Chapter 2867: Enlightenment Space-Time

"Tell me, why aren't the Honghuang taking the bait?"

"Did the news leak?"

"Shhh, keep it down, don't let the Honghuang hear."

In the star fields of Zhutian, people wandered about, observing their surroundings and chatting freely, deliberately lowering their voices as if they were plotting something mysterious.

Each one of them was quite an actor.

In extraordinary times like these, extraordinary measures were necessary.

With over ninety percent of Zhutian's peak forces having vanished without a trace, they were unable to confront the Honghuang directly, so they had to resort to bluffing and intimidating the Honghuang clans.

Fortunately, Zhutian had plenty of talented individuals, and while their acting skills weren't quite at Ye Chen's level, they were still impressive.

Their words could still be heard by the Honghuang — who knew if some speck of dust floating in the star fields concealed a Honghuang ancestral land? Since they could be overheard, anyone who showed themselves would clearly be walking into a trap!

As it turned out, this strategy was quite effective.

Bluffing was one approach, but active preparation for battle was essential. If the Honghuang suddenly decided to attack, this temporary measure wouldn't hold up for long.

"We've made contact."

"No response."

"Keep calling."

In the Tianxuan Gate, Fu Ya paced back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back, like an ant on a hot pan, extremely anxious.

Compared to him, the mortal generals were much calmer, and they looked at Fu Ya with odd expressions. Immortals were supposed to be above it all, so why was he so impatient?

Perhaps they just didn't understand the severity of the situation.

If a war broke out, Zhutian would surely lose, resulting in mountains of corpses and rivers of blood. The Honghuang's foundations were far deeper than they appeared on the surface.

The hundred thousand mountains under the moon were still surrounded.

Bai Zhi had been waiting there for who knew how many days, constantly peering and searching. Even if someone had vanished into thin air, they should have left some traces.

Nanming Yushu and the others were there too, having emerged from seclusion early. Among the missing quasi-emperors were people from their own circles—one was Ye Chen, and the other was Ji Ningshuang.

Ah!

Ming Di sighed deeply. Even with his full imperial vision, he couldn't find that space-time turbulence. If he were among Zhutian's top talents, he might have succeeded, but separated by the mysterious barrier, even an emperor's sight was greatly diminished.

Even he, who had once crossed space-time for a decisive kill, couldn't locate it, let alone the Dao ancestors. Those swept into the space-time turbulence were on their own—whether they could escape depended entirely on fate.

And so, half a month passed quietly.

In that half month, Zhutian remained peaceful and harmonious, with no signs of a major war. The Honghuang clans were behaving themselves, basically tricking other races into testing the waters.

Unfortunately, no one was foolish enough to fall for it. Once exposed, it would mean total annihilation—who would dare to gamble?

While Zhutian was calm, the space-time turbulence was lively.

Most quasi-emperors were comprehending space-time, but not everyone could stay focused.

Take Di Lao, for instance—he was always the one getting into collisions, so how could he concentrate on comprehending space-time? At this rate, he wouldn't master the space-time laws before being smashed to pieces.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Blood sprayed everywhere, with bursts of blood flowers blooming in the space-time turbulence, just like Ye Chen back in the day when he tried weaving space-time with time and space, getting blown to bits one after another.

Looking at Ye Chen, he had already closed his eyes, letting the turbulence toss him around while he quietly comprehended the Dao. On the path of space-time laws, he was perhaps the one among the quasi-emperors who had gone the farthest.

At least, he had once found space-time.

There was no denying that this space-time turbulence was indeed a sacred ground for comprehending space-time. Surrounding him were forces of time, space, half space-time, and full space-time—conditions that were extraordinarily unique.

In a few fleeting moments, he had grasped some superficial aspects.

But it was only superficial. To escape from here, superficial knowledge wasn't enough—he needed the essence and true principles.

Most importantly, he had his own obsessions: an obsession to get out, and an obsession to achieve great success as a sacred body. These were his driving force and source.

He wasn't the only astonishing talent—there was also Di Ji, the peerless ruthless figure who survived the emperor's tribulation, with talent that was incredibly heaven-defying. She wasn't worried about collisions and was wholeheartedly comprehending.

In the space-time turbulence, there was no concept of time.

No one knew how long had passed—maybe three or five days, maybe seven or eight years, or even decades.

Here, time had no meaning, but Zhutian did.

Tianming and Liangdi had a rough idea of the time flow in the space-time turbulence—it was different from the outside world. A day in Zhutian might be a year inside.

This was just a rough estimate—it could be even longer.

From some point onward, the Honghuang became restless again. In a certain corner of the star fields, faint traces of Honghuang's aura could be detected, likely meaning the Honghuang had sent out more scouts to get to the bottom of things.

Zhutian responded casually, simply ignoring them. The more they ignored, the more suspicious the Honghuang became, instinctively thinking it was a long-line fishing tactic.

This was a battle of minds and endurance—Zhutian had to hold steady. One wrong move, and it would all fall apart. The less action they took, the less the Honghuang dared to emerge.

In the blink of an eye, another half month passed.

Ye Chen and the others had been gone for a month, which, based on the time flow, meant thirty years in the space-time turbulence.

In the second month, Ye Chen's sacred body exploded. He hadn't found the right balance and suffered backlash from the violent forces.

That day, he opened his eyes, his brows sometimes slightly furrowed, sometimes tightly knitted, his deep eyes etched with confusion.

"Have you figured it out?"

A voice came—it was from Ren Wang.

He was in even worse shape than Ye Chen; his physical body had been completely destroyed, leaving only a faint primordial spirit floating in the space-time turbulence. His spirit body stretched like rubber, sometimes pulled into grotesque shapes, and his voice was weak.

Ye Chen didn't speak; he just shook his head gently.

Finding space-time was easy, but comprehending the space-time laws was hard.

After all, he wasn't omnipotent; after all, he was only at the quasi-emperor level.

Ah!

Accompanied by Ren Wang's sigh, the two passed each other by.

Later, Ye Chen saw many others. There was no worst case, only worse. It really lived up to the old saying: to comprehend space-time, you had to be prepared to get blown up.

Now, in the space-time turbulence, everyone Ye Chen saw had bodies that were a bloody mess of bones and flesh, with wounds that healed very slowly.

This included Ji Ningshuang. She was skilled in the dream Dao, but space-time was beyond her.

Speaking of the dream Dao, she had tried returning to ancient times through dreams more than once, but it was impossible in Zhutian. In the space-time turbulence, besides the space-time laws, all secret techniques, divine powers, and laws were illusions.

"The ninth time—have you gotten addicted?"

Ye Chen watched as Di Lao zipped by in a flash. Though he hadn't comprehended space-time, he was miserably battered. Since entering the space-time turbulence, he'd been collided with by the same person nine times in a row. He had no idea why the Honghuang Qilin was so fixated on him—it was always that one colliding.

With this going on, how could he comprehend the Dao? He should just count himself lucky not to get killed.

"The space-time turbulence is also a place that tests one's luck."

Tian Lao's words were full of wisdom, and he had the right to say them. Among all the quasi-emperors, he was the only one who hadn't been collided with, still lively and kicking. He could brag about this for eight hundred years.

Ye Chen had no mood to respond to him and continued his comprehension.

The third month arrived quietly.

That month, the Honghuang aura spreading through the star fields grew even stronger, with more Honghuang clans sending people to probe. They were treating those individuals as expendable fodder—the moment they were sent out, their lives meant nothing.

The Honghuang were ruthless, not just to Zhutian but to their own people as well.

Zhutian's countermeasure remained the same: complete disregard.

Like an unmoving mountain, its yin and yang were hard to discern. The bigger the movements, the easier to reveal flaws.

"The Honghuang clan has started to suspect."

Watching the water screens displaying various parts of the star fields, Fu Ya took a deep breath. Those dispatched individuals were probes—the Honghuang could launch an attack at any moment.

Yet, Zhutian's peak forces were still nowhere to be found.

In the fourth month, a streak of seven-colored light flashed across the star fields.

In that instant, the eyes of Tianming and Liangdi turned ice-cold. Mortals couldn't see it, but as emperors, they saw it clearly.

It was the Zhuxian Sword, emerging from the black hole.

Every time it appeared, there was bound to be a scheme, followed by disaster.

As the emperor predicted, the Zhuxian Sword went straight to the Honghuang clan.

Its purpose was crystal clear: to incite the Honghuang to attack, because the opportunity was truly once in a millennium.

Compared to the scouts sent out, the Honghuang trusted its words more. They and the Zhuxian Sword might not be friends, but they were certainly not enemies—they shared common foes.

From that day on, the atmosphere in Zhutian became extraordinarily oppressive, like a dark cloud hanging over everything. Veterans of the world could already smell the scent of gunpowder.

A great war was imminent.

Sure enough, before the sun of the next day could rise, booming sounds echoed through the star fields from all directions.

"Kill! Kill for me!"

Honghuang's roars resounded across the universe, as if coordinated in advance. Countless Honghuang clans burst out of their ancestral lands, sweeping with overwhelming murderous intent. Their figures formed vast oceans, devouring the star fields as they went, their twisted faces sinister and terrifying, like demons from hell intent on devouring all living beings.

War!

Though they had anticipated this, Zhutian was prepared. Their armies assembled to meet the Honghuang in battle.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Two oceans of people clashed head-on, with batches upon batches falling in death. The vast star fields were dyed red with fresh blood, corpses piled into mountains, and blood flowed like rivers—it was no longer the human world; it was pure hell.

Zhutian was at a disadvantage, unable to withstand Honghuang's assault, defeated again and again, losing star domains and territories inch by inch. In just one day, they had been pushed back halfway.

"The Zhuxian Sword didn't lie—kill for me!"

The Honghuang clan emperors laughed wildly and recklessly, like madmen standing on their jade chariots, roaring crazily. With more than ninety percent of Zhutian's peak forces absent, including Ye Chen, what was there to fear? In just a few days, they could flatten all of Zhutian.

Zheng! Zheng! Zheng!

The Zhuxian Sword hummed with excitement, thrilled to the point of frenzy. This was its handiwork—the scene of slaughter among the masses was too pleasing to behold.

Boom! Bang! Boom!

Amid the roaring, Zhutian's armies retreated once more, falling back into Dachu, Xuanhuang, and Youming. They could only hold their ground, hoping that before Zhutian was destroyed, Ye Chen and the others would return. Otherwise, it would all be over.

Boom! Boom!

While Zhutian was in chaos, the Taigu Road was also in turmoil.

After a few months, the Zhutian trio was surrounded again, with an even larger force: over sixty E Mo Dadi, Tian Mo Dadi, and the first lineage's great sacred bodies.

"Surround them! Surround them for me!"

The Honghuang armies had split into three paths: one toward Xuanhuang, one toward Youming, and one toward Dachu.

However, before they could encircle, a massive rift suddenly tore open in the void.

Boom! Bang! Boom!

Accompanied by five thunderous sounds, five figures tumbled out of the rift, all clad in black armor, each gripping an ancient war spear, infused with imperial divine might. They smashed a vast star domain into collapse, with dark demonic energy surging and carrying imperial power, spreading in all directions.

"Tian Mo Di."

Ming Di and Dao Zu suddenly stood up, their expressions turning extremely grave.