263: Chapter 198: Clash of Divine Kingdoms, A Battle at the Level of Rules

Just as his consciousness coalesced within the [Shattered Divine War Plains], an indescribable, heavy pressure washed over him.

Lin Zhou's divine domain core projected onto a relatively flat wasteland covered in cracked, scorched marks. The ground exposed dark red rocks, and the air was thick with the lingering scent of rust, a faint hint of sulfur, and a certain... concentrated, tragic will that refused to dissipate. The sky was a murky dark red, devoid of sun or moon, marked only by slowly twisting spatial rifts like scars, flickering with unstable, eerie light. In the distance, massive metallic wreckage, semi-buried skeletons of unknown creatures, and clusters of crystals emitting faint energy fluctuations formed the desolate backdrop of these ancient divine war ruins.

However, the sense of oppression brought by this environment was trivial compared to the will sweeping in from the northwest.

That was pure war Aura, nearly condensed into substance!

There were no deafening battle cries, no sky-covering arrows or Spell lights—merely a silent declaration: War has arrived!

Lin Zhou's divine kingdom, the Hundred Schools Divine Kingdom, expanded its projection into the physical world to its maximum extent under his full exertion. A pale gold, semi-transparent light membrane enveloped an area of about 100 square kilometers (limited by Lin Zhou's current Divine Power and rule mastery, unable to fully deploy the true area of the divine Domain). Within the membrane, one could vaguely see the flying eaves of Jixia Academy, the silhouette of the Temple of Law, the chimneys of the Tiangong Workshop, and the foundations of the Steel Bastion under accelerated construction. A shimmering pale gold river phantom, seemingly converged from countless thoughts and historical fragments, flowed above the divine kingdom, covering about one-third of its range and emitting a gentle yet resilient civilization glow. Inside the divine kingdom, the Literary Heart Elves, Tiangong Dwarves, Law Fishmen, and Naturalized Orcs were all in their positions, waiting in formation. Despite facing overwhelming pressure, they maintained their Order and Battle Intent under the illumination of the river of civilization and the unification of Lin Zhou's will.

And to the northwest, about fifty kilometers away, another divine kingdom projection—larger, more solid, and with an even more terrifying Aura—was slowly pressing forward like a moving mountain range of war!

It was a land shrouded in a radiance of interwoven dark red and iron gray, with an estimated area exceeding 250 square kilometers! The light membrane at its boundary possessed a metallic texture, with war symbols like shields, spears, and chariots faintly circulating upon it. Inside the divine kingdom, no bustling cities or diverse ecosystems were visible; there were only orderly military camps, drill grounds, forging workshops, and sharp-edged fortresses full of pragmatist style. Most striking were the dark red [War] rules permeating above the divine kingdom, almost manifesting as substance! They were like thick mist or invisible force fields; wherever they passed, even the unstable spatial rifts on the shattered plains seemed forcibly "smoothed out" or "evaded," as if even chaos had to retreat before this pure will of war!

Xuanyuan Hong's divine kingdom was like a giant, cold, and efficient machine born for war. Its rule completeness was visually estimated to far exceed Lin Zhou's, at least above 75%, having already formed a preliminary, internal-looping war ecology.

The followers of both sides also formed a sharp contrast.

On Lin Zhou's side were diverse intelligent races, each with its own characteristics; though their formation was strict, it carried the mundane warmth of civilization and the brilliance of thought.

On Xuanyuan Hong's side, at the edge of the divine kingdom, row upon row, standing solemnly like statues, were the [Spartan War Souls] mentioned in the data!

Their forms existed between the ethereal and the real, about two and a half meters tall, with clear and rigid silhouettes. They were clad in simple but powerful bronze-colored armor (solidified phantoms), holding exaggeratedly large round shields ([Aspis Great Shield] phantoms) and spears over three meters long ([Doric Spear] phantoms). Their faces were completely covered by Corinthian Helmets decorated with red manes, revealing only two points of eyes burning with cold war-fire. Their numbers... at a glance, the phalanxes lined up at the edge of the divine kingdom alone exceeded five thousand! Moreover, their Auras were generally powerful, with average energy fluctuations steadily reaching Rank 45 or higher! They made no sound, their silence unsettling; only that discipline and Battle Intent, which seemed capable of crushing even steel into powder, crashed against everyone's minds like a literal tsunami.

At the very front of the War Soul phalanxes, an exceptionally tall (over three and a half meters) hero unit stood towering, clad in gold-patterned armor, holding a giant war spear, and decorated with a bright red horsehair crest on its helmet. Simply by standing there, the Auras of the surrounding War Souls seemed to merge into one, forming a more stable and dangerous war Domain. This was likely the War Soul Commander, a terrifying existence of Rank 50+.

No probing, no words.

Xuanyuan Hong's divine kingdom paused for less than three seconds after Lin Zhou's divine kingdom fully deployed its projection, then began to translate forward in a stable, determined, and unstoppable posture! Its target was aimed directly at the core of Lin Zhou's divine kingdom!

He intended to perform the most direct, domineering, and absolute demonstration of the strength gap—a divine kingdom collision! Using his larger, more perfect ruled divine kingdom to directly crush and shatter Lin Zhou's "fragile" Hundred Schools Divine Kingdom!

"Here it comes!" Alarm bells rang wildly in Lin Zhou's mind. He immediately ordered through the team link: "Everyone! Followers, enter the divine kingdom shelters! Qin Qing, angels take flight, prepare for the rule impact! Zhao Hao, the Dragon must not leave the divine kingdom range for now! Wang Meng, Behemoths guard the core area! Li Mo, monitor the rule collision data with all your might!"

The moment the Orders were issued, the two massive demiplane projections roared toward each other in the sky above the shattered plains!

What touched first was not physical matter, but the rule boundaries!

Hum——!!!

An extremely low-pitched boom, yet one that seemed to vibrate the very Soul, erupted from the point where the two divine kingdom light membranes met! That was not a sound on the physical level, but an Origin oscillation generated by the friction, collision, and compression of rules!

Visible ripples spread frantically outward from the point of contact. Wherever they passed, the already fragile space was torn into even more tiny rifts, and the rubble and dust on the ground were crushed into fine powder by invisible forces!

Lin Zhou's whole body shook violently, feeling as if his divinity had been struck hard by a heavy hammer! The divine kingdom light membrane fluctuated wildly, twisting and denting inward! The dense, inseparable [War] rules from the opponent's divine kingdom, like a red-hot iron, "seared" into the rule barrier of the Hundred Schools Divine Kingdom, attempting to erode, tear, and assimilate it into part of the war rules!

[War Rule Erosion] activated!

Effect: Attempting to suppress, cover, and twist the non-war/alien rules of the target divine kingdom, weakening its defense and functions, and providing a home-field bonus for one's own war units.

If Lin Zhou's divine kingdom were an ordinary one, even with a comparable area, under the erosion of such pure, high-level [War] divine authority, the rule barrier would quickly disintegrate, the internal ecology would fall into chaos, and the followers' morale would plummet.

However, the instant the [War] rules touched the Hundred Schools Divine Kingdom's light membrane and tried to drive straight in—

"river of civilization! Manifest!"

Lin Zhou roared in his heart, his consciousness merging completely with the phantom of the river of civilization above the divine kingdom! The pale gold river surged abruptly, letting out a roar that seemed to come from the depths of history! Within the river, phantoms of countless ancient sages flickered, and the brilliance of the Hundred Schools of Thought—Confucian benevolence and Order, Military strategic wisdom, Legalist strict edicts, Mohist ingenious defense, Taoist natural harmony... like awakened stars, suddenly lit up!

These lights of thought were not disorganized; rather, under the governance of the river of civilization, they spontaneously converged and intertwined, forming a seemingly invisible yet incredibly resilient web of civilization rules. It held fast inside the divine kingdom barrier, facing the surging torrent of war head-on!

[principles of civilization · Guardianship (Passive/Initial Manifestation)] triggered!

Principle: The Hundred Schools of Thought contained within the river of civilization are multi-dimensional, systematic cognitions and expositions of the world's operating laws (including war). When facing the erosion of a single, extreme rule (such as pure war), the principles of civilization demonstrate their inclusivity, adaptability, and deconstructive nature.

Manifestation of Effects:

Confucian Order: "Weapons are tools of ill omen, used by the Saint only as a last resort." The pure destructiveness and killing intent of parts of the war rules were buffered and diluted by the concepts of "Benevolent War" and "Righteous War" advocated by Confucianism. The extreme portions of "indiscriminate destruction" within the war rules were weakened.

Military Wisdom: "The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in Order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities." Military thought does not resist war but examines it within a larger framework of strategy and wisdom. To a certain extent, this "parsed" the composition and intent of the opponent's war rules, making them no longer an incomprehensible pressure of pure power, but a "phenomenon" that could be analyzed and dealt with.

Legalist Edicts: "When law prevails in the state, Orders originate from the ruler." Legalist thought emphasizes the internal unity and mandatory Execution of rules and Order. When external rules (war rules) attempted to intrude, Legalist concepts reinforced the "sovereignty" awareness and rejection of the divine kingdom's own rules, making the barrier more "tightly secured."

Mohist Non-Aggression/Taoist Nature: "Non-Aggression" weakened the aggressiveness of the war rules; "Tao Follows Nature" moderated rule conflicts from a higher level, guiding and dispersing part of the impact force, or transforming it.

Hundred Schools Resonance: Multiple thoughts resonated, forming a complex rule interaction field. When a single war rule faced this composite rule network full of internal dialectics and wisdom, its erosion efficiency was drastically reduced.

The pale gold civilization rule web and the dark red war rule torrent engaged in a silent but fiercely intense struggle at the divine kingdom barrier!

Lin Zhou's divinity operated at an overload, processing massive amounts of rule confrontation information. He could "see" the dark red "tide" representing the war rules being rapidly divided, guided, and buffered after crashing into the civilization web. Part was "appeased" by Confucian Order concepts, part was "parsed" by Military wisdom to find gaps for response, part was "blocked" by Legalist strict Orders, and another part was "deflected" or "integrated" into the environment by Mohist and Taoist thoughts.

Although the civilization web was also vibrating violently, its light flickering unsteadily, and representing a rapid consumption of Lin Zhou's Divine Power (about 800 points per second), the shocking thing was—it actually held!

The expected one-sided rule crushing did not occur! Although the rule barrier of the Hundred Schools Divine Kingdom was pressed inward by nearly a hundred meters, with fine cracks even appearing in the peripheral areas, the core area remained stable! Although the followers within the divine kingdom felt the immense pressure and the deterrent of boundless Battle Intent, under the illumination of the river of civilization and the soothing of various thoughts, no large-scale panic or collapse occurred! The Literary Heart Elves, led by Elia, even chanted passages to stabilize their minds in unison, as faint glows of Order rose from them and merged into the civilization web.

At the same time, the real-time data monitored by Li Mo was shared with everyone through the team link:

[Rule Confrontation Real-time Monitoring (Simplified)]

Confrontation Area: Divine Kingdom Northwest Barrier (Contact Surface)

Enemy Rule Intensity: [War] (Rank 350 Divine Authority buff) — Intensity Rating: A+

Our Rule Intensity: [principles of civilization · Aggregation] (Hundred Schools of Thought + river of civilization) — Intensity Rating: B+ (Limited by Divinity Rank and Divine Kingdom completeness)

Current Rule Offset Rate: 40.7% (Enemy war rule effectiveness weakened by 40.7%)

Our Rule Consumption: Divine Power -820/sec, Divinity Load 78%

Barrier Completeness: 87.3% (Slight damage, under repair)

Special Phenomenon: Detected traces of "self-contradiction" and "blurred direction" in enemy war rules (Suspected interference by Military/Confucian thought).

"Rule offset 40.7%!" Zhao Hao almost screamed, "Old Lin! That river of yours is incredible! It can actually go head-to-head with Xuanyuan Hong's war authority without losing ground?!"

Qin Qing also looked at the barrier where the pale gold and dark red clashed fiercely with shock. She could clearly feel that the pure war will, which made even her heart palpitate, had indeed become "blunted" and "disordered" after touching the civilization web. "It's not just resistance... it's even performing a certain degree of... 'enlightenment' and 'parsing'?"

Wang Meng's eyes were wide. He had thought his divine kingdom would shatter instantly in such a collision, but he hadn't expected it to hold! "Brother Lin... this 'civilization' of yours is pretty tough!"

Lin Zhou did not respond; his entire mind was devoted to maintaining the river of civilization and the rule confrontation. Over 40% offset sounded good, but it meant the opponent still had nearly 60% of the war rule effectiveness continuously impacting! Moreover, this was only the preliminary contact of rules! The physical mass and momentum of that massive divine kingdom were about to follow!

Just as the rule confrontation was proceeding intensely, Xuanyuan Hong's massive divine kingdom projection, exceeding 250 square kilometers, brought its solid "foundation" (a bottom structure of mixed rules and matter) and, with physical potential energy capable of crushing everything, slammed into the edge of Lin Zhou's mere 100-square-kilometer divine kingdom!

The true divine kingdom collision had begun!

This time, it was a double crushing on both the physical and rule levels!

Rumble——!!!

A roar ten million times more terrifying than the previous rule friction erupted! It was as if two worlds were crushing and pulverizing each other! Near the collision point, space shattered like glass, revealing the violent void turbulence behind it! A powerful shockwave spread frantically in all directions in a spherical shape, completely blowing away and pulverizing any object on the ground that wasn't sturdy enough!

Lin Zhou felt as if his divine kingdom had been hit head-on by a burning star! The entire divine kingdom shook and tilted violently! At the edges, those barriers already enduring rule impact finally became overwhelmed under the physical collision, shattering and annihilating in large swaths! The pale gold light membrane representing territorial area rapidly contracted inward as if being devoured!

100 square kilometers → 95 → 90 → 85... Inside the divine kingdom, the mountains shook and the earth moved! The beams and pillars of Jixia Academy let out groans of being overstrained, the tiles of the Temple of Law fell in showers, and a section of the Tiangong Workshop's chimney collapsed! A large number of low-level followers were injured or even killed in the tremors!

"Hold steady!" A trace of golden divine blood (simulated) seeped from the corner of Lin Zhou's mouth, but his gaze remained as sharp as a blade. He frantically burned Divine Power, driving the river of civilization to stabilize the divine kingdom's core area to the maximum, repairing the broken barriers while guiding and dispersing part of the collision's impact through Taoist and Mohist thoughts.

On the other side, Xuanyuan Hong's divine kingdom also shook slightly, with damage appearing at its edges as well, but compared to its massive volume, it was trivial. The initiative of the collision was entirely in his hands.

After the initial impact, his divine kingdom did not pause for a moment, continuing to push forward at a stable, cold speed! Like a giant steamroller, it intended to grind all obstacles in its path, along with the "erroneous thoughts" they carried, into the dust of history!

The divine kingdom collision entered the most brutal stage of attrition and crushing.

Lin Zhou's divine kingdom, despite being at an absolute disadvantage in area, mass, and rule completeness, had surprisingly not been instantly defeated in the first round of the most violent collision, thanks to the strange rule resistance brought by the river of civilization.

But this was only the beginning. The true bitter battle and survival test were only just pulling back their curtains now.