Time flows, years pass like a shuttle.
After the establishment of Yuan City, the Blood Alliance ceased major actions and instead began diligently constructing various buildings, relocating the Bloodline populace to live outside.
The Celestial Path became a continuous channel for population blood transfusion, constantly sending the second-class captives and skilled Bloodlines captured by the Great Spirit beyond the sky.
One fortress after another, high-rise buildings, continually rose from the ground.
Even an ordinary person with Bloodline strength possessed speed and power, along with robust self-healing abilities, making them work as efficiently as ten regular people of the past.
With such high efficiency, within a year, the entire area of Yuan City expanded more than tenfold compared to before.
All surrounding celestial light was intercepted, and the ground lava, without celestial light to sustain it, gradually cooled, turning into ordinary black earth.
Numerous Bloodlines, like ants, began to swiftly spread in all directions with Yuan City as the core.
Their footprints gradually covered the entire Black Sand Continent, from the Eternal Palace to near the Chana Tower.
For the incredibly resilient Bloodline, places once reachable by Evil Spirits, they too could reach.
This gradually brought a hint of vitality back to the barren land.
Large quantities of resources and minerals from various places were transported back to Yuan City, becoming nutrients for the Blood Lotuses to grow and expand the blood carpet and celestial canopy.
A positive cycle was achieved.
And as the Blood Alliance silently developed itself, in the direction of Spirit Illustration State, the Secret Keepers and Netherworld Army of Chana Tower finally experienced their first meaningful clash.
The Falgara Lock was the trigger for the battle between both sides.
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The dense black wings roared as they beat the air nonstop.
Tens of thousands of Evil Spirit Vehicles, flapping their black wings, gathered into a black cloud, flying toward a corner of Spirit Illustration State.
Amid the black cloud, a massive chariot made of purple crystals was pulled by two giant Evil Spirit Horses resembling Qilins, flying forward along with the army.
On the chariot, a tall human shape made entirely of black flying insects was gazing distantly at the approaching desert.
That golden desert, with dark red lava lakes scattered across the land, was Spirit Illustration State.
"In one year’s time, almost all the surrounding Evil Spirits have been mobilized. This time, we must successfully capture the First Secret Lock!" The humanoid figure, one of the Three Evil Kings responsible for this expedition, was none other than Nether.
"Your Majesty, in Blood Alliance’s Yuan City, Ophelia faced setbacks, performed poorly, and even lost two subordinates. It seems the main hope lies with us now."
Behind the Netherworld King, two tall demons covered in purple crystals spoke.
The speaking demon was a handsome youth with a crooked white horn on his forehead.
Covered in purple crystals, he wore a short robe with purple runes, black leather pants, and had a rugged white bone chain wrapped in an X shape around his waist.
He was the strongest demon under the Netherworld King—Bisiris.
"Ladi Lan provided detailed intel, and we have a very clear address for the First Secret Lock. However... the Secret Keepers are still quite troublesome." The Netherworld King said in a low tone. "Given a bit of time, they can relocate the lock’s position...."
"Each secret lock corresponds to a group of Secret Keepers. These Spirit Eye Race creations are indeed troublesome. But this time, we have brought a vast number of Evil Spirits; grinding them down should not be a major issue," Bisiris smiled.
The Netherworld King didn’t respond but looked toward the distant desert. Deep within, a faint golden hue, like emerging from the water, was rising from the desert floor.
"Looks like they’re ready too."
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Amidst the rustling sound.
A massive humanoid stone statue, hundreds of meters tall, holding a giant shield, slowly rose from the desert.
The surrounding dunes collapsed one after another, flowing into the underground cavity created by the giant’s rise, filling the gaps.
The giant’s face had no features, only lines of black cracks.
These cracks crisscrossed, occasionally flashing a bit of golden light inside.
"This is the King of Secret Keepers—Lord Herudira the Peacekeeper...."
In front of the golden giant, on the desert ground, stood a group of Secret Keepers in black robes.
Among them was a so-called Bloodline team from the Black Sand Continent.
The entire team consisted of five people.
Two men and three women, one man was well-built, the other was as sturdy as a bear, both from the Human Alliance, named Ounan and Song Hengxiu respectively.
Among the three women, one was the most striking, standing five meters tall, with bulging muscles, a head full of small black braids, and wore a black eye patch over one eye.
This one-eyed giant woman was called Andula, from the large interaction zone’s giant god tribe from which she rose. After she went out, like Yue Dewen, she used the spiritual line extraction machine to remove her own spiritual line, recovering to become the strongest warrior in the gathering area.
The other two women, one with an eye-catching figure, voluptuous and enchanting, dressed in a purple gown, with cascading long hair and captivating eyes, was the spirit-bound individual of the brigade, Gongsun Yi.
The other wore silver heavy armor, fully armed, wielding a sword and shield, her face and hair color obscured, only the stag pattern on her silver armor clearly visible.
She was the lone Gorvi, without a team, only relying on herself, managing to survive on this soon-to-be-destroyed land for decades as a renowned strong figure.
Ounan, Song Hengxiu, the giant Andula, the alluring Gongsun Yi, and lastly the loner Gorvi—these were the full recruit of Bloodline individuals found by the Secret Keepers from all over.
At this moment, the five stared at the towering hundreds-meter-tall golden giant, though covered in dust from the sweeping sandstorm, they were still dumbfounded, unsure of how to react.
Such a massive size is fundamentally a moving mountain, any random move can cause extremely terrifying destructive power.
"Can such a massive structure truly move freely in this desert terrain?" Ounan, after his initial shock, thought of this first.
"There’s no need to worry about that," the Secret Keeper Sol said solemnly. "Lord Herudira, the Peacemaker, is the pinnacle of Spirit Eye Race’s high technology, possessing formidable strength not much weaker than the Three Evil Kings. The key issue now is not this, but whether your bloodlines can pass Lord Herudira’s examination."
"Examination?"
The hearts of the five skipped a beat.
"What happens if we cannot pass the examination?" asked Gorvi, the lone traveler clad in full armor.
"All those with counterfeit bloodlines will be equally destroyed by the lord," Sol answered earnestly.
A chill ran through their hearts.
But before they could recover, the golden giant’s face slowly descended toward them, drawing near.
From its face, black cracks emitted beams of white light, enveloping them precisely.
"Very good, you are pure bloodline holders, permissions can be lifted," a deep male voice resonated automatically in everyone’s mind.
"The Evil Spirit Army from Chana Tower has arrived, Lord Herudira, we will assist you in battle," Sol shouted.
"I have slumbered for too long... so long that many worms have forgotten my former renown..." Herudira looked up at the rapidly approaching evil spirit army’s black cloud.
His gaze met with the Netherworld King deep within the black cloud.
"Dare to covet the Falgara Lock, then pay the price in blood."
Countless golden dots began to appear and converge in the air surrounding his face.
BOOM!!!
In an instant, a blinding light that resembled the sun exploded forth.
As everyone squinted in pain, a ray of golden light burst from the giant’s facial cracks.
The golden light formed a beam, surrounded by black threadlike cracks, and pierced into the black cloud army.
BANG!!
Smaller beams of golden light shot out from the black cloud army, penetrating through.
Countless Evil Spirit Vehicles screamed and turned to black ash in the golden light. The Evil Spirit Horses could only resist for a few more seconds before turning to ash.
Only the Evil Spirit Elephants survived, severely injured, engulfed in golden flames.
The attack’s center targeted the broad chariot where the Netherworld King resided.
There, a massive purple crystal formed a barrier resisting the golden light.
"Is this the King of Secret Keepers, the ultimate war crystal of the Spirit Eye Race?" The Netherworld King gazed down at the hundreds of meters tall golden giant.
He could discern that the giant was entirely made of an extremely sturdy form of rock.
Behind the giant, a wave of black-clad individuals swiftly approached in their direction.
That was the Secret Keeper army.
"It seems we’ve really found the real deal this time..." the Netherworld King murmured.
If not, these Secret Keepers wouldn’t be this sensitive.
His gaze swept over a distant piece of land behind.
There, faintly visible, were scattered red dots.
"The Blood Alliance has been trailing behind like blood-thirsty hyenas, likely wanting to reap the benefits once we’ve fought to exhaustion," the demon Bisiris whispered.
"The Blood King has been seeking the qualitative change of evolution. I have long reached that transformation point, but he has not. So they are merely collecting samples, there’s no need to care about them," the Netherworld King explained.
"Understood."
This great battle is being closely monitored by the Blood Alliance, the Eternal Palace, and the Human Alliance.
Screech!
A blood-feathered vulture spread its wings and slowly descended into the ruins of a city several kilometers away from the battlefield.
It landed on the top of the highest leaning stone tower in the ruins, its blood-red eyes watching the tactics and changes on the battlefield from afar.
Behind it, more blood-feathered vultures circled down, occupying the high vantage points of the ruins.
All blood-red eyes focused on one direction.
Through these eyes, far away at the center of Yuan City.
Chang Yuqing was sitting with Zhang Zhenhai in a peculiar room where every wall was covered with countless blood-red eyeballs.
Each eyeball in the room projected a thin light curtain outward.
All the light curtains came together to form a single wide screen.
The images displayed on the screen depicted the battle conditions in Spirit Diagram State.
"The First Secret Lock, Falgara, has finally been found. Has the teacher’s immortal registration been completed?" Chang Yuqing asked.
"It’s almost complete. The first batch to complete the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown and uncover the bloodline abilities to become Grandmasters consists of three people. They are basically all at the Extreme Realm.
They will join the immortal ranks, officially becoming recorded Human Immortals of our Human Immortal Dao," Zhang Zhenhai replied earnestly.
"Well done." Suddenly, a blood shadow flickered, and the figure of Zhang Rongfang appeared behind the two women.
He watched the golden giant that had charged into the black cloud, showing an expression of interest.
"Is that also the supreme technological crystal of the Spirit Eye Race?"