504: Chapter 484 The rules are set, I will break them.

In human definitions, a rule is an existence that is both abstract and concrete.

A nation's laws are rules, the law of the jungle in a forest is a rule, and a parent's "no snacks allowed" at home is also a rule.

Zhang Mu could not describe the rules he had comprehended in words; they were not such concrete things.

After making initial contact with the rules, Zhang Mu handled the affairs on Blue Star briefly, then summoned a Portal and went to the Saul Continent.

Leah might have run into trouble, as she had stayed in the labyrinth for three whole years, or perhaps she had chosen to stay of her own accord. Zhang Mu was unclear about her current status, but the rules told him she was safe; staying long in the labyrinth only brought benefits and no harm.

Since Leah was fine, Zhang Mu planned to deal with his own matters first. He bid farewell to the Pope and returned to Lake.

Domit strictly followed Zhang Mu's orders. After destroying the various kingdoms, he had not set foot in the Ganno Empire once in three years. The Ganno Empire hadn't attacked Lake either, as it was currently too busy with its own problems.

Wars between empires were exceptionally cruel; once they began, it was a fight to the death. No one wanted to see their enemy catch their breath and then seek revenge.

The alliance formed by two empires had not relaxed for a moment in three years. After capturing the Ganno Empire's vital mountain passes, they did not temporarily cease fire to recuperate; instead, they reinforced their troops to intensify the offensive.

According to the intelligence gathered by Domit, the total military force deployed by the two empires had reached a terrifying level.

Common Soldiers and low-tier Professionals were beyond count, with over ten thousand High-tier Professionals and hundreds of Saint-ranks.

To survive, the Ganno Empire had likewise played all its cards. Both sides fought bloodily on its territory for years. The corpses of Soldiers covered the battlefield, while carrion-eating vultures circled high in the sky, waiting to feast once the fighting ended.

As time passed and the stakes were continuously raised, the war gradually reached a fever pitch. Finally, both sides made a decision simultaneously—to deploy the Gods Blessing ranks.

The commoners of the Saul Continent were unaware of the taboos surrounding the Gods Blessing rank. They simply thought that the Gods Blessing ranks rarely appeared and almost never fought each other because their methods of combat were profound and beyond ordinary comprehension, impossible to perceive through the five senses.

Zhang Mu had thought so at first, until he encountered a Gods Blessing rank in the Forest of Spirits. Only then did he learn that they exercised self-restraint, trying their best to avoid fighting those of the same tier.

That Gods Blessing rank had not revealed the specific reason, but Zhang Mu had his own guesses. After touching the rules, they were largely confirmed.

The Pope had once revealed that a Legend is the only Believer of the gods on the Saul Continent and possesses a certain degree of freedom.

Gods Blessing is the reserve for the Legendary rank. Epic is not part of the Professional advancement sequence. The next stage of advancement for a Gods Blessing rank, or rather the end point, is only Legendary.

To outsiders, a Legend is a powerhouse who crushes all living beings, and the Gods Blessing ranks must be fighting for power. In reality, that is not the case.

This was something Zhang Mu only understood after grasping the rules.

What the Gods Blessing ranks pursued, and what they would sacrifice everything for, was that "certain degree of freedom."

The lifespan of a Gods Blessing rank is very long. The oldest known Gods Blessing rank has lived for over six thousand years.

Six thousand years—on Blue Star, most civilizations haven't even reached half of that. It was as if the Gods Blessing ranks were already immortal.

However, there is an end to the life of a Gods Blessing rank.

When a Saint-rank advances to Gods Blessing, their mind receives a divine oracle. It is not specific words, but the meaning is clearly understood: "If you do not reach Legendary within ten thousand years, enter the Divine Kingdom to serve Me."

Simply put, if you don't advance to Legendary within ten thousand years, come be my servant in the Divine Kingdom.

Going to the Divine Kingdom to serve a god sounds wonderful, and to a god's Believer, it is even a dream.

Regrettably, on the Saul Continent, truly devout Believers are rare, including at the Church's headquarters, the Holy Mountain, and the Holy City built around it.

Furthermore, after being filtered through the difficulty of advancing through each level of Professional, the number of those who successfully step into the Gods Blessing rank and remain incredibly devoted to a god is embarrassingly small.

In the eyes of most Gods Blessing ranks, "going to the Divine Kingdom to serve a god" is equivalent to entering a royal palace to become a slave. Compared to a Farmer in a village, it might be better—no hunger, high pay, and enough luck might even bring power.

However, a slave is a slave after all. No Gods Blessing rank is keen on being a slave. For the sole Legendary slot, they are almost driven to madness.

The gods were not satisfied with this and, thinking ten thousand years was too long, established a new rule, delivered as a divine oracle to all Gods Blessing ranks.

If one's mana is refined to a certain height and they have still not achieved Legendary status, they shall enter the Divine Kingdom.

The Gods Blessing ranks didn't care at first, thinking they could avoid the new rule by slowing down their practice as much as possible or even stopping it entirely.

However, they soon discovered that besides running a Meditation Method, combat could also refine mana. Moreover, the Meditation Methods issued by the Church had a characteristic: they ran passively. Deliberate suppression could slow the speed, but it could not stop it completely.

This was problematic.

Gods Blessing ranks are not gods. They have family, friendship, and love. With these, they cannot avoid conflict.

During battles with enemies, they would sense with horror that their mana was rising rapidly, refining itself automatically upon reaching the limit, while they could only watch helplessly.

If they didn't want to be slaves, they had to avoid combat. The Gods Blessing ranks gathered together and, after deliberation, decided to ban conflicts between themselves.

When the Ganno Empire and the empire alliance ordered the Gods Blessing ranks to battle, they were resistant and requested the Kings to withdraw the orders.

But the enmity between the two sides had long since accumulated to the point where it could only end with the destruction of one party. The Kings refused the Gods Blessing ranks, and they were finally forced to set out.

When Zhang Mu arrived at a certain battlefield within the Ganno Empire, two Gods Blessing ranks, each belonging to one side, were fighting to the death high in the sky.

Gods Blessing-tier spells were released one after another. The shockwaves from the clashes spread to the ground; the earth could not withstand it, as cracks extended into the distance, cutting off rivers and piercing through mountains.

Zhang Mu found it novel and watched from the shadows for a while. Then, he went to the royal palace to scout Ganno's Epic rank. After testing their capabilities, he returned to Domit's Command Post and told Domit to assemble the legion and prepare supplies, to formulate a battle plan as quickly as possible, and to march on Ganno in a few days.

The legion's destination was Ganno, but the strategic goal was not limited to that one country.

At this moment, he had a clear understanding of his own strength, as well as a comparison with the combat power of an Epic rank.

Epic ranks were quite peculiar.

To be honest, if Zhang Mu were to fight the Pope now, he would dare to claim certain victory. Having mastered the rules, Zhang Mu could ignore the True Word Spell: God Said, as the True Word Spell was theoretically an application of rules.

But he couldn't do that against an Epic rank; the two were completely different species.

Of course, as Zhang Mu's comprehension of the rules deepened, there would eventually come a day when he could crush an Epic rank with one hand. But that was the future; he couldn't do it now.

Fortunately, facing three Epic ranks was not a problem.

The three warring countries each possessed one Epic rank, totaling three. Since they were within Zhang Mu's capability and had to be dealt with anyway, and since the three countries happened to be gathered together, he decided to handle them all at once.

Domit called a meeting of all Legion Commanders overnight and presented several sets of plans, including active ones and backups.

The next day, all of Lake's main legions mobilized and assembled at the border.

The transport of supplies began simultaneously. Convoys stretched for a hundred miles on the roads, with the Armored Corps following at the rear for protection. The logistics department set out first, protected by the Special Operations Squad, to reach the Ganno border and hasten the construction of an airfield after selecting a suitable site.

Half a month later, the main Lake legions, divided into three branches, arrived one after another fifty kilometers from Ganno.

Domit sent out drones and Special Operations Squads to gather intelligence, summarizing and analyzing it to understand the current situation.

The three countries locked in combat noticed the assembled Lake legions. Ganno was naturally panicked; if Lake invaded while they were weak, they would be attacked from both sides and would surely perish within three months of struggling.

The empire alliance was overjoyed, thinking that if Ganno were destroyed a day earlier, their own countries could recuperate a day sooner.

They thought they could send someone to contact Lake and form an alliance. Of course, the two nations had their own schemes; Lake was a group of heretics, and heretics were a calamity that had to be eliminated. Inviting them to join forces now was merely exploitation; they would turn around and destroy them afterward.

Domit was ambiguous toward the envoys sent by the two countries, only saying he would consider it and never giving a definitive answer.

The two countries didn't care. Even if Lake didn't help, Ganno would still fall, and then it would be Lake's turn.

Domit didn't know their schemes, nor did he want to know.

Half a month later, he ordered the attack.

Ganno suffered a pincer attack from front and back, and its front lines quickly collapsed. The Epic rank could not sit by and watch Ganno's destruction; if Ganno died, he would die too. Even if the enemy had two Epic ranks, he had no choice but to fight.

The Epic rank planned to slaughter Lake before the empire alliance could react. In his view, it would only take him a day to wipe out Lake, which lacked an Epic rank.

Then he ran into Zhang Mu, who was waiting for him to leave the imperial capital.

An Epic rank has a combat power boost within their empire, and a terrifying one at that. Zhang Mu naturally didn't want to fight on the enemy's home turf.

He deduced that if Ganno's Epic rank acted, he would surely deal with the "weaker" Lake first, so he lurked near the main force of the legion.

The deduction was very accurate; the Epic rank came looking for them of his own accord.

There was nothing much to say. Zhang Mu revealed himself, and the moment their eyes met, a great battle erupted.

The process lasted a day and a night, and Ganno's Epic rank died.

The King of Ganno, having lost his Epic rank, knew that the fall of his nation was destined. He gave up struggling and died by self-detonating his mana Core in his bedroom. Palace guards, servants, ministers, and others fled the empire that day. Upon hearing the news, Ganno's Gods Blessing ranks immediately fled the battlefield to save their own lives.

The high-level officials of the two alliance nations cheered and celebrated. On one hand, they ordered their legions to occupy the imperial capital; on the other, they met to discuss how to eliminate Lake and hunt down Ganno's Epic rank.

They didn't know that Ganno's Epic rank had died at Zhang Mu's hands. They were still curious why Ganno's Epic rank had been hiding in the empire and found it strange that the King of Ganno had committed suicide while the Epic rank was still there; it was truly bizarre.

Before the confusion of the two nations' high-level officials could be resolved and before the tactics against Lake were finalized, Zhang Mu came killing his way over with the Special Operations Squad.

The legions sent to occupy the empire were ambushed by Lake en route. The legions camped in the wild were bombed by air force formations. The High-tier Professionals who took to the sky to hunt down the warplanes were picked off one by one by the Special Operations Squad. The Saint-ranks and Gods Blessing ranks who arrived in time were wiped out single-handedly by Zhang Mu.

With the top-tier Professionals nearly all dead or wounded, the high-level officials finally came to their senses. Facing the tragedy, they were furious and summoned their Epic ranks to come.

Zhang Mu had long anticipated the two countries' actions. He told Domit to ignore the Epic ranks and fight according to the scheduled rhythm, while he hid his tracks and rushed to the road the two countries' Epic ranks had to take to reach Ganno.

Three days later, the two Epic ranks traveling together saw a Young Man from afar, floating in the air ahead with his hands behind his back.