Sovereign of the Ashes

In response to Dong Fangbai’s remark, Suanni—the most senior member of the Dragon Clan present—nodded.

He was Baxia’s older brother and the fifth oldest in the family.

Baxia was the sixth-born.

In terms of raw strength, Suanni was probably slightly weaker than Baxia by now.

Still, he was a true pyro-attribute dragonkin.

Within the family, aside from Yazi, the second-born, Suanni was the most battle-inclined of them all.

Over the years, he had caused no shortage of trouble throughout the Immortal Realm.

That said, it was usually others who provoked him first. Suanni rarely went looking for conflict on his own.

He was a level-headed overlord-level dragonkin.

The Dragon Clan of the Immortal Realm was a colossal and powerful faction. The cost of using a teleportation array was well within their means.

Furthermore, the artifact-forging of the Immortal Realm Civilization even surpassed the Magus Civilization’s alchemy in certain aspects.

After all, the Immortal Realm had possessed an extremely mature system for crafting spiritual treasures for countless years.

Celestial Venerable Yuanshi[1], the founder of the Chan Sect[2], had likely forged well over a hundred great spiritual treasures throughout his hundreds of thousands of years of existence.

In other words, the number of world-class secret treasures that had come from Celestial Venerable Yuanshi’s hands alone had already exceeded one hundred.

What an astonishing accomplishment!

Within the Magus Alliance, Titan World had a God of Fire and Artisans who was famed for forging divine artifacts. He had created many world-class secret treasures, earning widespread renown across the alliance’s countless planes.

Yet even the total number of world-class secret treasures crafted by that God of Fire and Artisans was probably only a fraction of what Celestial Venerable Yuanshi had created!

Of course, Hephaestus, the God of Fire and Artisans, was simply not on the same level as Celestial Venerable Yuanshi in the first place.

The former was merely a Rank Six deity of Titan World, and rumors said his lifespan was nearing its end. In recent years, very few new divine artifacts had come from his forge.

On the other hand, the latter was one of the founders of the Immortal Realm Civilization’s three great Daoist sects. Even among Rank Eight cultivators, he stood among the absolute elite. He commanded countless sage disciples and occupied the very peak of the Immortal Realm Civilization.

In fact, the origins of the Immortal Realm’s artifact-forging arts could be traced directly back to Celestial Venerable Yuanshi himself.

Thanks to its flourishing and highly advanced forging system, the Immortal Realm Civilization possessed no shortage of special divine artifacts capable of transporting entire armies on a massive scale.

Famous world-class secret treasures such as the “Map of Mountains and Rivers”, the “Scroll of Mountains and Seas”, and the “Tower of Heaven and Earth” were known throughout the Immortal Realm.[3]

Naturally, treasures of that caliber were mostly already claimed, and creating new ones was extraordinarily difficult.

However, imitation immortal artifacts and treasures were extremely common.

Spatial artifacts capable of transporting armies numbering in tens of millions were indeed rare.

But artifacts capable of carrying a few hundred thousand—or even just tens of thousands—of troops were not especially difficult to obtain, given the Dragon Clan’s wealth.

At the very least, they should have no shortage of smaller artifacts capable of carrying a few thousand troops.

Some Yao Clans in the Immortal Realm that had established their own territories possessed only Nascent Soul-level strength, which was equivalent to Rank Three in the Astral Realm.

Even so, they could easily summon thousands of lesser yaos with a single call.

Using this method of transporting troops in batches, crossing star domains and even civilizations was entirely possible.

It was simply more troublesome.

By comparison, the Amenkha Empire lacked the Immortal Realm’s extraordinary artifact-forging system.

It was not because the Amenkha Empire lacked the capability. Their civilization had simply developed along a different path.

If techniques such as self-sealing or methods for cultivating overlord-level monster kings were brought up in the Immortal Realm, most cultivators there would probably be completely lost.

The same applied to the laws of death and darkness, fields in which the Immortal Realm Civilization lagged far behind the Amenkha Empire.

In the Immortal Realm, cultivators who meddled with corpses or dark powers were usually branded as “evil cultivators” or “demon cultivators”.

Such individuals generally had a hard time within the Immortal Realm Civilization.

After all, “subdue demons and eradicate evil” was the rallying cry shouted most loudly by the righteous sects of the current age.

The distinct paths taken by different civilizations were precisely what made the Astral Realm so prosperous and dazzling.

Of course, no matter how advanced the Immortal Realm’s artifact-forging system was, or how efficient their spatial living devices were at transporting troops, the final cost of activating the teleportation array would still be astronomical for the Dragon Clan.

And given the dragons’ nature, there was no way they would willingly pay the entire cost themselves.

When Dong Fangbai asked whether anyone had informed Magus World in advance, Fuxi, currently the youngest-ranked member of the Dragon Clan, lowered his head slightly and said, “Hey, aren’t there people from the Magus Civilization in Qingyang World right now?”

Fuxi had spent many years in Magus World, and among the dragons, only Baxia was more familiar with it than he was.

Moreover, because he had assisted the Magus Civilization in suppressing the Sea Eyes for many years, Fuxi had received considerable favor and blessings from the will of Magus World.

So the moment Tomov and the other mages appeared in Qingyang World, Fuxi immediately sensed them.

The fact that Tomov and his group had been sent to the Immortal Realm to seek reinforcements meant they were naturally already acquainted with influential figures throughout the Immortal Realm—or at the very least, they had made efforts to establish connections in advance.

As it happened, Tomov personally knew Fuxi.

With a wry smile, Tomov soared into the sky.

Facing the five overlord-level dragonkin in their enormous true forms, he bowed respectfully before speaking.

“Greetings, I am Tomov. Lady Bev and Sir Klopp sent me to seek aid from the Immortal Realm. It’s an honor to meet such mighty overlords who share friendly ties with our Magus Civilization. However, Lady Bev instructed us to first visit Celestial Venerable Duobao, the White-Eyebrow Sage, and the Immortal Emperor of the South Pole.”

With a helpless expression, he continued, “Although representatives have also been sent to establish contact with your Dragon Clan, our Magus Civilization is not yet prepared to receive such a massive dragon legion.

The situation had completely exceeded everyone’s expectations!

Even Bev had likely never imagined that White Stella and the other dragonkin would end up captured by the Amenkha Empire, nor could she have anticipated the Immortal Realm dragons mobilizing on such a massive scale because of it.

Although Tomov still did not know exactly how many forces the dragons of the Immortal Realm had managed to assemble, the mere appearance of five overlords already told him enough.

The strength they had committed was definitely enormous!

On the battlefronts between the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation, any star domain commanded by a single overlord was already considered at least a medium-scale war zone, with troop numbers inevitably surpassing one hundred million.

And now, five overlords were standing here!

Tomov’s response clearly left the Dragon Clan displeased.

Dragons valued their pride above almost everything else.

The extremely young Torch Dragon twisted his jet-black body and laughed.

“Why would you still need those Daoist cultivators when the Dragon Clan is here? Are you doubting our strength?” Torch Dragon asked with a teasing laugh.

Realizing his earlier words had come across poorly, Tomov quickly explained, “Of course not! It is simply that the Dragon Clan mobilizing such forces caught the Magus Civilization completely by surprise.”

“I need to send someone back to Magus World immediately to report this matter to Lady Bev and the others,” he added as he nodded toward a Rank Five mage behind him.

The mage immediately understood his order.

He had originally been one of the envoys assigned by the Magus Civilization to visit the Dragon Clan of Primordial World. However, his mission had never been to directly persuade the dragons to send troops right away. Instead, he had been tasked with building friendly relations first, so the Dragon Clan might be willing to step in at a crucial moment.

Who could have expected the Dragon Clan to already have everything prepared in advance?

All they needed now was to arrive at the battlefield and begin fighting!

It seemed this Rank Five mage named Harlin would be returning to the Magus Civilization far earlier than expected.

Translator’s Notes:

1. Yuanshi Tianzun (元始天尊), the Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning or the Primeval Lord of Heaven, is one of the highest deities of Daoism. He is one of the Three Pure Ones and is also known as the Jade Pure One. It is believed that he came into being at the beginning of the universe as a result of the merging of pure breaths. He then created Heaven and Earth. ☜

2. Chan Buddhism (or Chan Sect) is a major school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China around the 7th century, emphasizing meditation (dhyāna), direct insight into one’s true nature, and sudden enlightenment, rather than purely scriptural study. As the precursor to Japanese Zen, it focuses on ”direct pointing to the human mind” to attain Buddhahood. ☜

3. The Map of the Mountains and Rivers is a magical treasure in the Ming dynasty supernatural novel—Investiture of the Gods. When unfurled, the map can manifest an independent realm, constructing illusory scenes, trapping enemies within environments projected by their own thoughts. ☜