No one had expected Qi Ping, the backbone and leader of this entire war, to fall into a deep slumber at the very moment the final and most cruel stage of the conflict was about to ignite.
Yet, after witnessing his world-shaking battle against the supreme lord of the Demon Realm, not a single person harbored any resentment. He had already achieved the impossible. The strongest Demon Lord had fallen; the rest was now their responsibility.
The task left to them was simple: kill every enemy they encountered, stay alive, and crawl out of this hell.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. During this time, both inside and outside the battlefields, everyone pushed themselves to the absolute limit to bolster their combat strength.
The Star-Emperor had once told them never to overlook any detail that could improve their chances of victory. A single point of improvement might not be enough, but when thousands upon millions of such points were added together, they could create an impossible miracle. If one person's hidden trump cards weren't enough, they would pool everyone's cards together.
In just three days, the appearance of the Star-Sea World's forces underwent a transformative change.
Lingering wounds and the difficult-to-dispel demonic toxins were overcome through the combined efforts of those skilled in healing and detoxification, alongside a centralized pool of pills and spirit herbs.
Because they could observe the enemy, everyone shared their combat experiences. Combined with the results of deductive calculations, over eighty percent of the demons' combat characteristics and fighting styles were mapped out, and specific countermeasures were developed.
Those who were on the verge of breakthrough but lacked resources exchanged items and made promises to one another, allowing many to achieve their ultimate advancement amidst the pressure of impending war, causing their strength to soar.
The cultivators also organized themselves into specialized formation squads based on their unique abilities and the enemy's traits. They utilized a "sub-array within a grand-array" method to create a highly flexible super-formation.
Furthermore, those skilled in auxiliary arts—blessings, defensive barriers, and the like—performed specialized support techniques under the collective protection of the group. Healing, life-saving wards, and attribute enhancements were applied to all.
Through the accumulation of these tiny advantages, the Star-Sea World completed an incredible metamorphosis in just three days. The scale of this transformation and the boost to their collective combat power was unprecedented.
At this moment, they truly felt the weight of Qi Ping's philosophy regarding the stacking of small probabilities. Put simply, the current forces—supplementing each other's strengths within the formation—could easily slaughter their counterparts from three days ago. And that was without factoring in the specific countermeasures against the demons.
Against the demonic horde, they would unleash even more formidable combat power!
The "Great Array of the Azure Spirit of the Heavenly Cycle," which Qi Ping had prepared long ago to link everyone together, proved exceptionally effective. This array could combine everyone's strength, utilizing the laws of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements to enhance the attributes and combat power of every individual. It allowed for the dynamic reallocation of power based on the battlefield situation—be it for support, defense, or offense.
At this moment, the old adages of "individual combat power is king" or "the gap between realms cannot be crossed" were proven to be outdated nonsense. Before this array, whether one was a peerless young genius or an ancient hidden king, without external support, they were no different from a slightly larger ant. Being "invincible among peers" was a joke here; in a battle of this scale, one was merely a speck of dust.
The brilliance and advantages of human nature were perfectly ignited. Scattered power resulted in one plus one being less than one, but when combined through special means, the massive sum of "ones" could form a staggering force. This was the charm of humanity. The key lay in whether one ignited the base flaws of human nature or its most radiant virtues.
Qi Ping and the current system of the Star-Sea World undoubtedly ignited the latter.
In contrast, the weakness of the demons' bloodline system began to manifest. Although their physical bodies and bloodline talents were individually stronger than most human cultivators—especially with the boost from the wretched demon dragon's black flames—the Star-Sea command center had estimated their true threat level.
Using the Star-Sea cultivators as a template, the majority of the demons had previously operated at a middle or upper-middle level of combat power due to their physical advantages. Only a small portion reached the upper-tier or peak levels. In terms of numbers, the top-tier demon powerhouses far outweighed those of the Star-Sea World.
Only at the very pinnacle of strength did the Star-Sea World hold a slight advantage, as the human race was more prone to producing supreme geniuses at the upper limits. However, this slight advantage could not change the overall disparity. Even in equal numbers, the total individual combat power of the demons surpassed that of the humans.
Moreover... the demons' numbers far exceeded those of the humans!
The Star-Sea World estimated that the current number of demons in the World-Domain Battlefield was at least five times that of the humans!
Such terrifying numbers, combined with their potent Unity Stage combat power, meant that a direct engagement would normally result in a total crush. If the human cultivators had remained a scattered mess while the demons were driven into a fearless frenzy, there would be no outcome other than a one-sided massacre. It was an absolutely hopeless matchup.
And it didn't end there. After the black dragon released its eerie black flames, the strength of nearly every demon had risen by at least one tier. This widened the already horrific gap in combat power even further. If the total combat power of each individual were converted into a numerical value, the comparison between the Demon Realm and the Star-Sea World would be an utterly despairing figure.
This was the hopeless war the Star-Sea World had to win. If they failed, everyone would be buried in this hell; not one would walk out alive. If these numbers represented individual duels, the Star-Sea side might as well have offered their necks to the blade.
But this was a collective confrontation. Humanity could utilize more than just individual power—formations, cooperation, tactics, targeting weaknesses, artifacts, talismans, and pills. Every single item could be leveraged in this war.
In contrast, while the Star-Sea World raced against time to cooperate and improve, the demons remained largely a disjointed mob. Although the black dragon's flames had massively boosted their combat power, they had suppressed the already low intelligence of most demons even further. Even those with high intelligence had their wits partially clouded. Furthermore, they relied solely on bloodline power and understood nothing of spells or formations, preventing them from seizing every opportunity to improve as the humans did.
However, the Demon Realm was not entirely disorganized. The bloodline power of certain demons functioned similarly to spirit beasts or bee swarms; when grouped together, their bloodline powers would actively synchronize, granting them strength no less than that of most formations. This power originated from bloodlines the demons had devoured that specialized in fusion. Individually, these demons were unremarkable, but together, they were terrifyingly strong.
And the number of such demons was not low! When the war first began, many powerful Star-Sea cultivators had died at the hands of these bloodline-synchronized demons, including several exceptionally talented human geniuses. To this day, the Star-Sea World had not fully mapped out the combat styles or weaknesses of some of these groups. Consequently, these demons were the command center's greatest concern, second only to the overall disparity in numbers.
Fortunately, these demons made up only a small portion of the total demonic force, leaving room for strategic neutralization. Moreover, because they had conquered many human worlds in the past, they had already formed predictable combat habits.
To them, humans were nothing more than a scattered pile of sand prone to internal strife.
The three-day mark arrived.
In every rank of the battlefield, the barriers separating the humans and the demons began to blur and fade at a visible rate. Both sides stood before the barrier, their eyes filled with killing intent.
The demonic side possessed a powerful aura and terrifying numbers. Under the influence of their bloodline power, they radiated an absolute bloodthirst. In terms of overall momentum, they were leagues ahead of the Star-Sea World. At this moment, the humans were clearly the underdog.
Due to the bloodline stimulation, the demons had entirely forgotten the memory of their supreme leader's defeat. Even the Void Refinement and Unity Stage demons were the same. Their consciousness held only the frenzy and bloodlust of a predator—they knew no pain and feared no death. They were absolute, horrific machines of war.
In contrast, the overall numbers and aura of the Star-Sea World were significantly weaker. At a glance, they looked like little lambs waiting to be slaughtered. The gap was too vast.
Yet, despite this disparity, not a single trace of fear could be seen on the faces of the Star-Sea warriors. There was only absolute resentment and killing intent for their enemies.
The demons were strong—terrifyingly so. But did they have no hope of winning? Not necessarily.
Before Qi Ping had integrated the Star-Sea World, they would have felt terror and helplessness when facing such an enemy. They would have thought, 'Is there even a point in fighting? Just wait for death,' or 'What choice is there but to run?'
But things were different now. Since the birth of the Star-Sea Nine Domains, their old convictions had been rewritten. They used to think that pills, artifacts, and talismans were too expensive and rare to be applied on a large scale in war. But after Qi Ping integrated all resources and knowledge, top-tier alchemists and smiths were born one after another. Suddenly, the Star-Sea World was flooded with high-quality supplies.
This was true at the top, and even more so at the middle and lower levels. Countless people with talent but no inheritance or guidance achieved rapid breakthroughs, and even more were discovered and trained. In a short time, the quality and quantity of talismans, pills, and artifacts had surged several times over.
Aside from these essentials of cultivation, the yields of spirit herbs and spirit fields also exploded. Every sector saw growth. This was the first time the cultivators of the Star-Sea World realized the incredible charm produced by the rational allocation of knowledge, labor, and material resources.
If production could be optimized this way, so could war.
With the support of numerous pills and talismans, the combat power of the Star-Sea cultivators surged. In the early stages of the war, the Star-Sea World's ability to win nearly half of the battlefields was largely thanks to this cooperation. The improvements over the last three days had further clarified that individual combat power was not the sole deciding factor in a large-scale war.
Demons had their bloodline advantages, but humans had their own. Were humans destined to be weaker? Was a war unwinnable just because the gap in power was large?
Certainly not!
And for this final super-battle, the Star-Sea World had prepared a very important trump card: the Formation Masters!
Since the beginning of his cultivation journey, Qi Ping had placed great importance on the power of formations. He had used them to slay many powerful enemies. How could he not value their power in a war of this scale? This was the most terrifying force in large-scale warfare.
Given enough time and resources, a Formation Master could unleash power that far exceeded the limits of their own realm. Unfortunately, formations required extreme comprehension and an affinity for heaven and earth. They were far harder to train than alchemists or talisman makers.
Over the years, the number of Formation Masters trained by the Star-Sea World was quite limited. Consequently, the initial order given to them by the command center was simple: enter the battlefield and build formations to protect yourselves; do not prioritize killing.
Despite this, many of them used their arrays to slay large numbers of demons, becoming the core reason many battlefields were won. And for these masters, this final fight was where they would truly showcase their style and utility.
Over the last three days, they had used pre-prepared resources and formation plates to set up a massive number of arrays under the cover of the others! These arrays were traps specifically designed to slaughter the demons. To ensure maximum effectiveness, neither the demons nor even most of the Star-Sea cultivators knew the locations of the true super-killing arrays. The demonic side would never be able to figure out the truth behind these myriad deceptive formations.
What kind of effect they would achieve and how many demons they would slay was about to be proven.
As the barrier faded and vanished, the powder keg that had been accumulating for three days was instantly ignited!
The terrifying, formidable demonic torrent surged forward like an apocalyptic natural disaster! Their berserk, bloodthirsty aura pierced the sky, threatening to instantly tear apart and devour every living being of the Star-Sea World!