Chapter 249: It's Over, It's All Over

The cross-world war finally came to an end when support from the Super Beast Legions arrived.

The player legions, every single member, returned their souls to Emperor Tomb Village.

Yet this battle also caused the Ling Xi Clan to suffer heavy losses.

Among them, the Blood Pool Super Beast Legion led by the Blood King lost more than half its forces; the Blood King himself was critically injured and near death, falling into a coma.

As the great battle drew to a close, a deathly silence fell over the battlefield.

The scorched earth was stained with the blood of Ling Xi warriors, while scattered across the cracked ground were the leftover crystalline dregs of the Super Beast Legion soldiers.

The shattered body of the Final Behemoth lay like a collapsed mountain range across the center of the battlefield; its six pairs of scarlet compound eyes had long gone dim, and wounds on its surface still emitted a mist of blood.

A wild wind swept across the battlefield, stirring up fine ash.

Traces of blood burned to nothing, scorched bone fragments, unextinguished embers... all that remained was a scene of desolation and carnage.

In the distance, surviving Ling Xi warriors silently searched for the remains of their kin (dregs).

Their steps were heavy, their eyes hollow; occasionally, they would drag a wounded comrade still breathing from the dregs left behind by extraction, immediately wrap them in a flesh-and-blood fungal mat, and send them to the rear.

There were no cheers of victory at the scene, nor any joy of survival after disaster; only suppressed panting and the occasional groan of pain.

At the very center of the battlefield, the Blood King was dragged out from within the shattered body of the Final Behemoth by sacrificial priests from the Soul Pool Legion who had rushed to the scene.

During this process, they continuously injected life energy into the Blood King's body.

These were injuries the Ling Xi Clan had never encountered before.

Theoretically, as long as the Final Behemoth remained alive, the Blood King would not suffer any harm.

However, the energy released by the invading forces, while penetrating into the Final Behemoth's body, also inflicted severe injuries upon the Blood King, who was connected to it.

At this moment, the Blood King's body was covered in purple stripes that coiled around his surface like venomous snakes, constantly devouring his life force.

The Blood King's condition resembled a candle flickering in the wind, liable to be extinguished at any moment.

Ultimately, the War Sacrificial Priests who had come to support wrapped the Blood King's severely injured body in dark red fungal hyphae, forming a pulsating blood cocoon; by continuously infusing life energy, they countered the continuous damage caused by the withering power within him, forcibly sustaining the Blood King's life.

The view shifted to the distance.

The setting sun sank, its last ray of light sweeping across the battlefield, reflecting countless shattered biological weapons and Super Beast remains.

Like tombstones on the battlefield, they recorded the brutality of this fight.

Yet only everything belonging to the players had vanished without a trace.

No corpses, no weapons... it was as if they had never appeared, making this seem like nothing more than a civil war within the Ling Xi Clan.

However, the cross-world war did not end with the conclusion of this battle.

Players were still descending into the Ling Xi World in an endless stream through spatial channels, spreading out from the arrival point to all corners of the Ling Xi World; the form of the war had been chaotic from the very beginning.

Even if the Super Beast Legions still had the strength to confront the player legions in direct warfare, facing such scattered combat power made it difficult to round them all up effectively.

The only viable methods were to garrison several key cities and wait for the players to arrive,

or to split the legion forces to establish hunting armies, chasing down and killing players across the entire world.

As for following the spatial tunnels to the world where the invading forces were located, none of the remaining seven Great Thrones dared to do so.

For they did not know what scene awaited on the other side of the spatial tunnels.

If they teleported over only to encounter an ambush, they would then Iron Face a desperate battle with no route of retreat.

Half a day later, in Tianqi City,

beneath the dome of the Ling Xi Royal Court,

seven figures sat around a circular blood-crystal conference table, each figure possessing a different life form.

For the Ling Xi Clan, the core of a "clansman" was the Memory Sac.

In their eyes, bodies were merely external objects, like different styles and colors of clothing or different models of vehicles in human eyes.

On the conference table, where there should have been eight thrones, one was empty.

The Blood King was still in a coma and unable to participate in this meeting.

After the other seven Great Thrones of the Ling Xi Clan took their seats, none spoke; the fluorescent spores embedded in the dome flickered on and off, casting the faces of the seven thrones in shifting light and shadow.

"The second nest has just finished hatching; the Sky Beasts can be sent to the world of the invaders to launch an investigation at any time, but the premise is that we must quickly secure the area near the spatial channel."

The speaker was the Bone King of the Ling Xi Clan; his voice was extremely hoarse, and as he spoke, his gnarled finger joints tapped against the tabletop.

Immediately, images surfaced on the surface of the blood crystal at the center of the conference table: the bodies of three hundred massive Sky Behemoths were being woven into existence by countless fluorescent plankton.

Hearing this, the Erosion King sitting beside the Bone King nodded:

"What we find difficult to distinguish is whether the forces currently appearing from the invading faction are merely probing strength or their main army; what are your views?"

This question was precisely the concern weighing on the other thrones as well.

Whenever the Ling Xi Clan they led randomly connected to a minor world, they would dispatch Sky Behemoths and other reconnaissance forces to that world to conduct probing contact and investigation.

Only after clarifying the combat rank of that world would they decide whether to initiate war.

This model was also experience accumulated during cross-world wars.

The development of the Ling Xi Clan had taken many wrong turns, and the development model of their cross-world wars had once encountered a crisis of racial extinction.

Once, during an invasion war, the army they led encountered another faction that had also descended as invaders.

That battle left them fearful to this day.

Endless darkness shrouded the earth; no matter how many warriors the Ling Xi Clan dispatched, they would be swallowed by the surging darkness.

This war was not a war of attrition.

From the very beginning, the Ling Xi Clan had been treated as nutrients.

The enemy grew stronger with every fight, yet the Ling Xi Clan's combat power dwindled with every engagement.

In the end, at the cost of sacrificing three thrones, they fled back to their homeland world, urgently shattered the spatial source point, and closed the spatial channel.

Fortunately, the dark forces did not pursue; otherwise, one could imagine that the Ling Xi World would have been swept toward destruction under the surge of that terrifying power.

Therefore, conducting a detailed investigation of the situation in another world was the most critical link in the Ling Xi Clan's war model.

Thus, they could not judge whether the faction currently invading was merely probing or had already launched a full-scale war.

No one could answer this question, and the meeting fell into silence once again.

Just then, the Fungus King, sitting in the third position, spoke first:

"Regardless, this war is now unavoidable; the most important thing now is to secure the area where the spatial channel is located, and only then can we proceed with the investigation. I suggest that the Fungus King and I take charge of the war in the spatial channel region, while you others are responsible for forming hunting teams to search for the small invading groups still plundering throughout our world."

To this proposal, the other thrones nodded one after another in agreement.

"By the way, let us temporarily abandon the invasion of the Blue World; withdraw all forces garrisoned at the spatial source point. There is no need to waste resources continuing to maintain the spatial channel; what matters most now is guarding our homeland, not invading externally." The Soul King, sitting at the end, suddenly spoke up with a suggestion.

Hearing the Soul King's words, the Bone King immediately shook his head:

"I suggest keeping the spatial channel open. The future trajectory of this war cannot be predicted; keeping the spatial channel also leaves the Ling Xi Clan a potential route of retreat. Suppose our strength is insufficient to resist the invading forces; perhaps heading to the Blue World would be the best choice."

Facing this rebuttal, the Soul King continued to explain:

"The combat rank of the Blue World has not yet been clearly investigated. If we truly reach the point where we cannot resist and must prepare to evacuate, rashly heading to the Blue World may not be the optimal choice; that place could also become the graveyard where the Ling Xi Clan meets its destruction. I insist on my viewpoint: close the spatial channel."

"I agree to keep the spatial channel. The energy in the air of the Blue World is thin, so the combat power will not be very strong; this will serve as a route of retreat." The Erosion King also voiced his opinion at this moment.

"A route of retreat? Erosion King, when did you become so cowardly? For tens of thousands of years, the Ling Xi Clan has trampled countless worlds underfoot; when have we ever needed to leave ourselves a way out?"

Facing this challenge, the tentacles on the Erosion King's body slowly writhed, his tone low and heavy:

"This is not cowardice, but strategy. We have still not fathomed the true strength of the invaders; our initial contact with their main force already crushed the Blood Pool Legion and even drove the Blood King to the brink of death. What does this signify? Could there be an even vaster power behind them? If the final situation turns unfavorable, are we to let the entire Ling Xi Clan be buried alongside us?"

The Shadow King, who had remained silent throughout, also nodded at this point:

"I believe the Erosion King is right. This is not shrinking back, but preserving the spark. The Blue World is poor in resources, but at least it does not have these damned invaders. If we truly reach the worst-case scenario, we can at least evacuate with the core clansmen."

Hearing these words, the Evil King's emotions fluctuated wildly:

"Evacuate? What are you saying? Where is the honor of the Ling Xi Clan? We have never shrunk back in war!"

"Honor cannot be eaten. If we cannot even guarantee the survival of our race, what talk is there of honor? Evil King, you are a junior, so you have not experienced despair." Speaking thus, the Soul King stood up, his gaze sweeping over the thrones present:

"Do you still remember the Endless Darkness? The shadow of that war is forever branded in the depths of my heart."

"It is not only we, the Ling Xi Clan, who are invaders and plunderers; there are many powerful races in the outside world. Blindly emphasizing honor will only lead us to destruction. Leaving a route of retreat is also for the sake of the future."

"Precisely because I experienced that era, I understand better than you what true despair is... Therefore, I propose continuing to keep the spatial channel open and dispatching part of our forces to guard it."

Regarding whether to retain the spatial channel connecting to Earth, the seven Great Thrones engaged in fierce debate.

The newly promoted thrones and the old thrones differed fundamentally in their mindset.

The older generation of thrones had experienced despair and witnessed the twists and turns in the growth of the Ling Xi Clan.

In their eyes, as long as the spark of the Ling Xi Clan could be preserved, there was hope for the future.

The mindset of the new generation of thrones was entirely different; they were warriors who had risen to the thrones through war, having grown up within a system of war and plunder.

Many of these warriors had not experienced the most difficult years, facing mostly wars that swept forward like a broken bamboo.

For this generation, the honor of war was higher than everything else in their eyes.

This was also the ideological brand that the older generation of thrones had impressed upon the next generation when implementing the war-growth system.

Yet it had also become an obsession that shackled their thoughts.

"Let us vote. Since the Blood King is absent, his vote will not participate in this resolution." Facing the deadlock in decision-making, the Bone King spoke at this moment.

The other thrones nodded one after another; tentacles extended from the Memory Sacs within the seven bodies, simultaneously pressing onto the red crystal at the center of the conference table.

The final decision was to retain the spatial channel, leaving the Ling Xi Clan a potential route of retreat.

After the meeting concluded, the seven Great Thrones launched their actions.

Two Super Beast Legions led by the Fungus King and the Bone King advanced toward the location where the players had descended.

The remaining thrones split their legion forces to garrison different cities, protecting the cities from destruction by the small invading groups wandering about.

Furthermore, hunting teams specifically targeting small groups of players were rapidly formed.

These teams were all led by War Sacrificial Priests.

The initial contact made the Ling Xi Clan realize that even elite warriors found it difficult to resist the powerful individuals within the invading forces.

Only the War Sacrifice possessed the strength to suppress the invading small factions.

As the network covering the Ling Xi World unfolded, life spores drifting in the air became informants, providing the roaming squads with coordinate information on the invading forces.

A massive counter-invasion war erupted.

In contrast to the tension of the Ling Xi Clan, the players appeared incredibly relaxed.

The first round of cross-world war ended; the God King quickly organized new war forces, preparing to airdrop into the minor world again to launch another cross-world war.

Regrettably, the God King was also swallowed by the spatial counter-current during this transmission, his soul returning to Emperor Tomb Village on the spot.

The process of entering the minor world dungeon was akin to drawing lots with one's life.

If luck was poor and one drew an anti-addiction lot, they would be forcibly locked in a small dark room for an hour.

The problem was that the probability of drawing an anti-addiction lot was even higher than the probability of entering the dungeon.

A Lan was equally headache-ridden.

Over 1.2 million units of sacrificial power had already been more than half consumed.

As the initiator of the cross-world war, he was responsible for the energy supply of the spatial channel.

The expenditure required to maintain spatial transmission was enormous.

The spatial transmission array he had built was already a simplified version; even though the transmission scale was reduced, energy loss remained extremely severe.

To keep the war going, he could only scramble to gather funds from everywhere.

Fortunately, refund funds were still continuously arriving, barely sustaining the operation of the spatial channel.

In this round of cross-world war, the players who successfully entered the minor world dungeon had struck it rich, but the Moon Eclipse Clan's startup capital for development was nearly drained dry.

Blood Pool Legion Garrison.

Viscous blood plasma churned within a massive flesh cocoon, every pulse accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of tearing flesh and blood.

Beside the flesh cocoon, the remnant body of the Finality Behemoth soaked in a boiling blood pool.

Golden blood continuously seeped from the wounds, only to be absorbed by tentacles connected to the Finality Behemoth and sent back into its body.

This should have been a viable healing cycle, yet whenever the flesh attempted to knit together, evil purple patterns would emerge from the depths of the wounds, suppressing the healing like a curse.

Hiss!

A broken bone spur was squeezed out from the Finality Behemoth's scapula, splashing corrosive black blood onto the wall of the adjacent flesh cocoon, instantly etching honeycomb-like holes.

The injuries left by the invading forces forced the War Sacrifices hovering beside the blood pool to adopt amputation as a method of healing.

Apart from this method, they could find no other solution.

At this moment, the Blood King remained unconscious.

The body wrapped within the flesh cocoon was collapsing.

Connecting the body to the Finality Behemoth had allowed the Withering characteristic to spread into the Blood King's body.

Like the situation with the Finality Behemoth, the Blood King's wounds likewise could not heal; life could only be forcibly prolonged by infusing life energy.

Once the life infusion ceased, the Blood King's life would also reach its end.

"It still won't work," the lead Sacrifice under the Soul King shook his head in regret.

To save the Blood King, they had already tried multiple methods.

Yet not a single method could effectively dispel the cursed power within the Blood King's body.

Just moments ago, they had used hair-like tentacles to connect with the cocoon's neural pathways, attempting to analyze the composition of the purple cursed energy inside the Blood King.

They hoped to find a way to lift the curse through this.

But the purple cursed energy could not be analyzed to yield any information whatsoever; it was a type of energy they had never seen before.

If this trend continued, this former King would soon die under the erosion of the curse.

Just as the War Sacrifices under the Soul King felt helpless, a figure appeared beside the blood pool.

Upon seeing this figure, the War Sacrifices standing in midair landed one by one beside the blood pool, kneeling on one knee and speaking respectfully:

"Soul King."

The figure known as the Soul King stood nearly three meters tall; his body was not composed entirely of flesh and blood, existing somewhere between semi-flesh and semi-spirit.

Dark silver mist-like substances constantly flowing over his body surface barely outlined a human silhouette.

Countless tiny neural light points floated on the surface of the mist constituting his body, scattering and reorganizing with the Soul King's breath, trailing a hazy mist shadow behind him as he moved.

Where facial features should have been, only a vortex of spiritual energy rotated slowly.

This was a spoil of war from a cross-world conflict won by the Soul Pool Legion, and it was the shell the Soul King currently used.

"How is the situation?"

Facing the Soul King's inquiry, the lead War Sacrifice truthfully reported the Blood King's physical condition.

Learning that the Blood King's injuries still could not heal, the Soul King's vortex-like Iron Face manifested vague outlines of facial features:

"Have you attempted to analyze the cursed substance?"

"We have tried; no useful information could be analyzed."

"Can we extract the memory sac and replace it with a new body?"

"Impossible; the memory sac has also been eroded by the curse."

Hearing this, the Soul King fell into brief silence before a bottle of red potion appeared in his hand; he tossed it toward the lead War Sacrifice:

"Try this."

"What is this?" The War Sacrifice who caught the red potion appeared extremely puzzled.

"A potion seized from the invading forces; it should possess wound-restoring effects and might prove effective for the Blood King."

Upon hearing it was something taken from the invading forces, the War Sacrifice immediately sliced open the cap and extended a tentacle toward the liquid inside the bottle.

But the tentacle halted before touching the liquid.

It realized that analyzing the potion's composition at this moment held no meaning whatsoever.

Apart from this bottle of potion, they possessed no other means to treat the Blood King.

Even if this was a potion that would worsen the curse, it would merely accelerate the Blood King's death without changing the predetermined outcome.

Having figured this out, the War Sacrifice moved above the blood cocoon.

The liquid in the transparent bottle poured down; the moment it touched the surface of the flesh cocoon, it rapidly seeped into the writhing biological membrane.

The flesh cocoon trembled slightly, countless tiny vascular patterns emerging on its surface as it greedily sucked the energy from the medicinal liquid.

An unexpected scene occurred.

After the potion reached the Blood King, the bones that had fractured extensively due to the curse emitting crisp sounds of rejoining, the shattered fascia reweaving itself, and even the corroded organs beginning to recover at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The cursed power was also rapidly neutralized under the cleansing of this force.

Amidst the War Sacrifices' expressions of disbelief, the Blood King's muscle fibers writhed and interwove like living creatures, finally healing completely.

The purple patterns on the Blood King's body surface had not yet fully dissipated, but the restorative power brought by the healed injuries was gradually dispelling the cursed power on his surface.

The body had officially entered a positive healing cycle.

During this process, the Blood King's consciousness also gradually awakened.

The power brought by the Special Grade Recovery Potion eliminated all injuries he had sustained in the counter-current channel, and his dislocated consciousness recovered as well.

At this moment, he opened his confused eyes; his first instinct was to unconsciously summon his Spatial Satchel.

"That was close, the data isn't lost... Holy crap!"

Upon seeing the 120,000 units of sacrificial power, Little Mage was instantly stunned; his first thought was that a bug had occurred during transmission.

An error occurred when the sacrificial power data was transmitted back, causing his sacrificial power to skyrocket.

"I hope there won't be a rollback."

With excitement in his heart, Little Mage subsequently summoned his contact list, preparing to share his joy with his good brothers.

But when he opened his friends list and saw 999+ private message requests along with dense messages from his friends, he was instantly dumbfounded.

"Little, have you gone mad? Quit the guild; our family can't afford to support a great Buddha like you anymore."

"Little, what is your situation now? You don't reply to messages, just keep killing nonstop. Is this the 'Enemy of the World' plotline? What are the rewards for a hidden plot that make you worth going this crazy? Couldn't you cooperate with fellow villagers in another way and relay intelligence from within?"

"You kid, just stay in the Ling Xi dungeon world forever and don't come back; even if you return, you won't be able to leave the village. Everyone outside wants to kill you. Your game will be played in the dungeon world from now on. Your old man almost wanted to sever father-son relations with you."

Glancing at the shield function activated in the bottom right corner, Little Mage became even more confused.

"Wait, I just failed a transmission, is it necessary to..."

Before he could finish speaking, Little Mage discovered that many new things seemed to have appeared in his mind.

The Blood King's memories, the process of him leading the Blood Pool Super-Beast Legion as the Blood King and slaughtering players with a brutal posture... all this information surged into his heart as his injuries continued to heal.

He suddenly realized he had not encountered data packet loss, but had instead been extremely lucky, drawing a hidden plot during the transmission process.

This Cultivation Mode could also be called a power-leveling Cultivation Mode; his consciousness had been entirely hosted by the Blood King's memories throughout, allowing him to gain rewards while AFK.

But the problem was...

Thinking of his actions while in AFK Cultivation Mode, Little Mage glanced again at the 999+ private message requests, and his mindset collapsed:

"It's over, it's all over, I'm dead for sure."

"Leaving was fine, but now I can't go back."

(End of Chapter)