Chapter 1050: A Full-Scale Darkborn Invasion

In a distant forest outside Yongding, one shrouded in mist, remote and eerily quiet, a silver moon the size of a fingertip gently landed on a blade of grass and stared intently in Yongding's direction.

"Another nine-colored tree? Ha! It'll be mine soon enough. Xiao Nanfeng, you can only blame yourself for being too greedy. You wanted to advance your physical body and forge a new path that none have ever walked before—but one misstep, and you'll fall into an abyss. Absorbing my physical body came at a price. When the time comes, everything you have will be mine, haha!" The Superior laughed out loud.

She stared at the distant nine-colored tree, her eyes filled with greed. After a moment, she turned her gaze to the sky.

"And the three Qings have set up a barrier to obscure the interior of the planet. My subordinates must have arrived," the Superior murmured. "But how timid they've become after a few hundred thousand years..."

She could guess her subordinates' concerns, and although she was unhappy, there was little she could do.

Half a year later, the silver moon, which had been lying dormant beneath the blade of grass, suddenly opened her eyes.

"They're here!" The silver moon leapt up onto the blade of grass in excitement.

Golden beams descended from the sky, striking the ground with a deafening crash. Rocks and soil flew into the air and caused the entire planet to tremble violently.

"They're bombarding the planet with stellar cannons? Don't they know I'm trapped here? What if I get hurt? Damn them!" the Superior gritted out.

At the same time, within their three illusory realms, the three Qing Grandmasters opened their eyes.

The Taiqing Grandmaster looked up at the sky. "They're here."

"Let's go and meet them," the Yuqing Grandmaster suggested.

The Shangqing Grandmaster nodded. "Very well!"

Though the three Qing Grandmasters were in different locations, they could communicate across space as if they were together.

They stepped out of their respective illusory realms and vanished, reappearing in the void beyond the heavens.

In Yongding, news of the attack reached the Heavenly Emperor's palace immediately. Countless soldiers and officials quickly gathered.

The six empresses also emerged from their palaces and looked up at the sky.

Wen Zhong was the first to speak. "Greetings, Empresses. A powerful beam of light struck the Eastern Sea, causing a massive tsunami."

The women frowned. Finally, Madam Rouge spoke up. "My husband is in seclusion. No one is to disturb him. Following his prior arrangements, send people to investigate and monitor the skies around the planet. Report any information immediately. We shall decide how to proceed."

"Understood!" everyone replied.

At that moment, despite their desire to see what was happening in the depths of space, the women held back. Their priority was to protect Xiao Nanfeng.

Beyond the heavens, the three Qing Grandmasters appeared out of nowhere in an instant. They stood in the void, watching as eighteen massive starships approached. Outside each starship stood a Darkborn, their auras as powerful as Sibyl's had been. Behind them, over twenty thousand sandworms floated, their tentacles waving menacingly and their killing intent palpable as they stood obediently behind the eighteen Darkborn.

The golden beams that had struck earlier had been fired from these starships' stellar cannons.

A horned Darkborn man stepped forward, sneering. "The three grandmasters, are you?"

The Yuqing Grandmaster frowned. "You know of us?"

"I've seen footage of your fight against Sibyl. Impressive talent, to have reached the Stellar realm on a dying planet. You're quite remarkable."

"What do you want?" the Yuqing Grandmaster demanded.

The horned man smiled. "I'll give you a chance. Submit to me, and I'll spare your lives."

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The other Darkborn laughed. They knew the horned man wasn't serious about recruiting the three Qing Grandmasters—he was mocking and provoking them. They had seen footage of the three Qing Grandmasters in action and wouldn't underestimate them. Even if they were confident in their ability to suppress the three Qing Grandmasters, they wanted to maximize their advantage.

The Yuqing Grandmaster retorted, "Should a bunch of walking corpses like you really be so arrogant?"

The horned man shook his head. "You're digging your own graves."

The eighteen starships behind him turned. The stellar cannons on each ship glowed with golden light and aimed at the three Qing Grandmasters.

"Do you really think your stellar cannons can lock onto us?" the Yuqing Grandmaster asked.

The three Qing Grandmasters vanished from their spots as they charged toward the starships, intending to destroy them all.

The horned man's eyes turned cold. "Kill them!"

Three Darkborn rushed toward the three Qing Grandmasters, who each threw a punch. Their fists collided with a deafening crash, creating a shockwave that sent flames erupting in all directions and engulfing the area.

The three Darkborn were sent flying, no match for the three Qing Grandmasters.

"Impossible!"

"Have the three Qing Grandmasters grown stronger?"

"In the footage, weren't they about as strong as Sibyl was? How did they grow so much more powerful so quickly?"

"Dam it, stop them!"

The Darkborn all cried out in shock.

Nine more charged forward, each throwing a punch at the three Qing Grandmasters. Three against one, their fists radiated with dazzling light, overwhelming power, and unstoppable momentum.

The three Qing Grandmasters' eyes turned cold. They each defended themselves with a punch.

The fists collided with another deafening crash, creating another explosion of flames that engulfed everyone. The immense force sent the three Qing Grandmasters flying, as well as the nine Darkborn they fought.

This time, all the Darkborn widened their eyes in shock.

"The three Qing Grandmasters are at least thrice as strong as they were in that footage."

"What? How did they manage such a feat in such a short period of time?"

"Something's wrong."

The Darkborn all cried out in shock.

At that point, the eighteen starships had stopped trying to lock onto the three Qing Grandmasters. Given their capabilities, unless they caught the three Qing Grandmasters off guard, they could hardly land a hit.

With a whoosh, under the command of a Darkborn, the starships quickly retreated into the depths of space.

The Darkborn starships were extremely valuable, and the Darkborn didn't want the three Qing Grandmasters to destroy them.

Then, all eighteen Darkborn surrounded the grandmasters.

The horned man sniffed. "Good thing we came prepared. If we had attacked earlier, we might really have been in trouble—but now, even if you've gotten stronger, it's all useless. Prepare to become my specimens."

The eighteen Darkborn each released a violent aura as they summoned their world trees. The eighteen silver trees drew in vast amounts of cosmic energy from the void, which poured into their bodies.

The Taiqing Grandmaster murmured, "We'll be able to take on six of them each, won't we?"

The Shangqing Grandmaster smiled. "Let's try it and see. I haven't had a chance to test out my newfound strength just yet, so this is perfect."

The Yuqing Grandmaster nodded as well. "Six against one won't be a problem, but those Darkborn have plenty of sandworm subordinates. Will Dazheng be able to stop them?"

The Taiqing Grandmaster nodded. "We can leave those sandworms to Xiao Nanfeng."

"Agreed," the other two grandmasters nodded.

The three Qing Grandmasters released their auras simultaneously as they summoned their own world trees.

A red, blue, and purple world tree appeared behind their backs, glimmering with golden light.

They drew in dark energy from the cosmos like whales feeding in the sea. In an instant, the three world trees radiated with intense light that illuminated the void and suppressed the other eighteen.

The Darkborn turned grim. The horned man frowned. "Something's wrong. Their world trees are different from the ones we saw in the footage. The speed at which they're absorbing cosmic energy—it's even faster than our own!"

Another Darkborn added, "I sense the aura of the golden tree in their world trees, too. The essence is different, but the sensation is startlingly similar."

The horned man replied coldly, "It doesn't matter if it's similar or not. We'll kill them, capture their souls, and interrogate them slowly."

"Understood!" the Darkborn responded.

The eighteen Darkborn, each wielding divine weapons, charged toward the three Qing Grandmasters, whose eyes turned cold as they too stepped forward.

The Shangqing Grandmaster waved his hand. Four giant blue swords slashed toward four of the Darkborn. The attacks collided in a massive explosion of flames. Then, the Shangqing Grandmaster unleashed two more waves of swords to block the remaining two Darkborn.

The Yuqing Grandmaster waved an arm, manifesting countless purple heart swords that rained down on his six Darkborn like a storm. A sea of flames formed around them.

The Taiqing Grandmaster flicked his horsetail whisk, releasing flames of black and white that formed a storm of yin and yang energy. The six Darkborn were all trapped within. With a deafening crash, the attacks collided to create a massive storm in an endless sea of fire.

The three Qing Grandmasters fought off the eighteen Darkborn in a fierce battle. The Darkborn were horrified by how strong the grandmasters had gotten.

"How did they become so strong so quickly?"

"What happened? They were only about as strong as we were in the footage!"

"This can't be real!"

The Darkborn all cried out in shock.

Nearby, the sandworms also looked on in terror. The battle between the three Qing Grandmasters and the Darkborn was so intense that even they couldn't intervene. They hadn't expected to find such powerful beings in this remote star system.

At that moment, they heard a command in their ears.

"Attack the planet, now! Kill them all!"

The command was faint, but the sandworms easily recognized the voice as belonging to one of the Darkborn.

"Understood!" all the sandworms responded.

"Die!"

With a roar, they stirred up a sandstorm as they flooded toward the nearby planet.