It was clear from the Black Tortoise’s stance that it wasn’t merely Jiang Chen’s helper. The four sacred beasts were of noble bloodlines. What was so special about Jiang Chen that he was able to win over the loyalty of the four beasts?!

Lightford was undeniably frustrated with how things had developed. Given his level of strength, his prestige would suffer a great blow if news got out that he’d failed to take down the Eternal Sacred Land, despite having taken matters into his own hands.

What was worse, the inmates he’d recruited from the Boundless Prison had fallen victim again and again to the Eternal Sacred Land. He’d already lost three groups of his people.

This sacred land was a bottomless pit.

If nothing was done about it, Eternal would become the biggest obstacle to his plan to dominate Myriad Abyss.

The thought prompted Lightford to morph into a furious serpent. However, the Black Tortoise’s defense was too impenetrable.

Moreover, the Vermilion Bird’s attacks had been keeping Lightford at bay, despite its defense being lesser than that of the tortoise. The sacred bird was as quick and agile as Lightford himself.

The two sacred beasts made a perfect team. One of them harassed Lightford with attacks while the other put up an unbreakable defense. The longer the fight went on, the more worried Lightford became.

He’d always been proud of his transfiguration method. It’d served him well in previous fights against other human cultivators.

Today however, he was faced with enemies he least wanted to fight—ancient true spirits, and ones of the four sacred beast bloodlines at that!

Once ascended to divinity, the sacred beasts would be more powerful than cultivators of the same level.

Lightford had been so unfortunate today as to run into not one, but two such sacred beasts!

To make things worse, the two beasts fought together with great ease, which made up for the gap between their cultivation and Lightford’s.

His transformation art was of no help, either.

Even if he could imitate an ancient spirit’s presence and the power of its bloodline, that didn’t mean anything when facing the sacred beasts.

He began to doubt himself.

If he was fighting only one sacred beast, he was confident that he’d be able to defeat it in a thousand different ways. At least, he could so with the current gap between their cultivation levels.

With the two sacred beasts working in concert, it was a different story. They were greater than the sum of their parts.

Lightford had been the unchallenged ruler in the Boundless Prison, and his ambitions reached new heights after breaking out. Execution of his plan had gone smoothly but today, he finally knew what failure was. Helplessness reared its unwanted head.

If he couldn’t separate the two sacred beasts, it’d be impossible for him to conquer the Eternal Sacred Land.

He quite regretted his decision.

If he hadn’t been so self assured and hadn’t ordered the two divine cultivators to split up, the two of them could help him separate the sacred beasts. That much, he was confident of.

Now though, he was fighting a lonely fight. There was nothing to be gained with today’s operation.

Besides, An Kasyapa was still lurking in the dark with whatever conspiracy he was quietly brewing. If he made a move, not even Lightford was sure that he’d be able to retreat unscathed.

What caused greater concern than the formidable An Kasyapa was Jiang Chen, the young genius who had recruited two sacred beasts.

Lightford hadn’t yet met Jiang Chen in person, but the young man had spoken up earlier. Lightford knew he must be hidden somewhere as well. The young man was an unknown quantity.

Lightford’s two divine subordinates had been caught by Jiang Chen in a way they themselves didn’t even understand. How powerful must the young man be?

Lightford didn’t even want to follow that train of thought. If even Jiang Chen could rival a divine cultivator, the Eternal Sacred Land had at least the power of five to six gods on its side.

Lightford’s resolve finally wavered.

After numerous vicious clashes with the Vermilion Bird and the Black Tortoise, he realized that his superior cultivation wasn’t enough for him to defeat them. The two sacred beasts’ bloodlines made them stronger when faced with powerful foes. They could give as good as they got.

Lightford wouldn’t win here, not today.

“Fine. I’ve lost my momentum. Although the two sacred beasts can’t hurt me, I can’t defeat them either. I’m not going to break into the Eternal Sacred Land today. I mustn’t let my emotions get the better of me if I’m going to achieve anything great.”

Lightford was smart enough to know when to cut his losses. He would never stubbornly proceed on a path that would lead to nowhere. In fact, he was already formulating a different plan in his mind.

Since he couldn’t take the Eternal Sacred Land, he would target the other sacred lands instead.

The group contingent must be gathered together now.

“Compared to the two sacred beasts, Jiang Chen, and An Kasyapa, the ten sacred lands are the easier targets!”

It finally dawned on him that he’d been too confident. If he’d put all he had into attacking the sacred land elites on Sandplain, he would’ve killed a good number of the ten forefathers.

He wouldn’t have ended up with so few options.

If he’d taken out the ten forefathers, he would’ve been able to assign fewer divine cultivators to attack the ten sacred lands and bring to more Eternal. They’d be able to handily defeat the two sacred beasts, An Kasyapa, and members of the sacred land. Not even five more An Kasyapas would’ve been able to stop them.

Lightford had sent at least two divine cultivators to each sacred land. In other words, that meant more than twenty divines had escaped from the Boundless Prison.

Who knew how many gods had been imprisoned since the ancient times? Although many had been killed, some survived. All of the survivors were elites.

Lightford had recruited them in pursuit of conquering Myriad Abyss. He’d now made up his mind to target the ten forefathers. He would be able to pick them off himself!

Once he decided to retreat, not even the two sacred beasts could stop him. He charged in the air and ripped open a fissure. The fissure seemed to cut a passage across the sky and vanished in a flash of light in the next instant!