However, just as everyone was celebrating in joy and excitement, a voice suddenly reached Dilaka’s ears...
Dilaka’s expression jolted when he heard the message. He then focused and announced, "Everyone, it seems our imperial competition must end here."
"What?"
"Why?"
"..."
A series of questions rose from the floating seats below. Dilaka sighed. "Just now, the Headmaster himself sent a verbal message. This imperial competition is terminated, and everyone must return to their respective Empires immediately!"
"What is going on?" Upon hearing it was a message from the Headmaster, Shan Qiuhen’s expression immediately turned serious. "The Headmaster never interferes with the imperial competition."
"Don’t panic, listen to me!" As soon as Dilaka finished speaking, his body flickered, and in an instant, he was hovering in the air. "Here’s what happened. A moment ago, while observing the celestial signs, the Headmaster foresaw an impending Beast Tide surging from all sides of the Extreme Martial Continent! It will be massive in scale and will affect the entire continent! Right now, your priority is absolutely not to continue the competition, but to return to your own Empires and help the Border Empires defend the front lines of our human territories!"
"Therefore, I declare this imperial competition officially over. However, its termination does not invalidate the entry quotas for Holy Tomb Mountain! I will now announce those who have earned a place in Holy Tomb Mountain in this competition! They are: the Dunhuang Empire! The Flame Dragon Empire! The Celestial Gift Empire! The Caesar Empire! And the Xuanling Empire! These five Empires will be unconditionally admitted into Holy Tomb Mountain, with no distinction in rank! Due to the special circumstances, the final match placings are now void. Holy Tomb Mountain will devise a new resource allocation plan for these five Empires! Furthermore, for other reasons, two additional participants will be specially recruited into Holy Tomb Mountain! These two are... Liu Feiyuan of the Cangyue Empire and Ta Shan!"
"..."
Hearing this, no one felt happy, not even Liu Feiyuan and Ta Shan of the Cangyue Empire. After a brief moment of surprise, their expressions quickly turned to worry. Mu Chen, who had just returned to his seat, shot to his feet the moment he heard the announcement, his eyes flashing with anxiety.
Of course, quite a few people shared Mu Chen’s expression, as their home Empires were all located on the borders of various Dynasties.
"Chen’Er, don’t be anxious. Let’s hear what Great Elder Dilaka has to say first." Standing beside Mu Chen, Mu Bingling gripped his hand tightly. She could feel that his mind was in utter turmoil!
On Mu Chen’s other side, Mo Qing also subconsciously grabbed his arm. Although she said nothing, the worry in her eyes showed that she felt the exact same way.
"Everyone, relax a little." Just then, Dilaka spoke again. "As I just explained, this is merely the Headmaster’s prediction. A prediction is something that is about to happen, but it doesn’t mean it’s happening right now! Based on the patterns of the Headmaster’s past predictions, this Beast Tide will erupt within two to three days. If you hurry, you should be able to reach your Empire’s borders in time! And to help you travel faster, I have taken the liberty of authorizing one more use of each Dynasty’s Imperial Dynasty Transmission Array!"
"The Imperial Dynasty Transmission Array can be used one more time? That’s a relief. Without it, we might not have made it back in time."
Only after Dilaka finished this last part of his announcement did the crowd let out a collective sigh of relief. As long as they had time, as long as they could get back to their respective Empire’s borders, they wouldn’t have too many regrets or feel too guilty, even if they ultimately failed to defend them.
And so, this year’s imperial competition ended amidst everyone’s anxious state of mind. Led by Dilaka, all the participants used the Imperial Dynasty Transmission Arrays to return to their own Dynasties. From there, they would have to use another teleportation array within their Dynasty to reach the High-class Empire at the center of their region, and only then could they travel back to their own individual Empires.
The Border Empires, without exception, were all Low-level Lower Empires. And the lower the rank of such an empire, the more remote the journey back. The Xuanling Empire was one of these countless Low-level Lower Empires.
"Mu Chen, we’ll have to travel the rest of the way on our own. From here, even if I and Qin Garden used Spatial Transmission together to take everyone back, it would still take three days. And in three days, the Xuanling Empire might have already fallen."
Di Cang sighed. Magical Beasts attacking the entire Extreme Martial Continent, a Beast Tide on such a massive scale, was not unheard of in history. In fact, it had happened quite a few times. But no matter how many times it occurred, history always led to the same conclusion... the utter fall of the Border Empires!
Although humans always managed to reclaim the lost territories after each Beast Tide ended, those same reclaimed lands would inevitably be overrun again when the next Beast Tide erupted.
And the Xuanling Empire was situated at the very forefront of the territory lost to the Beast Tides, the region closest to where they raged! One could say that as soon as a Beast Tide erupted, the Xuanling Empire would be instantly overrun, without even a moment to resist. This was because the Xuanling Empire’s strength was simply too feeble; so weak that any major disaster could topple it! Unless...
"Wait..." Di Cang suddenly started laughing. "Mu Chen, everyone, I’m getting muddle-headed in my old age. I completely forgot about Elder Jianxin! Haha, as long as Elder Jianxin is there, our Xuanling Empire will absolutely not fall!"
Mu Chen froze for a moment, then gave a wry smile. "Right, I almost forgot about Elder Mu." At this, Mu Chen couldn’t help but recall two years ago when Elder Mu, all by himself, had crushed the entire Celestial Eagle Empire, holding back their million-strong iron cavalry and over a dozen Venerable Elders. Not only that, but Elder Mu had even slapped their Grand Elder dozens of times in front of everyone. He was powerful to the extreme! At the very least, Mu Chen couldn’t see through the depths of the old man’s strength. He had a feeling that not even Dilaka was necessarily stronger than Elder Mu.
"You can’t say that, Di Cang. We have to rush back no matter what. The Xuanling Empire is our homeland. Our dearest family and our fondest memories are there! Even if we can ultimately rely on Elder Mu to protect it completely, we can’t afford to be complacent! It’s our Empire, so let us be the ones to protect it!"
Quite abruptly, after Di Cang finished speaking, Qin Garden took a step forward. With an extremely solemn expression, she looked at Di Cang, swiped her hand through the air, and a Spatial Rift, not too large, appeared before them.
Hearing Qin Garden’s words, Di Cang’s body stiffened. He looked at Qin Garden beside him, somewhat taken aback, and then gave a self-deprecating laugh. "I was speaking without thinking. I apologize to everyone. Also..."
Di Cang’s expression instantly softened. He let out a breath and said, "Qin Garden, you’re back."
The statement was very abrupt and quite puzzling to hear, but Qin Garden seemed to understand exactly what he meant. She shot Di Cang a look, huffed, and was about to step directly into the Spatial Rift.
But just then, Mu Chen called out to her. "Dean Qin Garden," he said, shaking his head, "your Spatial Rift doesn’t look very stable. It’s likely related to the Martial Venerate Realm you just broke through to. Besides, there are too many of us here. Performing continuous Spatial Transmissions would be too much for you and Elder Di Cang to handle."
Mu Chen’s words made Qin Garden blush with embarrassment. What he said was true; she had indeed only recently broken through to the Martial Venerate Realm and really couldn’t handle continuous Spatial Transmissions for so many students. ’But he didn’t have to say it so bluntly in front of everyone!’
Annoyed, Qin Garden looked at Mu Chen and snapped, "Mu Chen, don’t think you can look down on your elders just because you won unprecedented glory for the Empire in the competition! Let me tell you, no matter how strong you are or how many halos of glory you have, in my eyes, you are still a student of our Xuanling Imperial Academy and a citizen of the Xuanling Empire!"
Mu Chen helplessly rubbed his nose and said with a wry smile, "Dean Qin Garden, I wasn’t looking down on my elders. I just expressed myself poorly. I only meant to say that I actually have a way to get everyone back to the Xuanling Empire quickly. It’s just that..."
Mu Chen glanced around. They were in the Yu Ying Empire, the Upper High-level Empire closest to the Xuanling Empire, and right now, they were standing at the entrance to its imperial gates.
"Could I ask you to teleport everyone somewhere a bit more remote first? Otherwise, I’m afraid there isn’t enough space to work with here."
Mu Chen’s words drew everyone’s attention. Ye Shuangshuang looked around and said, speechless, "Even this much space isn’t enough for you to use your technique? I guess the boss is on another level. I’m getting more and more curious about what you’re going to do. It feels like every time, Boss Mu Chen shows us something new."
"..." Mu Chen could only offer a helpless smile. ’I’m not going to tell them that the one about to make a move isn’t me, but someone else.’
"Alright then. Since you have a plan, Mu Chen, I’ll teleport everyone to that mountain range over there. That should be enough space for you to work with." Di Cang chuckled, swiped his finger, and a huge rift appeared before them.
The citizens of the Yu Ying Empire passing by the main gate immediately showed looks of reverence upon seeing Di Cang perform a Space Transfer. Even though this was an Upper High-level Empire, its strongest experts were only Martial Venerables. Thus, upon seeing the signature ability of a Martial Venerable, the crowd all bowed respectfully to Di Cang.
Di Cang nodded and led everyone into the Spatial Rift. With a flash of brilliant light, Mu Chen and the others instantly appeared atop a rugged mountain range. There was a clearing of a few hundred meters for them to stand on. Mu Chen looked around and gave a reluctant nod. "Everyone, you must brace yourselves. What happens next might be rather shocking."