With the victory of the Star-Sea world on the Unity-stage battlefield, this mysterious World-Domain War finally reached its conclusion.
Aside from the Qi Refining-stage battlefield, which was always intended as a sacrificial front, the Star-Sea world secured final victory in every tier: from Foundation Establishment and Gold Core to Void Refinement and Unity!
In contrast, the seemingly invincible demon race suffered a near-total wipeout. Except for the lowest-level, mass-produced Qi Refining demons, every other tier—from the vast numbers of Foundation Establishment demons to the formidable Unity-stage Saint Demons—had been utterly annihilated by the Star-Sea world.
Even the wisp of consciousness descended from the Supreme Demon Lord of the Demon Realm had been forcibly slain by Qi Ping!
It was a miracle beyond imagination. No one could have predicted that the demon race, arriving with a momentum that threatened to topple the heavens, would be extinguished by a world as fragile as the Star-Sea.
Even the cultivators of the Star-Sea world found it difficult to believe their own reality until this very moment.
"We won!"
Yet only they knew exactly how arduous this victory had been and how much luck had been involved.
The foundation of their victory lay first in the hidden potential of the Star-Sea world. If the world's heritage had not produced so many cultivators with exceptional talent, they would have stood no chance at all. Then, there was the powerful providential power inherent within the world itself.
But even more crucial than the foundation were the people who utilized those resources. If they had not maximized the efficiency of every scrap of material—triggering a massive explosion in the arts of alchemy, talisman-making, and artifact-forging—and if every individual had not fought and cultivated with their lives on the line, they would have fallen short of this final victory.
The price paid was catastrophic. Of the cultivators who set out for war, less than ten or twenty percent were able to return.
Regardless, winning this war was the best possible outcome.
As the final battle concluded and the curtain fell on the World-Domain War, the entire battlefield began to rumble!
Under the influence of this mysterious battlefield, the world-power of the Demon Realm was forcibly stripped away, and its aura weakened rapidly. Conversely, the Star-Sea world began to ravenously devour the stolen world-power. The aura that had withered due to the expenditure of providential power flooded back, showing signs of becoming even stronger than before.
In other words, the Star-Sea world had not only avoided a loss but had come out ahead!
This was absolute good news for the cultivators. The strengthening of the world's essence meant an increase in natural opportunities, treasures, spirit veins, and the density of spiritual qi. Ultimately, the world's essence was the root of any spiritual power explosion.
However, during this process, everyone noticed a more terrifying point: where exactly did this World-Domain War battlefield come from? Not only could it directly rewrite the rules of war, but it was now forcibly stripping the essence of the Demon Realm to feed the Star-Sea. Such power was unimaginable!
No one knew the purpose of the battlefield's existence. Why did it rewrite the rules of war between worlds? All they knew was that the World-Domain War battlefield had existed since ancient times, never disappearing and never changing. Countless horrific beings had tried to probe its secrets, only to return empty-handed.
Once the stripping of world-power ended, the vision before everyone's eyes began to blur. Before vanishing from the battlefield, they saw strange, blood-red flowers rising from the spots where every living being had perished. Each flower was unique, seemingly containing the cultivation Dao-fruits of the fallen.
The City of Fallen Immortals—the gateway guarding the Star-Sea world.
Spatial passages suddenly manifested upon the previously empty city walls! Following this, figures radiating a fierce, murderous aura were teleported out.
Sparse figures began to appear across the vacant city.
The slumbering Qi Ping, Bai Liyun, the Demon Blade, Coal Ball, Ji Qingyue, Qing He, the Little Immortal Tiger, the Eight-Winged Pith-Immortal's reincarnation, Wang He, Sister Nan, the Forbidden Blood-Yu Insects, Zhang Da-Niu, Han Li, Meng Yan, Chang Qing, Chang E, the Little Spear Immortal...
Familiar figures appeared one after another. However, this state did not last long. All spatial passages abruptly vanished, and not a single new figure appeared.
Seeing this scattered, sparse crowd, everyone fell into a collective silence.
They recalled the time before the war began, when the entire city was teeming with people. In particular, the Azure Spirit Army, whose momentum was a unified force, had embodied the pride and madness of youth. They had wanted to trample the demons and make their names known across millions of miles.
But now, the sparse crowd only spelled out two words: desolation.
A rough count revealed that, including the Qi Refining cultivators who had not yet returned, less than ten percent of those who went had come back.
Although they had prepared for sacrifice and possessed the resolve to face death, seeing the actual scene still made their hearts tremble. A mortal saying felt appropriate for this moment: 'Since ancient times, how many who go to war ever return?'
If these were strangers, it might be one thing, but since the Star-Sea gathered in the Nine Domains, they were all familiar Daoists and comrades. Thinking of friends who had been swallowed whole by demons in the battlefield, who could not feel a sense of grief?
Perhaps some didn't... but those people had long been cleared out by Qi Ping and his followers. Those who only cared for themselves and were willing to sacrifice the world and others had been dealt with. While the perspective that 'Heaven and Earth are heartless and treat all things as straw dogs' was not wrong, Qi Ping did not want his home and world to wither and die. Since those people respected the law of the jungle, he would play the role of the predator and grant their wish. After all, one couldn't allow oneself to be a predator while forbidding others from doing the same.
In the vast city, few showed the joy of victory. Their eyes were heavy with experience. Within them lay not only the weight of sacrifice but also the sight of a completely different world!
That world was larger than they had ever imagined. In various parts of the universe, all sorts of powerful worlds and enemies loomed. Especially the scenes from the core of the World-Domain battlefield, which had completely refreshed their perception.
They had seen horrific corpses of unknown beings, some nearly as large as the Azure Heaven Domain itself! They had seen broken weapons with terrifying auras and star-spanning giant ships they had never heard of.
Every unknown object and being was a shock to their understanding. Compared to those, the Star-Sea world and they themselves were far too small. Even more shocking was that those powerful existences were ultimately just losers on the World-Domain battlefield! If those whose mere aura induced terror had lost here, how strong were the beings who had slain them?
Everything told them that compared to this universe they had never glimpsed, the Star-Sea world was tiny—and as human cultivators within it, they were even smaller.
The impact of this worldview was unimaginable. Fortunately, those who could slay so many demons and reach the core of the battlefield were all individuals of iron will. This shock would only benefit them.
Most importantly, the war was finally won. The demons that entered the battlefield had been nearly wiped out. The remaining demons were no longer a threat. All the sacrifice had been worth it.
Moreover, every person who crawled out of that hell onto the City of Fallen Immortals now possessed an incredibly transformed aura and will! Their eyes were firm and powerful, their momentum solid and stable. Their combat strength went without saying; every one of them was a top-tier expert of their rank. Even in the entire history of the Star-Sea world, they were among the highest-ranked existences.
Such a specialized battlefield had never existed before, and such a large-scale tempering of powerful potential had never been possible. The Dao-heart, will, talent, foundation, and combat power of these survivors had reached the pinnacle. It was foreseeable that their future cultivation paths would be a swift and vigorous progression; most would become figures who left their names in history.
Shortly after everyone was teleported out, the World-Domain battlefield, having seemingly fulfilled its mission, vanished rapidly. Following this, the familiar battlefield before the city reappeared.
Most significantly, the figures of the demons appeared simultaneously! Among them were the large number of Qi Refining demons returning from the battlefield, as well as a small portion of other demons that had not entered, ranging from Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment to the Unity stage!
At this moment, they seemed to have received an order. They began to flee frantically through the passage they had spent so much effort opening.
Seeing this, the survivors of the Star-Sea world exchanged glances. Led by the Master of Life and Death, Meng Tianqi, they charged out!
No orders were needed. Aside from those healing, everyone attacked! You came to the Star-Sea world and killed so many of our people, and now you want to leave?
In your dreams!
A heaven-reaching Demon Blade was the first to strike! Then came an imposing Life-Death Grinding Stone! Following that was Ji Qingyue's Myriad Law Celestial Physique talent—a wide-range killing move that resonated with heaven and earth, instantly triggering violent spells with minimal effort! Then came Coal Ball's "Ten Thousand Weapons"... and Wang He's Heavenly Heart Asura Slash!
One terrifying killing move after another stirred a horrific, world-ending scene!
The demons, no longer greedy or arrogant, scrambled to escape. Those who couldn't leave in time fought back with everything they had, but it was all in vain. Which of the Star-Sea cultivators who had walked out of the hell of the World-Domain battlefield was not terrifyingly lethal? Especially now, with their unreserved, rage-fueled strikes.
In almost an instant, countless demons fell. Throughout this process, the Star-Sea cultivators displayed incredible cooperation. Under high-efficiency combined slaughter, they turned on an "efficient massacre mode" at the cost of zero casualties!
To prevent demons from slipping away, Meng Tianqi, after slaying the few remaining Unity-stage demons, stood alone at the passage entrance with the Demon Blade. Any demon rushing there was devoured and slain by the blade. Meanwhile, his Life-Death Grinding Stones roamed the battlefield at high speeds, harvesting every demonic life and frantically absorbing the death energy born from the field.
The one-sided slaughter came and went quickly. As the last demon to set foot in the Star-Sea was slain, the area before the City of Fallen Immortals was covered in dense, layered demon corpses.
Only then did the killing intent in everyone's hearts slightly recede. The accumulated frustration from the loss of so many comrades was somewhat eased through the slaughter.
However, just as everyone thought it was over, an aura that made the entire world tremble suddenly struck!
The aura of an Emperor-rank demon at the Mahayana level!
A vast and horrific phantom of an Emperor-rank giant claw reached through the passage, intending to slay everyone!
Facing this, Meng Tianqi, standing at the passage, remained unmoved. He didn't even blink. He held the Demon Blade in his right hand and the Life-Death wheel in his left, preparing to launch two horrific counterattacks.
But the expected boom did not happen.
The moment that horrific claw entered the Star-Sea world, it mysteriously dissipated. It didn't even stir a ripple!
Naturally, Meng Tianqi's attacks missed their mark.
But no one had the mind to care about that. They stared in shock at the horrific claw that had vanished so strangely.
"The rumors were true. The Star-Sea world really does have a law that wipes out any existence related to the Mahayana stage!"
"That unstoppable Mahayana-rank attack couldn't even make a ripple?"
Even with their strong mentalities, they couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air. What kind of existence could cast a law-based attack that wiped out Mahayana-rank power? And how did the Star-Sea world survive back then in the face of such a presence?
No one had the answer. But for now, it was a good thing. If not for this strange law, they would be facing a Mahayana-level powerhouse right now. Against such an existence, they would have likely had to retreat to the Nine Domains and rely on Qi Ping's Earth Immortal power to have a chance at resisting. With the Star-Emperor asleep, no one was confident in facing such a tier.
However, if someone in the Star-Sea world wanted to break through to the Mahayana stage, this would likely be their greatest tribulation. Though the survivors found it troublesome, they weren't overly anxious; that time was still far off. And for some reason, they believed that if they followed Qi Ping, they could find a solution given enough time. This was the deep-seated trust they had developed in him.
Before they could think further, a horrific roar suddenly erupted! The cry of shock, anger, and pain came precisely from the Mahayana-level Emperor Demon who had just attacked the Star-Sea!