Ten thousand I am across the heavens

After thoroughly understanding his mission, Mo Chengzi knew his next destination was the Western Desert. Once he knew the local preparations were complete, he rushed to the teleportation hall. He was ready to undertake something significant. Having already completed his own enhancement, reaching the sixth rank, while his cultivation level alone wasn't particularly formidable among the five continents, his potential was undoubtedly top-tier. He could not only absorb the immortal apertures of any school but also unleash almost all killing techniques from various schools. However, these techniques didn't have the effect of not interfering with each other or weakening their power. If he forcibly used techniques unsuitable for his body, their power would still decrease, or even harm him.

Unbeknownst to him, tens of thousands more were preparing for the journey alongside him at that very moment, being teleported to all corners of the world. They were just the first wave, including even Lanno.

Using the rules of this world and the backdoor left for him by the Goddess of Creation, he can now almost perfectly create a completely new version of himself. Even the ability to rewind time between them can be shared as before, except that the memories cannot be directly transmitted back.

If this had happened when they first acquired this ability, and learned that memories wouldn't automatically transfer during sleep, they would probably have laughed in their sleep. After all, for them at that time, enduring their companions using time-manipulation abilities to replay the future meant being forced to watch repetitive videos every night for years or even longer, and even experiencing them firsthand. If they hadn't had relatively strong willpower back then, they would probably have been driven to the brink of collapse by the sheer volume of memories. If they could avoid sharing these memories, they would probably be laughing in their dreams.

However, without sharing memories and without the trials of time, they might not have grown to where they are today.

To ensure the mission's success, each of the Lanno domains deployed one of itself, using the cardinal directions (north, south, east, west, and center) as codenames.

Lan Nuoxi and Mo Chengzi were in the same teleportation hall on the same floor. People came and went, and no one really knew where everyone was being teleported to. So even when carrying out a mission here, without time to communicate, no one knew who their potential companions might be. This situation was deliberately created by the organization to prevent their operations from being exposed too early.

As the mission countdown progressed, Mo Chengzi was already seated in the teleportation room. If nothing unexpected happened, he would appear directly in the Western Desert after the countdown ended.

But unsurprisingly, something unexpected is about to happen.

……

The Western Desert, in terms of both ideology and technique, is the continent least influenced by the Republic of Mountains and Rivers. It is probably also the last stronghold of traditional Gu Immortals.

A large number of immortals gathered here, cultivating according to their accustomed methods. They competed for opportunities according to their established patterns. Although influenced by technological advancements, this ultimately did not change the underlying logic of how society operated.

In a hidden corner, a powerful organization that once spread across the continent had quietly moved its headquarters from the Southern Frontier to the Western Desert, and even brought over the most precious treasure in the headquarters, the Gate of Life and Death, using a special method.

This is undoubtedly the Shadow Sect, one of the few organizations in the world that, amidst such drastic changes, has managed to conceal itself while continuously increasing its strength.

The Shadow Sect was a contingency plan left behind by the Ghostly Demon Lord, housing not only his fragmented soul but also his true teachings. They had been plotting for tens of thousands of years, collecting the corpses of immortals with the Ten Absolute Bodies. To facilitate this collection, they even established an organization spanning five continents: the Zombie Alliance.

The Zombie Alliance is already considered one of the top two or three major organizations on the five continents, mainly because the Heavenly Court is above them, so they definitely can't rank first.

However, the Zombie Alliance was merely an affiliated organization of the Shadow Sect. It is conceivable that the contingency plans left behind by the Ghost Demon Lord, while not comparable to the Heavenly Court, were far beyond the reach of ordinary family forces.

The spacetime mapping of the Western Desert is fine. As long as there aren't any major changes in the spacetime structure of this continent in the short term, teleportation will be virtually risk-free. After all, point-to-point teleportation is much safer than direct teleportation.

It was just bad luck, or perhaps fate was at play. The timing of the first large-scale teleportation coincided with the timing of another major event.

The Ghostly Demon Lord was attempting to be resurrected. The original location for his resurrection was set in the Southern Frontier, specifically at the site of Mount Yitian in the mortal realm.

When Fang Yuan was reborn for the first time, she had no idea what was hidden behind this great battle. She even had the idea of ​​going there to reap the benefits. Little did she know that if she went there before she became an immortal, she wouldn't even make a ripple, because the scale of the battle at that time meant that even an eighth-level cultivator would have a hard time making a difference.

The resurrection ritual of the Ghost Demon Lord and others was originally arranged there, intending to use the last corpse of the Ten Absolute Immortal hidden there as the final material for their resurrection.

The corpse was that of the Immortal Zombie who had been imprisoned in the Chaotic Arena. However, this time, even if the Ghostly Demon Lord were incredibly stubborn, he wouldn't choose to target Mount Yitian again, causing such trouble within the Shanhe Republic. Even if he were a Venerable, he would be suppressed in an instant. Moreover, he was already dead. The strongest power he could unleash using his trump card would hardly reach the Venerable level. The only trump card that could barely reach that level would only maintain his Nine Revolutions power for a few minutes, and that would be a relatively confused and chaotic Nine Revolutions. He possessed immense power, but might not know how to use it. With these things alone, he clearly wasn't confident he could cause trouble within the Shanhe Republic.

So, the backup plan, which had been resurrected without a trace, had already been moved, even to avoid revealing their whereabouts. They even abandoned the Chaotic Arena.

The immortal zombie and the chaotic battle arena are now in a museum, open to the public as exhibits.

The fact that these two items were sent to a museum shows that these antiques are no longer very useful on the battlefield. During this time, the Zombie Alliance mobilized its reserves and acquired an additional corpse of a powerful True Martial Body. Having made up for the previous shortcomings, they shifted their main battleground entirely to the Western Desert.

Although the Fang and Wan families are deeply entrenched forces here, they can only be considered regional overlords in the final analysis. The Battle God Palace is located here, and although it retains some of the will of the Yuanlian Immortal Venerable, it has not been very active for a long time compared to the backup plans of other Venerables.

As a result, the Shadow Sect was able to operate on this continent without encountering much hindrance. This was actually a result of the various Venerables' deliberate or unintentional efforts to secretly help the Ghost Demon Lord complete his plan, using him as a pawn to test the waters of the Mountain and River Republic.

Although the Shanhe Republic engages in small-scale battles with the Heavenly Court every year, these skirmishes don't truly reveal the Republic's full strength. This leaves the various Venerables uncertain. Do they possess the strength to barely contend with a Venerable, or have they developed to the point where they could crush a Venerable with a mere flick of a finger? This is something difficult to discern from the war with Zhongzhou.

Most forces in this world either lack the resolve to perish together with the Republic of Mountains and Rivers, or their own strength, even with a surge of power, is insufficient to probe the opponent's true capabilities. Only the Shadow Sect is qualified to serve as this pebble in the trial.

The Ghostly Demon Lord was well aware of what others were thinking, but he himself was clearly preparing to seize this opportunity. Fortune favors the bold. Modern technology had also affected him. If he could complete his resurrection in this technologically advanced environment, his strength would rise to an unprecedented level. He might even be able to contend with the Mountain and River Republic at its peak.

The refining of the Supreme Immortal Embryo Gu has undergone numerous improvements, deviating significantly from the original plan. Furthermore, the Western Desert, under his influence, has become riddled with flaws, essentially turning into the Shadow Sect's backyard.

And perhaps it was fate. As the inter-domain teleportation proceeded, their plan was slowly unfolding. A deadly array attack, truly enveloping the entire Western Desert, gradually enveloped the entire continent.

The ultimate technique of the array is called "Wish Fulfillment," and just hearing the name gives you an idea of ​​its terrifying power. If it succeeds, the mastermind might gain godlike abilities.

What sustains this killing move is the soul-path killing move left behind by the Ghostly Demon Lord. The Nine Revolutions Soul-Path Killing Move: The Soul Returns to the Netherworld!

In an instant, the entire continent was thrown into turmoil. No one had ever imagined that the Ghostly Demon Lord would cause such a catastrophe. But now the formation was complete. There was no going back.

A massive array enveloped the entire continent. Then, one after another, people collapsed. Their chests rose and fell, albeit extremely slowly, perhaps less than once a minute. But their consciousness had vanished, as if their souls had been ripped away. Or rather, their souls had indeed been extracted.

This turn of events completely exceeded the expectations of the various families. No one below the Immortal level escaped unscathed. Their souls were extracted and imprisoned somewhere unknown. Even those who had reached the Immortal level would likely lose consciousness instantly without external resistance. Only those who had reached the eighth level of cultivation could barely retain their self-awareness, but even then, they would be left extremely weak.

As soon as Lanno landed, this was the scene before him: a crimson wave transformed into a storm, sweeping across the entire continent. Anyone caught in this storm instantly collapsed. At the center of the continent, a colossal sphere of light, comparable in size to a planet, had risen. Countless souls were converging there—trillions of souls. All were imprisoned, their fate unknown.
Lanno landed right inside the great formation. Although he barely managed to resist the effects of the soul-extraction ability, he was now in a weakened state, and it would be very difficult to break through the formation's inherent defenses with brute force.

"Let's rewind time. Rewind to five seconds ago... If we keep rewinding, maybe we can prevent all of this from happening."

Thinking this, he was preparing to plunge into the River of Time. But then he saw that this section of the River of Time had suddenly shrunk by one-fifth. The entire section of water had vanished. He immediately stopped his time travel.

The drop in river level means that some people have completely disappeared from this timeline. This means that his time travel can only affect those still within the river of time. Those who have already escaped will remain unaffected. Even if he travels back in time, there will still be no one left on this continent. There might even be a worse situation: after completing the time travel, their physical bodies in the real world will be nowhere to be found.

"This is troublesome." Lanno quickly contacted headquarters, not daring to act rashly. Not only because he might not be able to disrupt the plan's progress, but also because even if he did attempt to sabotage it now, he might not be able to rescue them. Souls separated from their bodies are relatively fragile. Forcibly destroying the foundation of the formation might backfire, causing the deaths of everyone trapped inside. This included not only tens of thousands of advance troops sent by the Shanhe Republic, but also trillions of native mortals. The most obvious aspect of the Ghost Demon Lord's plan was exploiting the Shanhe Republic's excessively high moral standards by directly capturing trillions of people as hostages. This meant that if the plan succeeded, the Shanhe Republic would be hesitant to act against him.

If it were anyone else wielding such immense power, they would likely have already attacked him, perhaps even plundering the souls he collected as their own resources. But the Republic of Mountains and Rivers clearly wouldn't do such a thing. It's not just a matter of the decision-makers' moral bottom line; it concerns the very foundation of the entire nation. If such a thing were done, the once united nation would instantly crumble.

After establishing contact with the rear, Lanno began analyzing the massive array. First, he needed to determine its purpose. He needed to understand why those people's souls were being extracted—only then could he possibly rescue them.

This process was akin to decompiling code—analyzing the program's function through its source code. For most, this would be completely incomprehensible. But for Lanno, who had accumulated vast knowledge in this world, it wasn't difficult. The more he deciphered it, the stranger his expression became. He discovered that one of the core elements of this massive formation seemed to be a human soul. And judging from the characteristics of this soul, it seemed precisely to be an extraterrestrial demon. A significant portion of the formation's information came from this extraterrestrial demon.

[To be continued]

Please add this to your favorites and vote for it! (End of Chapter)