Chapter 348 - Death to the Invaders
The Abyssal Battlefield was covered in lightning as the calamitous sun hung high in the sky, casting its indifferent gaze over all lives below. In the desolate Abyssal Battlefield stood the black Grand-Orient Mountain Range. At this moment, it was enveloped by a huge hemisphere, which was the other half of the Grand-Orient Barrier.
This half wasn’t as colorful. Looking from the outside, only a densely packed brown pattern could be seen circulating on the barrier, while it was a whole different world from the inside. Compared to the colorful spirit hazards on the Flameyellow continent, the Abyssal Battlefield only had brown; the color of earth.
But today, there was something unusual happening on the battlefield. The ninety-nine mountains had actually turned into ninety-nine dragons made of rocks and mud, soaring within the barrier. They weren’t ordinary rocks and mud; the dragons could dive into the ground like the sea. As a result, the battlefield had turned into a sea with ripples spreading out while the dragons soared in the sea and sky.
Although the dragons could dissipate at any time, they could also recondense anywhere! It was actually a kind of earth spirit hazard, known as the imperial dragon pulse. The imperial dragon pulse was born in the depth of the ground, and it was extremely lethal. They were captured by the first ancestor for use as the barrier spirit hazard on the Abyssal Battlefield side.
At this moment, the dragons were letting out a roar as they descended upon their enemies on the battlefield. When Tianming was searching for manna in the Grandpeace Domain, he would never have expected that the Onyx Sect would launch an attack from this direction.
Before the Onyx Sect could even be seen, the ground was already violently trembling and countless wildbeasts were unleashing their roars, creating a huge cloud of dust that covered the Grandpeace Domain. The first thing everyone saw was the countless crimson eyes of the wildbeasts. This was a beast tide directed at the Grand-Orient Sect, with thousands of wildbeasts shaking the earth with their charge.
When the Grand-Orient guardians saw the beast tide, all of them sucked in a cold breath. Their opponent wasn’t only the beats, but also the Onyx Sect behind. However, just the fearless beast tide alone was a major problem for the barrier.
When the beast tide approached, everyone saw that the wildbeasts were being led by a second-order Saint Beast, the Skyscent Butterfly. Skyscent Butterflies could produce a fragrance that causes wildbeasts to lose control. So male wildbeasts smelling the fragrance would treat the Skyscent Butterfly as their mate and chase after it.
There were ten Skyscent Butterflies in total. If they had enough time and numbers, it wouldn’t be a problem for them to attract over ten thousand wildbeasts. Without any intelligence, those wildbeasts could only fall for the Skyscent Butterflies’ manipulation. In the next second, thousands of wildbeasts charged into the Grand-Orient Barrier, causing the entire barrier to tremble.
There were thousands of species of wildbeasts in the horde, and there were even demon beasts charging into the barrier with their enormous bodies. Following behind the beast tide was the Onyx Legion. The lifebound beasts from the Onyx Hole were mostly poisonous- and dark-type. Among them, the insect species numbered the most, but there were also other poisonous lifebound beasts like snakes.
Moreover, those lifebound beasts had all grown up, and most of them were eighth-order lifebound beasts with a small portion of saint beasts. The most conspicuous among them were broodmother lifebound beasts, such as the Onyx Bugqueen, and each of them could unleash an entire swarm. The thousands of wildbeasts were the first wave of attack on the barrier, taking the pressure off the Onyx Legion.
“Charge!” The Onyx Emperor and Empress didn’t charge at the frontline, like Sikong Jiansheng, but commanded the invasion from the rear. Some high ranking elders stood beside them, and those elders were generally old, which represented their strength. Other than them, dozens of elders took the lead in the invasion. The Grand-Orient Barrier was like an enormous jaw that swallowed the beast tide, the Onyx Legion, and their lifebound beasts. As tens of thousands of beasts charged into the barrier, the cloud of dust caused by their charge alone was enough to cover the sky.
“Sikong Jiansheng has already entered on his side.”
“The Grand-Orient guardians are estimated to number fifty thousand, but they’re divided into two battlefields. So at best, each battlefield will only have a little over twenty thousand.”
Honestly speaking, it wasn’t easy for outer disciples to join the Grand-Orient guardians. Most of the outer disciples would leave when they saw no hope in rising, and scatter around the Grand-Orient realm. So the fifty thousand guardians were all elites. Then again, the seventy thousand Onyx Legion were also elites.
“A little more than twenty thousand, along with a small number of saints. They won’t last long.”
“I bet the wildbeasts are enough to cause them a headache.”
“If the Elysian Emperor hadn’t instructed us to slow down our invasion, we’d probably flatten the Grand-Orient Sect in just one day.”
The high ranking members standing in the rear were planning strategies as they watched the ninety-nine dragons charging around in the fog within the barrier. Before the beast tide could reach the dragons, most of them fell into the quagmire. For a split second, the scene was in a complete mess.
At the same time, the dragons dove into the ground and started a massacre. In the direction of the saint mountain, with Huangfu Fengyun taking the lead, ninety-nine masters were controlling the dragons as if they were fighting themselves. As a spirit hazard, the imperial dragon pulse couldn’t die. So they had turned into a gale and dove into the ground to wreak havoc. When the next time the dragons appeared, the wildbeasts had already been torn to pieces.
In front of the ninety-nine dragons, the wildbeasts were constantly being slaughtered, only leaving the saint beasts that were difficult to deal with behind. But the Onyx legionnaires, who were riding their lifebound beasts, were harder to deal with at the rear. There were many broodmother lifebound beasts among the horde, which made the Onyx Legion seem like a horde a few hundred thousand strong, especially the swarm of insects in the sky. If it weren’t for the white fog, they would’ve already charged into the Grand-Orient Sect.
“Kill!” There were more than ten thousand guardians waiting behind the imperial dragon pulse. If any wildbeasts or beastmasters broke through the defense of the imperial dragon pulse, they would immediately charge forth.
At the beginning, the guardians could still hold their ground because the imperial dragon pulse was enough to deal with the invaders. But as time passed, the Onyx Legion had their eyes turning red from the killing. Although the fog and quagmire had obstructed them, a large portion of them had still made it over to the guardians. After all, they had a large advantage in numbers.
“Die!” When the two factions came in contact, blood splashed around with every death. The fight between lifebound beasts was the worst—when they charged at each other, they could throw out all sorts of abilities that made the battlefield chaotic. Not only was there a possibility of them dying from the enemy’s abilities, but there was also a possibility of them being killed by one of their own. There was no way they could avoid it with abilities flying all over the place.
This was a real sect war.
“Heaven’s Elysium is just using you as cannon fodder, hoping that we perish together. So why are you guys still so foolish as to work for them! At this time, our three sects should be united to destroy the Cloudmist Sword School and resist Heaven's Elysium together. That’s our only chance of survival!
“If you guys insist on being stubborn, it’ll only lead to the death of both our sects! And from then on, only Heaven’s Elysium will be left in the Grand-Orient Realm! You guys must know that once the Grand-Orient Sect and Southsky Sect perish, Heaven's Elysium will have no more need for you guys! Not even the Cloudmist Sword School!” Huangfu Fengyun’s voice reverberated out on the battlefield. The Onyx disciples naturally knew that, but they still continued desperately fighting after a brief hesitation.
In response, the Onyx Emperor shook his head with a wry smile. “It’s too late for you to say this now. I don’t have a choice, I’ll only die faster if I don’t listen to orders. At the very least, we’ll have some time after annihilating the Grand-Orient Sect.” It was already destined that both sides would fight to their last breath when the barrier was invaded.
“The Elysian Emperor has ordered us to take down the Abyssal Battlefield barrier and take control of the Grand-Orient Sect’s bottomless hole!” That way, they would’ve captured half of the Grand-Orient Sect and could travel through the bottomless pit to destroy the Grand-Orient Sect from inside the barrier. But the Elysian Emperor wanted to force the Southsky Sect to make a move by dragging the battle out and pushing the Grand-Orient Sect bit by bit. As for how they were going to force the Grand-Orient Sect, that was for later. So if the Onyx Sect could take control of the barrier in the Abyssal Battlefield, they would’ve won half the battle, and they just had to devise a plan for later.
The Onyx Sect was more difficult to deal with, compared to the Cloudmist Sword School, especially how they could manipulate wildbeasts to attack the barrier. They also had a complete overall strength. Many legionnaires who had survived the imperial dragon pulse charged over and clashed with the Grand-Orient guardians. Furthermore, their numbers also began increasing.
Huangfu Fengyun immediately requested reinforcements from the other side. But judging from the current situation, they would have a difficult time withstanding these venomous lifebound beasts. The barrier was filled with poisonous fog, which dealt great damage to the guardians. If things went on at this rate, there was a high likelihood that the Onyx Legion would pass through the barrier.
At that time, it would be difficult for the elders to maintain the barrier, and they might even have to fight themselves. But if they fought, there would be no one maintaining the barrier, which meant the barrier would collapse. If the barrier collapsed, the Onyx Legion would be able to strike right at their heart.
With the balance destroyed, the gap between them would only grow larger. They only had about twenty elders here, while the Onyx Sect had nearly fifty elders! Huangfu Fengyun’s eyes turned red and sorrow rose in his heart. “Is heaven going to doom the Grand-Orient Sect?”
He looked into the distance, where the Onyx Emperor, Empress, and elders stood together. They didn’t participate in the battle, but indifferently looked on as the Grand-Orient Sect collapsed bit by bit. All of a sudden, a group of people came from their rear, and they were shocked as they turned their heads back immediately.
“Yuwen Fengtian! Su Yunzhi!” The Onyx Emperor narrowed his eyes into slits. He naturally knew those two, they were the second and third elders of the Grand-Orient Sect. He never imagined that these people would be outside the barrier.
“Today’s your funeral!” Yuwen Fengtian cast a murderous glare at the Onyx Sect members in front of him.
“A loser like you? Are you joking?” the Onyx Emperor sneered.
But when he finished speaking, Yuwen Fengtian immediately stepped away, revealing the man behind him. The man had one black and one white pupil as he gazed indifferently at the Onyx Emperor. As lightning rumbled, the man held onto a gold and black sword in his hand.
“Death to the invaders!” he pronounced.