Chapter 994

This time, Lord Tiejiao directly raised the price to a thousand high-grade divine stones.

Using so many high-grade divine stones to exchange for Lord Tiejiao's imperial army was no longer worth it.

But Lord Tiejiao wanted to preserve his imperial army because if it ceased to exist, his Tiejiao Empire would lose the right to participate in the feast of dividing the Eternal Night Empire.

A thousand high-grade divine stones instantly stirred Lord Tianlong's desire.

Just attacking an empire Lord Tiejiao called "obscure" offered such a tremendous return!

Out of habit, Lord Tianlong still asked for the name of that "obscure" empire.

Then, Lord Tianlong was utterly stunned!

That's right.

Lord Tianlong, Lord Tianfeng, and Lord Zi Yun were precisely the three divine lords who had seen Lin Yan in the Sun.

"Cough, Lord Tiejiao, Lord Lanxu has ordered us to attack the Eternal Night Empire—you handle the Flame Empire yourself."

With that, Lord Tianlong severed the communication.

"Flame Lord…"

Lord Tianlong calmed his suddenly accelerated heartbeat, thought for a moment, and decided to contact Lord Tianfeng.

"You know too?"

As soon as Lord Tianlong reached out, Lord Tianfeng guessed his intent.

"Yes, the Flame Lord probably has designs on the Eternal Night Empire and the Eternal Night Goddess—what do we do?"

Lord Tianlong asked.

"I never expected a fourth-tier deity to get involved; I don't know if other fourth-tier deities will be tempted either. We must not leak this information—we must pretend we know nothing. Otherwise, we'll be caught between a rock and a hard place. Aren't there still eight other divine lords? Let them take the front lines—we'll stay ready to withdraw at any moment."

Lord Tianfeng's eyes gleamed with conspiracy.

Even among divine lords, there was mutual scheming.

If any divine lord's power declined, others wouldn't mind giving him a final kick!

In a short time, the two divine lords reached an agreement.

After Lord Tiejiao repeatedly failed to reach Lord Tianfeng and Lord Tianlong, he stopped trying to contact other divine lords.

Contacting other divine lords would be useless.

They wouldn't send incarnations to aid him.

Other divine lords' empires were at least hundreds of kilometers from Lord Tiejiao's army—too far to mobilize.

Only Lord Tianfeng's and Lord Tianlong's empires were nearby.

"This Flame Lord… must have something suspicious."

The strange reactions of Lord Tianfeng and Lord Tianlong made Lord Tiejiao sense something amiss.

As a divine lord, Lord Tiejiao was not foolish.

One divine lord acting odd was one thing.

But Lord Tianlong reacted the same way upon hearing the name "Flame Lord."

This could explain something.

But at this moment, Lord Tiejiao's battle incarnation was fighting Lord Xingluo's battle incarnation on the Continent of Gods.

Both battle incarnations were Third Rank Holy Realm.

Lord Tiejiao naturally assumed Lord Xingluo was the Flame Lord.

In his perception, the opponent seemed… on the same level as him.

He detected nothing unusual.

"Could I be overthinking this?"

Lord Tiejiao thought.

Whether he was overthinking or not, it didn't greatly affect the current situation.

Because the Tiejiao Empire had already suffered a crushing defeat.

Aside from Lord Tiejiao, the Tiejiao Pantheon had only seven gods, and all seven had now descended battle incarnations.

But whether it was himself or those seven gods, all were held in check by the enemy's battle incarnations.

Aside from their battle incarnations still possessing combat capability, the Tiejiao Empire had no high-rank or low-rank forces capable of matching the Flame Empire.

Tiejiao Empire's warriors were being swiftly slaughtered by the Flame Empire!

At this moment, the battle formations of both the Tianlong Empire and the Tianfeng Empire moved.

Their formations near this battlefield quickly retreated from the area, and both empires consolidated their troops.

Immediately after, outside the Eternal Night Empire's capital, the other nine empires—excluding Tiejiao—sounded the war horns!

The great war had officially begun!

Over twenty million troops from the nine empires advanced from four directions, marching relentlessly toward the Eternal Night Empire's capital.

And the Tiejiao Empire had been eliminated in advance!

"Damn it!"

Lord Tiejiao couldn't help cursing aloud!

"My Lord, if this continues, our Tiejiao warriors will be wiped out."

A god said.

Lord Tiejiao's face darkened.

"Issue a divine decree: evacuate all Gao Jie forces from here. Plunder the eastern six provinces of the Eternal Night Empire, then return home—we'll buy them time!"

Lord Tiejiao said.

"Yes, My Lord!"

Other deities sent down divine edicts.

"Retreat!"

After receiving the divine edict, the Iron Horn Sacred Son swiftly ordered a full retreat.

"So they're finally retreating?"

On the flying vessel, Mengying soared into the sky and issued her command:

"All flying warships—pursue!"

At her command, countless flying warships launched forth.

And Mengying herself moved out, striking at the Iron Horn Empire's elites.

"Damn it!"

The Iron Horn Divine Lord's expression darkened; he unleashed his power and launched an attack toward Mengying—but the Starfall Divine Lord would never let him succeed.

The Starfall Divine Lord had been dragged here as forced labor; expecting him to be enthusiastic was impossible, so he had maintained a purely defensive stance, unwilling to waste too much strength.

But he dared not slack off.

The Iron Horn Divine Lord thought he could pass him to strike at the Flame Empire's people? Not a chance.

With the Starfall Divine Lord blocking him, the Iron Horn Empire had no force capable of matching Mengying; each of her strikes often wiped out entire clusters of Iron Horn warriors.

And the equally dense attacks from the flying warships blasted countless Iron Horn warriors into the sky.

"The Iron Horn Empire is finished."

Seeing this, other empires' Sacred Sons said.

"They brought it on themselves. The Iron Horn Empire indulged its warriors too much—monetary rewards should've been enough, yet they allowed their troops to burn, kill, and plunder. Discipline collapsed, and combat effectiveness plummeted."

One Sacred Son offered a rational analysis.

Many great empires still enforced military discipline with great rigor.

Empires like the Iron Horn Empire were rare.

And so, they suffered the most.

By the time other empires clashed with the capital's defenders of the Eternal Night Empire, the Iron Horn Empire's army had been hunted down until scarcely a single soldier remained.

"Flame Lord, I'll remember you."

Seeing this, the Iron Horn Divine Lord spat a threat, then retracted his battle avatar.

The other deities of the Iron Horn Pantheon also retracted their battle avatars; further fighting was now meaningless.

Opposite the Iron Horn Divine Lord, the Starfall Divine Lord looked utterly innocent.

And inwardly, he felt a touch of schadenfreude.

After all, finally, a Divine Lord had suffered misfortune.

"Be sure to come back and seek revenge on the Flame Lord…"