After making up his mind, Ye Qingxuan split off two avatars and summoned Ye Zhaoheng once more.
Using the same method as before, he had Ye Zhaoheng take his two avatars out of the Xuantian Sect.
For these two avatars, Ye Qingxuan also employed the Divine Ability Seeds of Minor Divine Ability • Form-Shift and Minor Divine Ability • Heaven-Deception to alter their appearances and auras.
However, to be on the safe side, Ye Qingxuan also crafted a lower-grade spiritual artifact–level mask for each of the two avatars.
Divine Ability Seeds, after all, were not true divine abilities, and there was a chance they could be inadvertently seen through by high-level cultivators.
But with the masks on, ordinary high-level cultivators wouldn’t be bored enough to use their divine sense to pry into an ant at the Purple Mansion realm.
The five domains within the Dìxuán Realm were nothing like the Eastern Extremity Domain; the probability of encountering high-level cultivators was not low, especially near a hegemon-level power like the Xuantian Sect.
Ye Qingxuan’s main consciousness once again descended upon one of the avatars.
After the two avatars left the Xuantian Sect, they did not act together.
Instead, they departed one after another, heading for the Star Battle City near the prefectural city of Xingzhou.
Star Battle City was a city newly built by the Xuantian Sect in the past few decades.
It was named Star Battle City because several spatial passages leading to the lower realms and the demon domain, which the Xuantian Sect had opened, were now located within it.
Star Battle City was essentially a war city, housing quite a few Spirit Transformation–level powerhouses from the Eastern Domain.
Many of these Spirit Transformation cultivators, who formed Spirit Transformation combat teams, had now settled in Star Battle City, making this newly built city increasingly prosperous.
Although some of the smaller thousand worlds attached to the Dìxuán Realm might be fraught with dangers, in the eyes of some cultivators, the lower realms were equally an opportunity for them to advance further.
There were even quite a few reckless Spirit Transformation cultivators who rushed into the demon domain one after another.
Within the demon domain, these cultivators went on a rampage, destroying demon veins, seizing the source of demon veins, and hunting down the Qingmo Clan, all to obtain massive resources to support their own cultivation needs.
In this war between the two realms, many cultivators broke through their innate talent limitations and successfully advanced to higher realms.
So, in the face of the Qingmo Realm’s invasion, the cultivators of the Dìxuán Realm felt no fear whatsoever. On the contrary, they were greatly encouraged, reveling in the thrill of their rising cultivation bases.
To hear the Way in the morning—death holds no fear.
In this battle, they might not fight for others, but they would absolutely fight for themselves.
And precisely because of this, although the Qingmo Realm had seized the initiative early on, it had not gained much advantage in the subsequent clashes with the Dìxuán Realm.
However, for now, the Dìxuán Realm could only go this far; there was no way to push further.
That was because the powerhouses of the Qingmo Clan had also benefited greatly from this war, with their mid- and low-level cultivators making considerable breakthroughs.
This war between the two realms could be called a grand feast for the strong. Those who ultimately survived the baptism of life-and-death battlefields were destined to achieve far beyond ordinary people.
Now, more and more cultivators from both realms were flooding into the extraterritorial battlefields and the lower-realm battlefields, and the war situation was gradually turning into a stalemate.
Even many of the new-generation cultivators in the Dìxuán Realm who had just stepped onto the path of cultivation, upon hearing the legends of the strong who had risen from the lower-realm battlefields, were beginning to yearn more and more for those very fields.
This war had changed the long-stagnant development situation of the Dìxuán Realm. Although a great many cultivators had fallen, just as many had grown rapidly amid the flames of war.
For the cultivators of both realms in this era, it was also an unprecedented golden age—because as long as one dared to fight and struggle, one was no longer bound by the constraints of talent, able to advance by leaps and bounds and catch a glimpse of the splendor beyond the Immortal realm.
For both the Dìxuán Realm and the Qingmo Realm, this war was likewise an opportunity for them to go further.
If one side could successfully devour the other, there might be a glimmer of hope to perfect its own laws, gain the chance to advance, and rise in one fell swoop to the status of a Great Thousand World.
This war might have no right or wrong, but it did have victims.
And these victims were the living beings of the worlds attached to the Dìxuán Realm and the Qingmo Realm, reduced to fodder for this great struggle between the two realms’ Daos.
Even many of the cultivators from both realms who fell on the battlefield could not really be counted as victims.
Because most of them died on foreign soil for the sake of their own hope of advancement, for their own Dao.
They might have regrets, but their regrets would only be that they had not been cautious enough back then—they would never regret having set foot on the battlefield.
Cultivators’ pursuit of higher realms carries an obsession that outsiders cannot possibly imagine.
However, whether fighting for oneself, or for one’s family, friends, or even the world one belongs to, these motivations do not actually conflict with one another.
As long as one could overcome the fear of death and step onto the battlefield, that alone already surpassed many of their peers.
And if one could slay powerful enemies on the battlefield and continuously break through their own limits to rise, then they deserved to be admired and celebrated by others.
The strong always inadvertently radiate a more dazzling light, drawing attention and serving as an excellent guide.
Because everyone aspires to become such a powerhouse.
This is also the main reason why tales of strong figures who emerged from the war are now widely circulated throughout the Dìxuán Realm.
And it is precisely this that attracts the new generation of cultivators, who embrace the conviction of fearing no risk and wanting to set foot on the lower-realm battlefields, training day and night.
By now, the cultivators of the Dìxuán Realm had transformed their initial bewilderment and fear of the unknown in the face of the battle with the Qingmo Realm into burning passion.
More and more cultivators were spontaneously forming teams to descend to the lower realms and hunt Qingmo Clan members for training, directly causing the various newly built war cities to flourish and undergo multiple expansions in just a few decades.
Each of the major war cities was where the spatial passages to the lower realms or the demon domain were located.
Most of the Qingmo Clan corpses and sources of cultivation essence circulating in the Dìxuán Realm now came out of these war cities.
This was also the reason Ye Qingxuan sent one of his avatars to the Star Battle City in Xingzhou.
As he approached Star Battle City, a look of astonishment appeared in the eyes of Ye Qingxuan, who was mid-flight.
Because even before reaching the city proper, he could already see quite a few temporary structures built by cultivators around the outskirts of Star Battle City.
Many cultivators had set up temporary shops in these self-built structures around the city.
But the foot traffic at these temporary shops was not high.
With a sense of curiosity, Ye Qingxuan flew all the way until he neared the no-fly formation of Star Battle City, then landed and entered through the city gates.
Once inside Star Battle City, Ye Qingxuan did not have his other avatar act rashly. He planned to first set up a shop in the city and gather information about the lower realms and the demon domain.
Only then would he send the other avatar down to the lower realms to scout out the various worlds below.
The moment he stepped into Star Battle City, Ye Qingxuan could feel the difference between a war city and other cities.
Inside the war city, there were basically only cultivators—no mortals at all.
The cultivators in Star Battle City were not weak; the lowest among them had cultivation at the Purple Mansion realm.
Moreover, these cultivators acted with crisp efficiency and no dawdling.
Many of them were covered in scars, clearly having just gone through intense battles and returned to the Dìxuán Realm to procure the resources they needed and recuperate.
As far as his eyes could see, Ye Qingxuan found that the businesses in Star Battle City were exceptionally booming—far surpassing those temporary shops set up by cultivators outside the city.
Ye Qingxuan pressed on and arrived at the city lord’s manor at the center of Star Battle City.
Star Battle City was established by the Xuantian Sect. Given its special nature, the city lord was a Tribulation Transcendence–realm elder from the Xuantian Sect.
Of course, Ye Qingxuan had not come to the city lord’s manor to see the Tribulation Transcendence–realm city lord himself.
He was merely looking for the steward in charge of shop leasing and sales matters within Star Battle City.
