Chapter 713: Breaking Through the Firmament Repeatedly (Thanks to 'Angel of Time, check it out')

Chapter 713: Shattering the Firmament Twice (Thanks to “Time Angel, Please Take a Look” for the Alliance Patronage)

Zhang Yu exclaimed in astonishment, “Master, are we really going to strike now? Isn’t this a bit too hasty?”

He hadn’t expected Lord Ciji to be so decisive—already prepared to act without delay.

Beside him, Lord Qingmu seized Zhang Yu’s other hand. Together with Ciji, they surged upward toward the firmament. Qingmu declared, “The Righteousness Alliance’s scheme to halt the Heavenly Court’s descent is far too vile. Every moment we delay risks irreversible catastrophe.”

“We’ve already reached an accord with the other academies—to shatter the firmament as swiftly as possible and strike directly at the Righteousness Alliance’s stronghold.”

As the firmament drew ever closer, Zhang Yu sensed another motive beneath their urgency.

“Masters… you’re shielding me, aren’t you? By breaking through when no one’s watching, you’re minimizing the chance anyone discovers the true nature of the Boundary-Piercing Spike.”

Moments later, the spike in Lord Ciji’s grasp slammed violently against the firmament separating Kunxu’s third and fourth layers.

Within the spike, Zhang Yu unleashed the full might of Palm-Kunlun and his Celestial Ancestor lineage, striving to pulverize the spatial barrier before him.

Yet this collision felt utterly different—worlds apart from before.

If his previous attempt had been like a man charging headlong into a mountain, now it was as though he stood alone against an entire continent.

“This is unlike anything before…” Zhang Yu thought grimly. “Completely different. The power and craftsmanship woven into this firmament are far greater, far more profound.”

Boom!

His blood surged, his spiritual energy reversed course. Even with his formidable physique and near-impenetrable defenses, Zhang Yu felt his body crack under the impact.

But he couldn’t stop. Gritting his teeth, he clasped his palms together and thrust forward, driving the spatial gateway embodied by his Celestial Ancestry straight into the firmament.

Thunder roared across the heavens—countless bolts detonating in unison.

Before the stunned gazes of countless cultivators, the firmament above the Great Void ruptured into a dense web of cracks, then shattered entirely, revealing a gaping passage into Kunxu’s fourth layer.

At that very instant, divine radiance flared across the campuses of the Ten Great Academies. Beams of Nascent Soul power shot skyward, converging toward the Great Void.

Lord Nielian, crossing from the Spirit Realm, cried out, “Ciji! Why did you suddenly breach the firmament? When did you repair your Boundary-Piercing Spike? You didn’t even warn us—”

Lord Yinquan added, “Hold on, Ciji! Wait for us to regroup—”

From Tianyao University, Lord Cangshi unfurled his colossal form—mountainous flesh surging heavenward, whipping up gales and torrential rains.

“Wait for me!” Cangshi bellowed. “I’m coming too—I’ll seize the fourth and fifth layers… I mean, launch a preemptive strike against the Righteousness Alliance!”

Realizing his lumbering body lagged far behind the other Nascent Souls in flight, Cangshi let loose a draconic roar and shot forth his nascent soul like lightning toward the Great Void.

With the barrier between layers three and four broken, Nascent Soul cultivators from all ten academies sprang into action, racing toward the breach—each terrified of missing their chance to storm layers four and five.

Yet Lord Ciji didn’t glance back. Hand in hand with Lord Qingmu, he dragged Zhang Yu through the shattered firmament and soared onward, obliterating countless seals and arrays until they reached the boundary between the fourth and fifth layers.

Below them, the entire fourth layer flashed past Zhang Yu’s eyes—a world smothered beneath concrete, metal, and endless structures. Not a trace of green remained; only infinite celestial architectures filled heaven and earth.

Within some of those edifices, Zhang Yu glimpsed grid-like chambers—each housing diverse beings: demonic beasts, demon-blooded descendants, even humans…

“The fourth layer,” he realized silently. “Where the academies’ research institutes and doctoral stations reside.”

Amid their ascent, Lord Ciji asked, “My good disciple—can you fight on?”

Zhang Yu nodded. “No problem.”

In the next instant, the Boundary-Piercing Spike struck the firmament again. With an earth-shattering boom, a vast opening tore through the sky before the eyes of the gathered Nascent Souls.

Now that layers four and five lay exposed, the Nascent Souls reacted with wildly divergent emotions—some exhilarated, others grave, tense, or greedy. Yet their actions were eerily synchronized: each marshaled every ounce of power and resource, desperate to claim their academy’s lost holdings before rivals got there first.

Indeed, they distrusted their own academy’s Nascent Souls most of all—for only those peers knew precisely what treasures their institutions had left behind in layers four and five.

In that moment, divine lights streaked across the sky as Nascent Souls, varying in speed and distance, plunged separately into the realms of the fourth and fifth layers.

Meanwhile, the Righteousness Alliance clearly anticipated this assault.

Beams of divine light pierced the void. Myriad grand formations blazed across heaven and earth. Spatial barriers erupted like tides. Countless luminous points—marking cultivators and treasures—flickered into view, blazing like constellations from myth.

Now, every inch of sky and soil before the Ten Academies’ Nascent Souls bristled with hostility. Wherever they looked—above, below—only enemies awaited.

A suffocating wave of enmity crashed down, threatening to reduce layers four and five to rubble.

Standing atop Kunxu’s fifth layer, Lord Ciji folded his arms behind his back, absorbing the endless malice. He handed the battered, warped Boundary-Piercing Spike to Zhang Yu beside him.

“Zhang Yu, take my spike and return.”

“What comes next is a Nascent Soul battlefield. You don’t belong here.”

With a sweep of his hand, streams of solar fire—manifestations of Lord Tianri Huangshen—enveloped Zhang Yu, carrying him swiftly downward.

Moments later, Lord Nielian arrived just in time to witness this. His gaze lingered briefly on the spike cradled in Zhang Yu’s arms—the twisted, fractured artifact now snapped into several pieces—and dismissed it without further interest.

He strode to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Lords Ciji and Qingmu.

“You moved decisively today, Ciji,” Nielian remarked.

Ciji snorted coldly. “If I’d waited for you all to debate endlessly, who knows how long it would’ve taken? I couldn’t just watch these traitors blow up the fifth layer.”

As Zhang Yu descended under Tianri Huangshen’s protection, layers five and four receded rapidly above him. Beams of Nascent Soul power streaked past his body—each cultivator sparing a glance at the ruined spike in his arms.

But having apparently received word from Lord Ciji, none paid it heed. All raced toward battle, fearing they’d miss their moment.

Zhang Yu landed softly above the Great Void in Kunxu’s third layer. Above him, the skies of layers four and five blazed with divine radiance—the cataclysmic war among Nascent Souls had begun.

Simultaneously, waves of cultivators swarmed around the Great Void, erecting fortresses and arrays around the breaches linking layers three, four, and five—securing this vital corridor.

While Nascent Souls clashed, lesser disciples became the backbone of logistics—stabilizing campuses, channeling resources, and manufacturing supplies to sustain the war effort.

Amid this rising tide of warriors, Zhang Yu quietly returned to the Research Society in Kunxu’s third layer.

Without greeting anyone, he carried the Boundary-Piercing Spike straight to his meditation chamber.

“Yu-zi!” Bai Zhenzhen sighed in relief at his return. “You just now—”

Before she could finish, Zhang Yu slumped into his seat and vomited a thick cloud of blood mist.

“Yu-zi! How badly are you hurt?”

During those two consecutive breaches of the firmament, every fiber of his flesh had felt pulverized over and over.

The backlash from shattering the firmament proved far worse than he’d imagined.

“I thought with my cultivation so greatly advanced, piercing the firmament would be effortless… yet…”

He sensed his ruptured organs, bones riddled with micro-fractures, meridians scarred and bleeding, qi and spiritual energy churning chaotically…

“If not for my defenses skyrocketing these past days,” he mused inwardly, “I wouldn’t have contained these injuries—let alone breached two layers in succession.”

Already, his Deep Frost Meridian pulsed at full throttle, freezing his damaged tissues into a state of accelerated self-repair.

Feeling his wounds knit together under its influence, Zhang Yu exhaled softly in relief.

But soon, memories of the breaches resurfaced.

“The firmaments of layers four and five… they were utterly unlike any spatial barrier I’ve encountered before.”

A thread of unease coiled in his chest. “They employ spatial techniques I don’t understand—techniques that could drastically sway the Nascent Soul war.”

Resolved, Zhang Yu made a silent vow: once healed, he would push his Immortal Sect arts to new heights—specifically, elevate the *Three Realms Ten Directions Grand Void Barrier* to its level-40 limit—to brace for whatever chaos lay ahead.

(End of Chapter)