Chapter 3042

Not even a greeting, just throwing something so ominous directly in front of the Death God — aside from the Red General, only Dong Rui would do that. "These test subjects were all attacked by the green mold less than half an hour ago. They went from normal bodies to this state in less than twenty breaths."

But looking at their condition, they're like corpses buried in the desert for ten years — skin and bones, completely desiccated. Dong Rui casually reached out and snapped one — it crackled.

"In other words, any substance that constitutes life has been transformed and then squeezed dry."

"Extracting vitality?" He Lingchuan clapped once. "Exactly. That fits the identity of the Pool Life God perfectly!"

Back when he investigated the Bei Jia eternal youth medicine case, Qingyang's subordinates were extracting monster vitality to make the raw material "blood pearls" for the elixir. Same principle, but compared to the Life God, their methods were pathetic — they had to sneak around and ambush monster after monster themselves. Unlike the Lingxu Holy Venerable, who could easily infect a vast area and extract vitality from it all at once.

"Since the green mold goes berserk, how did you guys develop an antidote?"

"The Death God — oh, I mean the Red General — found its weakness. This green mold is very stable, or rather, very sluggish, so we don't provoke it excessively. Instead, we use a gentle approach — as you put it, boiling a frog in warm water — slowly dissolving it while it remains completely unaware." He Lingchuan added, more concerned: "Is the antidote easy to make? Are the materials easy to obtain?"

"Easy, easy." Being able to crack the Lingxu Holy Venerable's divine art, Dong Rui puffed out his chest proudly, "But I've discovered this green mold still has mutation potential. I can't rule out that the Lingxu Holy Venerable has means to further mutate it. Once Pool Zhen can achieve that, the existing antidote might no longer work. The Red General also said the Lingxu Holy Venerable always likes to keep a trump card."

He Lingchuan pondered for a long time before asking: "Can the speed and extent to which the green mold drains host vitality be adjusted? Or is it always this fast?" "I believe it can." Dong Rui, consistently rigorous in research, replied: "It can be fast or slow. Moreover, I and the Red General both believe that even if the green mold continues to mutate, we can still find a way to kill it, because the foundational research has already succeeded."

He lowered his voice: "I think, regarding the destruction of the Life God's creations, the Death God seems especially obsessed."

Well, new grudges plus old hatreds.

"Very good, I'll award you a major merit." He Lingchuan slammed the table. "Since the green mold research is complete and you have nothing else to do, tomorrow you'll join the army and go to war."

"Huh? Non-stop work?" After succeeding in such a major research project, not even getting a few days off — truly inhumane!

"No time left. The Lingxu Holy Venerable's divine descent plan activates in five days."

"Whoa, whoa!" Dong Rui, lately obsessed with research and oblivious to outside affairs, had actually missed this explosive news.

He gasped and panted for a long time, only managing to squeeze out one sentence:

"Then, then I want to act together with Auntie!"

"Don't worry, you and Auntie, along with Earth Mother, are in the same group."

The next day afternoon, human forces successfully rendezvoused at Long Gang Ridge north of Hao Ling.

The war in Suoluo Country was excessively fierce, and the feint-to-the-east, strike-to-the-west tactic had already taken effect. Cangyan and Mou Country joined forces to successfully capture Bolang Country and Haoling Country. Thus, the Baoshu Chiyan Allied Army, which had been locked in battle at Suoluo Country, withdrew and rendezvoused with the Cangyan-Mou Country main force.

This was actually the first time multiple forces had ever gathered together: the great armies of the three major demon vassal states — Baoshu Country, Chiyan Country, and Meng Shan Country — plus the three allied armies of Cangyan, Shen Country, and Mou Country.

The accompanying troops from small countries, immortals, great demons, and cultivators were too numerous to count.

Such a scene had not been seen in six hundred years.

The six armies combined exceeded one million people — Long Gang Ridge could not bear the load, so the six commanders met to exchange tactics, discuss subsequent main attack directions, and coordinate battle cooperation.

Since the Baoshu King and Chiyan King remained in their own countries, they dispatched army-commanding generals to participate; Cangyan was represented by General Qiu Hu.

Because the Heavenly Palace suddenly announced the date for a large-scale divine descent, this rendezvous temporarily added an important topic: tactics and force allocation after the descent of the heavenly demons!

The meeting lasted six or seven hours, until the next morning, when the commanders each returned to their troops.

Regarding the green mold antidote, He Lingchuan temporarily kept it secret.

During this period, He Lingchuan also took time to contact several heavenly demons in the Heavenly Realm, including Naluotian, but still obtained no information about the descent location. The Lingxu heavenly gods added to the descent list told Naluotian: the specific descent location, the Holy Venerable will only inform us fifteen minutes before activating the large-scale descent, to ensure no leakage.

By this point, the Lingxu Holy Venerable was no longer trusted by anyone.

But He Lingchuan would never give up. Even if the Lingxu Holy Venerable's heavenly secrecy work is flawless, he must still go through the Heavenly Palace on earth to make some preparations, right? Then in the human world, there would be traces to follow.

Sure enough, as evening fell, three more pieces of news arrived for He Lingchuan.

The first two occurred in different places but had similar content:

In the farmlands near the Ducheng of Shen Country, and in the border regions adjacent to Long Country, suspected god-altars under construction were discovered.

After Cangyan discovered a god-altar in the Ducheng of Haoling Country, it issued a war alliance bulletin, ordering all alliance members to quickly self-inspect — which is how these two locations came to light.

But these two god-altars had no pre-embedded heavenly demon talismans, only the aura of the Life God's divine seal.

Local officials arrested the builders of the god-altars for interrogation and found they were all local villagers and townspeople. Someone had paid them handsomely to do the work, but when they followed up further, the trail went cold.

Both countries are members of the war alliance.

From the selection of these two god-altar sites, it appears the heavenly demons harbor ill intent toward the Duchengs of both countries — possibly even plotting a decapitation strike.

Qiu Hu returned dusty and weary, glanced at the intelligence, and said: "There's a spy leaking information. The war alliance has never publicly released its member list."

The war alliance is led by Cangyan and Mou Country, with numerous local powers beneath it. The alliance accepts their allegiance, but has never publicly disclosed its members to the outside world, lest they become targets for heavenly demon strikes.

These powers joined the war alliance for self-preservation, not to become targets and prey.

Shen Country is forgivable — its relationship with Cangyan is well known — but Long Country only joined the war alliance ten days ago.

This is no coincidence.

But He Lingchuan also knows such leaks cannot be prevented. Right now, war alliance personnel and materiel are in large-scale motion, with too many participants and informed individuals.

As the organization grows, secrecy difficulty increases geometrically — all the past difficulties of the Heavenly Palace are now experienced by the war alliance. Furthermore, the Heavenly Palace is an exclusive organization with strict regulations and evaluation mechanisms. The war alliance, newly built, has just absorbed a large number of outsiders — whether they are loyal patriots or harbor ill intent, there's no way to tell.