The battle between the 1st Heaven and the Mountain and Sea Realm was now fully underway. There was no longer a ma.s.sive field of stars stretching out above the heads of the cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm.

Instead, it had been replaced by an enormous land ma.s.s, which was like a roof of black clouds that blanketed everything. In some areas, lightning could even be seen dancing about, and occasional peals of thunder would echo out in all directions. The land ma.s.s stretched out to cover the entire Mountain and Sea Realm, exerting intense pressure down onto it.

Paragons were fighting!

In the starry sky that separated the 1st Heaven and the Mountain and Sea Realm, the 1st Heaven’s Paragon was fighting a Heaven-shaking, Earth-shattering battle of life and death with Paragon Sea Dream.

Paragon Sea Dream wanted to take the fight to the 1st Heaven, whereas the Outsider Paragon wanted the shockwaves of their battle to hit the Mountain and Sea Realm. The fierce fighting between them shattered the starry sky, and caused ma.s.sive winds to sweep through the void.

Daos were shattered, and natural laws destroyed!

Second only to the Paragon battle was the fighting in the Fourth Mountain and Sea, where Ksitigarbha was fighting the Outsider Imperial Lord Mandilo. The Fourth Mountain and Sea was like a sea of flames as rumbling echoed out between the Yama King palaces and the Outsider’s black flames. After converging boundless Joss Flame, Ksitigarbha was on equal footing with the Outsider Imperial Lord!

Of the four most powerful cultivators from the 1st Heaven, two had already been pinned down. Of the other two, the Dao Sovereigns, one had split into five clones in an attempt to kill the great Mountain and Sea Lords. However, to do that was turning out to be easier said than done, and he had also come to find himself in a tight spot.

That left only the golden-armored Dao Sovereign, whose battle with Meng Hao had become one of the pivotal fights in the Mountain and Sea Realm.

At the same time, other Dao Realm experts from the 1st Heaven were fighting the Patriarchs of the various sects and clans of the Mountain and Sea Realm. Fierce fighting was unfolding everywhere, and the battlefields stretched without limit. Furthermore, Outsider Chosen had also joined the fighting, vicious grins on their faces as they fought, with seemingly no one capable of resisting them.

But then the Chosen from the various sects and clans of the Mountain and Sea Realm joined the fray to fight back.

Ma.s.sive booms echoed out, and the Mountains and Seas all shook.

In the First Mountain and Sea, Dao Realm battles were being fought like everywhere else. At the same time, Outsiders and Mountain and Sea cultivators of various cultivation Realms were all engaged in bitter combat. On one battlefield was an Outsider cultivator in a black robe. His skin was covered in black scales, with one white scale visible on his forehead. He had an Ancient Realm cultivation base, and yet his battle prowess put him even higher than that.

“Paragon Immortal Realm? They can’t even stand up to a single blow. If we had known this, we wouldn’t have needed to rely on all 33 Heavens. Our 1st Heaven alone would have been enough to dominate them. And now, the third among the seven bloodlines of the Drakewyrm Tribe, the most powerful bloodline from Drakemount, will definitely acc.u.mulate the most kills in this battle!” No matter where this Outsider Chosen went on the battlefield, no one was capable of fighting back against him, causing his arrogant sneer to widen. However, it was at this point that a white beam of light shot toward him from off in the distance.

“You sure can talk big!” shouted a voice from within the beam of light. A cold snort echoed out as a white-robed young man became visible. It was none other than the Echelon cultivator from the First Mountain, Dao-Heaven. As he neared, he unleashed an explosive attack, causing the Outsider Chosen’s face to flicker and then turn very serious.

On the Second, Third, and Fourth Mountains... in fact, in all of the Mountain and Sea Realm, similar scenes were playing out.

In the Fourth Mountain, the shockwaves blasting out from the battle between Ksitigarbha and the Outsider Imperial Lord filled a wide area. However, there were still Outsiders pouring in to fight with the cultivators of the Fourth Mountain.

Among the army of cultivators from the Fourth Mountain and Sea was a woman who stood there calmly, surrounded by a host of guards, fellow cultivators tasked with protecting her. She was not spectacularly beautiful, but rather, was cold and cheerless. However, starlight sparkled in her eyes as she constantly sent orders out to the forces on all of the fronts of battle in the Fourth Mountain and Sea. She was singlehandedly coordinating the entire war effort, drawing upon the power of the Fourth Mountain and Sea to its very limit.

This woman who was in charge of all the strategy and tactics was none other than... Xu Qing!

Not only did Ksitigarbha have a profound cultivation base, he was also an amazing teacher. After taking Xu Qing in as his apprentice, he had instructed her well, and her cultivation base had advanced by leaps and bounds. Furthermore, she had also revealed unusual talent in strategy and tactics.

In the Seventh Mountain, most of the cultivators had followed the orders of Lord White to invade the Eighth Mountain and Sea. However, some people had chosen not to fight, and among them was the Echelon cultivator Yuwen Jian!

Currently, Yuwen Jian was roaring as he fought madly against the Outsider Chosen who had invaded the Seventh Mountain.

In the Ninth Mountain and Sea, the Fang Clan, the Li Clan, and various other great sects and clans had all mobilized and joined the fighting. Sun Hai and Fang Yu, along with all the other famous Chosen, were all soaked in blood as they fought fierce battles.

As of now, the power of these Chosen was the most spectacular thing in the Mountain and Sea Realm, next to those of the Dao Realm.

Meng Hao’s father was the Clan Chief of the Fang Clan, and yet could not leave Planet South Heaven. However, the planet’s spell formation was in full operation, and any Outsiders who dared encroach upon the area were destroyed.

The war was not going as badly as many people had predicted it would for the Mountain and Sea Realm. In this explosive early onslaught, things were not going smoothly for the 1st Heaven. The power with which the Mountain and Sea Realm was fighting back left the Outsiders completely shocked.

However, any optimism was temporary at best. After all... there were 33 Heavens, and this was merely the power of the 1st Heaven. Of course, the 1st Heaven was among the more powerful of the various 33 Heavens. When you added together all of the Paragons in the 33 Heavens, there were only five. Even still, that made the 33 Heavens shockingly powerful.

Most importantly, although there were only five Paragons, when it came to Dao Realm and Ancient Realm cultivators, the 33 Heavens completely outnumbered the Mountain and Sea Realm by several times, making them far more powerful.

However, the reserves available to the Mountain and Sea Realm were not limited to what could be seen at the moment. After all, the will of the Mountains and Seas, as well as Paragon Sea Dream, had been well aware all along... that the war with the 33 Heavens... was unavoidable!

How could they possibly not make advanced preparations!?

As the fighting broke out, powerful ripples began to spread out from the Three Great Daoist Societies of the Nine Mountains and Seas as they began to build up power!

In addition to all of that, among the 33 Heavens, there was a Realm which was both guarded against and also viewed with importance... the 34th Heaven... the Windswept Realm!

After slipping away from the Mountain and Sea Realm, and thus being freed from the sealing and restrictions there, the Windswept Imperial Lord, the same one who had fought Sea Dream years ago, most definitely would have had the chance... to become a Paragon!

Even as all of these other events were playing out, in the First, Third, and Fifth Mountains, there were three areas which were somewhat set apart from all of the fighting going on around them. Three ancient temples floated in the starry sky. Each one of those temples had a signboard above its main gate, upon which words could be seen, written in calligraphy as bold as dancing dragons and phoenixes.

Sublime Spirit Temple!

Dao Divinity Temple!

Heaven Severing Temple!

Within each of the three temples sat an old man and a young man!

The old men looked like statues, and the young men looked like Chosen!

Within those three temples, the three seemingly young men all began to kowtow to the old men, and then speak.

“The Mountains and Seas are in chaos. Please, begin the fighting!”

“Master, as a first generation Echelon cultivator, I have been sealed until this moment. Master, please remove the seals and allow me to fight!”

“Our Heaven Severing branch exists for the express purpose of fighting this war. Doyen, please remove the seals for me!”

The three old men did not respond. It was as if they... were awaiting further orders.

Within the Ninth Mountain and Sea, on Planet South Heaven, the Li Clan spell formation sent powerful ripples out in all directions. At the same time, on the peak of a distant mountain, an old man in a white robe stood there silently, looking up into the sky at the enormous land ma.s.s that was the 1st Heaven. A strange light flickered in his eyes.

“And thus the war begins....” he murmured. That old man was none other than Shui Dongliu.

**

Rumbling sounds echoed out through the Eighth Mountain and Sea as Meng Hao shot along like lightning. The Lightning Cauldron floated above his head, dancing with electricity as he suddenly switched positions with an Outsider.

Behind him was the enraged golden-armored Outsider Dao Sovereign, whose eyes were bright red. Normally speaking, he would be fast enough to be able to catch up with Meng Hao. However, Meng Hao was using Form Displacement Transposition. Even the powerful ripples which blasted out through the starry sky, throwing everything into chaos, did not affect him at all.

Actually... a chaotic battlefield was the perfect place for Meng Hao to slip along like a ghost!

Wherever he went, there were living things that he could switch places with, leaving the pursuing golden-armored Outsider completely befuddled.

Meng Hao was scheming as always. He actually could have gotten further away from the golden-armored Outsider Dao Sovereign, but instead, he kept within a fairly set distance. That ensured that the chase continued, and the Outsider didn’t divert his attention to other places on the battlefield.

“Can you do anything other than run away!? Well, we’ll see how long you can keep it up!” The Outsider Dao Sovereign’s black flame lizard suddenly roared, dispersing into a sea of flames that swept forward at incredible speed.

Within that sea of flames were innumerable magical symbols, whose flickering caused the flames to increase their speed dramatically. Meng Hao quickly teleported away, just barely avoiding the searing heat of the flames.

An unsightly expression appeared on his face. The battle prowess of a Dao Sovereign helped him to see how lacking he was in certain areas.

“What a pity. If I could make a breakthrough with my fleshly body, then my battle prowess would definitely be enough to fight a Dao Sovereign, even if I haven’t extinguished any more Soul Lamps.” Meng Hao teleported again, and a cold laugh rang out from within the flames. Suddenly, the Outsider Dao Sovereign appeared in the flames, his body rapidly growing until he was 3,000 meters tall, a giant looming up into the starry sky.

He stamped his foot down into the flames, and a black lightning bolt appeared in his hands. Scales once again spread out across his body, and his tail grew longer. Two horns protruded from the top of his head, and the void around him twisted as intense pressure radiated out.

“You killed my Tribal Brother, and now, I’ll destroy you in body and spirit!” The golden-armored Dao Sovereign roared and took a step forward, unleas.h.i.+ng some unknown divine ability upon Meng Hao.

Meng Hao fell back, and rumbling sounds echoed out as the two of them shot through the starry sky of the Eighth Mountain and Sea.

“I could lose this guy if I really wanted to. But then he would just start fighting somewhere else....” Frowning, Meng Hao sighed inwardly. “I might not be able to kill him, but... I could trap him, or seal him. And that wouldn’t be impossible, especially in the right place, at the right time....

“We’re in the Eighth Mountain and Sea, which is also the location of the HeavenG.o.d Alliance....” Meng Hao’s eyes flickered as he suddenly thought of the perfect place!