Translator: CinderTL
Hong Guang, Hong Tu, Hong Feng, and the others waited patiently, like seasoned hunters watching for their prey to take the bait.
In the starry sky near the Azure Star Minor Realm, Hong Yan, having received the news, led a contingent of the Hong Clan's elite forces in a full-speed assault on the realm.
Given the Azure Star Minor Realm's considerable strength, boasting nearly a hundred Primordial Spirit cultivators, Hong Yan brought an equal number of his own Primordial Spirit experts to ensure they could seize the Golden Crow Battleship in the initial moments of their surprise attack.
Fortunately, intelligence from the clan revealed that Li Chunjun, whom they had overestimated as possessing Sage-level combat prowess, was absent from the Azure Star Minor Realm and likely en route to the Hong Clan's Lesser Thousand World.
Without this formidable opponent, who was only slightly weaker than Hong Yan himself, the plan to capture the battleship became much simpler.
With the Golden Crow Battleship in their possession, they could advance or retreat at will, even if trapped in the Demon Realm. The initiative would be firmly in their hands.
"In these lawless foreign lands beyond the reach of human laws, who cares if you're some Peerless Prodigy or Sect Young Master?"
A cold smirk played on Hong Yan's lips as he sat aboard the warship. "Your prestigious status won't grant you any extra protection here. In fact, the treasures you might be carrying will only invite disaster upon you!"
In this lawless realm, strength reigns supreme!
The thought of crushing the Star Brilliance First Rank—a figure normally revered by all—beneath his feet, simply by virtue of his superior cultivation, sent a thrill through him.
"If the Golden Crow Battleship weren't more critical than you, the Star Brilliance First Rank, I'd love to drag you back to the Hong Clan's Lesser Thousand World for a proper thrashing. I'd teach you that an undeveloped prodigy is utterly worthless before a true powerhouse!" Hong Yan's smile widened.
He turned to his deputy. "How much longer until we reach the Azure Star Minor Realm?"
"We've already engaged full speed! The estimated time of arrival has been reduced from twenty-two hours to thirteen!" the deputy responded immediately.
"Thirteen hours..."
For the first time, time stretched before Hong Yan like an endless abyss.
If only we could reach the Azure Star Minor Realm sooner.
Just then, red alert sirens began blaring throughout the warship.
"High-energy reaction detected! High-energy reaction detected!"
"A high-energy reaction?" Hong Yan paused, momentarily stunned. "Could it be the Azure Star Minor Realm's autonomous defense system? But that's impossible! We're still thirteen hours away. How could they have locked onto us already?"
Before she could order an investigation into the source of the high-energy reaction, a seven-colored rainbow light streaked across the starry sky ahead with astonishing speed.
The rainbow light's rapid movement manipulated the Void Law, causing layers of its power to stack upon each other and generate an utterly terrifying energy reaction.
The energy alarms on the warship blared as the displayed energy intensity surged from 10.2 to 10.8, then plummeted rapidly as the rainbow light flashed past.
Though the rainbow light didn't appear to be targeting their warship directly, the momentary surge of energy—briefly approaching Void Refining-level intensity—still left Hong Yan drenched in a cold sweat.
After several seconds of stunned silence, the Hong Clan's Heaven's Chosen finally gasped, "A Seventh-Rank lifeform! That's the kind of energy reaction only a Seventh-Rank lifeform could possess! There's a Seventh-Rank lifeform in this sector of space?!"
But then, a sudden realization struck Hong Yan. Her gaze snapped toward the source of the seven-colored rainbow light.
That's... the Azure Star Minor Realm?!
An unbelievable thought surged through her mind, compelling her to turn back and stare at the light's trajectory.
There...
"Miss! It's the Hong Clan!" her adjutant cried out in alarm, unable to contain his panic. "That rainbow light, with energy comparable to a Seventh-Rank lifeform, is heading straight for our ancestral lands! It's like a Stellar Annihilation Cannon firing—a beam piercing billions of miles of starry sky to bombard our home!"
Blue Star?!
The Lesser Thousand World they had always dismissed as weak, home to nothing more than Sage-level Primordial Spirits like Li Chunjun, was launching a Seventh-Rank-level attack against the Hong Clan's ancestral lands?!
A chill ran down Hong Yan's spine.
Forgetting all pretense of being Heaven's Chosen, she roared, "Alert the ancestral lands! Contact the Clan Leader! Deploy full defenses! Bombardment incoming!"
While Hong Yan and the others were gripped by terror, Clan Leader Hong Guang, Hong Tu, and the rest had already received the latest message from Yu Jin aboard the Silver Leaf battleship.
"They've entered the area," Hong Guang announced, relaying the intelligence. "However, they don't plan to rendezvous with us immediately. Upon learning how dire our situation has become, they claim they'll focus on clearing the Heart Demons' primary strongholds first."
"They're afraid!" Hong Tu declared, convinced he had seen through their motives.
"Exactly!" Hong Guang agreed vehemently. "They fear that if our defenses crumble, any reinforcements they send would be trapped in a Heart Demon encirclement with no escape. That's why they want to assess the situation from a safe distance before committing further."
"But Heart Demons are like tenacious leeches—once they latch on, they won't let go!" Hong Guang warned. "No matter where you flee, they'll relentlessly pursue you without relent."
The Hong Clan Leader, a master of Mind Power, chuckled confidently. "Once they arrive, they'll have no choice but to join the fight."
Hong Tu nodded.
The woman added, "Judging by the time, they should be arriving soon. But I wonder..."
Before she could finish, she suddenly felt an overwhelming, indescribable pressure.
It was like the earth-shattering tremor that shook an entire Lesser Thousand World when a colossal meteorite plunged into its atmosphere, or the hypersonic infrasound waves of a cataclysmic earthquake sweeping across the globe.
An unprecedented sense of unease instantly enveloped the minds of the True Monarchs who had cultivated Mind Power.
However, before they could decipher the source of this oppressive, psychic warning, the distant Heavenly Vault erupted in a dazzling display of Seven-Colored Rainbow Light.
"What... what is that?!"
"Such an immense energy reaction..."
Hong Tu and Hong Feng paled dramatically.
Compared to the two True Monarchs, the experienced Patriarch Hong Guang's eyes widened with uncontrollable terror. "A Great Power is unleashing a dao technique..."
His terrified gasp barely escaped his lips before the sky...
was torn asunder by the Seven-Colored Rainbow Light.
Spatial energy, accumulated and layered across billions of miles of starry sky, instantly pierced through the barrier of the Hong Clan's Lesser Thousand World, tearing apart the atmosphere beneath!
Then, the Rainbow Light plunged into the ground like a divine sword hurled from the depths of space, as if determined to pierce through the entire Lesser Thousand World.
The instant the energy and matter collided, a light so intense that even the Solar Essence couldn't rival it erupted from the point of impact.
Since the Rainbow Light had struck only a few hundred miles away, nearly every member of the Hong Clan clearly witnessed this overwhelming brilliance that stole all color from the world.
In that instant, countless Hong Clan members were blinded by the dazzling light, their eyes involuntarily drawn to its overwhelming radiance.
One breath.
Perhaps two.
As the blinding brilliance gradually faded, the Hong Clan finally seemed to recover from the earth-shattering strike that had cleaved through the heavens.
Immediately afterward...
Came the flames!
Blazing skyward, reaching hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of kilometers into the heavens!
And a terrifying shockwave, its power beyond all description!
The shockwave tore the earth apart, creating an immeasurable wall of earth and rock that surged outward like a tidal wave, crashing and rolling in all directions.
Countless colossal boulders and clumps of earth—some weighing hundreds of thousands of tons, others millions, and still others the size of mountains—were ripped from the ground and hurled into the Void, arcing hundreds or even thousands of kilometers into the sky...
Some of these massive fragments were launched beyond the atmosphere, escaping the gravitational pull of the Hong Clan's Lesser Thousand World to become meteoroids, destined to wander the Cosmos indefinitely.
But most of the debris, after reaching such dizzying heights, was pulled back by the realm's gravity. Tracing parabolic paths, they plummeted back to earth, burning fiercely as they collided with the atmosphere.
"A dao technique! A dao technique! A Great Power's dao technique! A Great Power is unleashing a dao technique upon our Hong Clan's Lesser Thousand World!"
Hong Guang trembled uncontrollably, a low moan escaping his lips.
Hong Tu and Hong Feng, jolted awake by the horrifying impact, stared with deathly pale faces.
If their memories served them correctly, that location...
It was precisely where the Hong Clan's middle echelons had gathered and sought refuge!
The direct descendants of the clan's Nascent Soul cultivators and True Monarchs, along with prodigies who had displayed extraordinary talent from a young age, had all been stationed in that area.
On one hand, the region itself served as a fortified sanctuary for the Hong Clan, boasting formidable defenses.
On the other hand, its proximity to the Hong Clan Ancestral Shrine—a mere 1,400 li away—allowed the True Monarchs stationed there to swiftly reinforce the area in case of emergency.
But now...
It was gone.
Completely annihilated.
The heaven-piercing Seven-Colored Rainbow Light had ruthlessly pulverized everything within a radius of hundreds of li, reducing it all to ash and dust.
Whether Core Formation or Nascent Soul cultivators, no living being could have survived within that devastated zone.
Even a True Monarch, as powerful as they were, would have been instantly annihilated if caught within the core of the blast.
The cataclysmic energy surge erupted into a hurricane of apocalyptic proportions, sweeping outward in all directions with unstoppable force. Even the Ancestral Temple, located fourteen hundred li away, was not spared from its fury.
Fortunately, the temple's formidable defenses, bolstered by a Supreme Treasure, held firm against the violent storm, enduring the assault without collapsing.
Yet the sanctuary's security did little to alleviate the agony and terror gripping Hong Guang, Hong Tu, Hong Feng, and the others.
"It's over... our Hong Clan's backbone, our future... it's all gone!"
"How could this happen?! How could this happen?!"
"A Great Power! Where did a Great Power come from?!"
Just then, the Message Jade Talisman on Hong Guang's person began to glow. He glanced at it, his face contorted in anguish, and his expression froze.
In the next instant, an uncontrollable surge of hatred erupted from him, carrying a killing intent so profound that even grinding bones to ash could never quench it. It shot skyward like a dark flame.
"Blue Star! Li Chunjun!"
(End of the Chapter)
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