At the expeditionary army camp,
Spirit Sequence Seven, following the order of the Grand Commander of the Far East Army, the Spirit Sequence Three, assembled one hundred thousand Blood Spirit Guards and began the march toward the Hunting Ground...
Horns blew from the depths of the gloom, their echoes drifting long between heaven and earth.
Banners fluttered and rainbows stretched like curtains.
On that Hunting Ground filled with blood-soaked soil, both dark creatures and the living souls of the Immortal Land were startled by the sight. Some hid themselves, while others turned and fled toward the Spirit River...
A chilling aura of slaughter rippled through the already peril-filled Hunting Ground.
In the darkness,
The Night Hunters whispered among themselves, secretly speculating and analyzing the situation.
"It's the Blood Spirit Army. Why have they been deployed?"
"It seems something major is about to happen at the Immortal-Spirit Boundary."
"What should we do?"
The captain of this Night Hunter squad made an immediate decision. "Retreat for now."
"But we've only harvested this much Black Breath. If we leave now, won't this trip be for nothing?" one Night Hunter said, unwilling to leave.
"What time do you think it is? You're still thinking about Black Breath? Survival is what matters. There are a hundred thousand Blood Spirit Guards out there, and every single one is stronger than you. Do you want money or your life?"
"Uh!"
In an unprecedented move during a time of no active warfare, the Blood Spirit Army left the Far East Great City and marched deep into the Hunting Ground.
Across the Hunting Ground, the forces from both sides of the Spirit River tactfully retreated.
The living souls and dark creatures who had been hunting each other decisively stopped their chasing and killing, hurrying away...
There were complaints,
There were curses,
And there was speculation.
"What the hell is going on..."
"What bad luck."
"Let's go, let's go..."
Even dark creatures dared not linger when they saw the figures of Ancestral Spirit stage powerhouses streaking through the sky...
...
On the eastern bank of the Spirit River, beyond the Hunting Ground, lay the Immortal Land.
Here, the dawn light would always spill down in the morning, and the moon in the night sky would wax and wane.
Right beside that river suspended in the sky,
The living souls of the Immortal Land had also built a city.
Separated only by the river, it stood in long-term confrontation with the Far East Army camp on the other side of the Hunting Ground.
The city was named: Immortal City.
The city used countless towering mountains as its walls, stretching nearly tens of thousands of miles from north to south. It stood level with the suspended river, the two echoing each other from above and below.
On every mountain peak, a high platform was established, complete with barracks, beacon fires, flags, and hidden slaughter formations...
Legend had it,
These mountains were carried here one by one, peak by peak, from extremely distant places by the old monsters of the Immortal Land and piled up here.
Every mountain peak was reinforced with the willpower of Immortal King stage powerhouses.
The mountains were so sturdy that even a full-strength strike from the God Immortal stage might not be able to split them open.
The city stood here,
To ensure that if the suspended river ever failed to hold back the darkness, a final battle to the death would be fought at this place.
The Spirit River was the final barrier of Cangming,
Immortal City was the final shield of the Immortal Land.
If the Spirit River was gone and Immortal City was lost, the hundreds of provinces to the east would be completely exposed to the claws of darkness.
Behind the mountain walls was a residential area stretching thousands of miles. All that could be seen were stone houses, wooden huts, and temporary camps,
It looked like a massive refugee camp.
This place,
Was a melting pot, gathering nearly all the races and beings from across the Immortal Land. Their appearances were as varied as the myriad flowers of spring.
Yet the people inside were by no means refugees; on the contrary, each one was terrifyingly strong.
The weakest among them were at the great ascension or tribulation transcendence stages...
A single palm strike here could kill a crowd of immortals.
Here,
In addition to the legions guarding Immortal City, a group of powerful beings also lived.
They came from all corners of the world, born of the ten thousand races of the Immortal Land. Their strength ranged from the Mortal Immortal to the God Immortal stages, but they all shared the same title.
Night Hunters.
As the name suggested, hunting the night meant hunting the darkness.
And their battlefield was that Hunting Ground.
That place was a trial ground used by the dark creatures to temper their younger generation; the Night Hunters were the whetstones for those youths.
In return, they could also hunt the dark creatures.
Grey Spirits, dark spirits, Small Spirit Lords, and even Great Spirit Lords.
Dark creatures could not be killed,
Their bodies were indestructible and their souls undying,
But they could be refined.
The product of that refining was called "Black Breath."
This substance,
Commanded a high price in the Immortal Land, surpassing even immortal plants and divine herbs. All three great cities of the Immortal Land were willing to buy it back at extremely high prices.
After the darkness overran Cangming, a large number of beings fled to this corner of the Immortal Land.
Land was scarce and the population vast; resources were depleted.
And with the advent of the Dark Era, the chaos of the Great Dao made it even worse.
Furthermore, the cultivation of immortals required a vast amount of resources.
Therefore, many immortal powerhouses, in order to advance further on the path of the Great Dao, were forced to risk their lives crossing the Spirit River to enter the Hunting Ground and obtain Black Breath.
They would exchange it for more spirit stones, immortal plants, and divine herbs for their cultivation.
Over time, the Night Hunters were born.
Today, at this hour,
The large numbers of Night Hunters flooding back from the Hunting Ground into Immortal City naturally alarmed the entire city.
Upon hearing the commotion, the high-ranking officials of Immortal City all climbed the beacon towers. Their divine senses pierced through the light of the Spirit River as they gazed toward the grey world beyond.
On a certain mountain peak, three people stood at this moment, their auras profound and their eyes fixed on the world outside.
One was a golden-clad, golden-haired girl with a pair of golden wings on her back and a graceful figure—an angel-like girl.
One had a human face and a beast's body. The human face had thick eyebrows and large eyes, with swaying blood-red hair, looking exceptionally fierce. His upper body had a pair of thick arms and was bare, revealing twelve-pack abs.
His beast body was that of a deer, with four hooves and a tail, covered in grey fur. He also wore no clothes—a man-faced, half-beast, half-demon giant.
The last one looked even stranger,
He resembled an oversized ant standing upright, ten feet tall, with two legs and six arms, and red skin.
He wore a white robe and was bald, but had a white beard and white eyebrows. He was likely an old man who was an ant spirit.
The three stood in position,
The ant-like old man in the center, the golden-haired angel on the right, and the half-beast giant on the left.
The ant-like old man held a cane in one hand, a pipe in another, a bottle of old wine in a third, and stroked his beard with a fourth, while yet another pair of hands was clasped behind his back. Looking at the Night Hunters hurrying back before the city, he asked solemnly, "It's been several centuries, hasn't it?"
The angel-like girl had one hand on her slender waist while the other was raised before her eyes, admiring her long nails. She said, "It's been at least five hundred years."
The ant-like old man took a sip of wine and a puff of smoke. Amidst the swirling clouds of smoke, he added heavily, "Five hundred years of peace, and yet today this happens. They even went as far as deploying the Blood Spirit Army. It's hard to guess why."
The man-faced, beast-bodied man looked boorish and crude, but when he spoke, his voice was as gentle as a spring breeze, making it extremely pleasant to hear. He said slowly, "It matters not. With the Spirit River here, those two lasses won't be able to stir up any trouble."
The other two did not deny it. This was indeed the truth; it had been nearly ten thousand years.
Since this river was suspended here, not a single dark creature had ever set foot on this pure land beneath their feet.
The angel-like girl smiled. "With such a big commotion, this matter certainly isn't small. If we ruin it for them, they'll surely be miserable, won't they?"
The man-faced, beast-bodied man asked knowingly, "You have an idea?"
The angel-like girl said frankly, "Might as well mess with them. I'm bored anyway. I can refine some Black Breath to get some spending money. And if I accidentally refine those two wretched lasses, I'll hit the jackpot, won't I?"
The man-faced, beast-bodied man smiled gently. "That's true, but I fear that once you go, you might never return. That is, after all, the territory of the darkness."
The angel-like girl gave him a resentful look and pouted. "I didn't say I was definitely going."
The man-faced, beast-bodied man chuckled. "Hehe!"
The ant-like old man mediated, "It's better to be cautious in all things. Let's wait and see. Any slight movement might just be a delusion..."
The other two spoke no more, choosing to remain silent!
The situation was unclear.
Whether it was a trap or a scheme, no one could say for sure. Leaving the pass rashly was easy, but returning would be difficult...
The laws of the Spirit River's light did more than just suppress the darkness; they also restricted them.
For those above the Immortal King stage,
Coming and going was extremely difficult!
Rate on N.U.
