The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 583: Time Keeps Ticking

Aldrian kept teleporting without pause toward his destination. With his cultivation now at the middle grand duke stage, he had far more energy and endurance than in the past. He could teleport much farther and hold out longer before needing rest. Every time he rested, he would create his domain and immediately continue his journey.

He maintained this pace for almost a week. Along the way, he encountered many devil troops, and each time, he annihilated them without exception. Occasionally, he glanced at the black pillar to observe the portal opening, and with each passing day, the portal appeared to open faster. This was truly concerning, and it pushed him to avoid wasting any time as he pressed forward toward the black pillar.

Aldrian was not the only one increasing his pace. The rest of the alliance forces also moved faster toward the black pillar. They had already encountered millions of devils over the past week and had engaged in several battles. Many troops had been lost, but they kept advancing. Fortunately, even now, reinforcements continued to arrive from the rear lines in the form of volunteers.

There were still many who wanted to join the alliance. If not for the fact that they had to start the invasion much earlier than planned, they would have had far more troops by now. After each battle, the alliance forces had little time to rest before continuing their journey.

The leaders of each major territory had already been warned by Aldrian that the portal was opening at a faster rate each day, which caused concern. That was why they did not waste time and even pushed many beast mounts to work harder than usual.

They knew this method would cause the troops’ fatigue to accumulate quickly and affect their performance in the war, but they had no choice. They were being chased by time.

Battle, rest for a few hours, continue the journey. Battle, rest, continue again. That was their routine every day, and it had already become a normal activity. Time passed, and another week went by. At this point, Aldrian was the closest among the alliance forces to the black pillar.

The portal had grown enormous, its size now far greater than the sky above the entire devil territory. Even the skies over the Doria and Vindas Empires had begun to be swallowed by it. It was as if another world, hidden behind the darkness of the void, had opened for the entire continent to see.

In fact, this phenomenon could be seen across the world, not just on the Barisan continent.

The portal had even begun to block out the sun in some parts of the continent, casting those regions into darkness. That void in the sky, radiated a terrifying aura that could be felt in many places throughout the land.

Everyone who saw it felt a chill, thinking that the devil god might descend at any moment, given the sheer size of the portal.

In a moment like this, many could only pray and hope for the best for the alliance troops still struggling in devil territory. However, many had also begun to fall into despair, believing there was no way to stop whatever might emerge from that portal.

Some of those who fell into despair started causing a ruckus, which only worsened the already tense situation. Fortunately, enforcers were still present in each territory to deal with such problems, so things had not yet spiraled out of control. But many of these enforcers knew the situation was far from optimistic, and that the unrest might grow worse as time went on.

Those who harbored dark desires in their hearts could be pushed to act if they fell into despair. All the enforcers from each territory could do was offer the people hope and optimism, even though they themselves didn’t know if they were already too late.

However, only the leaders knew that the portal wasn’t yet fully complete. According to what they had seen from Aldrian’s illusion, it still needed to open much wider.

There was still time to stop this!

At this moment, the troops led by Patriarch Xin of the Xin family were still advancing toward their destination. In this group marched the Xin family, the Rivas family, the Thorny Flower Garden Sect, and many noble houses and volunteer groups.

They kept advancing when Patriarch Xin spotted another large group of devils. Because the devil territory was mostly flat and lacked obstructions like tall trees, he could easily see far across the horizon. Moreover, as the cultivator with the highest level in the group, he possessed the sharpest senses and clearest sight.

Even sometimes, before the scouts positioned far ahead of the main force could return with their reports, he had already seen what lay ahead.

The sight of devil troops lining the horizon made Patriarch Xin sigh quietly.

"Those devils... they’re like cockroaches. Endless." he thought.

He turned to look at the troops following behind him.

"Prepare for battle! There’s a large group of devils!" he shouted, prompting the troops to ready themselves for the incoming fight. They quickly formed into an orderly formation, but suddenly— freёnovelkiss-com

Rumble!

A tremor shook the ground, as if an earthquake had struck the area. The alliance troops, caught off guard, dropped to the ground, unable to keep their balance. Those at the emperor and king stage instantly lifted themselves into the air, floating. Patriarch Xin, too, floated, but in the same moment, he unsheathed his sword and unleashed a technique just ahead of the front lines.

With his light laws infused into the slash, the sword strike tore through the land, creating a massive crater that stretched for six kilometers. The ground shattered, and began to split apart, when suddenly, a loud shrieking voice echoed from beneath the earth.

Shieek!

A painful shriek echoed through the air, and suddenly, the giant body of a snake burst out from underground. The black snake emerged, but its head had already been severely wounded by a sword slash, nearly splitting it in two.

Patriarch Xin didn’t hesitate. He unleashed another attack, and the second strike decapitated the beast, killing it instantly.

The troops stared in shock and awe. They immediately understood that this snake had been the cause of the earthquake just moments ago.

"What is that?"

"That’s a black rock snake. Its head gave it away."

"Did that thing bury itself underground to ambush us? Damn... truly terrifying. If we’d moved a little closer, we would’ve been dead before we even knew what hit us."

Voices of alarm and disbelief echoed among the troops, but Patriarch Xin kept his eyes on the corpse of the black rock snake. It had high emperor stage cultivation. If he hadn’t sensed something was wrong beneath the ground and acted instantly, it could have caused the deaths of thousands.

"Good job, Commander. Luckily, you sensed it quickly and didn’t hesitate," said one of the middle emperor stage cultivators from the Doria Imperial Family.

"Don’t get too happy. The devil troops are still out there," Patriarch Xin replied, narrowing his eyes at the distant enemy line.

"This is the first time we’ve encountered a beast laying an ambush like that. The devils might have more traps hidden around here. We have to stay alert."

Just as Patriarch Xin finished speaking, a group of five wyverns appeared in the distance. Before long, the wyverns landed in front of him and five black robed figures jumped down from their backs. They were scouts assigned to reconnaissance, and all of them dropped to their knees as their leader began to report.

"Reporting! The devils seem to be summoning a beast behind their lines. There are noticeable figures among them. We suspect that—"

Before the man could finish his report, Patriarch Xin drew his sword and, in a flash, decapitated him, along with the entire recon team.

Gasps erupted from the troops. The higher ups of each battalion stared wide eyed, stunned. No one had expected their commander to kill his own men.

"Commander, why are you—"

"They were already dead." Before one of the battalion commanders could finish protesting, a middle emperor stage cultivator in front of him cut him off.

Hearing the interruption and the blunt explanation, the commander grew furious.

"Of course they were already dead! They just—"

"They were already dead since earlier."

He was cut off again, but this time, his eyes widened at the words.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"This group of recon scouts is actually undead. Do you understand?"

Hearing the answer, he and the others near him widened their eyes in shock, they hadn’t expected that the recon group just now was undead. They truly thought the men were alive and reporting the situation as usual, but this emperor stage cultivator was saying they had already become undead?

They turned to look at the corpses of the recon team and couldn’t help but be stunned. When Patriarch Xin tore part of the robes from each of the bodies, they saw fatal wounds in their chests. At that moment, they finally understood, these men had already been dead because of those wounds.

They truly hadn’t been able to tell the difference between the undead and the living just now!

Which meant only one thing: there was a highly skilled necromancer among the devil troops this time.

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