With the Tianxing City alliance formed, invisible beacon fires spread from this giant city to every corner of the three realms. The war machine, under the threat of impending catastrophe, ran at unprecedented efficiency.
The news that Tang Xiaoqi had been elected Vice-Commander of the Three Realms Sky-Patrol Alliance, actually holding the command authority over the allied forces, spread like a heart-strengthening tonic, rapidly stabilizing the panicking masses. Qingxu Temple Master, True Lord of Purification, Nascent Soul powerhouse, repeated smiter of the demonic entity... this string of titles and deeds made him the most dazzling beacon in the chaos and darkness. Orders radiated outward like a spider's web through specially crafted communication formations, swift flying boat messengers, and secret techniques of various races.
Within human territory, major sects and aristocratic families opened their long-sealed treasure vaults. Massive amounts of spirit stones, pills, talismans, and magical artifacts were loaded onto transport flying boats and escorted by elite disciples, forming streams of light that rushed toward the southwest. The Central State Imperial Court went all out, conscripting a million-strong cultivator army (including a large number of low-level cultivators and martial artists), with the respected Imperial Uncle personally commanding the central camp and coordinating all parties.
From the depths of Ten Thousand Demon Valley, mournful yet majestic horns sounded. Countless demon beasts emerged from forests, marshes, and deserts. Great demons who had taken human form rode demonic winds, while those not yet transformed thundered across the land. The Golden-Winged Peng King displayed astonishing organizational ability, forcibly integrating demon beast tribes of vastly different habits who had even been hostile to each other, dividing them into different combat divisions—lions, tigers, and bears as the vanguard; eagles, hawks, and phoenixes for reconnaissance; foxes, snakes, and insects for covert operations—sweeping forward in great force, demonic energy, darkening the sky as they came.
The four seas churned with dragon roars echoing across the waves. Led by the East Sea Dragon Palace, the South Sea, West Sea, and North Sea dragon clans mobilized all elite aquatic forces. Shrimp soldiers and crab generals formed the Mysterious Water Great Formation, patrol sea Yakshas commanded mighty waves, flood dragons rose to summon clouds and rain, and even primordial species like giant whales and mystic turtles surfaced from the depths, carrying vast quantities of aquatic supplies and warriors, traveling upstream through rivers and lakes straight toward the continent's southwest. Crown Prince Ao Qin led from the front, commanding the overall situation.
Beyond these three main forces, some hidden sects, rogue cultivator powerhouses, and even certain neutral foreign races, sensing the ever-closer demonic catastrophe threat and the initial displays of unity by the Three Realms Alliance, also sent representatives or directly joined the allied forces, contributing their share.
In just half a month, bounded by a thousand li around the outer perimeter of Ten Thousand Poison Marsh, a vast stretch of barren mountains and marshland that had seen few visitors now gathered into a boundless sea of military camps!
Banners fluttered, blocking out the sun. Human standard banners, demon beast tribal totems, aquatic wave insignias, and all manner of other flags mixed together, forming an unprecedented, somewhat chaotic yet heroic and tragic tapestry.
Countless powerful auras converged and clashed here—spiritual energy, demonic energy, and water elemental forces intermingled, causing this sky to perpetually display a twisted halo. The sounds of hubbub, commands, beast roars, and waves never ceased day or night. The air was filled with tension, solemn killership, and a desperate resolve to burn the boats.
Tang Xiaoqi did not command from a comfortable central war tent. He led by example, personally surveying the terrain, discussing day and night with the Imperial Uncle, the Golden-Winged Peng King, Crown Prince Ao Qin, and formation masters from all sides. In the end, they selected an arc-shaped zone relying on naturally rugged mountain terrain and several major water veins to serve as the first and most important line of defense against the demonic disaster.
This line of defense was named—"Watchtower Bastion"!
Taken from the meaning "watching over each other, jointly resisting the demonic catastrophe."
The construction of the bastion was the most magnificent feat in the history of cultivation.
Human cultivators were responsible for arranging the core formations and building large defensive structures. Countless earth and metal element cultivators worked together, moving mountains and filling valleys, connecting peaks, constructing towering thousand-zhang walls covered in runes. Formation masters worked round the clock, carving formation patterns, linking earth veins, laying down layers upon layers of killing formations, illusion formations, trapping formations, and defensive formations.
The demon beasts, relying on their sturdy physiques and affinity for earth and forests, were responsible for clearing demonic creatures from the periphery, reinforcing mountain bodies, digging traps, and laying countless dangerous natural barriers and demon beast-specific curse totems in the vast area before the bastion.
The aquatic forces mainly relied on the major rivers and underground waterways flowing through the area, constructing water elemental defense lines. They drew upon water vein power to form massive water curtain barriers, purifying water sources corrupted by demonic energy, and standing ready to sweep away any demons attempting to cross the defense line with catastrophic floods.
Xiao Qi personally took action, using his own Green Lotus source power as the core, combined with the Four Symbols Soul Crystal's power, to establish several massive "World-Purifying Lotus Thrones" at crucial nodes of the bastion. These thrones constantly emitted gentle purification halos, not only dispelling the thin demonic energy drifting over and stabilizing allied cultivators' hearts, but also dealing sustained damage to low-level demons, becoming the most dazzling and reassuring symbol of the "Watchtower Bastion."
Every day he patrolled the long defensive line. Wherever he passed, whether human cultivators, demon beast warriors, or aquatic soldiers, all cast reverent or even fanatical gazes upon him. Sometimes he stopped to dispel demonic energy from injured cultivators; sometimes he pointed out oversights in formation arrangements; sometimes he discussed coordination tactics with demon beast leaders; sometimes he consulted with aquatic generals on water vein defense details.
His presence, his calm yet resolute aura, and his unsparing dissemination of purification power acted like the most effective adhesive, gradually this massive allied force composed of complex elements that still had barriers and friction between them.
The commander, the Central State Imperial Uncle, mainly handled logistics coordination and navigating relations between all sides, fully entrusting actual combat command to Xiao Qi. The Golden-Winged Peng King and Crown Prince Ao Qin also tacitly accepted his command-centered system.
Through countless people working tirelessly day and night, a thousand-li-long magnificent bastion integrating the wisdom and power of humans, demon beasts, and aquatic races, gleaming with rune light, totem power, and water elemental radiance, rose from the ground at an astonishing speed!
It lay coiled like a sleeping dragon outside Ten Thousand Poison Marsh, firmly blocking that ever-expanding darkness and destructive aura!
The "Watchtower Bastion," initially formed!
Although everyone knew that this seemingly sturdy bastion might still be fragile before the true demonic tide approaching, it at least represented the determination to resist and the will of three-realm creatures unwilling to sit and await death!
Upon the bastion, Tang Xiaoqi stood against the wind, his blue robes billowing. He gazed toward that pillar of demonic energy connecting heaven and earth in the distance, growing ever more violent, felt the solid touch of the bastion beneath his feet, and sensed behind him those countless gazes mixed with hope, trust, and resolve.
He knew the storm was coming.
And he and this hastily assembled Three Realms allied force would be the first, and perhaps last, dam to greet this storm.
He gently stroked the seemingly ordinary yet secretly profound frying pan at his waist, his gaze sharp as a blade.
"Come then," he silently thought in his heart.