17: Chapter 17: The Battle of Zhuolu!

Divine Calendar, Year 52.

As the gears of time turned wildly, ideological differences eventually turned into a torrent of hot blood pouring across the wasteland.

War broke out inevitably.

At first, this was merely sporadic friction between the two factions at the borders of the hunting grounds and the spiritual rice fields.

But as the atmosphere grew increasingly tense, the wildness in the bones of the new generation of cultivation warriors was thoroughly ignited.

Without the suppression of the Creator's divine oracle, the intensity of this internal war between the same clan rose linearly, quickly sweeping across the entire ten-square-kilometer land of the divine kingdom.

Flames of war raged, plunging the living into misery.

Relying on the solid Megalithic City-State, the conservative faction led by Leader Yan Er held heavy shields and long spears, resembling an insurmountable steel defense line.

Meanwhile, the radical faction led by Yan San abandoned the protection of the city, fighting against the Shadow Wind Wolf in the wilderness and sustaining war through war, sharpening themselves into an invincible, peerless wild blade.

The location of the decisive battle was situated in the vastest plain at the center of the divine kingdom.

This boundless land stained with the blood of countless warriors was heavily named Zhuolu by the human race's historical records of later generations!

Gale winds howled, and a murderous aura soared straight into the clouds.

Above the Zhuolu Plain, three thousand heavy-armored cultivation warriors were divided into two distinct factions.

On the left was a shield array as steady as a mountain.

White true qi flowed across the surface of the tower shields, indestructible.

On the right were berserkers exuding terrifying murderous auras all over.

They wielded wide fine-iron greatswords, their eyes burning with bloodthirsty fanaticism.

"Kill!!!"

Accompanied by a roar that shattered the clouds, the two steel torrents violently collided!

Rumble!

The earth trembled violently; the clanging of weapons colliding, the crisp sounds of bones snapping, and the roars of warriors before death intertwined into an extremely tragic war elegy.

True qi overflowed everywhere, with lights of sabers and shadows of swords.

This was by no means an ordinary cold weapon clash, but rather a group of cultivation armored soldiers who had stepped into the extraordinary threshold engaging in the most primitive and brutal meat-grinder-style slaughter.

Fresh blood dyed the soil of Zhuolu red.

But under this pressure infinitely approaching death, the human warriors' practical combat skills and true qi foundations were being frantically tempered and sublimated at a terrifying speed!

Right in the center of the battlefield.

Two massive streams of true qi that had reached the peak of the Tier 1 mid stage fiercely tore at each other in mid-air like two fierce beasts.

Leader Yan Er and Yan San, these two prideful talents of the new generation of the human race, finally unfolded a fated, earth-shaking duel.

"Coward! Be defeated by me!"

Yan San's eyes were crimson, and the fine-iron greatsword in his hand, carrying the violently unparalleled white true qi, chopped down fiercely like Mount Tai pressing down from the summit!

Every swing of his sword carried a tragic momentum of pressing forward unwaveringly and perishing together.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Deafening metallic screeching noises echoed endlessly.

Facing Yan San's fierce attacks like a violent storm, Leader Yan Er appeared exceptionally calm.

He gripped his long spear with both hands, his footsteps nailed firmly to the ground like old tree roots.

The heavy true qi transformed into an invisible city wall, blocking all of Yan San's attacks completely.

He was waiting.

Utilizing his profound understanding of the terrain and ecology, Leader Yan Er had long seen through Yan San's fatal weakness: absolute rigidity cannot last long.

Yan San's offense was indeed fierce to the extreme, but the consumption rate of true qi within his body was equally astonishing.

Under this unreserved, frantic output, his stamina would eventually have a moment of exhaustion.

Half an hour later.

Yan San's breathing began to grow heavy, and the speed at which he waved the greatsword showed a very slight lag.

"Now!"

Brilliant light burst from Leader Yan Er's eyes. Having maintained an absolute defensive posture all along, he suddenly moved!

The true qi that had lain dormant for a long time erupted boomingly like a volcanic eruption.

The long spear in his hand transformed into a silver lightning bolt, fiercely piercing toward Yan San's flaw at an incomparably tricky and fierce angle.

Bang!

With a muffled thud.

The long spear accurately flicked away the greatsword in Yan San's hand, and the cold spear tip steadily stopped right in front of Yan San's throat, only a hair's breadth away from the beating artery.

Victory and defeat had been decided.

The noisy battlefield of Zhuolu instantly plunged into a dead silence at this moment.

All the radical faction's warriors stopped the actions in their hands, watching despairingly as their leader, whom they worshipped like a god, was defeated.

Yan San panted heavily, staring fixedly at the spear tip in front of his throat, his eyes full of unwillingness, but after all, he did not resist anymore.

"I lost."

Yan San closed his eyes, his voice hoarse and resolute: "Winners are kings and losers are bandits, kill me! Feed my flesh and blood back to the divine kingdom!"

However, the intense pain of piercing through the throat that he had anticipated did not come.

Leader Yan Er slowly withdrew his long spear, looking down from above at Yan San kneeling on one knee with a complex gaze.

"I won't kill you."

Leader Yan Er's voice spread in the wind, falling clearly into everyone's ears.

"We flow with the same blood, and we are all subjects beneath the Lord God. The blade of the human race is meant to slay alien races in outer realms, not to slaughter our own compatriots."

Yan San abruptly opened his eyes, staring fixedly at Leader Yan Er: "You won't kill me? As long as I live, I will never agree with your cowardly philosophy of cowering inside!"

"I know."

Leader Yan Er took a deep breath, turned around, and pointed his long spear toward the northernmost direction of the divine kingdom.

"Those with different paths do not plot together. Since you crave cruel survival rules and long to temper yourself on the edge of life and death..."

"Yan San! In the name of the current leader of the human race, I announce the deprivation of all your core resource quotas! You, and all the radical faction warriors who follow you to the death, are exiled to the Far North Ice Field!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole audience was in an uproar.

The Far North Ice Field!

That was the most barren and coldest dead zone in the divine kingdom!

Snow fell year-round there, and besides the cold-resistant Dark Ice Snow Camel and some anti-freezing wild grass, there were almost no food sources.

For the human race accustomed to the comfortable environment of the central wasteland, that place was simply hell!

"There, there is severe cold, wind and snow, and the cruel trials you want! Never step half a step into the central wasteland!" Leader Yan Er's voice was resounding, carrying the unquestionable majesty of royal power.

Yan San was stunned.

Looking at Leader Yan Er's resolute back, the fanaticism and unwillingness in his eyes gradually receded, replaced by an indescribable, complex emotion.

In the end, Yan San silently stood up, picked up the greatsword on the ground, and bowed deeply toward the Creator above the firmament.

"A bet is a bet."

Yan San led hundreds of radical berserkers covered in scars yet still following him to the death, turned around, and stepped onto the path of exile leading to the Far North Ice Field without looking back.

The Battle of Zhuolu thus came to a close.

Accompanied by Yan San's departure, the irreconcilable internal conflicts of the human tribe were finally completely resolved.

Leader Yan Er reunited the supreme power of the human race.

Without internal friction, the divine kingdom's ecological closed loop began to burst forth with an incomparably astonishing foundation power!

All resources—high-tier spiritual rice, phantom spiritual honey, and the flesh and blood of silver-scaled spiritual fish—were unreservedly concentrated and distributed to those elite survivors of the war.

This group of warriors baptized by the bloody battle of Zhuolu had practical combat literacy that had long reached an unimaginably terrifying tier. Now, nourished by massive resources, they accumulated strength for a breakthrough!

Divine Calendar, Year 55.

The unified human tribe welcomed unprecedented prosperity and qualitative change.

Above the altar, Leader Yan Er sat cross-legged. He governed the overall situation, bearing the massive faith fortune unified by the entire clan.

Suddenly, the spiritual qi between the heaven and earth of the divine kingdom seemed to be summoned by some strong call, turning into a huge vortex and frantically pouring into Leader Yan Er's body!

Boom!!!

An incomparably thick pillar of white true qi light soared straight up from the top of Leader Yan Er's head, entering directly into the clouds!

That Tier 1 mid-stage barrier that had stuck countless extraordinary beings was shattered like paper under the impact of the massive resources and unified fortune!

A massive majesty towering above everyone else, vast as the sea and clouds, swept across the entire city!

[Ding! Your core familiar 'Leader Yan Er' has successfully broken through the class barrier!]

[Familiar tier update: Tier 1 late stage!]

[Prompt: Top-tier combat power has been born in your divine kingdom, and the overall comprehensive rating has risen significantly!]

Driven by Leader Yan Er's breakthrough, the power of the role model was like a prairie fire.

Over a hundred centurions stuck at the early-stage peak issued successive roars, breaking through realms one after another to step into the Tier 1 mid stage!

Above the entire Megalithic City-State, blood qi was like a dragon, and true qi surged. A highly centralized cultivation dynasty with a deep foundation and presided over by a Tier 1 late-stage leader was completely formed in the center of the wasteland.

Above the nine heavens, in the room of the old apartment.

Lin Yunfei's tightly closed eyes abruptly opened.

On the screen of the creation terminal, the origin data belonging to the divine kingdom was jumping frantically.

Following the birth of the Tier 1 late-stage powerhouse and the further perfection of the ecology, an unprecedented high-energy feedback crossed the void of dimensions and frantically poured back into his physical body in reality!

"Ugh..."

Lin Yunfei let out a low muffled groan.

His bones emitted crackling explosion sounds, and under the scouring of the divine kingdom's origin, his muscle fibers were undergoing extremely violent remodeling and evolution.

Pain and power intertwined.

When all anomalies subsided, Lin Yunfei slowly stood up.

He clenched his fists, feeling the physical strength surging within his body like a breached river. This strength had far exceeded the limits of human beings, and was even enough to tear ordinary steel armor apart with bare hands!

Not only that, his mental power also welcomed a qualitative leap.

His five-sense perception was infinitely amplified. As long as he was willing, he could even clearly hear the faint sound of a stray cat walking past a puddle on the street downstairs, and could perceive the trajectory of wind blowing fallen leaves hundreds of meters away.

Mental power materialized, and blood qi was like a true dragon!

At this moment, every movement of Lin Yunfei already carried a divine might that could not be looked at directly.

"The effectiveness of raising gu is even more perfect than I imagined."

Lin Yunfei felt the abundant power within his body, the corners of his mouth hooking into a satisfied arc.

As for Yan San who was exiled to the Far North Ice Field?

That was a dark chess piece deliberately left behind by Lin Yunfei. In that extremely cold dead zone, in order to survive, Yan San would definitely walk a violent path completely different from Leader Yan Er.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Right at this moment, the starnet communicator on Lin Yunfei's wrist suddenly burst out with the highest-level red alert light.

A message bearing the top-secret logo of the federal military popped up in mid-air.

[Federal Military Notice: Attention all senior-year high school student deities across the entire domain!]

[The thirty-day novice protection period is about to hit zero.]

[The actual combat major examination has officially entered countdown!]