Chapter 347 266: Ascension

The northern walls of Shangjing City.

Masters from the various armies had gathered. As their commander, Yuan Tianhao remained inside a pavilion atop the wall, hidden from view.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

The Neon army advanced slowly, led by its armored divisions. Armored vehicles and tanks formed a torrent of steel, their every movement making the earth tremble violently.

It was as if the very foundations of the Divine Land were being shaken.

Behind the armored divisions marched the elite Purple Fireworks troops. All of its members were Secret Medicine Warriors who had undergone special training, granting them powerful bodies and unique abilities. In open terrain, twenty such soldiers could threaten a Five Qi Chaoyuan master, and fifty could potentially endanger a Harmony master.

And at this moment, there were nearly ten thousand of these soldiers.

Beyond them, the number of ordinary Neon soldiers was incalculable, a dark and swarming mass.

Even the Harmony masters felt a suffocating pressure as they watched the torrent of steel, which seemed capable of sweeping away everything in its path.

An individual's strength is finite.

The power of one person is insignificant, but when the might of millions converges, it can make the heavens and earth themselves change color.

In the eyes of the masters, a black and red Evil Qi surged to the heavens, linking the sky and the earth, seemingly blotting out the very light from the sky.

They had conquered city after city on their campaign south from the Northern Territory. Who knew how much blood stained the hands of these Neon soldiers? Some belonged to the soldiers they fought, but far more belonged to the civilians in the lands they had passed through.

A forced march meant they were short on logistical support. When supplies ran low, the Neon army dispatched soldiers to "requisition" grain from the locals—which was, in reality, blatant robbery. The accompanying arson, murder, rape, and pillage were innumerable. Countless ordinary people of the Divine Land saw their homes destroyed and their families torn apart.

These atrocities only made the Evil Qi clinging to the Neon soldiers denser, and their army was already nearly unstoppable in terms of equipment.

At the forefront of this torrent of steel stood several dozen figures, all dressed differently.

These were the top-tier combatants of the Neon army.

Nearly twenty of the Neon Twenty-Eight Celestial Emperors were still alive. In addition to them, there were also close to ten slightly weaker Harmony masters.

Leading them were four figures.

As they strode forward, the very wind and clouds roiled in their wake. They used their own presence to stir the forces of the world, commanding the collective aura of the countless soldiers behind them. This power converged upon their bodies, making them seem as if they possessed the might of Ghost Gods.

VMMMM!!

Rainbow light visibly erupted from the four of them, shooting dozens of meters into the sky before expanding to cover an area over a thousand meters wide. Their coalesced auras took on a ferocious form, like that of a twisted demon. With every step they took toward the city wall, this terrifying presence grew even stronger.

In the sky, an Aurora drifted like a ribbon. A colossal Primordial Qi Dharma Aspect stood like a Divine Demon. The Wheel of Time spun across the heavens. Illusions bloomed, and an air of Chaos spread, devouring all traces of Qi.

A powerful army! Top-tier masters!

The pressure they exuded was palpable.

The faces of the Harmony masters on the wall grew solemn. Meanwhile, the soldiers from the various armies standing guard had turned deathly pale under this pressure, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.

HAH!!

The assembled Harmony masters unleashed their own auras in unison, resisting the crushing presence of the Neon experts.

Among them, three auras were the most prominent.

Purple Thunder streaked across the sky, a Triple Celestial Palace faintly appeared on the horizon, and a Golden Core hung in the air like a blazing sun, radiating brilliant light.

The Shenxiao Army's Shenxiao Thunder Skill.

The Yunling Army's Triple Cloud Palace.

The Celestial Army's Great Sun Golden Core.

However, the combined might of the three Military Commanders was not enough to contend with the four enemy leaders; they were still being suppressed.

"Hahahaha! You few are not worthy of facing us! Where is Yuan Tianhao? I hear he's recovered his strength. Is he scared? Is he hiding, afraid to show his face?"

"We are willing to follow the customs of your Divine Land and set up a combat stage before our armies! If he can win, we will retreat a hundred miles and accept negotiations!"

Oono Bonan used his Primordial Qi to make his colossal Dharma Aspect speak. The sound vibrated the very air, rolling like thunder. It was loud enough for all three armies to hear, and could even be heard clearly by the common people inside Shangjing City.

The Martial Dao of the Divine Land has a long and storied history. In ancient times, strength was paramount among the armies; the strong were revered.

Ancient commanders were almost all powerful Martial Dao experts. Therefore, when armies confronted each other, a combat stage would be set up for the generals to face off, competing to determine a victor and often fighting to the death.

However, as times changed, Divine Generals became a thing of the past. With the rise of Confucian Generals and Civil Generals, this custom was gradually abandoned.

By bringing this up now, the Neon People were actually testing the waters—probing Yuan Tianhao's strength and condition before the battle truly began.

Sure enough, as soon as the words were spoken, all the masters turned their gaze to the pavilion on the wall—the location of Grand Marshal Yuan Tianhao.

The battlefield fell silent as everyone waited for Yuan Tianhao's response.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!"

Suddenly, a peal of deafening, wild laughter erupted from the pavilion, drowning out all other sound between heaven and earth.

The laughter seemed to possess a strange Magic Power, causing the very world to tremble. The immense military presence consolidated by the Neon masters actually wavered in the face of the laughter, and their manifested auras distorted as if hit by signal interference.

The expressions on the faces of Oono Bonan and the other Neon masters changed in an instant.

Inside the pavilion, Yuan Tianhao stood in the center of the hall. Around him, the flames of seven candles flared violently. The remaining Blood Candles burned down completely in under three seconds, vanishing without a trace.

Standing to one side, Meng Dongtai's eyes had turned crimson.