Chapter 1005: The Strength of the Heavens

The four continents shook. The sounds of battle echoed across the entire world.

Xiao Nanfeng had arranged for his subordinates to announce the news to the world. The four empires of Dazheng's alliance received the news first, but notices were sent to other empires as well. The new heavens had arrived.

All of humanity was thrown into a state of fear. Everyone dropped what they were doing and waited anxiously for the outcome of this great battle.

At that moment, the horned representative of the heavens seated in a starship, watching the fight unfold, didn't seem to care about whether the sandworms lived or died. He was focused on searching for any hidden cultivators. Yu Fuli had slain Sathia. Could there be other cultivators as strong as Yu Fuli lying in wait for him?

The eighteen sandworm kings were all immensely powerful and capable of wielding the power of their world trees. However, their opponents were no less formidable. Xiao Nanfeng and thirteen supreme cultivators each took on one sandworm king, while the remaining four were held in check by other strong combatants.

"Die!" Madam Rouge shouted.

An endless flurry of peach blossoms shot out of her peachwood sword, interspersed with mirrored light. With a thunderous boom, she became the first to decapitate a sandworm king.

"King!" cried the sandworms in alarm.

"It's dead? That woman's strength is terrifying," the saints' avatars exclaimed.

"Die!" "Die!" "Die!"

In turn, the Divine Emperor, Liu Miaoyin, the Dragon King of the Northern Sea, the Immortal Emperor of Daru, and other supreme cultivators slew their respective sandworm kings as well.

Meanwhile, Yan Zhenhuo, Croak, Warble, the twelve golden cultivators, and Ao Zhou were among those taking on the masses of ordinary sandworms.

As their numbers dwindled, the tide of the battle shifted. Before long, nearly half of the sandworms had been exterminated.

Xiao Nanfeng relaxed. His fight had gotten easier. After Madam Rouge, the Divine Emperor, and Liu Miaoyin defeated their respective opponents, they immediately came to assist Xiao Nanfeng. Facing the combined assault of the three women, the sandworm king despaired and roared, "You're all shameless!"

In the starship beyond the heavens, the horned man eyed Xiao Nanfeng. "He must have been a reborn hegemon as well. But he's still far too weak—he mustn't have had time to grow."

"Lord, the sandworm kings are being slain one after the other. Things aren't going well for us!" one of the saints' avatars exclaimed.

The horned man frowned, his expression icy. "As expected, these experimental subjects are useless failures."

The saints didn't understand what he meant, but the situation on the battlefield was clear.

"What should we do now?" one of them asked in worry.

The horned man frowned. He was waiting for the sandworms to force the strongest cultivators on the world to show themselves, but that clearly wasn't going to happen.

"Let's go. Follow me down," the horned man finally decided.

"Understood!" The saints' eyes lit up with excitement.

They had been waiting for this moment. To them, the heavens were invincible, existences that had dominated countless eras. The world's hegemons were mere ants before the heavens. Only Yu Fuli had managed to take down one heavenly representative, but he was an anomaly. With Yu Fuli gone, who could hope to challenge the heavens?

The cultivators streamed out of the starship and descended from outer space.

Back on the battlefield, though the majority of the sandworms had been slain, they showed no fear of death. They continued to fight relentlessly, leading to severe casualties among the world's strongest. Even Ao Zhou had been heavily injured. If Croak and Warble hadn't risked their own lives to save him, he would already have been slain by a sandworm.

Even so, regardless of how fiercely the sandworms fought, their leaders had been killed. The cultivators of the world had gained the upper hand.

One by one, the sandworms exploded. Their numbers dwindled to one third of their original force. They had been utterly suppressed.

"Lord!" Suddenly, a sandworm cried out in delight.

Everyone stopped fighting, their faces pale. A chilling sense of impending doom gripped them. They looked up to the sky.

A group of figures stood in the air. Behind them were Tang and the saints' avatars, all deferential behind a horned man at the forefront. The aura emanating from this man spread fear into everyone's hearts, as if death itself loomed over them.

"Lord!" the sandworms cheered reverently.

"Be careful. That's the new heavens! I died at his hands back in the day," the Dragon King of the Northern Sea warned urgently.

He instantly recognized the horned man's aura, although his appearance was different from before.

"The new heavens?" Everyone's faces turned grim.

The horned man gazed coldly at the cultivators from above, his eyes devoid of emotion, as if he were observing nothing more than ants. A murderous aura emanated from him, threatening all who dared make a move.

Everyone quickly retreated, clustering together for a semblance of safety. The sandworms flew up into the air, respectfully surrounding the horned man.

Tension rose once more. Everyone knew that the new heavens would be strong, but not how strong.

The Dragon King of the Northern Sea strode forward. "When we first fought, I didn't wield a world tree. Things are different now. I shall test your might!"

His words weren't just a challenge to the horned man, but also a reassurance to the others that he was willing to take the lead.

The horned man stared down at him coldly. He didn't seem concerned about the world tree that had appeared behind the Dragon King.

Power surged from the world tree into the Dragon King, bolstering his strength. A fearsome aura enveloped him.

"Die!" the Dragon King roared, wielding a massive blade that cleaved through the void with devastating power. This strike, fueled by all his strength and the full force of the world tree, seemed unstoppable. The remaining sandworms quivered; even the saints' avatars were shaken by the force of the blow.

The attack closed in on the horned man, who remained unmoved. He had no intention of dodging the blow. He extended his right index finger and met the attack with a touch.

The blade stopped against his fingertip, unable to advance further. The sheer force of the collision created a massive hemispherical void, with the flat side to the horned man. The void seemed preternaturally stable around him; there weren't even any shockwaves from the impact on his side.

A single finger had blocked the Dragon King's strongest attack...

"How can this be?" Many cultivators ere horrified at the sight.

Even the strongest among them weren't confident that they would be able to block such an attack, but the horned man had done so with just a single finger.

The Dragon King of the Northern Sea was equally shocked, but refused to relent. "World Tree, I invoke your strength!"

The world tree behind him trembled, channeling even more energy into his attack. The blade's brilliance intensified, and its power soared.

But the horned man's finger didn't even budge.

The horned man gave the Dragon King a cruel smile. He reached out and shattered the attack with an open palm, then directly gripped the Dragon King's blade.

"What?!" The Dragon King's eyes widened in alarm.

A sudden burst of power exploded from the blade, forcing the Dragon King to loosen his grip. The horned man claimed his weapon, then stabbed it into the Dragon King's forehead.

The Dragon King's body went limp as he was flung backwards, lifeless. His aura dissipated and the world tree vanished.

Everyone gasped. The horned man, this representative of the heavens, had stopped a full-strength strike with just one finger, disarmed the Dragon King, and killed him in a single, clean motion.

Everything had happened in the blink of an eye. How were they supposed to fight this monstrosity?

"Charge forward together!" one supreme cultivator roared.

"Agreed!" others shouted.

They rushed toward the horned man from all sides.

The horned man smirked. He raised his hand. Countless grains of sand appeared around him, swirling like a storm. The sand formed a tornado that tore through the void, striking everyone in its path.

"A sandstorm's wrath..." the sandworm kings exclaimed in shock.

The sandstorm struck the cultivators at the forefront.

"No!" one screamed, his defenses shattered and his body torn apart by the storm of sand. He exploded in a shower of blood.

"No!" "No!" "No!"

One fighter after another fell, consumed by the sandstorm's wrath. Nothing but sprays of blood remained in its wake.

Even two of the supreme cultivators who wielded world trees were unable to advance. All they could do was channel their world trees' might into their defenses, but the sandstorm was overwhelming. It churned through even the void. The two supreme cultivators only lasted for a few short moments before they too were destroyed. The world trees behind them dissipated.

None of the cultivators had survived the initial onslaught. One technique alone had finished them all off.

The sandstorm slowly died down.

The cultivators who had avoided that initial attack shivered in fear. Despair swept through them.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

How were they supposed to take on the heavens? It was futile, all futile!