Chapter 251: A False Thousand Years

Qiu Yuehan hovered serenely in the sky, as breathtaking and unnerving as a black lotus in the rain.

But before the Moon Fairy could retrieve her sword, someone tore through the curtain of rain, a pair of deadly hands lunging for Qiu Yuehan’s throat.

A Sword Cultivator who had lost their sword—this was a golden opportunity for an ambush.

Unfortunately for him, Qiu Yuehan was a little different from your average Sword Cultivator.

She was skilled in the Red Dust Sword Dao, and her swordsmanship was excellent.

But she had also picked up a bad habit from her past life.

She liked to pummel people with her fists!

BAM!

Shen San had just rushed forward when a loud bang echoed. Before he could even fully raise his guard, he was sent plummeting to the ground like a kite with a broken string.

The bluestone tiles exploded on impact, sending stone fragments and dust flying. Spiderweb-like cracks radiated several yards out from where he lay.

Half of his body was embedded in the ground, with only the part from his chest up exposed. His eyes were unfocused, and blood gushed from his mouth and nose.

Shen San managed to get out, “How can you be… so strong?”

“You’re all too weak.”

Qiu Yuehan frowned, raised her foot, and stomped Shen San deeper into the ground.

Even when the Nether Monarch wasn’t a member of the Human Race, her attachment to them was extraordinary. Now that Qiu Yuehan was human herself, her hostility toward the invading Foreign Race was beyond description.

“How dare you come for the Human Race?”

The outcome of this conflict would ultimately be decided by the battle between the True Masters in the sky. But up there, it was clearly an eight-on-four situation. Furthermore, these were True Masters from the Nine Gates and Twelve Palaces, who had far more means at their disposal than common Wild Cultivators.

‘No matter how you looked at it, they couldn’t possibly lose.’

‘Once the battle in the sky was decided and the Grand Array was broken, the Dream Demons’ scheme would all be for naught.’

‘But for this pack of Dream Demons to be so bold, they must have a trump card.’

Shen San didn’t answer Qiu Yuehan. He just looked up at the Array in the sky and grinned menacingly.

“Do you really think you’ve won?”

Qiu Yuehan answered, “And if we haven’t? Surely you don’t think *you* can win?”

‘Even if a hole were torn in the sky.’

‘As long as she, Qiu Yuehan, was here, she could patch it up.’

“Back in Ancient Times, you lot had some skill. You could at least trade blows with my Spirit Race. To think that after all these years, you’ve made no progress at all.”

The Dream Demons were considered a powerful race in Ancient Times, and they even raised humans like livestock—a food source for producing dreams.

When the Nether Monarch invaded the Dream Race’s domain, she saw humans who had never once opened their eyes since birth, kept like cattle to endlessly produce dreams.

Later, the Nether Monarch wreaked havoc upon the Dream Race and rescued those people.

But… what happens when people who have never awakened are exposed to sunlight?

A surge of fury rose in Qiu Yuehan, but she suppressed it and simply said,

“Even your ancestors were nothing but cowards who fled in terror.”

The Black Skirt Fairy’s tone was so matter-of-fact that even the grimacing Shen San was stunned into silence.

For a long moment.

Shen San suddenly shrieked, “You will all die! The only ones leaving this place will be us, the Dream Race!”

The instant his voice faded, the blue Cloud Sea in the sky began to churn. As the clouds roiled, space itself seemed to warp, as if something was about to arrive at the Qingcao Sword Sect.

“You thought the Grand Array was just for creating a Great Dream? Ha!”

The Dream Demons had moved their own Array here. This Array facilitated their Dream-Entering Technique, making Possession that much easier.

But from Shen San’s tone, it seemed there was more to the Dream Demons’ Grand Array.

Shen San coughed up blood, but his expression grew even more maniacal.

“To deceive that damned Daoist Sect, my Dream Race had to suppress our entire race’s Cultivation and gather the dreams of the Ten Thousand Races… My race will not lose!”

He looked to the sky, awaiting the return of something.

In the process of collecting the dreams of the Ten Thousand Races over the years, the Dream Race’s power had steadily grown. In truth, the Dream Race now had a total of six True Masters.

Even after counting those killed by Qiu Yuehan and Lu Changyuan, including Meng Xuanyi, there were still four Sixth Realm Masters left.

Yet, according to the Human Race’s intelligence, the Dream Race had only ever possessed three Sixth Realm Masters. This was because the Dream Demon leader had used a technique involving the Great Dream and history itself to secretly seal the Cultivation of the other three Sixth Realm Masters within an eternal dream.

A few extra Fifth Realm cultivators wouldn’t matter, but more Sixth Realm Masters would have inevitably drawn the attention of Li Dashu. Thus, the Dream Race had bided its time, hiding its true strength flawlessly.

This gambit had indeed fooled the Daoist Sect, and the rest of the world as well.

The Dream Race, thought to have only three True Masters, was about to leap to the status of a Yao Guang—a behemoth with six. As for the few Fifth Realm Dream Demons currently possessing the Ape Demons in the sky, their auras would soar once the dream bubbles fell.

At this moment, the Dream Race’s Grand Array was linked to the vast and ethereal Dream Sea, drawing forth countless dream bubbles that carried millennia of accumulated power.

If what Shen San said was true, the scales of the battle raging high in the heavens were about to be overturned in an instant.

Furthermore, beyond the Cultivation of the three True Masters, the dream bubbles themselves would grant the Dream Demons a massive power boost.

‘Letting those dream bubbles land was definitely not a wise choice.’

Yet Qiu Yuehan didn’t move an inch. She merely narrowed her icy eyes, her gaze piercing the dense curtain of rain to stare at the patch of Cloud Sea that was gradually turning blue.

Deep within the Cloud Sea, countless bubble-like spheres, shimmering with an illusory light, could be faintly seen descending slowly from the Void.

The Black Skirt Fairy made no move to stop them, instead watching as a dream bubble descended and landed on Shen San.

However, the expected explosion of brilliant light and surge in aura never came.

Shen San stood rooted to the spot. There was no shimmering radiance around him, nor was there the slightest sign of his Cultivation rising. ℯℓ.

The Black Skirt Fairy seemed to find this hilarious. A mocking smile touched her lips. “So? Are you just waiting to die?”

Shen San’s eyes went wide with disbelief. “Our race’s dreams? Where are our dreams?!”

The dream bubble was completely empty. The dreams their race had collected for millennia were gone. All the descending bubbles were nothing but a mirage, empty shells incapable of changing the course of the battle in the slightest.

“Impossible! This is impossible!”

Shen San’s desperate cry pierced the heavens, reaching the ears of Xuan Huai Master.

Xuan Huai Master, longsword in hand, was ganging up on a Sixth Realm Ape Demon with another True Master.

They too saw a dream bubble fall into the Ape Demon’s body. At first, they were on high alert, assuming anything from the enemy’s Grand Array had to be beneficial to them.

But nothing happened.

Xuan Huai Master sneered. “Just a bluff!”

‘And here they thought their enemies had some incredible trick up their sleeves.’

“Kill!”

The two True Masters joined forces, catching the Ape Demon in a pincer attack. Though the Sixth Realm creature possessed immense strength and was further augmented by a possessing Fifth Realm Dream Demon, it was no match for two True Masters working in concert.

Red ape blood soon mixed with the rain, splattering onto the ground below.

Just as the two were about to slay the Ape Demon, the other True Master said abruptly, “Fellow Daoist Xuan Huai, something’s not right.”

Xuan Huai Master stopped in his tracks at almost the exact same moment, halting in mid-air.

A dreadful premonition washed over him, and the sword in his hand began to keen.

“What… is happening!?”

Xuan Huai Master felt that something utterly terrifying was approaching.

At the Qingcao Sword Sect, the Sword Testing Platform suddenly cracked, and a plain, unremarkable sword slowly floated into the air.

The sword itself was unremarkable, but a golden brilliance flowed along its blade. A single glance was enough to know that this was the most terrifyingly sharp object in the world.

Nothing could survive a strike from this sword, because—

“This is the sword of the one who performed the Heaven-Cutting and ascended,” Xuan Huai Master said in disbelief.

The sword that was supposed to be the prize for the winner of the Celestial Dao Grand Competition had emerged on its own and was now rapidly ascending.

It was as if… something was calling to it.

The curtain of rain was torn asunder.

A figure in a white-gold mask appeared from the sky, and the sword returned to his hand.

A single slash.

The Void shattered, and heaven and earth capsized.

The force of it sent all eight True Masters reeling, each coughing up a mouthful of blood.

It was a man the Cultivation Realm had only ever seen in portraits.

The Chang’an Daoist, who had presided over the Mortal World for a thousand years.