Chapter 669: A Devious Scheme

The divine war continues.

Half a month later, 379 light pillars stood between heaven and earth, not counting the over twenty that had already dissipated.

Over four hundred deities have already fallen in Great Wei and Green Hill.

Both sides have suffered heavy losses, but it is now impossible to stop fighting.

The loss of Divine Manifestation Realm experts is unlike other property losses; it cannot be stemmed nor compensated, and can only be offset by inflicting greater casualties on the enemy through harsh measures.

Thus, the great war continues.

Every day, Divine Manifestation Realm elders fall.

Wu Tie did not participate in the battle; he simply sat cross-legged on the city wall of Dragon Pool City, quietly comprehending the Grand Dao patterns overflowing from those light pillars.

The over four hundred fallen Divine Manifestation Realm elders practiced different techniques; beyond their ancestral arts, their comprehended Heavenly Daos also differed, and each had attained an extremely high level in their understanding of the Dao.

Thus they died, their souls and bloodlines plundered by the gods, their bodies disintegrated into the most primal heavenly-earthly primordial energy that returned to the world, and the Dao patterns they had comprehended likewise reverted to the most primal Dao rhythm, silently returning to heaven and earth.

Wu Tie was right here, quietly comprehending these scattered Dao patterns.

His divine fetus had unknowingly swollen to 16,000 zhang high; the projection of the jade disc behind his divine fetus was only a hair's breadth away from condensing into substance, and the three lotus buds at the center of the jade disc always gave the feeling that they might bloom at any moment.

Most wonderful, the lotus leaves surrounding the jade disc, regardless of size, were over ninety percent radiant, constantly emitting extremely fine Dao threads that continually merged into Wu Tie's body.

Wu Tie's physique showed no change, standing at 1 zhang 6 chi tall—this is some ultimate perfection, a state of 'completely leakless.' Yet his physical strength, speed, defense, reaction, and so on had increased by an unknown multiple.

A breakthrough in pure physical strength, outsiders could not tell how terrifying the power hidden within his body was.

Wu Tie faintly felt that he was about to merge with heaven and earth.

Yet this breakthrough in Dao cultivation paled compared to the joy brought by the Nine Turns Mysterious Technique.

Previously, the Nine Turns Mysterious Technique broke through to the ninth level, which is the pinnacle of that technique, opening a great door for Wu Tie.

Before, the Chonglou Realm broke through the heavenly-earthly Chonglou shackles with mana, shattered the heavenly-earthly shackles imposed on the bloodline, and began proper cultivation.

And the Nine Turns Mysterious Technique, from first to ninth level, manifested as continual strengthening of the flesh, cultivating various great divine abilities; only upon breaking through to the ninth level did Wu Tie realize that the prior nine levels of cultivation had merely been laying foundations.

The essence of the Nine Turns Mysterious Technique is like refining elixirs: after nine turns of the Dao elixir, it finally condenses.

The Nine Turns Mysterious Technique continually strengthens the bloodline, tapping its deepest potential; upon achieving great accomplishment in the ninth turn, it essentially removes all innate and acquired shackles and barriers within Wu Tie's body, making his physique worthy of being called a 'true person's body.'

The so-called 'true' means without falsehood, with no clouds or shadows obstructing.

Wu Tie sat quietly cross-legged on the city wall, his spiritual power enveloping himself; in deep inner vision, he seemed to see an endless sea, his body originally just a small hill hidden at the seabed.

The deep seawater isolated that small hill from the outside world.

With each breakthrough of the Nine Turns Mysterious Technique, that small hill gradually swelled and grew, becoming thicker and taller, gradually breaking through toward the sea surface.

On the day the Nine Turns Mysterious Technique reached great accomplishment, the underwater hill projected from Wu Tie's body finally grew to the sea surface, becoming an insignificant little reef.

Thus, heaven and earth brightened for a moment.

This little reef, long hidden deep beneath the sea, suddenly saw the sky, saw the sea surface, felt the sea breeze, bathed in the light of sun, moon, and stars; thus infinite change became possible—a shift from 'the void of zero' to 'the infinite great number.'

The Dharma Body was condensing; Wu Tie could clearly sense that this small reef now exposed above the sea surface was slowly growing.

The reef exposed above the sea surface was only the size of a fingertip; as the Dharma Body continually condensed, it grew from fingertip size to baby's fist, to bowl-mouth size, to wine-jar size…

On the sea surface, this tiny stone is so minuscule, yet in the deep, unfathomable seawater, the reef's foundation is immensely vast; a slight increase in volume of the surface reef corresponds to an astronomically huge increase in the volume of the submerged mountain.

And the Nine Turns Mysterious Technique is evidently slightly inferior to the Primordial Scripture.

Wu Tie cultivates both the Nine Turns Mysterious Technique and the Primordial Scripture, and the degree of strengthening his flesh has received becomes even more astonishing.

Qi and blood are strengthening, essence and energy are strengthening, spirit is strengthening; tendons, organs, blood, muscles, skin, even the most insignificant hair are all undergoing transformation, being wildly strengthened.

These days, with so many Great Wei deities slain, Wu Tie has seized an unknown number of storage rings, bracelets, jade pendants, etc., inside which lie mountains of rare materials.

Among these rare materials, many Wu Tie had never seen before.

Wu Tie's bones eagerly swallowed these rare materials whole, granting his body even greater benefit.

In just half a month, thanks to those fallen Divine Manifestation Realm elders, Wu Tie's strength has undergone a tremendous, terrifying rise.

Exactly how strong Wu Tie now is, even he himself feels a bit dazed.

However, the strongest elder seen on the battlefield so far from the Great Wei Divine State is a Seventh Heaven Divine Manifestation Realm cultivator; Wu Tie privately estimated that even if that elder went all out, he would likely be unable to wound Wu Tie.

Wu Tie has a feeling that if he went all out, he could slay that aged Seventh Heaven Divine Manifestation Realm elder in a single strike.

Wu Tie sat calmly atop the city wall, his vast spiritual power covering a radius of hundreds of thousands of li, tightly watching the two nations' deities locked in a melee.

Suddenly, Wu Tie moved a finger.

Thirty thousand li away, amidst the mountains, Linghu Bumin, wielding the Golden Dragon Whip and facing off against a Xiahoushi elder, let out a cry.

The Golden Dragon Whip heavily collided with the opponent's state treasure, emitting a mournful cry; hundreds of extremely fine cracks split its shaft, and in the next instant it exploded.

The two state treasures clashed head-on, and the Golden Dragon Whip was shattered to pieces by a single blow!

Linghu Bumin spat out a mouthful of old blood; dazed and unable to lift his head, as the opponent's Purple Jade Lute rang three consecutive 'ding' notes, its five strings turned into countless bright purple light strands that crisscrossed and fiercely sliced across his body.

A light pillar shot up into the sky; inside Dragon Pool City, Linghu Qingqing let out a mournful cry: 'I am in excruciating pain!'

Linghu Bumin, he is the direct paternal ancestor of the Linghu Qingqing branch of the clan.

Wu Tie remained silent…… That day, Wu Tie, acting on Sima Wuyou's orders, infiltrated 'Fox Tail' and followed Old Man Hu overseas to collect state-treasure-level innate spiritual treasures. Old Man Hu first found five Five Elements Secret Treasures; Wu Tie then seized their main bodies, leaving behind only the subsidiary forms of those five Five Elements Secret Treasures.

The life and death of those five subsidiary forms are controlled by the Five Elements Daoist, a triple-corpse emanation produced by Wu Tie's One Qi Transformed into Three Purities slash.

When Wu Tie's thoughts moved here, the Five Elements Daoist, far away, casually triggered it; previously it was a leaking jellyfish bottle that caused Linghu Huang to fall into a pit; today it was the Golden Dragon Whip shattering completely, causing Linghu Bumin to fall into a pit and be killed.

Linghu Qingqing's hysterical shout came from within the city: 'Convey my decree: all clan elders, please fight with all your might and slay the enemy… After the battle, I will not stint on rewards; I will surely let each clan's Divine Manifestation Realm elders… not go unrewarded.'

Linghu Qingqing said this very clearly.

Fight desperately; if you die in battle today, but as long as you can behead the opposing side's Divine Manifestation Realm elder, afterward he will lavishly enfeoff the major generals.

Fiefs and such go without saying; with enough land and enough subjects, one can scrape together sufficient wealth. Using that wealth to sacrifice to the greedy gods, each household can increase their quota for ascending to godhood.

Although obtaining such quotas through sacrifice carries some risk, it is not as safe as having a divine mandate for guaranteed promotion.

But this, too, is an opportunity to become a god, isn't it?

As long as they are willing to pay the price, the strength each household has lost today can be recovered in just a few years.

Linghu Qingqing has really spared no expense—his doing this undoubtedly hands the royal family's interests over to the various great commander houses; if after the war the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom cannot obtain sufficient gains from the Great Wei, then once the great commander houses' strength surges ahead, the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom may well become like the present Great Wei: in name a divine emperor, in substance a family alliance.

But Linghu Qingqing obviously can't worry about all that anymore.

With Linghu Qingqing's roar, the war flames invisibly grew three parts more intense.

The great families' Divine Realm elders are fighting fiercely, while the ordinary soldiers of the two countries have nothing to do.

In a divine war where a casual strike can shatter mountains hundreds or thousands of li wide, the only use of these ordinary soldiers is to garrison the military city, trembling as they pour their own mana into the city-defense prohibitions, striving to boost the defensive power of the city-defense grand formation.

Fortunately... so after half a month of fighting, the ordinary soldiers of the two countries have hardly suffered any casualties.

Wu Tie, meanwhile, remains stationed on the walltop, coldly observing the divine war he provoked.

He is pondering the Great Martial Divine Kingdom, which sits on the sidelines watching the tigers fight.

The Great Martial Divine Kingdom harbors no good intentions; if it waits until Great Wei and Qingqiu both suffer losses, then suddenly strikes out, things will get lively.

At the right time, Wu Tie ought to remind the already red-eyed high officials of the two countries, and perhaps even use this matter to scheme against the Great Martial Divine Kingdom as well? Believe that even if the two countries' high officials are red-eyed, they will still not lack clever people.

Wu Tie has even already prepared a full set of arguments.

He has even already thought of how, using You Ruo and their strength, to force Great Wei and Qingqiu to join hands, first taking down the Great Martial Divine Kingdom.

Hmm, if the high officials of the three countries, those Divine Realm elders, have died, there aren't many left.

Wu Tie's mouth corners slightly curled, like two soul-hooking, soul-seizing death god scythes—if the high officials of the three countries have died about the same amount, the Wu family's Divine Realm old monsters are quite numerous.

Plus, You Ruo and their promised fifty recommendation slots for newly ascended deities... tsk tsk!

When Wu Tie thought of You Ruo, You Ruo and company were in the midst of a revelrous feast, shouting wildly.

In the dark, endless void, stellar bodies formed of seven-colored crystal race at high speed; deep within those stellar bodies, in the hall forged of crystal, hundreds of peculiarly strange life-forms cheer and leap, drinking wildly and howling.

Life forms differ; the appearances of various fine wines and delicacies, the materials of various wine vessels, and even the external designs are utterly different.

Among the hundreds of life-forms present, their unique delicacies and fine wines are supreme treasures to their own kin, but perhaps to other peoples they are deadly poisons.

For example, that great creature resembling a giant octopus, its whole body rippling with water, drinks a fine wine brewed from highly radioactive ten-thousand-year black liquid, extremely yin and cold, capable of greatly inducing mutation and evolution of cellular bodies.

This wine, if you dare to pour it for that huge lava giant, he will on the spot draw his axe and give you a direct blow.

Likewise, the viscous, high-temperature wine like magma drunk by the crystal giants present is, for the ninety-nine percent of blood-and-flesh life-forms present, a deadly poison that cannot even be touched.

Even so, countless fine wines and delicacies abound, and everyone is still quite happy in the feast, drinking heartily.

You Ruo suddenly raised the cup in hand, hysterically shouting: "Praise the supreme ancestral god, ha, those foolish yet lovable humans, I toast them a cup!"

Laughter thundered in the hall; this is already, over these days, who knows how many hundredth time they have cheered while toasting the natives of Mu Dalu.

Everyone laughed and drank down their cups, then the crystal giant suddenly turned and roared: "What's happening? Has the crystal bridge to the ancestral land opened? It's not yet time to transport offerings, nor time for shift change... Has the news leaked back from here?"

You Ruo violently threw down the cup in hand, pointing at the hundreds of floating soul crystals and blood essence in the hall's center, screaming: "Hide them, quickly, hide them... It couldn't be people from this side returning; it can only be people from the other side coming... We must not let them see these treasures!"

You Ruo's reaction was extremely fast, but the newcomers were faster.

You Ruo and company had just lunged toward the floating crystals and essence in the hall when a streak of seven-colored crystal light flashed in the void, and hundreds of figures appeared out of thin air.

"You Ruo, You Ruo, You Ruo, just arrived and I already heard your scream... like a woman who's been raped, truly disgracing our noble royal bloodline."

A youth several meters tall, with human body and fish tail, his whole body suffused with terrifying Cold Qi, holding a trident, wearing a crown, his countenance solemn and ferocious, seated upon an ornate chariot, floats in midair; as he flicks his trident, a terrifying Cold Qi bursts forth, and You Ruo and company, as if struck by lightning, each spit blood and retreat dozens of steps backward.

"You Hua (hua, fourth tone, meaning "clamor," "big mouth")..." You Ruo stared blankly at the youth seated on the chariot: "Your strength... damn it, you, you..."

"Boom—", the entire crystal hall trembled slightly.

The crystal giant who had been feasting in the hall shuddered violently, stammering: "You guys, did you destroy the crystal bridge? You…… are you crazy?"

Answering the crystal giant was another giant, a hundred zhang tall, composed entirely of seven-colored crystal, likewise one of those who had just emerged from the void.

"No, my dear brother, our minds are perfectly normal; this is the decision of the highest council, effective today, this miraculous Mu Dalu, this wondrous place of boundless creation, belongs to us, the following few great divine clans."

"The Heavenly Crystal Divine Clan, the Ice Spirit Divine Clan, the Lava Giant Gods, the Dark Soul Divine Clan, the Barbarian Divine Clan... Alright, the five great divine clans will share Mu Dalu, and you all may go die."

In the hall, the Holy Warrior of the Light Divine Clan let out a great roar, transforming into a beam of silver holy light about to flee.

A blotch of shadow suddenly appeared, flashing violently past the holy light.

The holy light shattered, the Holy Warrior's body sank heavily to the ground, life force completely dissipated, soul fluctuations utterly extinguished.

"Kill everyone not of our five-clan alliance, destroy their observation bases… quick, quick, quick…"

With You Hua's great roar, masses upon masses of deities whose bodies surged with powerful divine power fluctuations swarmed out of the void, slaughtering in all directions.