The Battle Is Imminent

The last alien beast fell from the sky, crashing onto the rubble-strewn ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Jun Anshi flicked her wrist, shaking the blood off her spear. The spear tip flashed with a cold light under the sun.

Her breathing was slightly hurried, not from exhaustion, but because she had been too engrossed in the battle just now.

She had integrated all her learnings from the past hundred and ten years into this fight, battling to her heart's content.

"Well done."

The voice came from the tree behind her, carrying its usual calmness.

Jun Anshi turned around and looked up.

Gu Changyuan jumped down from the tree trunk, his pace unhurried.

"Alright!"

With a smile on her face, Jun Anshi caught up with his pace.

As soon as the two returned to the island, they saw a familiar figure.

Immortal Emperor Cangwu stood beneath the parasol tree. His cyan Daoist robe fluttered gently in the breeze, and his long hair was tied up with an emerald jade hairpin, with a few strands falling over his shoulders.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the parasol leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground around him.

With his back to them and his hands clasped behind his back, he looked up at the canopy of the parasol tree, looking at who knows what.

Sensing their auras, he immediately turned to look at them.

Jun Anshi was slightly taken aback.

She hadn't seen Immortal Emperor Cangwu for a while; the last time was three months ago.

"You're back?"

Immortal Emperor Cangwu spoke, his voice as gentle as always.

The two nodded.

Immortal Emperor Cangwu gave a slight nod. His gaze moved from Jun Anshi to Gu Changyuan, and then back to Jun Anshi, as if confirming something.

Then, he took a deep breath. He inhaled deeply and slowly, as if trying to suppress all his hesitation and indecision.

"Then come with me."

He didn't say anything more and led the two flying outward from the island.

The three of them traveled north all the way, passing through the Cangwu Immortal Island, the northern wasteland, and unfamiliar airspace that Jun Anshi had never set foot in before.

The scenery below changed from verdant islands to grayish-white wastelands, and then from grayish-white wastelands to a pitch-black void.

Three hours later, Immortal Emperor Cangwu stopped.

Jun Anshi's gaze bypassed his back and landed straight ahead.

At that moment, her breath stopped for a second.

A massive spatial rift stretched across the sky.

It was simply too huge.

So huge that Jun Anshi had never seen a spatial rift like it before—over ten thousand zhang high, its width impossible to estimate visually, tearing the entire sky into two halves.

Inside the rift was a profound darkness, an absolute darkness that devoured light, devoured sound, and devoured all perception.

And surrounding the rift gathered a dense throng of cultivators.

As Jun Anshi's gaze swept across that ocean of cultivators, the shock in her heart was beyond words.

Heavenly Immortals, Golden Immortals, Immortal Lords, Immortal Kings—cultivators of various realms had converged here. Numbering in the tens of thousands, they were densely distributed in the void before the rift.

At the very front, four experts of the Immortal Emperor level stood side by side.

Hundreds of thousands of cultivators waited quietly before this colossal spatial rift.

Jun Anshi's mouth was slightly agape, her eyes wide and round.

She had seen grand spectacles, scenes where Half-Immortals gathered, and conflicts involving thousands of people fighting, but the sight before her right now far exceeded her imagination.

"No wonder it felt like there were much fewer cultivators in the city recently. Turns out they all came here."

The voice came from her side, the tone so flat it was as if he were saying, "The weather is nice today."

Jun Anshi turned her head and looked at Gu Changyuan beside her, her eyes full of complex emotions.

Big brother, one look at this scene and you can tell something major is about to happen.

How can you still look so relaxed?

But on second thought...

Ever since she met this person on the Cangwu Immortal Island, he had never been "uncalm."

In one hundred and ten years, she had never seen him panic, never seen him flustered, and never seen him frightened by anything.

This feeling was truly very much like her Master.

No, there it goes again.

Jun Anshi shook her head, tossing this thought out of her mind once more.

After Immortal Emperor Cangwu brought the two near the rift, he flew straight ahead.

He passed through the phalanx of Immortal Kings, passed through the phalanx of Immortal Lords, and dashed toward the position of the five Immortal Emperors at the very front.

His figure wasn't considered tall and sturdy, but when he appeared in that void, everyone's gaze converged on him.

Those five Immortal Emperors turned around at the same time, their expressions respectful.

The gazes of hundreds of thousands of cultivators fell upon that cyan figure. The void, which originally had some fragmented murmurs, fell completely silent at this moment.

Immortal Emperor Cangwu nodded slightly. His usually gentle gaze bypassed the five Immortal Emperors and looked at that massive spatial rift, which was slowly repairing itself while constantly being torn apart by new fissures.

Upon it was a faintly discernible sealing array formation.

The light of the array formation was already very weak, like a lamp about to burn out, struggling to hold on in the darkness.

His voice was not loud, but it clearly entered the ears of every cultivator present:

"Let's go."

As soon as his voice fell, Immortal Emperor Cangwu formed hand seals, and cyan light flourished around his body.

A majestic stream of immortal energy surged from his body, turning into a beam of light that shot toward the dissipating seal on the spatial rift.

The sealing array received this external force, and its light suddenly flared up.

But it only lasted for three breaths—with a crisp crack, the seal shattered.

The moment the seal dissipated, the deep blue lightning at the edges of the rift suddenly went berserk. The darkness inside the rift surged violently, and crimson light flickered more frequently and densely within the dark.

An aura of decay and stench, carrying endless killing intent, poured out of the rift and permeated the entire void, causing many cultivators with lower cultivation bases to turn pale and breathe rapidly.

Immortal Emperor Cangwu did not look back; he took the lead and charged into the rift.

The four Immortal Emperors followed closely behind. The Immortal Kings moved, and the Immortal Lords moved.

Hundreds of thousands of cultivators surged toward that colossal spatial rift.

The light of immortal artifacts, the light of spells, and the light of protective barriers—various colors of light intertwined, illuminating the entrance of the rift as bright as day.

Gu Changyuan and Jun Anshi exchanged a glance, and at the same time, they charged out.