"Who exactly is this expert they invited? How can he be so ferocious?"
"His strength is probably not the least bit inferior to that white-robed senior."
The frontline headquarters of the Alliance of Righteous Unity was located in a certain spacetime. Within, ancient warships cast dense silhouettes, war bunkers stood one after another in dense clusters. Amidst the overflowing chaos energy, one could also see bronze palaces and cavern abode mountains.
Many high-ranking members gathered in the grand council hall. The weakest among them were existences who had passed three or four Heavenly Decline Tribulations.
At this moment, watching the projected frontline scenes, they were all extremely shocked and astonished.
The Weiyang Emperor Lord Jiang Yun, his face as still as water, his expression indifferent, showed no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.
"This is the expert invited by that senior behind me to oversee the battle," he said calmly.
The high-ranking members of the Alliance of Righteous Unity were all shaken upon hearing this. It was another person invited by that senior behind the Weiyang Emperor Lord?
Aside from that white-robed senior, this existence, so extremely vicious with a heaven-startling aura of slaughter, was absolutely stronger than all the high-ranking members here. It was even possible that even the Weiyang Emperor Lord might not be its match.
This might truly be a figure who had already passed nine Heavenly Decline Tribulations.
In the current Vast Expanse, such an existence had not appeared for a very long time.
For a moment, the high-ranking members of the Alliance of Righteous Unity all felt a sense of awe towards that unseen senior behind the scenes.
On the frontline where the two alliances clashed, atop a desolate famous mountain, a white-robed figure sat cross-legged.
He was like a mountain that had remained unchanged since ancient times, towering and majestic. Merely by sitting in command here, he suppressed the boundless sins and baleful tribulation energies brought by the slaughter and warfare across heaven and earth.
All the universes were already shattered. Under the chaotic melee between the armies of both sides, everything was riddled with devastation. The withered scene of countless broken worlds was terrifying.
Corpses and shattered weapons disintegrated between heaven and earth, endlessly falling towards every corner.
Universes shattered, worlds collapsed. The figures of Ancestral Dao Realm existences crossed the River of Time, fighting there. The fluctuations of their auras swept through past and present. In the end, they had already abandoned Dao techniques, engaging in pure physical combat and slaughter. Every falling drop of blood seemed to contain micromanifest worlds that flickered between birth and shattering.
Beyond some indistinct world barriers, chaos was blurred, yet one could faintly see Ancestral Dao Realm existences locked in battle. Their combat scenes were even more terrifying, drowned by endless light.
Even Dao Realm existences found it difficult to intervene. Small worlds were born and chaos was cleaved open between their palms and fingers. All sorts of Dao techniques displayed unprecedented might in their hands.
The mere residual waves of their aura could annihilate a vast universe.
In one of the battlefields beyond the world, the figure wreathed in black qi fought to the point of madness. Terrifying killing intent coalesced into cages of slaughter around him. Beneath his feet, endless ancient steles rose, each erupting with boundless light, submerging towards his opponents.
Relying solely on his own strength, he restrained and contained several Forbidden Zone Existences of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, and even held a steady upper hand.
"Slaughter alone is the ultimate pursuit of all worlds."
"This world is a cage, a prison. Living beings are fated to have no way out. It is better to die early and sever the past. Life itself is sorrow and suffering; only death can bring liberation..."
He laughed wildly, growing braver as the battle raged. He used no weapons; every punch erupted with endless black light, corroding everything and annihilating all fluctuations.
That was true death aura, amidst which wailed countless dead souls and faintly emerged countless shattered universes and worlds — a chilling sight that left one wondering just how many beings had died at his hands.
Within the Heaven-Slaying Alliance's frontline, many high-ranking members felt their hearts sink. They felt genuine dread and trembling towards that suddenly emerged fearsome existence.
They believed that even the Deputy Alliance Leader Ling Yuling might not be its match.
Meanwhile, on a ancient warship at the front, a figure of peerless elegance stood quietly. Ling Yuling's expression remained quite calm, without much panic or unease.
Her gaze pierced through numerous universes and saw that figure sitting cross-legged on the desolate famous mountain.
"The Fourth Ancient Killing Formation. If you were not a descendant of Zhong Jun, how could you have inherited this item?"
"It seems the fall of Zhong Jun and the collapse of the Radiant Ancestral Court cannot be separated from the mastermind behind the Alliance of Righteous Unity."
Ling Yuling did not choose to act, similarly sitting in command within the Heaven-Slaying Alliance.
This decisive battle had just begun, and it was still unknown how many years it would continue.
The opposing side, wary of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance's foundations, dared not cross over rashly for the time being. On the Heaven-Slaying Alliance's side, with Gu Changge's departure, the remaining Forbidden Zone Existences were all acting to restrain that suddenly emerged powerful being, leaving the other high-ranking members in an awkward position.
There were only a handful of Ancestral Dao Realm existences who had passed eight Heavenly Decline Tribulations, and now all had thrown themselves into the battlefield. Even the Demon Ancestor Di Huang was clearly fighting in the land beyond the world, locked in slaughter with the enemy.
This great war was enough to let them accumulate sufficient war merits for exchange, but if they fell, that would mean true death and the dissipation of their Dao...
...
"I never thought that after so many years, I would once again see the shadow of the Lifeless Hall..."
"This war between the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Alliance of Righteous Unity has dragged in someone from the Lifeless Hall. Could it be that even the Lifeless Hall intends to interfere..."
"Which number is this figure, then?"
Within a deep, vast chaotic spacetime, an ancient being opened its eyes.
The chaos before it boiled, as if fearsome aura that the myriad worlds could hardly bear was erupting. But soon, as the aura on its body fell silent, this place became tranquil again.
Only a cluster of deep, profound light illuminated that chaos. Within it was an eye shrouded in blood light, within which scenes of the rise and fall of worlds played out, causing dread.
This being was observing the current Vast Expanse through that eye.
Even it couldn't help but feel shock and surprise when looking towards the battlefield where the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Alliance of Righteous Unity slaughtered each other.
As long as one had lived long enough, one would more or less know of the existence of the Lifeless Hall.
And the members of the Lifeless Hall were very easy to distinguish.
That killing aura, so dense that even long ages of silence could not accumulate it, the endless vengeful spirits and karmic ties floating around them, and the shattered, dead afterimages of cosmos and worlds — apart from members of the Lifeless Hall, there was virtually no second possibility.
"How many Epoch Cataclysms ago was it when someone from the Lifeless Hall last appeared in the Vast Expanse?"
This ancient being fell into contemplation and reminiscence.
It had slept for a very long time as well, to the point where it could no longer clearly recall when it had last seen a person from the Lifeless Hall slaughter living beings and plunder the resources of the myriad realms and universes.
But the one thing it was certain of was that whenever people of the Lifeless Hall began to appear in the Vast Expanse, it signified that a Great Epoch Cataclysm was about to descend.
"Could it be that in this epoch, an Authority is about to surface..."
"No wonder they're stirring the waters so murky. Fighting over Authority, aren't they afraid of being noticed by that place?"
"How recklessly they act."
At the same time, in many unknown chaotic zones of the Vast Expanse, existences all detected the anomalies at the battleground of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Alliance of Righteous Unity.
In some territories enveloped by the boundless chaotic currents of time and space, grand bronze palaces sat. Within them, Daoists opened their eyes, their expressions desireless and free of desire, indifferent and calm. Even when seeing the slaughter between the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Alliance of Righteous Unity, their expressions remained unruffled.
"Someone from the Lifeless Hall has appeared. Their strength and status are likely not simple." A figure wearing a phoenix crown and a robe of colorful phoenix feathers peered at the current scene from within a spacetime rift, then sighed softly.
By her side, time flowed like water, evaporating according to her will. Thereafter, she thoroughly erased all traces of her observation, leaving them formless across the eons.
Meanwhile, during the great war between the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Alliance of Righteous Unity, the high-ranking members of the Alliance of Righteous Unity did not forget to step in, stirring the other True World civilizations of the Vast Expanse to join forces, raising the banner of a punitive expedition against the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, to cleanse the Vast Expanse of its scourge.
Many pieces of news regarding the deep ties between the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Black Lotus Cult were also successively spread.
Beings exploring the origins of the Black Lotus Cult discovered that it had first appeared in the territories surrounding the Heaven-Slaying Alliance.
And the timing was quite coincidental — right around the time the Immortal Dao Alliance was decided to be established.
Given that the Black Lotus Cult was closest to the Heaven-Slaying Alliance's territory, why did it not choose to corrupt the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, but instead travel an immeasurable distance to the Ethereal Sacred Domain?
Furthermore, some beings directly claimed that the Black Lotus Cult was actually a method jointly created by the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Dark Clans, intending to baffle the myriad clans and attract everyone's attention, thereby achieving the Heaven-Slaying Alliance's unspoken secrets.
That was why, at this time, no one saw any movements from the Dark Clans. They were quiet, well-behaved, hardly resembling the Dark Clans known to the world.
Such claims naturally caused enormous shock and uproar.
Generally speaking, with the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Alliance of Righteous Unity at war, wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity for the Dark Clans to strike? Why then, after so long, was there still no sign of the Dark Clans making a move?
Under these circumstances, many could not help but cast their suspicions upon the Heaven-Slaying Alliance, believing that the boundless black fog now shrouding the Ethereal Sacred Domain was a tactic executed by the Heaven-Slaying Alliance.
The appearance of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance's Alliance Leader there was absolutely no accident, but a premeditated scheme.
It was even possible, as the Alliance of Righteous Unity claimed, that the many guests who had gone to the Ethereal Sacred Domain to participate in the Immortal Dao Alliance gathering had already met with misfortune.
"When the Alliance Leader of the Heaven-Slaying Alliance returns, by then even the Alliance of Righteous Unity will be hard-pressed to stop him..."
"The entire Vast Expanse will fall to the Heaven-Slaying Alliance and the Dark Clans, with no one able to escape."
The Alliance of Righteous Unity vigorously spread propaganda, sending out all sorts of news and rumors.
The entire Vast Expanse was now in utter chaos. Everyone could feel that immense fear and unease, as if there were no true pure lands left, no safe place anywhere.
With each passing day, everyone could see, beyond the myriad worlds, the Land of the Dark Source looming ever closer high above everyone's heads.
Under these circumstances, a miasma of fear, unease, and panic began to spread through all territories and universes.
Even within some orthodox traditions and sects that considered themselves transcendent, problems began to emerge, with ceaseless internal strife and chaos. The ugly side in everyone's heart was being infinitely magnified.
Time flowed like water, gone never to return. While the Ethereal Sacred Domain faced great disaster and the Vast Expanse was wracked by turmoil, another land completely shrouded in darkness was also witnessing a fearsome great battle.
This place was eternally dark and lightless, filled everywhere with ashes.
Under the dark canopy of heaven, endless mountain ridges and plateaus stretched across the land, extending into hills and flatlands, plains and river valleys, forming all manner of natural terrains.
There were pitch-black, sunken volcanic craters, forever frozen dark earth, and undulating swamps of mire...
This was a world without law, without heaven, without restraints — formless, traceless, colorless, and desireless.
It shifted and changed between reality and illusion at every moment. All kinds of terrain and topography were simultaneously born and extinguished, making it impossible to tell in which spacetime it actually existed.
Perhaps yesterday, perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps eons ago.
Atop the most majestic mountain range stood an ancient, grand dark palace. Surrounding it stretched continuous structures, resembling both altars and fortresses.
This was the Nightmare Demon Domain, the place where the Heavenly Faction had long existed. Above that palace, endless blood-red mist steamed, all sorts of ancient and terrifying visions played out, and one could faintly glimpse a bronze coffin floating within.
At this moment, before this palace, a figure stood silently.
Around the mist, specks of faint blue light flickered like fireflies, completely enveloping the figure so that none could see the face or form of the one within.
The current ruler of the Heavenly Faction, Grand High Priest Wu Yue.
No one had ever truly seen her true face, not even her confidants, the current High Priests of the Heavenly Faction.
Behind Grand High Priest Wu Yue, many High Priests and Sacrificial Priests gathered below the palace. The surroundings were a sea of black, a mass of heads. All figures knelt there in silence, solemn and reverent.
In the distant lands, a chaotic great battle raged. Countless Dark Beings collided and slaughtered each other like a tide, the aura of slaughter astonishing, wrapped in endless dark energy.
One after another, powerful figures spanned the firmament, like eternal demonic shadows standing there, fearless of the darkness's corruption.
In fact, they themselves were clans that had fallen into darkness, of the same origin as this place, and had no need to worry about being polluted by the Dark Matter here.
Upon their bodies, Dark Matter cascaded like a waterfall, nourishing their dark demonic bodies, as if an aura of immortality interweaved.
"After countless ages, we have set foot on this land once more."
"We shall welcome our master's physical body. If Grand High Priest Wu Yue knows what's good for her, she will obediently step aside and hand over the Coffin of World Burial."
"The voice of our master has already resounded in the Land of the Dark Source, and it is calling out to us..."
A terrifying voice, like a great bell or the pounding of a celestial drum, resonated deafeningly, causing the blood and qi of all Dark Beings to churn, as if their dark souls were being torn apart.
That was a figure that seemed to transcend all law and heaven, so vast that even this expanse of heaven and earth seemed unable to contain its true form. It stood at the distant border of spacetime, its body similarly covered in Dark Matter. Its immortal armor radiated a cold, icy gleam, and a single wisp of its aura seemed capable of extinguishing ten thousand ages.