Chapter 400: Combat Attack Power

Three celestial ships hovered beneath the Heavenly Dome, like three floating immortal mountains, their shadows covering the dark red earth for tens of thousands of miles.

On the deck of the lead ship, a commander clad in silver battle armor with a stern face stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze like lightning as he looked down on the mud‑like land, his eyes full of unabashed contempt and disgust.

His aura had unmistakably reached the pinnacle of a True Immortal, just one step away from entering the Immortal King realm.

"Your humble servant Yuan Ci, Mountain Lord, requests an audience with the Supreme Envoy!"

The red‑robed True Immortal who had just been flaunting his power now fell like a mouse startled by a cat, landing before the commander with an extreme display of humility.

"Hmm."

The silver‑armored commander snorted a syllable through his nostrils, not even glancing at him, his voice cold and hard as iron,

"Yuan Ci, how was the medicinal herb harvest in this defense zone this time?"

"In reply to the Supreme Envoy, the harvest is complete, totaling 1,327 individuals above the Saint Realm, all of superior quality; they will soon be refined into Blood‑Primordial Great Pills for offering to the Supreme Immortal Hall," Yuan Ci, Mountain Lord answered hastily.

"Too slow."

The silver‑armored commander waved his hand impatiently,

"By decree of the Unlawful Overlord, effective today, all harvesting activities in the Eleventh Land are suspended."

"What?" Yuan Ci, Mountain Lord was stunned, "Suspend harvesting? Why is that... why?"

One must know that, though the Eleventh Land is barren, the flesh of its native beings contains a unique blood‑evil primal source, the primary material for forging a special pill, a highly coveted commodity in the Immortal Realm.

All major factions have fought privately, bloodied and bruised, over the right to harvest here.

Now they say stop, and it stops?

The silver‑armored commander gave him a cold glance:

"Can you even guess the Overlord's thoughts?"

Yuan Ci, Mountain Lord was startled into a shiver and quickly bowed his head, "Your humble servant dares not!"

"Listen carefully."

The silver‑armored commander ignored him, cleared his throat, and his voice, infused with celestial essence, rolled like thunder across the entire Eleventh Land.

"Supreme Immortal Hall, decree of the Unlawful Overlord!"

"Deep within the myriad realms, the True Immortal Battlefield is activated! This battlefield is a shattered Immortal Domain left from the ancient epoch, perilous and unpredictable, riddled with seals, yet it harbors supreme immortal affinity, even the Immortal King Dao Fruit remains!"

"To demonstrate the Immortal Realm's benevolence and bless the lower lands, we hereby grant permission in the Eleventh Land to recruit one thousand native cultivators whose bone age is within ten thousand years and whose cultivation is above the Supreme Realm, to serve… ahem, as vanguards, joining the Immortal Realm's great army into the battlefield to seek opportunity!"

"All selected individuals, regardless of their clan, will be exempt from the hundred‑year harvesting levy! Those who earn merit on the battlefield may even obtain an Immortal Realm registration, shedding their lowly status and soaring to the heavens!"

These words made the native beings of the Eleventh Land, after a brief deathly silence, instantly boil with excitement!

True Immortal Battlefield!

Immortal King Dao Fruit!

Exempt from the hundred‑year harvest!

Obtain Immortal Realm registration!

For these beings bred as medicinal material, this is an opportunity they could not even dream of.

Although the word 'vanguard' reeks of cannon fodder, in the face of the massive temptation of a single step to heaven, the risk of death no longer seems that frightening.

In an instant, countless Supreme Realm strongmen hidden in deep mines and desolate corners surged upward, rushing madly toward the direction of the celestial ships.

In their eyes burned a flame called hope.

"A bunch of fools."

Yuan Ci, Mountain Lord watched the black, oppressive mass below, a crowd like mad demons, and a disdainful sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.

He knows all too well what this so‑called True Immortal Battlefield truly is.

It is not a place of opportunity at all, but a genuine meat grinder.

Each activation prompts the Immortal Realm to summon massive numbers of cannon fodder from its vassal worlds to fill the ancient seals.

Those who return alive are fewer than one in a hundred.

And the natives of the Eleventh Land, in the Immortal Realm's eyes, are not even cannon fodder, at most mere consumables.

Nevertheless, none of that concerns him.

"Supreme Envoy, how shall we select the thousand slots?"

Yuan Ci, Mountain Lord asked respectfully.

The silver‑armored commander, the Vanguard General under the Unlawful Immortal King—Hun Zhan—coldly scanned the crowd below and said succinctly: "Combat Power."

He pointed at a ten‑thousand‑foot stone mountain below.

The stone mountain was entirely jet‑black, its surface smooth as a mirror, exuding an ancient, wild aura of deathly silence.

"This is the 'World‑Stabilizing Mysterious Stele', actually the transformed form of an ancient demonic ox, sealed here by the Immortal King with great power. Anyone may attack the stele with full force; the stele will manifest a combat merit value based on the attack's intensity. The top thousand merit earners are selected; the next two thousand become alternates."

The rules are simple and brutal, yet also the fairest.

"Begin."

He waved his hand, said no more, turned and walked back to the main hall of the celestial ship, as if he had no interest in the upcoming selection.

Yuan Ci, Mountain Lord understood instantly, leapt down, hovered before the World‑Stabilizing Mysterious Stele, and loudly announced the rules.

As soon as his words fell, a burly man with bulging muscles, whose cultivation had reached the peak of the Supreme Realm, was the first to step forward.

"I'll go!"

He roared, blood‑qi surged around him, and a punch blasted out, its force even stirring the heavens, awe‑inspiring in its might.

Yet the punch, powerful enough to shatter a star, struck the stele and only produced a dull "clang".

The stele's surface bore no mark, merely lazily displaying two numbers.

"Combat Merit: 37."

The burly man turned pale, staring at his fist in disbelief.

The crowd below erupted in a roar.

A single strike from a mid-stage Supreme Realm cultivator actually only yielded thirty-seven battle merits?

The difficulty of this selection far exceeds their imagination.

Next, one Supreme Realm expert after another stepped forward to try.

They brought out their treasures, displayed their divine abilities, each showing their prowess.

Fist winds, sword qi, lightning, flames—various attacks exploded like fireworks upon the black stele, grand in spectacle, yet what they ultimately earned was a string of horrifying numbers.

"Battle merits: forty-two."

"Battle merits: twenty-nine."

"Battle merits: fifty-one."

Half a day passed, with thousands of powerhouses taking turns; the highest battle merit among them barely reached nine hundred, and according to that True Immortal's implication… perhaps anyone who could exceed one thousand must possess True Immortal-level strength.

Most importantly…

Being able to reach True Immortal.

Then they can be specially recruited.

……

At this moment.

Inside the main hall of the Immortal Vessel, a huge light curtain displayed the battle merits below in real time.

Hunzhan sat high in the chief seat, expressionlessly gazing at those dismal scores that never exceeded three digits, his brow faintly furrowing.

"Half a day has passed, and not even one who broke a thousand?"

He spoke coldly, his voice tinged with impatience,

"I thought I could fish out a wild True Immortal, bring him back to report to the bigwigs, but it seems I wasted my effort."

The Yuanci Mountain Lord beside him hurriedly bowed and said with a fawning smile:

"Please calm your anger, Envoy; this eleventh domain is inherently barren and lowly, its laws incomplete. To produce even a few Supreme Realm cultivators whose strength rivals a Quasi-True Immortal is already the limit—how could it give birth to a True Immortal? They are merely uncivilized barbarians."

"Trash."

Hunzhan let out a cold snort, then fell silent, closed his eyes, as if he had completely lost interest in this farce.

Even Sanqian Zhou produced several Supreme Realm cultivators rivaling True Immortals.

And this eleventh domain…

Just when everyone thought this selection would have no more surprises, a youth dressed in ordinary black clothes, with a handsome face, slowly stepped out from the corner of the crowd.