Chapter 1596: Mixed Battle

The East Barren was the Wang family's ancestral land, holding significant importance for them, unlike the Northern Territory. With the enemies literally at their doorstep, the Wang family started to get serious.

The number of demonic beasts was overwhelming; even with the Wang family's reinforcements, they vastly outnumbered the human cultivators.

Wang Youwei, Ouyang Mingyue, Wang Yingjie, Wang Rongting, Wang Rongfei, Wang Rongxiang, Wang Changjie, Wang Yinghao, and Wang Jiyun all joined the battle. As the Wang family's elite, Wang Qingshan intended to use this opportunity to hone their skills. Only those who survived this crucible would prove to be true elites.

The Wang family had a system of 'Twin Heroes, Three Beauties, Four Prodigies, Five Sons, and Six Valiants.' With Wang Qiuming and Wang Mengbin successively advancing to the Nascent Soul stage, the 'Twin Heroes' ranks were now empty. Two positions in the 'Four Prodigies' also became vacant. The 'Three Beauties' — Wang Rongting, Wang Rongfei, and Wang Rongxiang — remained unchanged.

Wang Qingshan promised that anyone who distinguished themselves in this great war would be selected for the 'Twin Heroes' and 'Four Prodigies' ranks. Wang Youwei, already one of the 'Four Prodigies,' could be promoted to 'Twin Heroes' if he performed exceptionally well. The Wang family prioritized Nascent Soul formation in the order of 'Twin Heroes,' 'Three Beauties,' and 'Four Prodigies,' meaning selection as a 'Twin Hero' offered priority in forming a Nascent Soul.

Every nation has its laws, and every family has its rules.

Wang Youwei desired to be chosen for the 'Twin Heroes' rank, and Wang Yingjie was no less eager.

A series of piercing bird cries rang out as thousands of demonic birds swooped down on the Wang family cultivators. On the ground, the demonic beasts unleashed spells, attacking the cultivators.

The Wang family's Foundation Establishment cultivators each brought out a green crossbow, pulling the trigger. Multicolored arrows shot forth. The conical arrowheads, upon piercing a demonic bird or beast, suddenly bloomed open, transforming into a miniature lotus.

The golden arrowheads shot out a golden flying needle, piercing through the demonic beasts' bodies. The blue arrowheads burst open, splashing out a large amount of blue liquid that, upon contact with the beasts, emitted a puff of green smoke. The red arrowheads exploded, unleashing rolling flames that engulfed the beasts' bodies. The white arrowheads erupted with chilling air, quickly freezing the beasts' forms.

Beyond puppet beasts, the Wang family had developed numerous special weapons, which now proved to be incredibly useful.

Wang Yingjie and fourteen other Core Formation cultivators each employed their unique abilities to attack the Core Formation stage half-demons or third-tier demonic beasts.

Wang Yingjie and Wang Yinghao jointly controlled the Four Symbols Puppet Beasts. Four third-tier puppet beasts pounced on two Core Formation stage half-demons.

Wang Jiyun conjured nine shimmering blue flying swords. With a flick of his sword-chant, and amidst a chorus of ringing sword hums, the nine flying swords multiplied, first into two sets, then into four. In less than three breaths, hundreds of blue flying swords appeared, transforming into hundreds of blue rainbows of light, soaring directly towards the demon cultivators.

Wang Youwei and Ouyang Mingyue jointly unleashed their magic treasures, attacking the demonic race.

For a time, explosions echoed continuously, and waves of spiritual energy rolled outwards.

With the addition of the Wang family cultivators, Cheng Zhenyu and others felt their pressure significantly lessen.

Tens of thousands of miles away, on a vast plain, four Nascent Soul cultivators—three men and one woman—were fiercely battling the demonic race.

Three of the demonic cultivators were at the Nascent Soul stage. Leading them was a woman in a golden dress, with golden scales on her face and arms. She was from the Green Serpent clan and was at the mid-Nascent Soul stage.

In addition to the three Nascent Soul demonic cultivators, there were also five fourth-tier demonic beasts.

The ground was riddled with craters and littered with countless corpses from both human and demonic races. Blood stained the earth. Some human cultivators were still fighting the demonic beasts, but their numbers were far too few, clearly no match for the demonic forces.

True Immortal Ziyang's face was pale. He controlled two fourth-tier puppet beasts to attack the demonic race.

To preserve their active forces, they split up to break through the encirclement. True Immortal Ziyang and the other Nascent Soul cultivators stayed behind to cover their retreat, buying time for the lower-tier cultivators to escape.

Controlling two fourth-tier puppet beasts for an extended period severely depleted True Immortal Ziyang's spiritual sense.

"This is the heartland of the human race," a red-robed old man with a hawk-like nose and pigeon-like face said with a frown. His back bore a pair of red wings, ten meters in span. "We must fight a quick battle and finish them off as soon as possible!"

A sharp, piercing bird cry rang out. The red-robed old man's body glowed intensely red, and he transformed into a gigantic red eagle. With a powerful beat of its wings, it soared high into the sky.

Before long, the red eagle reached an altitude of tens of thousands of meters. It circled in the sky, generating waves of crimson flame. An immense cloud of fire appeared high above, churning violently like boiling water and radiating an overwhelming heatwave.

True Immortal Ziyang was startled and was about to evade when, across from him, a burly, golden-haired man's body flared with golden light. He opened his mouth and let out a resounding tiger roar, unleashing a shimmering golden sound wave that swept directly towards True Immortal Ziyang and his three companions.

Upon hearing the tiger roar, True Immortal Ziyang and his three companions felt their heads buzz intensely, as if someone were striking them with a heavy hammer.

Lower-tier cultivators who heard the roar screamed in agony, bleeding from all seven orifices before collapsing dead. Core Formation cultivators fared slightly better, clutching their heads with twisted faces. Seizing this opportunity, the third-tier demonic beasts swarmed them, tearing the Core Formation cultivators to shreds.

The golden sound wave quickly reached True Immortal Ziyang. He reacted swiftly, gently shaking the purple whisk in his hand. With a loud whooshing sound, fine purple threads, as delicate as ox hair, shot out, striking the golden sound wave.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, the golden sound wave was shattered by the dense purple threads, unleashing a powerful wave of energy.

From high above, a tremendous roar resounded as hundreds of massive, water-vat-sized fireballs shot out from the crimson fire cloud. From a distance, they resembled a red meteor shower.

A gaunt, grey-robed man quickly opened his mouth, and a dark light shot out, transforming into a black banner over thirty meters long. The banner's surface featured a hideous ghost face, baring its fangs as if alive.

A series of shrill, ghostly wails echoed as the ghost face spewed out rolling black mist, forming a massive black cloud that hovered above True Immortal Ziyang and his three companions.

The massive fireballs struck the black cloud, vanishing without a trace as if absorbed by the sea. However, as more and more giant fireballs continuously impacted the black cloud, its volume steadily shrank. The grey-robed man quickly sent several incantations into the black banner, causing its surface to erupt with dazzling dark light. The ghost face on the banner then spewed out a vast quantity of black mist, causing the black cloud to expand again, finally blocking the onslaught of the massive fireballs.

Some of the huge fireballs crashed into the ground, instantly creating large craters from which rolling flames erupted.

The woman in the golden dress opened her small mouth, and a wide swath of slender golden light shot forth, instantly reaching True Immortal Ziyang and his three companions.

A tall, slender old man in a green robe gently waved the green feather fan in his hand. A swirling gust of shimmering green wind swept out, meeting the attack.

Boom!

With a loud crash, the dense golden light and the green gale annihilated each other, unleashing powerful waves of energy.

With the lower-tier cultivators wiped out, there was little point in True Immortal Ziyang and his three companions remaining. They decided to split up and break through the encirclement.

Just then, a deafening dragon roar resounded. In the distant sky, a silver light and a golden light appeared, rapidly flying towards their location.