Beastmaster of the Ages

Even though the pressure was immense, Tianming no longer feared walking his path since he himself had chosen to come back for his believers. "Ever since I became the leader of the alliance, my decisions have led to retreating and giving up on our defensive formations in favor of staying alive. I still think we should do the same."

"Are you saying we should abandon the Empyrean Sword Sect to them?" the Northdipper Swordsage asked with a pained expression.

"That's right. The Myriaddragon Mountains are lost to us. If the celestial orderians attack you now, the best you can do is to shave off some of their numbers, but once your defensive formation falls, you'll no longer have a chance to retreat like you do now."

"I understand. Sigh! Our loss today truly is huge. It's such a shame...."

"Our lives are more important."

"But the question is what the sun emperor wants with our territories after we abandon them."

"No matter what he plans to do, we have no way of stopping it even if we pay with our lives. The best we can do is to stall for time. Additionally, we can be quite certain that one of the main reasons he's doing this is to resist Skywolf, not to use them against us. Since the war’s now been more or less settled, we should just decisively abandon our homes. Once the truth is revealed, we might yet have a chance to reclaim what’s ours, especially after the other two sides wear each other down."

If it were possible to keep the few remaining defensive formations, Tianming wouldn't want to give up on them either. However, the Empyrean Sword Sect's combat capabilities were less than a third of the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect's, so how could they afford to resist the celestial orderians? Even if they chose to hold their ground, they would still lose when their defensive formation was breached. The celestial orderians had managed to breach the Myriaddragon Mountains, after all, but hadn’t been able to kill many alliance soldiers before Skywolf's ships arrived, so they might be eager to claim that debt from the Empyrean Sword Sect.

"Even though constantly retreating like this is disappointing, what happened today shows that struggling is futile. It's better to bet on a chance of rising up from the ashes. We're the weaker side, after all, so let’s hide and wait. The Frostsoul Imperium supports Tianming's decision," said the Frost Empress.

"I support it too, as bad as it feels. Dammit! The sect that I spent so much effort to build will be stolen from me!" the Northdipper Swordsage said. He understood the logic, but he needed someone with real power to make that order to be able to properly convince his subordinates.

"We'll evacuate the weaker ones first, and leave some people behind as guards. So far, the sun emperor is still dealing with that other divine astralship, so we'll guard them for as long as we can. I’ll go to the Sky Palace and see if there's anything that can be done there," Tianming said.

"Alright. We’ll handle things here, so rest assured. No matter what the future has in store for us, at least most of us are still alive. Instead, the celestial orderians lost countless people to invade us, and they're suffering even more from Skywolf's invasion. I suppose we'll have time for a breather while the celestial orderians' anger is directed at Skywolf, especially after the sun emperor killed Sovereign Greenvoid," the Saintdragon Emperor said.

"That's right. However, Skywolf is our enemy as well. It isn’t wrong to want to fight the celestial orderians, but we must prioritize the people of our world. Nobody can afford to kill the sun emperor and betray Orderia for alien invaders," Tianming said. Everyone else agreed. He didn't think they would do that, but the warning was for himself as much as it was for the rest. No matter the grudges he had against the sun emperor, this wasn’t the time to settle them. If the celestial orderians ever had the odds against them while fighting Skywolf, he would definitely take action.

"Are you going to go to the Sky Palace alone?" the Saintdragon Emperor asked.

Tianming nodded. "For now, have all solarians stand by near the Sky Palace and wait for my signal. Perhaps there's a chance we can make it our base of operations. It may not be a large piece of land, but it's definitely safe.

"Can that really work?!" the Northdipper Swordsage agitatedly asked.

"It's just an empty thought! We may have lost today, but we can still dream," Tianming said.

"How optimistic of you." The Northdipper Swordsage clicked his tongue.

Tianming's attitude had completely changed. The Myriad Solar Sects was at rock bottom, yet he still felt secure for some reason. Perhaps it was because the faith that the ten billion people placed in him was stable and cemented in him now.

......

Though the Voidsky Flame Pillar was called a pillar, it felt more like a wall to anyone standing in front of it. Tianming recalled that his journey on the sun had truly started there. He took the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb into the pillar, braving the flaming storms until the ship reached where he had found it, then landed it there.

He forged through the storms with a small group of people. The stigma on his head shone as it helped locate the Sky Palace for him. His stigma looked more like the character for 'void' than it did for 'sky'. Orderia had a faction called the Voidword Shrine, while Violetglory had one called the Skyword Shrine. Not to mention, recently, some Voidsky Organization had appeared out of nowhere. Perhaps they were all related in some way.

Tianming brought Yu Ziqian with him, who looked around curiously as he followed.

"We'll be there soon."

Not long later, they reached a quiet area where the flames and winds were still. It was as if time had stopped flowing. As they proceeded, they came upon a translucent barrier covered in flowing divine celestial patterns. That was the Sky Palace Formation, and it stretched tens of thousands of meters up to the sky. Beyond it was the Sky Palace, where the voidheart worm lay in hiding. The Saintdragon Emperor, Long Wanying, the Northdipper Swordsage, and the rest followed behind.

"Can you really enter? Not even the sun emperor was able to make his way in. It's as tough as an airtight fortress," the Northdipper Swordsage said.

Tianming wasn't sure whether he could enter, either. He touched the formation with his left arm as he pondered, "Gan Gangan, give it a try."

"Me?" Yu Ziqian awkwardly laughed. "I’d better not embarrass myself here. This barrier is really thick. There's no way I can break through it. That's why we need you, brother."

"Just do what I tell you. Here, put your head against the formation." Tianming pushed Yu Ziqian's head against the formation and slammed it into the barrier.

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Yu Ziqian cried out in pain as he dizzily spun around, but that had done nothing to the formation at all.