Chapter 1924 - Celestial Wolf Gate

“What they can do, I can do too!”

Pei Hongjing, Madam Xiangyun, and the others’ hearts shook. Their blood heated up.

You want to invade the Immortal Realm? Fine, I’ll just crush your home base!

There was no question what this meant. Su Yi had decided to use this battle as an opportunity to slaughter the demons of the Beyond and eliminate the threat they represented once and for all.

So long as he succeeded, the Immortal Realm would welcome an age of lasting peace!

Even if he couldn’t eradicate the demons’ home base, when the invaders heard the news, it was sure to affect their morale, and they were sure to retreat from the Immortal Realm in a hurry!

“There’s nothing else I can do,” said Su Yi. “Four of the Nine Gates of Heaven have fallen, and the demons have begun their invasion. They can attack and defend as they please. Moreover, the Immortal Realm’s forces are like scattered grains of sand. Even if I order everyone into battle, there’ll be no quelling this storm anytime soon.”

Su Yi took a sip of wine and said, “More importantly, the demons are acting on the gods’ orders, and they have divine emissaries, and presumably divine children, behind them. In the Immortal Realm, few others would dare to fight them.”

The crowd fell silent, their expressions complicated. It was true. With the gods involved, what other Great Realm cultivator would dare to get involved?

“Once I’ve crushed the demons’ lair, I’ll personally settle the score with any divine children involved. I won't spare anyone manipulating this war from behind the scenes, no matter who they are!” said Su Yi, his eyes glinting with murderous intent.

He knew that there was something fishy about the demons’ invasion of the Immortal Realm. Now, he understood that divine children were behind this and that everything was for the sake of targeting him!

He naturally couldn’t just let it go.

Suddenly, Li Xiehu rushed over and said with an unsightly look on his face, “Sovereign Venerate, I just received word that the Second, Third, and Eighth Gates of Heaven have fallen as well.”

The crowd looked stricken.

Just one day and one night, and the demons had already taken seven of the Nine Gates of Heaven!

“That aside, the demons have announced that they’ve launched this attack on the Immortal Realm because of you and you alone. They say that they won’t stop until you... err, perish!” Li Xiehu’s face was ashen, and he gnashed his teeth so hard that they almost cracked. “They issued orders that any faction that submits can live, while those who choose rebellion will be slaughtered down to the dogs and chickens!”

He took a deep breath. “The flames of war have covered half of the Immortal Realm, and the skies are full of beacon fires. My subordinates sent word that the demons’ momentum is unstoppable; none can stand in their way. Numerous immortal factions have fallen already! At this rate, it won’t be long before the entire Immortal Realm is in turmoil. Who knows how many of its inhabitants will perish?”

The crowd was visibly enraged and fraught with worry.

Su Yi fell silent. After a while, he said, “The present-day Immortal Realm is simply too pathetic. Just who... is to blame for this?”

The crowd’s gazes were complicated. They could think of numerous explanations.

For instance, during the Age of Fallen Immortals, the cataclysm wiped out far too many ancient orthodoxies, dealing a massive blow to the Immortal Realm’s world of cultivation. Even now, it had yet to fully recover.

The Central Immortal Court had fallen, leaving the Immortal Realm without order or leadership. There was no longer anyone capable of unifying the Immortal Realm.

The surviving ancient orthodoxies now fought for their own benefit. They were like dragons without a leader, fighting amongst themselves.

And the armies of the Beyond were just too enormous, with too many top experts.

There were lots of reasons. Still, none of them could deny that the Immortal Realm was nothing compared to its glory days prior to the Age of Fallen Immortals.

This was why they seemed so fragile in the face of the demons’ invasion.

“Before you build, you must break. That goes for people, and for the Immortal Realm, too.” Su Yi rose and said calmly, “I just hope that after this storm is quelled, the Immortal Realm undergoes rebirth, like a phoenix rising from the ashes!

“I cannot afford to delay any longer. I’m taking a trip to the Beyond. You all should just wait here for further news.”

With that, Su Yi turned and shot out of the Seventh Gate of Heaven.

The crowd rose to their feet and watched as he faded over the horizon. Waves of emotion coursed through their hearts.

“Sovereign Venerate, we await your triumphant return!” Pei Hongjing faced the direction Su Yi had vanished in and bowed deeply.

The others did the same.

......

The inhabitants of the Immortal Realm called the Spirit Domain “the Beyond.”

It was actually a vast world. Here, the Nine Great Demon Races ruled supreme!

Each of the Nine Great Demon Races had incomparably ancient foundations and terrifying strength. Over the years, they’d maintained firm control over the Spirit Domain’s prominent factions. Rumor had it that the progenitors of the Nine Great Demon Races were existences comparable to gods!

In his past life, Wang Ye once ventured into the Spirit Domain and dealt massive casualties to the Nine Great Demon Races. It was then that the cultivators of the Spirit Domain started calling him the Tyrant.

Alas, as powerful as Wang Ye was, he wasn’t able to annihilate the Nine Great Demon Races of the Beyond. On the contrary, in the face of a lethal threat, he had no choice but to retreat. And this threat originated from the Spirit Domain’s Ancestral Demon Grounds!

The Ancestral Demon Grounds were the greatest forbidden zone in the Spirit Domain, the shared ancestral ground of the Nine Great Demon Races. The strongest, most ancient experts of all nine races worked together to protect it.

It was, in a sense, comparable to the Immortal Realm’s Central Immortal Court. It maintained the Spirit Domain’s law and order.

There were numerous rumors surrounding the Ancestral Demon Grounds. Some said that they were the source of the Grand Dao in the Spirit Domain. Others said that it was here that the progenitors of the Nine Great Demon Races were born of chaos.

All sorts of rumors floated about, making the Ancestral Demon Grounds seem all the more mysterious. Even in the Spirit Domain, aside from the Nine Great Demon Races’ old-timers, no one knew just what secrets were hidden there.

Back in the day, Wang Ye charged into the Spirit Domain intent on flattening the place. That would have been little different from crushing the Spirit Domain’s heart. It would have come as an unprecedented blow to the demons!

Unfortunately, Wang Ye failed in the end.

Actually, he never even made it there. Experts of the Nine Great Demon Races intercepted him en route and attacked like mad. He got within a thousand miles of his target before he was forced to retreat.

This became one of Wang Ye’s lingering regrets, a lasting torment.

Now, Su Yi planned to return to the Spirit Domain, both to crush the Nine Great Demon Races’ home territories and to flatten the Ancestral Demon Grounds once and for all!

......

A boundless, barren plain separated the Immortal Realm and the Spirit Domain. They were known as the Bloodthirsty Plains.

Both immortals entering the Spirit Domain and demons entering the Immortal Realm had to pass through the Bloodthirsty Plains.

Late at night.

Numerous camps were stationed throughout the Bloodthirsty Plains.

The demons who’d fled after their defeat at the Seventh Gate of Heaven had all gathered here, about seventy thousand in total.

“The Tyrant is just too terrifying. He killed ten Demon Sovereigns, just like that!”

“Hmph! No matter how strong he is, he’s just one person. There’s no way he can single-handedly defend against our armies. Just you wait! The Immortal Realm shall soon be ours!”

“When the Immortal Realm falls, I’ll kill a whole bunch of those immortal bastards to vent my fury!”

“That’s right! The Immortal Realm must pay the price for the Tyrant’s sins!”

....Similar discussions took place throughout the camp in an endless cacophony of noise. When the demons spoke of today’s defeat, all of them gnashed their teeth with hatred.

Boom!

Suddenly, heaven and earth shook. Everyone was startled. They set aside the tasks at hand and gazed into the distance.

The night sky was as dark as ink. Darkness enveloped everything on all sides.

Yet now, a swath of radiant light appeared in the distance.”

“What’s that?” someone said in astonishment.

“Sw-sword qi!” someone shouted.

The dazzling light was actually a dense tide of sword qi. It swept throughout creation, ripping apart the darkness and whooshing toward the demons’ camp.

It was an utterly astonishing scene!

“This....” someone cried out in astonishment, their soul practically leaving their body.

“Run! Hurry up and run!”

The camp was instantly in complete chaos. Seventy thousand experts of the beyond scampered away in panic, fleeing with all their might.

But they were one step too late.

A windstorm of sword qi ripped through the night and whooshed toward them, shattering the darkness. Soon, it had completely enveloped the demons’ camp.

It was like a hurricane, leaving nothing but devastation in its wake. The sky fell, and the earth collapsed.

The seventy thousand demon soldiers who’d set up camp here were now a pool of blood spreading beneath the cover of darkness and seeping into the earth.

Not one of them survived.

Whoosh!

Sword qi receded like the tides. A moment later, Su Yi appeared on board. He took out a jug of wine, drank with relish, and continued on his way without any further delays.

Whoosh!

The Sky-Covering Boat flickered and vanished.

It was the fastest of the Nine Mysteries of Chaos, and it could cover ten thousand miles in the blink of an eye. It could bypass even the spatial barriers blocking its path with ease.

At Su Yi’s maximum flight speed, it would take at least three days for him to traverse the Bloodthirsty Plains and reach the outskirts of the Spirit Domain.

With the Sky-Covering Boat, he could reach the Spirit Domain by the dawn of the second day!

Along the way, he slew a dozen or so demon encampments. The smallest numbered in the hundreds, while the largest numbered in the tens of thousands. All of them were on their way to the Seventh Gate of Heaven.

That is, until Su Yi exterminated them!

These groups didn’t even have Demon Sovereigns. In Su Yi’s eyes, they were no threat whatsoever.

“I’ve finally returned.”

Su Yi saw a massive defensive line in the distance. It was forged out of black stone, and it spread across the landscape like an insurmountable barrier stretching as far as the eye could see.

This was Celestial Wolf Gate!

Wang Ye had once visited this place too. He’d charged in, sword in hand, killing his way into the heart of the demons’ territories.