Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
The tenth day since they entered the Chess Sea, over a hundred cultivators had assembled on the Chess Island. It was so vast that it was no longer possible to view it from one end to another.
On the fifteenth day, the number of cultivators increased to two hundred.
The reason their numbers had grown so explosively was because each island now carried a considerable amount of cultivators on them. The smallest group were around a dozen, and the biggest around forty or so.
This was a tremendous boost to their fighting strength as a matter of course, but the battles were also more intense than ever before. Just as Grand Sky Coalition was gathering their numbers, Thousand Demon Ridge was doing the same thing. Small-scale battles no longer happened, and every battle filled the sky with spells and flying weapons.
From what Lu Ye knew, the merging usually lasted between eighteen to twenty days. During this time, the Chess Islands would continuously merge with one another until they formed a province-sized continent. .𝒈
When the continent was fully formed, natural treasures and resources that were rarely found would appear for the taking, usually on Chess Islands that no one had set foot on before.
The continent would last for around ten days or so before breaking into countless Chess Islands once more. When that happened, the Battle Royale of the Legates would end, and the survivors would be teleported back to their Outposts.
It was now the fifteenth day, meaning that the second and last phase of the battle royale was about to begin. Right now, everyone could only wait passively for their opponents to be delivered to their island, but once the continent was fully formed they would be free to act however they pleased. The battle between the two factions would intensify dramatically, and the preparations Thousand Demon Ridge had made would finally come into play.
The participants had kept each other up to date using the Battlefield Imprints, and from time to time the cultivators of Grand Sky Coalition would receive the terrible news that their allies had been slaughtered to the last.
If too many outer ring Grand Sky Coalition cultivators had perished during the first phase of the battle royale, then Thousand Demon Ridge would drastically outnumber them when the continent was formed. With that kind of advantage, forget just knocking Grand Sky Coalition completely out of the game, they could even slaughter every last man and woman provided that there was enough time.
The situation was even worse for the Grand Sky Coalition cultivators in the inner ring. The outer ring cultivators at least had the Crimson Blood Sect’s Legate and prolegate to rely on, but the inner ring cultivators could only rely on themselves. They had no one to reduce the enemy’s forces or heal them when they were injured. They could only rely on Spirit Pills and meditation to recover if they ran out of Spiritual Power.
After all the terrible battles they had fought, even cultivators who had cultivated Heaven Grade Eighth or Ninth-Order cultivation techniques sustained a significant amount of casualties.
Another two days passed, and the number of cultivators on Lu Ye’s island grew past the three hundred mark. The latest Chess Island had carried a whopping seventy plus Grand Sky Coalition cultivators on them, and they were beyond overjoyed to learn that they had finally met up with the Chess Island belonging to Lu Ye and Hua Ci. They even paid them a visit to get to know them better.
Three hundred cultivators was an incredible force on the Chess Sea. They could not wait for the final merging to happen because it was the only way their still stranded allies could meet up with them and have a chance at survival.
The day finally arrived. Every Chess Island on the Chess Sea suddenly trembled for a second before speeding down a particular direction. The atmosphere turned gravely serious when everyone realized that the final merging was upon them.
At the beginning, an innumerable amount of Chess Islands moved toward each other to form a bigger and bigger conglomeration of islands. Now, they were all being pulled toward the center of the Chess Sea by an invisible force, though mergings still happened from time to time. Some of these islands contained people, and sometimes they did not. It was worth noting that most of the uninhabited Chess Islands were tiny—it was almost as if they hadn’t undergone a merging until now—but they all contained a good amount of rare treasures and resources. Some were even unique to the Chess Sea.
There was also a large resource island at a certain corner of the Chess Sea. A fruit tree had grown on the highest point of the island, and it had nine palm-sized blue flowers which fragrance could be smelled from five kilometers away.
World Spiritual Qi was visibly being sucked into the nine flowers and forming tiny vortices. Over time, fruits began growing beneath the stems.
It did not take a genius to imagine that these fruits were precious, and that the two factions were going to battle each other to the death for them. A great battle was destined to ravage these lands.
The Chess Islands had not yet completed its final merging, but Lu Ye’s group was embroiled in battle once more. It was because two Chess Islands had happened on them on their way to the center, and they just happened to sandwich their island in the middle.
Both Chess Islands carried at least a hundred cultivators or so. They attacked before Lu Ye’s group even had the chance to clarify their faction.
Both Chess Islands belonged to Thousand Demon Ridge. After communicating with one another and confirming that the Chess Island caught between them belonged to Grand Sky Coalition, they did not hesitate to launch a joint assault.
Unknown to the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators, Lu Ye’s group was more than happy to welcome them onto their island. Ever since their numbers had exceeded a hundred, they had been forced to take the fight to the enemy every time. No one was stupid enough to carelessly invade an enemy island that was obviously crawling with hostiles. Pretending that their force was weak wasn’t possible either because the enemy simply needed to dispatch a few scouts to find out their true numbers.
Although Hua Ci’s presence ensured that every battle was won with minimal casualties, it was never a perfect victory. Their enemies were no pushovers after all. The cultivators of Thousand Demon Ridge were just as experienced and fearless as theirs.
As a result, it had been days since any force had even set foot on their island. Hua Ci’s mushroom traps were feeling neglected to put it lightly.
Not anymore. Believing that they held the advantage because they had caught the Grand Sky Coalition cultivators in a pincer attack, the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators decided to launch a joint assault, not realizing that this was exactly what the Grand Sky Coalition cultivators wanted. The battle hadn’t even begun, and everyone was already channeling their Spiritual Power in secret and waiting impatiently for the massacre to begin.
Killing a Legate rewarded not just Contribution Points, but also their Blessing. Killing a prolegate only rewarded Contribution Points, not to mention that there were more wolves than sheep on the battlefield so to speak. Therefore, this wasn’t a battle to defeat the enemy—victory was all but confirmed from the moment the enemy had set foot on their island—but a competition to outdo their fellow cultivators and kill the most Legates. The spoils would go to the ones with the keenest eyes and fastest hands.
The two Thousand Demon Ridge forces had high morale and excellent coordination. On the other hand, the Grand Sky Coalition force looked like a disjointed rabble. When the spell techniques and flying weapons started flying across the sky though, the Thousand Demon Ridge forces abruptly realized that something was off with the situation.
[Is it just me, or do they outnumber us? But how is that possible?]
The Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators could hardly believe that they were outnumbered even though they were two Chess Islands against one, but the battle had already begun, and to withdraw now would be to incur massive casualties. They had no choice but to grit their teeth and keep fighting.
However, they soon realized that the Grand Sky Coalition force were unable to gain the upper hand despite their superior numbers because they did not have a unified chain of command. Assured by their enemy’s apparent lack of coherence, their attack grew more and more ferocious.
Unknown to them, the reason the three hundred cultivators appeared incoherent and even distracted was because most of their attention was focused on a sweet-tempered woman. Her name, was Hua Ci.
Speaking of which, Hua Ci’s number of bodyguards had increased to five. They were a body tempering cultivator, a combat cultivator, a spell cultivator, a ghost cultivator, and a Golem Master; Lu Yushan’s junior sister to be exact.
When the time was right, Hua Ci raised her hands and activated her secret technique. An aquamarine halo of light swept across the battlefield.
As if the halo was some sort of signal, all three hundred Grand Sky Coalition cultivators abruptly turned up the heat!
Cries of surprise came from both sides of the battlefield as the stalemate in the air was suddenly broken. The next thing they knew, Grand Sky Coalition’s flying weapons had stabbed into the enemy’s battle line and killed at least a dozen of body tempering cultivators and combat cultivators.
“Thunder Dragon Roar!”
Lu Yushan let out an energetic cry that did not fit his small and thin stature as his Spirit Artifact unleashed a powerful pillar of light into the enemy group. No one but him knew exactly how many people he had killed with that one blast, but the blissful expression on his face said it all.
“Kill!” Gao Tai roared. Once again, he was the first to charge toward the enemy while holding up his Shield Spirit Artifact. None of the enemy’s attacks were able to get through his shield’s barrier.
Following right behind him were dozens of combat cultivators. They looked so pumped that their eyes were almost shining with greed and bloodlust. Lu Ye was one of these people.
A few seconds later, Gao Tai crashed into an enemy body tempering cultivator and elicited a boom that sounded like two rocks smashing into one another. Screeches of metal pierced the eardrums as his barrier flickered a little.
The impact was so that both body tempering cultivators were pushed a few steps away from each other. On the surface it looked like they were equally matched, but Gao Tai was grinning from ear to ear because the combat cultivators he was protecting were already dashing toward his opponent.
Terrified for his life, the enemy body tempering cultivator cranked both his Spiritual Power and his Spirit Artifact’s power to the max in an attempt to save himself. It wasn’t enough. As the combat cultivators dashed past him, blood exploded from various corners of his body and dropped him to his knees.
He wasn’t the only one who suffered such a fate. All body tempering cultivators standing at the frontline had perished in the same way.
Since the frontline was broken, all that was left to do was to reap the harvest.
Lu Ye rushed toward a spell cultivator and was about to cut him down with his saber, but a flying weapon reached the poor guy first and put a hole in his head. He had no choice but to withdraw his weapon and chase after another target.
It wasn’t the first time he had his kill stolen from him, and it wouldn’t be the last. In fact, he hadn’t gotten many kills since the battles had evolved to large-scale battles. It was because there were too many of them. There was always someone who, after a big battle, was unable to net even a single kill.
Having no desire to become one of those poor fucks, Lu Ye hit the combat cultivator he was chasing with a Fire Phoenix. Once the man was staggered, he immediately jumped on top of him and took off his head.
It wasn’t until two dots of red light had entered the back of his palm that Lu Ye finally let out a sigh of relief. At this stage, it was getting really difficult to kill anyone.
The enemy was in total collapse after that, leaving a trail of bodies as they futilely tried to escape. When the last dozen of people reached the sea and realized that there was no escape, they shocked everyone by jumping into the sea. It took but a few seconds for the swarm of humongous shadows lurking beneath the waters to consume them all.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” A Grand Sky Coalition cultivator screamed while holding out his hand. His heart was full of sorrow, and tears were literally streaming down his face. Someone who didn’t know better would’ve thought that the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators who committed suicide were his loved ones.
“Why… why would you rather kill yourself than let me do it?”
[God dammit, not another fruitless battle!]