Chapter 1236: Wrestling on All Sides (I)

That little bastard!

The Great Li king took a deep breath.

Li Hao’s doing all this just to weaken Great Li, so that the Initial Martial God will have to make a move! It’s just like he said, if the god can’t even handle Saints, then what need is there for Great Li to exist?

We wouldn’t pose a threat at all and might as well be eradicated!

The king thought back to what the young man had said. Li Hao wasn’t in the habit of practicing deception when he spoke. Since he’d said what he did, that meant that there was indeed a likelihood of it happening.

“Have all of the tribe leaders and army officers gather at the palace for a meeting!” commanded the king. They would march on Divine Nation! If they succeeded, there might be a lot more heavenly will flocking around him.

Everyone gathered moments later. There was even a shadow hovering behind Jiang Li. Although the king saw it, he didn’t make a sound.

Clearly, the Initial Martial god had indeed awakened and was here to sit in on the proceedings.

......

Speed was the most valuable asset in war. The Great Li army marched out after the meeting. Sighs of relief could be heard all around when they learned that they were fighting Divine Nation instead of Skystar.

Who was afraid of Divine Nation?

They just couldn’t afford to provoke Li Hao of Skystar Dynasty. Wise was their great king to choose a different target! Divine Nation was just as good!

News soon traveled west that Great Li was charging at them from the northern reaches!

The queen was infuriated by the development.

So I can’t take on Li Hao, but how dare you invade my nation, king of Great Li?!

Battle would start at any second. Meanwhile, Li Hao had returned to the Barren wasteland with a brilliant smile on his face.

You guys have fun. I’m going to build a fake world in ten days!

......

The intersection of north and west.

Battle cries split the air. The million strong of the Great Li army was on the move again. This time, their opponents were the Divine Nation faithful. The west’s disciples were in full religious fervor, throwing themselves forward with abandon under the calls of the divine spirits.

None of these disciples were the elites of the nation. Those were all dead. The queen looked over the battlefield with an unpleasant expression; she waved the scepter in her hand.

Two divine spirits appeared—the gods of misfortune and disaster.

Anguished screams soared to the heavens. Calamity was at hand!

The earth suddenly split open and swallowed thousands of Great Li soldiers. Misfortune was hot in its heels as countless Great Li soldiers suddenly tripped, bumped each other, targeted the wrong enemy, or killed the wrong person...

A ray of sword light flashed through the world.

BAM!

A sword hurtled through the ai. It was accompanied by a golden tree carrying hints of chaos presence. The tree swept through the land, shooting innumerable branches in all directions and killing Divine Nation disciples.

“As I thought!” growled the queen. She knew that Great Li wouldn’t attack them for no reason!

With Li Daozong and the redwood tree showing up, she immediately grasped that it was Li Hao pulling the strings from the shadows. Damn that little bastard!

“Prophet!”

Next to her, an old man with white hair briefly closed his eyes. “Be careful, your Majesty, there are other powerhouses around!”

The queen nodded. If Li Hao was the hand behind all of this, then there was certainly more to come. The weight of the situation came down over her.

What does he want?

Was there a point to conquering the west? He had so many enemies staring at him, what was the point of attacking Divine Nation? Great Li also suffered significant losses when their armies fought.

Divine Nation had many believers. While they could not overcome Great Li, the latter’s army was comprised of elites. It was not good for them to lose too many soldiers either.

The god of prophecy glanced at the other side and sighed inwardly. Li Hao increasingly bore the makings of an emperor! He was spurring wolves to devour tigers!

Even a tyrant such as the Great Li king had to follow the young man’s beck and call. Li Hao probably wouldn’t bat an eye if everyone died in the clash between Great Li and Divine Nation. When the two divine spirit Saints first took to the field, they eradicated thousands of soldiers in one blow.

That had not drawn a response from the redwood and the Ninth Division leader. It was clear from that that those two were not that concerned about the Great Li army either.

......

Jiang Li assessed the situation with growing dismay and transmitted, “My king, the enemy’s disciples are not afraid of death! Many of them are just ordinary followers, so it’s no use killing them. It’s our army that is suffering incredible losses. We won’t be able to recover our one million elites even if we kill ten million of theirs!”

They’d killed nearly one hundred thousand Divine Nation believers in the first skirmish and lost only ten thousand. The enemy had lost tenfold their number!

But... were these actions fruitful?

Divine Nation had too many followers like these. No matter how one looked at it, it wasn’t worthwhile to trade Great Li’s elites for these people!

The Great Li king listened impassively. Was he willing to see this course of action through? Of course not.

However, this was already the best possible outcome. Li Hao might not have immediately delivered his retribution if the king had refused, but the very nation’s existence would be in jeopardy before long.

Should he surrender to the young man?

Those who served the god of Initial Martial were likely unwilling to surrender.

“It’s simple, we’ll have divine spirit fight divine spirit!” the king answered calmly. “The god of Initial Martial hails from the time of New Martial. Can it not overcome a divine spirit of a minor world?”

Technically speaking, the divine spirits of Silver Moon were also of Initial Martial. Except, their history was much shorter than one that existed millennia ago during New Martial.

Jiang Li’s face twitched with shock when he heard these words. This was grave disrespect to the gods!

Granted, his king was hardly the only one to be irreverent of divine spirits these days. If Li Hao was here, he’d probably be even more blasphemous!

“Great king, that one has not fully awakened...” Jiang Li cautioned.

“Regardless, a Saint shouldn’t give it any problems, correct?” The king nodded. “Being fully awake might not actually be good. That might prevent it from appearing in the world, correct?”

That was... true. Jiang Li had nothing to say in response.

“Great Li has worshiped that one for so many years. We are in need of help now. Is our god still unwilling to help?”

“Ah...” Jiang Li didn’t know how to respond.

“We fight!” boomed the Great Li king, his voice reverberating through the world. “Advance, kill, raze Divine Nation to the ground! Our god is about to participate in battle and will sweep these false idols aside! The fake gods will be destroyed! Our god is invincible!”

“KILL!” The Great Li army erupted joyously. Their god was about to appear!

The entire nation had worshipped a god of Initial Martial for countless years. The authority of the divine temple had always been stronger than the royal court’s. Even today, the temple remained a force to be reckoned with. One only needed to look at Jiang Li to understand the situation.

Even with the king’s expertise in civil and military matters, he still found it difficult to corral the divine temple’s might.

When the king said that Great Li’s god would march into battle and slaughter the false gods, the troops roared with enthusiasm. Morale soared, whereas the king stayed calm.

I’d also like to see who our god is, how strong they are and what they can do...

If you do not appear after I’ve made it so public, do you think those of Great Li will still worship you?

It would be good for the Great Li king no matter if the god appeared or not. If no help was forthcoming, then the divine temple’s authority would be completely uprooted after this war! Jiang Li and the other priest would docilely join the royal court. It was just as well if the god did show itself. That would be a perfect opportunity to see who was stronger!

The king was using this battle to force the Initial Martial god to abdicate its position in the Great Li power hierarchy. There was no helping it since Li Hao had only sent him two Saints. There were many Saints in Divine Nation; all he and Jiang Li could hold back was one Saint if their god didn’t make a showing.

......

The queen and others of Divine Nation colored with dismay. The god of Initial Martial! That would be a first generation powerhouse of that civilization.

The later descendants of New Martial didn’t count. Only those of the first generation who found their own dao counted as a god of Initial Martial. Great Li had always told others that they worshipped the Sun God... but no one believed that.

Anyone who truly understood New Martial knew that the Sun God had rivaled the Human King and Green Emperor.

In the age of New Martial, the three greatest heavyweights were the Sun God, Human King, and Green Emperor. After them came notable figures such as Supreme Zhang, the Suppression King, and the Earth Emperor.

Below them were ranks of exalted emperors such as the nine emperors of primordial times, the Exalted Divine Forge Emperor of primordial times, and latecomers the Exalted Blood Emperor and Exalted Hard-Headed Emperor.

After that came more exalted emperors that were ranked a little lower, such as the Nether King and Battle King.

Only after

that

were exalted emperors such as Water Strength and Unbounded Strength.

It was clear from this that there were many levels of hierarchy even when it came to exalted emperors. No one believed that there really was a god of Initial Martial in Great Li.

The Human King had killed most of them back in the day. Those that survived were immensely formidable. Their weakest was a half step emperor, what would they be doing trapped on a minor world?

Not to mention, all of the surviving Initial Martial gods were known by name. Who would commit such a tasteless act such as posing as the Sun God? The Divine Nation queen was the first to dismiss the idea.

But even if it wasn’t the Sun God, the being in question should be someone from Initial Martial. They could be one of the second or third generation descendants, which would still make them very strong.