The Supreme Head South

Countless cultivators and mortals, regardless of their level of cultivation, felt their hearts seized by boundless terror.

They cried out and fled, only to discover that there was nowhere to run. The sky was dim, the earth was splitting apart, the spiritual energy had run wild, and even their sense of direction had been lost amid the distortions of space.

Some Holy Lands and ancient clans had already activated their highest level of defenses. Protective barriers rose into the sky, imperial patterns thundered, and ultimate imperial weapons had been awakened—but everyone’s faces were deathly pale.

They knew that before the will of twenty-two Ancient Supremes, these defenses were pitifully fragile.

The old ancestors gathered together, their faces filled with grief. Some were arranging for their heirs to escape, while others were preparing to burn everything they had in one final struggle.

“Send the divine sons and saintesses into the ancestral artifact’s space. We’ll save as many as we can!”

“Fight them to the death! Even if we’re nothing more than moths flying into the flames, we’ll make them bleed!”

Tragedy, despair, madness… All manner of emotions played out across the world.

Yet just as the countless living beings of the Xuanhuang Great World trembled beneath the terrifying pressure of the assembled Supremes, closing their eyes and awaiting death as the bloody harvest they had expected—and knew to be unavoidable—drew near…

An unbelievable scene unfolded.

Those terrifying figures that had risen into the heavens, radiating an aura of annihilation, coldly swept their gazes across the endless masses of living beings below, who were like lambs awaiting slaughter.

Then, without exception, they all turned their eyes toward the south.

Toward the Southern Region!

“Though blood offerings are delectable, they are nothing compared to the threat at its source.”

A cold, hoarse voice, like two pieces of rusted iron grinding against each other, rang out directly within the souls of every living being. It did not travel through the air.

It was the murmur of a Supreme who had just awakened from the Godfall Ruins, carrying a trace of impatience and absolute indifference.

“First crush the two largest insects. We can savor the rest at our leisure.”

Before the words had even faded—

“Rip!”

“Rip!”

“Rip!”

From the Burial God Abyss, the Godfall Ruins, the Reincarnation Sea, the Void Cavern, the Perpetual Frost Glacier, the Yellow Springs Desert…

The Ancient Supremes who had just emerged, their baleful auras surging into the heavens, tore open the void before them one after another. Transforming into streams of destruction that pierced through heaven and earth, they sped toward the Southern Region.

More than a dozen terrifying auras, utterly unparalleled in their might, crossed the boundless void like countless rivers flowing into the sea. Their destination was unmistakable: the Southern Region.

The anticipated harvest did not immediately arrive, but the terrifying pressure converging in one place plunged the survivors of the entire Xuanhuang Great World into even deeper confusion and horror.

“They’re gone?”

A cultivator curled up in the ruins tremblingly raised his head. His face was filled with the bewilderment and disbelief of someone who had narrowly escaped death.

“They all went to the Southern Region! Every Supreme has gone to the Southern Region!”

“The Southern Region?! What are they going there for?!”

“Could something in the Southern Region be more important than harvesting all these living beings?”

“By the heavens! More than twenty Supremes have gathered in the Southern Region! What on earth happened there?!”

After a brief silence came even more intense panic and debate.

The vast majority of forces and wandering cultivators who knew nothing of the truth could not understand this abnormal scene at all.

Hadn’t the Supremes emerged from seclusion precisely to harvest the essence of life and extend their own existences?

Why were they ignoring the “blood food” right before their eyes and instead rushing toward the Southern Region?

This strange behavior was even more unsettling than an outright massacre. It seemed to foretell some disaster that was even more terrifying—and entirely unknown.

However, the core members of certain Holy Land-level forces who had been closely monitoring developments in the Southern Region quickly reacted after their initial shock.

A chilling conjecture surfaced in their minds.

“It’s for the person behind Battle Asura!”

“The Golden Crow Ancient Emperor and the others were the first to launch an attack in the Southern Region. Their target was that mysterious powerhouse who was suspected to be connected to Battle Asura.

“Now it seems they not only failed to achieve their goal, but may have kicked an iron wall!

“They’ve forced all the Supremes from the forbidden zones to temporarily set aside their harvest and join forces to head to the Southern Region, where they’ll eliminate the existence powerful enough to threaten every one of them!”

“What kind of terrifying existence could make all the Supremes so wary that they would postpone their harvest and prioritize eliminating it?”

The news swept through the highest levels of the various Holy Lands like the most frigid of winds.

For a time, every peak expert who knew the truth was filled with dread.

They felt a trace of relief at their temporary survival, yet they were also deeply troubled by the unknown variable in the Southern Region.

To force all the Supremes to join forces against it, the mysterious existence’s strength was likely far beyond imagination.

But once the Supremes dealt with the trouble in the Southern Region, what awaited this world would be an even more frenzied and unrestrained harvest!

Hope and despair intertwined in that strange silence.

Everyone’s eyes were involuntarily drawn toward the southern sky.

These fortunate survivors could only pray for that faint glimmer of a miracle as they waited in suffocating silence.

Yet just as most of the terrifying auras transformed into streams of light and tore through the void toward the Southern Region, another change occurred!

Not every Supreme was so restrained.

In the Eastern Region, two terrifying figures—one from the Burial God Abyss and one from the Godfall Ruins—suddenly stopped at the very moment they were about to step into the spatial rifts.

In the Central Region, two more auras showed obvious hesitation.

This minor change was instantly caught by some of the powerful figures below who had been staring intently at the sky.

“Wait! They haven’t all left!”

The voice of a Holy Land elder trembled. The taut nerves that had eased slightly when the Supremes headed south suddenly tightened to the limit once more.

“There are four auras—four auras have stopped!”

Panic spread like a plague, even more rapidly and completely than before.

The relief of having narrowly escaped disaster had only just begun to rise before it was doused by icy water. In its place was the extreme terror of falling into an even darker abyss.

The four Supremes who had stopped radiated especially intense auras of decay and death. They also carried an unmistakable weakness and greed.

They had slumbered for far too many years. Their condition was terrible, and forcibly emerging from seclusion had consumed a great deal of their strength.

At this moment, the abundant life essence radiating from the countless living beings below was like fine wine and delicacies placed before a starving traveler, exuding an irresistible temptation.

“Mm…”

The indistinct figure from the Burial God Abyss, massive as a mountain, let out a low growl that rumbled like thunder.

That growl rang like a funeral bell in the hearts of every living being who sensed it.

His scarlet gaze shifted downward from the south and locked onto a prosperous city in the Eastern Region, one inhabited by tens of millions of people.

To his senses, the mingled vitality within the city shone like a torch in the dead of night.

“Why did he stop? He’s looking at us—he’s looking at us!”

Countless cultivators and mortals in the enormous city raised their heads toward the sky. Once they were locked onto by that gaze, filled with greed and the aura of death, their souls nearly flew from their bodies.

Cries and screams rang out in unison. The order that had only just been restored instantly collapsed, plunging the city into utter chaos.