Chapter 2517 - Tomb of the Ebons

Chapter 2517 - Tomb of the Ebons
Yin Chen reported that the Ebonfiend's hull had been breached. Countless strands of hair-chains had also been destroyed. Three ether-class divine astralships near it blew up, causing a large explosion of nova source, which created a secondary chain reaction that disrupted the defensive cruising formation of the ships. All of them were now entangled with the hellstar reaper sword condensate from the formation. The other ether-class ships also sustained damage of varying extents. That pincer attack had been completely unexpected. Ji Ji had greatly enhanced the strength of the Hellstar Formation and the Gladean Ruins, raising their capabilities by roughly forty percent, making up for Lin Xiaodao's lack of control. Without its help, there was no way Lin Xiaodao could've pulled off a pincer attack of that scale perfectly.
"Those three ether-class ships that blew up had a total of thirty thousand or so astral gods. Ten thousand of them died from the blast, with the rest all injured and fallen into the defensive formation. They're trying to escape and survive! My master will definitely not let them off!"
Even divine astralships could barely hold up against the damage caused by sword condensate within the Hellstar Formation, let alone cultivators. Even heptastar cosmic physiques couldn't survive extreme conditions like those.
"They have... decided to... retreat now!" Yin Chen said. That didn't come as any surprise. The Gladean Ruins and Hellstar Formation had completely crushed the bold maneuver of the enemy. Now that the enemy realized they knew far too little about Gladeus' forces, it would be much better to disperse and retreat to minimize their losses. The Ebonfiend was the first one to back out. Shenxi Xingtian knew that insisting on the plunge could still snag him that victory, but the cost and casualties would be too much for that to be worth it. He would essentially be making an opening for Yi Daiyan to exploit in the future.
There was one thing he understood for sure, however. With the Gladean Ruins revealed, the ebons had no chance at conquering Gladeus at all. The only rational thing to do was to stop the invasion and cut their losses immediately. The remaining forty-seven ether-class ships split up and retreated, though they were facing the same amount of pressure from the defensive formation as before.
"We've won, there's no question about it. Though, we're not going to let them off! Beat them while they're down! We need to weaken their forces as much as we can!" Tianming's heart was beating with fervor. He had expected to win, but not this smoothly!
Yin Chen told him that the twenty thousand astral gods that were shipwrecked would be killed for sure, save for the strongest among them. Thirty thousand astral gods died from the outset. This was completely incomparable to the deaths of the eighty thousand normal ebons from before. Even the Tenth Branch of the Swordgod Lin Clan only had around seventy thousand astral gods. Losing thirty thousand of them at once was disastrous for the ebons as each could have lived up to five thousand years. Not to mention, thirty thousand was just the start!
"You shan't leave this place alive!" Lin Xiaodao was on a crazed killing spree. With Ji Ji's help, he used his ship and defensive formation to pick out specific targets. Breaking one finger was far more effective than bruising ten. "A chance like this will never come again!"
Normally, people wouldn't be foolish enough to pilot ether-class divine astralships straight into ether-class astralguard formations. Lin Xiaodao didn't chase the Ebonfiend as there was no way he would even catch up. In fact, he got the formation to make an opening for it to retreat sooner. Instead, he targeted seven ether-class ships which were considerably more damaged than the rest, shifting the pressure of the formation on them exclusively before he went in for the kill with the Gladean Ruins! It was swift, ruthless, and savage.
The Ebonfiend and forty other ether-class ships managed to leave the formation a little too easily for it not to be suspicious. Every time a ship made it out, Shenxi Xingtian felt a little bit more relieved, but it didn't take long for him to notice what was off. Though, by the time he noticed, the Ebonfiend was already outside the formation. There was no way he could go back in to save them.
"There's still seven that's inside!" Not only that, those ships were hampered even more than the rest by the formation, as if they were stuck in a quagmire! The two-headed dragon that had just awakened would be making a quick snack of them.
"Rex Mundi!" The other nine hundred thousand astral gods immediately cried out in despair. But no matter how much they howled, they weren't able to stop the ships that had been left behind from exploding. Even if those ships weren't that large to begin with, the loss of each one was substantial and historic. Divine astralships were too hard to construct. Once they were destroyed, they were as good as gone forever!
The ebon expeditionary army hovered in the astralscape quietly, witnessing the seven exploding ships and the howls of the perishing astral gods. They lost ten ether-class ships and a hundred thousand astral gods in Gladeus. This was the greatest loss the ebons had suffered since the reign of the two reges mundi from the Swordgod Lin Clan. Shenxi Xingtian and Lin Jie could do naught but stare at the pink star beneath them. Gentle though its color may seem, it was the Hellstar, a hellish world of conflict and strife and the final resting place of a hundred thousand ebon astral gods.
Shenxi Xingtian's hands shook uncontrollably. This was far worse than the time he had lost to Yi Daiyan. The two pools of water in his eye sockets trickled out like tears. "I won't rest until they die! I will never rest!"
He and the rest of the ebons knew that any chance of them rising again had been lost this day. They could see the two-headed dragon swim in a sea of pink hellstar reaper sword condensate, showing off its might.
"Shenxi Xingtian, all ebons, listen up!" Lin Xiaodao said, his voice amplified by the ship. "From now on, entry to Gladeus is banned for all ebons! Should you dare to come, it will be your tomb and final destination! If you still want revenge, I welcome you to come and die!"
Arrogant as that proclamation might've been, there was weight behind his words. There was always some enigmatic beauty that exuded dangerous things, and Gladeus looked exceedingly pretty at that moment, almost nightmarishly so. The nine hundred thousand remaining astral gods, Lin Jie and Shenxi Xingtian included, were completely speechless.
Tianming felt righteous anger rising from his chest. "My master fulfilled his promise of creating a thousand years of peace for me! I can finally start to cultivate to become a truly powerful elite with the power to decide the fate of the Infinitum Mundus. It's time to advance!"