Chapter 1405: Half a Year

Li Luo's seclusion this time lasted half a year.

And during that half year, the Outer Shenzhou was also in great turmoil, undergoing tremendous changes.

And all these changes arose from the incident in the Boundary River Domain.

First was the fall of Li Li Jingzhe, a heavyweight piece of news that shook the entire Outer Shenzhou. After all, it had been many years since a King-level powerhouse had fallen in the Outer Shenzhou, let alone a Three-Crown King!

This drew countless sighs of regret and grief.

The fall of an existence at this level was a significant loss to every living being in the entire Outer Shenzhou.

However, this lamentation did not last long before it was once again shaken by another shocking piece of news.

Dantai Lan had achieved the Grand Unparalleled Marquis, succeeding Li Li Jingzhe as the new head of the Dragon Fang Branch.

Thus, this name that had once stirred up considerable commotion in the Outer Shenzhou, after more than twenty years, once again resounded throughout the entire Outer Shenzhou.

Countless people were shocked by her talent and achievements. After all, when Dantai Lan and Li Taixuan had been forced to leave the Outer Shenzhou back then, they were merely ordinary Marquis-level powerhouses. Although their talent overwhelmed their peers, such achievers appeared in every generation, so they had only been illustrious for a time before gradually being forgotten.

But who could have imagined that when she returned again, she had already achieved the Grand Unparalleled Marquis!

Everyone understood what this realm represented. Throughout history, the number of Grand Unparalleled Marquises was even rarer than Three-Crown Kings!

What kind of talent, what kind of foundation, and what kind of opportunity did this require?!

After Dantai Lan formally took over, all the top forces sent their congratulations one after another. Even the Qin Li Tianwang lineage gritted their teeth and expressed their felicitations, while also stating that the past grievances had all been decided by Qin Jiujie alone and had nothing to do with the Qin Li Tianwang lineage.

And now that Qin Jiujie had betrayed them and Qin Qin Lian was also dead, the grievances of those years should simply drift away with the wind.

Thus, for a time, the name Dantai Lan resounded in every corner of the Outer Shenzhou.

If the Dantai Lan of more than twenty years ago was merely a stunningly brilliant prodigy, then now she had truly entered the ranks of the Outer Shenzhou's titans. Every word and every action of hers would shake the Outer Shenzhou.

As Dantai Lan's fame soared, Li Luo and Jiang Jiang Qinge also rose to prominence by riding the momentum.

Only because the details of their great battle with Qin Qin Lian in the Boundary River Treasure Domain had been completely exposed.

The fact that the two of them had both embarked on the Path of Unparalleled spread across the Outer Shenzhou like the wind.

And Li Luo's feat of self-severing a Ten-Pillar Golden Platform and slaying the Eight-Grade Marquis Realm Qin Qin Lian against the odds — this extremely visually striking battle record — was likewise inscribed on the Outer Shenzhou's Fenghua List.

This entry occupied the first page of the Fenghua List.

The dazzling marks left by those young prodigies in previous years all paled in comparison to this entry.

After all, slaying an Eight-Grade Marquis as a Two-Grade Marquis against the odds — regardless of what unknown variables were involved — this battle record alone was enough to firmly establish Li Luo's position as the number one young prodigy of the Outer Shenzhou.

However, just as Li Luo's fame was spreading wildly across the Outer Shenzhou, he himself was in seclusion in the deep mountains, far removed from this clamor.

Moreover, after this fervor continued for a period of time, it gradually faded, because at this time the Outer Shenzhou still had even more heavyweight topics.

Namely, the terrifying Calamity that had erupted within the Qin Li Tianwang lineage's territory.

The scale of this Calamity far surpassed any previous one.

Rolling black tides, carrying countless bizarre aberrations, spread and ravaged across the land like a plague. Wherever they passed, regions of hundreds of thousands of miles were reduced to dead, silent wastelands.

It could truly be called utter devastation of all living things.

All the various forces of the Outer Shenzhou were horrified by this.

The Qin Li Tianwang lineage was in a desperate situation. Qin Jiujie's betrayal had already left this ancient Li Tianwang lineage badly battered. Even though the Palace Master of the Heavy Abyss Palace, Qin Chongyuan, had promptly taken over as the Great Palace Master afterwards, he still could not lift the low morale within the Qin Li Tianwang lineage.

After all, who could accept such a thing?

Normally it's the subordinates who stab the boss in the back and betray him — who has ever seen the boss himself betray them first?

And because of the influence of the "Li Tianwang Edict," King-level power could not enter this Calamity, which forced the Qin Li Tianwang lineage to only deploy Marquis-level powerhouses, continuously forming layered defensive lines in an attempt to impede the Calamity's spread.

But as a result, the casualties became extremely severe.

After all, within that Calamity were countless True Demons, among them no shortage of High-Grade True Demons.

Thus, later the Qin Li Tianwang lineage could only begin issuing a Demon-Slaying Conscription Order to the entire Outer Shenzhou, hiring Marquis-level powerhouses to deal with the Calamity.

To this end, the Qin Li Tianwang lineage offered extremely generous rewards — High-Grade Foundation Establishment Spiritual Treasures, high-grade Spiritual Water Marvels, High-Grade Marquis Artifacts, Destiny-grade Marquis Arts... Attracted by these heavyweight rewards, countless unaffiliated Marquis-level powerhouses across the Outer Shenzhou swarmed toward the Qin Li Tianwang lineage.

This move actually achieved decent results. Supported by such intensity, the Qin Li Tianwang lineage finally gradually managed to resist the spread and erosion of the Calamity, but in doing so, they paid an extremely terrifying resource cost. Even for the foundation of the Qin Li Tianwang lineage, this price was agonizingly painful.

Moreover, as time went on, this consumption continued to intensify.

In any case, anyone could see that this Calamity would bring incalculable losses to the Qin Li Tianwang lineage.

This ancient Li Tianwang lineage that had stood in the Outer Shenzhou for over a thousand years would likely need a long period of recuperation before it could make up for this wave of losses.

Additionally, during nearly half a year of spreading, this Calamity had also begun to extend toward the neighboring forces. The northwestern border of the Dragon Fang Branch happened to fall within the Calamity's erosion range.

The Qin Li Tianwang lineage had essentially chosen to sit idly by regarding the Calamity in this direction, which caused it to spread faster than imagined. In just half a year, it had gradually approached the northwestern border of the Dragon Fang Branch.

The Li Li Tianwang lineage naturally expressed anger at this, but the Qin Li Tianwang lineage stated that they truly did not have any extra strength to mount a blockade in this direction.

This kind of bickering was naturally ineffective. Even though the upper echelons of the Li Li Tianwang lineage knew this must be the Qin Li Tianwang lineage deliberately letting things slide, with the aim of dragging the Li Li Tianwang lineage into this Calamity as well.

Their plan was simply that the Qin Li Tianwang lineage should not be the only ones suffering.

But although the Qin Li Tianwang lineage's tactics were quite shameless, facing the encroaching Calamity, the Li Li Tianwang lineage could not sit idly by either. After all, if they truly allowed the Calamity to spread into the Li Li Tianwang lineage's territory, the losses would become even more severe.

Thus, under Dantai Lan's leadership, the Dragon Fang Branch massed heavy troops to garrison the northwestern border.

The Five Heavenly Dragon Guards were stationed at the border, and the other branches also sent Marquis-level powerhouses one after another.

The entire Li Li Tianwang lineage was on high alert.

The neighboring forces also did everything they could to muster personnel, forming layered defensive lines.

Moreover, as the Calamity spread, the various forces began to discover that the various "Dark Domains" across the Outer Shenzhou had also begun to gradually become active during this period.

This development undoubtedly intensified the concerns of the various forces. After all, these "Dark Domains" were also gathering points for aberrations, and if they erupted, they would be no small disaster.

It could be said that during this half year, the attention of all the various forces across the Outer Shenzhou had been drawn to this terrifying-scale Calamity.

Moreover, no one knew when this Calamity could finally be quelled.

Unless a Li Tianwang-level existence could be invited to erase the Li Tianwang Edict of the Three-Pupil Fetal Great Demon King. But now the ancestors of the four great Li Tianwang lineages were all stationed in certain forbidden grounds across the world, and had not descended in person to the Outer Shenzhou for many years.

As for the Tianwangs of the other Shenzhous, they were even less to be relied upon.

Therefore, everyone understood that this Calamity would likely linger on the Outer Shenzhou like a poisonous sore for a very long time.

Thus, gradually, people came to call this upheaval the "Boundary River Calamity."

Half a year of time quietly slipped away.

Deep in the mountains of the Yashan range, the lake that had lain silent for half a year finally began to rumble and tremble, with strange light sweeping forth and illuminating the heavens.