"This…"

You are hovering above the Chaotic Crystal Sea archipelago where the Wang Clan is located.

On the islands below, corpses lay everywhere.

Some stretches of beach were stained a vivid, bloody red, a sight that made one shudder.

The area where the Wang Clan lived was similar to a Holy Land, it wasn’t only Wang family members living there, many ordinary people lived close to the Wang Clan as well.

Now the whole region was eerily silent, with only the sound of waves breaking.

Besides the numerous human corpses, you also saw dead Dragon-Men, though far fewer.

You scanned the surrounding area, saw no living humans, and not a single living Dragon-Man.

The Traffic Light trait showed green for the surroundings, indicating the enemy had already left.

"It looks like they poured out the entire nest — lightning warfare. In three days they slaughtered the Chaotic Crystal Sea and retreated without leaving anyone behind, with no rest at all?"

You understood instantly.

The Dragon-Men intended a blitzkrieg!

Under the Aura of Ten Thousand Races trait, you could see clearly.

A massive number of Dragon-Men presences swirled through the Chaotic Crystal Sea area, and two detachments split off.

One force headed to the eastern continent, the other rose up toward the Starry Domains!

"The Starry Domains have deep reserves, a large population, the Sky-Earth Barrier to block them, and greater strategic depth than the surface, plus Founding Ancestor Shen leading them — holding out for a while shouldn’t be a problem."

Remember, the last time without Shen Yang, the Shen Family endured five years of attacks before finally being defeated and enslaved by the Dragon-Men, and that was only because the Dragon-Men captured them alive.

"If a Holy Land can’t hold — they’re either at sea or near the shoreline — once the Dragon-Men army arrives it’ll be open ground, no defensive barrier. Relying only on the defensive formations I helped them improve won’t be enough!"

Although the Holy Land had already received your retreat order,

so many people couldn’t all fly; they had to rely on large flying spirit artifacts, and those didn’t move quickly.

The Wang Clan had already fallen. There was no time to grieve for them; you had to head to the Holy Land to help with the evacuation,

to prevent the Dragon-Men from striking their rear and turning a retreat into a rout.

However, there was no need to rush to the Holy Land immediately.

You believed that over long distances, even the Dragon-Men wouldn’t be faster than Black Wind.

If the Dragon-Men had already broken into the Holy Land, Free and Unfettered God should have contacted you by now.

So, before departing, you checked the Heaven Tortoise Array you had left in the Chaotic Crystal Sea.

A huge, translucent golden tortoise shell sat over a small island.

The gigantic shell was actually the light emitted by the formation.

Looking closely, the entire island floated above the sea surface, and the area beneath the island was wrapped in the formation as well, so there was no possibility of an attack from the sea floor.

This was the Heaven Tortoise Array you had set up.

This formation came from the Mountain and Sea Holy Land.

Thanks to Free and Unfettered God’s prestige, you had actually seen the formation inheritances of all Three Great Holy Lands.

You hadn’t seen them for nothing; you not only helped them improve the inner and outer formations of the Holy Land, you also repaired fragments of several immortal arrays.

The Heaven Tortoise Array was a Heaven-Grade formation, with extremely strong defensive capabilities, but its coverage was limited; it could only cover this lone island.

With the Enhancement! trait’s level +1, you believed the Dragon-Men would find it very difficult to blast through the Heaven Tortoise Array for the time being.

Judging by the result, the Dragon-Men did not waste time on this tortoise shell; after wiping out the Wang Clan they rushed on to the next target without delay.

Right now, you could see dozens of young men and women huddled together inside the Heaven Tortoise Array, faces tight with tension, trembling with fear.

They were the Wang Clan, wealthy enough to rival the human world — the last survivors.

"Someone’s coming!"

"Those evil fiends are back?! Let me out! I’ll fight them to the death!"

"I’ll go too! My family! Our Wang Clan! The aliens have destroyed everything! What’s the point of living on?!"

"Don’t be impulsive! The elders used all their strength to escort us here so that the Wang bloodline would survive, so we don’t meet total annihilation!"

When you opened the formation, only then did they see clearly that you were not an alien, but the Saint of Free and Unfettered, the island lord of Nine Palaces Island!

"It’s the Saint!"

You had been to the Wang Clan before, so many Wang family members recognized you.

"Descendants of the Wang Clan, this place is unsafe. Enter the Cauldron Realm to take temporary refuge!"

You landed, brought all of them into the Cauldron Realm, then set off with them toward the Holy Land.

On the way, you questioned them about the situation.

They told you the Dragon-Men army had emerged from under the sea.

No one could accurately count how many Dragon-Men there were, because large numbers of Five-Element Demon Spirits accompanied them, with Dragon-Men mixed in among them.

"The sea floor…"

From your experience over the years, you knew opening a space passage that connects two worlds was no easy task.

Especially one that permits large-scale crossings.

It was even more difficult.

The fact the Dragon-Men brought so many at once meant they hadn’t all crossed in a single go.

They must have been arriving in batches, hiding somewhere — perhaps in the deep sea, or within the crust, or by other means.

Once a full expeditionary force had arrived, they launched their assault in one move.

"Hu Chacha previously said a stable channel must be established, requiring manpower and resources from both sides. Even if the Dragon-Men forcefully opened a breach and a group came over, if they stayed hidden and didn’t show themselves, how could they obtain resources to build a space passage?"

You easily made the connection.

Someone — not necessarily human, maybe Demon Tribe forces, in any case a power on the human-side — was helping them.

"The Blood Moon?"

After thinking it through, the only organization whose true face you still hadn't uncovered was the Blood Moon, so they were the most suspicious.

Whether or not it was the Blood Moon, the Dragon-Men’s incursion was a fact; what mattered now was how to defeat them and survive this catastrophe!

Although the Wang Clan had been annihilated this time,

the Dragon-Men didn’t gain too much from the Wang Clan.

The surviving Wang family members mentioned that while the Dragon-Men slaughtered the human population of the Chaotic Crystal Sea islands, they also looted resources.

But the resources the Dragon-Men got were not plentiful.

Because in recent years, preparing for war, the Wang Clan had used years of savings to support the strengthening of human martial forces and the training of the next generations.

If the Dragon-Men were waging a blitzkrieg, then starting with the Wang Clan and hoping to sustain their campaign by plunder, what they gained would definitely not be enough.

Not only the Wang Clan — under your advocacy, resources had been balanced among various factions to avoid putting all the eggs in one basket.

Black Wind sped into top velocity.

Everything around turned into meaningless red and blue specks of light.

Suddenly!

A huge black net blocked the way ahead; Black Wind didn’t have time to stop and smashed into it, emitting a tragic, piercing howl.

You saw clearly that Black Wind’s skeleton had been twisted out of shape by the impact.

"Black Wind!"