The Western Coalition had spent the past 30 minutes camping on the outskirts between the Great Love Alliance,
"Dammit!" A Super Tribe leader slammed the dust causing it to shatter: "What happened on the Eastern Front? It's been 20 minutes since they announced their attack and we have had no word from them."
One of the other leaders put her hand on his shoulders: "Calm down Tribe Leader Mao Ji,"
Tribe Mao was one of the super tribes of the Western region of the Myriad Beast Fusion Color Heaven.
"Xiao Ping, how can you be so calm, nearly 3/4th of the Great Reckless Savage's World has been occupied by these Demons!" Tribe Leader Mao roared at her.
Although they had summoned forth the coalition so easily tensions amongst them were still high, after all, it's not like the Myriad Beast world was peaceful, each tribe had conflicts not only within but abroad as well.
Take for example the Xiao Ping's Xiao tribe, they and the Mao tribe were not exactly on the best of terms.
While they weren't life and death enemies, they weren't entirely amicable either.
This type of relationship was seen across the entire Grotto Heaven, after all with strength regaining supreme who would willingly submit to one another, this was a world under Reckless Savage's influence.
The strong ate the weak, and to think of compromise or schemes were seen as a great weakness. Thus, most tribe conflicts were solved through sheer strength.
After all, while the natives were savages, they weren't complete idiots either, they knew that if they fought and exhausted their strength too much it would be bad for everyone, hence, the creation of the Myriad Tribes Ceremony that Hei Lou Lan attended.
"Tribe Leader Xiao is right we need to be critical in a situation such as this," the final tribe leader spoke, his name was Dong Ze.
The Dong, Xiao, and Mao tribes had jointly ruled over the Western part of the Grotto Heaven, the 3 of them were like Rock, Paper, Scissors creating a precarious balance in the West.
"To be honest with you Tribe Leader Mao, Tribe Leader Xiao, and I had been planning to backstab you for a few months now, but desperate times call for desperate measures."
Tribe Leader Mao Ji interrupted Dong Ze: "Actually, I have something to tell you as well, I had discovered your plans to backstab me with Tribe Leader Xiao and thus, proposed to backstab you with her."
Tribe Leader Dong Ze shockingly turned to Xiao Ping.
"Don't blame me Tribe Leader Dong he had found out about our plans and to pursue them further would be disadvantageous I am only looking out for the well-being of my clan."
But Dong Ze merely shook his head: "I'm not angry at your Tribe Leader Xiao I'm just surprised how naïve you are. And at how stupid we are."
Xiao Ping raised her eyebrows: "Oh? What do you mean?"
Dong Ze smiled wryly: "Because I had a plan to double backstab you with Tribe Leader Mao!"
Xiao Ping turned to look at Mao Ji who couldn't face her and looked away.
Emotions surged through her, but she eventually just sighed: "I guess this can be considered a form of blessing from Heaven after all the backstabbing we have finally emerged united, but I fear we may not be able to see…"
Suddenly shouting could be heard outside the tents.
"Enemy Attack!"
A giant ship could be seen blotting out the sky.
It was the Myriad Year Flying Warship!
From its bow one could see a solitary figure looming over the Western Coalition.
"Hmm, it would appear that these really are just the last dregs of this world." Zhan Bu Du cast his gaze down from above.
He had decided to personally act in the event that there was some conspiracy behind this resistance but now that it turned out empty, he had decided to finish the job.
Immortal Killer Move -------- Daybreak Sword!
The ship's famous Daybreak swords had now made their appearance in the Myriad Beast Fusion Color Heaven.
From the perspective of the natives, it appeared as if the apocalypse was being heralded by this Warship in the sky.
Its swords rained down with no end in sight, any defensive moves or structure were made quick work of.
Even the Super Tribe Immortals were hard-pressed to keep themselves safe, let alone the others.
Fear gripped the hearts of these leaders: "This was never going to be a war, it's a one-sided massacre!"
Xiao Ping and Dong Ze wanted to cry but no tears could be found.
"What was it all for? All this planning? All these talks of a counterattack to repel the demons. What did even amount to? Did our lives even mean anything?"
Xiao Ping despite having grown up in the Myriad Beast Fusion Color Heaven was still a woman at heart and she emphasized and was deeply connected with her tribe, she cared about each individual and to see them be slaughtered as flies broke her.
"Argh!"
Xiao Ping flew straight at the Myriad Year Warship.
"Xiao Ping are you crazy?" Dong Ze cried out, but his voice fell on deaf ears.
Before he had stopped crying out Mao Ji had also flown up against the onslaught of swords.
"Are you both crazy," Dong Ze was shocked at these two.
"Hmph, Dong Ze I should ask if you're the crazy one or not, look around you is the situation salvageable? Rather than bitterly die or quietly escape I would rather fight till I have no regrets; my tribesmen are all dead and so are yours all I have left is this life, and I owe it to my tribe to try."
Dong Ze sighed as he pulled at his hair in frustration, he was different from the rest, he had always adopted schemes and tactics into his fights, coupled with strength, it allowed him to easily outclass his opponents.
But despite that, he was still not able to inflict a significant blow to either the Xiao or Mao tribes.
Even at the end, he was still scheming of how to make the other tribes become his shield but now when the time came where all schemes had failed.
His confidence had shattered along with them yet these two were morons compared to him yet at the very end, they still clung to their beliefs.
"Dammit! I Dong Ze refuse to lose to anyone not to these demons, not to Xiao Ping and especially not to you Mao Ji argh."
Dong Ze shot up straight towards the Myriad Year Warship.
Seeing this made Mao Ji smile.
"Let's go one final stand, not as enemies but comrades in war we shall strike the enemy so hard that they will remember this even after all is said and done to Victory!"
From a distance, one could see 3 brilliant lights charging up against a torrent of fire.
Just as quickly as the lights had ascended, they were snuffed out by the waves of Daybreak Swords.
…
After merely a day, the Grotto Heaven's initial inhabitant had been killed, the region was decimated with the aftermath of war.
Resources across the Grotto Heaven had largely been plundered all that remained was the Upslope and Downslope roads.
To activate the final trial a Rank 8 Great Strength True Martial Physique was needed.
Thus, Hei Lou Lan became the key figure!
After her exhaustive fight with tribesmen, she was busy recuperating.
She had spent a large amount Immortal Essence but there was no worry in that regard as Giant Sun had given a ton of Rank 8 Immortal Essence stones to the group.
Of course, he instructed them to keep the stones a secret and to use them sparingly, thus Hei Lou Lan only used enough to bring her back 20% capacity and let time do the rest.
The other camps were also closing in on the trial grounds and the Northern Plainsmen relocated to an equilateral distance away from the final trial site.
Three camps formed a triangle with the Trial grounds as its center, Ying Guang Xin's camp couldn't be spotted, but no one doubted that he was nearby.
The Central Continent and Great Love Alliance sent 2 envoys each to the Northern Plains to figure out the situation.
The Central Continent sent out Guo Guang and Mu Xiao Xiao, both were supreme elders of Heavenly Lotus Sect and Immortal Crane Sect respectively.
From The Great Love Alliance, Lu Wei Yin and Fang Gong were sent as representatives, Fang Gong was a great fighter, and Lu Wei Yin was a great defender, the pair made the perfect spear and shield.
The 2 camps met halfway and journeyed together into the Northern Plains camp, after all, there was strength in numbers.
Meanwhile, the Northern Plains camp was in the middle of their discussions.
"We should just kill them," Liu Zhan Shen a supreme elder of the Liu tribe proposed.
"Are you crazy? With any one of the camps alone we would be hard-pressed not to mention both!" Chu Du, the domination immortal, was surprisingly opting for diplomacy.
"Hmph, Chu Du you're not of the Huang Jin blood so it is obvious why you are such a coward but we of the Huang Jin blood are never afraid of a challenge," Nu Er Du, of the Nu Tribe, said as he thumped his chest.
The other Huang Jin members thumped their chests in cheers of agreement.
Chu Du was a rare person of honest character, he was not afraid of challenges and danger, but he was also not blinded by pride.
He was confident in their combined strength but he himself had witnessed the cunningness that is Fang Yuan and knew that colliding head-on against him would be detrimental in more ways than one.
"Silence!"
Light Emperor used his aura and suppressed everyone present.
"We shall let them in and hear them out or are you not confident in being able to prevent them from leaving?"
His stern voice left no room for questioning, the other members nodded and prepared to welcome the visitors.
Hei Lou Lan was watching by the side, and she was impressed by Light Emperor's ability to lead.
She went up to him: "Huh, to think the spoilt son would be this reliable."
"Hmph, Hei Lou Lan I've lived far longer than you, I was raised with the dignity and bearing of a prince, in my Era there was none brighter than I. Alas, in this great Era even the son of a Venerable is dim compared to the heroes and villains."
Hei Lou Lan understood what he meant; in any other Era, she would have been a generational prodigy someone so talented that her name would forever be etched into history, but alas who would remember any of the pieces of the Venerable War.
The only name who will be remembered from this battlefield did not even step foot onto it how ironic.
Above the board, the 4 Venerables were observing the events unfold. Perched light gods watching a game.
"Friend Spectral Soul might I ask what your intentions are?" Giant Sun looked into Spectral Soul's eyes, though his voice sounded friendly his eyes displayed animosity.
"Hmph, don't get angry at me Giant Sun I merely wanted to make better use of Hei Lou Lan, after all, a savage beast makes the best weapon." Spectral Soul countered.
"In fact, I discovered something rather interesting, why is it that your camp suddenly has 15 people hmm?"
This point raised interest in Star Constellation and Fang Yuan, who already knew why but played along to add to Giant Sun's suffering.
Giant Sun snorted: "Hmph, I don't think there are any rules preventing one from recruiting the people within."
He was right! There were no rules against building a force from within it's just that Giant Sun's force building began years prior.
Disdain could be seen in the eyes of Spectral Soul.
The board at this point had pieces scattered everywhere, some were used to restrict others, and some were leftover from a few close encounters but both Star Constellation and Giant Sun had yet to use a piece.
Spectral Soul had used a pawn and Fang Yuan had used 4 pawns!
Star Constellation had tried to keep deducing but upon reaching this point there were no further clues she could derive all that was left was to wait for the final trial.
Sorry if this chapter feels like filler because it is.
But its necessary to wrap up some lose ends.
Also, I wanted the ending of the natives of the Myriad Beast World to be poetic.
That sometimes in life you are just dealt a loss.
You can play optimally or even best way possible and still lose, nothing can be done about that.
The Gu Immortals of the Myriad Beast World took great pride in their strength and it became their hubris.
The 'invaders' they had seen up to that point came in small batches at the time and were often weaklings compared to the rest of the world.
But when the true people of power invaded they weren't even worth remembering.
If I really wanted to I would have dragged this segment out a bit longer, shown you a seemingly more equal struggle before defeat.
But I didn't for 2 reasons.
First, I think it'd be quite boring to see these nobodies take up so many words.
Second, I think the way that they died, completely unknown, and the contrast between the grandeur of how they perceived the fight was how the venerables or others saw it.
For them this was a struggle of life and death, they were trying to defend their world. To protect all that they've built. But what about the 'invaders' and FY how do they see them.
The 'invaders' are just pawns in a game, so what about these inhabitants who are less than pawns?
To FY and the others, this was more like pest control.
The lives of these ppl didn't matter at all.
So the irony is that in their final stand they united together they reconciled and they gave one last selfless act.
But yet it was all meaningless, they couldn't even scratch the Myriad Year Warship.
I'm sorry this commentary is long but I felt it was important to understand the intention behind the first half of this chapter as this is one of my ways of paying tribute to the OG's style of writing.
For the next few chaps it will be on the end of this 'Chess arc' I guess.