Chapter 585: Wu Tou

At the exact moment two barbarian gods were utterly obliterated by the Black Heaven Cauldron, Gongyang Sanlü, who was in his own courtyard looking down at a few goldfish wagging their heads and tails in the stream, suddenly changed expression.

Silently, a tall barbarian god appeared beside him; compared to other barbarian folk, this god's build was slightly slender, wearing no armor but a gray‑blue great cloak made of unknown bird feathers, his hair tied in a high topknot and crowned with a feathered peak, giving him an added air of suave erudition.

"Old Gongyang, my clansmen are dead." The barbarian god clasped his hands behind his back, imitating Gongyang Sanlü's posture, and looked down at the goldfish in the stream.

"As expected, your junior disciple is also dead." The barbarian god seemed not to take his clansmen's deaths to heart, turned his head, and regarded Gongyang Sanlü with interest.

"With your wisdom and insight, can you tell me what the cause is?" The barbarian god narrowed his eyes, earnestly asking Gongyang Sanlü: "Although you are weak and insignificant, your mind… I truly envy it, even fear your wisdom. So please tell me what most likely happened."

Gongyang Sanlü's face tightened, he stared blankly at the barbarian god. After a while he softly asked: "Respected Lord Wu Tou, are those two clansmen of yours gods?"

Wu Tou waved his hand, saying dismissively: "That's right, they are gods, but their bloodline is inferior, they come from the lowest warrior families, their potential limited; their strength now is the utmost they can achieve in life… So you think I would be moved, grieved, angered by their deaths, thus affecting my… meager wisdom?"

He waved his hand and gave a dry smile: "No, no, no, no. Since I transcended the bloodline limits of the barbarian gods and gained wisdom, scheming, calculation, and plots that my people never had, I will not, like those inferior clansmen, undergo violent emotional swings over the deaths of two low‑status tribesmen."

"So I won't pursue anything over their deaths. I am simply asking you sincerely: what probably happened to them? Who killed them?" Wu Tou inquired interestedly of Gongyang Sanlü: "Is it the remnants of your imperial clan? Or the hand of your rival?"

Gongyang Sanlü lowered his head and quietly watched the few goldfish wagging their heads and tails in the stream.

After a moment's thought, Gongyang Sanlü pointed a finger, and the goldfish's forms changed dramatically: they turned wholly golden‑scaled, a tiny horn faintly sprouted on their foreheads, and a trace of dragon aura arose on their bodies.

He shook his head and smiled faintly: "The imperial clan? Perhaps they still retain considerable reserves; after all, to this day I dare not be sure whether our Grand Emperor Emeritus has truly fallen… He is no easy opponent."

"But it shouldn't be the imperial clan… they wouldn't act this early. Given my understanding of His Majesty, he is extremely patient; now that the situation has reached this point, why would he reveal his hand prematurely?"

"It's not him… as for Linghu Qingqing—heh, if it were him, given his temper, if I dared show the slightest scheme against him, he would already have surrounded my Gongyang clan with a great army and attacked in an overwhelming sweep."

"So a new force has arisen in the Great Jin Divine Kingdom?" Wu Tou chuckled, looking at Gongyang Sanlü: "Not controlled by the imperial clan, not Linghu Qingqing's troops, yet possessing the power to slay divinities? And to utterly annihilate them, leaving not a trace of divine soul?"

Gongyang Sanlü countered Wu Tou: "With the power of the divinities cultivated by our people, how many would be needed to utterly obliterate those two barbarian gods?"

Wu Tou fell silent for a moment, then laughed: "Old Gongyang, you know that the techniques you now cultivate, apart from the unlearnable ancient forbidden arts, even the so‑called imperial clan's secret transmission of secret canon divine techniques are riddled with gaps……"

"Thus the divinities cultivated by your people are innately inferior to us true gods."

"My two clansmen may be the lowest‑grade warrior bloodline, yet with your people's divine power, aided by sufficiently strong innate spiritual treasures, roughly… six or more would be needed to hold them in check and meet them head‑on."

Gongyang Sanlü's expression shifted slightly; this power gap truly exceeded his imagination's limits. This was also the first time he seriously discussed with those lofty heavenly gods the comparative strength of human‑cultivated divinities versus theirs.

"But to crush them, with a chance to defeat them, roughly twenty human divinities arrayed and suppressing them with innate spiritual treasures would be needed to have a chance to defeat or seriously wound them."

"However, if the goal is to exterminate them so that not a shred of divine soul can escape—even though they are the lowest‑grade warrior bloodline, given the barbarian gods' great talent, strength, tenacious vitality, innate battle consciousness, and combat experience from countless life‑and‑death trials—at least thirty human divinities, and at least thirty strong ones, must cooperate with spiritual treasures and battle formations to have a chance."

Wu Tou looked at Gongyang Sanlü with a half‑smile: "So, can you imagine which force this is?"

Gongyang Sanlü's face grew very tight, very tight, and he remained silent for a long while.

"Any other possibility? For example, a formation of ordinary soldiers?" After a long silence, Gongyang Sanlü cautiously asked Wu Tou.

Wu Tou opened his mouth, seriously calculating for at least half a cup of tea's time, then frowned and said: "We have never counted your ordinary mortals' formations among our combat strength. Of course, if the formation consisted entirely of elite troops at the high stage of the Life Pool Realm, plus a State‑Protecting Divine Artifact‑grade innate spiritual treasure anchoring the formation's eye, a force of tens of millions or more, with no mistake in coordination, perhaps it could work."

He tilted his head, furrowed his brows, and raised a finger: "Certainly, to deal with a… low‑bloodline warrior, a formation of ten million elite troops at the high stage of the Life Pool Realm, plus a State‑Protecting Divine Artifact sealing the formation's eye, with no coordination error, could utterly annihilate him."

"Twenty million elite troops at the Life Pool Realm are not hard to raise," Gongyang Sanlü mused, looking at Wu Tou.

"You also need a commander strong enough to wield and gather the formation's power." Wu Tou smiled at Gongyang Sanlü: "At least a half‑step Divine Realm cultivator who has comprehended more than five heavenly dao and possesses a robust divine‑fetus foundation… a half‑step Divine Realm commander."

Gongyang Sanlü sighed: "Apart from the State‑Protecting Divine Artifact condition… the Great Jin has the capability to form such elite forces, with at least twenty or more powerful clans, which makes it… hard to fathom."

Wu Tou's interest piqued: "This could be interesting… is someone fishing in troubled waters?"

Gongyang Sanlü nodded slowly: "Someone is fishing in troubled waters… that's certain, but who is he?"