Chapter 972: Only Our Deaths and Not Our Defeat

Scarlet bale spirits teemed on the main world of Dustfall Realm. Intermixed with gray yin spirits and black dead spirits, they formed a horribly stifling color scheme. Suffocating despair descended upon everyone who looked upon the scene.

Lu Yun lifted his eyes and noticed that a resplendent golden palace had appeared outside the main world at some point in time.

The Dao Palace!

The residence of the creatures from the chaos.

“So it’s these dao palaces that destroyed these worlds!” He suddenly understood in this moment that the prime culprit behind the destruction of the lower worlds weren’t the yin spirits, but the dao palaces hidden within the multiverse!

The gray yin spirits, black dead spirits, scarlet and purple bale spirits were just vanguards sent to beguile and distract on behalf of the creatures within the dao palaces. But now that the World Gates were on the cusp of being blown open and the lower realms were almost completely ruined, there was no longer a need for restraint or caution. These creatures only needed to sit by and await the final harvest from Dustfall Realm.

This dao palace had revealed itself likely because the one in the Quiet Realm had been broken apart. The repercussions of the little fox manifesting Tushan’s form and wielding the Bell of Chaos to slay an empyrean master were too great.

Perhaps the three creatures that had fled that dao palace had sought shelter in this one.

Tides of bale spirits seethed and frothed as far as the eye could see. Some geniuses from the world of immortals that were adventuring outside the boundary didn’t even have time to react before they were instantly swallowed whole by massive carpets of dead spirits.

……

Zhao Lu and the others were as white as a sheet. The boundary that four dao immortals had jointly set up together was more fragile than an eggshell when faced with the terrifying flood of dead spirits. The slightest pressure from the masses would shatter the boundary into pieces.

However, all they did now was surround the boundary without going on the offensive.

A massive thought descended from the skies and reverberated in the main world. “I know you’re here, show yourself!” It traveled into the mind of every single creature in the world.

“Who’s here?” Many immortals looked around blankly. So this immense army of dead spirits had suddenly arrived because it was looking for someone!

Boom!

Before they understood who the dead spirits were looking for, a ball of spectacular brilliance exploded out of the descent platform in the center of the world. Human shapes streamed out of the platform and assembled in a mighty battle formation in the air within just a few breaths’ time.

More than a million immortals had suddenly arrived in Dustfall Realm!

With the matter at hand impacting the survival of hundreds of thousands, Lu Yun had no desire to give anyone time to temper and improve themselves. He sent out an urgent summons to the experts in Ascension City through the six paths of his nascent spirit.

An excess of a million immortals quickly fell into formation in midair, projecting an enormous image of a divine beast.

The Black Tortoise and the Dusk Phalanx!

These immortals weren’t the Black Tortoise troops of Nephrite Major, but the Dusk Phalanx under Lu Yun’s command led by Yuchi Hanxing. He’d returned the official designation of his troops to the celestial court, as well as the men he’d recruited to his banner during his tenure as governor. These were the ones he’d raised himself, formed by his Infernum and the soldiers originally under Xuan Yu’s command.

After the Dusk Phalanx arrived, even more immortals walked down from the platform and took a stand in the sky. The dao immortals within them added their efforts to the boundary and supplemented it with the energy of a realm.

These immortals were experts of various factions stationed in Ascension City. Over the past ten years, visitors from the world of immortals hadn’t reaped too many benefits from the lower realms. Too many worlds had been brutally crushed right in front of them, and they’d helplessly watched the countless denizens of that world be wiped out from existence while they scrambled back to the descent platform to return to the world of immortals.

They thirsted for a resounding victory, for a triumphant defense of a world to boost their morale. After all, the dead spirits the world of immortals would face in sixty-some years were far more horrifying than what they encountered in the lower realms.

If they met their enemy with this current attitude and outlook, the world of immortals would fall without a doubt.

Yuchi Hanxing stood on the head of the Black Tortoise projected by the formation, silver spear in hand and clad in black armor. She presented quite the heroically dashing sight. She’d reached Golden Immortal of Grand Unity and her troops swore fealty to Dusk Province instead of the Dao Academy. They fell under the jurisdiction of the Dusk City Lord Zhao Zhicheng, but the true reins of power to Dusk Province were clasped in Wanfeng’s hand.

Lu Yun knew that it was only a matter of time before the Dao Academy became the only sacred land beneath the immortal dao, a place that all of life worshipped. There were many actions that he couldn’t commit in the name of the academy. He had to possess his own forces for tasks such as conquering Witherdew Major.

Since that major had become akasha ghost territory, he had no choice but to refocus on Dusk Province.

……

As more figures walked out of the descent platform, they flew into the air and formed numerous battle formations with other immortals. Fifty million immortals gathered within the medium-sized boundary after a dozen breaths. They stood in awe-inspiring layers with battle formation projections over their heads that engaged the dead spirits in battle.

More than a hundred Golden Immortals of Grand Unity fully repaired the boundary in a few quick moments.

“This battle will see only our deaths and not our defeat!” Yuchi Hanxing whistled sharply. “We will protect this world even if we die!”

Only our deaths and not our defeat!

Hearts trembled when the nearest ten million immortals heard her words. This battle suddenly seemed to represent the future destiny of the world of immortals… It was the first large-scale clash between the immortals and the dead spirits!

The world of immortals urgently needed a true victory to bolster their confidence against the dead spirits!

The surviving native immortals of Dustfall Realm turned beet red with noble sentiment and they prepared themselves to sacrifice their lives at any time.

“Kill!”

“Charge!”

“KILL!”

Immortals rushed out of the boundary before the dead spirits gathered for their next offensive. Massive battle formations brimming with the energy of a realm hurtled into the waves of dead spirits like hungry tigers pouncing on prey.

A tremendous earth-shaking, heaven-shattering battle thus began.

“That’s right… this battle cannot be lost,” Lu Yun murmured and looked at the little fox on his shoulder. “Little fox, you keep watch. Kill those three chaos beasts at the three purities realm the moment they appear!”

“Alright!” Her body melted into the void as a faint ripple.

Lu Yun also charged out of the boundary with his sword in hand, hacking his way into the nearest crowd of dead spirits. Bright dragon howls rang through the world, but fighting was now so fierce that no one noticed this piercing croon. Or rather, there were plenty of immortals on the battlefield now at his level.

He was just a peerless immortal, but there were even Arcane Immortals of the Nine Heavens on the field who caught the eye. They were far stronger than what he could bring to bear right now.

This time, he manifested nine dragons of sword qi. Every location they graced resulted into dead, yin, and even scarlet bale spirits being reduced to dust.

Dustfall Realm was different from the Quiet Realm—there were ten thousand times more dead spirits here. The dragon howls that Lu Yun released couldn’t travel too far before the energy of the world within them was exhausted.

However, the nine dragons of sword qi stubbornly shot up in the sky. Watery ripples of sword light flared from their bodies to part a path to the cosmos. Only Lu Yun knew that the source of these dead spirits lay in the stars, the dao palace that overlooked the crumbling main world.

The tide of spirits would naturally recede if the dao palace was destroyed; it also happened to be Lu Yun’s primary goal.

His actions naturally attracted the attention of several purple bale spirits. Seven of them surrounded him with a scarlet horde when he almost broke through to the stars, isolating him from the rest of the immortals in the main world.

Lu Yun could neither retreat nor advance, the only world in his vision was a sea of scarlet death! There were no yin or dead spirits around him, just scarlet bale spirits and seven purples!

The crowd of scarlet spirits around him was so dense that they seemed like a physical wall. They were tens of thousands of times more concentrated than the dead spirits on the ground!