Chapter 859: Immortals and Gods

"What is going on?" King Huan looked left and right nervously, yet could not see a single trace. In an instant, he thought he had seen a ghost; his legs first trembled, then he suddenly ran forward a few steps like a madman.

Having just taken three steps, he felt a wave of scorching heat. With a *crack*, his arm seemed to have touched a red-hot iron plate, and a large patch of hair was singed off. He retreated a few steps, turned his head, and ran in another direction, but after only a few steps, he collided with a scorching wall again.

In a brief moment, he tried all four directions, including above, only to confirm that he had been trapped in a tiny, transparent plywood room. If he did not want to be roasted, he could only squat in place and do nothing.

And as far as his eyes could see, it was still a dark graveyard, where one grave mound after another could be vaguely discerned.

At this moment, a thought flashed through his mind: "I said we shouldn't build the base in a graveyard, but they insisted! Look, a ghost wall, isn't it?"

Over in the Hall, Dazai watched the Crown Prince leave. He went over tomorrow's plan in his mind and was just about to relax slightly when his gaze suddenly froze, and he shouted, "Who is there?"

A wheel of light rolling with fierce fire swept toward him. Its speed was far beyond Dazai's reaction, striking him instantly. Dazai let out a loud cry, leaving behind several dark, varying afterimages of men, women, old, and young in place, while he himself had already appeared a hundred paces away.

"Heh, wasn't it said that you had advanced further? How come you are still using this substitute trick back and forth?" someone mocked faintly.

"Who?" Dazai roared, and immediately saw the young man who had suddenly appeared before him. This face was unforgettable to others, and to him, it was etched into his heart. He did not need to flip through his memory to blurt out: "You, Tang Zhao! You actually dare to break in!"

Tang Zhao stared at Dazai and said, "Originally, I could have let you act boldly, waited until tomorrow when you deployed your strength and staked all your cards, and appeared at the very moment you thought you had succeeded to strike you down into hell, making you feel utterly dejected—that would have been more satisfying. But I thought about it and decided against it. How can the funeral of the Duke be disturbed by rats? I cannot let you ruin Yunzhou for my own momentary whim. So... I will finish you here today!"

Dazai was furious, feeling that Tang Zhao was mocking him to his face, and shouted, "Shameless! You little beast, you still dare to come find me? I was just about to look for you! Just because you made progress by relying on the power of your predecessors, you think you can..."

Boom—

Suddenly, golden light burst forth from behind. Dazai turned his head in astonishment, only to see that the dome of that magnificent palace had been pierced through, with only half remaining. Above, golden light shone brilliantly, as if a sun had fallen. And within the sun, an elegant figure could be seen; it was exactly...

"Jinwu?!" Dazai was incredulous, "How could it..."

"Jinwu Dianxia has returned; are you not happy? Didn't you want to seek revenge on it? It originally wanted to come find you, but I also wanted to meet you, my old friend. Out of consideration for me being a junior, it yielded you to me. Consider yourself lucky; you only need to deal with me."

"Wait... Jinwu is still alive? Then what about you? Who are you? Your sword..."

Tang Zhao reached out to hold his sword; it did not look like he was holding a sword, but rather as if he were cradling a sun in his hand: "Me? I am the Jingxing Sword!"

Behind him, one ray of Sunlight after another rose, as if golden swords were piercing through the darkness, and also piercing through the barrier of the formation set up in the darkness, clearly visible from tens or even hundreds of miles away.

In the distance, Yunzhou City stirred as expected. Tang Zhao's Sword Light was very easy to recognize; more than one person recognized it, and they immediately understood that Tang Zhao was fighting an enemy outside—a powerful enemy had come to Yunzhou City! Everyone made preparations for battle, and the army began to assemble. They thought the same as Tang Zhao: they must never let the outsider bastards disturb the peace of the Duke.

"Damn it!" Dazai could not stop Tang Zhao's Sword Light from shining because he had been caught off guard and was still adjusting his state. This strike ultimately failed to seize the initiative, and he also knew that their plan had been completely exposed—even without directly notifying Zhongtian Prefecture through the Sword Light, who knew if Tang Zhao had other means of reporting? In other words, the moment Tang Zhao discovered them, the plan was already exposed; any other communication was merely a formality.

However...

"So what? We launched the surprise attack just to save trouble. Even if you know, so what? Yunzhou is but a tiny place; our righteous army will still descend upon..."

"Bang!" Behind him, a loud noise erupted, and the massive palace collapsed by another large section. The remaining Hall was not even one-third of its original size. Dazai's face turned black; when descending upon the world, the only fear is if the ruler is gone.

If the ruler is gone, so be it; the fear is that the state itself might be gone. Just now, he had asked the Crown Prince to notify the Emperor to change the Wu Miao of the Zheng Fa Zhi Dian, and he did not know if it had been changed. Even if it had, the Wei Emperor, who had sat withered on the dragon throne for twenty years, was probably not worth expecting. How could he possibly withstand the Sword Immortal Jinwu, who was touted as having the greatest power? He also did not know if there would be any junior of the Great Wei bloodline left to prop up and sit on the throne after this battle...

Forget it. Never mind the Emperor or not; better to look after himself first. Since when was the Heaven of Great Wei the Emperor's? Hadn't it always been his own? He just lacked that drop of blood to nourish the state...

Dazai cast aside his thoughts about the future and focused all his energy on the present, sneering, "Such a young Sword Immortal, no wonder you are so arrogant. I have heard that Jinwu is touted as the strongest Sword Immortal, but I am not a Sword Immortal, yet I am more powerful than you all, stronger than every Sword Immortal! I will show you what the strong of this world should really look like!"

Tang Zhao had long since entered a combat state, so he was almost unable to speak, but he did not rush to strike. One of the reasons, and also the reason he let Jinwu Dianxia go to that battlefield while he remained here, was: he remembered that Dazai did not cultivate the Sword Dao.

Dazai's power was essentially of the Spirit Official lineage, seemingly mixed with the power of the Sword Guest lineage, but it was still within the Spirit Official system. Moreover, he had broken through the ceiling of the Spirit Official system and ascended to the transcendent Immortal realm.

From this point of view, Dazai was indeed a genius rarely seen in the world.

Furthermore, although this world was not a game and there was no such thing as professional balance, Tang Zhao always felt that such a difficult bottleneck, once broken, would surely be very powerful, at least very strange, capable of doing what others could not, and perhaps requiring more on-the-spot strategy to deal with. And Jinwu Dianxia...

Seemed to be not very good at adapting?

Actually, from a personal perspective, he was also looking forward to this battle. Now that he had guessed that the power of the Sword Guest relied heavily on external forces—entrusting the authority of the world—it might not last long, whereas the Tianmo Jie handed authority to gods. He wanted to see, without entrusting any external existence, what realm a pure Human system could reach by relying on Human talent?

If Dazai could demonstrate this vision of humanity, then... he would die without regrets!

After Dazai finished his last sentence, he also became quiet, and his face began to change. However, unlike the flowing faces of men, women, old, and young from back then, he was now only undergoing specific changes based on his own appearance. His jaw became rounded, his forehead became full, his brows drooped, and his demeanor became gentle yet indifferent.

At the same time, the outline of his entire body became soft, seemingly having a certain distinction from the Waijie, and a faint halo draped over his body.

Isn't this... a god or Buddha?

No, more accurately, it was the god or Buddha in the human imagination, a god statue! It was a divine image!

After his body became like a divine image, although he had not grown taller, he became inexplicably majestic. Behind him, shadows appeared; they were people, men and women, old and young—they were the masses, the commoners, the believers who worshipped gods and Buddhas.

Tang Zhao had seen the masses on Dazai before; they were also men, women, old, and young, but they were the same size as Dazai at the time, simply and crudely piled together, as if they were his clones. However, now, each of them was very tiny compared to this divine image of Dazai. They gathered together in a dense mass, like the shadows of green mountains on the horizon. Yet, if one looked closely, one could distinguish the appearance of each person, all different, knowing that these people were distinct individuals, just gathered together to worship this Dazai, no longer the same kind of creature as him, but merely humble believers looking up and praying at the feet of a god or Buddha.

If Dazai himself was five parts like a divine image after his transformation, then the shadows of the common people made up the remaining five parts. Now, he was truly like a god!

Those masses gathered, swaying slightly as if in worship, and with every act of worship, countless faint halos flew up like snowflakes flying backward, condensing behind Dazai, gradually forming a misty wheel of light behind him.

That wheel of light was not merely a condensation of light, but also gathered an incredibly massive power. This power merged into his body, making him even more powerful. This power was not a simple accumulation of strength, but rather lifted him to a certain unfathomable realm. His gaze was not dazzling, yet it contained profound mysteries that made one dare not look directly at him.

"I have heard that those of you who cultivate the sword, when you reach your realm, are called Immortals? And the realm above that is called a Saint?" Dazai spoke. At this moment, his voice seemed to come from the heavens, carrying heavy echoes, exceptionally solemn. "Then, my realm might as well be called a God!"

"Not a mere god of a single sword, but a God of the masses!" Dazai raised his palm, holding up the masses in the void. "The masses worship me, and only then am I a God. You so-called Immortals and Saints, who are addicted to plunder, are all thieves of the people! I shall punish the thieves for the sake of the ten thousand people, correcting the rebellion with righteousness. Die!" He pointed a finger, and boundless power was poised to strike!

"Pfft..."

In the brilliant Sunlight opposite, a scoff came out.

"Have you heard of the Investiture of the Gods?"

"..." Dazai was momentarily stunned.

"I have heard that carefree Immortals refuse to become gods, so they fight each other; only when the losers die are they invested as gods, forever confined to their positions, busily scraping for incense, never to be free again. You don't need to use the common people as a cover. If you want to be a god, I will kill you, and then I will invest you as a god!"