didn’t target Tianyi, or the immortal monarchs, but the true immortals. Most formations need to have all their components in place to work, and especially during the setup process.
Most of the demons who broke through failed in their assault and either died or were fatally injured. Two succeeded, but to their dismay, the grand formation adjusted itself and didn’t seem to be affected by the two true immortals’ departure. Instead, the two true immortals counterattacked and killed them, making their death worthless.
After a few more tries, the demons only successfully knocked out three more true immortals and one immortal monarch. However, when they saw the ever expanding frozen field, they couldn’t help but fret. They didn’t recognize the formation, and they didn’t know when it would become completed. They didn’t know its purpose, only that it would be detrimental.
The unknown is one of life’s greatest fears.
True to their fear, while they were still doing everything in their ability to disrupt the formation, Tianyi finished gathering all the energy required and activated it.
It was as if a vacuum had sucked away all the air. The sudden change in pressure caused everyone’s ears to boom. It was simultaneously the quietest moment yet the loudest during the battle. Although the Vast Void was just that, a void, it didn’t mean nothing existed.
The frozen field split in half, turning into two hemispheres. Along with its split, it pulled apart the barrier protecting the Divine Beast Pseudo Realm. The grand formation had attached itself to the barrier, and at the last moment, it sliced through the barrier and used itself as a leverage to split it apart.
“No!” Demon Emperor Redraco shouted.
After a certain point, the crack did not widen and even showed signs of healing. How could the barrier protecting the Divine Beast Pseudo System not have a self repair feature? So, Tianyi controlled Shangri-La to fly forward and wedge itself in place to prevent the opening from closing.
Naturally, the demons wouldn’t let Tianyi succeed. And another all-out battle occurred. However, Shangri-La lived up to its name as a mobile fortress. Most of the attacks that neared it would seemingly pause right outside of it. It was as if there was an infinite gulf that could not be crossed, no matter what. The same went for the demons trying to fly in.
Those that succeeded ran rampant and attacked everything. However, stepping into Shangri-La was akin to stepping into a realmlord’s domain. Those demons were severely suppressed and the immortals within quickly executed them. Any and all damage done to Shangri-La was quickly healed, as if time had reversed.
“Retreat!” Demon Emperor Redraco said, unwillingly. He could see that it was impossible to drive out the human after they wedged themselves at the opening. More importantly, they were caught off guard. They had to return and discuss what to do.
Of course, that didn’t mean that all of them would retreat. A certain amount had to be stationed to watch the humans. The humans didn’t chase either. They had suffered casualties, and they needed to recuperate. Not to mention that this was inside the Demon Clan’s territory. Who knew what defenses would be present?