Chapter 927: The Might of the Xuanwu Dao Palace

As the silver light shattered, the chains of restrictions on the World Gate broke inch by inch. The surging powers of the two worlds began to clash and merge, erupting in sparks within the void where the World Gate opened.

Upon arrival, Chen Mobai maintained a state of "Empty Valley Sound." Through his senses, he perceived that the energy essence of the opposite world was more explosive and chaotic than that of the Immortal Sect. Compared to the Immortal Sect's spiritual energy, refining this energy would require significantly more effort and divine consciousness.

Patriarch Qianxing slowly rose. After waving his hand at them, he transformed into a streak of starlight and entered the World Gate. Chen Mobai and the seventeen Nascent Soul cultivators of the Immortal Sect all bowed in reverence to Patriarch Qianxing's retreating figure.

Water Immortal then spoke, addressing them, "Everyone, I shall follow the Patriarch into battle first. Please ensure that logistics keep pace." As she spoke, she looked directly at Ying Guanghua, who nodded reluctantly, assuring her, "As long as it's within the allowed scope, I will have the Finance Department approve it." With this assurance, Water Immortal nodded in satisfaction, waved her hand towards the Black Tortoise Dao Palace, and the colossal war artifact transformed into a dark stream of light, settling into her palm.

Following the Black Tortoise Dao Palace were the North Heaven Gate, the Starry Sky Warships, and so on. The 200,000 military cultivators were positioned within these war artifacts, and Water Immortal led them through the World Gate.

Chen Mobai was very curious about this and asked Grandmaster Chengxuan, who was beside him. "These war artifacts have internal domains opened within them," Grandmaster Chengxuan explained, "allowing them to change size at will when needed. This was a project researched by the Void Spirit Body, Lan Ding, and is considered one of the most valuable Flying Immortal Awards." As a fifth-rank artifact smith, Grandmaster Chengxuan naturally knew all about these matters and explained them in detail.

The Immortal Sect once had a true Void Spirit Body. Although this individual passed away before reaching the Nascent Soul stage, they led the development of many void-related projects during their lifetime. Most of these technologies were applied in the military. "I only regret not being able to communicate with this senior in the same era," Chen Mobai remarked with emotion after listening. Although he was now an expert in void-related matters within the Immortal Sect, there was no clear path ahead for him. If he could have communicated with a true Void Spirit Body, the 'Void Scripture' would certainly not be so difficult to complete now.

"This Lan Ding was Lan Haitian's ancestor," Grandmaster Chengxuan suddenly added, revealing something Chen Mobai hadn't known. "Before passing away, perhaps some diaries or insights were left behind. If you have time, you could ask around; you might be able to borrow them." "Lan Haitian has such a background?" Chen Mobai thought, surprised. However, Chen Mobai's expression quickly turned to understanding. To be able to successfully open a domain at the Foundation Establishment stage, and even cultivate the Yin and Yang sections of the Six Imperial Scriptures, Lan Haitian might indeed possess some traits of a Void Spirit Body.

After Water Immortal led the 200,000 military cultivators into the otherworldly dimension, Chen Mobai and the others followed one by one. Under the high probability of an impending war, these Nascent Soul cultivators definitely needed to scout ahead and adapt to the spiritual energy of the otherworldly dimension.

"Strange," Grandmaster Qingping remarked, being the first to notice something amiss after the sixteen Nascent Soul cultivators entered. "The Five Elements spiritual energy on this planet seems somewhat imbalanced..." Grandmaster Yuanxu immediately took out an instrument and measured the spiritual energy within a hundred-mile radius. Earth and Water elements accounted for seventy to eighty percent of the total spiritual energy.

A rumbling sound! At this moment, Water Immortal had already unfurled the Black Tortoise Dao Palace, the North Heaven Gate, and the Starry Sky Warships in the sky once more. Nangong Xuanyu's figure appeared in mid-air. After cupping his hands slightly towards Water Immortal, he glanced at Chen Mobai and the others, then directly led the Immortal Sect army towards the entrance of the underground passage discovered by Patriarch Qianxing.

Before they even drew close, the combined might of 200,000 cultivators, shaking heaven and earth, had already startled the dormant beings deep underground. Sounds of the earth churning and cracking erupted. Accompanied by dull thudding sounds, horrifyingly grotesque demonic beasts broke through the yellow sand and crawled out from underground. They varied in size, resembling insects. The smaller ones were only half a meter long, with six legs and two wings, possessing thick and tough carapaces. Their bodies displayed a deep, cosmic silver-black hue, interspersed with faint, icy dark purple veins. As they shimmered, bursts of explosive energy that distorted the air gathered and pulsed. The larger ones were tens of meters high, like small mountains, with dozens of legs. Their bodies resembled spiders, and their eyes were enormous and blood-red, gleaming with a cold light as they stared at the 200,000 Immortal Sect cultivators hovering in mid-air, as if seeing food.

"These underground insectoids have an ant-like structure," Ying Guanghua explained to everyone. "These mountain-sized spider-insects possess a certain level of intelligence and can command tens of thousands of purple-veined silver-black winged insects." Chen Mobai and Qi Yuheng already knew this, but it was their first time seeing it with their own eyes. The other Nascent Soul grandmasters, not part of the Three Great Halls, also watched the mountain-sized spider-insects with solemn expressions. They sensed energy fluctuations not inferior to those of Core Formation cultivators. A rough count showed that over a dozen spider-insects had already appeared.

With a roar, one of the spider-insects suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a yellow-purple energy orb, carrying terrifyingly explosive energy fluctuations, towards a Starry Sky Warship in mid-air. Water Immortal, her expression unchanged, commanded the military cultivators under her. Soon, the North Heaven Gate, towering in mid-air, shimmered with a glazed light, forming a crystal shield in the path of the energy orb.

A deafening boom! The yellow-purple energy orb collided with the crystal shield, unleashing a heaven-shaking tide of energy. The immense shockwave caused yellow sand to swirl everywhere. However, the crystal shield forged by the North Heaven Gate merely glowed with dazzling azure-blue glazed light, showing no signs of distortion or tremor.

Roar, roar, roar! After this yellow-purple energy orb detonated, the remaining dozen or so spider-insects in the yellow sand all opened their mouths and spat in the same direction towards mid-air. A total of fifteen energy orbs merged into a thick beam of light, tens of meters in diameter, carrying terrifying waves of destruction. It tore through the sky and slammed directly into the crystal shield.

A rumbling sound! In the sky, two immense energy fluctuations collided, unleashing terrifying waves that even Chen Mobai dared not perceive too closely. Both forces had reached the output level of the Nascent Soul stage. If Wenren Xuewei, who had just formed her Nascent Soul, had taken a direct hit, she would likely have had to rely on the Great Chun Tree for rebirth. However, any normal Nascent Soul cultivator could evade it using Void Walking. What made Chen Mobai and the others solemn was that this situation indicated the otherworldly dimension was not easily handled. These were merely the insectoid demonic beasts on the surface. According to Patriarch Qianxing, there were traces of near-Deity Transformation activity deep underground. This could potentially be an invasion war on the scale of a Pluto-level expedition! Upon realizing this, Chen Mobai and Qi Yuheng were mentally prepared to return and mobilize the remaining military cultivators to activate the other three Four Symbols Dao Palaces.

After the two violent energy torrents raged and dissipated, the situation in mid-air came into their view. The crystal shield formed by the North Heaven Gate remained as crystal-clear and transparent as it had been at the start, completely unchanged. From within the Black Tortoise Dao Palace, Water Immortal, her expression unfazed, raised a finger and pointed at the sixteen mountain-sized spider-insects below. The four Starry Sky Warships hovering behind the North Heaven Gate immediately lit up with an inky-black, eerie glow at their bows. A terrifying aura that even Chen Mobai felt threatened by instantly erupted, as four ethereal beams of light, piercing heaven and earth, descended directly, leaving the spider-insects no time to react before they were engulfed.

The ethereal glows were fleeting. Had it not been for the four enormous spider-insects, along with hundreds of purple-veined silver-black winged insects around them, turning into crystal-like ice sculptures, many would have thought it a hallucination. With a cracking sound, all the frozen insects, regardless of size, shattered into countless ice fragments, losing all vitality and scattering across the yellow sand.

"The abundant Water elemental energy in this world certainly allows the Black Tortoise Dao Palace to exert its power to the fullest," Grandmaster Beiming remarked, nodding with satisfaction. Although the Four Symbols Dao Palaces were constructed by integrating the efforts of all military factories across the Immortal Sect, there was actually a tacit understanding among the four great Daoist academies due to their inheritances. The Black Tortoise Dao Palace belonged to Kunpeng, the Azure Dragon Dao Palace to Gou Mang, the White Tiger Dao Palace to Bu Tian, and the Vermilion Bird Dao Palace to Wu Qi. Of course, even the Four Great Daoist Academies could decline, so there were instances where a lineage from one of them controlled two Dao Palaces. For example, this time, although Wenren Xuewei had formed her Nascent Soul in time, considering her limited cultivation experience, there were strong calls for Qi Yuheng to take over the Azure Dragon Dao Palace. For thousands of years, the Black Tortoise Dao Palace had been under the control of the Kunpeng lineage, never touched by outsiders. It was precisely because of this that Water Immortal could take control so easily this time.

Buzz, buzz, buzz! Just as Chen Mobai was wondering when his proposal to take control of the Vermilion Bird Dao Palace would be approved by the Three Great Halls, the four Starry Sky Warships of the Black Tortoise Dao Palace had already begun to re-condense the Freezing Divine Radiance. Four ethereal glows descended again. The mountain-like powerful spider-insects, however, had a fatal weakness: slow movement. In the blink of an eye, ethereal glows descended from the Starry Sky Warships, freezing each spider-insect on the yellow sand and extinguishing their vitality.

After three rounds, only the last four spider-insects remained. They clearly possessed considerable intelligence. Upon seeing the fate of their companions, they moved their dozens of legs, breaking through the yellow sand and burrowing deep into the earth. However, the ethereal glows descended, and the powerful freezing energy penetrated deep into the yellow sand, likewise freezing the retreating spider-insects into fragments within the earth.

Hiss, hiss, hiss! After losing the spider-insects, the countless remaining purple-veined silver-black winged insects went mad. Some began to devour each other, some fled back into the depths of the earth, and others flew screaming towards the Immortal Sect army slowly descending in mid-air. At this point, Water Immortal commanded the Immortal Sect cultivators to engage these purple-veined silver-black winged insects, both to gauge the combat strength of the lower-tier beings in this otherworldly dimension and to train the Immortal Sect's military cultivators, who had never seen blood before.

"Phew..." Chen Mobai heard Ying Guanghua's breathing become rapid beside him. This was because each launch of the Freezing Divine Radiance from a Starry Sky Warship consumed one thousand spirit stones. The sixteen ethereal glows just now translated to 160 million contribution points. Water Immortal might have been pleased, but Ying Guanghua's fists were clenched. Yet, he couldn't speak to stop her. After all, if those sixteen spider-insects weren't eradicated, the Immortal Sect would have lost far more cultivators to achieve the same result. Spirit stones, weapons, and the like—weren't they meant to be used for times like these! Though he understood, Ying Guanghua still felt a pang of heartache.

The Immortal Sect's military cultivators, led by their respective Foundation Establishment captains, stood on streams of glazed auspicious energy extending from the North Heaven Gate. They formed battle formations, resembling a thousand agile and powerful whips, lashing into the overwhelming swarm of purple-veined silver-black winged insects. Spells erupted successively from the cultivators' hands, alternately covering each other as they bombarded the purple-veined silver-black winged insects in mid-air. However, their hard carapaces blocked most of the spell attacks; only attacks from Foundation Establishment cultivators could pierce the shells.

A Foundation Establishment captain condensed his spiritual power into a lightning bolt, blasting a purple-veined silver-black winged insect that charged at him into two halves. He then looked at his somewhat flustered subordinates behind him and requested permission from his superiors to activate the battle formation. Because of their relatively small size, these purple-veined silver-black winged insects were extremely fast flyers. Their insect legs resembled sharp long knives, capable of cutting through metal and jade. Had it not been for the defensive battle armor equipped by every military cultivator, many would likely have been knocked off the glazed auspicious energy in the first round of engagement.

The request was quickly approved, and the Foundation Establishment captains issued the latest orders to their team members. "Activate the Black Tortoise Formation, and slay all these insects!" With a whooshing sound, streaks of sword light lit up in mid-air. Then, the Black Tortoise Dao Palace glowed with an inky-black radiance, and the nearly infinite Water spiritual energy of the otherworldly dimension began to be continuously absorbed and refined by the Dao Palace.

After Nangong Xuanyu and his group entered and transmitted samples of the otherworldly spiritual energy back to the Immortal Sect, Grandmaster Yuanxu had already led an elite team from the Immortal Sect to simulate and research the latest energy reactors for refining this explosive spiritual energy. The Black Tortoise Dao Palace was now equipped with these. Thus, even though the spiritual energy of the otherworldly dimension was explosive, it was still absorbed and refined by this powerful war artifact, transforming into spiritual power that Immortal Sect cultivators could control and utilize. This power was continuously fed through the North Heaven Gate into the small reactors within each military cultivator's battle armor.

And after receiving this energy infusion, cultivators at the peak of the Qi Condensation stage instantly unleashed the power of Foundation Establishment. Operating in small teams, they condensed brilliant, column-like giant light swords. Under the waving glazed auspicious energy of the North Heaven Gate beneath their feet, they charged into the insect swarm like streaks of light. Wherever they passed, even the hardest carapaces were sliced into two halves.

Streaks of insect corpses fell from the sky, only to be gnawed and devoured by insects emerging from underground tunnels. They then transformed into purplish-black clouds of insects, surging overwhelmingly towards the Immortal Sect army in mid-air. "Just how many insects are there underground?" Wenren Xuewei, standing behind Chen Mobai, couldn't help but ask. She was currently the Immortal Sect's most outstanding spiritual plant master and also the person who disliked insects the most. Therefore, upon seeing this scene, even though she had already formed her Nascent Soul, she couldn't help but feel instinctively uncomfortable. "Perhaps only by cutting this planet open will we know," Chen Mobai replied. The underground situation in this otherworldly dimension was clearly more dangerous than imagined, but with the Immortal Sect's current strength, they could still keep it under control.

As he finished speaking, an Immortal Sect Golden Core cultivator, clad in a black Daoist robe, stood at the very front of the North Heaven Gate. He raised a gear-like artifact in his palm and gently turned it. In that instant, the thousand enormous light swords extending from the North Heaven Gate began to rotate in unison, ceaselessly spinning in all directions around the Black Tortoise Dao Palace as their center. In the sky, it was as if a meat grinder of light swords had appeared, mincing all charging insects into countless pieces of flesh.

Water Immortal piloted the Black Tortoise Dao Palace, descending towards the yellow sand, with the North Heaven Gate consistently maintaining the first line of defense in front of the Dao Palace. Meanwhile, surrounding the Black Tortoise Dao Palace, four Starry Sky Warships closely guarded and followed. Ethereal glows flickered at their bows, the Freezing Divine Radiance fully charged and ready to fire at any moment. As the Black Tortoise Dao Palace descended, the light sword meat grinder, which had spanned half the sky, also descended with it. Finally, it directly blocked the entrance to the underground passage, relentlessly slicing any emerging insects into fragments, no matter how many there were.

A full half-hour passed. Just as Ying Guanghua's lips began to tremble and whiten, the number of purple-veined silver-black winged insects finally started to dwindle, seemingly on the verge of being completely wiped out. Although the activation of the Black Tortoise Dao Palace could refine the otherworldly dimension's Water element spiritual energy for reactor power, half of its energy still came from the Immortal Sect's own reserves of void spiritual energy packs, spirit stones, and other resources. Water Immortal's wave of offense, piloting the Black Tortoise Dao Palace, consumed even more resources than the Freezing Divine Radiance attacks earlier, easily costing at least a billion contribution points. Fortunately, Water Immortal's mind was still clear. Seeing that the rate at which purple-veined silver-black winged insects were emerging from the underground tunnels had dropped to less than a third of the initial rate, she ceased the resource-intensive assault. She then began to arrange the Immortal Sect's military cultivators into standard battle formations at the tunnel entrance, to systematically eliminate the remaining insects.

Soon, another half-hour passed. Accompanied by a roar that shook the earth, a terrifying and immense aura suddenly emanated from deep underground. From the perspective of Chen Mobai's Empty Valley Sound, it was already at the Nascent Soul level. Water Immortal immediately commanded the North Heaven Gate to withdraw all military cultivators, then personally flew out of the Black Tortoise Dao Palace. With a wave of her jade-like right hand, the concentrated power of the fifth-tier array of the Northern Black Tortoise Constellation solidified into a pitch-black, thousand-meter-long sword in her palm. She then swung it down heavily towards the entrance of the underground tunnel!

A dark-purple insectoid demonic beast with six legs and two arms had just burst out when it was met directly by the thousand-meter-long sword, infused with the power of the Black Tortoise Dao Palace, unleashed by Water Immortal. Accompanied by another earth-shattering roar, the dark-purple insectoid demonic beast spat out a purplish-black energy orb. It collided with the thousand-meter-long sword, immediately erupting into a colossal, heaven-shaking flash of light. Amidst the rumbling sound, the ground was directly overturned. Several dark tunnels, originally tens of meters in diameter and leading deep underground, were instantly breached and transformed into an enormous pit thousands of meters in diameter!

Hiss, hiss, hiss! A painful insectoid cry reached Chen Mobai's ears after the sand mist dissipated. Activating his Spirit Insight Eyes, he quickly saw that the dark-purple insectoid had a sword mark from its face to its chest, deep enough to expose bone. Green blood oozed from the sword mark, falling onto the sand and corroding a large area like a strong acid.

Water Immortal, her expression blank, once again condensed a thousand-meter-long sword with the Black Tortoise Dao Palace and casually swung it down. The dark-purple insectoid tried to escape, but as soon as its six legs moved, it discovered a bone-chilling cold erupting from the sword mark, freezing its blood. It roared in anger, and purplish-black patterns lit up all over its carapace. The entire planet subtly trembled at that instant, and then a mighty torrent of energy from deep within the earth surged into its body, suppressing all the freezing power from the sword mark within it. At this moment, the thousand-meter-long sword had already descended upon its head. The dark-purple insectoid could only raise its slightly stiffened hands, crossing them, attempting to block the attack! However, four ethereal glows flashed, striking it before the thousand-meter-long sword descended. Under the Freezing Divine Radiance, the power it had just borrowed was instantly dissolved. It was then sliced into two by the thousand-meter-long sword.

Water Immortal's strike had somewhat overestimated her opponent's strength. After slaying the dark-purple insectoid, the momentum continued, carving a colossal thousand-meter-long frozen canyon into the earth. After slaying this insectoid, it seemed to have drawn out another powerful entity. Another dark-purple insectoid, almost identical in appearance, emerged shortly after. Water Immortal then tried another method of the Black Tortoise Dao Palace. She lightly tapped her bare foot, and the massive illusory turtle beneath her suddenly vanished. It then stepped out from the void, delivering a heavy stomp onto the freshly emerged dark-purple insectoid.

With a thud! The incredibly powerful Nascent Soul-level insectoid was instantly crushed into fragments by the turtle's stomp. "Leaving aside everything else," Grandmaster Beiming commented, narrowing his eyes and smiling, "Water Immortal is more suited to piloting this Black Tortoise Dao Palace than any previous Nascent Soul cultivator in our Dao Academy." As a cultivator from the sea domain, Water Immortal was naturally very sensitive to Water elemental spiritual energy. When the elites of the Kunpeng lineage participated in designing and forging the Black Tortoise Dao Palace, they also took into account the sea kings of the ocean realms. If the Northern Black Tortoise Constellation were represented by seven sea kings, then this Dao Palace could even unleash the power of a Deity Transformation cultivator!