Chapter 1226: End of the Sky Empire

A few minutes after the destruction of the three sacred grounds inside the capital city of the Sky Empire, a man standing close to two meters tall covered from head to toe in armor appeared in the sky above the capital city.

"They ran away rather quickly..." Narrowing both his eyes as he said this while looking in the direction that the three had disappeared in, the man didn't waste any time as he pulled out a strange looking artifact that absorbed some of the qi still lingering in the air from the earlier attacks that had flattened the three sacred grounds.

"Hm... This qi is... Damnable! It's indeed those religions! Looks like I will have to inform the ancestors...!" As the artifact finished absorbing the qi and identified it, the man who had remained locked on the artifact after it had absorbed the qi could not help cursing out loudly as he pulled out a communication talisman to contact his ancestors about the situation.

The matter was not something he could deal with. Even if only a single border empire had been affected so far, the border empire was within the jurisdiction of the Blue Sea Empire. Any interference by another major power from the core region of the continent would therefore be handled with utmost care. Especially considering that there was a clear agreement for the different major powers in the core region to not interfere too much with the border empires.

In normal circumstances, anyone above the Soul Ascension Realm was not allowed to recklessly fight inside a border empire.

Not only did the three religions violate this agreement, but they also did so inside a border empire located right next to the Blue Sea Empire... And with the number of Soul Ascension Realm cultivators that had ended up dying, it would inevitably cause chaos in the border empires bordering the Blue Sea Empire.

No matter how much the Blue Sea Empire might want to ignore it, it was a clear sign of disregard towards them and might even be them trying to incite chaos in the outer parts of the Blue Sea Empire!

Whoosh~

Putting away the communication talisman after informing the ancestors of the Blue Sea Empire about the situation, the armored man made his way back towards the Blue Sea Empire. Ignoring the panicking weaker cultivators who had been left behind in the now destroyed capital city of the Sky Empire.

Although he himself was of a similar strength to the three escapees, he had arrived far too slow and had no way to catch up to them. Not to mention with his strength, he wouldn't be able to stop them from running away even if he caught up to them.

"Hmph! Just you three wait! The ancestors won't let you escape so smoothly!" Smirking to himself as he crossed the short distance between the Blue Sea Empire and the capital of the now fallen Sky Empire, the armored man from the Blue Sea Empire could not help looking forward to the three troublemakers getting caught.

The reason for his confidence being that in the short conversation he had with his ancestors about the situation, he was also informed that one of them had decided to make a move to catch the three before they could run away back to their religions sacred ground.

No matter how fast the three escaped, the territories of their religions was located far away from the Sky Empire, there was no way for them to outrun someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm. Even if the other party was located all the way back in the capital of the Blue Sea Empire, the speed of someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm was far beyond what someone in the Dao Seed Realm could ever achieve.

Unfortunately, the ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire was bound to fail, as the three had long since prepared for just such a scenario. Having already paid a powerful cultivator proficient in the Dao of Space from the Explorer Union to help them not only get to the Sky Empire, but also to leave the place.

Although they still had to travel for a few minutes to meet up with that person, it wasn't long enough for the Celestial Immortal Realm ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire to catch up to them and they managed to safely escape from the Sky Empire without being caught. Leaving the ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire with no other choice than to turn around and make his way back to the Blue Sea Empire.

Given that the three had managed to escape, the only way that the Blue Sea Empire had left to punish the three religions behind them was to bring up the fact that they had broken the agreement to the rest of the major powers in the core region.

However, the ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire understood very well that doing something like this wouldn't accomplish much. Especially considering that only a few Soul Ascension Realm cultivators not part of the Blue Sea Empire had ended up being killed.

At most, the Blue Sea Empire would be able to extract a few resources from those three religions, while punishing the three behind the matter would be impossible now that they had managed to run away.

...

Not too long after the matter in the capital city of the now fallen Sky Empire had concluded, news about what had happened began to spread through the Sky Empire before spreading to the surrounding empires and beyond.

Given that there were a large number of cultivators keeping an eye on the capital city of the Sky Empire from a distance and the movements of the different invading empires, it did not take long before someone managed to put together who among the invading empires had died and who had managed to run away unscratched.

Because of this, it did not take long before the news of a certain empire losing their strongest ancestor at the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm spread out. Resulting in the empires bordering this empire wasting no time in launching a full-scale attack on said empire after confirming the news.

In the end, all of the invading empires were met with somewhat similar situations, as they were all forced to retreat and ensure the safety of their borders. None of them were able to continue keeping their people in the now fallen Sky Empire.

As a result of this, the Sky Empire that had been teeming with a dozen or so different empires was suddenly left empty outside of the different treasure hunters who had come to scour through the fallen empire for hidden treasures and artifacts that might be hidden in the now unguarded vast kingdoms and cities that had been left without a protecter after the fall of the Sky Empire.

Within the time of a single week, the vast territory of the Sky Empire that spanned thousands of smaller kingdoms was turned into a chaotic land where battles between cultivators fighting for artifacts or other precious cultivation resources happened everywhere.

Even the outer regions of the Sky Empire that had far less resources compared to the core region of the Sky Empire was not spared, as the stronger kingdoms that had been pushed out of the core region began to settle down in the outer regions to escape from the chaos in the core region of the Sky Empire. Inevitably pushing out or destroying the smaller and weaker kingdoms in the region as a result.

Not just that, but the religions belonging to the different invading empires didn't waste any time in spreading their influence in the absence of the three major religions that had once dominated the vast territory of the Sky Empire.

Among these religions, the one with the most influence and spreading the fastest was none other than church of the Plague God that had disappeared from view for a time following the invasion of the different empires bordering the Sky Empire.

Taking advantage of the fact that they already had a lot of their people secretly planted in the different smaller kingdoms, the church of the plague god ended up becoming the strongest religion in the chaotic land that had once been the Sky Empire.

Of course, not everything inside the territory of what had once been considered the Sky Empire was chaotic with battles taking place everywhere, as the Star Shattering Sect managed to peacefully continue developing.

The main reason for this was not just because of the existence of two Soul Ascension Realm cultivators intimidating outsiders from causing any trouble in the territory of the Star Shattering Sect, but more so due to the fact that the Iron Sky Kingdom ended up becoming a barrier for anyone wanting to enter the Star Shattering Sect's territory from the core region of the Sky Empire to pass through first.

Because of this, it soon became known that Yi Min was someone at the Third Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, thus further intimidating anyone who might have thoughts about causing trouble inside the Star Shattering Sect's territory...