The arrival of the Immortal Domain’s reinforcements was like a shot of stimulant injected into a dying patient. Yet the crisis facing the Primordial Ancient Realm was like a noose tightening without end; the pressure from three directions had not eased at all, and on certain battlefields, it had only grown fiercer.
On the northern battlefield of the Fallen Star Sea, under the ferocious assaults of Pan Wang and the Hunyuan Immortal King, the Dark Army’s offensive was temporarily checked.
Though the Shijie Immortal King was powerful, under the combined onslaught of the True Dragon King and the Hunyuan Immortal King, great chunks of dark matter were torn from that rotting body. It let out agonized roars and had no choice but to temporarily shift to the defensive.
It relied on an endless tide of dark creatures to batter the defensive line of the Immortal Ancient allied army.
The battlefront sank into a brutal war of attrition. At every moment, stars were extinguished forever; at every moment, cultivators and dark creatures perished together.
However, just as the northern front was temporarily stabilized, the situation in the west took a sudden turn for the worse!
The Immortal Monk King stationed there already had a shattered golden body and dimmed Buddhist light.
The enemy he faced, the Hunjì Dark Immortal King, was a terrifying existence that specifically targeted the soul, life, and death.
The shadow condensed from billions upon billions of vengeful souls was everywhere. The power of deathly stillness clung like maggots in the bone, constantly eroding the pure land the Immortal Monk King had upheld with Buddhist dharma.
The Immortal Monk King sat cross-legged at the center. His expression had changed from compassion to the wrathful glare of a vajra. What he chanted was no longer gentle scripture, but the “Great Nirvanic Brahma Tone,” imbued with a power of deliverance that allowed no retreat!
Every syllable was like tangible golden thunder, blasting against the shadowy body of the Hunjì Immortal King and detonating masses of twisted black mist formed from resentful souls.
But the Hunjì Immortal King’s power was far too strange. It seemed to have no physical form; though the Immortal Monk King’s attacks could injure it, they could not easily kill it.
Meanwhile, the deathly curse it emitted continuously seeped through the Buddhist light, corroding the Immortal Monk King’s golden body and primordial spirit, both of which were already on the verge of collapse.
“Amitabha…”
The Immortal Monk King felt his life force rapidly draining away, and saw the Buddhist light at the edge of the pure land begin to crumble. A trace of understanding flashed through his eyes.
He knew that he had reached his limit.
He glanced at this land shrouded in deathly stillness, and seemed also to see beyond it—the mountains and rivers of the ancient realm, and its billions of living beings still struggling amid the flames of war.
“If I do not enter hell, who will… Today, with this ruined body, I shall ferry them one more step!”
The Immortal Monk King suddenly pressed his palms together. The Buddhist light around him, once dim and faint, ignited in an instant, erupting with unprecedentedly brilliant golden radiance!
Across his broken golden body, countless fine cracks appeared, and an even vaster, more majestic Buddhist power surged forth from within!
“Sacrifice the self to feed the demon; let the Buddha’s light shine upon all!”
He was actually paying the price of completely burning away his remaining golden body, primordial spirit, and the merit accumulated throughout his life to unleash Buddhism’s ultimate forbidden art!
“Om—ma—ni—pad—me—hum—”
The Six-Syllable Great Bright Mantra transformed into six enormous swastika-shaped true words blazing with golden flame. Like six suns, they slammed violently toward the core of the Hunjì Immortal King!
“No!!!”
For the first time, terror appeared within the Hunjì Immortal King’s ever-indifferent will!
It sensed a fatal threat. Its shadowy body twisted madly, trying to flee into the void, but those six burning swastika true words seemed to have locked onto its origin, ignoring every attempt to evade them!
“Boom!!!!!!”
Ultimate light and ultimate deathly stillness collided within the immortal land!
Golden Buddhist fire and the black tide of vengeful souls annihilated each other!
Blinding radiance illuminated the entire western battlefield, followed immediately by a destructive energy storm that swept away everything!
When the light dispersed, only a vast pit of nothingness remained where they had been, as if it had been completely “purified.”
The Hunjì Immortal King’s enormous shadowy body had already vanished without a trace. Along with most of the deathly army it had brought, it had been reduced to ash beneath the Immortal Monk King’s final strike!
And where the Immortal Monk King had once sat cross-legged, only a dimly gleaming śarīra remained. It slowly fell, sinking into the scorched black earth.
The Buddhist tones dispersed; the Brahma chants fell into eternal silence.
The Immortal Monk King had fallen!
With his final nirvana, he purified the darkness across an entire region, slew a Dark Immortal King, and won the ancient realm a temporary chance to breathe on the western front.
When the news spread, pain pierced the hearts of every cultivator across the battlefields of the ancient realm, before turning into an even more resolute will to fight!
In his own way, the Immortal Monk King had interpreted protection and sacrifice.
In the ancient forests of the east, the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit sensed the tragic yet magnificent Buddhist power fading in the west, and its countless willow branches cried out in sorrow.
Facing that dark ancient tree Immortal King which continuously devoured life force, its offensive grew even fiercer. Emerald divine radiance surged like an ocean of wrath, attempting to annihilate this darkness that blasphemed life.
In the southern Wanhe Abyss, the Foreign Realm army had already torn through the realm wall and was pouring in like a plague!
The Crimson King and Wushang did not personally attack the core. Instead, they commanded the army to frenziedly destroy everything along the way!
Mountains and rivers collapsed, streams were evaporated, and all living beings were plunged into misery!
Like the most vicious hyenas, they specifically targeted the weakest rear regions of the ancient realm’s defenses, creating enormous panic and destruction!
Within the Space-Time Divine Palace, the Wuzhong Immortal King’s face was pale, and a thread of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
On one hand, he had to maintain space-time support for several major battlefields; on the other, he had to dispatch the few remaining reserve forces to intercept the Foreign Realm’s infiltration in the south. His mind and strength were exhausted to the extreme.
The Six Paths of Reincarnation Immortal King was even closer to complete depletion. The light of the Reincarnation Cave flickered uncertainly, as if it might shatter entirely at any moment.
The Primordial Ancient Realm had already shed all its blood and reached the final moment of life and death!
The reinforcements from the Immortal Domain were struggling bitterly in the north. The Immortal Monk King had gone to his death with heroic resolve in the west. The Foreign Realm was wreaking havoc madly in the south. Darkness still watched like a tiger from the east and the north…
Where was hope? Reinforcements… would there still be any?
At this darkest hour, from the direction of the boundless, surging Realm Sea, new, powerful auras finally arrived—sharp-edged and filled with unyielding battle intent!
And there was more than one!
They were the other Immortal Kings who had received the Wuzhong Immortal King’s Dao talismans for aid and hurried over from the depths of the Realm Sea… They had finally arrived!
The first to pierce through the mist of the Realm Sea and descend was a dazzling sword light!
Within the sword light, a figure as straight and upright as a pine appeared. His gaze was like lightning as it swept across the devastated ancient realm, finally landing upon the enormous Dark Army in the north.
“Dark fiends, how dare you run rampant!”
With a clear shout, sword light illuminated billions of li, cleaving straight toward the Shijie Immortal King!
The Realm Sea reinforcements—the first batch had arrived!
The first to arrive was precisely that dazzling sword light!
As the sword light withdrew, it revealed a figure dressed in azure robes, carrying an ancient sword on his back, his face cold and stern as an ice peak.
His eyes were like lightning, his gaze so sharp it seemed capable of piercing the human heart. Around him lingered a supreme sword intent that could sever all things!
It was none other than the one who had become king through the Dao of the sword—the Tianjian Immortal King!
He did not hesitate in the slightest. Bringing two fingers together like a sword, he slashed through the air toward the enormous Shijie Immortal King on the northern Fallen Star Sea battlefield!
A gray, hazy sword qi condensed to the utmost limit, as if composed of countless tiny sword Dao runes, ignored the distance of space and appeared instantly before the rotten stellar core of the Shijie Immortal King!
“Hiss—!”