Chapter 301: Tianyuan Ancestor's Scheme!

Heavenly Pivot No. 11 City, the lowest-level abandoned sewage system.

The foul black water rose above the knees, and unknown mutated creature wreckage floated on the surface.

A Qi stood in water up to their waist, and with a reverse hand drew the jet‑black dagger.

The gang leader before them, equipped with eighth‑grade reinforced bones, hadn't even managed to utter a plea for mercy before a transparent blood hole appeared in his chest.

Dark‑red blood surged back along the dagger's blood channel.

A Qi activated the "Burning Blood to Infant Transform" technique, greedily devouring the opponent's remaining true essence and vitality.

Their withered skin, nourished by blood Qi, glowed with an eerie red light, and their cultivation rose another step.

"Too slow."

A Qi casually tossed aside the dried corpse and licked their cracked lips.

War.

To them, it was a huge opportunity.

From City 12 to City 13, then to 14, 15…

A Qi killed more and more high‑rank cultivators, and each became stronger.

With the self‑sacrifice of countless cultivators, their progress was lightning‑fast.

Just as they were weighing whether to scout prey in the surrounding cities, the sewage pipe beneath their feet suddenly shuddered violently.

Above, the once gray dome was illuminated a ghastly white.

Immediately, an extremely muffled roar pierced hundreds of kilometers of strata, rolling in.

Air currents back‑flowed through the vent into the sewer, splashing foul‑smelling water everywhere.

City 31's direction—exploded.

A Qi steadied themselves, and before they could grasp the situation, a colossal wave rose from the depths of their Sea of Knowledge.

Tianyuan Ancestor's divine thought trembled wildly; the years of feigned composure vanished, replaced by unabashed fury.

"Madmen! What a bunch of death‑unaware lunatics!" The Ancestor's roar exploded in A Qi's mind, "They actually detonated the Sub-array Eye!"

A Qi was shaken dizzy, "Immortal Sovereign, what happened?"

"The Star River Great Array is a whole; the Sub-array Eyes of forty‑nine cities are linked to the main vein, a single hair's tug moves the entire body."

A hint of impatience colored Tianyuan Ancestor's voice, "These matters... can no longer be concealed!"

In fact, it should have been impossible to hide long ago.

But Tianyuan Ancestor secretly altered the uploaded data, cutting off the return of intelligence.

But now…

I'm afraid those three true Immortals will awaken at once and come to prosecute us!

"The conglomerate Ancestors are about to awaken."

Tianyuan Ancestor spoke at breakneck speed, his tone commanding,

"A Qi, the plan has changed. Ignore these low‑rank scum, go up, kill the commanders of the city defenses! You must boost your strength quickly before they arrive and step into the Holy Dao Realm!"

A Qi gripped the dagger tightly, the red glow in their eyes deepening.

Holy Dao Realm?

With enough blood Qi, this blade can help them cut through an entire city.

"I'm going now," A Qi vaulted out of the sewage well, vanishing into the night.

They didn't know that Tianyuan Ancestor at this moment didn't care about their life or death.

What the Ancestor wanted was merely a cannon‑fodder to test the enemy's depth amid the upheaval.

…

At the same time.

Beyond the Heavenly Pivot Source Realm, the asteroid belt.

This is the terminus of the planet's spiritual energy harvesting network.

Tens of thousands of massive pipelines stretch from the surface to the starry sky, like countless greedy umbilical cords, piercing this dead asteroid field.

In the core region, three colossal entities floated.

On the left, a mechanical planet forged entirely of super‑alloy, its surface riddled with countless heat‑vent holes and arrays of energy cannons.

This is the true form of Jingang Ancestor.

For three millennia, he abandoned all carbon‑based flesh, uploading his divine soul to this mechanical core, reaching the opposite extreme of mechanical ascension.

On the right, a massive transparent vessel floated in the vacuum.

Inside, it was filled with pale‑blue high‑grade nutrient fluid, soaking a massive brainstem over a hundred meters in diameter.

Countless luminous neuronal fibers linked to the surrounding arrays.

Xinghui Ancestor, in his purest cerebral form, controls nearly half of the conglomerate's computational resources.

Below the center, a withered trunk stretching tens of thousands of zhang lay.

Its surface oozed ink‑green poison; each drop that fell into the void corroded a small pocket of space, causing a collapse.

Gui Xu Ancestor forged himself into a poisonous artifact, barely clinging to existence until now.

At this moment, these three millennia‑sleeping beings were violently roused by the backflow of energy from City 31.

The mechanical planet's surface flashed with blinding red light, Jingang Ancestor's electronic tone resonated in the vacuum, emotionless yet exuding absolute lethality:

"From City 11 to City 31, fifteen nodes lost response. City 31's Sub-array Eye suffered physical damage. Energy conversion rate plummeted by thirty‑four percent."

"Not merely damage."

Xinghui Ancestor's brainstem twitched slightly in the nutrient fluid, emitting intense brainwaves,

"I've detected an unknown spiritual energy fluctuation, of extremely high purity… someone has planted something else in our breeding ground."

The poison on the dead tree boiled violently, and the withered, hoarse voice of Ancestor Gui Xu rang out:

"Even if you gave the rats on the lower levels ten thousand years, they couldn't cause such a commotion. An external enemy invasion?"

The three's spiritual thoughts intersected in the void, quickly reaching consensus.

The Great Array of the Star River is their lifeline.

Whoever moves the Great Array must die.

"Where is Tianyuan?"

Ancestor Gui Xu snorted coldly, his spiritual thought sweeping toward the deepest part of the meteor cluster,

"His jurisdiction has such a huge leak that even the Sub‑array Eye was taken, and he's still sleeping?"

In the corner reached by their spiritual thought lay an utterly unremarkable dead‑silent meteor.

The corpse of Ancestor Tianyuan was sealed inside it.

That husk was withered like firewood, its heartbeat halted, its soul‑wave fluctuations weakened to the extreme, a complete illusion of exhausted lifespan and deep extinction.

"Functionality has stalled over ninety percent; he can't hold on much longer," Ancestor Vajra's mechanical eye gave the scan result.

"Useless," Ancestor Starlight said without hiding contempt, "We need not worry about him; since he can't manage his own territory, after we clear the insects below, we'll split the Tianyuan Conglomerate's share among the three of us."

The profit division was completed in a few words.

The three Ancestors began to mobilize massive energy, and intricate array patterns lit up in the void.

Their bodies were too massive, and bound deeply to the Great Array; to descend to the surface of the Heaven Pivot Source Realm, they had to temporarily construct a cross‑realm passage capable of bearing their power.

Deep within the meteor, Ancestor Tianyuan closed his eyes tightly, yet a cold sneer rose from his heart.

"Go."

"Go test that man in white's hard spot."

"He has lived the longest in these three thousand years, relying on this very patience and calculation."

"That man in white can casually create a prime spiritual vein; his foundation is absolutely unfathomable."

"At least he also possesses saint‑level combat power."

"If these three idiots can make each other suffer a mutual defeat, Tianyuan can then sweep in at the end, monopolizing the two realms' destiny."

"If the three lose… he'll just keep playing dead."