The ancient formation left behind by the High Demons suddenly roared to life, trapping over ten thousand Blood Fiend Elite Soldiers within its vast and potent seals.

Facing such a powerful array, even the Void Refinement stage experts, Poison Fang and Ba Chong, seemed capable of putting up some resistance. Especially the deceptively petite yet utterly malevolent Asura Clan member, Poison Fang, who shrieked with palpable panic, "This is the auto-hatchery recorded in the texts!" Instantly, her form dissolved into a black streak of light, attempting a desperate escape.

The High Demons had established the auto-hatchery in this Chaos Space precisely to capture enemies, throw them inside, and then utilize a myriad of exquisite formations to endlessly spawn armies of Mind-Stealing Demons—a method both time-saving and effort-sparing. Poison Fang's attempt to flee, however, somewhat underestimated the meticulous arrangements of the ancient High Demons. After all, the Mind-Stealing Demon army encompassed Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, and Void Refinement tiers.

This formation naturally possessed methods to deal with Void Refinement stage powerhouses. Otherwise, the Night Emperor, who mistakenly strayed into this area long ago, would not have suffered a total rout, vanishing without a trace from the Six Domains and Nine Continents.

Poison Fang struggled desperately to flee, yet she could not break free from the control of this wondrous formation. She felt immense, crushing pressures descend abruptly, slowing her speed until she ground to a complete halt, utterly ensnared within the array.

As for Ba Chong, a mere initial-stage Void Refinement expert, he managed only a few feeble struggles before being completely sealed by swirling masses of black light and hypnotically forced into slumber. Their performance paled in comparison to the Night Emperor when he was caught unprepared by the auto-hatchery formation.

At this very moment, the Night Emperor silently observed everything from atop a grand hall imbued with ancient, distinct demonic architecture. His gaze betrayed neither joy nor sorrow. Beside him, several Spirit Transformation stage generals watched with eyes flickering between fervent admiration and confusion.

"The denizens of the Demon Realm are truly nothing more than this," the Night Emperor murmured softly to himself. "A trifling scheme from Lei Dong manages to incite them into such impulsiveness. Heh. This calamity is deserved."

As the Night Emperor spoke, within the hatchery chambers sealed by the formation, the waiting Mind-Stealing Demon eggs began to hatch. Countless hideous Mind-Stealing Demons burst forth from their shells, systematically seeking targets upon which to begin their parasitic infestation.

The parasitic process was truly repulsive. Even a being of the Night Emperor's stature frowned slightly in distaste, as if recalling his own past, perhaps having once been infested by a Mind-Stealing Demon in the same manner.

"Rumor has it that the Six Domains and Nine Continents were forcibly warped by the Mother of Myriad Spirits using the Art of Seizing Creation," the Night Emperor continued his quiet soliloquy. "Not only are Void Refinement experts unable to enter, but even those who ascend locally to the Void Refinement stage are eventually rejected by the laws of heaven and earth if they linger too long. Since these Demon Realm folk can arrive through the void link channel, does that not imply this space is external to the Six Domains and Nine Continents? Unaffected by the Mother of Myriad Spirits’ warped laws. Heh, the Forgotten Land. Truly the Forgotten Land. What a pity for this body of mine, possessed by a Mind-Stealing Demon. Although I control its consciousness, fundamentally, it remains a demon. Unable to advance... alas~" For ages, the Night Emperor had been surrounded only by subordinates who could not speak, could not communicate, and only knew how to obey commands—a deeply isolating existence. Over time, he had grown accustomed to speaking to himself.

With a minor stratagem of feigning weakness, the Night Emperor had managed to capture two imposing Void Refinement experts and over ten thousand elite troops.

When the news, carried by scouts who risked their lives, finally reached Lei Dong, it caused him considerable shock. Lei Dong had previously calculated that the Night Emperor’s stronghold must be fraught with peril, thus he had never entertained the notion of a direct assault. But he had never anticipated that the stronghold would be this treacherous—two Void Refinement experts alongside ten thousand Blood Fiend Elite Soldiers captured instantly by that overwhelmingly potent formation.

The result left Lei Dong simultaneously grateful that someone else had cleared the danger and chilled to the bone. If he had been careless and fallen into that deadly array, his fate would have been dire. At the same time, Lei Dong’s vigilance toward the Night Emperor soared. That old rogue was, after all, a peerless genius of his generation; he could not be underestimated.

However, Lei Dong’s overall strength already held a slight advantage over the Night Emperor. Following the arrival of those two fools from the Demon Realm, who delivered soldiers to the Night Emperor, the situation became significantly more troublesome for Lei Dong. After all, the two enemy forces had merged into one, multiplying the difficulty manifold.

For Lei Dong, the greatest advantage remaining was the fact that the Night Emperor’s forces consisted entirely of Mind-Stealing Demons. As is widely known, Mind-Stealing Demons possess low intellect. While formidable in head-on confrontation, they are poor at guerrilla warfare—no match for Lei Dong’s elite squads. Small-scale ambushes and sneak attacks demand high levels of cunning and adaptability.

Upon witnessing the Night Emperor effortlessly neutralize the two Demon Realm generals, Lei Dong acted without hesitation. He immediately dissolved his main army into fragments, splitting it into several hundred contingents, each comprising about a thousand soldiers. These units dispersed into the vast expanse of the Chaos Space, spanning tens of millions of miles.

These hundreds of troop clusters maintained communication links, either hiding in remote locations or stealthily ranging across the territory. If they encountered a small patrol unit they could handle, they struck immediately and, upon success, relocated instantly.

Though Lei Dong possessed hundreds of thousands of troops, seeming numerous, the Chaos Exotic Space, while small by cosmic standards, still boasted a diameter of tens of millions of miles, with terrain dominated by complex mountains and ravines. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers absorbed into a world of this magnitude were like drops of water merging into the ocean.

This situation left the Night Emperor struggling. Although he was a Void Refinement expert, his divine sense, when fully deployed, spanned only about a thousand miles. Furthermore, despite having vast numbers of troops, he lacked the capability for grassroots command. Launching an effective encirclement battle was exceedingly difficult.

However, allowing the Night Emperor to consolidate his forces at the stronghold would be fatal. Since Lei Dong’s troops were not mind-controlled beings, true individuals could continuously grow stronger by drawing upon the abundant Chaos Spiritual Qi resources. In other words, the longer the time dragged on, the Night Emperor’s strength would stagnate, while Lei Dong’s would increase.

This clear declaration of engaging in guerrilla warfare gave the Night Emperor a severe headache. The only recourse was to march his entire army out, arrange them in a long, coiling Serpent Array, like unfurling a massive net, and sweep aimlessly across the space.

This sweeping action was immensely conspicuous and managed to frighten away Lei Dong’s smaller units from great distances, causing them to flee long before contact. After several months of such frantic effort, the Night Emperor’s gains were minimal, killing only a few stray squads—a negligible loss to Lei Dong.

Meanwhile, as the Night Emperor swept the area, the time laws within Lei Dong’s Grotto-Heaven Paradise operated at full capacity, rapidly converting the gathered Chaos Crystals into increased strength for his forces. Even though the Night Emperor seemed helpless against Lei Dong’s tactics, Lei Dong remained deeply anxious. After all, the Night Emperor’s overall strength had nearly doubled by absorbing the two Demon Realm generals.

A direct confrontation at this juncture would almost certainly result in defeat.

In the blink of an eye, another half a year rushed by. At this time, the Nether Ghost Emperor, who had been diligently cultivating, had reached the critical juncture of the peak Spirit Transformation stage.

The Nether Ghost Emperor was a rare, powerful sovereign among the Ghost Race. His ability to dominate the various clans of the Underworld Domain stemmed from his inherent capabilities. Early in his life, the Ghost Emperor endured immense hardship and gained several fortuitous encounters; theoretically, his natural aptitude far surpassed that of the average Heavenly Spirit Ghost.

Had it not been for the scarcity of Chaos Spiritual Qi slowing his cultivation, such an extraordinary existence as the Nether Ghost Emperor would surely have broken through to the late Spirit Transformation stage, perhaps even Void Refinement, long ago. But without a significant external change, remaining in an environment like the Six Domains and Nine Continents meant that even a peerless talent like the Nether Ghost Emperor would ultimately wither away at the Spirit Transformation level.

Fortunately, this campaign into the Chaos Exotic Space provided him with a staggering bounty of Chaos Crystals, presenting the Nether Ghost Emperor with a monumental opportunity. After accumulating energy for millennia, this chance allowed him to finally break through accumulated potential, sending his cultivation into a period of explosive advancement.

The Grotto-Heaven Paradise was originally a minor dimensional space possessing nascent life force. Some ancient mighty being had refined it, merging its essence with the power of laws, creating this heaven-defying, unparalleled spatial treasure.

Yet, even though the Grotto-Heaven Paradise now appeared externally as a portable Chaos Spirit Treasure, its fundamental nature remained a dimensional space—a component of the greater cosmos. Anything within the universe cannot escape the constraints of cosmic laws. Consequently, although the Grotto-Heaven Paradise contained a supreme formation capable of twisting the laws of time, it could not alter the true laws of the universe. Cultivation itself is an act against heaven, unwelcome by the laws of existence. Anyone attempting to defy the Heavenly Dao suffers the penalty of the laws. This is the origin of Heavenly Tribulations when undergoing major breakthroughs.

The Heavenly Tribulation is a part of the destructive laws of heaven and earth, representing the will of heaven and the will of the cosmos.

Now, the Nether Ghost Emperor had finally broken through the shackles, ascending to the Void Refinement stage. Concurrently, a terrifying Heavenly Tribulation brewed within the Grotto-Heaven Paradise. Dark clouds choked the small sky spanning merely a few dozen miles within the dimension, filling it with a dense, oppressive gloom.

Bolts of Heavenly Lightning rained down like a torrential storm, slamming toward the Nether Ghost Emperor’s head. Their power far exceeded that of the tribulation faced when ascending from Nascent Soul to Spirit Transformation by more than several times. Fortunately, the Nether Ghost Emperor was no ordinary mortal; deploying all manner of wondrous techniques, he stood unshaken amidst the violent assault, greeting the baptism of the Heavenly Tribulation with an air of detached serenity.