Chapter 673

Boundless void.

A celestial body formed of seven-colored crystal stones speeds at high velocity.

In the huge crystal hall, a row of five thrones of varying sizes stands imposingly.

On the far left, a barbarian god nearly a hundred zhang tall sits on the throne, his body covered in knotted muscles, bare except for a small war skirt around his waist and a horned helmet on his head.

On his dark-golden flesh, thick veins bulge and pulse, filling the hall with the 'hualala' sound of blood flowing; his fierce essence and blood aura permeate the hall, raising the temperature like a volcanic hell.

This is the newly stationed chieftain of the Barbarian God clan, the clan's strongest young war god, Chi Yun.

Beside Chi Yun, on a slightly smaller throne, a swirl of misty vapor, black smoke, and black flames surrounds a semi-transparent humanoid figure that flickers in and out of view. The void around the figure writhes, as if space continually collapses into his body, forming a black-hole-like terrifying presence of strange collapsing force.

The newly stationed chieftain of the Dark Soul God clan, Xu Po, is also a royal lineage of the Dark Soul Gods, the prince most likely to inherit the supreme god throne.

Xu Po

On the central throne sits a crystal giant a thousand zhang tall, steady and firm.

This crystal giant's body is resplendent with seven colors; on its thousand-zhang-tall frame, countless tiny facets—triangles, quadrilaterals, pentangles, and honeycomb hexagons—range from the size of a sesame seed to that of a soybean.

The hall is quite bright, with thousands of pearls of various sizes floating in the air emitting strong light.

The strong light, plus the reflections from the crystal giant's facets, makes it emit a jewel-like radiance so dazzling that most women would go mad; it is sparkling and brilliant enough to blind the eyes.

Seven-colored crystal stone—this is a symbol of extremely high bloodline rank among the Celestial Crystal Gods.

But unlike an ordinary seven-colored crystal giant, this giant's body contains two intense clusters of light, one in the skull and one in the chest; the skull's cluster is pure white, the chest's cluster is blood-red, and the two glows resemble two small suns, emitting extremely piercing divine light.

Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple—the seven colors, plus white and black light, make up the nine colors.

This is a super-powerhouse that transcends bloodline, breaking through its limits with terrifying potential. He is likewise a newly dispatched overseer of the Celestial Crystal Gods, the Celestial Crystal Gods' great prince Xuan Wu.

Xuan Wu

You Zu sits beside Xuan Wu; his divine form transforms, likewise a few hundred zhang tall, with a human body and fish tail, the long tail adorned with sheets of translucent azure-blue fins like flowing sand and icy mist, hazy and enchanting, exquisitely beautiful.

You Zu

Among the Ice Spirit Gods, Prince You Zu is also a top-tier handsome man; just looking at his fins is enough to bewitch countless maidens of his kin.

You Zu's upper body wears a full set of azure-blue armor, he holds a trident, and at his waist he bears three oddly shaped short swords.

This armor, trident, and short swords, plus other treasures not yet revealed, are the Ice Spirit Gods' supreme divine artifacts, comparable to the innate treasures nurtured by Mu Dalu today.

Mu Dalu

Even if the Ice Spirit Gods now reside in the Ice Creek Divine Palace, letting the so-called 'Heaven's Chosen Ones' of Mu Dalu borrow power from those heavenly divine tools, before You Zu's supreme artifacts they are all as insubstantial as tofu dregs.

What is called supreme is simply invincibility.

You Zu now is a walking treasury, armed from tail tip to scalp to the teeth; even if his own strength were that of a pig, he now possesses the terrifying power to sweep a realm.

Moreover, You Zu is far stronger than a pig; he is truly the strongest of the younger generation among the Ice Spirit Gods, and even among the elders it is hard to find a few who could suppress him.

Beside You Zu sits a giant of equal height, a thousand zhang tall.

His body is clad in black rock-layer-like armor, or rather his 'exoskeleton'; from the gaps in the armor, boiling magma spews terrifying heat waves that howl outward in all directions.

Intentionally or not, a large portion of the magma heat waves always rushes toward You Zu sitting beside him.

Meanwhile, beside You Zu, terrifying cold qi constantly rises, transforming into agile silver-blue flying fish that chirp as they fly toward the magma giant.

When the blazing flames and icy mist collide, they emit a faint thunderous roar that makes the whole hall tremble faintly.

The Ice Spirit Gods and the Magma Giant Gods are naturally opposed; their conflict over whether water or fire is the origin of the universe has already erupted into wars spanning untold hundreds of millions of years.

Though saying their enmity runs deep as the sea is no exaggeration, it is strange that now the five clans dominate this region, You Zu and this magma giant Yi Zun have become partners, and the two clans have even formed the closest alliance.

Yi Zun

Worldly affairs and creation—nothing is more marvelous.

You Zu and Yi Zun openly display little tricks, comparing their strength, yet the atmosphere between them appears rather harmonious. If we set aside their madly clashing divine power, they smile gently, giving a sense of 'holding the tray level with the eyebrows' intimacy.

In the huge hall, people stand packed.

The five great god clans have at least a hundred thousand mighty clansmen gathered here.

Each clansman, if placed on Mu Dalu, would at least have cultivation above the fifth heaven of the Divine Realm.

With a hundred thousand gathered, even if they have restrained their divine power fluctuations, the intertwined Dao patterns of their beings still interact and clash with heavenly laws, making the hall sway slightly, as if the void could barely bear the simultaneous presence of so many powerful beings in such a small space.

Inside the hall, people kneel in crowds.

Apart from the five great god clans—Barbarian God, Dark Soul God, Celestial Crystal God, Ice Spirit God, and Magma Giant God—the peoples of all other major god clans from the observation bases built by hundreds of god clans near Mu Dalu are all present here.

Some people rose up in rebellion, so they were killed.

The rest either dared not rebel or were unable to react in time before being knocked out and captured; now they have had all their power sealed, weakly kneeling here.

You Zu suddenly laughed: 'Everyone, old friends… In my Ice Spirit Gods' supreme divine palace, many old friends present have attended our clan's New Year banquet. So, to kill everyone without a shred of sentiment would be too… boring.'

The countless beings kneeling on the ground all gritted their teeth.

Just because it's 'boring'?

One individual, his body suffused with rich golden hue, standing over three zhang tall, yet judging by his proportions he is indeed a sturdy dwarf struggling to rise, but a magma giant struck him down with a club.

The golden dwarf roared hoarsely: 'You Zu, you treacherous, deceitful wretch… Do you five great god clans intend to wage war against all the heavens' god clans? Bastard… You are not the strongest, especially the Dark Soul Gods…'

The golden dwarf panted, his occiput shattered by the magma giant's club; sticky plasma like molten gold kept sliding down his neck, dripping from his great beard onto the floor, the heavy divine blood pounding the floor with a 'boom-boom'.

He panted and roared: 'Dark Soul Gods, you have been suppressed by the Light Gods for countless years; wherever the Light Gods go, you hardly have any power to resist… Who gave you the gall to do this?'

Xu Po chuckled 'keke', saying slowly: 'Suppression? Perhaps once… but look, I killed Sheng Rong without breaking a sweat.'

Sheng Rong

The struggle between light and darkness, light always claims absolute advantage… Indeed, in certain historical periods we acknowledge that. But now we have eliminated all our weaknesses; the Dark Soul Gods' greatest weakness has vanished.

Light no longer suppresses us… then our talent for playing with souls is a terror that even the Light Gods cannot resist.

Xu Po said leisurely: 'So why shouldn't we do something bold?'

You Zu also laughed beside him, he flicked a finger, conjuring a thread of ice crystal that shot toward Yi Zun's face, then chuckled: 'War against all the heavens' god clans? You still don't know? It's already begun… just not by us five great god clans, but…'

He shook his head and sighed lightly: 'Explaining would be too complicated, and some things are not meant for many to know.'

You Zu's gaze swept over the more than a hundred thousand members of the five great god clans in the hall, and he said solemnly: 'Yes, even ordinary members of our five great god clans possess some information they ought not to know.'

So don't expect me to explain anything to you… you can prepare to die.

Xuan Wu spoke in a deep, resonant voice: 'But seeing that you are all old friends—for example, the yellow-skinned dwarf, your Golden Dwarf God clan, and our Celestial Crystal Gods were supposedly close kin in antiquity? So I'll give you a chance.'

Xuan Wu raised his head and shouted: 'Let's play something interesting—let's have a wager-fight.'

Chi Yun stood up, he lowered his gaze to look down at the countless kneeling beings in the hall, and said word by word: 'If you win the wager, you will live as slaves, obeying our commands… the women among you will be at our disposal, without question.'

"If you lose the bet, you'll become food." Chi Ji patted his own belly, speaking in a low voice: "You know, our Barbarian God tribe has a great appetite; we're not picky eaters."

You Zu laughed, Yi Zun laughed, and at the same time he turned his head and spat a mouthful of lava at You Zu.

Xu Po laughed so hard his body twisted, and black flames surged over his entire body.

Xuan Wu could hardly wait, rubbing his hands together; the palms formed of crystal stone sprayed showers of sparks. He pointed a finger at the void, and a huge crystal stone treasure mirror hovered in midair: "Come, come, come, don't rush, one by one, let's gamble… ah ha, look, this little guy, this guy, what's his name?"

What the mirror showed was exactly the scene of Wu Tie sprinting away at full speed. After all, in the entire duel battle fortress, Wu Tie was the first to encounter the enemy and the first to erupt into battle; the mirror instantly swept over the whole fortress, and there was no choice but to select Wu Tie.

Xuan Wu looked at the clansmen of the Five Great Divine Clans standing to one side.

You Ruo gave a light cough, stepped forward, and nodded at Xuan Wu: "Xuan Wu, this is Prince An Huo Xiong; it's he who, in the previous war, brought us a rich harvest."

Xuan Wu grinned: "Well, Prince An Huo Xiong, a half‑step Divine Realm expert, and the one behind him…"

You Ruo declared loudly: "The Great Wei Divine Kingdom, the Ou clan's ancestor Ou Yezi, Ou Yezi of the Third Heaven of the Divine Realm… by the way, Ou Yezi is the hereditary clan name of the Ou family; only the strongest Grand Elder can inherit it. I despise their custom."

Shrugging his shoulders, You Ruo said helplessly: "Humans have a trait in their blood that we find extremely repulsive; things we once eradicated, after a certain period, spring back to life. For example, the name Ou Yezi gives us a headache…"

Xuan Wu waved his hand and laughed loudly: "That's not important; it's just a bit of inherited bloodline memory. This kind of performance shows even more vividly in our noble divine bloodline, so it doesn't matter."

"What matters is, a half‑step Divine Realm little guy… you think, how long can he last in the hands of a Third Heaven Divine Realm little guy?"

"One breath? Two breaths? Three breaths?" Xuan Wu laughed: "Or will he escape smoothly?"

Xuan Wu boomed with laughter: "Come, this time we'll have ten lucky participants to gamble with us… will this little guy named Huo Xiong be killed? Or how long can he hold out? I think using ten breaths as the life‑and‑death line is appropriate."

"You see, the betting opportunity we're giving you is still quite big."

Xuan Wu laughed loudly as several crystal‑stone giants, reduced to a height of about ten zhang, moved through the crowd like someone picking melons, casually grabbed ten people and flung them before Xuan Wu's throne.

"You may place your bets now: will Huo Xiong live or die in this fight? Or can he endure more than ten breaths? Yes or no?"

Xuan Wu glared malevolently at the ten unlucky souls who were the first to jump out.

Xuan Wu and the other four sat on the throne, laughing arrogantly.

You Ruo lowered his head, the corner of his mouth twitching into a slight arc… then he raised his head and spoke softly: "You Zu, how about we also make a wager? Of course, we're brothers, so we don't need to bet our lives; let's bet on something more practical?"

You Zu gave You Ruo a stern look: "Oh? Something more practical? Then I bet Huo Xiong is sure to die."

You Ruo's eyebrows lifted in a grin as he nodded: "Then I'll bet Huo Xiong can survive; he'll surely make it out alive from Ou Yezi's pursuit… Hmm, what shall we wager? Ten thousand standard soul crystals?"

You Zu's body stiffened; he stared at You Ruo in disbelief and screamed hoarsely: "You Ruo, you damned bastards, you're here… is the profit really that rich? Ten thousand standard soul crystals? You, you, you… how long have you been here?"

You Zu's eyes flashed with sharp light; Xuan Wu, Yi Zun, Xu Po, and Chi Yun also instinctively rose to their feet, their eyes blazing.

You Ruo shrugged his shoulders, looked at You Zu with ease: "You Zu, do you dare to bet?"

You Zu suddenly burst out laughing: "A sure‑win wager—why wouldn't I bet? Then I'll bet Huo Xiong will definitely die this time…"

You Zu gritted his teeth and snarled: "He is doomed to die."