74: Chapter 74

Was Shiva trying to provoke a war to gain the initiative before Heaven could act, or was it purely to seize the Beast Emperor's power?

Michael pondered in his heart.

Cao Cao, however, took a few extra looks at Dulio Gesualdo.

Or more accurately, at the six pairs of golden wings on his back.

Dulio Gesualdo previously had five pairs of wings, but now they had become six, and his aura had also broken through to the early stage of the Super Devil King Class.

It was just as Luo Yu had guessed earlier.

Michael had exhausted some of Heaven's heritage, or perhaps a trump card left behind by God, and used a method akin to an initiation to forcibly raise Dulio Gesualdo by a major realm.

If it truly came to a fight, once Dulio Gesualdo activated the Balance Breaker of Zenith Tempest, his combat power should be able to soar directly to the first tier of the Super Devil level.

Let's calculate.

Dulio Gesualdo and Vali were both combatants of the first tier of the Super Devil level.

Cao Cao was of the second tier of the Super Devil level.

The strongest, Luo Yu, stood firmly at the third tier of the Super Devil level.

With this power, the angels' revenge plan might not be as hopeless as Michael and the others had imagined.

Of course, many things could not be judged solely by their appearance.

Michael knew this, and Luo Yu understood it as well.

Once the revenge plan began, the things it would draw out would be beyond what a few pantheons could handle.

"Shiva dared to ambush even God and even go for the kill, let alone the Beast Emperor."

Luo Yu's tone was very calm.

"At his level, there are only two things he truly cares about. One is the pantheon, and the other is his own power. In fact, power weighs more in his heart than the pantheon. So what if the pantheon is destroyed? As long as he is strong enough, he can, like God, recreate an entire pantheon on his own."

Michael listened and nodded inwardly.

This sounded cold-blooded.

But it was indeed the truth.

A devil, a god, or a dragon could sometimes support an entire pantheon.

Their existence directly determined whether the entire pantheon would continue to exist or be completely extinguished.

Luo Yu stared at Michael, his tone so heavy it could crush someone.

"Michael, now the four of us, whether you jumped in willingly or were dragged into it, are all going to be pulled into this chaotic brawl with the Main God as the catalyst."

He paused, his gaze not shifting.

"There are some things you angels need to be upfront with me about. When do you plan to act, how will you act, and what trump cards does Heaven still have? I don't want to blindly fight a battle that can't be won."

"And I certainly don't want to throw my life away holding onto the foolish notion of 'everyone dies together to be buried with the Main God'."

Cao Cao's expression was calm, showing no fluctuation.

But Dulio Gesualdo beside him changed expression, his mouth moving as if he wanted to say something.

Michael raised a hand to stop him.

"Red Dragon Emperor, before you were dragged into this, all the angels of Heaven were proceeding with the mindset of 'dying in battle for God'. Whether it was sacrificing Heaven or something else, that was the direction."

His tone was very heavy.

"But it's different now. Now we at least have a way out—at the very least, we can let the seeds of angels participating in the battle, like Dulio Gesualdo, survive."

Among the hybrid angels of Heaven, Dulio Gesualdo was not the only one to make this choice.

Almost all the hybrid angels chose the same path.

What made them choose this was, on one hand, their faith in the Main God, and on the other, more importantly, the bond they shared with Heaven.

"Master, I—"

Before Dulio Gesualdo could finish, he was cut off by Michael.

"Shut up. Do you really want the entire Angel race, and even the entire Heaven, to be completely finished?"

This guy, who usually had the best temper in the Three Realms, had a rare flash of anger on his face at this moment.

Luo Yu and Cao Cao exchanged a look.

Some things hadn't been spelled out, but the message had been conveyed.

Michael and the angels created by the Main God's own hands, in the end, still wanted to follow the Main God. It was just that now they wanted to keep the seeds of hybrid angels like Dulio Gesualdo, to preserve the Angel lineage for the Main God and for the Three Realms.

Dulio Gesualdo's face was filled with sorrow.

He wanted to fight to the death for Heaven, but his master wouldn't let him...

Subsequently, Michael pushed all the information regarding the layout for the great war into the minds of Luo Yu and Cao Cao in the form of memory fragments.

"Half a year from now..."

Luo Yu glanced through it quickly, and his brows furrowed.

This timeline was much earlier than he had initially thought.

"This is just a rough estimate. Some plans will be adjusted because of your participation, and the timing will change accordingly."

After all, Luo Yu, Cao Cao, plus Dulio Gesualdo meant that three combatants of the Super Devil level had appeared out of thin air.

No one dared to treat this weight lightly.

After discussing matters in Heaven, Luo Yu did not stay long and left directly.

He did not return to Kuoh Town.

Instead, he flew towards the east of the Human World—he had to go check on Mount Sumeru.

The scene before him was nothing but ruins.

Those fairy pavilions and jade towers that once stood in the clouds had completely collapsed. The spirit springs had dried up, the fairy mountains had crumbled, and it had become a dead zone.

The ground was covered in corpses.

There were gods, soldiers, fairy beasts, and spirit beasts; severed limbs and broken arms were scattered everywhere. Blood had drenched the entire land into a dark red. A thick, inseparable baleful aura floated in the sky, as if it wanted to strangle every living thing in the area.

"I really didn't expect Mount Sumeru to become like this."

Luo Yu stood high in the sky, looking down at the tragic scene beneath his feet. Ddraig's voice emerged from his mind, carrying a hint of lament.

Mount Sumeru had long since sealed itself. Before Luo Yu left, Cao Cao had shoved a key into his hand, saying it could open the seal. Otherwise, he would have to force his way in, and if that happened, the clone trapped in the mountain would certainly escape.

But...

"What about that thing? Did it run?"

Luo Yu frowned and scanned the area. The air was filled with the smell of that baleful aura, and everything was corroding and collapsing, but he didn't see even a shadow of that clone.

"It was suppressed by Indra in the deepest part."

The voice was weak, as if squeezed out from between teeth.

Luo Yu flashed over immediately.

A giant cyan dragon was hanging on the mountain, its body already broken into two halves, no less than a hundred zhang long. Black gas coiled around its body like a poisonous snake, gnawing away all its vitality. There was a final glimmer of light left in the dragon's eyes, not yet completely extinguished.

It was the West Sea Dragon Child, Jade Dragon.

Luo Yu wasn't very surprised. After all, this guy was one of the Five Great Dragon Kings of the Three Realms; if he really died completely, the dragon race in the Three Realms would all sense it. Just like when his own bloodline rose to the Dragon King level back then.

However, Jade Dragon couldn't hold on for long.

Luo Yu saw it clearly. That guy's origin soul was already thoroughly rotten. The baleful aura was burrowing in like a worm, nibbling away at his origin dragon soul bit by bit. Even the immortality that was said to be beyond even the gods could not withstand the power of that clone.

This made Luo Yu's heart tighten.

If even the origin dragon soul couldn't hold up, just how wicked was that thing?

That kid Cao Cao really did run; it hadn't been in vain for Indra and the First Generation.

Mount Sumeru had at least left behind its final seedling.

A flash of relief crossed the depths of Jade Dragon's eyes.

Red Dragon Emperor had entered Mount Sumeru using the key in Cao Cao's hand, which meant the person was already safe, and that guy Shiva hadn't managed to intercept and kill him.

"Rest assured, once Cao Cao reaches Heaven, nothing else will happen."

"Heaven is a good place; at the very least, it's safe."

Jade Dragon didn't know why Red Dragon Emperor had arranged for Cao Cao to go to Heaven, but staying there was better than being killed by Shiva.

He, the First Generation, and Indra had never thought of having Cao Cao avenge them.

Going to such great lengths to rescue him from the Beast Emperor was simply because they wanted him to live and not let the lineage of Mount Sumeru go extinct.

"Red Dragon Emperor, this is for you."

An iron ring flew out from Jade Dragon's body and landed in Luo Yu's palm.

"This is... Energy Crystals!"

In the spatial ring in Luo Yu's hand, there was a space as large as a football field.

It was packed full of Energy Crystals.

It was more than three or four times what he had obtained from wiping out the Old Satan Faction last time.

This was likely the last of Mount Sumeru's assets.

"There were originally more crystals, but unfortunately, most of them were destroyed while fighting that clone of the Beast Emperor."

"That guy is a complete monster."

Jade Dragon was about to breathe his last, but he still couldn't help but shiver when mentioning the Beast Emperor.

"Indra's intention was for you to help Cao Cao at a critical moment."

"Besides, you also seem to be quite in need of this stuff."

Luo Yu did not decline and put the items away.

He needed a large amount of Energy Crystals to cut off the Origin Gold Pattern.

Besides, being falsely polite to someone who was about to die was too hypocritical.

"If Cao Cao plans to rebuild Mount Sumeru, I will definitely help with all my might."

Hearing this from Luo Yu, Jade Dragon was finally at ease.

He had held on for so long, and what he was waiting for was this promise from the Red Dragon Emperor.

"The Beast Emperor's clone is sealed by Indra in the deepest part of Mount Sumeru, using the entire mountain as a cage, so it won't be able to come out for a while."

"Unfortunately, the Beast Emperor's precise coordinates still fell into Shiva's hands."

"As expected."

Luo Yu was not surprised by this result at all.

Shiva had come for this in the first place.

"Mount Sumeru... gone overnight..."

Jade Dragon's voice was full of desolation.

Immediately after, his aura grew weaker and weaker.

Luo Yu saw it clearly; his origin dragon soul had completely decayed.

The West Sea Dragon Child, Jade Dragon, one of the Five Great Dragon Kings, had fallen just like that.

Luo Yu looked at the corpse before him and sighed deeply.

Subsequently, his figure also disappeared from Mount Sumeru.

And just like that, it was over.

The secret of Mount Sumeru could no longer be hidden from the moment [West Sea Dragon Child] Jade Dragon breathed his last.

The outside world was now in an uproar.

Countless dragon clans raised their heads, staring fixedly in the direction of the east. They sensed it—the origin dragon soul of Jade Dragon, one of the Five Great Dragon Kings, was completely extinguished, not leaving even a scrap behind.

A storm erupted in various divine realms.

The Main Gods and God Kings of various pantheons, as well as a pile of dragon species, all rushed towards the east, heading straight for Mount Sumeru.

They all knew that Mount Sumeru had sealed itself, but Jade Dragon's death indicated that something major had definitely happened inside the mountain.

————————

Just as those gods and dragons outside were all fixated on Mount Sumeru.

In another place, the Dimensional Gap.

Everywhere here were colorful energy clusters, darting back and forth, making it impossible to tell north from south. If one didn't have a fixed coordinate, walking in here casually would nine times out of ten lead to getting completely lost.

But at this moment, a figure appeared inside.

"This is it."

It was Luo Yu who spoke.

He clutched a glowing pelt in his hand, his feet not stopping, moving at high speed, as if he wasn't worried at all about getting lost in this godforsaken place.

After he came out of Mount Sumeru, he hadn't rested for a breath and had charged straight into the Dimensional Gap.

This special place was the territory that had given birth to the True Red Dragon God Emperor (male) and the Infinite Dragon God Ophis (female).

The direction pointed to by the pelt in Luo Yu's hand was exactly here.

In his eyes, it was not yet time to release the Beast Emperor. The best method was to stabilize the seal; once that thing truly broke through the seal, no one in the Three Realms could suppress it, and the variables were too great.

No matter what method Shiva used, he could not be allowed to steal the Beast Emperor's power. Moreover, they were now mortal enemies.