I tried to kill the heroines of destiny, but they ended up chasing after me.

But upon closer inspection, one can discover that within the blue sword light, there seems to be a lingering image of Huang Quan, as if he himself had become that incomparably peerless sword light, carrying with him a timeless and unwavering determination, and a roaring sword cry, heading straight for the Hand of Reincarnation!

In that instant, the mysterious figure behind Yuan Jie seemed to see the shadow of someone from the past in Huang Quan, which made him appear complicated, and he couldn't help but mutter, "Great...Emperor..."

For a moment, the sky stood still!

This single strike was enough to reverse the cycle of reincarnation, collapse the heavens and earth, and render the vast expanse forever lifeless!

At a glance, everything in the world had vanished, leaving only that hand and that sword beam!

In the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal. With a sword cry, the giant hand split in two and slowly dissipated into the sky.

The light barrier that had originally trapped Huang Quan slowly shattered with a crack!

The sky no longer changes, the earth no longer trembles, and in the stillness of the world, only that figure stands tall in the sky!

At the same time, the mysterious woman seemed to understand Huang Quan's determination. With a complex mix of emotions, she glanced at Huang Quan above, and then, with a sigh, slowly disappeared from Yuan Jie's body!

Having lost the possession of the mysterious man, Yuan Jie closed his eyes slightly and lay down on the spot, seemingly having fainted.

"I see your determination, but it's far from enough, so I won't waste our time any longer. But we'll meet again..."

These were the last words she spoke to Huang Quan, along with a meaningful glance.

But Huang Quan was not surprised at all when he heard this, as if he had known all along that this mysterious person would say this to him.

In short, his mind gradually calmed down, and the Crimson Peak Sword, which had transformed into the supreme sword, returned to his consciousness after flying around in the air a few times. Thus, this brief battle could be considered to have come to an end.

But this means that this battle is over; the real battle may have just begun.

Huang Quan stood in the air for a long time, and even frowned for no apparent reason.

"This is not my power, it is his..." Huang Quan suddenly muttered to himself, a dazed thought flashing through his mind.

"In that cycle of reincarnation, he only gave me one choice: to keep going..."

"No, it wasn't a choice he gave me, it was a choice I wanted..."

"It just so happens that his path is the same as mine..."

"He is me, and he is not me, that's all..."

"Hahaha……"

Huang Quan laughed to himself, realizing that he was not alone on this path with its uncertain outcome.

Because there was another person who had also walked this path, and although he did not succeed, he did not fail either.

Huang Quan believed that he was somewhere waiting for him, waiting for the day when he could fully realize the meaning of reincarnation.

In the past, Huang Quan's path was quite lonely. Although he made many friends, Huang Quan could not tell them his thoughts. It was not because he was afraid they would not understand, but because there were some things he could only face alone.

This is a kind of loneliness.

This is a kind of loneliness that no one else will ever understand.

Being alone is not scary.

What's terrifying is that no matter when you turn around, you're always all alone.

But now, things are different.

At least he now knows that there is someone else like him.

At least, while savoring the taste of loneliness, he can still remember someone.

He is not himself, yet he is also the real him, that's all.

Others won't understand, that's all.

As his thoughts raced, Huang Quan seemed to have emptied his mind of everything, and a strong sense of ease suddenly flowed through his body.

This feeling won't enhance his strength, it will only elevate his state of mind!

Even so, that's enough!

After realizing this, Huang Quan stopped paying attention to Yuan Jie and instead focused his attention on the endless wasteland.

He knew he should go back.

The universe, a place so dark it's appalling.

Just as the light curtain shattered completely and the giant hand vanished.

Sitting there with his eyes closed, a young man in a gray robe suddenly muttered to himself, "I failed in all of them. This cycle seems to be a little different."

At that moment, the mysterious person who had disappeared earlier suddenly reappeared beside him and said, "He is extraordinary."

"This is troublesome," the gray-robed youth said, but his expression remained unchanged, and he didn't even open his eyes.

"What? You've already lost your way to deal with him?"

"Deal with him? Hahaha!" The gray-robed youth suddenly laughed: "You've probably misunderstood something. Although I did cause him considerable obstacles in his life, these obstacles were actually his karma. So, from another perspective, I'm just an ordinary person in his karma."

"Oh? Is that so?" the mysterious man said, somewhat incredulously.

"Of course, everything requires cause and effect, and I happen to be the cause and effect he needs. It's just that he didn't expect that I also need his cause and effect, that's all."

Upon hearing this, the mysterious man seemed to frown slightly!

"Don't overthink it..." As if knowing what the mysterious man was thinking, the gray-robed youth shook his head with his eyes closed and continued, "Because everything has already been planned."

"Have you made a plan? Then why did you rescue me from the cycle of reincarnation?" the mysterious man suddenly asked.

"Hehehe..." The gray-robed youth chuckled, "You actually dared to ask such a stupid question. It seems your IQ is indeed inferior to his!"

Upon hearing this, the mysterious man fell silent, seemingly without denying what the gray-robed youth had said.

"Alright! I'll tell you then, because the final moment is approaching, and you... will become the key person in completing the cause and effect." As soon as he finished speaking, the gray-robed youth's eyes showed signs of opening!

The desolate region, east gate. "Attack!" With that single word, the great battle began.

Ten cultivators, all around the third level of the Traveling Realm, five men and five women, flew out from the Huang Clan's ranks. With a resolute air, they charged headlong towards the east gate guarded by the True Profound Alliance.

The cultivators of the True Profound Alliance were not surprised at all by the enemy's attack, because they already knew that the Huang Clan would launch a surprise attack sooner or later when the Huang Clan's troops suddenly arrived at a place one mile away from the eastern gate of the desolate region an hour ago.

So Jue Yi, standing atop the city gate, brightened up, waved his hand, and ten cultivators at the Traveling Realm rushed out as well.

"Kill!" "Kill!!" "Kill!!!" Both sides were filled with overwhelming power. The three words "Kill" turned into a deafening roar that echoed in the sky for a long time. In the next instant, the twenty cultivators at the Traveling Realm met in the sky.

To the utter surprise of the True Profound Alliance, the Huang Clan soldiers were even more ruthless and frenzied than they had imagined. The moment the two sides locked eyes, the ten Huang Clan cultivators suddenly swelled up, their auras becoming extremely chaotic. In the blink of an eye, a sense of destruction emanated from them and spread around them.

Perhaps because this turn of events was so sudden, the ten cultivators of the True Profound Alliance were immediately filled with confusion. But this scene was witnessed by Jue Yi on the city wall, who seemed to understand something at once, his eyes narrowing rapidly.

He immediately shouted to the ten cultivators of the True Profound Alliance, "Get out of there! Quickly!!" However, his shout was too late. Ten consecutive booming sounds echoed across the sky in a very short time, and the ten cultivators of the True Profound Alliance had no time to react before being completely engulfed by the powerful impact of the explosions. That's right, the ten cultivators of the Huang Clan had chosen to self-destruct in a suicidal manner.

The self-destruction of the ten cultivators at the Traveling Realm was no ordinary self-destruction. In an instant, the powerful destructive force, after instantly killing the ten cultivators of the True Profound Alliance, immediately merged with the sand and dust below into a massive tornado, which rapidly moved towards the East Gate. The sand and dust swirled, obscuring the sky and the sun.

Fortunately, although the storm was strong, it didn't pose any threat to the eastern gate of the desolate region. While the collective self-destruction did surprise the True Profound Alliance members, their selection by Jing Wei and Jue Yi meant they were no ordinary cultivators. So, at the very moment the storm arrived, before Jue Yi could give the order, a Transcendent Realm expert decisively rushed out, single-handedly blocking the storm. In truth, everyone knew that, aside from monsters like Huang Quan, even the strongest Traveling Realm cultivator couldn't possibly be a match for a Transcendent Realm cultivator. Ten Traveling Realm cultivators were far from enough; even self-destruction made no difference, especially since this self-destruction had been neutralized.

Of course, the Huang Clan did not expect to break through the eastern gate of the Desolate Domain with just ten Zhouyou Realm cultivators. They did this only to test the strength of the True Profound Alliance. The real battle was yet to come.

"The Huang Clan is indeed insane." Zhu Xinlan, standing on the city wall, first looked at the Huang Clan army not far away, then at the slowly dissipating tornado, and uttered these words involuntarily.

However, this statement was also agreed upon by Jueyi and others around her. After all, even Jueyi, who currently held absolute power, might not be able to use the lives of ten Zhouyou Realm cultivators as a test. Because in a major battle like this, resources are the key. Without knowing exactly how many resources the enemy has, rashly choosing self-harm tactics or exchange tactics would definitely be an unacceptable and extremely poor strategy.

unless……

“They must be in a hurry! Otherwise, they would never choose such a brainless attack method.” Wan Feng seemed to have seen something crucial, and after thinking for a while, he said seriously.

"No way! If they were in such a hurry, why didn't they attack earlier?" At this moment, a middle-aged scholar standing next to Wan Feng asked with some confusion. He was none other than Wen Qing, who had fought Huang Quan the first time while considering whether Huang Quan was qualified to be the True Mystery Lord.

“I think… that must be the time when the Huang Clan Chief is calculating whether the exchange tactics are feasible!” Jing Wei’s eyes flashed as he replied, “Being able to become the Huang Clan Chief means he is definitely not a fool. Even if his affairs are really urgent, he still needs to prepare some countermeasures. After all, this battle is not ordinary. If he fails, it means the extermination of the clan. So even if it was a suicidal attack like just now, he cannot launch it casually. Therefore, he naturally needs some time to plan carefully beforehand.”

After listening to Jingwei's analysis, everyone fell into a brief silence. The exchange tactic, in the context of the battlefield, means you kill one of my people, I kill one of yours, and so on, until the side with more survivors wins. This combat method doesn't involve one person sending a general and another a soldier for a kill-and-trade exchange; rather, it involves exchanges of equal strength. Even among the twenty cultivators at the Zhouyou Realm, half belonged to the True Profound Alliance and half to the Yellow Clan.

This isn't exactly passive, but it's certainly not proactive. If the Huang Clan sends three more cultivators at the Zhouyou Realm, and the True Profound Alliance, in order to disrupt the exchange plan, chooses to send four Zhouyou Realm cultivators, or even those with higher cultivation levels, then the Huang Clan will definitely implement contingency plans, such as sending even higher-level cultivators to kill the True Profound Alliance cultivators. Therefore, this exchange can be considered somewhat coercive.

Of course, it's not to say that the exchange plan can't be broken. If the True Profound Alliance launches an attack and uses all its forces to completely entangle the Yellow Clan in battle, the exchange plan will naturally become meaningless. However, the True Profound Alliance is the one protecting, not the one attacking. They cannot freely leave the desolate region and enter the main battlefield of slaughter. Therefore, if they do launch an attack, the True Profound Alliance will inevitably fall into a truly passive position and suffer a crushing defeat. The True Profound Alliance cannot afford to gamble with such an outcome.

"It seems that the Yellow Clan Chief has seen our weakness!" Jue Yi thought to himself.

However, just as he finished thinking, the Huang Clan sent ten more wandering cultivators.

Gradually, people fell silent.

A wisp of gloom hung over the desolate land.

Chapter 247 Facing Death

"We absolutely cannot sit idly by and wait to die!" Jue Yi muttered with a fierce determination.

At that moment, as if he had thought of a solution, he suddenly turned around, looked at the hundreds of cultivators floating in the air above the eastern part of the desolate region, and shouted sharply, "Who is willing to die?!"

Upon hearing this, the cultivators all showed a hint of surprise, but even more so, a deep sense of doubt.

They didn't understand why Jueyi would say that.

Not only them, but Jing Wei and the others beside Jue Yi also showed suspicious expressions, but they did not question Jue Yi, because they all knew that Jue Yi must have his own reasons.

Indeed, that was true. Before long, Jue Yi continued, "I don't want to say too much. I just want to tell you that the enemy is willing to risk the lives of their own people to breach this city, which means that this city has such value for them..."

"In my guess, they probably believe that as long as they break through this city, it's equivalent to taking over the True Profound Continent. Although I don't know why they think this way, please believe me, this is an undeniable fact..."

"Furthermore, you should understand what will happen to us people of the True Profound Continent if they succeed. Your families could be treated like slaves. Even if you survive this war, you will only be able to eke out a living. The True Profound Continent will no longer be your True Profound Continent, but will belong to these outsiders..."

"Or are you willing to see this happen so that you can survive today?" Jueyi's tone became agitated at this point.

Upon hearing this, the cultivators' expressions shifted between complex and conflicted. While some were resolute and moved, most were filled with fear, so no one was willing to step forward.

This is normal. After all, cultivators who have reached the Zhouyou Realm have sacrificed and experienced far too much in their lives, so it is unlikely that they would die without hesitation.

They need a purpose, a purpose for which they might be willing to die, and what Jueyi just said... is not enough.

Of course, Jueyi understood this as well, so he took a deep breath and said, "I need eight people, eight cultivators at the Traveling Realm. Because the enemy is attacking us with self-destruction, we can only counter with self-destruction. Due to our current special circumstances, we cannot all leave the city to fight, nor can we freely reveal our true strength, so..."

Jueyi didn't continue speaking at this point, but everyone basically understood what he meant.

The Huang Clan sent ten people to self-destruct in order to throw the True Profound Alliance into disarray and find an opportunity to break through the Desolate Domain. If the True Profound Alliance did not participate in the battle, these ten people would not self-destruct directly, but would instead wander around the eastern city of the Desolate Domain and taunt, thereby luring the True Profound Alliance to show themselves. Once the True Profound Alliance members showed themselves, they would sacrifice their lives to self-destruct.

However, their self-destruction was purposeful. If only one person from the True Profound Alliance appeared, or if fewer than ten people appeared, they would choose different ways to deal with the situation depending on the True Profound Alliance.

For example, if the True Profound Alliance sends out a powerful expert whose cultivation level far surpasses theirs, they will choose to leave without hesitation. The Yellow Clan will also send out cultivators of similar cultivation level to resist the powerful expert from the True Profound Alliance, thus ensuring that the basic conditions remain unchanged.

For example, if the True Profound Alliance sends out nine cultivators whose cultivation levels are not much different from the ten members of the Yellow Clan, then the ten members of the Yellow Clan will choose to fight directly, since they have more people and thus a certain advantage.

And at this very moment, the ten people that the Huang Clan sent out again were just like that.