Chapter 1681: 23: Counterattack on the Demon Abyss (2/4)

Chapter 1681: Chapter 23: Counterattack on the Demon Abyss (2/4)

“Good! Yinglong, so you too have been waiting for me, haven’t you!”

An Jing burst out laughing. To command heaven and earth, to command the Heavenly Dao—For one who once nearly stepped into Harmonization, such things were as natural as breathing. All the more so, when Yinglong would rather die than let his Divine Power dissipate in the Great Wilderness Realm, deliberately leaving it behind for later generations to rouse.

He too had been waiting, waiting for his own strength to become the fulcrum that could turn the World.

That fulcrum had arrived.

At this moment, on Candle Mountain of the Fifth Industrial Center, Yu Feng had been leisurely waiting.

He had borne responsibility for far too long, and no longer regarded authority as any kind of pleasure. The arrival of Gu Yeqi and the others had indeed stripped him and many Desolate Alliance True Persons of their right to decide, but in truth, what Yu Feng missed most was the bygone days when he only needed to obey General Gu’s commands.

Not to mention, An Jing had returned! That was An Jing. In days past, when he still walked the World, all Heaven’s Chosen beneath heaven were but mortals; he alone was the hero. Only after he departed did those mortals finally gain the chance to reveal their gifts and strength, rising to become new leaders and paragons.

Gu Yeqi was such a one, Bai Qinghan was such a one, and all those like the Little Candle Dragon of the Great Wilderness Realm were such as well. Had An Jing still existed, they would all merely have been followers walking in his shadow.

Yet just as Yu Feng was cheerfully emptying his mind, savoring this rare idleness of wasted time, he suddenly saw a shaft of white light piercing straight into the heavens.

And then, not long after, the Dragon Remains Battleship hanging above the Fifth Industrial Center suddenly unleashed an unprecedented, heaven‑shaking roar, as though it still lived.

In all directions of the sky, boundless scarlet thunder erupted, crisscrossing into a net, like the veins and meridians of a vast body endlessly extending, as though seeking to enfold the entire World!

“The dr–Dragon Remains Battleship is showing abnormal activity!”

Yu Feng stared in astonishment at the Heavenly Dome. An ordinary person at this moment would already be dumbstruck, mind blank, but one tempered in a hundred battles only paused for the briefest instant before his instincts took over, smoothly launching emergency communications, trying to contact those he believed still remained within the Pure Dao Forging Platform, and also reaching out to the Desolate Alliance central command, informing them that an immense, unprecedented anomaly had arisen.

“Do not worry.”

But then, a hand clapped his shoulder.

Bai Qinghan’s phantom form suddenly reappeared, standing at his side, gazing up at the Qi‑lit firmament above.

She said calmly, “Do not worry. He has returned. The heartbeat of this World will no longer thud on according to its dull, pointless rhythm.”

At this time, above the Heavenly Dome, the sky was no longer a hazy grey‑white, but a vivid, searing red forged of mingled blood and molten rock. Countless agitations flared, setting the sky alight—Spiritual Fiends and shadowed thunder, howling as they tore apart space and the Great Void, savage and feral, like wounds raked across the World.

Beneath this crimson canopy, a colossal dragon’s body coiled and surged with lithe swiftness, soaring aloft, wrapping itself in that endless thunder, twisting into a spiral, into a single drill, whirling upward, driving straight toward the heights of the high heavens.

And with a Cultivator’s dynamic sight, one could see that upon the dragon’s brow, at the very tip of that drill, there stood a figure seemingly minute, yet whose presence outstripped that of the entire World—a suit of Platinum Armor, arms folded across his chest, standing firm at the center of heaven and earth.

“Look. He never waits, never hesitates. He is setting out now.”

Watching this scene, Bai Qinghan smiled. “To rage against this World’s absurdity, and answer it with the sword.”

As the dragon’s cry resounded, her form faded, leaving only Yu Feng, as if grasping some newfound understanding, suddenly awakened.

[General Yu? What is happening over there at the Fifth Industrial Center? We’ve detected an ultra‑large Spirit Qi fluctuation beyond our monitoring limits! What in heaven’s name is going on?!]

From the other end of the Communication Array came a voice edged with panic yet forced calm, and Yu Feng drew a deep breath.

He steadied his Heart, and in a tone more solemn than any he had used in the past hundred years, yet also more stirred with exultant joy, he spoke his reply—and command—to the Desolate Alliance central command on the other side: “All Desolate Alliance True Persons are to ready themselves for full combat operations at once!”

“Prepare… to counterattack the Demon Abyss!”

“What? Counterattack… the Demon Abyss?”

At Desolate Alliance central, Daoist Kui Xia, who had only just surrendered herself, quickly received this order.

She was somewhat dazed, utterly unable to make sense of this directive handed down from the Alliance’s own central command—an order they themselves seemed still to find Incredible. And at this moment, without a doubt, she had not mentally prepared herself for any battle whatsoever.

Leaving aside that, as a near‑traitor who had almost defected, she theoretically ought to be imprisoned for a time, even if the Alliance was desperate for combat strength, enough so that even a True Person like her had to be sent to the front as fodder.

But what did this ’counterattack the Demon Abyss’ in the order mean?

Were they simply going to throw them away as cannon fodder in place of execution? There was no way they truly intended to counterattack the Demon Abyss, was there?

Though she had surrendered, Daoist Kui Xia was very clear that the Desolate Alliance’s situation at present was still unfavorable.

Of the six battlefronts, only the Fifth Industrial Center had won a great victory; the other five fronts had all suffered substantial losses. Moreover, her own refusal to betray did not mean others would not, and many had already been corrupted by evil demons, long since no longer themselves but Demon Men. The devastation caused by those things was immense; many key facilities and fortresses had been ruined.

Even if the Desolate Alliance managed somehow to weather this wave of demonic assault and consume the majority of the demons’ mobile forces, they still lacked the strength to storm the Demon Abyss… Merely repairing warships and healing Cultivators’ wounds would take at least half a year, and in that time the evil demons could more than enoughly Regenerate their Yuan Qi. This was the stalemated condition of the Great Wilderness Realm now: whichever side happened to gain the advantage, none could convert it into true victory.

Even if that one had awakened, his recovery would still need time, would it not? Even though Daoist Kui Xia surrendered precisely out of belief—wagering that he would be the one to win in the end—that victory would, at the very least, still be ten or twenty years away…

“Has command gone mad?”

With such thoughts in mind, Daoist Kui Xia, released and heading out to reclaim her Magic Artifact and talismans, left the compound. Because her Heart was weighed down with worry, she did not, in that first instant, sharply perceive that the World itself had changed.

Yet she was a True Person, after all. After walking the Great Dao for only a few breaths, Daoist Kui Xia sensed an anomaly.

She saw her own shadow, cast before her, following the direction of the light.

A shadow…

In the Great Wilderness after heaven’s collapse, so dim—how could a human have a shadow…

The World at this moment was far too bright…

Her steps halted. Daoist Kui Xia’s body locked where she stood, then, trembling slightly, she raised her head, turning to look up at the sky above.

The sky of the Great Wilderness Realm had once been laden with grey‑black gloom. It was the dust of the Great Wilderness Heavenly Continent shattered by heaven’s collapse: countless fine fragments of the crust and floating mountains forming striated clouds of dust, denser and looser by turns, like coagulated, dried scabs of blood in the Heavenly Dome, the lingering wounds of a World that had nearly been destroyed.

But now, those grey, black, foul and oppressive hues had suddenly been ignited. Golden‑red radiance swept across; the World’s wounds liquefied into flowing blood, then into a bloody, searing, wrathful storm that began to blow toward one single direction, surging forth.

Daoist Kui Xia watched that blood‑red storm dye the Heavenly Dome and scatter the dimness, her eyes filled with terror, reverence, and worship.

She lifted her face and, instinctively, took to the air, as though yearning to follow that storm.

For she had seen—seen at the very forefront of all those storms, at the source of that golden‑red firmament, the wellspring of all thunder, fire, and light—a Sun of pure white‑gold, illuminating the entire World.