Chapter 1316

Eastern Wanggu.

A desolate silence.

The bleak wind did not blow from the sea, but was generated on its own from different regions due to the continuous pressure of heaven and earth.

They grew ever larger, sweeping together toward the eight directions, finally rising across the entire Eastern Wanggu continent.

Wherever it passed, amidst the wailing, it seemed to sing a mournful funeral dirge.

And the vast, desolate mountains of each region in the wind lay like slumbering ancient dragons, their backs no longer covered in green scales, but layered upon layered of dark brown rock shells.

Plants and trees were no longer suited for growth.

Only the residual flames of earth fire seeping from mountain fissures scorched the mountain ranges of each region, as if they were countless charred corpses.

This is the thirty-first year since humanity left the Xia Calendar.

Twenty-seven years have passed since the Sword-Wielding Great Emperor swung his sword toward the heavens.

These twenty-seven years have been difficult for Eastern Wanggu.

The rumbling from the heavens at every moment, like a countdown, weighed heavily upon the myriad races of Eastern Wanggu, and also sounded like a summons to death.

Under this sound, the myriad races were forcibly made equal in death.

Thus, despair did not only arise in heaven and earth, but also grew for twenty-seven years in the hearts of all beings.

Therefore… even before Frost Descent arrived, heaven and earth already bore a stern and killing intent.

The entirety of Eastern Wanggu had become mountains like corpses, with all vegetation withered.

The alien quality grew ever denser.

The celestial dome was again pressed and crushed by leaden clouds, sticking together; even when occasional blood-red residual sunlight leaked through cloud gaps, the light and shadow it cast upon the cracked earth were merely mottled like knife scars.

Survival grew ever harder.

Even in the rarely reached northern reaches of Eastern Wanggu, on the ice plains, muffled sounds would often emanate, and the ten-thousand-year-old unmelting Xuan ice, over these years, shattered in vast expanses.

Those ice shards carried the ancient wails sealed within, swept by the cold wind across the four directions, pressing the withered yellow wild grass flat against the ground like corpses.

As for the south, it was even more desperate, with battle after battle erupting over resources, forming battlefield after battlefield.

In the countdown to death, more resources meant better offerings, which was the hope for the tribes to survive.

This was also the divine edict transmitted seven years ago from the holy lands beyond the heavens.

"When we descend, the five tribes with the most offerings shall not be annihilated."

Thus, war became frequent.

Only a year ago, with the anomaly in the heavens, did war gradually diminish.

Only on those battlefields littered with corpses did the wind-dried black blood become a chaotic testament.

Now, wind came from afar, sweeping across the battlefield, but could not carry away the bloodiness settled there; it could only cause the faded prayer flags wrapped around the hilts of broken swords to flutter in the wind.

Emitting a dying wail.

Becoming part of the wind's sound.

The entire Eastern Wanggu continent was under suppression.

As for the Forbidden Sea, it was the same.

The once surging waves had long since solidified into black water walls; the entire Forbidden Sea… had become an ice sea!

Occasionally, the ice layer cracked, and someone once connected the patterns of those fissures, discovering they were indeed a prophecy map of Eastern Wanggu's gradual complete shattering, now being completed step by step.

Perhaps, it was the lingering spirit of the Sword-Wielding Great Emperor, leaving a warning for Eastern Wanggu.

And today…

In this map of Eastern Wanggu's shattering, the final stroke, within the ice layer, is being completed amid the crackling sounds transmitted from within.

During this process, the sound of glaciers splitting grows ever louder.

Just as the heartbeat of Eastern Wanggu's myriad races now echoes with increasing urgency.

It also includes Feng Haijun!

Within Feng Haijun, the powers of the Sheng Lan Great Domain and the Hei Ling Great Domain have gathered; within it are the Seven Blood Pupils, Xu Qing's former acquaintances, and the worshippers of Xu Qing from the Hei Tian tribe.

Though each of them, despite weary spirits, had painfully endured twenty-seven years, now…

Each one bears in their expression iron-blooded resolve, steadfastness, and… a will to die!

Wu Jianwu, Kong Xianglong, Zhang San—indeed present.

All the power of Feng Haijun, led by Yao Hou, deployed a great formation, concentrating all strength to gaze toward the heavens.

Moreover, within the immortal palace beneath Feng Haijun, Xu Qing's spiritual form sat cross-legged in meditation, and behind him, in the Phoenix Hall, Immortal Zixuan had already opened his eyes.

Not only was Feng Haijun thus, but this urgent heartbeat also surged strongly within the Ji Yue Great Domain!

The Mingnan Shizi, Ninth Grandfather, Eighth Grandfather, Third Grandmother, and others, before the medicine shop in the Ku Sheng mountain range, lifted their heads to gaze at the heavens, their expressions heavy with gravity.

Behind them, Ling Er stood there.

She had grown tall, her figure slender and graceful, standing like a jade pillar, with dragon-serpent forms coiling around her, her expression resolute.

The entirety of the Ji Yue Great Domain was undulating, for this was the sign that the Treasure of the Reverse Moon Palace, taken over by Fifth Grandmother, was operating at full power.

And similar scenes were unfolding throughout Eastern Wanggu.

…

In the depths of the Western Desert, within the ancestral hall of the Ming Gu tribe, upon the throne piled from countless strange bones, the king of this generation of the tribe gazed intently at the bone mirror in his hand.

The mirror's surface reflected not his own face, but the changing winds and clouds of Eastern Wanggu's land.

…

Within the Ming Li Great Domain, located in the eastern part of Eastern Wanggu, as the strongest tribe of this domain, the Tian Jie tribe's every nest was frenziedly writhing.

Those enormous worm cocoon shells were covered in eye-like patterns, and now each eye was oozing green pus.

And within the largest nest, the worm mother of this tribe sat cross-legged at the center, her twelve tendrils twitching unconsciously, three of them already broken, the break points still dripping viscous bodily fluid.

It is trying to deduce a way for the clan to survive!

……

And the Turing clan near the south, as a group that has rapidly grown in recent years by annexing small clans, they take their clan's ancestors as totems.

But at this moment, on the totem square, nine of the twelve totem pillars are already breaking.

The clan chief of their clan is also bleeding from four eyes, his expression ferocious, gazing at the heavens, fallen into madness!

……

Besides the divine-spirit clans, all the myriad clans at this moment are like this.

All are standing ready, in that tense atmosphere, under that oppressive despair, within the bitterness lies fear for the future.

Yet they cannot help but face it.

All raise their heads, gazing at the heavens!

Especially……the human race!

In the central part of Eastern Wanggu, the human race's great domain, on the Qīwú Terrace of the imperial capital!

The Empress, is standing there.

She wears a gilded imperial robe, and wears the human emperor's crown.

Before her, twelve strands of vermilion-gold tassels hang down, now utterly still in the wind.

Just as her heart is resolute.

And at the end of each tassel string hangs a phoenix marrow bead tempered by divine fire, one side……making the blood-colored divine mark on the brow of the Empress of Xia ever more bewitching.

But on the other side, it reflects the black snow stretching millions upon millions of li beyond the imperial capital at this moment!

To be precise, that is not snow, but the fragments of heavenly sword aura that have scattered into the world as the heavenly sword aura guarding Eastern Wanggu for twenty-seven years shatters!

They fall upon the earth, upon the mountain ranges, upon the rivers, emitting helpless little sounds.

In this sound, behind the Empress, someone hurries over.

The comer is a youth, wearing a four-clawed dragon robe, his hair hanging over his shoulders, his appearance slender, bearing a touch of dry efficiency.

It is Xiang Xiang Ningyan.

He is no longer that year's little fatty whom Chen Erniu took as a weapon; now Xiang Xiang Ningyan has shed his immaturity, not only is his expression resolute, but he also bears some of the dignity belonging to his status as Crown Prince.

At this moment, as he walks over, he stands behind the Empress, gazing at the world beyond the imperial capital, after a while his gaze falls upon the Empress ahead, and he speaks in a low voice.

"Mother, the envoys sent by our clan to the Yan Yue Xuantian clan have been dispatched, and they have announced that their clan will seal itself off in the coming days, forbidding outsiders from entering, declaring they will not participate in our clan's war with the holy land."

"Not only the Yan Yue clan, but the northern Bei Ming Wang Zu, the western Chi Di Luo Zu, the southern You Ming Yuan Hai clan, and the Shen Lin clan of central Eastern Wanggu, all will isolate their territories from the outside world.

All the clans in Eastern Wanggu that worship gods are like this."

Xiang Xiang Ningyan spoke in a low voice.

The Empress fell silent.

As for this, She had long anticipated it, only Xiang Xiang Ningyan's side was unwilling, hence they sent envoys to the Yan Yue clan.

Divine spirits are indifferent; observing at this time also conforms to the heart of divine spirits.

The Empress raised her head, gazing at the heavens.

The entire heavenly canopy, at this moment, is surging, forming a great vortex.

The breadth of this vortex is shocking to behold.

As it rotates, it seems as if the heavens have been gouged out of their eyes, pouring forth turbid blood-tears, the falling sword aura fragments increasing in number.

And at the center of that vortex, only those who have reached the Divine Platform realm, or have attained the quasi-Immortal realm unseen among cultivators for tens of thousands of years, can see……

In the depths of the vortex, there exists a blood rift that is continuously tearing open!

The sword of the Sword-Wielding Great Emperor of old formed the sword aura curtain, covering the heavens.

It could have prolonged Eastern Wanggu's life by half a jiazi, preventing the descent of the ancient immortals and the holy land……

But now, its collapse began accelerating seven years ago, and is now at its end.

Advanced by three years!

In a hazy way, the Empress's gaze through that rift can see, beyond the sword aura curtain, magnificent holy lands!

And within those holy lands, the silhouettes of cultivators walking out.

Among them are some……precisely quasi-Immortals!

The last quasi-Immortal of Eastern Wanggu is the Sword-Wielder.

But the holy land……its inheritance is unbroken!

And beyond those holy lands, the Empress sees a vast figure.

Precisely……the ancient immortal who has brought twenty-seven years of oppression to the myriad clans of Eastern Wanggu!

Merely by gazing through the rift, the Empress's spirit instinctively stirs up waves; she can sense the opponent's terror.

Though her divine authority is special, under the aura emanating from the opponent, it is utterly insignificant.

Just as how could a quasi-Immortal contend with Xia Xian!

Therefore she can imagine the outcome: at the moment the sword aura curtain shatters, it will be the time when the great calamity befalls Eastern Wanggu!

"Unless……sacrifice!"

The Empress's hand pressed against the white jade railing before her, she turned her head, gazing toward Nanhuangzhou! —

Still writing.