Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 232 Slaughtering True Gods to Gain Military Merit

Six months later.

In the ocean currents leading from Deep Teng City to the third vortex region, more than a dozen huge ships are sailing against the wind and waves.

On each ship's deck stood more than ten soldiers, their faces solemn, clad in dark blue armor embroidered with mythical beast and serpent patterns.

Each ship corresponds to a squad of soldiers in the Tengshe Army.

Not long ago, at the military camp, these dozen or so squads of soldiers all received the same mission.

Military mission location: Kowloon Island!

Mission level: Cataclysmic!

Mission Objective: Sweep across Kowloon Island and earn 1 military merits. Killing a True God grants 1 military merits, while killing a Lord of Law grants 1 military merit. Killing a True God requires the 'True God's corpse' as proof. Killing a Lord of Law requires the weapon left behind as proof.

Special Bounty: Kill the Lord of Kowloon Island and receive 300 million military merits. Kill the twelve guard generals under the Lord of Kowloon Island and receive 10 to 50 military merits (the amount of military merit varies depending on the strength of the guard general).

Mission deadline: Must be completed before the next mission (approximately one era), or face military law.

The Yagi Sea is divided into eighteen basins, with eight major eddies located in the center of the ocean as nodes. Basins one through eight are under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Army, while basins nine through eighteen are under the jurisdiction of the Northern Army.

Kowloon Island is the only way for the No. 3 River Basin to reach the Third Vortex.

The ruler of Kowloon Island is the Kowloon Island Lord, a powerful subordinate of the Void True God leader of the Third Vortex. He is a nine-headed giant serpent beast. Due to his extraordinary talent and enormous divine body, he is known as an almost invincible existence among the True Gods. He is famous for once withstanding the attack of a powerful Void True God and successfully escaping.

The mission requires the True God and the Lord of Laws within the Kowloon Island region, which means that it is highly likely that one will have to directly confront the might of this invincible True God.

There are also differences in difficulty among disaster-level missions.

This catastrophic mission on Kowloon Island shows that the seemingly top-tier Kowloon Island Master is no match for the Void True God Jiuyan of Jiuyanze.

However, in reality, the long-standing conflict between the two major forces, Jiuyanze and Xuanyushan, was actually a loophole in the mission.

Moreover, the three Void True Gods of Jiuyanze possessed their own arrogance as Void True Gods. As rulers of their respective regions, they would not deign to attack a mere Law Master unless provoked.

Moreover, if the large army bullies the small army in this way, the army commander is not someone to be trifled with.

But the Lord of Kowloon Island is different. As an invincible true god, since he is within the mission scope of the Tengshe Army soldiers, he naturally has no scruples about taking action.

Unlike the fake bosses who seem like they could be easily crushed but are actually just background characters, the Lord of Kowloon Island is a powerful boss who can move on his own.

Moreover, the Third Vortex region is under the control of the Void True God of the Third Vortex. There may be conflicts between the various small forces within it, but they will never be as direct and intense as those between Jiuyanze and Xuanyushan.

In fact, in a truly critical situation, the owner of Kowloon Island could swallow his pride and ask his neighbors for help. After all, they all belonged to the same faction and were under the rule of a leader.

Those 300 million military merits not only represent the difficulty of killing the Lord of Nine Dragons Island, but also the difficulty of killing him with the support of other invincible true gods or even void true gods who may be allies of the Lord of Nine Dragons Island.

These hidden differences make the disaster-level mission on Kowloon Island far more difficult than that on Nine Smoke Marsh.

Similarly, this also reflects the difference in strength between the two special legions, the Tengshe Army and the Manghe Army.

Compared to the Manghe Army, which only had three battalions, the Tengshe Army had seven battalions, making it significantly stronger overall.

These veteran soldiers all knew that the requirement to kill ten thousand Law Lords was actually more dangerous than killing a True God.

The Lords of Laws... are absolutely well protected on Nine Dragons Island. Killing ten might be possible, but killing too many would definitely attract the attention of some True Gods. Once surrounded, especially by a large number of True Gods, the Tengshe Army soldiers would have a headache.

Ten thousand kills means an extraordinary number of shots taken.

Whether it's killing the Lord of Laws or a True God, it will attract the attention of the True Gods and even the Island Lord on Nine Dragons Island. In comparison, it's much easier to join forces to kill a True God or pick up some True God corpses.

Even with the elite forces of the Tengshe Army, killing a true god is no easy task.

These "wilderness" non-military, unorganized true gods mostly do not possess profound secret techniques and are far weaker than the true gods within the military, but their divine power foundation is undeniable.

Killing a true god is one difficulty, but avoiding the attention of other true gods, or escaping early without being noticed by them and the Lord of Nine Dragons Island, is of paramount importance.

"In conclusion, I believe we should join forces to deal with this."

Noba, the captain of the seventh squad, gathered more than half of the sergeants in the squad and, after summarizing the situation as described above, made this suggestion.

Since taking over as squad leader, Noba has always been reliable and fair, though he has his own selfish motives.

At least half of the soldiers he recruited had a high level of approval for him, so apart from a few who raised questions about the distribution of benefits, the rest all expressed their agreement.

Some even gloated as the meeting concluded, saying, "Heh, that Hunzhen only learned about the mission a few minutes before we set sail. Coupled with his arrogant and self-important attitude, he probably won't be able to gather any teammates and won't survive this mission! His best fate will likely be hiding somewhere on an island, enjoying his last ten thousand years until the mission ends, then being humiliated by military law and reincarnated!"

"He only has himself to blame! Every single one of those who joins our Tengshe Army would be a genius in the outside world. Every single one of them would be invincible among their peers. Does he think he can still crush others like he does outside and act with impunity?"

"Haha! Survive this mission? I think with that guy's incredibly arrogant personality, he probably won't last two days on the island before he's killed by fangs because of his arrogance and overconfidence in trying to earn merits from the True God!"

With a common enemy identified and condemned together, the meeting room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

And the one who first criticized Hunzhen was also met with a look of approval from Noba.

Noba didn't say it, but he was still very unhappy with Hunzhen, who had offended him.

However, as the team captain, what kind of behavior is it to secretly slander a team member?

Now that someone is there to speak for him, he is naturally pleased.

On the deck, just as the soldiers following Noba thought, Hunzhen completely ignored the other members of the Seventh Squad who came up to him to temporarily team up.

His attitude was immediately relayed by the team member who had been turned away, and no one dared to bother him with enthusiasm anymore.

Hunzhen stood in front of the railing, closed his eyes, and felt the howling sea wind. His consciousness had already detected the true gods and strange beasts spying on more than a dozen ships from the dark side of the ocean current.

Just as the Tengshe Army targeted the Law Masters and True Gods on Kowloon Island, these wild True Gods also set their sights on these coveted targets.

Compared to the elite Law Lords of special legions like the Tengshe Army, most of these Wild Gods are quite poor.

Killing a Tengshe Army soldier is equivalent to directly capturing a complete set of True God-level standard equipment.

Even if it doesn't perfectly meet their needs, it's still a huge improvement.

Once these Tengshe Army soldiers leave the ships and land on Kowloon Island, these hidden true gods will launch a thunderous offensive.

As for the soldiers of the Tengshe Army, as elite soldiers, even though many of them did not discover the hidden True Gods due to the gap in strength between themselves and the True Gods, their experience and intuition were enough for them to realize the ambush that existed in the dark.

Therefore, each squad has a fixed person stationed on the deck.

Most of the true gods of Kowloon Island who were lying in ambush were poor and naturally did not want others to share the spoils, so they did not notify the other true gods.

Therefore, for the soldiers of the Tengshe Army, such an ambush was also an opportunity.

An opportunity to earn 10,000 military merits without alerting the other true gods as much as possible!

But... would Hunzhen possibly let go of these military achievements?

"One, two, three... eighteen."

"Only eighteen True Gods? From what I foresight see, there won't be any new 'Hunters' appearing if we continue forward. Is this the limit? To be honest, it's a bit too few."

"But never mind, the 180,000 military merits are just the superficial value. When I have hunted down most of the True Gods that I can hunt, the soldiers of these dozen or so squads will have nowhere else to earn military merits but to exchange them with me, which will make a big difference."

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Thinking of this, Hunzhen immediately decided to take action.

On the decks of more than a dozen ships, the soldiers stationed there all stared wide-eyed.

"That guy must be a new recruit in the Seventh Squad, right?"

"What is he trying to do? Doesn't he know the dangers of leaving the ship midway? Is he courting death?"

Before they could even mock Hunzhen, a sharp blade of light shot towards the seabed.

boom!

Huge waves!

The water of the Yamata no Sea is not as heavy as ordinary seawater. It is like the heavy water of mythology, with each drop as heavy as a star. If an ordinary master of law falls into it, it is almost impossible to escape, and if it continues for a period of time, death is inevitable.

Even after the seawater coalesced into an ocean, making the surrounding space incredibly stagnant, the energy required for teleportation increased dramatically, rendering it unusable as a regular method. This is why, except when facing threats from hidden true gods and strange beasts, the soldiers travel by ship rather than by physically moving.

However, the heavy seawater was directly overturned by Hunzhen's attack.

One by one, the hidden true gods flew into the air like fish being splashed out of the sea.

"Is this the Lord of Laws?"

"This is the Lord of Laws?!"

Among the eighteen true gods and mythical beasts, some of the more experienced true gods and mythical beasts have already realized the terrifying power of Hunzhen.

Unlike other true gods who were either stunned or angry, their first reaction was to turn and run away.

Compared to those god-tier equipment, one's life is clearly more important.

However, these true gods and beasts, who were about to flee, were shocked to find that the sword energy that had just overturned the sea had not dissipated, but had stagnated in the surrounding space-time, forming a special barrier that blocked their escape route.

The barrier that appears to be formed by sword energy traces is actually the secret technique of Hunzhen, "Time and Space Strings: Echoes". It is presented like sword energy traces in martial arts novels, but in reality, it is the condensation of time and space energy.

"None of them will escape."

Hunzhen looked at the true gods and strange beasts that were trying to escape, and instantly used the second level of the divine power burning secret technique. His divine power increased a hundredfold in an instant, reaching a level comparable to that of a true god!

Whether it's the divine power burning secret technique or "annihilation" given by the army, the first level corresponds to the Lord of Laws, and the second level corresponds to the True God.

However, this does not mean that only true gods can use the second level, while the Lord of Laws cannot.

In fact, the Lord of Laws can increase the quality of divine power tenfold by using the first level of secret techniques, and a hundredfold by using the second level.

True gods can only achieve a few percent increase when using the first level of techniques, but they can only achieve a tenfold increase when using the second level of techniques that are appropriate for their level.

The same principle applies to the third layer.

The so-called second layer corresponding to the true god actually means that only the second layer can allow the true god to perfectly burn divine power.

The third level is to the true god what the second level is to the Lord of Laws; it is not only extremely difficult to comprehend, but also extremely short-lived, and meaningless to the vast majority of people.

However, during the military recruitment screening, Tarosa saw that Hunzhen's foundation was exceptionally strong, and only the second-level Divine Power Burning Secret Technique could fully unleash his combat power. Therefore, Tarosa directly exchanged the second-level secret technique for Hunzhen because she had high hopes for him.

Hunzhen did not want the true gods on Kowloon Island to realize his threat yet, so he would never let any of them escape and spread his information. He used thunderous methods and went all out!

"Time and Space Strings - Strangulation." Hunzhen murmured softly.

This attack, fueled by a hundredfold increase in divine power, could withstand even the attacks of a Void God, let alone these wild beast Gods who were considered the lowest among the true gods and who were completely disorganized and lacked discipline due to fear and panic.

If these eighteen strange beasts and true gods worked together, even Hunzhen couldn't kill them instantly. However, these guys fought individually, and their threat level dropped sharply, not even as high as the combined power of the seven true gods on that day.

While the Tengshe Army soldiers were dumbfounded, the true god, whom they had to fight together to have any hope of killing, was harvested by Hunzhen in an instant, like cutting leeks.

Without even glancing at the Tengshe Army soldiers, Hunzhen quickly put the corpses of these True Gods, whose hearts were shattered, into his world ring, and in a flash, he darted into the Nine Dragons Island, which was now easily visible, and disappeared.

On the ship of the Seventh Squad, the soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment, as if in a dream.

Those soldiers who had recently slandered Hunzhen and mocked him for his inevitable death blushed with embarrassment when they recalled their previous words.

Noba, who had been taught a lesson by Hunzhen, had a very complicated expression. He knew that Hunzhen was far stronger than himself, but he never thought that the difference in strength was so great.

He glanced around at the seemingly tense atmosphere among the crowd, sighed softly, and said in a deep voice, "Hunzhen's strength has already exceeded our understanding. Don't make a fool of yourself by comparing yourself to such a monstrous talent. Just focus on being the best version of yourself. Besides..."

His gaze swept over the grave-faced soldiers appearing on the decks of the other ships, and he said with a wry smile, "That guy may be living a carefree life now, but he's left us with a huge problem!"

Hunzhen instantly completed the harvest, without exposing his threat to the people of Kowloon Island.

However, the brief burst of energy here had already attracted the attention of those who had not yet noticed the arrival of the Tengshe Army.

(End of this chapter)