In just ten days, the Empire swept through the new world with great momentum.
Just as Song Zining had predicted, the dark races became evidently nervous when they launched an attack toward the center. They also began to mobilize more troops to block the Empire’s advance.
Song Zining once again put his dual talents in divination and strategy to use, maneuvering his troops with great finesse until the giant dark race army was running about in circles. Ultimately, they were divided and eliminated.
Zhao Jundu’s style was completely different. He led his troops forward like a slow-rolling boulder, mercilessly crushing whatever strategy the enemy threw at him. After several battles, enemy casualties had risen so sharply that they eventually lost count. Many glorious clans were wiped out under the spearhead of Zhao Jundu’s army, forever erased from the annals of history.
In the field, Zhao Jundu would always be at the forefront of the charge. The dark race experts, of course, wouldn’t let go of the opportunity to finish off this powerful enemy in one fell swoop.
It was already widely known that Zhao Jundu had damaged his foundations. The dark races felt that his strength had come to a standstill, that his resounding fame was only due to his solid foundations. If they could kill the number one genius of the Empire, it would surely deal a powerful blow to them. The dark race experts thus charged in unison, hoping to harvest the glory of killing Zhao Jundu.
Unable to pay attention to all directions at the same time, the beleaguered fourth young master quickly sustained countless injuries. But the pain hardly affected the momentum of his accurate and ruthless attacks, as if he didn’t feel anything each time he traded a small wound for an enemy’s life.
The dark races attacked time and again, thinking that they would be able to finish him off if they just tried a bit harder. Yet in the end, they were the ones who would be badly shaken. They had lost track of the number of times a demonkin or vampire would try to take advantage of the staggering Zhao Jundu, only to become corpses while the latter remained standing.
The dark races had also thought about using their superior numbers to wipe out Zhao Jundu’s army first. However, things would never turn out the way they had expected—Song Zining would always appear at the critical moment, either launching a pincer attack or cutting off their reinforcements. The dark races would always fail and end up incurring heavy losses instead.
As things started to heat up on the front lines, the Imperial military steeled their hearts and sent large batches of airships into the new world for Song Zining to command. A steady stream of troops and resources also poured in without stop.
Airships could only be used for seven days, a sky-high cost for any operation. It was just that the dark races had it even worse because their airships would risk breaking down after four to five days of use. The commanding dukes and marquises on the front line would revolt if they were ordered to move troops by land.
Fighting Song Zining was already an arduous task. Wouldn’t they be led by the nose if they were deprived of mobility on top of that?
Hence, the dark races could only grit their teeth and provide transports despite the grave losses.
No longer able to withstand the damage, a demonkin prince summoned several divination experts to duke it out with Song Zining on a different plane. However, the seventh young master was nowhere to be found when these experts worked together to search for him. It was almost as though he was hiding in the void. However, they suffered a strong backlash from Song Zining’s divination art as soon as they relaxed and ended up either dead or deranged.
In just a short few days, over half of the dozen or so experts had fallen. The remainder no longer dared to get involved and started giving all kinds of reasons to escape this mission. The great divination masters back in the mainland were also playing deaf and mute, ignoring all correspondence from the new world.
Song Zining wasn’t the slightest bit delayed by this interlude. He kept on leading his troops into battle, attacking the dark races until they were in unbearable pain. He even took to the field and killed two marquises.
Only then did that demonkin prince understand that song Zining was truly gifted in the divination arts. He couldn’t help but feel great regret at his plan. Who would dare target Lin Xitang in the divination field when he was alive? That was simply courting death. Even when comparing strategy and planning, the great masters of Evernight would always be at a disadvantage.
Song Zining was already displaying a similar style in this battle.
The Imperial army was unstoppable—it stabbed thousands of kilometers into the new world and finally arrived at the central region. This was a complicated landscape with rising hills and slopes. The origin power environment was also chaotic, frequently producing tempests of energy.
This kind of adverse environment was Song Zining’s favorite. Here, he was able to lay ambushes to his heart’s content. One famous Evernight general after the other met their defeat.
Zhao Jundu understood that this was the best place for strategic combat, so he simply handed command of his subordinate troops to Song Zining and headed into battle on his own.
Only at this point did the Empire discover that the dark races had already reached the center and had even built a forward base there. The environment here was worse than in the periphery, with the corrosion effect being vastly more pronounced. The steel plates normally used by the dark races would be worn down in just a few days, so they had no choice but to extract local stones for construction.
It went without saying that such primitive methods did nothing to help the construction-progress. Yet the dark races seemed determined to dig in here, building fortresses of varying sizes.
Of course, Song Zining wasn’t going to ignore these fortifications. The structures were difficult to build here but took just about the same effort to destroy. He swept through the region with his army, leveling several fortresses in a single day. This severely damaged the advantage the dark races had gone to great lengths to obtain.
After observing the dark races’ set up in the central region, Song Zining dispatched a secret report to the military. The report stated that the dark races were indeed after the central region, but there were no signs that they had found what they wanted.
The Empire treated Song Zining’s report seriously. All kinds of resources poured in ceaselessly, almost as though they were backing him with the entire country.
All suspicions dispersed before his shocking accomplishments. There were even those who believed that Song Zining and Zhao Jundu were the new twin paragons of the Empire. The only concern was that, although the latter was peerless in his current achievements, no one had ever succeeded in refinement by fire. Without becoming a heavenly monarch, the two of them would never be able to compare to Zhang Boqian and Lin Xitang.
After a month of bitter combat, the Empire had gained a firm foothold in the central region, and Song Zining had also gained full command over the army. At this point, there were a total of five dukes under his banner, with no lack of capable but arrogant individuals. Duke Yuanguang was such a person and would always criticize Song Zining’s arrangements.
The seventh young master didn’t bicker with him on the spot and, instead, invited the duke to the empty area behind the camp for a private “debate.”
Duke Yuanguang and Song Zining were only arguing about strategy before, but it was clear that the latter was looking to solve the issue with fists. Divine champions were all top experts of each generation. How could they back down against an opponent of the same rank? Under the eyes of all the spectators, Duke Yuanguang said with a cold snort, “This duke will play with you!”
The other dukes and generals tried to dissuade the two from a fight, but they already knew their efforts were in vain. Just like that, the duo headed to the back for a “debate.” Who would’ve thought they would return in just three minutes?
Duke Yuanguang was utterly silent and his expression, ashen. It was easy to see from Song Zining’s smile who had actually won.
The crowd had already expected Song Zining to win in a duel to the death. Worldly Prosperity was one of the three top origin-powers—against weaker arts, it was simply too superior. But no one would’ve imagined the victory would come so swiftly! Didn’t this mean Duke Yuanguang had lost right off the bat?
Of course, a spar between comrades wouldn’t involve lethal moves. Duke Yuanguang wasn’t expecting to defeat the opponent, either. He was planning to drag it out until Song Zining was too embarrassed to keep fighting.
Unexpectedly, the outcome couldn’t even be considered a fast defeat. It was more like he was utterly crushed.
The duke came from a commoner lineage on his father’s side. His childhood foundations were insufficient, stunting his prospects after breaking through to the divine champion realm. That was the case for his rank, but his combat strength wasn’t weak at all. After some thought, the other four dukes felt that they were on par with him at most—none could claim certain victory.
Everyone knew what this meant. Their fate would not be any better if they were to go against Song Zining.
Apart from Duke Yuanguang, the other dukes were all smiles as they invited Song Zining to the main seat.
The seventh young master glanced at the crowd. “When Qianye broke through the divine champion realm, he was known to be peerless among those at the same realm. Everyone knows this, I assume?”
The crowd nodded in succession, but one general from the Bai clan looked fairly awkward.
Qianye had actually gained fame before he was a divine champion by forcing the Bai clan’s superior divine champion to stay his hand, allowing him to leave unharmed from the Frozen Jade Manor. It could be said that Qianye had stepped on the Bai clan for his rise to fame. Of course, his reputation was cemented when he slew a duke and subdued ten million werewolves.
From the Bai clan’s perspective, they would feel less embarrassed the stronger he was.
Glancing at the crowd, Song Zining said, “My talents are rather mediocre, so I rank third in the Empire. No early divine champion is my match except for Zhao Jundu. That’s why I’d like to urge all of you to forget about doing unnecessary things. If there’s anyone who can’t accept this, I’ll be happy to enter a ‘debate’ with him. Don’t blame me if you lose face when the time comes.”
The message wasn’t the least reserved and more or less an open threat.
As divine champions, who wasn’t a major character in their land? They considered their prestige even more important than their lives. Although everyone knew that Song Zining was strong, things were slightly different before and after a duel. Duke Yuanguang would likely become a hot topic of discussion in the future.
The Bai clan general wasn’t quite satisfied. “Does early divine champion include rank nineteen as well?”
Rank nineteen meant that the divine champion had condensed an extra origin crystal. Although much smaller than the foundational one, it still represented an extra ability. Hence, from a certain perspective, the difference between rank eighteen and nineteen was greater than between rank nineteen and twenty.
Song Zining said with a smile, “Naturally, I include rank nineteen when I say early divine champion.”
Now that was arrogant.
