Chapter 2110: The Chan Sect Sets Out

The Immortal Realm Civilization...

Before anyone realized it, nearly two hundred years had passed since the summit took place in the Valthwain Star Domain.

On the Immortal Realm side, the Chan Sect had long since completed its preparations for war and assembled its main forces before the interstellar teleportation array.

By now, roughly one-third of its vanguard had already reached the battlefield bordering the Grand Cosmic World Star Domain.

This war held extraordinary significance for the Immortal Realm Civilization.

In a sense, it marked the first time in hundreds of thousands of years that the major factions of the Immortal Realm had truly united to wage war together.

The three great Daoist sects, the Buddhist faction, and the Yao Clan were all taking part.

For a civilization whose internal conflicts had only grown more intense over the years, this war offered a rare opportunity to ease those tensions while consolidating the Immortal Realm’s overall strength.

The sage-level powerhouses standing at the very pinnacle of the Immortal Realm Civilization naturally possessed remarkable foresight.

When the Magus Civilization’s Clash of Civilizations erupted, they quickly recognized the opportunity before them and seized it.

Looking back through history, it seemed that the Immortal Realm Civilization’s previous period of explosive growth and transformation had also been closely tied to the Magus Civilization.

It was almost as if some strange, unseen bond connected these two civilizations within the vast Astral Realm.

In any case, this was not the first time they had worked together.

More importantly, every previous collaboration had brought immense benefits to both sides.

It was precisely because of that long-standing foundation of cooperation that the Immortal Realm Civilization felt relatively at ease entering the Magus Civilization’s war, without worrying about being scammed.

Meanwhile, at Jade Void Palace on Mount Kunlun in the Primordial World...

Although Celestial Venerable Yuanshi, the founding sage of the Chan Sect, had already made it clear that he would not personally leave the Immortal Realm to participate in this war, the sage-level powerhouses affiliated with the sect still visited Jade Void Palace as usual to receive a few final words of guidance from their sect master before setting out.

Nezha was not the last sage to arrive.

Even so, by the time she reached Jade Void Palace, nearly ten sage-level powerhouses had already arrived.

The sheer number of sages gathered there alone was enough to explain why the Chan Sect was regarded as the foremost Daoist sect of the current era!

When it came to Rank Eight overlords, only Yang Jian and Nezha had reached that level within the Chan Sect, aside from Celestial Venerable Yuanshi himself.

However, the sect had far more Rank Seven sages than either of the other two Daoist sects.

Moreover, the overall strength of its sages far surpassed that of the younger members among the Yao Clan’s Eight Great Sages.

Among the twelve direct disciples of Celestial Venerable Yuanshi, nearly all those who were still alive had already reached the Sage Realm.[1]

When it came to choosing and nurturing disciples, there were few in the entire Immortal Realm Civilization who could rival Celestial Venerable Yuanshi.

Yet at this moment, the person with the highest standing before the gates of Jade Void Palace was not Yang Jian, whose strength was slightly above Nezha’s.

Instead, it was a middle-aged cultivator dressed in a simple Daoist robe, with hair already streaked heavily with gray and white.

He was Guang Chengzi, a peak Rank Seven sage who was also the chief disciple of Celestial Venerable Yuanshi.

His signature weapon was the Heaven Overturning Seal, a renowned acquired spiritual treasure of Primordial World forged from a portion of Mount Buzhou.

In some ways, the Immortal Realm Civilization shared certain traditions with the Magus Civilization.

One of them was the importance placed on master-disciple lineage and seniority.

Although Guang Chengzi had long since been surpassed in strength by Yang Jian and Nezha, both of whom rose to prominence later, the two Rank Eight sages still respectfully addressed him as “Martial Uncle” whenever they met.

The same hierarchy applied to their upcoming campaign in the Magus Civilization. Both Yang Jian and Nezha were still expected to follow Guang Chengzi’s command.

Of course, as Celestial Venerable Yuanshi’s chief disciple, Guang Chengzi possessed the strength, judgment, and character required to shoulder that responsibility.

He also treated the younger members of the sect with the care and sense of responsibility befitting the senior-most disciple.

For that reason, the direct-line disciples throughout the Chan Sect held him in extremely high regard.

With Guang Chengzi leading the Chan Sect’s forces into the Magus Civilization this time, there was no dissent within the sect.

By the time Nezha arrived, the sage-level cultivators gathered at Jade Void Palace were already discussing their upcoming deployment.

Numerous Quasi Sages and Great Luo Golden Immortal-level cultivators had gathered as well, bringing their total number to well over a hundred.

Every one of them possessed a life level of Rank Six or higher. Without question, these cultivators represented the true elite of the Chan Sect’s forces for this campaign.

Everyone seemed eager for the coming war, and many disciples who were close to one another had already agreed to watch each other’s backs once they reached the battlefield.

Aside from discussing how they would cooperate during the campaign, the powerful figures of the Chan Sect also brought up recent developments within the Immortal Realm Civilization.

One topic in particular caught everyone by surprise.

The Wu Clan of the Reincarnation Underworld were actually preparing to enter the war on the side of the Magus Civilization.

In stark contrast, the Blood Sea Asura Clan, which should have had even closer ties to the Magus Civilization, remained completely inactive despite the various factions of the Immortal Realm mobilizing in force to seize the opportunities brought by this war.

“It seems the Blood Sea Asuras have no intention of participating.”

More than one sage-level cultivator came to the same conclusion.

Even Nezha, who had attended the summit at the Valthwain Star Domain, had known nothing about the Wu Clan’s involvement until now.

It was unlikely that the Magus Civilization had deliberately kept the matter from her.

The Wu Clan had likely only finalized their decision sometime within the past two hundred years.

In fact, even the enormous army gathering within the Reincarnation Underworld had yet to complete its mobilization.

Over the past fifty years, more and more ghost deities, ghost immortals, and ghost cultivators had begun appearing throughout Fengdu Ghost City, the Ten Underworld Courts, and the Reincarnation Underworld of Primordial World.

Over the past decade, the Yin Qi throughout the entire Immortal Realm Civilization had also shown a noticeable rise.

For countless years, the various sage courts, along with the Buddhist, Daoist, and Yao factions, had been locked in both open and hidden struggles. Amidst all that conflict, most had overlooked the Wu Clan and the forces of the Underworld.

During this time, the Wu Clan had quietly grown into an extremely formidable force.

At present, their only sage-level powerhouse was Houtu, the ancestral witch who had transformed herself into the Wheel of Reincarnation.[2] Even so, the Wu Clan had produced no shortage of remarkable figures in recent years.

The Ten Underworld Courts had Quasi Sages, including high-ranking Wu people and top-tier powerhouses who walked on the path of ghost immortals after losing their physical bodies.

As one of the civilizational treasures of the Immortal Realm, the Reincarnation Underworld itself possessed immense power. Yet the most frightening aspect of the Wu Clan was not their high-ranking powerhouses. It was the sheer scale of their mid and low-tier armies.

One could only imagine the sight of countless ghost cultivators and souls of the dead surging out of the Reincarnation Underworld all at once.

Sein and Lorianne had indeed guessed correctly during their earlier video call.

The forces under the Wu Clan’s command were, in every sense, an army of the undead that was unique to the Immortal Realm Civilization!

1. Author’s Note: Of course, several had since defected to the Buddhist faction. ☜

2. Translator’s Note: Houtu is a major earth goddess in Chinese mythology. You can learn her lore in this short Tiktok video! She created the Six Realms of Reincarnation to give wandering souls a proper place to go after death. Here's a good comic page that gives you an idea of what it is! ☜