Chapter 499 – Annihilation of the Foreign Race, A Fortuitous Encounter!
by spirapiraChapter 499 – Annihilation of the Foreign Race, A Fortuitous Encounter!
Su Xing naturally would not refuse the Celestial Demon General’s avatar’s request for cooperation.
Though his strength was formidable and he could certainly steamroll everything in his path, the total number of foreign race members in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm numbered in the tens of millions at least.
If Su Xing killed them all by himself, it would take far too much time.
Unless he destroyed half the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm by unleashing a greater divine art… but the cost would be too great!
With the assistance of the Celestial Demon General and Celestial Demon City, however, Su Xing could save himself considerable effort.
Su Xing’s task was reduced to slaying only the foreign race members above God-level!
And so, with the agreement between Su Xing and the Celestial Demon General’s avatar finalized, the avatar assembled the entire military force of Celestial Demon City within a mere three days — over a million soldiers in total.
For this battle, the Celestial Demon General’s avatar personally took command, with the True Immortal realm city lord serving as field commander.
Under them were several Celestial Immortals and over a dozen Earthly Immortal commanders, divided into three great armies.
In a magnificent display of force, they departed Celestial Demon City and launched an all-out offensive against the foreign races stationed a million li (500,000 km) beyond the city walls.
This was the first large-scale war in tens of thousands of years in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm where the human race had taken the initiative — the first formal counterattack against the foreign races.
Because it was initiated by the human side, catching the enemy off guard, and because they had committed their full forces, in a mere half month they had slain three million foreign race soldiers!
The number of human cultivators who fell in battle was less than one hundred thousand.
Half a month later, the foreign races finally reacted, realizing this was their prime opportunity to annihilate the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm!
Though the foreign race leadership didn’t understand why Celestial Demon City had launched a preemptive attack, that didn’t stop them from retaliating in kind.
Foreign race members above the deity level began mobilizing, launching a full-scale invasion against the human race.
And at this stage, it was time for Su Xing to make his move.
Using intelligence gathered within Celestial Demon City, Su Xing obtained the locations of large numbers of foreign race members above God-level.
In just three days, he slew over two thousand foreign race deities.
This included but was not limited to dozens of foreign race gods and three second-tier deities!
With Su Xing’s intervention, the situation on the Celestial Demon City front became completely one-sided.
The deity-level foreign race members were cut down single-handedly by Su Xing, and among the human cultivators, those at the Immortal realm and above found themselves without worthy opponents, beginning a large-scale slaughter of the foreign races.
Even Human Immortal cultivators could easily take on a hundred Saint-stage aliens at once.
And against foreign race members below Emperor level, it was an effortless massacre.
Thus, in the half month following Su Xing’s decapitation strikes, nearly six million more foreign race soldiers were killed!
By this point, even though the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm’s foreign race population numbered well over ten million, more than half had already perished.
And while the human armies conducted their one-sided slaughter of the foreign races, Su Xing hadn’t been idle either.
Drawing on intelligence from his memories, Su Xing took the initiative and, within just seven days, destroyed every single Advent Cult stronghold in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm.
This included the ten human traitor families that had been hiding within the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm.
He killed no fewer than one hundred thousand Advent Cult members and human traitors combined.
The seized resources, once converted to origin energy, amounted to over thirty million — a considerable windfall.
Beyond that, Su Xing collected all the corpses of Emperor-level and above foreign race members from the battlefield. Some were handed over to the Luotian Sect cultivators within the Luotian Realm to refine into Rebirth Pills.
With the tenfold time difference between the Luotian Realm and reality, the pill refinement speed was astonishing.
Of course, the vast majority of the blood essence was converted by Su Xing into origin energy.
Over two thousand deity-level and above foreign race corpses, and hundreds of thousands of Emperor-level and above corpses.
In total, they yielded Su Xing over one hundred and fifty million units of origin energy!
The battle between the foreign races and humans continued. The foreign races had suffered devastating losses, and the only ones still capable of putting up a fight were the red-eyed aliens.
……
This war had progressed at godlike speed. Battles between cultivators didn’t require the logistical preparations of mortal warfare — no supply lines, no provisions to stockpile.
Combined with the fact that Celestial Demon City maintained a permanent state of military readiness, there were few logistical concerns.
In just a month and a half, the war between humans and the foreign races was nearing its end.
Due to the absence of high-end combat power — all eliminated by Su Xing’s decapitation strategy — the foreign races had virtually no ability to resist.
In a mere month and a half, the combined death toll across all foreign race species exceeded ten million!
The human side’s casualties numbered only around two hundred thousand!
War always claimed lives.
But this was, by far, the most overwhelming victory the human race had ever achieved against the foreign races in the entire history of the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm.
The calendar turned to early October of the year 2030 in the New Era. The war had been raging for a month and a half.
With nothing pressing to attend to, Su Xing strolled leisurely through Celestial Demon City.
He heard quite a few interesting rumors along the way.
At the city gates, two squads of Body Integration stage city guard cultivators were chatting.
“Old Liu! Did you hear? Old Wang went to the front lines a while back!”
“In just one month, he killed over three hundred aliens!”
“Tsk tsk… the military merits he’s earned, the resources he’s been rewarded… it’s enough for him to break through to the Mahayana stage!”
A thin, small-framed Body Integration stage cultivator spoke, a hint of envy in his eyes.
The cultivator beside him, the one called Old Liu, replied:
“Indeed! A single tour of duty, and you can reap countless resources! Whether for breaking through to the next realm or leaving them to your descendants, it’s a wonderful deal!”
“But high returns come with high risks! I heard the casualty rate on the front lines has already exceeded twenty percent!”
“If Old Wang hadn’t been running low on lifespan and decided to gamble everything for his descendants, he probably wouldn’t have dared go to the front either, right?”
Another city guard soldier chimed in: “Exactly! But Old Wang’s going to be living the good life now! He spent a fortune on a breakthrough pill, and once he breaks into the Mahayana stage, he’ll have several thousand more years to live!”
“That’s right! Who wouldn’t be envious? A twenty percent death rate… that’s not even that high! As long as you come back alive, you’re guaranteed promotions, titles, and endless resources!”
“Have you all heard? The number of aliens killed in this war… apparently it’s exceeded ten million!”
The group of city guard soldiers grew more animated as they talked.
“Exactly! Those aliens are really just pushovers! Not a single one who can put up a fight! If I’d known, I would’ve gone to the front lines to earn some merit too!”
“Right! We all grew up listening to terrifying stories about the foreign races, but it turns out they’re nothing but paper tigers — all show and no substance!”
“I heard there aren’t even many aliens above the Immortal level! What a bunch of frauds! And to think we’ve been cowering behind our walls all these years for nothing!”
Su Xing sat casually in a restaurant, drinking wine and eating meat while using his divine sense to eavesdrop on these “low-ranking” cultivators’ conversation. He found it quite amusing.
These city guard soldiers were perhaps the truest reflection of ordinary cultivators in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm.
Afraid of death, driven by profit, yet envious of those cultivators who soared to greatness.
Not every cultivator had the courage or the strength to go to the front lines. Most just wanted to live one more day.
After all, having cultivated to this realm and lived for centuries, how could they not fear death?
As the chatter of the cultivator guards continued to drift to his ears, Su Xing felt as though the wine was going to his head. A certain insight stirred within him.
“Cultivating immortality, cultivating immortality… for these low-ranking cultivators, what exactly is the ‘immortality’ they’re cultivating toward?”
“Waiter, another pot of apricot blossom wine!”
Su Xing called out, and soon a Foundation Establishment stage servant boy brought over the wine.
It was just ordinary spirit brew, its flavor incomparable to the divine nectar Su Xing had tasted before.
But Su Xing savored it nonetheless.
As he drank, Su Xing tossed the Foundation Establishment servant boy a few spirit stones as a tip and said:
“Waiter, tell me… what do you think of this war? Any interesting happenings in the city lately?”
The servant boy hastily caught the spirit stones Su Xing had tossed over and replied:
“Good sir! In my humble opinion, this war is a glorious achievement for the present age that will benefit a thousand generations to come!”
“Please allow me to elaborate… every cultivator in Celestial Demon City, from the highest to the lowest, despises the foreign races! We have all suffered greatly at their hands!”
“And after this war, even if the threat of the foreign races isn’t completely eliminated, eight or nine parts out of ten will have been removed. It should ensure a thousand years of peace!”
“Furthermore…”
The servant boy racked his brain for every bit of knowledge he had, hoping his answer would satisfy Su Xing.
When the boy finished speaking, Su Xing regarded him with interest and said:
“You, servant boy — your cultivation isn’t high, but you seem to be quite well-informed?”
“Then let me ask you one more thing. I can see you’re past one hundred and forty years of age, yet you’re still stuck at the lowly Foundation Establishment stage. What is the ‘immortality’ you’re cultivating toward? Do you have any regrets about your path of cultivation?”
The servant boy smiled at this and replied:
“Good sir! You may not know this, but before I began cultivating, I was a general of a small kingdom three hundred thousand li (150,000 km) outside Celestial Demon City.”
“Back then, a foreign race creature stumbled into that mortal kingdom and slaughtered the people of an entire city with ease. I was lucky enough to survive.”
“From that day on, I devoted myself entirely to seeking the path of immortality. Though I possess only miscellaneous spiritual roots, and nearly a hundred years of cultivation have only brought me to Foundation Establishment, I have no regrets!”
Hearing this, Su Xing looked at him again with surprise. He hadn’t expected this cultivator to have experienced such a thing before embarking on his path of cultivation.
So he listened patiently.
The servant boy continued:
“Since the day my spiritual roots were detected, I have cultivated for ninety-eight years. Now I am merely at mid Foundation Establishment, working as a tavern boy… having to read the moods of every patron!”
“In terms of status and lifestyle, it certainly doesn’t compare to my days as a general…”
“But I know that everything in the mortal world is an illusion! If I don’t cultivate immortality, if I don’t grasp true power… I cannot redeem my past self. I cannot face those citizens who were massacred to the last.”
“I can never forget that day. A single foreign race creature went on a crazed rampage, devouring an entire city’s people. Everywhere you looked, there were severed limbs, scattered remains, mountains of corpses and seas of blood…”
“By the time the cultivators from Celestial Demon City arrived… more than half the city’s people were already dead!”
“And as a mere mortal, even though I was a general… my soldiers had absolutely no power to resist that creature!”
Su Xing nodded along as he listened to the servant boy’s account.
“But now… though I am merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator, I have seen so much more! I have witnessed the true face of this world!”
“If one day I become powerful enough, I too want to go to the front lines and slay those foreign races alongside the great cultivators!”
Su Xing nodded slightly after hearing this. From just these few words, he could sense the young servant’s heart for seeking the Dao.
For vengeance, for power!
Though these were merely the words of a lowly cultivator, they were indeed a reflection of most cultivators.
So Su Xing asked again:
“Since you embarked on the path of cultivation, what of the mortal world? What of your former friends and family?”
Hearing Su Xing’s question, the servant smiled bitterly and said:
“In that battle years ago, both my parents died at the hands of those foreign races… My eldest son followed the army to fight the foreign races, but he was devoured by them…”
“My only daughter also passed away thirty years ago…”
“Though I have only cultivated for a little over a hundred years, I already understand that in the pursuit of longevity, the mortal world of old is no more!”
“Without cultivating immortality… even those blessed with long life are nothing but a handful of dirt after a hundred years…”
Hearing this, Su Xing looked at the servant with a hint of surprise.
Though this servant’s cultivation was low and his aptitude poor, his mental state was quite good, and his Daoheart was reasonably firm.
Su Xing casually employed the art of qi observation to examine the servant’s fate.
He saw that the servant’s destiny was fraught with hardship, yet there was the potential of a hidden dragon lurking in the depths. If fortune turned his way, the dragon would enter the great sea, and his cultivation path would be smooth.
“Tsk tsk… you’re quite an interesting fellow!”
“Since that’s the case, let me bestow upon you a stroke of fortune!”
With that, Su Xing extended a finger and touched the servant’s brow.
In an instant, the servant experienced a dream. In the dream, he learned a Heaven-tier cultivation technique and mastered a supernatural art.
When he awoke again, Su Xing was already gone.
The servant felt as though his spiritual root had somehow changed.
At the same time, a storage ring had appeared in his hand, containing some spirit stones.
Though not many, they were enough for him to cultivate to the Spirit Transformation realm.
In that instant, the wine servant understood — he had encountered a legendary great power!
“How fortunate am I, Xiao Fan… to have received such an opportunity!”
The servant let out a sigh of emotion, then resigned from his position at the tavern and entered seclusion to cultivate.
…
Meanwhile, Su Xing left the tavern and reappeared in White Emperor City.
In the mere Lesser Azure Cloud Realm, Su Xing could reach any location in the blink of an eye.
And just now, that wine servant’s words had sparked something like an epiphany in Su Xing.
“The Dao I cultivate… what is my original intent?”
“That servant witnessed his family and fellow citizens die with his own eyes… He devoted himself to seeking the Dao, seeking power for vengeance. How is that not seeking the Dao for oneself?”
“Then… what was my own original intent in seeking the Dao?”
Su Xing fell silent for a moment, sinking into memories.
In this moment, Su Xing thought of many things.
From the beginning on Earth, as a peerless genius who had awakened the immortal cultivation class, to becoming a bottom-tier cultivator who could not gain experience or increase his strength.
Then, after obtaining the simulator, Su Xing soared to the heavens… all the way to the Amalgamated Beast that destroyed Earth!
From tiny Earth to the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm… then expanding his gaze to the Azure Origin Domain, to the entire Three Thousand Worlds…
All of this had taken merely eight short years!
“At the very beginning, the Dao I sought was simply to survive!”
“The great calamity of the foreign races has come… Even now, what I seek is still to live longer…”
“Is this… the pursuit of longevity?”
“Then… what about after the foreign races are truly driven away and longevity is truly attained?”
Su Xing was silent for a moment. Then perhaps he would do the things he enjoyed.
Let go of his burdens, and truly take a look around these Three Thousand Worlds?
“Never forget your original intent… and you shall see it through to the end?”
Su Xing pondered thoughtfully.
Yet at that very moment, Su Xing suddenly heard a crisp shattering sound. An invisible shackle within his body seemed to break.
The Nine Tribulations of Great Firmament…
The Tribulation of Original Intent — broken at last!
Su Xing blinked, not expecting that his casual actions would actually break through one of the Nine Tribulations of Great Firmament!
The Tribulation of Original Intent was not an easy one among the Nine Tribulations.
Most cultivators undergoing the Nine Tribulations had cultivated for tens of millions of years and had long forgotten their original intent.
But Su Xing had only been at this for a few years. Though he had lived countless years within simulations, it was actually easier for him to reconnect with his original intent.
And in that conversation with the tavern servant, this opportunity had presented itself — breaking through the Tribulation of Original Intent in a single moment!
“Tsk tsk… even in the most subtle of moments, one can cultivate the Dao!”
Su Xing blinked.
Today he had nothing to do, and on a whim, he went to drink at a tavern.
First he heard the words of the cultivators at the city gate, then questioned a lowly Foundation Establishment cultivator, and from that gained this opportunity — passing the trial of original intent in a single stroke!
“So this is what fortune and opportunity look like?”
Su Xing rubbed his chin. This opportunity was likely related to the Heaven-Sent Fortune talent he had newly obtained.
“Heaven-Sent Fortune Supreme — chance encounters come by happenstance… gaining an opportunity from a lowly Foundation Establishment cultivator.”
“And I repaid that opportunity with opportunity in turn — gifting him spirit stones, techniques, supernatural arts, and helping him transform to a Heavenly Spirit Root!”
“Every peck and every sip is predetermined by fate?”
Having realized this, Su Xing felt that his opportunities extended even beyond this.
On this day, Su Xing not only passed the Tribulation of Original Intent, but also gained insights into the Tribulation of Karma.
Conversing with that Foundation Establishment cultivator was the cause; Su Xing’s epiphany was the effect.
Su Xing’s epiphany was the cause; bestowing opportunity upon that cultivator was the effect.
This was the repayment of karma!
Thinking of this, Su Xing felt the Tribulation of Karma within him loosen slightly.
“Repaying karma, settling debts of good and evil… is this the Tribulation of Karma?”
“However… to pass the Tribulation of Karma more quickly, one must repay greater karmic debts!”
Su Xing murmured.
“It seems that once things are settled here… I should go see Qingyunzi!”
When he first stepped onto the path of immortality, he entered the Azure Cloud Spirit Fields and received spirit stones and opportunities…
Now that his cultivation was complete, it was time to repay that karma… to settle those karmic debts!
“But before that, let me first resolve the matters of the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm!”
“The calamity of the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm will not be so easily weathered…”
“The final counterattack… should not be far off!”
Su Xing narrowed his eyes. It was true that he had killed the majority of the foreign race’s forces in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm.
Moreover, Su Xing had been decisive in his strikes, leaving no survivors.
Apart from the Celestial Demon General’s avatar, neither the soldiers of Celestial Demon City nor the foreign races knew of Su Xing’s existence.
But the foreign race’s side was not without the power to resist.
The red-eyed aliens existed, and the Red Moon still lurked within the Endless Abyss.
What’s more… the Advent Cult was watching from the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike.
“Even if the Red Moon doesn’t act… Blood Three should at least make a probing move, right?”
“Once the big fish is hooked, the matter of the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm will be all but settled…”
Su Xing murmured.
And so, Su Xing proceeded to run five consecutive simulations.
After the three hundred twenty-eighth through three hundred thirty-second simulations.
Not only did he obtain the approximate timing of the final battle in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm — the foreign race’s counterattack.
After five rounds of refining his primordial energy, he was drawing ever closer to the eighth layer of the Great Shaman Body Forging Art.
At the same time, Su Xing’s Five Elements Dao had successfully advanced to the sixth realm Peak.
And during these consecutive simulations, Su Xing also drew a new red talent — Saint of Talismans!
It was the talent corresponding to the Dao of Talismans among the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation, the counterpart to the Pill Saint talent.
After the simulations ended, Su Xing rubbed his brow and said:
“So they won’t make their move for another month or so?”
“Blood Three really is cautious!”
“But a month’s time is just enough for me to handle this matter…”
After confirming that the situation in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm would not change within the next month, Su Xing turned and entered the Luotian Mirror.
“The third restoration of the Luotian Mirror — it’s time to begin!” Su Xing said in a low voice.
In previous simulations, the benefits of fully restoring the Luotian Mirror were self-evident.
Therefore, spending a month or so to fully restore the Luotian Mirror was very much necessary.
With a wave of his hand, countless vials of immortal liquid and spirit liquid materialized around him.
The power of Supreme Unity Golden Immortal Perfection flowed into the Luotian Mirror…
Su Xing began his attempt to fully restore the Luotian Mirror!