At that moment, a perfected King spoke up, declaring his intention to invoke his clan’s reserves. This sent waves of fear and astonishment through the crowd, and everyone wanted to understand what that meant.
“Reserves” — to the countless cultivators across the world, it was a mysterious and eerie word. Everyone knew that the great sacred grounds possessed terrifying reserves, yet few truly understood what that meant.
The Azure Dragon transformed into roughly the height of a person. Its divine might was undiminished, but it had become far more agile. It turned into a streak of blue light and charged forward, immediately swiping down with a dragon claw as Dao seals flickered and divine sound resonated like a drum.
All around, people stumbled backward in rapid retreat, feeling as though their ear bones were about to crack. Their souls grew unstable, and they faced the catastrophic peril of having their bodies shattered to pieces.
Dragon Wars in the Wilds!
One of the dragon clan’s secret techniques. The dragon’s body swept horizontally through the air like a long steel wall grinding everything in its path. A swath of azure radiance swept down, forming a sacred domain. Wang Lie retreated like a phantom, evading the strike.
Zheng!
Wang Lie opened his mouth and expelled a demonic zither. He plucked it forcefully, and a thread of sound waves flew out — sharp as a heavenly blade — slashing open a massive rift in the void, attempting to swallow the Azure Dragon into it.
A flash of blue light. The dragon soared through the sky, crossing a distance of a thousand zhang or more before letting out a soft cry. Its dragon roar shook the nine heavens, shattering that thread of sound.
Neither of the two perfected Kings went for a direct clash at the outset — both were probing. But even these subtle probes carried tremendous killing intent. Had any ordinary sect master stepped forward, they would certainly already have their head separated from their body by now.
Many of the Wang Family’s cultivators faced their sacred earth with murmuring lips, chanting as though reciting incantations, performing acts of worship.
Profound reserves, an auspicious fortune of great depth, an ancient lineage beyond measure — that was how some people understood the sacred grounds, believing that those qualities constituted their reserves. But those who truly understood would only shake their heads in dread, because that was far from sufficient. True reserves meant an imperishable form of deterrence — something tangible and physical.
The ringing of swords sang through the heavens. Wang Lie rapidly plucked his demonic zither, sending wave after wave of sound crashing forward — each one penetrating gold and splitting stone like a surging tide.
The Azure Dragon swept across the sky. It shook both wings, filling the heavens with dragon silhouettes — tens of thousands of them — and with a single strike, ripples spread in all directions. The sound waves were annihilated, and the mountains beyond the sacred earth collapsed one after another, crumbling into dust.
“Kill!”
In that moment, Wang Lie let out a great roar. The probing phase was over, and the fierce assault began. He unleashed the great Dao secret arts; divine rings enveloped his entire body, his form radiating solemn magnificence and unparalleled valor.
From his left eye, a blazing sun flickered, flying outward. From his right eye, an ancient moon sank and descended, manifesting itself and expanding endlessly as it bore down.
The Sun-Moon Cyclic Seal!
This secret art was extraordinarily difficult to master. During cultivation it was easy to damage both eyes, and practitioners often risked permanent blindness — yet its power was astonishing.
The Azure Dragon stood slightly taller than a human. Its body differed little from a true dragon, save for a pair of divine wings. Azure radiance coiled around it, and it carried itself with divine martial bearing. Dragon blood flowed within, its physical body far mightier than those of other races.
The pair of horns atop its head, like the sharpest sacred swords in the world, carved out swaths of azure light, splitting the vault of heaven, meeting the Sun-Moon Cyclic Seal head-on.
Thunderous booms erupted one after another as person and dragon collided, erupting into violent, cataclysmic combat. Onlookers were dazzled and overwhelmed — this was the clash of perfected Kings!
The speed of a perfected King’s duel reached an extreme. Many people could barely follow it with their eyes; though little time had passed, several hundred exchanges had already occurred.
Pu!
The Azure Dragon let out a long roar. Its dragon claw descended and tore away three of Wang Lie’s ribs — Wang Lie, whose body was gaunt but whose strength was terrifying — blood streaming freely, the breath of the Dao surging outward.
“Ao-hou…”
At the same time, the dragon itself suffered grievous wounds. One of its azure divine wings was ripped clean away by Wang Lie, dragon blood spraying out and dyeing the sky crimson.
“Children, what are you waiting for?! Break through the Wang Family’s sacred earth, destroy this ancient clan, avenge our kinsmen!” the Barbarian Clan Chief bellowed.
“Kill them! Slaughter these uncivilized savages! Let not a single one escape — annihilate them all!” The Wang Family’s people roared back.
Both sides unleashed every ounce of their power. If things had not reached this point — if the very extinction of their clan were not imminent — who could ever hope to witness a perfected King take action?
Moreover, not only were those who walked the current age present — even great powers who had retreated into seclusion thousands of years ago took to the skies. Every expert of the Wang Family emerged.
“Kill…!”
Tens of thousands of iron cavalry crisscrossed the battlefield, bypassing the two perfected Kings and surging toward the Wang Family’s sacred earth — each warrior utterly fearless, jostling to be first, their battle blood boiling.
“Kill them all!” The Wang Family’s people also bellowed, as ancient war chariots and warships appeared in the sky.
Only at a moment of mortal peril like this could the true strength of an ancient clan be displayed in full — and people would discover it was far more terrifying than they had ever imagined.
“The Wang Family’s experts — there are truly too many of them. If their reserves emerge, how could anyone withstand it?” Li Tian’s scalp prickled with unease.
The Barbarian Clan Chief did not respond, yet he remained calm. He simply raised his hand firmly and said, “Children, kill!”
Before coming to the Northern Plains, Ye Fan had once raised the matter of reserves with the Barbarian Clan Chief. The chief had said little in reply — clearly unafraid.
“Then let us kill. Storm the Wang Family’s sacred earth and see what lies within!” Ye Fan held the heavenly sword in his left hand and a long spear in his right — both weapons seized from enemies.
Qiang!
He brought his sword down and cleaved an ancient ship as large as a mountain in two. All the Wang Family experts inside were reduced to blood and bone. The long spear thrust forward, consecutively piercing through nine ancient war chariots, pinning them all and shattering them entirely. Human lives worth less than blades of grass.
Boom!
Within the sacred earth, a terrifying aura surged upward like the end of the world — as though a million volcanoes had erupted simultaneously. Dreadful patterns appeared, pressing forward.
This was the might of a supreme sacred weapon — left behind by a great saint of the Wang Family in ages past. Now it reawakened, its vast divine power surging outward.
The Barbarian Clan Chief roared. The stone axe hovering in the air shook mightily. Around it, at least a thousand iron cavalry — including many great powers — all had their vital energy and blood rising like steam. Together they channeled power into the weapon.
A mighty aura immediately repelled the attack, pushing it back into the sacred earth. The pressure on everyone diminished greatly. One could only imagine how terrifying this stone axe would be if tens of thousands of barbarian warriors channeled it together.
“Kill!”
Ye Fan continued attacking from the due west, leading nine thousand iron cavalry in an attempt to break through. He and Yan Yixi, along with Li Tian, controlled the Divine Maiden Furnace, and he felt no fear whatsoever.
Ancient ships and war chariots were struck down in great numbers, but at that moment a surging, overwhelming aura rushed out. Above, the sky turned dark and ominous as fully a hundred ancient fortresses rose into the air — awe-inspiring, soul-shaking.
War Fortresses!
Forged entirely from refined gold, tempered through a thousand hammerings, indestructibly solid — far more fearsome than ancient ships or war chariots. Each one was a small-scale city of steel.
All nine thousand iron cavalry halted. There was simply no way to break through. The sheer mass of them, pitch-black and overwhelming, sent a chill down the spine.
Each war fortress was a city of steel and iron divine majesty — impregnable, stretching across their path like a line of mighty passes blocking the road.
The nine thousand iron cavalry fell silent. Blood stained them from head to toe. Facing these ice-cold war fortresses, attempting to charge through on the backs of barbarian beasts seemed impossibly difficult. The fortresses were inscribed with the brands of the great Dao — nearly impossible to break open.
But not a single warrior showed fear or despondency. They withdrew in orderly fashion, falling back calmly. Against an ancient clan, expecting to storm through without paying a price — that was naive thinking. Everyone had long since resolved themselves to die in battle if necessary.
Once sufficient distance had been established, an ancient living fossil roared:
“Raise spears!”
Across the nine thousand cavalry, every barbarian warrior held a battle spear crimson as blood. The tips of the spears were cold and sinister, flickering with an eerie radiance.
“Kill!”
In that moment, nine thousand people roared in unison. The vital energy and blood at their crown intensified several fold in an instant. Every one of them was nearly berserk, their combat power skyrocketing.
“Blood Spear Technique!”
The ancient living fossil bellowed, calling upon all the barbarian warriors to unleash another kind of great slaughtering art. Their entire bodies blazed with light, soaked in blood — each one as if cast from iron, resolute and powerful.
“Kill!”
When the command rang out, everyone let out a long howl and hurled the spears in their hands with full force. Nine thousand streaks of blood-light pierced through the sky, flying toward the steel divine cities.
This was more fierce and terrifying than any divine arrow technique! Nine thousand streaks of blood-light, imbued with the iron-hard will of the barbarian warriors and concentrating every ounce of their battle energy — they could destroy the rotten and crumble the decayed.
A strange sound rang out — as though nine heavens and ten earths had been pierced, enraging all the gods. Mournful howls, terrifying thunder, all erupted simultaneously.
The Wang Family’s people had initially been sneering, preparing to use the war fortresses to grind the barbarian army to dust. Now they all went pale with shock.
Boom!
The first massive metal city collapsed. Then the second, the third… cracking apart one after another.
Nine thousand blood spears, blotting out the sky and covering the earth — every single one had the spiritual divine power of a barbarian warrior burning within it, imbued with life, extraordinarily powerful.
Rumble…
Fully a dozen ancient iron cities as large as mountains broke apart, splitting into four or five fragments high in the heavens, struck down and destroyed.
People stared in horror. There were still over eighty steel divine cities remaining, but even they could not withstand this assault indefinitely — sooner or later every last one would be destroyed.
Yet the barbarian warriors too had paid a grievous price. Every face had grown somewhat pale, drained of a measure of color.
Boom!
Ye Fan was like a human-shaped ferocious beast. He charged alone to the front and unleashed the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist — his combat power alone enough to blast one iron city into fragments.
He pressed forward without hesitation, continuing to fight and slaughter. The barbarian warriors also roared, and another round of the Blood Spear Technique flew out, crossing through the shackles of time and space and crashing down.
Boom!
Another cluster of war fortresses was annihilated — gone, leaving only a tremor like a star realm shuddering.
Wuu-wuu…
The war horns sounded long and mournfully. War fortresses, ancient ships, war chariots — a dense, overwhelming flood — swamped the sky and came grinding forward. Those barbarian warriors who had no time to retreat were instantly reduced to meat paste, dissolving into blood mist. Casualties fell in wave after wave.
The brutal battle reached a white-hot intensity. Both sides clashed with ferocity, corpses raining down continuously from the sky, the ground below already dyed red with blood.
“Ahh…”
Not far away came a great cry. The furious roar of Wang Lie and the Azure Dragon caused vast stretches of dragon veins beneath the Wang Family’s territory to collapse — and the King-level battle at the center of the field had reached its conclusion.
Wang Lie’s crown had been ripped open — several claw holes bored through it. His primal spirit had cracked apart. His five viscera and six organs had all been scooped out entirely by dragon claws, his body cavity barely surviving intact.
The Azure Dragon had fared little better. Both divine wings had been torn away. The latter half of its body had been severed and had fallen to the ground, drenched in blood — only the upper half of the torso remained, and even one of its dragon horns had been snapped off.
It was a brutal battle. Both sides had suffered grievous injuries. And while flesh could be repaired, the damage carved by the Dao into their foundations would not heal quickly — dark wounds left behind that could not recover in a short time.
The barbarian army retreated. The Wang Family’s experts fell back to hold the perimeter before the sacred earth. Both sides separated and faced off once more, and the two perfected Kings rejoined their respective camps.
“Offer up the reserves! Guard our clan and strike down every enemy!” Wang Lie bellowed. Though gravely wounded, his voice still shook heaven and earth, nearly shattering the primal spirits of all who heard it.
Rumble…!
From within the sacred earth, nine purple-gold divine guardian beasts pulled a massive ancient war chariot thundering out. On the chariot, several great sources were piled together, radiating boundless brilliance — their light so intense it engulfed the figure within.
The source blocks varied in size — some as large as millstones, others no bigger than a fingernail — but piled together they formed a truly stunning sight.
Dimly, one could make out a white-haired figure seated within, someone of enormous stature, seated in meditation — awe-inspiring to behold.
This was one kind of sacred ground’s reserves!
“We beseech the Dark King Ancestor to take action!” A multitude of Wang Family members kowtowed, their voices crashing like a mountain collapsing into a sea.
Yet the white-haired figure seated within the pile of divine sources did not move — not the slightest response. Like an ice sculpture, without a trace of life.
“So it’s the Dark Demon King. I thought it was someone else. What a pity — he has already sat down in death and cannot be roused.” From the barbarian camp, a small, wizened old man stepped forward. With each step he took, heaven and earth shuddered.
Though he was not tall, he pressed in upon everything like an ancient giant. All ten directions trembled on account of this one man alone.
The Azure Dragon, though it had lost half its body, was at this moment overcome with excitement. Like seeing a kinsman, it lurched toward the old man, rubbing its azure dragon head against the elder’s shoulder.
“Little Azure — so many years have passed. Every time I see you, I think of my elder brother.” The small, wizened old man wore beast-skin garments like the rest of his people, one arm bare. He reached out and stroked the Azure Dragon’s head.
“The Barbarian Ancient God of War is undying!”
“Heaven blesses our clan!”
“Long live the Barbarian King! Victorious in all battles, triumphant in all assaults!”
All the barbarian warriors erupted in excited roars. Some of the great powers within the clan wore expressions of astonishment, then broke into howls themselves — even they had not expected this old man to still be alive.
The Barbarian King — a perfected King three thousand seven hundred years old, with his vital energy and blood at full vigor, showing no signs of decline.
He was the younger brother of the previous clan chief, and had disappeared for over a thousand years. Even people within the clan had assumed he had died in seated meditation — none had expected him to appear here today.
“Wang Lie. I have heard of you. You wounded my elder brother’s old companions so gravely. Today, I take your head.”
The Barbarian King stepped forward. Though he was not imposing in stature, every person trembled at his presence.
“To think a Barbarian King has emerged — truly worthy of the Barbarian Ancient God of War tribe. Genuinely terrifying.” Wang Lie’s heart ran cold. In the ancient era, the battle blood of the barbarian clan had struck terror into all beneath heaven. Their physical bodies were unmatched — save only for those with a sacred constitution, they stood as the mightiest of all.
For a Barbarian King of this caliber, the ancient barbarian battle blood must flow within his veins. The mere thought of that power made Wang Lie’s scalp go numb.
“We beseech the Dark King Ancestor to act!” The Wang Family’s people bellowed, all of them frantic with desperation.
But the white-haired elder seated within the divine source pile — tall and awe-inspiring as he was — remained utterly motionless, without a trace of life.
Shua!
The Barbarian King moved with dazzling speed. In a blink he vanished, reappearing at Wang Lie’s side, striking like a thunderbolt. Blinding radiance erupted — furious roars, sharp battle cries, and waves of divine power all burst out simultaneously.
Pu!
In the end, a tide of blood surged upward. A headless corpse fell to the ground. The Barbarian King, grasping Wang Lie’s severed head, retreated and returned to his own ranks in an instant.
On the Wang Family’s side, silence fell like a shroud. Every face had gone pale as paper. On the barbarian side, everyone was roaring.
“Long live the Barbarian King!”
“Battle blood is invincible!”
A great power of the Wang Family bellowed: “No more hesitation! Let the sacred weapon awaken — invoke every last reserve and wipe out these savages! Kill the Barbarian King! Destroy the sacred constitution!”
“You wish to kill me? Today, I cut you down first.” Ye Fan’s voice rang out clearly.
“Young one from the Ye clan — you lead tens of thousands of iron cavalry to destroy our clan’s inheritance, and you deserve to be executed.” The group berated him furiously.
Shua!
Ye Fan activated the Glyph of Traveling, cradling the Divine Maiden Furnace, and shot forward like lightning. With a single sound, he unexpectedly seized control of the enemy’s weapon using the Glyph of Soldiers, cut down that great power, and grasped his severed head as he fell back.
Taking an enemy’s head from amid ten thousand soldiers, passing through as though there were no one there — first the Barbarian King, then Ye Fan. Such feats struck a devastating blow against the Wang Family’s morale.
“Kill — sweep all before us!”
“Kill — undefeated under heaven!”
“Kill — matchless in this world!”
The barbarian iron cavalry roared in unison, their voices shaking heaven and earth.
Crack!
Suddenly, several large pieces broke and fell away from the pile of divine sources on the ancient war chariot pulled by the nine purple-gold divine guardian beasts.