Chapter 413: The Opportunity for Godhood

An isolated island in the open ocean, a tropical rainforest, a few thatched huts.

This was a hidden place; originally, it merely relied on a Formation to remain invisible to satellites and undetectable by radar, preventing lost ocean-going vessels from entering. Now, with the help of the Heavenly Human Mirror, it had hidden itself in an even more profound way, completely losing all traces from this world.

A straw mat, a tea table, a cup of coarse tea.

Cao Ci was dressed in loose clothing, sitting cross-legged.

Before him was a long-haired figure.

"This time, it truly is a thunderous momentum. In just a few days, the foundation we painstakingly built over decades is collapsing at a speed visible to the naked eye." The long-haired man raised a cup of coarse tea, yet there was no sorrow in his expression as he said calmly, "They have made up their minds not to let you ascend to the Godhood."

"It has always been this way."

Cao Ci's voice was also very indifferent.

Looking closely, his face was significantly older than it had been a few years ago.

His lifespan was nearing its end, and Spirit Decay was approaching.

Yet he remained the strongest Ninth Stage in the world.

And the hardest Ninth Stage to kill.

In this world, aside from deities, no one could truly annihilate him. With the Heavenly Human Mirror, it was difficult even for the major nations to locate him.

If they could not destroy him, they would destroy the Mengyue Sect, destroying the foundation upon which he gained the recognition of the World Will and the origin.

It must be said, this was a good move.

And the battle currently underway was, in fact, a confrontation between the Secret Sect—leading, with Heavenly Humans assisting and the Buddhist Daoists acting as subordinates—and the Heavenly Human Mirror in his hands. Without a doubt, the four major systems had gained the absolute upper hand in this battle.

"What a pity..."

The long-haired man shook his head: "In this internet age, it is easy to destroy a god, and easy to create one."

Cao Ci sipped his tea, saying nothing.

"But this way, collecting the origin fragments has become difficult." The long-haired man paused, "And after the collection of the origin is complete, I fear it will not be so easy for you to successfully merge with the origin."

"How is Nanzhou?"

"In preparation."

"Speed up the progress."

"Understood!"

Cao Ci glanced toward the south.

That was the direction of Nanzhou.

It was also his countermeasure—

Nanzhou sealed the power formed by an otherworldly deity sacrificing themselves; it was that world's final, glorious strike, and initially, it had the effect of eroding deities.

Although this power was far from what it once was, it had not been completely extinguished; it still slumbered in Nanzhou, remaining a thorn for this world.

If a thorn is not pulled out, it will eventually cause inflammation.

Therefore, Cao Ci concluded that it would eventually awaken.

This coincided with another of his speculations—

After the origin of the Reed God shattered, although re-condensing it was fraught with difficulties, it was not impossible. Yet the gods allowed it to scatter across the world... Perhaps part of the reason was that in these past few hundred years, the world had not birthed anyone they deemed capable of becoming a god; perhaps part of the reason was that the other world had been destroyed and the war had subsided, so the gods no longer needed comrades as urgently as before; but perhaps there was another reason.

This origin scattered across the world was prepared for Nanzhou.

The gods were in a distant place and could not return. If the origin re-condensed and a new god was born, would this new god go to guard with them, or remain in the world?

If the new god went, it would be difficult to return; if the new god did not go, they would be the only god in the world, which might trigger an imbalance in the world situation. Thus, they simply let the origin scatter across the world; when the poison of Nanzhou revived, that would be the moment for the origin to re-condense.

Cao Ci had gone to Nanzhou to investigate, and the seal had long since loosened.

This confirmed his speculation.

At the same time, the Bodhisattva of Tribulation becoming a Buddha at this time was clearly a countermeasure prepared by the gods or the Secret Sect for the catastrophe of Nanzhou—two hands working in tandem to ensure nothing went wrong.

But for whom was this origin originally prepared? Whom did they originally plan to have become a god at this time and suppress Nanzhou together with that monk?

Cao Ci could not think of a suitable candidate for the time being.

The Heavenly Human Mirror could not provide an answer either.

"It doesn't matter..."

Now his lifespan did not allow him to think too much more.

Cao Ci sighed in his heart.

Nowadays, the various nations were pressing him tighter and tighter, and he had no choice but to make one final gamble—since the catastrophe of Nanzhou would arise sooner or later, he might as well let it come early, and use it to step onto the Godhood himself, then personally press it back down.

Relying solely on that monk, I fear it is not quite enough.

Cao Ci thought of that monk again...

When one gets old, one loves to reminisce about youth.

"Heh..."

Cao Ci shook his head; it was only at this moment that he realized he was already very old.

Yunlai, above the territorial waters.

Chen Shu fought two Seventh Stage opponents alone, trading blows back and forth. The sea surface frequently erupted with huge splashes from the explosions, like a dense barrage of aerial bombs. The nearby uninhabited beach was also full of huge craters blasted out, but if one looked closely, one would find that Chen Shu used only the Tracer Technique over and over again.

Real-time combat data collection in progress...

Not far away, the Nüxia of the Moonlit Night was also fighting a Seventh Stage opponent alone with her Sixth Stage cultivation, fighting in a miserable state.

Chen Shu was multitasking; while fighting, he recorded the performance of the Spells, and kept an eye on Wu Eiwei. If she were about to be killed, or if her opponent prepared to slip away, he would divert some strength to help her.

"Calling Team Four, calling Team Four."

"Team Four receiving."

"Has the battle ended?"

"Not yet."

"Do you need support?"

"No need."

"Finish it as soon as possible."

"We'll see, we'll see..."

"Whoosh!"

Several streaks of black smoke came pincer-attacking toward Chen Shu.

Chen Shu also waved a hand, and Tracer Techniques flew out one after another, intercepting them with precision.

This person seemed to be a local Spirit Cultivator from Yunlai, and the Spells they used were quite different from those commonly used by Spirit Cultivators in Yiguo; however, after this fight, Chen Shu quickly discovered that the Tracer Technique had a very high interception efficiency against the Spirit Power attacks of Spirit Cultivators.

At this moment, those two looked at each other, and seeing that the situation was untenable, they each unleashed their strongest attacks and decisively split up to flee.

"Shu-shu-shu..."

Over a hundred Tracer Techniques flew forward, trailing tails behind them.

They first collided with an Artifact, knocking it into the sea; the remaining Yunlai Spirit Cultivator unleashed a beam of purple light, which had no physical form and could not be intercepted, so Chen Shu had to activate Rising with the Wind to shift his body sideways and dodge the purple light.

At the same time, he channeled his Spirit Power and pointed a finger.

"Bang!"

A mist of blood bloomed on the Spirit Cultivator's body, and they fell into the sea.

"Sigh..."

Chen Shu shook his head repeatedly; as a Spirit Cultivator, how could one leave their back exposed to others during a battle?

A Spirit Cultivator should always face the enemy head-on; even if running, one must retreat while running, fighting while retreating, and maintaining a bombardment of firepower against the enemy—that is the faith of a Spirit Cultivator.

Thinking this, he flew off to pursue the other Cultivator.

This Cultivator was similar to the Artifact Sect that had appeared in Yiguo before, possessing many strange and peculiar Artifacts; fighting entirely by throwing Artifacts, their methods were very diverse, which also provided precious experimental data for Chen Shu's Tracer Technique.

"Bang!"

Another finger was pointed out.

The Cultivator turned around and pushed out a palm, and a small round disc instantly grew larger, blocking this strike.

"Boom!"

A deafening sound.

Although the strike was blocked, the disc was already covered in cracks, and when the second strike arrived, the disc shattered with a loud crash. Afterward, hundreds or thousands of Tracer Techniques surged toward them from all directions like countless missiles, each with destructive power, directly submerging them.

For a moment, the intense light emitted by the concentrated explosion looked like a small sun.

As the light faded, another person fell into the sea.

Dragging the two severely injured Cultivators, Chen Shu returned to the original spot, saved the nearly beaten-to-death Wu Eiwei, and casually helped her finish off her opponent.

"Cough, cough!"

Wu Eiwei struggled to prop up her severely injured body, landed on the beach, and looked at Chen Shu: "If you had come any later, I would have died..."

"Isn't this the life-and-death battle you wanted? You blame me?"

"Cough, cough, cough..."

"How are you now?"

"Cough, cough, cough, cough..."

"Oh my! Careful! Don't cough your lungs out!" Chen Shu fished out medicine and handed it to her, while lowering his head to eye the injuries on her body; he saw that this Nüxia's entire upper body had been hammered into several indentations by her opponent, and he estimated her bones were all broken and her internal organs were mostly shattered, so he couldn't help but shake his head, "Tsk tsk, it looks painful... It's a good thing I'm a genius who follows the Spirit Cultivator system; I definitely wouldn't be able to persist in your system."

"Yue-cough-cough-cough..."

"Why are you 'yue-ing' now?" Chen Shu began to panic, "You aren't really going to cough your lungs out, are you? Don't, hold it in! Let me tell you, when I was a kid, I hated eating lungs the most; it looked annoying, even pig liver was better..."

"Pfft..."

"Hold it in! Swallow it! It's a waste to spit it out!"

"Gulp!"

"You actually swallowed it??"

"Pfft..."

"Hey, hey, why did you spit it out again? With this wind blowing, it all blew onto me!"

"You... shut up!"

"Okay."

Chen Shu shut his mouth and waited for the Support Aircraft.

His teammate was silently vomiting blood on the side...

Chen Shu simply took out his Mobile Phone, out of sight, out of mind.

This seemed to be the last order.

In just a few short days, the followers in Yunlai had been cleaned up for the most part.

The number of people cleared out far exceeded Chen Shu's imagination.

It might even be more than the core members of the Mengyue Sect in Yunlai.

The reason for this is that "followers of Cao Ci" and "core members of the Mengyue Sect" are completely different, and the criteria for judgment are also different. There are even some people who have never had contact with the Inner Layer of the Mengyue Sect, and the Inner Layer of the Mengyue Sect doesn't think much of them either, but they inexplicably believe in Cao Ci, practicing the philosophy of "life is like a dream, do whatever you want," and hoping that Cao Ci can become a deity and bring them the life they imagine.

These kinds of people are also to be arrested.

Of course, how they are judged in the end depends on their actions.

However, Chen Shu and the others only need to be responsible for those who are particularly troublesome; ordinary small fry do not require them to take action.

There is nothing much to say about this process; the place where wisdom is truly pitted against wisdom is the Command Center, and they are nothing but chess pieces, heartless capture machines; they go where the Command Center tells them to go, and they capture whoever they are told to capture.

You have to say, it's actually quite worry-free.

Chen Shu and Wu Eiwei could be considered old comrades-in-arms; they had cooperated in the Killing Forbidden Land, and their coordination was quite tacit.

The Support Aircraft slowly descended.

There were medical personnel on board, and the injuries on Wu Eiwei's body were finally brought under control.

The two returned to the command post.

Zhuang Baicha was still standing at the entrance holding his Sword, his face indifferent, waiting for the Seven-Tier Cultivators returning from their missions to respectfully greet him.

It had been like this for the past few days.

Chen Shu greeted him as usual, his expression as respectful as always: "Senior Zhuang, did you not go out today either?"

At the same time, he raised his eyes to secretly observe his expression.

He saw Zhuang Baicha nod faintly:

"No."

Perhaps this person is secretly laughing inside?

Chen Shu thought to himself, and continued: "The matter in Yunlai seems to be settled; where will Senior Zhuang go afterward?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Senior Zhuang's strength is formidable, so naturally, it doesn't matter where you go."

"Hmm..."

This compliment made Zhuang Baicha beam with joy, so he decided to give this sensible junior some special treatment, though he still had to maintain the necessary aloofness; as for the faint sense of crisis in his heart, he ignored it: "What about you? Are you returning to the country or going to other countries?"

"I haven't decided yet." Chen Shu paused, "Zhang Suannai asked me to go to Xixiao before, but I felt it was too far, and I've been a bit tired these past few days."

"?"

Zhuang Baicha was stunned for a moment, and the sense of crisis in his heart grew heavier: "You know Zhang Suannai?"

"Yes, she and I are good friends."

"Wha... what kind of good friends?"

"We've known each other for over four years, we are neighbors now, we often eat together, and we were even chatting last night; why do you ask?"

"???"

"What's wrong, Senior Zhuang?"

"What did she say to you?"

"What do you mean, what did she say?"

"I mean... does she know you are in Yunlai?"

"She knows!"

Chen Shu blinked his eyes as he looked at him: "Hearing that both I and Senior Zhuang were in Yunlai, perhaps she was afraid that I wouldn't get along well with Senior Zhuang, so she even told me some of Senior Zhuang's past deeds; they were quite interesting..."

Zhuang Baicha's expression suddenly stiffened.

Chen Shu walked away satisfied—

One part effort, one part harvest; the effort of one or two times every day for the past few days had finally blossomed at this moment.

----------Author's Note----------

The results are coming out soon, so nervous.