Sovereign of the Ashes

Sending the Immortal Realm’s Daoist sects to the Grand Cosmic World battlefield was naturally not just about saving resources.

Besides maximizing the use of available forces and setting two top-tier civilizations—the Amenkha Empire and the Immortal Realm—against each other, Bev and the others had another reason for making this decision.

The Dawn Empire, which was preparing to reinforce the Magus Civilization, held a deep-rooted grudge against the Immortal Realm.

This conflict dated back hundreds of thousands of years and belonged to the previous era.

Most people today likely knew little about it.

The Dawn Empire, which was known as the Martial Civilization, had once been conquered and annexed by the Immortal Realm.

Even now, the plane where the Dawn Empire’s capital stood was not the original homeplane of those martial cultivators. They had migrated there afterward.

Secrets like these were known only to overlord-level powerhouses and a handful of ancient Rank Five and Rank Six beings.

Even Grandmaster Feylis might not know much about it due to her relative “youth”.

After all, Feylis was only a little over a hundred thousand years old, and by then, the Dawn Empire had already long been established.

Keeping the two civilizations on separate battlefields was undoubtedly the safest choice.

To put it bluntly, the Immortal Realm Civilization, whose power had expanded to its current scale, might not even remember the Martial Civilization anymore...

Likewise, the current powerhouses of the Magus Civilization rarely bothered to look back on which medium-sized or large world civilizations their civilization had annexed over the course of its history.

Perhaps only the older generation still remembered those events.

Furthermore, it was mainly the Daoist sects of the Immortal Realm that had led to the Martial Civilization’s destruction, while the Buddhist faction merely assisted.

The Dragon Clan and Yao Clan of the Immortal Realm had little involvement in the matter.

As such, the arrival of the Immortal Realm’s Dragon Clan and the few Great Sages of the Yao Clan who might come later would not affect the relationship between the two civilizations too much.

Originally, Bev had not planned to seek aid from the Martial Civilization at all.

However, the Amenkha Empire’s surprise attack and the Gallant Federation’s recent counteroffensive had indeed dealt the Magus Civilization a heavy blow.

Even so, the Magus Civilization still maintained its usual image of overwhelming strength on the surface, preventing both the Gallant Federation and the scheming civilizations in neighboring star domains from grasping the true state of Magus World.

In the letter Bev sent to the Dawn Emperor, she also laid out the stakes involved and subtly hinted that the Immortal Realm might eventually join the war as well.

The choice had already been placed in the Dawn Empire’s hands.

And judging by the outcome, Gongsun Wuji still decisively chose to lead his forces to reinforce the Magus Civilization personally.

After all, the Magus Civilization had played a role in helping the descendants of the Martial Civilization escape and eventually establish the Dawn Empire!

Gongsun Wuji was probably repaying an old debt of gratitude.

Besides, he could also be considered Bev’s sworn younger brother.

Now that his elder sister had personally written to ask for aid, how could he possibly stand by and do nothing?

More importantly, among all civilized races, the Martial Civilization valued personal bonds and repaying debts of gratitude, above all else—unlike the Magus World, where even the smallest matter required a formal contract.

After the high-level meeting of the Magus Civilization came to an end, Bev remained seated in the command center, her fingers absentmindedly tapping the crystal ball before her.

The crystal-clear ball displayed the star domains that currently served as the main battlefield between the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation.

Lady Bev’s slender finger slowly pointed toward several of the federation’s military and heavy industry star domains.

Relying solely on black mages and Death Plague magic to completely destroy the Gallant Federation was clearly unrealistic.

Over the years, the federation had continuously improved its defenses against such methods.

Now that both Nergal and Rogge had returned to the Magus World to recuperate, the remaining black mages were only capable of causing limited disruption to the federation.

Truly threatening its foundations was still far beyond their reach.

In the end, this Clash of Civilizations would still be decided through direct warfare and strategic maneuvering between the armies of both sides.

***

Inside the princess’ chariot, Sein was conducting research on the Dragon Qi within a specially modified laboratory.

His status as a Fourth-Grade official in the Dawn Empire was certainly not just for show.

Even now, Sein could still sense wisps of mysterious yellow qi swirling around him.

In the end, he stored the Dragon Qi inside the official seal issued to him by the Dawn Empire.[1]

Gongsun Wudi was the one who taught him this method of storing Dragon Qi.

“Incorporating Dragon Qi into magic really does create irregular changes in elemental arrangements. This power can enhance the abilities of Dawn Empire beings by around ten to twenty percent, and with specialized spell models, the destructive power of magic can increase by as much as fivefold. And if I combined it with a forbidden spell...”

Sein sighed softly as he looked at the yellow Fourth-Rank official seal in front of him.

“But if I did that, the Dragon Qi granted to me by the Dawn Empire would probably be depleted in a single battle...”

The Dragon Qi stored within the Fourth-Grade official seal was already quite abundant, but even if Sein unleashed all of it at once, it would only be enough to last a single battle.

Although the Dragon Qi would slowly recover afterward, the replenishment process was far too slow.

In the end, it could only serve as a backup reserve of power, never his primary source of strength.

Sein sighed again.

“The super magic bombs made from the top-grade inert crystals discovered in the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization ruins are capable of threatening Rank Six creatures. They make for a pretty decent trump card.

“It’s a shame we haven’t found any more since then. The Magus Civilization sealed off the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization ruins and listed those top-grade crystals as strategic resources of the highest priority.

“Spells enhanced by Dragon Qi and further amplified by my new magic scepter can barely be considered another backup trump card,” he concluded, before carefully storing away the yellow official seal.

In truth, the Dawn Empire’s Dragon Qi could also speed up cultivation.

Sein had tested it himself, and it did slightly improve meditation efficiency.

Still, he preferred using concentration-enhancing potions instead.

After all, the results were more or less the same.

***

The Dawn Empire expeditionary force’s journey toward the Magus Civilization went fairly smoothly.

The many spatial nodes they passed through along the way greatly reduced their travel time.

They also encountered no hostile alien civilizations or space pirates during the journey.

Compared to the sheer vastness of the Astral Realm, the number of civilizations scattered throughout it was actually quite small.

Most of the Astral Realm was made up of endless barren, desolate star domains.

Otherwise, why would the newly advanced law-wielding knights and mages of the Magus World struggle to find even a single suitable plane to conquer?

Simply put, there were far too few complete planes in the Astral Realm.

Time always passed quickly when one was immersed in training and the pursuit of truth.

That day, just as Sein had called Yuri into his room to assist with body-tempering experiments and test a newly developed potion, Gongsun Wudi’s voice suddenly appeared in his mind.

“We’re approaching the war zone between the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation. Looks like there’s some trouble ahead.”

“Oh? We’re there already?” Sein asked in surprise.

Over the past few decades, he had barely noticed the passage of time at all.

1. Translator’s Note: The seal here refers to a physical seal stamp. Throughout Chinese history, these seals have played an important part and are known to have been used both by government authorities and private individuals for thousands of years. ☜

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