Chapter 272 - Retaliation
A tunnel connected the two gates, and the allied forces marched through it for a long time before reaching Han Wu’s divine realm. Alongside the spectating seniors, they froze in shock the moment they arrived.
“What’s going on?”
“Why is it so dark?”
Pitch-black darkness engulfed everything. The army couldn’t even see their own limbs.
Did Han Wu have no sources of light in his divine realm? The blackness blinded them completely.
How had Han Wu’s core race survived in this place? Everyone was confused.
The invasion was already in motion, so Li Zhe chose to take it one step at a time. He ordered the units to march deeper into the darkness, confident they would soon find the light.
In truth, no light would greet them no matter how far they pressed on. They were trapped inside the Dark Locustman High Lord Tower’s Dark Domain. Its passive Skill, Eternal Night, cloaked everything in absolute darkness, blinding every unit within it.
At the same time, the towers detected the invaders and sounded their alarm bells. The stationed units sent word to Han Wu about the invasion, but he didn’t respond because he was still in seclusion.
Faced with this crisis, his units resorted to the most drastic option: they identified the intruders as hostile forces and launched a full-scale assault. A storm of attacks rained down—dragon breath, death aura, Darkness, Erosion, Venom Spear, and even a fully charged fireball.
The hundreds of millions of enemy units had barely taken two steps when the devastating counterattack struck. The assault unfolded entirely within the darkness. The spectating seniors heard only the agonized cries of the fallen without seeing a thing.
Only one senior, possessing a Skill similar to echolocation, managed to perceive what was happening inside Han Wu’s divine realm. He saw countless powerful life forms surrounding the allied army and unleashing relentless attacks. Within three minutes, most of the allied forces lay wiped out, while the survivors suffered severe injuries.
Only a handful of King life forms and some High Lords with exceptional defensive abilities were still alive. The survivors cried out in desperation, begging their gods to bring them back.
Li Zhe suspected that one of the seniors had leaked the plan to Han Wu, which prompted him to set up his defenses ahead of time. He intended to uncover the traitor once he returned. He issued an immediate retreat to avoid further casualties, but Han Wu’s forces moved faster.
Steely stood firm at the gate’s entrance, gripping four massive God greatswords. As a Saint with the strength of a King life form, he alone could hold his ground against multiple King life forms.
At his side were High Lord Divine Hammer, the High Lord Osteomancer, the High Lord Skeleton Reanimator, High Lord Sarman, King Hu Chi, King Hu Yong, the formidable Alpheus, and a host of lightning Great Dragons.
Meanwhile, Han Wu’s core race, the locusts, rallied under the Dark Locustman King and surged into Li Zhe’s territory.
Suddenly, Li Zhe sensed chaos within his divine realm. He abandoned the remaining King and High Lord life forms and retreated to his divine realm. His face turned ashen when he saw the destruction. Locusts of various species and ranks tore through the realm, razing buildings and attacking every life form. Worse still, his divine realm’s defenses weakened under the relentless assault of exploding locusts.
“Get out of my divine realm!” Li Zhe poured Divine Points into his voice, amplifying his command in an attempt to intimidate them.
Unfortunately, none of the locusts flinched. Many lacked the intelligence to grasp the concept of anger. The smarter ones understood, but didn’t care. Han Wu was their only god, and they followed no one else. Not even a God King could sway them. They didn’t fear death—in fact, the more intelligent among them actively sought out the most destructive spots to detonate themselves for maximum damage.
Li Zhe quickly realized he could not intimidate them, so he ordered his core race, the Azure-Eye Tigers, to fight back.
As Elite life forms, they were powerful in their own right, and many had evolved into formidable beings under Li Zhe’s long-term care. Among them, the strongest was the Six-Eyed Dragon Devourer, a King life form locked in combat with Dark Locust.
The locusts were weak by comparison. Although Dark Locust was already a King life form, its strength ranked below average, and it struggled to inflict any real damage on the Six-Eyed Dragon Devourer.
Even so, Han Wu had personally nurtured Dark Locust, and it had developed a high level of intelligence. Recognizing it could not win with a direct assault, it summoned more lower-ranking locusts to drain its opponent’s energy.
Soon, relentless explosions engulfed the powerful Six-Eyed Dragon Devourer. Dark Locust then used this chance to attack and turned the tide of battle.
Li Zhe refused to stand by and watch Dark Locust kill his strongest unit, so he summoned strength and materialized his real body within his divine realm to fight. Dark Locust immediately stopped attacking the Six-Eyed Dragon Devourer and slipped past Li Zhe’s flurry of attacks with effortless agility.
Li Zhe seethed with frustration. He was just about to assert control over his divine realm and restrain Dark Locust when a powerful presence emerged from the gate. An overwhelming Divine Authority washed over him, breaking his concentration. He spun around in anger and spotted a middle-aged man standing there with a smirk.
Li Zhe immediately sensed the Divine Authority that belonged only to true Gods and above. “Are you the God Han Wu hired to protect him? I will pay double whatever he gave you.”
Though he had already reached the peak of a Demigod, just one step from becoming a God, he was still far from matching a true God. The moment this man arrived, Li Zhe knew he couldn’t act recklessly.
The man maintained his smile. “Hello. I am Han Wen, Han Wu’s clone. Goodbye, Senior Li.”
With that, Han Wen unleashed his Skill: Martial God Flash. The punch looked simple but carried the depth of countless martial arts. That single strike held the power to sunder the earth and bring down even the mightiest Gods.
Li Zhe tried to dodge, but no matter how fast he moved, he couldn’t escape. The punch connected and launched him through several mountain ranges before he finally skidded to a stop, barely clinging to life.
Before he could recover, Han Wen appeared in front of him. He trembled in terror and pleaded, “Please... Mercy—”
Han Wen ignored the plea and delivered a crushing kick—his Martial God Kick. The strike shattered Li Zhe’s true body. With his death, the entire divine realm plunged into darkness, and his hidden Core was destroyed.
Han Wen chuckled softly. “You can come at us if you are not afraid of death.”
His words were not for himself but aimed at the spectating students. The seniors shuddered at the display before they were forcibly removed from spectator mode.