Chapter 2007: Going Down Together

Ni Huang and the other Semi-Progenitors spread out to search for any evidence that would prove that Aeternus had been collaborating with Sky Creation Academy. While most of them worked on this, Xia De kept an eye on the New Corridor.

Everyone had assumed that dealing with the horde of corpse kings would grant them a reprieve during which they could find a way to deal with the droplets scattered across the Fifth Mainland, but great changes had also struck the Starfall Sea. Corpse God, one of the Seven Skygods, had appeared there, and instead of sending one of his Semi-Progenitor incarnations, he had appeared with his true body, just like Blackless God had done before. Corpse God demonstrated the full power of a Progenitor here. He used his enormous body to forcibly enlarge the passage connecting the Starfall Sea to the Fifth Mainland, basically opening the floodgates as Aeternus’s forces swarmed through the passage in full force and slaughtered their way across the Fifth Mainland.

The Fifth and Sixth Mainlands’ forces stationed in the Starfall Sea were forced to bear the brunt of the corpse king invasion.

An endless tide of corpse kings flooded through, leaving a trail of death and despair in their wake.

In addition to the ordinary corpse kings, there were no fewer than five that had the strength of a Semi-Progenitor. One had a human form while another had the shape of an astral beast.

The appearance of these five Semi-Progenitor corpse kings immediately turned the tide of the battle. Aeternus’s momentum seemed unstoppable after Corpse God took control of the passage in the Starfall Sea. Not even the Progenitor of Combat and the Progenitor of Bloodlines were able to leave a scratch on his massive body as wave after wave of corpse kings flooded through the passage. There was absolutely no end to them in sight.

Qing Shaohuang's scalp went numb as he stared at this horrendous sight. Many of the corpse kings pouring into the Fifth Mainland had very impressive combat strength. He would not normally be afraid of a fight, but since the stellular energy in the true universe had been severely depleted, causing him to be unable to replenish his reserves, Qing Shaohuang knew that only death awaited him once he used his remaining stellular energy.

He could not accept dying in such a disgraceful manner, and so he automatically set himself up to be able to escape.

A short distance away, Xi Gu was shouting, "Qing Shaohuang, anyone caught fleeing before battle will be treated as a traitor!"

Qing Shaohuang glared at the man in indignation. "I’m sure that you don't want to die right now either. It won't be too late for us to fight after the true universe recovers. Do you really want both of us to die here for nothing?"

Xi Gu answered with a voice that burned with passion, "This is our responsibility!"

He may have colluded with Overseer Cong Ying, and he may have also had his own schemes in play, but he was still the commander of the Hall of Honor’s Expeditionary Forces. Above all else, he could always be counted on to prioritize his responsibilities. This was why the overseers and Arch-Elder Zen had allowed Xi Gu to remain as the commander of the Expeditionary forces; they had complete trust in the man. Despite his flawed character, his duty as commander always came first. Even if death was staring him in the face, he would not retreat.

Qing Shaohuang grew sullen. He saw the eyes of the corpse king in front of him turn gray, and after it completed its Corpse King Transformation, it threw a fist at the man.

This was the sort of opponent that Qing Shaohuang feared the most. The corpse king had already been a formidable opponent before, but after its transformation that increased its toughness and strength tenfold, Qing Shaohuang had no idea how to defeat it.

There was a thud as the punch landed squarely on Qing Shaohuang’s right shoulder. His body was sent tumbling backwards, and he landed with a crash. There was an ugly expression on his face as he spat out a mouthful of blood. What terrible luck. His stellular energy vortex was coincidentally located in his right shoulder, and that single punch had dissipated nearly a third of his stellular energy reserves. All of that precious energy had been completely wasted. Even as Qing Shaohuang lamented his fate, a two-headed centipede appeared and slammed into the corpse king.

The two-headed centipede wrapped its body around the corpse king and injected venom into its body, though it was ineffective against this corpse king.

Qing Shaohuang panted heavily. His stellular energy reserves were being rapidly depleted.

A good distance away, the Expeditionary Forces’ soldiers were constantly dropping. Explorers, Cruisers, and Hunters died one after another as they struggled to their dying breaths against the corpse kings. This was just a single, small corner of the entire battlefield that had broken out in the Starfall Sea. A bit further away, countless Imprinters were dying. There were bursts of intense light and heat from exploding spaceships that created a constant flicker and scattered shrapnel across the battlefield. Technological might had little effect on a battle of this scale, but each explosion meant the deaths of everyone who had been aboard the spaceship.

A veritable sea of corpses had gathered in space, and it was rapidly growing.

Gray-white beams slashed across the sky. This was Xi Gu's final attack. The beams pierced through an Envoy-level corpse king’s body, but it still failed to kill it.

The corpse king moved forward, and two enormous hands closed around Xi Gu's body. They proceeded to violently pull the man apart.

Xi Gu screamed in agony. Soldiers from the Expeditionary Forces immediately roared and charged forward to save their commander, but all of their attempts were futile. Without stellular energy, Xi Gu was as weak as a child before the corpse king, and his body was easily torn in two.

Qing Shaohuang's face grew deathly pale. His mouth went dry, and his breathing became ragged.

He was unafraid of death, but dying in this place? In that fashion? It was simply not worth it.

After painstakingly cultivating for so many years, the last way Qing Shaohuang wanted to die was from a lack of stellular energy.

The two-headed centipede screeched, and the corpse king’s body was torn apart. Qing Shaohuang gritted his teeth, turned around, and fled. He refused to die on this battlefield.

While the man wanted to leave, his opponent had no intentions of allowing the human to escape. Its gray eyes turned green, and its physical strength increased another tenfold. This time, the creature’s speed was boosted as well, and less than a second passed when it appeared just inches in front of Qing Shaohuang. The man’s heart skipped a beat as pure terror overcame him. The last thing he saw was a pair of disturbing green eyes. Before he could even react, his abdomen was skewered through, and his head was shattered. His lifeless body motionlessly drifted through space.

The corpse king did not hesitate to look for its next target.

After the corpse king left, the pieces of Qing Shaohuang’s head mysteriously joined back together, and life returned to his dead body. This was the result of his Life-Prolonging Butterfly. Fortunately for him, the corpse king had not destroyed the stellular energy vortex within Qing Shaohuang’s shoulder, which gave him the opportunity to escape. He needed to get away from this battlefield.

As soon as Qing Shaohuang started to move, his head was separated from his body again. A slash swept across the true universe, indiscriminately cutting through everything in its path. Cultivators, corpse kings, and stars were all sliced apart, and Qing Shaohuang was no exception.

The Life-Prolonging Butterfly was able to grant a person an extra life, but even that was not enough to allow Qing Shaohuang to escape death on this battlefield.

This battlefield was nothing more than the tip of the iceberg in the entire war. Countless lives had already been extinguished, and more were constantly being reaped. Across the Fifth and Sixth Mainlands, Envoys died with every passing moment, further reducing humanity’s strength.

Despite humanity’s best efforts, they were not able to make the slightest dent in the number of corpse kings.

On the border of the Technocracy, Lu Yin and many others retreated under the protection of Bai Laogui. In front of them, Bai Laogui fought against two Semi-Progenitor-level corpse kings.

This was Lu Yin’s first time seeing a Semi-Progenitor-level corpse king aside from the Seven Skygods or the Twelve Marquises. Just how many powerhouses did Aeternus possess?

Bai Laogui was unable to defend against the two corpse kings’ attacks. One had already used a Green Eyed Transformation, and if it was able to transform just one more time, Bai Laogui knew that he would be done for.

Lu Yin had not expected things to turn out in such a manner. Aeternus had launched a full-scale invasion. Was there any hope for humanity at all?

Ni Huang arrived, and when he did, a giant beast with the strength of a Semi-Progenitor also appeared off in the distance. The creature then let out a roar that transformed all of the stars in the region. Space itself changed from black to gold.

"Everyone, move further back!” Wang Shang screamed in warning as he led a group of the Perennial World’s army to retreat towards the Technocracy.

“Elder, where are we going? " someone asked.

Wang Shang’s tone was grave, "We’re retreating to the Perennial World right away."

Lu Yin was taken aback, and he reflexively asked, "What about this place?"

Wang Shang shot a sideways glance at the youth asking more questions. "No matter what happens here, it’s the Forsaken Land’s business. We won’t stick around to die.”

Lu Yin's face was gloomy as he peered into the distance. While he had no idea just how many corpse kings had flooded into the Fifth Mainland, Arch-Elder Zen and other Semi-Progenitors from the Fifth Mainland had not arrived to deal with these Semi-Progenitor corpse kings, which meant that they were currently preoccupied elsewhere. This also meant that Ni Huang and the others staying in the Fifth Mainland would be of great help to Arch-Elder Zen, as the Perennial World’s Semi-Progenitors could relieve a bit of Aeternus’s pressure on the Fifth Mainland. If the Perennial World’s forces left, the Fifth Mainland would be placed in grave danger.

The Sixth Mainland only had three Semi-Progenitors, and the Astral Beast Domain could not be counted on for help.

No, Lu Yin could not let Ni Huang and the others from the Perennial World leave.

Wang Shang moved behind the rest of the retreating army to help block any approaching corpse kings. They were already quite close to the Technocracy, which the corpse kings had no intentions of invading, which made the Perennial World’s forces quite safe.

Lu Yin called Wang Wen on his gadget, and he soon heard an excited voice. "Your Highness! You’re finally back! There’s trouble—I just received word that the Starfall Sea has been breached and that Aeternus has launched an all-out invasion."

Lu Yin’s voice was low. "I know. Assemble all of the Great Eastern Alliance troops right now and have them return to Blazing Mist Flowzone."

"The army was gathered a long time ago as we were preparing to deal with the Perennial World’s army. Wei Rong fomented enmity between a bunch of different groups and the four ruling powers, but all those efforts have been in vain." Wang Wen sounded helpless.

"How are things going at the Tower of the Fifth?"

“I’ve been in contact with them. Things are stable there for now, but everything depends on whether or not the defenses in the Starfall Sea can hold off Aeternus’s invasion."

Unfortunately, that was quite unlikely. Since Aeternus was attacking in full force and had even decided to use those droplets to absorb stellular energy, there was no way that they would give up easily.

Lu Yin had no time to casually chat with Wang Wen, and he quickly moved on to call Ming Yan. "Yan'er, get to Blazing Mist Flowzone right now!"

“Brother Lu, I understand," Ming Yan replied without any hesitation. She was clear on just how serious the situation was. "By the way, Brother Lu, there are Semi-Progenitors fighting here."

Lu Yin was thrown for an emotional loop, and he was instantly overcome with worry. "Are you alright? Hurry up and get out of there!"

“Mmhmm. Don't worry, I'm fine, and I’m about to leave."

Lu Yin hung up. Sure enough, the full strength of the Seven Skygods and the new Semi-Progenitor corpse king that had just appeared had given Aeternus more than enough strength to overpower the Human Domain’s Semi-Progenitors. If Ni Huang and the Perennial World’s forces left, the power balance would be broken. No matter what, Lu Yin could not allow Ni Huang and the others to leave the battlefield.

This was a catastrophe facing all of humanity, not just the Fifth Mainland.

The four ruling powers had formed an entire army just to kill Lu Yin, so he fully intended to use that army to deal with Aeternus.

Lu Yin sent a message to Arch-Elder Zen and Kui Luo before his eyes swept across the numerous spaceships carrying the invasion army. He clenched his fists. Sorry in advance, but we’re going down together!

“Fatty Wang, get over here and get me some water!" someone from the Wang family ordered.

The entire army looked quite relaxed. None of them cared about the Fifth Mainland’s plight in the slightest. If not for the fact that Lu Yin had fled to the Fifth Mainland, none of these people would ever have even known that a place called the Forsaken Land existed. As the name suggested, it was a place that had been completely abandoned long ago.

Lu Yin plastered a smile on his face. "Got it."

He approached the person and poured him a glass of water.

"Not bad. Get some water for my brothers," the man ordered. The distance between the ships and the Technocracy was constantly shrinking.

Lu Yin said, "I'll go get Elder some first."

"Yo, smart call. Get moving."

Lu Yin approached one of the Wang family’s elders. This man was the strongest elder present, after Wang Shang. He was a three-tribulation Envoy.

The elder furrowed his brow and impatiently snapped, "I don’t need water! Scram!"

Lu Yin continued over to the elder’s side. "Elder, do you hate Lu Xiaoxuan?"

Everyone who overheard Lu Yin’s words looked at him oddly. No one could understand why Wang Dashuai would ask such a question at this moment.

The elder looked over in confusion as well. "Why would you ask that?"

Lu Yin smiled. "Because your answer will decide how much strength this junior uses."

"What?" The elder was completely confused. Suddenly, Lu Yin vanished, and the elder lost consciousness.

Wang Shang was the rear-guard, which made this three-tribulation Envoy the most powerful expert within the spaceship, but he was easily dealt with by Lu Yin. Right after that, Lu Yin knocked out the rest of the members of the Wang family who were on the vessel and tossed them all onto Zenith Mountain.

Wang Dashuai stared blankly at a person who had fallen right in front of him. "E- elder?"

After the elder, one person after another fell down onto Zenith Mountain like rain. Every single person was someone from the Wang family.

Liu Shaoge was dumbfounded. Had Lu Yin lost his mind? Just what was he doing?

No one could understand Lu Yin’s intentions, and all they could do was stare slack-jawed at the sky.