Chapter 860: Divine King Gravely Injured, World-Level Weapon (II)

In the conference room aboard Orbital Battleship 5, Heavenly King Zhenwu and Chen Chu, who had just broken through before being summoned, sat upon their respective thrones. Five other kings were seated on either side of them.

Below, in the seats of the conference room, sat dozens of Ninth Heavenly Realm powerhouses and more than two hundred Eighth Heavenly Realm experts.

At the head seat, Heavenly King Zhenwu said in a solemn tone, "We’ve just received word from Heavenly King Xuanwu and the others. A Heavenly Feathered Divine King was severely wounded and can no longer fight. As he was a peak powerhouse, his fall has plunged the already disadvantaged Heavenly Feathered Battlefield into immediate crisis. As such, our battleships will now enter Overdrive Mode, pushing forward at full speed to reach the battlefield as quickly as possible.

"During Overdrive Mode, all energy will be redirected to the ships’ engines. All biological life support zones, energy barriers, cultivation chambers, and similar regions will be shut down. For the duration, no one is to fly outside the shields, nor is anyone permitted to cultivate. Doing so may trigger ambient transcendent energy and destabilize the Overdrive Force Field."

His words stunned everyone present. None had expected the situation at the Heavenly Feathered Battlefield to deteriorate further even before they had arrived. He then shared a few more updates regarding the battlefield and dismissed the meeting.

One by one, the figures flew off to return to their designated battleships. However, Chen Chu, several kings, and Luo Fei remained.

Heavenly King Zhenwu glanced at them and gravely took out seven white crystals. "These contain detailed intelligence on the Heavenly Feathered Battlefield, including the surface-level forces of the three Demon God Empires. Take a look."

The seven sealed white crystals floated toward them. The reason they were sealed in crystals rather than sent via smartwatches was because each contained imprints of the known auras of demon kings, great demon kings, and even demon gods from the three empires.

Compared to the human frontline battlefields, the Heavenly Feathered Battlefield was far more complex. After centuries, if not millennia, of war, the demon kings there had grown stronger and more cunning. It wasn’t uncommon for demon kings and great demon kings to suppress their auras and hide within transcendent-level legions to launch ambushes.

As Chen Chu grasped the white crystal and immersed his will within it, a vast torrent of information surged into his mind. The Heavenly Feathered Race was divided into three bloodlines, each headed by a divine king. Among them, the Heavenly Feathered Lineage was the strongest.

All those of this bloodline bore pure white wings, resembling the angels from West Meng's legends. Moreover, once a member of the Heavenly Feathered Lineage reached the mythical level, a glowing white halo would appear above their head—a mark of divine power and sanctity.

Currently, two divine kings guarded this bloodline. The Divine King of Light had reached the peak of the ancient level, wielding terrifying power, and was the pillar that had allowed the Heavenly Feathered Race to hold out until now.

The Divine Phoenix Lineage also had two divine kings, one at the late stage and one at the middle stage. Together with the Silverplume Lineage’s one late-stage divine king, these formed the race’s top combat force.

At their peak, the Heavenly Feathered Race had boasted nine supreme-level powerhouses. They had since lost four in battle, but even the three Demon God Empires hadn’t emerged unscathed; two demon gods had perished with them in mutual destruction.

Among the three empires, the strongest was the Dark Morro Empire, which had three demon gods stationed within. One of them, a peak great demon god, was reportedly even stronger than the Divine King of Light. Beneath him stood one middle-stage and one late-stage demon god, along with ten great demon kings and seventy-one demon kings.

The empire also commanded 22 main demon legions and over 150 vassal legions. Even a single empire of this scale could rival the Human Federation in overall combat strength. In terms of peak combat power, humanity currently had no one capable of withstanding that peak great demon god.

Below the Dark Morro Empire was the Belvetan Empire, which also had 3 demon gods, 9 great demon kings, and 63 demon kings. It fielded 23 main legions and 120 vassal legions.

The weakest of the three was the Freymund Empire. Though it too had three demon gods, only one of them had reached the late stage, while the other two remained at the beginning stage. It also had fifty-seven demon kings and eight great demon kings.

However, while its high-end strength lagged slightly behind, the Freymund Empire possessed more main Purgatory True Demon legions—27 in total, with 140 vassal legions.

Each of these main legions rivaled the strength of human forces and had even more elite warriors. Coupled with their mastery over legion battle formations, this Purgatory Clan was an overwhelming threat.

Beyond military might, the Heavenly Feathered Race’s logistics had nearly been exhausted. Supplies were unable to keep up. After each major battle, the shortage of critical resources—divine medicine for healing, energy fluids, materials to repair transcendent weapons—meant casualties were mounting rapidly.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Although their overall strength had already been utterly outmatched, the three great Demon God Empires were advancing cautiously, having learned from the fall of two demon gods in earlier battles. None of the nine remaining demon gods were willing to risk being dragged down in a mutual kill by the enemy’s supreme-level powerhouses just when victory seemed within reach.

Most critically, unlike the two empires that humanity had been confronting, the strongest demon gods of the three great empires had already forged world-level demonic weapons. These weapons, comparable to the foundational racial weapons wielded by Heavenly King Zhenwu, could allow their users to erupt with overwhelming power.

This was precisely why Deorus and the like were looked down upon. A demon god who lacked a world-class magic weapon simply wasn’t qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as them.

Chen Chu slowly exhaled after reading through the data. His expression turned grave, and any fleeting ease he had felt from his recent power growth vanished completely.

The actual strength of the three Demon God Empires was far more formidable than expected. Even one of them alone could challenge the entire human race. Moreover, the data presented was only surface-level intelligence gathered by the Heavenly Feathered Race; their real power was surely even greater.

However, this also indirectly confirmed the Feathered Race’s profound foundation. To hold off these three empires for so long, their original comprehensive strength must have been astounding.

Unfortunately, no matter how strong the elephant, it would eventually fall to the bite of countless ants. As the war dragged on, the three empires bled them dry over time. Their mythical-level, chief-god-level, and even divine-king-level powerhouses had fallen one after another, and the younger generation couldn’t replenish the losses. Their disadvantage only deepened with each battle.

Zhenwu said, "Has everyone finished reading the information? Any thoughts?"

Chen Chu replied, "The situation over there is worse than we imagined. The Demon God Empires’ strength is simply overwhelming. We can’t expose our full power immediately. Otherwise, we’ll be instantly targeted and besieged by demon-god-level forces."

Chen Wang nodded. "Chen Chu is right. Our primary objective is to delay the downfall of the Heavenly Feathered Race while testing new battle-pattern mechs in that theater. The main fighting force will still be the Heavenly Feathered Race’s own legions."

Zhenwu also slowly nodded. "I agree. However, as allies dispatched on an expedition to reinforce them, we can’t completely conceal our strength. Doing so could cause unnecessary misunderstandings, and fail to achieve the necessary deterrent effect. When the time comes, I will go all out and directly clash with a demon god to create confusion about our true strength. As for you, Chen Chu, and Xuanwu and Jiuyou who’ve already arrived ahead, you can keep some of your power hidden..."

The high-level strategic meeting continued for another hour. After that, one king after another departed. Soon, the transcendent warriors and staff aboard the battleships were running about in haste, and the Heavenly Feathered Race’s golden warships trembled faintly.

Hum!

The thirteen orbital battleships began to vibrate. Their thick outer energy shields sharpened, and rune arrays across their surfaces lit up.

Inside the ships, twenty-one energy furnaces erupted at full output. Blazing light sprayed from their rear engines, releasing an enormous amount of propulsion. With a deafening boom, the battleships vanished in streaks of blue light.

Of course, the fleet dared to accelerate at full power only because it had already charted the route in advance. In the perilous mythical world, flying blindly at high speed could send a battleship straight into a forbidden zone and result in an explosion the next instant.

Without regard for energy consumption, the fleet now raced toward the battlefield nearly ten million kilometers away at a hundred times the speed of sound. However, this meant that upon arrival, the battleships would be drained of energy and temporarily unable to participate in the battle, effectively reducing their available strength by over ten pseudo-king-level powerhouses.

After three days of high-speed travel, Chen Chu, seated cross-legged near the bow of Battleship 1, slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the distant horizon. There, a golden celestial curtain stretched from the sky to the ground, splitting the world from left to right. Beyond that golden curtain was the Heavenly Feathered Battlefield.