"Spirit Many!!"

You heard a Dragon-Man commander shout.

Those words basically meant "open fire."

For a moment, multiple large war machines fired at the battlefield at once.

The energy bolts from their crossbows easily shattered mountains and rivers, carving entire valleys where they passed.

The siege cannons launched fireballs like miniature nuclear bombs, each explosion leaving a bottomless crater.

And the massive war chariot simply ignored all obstacles, plowing through the battlefield. Even the mountain-guarding divine beasts brought out by the Holy Lands couldn't withstand its impact.

The Dragon-Man army kept producing these kinds of large war machines one after another.

They actually hadn't lost many soldiers so far, but the Holy Lands had already suffered more than half casualties.

Worse, the Heaven Venerable who supposedly killed the Free and Unfettered God still hadn't acted!

"We can't keep fighting! We'll be completely wiped out! Retreat east!"

You fought while retreating.

You used flying spirit artifacts to ferry ground-bound mid- and low-level martial artists.

But the Great Wastes was simply too vast.

No matter how desperately the Demon Tribe's Four Ancestors rushed here, distant reinforcements couldn't save those in immediate danger.

You had entered your prime state, your height breaking through one hundred meters.

All of the Dragon-Man army's methods truly couldn't harm you.

So they chose to use control-type spirit artifacts and means to restrain you, pouring more firepower into slaughtering targets they could handle.

The enemy, launching a late but decisive strike, had already formed an encirclement.

On both strength and unit numbers, the gap between sides was too great.

Using a portion of the human world to resist half of the Dragon-Man expeditionary force was simply impossible.

Total annihilation was only a matter of time.

Hua Wuyan stepped onto your shoulder now that you were a giant.

"Let's go."

"But they—"

"They can't be saved. There are still the Demon Tribe, the Five Regions, the Starry Domains. At the very least, you cannot fall here. If you wait until that Heaven Venerable acts, you won't be able to leave either. Don't forget, the Free and Unfettered God died at his hands."

War was that cruel.

You had no choice but to decide to sacrifice ships to save the commander.

"No! We'll take as many as we can!"

At one hundred meters tall, you dragged the equally massive cauldron and began scooping people up from the battlefield.

"Wu Yue! Long Yang! Island Lord! Master! Chief Commissioner of the East! Mountain-and-Sea Saint Master! Sky Vault Saint Master! Elders! Seniors..."

Braving the Dragon-Man army's storm of attacks, you swept through the battlefield like you owned it, striking eight directions at once, seven times in and seven times out.

The Trait Slingshot fired trait tags that confused the besieging Dragon-Man forces until they were in utter disarray, dancing one moment and singing the next—full of bizarre actions that left the leisurely Heaven Venerable in the sky baffled.

You took everyone among the surviving fighters from the Three Great Holy Lands who had high combat value or potential and stored them in the cauldron.

It was a helpless move.

The Free and Unfettered God was dead.

The Seven Luminaries Immortal Array could no longer gather seven formation cores.

You had to hope that among the remaining humans, someone could still breakthrough to Martial God.

If you asked where a Martial God was most likely to be born, it could only be the Three Great Holy Lands—the places with the most complete inheritances and consistently top-tier strength in the human world.

So you couldn't simply leave, letting so many Martial Saints, Martial Kings, geniuses, and heroes be buried here.

The Cauldron Realm was small; you stuffed in as many as it could hold.

Hua Wuyan assisted you, solving many problems and repelling attacks.

As a Martial God, the enemies present could not touch her, unless the Heaven Venerable personally intervened, or an Earth Venerable used Super Soul Combat Art to temporarily enter Martial God realm.

At last, the Cauldron Realm was full.

There were very few survivors left among the Three Great Holy Lands' martial artists on the battlefield.

You floated in the sky, surrounded on all sides by Dragon-Men wielding Magic Bullet Cannons aimed at you.

Hua Wuyan stood on your shoulder, quietly chanting a spell. She was communicating with the Earth Spirit, seeking to borrow its power to complete a spatial leap.

If she could carry you through space while you swallowed the Nine Provinces Cauldron into your body, you could instantly take everyone packed inside away.

But at this moment, there were still tens of thousands fighting and bleeding on the battlefield below.

Facing the Dragon-Men's war machines, they were falling in waves, their bodies leaving no bones behind.

Your eyes burned with rage; your hatred for these invaders pierced to the bone.

"Senior Hu, let's go!"

Before your words finished, an androgynous voice rang out in the air.

"Oh~~ You think you can leave?

I watched everything you did. I just wanted to see what tricks you were playing.

Borrow the Earth Spirit's power? Haha, it won't be long before we capture it."

You looked up, but the figure in the sky disappeared.

When you looked down again, a Dragon-Man roughly two meters tall stood before you. His body was covered in blue-gold scales, tall and slim, with two pairs of fleshy wings on his back.

At this moment, you were one hundred meters tall while he was only two meters, yet his aura was stronger than yours.

An invisible pressure radiated from him.

He smiled, but through his eyes you seemed to see mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Those were eyes tempered by countless realm wars and massacres.

With a snap of his fingers, Hua Wuyan's chant was forcibly cut off.

Hua Wuyan spoke softly.

"He severed my connection to the Earth Spirit. It's only temporary; give me time and I can borrow power again, but—"

But why would he give you time?

"Don't be surprised. I have a fragment of my realm's Earth Spirit. The status of my realm far exceeds the human world. Your Earth Spirit must obey me."

Speaking, the Heaven Venerable reached out a demonic claw toward the center of your forehead.

"Variable One, the Great High Priest calls you that. You truly have the qualifications to oppose my realm, but only that much. In my eyes, you are nothing more than a slightly larger ant."

In an instant, you felt all your power sealed, as if you couldn't exert any strength.

The light around you dimmed, day turning into night!

A terrifying force gathered upon that demonic claw, devouring all light.

You had to dodge!

Your instinct screamed.

"Watch out!"

Hua Wuyan's staff shot up, colliding with the darkest beam that burst from the Heaven Venerable's demonic claw.

Boom! Boom! Boom!!

Hua Wuyan's staff shattered with a roar.

"Senior Hu!"

You pulled her behind you, relying on the Mountain River Armor and a host of trait effects to withstand the aftershock.

The Heaven Venerable tilted his head and glanced at you.

"You're unharmed? Apart from the Five Elements Root Artifact, do you have any other treasures? Heh, let me take a look!"

The Heaven Venerable stepped forward. Even before he arrived, a terrifying pressure struck from above down.

You and Hua Wuyan were crushed into the ground.

The crater you made at a hundred meters tall was monstrously exaggerated, like an impact crater from a meteor.

Just as the Heaven Venerable prepared to strike further, a figure streaking black flame tail rushed over.

"Boss, run!"

"Black Wind! Don't go!!"