Chapter 426: God War (12)

This believers' wager was proposed by Luosen.

The purpose is not the wager itself, but to buy time for oneself to grow stronger.

The Goddess of Annihilation agreed.

On the surface, it seems to be for gaining an ally in this world.

But Luosen, upon careful analysis, discovered that things are not that simple.

"In this wager, the Goddess of Annihilation is the stronger party; the wager has no real binding force on her, and she can break it at any time."

"But as the weaker party, I must always be cautious, and invisibly my hands and feet are bound."

"So the actual situation is likely that the Goddess of Annihilation bound me through the wager, while she lurks comfortably behind the scenes, trying every means to infiltrate Yueliangcheng."

Yueliangcheng is the remaining high power, the sole fruit of the Abyss of Pain.

Once the Goddess of Annihilation successfully infiltrates, she will grasp this world's most invincible power, and no one will be able to stop her from controlling this plane.

Luosen cannot do that either.

By then, she can easily defeat any challenger without any scruples.

Originally, Luosen should have figured this out earlier, but during this period he has almost entirely focused his thoughts on researching source substance, thus neglecting to ponder the opponent's psychology.

Fortunately, it's not too late now.

Luosen's thoughts moved, and he summoned the hidden nearby Beilu Dandi: "Kill the four targets ahead immediately."

The four targets are Lubote, Sawosi, and two Doomsday cultists.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Beilu Dandi hesitated not, teleported over, and directly attacked.

Luosen did not act; he hid in the darkness, fully focused on observing the Goddess of Annihilation.

Once he detects any sign of her moving, he will immediately unleash his full power, striking as much force as possible onto the Goddess of Annihilation's mortal incarnation.

Beilu Dandi is a 17th-ring combat mage, with superb combat skills, and also possesses various immensely powerful combat magical devices.

As soon as she acted, in less than a second she severed the heads of the two Doomsday cultists.

Immediately afterward, her sword blade turned toward Lubote and Sawosi.

At that very moment, the Goddess of Annihilation's power showed a subtle fluctuation.

Luosen had long since raised the alert level of Laifu's "Heart of the War God" to the highest.

Upon detecting the change, the "Heart of the War God" immediately operated at full power, without hesitation launching a pre-prepared lethal combo at the Goddess of Annihilation.

At this moment, the spatial distance between Luosen and the Goddess of Annihilation is 2 kilometers.

Neither can see the other; they rely entirely on power fluctuations for positioning.

After Luosen ignited the divine fire, Laifu's computing power surged again.

But depending on combat power, the control difficulty differs markedly, and Laifu's combat control ability varies accordingly.

Currently, if controlling mortal magic, Laifu can at most reach the 1200-line limit of operational ability.

If it is divine power output from the divine fire, then only a 100-line operation is possible.

If it is source substance, then only a 12-line operation is possible.

But when the two gods contend, mortal power is basically ineffective, even divine power arts are hard to use; only source substance arts are the killing strike.

In the 12-line source substance operation, 4 lines are used for source substance attack, 4 lines for source substance defense, 1 line of computing power drives divine power to activate various spacetime assistance arts, and the remaining 3 lines are held in reserve to deal with unexpected situations.

Because time is limited, Luosen has mastered only four source substance arts in total.

One, "In the Name of God," was used for the believers.

The second is a defensive art, derived from the invisibility function of the Radiant Scepter, called "Hidden Radiance," an improved version of the Radiant Scepter.

The third is also a defensive art, originating from the Dawn Crown, named "Imperial Bulwark," an improved version of the Dawn Crown.

The fourth is an offensive art, created by Luosen, named "Solar Judgment."

Luosen actually knows full well that this offensive art's power is not great, but a single art being unimpressive, when four arts are combined, their power cannot be underestimated.

At the same time, another of his great advantages is possessing enough source substance to expend.

If one wave of attack fails, he can launch a second wave, third wave, even a fourth wave!

Returning to the subject.

Luosen struck first in an instant.

In an instant, four pale golden, sun-like condensed light balls appeared around Luosen's body, then quickly 'dissolved' into the air; after an instant they reached the spacetime 2 kilometers away, rushed toward the sensed target, and then violently exploded.

In the instant of explosion, Luosen saw a pale golden strong light appear ahead; this light was blinding to the extreme, even tinting the sky's clouds pale golden.

Speaking of absolute power of arts, source substance arts can already rival ordinary high-energy arts, and possess a precision that ordinary high-energy arts cannot match.

One can say that ordinary high-energy arts are like fusion nuclear bombs—detonate regardless of burial—while source substance arts are controllable fusion technology, with the vast majority of power under control.

But even such a powerful art still failed to kill the Goddess of Annihilation.

After another instant, Luosen, who had already buffed himself with a ten-thousandfold acceleration time-current art, felt a strong sense of impending danger.

At the same time, he saw a glimmer of a time phantom.

In the phantom, he found himself trapped in absolute darkness, and within that darkness an incomprehensible power was continually 'dissolving' his flesh and soul.

Luosen immediately understood: "This annihilating power I cannot block, nor can I dispel."

Once hit, death is certain; one must dodge immediately.

The four lines of source substance operation for defense began to take effect.

Of these, three lines were used to trigger the hidden source substance art "Hidden Radiance."

At the moment the art erupted, the place where Luosen's body was instantly burst forth with endless phantom light.

This phantom light, in an instant, spread out to completely inundate a radius of up to 100 kilometers in an ocean of light.

At this moment, the entirety of Grey City, as well as most of the Poison Mist Forest, was shrouded by the phantom light; all living beings were temporarily blinded by the phantom light, seeing nothing.

In the overhead view of Yueliangcheng in the sky, one could also see that the ground suddenly had a conspicuous bright spot.

Inside the imperial palace, a woman observing the earth was blinded by the light, shut her eyes, and when she opened them again her eyes were full of shock.

The battlefield returned to the earth.

The remaining one strand of source substance control was used by Luosen to empower himself with the 'Imperial Ruler's Bulwark'.

A pale gold, warm-jade-textured defensive barrier appeared on Luosen's body.

After four strands of source substance defense, Luosen was not idle; he immediately used his remaining computing power to cast the 'Secret Passage Technique'.

After one release of the Secret Passage Technique, another release followed immediately.

This cycle repeated, with intervals even less than a millisecond.

This allowed Luosen's body to change its spacetime position at an unimaginable speed within the ocean of light.

All these actions were triggered in an instant. If a third party observed, they would see Luosen's body instantly split into dozens, each indistinguishable from real or fake.

Obviously, the Annihilation Goddess was also greatly affected, as her counterattack did not appear for a long time.

But she did not counterattack, and Luosen would not stay idle.

After an instant, Laifu's four strands of source substance attack capability were released.

Luosen began continuously releasing the 'Solar Judgment' at the target—two strands at a time, then another two after an instant, repeating without cease.

Faced with such high-frequency attacks, the Annihilation Goddess dared not meet them head-on.

She began to dodge.

She dodged continuously, dodging swiftly.

One Solar Judgment after another fell, but none could land solidly.

At most only half of the full power's force landed on the Annihilation Goddess.

This was still because Luosen used the numerical advantage of his spells to create an effect similar to an area attack.

If he were an ordinary one-ring true god, he couldn't even hit that half onto the opponent.

At this moment, Luosen deeply felt the huge gap between himself and the five-ring supreme god.

This is merely a divine power incarnation; if his true body arrived, it could crush him to powder in minutes.

Although he felt somewhat discouraged, Luosen was not disheartened.

Because he clearly felt that the Annihilation Goddess's combat endurance was far inferior to his own.

Her power was also constantly being depleted, and was about to be exhausted completely.

The war of attrition lasted about five seconds.

After five seconds, the Annihilation Goddess's dodging speed slowed slightly.

Luosen immediately sensed this, and immediately poured more computing power into his attacks, increasing the attack frequency by another 50%!

One side's power was about to be exhausted, while the other side erupted in a great burst.

In an instant thereafter, the Annihilation Goddess's dodging slowed for a moment.

In that very instant, she was struck head-on by a Solar Judgment.

Almost at the same moment, a spiral sheet-like black mist appeared around Luosen's body, rotating around him at an unimaginable speed.

It was the Annihilation Goddess's counterattack!

However, the annihilation source substance strike was small in scale.

At this point, Luosen's body surface had the Imperial Ruler's Bulwark technique stacked up to fifty layers, extremely thick.

But this strange annihilation technique, though small in scale, had astonishing power, actually breaking through Luosen's source substance defense layer by layer.

'Zi—zi~'

The eerie sound lasted about half a second, destroying a full forty-two layers of the Imperial Ruler's Bulwark before the spell exhausted its power.

If it weren't for Luosen possessing a large amount of source substance and not sparing its consumption, an ordinary new god would have already died countless times by now.

The good news is, this was also the Annihilation Goddess's final blow.

Luosen clearly felt that the Annihilation Goddess's soul aura had become extremely weak, as if only a last breath remained.

Luosen dared not take risks, did not relax in the slightest, and was about to deliver the finishing blow.

"Wait!"

He heard the Annihilation Goddess's voice: "I surrender!"

"The reward is knowledge of survival in the god realm!"

This information was transmitted in an instant.

Luosen weighed the instant, then chose to take the risk.

Because he currently knows nothing about the Solar God Realm, and without guessing one knows it must be extremely dangerous—any mistake could cost him his life.

Therefore, this knowledge of god-realm survival is extremely precious; if used well, it could preserve several of his lives.

Of course, the knowledge given by the Annihilation Goddess cannot be fully trusted, but it's still better than nothing.

Thus, Luosen ceased his attack, then empowered himself with another fifty strands of the 'Imperial Ruler's Bulwark' before transmitting himself to the Annihilation Goddess's side.

Only now, after the battle, did he truly see the Annihilation Goddess's appearance.

Before, she wore a black robe, had deep black eyes, and possessed a captivating aura.

Now, her black robe was torn in many places like a beggar's garb, revealing large patches of glowing white skin, her hair disheveled, her gaze slightly unfocused, her soul aura extremely weak, and almost no source substance could be sensed.

In other words, during the previous fierce battle, she had exhausted the already scant annihilation source substance.

And a divine incarnation without source substance is nothing more than a somewhat stronger mortal.

Luosen secretly let out a sigh of relief.

Of course, the 'Heart of the War God' remained vigilant; as soon as the other side showed any abnormality, it would retaliate immediately.

He lightly chuckled: "Great one, we agreed that from now on, you must not make any move to contact the otherworld's true form, or I will kill you at once."

Feiliqisi nodded: "You are the victor; your word is law."

Luosen chuckled: "Now, hand over the knowledge you promised."

Feiliqisi immediately said: "Swear on your divinity that you will fulfill your promise."

Luosen felt a slight stir in his heart and immediately said: "You too."

Divinity is formed from condensed ideas; swearing on one's divinity creates a very strong binding.

Because breaking an oath is betraying one's true heart.

It may mean nothing to mortals, but to gods it is quite deadly.

The Annihilation Goddess immediately swore an oath.

Since that's the case, Luosen also swore.

"I swear on my divinity that as long as Feiliqisi fulfills the agreement, I will spare her life and set her free."

Hearing this, Feiliqisi finally relaxed, raised her hand, and a thick spellbook condensed in the air.

Its title: "Divine Realm Survival Encyclopedia."

Luosen took it, quickly flipped through it twice, confirmed that all the content had been recorded into Laifu's database, and then returned the spellbook.

The Annihilation Goddess asked: "Can I leave now?"

Luosen, however, shook his head, glanced up and down at her, and said with a smile: "Sorry, not for now."

He had been suppressed by this otherworldly goddess for so long that a foul breath had built up in his chest.

If he doesn't vent this today, his thoughts will be unsettled, which will greatly hinder his future cultivation.

(End of chapter)