Chapter 425: Breached Anchor
"Leader, requesting support! Our flank is collapsing!" A mercenary captain yelled into his Viewing Jade.
Moments later, a Guardian Construct Drone flying high above registered the request.
[Request Received. Deploying Aura Beacon.]
A small, falcon-like drone detached from its high-altitude flight path, swooping down and dropping a small, glowing totem into the heart of the mercenary’s position. The totem slammed into the ground, and a wave of pure, aggressive energy pulsed outwards, enveloping their bodies.
[Aura of Combat Activated. All allied units within 100 meters receive a 20% boost to combat efficiency and spiritual energy intensity for 10 minutes.]
The struggling mercenaries roared as they felt new power surge through them. Their attacks became fiercer and their spirits were renewed.
Not long after, other groups and teams started requesting aura totems, surprising the already demoralized enemies due to the number of convenient items they were using.
Guardian Construct Drones provided air support, and the Tactical Data Stream updated everyone on enemy movements.
Within an hour, the walls of the fortress had been breached and the patrons participating in the Flash Raid flooded inside, overwhelming the remaining Impervious Flare Sect forces.
Naturally, the deployed elites and elders of the Impervious Flare Sect had started trying to turn the tide but they were also met by the Core Formation and Nascent Soul Stage cultivators of the Eastern Abyssal Domain.
The Crown Prince, Wu Tianlong, even led the Dragon General and the Scholar Wei to gang up against an early Nascent Soul Stage elder.
Then, Elder Jinshi, a peak Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, attempted to unleash a devastating firestorm spell on the crowd of Azure Gale Sect disciples following Yan Wei. Liu Zhongzu flew to intercept him.
The peak Nascent Soul patriarch moved like a thunderclap, his presence alone snuffing out the elder’s burgeoning spell.
Despite being bottlenecked at that stage for so long due to his inability to cut something essential for the Spirit Severing Stage, he had mastered many techniques and spells of the Liu Clan. He could be considered a half-step into that realm.
A mere elder of the Impervious Flare Sect, which could only be considered a mid-tier sect at the Western Sacred Lands, would not be able to best him in a battle.
"Your fight is with me, Elder," Liu Zhongzu stated calmly, his fists crackling with lightning.
"You dare?!" Elder Jinshi roared, his rage overriding his caution.
"Yes, I dare. Why not?" Liu Zhongzu smirked before his body seemingly disappeared from the elder’s eyes.
The clash was brief, brutal and utterly one-sided.
Liu Zhongzu’s stormy fists broke through Elder Jinshi’s fire-based defenses with contemptuous ease. The elder was crashing into the ruins of his own fortress wall, his aura scattering to the void.
The sight of their strongest field commander being so easily defeated was a devastating blow to the Impervious Flare Sect’s morale. Their disciples’ morale continued to decline. Their disciplined formations broke down one by one into a panicked, desperate defense.
Back at the store, Lin Mo was already watching the battle while resting at the Divine Arena through the drone’s feed.
He couldn’t help but feel a grim sense of satisfaction as the cultivators of the Eastern Abyssal Domain toppled down the fortress.
"They’re breaking, Boss. I’m envious. I should’ve gone and joined them!" Liu Xiaoyu commented, her eyes glued to the projection while fidgeting beside him, "If nothing else happens, the Impervious Flare Sect is done for!"
"Xiaoyu, you’re forgetting something," Lin Mo said, his gaze fixed on the back of the fortress, where the pulsating, otherworldly light of the Anchor could be seen. "The report stated three Void Refinement Stage experts had reinforced them. One fought your grandfather. One was dealt with by the Ancestors, Sect Masters and Sword Fairy. Where do you think the last one will be?"
Liu Xiaoyu sucked in her breath as she narrowed her eyes, focusing on the far side of the fortress. Specifically, the one that is seemingly unguarded yet spilling a mixture of dense spiritual energy and foreign energy.
"The last one is there...?"
As if her words were the trigger, a new, cataclysmic pressure descended upon the battlefield.
It was not the scattered rage of the disciples or the focused power of Elder Jinshi. This was a volcano erupting. Or a sun being born.
The cracked ground of the canyon trembled, and a pillar of molten fire and obsidian-black spiritual energy shot into the sky from the back of the fortress.
"ENOUGH!"
The roar emitted not only sound waves but also a physical wave of pure, unadulterated Void Refinement power that washed over the entire battlefield.
The thousands of summoned spiritual projections – the celestial beasts, the celestial idols, the crimson battle spirits, and the arcane blossom units – flickered and dissolved like smoke in a hurricane, their spiritual forms unable to withstand the overwhelming pressure.
The Celestial Duelists cried out as their fields buckled, the sudden backlash sending a jolt through their energy channels.
The charging cultivators were stopped in their tracks, pinned down by an aura so immense it felt like the sky itself was falling.
From the pillar of fire and darkness, a figure emerged.
It was the Sect Master of the Impervious Flare Sect, Yan Zhaolie. His obsidian-like skin glowed with an internal, volcanic heat, and his eyes were pits of molten rage.
"A mob of insects," He calmly stated, yet his voice was like the rumbling of an earthquake. "You think you can trample on the grounds of my Impervious Flare Sect with these parlor tricks and summoned projections? You are led by a merchant and you will die like customers."
He raised a single, massive hand. The air around him superheated, shimmering with distortion. "I will burn you all to ash."
Liu Zhongzu flew to the front of the army, his own peak Nascent Soul aura flaring to create a protective barrier of wind and lightning against the overwhelming pressure. The other Sect Masters and Clan Heads joined him, their combined might barely holding back the tide of raw power.
Those below the Core Formation Stage were immediately issued a retreat, causing the remaining Impervious Flare Sect disciples and elders to retreat behind the towering figure of Yan Zhaolie.
"Sect Master Yan!" Liu Zhongzu called out confidently, even though the veins on his forehead looked like they were about to burst from defending against the late Void Refinement Stage cultivator. "Your ally has been defeated! Your plan has failed! Surrender now, and the alliance will grant you a merciful end!"
Yan Zhaolie let out a harsh, grating laugh. "Mercy? Surrender? I am a Void Refinement expert. You are ants. Today, you will learn the meaning of true power."
He raised his hand and prepared to unleash a devastating attack that would have undoubtedly incinerated a third of the raid force based on its intensity.
Liu Zhongzu gritted his teeth and immediately shouted to the Nascent Soul and Core Formation Stage experts around him. "Brace yourselves! Combine your strength! We will meet this attack head-on!"
They poured their spiritual energy into a combined defensive formation, a desperate, multicolored shield of qi flaring to life, ready to intercept the coming devastating attack.
They activated talismans, arrays and artifacts. They also called for more aura totems to drop behind them, reinforcing their defenses.
However, the attack never came.
Just as Yan Zhaolie was about to unleash his fiery wrath, an explosion of foreign energy suddenly erupted behind him.
The Impervious Flare Sect cultivators immediately kneeled or lost consciousness from the pressure emitted by the unfamiliar energy invading the atmosphere and seemingly dispelling the surrounding spiritual energy.
Yan Zhaolie froze, his hand still raised. His expression of furious contempt twisted into one of confusion. He slowly turned his head, his gaze drawn to the one place he had just been pouring his spiritual energy to accelerate earlier.
The Anchor.
Finally, it had been breached.
His mouth trembled for a moment before a maddened, desperate laughter erupted from his lips. "Our job is done here. The Anchor has been breached. This was our final gift to your convenient world!"
Upon saying that, he flicked his sleeves, carrying the unconscious disciples before flying into the sky. The others followed after him as they retreated from the area, leaving the impending spillage of Outer Realm creatures of the currently unidentified Anchor for the Flash Raid army to deal with.
The foreign energy pouring out was thick and somehow similar in nature to the spiritual energy of the Realm of Nine Heavens.
Given how it was already difficult to defend against Yan Zhaolie, chasing after him and the surviving Impervious Flare Sect cultivators was already thrown out of Liu Zhongzhu’s mind.
He immediately sent a distress message to the Liu Clan Patriarch and hastily posted a thread on the Bulletin Board, warning everyone, especially those not participating in the Flash Raid.
[The Violethaven’s plot was thwarted but the Anchor had been breached!]
Shortly after, the first figure that climbed up from the depths where the Anchor’s entrance was located appeared before them.
To everyone’s surprise, unlike the Decrint Tribe from the Highland Realm or the insectoids, it was a figure clad in heavy metal armor and wielding a glaive-like weapon while riding a four-legged steed. The inhabitants of the Outer Realm, from which the unidentified Anchor originated, are also humanoid.