Chapter 1001

"Here, add some liveliness for you." Wu Tie sat cross-legged in the air, laughing enthusiastically: "When guests come from afar, is it not a joy? To serve fine wine and dishes, to welcome them warmly, is the way of a host."

Within the grand formation, Sheng Rong and his three thousand personal guards unfurled wings of various colors flashing with dazzling divine light, their faces stern and tense as they watched the rolling clouds all around.

Three thousand and one Light Divine Clan members, among them, like Sheng Rong, had behind them beautiful wings like those of a swan, and they possessed pure Divine King bloodline.

Such Divine King bloodline numbered only about thirty people.

Next came the high-ranking Divine General bloodline; their wings behind resembled those of butterflies or dragonflies, but were covered with exquisite feather-like divine patterns, some bloodlines so close to the Divine King bloodline that they even grew tangible silver or white feathers.

Such Divine General bloodline also numbered only over two hundred.

The remaining Divine Soldiers mostly had wings shaped like butterflies or dragonflies, but lacked feather-like divine patterns and their wings lacked sufficient luster; such Divine Soldiers could number over two thousand seven hundred.

All the Light Divine Clan members, in the air, formed a strange concentric-circle battle formation.

Sheng Rong served as the center, holding an ornate Light Scepter, sitting cross-legged at the formation's core.

The roughly thirty Light Divine Clan members of Divine King bloodline had their backs to Sheng Rong, facing the outer edge of the formation.

Their wings spread, the tips touching each other, strands of white and silver divine light condensed into tiny law chains, linking their wings together.

Their auras perfectly merged into one, blending like water and milk, indistinguishable; everyone's aura was exactly the same, outsiders could not discern any difference.

The over two hundred Divine Generals likewise had their backs to Sheng Rong, likewise forming a huge circle, they stretched their wings to the utmost, the tips touching, and chains of light flowed between them like water.

The lowest-tier Divine Soldiers were organized in groups of three-three-one, forming triangular battle formations; then three such groups combined into a larger formation. Repeatedly stacking these three-three-one groups, they built a massive spherical battle formation that surrounded the noble highnesses at its center.

The power of the three thousand Light Divine Clan members was linked together, ultimately all gathering in Sheng Rong's hand-held Light Scepter.

On the Light Scepter, which towered far above Sheng Rong, two exquisite statues of maidens each bearing twelve pairs of wings knelt back-to-back on the scepter's base, their wing tips touching; within the circular space encircled by the twenty-four pairs of wings, a mass of pure silver light, within which golden stripes rolled, flickered violently.

Wave after wave of intense divine light continually spread from the light sphere.

Each time the light sphere flickered, the silhouettes of Sheng Rong and the others seemed to vanish, completely merging into that radiance.

Wu Tie's controlled grand formation, under the illumination of this divine light, became extremely obscure in its operation, like a precise, complex, massive machine suddenly having large amounts of sand-mixed glue poured into its gears and bearings.

This sense of obscurity was slowly seeping from the small formation space where Sheng Rong and his companions were, through the bluish-white cloud layers, outward in all directions.

Obviously, this is a secret art of the Light Divine Clan.

Unlike the Celestial Crystal Divine Clan, which has an extremely penetrating understanding and analysis of various formation restrictions, they directly and brutally use the purest power of light to erode and assimilate all kinds of alien energy.

When the foundation of Wu Tie's grand formation was completely assimilated by these flashing divine lights, the grand formation became Sheng Rong's to command, and they could naturally easily control or even destroy it.

Within the grand formation, spark-fire had turned into a rain curtain, continually falling.

However, under the layer upon layer of intense divine light washing down, the falling spark-fire was actually forced by the divine light to be unable to approach.

Wu Tie recalled the description of the Light Divine Clan in the Old Iron inheritance database—they possess the most flexible defense among the gods, the strongest healing, the most domineering assimilation, and the most extreme transformation abilities.

Even a lowliest Light Divine Clan slave, given enough time and not killed midway, will slowly, by force, transform the harshest, most unsuitable surroundings for Light Divine Clan survival into an extreme, pure realm of light that only the Light Divine Clan can inhabit.

This is an extremely terrifying, immensely powerful divine clan.

Wu Tie pondered for a moment, then waved his right hand; countless clusters of thunderfire roared down within the grand formation, heavily bombarding the Light Divine Clan's circular divine formation.

Wave after wave of brilliant divine light shot up to the sky; the thunderlight rapidly disintegrated and weakened, ultimately the thunderlight that fell on the divine formation merely splashed ripples of insignificance upon it.

"What terrifying defensive power, the ancients were indeed not mistaken." Wu Tie laughed, then fully drove the grand formation's operation.

In the next instant, Sheng Rong and the others appeared at the scene where the magma giants and the Celestial Crystal Divine Clan's fire converged, and they directly appeared at the battlefield's core, where the bodies of over a thousand magma giant soldiers were rapidly expanding, then erupting with indescribable light and heat.

A towering fire wave swept across this region of the grand formation space, causing the massive grand formation to violently tremble.

As the controller of the grand formation, Wu Tie suffered a terrible backlash impact; wave after wave of immense recoil force tore through the air, his entire body's bones emitted a 'ding-dang' crisp sound, his joints violently shook, and the shaking sound made the hundred Wu tribe youths behind him feel dizzy and their bodies involuntarily sway.

Amid the piercing tearing sound, Wu Tie's body gained dozens of deep wounds reaching to the bone.

Over a thousand magma giants self-destructed, together with their souls and the internal smelted law patterns instantly annihilated; the destructive power released in that instant could be called terrifying, and even though Wu Tie's current body is extraordinarily strong and inhuman, the recoil still inflicted terrible harm upon him.

Wu Tie drew a deep breath; within his wounds, masses of plasma churned, yet not a drop of blood flowed outside his body.

Then the flesh-and-blood wounds began to heal rapidly, soon vanishing without a trace.

Within the grand formation, the Light Divine Clan's battle formation was torn open by a huge gap, nearly a thousand Light Divine Clan members vanished, and the remaining over two thousand Light Divine Clan members each spat out pure white plasma; fresh blood just sprayed from their mouths and immediately turned into vast streams of light that drifted away.

Sheng Rong and the several dozen Divine King bloodline high-ranking members were completely unharmed; all the damage was fully borne by the outer Divine Soldiers and the middle-tier Divine Generals.

Sheng Rong, both startled and furious, activated the scepter in his hand, emitting a silver divine radiance that protected all surviving clansmen; he looked at the wretched Celestial Crystal Divine Clan and magma giants, his voice hoarse from rage as he cursed: "Have your brains all gone bad? What are you doing? Are you breaking the formation? How could you..."

"Using self-destruction to break the formation? This fits the nature of you stupid magma-brain blockheads... but before self-destructing, won't you pay any attention to your own allies?" Sheng Rong was already beside himself with anger.

The self-destruction of over a thousand magma giants, this strike came inexplicably; the loss of nearly a thousand clansmen must be accounted for by someone.

The Light Divine Clan has always been stingy and narrow-minded; they only ever provoke others themselves, and anyone who dares to make them suffer even the slightest loss will be hounded to the bitter end like a bone‑eating maggot.

Having lost nearly a thousand clansmen in an instant, although they were merely some worthless low‑rank members, Sheng Rong felt offended and insulted, so he must seek compensation from the magma giants.

Of course, as witnesses, the Celestial Crystal Divine Clan, Sheng Rong will certainly not let them off either...

"Xuan Guang has gone mad... he ambushed us... he killed Prince Yan Huang, he killed half of our people." A high‑ranking magma giant roared hoarsely: "I suspect they colluded with Wu Tou; they are traitors among the gods!"

Xuan Guang furrowed his brows, damn it, how could Sheng Rong suddenly appear?

All right, Xuan Guang understood; it was again that shameless fellow secretly controlling the grand formation who did this.

Now the problem has become troublesome.

However, there is also a benefit: because the Light Divine Clan appeared, the magma giants' self‑detonations finally ceased. Xuan Guang's body flashed rapidly with light, and the surviving over twenty thousand points of Celestial Crystal Divine Clan members quickly formed a battle formation beside him.

"Your Highness Sheng Rong, this is merely a minor personal grudge between the Celestial Crystal Divine Clan and the magma giants, unrelated to the greater situation." Xuan Guang quickly chose an excuse: "You should still remember that in Yatu Lan De, our two tribes have waged war for tens of thousands of years... I was once seriously wounded there!"

Sheng Rong gave Xuan Guang a grim look: "But wasn't it said in the inter‑tribal covenant that upon reaching the observation outpost, all grudges must be set aside?"

Shaking his head, Sheng Rong said coldly: "No, no, no, it's not that simple; there must be something else going on between you... Tell me the specific causes and consequences, or... I'll just contact Xuan Wu and Yi Zun now to have them adjudicate your actions?"

Xuan Guang closed his mouth.

The magma giants' clan's life gemstone, this core secret, he is unwilling to blurt out recklessly.

Of course, he also does not want Xuan Wu to know that he is taking the opportunity to scavenge life gemstones, to boost himself. Divine clan members, regardless of which divine clan, except for the extremist harmful‑to‑self, single‑mindedly destructive Wisdom Divine Clan, all other major divine clans' members, each and every one, are extremely greedy and extremely selfish.

Xuan Wu will surely be able to guess Xuan Guang's purpose.

Before he has gathered enough life gemstones, possessed sufficient strength, recruited enough subordinates, and built the strength to overthrow Xuan Wu, Xuan Guang is unwilling to let even a word of what happens here leak out.

"Your Highness Sheng Rong, we should have a good talk." Xuan Guang decided to persuade Sheng Rong.

For example, promising him some future benefits?

At the current observation outpost, the Light God Clan is suppressed by the Five Great God Clans; the proud and arrogant Sheng Rong is surely unwilling, surely thinking how to turn things around and become one of the leaders of the observation outpost.

Perhaps, after Xuan Guang replaces Xuan Wu himself, he could give the Light God Clan more benefits as leverage.

"Don't trust him..." the lava giant god, his whole body burning with spark-fire, roared: "Your Highness Sheng Rong, Xuan Guang shamelessly ambushed us, plotted against us, they want... they want..."

This lava giant god with a huge body slammed his own head hard; when his fist and head collided, large amounts of magma sprayed out.

He finally came to his senses, he looked at the ground covered with red, glittering life gems emitting terrifying heat, hoarsely roared: "This is the life origin of our lava giant god race..."

With a "bang", Xuan Guang threw a crystal stone spear; that lava giant god, already weakened by spark-fire, his vitality greatly damaged, combat power down to one-tenth, had his huge head blown apart by the spear.

From the chest of this lava giant god came a mad roar, then this lava giant god, hundreds of zhang tall, fell heavily to the ground.

Life was rapidly fading; this lava giant god died quickly. His internal power lost its lead, completely losing resistance to the spark-fire on his surface. His body rapidly burned; in just a breath, his whole body was refined into a cluster tens of zhang in diameter, shimmering with splendid life radiance, a red gem.

Such a huge life gem, Xuan Guang and more than ten high-ranking members of the Celestial Crystal God Clan's bodies simultaneously lit up, countless crystal lights inside flashing rapidly.

Sheng Rong is such a shrewd person.

He quickly glanced at that huge life gem, then narrowed his eyes, sizing up Xuan Guang and the others' divine bodies flashing rapidly.

Such high-frequency flashing indicates that Xuan Guang and company are falling into extreme agitation.

They, regarding that huge life gem, have an extremely strong demand...

Sheng Rong said in a deep voice: "This carcass... the corpse fragments left by that unlucky guy, are they of great significance to you Celestial Crystal God Clan?"

Xuan Guang panted lowly, he looked at Sheng Rong, said in a deep voice: "Your Highness Sheng Rong, you shouldn't expose this matter... now we cannot let it go... you only have three thousand clansmen here."

With the flashing crystal light on Xuan Guang's body, ten thousand Celestial Crystal God Clan members rapidly surrounded Sheng Rong and his group.

Xuan Guang smiled at Sheng Rong: "I suddenly realized, in this great formation, you cannot possibly contact Xuan Wu and Yi Zun; I was really startled by you... so I choose, to kill you!"

Xuan Guang hoarsely roared: "Brothers, power awaits you here. Authority, status, power, all await you... as long as you slaughter them all, slaughter them all!"

The Celestial Crystal God Clan members quickly picked up the life gems from the ground, gulped them down in big mouthfuls, then they simultaneously let out a high-pitched, frenzied roar: "Slaughter them all!"

Sheng Rong's face changed drastically, he quickly shouted: "Joining forces with the lava giant gods... this damned Celestial Crystal God Clan, they actually can devour lava giant gods to evolve... damned, nobody knew this... truly damned!"

Thousands of lava giant god clan's divine soldiers howled, they involuntarily charged toward Xuan Guang and company.

Then their bodies violently swelled; amidst Sheng Rong's hysterical cursing, thousands of lava giant gods self-destructed again.

"Too intense..." Outside the great formation, Wu Tie again suffered a terrible impact, his body again showing dozens of deep wounds down to the bone.

"Alright, alright, you guys are really amazing... self-slaughter? Then let me help you!"