"Demon brats!"
"Enjoy the feast of self-detonation!"
For a Formation Master, there was no moment more exhilarating than seeing the fruits of their research shine, especially in a world-level war involving the survival of their home!
Staring at the rising spiritual mushroom clouds, the entire central ancient battlefield fell into a massive tremor that felt like the world was ending. Within the endless demonic torrent, countless brilliant lights erupted in rapid succession.
Amidst the light filled with destructive power, vast swaths of the demonic flood were instantly swallowed. Their peerless demonic bodies were rapidly breached under this power.
The demons at the center, regardless of strength, were basically reduced to dust. Even kings within a certain realm suffered heavy injuries and a plummeting of combat power under such might; the weaker demons simply vanished, leaving not even a bone behind.
The demons at the slightly outer edges faced less pressure, but they appeared even more miserable. Left with only mangled limbs, they could only barely survive within the destructive spiritual explosions. Their powerful vitality only served to prolong their agony.
In an instant, wails filled the area as shrill screams shook the sky! The once unstoppable demonic torrent had been physically cleared of a massive section, its ferocious momentum instantly snapped!
Witnessing this brilliant feast of death, the eyes of the Formation Masters flashed with infinite pride and self-satisfaction. Their eyes shone like spirit pearls. Nothing was more satisfying than personally seeing their hard work play such a brilliant and vital role at such a critical moment. This made their journey to the battlefield worth it!
Because they were vital to production, Talisman Masters and Smiths usually stayed at the Star-Sea headquarters, but Formation Masters were one of the few technical professions that had to enter the battlefield. Setting up formations was too difficult; powerful arrays required a master to operate them, unlike talismans or spirit tools which only needed a specific hand-seal to detonate.
However, because of this, they were able to witness this heart-stirring scene personally. This was the peak of their emotions, as surging and brilliant as the self-detonation arrays themselves.
But while the Formation Masters were experiencing a surge of pride, the other people of the Star-Sea World were completely stunned! They knew many formations and weapons had been set up, and they knew these would play a vital role... but this was too much! Such horrific power surpassed everyone's expectations.
"This?"
"How can the power of these formations be so terrifying? It's too much!"
"Amazing!"
"Absurd! Utterly absurd!"
Wave after wave of exclamations rang out. The heavy atmosphere eased significantly. As swaths of demons were blown apart, the shadows in everyone's hearts were blasted away, and they gained even more confidence for the coming battle!
Although they had resolved themselves to fight to the death, staring at a demon army several times their size and aura had inevitably taken a toll. But now, with these explosions and the fall of the enemy, everyone saw more hope! This hope ignited their desire to kill and their thirst for victory. With hope, they could unleash even greater potential and combat power!
This single explosion had killed about ten percent of the demonic horde! Furthermore, a significant number of demons were heavily injured and lost their combat power in the short term!
A single blast had shaken the heavens!
On the demonic side, the commanders who still possessed autonomy were also shocked by this scene. They had invaded many cultivation worlds, some far stronger than this one, but this scene completely refreshed their understanding. Was this the kind of power a world of this level could unleash?
They had seen powerful talismans, arrays, and artifacts before. They knew the terrifying lethality of formations—if they couldn't be broken quickly, they would cause massive casualties. Thus, through the sacrifice of countless demonic lives, they had developed a method: using powerful bodies and terrifying numbers to dilute the damage and break the arrays quickly. If the strain exceeded the formation's limit, it would collapse.
When they first charged the Star-Sea World, that is exactly what happened. After changing their formation, many arrays were quickly broken, and the traps that rose later had limited damage against high-density demons. But they never expected this to be a trap!
A trap designed to lure the demons into gathering together, only to instantly detonate countless attacks of ultimate destruction.
In the demonic bloodline-web, incomprehensible voices rang out.
"How can the humans have so many formations?"
"And the proportion of self-detonation arrays is too high! Their power is also absurdly strong..."
"How can a world of this strength produce formations and talisman weapons of this scale?"
The performance of the Star-Sea World truly refreshed their worldview. How did they manage to produce so many powerful weapons? This world was too bizarre!
The battle had just begun, yet the number of dead and incapacitated demons had reached nearly twenty-five percent! Not a single human had died yet, but the demons had already lost nearly a quarter of their strength! And this was just the beginning.
Fortunately for the demon commanders, after that massive scale of explosions, no more large-scale self-detonation weapons detonated. The scattered damage from remaining arrays didn't concern them much. However, they didn't dare let the demon army remain so dense. Through the command web, they ordered all demons to stay relatively spread out, surrounding and slaughtering the humans from all sides.
The overall number and combat power of the demons were still far higher than those of the humans. As long as they weren't slaughtered on a mass scale again, victory would still belong to the Demon Realm. Under the commanders' orders, the demons spread out like locusts, surrounding the Star-Sea humans! Because they were in a state of bloodline frenzy, they were entirely unaffected by the massive losses and remained berserk and fierce!
"Brothers, the time for the blood-battle is here!"
Facing the sun-blotting demonic horde, the Star-Sea World took their battle stances. The self-detonation weapons had indeed achieved incredible results, killing nearly as many demons as there were humans in the Star-Sea army!
Industrialization and the centralization of all power to manufacture weapons had indeed yielded amazing results, but that was the end of it. The Star-Sea World had no more materials or time to produce more weapons. The fact that they killed nearly a quarter of the enemy was largely due to the demons gathering so densely, a mistake the Formation Masters seized upon.
After the initial victory, the tidal pressure surged back! The demons still outnumbered the humans by more than three to one! Moreover, their overall physical strength and combat power were higher. It meant one person had to fight more than three enemies, and the enemies were stronger!
Thus, the following battle would still be a difficult struggle with an unknown outcome. With the self-detonation weapons largely exhausted, there was no choice left but a blood-battle. The following battlefield would be one of piled corpses.
Soon, as the slaughter orders were given, the two armies collided! In an instant, blood, limbs, and corpses fell from the sky like rain! The cruelest slaughter began. In a war like this, the weak might not survive for three breaths. Even a peerless genius might be blasted to death by ten times their number without even the chance to resist.
Because the combat power ratio was different for each level of the battlefield, the states of battle after the initial explosions varied greatly. Every battlefield was tragic; some held the advantage, while others were one-sided.
However, victory could never emerge from the Qi Condensation battlefield. From the start, this was a battlefield destined for sacrifice.
Although the Star-Sea World currently had its largest number of geniuses and its strongest fighters at the Qi Condensation rank—mostly geniuses born after the integration of the Nine Domains—putting them all on the battlefield might have won the match. But the upper echelons would never risk the future of the world. Thus, the Qi Condensation battlefield was staffed by cultivators hired through rewards and promises of education for their descendants, and they were equipped with a massive amount of talismans!
Qi Condensation talismans were the easiest to make. With the large number of Talisman Masters recently trained, the number of such talismans was unimaginable. Every Qi Condensation cultivator went into battle with a storage bag full of them.
But while the talismans were many, the demons were more—they were practically infinite. The consumption of talismans was massive. While the humans won many early skirmishes, it was at the cost of nearly exhausting their talisman supplies. By the time this final battle arrived, these ordinary loose cultivators and elders, whose personal strength was not high, had little power left to resist.
Furthermore, there were few Formation Masters among them, so they couldn't form large-scale self-detonation arrays like the other battlefields.
"Old Li, Old Wang... if nothing unexpected happens, we're going to die soon."
An old man with white hair and skin etched by time spoke with complex emotions. Beside him were four other elders just like him, all from the Thousand-Artifact Market of the Yang Star Domain. To provide a path for their descendants, they had gathered to join the war.
Staring at the endless demonic horde before them, their hideous claws and fangs, and then looking at the few talismans they had left, they knew their lives were on a countdown. Not many breaths remained.
"What unexpected thing? We're dying right now!" another old man retorted, his voice surprisingly lighthearted.
"True. I just didn't expect to die so soon. I thought we could have a few more years of drinking together!"
In the last few years, they had earned a lot of spirit stones and could often drink spirit wine. Most importantly, they didn't have to worry about marauder cultivators. Having lived lives of constant fear, these last few years felt like a dream.
"Can't we drink now?"
One old man suddenly took out several bottles of spirit fruit wine from his storage bag, giving one to each person. "Let's have one last drink. We won't get another chance later!"
No one spoke. They picked up the bottles and gulped the wine down. Gurgle, gurgle. In a moment, the bottles were empty. The fragrance of the wine exploded within them, and the alcohol immediately flushed their faces and dazed their souls.
"Ah, refreshing!" To have a final drink before death was the height of happiness.
"Our lives were worth nothing before—any marauder or demon cultivator could have killed us. To have had a few comfortable years is already good enough!"
"Yeah. My only hope is that the brat at home works hard. He better not waste the path this old man paved with his life."
"How could it be a waste? The Star-Emperor defeated that great black dragon; we contributed a few points to that as well!"
"Well said. If our world wins, our descendants might even get some blessings. Our achievements will be carved on the monument."
The elders chatted, the red flush on their faces deepening. They showed none of the fear or paleness expected in the face of death. Instead, they showed only memories of the past and a sliver of longing for a future that wouldn't belong to them. At this moment, they were not insignificant Qi Condensation cultivators, but an indispensable part of a world-level war. Their names would not be missing from the monument.
"Old partners, before the talismans run out, don't forget to save one for yourself. I don't want these guys eating my corpse."
As the voice fell, the terrifying roars of the demons approached. Soon, their vision was filled with nothing but hideous fangs and faces. Brilliant lights from the last talismans erupted. Amidst the sword Qi and flames, hideous demons were turned to ash and mangled flesh.
And as the final fire talisman lit up, a red-faced old man shouting something vanished into ash along with a hideous demon.
Thus, in the Qi Condensation battlefield, the Star-Sea World... was completely annihilated!