Sovereign of the Ashes

The vast number of rogue cultivators arriving from the Immortal Realm greatly strengthened the Magus Civilization’s mid and lower-tier forces along the front lines.

Throughout the war against the Gallant Federation, the federation’s mechanical armies, together with its seemingly endless fleets of warships and mobile suits, had remained a constant headache for the Magus Civilization.

The Magus Civilization no longer feared the federation’s high-tier combat power.

Its enormous mid and lower-tier legions, however, were still a serious problem.

The arrival of the Immortal Realm’s rogue cultivators went a long way toward easing the shortage of lower-tier troops across the main battlefront.

With these cultivators joining the war, the Magus Civilization could at least reduce the extent to which it exploited the Gallant Federation’s member planes for manpower and resources.

At the same time, its own mid and lower-ranking knights and mages could finally catch their breath. More of them would now have the chance to withdraw to the rear for rest and recuperation.

Furthermore, according to the agreed rules for dividing the spoils, everything seized on the battlefield would be split evenly.

In other words, the Immortal Realm cultivators had to hand over half of their gains to the Magus Civilization. For the Magus Civilization, this was practically an enormous windfall.

Of course, viewed from another perspective, it only made the difficult position of rogue cultivators even more obvious...

The disciples of prestigious orthodox sects and the various major sage courts were not bound by such an arrangement.

Once they entered the Magus Civilization’s battlefield, everything they earned belonged to them.

Even so, thanks to its advanced magicoin economic system, the Magus Civilization could still extract a considerable amount of wealth from the sage courts of the Immortal Realm.

The treaties signed between the Magus Civilization and those sage courts contained one particularly important clause: throughout this Clash of Civilizations, magicoins issued by the Magus Civilization would serve as the primary currency for all transactions.

The Immortal Realm Civilization naturally had currencies of its own, including immortal jades[1], spirit jades, yuan, and many others.

As the war continued, the various great sage courts gradually realised just how much wealth could be drawn away through control of the battlefield’s currency. They had therefore begun negotiating with the Magus Civilization.

Whether immortal jade would eventually be incorporated into the battlefield’s monetary system—and what exchange rate would be established between immortal jade and magicoin—would probably not be decided anytime soon.

This was another matter involving the financial interests of the two top-tier civilizations. And whenever money was involved, things often became far more complicated.

As wave after wave of rogue cultivators from the Immortal Realm continued pouring onto the Magus Civilization’s battlefield, another force from the Immortal Realm also arrived.

It was a large group of sword cultivators led by the Mount Shu Sword School, the best sword cultivation sect in the Immortal Realm. Its disciples were also widely regarded as the most lethal sword cultivators.

The Magus Civilization had always maintained good relations with Mount Shu Sword School, which was itself a renowned sage court.

Although White Eyebrow Sage, the sect’s founder, did not come in person, he sent nearly all of Mount Shu’s younger disciples and elite talents to the battlefield.

They were joined by many disciples from the various sword cultivation sects affiliated with Mount Shu.

For a time, sword cultivators could be seen everywhere across the Magus Civilization’s battlefields, streaking through the skies on their flying immortal swords.

Some also rode on giant gourds, beasts, and all manner of strange mounts too numerous to count.

Their methods of travel stood in sharp contrast to those of the Magus Civilization’s knights and mages, who relied on convenient teleportation arrays, space fortresses, war airships, and Mechanical Hornets[2].

Even in something as simple as transportation, the differences between the two top-tier civilizations were plain to see.

Given its close relationship with the Mount Shu Sword School, the Magus Civilization stationed most of these exceptionally powerful sword cultivators on the Gallant Federation battlefield.

At the same time, it opened several long-distance teleportation arrays for those willing to cross multiple star domains and travel to the Grand Cosmic World battlefield.

The cost of teleporting to the border regions of the Grand Cosmic World Star Domain was anything but small.

However, the recent wars there had allowed both the Immortal Realm legions and the Magus Civilization’s forces to seize enormous wealth from the defeated armies of the Grand Cosmic World.

Naturally, news of such gains quickly spread among the cultivators of the Immortal Realm.

Large numbers began travelling to the edge of the Grand Cosmic World Star Domain’s battlefield of their own accord. Some were rogue cultivators with no real backing, willing to tighten their belts and spend nearly everything they had for a chance to make their fortune.

There truly were cultivators who had amassed astonishing wealth on that battlefield—many times more than they had ever imagined possible!

After all, the riches of the Grand Cosmic World were enough to tempt even the Amenkha Empire.

***

In addition to these two waves of reinforcements, the negotiations between the Magus Civilization and the Chan Sect had also begun to soften.

As more and more factions and sage courts from the Immortal Realm flocked to the Magus Civilization’s battlefield in search of profit, especially after the massive influx of rogue cultivators, the Chan Sect finally found it difficult to remain on the sidelines.

This time, it was the leader of the Chan Sect who took the initiative to contact the Magus Civilization.

Since the Magus Civilization had approached them first in the past, the Magus World’s leadership found it difficult to turn them away now.

As for the Chan Sect’s future deployment, the Magus Civilization once again decided to send its legions directly to the border battlefields of the Grand Cosmic World Star Domain, where they would face the armies of the Amenkha Empire.

The Amenkha Empire had truly become a convenient solution to the Immortal Realm’s internal conflicts.

It had been many years since the Buddhist, Daoist, and Yao factions had fought side by side within the same star domain.

Who would have thought that the Magus Civilization would be the one to bring these three factions together?

More importantly, none of them objected to the arrangement.

Aside from the Chan Sect, the Magus Civilization still had other allies it could call upon within the Immortal Realm!

Ancestor Minghe, Lord of the Blood Sea, had always maintained good relations with the Magus Civilization.

However, since the battlefield no longer required additional reinforcements, the Magus Civilization had yet to dispatch a special envoy to contact him.

Likewise, unlike the other factions, Ancestor Minghe had shown no interest in actively seeking out opportunities for war.

For the most part, he had remained pretty chill, even during the expansion of the Blood Sea Asura Clan.

Everyone knew he was not someone to be trifled with, but in recent years, he had not gone out of his way to provoke anyone either.

Furthermore, Ancestor Minghe held a grudge against the Bodhisattva of the Great Vow from the Buddhist faction and was also at odds with Great Immortal Zhenyuanzi of the Five Villages Temple.

This was hardly a secret among the ancient powerhouses of the Immortal Realm.

Those who walked the righteous path found many allies, while those who strayed from it found few. In this regard, the contrast with the Magus Civilization could not have been clearer. It had not only numerous existing allies, but several potential ones as well.

Meanwhile, the Gallant Federation’s situation had grown increasingly dire in recent years.

Although this top-tier technological civilization still maintained firm control over at least two-thirds of its home star domain, and had even launched counterattacks against the Magus Civilization across several small and medium-scale battlefields, one question had begun to form in everyone’s mind....

How many more years could it hold out?

Or, to put it another way, did it still have any allies left?

The Clash of Civilizations had originally been expected to last twenty thousand years, but with the Immortal Realm providing such massive assistance, the war might come to an end far sooner than anticipated.

Countless geniuses had risen to prominence during the conflict, while vast numbers of seasoned powerhouses had perished in its wake.

According to the Magus Civilization’s own statistics, the number of law-wielding mages who had fallen since the beginning of the Clash of Civilizations had already reached 3,142!

The number of fallen law-wielding knights was even higher, standing at 9,964, and it was on the verge of surpassing ten thousand!

As for the law-wielding foreign gods of the Magus Alliance, their total casualties were likely greater still.

Perhaps, as a wise astrologer of the Magus World once said...

“There are no victors in war.”

Translator’s Recaps:

1. This was introduced back in Chapter 1645 already! It’s the currency primarily used by immortals (those of Rank Four and above). ☜

2. Omg, how long has it been since we last heard about these one-seater aircraft? Sein used to yearn for one back in his younger days, all the way back in Chapter 432... and now he has an entire massive space fortress! sobbing emotionally ☜