Chapter 498

These scenes made Xu Qing's breathing rapid. It was truly that in such a short time, the number of deaths on both sides on the battlefield was shocking.

Especially since many human cultivators died in a very strange way. Clearly, the enemies around them were still far away, but the next moment, that area seemed to be swept by an invisible blade, and everyone died.

And after death, they were actually mutated, becoming irrational alien beasts.

Roaring sounds, screams, self-detonation sounds, and furious roars, accompanied by the huge roaring of magic artifacts, filled Xu Qing's ears.

Looking at it as a whole, the counterattack power of the Fenghai County human race was insufficient and could only remain in a defensive state.

"Fenghai County originally had thirteen provinces. Because three provinces were lost in the early stage, and Quzhao and Yinghuang could not participate in the war, only the power of eight provinces remained. During the initial war preparations, I remember it was divided into eight major legions!"

Xu Qing suppressed the waves rising in his heart due to the tragedy of the battlefield and analyzed and checked rapidly.

"There is no unified arrangement or mandatory planning. After all, this is not a mortal war, and each province has its own characteristics, so it is not easy to break them forcibly."

"Therefore, these eight major legions each have their own complete system, including supplies, magic artifacts, coordination, etc."

"For example, the power of the magic spikes is maintained by the Third Legion."

"And the only thing that the entire county participates in is the capital's taboo. The hundreds of Void Returning experts there are drawn from various legions; they are only a part of Fenghai County's Void Returning experts."

"Among them, those directly under the Sword-Holding Palace are the war puppets, the Dao Bell in the sky, and the Emperor Sword of the Sword-Holders!"

Xu Qing took a deep breath and gazed at the two directions left and right. He noticed that the participants from Quzhao Province and Yinghuang Province were not here, and the number of legions here seemed to be lacking.

This made Xu Qing think of the sand table he saw in the Palace Master's tent.

"The defense line is very long, and the front line is divided into multiple war zones. Therefore, the forces of Quzhao Province and Yinghuang Province, as well as two other provinces, have been arranged on other western defense lines. And this is the core war zone where the command post is located!"

"The Palace Master established the command post here. Could it be that he is using himself as bait? Wanting to contain the main force of the Shenglan Clan..."

"Perhaps there are other arrangements." Xu Qing lacked relevant information and did not have a special understanding of the layout planning.

This did not affect his familiarity with the battlefield.

After dividing the battlefield into war zones in his heart, Xu Qing divided the vast area where he was located into hundreds of parts.

This method of division made it easier for him to understand the battlefield faster.

"Fenghai County belongs to the West Zone, and the Shenglan Clan belongs to the East Zone."

"At this moment, West 1, West 3, West 4, and West 8 zones, near the edge of the golden net, are on standby, ready to replace the army fighting in East 5, East 7, and East 11 zones at any time."

"West 2 and West 5 are activating war puppets, and three other zones are providing support."

"And the East Zone where the Shenglan Clan is located, dozens of zones such as 3, 6, 14, and 17, are also changing positions and formations. In this way, East 2 zone is highlighted..."

"No, the Shenglan Clan's formation is shaped like an arrow, and East 2 is the arrow tip."

Xu Qing gazed at the whole scene, and after judging rapidly in his heart, he looked fiercely at East 2 zone on the battlefield outside the golden net.

There, after the Shenglan Clan's formation changed, tens of thousands of severed hands activated from the earth appeared.

Each of them was grabbing a huge iron chain. At this moment, they rushed out fiercely. As the iron chains were pulled together, a huge roar came from the sky, and the vortex was actually torn even larger.

More black snow poured down from there, like an avalanche, heading straight for the battlefield.

As Xu Qing's expression changed, the giant Emperor Sword floating in the sky above the Fenghai County defense line suddenly shone, as if it had been waiting for this moment.

A large amount of sword light whistled out from within, turning into a sea of swords, heading straight for the vortex in the sky.

It approached in an instant and exploded with a bang, causing the vortex to rotate, and painful roars came from within.

And the large amount of black snow that poured out also rolled back under this sea of swords.

At the same time, at the highest point of the sky above the Fenghai County army, the giant Dao Bell floating there, surrounded by a large number of bronze coffins,

emitted a vast and majestic bell sound at this moment.

It carried antiquity, carried the passage of time, and carried a momentum that shattered everything, resounding in all directions.

The bell rang seven times. Each time it fell, it caused the battlefield to distort, and countless Shenglan Clan cultivators' bodies directly collapsed, falling apart, while also revealing figures that were originally in a phantom state on the battlefield.

Those phantom shadows did not look like the Shenglan Clan. They looked like mantises, each tens of feet tall, emitting special foreign matter, invading the place where they were while also attacking the human army.

Xu Qing knew that they were the reapers formed by the Black Heaven Clan's rhombic magic artifacts.

And their special state could not be perceived, so they were extremely difficult to deal with. Usually, they relied on the taboo power of the golden net to mark them.

But at this moment, under this Dao Bell, with everything suppressed, their figures were also revealed.

The next moment, the human war puppets that had been on standby for a long time rushed out instantly.

Tens of thousands of puppets turned into tens of thousands of giants, killing their way into the battlefield, heading straight for those reapers.

War is a game of chess.

Pure defense will also turn into a counterattack at any time, and the means are not necessarily singular.

It looks complicated as a whole, but in reality, it is also very simple. It's just that the price to be paid for every step of the rotation of this war millstone is too great.

Regardless of right or wrong, it needs flesh and blood.

Because what is ground out from this millstone, besides roaring, is only death. As for victory or defeat, that is just an accessory.

Xu Qing was silent, gazing at the battlefield.

The sky of the battlefield had no obvious changes in color; everything seen was dim.

Even during the day, it was like this, and at night, it was even more so.

Sound, blood, and foreign matter were the main themes here, and no one knew the answer to how long this cruel, man-eating melody would last.

This kind of endless slaughter, repeating itself over and over again, could make one imagine how great the depression it brought to people would be.

Under such depression, what kind of despair would arise?

Xu Qing silently withdrew his gaze. He had seen enough of the macroscopic battlefield. At this moment, the slaughter was still continuing, and the various means of both sides were constantly unfolding on this flesh-and-blood millstone.

Death was already the norm.

Being alive was the miracle.

But at least until now, Xu Qing had not seen many deserters retreating.

"There is no retreat."

Xu Qing muttered. Standing on the mountain of abandoned puppets, he looked back at Fenghai County. Even he, who had experienced countless hardships alone since childhood, had attachments today as he walked along the way, let alone others.

And attachments are what a complete person should possess.

After a long time, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze from Fenghai County and shook his head, gazing at the rhombic magic artifacts in the sky that were constantly emitting distorting power.

"On these magic artifacts, there is a faint trace of Red Moon power."

This was the perception Xu Qing obtained after observing from a long distance. At the same time, the black snow permeating the battlefield gave him a similar feeling.

It was just that the distance was a bit far, so the feeling was not very clear.

So, after pondering, Xu Qing flickered his body, left the abandoned puppet mountain, and wanted to head to the battlefield.

When passing by the place where the numb old man was sitting, the old man looked at Xu Qing and shouted.

"Come back alive!"

The voice was hoarse and blurred.

Xu Qing's footsteps paused. He heard the other party's shout vaguely and looked at the old man.

He didn't know the other party, and there had been no words between them since he came here. Now, this was the first sentence.

The old man didn't speak again, looking at the battlefield with a sorrowful expression.

Xu Qing was silent, nodded, and turned into a long rainbow, rushing towards the golden net in front.

He wanted to go into the battlefield to feel the black snow and the power from the rhombic magic artifacts in the sky. If these two types of existence were really driven by Red Moon power, Xu Qing felt that he might be able to be of greater help to this war.

So he unfolded his full speed, instantly piercing through the golden net, and stepped on the earth

formed by the accumulation of flesh and blood.

A stronger smell of blood than inside the golden net and waves of wet wind formed by spraying blood rushed towards his face without any obstruction, landing on Xu Qing's face.

It was both damp and foul-smelling.

Even those who were usually bloodthirsty, upon smelling this scent for the first time, would feel nauseous and uncomfortable.

Because the number of deaths was too high, it contained the emotion of extreme despair.

Under the influence of this emotion, people's eyes would instinctively turn red. Whether it was fear or stimulation, the redness of the eyes remained unchanged, especially when these two kinds of emotional fluctuations were intertwined.

And after walking into the battlefield, it was different from what was seen from afar.

The visual impact, the auditory explosion, and the olfactory assault were all more intuitive.

Painful faces, cruel ferocity, pursuit and retreat, madness and confusion—everything seemed to have been outlined by a painter in the sky, displayed in great detail before Xu Qing's eyes.

Even unknowingly, the other party had also drawn him into the painting, becoming an insignificant point in this war scene.

And beside this point, a figure of the Shenglan Clan was rushing over with ferocity and cruelty, grabbing at Xu Qing's head.

The black snow formed a magic artifact like a ghost claw, erupting with extraordinary power. But the moment the Shenglan Clan cultivator's cruel smile appeared, Xu Qing, who was in front of him, disappeared.

The next moment, a black dagger cut his throat.

As the blood spilled and the head flew up, this Shenglan Clan cultivator saw the figure standing beside a headless corpse.

Xu Qing licked the blood splashed on the corner of his mouth. The salty and astringent taste caused the malevolent Qi hidden in his body to ooze out from his red eyes, which had been contaminated by the war.

Xu Qing did not waste time. His body rushed out instantly, and the power of poison spread, covering his body surface.

Wherever he passed, as long as he approached, all Shenglan Clan members would tremble, and miserable wails he couldn't hear would come from under their armor, and their bodies would rot.

Xu Qing was not worried about accidental injury because the number of Shenglan Clan members on this battlefield was clearly much higher, and his poison was wrapped around his body surface, which he could control to a certain extent, so the possibility of poisoning others was not high.

Thus, during this advance, he began to observe the black snowflakes that were everywhere on the battlefield at close range, letting them land on him, carefully experiencing the Red Moon power contained within.

But as he investigated, the snowflakes that landed on him emitted unstable fluctuations, collapsed internally, and disintegrated on their own.

"It is and it isn't..." While Xu Qing was vigilant, he pondered in his heart.

There was indeed a trace of Red Moon power in these snowflakes, but the content was too little, too little, insignificant.

More of it was some kind of chaotic power controlling its power. Although Xu Qing could influence it, it was not much, and even if he was not careful, it would collapse.

If he wanted to truly control it, he needed more observation and experimentation.

As for the poison contained within, it was nothing in front of Xu Qing's own poison.

However, after these black snowflakes were transformed into spells, their power was very strong, especially when a large number of snowflakes were combined together, it was even more astonishing.

"What is contained more within is some kind of chaotic power full of malice and extremely unstable, leading these snowflakes to fuse with each other..."

While thinking, Xu Qing tried to collect some, then left the spot and headed to other areas.

He wanted to feel the rhombic magic artifacts in the sky to see if they were the same as the black snow.

But the other party was in the sky, the target was too large, and the danger level was also extremely high.

So Xu Qing set his target on the reapers they formed.

At this moment, with a flicker, he rushed towards a reaper fighting a Fenghai County war puppet in the distance.

As for the foreign matter on the battlefield, Xu Qing also observed it.

"This is active foreign matter, not emitted from a forbidden area, but manufactured by someone!"

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, and his shadow spread out, crazily absorbing the foreign matter from all directions.

For the shadow, active foreign matter was clearly more suitable for growth.

At the same time, the ancestor of the Jin Gang Sect also flew out, circling around Xu Qing to protect him.

As he moved forward, the slaughter continued to unfold.

There were too many Shenglan Clan members on the battlefield. As Xu Qing shuttled rapidly, blood gradually invaded his Dao robe, and more flowed down to the ground along his face and hands.

Time passed slowly, and wherever Xu Qing passed, corpses fell one after another.

He was very cautious. Even if his eyes were red, his heart remained calm. He never stayed in one place for too long. Whenever he noticed the appearance of a Spirit Treasury, he would avoid it at the first opportunity.

Just like this, not long after, Xu Qing finally approached a place where a war puppet and a reaper were fighting.

And having been on the battlefield for a long time, Xu Qing also felt the hardship of the human cultivators.

Because here, the deafening roar was much stronger than inside the golden net. In this continuous echo, all miserable sounds were slowly drowned out.

After a long time, both sides of the battle instinctively became deaf people without hearing.

They couldn't hear others' screams, nor could they hear their own wails.

After a person loses their hearing, in their perception, two contradictory overlaps in cognition will appear. On one hand, the battlefield seen by the eyes is infinitely large and extremely tragic.

And on the other hand, in their own perception, it seems infinitely small, because you can't hear anyone's voice.

This state will make people more focused on slaughter, but it will also make people's minds on the verge of collapse.

Xu Qing saw many such people along the way, especially corpses. Some were instinctively covering their ears at the moment of death, not wanting to hear this endless roaring.

The human race was like this, and the Shenglan Clan was also like this.

At this moment, under Xu Qing's feet was such a remnant corpse.

After taking a look, he silently withdrew his gaze, gazing at the reaper and the war puppet that were fighting. Their battle had reached its end, and the war puppet had the upper hand.

Both sides were tens of feet tall. Fenghai County's puppet was in human form, and the reaper was in the shape of a mantis. Their attacks on each other were extremely ferocious. Every time they bombarded, either flesh and blood flew, or the puppet collapsed into a large number of fragments.

The range of influence was not small, and the combat power displayed had already surpassed the Nascent Soul and reached the level of Spirit Treasury.

And looking at the battlefield, the casualties between the tens of thousands of war puppets and those reapers were half and half.

Soon, this battle, which had been going on for a long time, ended. Fenghai County's war puppet finally blasted the reaper open, and after it fell apart, it didn't stop at all and flew away rapidly.

Xu Qing immediately stepped forward, came to a piece of the reaper's flesh, and sensed the aura remaining within. Soon, he realized that it indeed contained Red Moon power, and it was clearly thicker than the black snow.

Xu Qing's eyes condensed, and just as he was about to sense it carefully, at this moment, a sudden change occurred on the battlefield!

The Palace Master's voice, carrying unprecedented heaviness, echoed across the battlefield.

"All legions of Fenghai County, return immediately!!"

Almost the moment the Palace Master's words were transmitted, the sky changed color, and a heaven-shaking loud noise, surpassing the operation of the war magic artifacts, came from the vortex in the sky.

This sound was too loud, suppressing everything, making the cultivators of both sides on the battlefield seem to have recovered their hearing.

Thump-thump!

Thump-thump!

Thump-thump!

A majestic sound like a heartbeat came from the giant vortex in the sky. While resounding through heaven and earth, a giant eye directly revealed itself from within the vortex.

This eye was gray-white, without vitality, filled with death. The moment it appeared, a thick aura of death spread from within, covering the battlefield.

The next moment, this giant eye rushed outward fiercely. Suddenly, the already not-small vortex in the sky was directly pushed open, and a red head flew out from within!

That was not a human head, but a red bird's head!

There was only a head, no body.

There was a neat cut on the bird's neck, as if it had been cut off directly from the neck by someone with a sharp blade.

And this bird's head was too big. Compared to it, Qing Qin's body was far behind, like a child

compared to an adult.

It appeared on the battlefield, occupying most of the sky. Inside the dead eye, there was actually a giant Emperor's Throne!

On it sat a person.

This person was wearing a python robe, wearing an imperial crown, and his face was covered by a beaded curtain, so his appearance could not be seen, but there was a pressure that shook heaven and earth, sweeping in all directions like a storm from his body.

And that terrifying bird's head, looking at it at this moment, was actually just his imperial carriage.

The Shenglan Clan cultivators on the battlefield, looking at this scene one by one, were all excited and knelt down towards the sky.

"Emperor!"

"Emperor!!"

Looking around, countless Shenglan Clan members on the battlefield were all kneeling, their expressions revealing fanaticism.

At the same time, on the fourth defense line, the Palace Master's giant phantom body, tens of thousands of feet tall, appeared out of thin air, stepping on the earth, with the sky above his head, his whole body emitting terrifying malevolent Qi, causing the surrounding sky to change color.

The Sword-Holding Dao Bell floated on the left, emitting bursts of ancient bell sounds, and the ten-thousand-foot Emperor Sword manifested on the right, emitting heaven-shaking killing intent.

Behind him, the void rotated, forming a giant eye, looking at the arriving Emperor.

"Red Spirit Old Ghost."

The person who came was exactly the Emperor of the Red Spirit Dynasty, one of the four great dynasties of the Shenglan Clan!

The distinct battlefield, with the arrival of the Red Spirit Emperor and the Sword-Holding Palace Master, appeared in a standoff.

Looking from afar, the cutting feeling of the golden net was even clearer.

Outside the golden net, star power was vast, and divine souls covered the world.

Inside the golden net, malevolent intent rose, and the domineering aura shook the sky.

The pressure from these two giant figures filled the entire battlefield, affecting the land of a province, causing countless lives in Linlan Province to tremble at this moment, with a sense of trembling coming from the depths of their souls.

It was really because the Red Spirit Emperor and the Sword-Holding Palace Master were too powerful. The collision of their gazes and the confrontation of their auras were enough to shake heaven and earth.

Even looking closely, one could see that the void between the two sides actually appeared with countless shadows of small worlds at this moment.

It was like a heavenly phenomenon.

These small worlds from their respective sides were colliding in the sky. Countless phantom figures flew out from within, fighting. At the moment of heart-pounding, small worlds were collapsing at any time.

But more small worlds were continuing to form, and it was clear that the many small worlds of both sides were rapidly approaching the degree of unity under this mutual roaring.

During this process, the auras of the two were rapidly climbing and rising. Although completing the unity and forming a phantom great world was originally within the scope of their cultivation.

And being able to achieve this step and achieve a phantom great world represented the fourth stage of Void Returning.

If one could lift the phantom great world high after unity, make it turn from phantom to reality, carry it on one's body, and then fuse it with one's own divine soul to completely light it up and turn it into a world, that would be the true World-Nurturing God!

Clearly, neither the Red Spirit Emperor nor the Palace Master had reached this level. After all, there was a broken giant gully between the fourth stage of Void Returning and World-Nurturing God, with one in ten thousand!

Even so, at the level of the fourth stage of Void Returning, they also belonged to overlords.

At this moment, under the collision of their respective worlds, the sky shattered, the black clouds collapsed, and the lightning turned into scattered starlight.

On the earth, only the great powers of both sides whose cultivation had reached the Spirit Treasury dared to look up at this moment. Below the Spirit Treasury, no one dared to let their gaze fall on the sky.

Occasionally, some who were bold or did not withdraw their gazes in time would directly have their eyes bulge and explode after seeing it, their bodies trembling, flesh and blood blurred, and their forms and spirits destroyed.

Xu Qing only took one look, and his heart was stirred with great waves, waves after waves, his soul seemed to be torn apart, and bursts of severe pain came, but his physical eyes were slightly better.

Xu Qing took a deep breath. He understood the reason for all this; his physical body was tougher than his soul.

So he took out the cyan crystal given by the Captain, and while absorbing it, he followed the surrounding human army and retreated rapidly towards the golden net.

The roaring sound echoing from heaven and earth at this moment surpassed all war magic artifacts on the battlefield, deafening.

And the Sheng

Lan Clan army was clearly high in fighting spirit. Following the order of their commander, soon, the Shenglan Clan army, like a tide, launched a charge towards the Fenghai County human army.

As heaven and earth changed color and wind and clouds surged, amidst the continuous retreat of the human race, the Red Spirit Emperor's cold voice came from the sky.

"Kong Liangxiu, if it weren't for the blessing of Fenghai County's fortune helping you gather the great world, you would not be my opponent."

"You are one of the four Emperors of the Shenglan Clan, yet you have no blessing of the Shenglan Domain's fortune. What is the reason? Don't you know yourself?"

The Palace Master spoke calmly.