In a distant stretch of the Void, Luan Baifeng noticed that several of the Heavenly Sword Alliance's Sixth-Order cultivators were showing signs of wanting to flee. She immediately sent a voice transmission to Mao Zhe.
The three Mountain Lords of Profound Sun Mountain had originally intended to head over and assist Yue He in capturing that Sixth-Order woman named Zi Yan. Upon receiving Luan Baifeng's transmission, they immediately changed direction and sped toward her.
Moments later, Luan Baifeng withdrew from the battlefield, and the three Mountain Lords joined forces to battle her original opponent — the Seven Mysteries Heavenly Lord of the Heavenly Sword Alliance!
The Seven Mysteries Heavenly Lord was an elder Sixth-Order powerhouse of the Heavenly Sword Alliance. In his pursuit of breaking through to the Seventh Order, he had spent years in seclusion cultivating. Even most of the Heavenly Sword Alliance's lower-ranking Disciples had no idea such an ancestor still lived — only a handful of high-ranking members knew of his existence.
Aside from the Seven Mysteries Heavenly Lord, the Heavenly Sword Alliance also had another Sixth-Order figure — the Danyang Heavenly Lord.
When Zuo Quanhui had forcibly seized control of the Heavenly Sword Alliance with his Seventh-Order might, he naturally wouldn't let these two old ancestors continue living in leisure. Both the Seven Mysteries Heavenly Lord and the Danyang Heavenly Lord had been compelled to leave seclusion.
Originally, the Seven Mysteries Heavenly Lord had been fighting Luan Baifeng alone. Though he was shaken by the woman's unpredictable and ghostly methods, he had still managed to maintain a slight edge.
He had even had the leisure to ask Luan Baifeng why she had betrayed Zuo Quanhui and defected to Void Land.
But now, with Luan Baifeng gone and Mao Zhe, Geng Qing, and Zhou Ya taking her place, the Seven Mysteries Heavenly Lord was in agony. Fighting three opponents at once — all Sixth-Orders like himself — forget about holding his own; even finding an opportunity to flee was nearly impossible. Mao Zhe's cultivation was on par with his, both of them at the peak of the Sixth Order. Geng Qing and Zhou Ya were slightly weaker, but not by much.
This was looking dire! Unless Zuo Quanhui could achieve a breakthrough on his end! The Seven Mysteries Heavenly Lord gritted his teeth and struggled against the three Mountain Lords, retreating step by step under their coordinated assault, all the while silently praying.
On another front, after shaking off her opponent, Luan Baifeng flitted through the Void, darting between battlefields and hurling formation plates outward. The grand formations sealed within them activated instantly.
She possessed a considerable number of formation plates of various types, but since allies were mixed in with the enemy, she chose to deploy only trapping formations and illusion formations — those without any lethal power.
These formations couldn't help her side kill or wound the enemy, and might even interfere with her allies' judgment, but they could temporarily pin the enemy in place, rendering them unable to move, and buy time to prevent their escape.
Moments later, seven or eight grand formations materialized across the Void. The figures within were hidden behind the shrouds of the formations, but the violent collisions of energy radiating from inside made it clear that both sides trapped within were locked in fierce combat.
Having done what she could, Luan Baifeng stole a moment to glance toward Yang Kai and Zuo Quanhui. She could see the two figures weaving around each other, divine abilities and secret techniques erupting in ceaseless succession. Yang Kai was at a disadvantage, but he was still holding on.
Only then did Luan Baifeng rush into the nearest formation with peace of mind, assisting her companions in dispatching the enemy.
Among the Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivators, each was locked in their own battle. The Heavenly Sword Alliance was faring poorly, and below the Sixth Order, it was nothing short of a one-sided slaughter. The Alliance's remaining three to four hundred Open Heaven cultivators had already suffered devastating losses after the three Mountain Lords swept through their ranks, and now only about half remained.
Over a thousand Void Land Open Heaven cultivators had formed a massive encirclement, enveloping all the Heavenly Sword Alliance warriors within. They advanced steadily, pushing forward inch by inch. As the encirclement continued to tighten, the Alliance's casualties mounted ever more grievously.
Under the flashing radiance of divine abilities and secret techniques, Heavenly Sword Alliance warriors were periodically blown apart, falling dead on the spot.
The overwhelming numerical disparity left the Heavenly Sword Alliance with no path to recovery!
After this battle, regardless of what happened to others, the Heavenly Sword Alliance — a peak second-rate power that had flourished for countless years — would cease to exist.
In another stretch of the Void, Yang Kai and Zuo Quanhui clashed with devastating intensity. This was a battle at the level of Upper-Grade Open Heaven cultivators, and every collision shattered the Void and inverted heaven and earth. Within a radius of a million li around the battlefield, the power of their worlds crashed against one another, and the Void cracked like a fractured mirror, riddled with dense fissures.
The site where the Heavenly Sword Palace had detonated was especially catastrophic. A black hole had already formed there, and under normal circumstances, the laws of heaven and earth would have gradually repaired it. But under the influence of their fierce battle, the black hole showed no signs of closing — instead, it had expanded considerably.
Within the black hole, a void of primordial chaos seethed.
This was not Yang Kai's first time clashing with Zuo Quanhui. They had fought once before in the Void Domain, and though backed by the three Mountain Lords of Profound Sun Mountain in a four-on-one engagement, he had still been beaten into a sorry state. Had his strength not far exceeded that of an ordinary Sixth-Order, he would have been slain on the spot. In the end, though he had managed to force Zuo Quanhui to retreat, he himself had sustained significant injuries — and worse, he had been forced to reveal his trump card, the Sun Moon Divine Wheel.
After several years, they clashed again, and the gap between them was now plainly visible to the naked eye.
The power of Upper-Grade Open Heaven was truly on an entirely different level from Middle-Grade! Even Upper-Grade obtained by borrowing the power of heaven and earth was still Upper-Grade.
He was still at a disadvantage on the surface — after all, Zuo Quanhui was a veteran Seventh-Order, not so easily surpassed — but Yang Kai was confident that with Zuo Quanhui's current strength, killing him would be harder than ascending to the heavens!
Moreover... he could feel that as time went on, his own power was growing ever stronger!
His current strength was drawn from the power of heaven and earth of the Star Boundary, so its magnitude was directly linked to the Star Boundary's foundation.
Earlier, the Great Emperors had entered the Star Boundary to lend their aid, enabling him to borrow enough power to break through to the Seventh Order and obliterate the Heavenly Sword Palace in an instant, slaying countless Heavenly Sword Alliance warriors.
Every Open Heaven cultivator who perished released world power that became nourishment for the World Tree, feeding it in turn and strengthening the Star Boundary's foundation.