[Seventy-fourth year, ninety-three years old.]
[This year, you continued studying the Faith Dao with Li Lingyue.]
[From the initial mobilization plans to implementation, the human world has already gone through two generations.]
[Yet, the enemy still had not appeared.]
[You could feel complacency settling in among all parties.]
[The previously relatively harmonious martial environment began to slide back toward factionalism, selfishness, and profit-driven rivalry.]
[Not because people liked infighting, but because resources were limited.]
[Everyone wanted to be strong; no one was willing to fall behind.]
[If the world's resources were inexhaustible and available to everyone, harmony would naturally follow.]
[Just as this golden period of preparation was about to dissipate, the Dragon-Man tribe arrived.]
[At that moment, you were in the Five Regions learning deeper aspects of the Faith Dao with Li Lingyue.]
[Suddenly, the Free and Unfettered Token blazed with light, the signal of an urgent communication.]
[You channeled true qi to activate it; the token floated in midair, and the voice of Wang Yanbing, head of the Wang Clan of the Chaotic Crystal Sea, came through.]
["Saint! The enemy is here! The Dragon-Man tribe! So many Dragon-Men! And countless huge monsters!!"]
[You instantly shot up into the sky and released Black Wind.]
["Wang Clan head, flee! Whoever in the Wang Clan can escape, escape—staying alive is the most important thing!"]
"Wang Yanbing's voice held a note of resignation."
["I cannot survive. You continue fighting!"]
["Wang Clan head! Don't be rash! I have left you the 'Heaven Tortoise Array.' Take your people inside; I will arrive in three days!"]
[Since you pushed formation arts to the Immortal rank and mastered Nine Palaces Island's Mind-Only Formation Arrangement, and with Black Wind as your blazing travel artifact,]
[you had left various formations across the human world.]
[Normal formations, once set up, require continuous Spirit Crystal consumption to maintain, otherwise they gradually dissipate and need to be re-laid to be activated again.]
[Nine Palaces Island's Mind-Only Formation Arrangement lets the formations you lay stand without Spirit Crystal upkeep; they remain inert until you will them to activate.]
[With those prerequisites, over the past years you planted many formations across the human world as contingencies.]
[The Wang Clan's Heaven Tortoise Array was one of them.]
[Wang Yanbing did not listen to you and hide inside the Heaven Tortoise Array; he chose instead to fight to the death!]
["My son, Wang Mingbai, died to ensure the Saint's return!
As his father, not dying with my son is my lifelong shame!
Today, the powerful enemy's arrival proves that the Saint's actions over the years were right, and proves my son's sacrifice was not in vain!
I am old and can let go of attachment to the mortal world. If my Wang Clan's fire kills one more enemy, it will relieve the human world of one more burden!"]
[Behind Wang Yanbing's words came the brutal sounds of battle.]
[You heard the Wang Clan's furious roars.]
[You heard the Dragon-Man tribe's scornful jeers.]
[And the monstrous cries of the Five-Element Demon Spirits army.]
[The Free and Unfettered Token's transmission cut off.]
[Black Wind turned its head and asked,]
["Boss, shall we go?"]
["Go!"]
[You mounted Black Wind and, high in the sky, became a black shadow, faster and faster, until your speed could not be tracked by anyone's gaze or divine sense.]
[Even though Black Wind's Shadow of the Sun ability was absurdly fast, it still took three days to travel from the eastern Five Regions to the western Chaotic Crystal Sea.]
[During that time you used the Free and Unfettered Token to contact all parties and, as supreme commander of the human world's allied forces, issued unified orders to resist the alien invasion.]
["Tell compatriots across the seas and allied Demon Tribe forces!
The alien race has arrived!
Whether our human world survives this catastrophe rests in our hands!
This is not a drill! I repeat, not a drill!
War has begun. The enemy comes to massacre all life in our realm and to release all Mundane Qi!
Therefore, surrender will mean death, fleeing will mean death, becoming slaves will mean death, betraying compatriots will mean death!
Abandon all illusions!
Throw yourselves into the coming fight to the death!"]
[Everyone holding a Free and Unfettered Token heard the voice from the device.]
[Like a stone creating a thousand waves, the entire human world was stamped with a bloodied war fervor at that moment.]
["Shen Qingshan! The Dragon-Man army has crossed the world barrier and arrived; they are now in the Chaotic Crystal Sea! Immediately activate the Sky-Earth Barrier freezing array around the Starry Domains, and under no circumstances let the Dragon-Men land in the Starry Domains!"]
["Since the Wang Clan is in danger, I will take an elite force to support them!"]
["Too late! By the time you mobilize and march, the battle will already be over. If you go you may walk into an ambush!"]
[The Starry Domains sit above the ground, in the sky.]
[Although the vertical distance is not enormous, the horizontal distance to the ground locations remains the same.]
[Shen Qingshan, as a Martial God, could indeed get there quickly, but his subordinates could not.]
[And him going alone would be meaningless; Hu Chacha had said that one Dragon-Man expeditionary force contained at least three, possibly up to thirteen Martial God-level powerhouses!]
["Azure Dragon! The Dragon-Man tribe has come; quickly muster the Demon Tribe army near the Hundred Death Mountains!"]
["Free and Unfettered Venerable! The Dragon-Men have arrived; order the Three Great Holy Lands to abandon their garrisons and retreat east to rendezvous at the Hundred Death Mountains with Demon Tribe and Five Regions forces. There I have prepared the Ten Directions Demon-Slaying Array for the Dragon-Men!"]
["Lingyue (Cheng Qian)! Cease fighting first! Organize martial artist forces, use the Sky-Sea Flying Vessels the Shen Family provided, march east to support the Holy Lands and the Demon Tribe, hurry!!"]
["Sword Lord! Quickly lead the Five Regions sect forces to Cangqiong Ridge. If we lose at the Hundred Death Mountains, receive the routed troops at Cangqiong Ridge!"]
["Senior Hu, it's time to enter the fray, the enemy has arrived!"]
["Zhen Pin! Take the three thousand pre-selected boys and girls west across the sea to Return-to-Root Island! Hide them inside the 'Peach Blossom Immortal Array'! If the human world falls, take care of these seeds of rebirth..."]
[Starry Domains, Holy Lands, Five Regions, Great Wastes, Overseas...]
[The entire human world map flowed before your eyes.]
[You knew by heart which forces were where and who their core leaders were.]
[Those leaders now all followed your command.]
[As you issued order after order,]
[an invisible black cloud spread over the human world.]
[The Dragon-Man invasion had truly come; clouds stirred across the board!]
[Three days later.]
[Chaotic Crystal Sea.]
[You were the farthest away, but you arrived the fastest.]
[Free and Unfettered Venerable, Hua Wuyan, Founding Ancestor Shen and the others wanted to come support, but you did not agree.]
[The situation was unclear. If several Martial Gods rashly led the vanguard and things went wrong, the final trump card, the Seven Luminaries Immortal Array, would be gone.]
[So you decided to scout the situation first.]
[After all, you feared the alien race least of all. With Mountain River Armor on you, trait tags in your heart, and the Dragon-Man tribe needing an enormous effort just to threaten your life,]
[the most the enemy could likely do was trap you.]
[But with Black Wind present, you were confident you could retreat.]
