Chapter 1220: Fighting to Hold On

Returning to the Chun Family, Xuan Hao ended up spending the next few days helping Chun Hua's grandfather recovering before he left together with Chun Hua in the direction of the Star Shattering Sect.

However, given the presence of the Celestial Immortal Realm demon beasts that had emerged from the primeval jungle not too long ago, he didn't dare to rush into the primeval jungle and instead travelled along the edges of the primeval jungle for a few days before being sure that he wouldn't run into them while passing through the primeval jungle together with Chun Hua.

Even though he felt confident in escaping with the help of the Dao of Space, he also didn't want to run the risk considering that one of the demon beasts had clearly surpassed the Earlier Stages of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

...

At the same time Xuan Hao began his journey back to the Star Shattering Sect together with Chun Hua, the war between the few Soul Ascension Realm Experts gathered together in the capital city of the Sky Empire and the invading empires who wanted to take a chunk of the Sky Empire for themselves, had officially begun.

The battle itself caused everyone below the Soul Ascension Realm to shake in fear, as more than a dozen people in the Soul Ascension Realm clashed with each other in the air above and around the capital city of the Sky Empire.

Among which, the most impressive battle taking place being the one between the Soul Ascension Realm Experts from the three religions of the Sky Empire. Even the weakest among them had reached the Peak of the Second Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm, while the strongest had shockingly managed to reach the Third Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Of course, the reason why they could reach such a terrifying level of power all of a sudden was because they had managed to gain the assistance of the higher ups from the core region of the continent, each being bestowed a divine technique that allowed them to increase their strength far beyond what it was normally.

Even then, the three were faced with the combined might of around a dozen different empires, each of which had at least sent out three of their Soul Ascension Realm Experts to fight for territory in the Sky Empire... And although they might be able to hold off two or three of these Soul Ascension Realm cultivators on their own, there was no way the few other Soul Ascension Realm Experts on their side would be able to do this.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As a result of this, the three of them ended up facing five Soul Ascension Realm Experts on their own, while the more powerful Soul Ascension Realm Experts from the invading Empires decided to remain on the sidelines for now.

Not because they couldn't join in and kill them, but because they had to have some strength in reserve in case any of the other empires decided to target them.

"We just need to hold out a little longer..." Muttering this to himself as he struggled to hold on against five First Stage Soul Ascension Realm Experts, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert from the Order of the Sky God felt some hope in his current difficult situation.

The reason for this was that he and the cardinals from Cult of the Scarlet Moon and the Followers of the Fire God, had managed to successfully persuade their seniors from their religion located in core region of the continent to send help. The only requirement being that they managed to keep the capital city of the Sky Empire under their control without allowing any of the invading empires to claim it.

Although none of them had any idea why they had to hold the capital city to receive help from their seniors, they didn't dare to question them or ask why they had to do something meaningless like risking their life to keep control of the capital city during the few months it would take their seniors to reach the Sky Empire.

If not for this, there was no way that the three of them would have dared to stay behind and fight it out with the invading empires after seeing the sheer number of Soul Ascension Realm Experts that had gathered to surround the capital city.

Boom!

As he was lost in thought thinking about this, the cardinal suddenly felt a cold blade stabbing right through his chest before a terrifying energy began wreaking havoc inside his body-

"Hmph!"

Whoosh-!

Knowing that he had to deal with the situation fast, the cardinal wasted no time in forcibly suppressing the violent energy inside his body while at the same time pushing the sword out of his body before focusing his full attention back on the five Soul Ascension Realm Experts attacking him.

Although he was stronger than the other two cardinal and had managed to reach the Third Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm after using the divine technique that had been bestowed upon him by his seniors, he couldn't let his thoughts wander in his current dangerous situation.

Like he had just experienced, a single lapse in attention could result in his enemy finding an opening to attack.

Not to mention, he could still feel the gaze of a powerful cultivator at the Fourth Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm among the more powerful Soul Ascension Realm Experts who had decided to wait on the sidelines.

Hmph! You are going to regret not killing us when the exalted one appears!

Smiling disdainfully without anyone noticing as he saw this scene, the cardinal stopped attempting to fight back and instead focused his full strength on defending. Intending to preserve as much strength as possible while waiting for his seniors to show up.

Whoosh~!

Whoosh~!

Similar to him, the other two Soul Ascension Realm Experts from the remaining two religions also stopped trying to fight back before focusing their full strength on defending themselves and preventing the attacking Soul Ascension Realm Experts from inflicting any serious injuries on them.

Considering that both of them were an entire minor realm below the cardinal from the Order of the Sky God, they had a far harder time doing this...

"Hm... Those three focused all their strength on defending themselves. Showing no intentions of trying to win the battle..."

"Indeed, they might be planning something. Although, I doubt they can do much in their current situation."

"Yeah, those two at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm should be able to hold on for three to four days in their current state, while the last one should be able to last five days before they are forced to escape. If they give up on escaping, they might all have a chance to hold on for a week if none of us interfere."

"A week... Do any of you have the patience to wait that long? I doubt they will last more than three days before someone start to lose their patience!" Observing the chance in the three cardinals from a distance, the more powerful Soul Asension Realm Experts began discussing the current situation of the three among each other. Ultimately coming to the consensus that the three of them should be able to hold on for at least three days if they wanted to attempt escaping and a week if they gave up any hope of trying to rush out of the encirclement.

So far, none of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts observing the fight taking place had any idea about the fact that the three were trying to do their best to stall for time.

After all, given their knowledge on the different religions that spread throughout the empires and kingdoms outside the core region of the continent, they understood that destroying them wouldn't result in any response from the larger part of the religion located in the core region. Instead, it was more likely for a new branch of the religion that had lost its place to randomly appear inside a new empire without caring about what had ended up happening to the last branch.

Even in the rare circumstance that the powerful experts from the core region did appear, it would only be due to some kind of extraordinary event related to the birth of a precious spiritual herb or treasure that also attracted other powers from the core region.

At least since the last war between the humans and the demon beasts, the different religions from the core region of the continent had never interfered in what happened in the outer region.

For this reason, these Soul Ascension realm Experts had never thought about the aloof religions that normally never interfered in the outer region of the continent, would have suddenly decided to start interfering in the situation. Especially because they knew that the three religions of the Sky Empire had their branches in the outer region destroyed more than once, as they had originally not only operated inside the Sky Empire, but also in two empires outside of the Sky Empire itself...