Entering the Door

The Great Thousand Wars are divided into wars of destiny, wars of merit, and wars of faith!

And this time, it has landed on a war of faith!

Above the heavens, the colossal golden gate spanning the sky and earth swung open with a thunderous roar.

Endless divine light poured down, illuminating the void like a sea of molten gold.

A group of Sacred Domain overlords stood in the air, their expressions solemn.

These were the rulers of long-established Sacred Domains, having weathered countless ages, and were intimately familiar with the rules of the Great Thousand Wars.

"This time, it's actually a war of faith..." murmured Tianjizi, the elder overlord of the Tianji Sacred Domain, stroking his beard with a gleam of calculation in his eyes. "At least it spares us much bloodshed."

Their Tianji Sacred Domain had exhausted its accumulated destiny over the past hundred thousand years.

Thus, this time, they had no choice but to ally with other Sacred Domains for the battle.

Just then—

"Hmph, what does it matter if it's a war of faith?"

A cold female voice suddenly rang out, drawing everyone's attention.

There stood the Empress Linglong, treading upon golden lotuses, her phoenix eyes filled with malice, her aura radiating the terrifying pressure of the Eternal Realm.

She glared deep into the golden gate, as if trying to pierce through the void to catch sight of a certain figure she loathed with every fiber of her being.

"Su Muwan... this time, I swear your Netherfrost Sacred Domain will be reduced to ashes!"

The other overlords wore equally grim expressions, their fists clenched tightly.

They had all suffered heavy losses in the previous gambling of fate.

Now, united in purpose, they had one goal—

To devour the Netherfrost Sacred Domain!

"Let's make this clear—once the Great Thousand War ends, Su Muwan is mine to execute," the Empress Linglong declared coldly. "I will grind her bones to dust and scatter her remains to the winds!"

"And those pretty boys she keeps? I'll make sure she watches as I break them before her eyes, so she regrets ever crossing me!"

"Very well, then I claim the southwestern territories of her domain," another overlord interjected.

"No need to rush," a third said with a smirk. "We can discuss the spoils in detail later."

In just a few words, the gathered overlords had already treated the Netherfrost Sacred Domain as their prize.

Naturally, they saw no possibility of failure.

After all...

Their gazes turned to the tens of thousands of Chosen Ones they had summoned from lesser worlds, standing behind them.

"Listen well!" the overlords declared sternly. "The rules of the war of faith should already be engraved in your minds!"

"Remember—slaughter is secondary! What truly matters is gathering faith!"

"Now go forth, and bring us victory!"

"Yes!"

Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!!

In an instant, the Chosen Ones transformed into streaks of light, vanishing into the golden gate.

Empress Linglong watched with venomous eyes.

Heh.

Their alliance had nearly ten thousand Chosen Ones.

And Su Muwan?

A mere fledgling Sacred Domain.

How many Chosen Ones could she possibly have?

Even if she did, how strong could they be?

After all, among their ranks was an ace—a Chosen One already at the half-step Dominator Realm!

Slaughtering their way through this battlefield would be child's play.

Su Muwan...

You're finished.

......

......

Within the golden gate lay an ancient, boundless world.

Stepping inside felt like traversing countless epochs of time.

The sky resembled shattered stained glass, tinged with chaotic hues of gray and crimson, streaks of bloody light staining the clouds like spilled paint.

The earth was dominated by towering primordial trees, their trunks as thick as mountains, bark cracked like dragon scales.

Their leaves blotted out the sky, each one large as a boat, veins pulsing with golden radiance.

In the distance, rugged mountain ranges rose like the spines of colossal beasts, their peaks wreathed in violet mist, echoing with the roars of long-extinct primordial beasts.

The rivers were not water, but liquid currents of spiritual energy.

Their beds were littered with countless bones and rusted weapons, the surface occasionally rippling as if something monstrous lurked beneath.

The air was thick with the scent of primal wilderness—

The pungency of ancient flora, the decay of millennia-old soil, the metallic tang of beast blood—all mingling into a wild, intoxicating aura.

Occasionally, phantasmal beasts would streak across the sky—

A gargantuan bird with wings spanning thousands of feet, a three-headed wolf with six glowing eyes—creatures long vanished from existence, now temporarily resurrected by the will of the Heavenly Dao.

Stranger still, some of the ancient trees had chains coiled around their roots, the links vanishing into the void as if binding some unspeakable horror.

This was the battlefield of the war of faith—a fragment of the primordial era, torn from the river of time by the Heavenly Dao itself.

The forces of the Netherfrost Sacred Domain had gathered here.

Qin Luo stood at the forefront, hands clasped behind his back, with Su Muwan, Huo Feng, and other core fighters behind him.

Further back were a hundred thousand elite cultivators, the weakest among them at the peak of the Supreme Realm.

Compared to the Sacred Domain's population of hundreds of billions, this number was pitifully small.

But—

Quality over quantity.

In terms of high-tier combatants, they had more than enough.

As he surveyed the surroundings, a thought struck him.

This place... why did it feel so familiar?

Su Muwan blinked. "Qin Luo, have we been here before?"

Her sensitivity to spiritual energy had picked up on something unusual the moment they entered.

Qin Luo nodded. It felt familiar, yet not entirely so.

At that moment, Huo Feng stepped forward, concerned that Qin Luo and Su Muwan might not fully grasp the rules of the war of faith.

"Master Qin, Overlord Su," he explained.

"The war of faith differs from wars of destiny or merit. Victory isn't decided by slaughter, but by the spread of faith!"

"Simply put, it's about who can convert more followers and amass greater faith within the battlefield."

"There are three thousand lesser worlds here. Conquering one means harvesting its faith to empower your own forces."

"Right now, we're in one of those worlds."

"In the end, the Sacred Domain with the highest faith value will receive the Heavenly Dao's blessing."

The others nodded in understanding.

Su Muwan rolled her eyes. "So it's basically a contest of who's the better con artist?"

Qin Luo chuckled. "An astute summary, milady."

Just then, a majestic voice boomed across the heavens—

[All participants have entered! The gates are sealed!]

[The war of faith... begins now!]

Hummm—!

The golden gate slowly closed.

Then, a radiant golden leaderboard unfolded in the sky, displaying the real-time faith rankings of each Sacred Domain.

And at the very top—

The Netherfrost Sacred Domain!

This leaderboard was visible both inside and outside the gate.

In the grand hall of the Empress Linglong's domain...

"Your Majesty, the Netherfrost Sacred Domain is..."

A trembling elder stared at the rankings, barely daring to speak.

"Silence!"

Empress Linglong slammed her palm down, shattering the jade table before her. Her fury burned so intensely it seemed to materialize in her eyes.

"Thirty thousand years of accumulated destiny—stolen by that venomous witch! And now her domain dares to claim first place on the faith leaderboard?!"

Before her was the Heavenly Dao's newly revealed [Faith Leaderboard]:

Netherfrost Sacred Domain (Faith Value: 100)

Empress Linglong's Domain (Faith Value: 0)

Tianji Sacred Domain (Faith Value: 0)

Nine Heavens Sacred Domain (Faith Value: 0)

What in the—?!

How?!

Everyone started at zero faith.

So how did Su Muwan's domain begin with 100 points?!

Empress Linglong's fingers trembled with rage as she glared at the leaderboard.

Was this some innate advantage of her Sacred Domain?

Damn it all!

She suddenly clenched her fists, her voice as icy as the depths of the underworld: "Issue the command—anyone who slays a cultivator of the Netherfrost shall be rewarded with a millennium... no... wait, a decade's worth of fortune!! As for the one who kills Su Muwan... this sovereign shall aid them in ascending to the Dominator Realm!!!"

"Acknowledged!"

......

......

Xiaobai, as the guardian spirit of the divine realm, could not pass through the gate and thus remained hovering above the sea of clouds.

Narrowing her eyes, she watched the slowly closing golden gate.

Muttering to herself, she whispered, "A war of faith, is it...?"

Who knew which fragment of the world would be resurrected this time.