Chapter 1262
[Immortal Realm Chapter] A massive army presses in, and three factions strife.
Upon hearing this, the three patriarchs disregarded everything else and hurriedly ran out, only to find out when they arrived at the warship's control room.
On the dozen or so huge screens in front of me, green radar waves swept around in circles, and the screens were covered with a dense array of tiny red dots, so many that it made my scalp tingle!
"This is bad! The Cosmic Alliance is coming for us. They've already discovered our exact coordinates. They were just putting on an act to make us think they were stalling, but they've actually already locked onto our main force!"
Everyone gasped in surprise and asked each other how much longer it would take for the other party to arrive.
Lin Shan stood behind, watching the various screens, and couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.
There are dozens of fleets, enough to represent dozens of Nascent Soul stage warriors, not to mention that there must be many Star Martial Venerables and Star Martial Emperors on them!
Their combined high-end combat power would definitely exceed one hundred, enough to crush the current Immortal Alliance, and even repeatedly trample on them. If possible, they could even surround them from all sides.
"Look, they're gone!"
With a loud shout, everyone immediately noticed that the small dot on the screen had vanished without a trace in an instant.
"They've entered a dimensional barrier and initiated a spatial jump!"
Everyone gasped in alarm; everyone realized that danger was imminent.
Space jump is the best form of stealth. It can not only shake off radar detection but also remove tracking from your body and quickly approach a target in space, making it impossible for you to stop it midway!
"Don't be afraid, we can strike while they're crossing the river, and give them a good beating the moment they're about to leap out of space!"
Someone was waving their arms wildly, displaying extraordinary audacity.
"Can we find out where they are?"
The operator next to him replied speechlessly:
"Absolutely not! They jump into the space bubble, where they are essentially at relative rest. How can we detect their direction and where they land?"
"Then let's set up a perimeter around here, and we'll all take people out to patrol!"
But this was quickly rejected by Ancestor Yanling, who told them not to do anything reckless.
"The other side isn't stupid. They definitely won't jump out near us. That would make us an easy target, turning our overall advantage into a local disadvantage. Everyone knows we can't go that far."
"I suspect they will appear in the open area outside the space debris, with dozens of fleets forming a battle formation before advancing towards us. This would prevent them from being ambushed and would also allow them to maintain the combat effectiveness of their main force."
"If that's the case, we have absolutely no chance of winning!"
These words made everyone present even more anxious.
"What can we do then? Are we just going to sit here and wait to die?"
"Run! Run as far as you can! If you don't leave now, it'll be too late!"
"Where do you think you're going? The universe is so vast, there's nowhere to hide. You should know that all the eyes of the seventy-two worlds are focused here. Do we even have a way out?"
"What else can we do but perish together with them?"
"Okay, okay, stop arguing."
At a critical moment, the disagreements were too great and almost escalated into infighting. Fortunately, the three patriarchs did not panic. After forcefully suppressing all voices, they asked their subordinates for a rough estimate of how long it would take for the Cosmic Alliance to arrive.
"It will probably take about an hour and a half."
"enough!"
Without saying a word, Master Yanling immediately led his men to the other side.
Here, a large number of astronomers, mathematicians, and physicists are working tirelessly to analyze and verify the location of Kongtong Realm.
On the adjacent secondary screen, a complete model of the Kongtong Realm has been built and is drifting on a void track.
Once it can be verified, it means their calculations were correct!
"How much longer?"
"About an hour and a half."
After the person on this side answered, heavy breathing could be heard from the scene, along with a frozen silence, as if the end of the world had arrived.
"Master, how about I lead the men to fight to the death and hold off the enemy at the rear?"
"Come on, me too!"
Two burly men in the late Nascent Soul stage stepped forward. They were the most troublesome members of Ancestor Yanling's staff, who usually looked down on others, but surprisingly stepped forward at this critical moment.
Even knowing they would die, someone had to cover their retreat.
At such a critical juncture, there is no need for emotional appeals or mobilization. Everyone is clear-headed; it's just a matter of who is willing to help everyone!
"Good children, you should think this through."
Master Yanling did not try to persuade them, but instead asked them earnestly.
"Master, I am deeply grateful for your nurturing and guidance. I have no way to repay you in this lifetime, so I am willing to give up my life to express my gratitude!"
The two men knelt down and kowtowed several times, their words filled with determination and a touch of tragic grandeur.
Everyone around was deeply moved, secretly marveling that the Immortal Remnant Alliance truly still had righteous men. They couldn't help but feel ashamed of their own cowardice.
"Is there anyone else? The two of them alone can't stop the Cosmic Alliance."
Faced with the question from Ancestor Yanling, everyone in the room lowered their heads and looked away, avoiding eye contact.
After waiting for a full ten breaths, the scene remained completely silent!
“Old friend, we, the remnants, have sent people; shouldn’t you, the locals, also show some respect?”
The Yanling Ancestor's faction originated from the descendants of the Immortal Army, so they called themselves the Remnant Faction within the Remnant Immortal Alliance. Most of the subordinates of the Xuling Ancestor came from the local population of the Microcosm and were absorbed and developed in the subsequent long river of history, thus becoming the local faction.
Hearing this, he could only turn around, sigh to his juniors in the Spirit Realm, and ask who was willing to come out and cover the rear.
After much earnest persuasion, two Nascent Soul stage cultivators finally softened. Knowing they were doomed on this journey, they knelt on the ground with tears in their eyes to bid farewell to Ancestor Xuling.
"If Master goes to the Immortal Realm, please remember to tell your disciple. If you know this from beyond the grave, I will not have failed your expectations in this life."
The weeping and wailing of the Void Spirits was so heartbreaking that it brought tears to one's eyes.
But that's not enough!
With three sides surrounded and one side left open, the main force of the breakout must concentrate in one direction, while the other three locations must each have bait to confuse the enemy, so one route of troops is still missing.
"Fellow Daoist Yu Ling, it's time for your Ascension Sect to send someone." The three great spiritual realms were showing signs of division at this moment. In order to pursue fairness, everyone had to be treated equally, and someone from this side also had to pay with their life!
To Lin Shan's slight surprise, this was the first time he had ever heard of such a faction division within the Immortal Legacy Alliance.
The remnant faction, the local faction, and the ascension faction!
As the name suggests, the last faction consists of either descendants of those who ascended over thousands of years, or ascended individuals who stumbled into this world by accident!
As the leader of this lineage, could it be that the Spirit Master Ancestor was also one?
Before he could even think, this Void Realm expert had already raised his hand and personally appointed the general, his movements swift and seamless!
"You, you, hurry up and get ready, take some men to cover the rear."
Upon hearing this, the two men's expressions changed drastically, and they hurriedly knelt down with a thud. However, they did not cry and bid farewell, but instead begged the Spirit Master to retract his order!
"Uncle-Master, you mustn't! Even for the sake of my master back then, you can't send away his two only sons!"
"Yes, yes, before Master passed away, he entrusted the Spirit Realm to you, along with us, to your care. How could you be so cruel now?"
"Ah~"
The Spirit Master sighed and personally helped them up.
“I’m not being heartless, it’s just that you two brothers are the most senior in our lineage. If you don’t go, who will? We can’t let our junior brothers and sisters go, can we? As people get older, they should take the initiative to shoulder the responsibility.”
"Uncle-Master."
The two wept bitterly and begged for mercy, claiming that they could not let their lineage end, but to outsiders, it was just an excuse for being afraid of death.
As expected, adversity reveals true colors. The Immortal Alliance is not a united front at all; in fact, there are hidden conflicts and even infighting!
The Spirit Master's face darkened, and he flicked his sleeve.
"You have to go whether you like it or not. If you dare to disobey, don't blame me for cleaning up your own ranks first!"
The two had no choice but to agree under duress and left dejectedly.
The three patriarchs distributed the strategies, urging everyone to hurry up and prepare for battle, and then rushed back to the observation room to review the progress of the Kongtong Realm.
Lin Shan followed the crowd and retreated. As he passed through the various sections of the ship's cabin, he found many cultivators busily tidying up or chatting amongst themselves with their elders.
Among them, those in the Nascent Soul stage might know a little bit of the inside story, but those in the Golden Core and Foundation Establishment stages have no access to the top level at all and can only wait for arrangements below.
As I turned a corner, I heard a series of curses coming from inside.
"That old thing ascended to immortality a thousand years ago. Relying on his youth, he outlived his master and eventually seized our lineage's inheritance to break through to the Void Realm. Otherwise, how could he be pointing fingers at us today?"
"That's right. Although we, the Ascended Faction, are descendants of Ascended beings, there is no rule that our leader must be an original Ascended being. We have never left the Microcosm and have long since abandoned any of this bullshit factional divisions!"
Lin Shan turned his head slightly and saw that the two were the unlucky guys whom the Void Spirit Ancestor had personally chosen to stay behind as cannon fodder, and they were actually hiding in the back sulking.
There were several Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators nearby, presumably their juniors, who couldn't help but feel indignant upon hearing this!
“Our lineage is clearly the legitimate one, and we have always controlled the resources and connections of the Spirit Realm. He is just a thief who joined the sect halfway and stole our inheritance. Why should he want to kill all of us?”
"Now that the Spirit Realm is gone, and the future is even more bleak, why should we still risk our lives for that old guy?"
In my opinion, it would be better to...
"Shh-"
Someone reminded him, and then they switched to telepathic communication. This level of caution was unusual, clearly indicating a grand plan was brewing, but Lin Shan failed to detect it.
What he cared about wasn't that, but that the Spirit Master Ancestor was also an ascendant!
It seems that the Immortal Legacy Alliance is a mixed bag, with various factions colluding for their own interests. It was already on the verge of collapse, and only because the era of the Absolute Laws was about to arrive did they have no choice but to reluctantly come together.
Yet, even in such an environment, a newcomer who had just arrived was able to rise to prominence and break through to the Void Realm by mastering one of the three great spiritual realms, demonstrating the extraordinary nature of this ancestor.
He realized that each Void Transformation cultivator was no easy opponent and definitely had some hidden skills, but the war hadn't forced them to reveal all their trump cards yet!
But where did the wisteria vine go?
He hadn't seen the other party during this period, as if they had vanished without a trace, which was quite strange, but surprisingly no one within the Immortal Remnant Alliance was discussing it.
Time flies.
For most people, that hour and a half felt like an eternity, filled with torment and pain. The uncertainty about the future and the feeling of being powerless were deeply etched into their anxious hearts.
Finally, the alarms on the entire ship suddenly sounded, startling everyone!
"Cultivators of the Immortal Alliance, please gather in the activity hall immediately. The Cosmic Alliance fleet has reappeared and will arrive soon."
This was a warning from the Ancestor Yanling. His broadcast caused a great uproar. Many people realized that disaster was imminent, but now that they were in the void, they could not escape and could only be led by the nose.
Upon arriving at the event hall, one finds a gathering of over three thousand people—almost all the cultivators who have been able to join them recently!
The worst among them are all at the Foundation Establishment stage, the last spark of the immortal remnants of the Microcosm.
On the big screen, one ship after another poured out of the water like dumplings being dropped into a pot, joining the densely packed fleet formation, and then quickly sailed towards them once they were all in place.
Lin Shan's heart was in his throat, but thankfully he didn't have to risk his life!
Immediately afterwards, the three patriarchs waved their hands, ordering the three groups of feint troops to go ahead in turn, each with nearly eight hundred men under their command!
This is an attempt to deceive the enemy and buy time for the main force to break through.
After all, technology is not advanced enough to accurately detect each person's cultivation level across the stars, so this is their chance to gamble on their own lives.
As waves of people emerged from the ship's cabins, several interstellar spaceships were moored outside, serving as their escape routes!
"From acceleration to stabilization, to meeting the conditions for activating the space engine, and then jumping into space to begin traversing, it will take at least half an hour. You should run in the directions of three, six, and nine o'clock according to the local time of the Faint Light Universe."
These people did as instructed and soon piloted their spaceship into the vast void.
What about us?
Lin Shan felt a bit superfluous standing there, so he asked, still worried.
The three patriarchs reassured him, offering a reason he couldn't refuse: "The Kongtong Realm verification is still ongoing, just wait!"
What are you waiting for at this point?
The Cosmic Alliance.
Steel Furnace World United Fleet, Provisional Command of the Ether Federation.
"General Lin, the Joint Fleet has issued an order."
A soldier stood ramrod straight in front of me, saluted, handed me the telegram, and waited for the next instruction.
This guy is something else. In recent years, he has risen through the ranks, gained the appreciation of the president and vice president, and was promoted all the way through the ranks. At a young age, he already holds great power and is said to have almost become the president's son-in-law!
Now, as the deputy commander, he serves as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Fleet, deciding their future direction—it's truly enviable!
This person is the annihilation clone who stayed in the Aether Federation to replace Lin Shan.
After the original body left, the clone completely let go of itself, relied on the rich women to climb into the upper class, gained more and more support from big shots, and eventually reached a position that ordinary people wouldn't even dare to dream of.
"Heh, the Combined Fleet is really going too far, actually making our Fifth Fleet the vanguard. They clearly don't take General Brun seriously."
Brigadier General Brun is now in charge of communications with the Combined Fleet, and military authority has been delegated to him, hence his sigh.
The messenger answered softly:
"This is an order from the Supreme Command of the Cosmic Alliance, requiring us to intercept the fleeing ship immediately, before it jumps into the space bubble. The Steel Furnace World United Fleet probably had this in mind, which is why they sent the most capable of us first."
"Hmph, what a capable person!"
The annihilation clone casually tossed the order into the wastebasket, directing each unit to obey its commands. The entire team remained motionless, completely refusing to accept the so-called arrangements. (End of Chapter)