Chapter 656

On the Three Kingdoms battlefield, thirteen pillars of light shot up into the sky, magnificent and awe-inspiring, shaking heaven and earth.

Who knows how many tens of thousands of li away, the fleet of the Great Martial God Emperor Wu Ba, personally leading the campaign, suddenly halted; the burly Wu Ba strode out from the flagship's main hall, stood on the bow, dazedly gazing at the distant pillars of light that stood straight between heaven and earth like soul-summoning banners.

"Ha, crazy, crazy…… Someone is even crazier than I am!"

Wu Ba fell silent for a moment, then waved his hand forcefully and laughed loudly: "Withdraw the troops, return to the city…… On the Three Kingdoms battlefield, relinquish all military cities and territories, let Lord Linghu Lao'er and Lord Xiahóu Lao'er fight it out."

"Build a city, construct a mighty city on the border of the Three Kingdoms battlefield."

"Defend, defend with all our might, not allowing a single soldier from the Three Kingdoms battlefield to rush into our Great Martial territory."

"Wake up those sleeping old fogies…… This matter has blown up."

Wu Ba possessed a shrewdness that completely mismatched his rugged appearance and overbearing conduct; this shrewdness might not yet be called wisdom, but it was already enough for him to make the most appropriate decision.

When an opportunity arises, he pounces and savagely tears at his prey.

When danger approaches, he immediately retreats to his lair and hides carefully.

Perhaps this cannot even be called shrewdness, only a beast's instinct and intuition…… Wu Ba himself is like a primordial ferocious beast in human form. He senses danger, so he leads people to retreat—just that simple.

The Great Wei Divine State, Mo City.

It is a city stretching tens of thousands of li, with an enormously vast scale.

It is a Mechanism City, with complex structure, exquisite and mysterious, famed as the most impregnable miraculous city among the Three Kingdoms.

Generation after generation of the Mo family added their ingenious ideas to it; countless strange and wondrous formations and seals, some miraculous, some sinister, some powerful, some vicious, varying in size—large ones like a mountain, small ones like a grain of sand—representing the pinnacle of the Three Kingdoms' craftsmanship, all gathered here.

Standing on high and looking down over Mo City, the vast city hardly shows any human figures; only countless strange mechanisms, countless war puppets, countless legendary wooden horses and flowing oxen, as nimble as flowing water, weave through the streets and alleys.

Metal arms of various lengths and sizes swirl above the city, nimbly grasping pieces of metal components of all sizes, constantly reinforcing and improving the city day and night. Countless metal arms tumble about, busy yet orderly; those spaced extremely close never collide.

Hall after hall, big and small, and thick city walls—these sturdy constructs also flow like water, occasionally accompanied by faint mechanism sounds; on the walls of halls and city walls, doors of various sizes open, just enough for the war puppets, wooden horses and flowing oxen, and similar light constructs to pass through.

Occasionally, on the ground, enormous fissures open soundlessly.

Then one can see beneath the fissure a gigantic molten furnace, with red, burning metal liquid, and countless rapidly spinning giant mechanisms unknown to outsiders.

Occasionally, metal arms tens of thousands of zhang long and incredibly thick extend from the fissure, delivering huge components glowing red all over to the surface. The formerly solid and smooth metal road then flows swiftly, easily transporting those massive components to where they belong.

Everything flows like clouds and water, everything operates in orderly fashion.

Even when those components several thousand zhang long are transported at high speed, they ultimately appear exactly where they should, perfectly fitting together with a part of the city structure.

At the very moment the Mo family's forefather fell, the operation of Mo City suddenly stalled for an instant.

Thereafter, at the core of Mo City, within a mountain of metal cast entirely, reaching tens of thousands of zhang high, deep rumbling sounds echoed continuously; the mountain violently trembled, fissures appeared on its body, and seven-colored divine light gushed forth from the cracks.

Streams of light shot out rapidly from the mountain; countless Mo family disciples stared wide-eyed, faces filled with terror bordering on despair, shrieking as they fled at top speed. For a moment the sky was filled with chaotic escape lights, the Mo disciples like a disturbed hornet's nest, swarming wildly in the air, and sometimes someone accidentally collided their escape lights in midair.

Looking into the mountain's fissure, one can see an enormous crystal-made container, its length, height, and width each spanning thousands of zhang.

Within the radiantly flowing container lay viscous fluid tinged with seven-colored light, in which floated a giant brain resembling the crystal core that Lao Tie once gave to Wu Tie—the supreme crystal brain of the Giant God Soldiers—suspended in the fluid; this giant brain itself was also thousands of zhang in size.

At this moment, within the core of that giant brain, a human silhouette the size of a fist could be seen flickering in and out of view.

That appearance was unmistakably that of the Mo family's forefather.

Indeed, at the heart of that brain lay a wisp of the Mo family forefather's divided soul.

When the Mo family's forefather fell, this wisp of his divided soul was immediately affected; the terrifying attack power, through the link between the main soul and the divided soul in the dark, pierced through space and struck directly at this wisp of soul.

When the Mo family's forefather fell, he endured a god-level attack.

And a god's every strike carries the power of the Great Dao; even if you have countless divided souls, unless protected by a supreme treasure or hidden in another isolated world, a god-level attack will inflict a fatal blow on all divided souls.

With a tremendous boom, the wisp of the Mo family forefather's soul left inside this giant brain shattered.

The enormous crystal brain trembled; amid the 'crack-crack' booming sound, streams of seven-colored divine light spilled out, the crystal brain sprayed forth myriad zhang of radiant light, and finally erupted violently.

The seven-colored divine light slowly rotated; with each finger-snap, the light gently and tranquilly expanded outward by dozens of li.

This metal mountain was shattered instantly; thereafter, the important halls surrounding it, vital to the Mo family's lives and fortunes, silently collapsed and dissipated, ultimately turning into wisps of green smoke.

A great crowd of Mo family disciples who could not escape were silently annihilated within the seven-colored divine light.

As the giant crystal brain collapsed, the perfectly functioning Mo City instantly fell into chaos. Countless war puppets collided with each other, countless wooden horses and flowing oxen piled together, countless metal arms tangled in the air, and the subterranean molten furnaces ran at full load one after another before erupting explosively.

Looking down from high above, one can see the ground of Mo City undulating like water waves, with fire pillars tens to thousands of zhang in diameter bursting through the thick metal floor and howling up into the sky.

Near the fire pillars, countless mechanical debris tumbled about, and countless strange mechanical constructs exploded and melted in the flames, vanishing into nothing.

"Boom, boom boom, boom boom boom boom……"

The earth trembled, Mo City was being destroyed.

The ground split open in places, and countless Mo family disciples burst up from underground, wailing to heaven and earth.

A Mo family Elder whose cultivation had reached the half-step godly realm screamed hoarsely: "Enemy attack, enemy attack…… Warn the Wei capital…… Damn it, they intend to sever the root of our Great Wei's craftsmanship……"

Right beneath that Mo family Elder's body, the ground suddenly bulged upward, then a thousand-zhang-wide purple fire pillar shot up with a howl.

The Mo family Elder's body vanished within that purple fire pillar, leaving not a trace.

"Scripture Hall…… Scripture Hall…… Hurry, go……" Another half-step godly realm Elder, engulfed in flames, burst out of a burning hall, shouting and gesticulating wildly; behind him, a vast hall that stored all the Mo family's classics and instrument designs—almost equivalent to the inheritance of Mo civilization—collapsed entirely.

Countless Mo family disciples who witnessed this scene screamed hysterically, and many young clansmen could not help but shed tears.

"The Mo brain is destroyed, Mo City has fallen."

Orders flew up from the burning Mo City in all directions; Mo family disciples, as well as those hiding in the city, from Great Wei and even from the Qingqiu Divine State and the Great Martial Divine State, all sides, hastily used the fastest means and most urgent methods to spread the news of Mo City's destruction.

A colossal bell ten thousand zhang in diameter appeared above Mo City; a grim-faced Mo family Elder struck the great bell heavily with his head, and the deep, muffled toll spread in all directions—this was truly the funeral bell tolled for Mo City's destruction.

Not long after Mo City's funeral bell tolled, in many places of the Great Wei Divine State, within various blessed caverns, atop exquisite and splendid palaces, the same low bell tone rang out.

In the Wei capital, the imperial city, on a vast lake, due to a minor whirlwind, ice and snow condensed on the water's surface into beautiful, exquisite ice lotus flowers.

Several large birds with extraordinarily long legs shivered slightly, walking slowly across the ice.

Several withered reeds, dry and thin, lay slanting on the ice; the wind and snow froze the slender reed stalks to unusual hardness, and fine ice crystals hung limp from the reed tips.

On the sandbank, a throng of eunuchs and palace maids were busy.

Xiahóu Lùmíng led dozens of top-ranking nobles and officials of Great Wei, each with a huge sketchpad before them, laying out sheets of premium large paper, each holding brushes of various sizes, as they splashed ink and painted.

Amid the falling snow across the sky, they freely painted the landscapes in their hearts, depicted this vast earth, portrayed the winter's desolate decay……

Elegant, it's truly too elegant.

Xiahou Luming was almost moved to tears by the sand-and-snow scene he had sketched with a few strokes; his painting skill had truly risen to a new level, and under his brush those few great birds seemed to have come to life—just a slight infusion of spiritual power would let them truly fly out of the painting!

"Marvelous brush brings forth flowers, that's all." Xiahou Luming sighed deeply.

At that moment, a series of low, resonant bell tolls sounded like the wails of wronged ghosts, far away, low and deep, traveling along the ground.

A clan leader's brush in his hand suddenly shattered.

A Wei prince's drawing case before him suddenly collapsed.

Several Wei officials' bodies trembled, and large blobs of ink dripped from their brushes, staining the perfect scrolls.

Xiahou Luming, however, pressed down with his right hand; his brush became like a steel dagger, piercing a transparent hole in the drawing case.

"Check, what's the matter?"

Xiahou Luming's hands trembled slightly; he had already realized that the bell tolls came from all directions, and everyone knew what they signified.

Gods have fallen.

A god-realm elder ancestor of the Wei Divine State has fallen.

And, not just one.

The bell tolls came from all directions; the low bell shook people until they felt dizzy and their minds were in turmoil.

Xiahou Luming's body trembled slightly; he blankly looked around.

Then, from all directions, countless thin streaks of fire flew toward the Wei capital, but these crimson glows, like blood, representing the most urgent command talismans, were blocked outside the city by the capital's great defensive formation—no talisman could fly inside.

No, nearly a hundred command talismans pierced the great defensive formation and flew straight toward the imperial city.

These were command talismans released by the spies Xiahou Luming had planted everywhere; their talismans bore his special privilege, allowing them to penetrate the defenses and be delivered directly into his hands.

Xiahou Luming waved his hand in the air, and the streaks of fire swiftly fell into his grasp.

After a moment, Xiahou Luming's body swayed, his eyes suddenly bloodshot, and blood kept trickling from the corner of his mouth.

A golden-black light shot up from the top of Xiahou Luming's head, howling as it turned behind him into a vast scroll ten thousand zhang long, within which could be seen boundless mountains, rivers, and the lands of the state.

The accumulated snow in the Wei capital instantly evaporated, the temperature rose straight up, and the capital, once wrapped in ice and snow, instantly became a scorching summer, with cries of alarm rising from the populace throughout the city.

"Mo City… is destroyed." Xiahou Luming said calmly: "The Mo family has finally completed that forbidden art, using mortal power to probe the work of creation; they actually managed to construct the legendary artifact whose function rivals a human brain."

"But… forbidden arts are forbidden arts; the Mo family elder ancestor fell, and the artifact they created destroyed the entire Mo City."

"Besides that, the god-realm elder ancestors we sent to the Three Kingdoms battlefield… all have fallen, including Xiahou Zheng." Xiahou Luming, face flushed, looked at the many nobles and officials present.

"The news from the Three Kingdoms battlefield reports that the Qingqiu Divine State dispatched over thirty deities, using scheming tricks to ambush the elder ancestors."

Xiahou Luming lightly clapped his hands and said calmly: "In the Three Kingdoms' tacit understanding, god-realm elder ancestors are not forbidden from appearing on the battlefield, but normally they are peers engaging in single combat; dispatching three god-realm elder ancestors at once is extremely rare."

"But this time, the Qingqiu Divine State dispatched over thirty god-realm… they, this is murder, a shameless ambush, a vile ambush, the most vicious murder."

Xiahou Luming said in a deep voice: "This is a provocation against my Wei Divine State… Ministers, what do you have to say to me?"

The nobles and officials glanced at each other, then all knelt down together, bowing to Xiahou Luming.

According to the Wei's peculiar familial alliance mechanism, high-ranking nobles and officials normally need not perform the kowtow to the god-emperor.

But when these figures representing the top clans knelt before Xiahou Luming, it signified… the authority of the Wei Divine State was, at that moment, conferred upon Xiahou Luming.

Consolidation of power—at this moment, the Wei aristocratic clans surrendered all their authority to Xiahou Luming.

Faced with an unprecedented war threat, they poured the nation's full strength into one person's will and voice, making the most resolute response.

"Please have the elders of each family come out of seclusion." Xiahou Luming stood before the many kneeling nobles and officials, speaking in a deep voice: "Linghu Qingqing wants war; we shall grant him war. No longer mere petty skirmishes between mortals, but a war of gods!"

"The foundation of our Wei should also be shown to them."

"I command: the elders of all peoples, give your all in battle… they have this time killed thirteen of our Wei elders with shameless means; I command tenfold retribution… I will make Linghu Qingqing feel pain to the bone!"