Longevity by Grinding Skills

"Lokan?! No!!"

His roar was more savage than any before, filled with disbelief and a monstrous killing intent.

’A Mid-Rank God Peak! My most capable general, the one with the greatest hope of breaking through to Upper-Rank God, has actually fallen just like that?!’

But that was all secondary. The real point, the thing that truly shocked him to his core, was that Rockman was actually playing for keeps.

Rockman was also reeling from shock.

Although he was controlled by the restriction, his mind was still his own.

Xu Yunfan had actually, in the blink of an eye, forcibly slain a Mid-Rank God Peak in the midst of a massive army.

That level of power and ruthlessness...

It sent a chill down Rockman’s spine, but he had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue.

Things had already gone too far to be undone.

He looked at Bosse’s face, which was twisted with rage, and the corners of his mouth under the icy mist pulled into a cold, stiff arc, tinged with a bitter madness.

"Bosse, do you see? This is the price for provoking my Frost Winter Pantheon! Today, one of us will fall for good!"

Things had spiraled completely out of control, but he had to keep playing the part.

That way, there was still a sliver of hope for survival.

’I hope the Main God of Nature is watching this place.’

Rockman prayed in his heart.

That mournful cry of a god’s fall instantly detonated the last shred of wishful thinking and restraint in the hearts of all the Divine Spirits.

The fall of a Middle-Rank God made it clear to every combatant on both sides.

This wasn’t one of the usual skirmishes over territory and faith, nor was it a tentative border conflict.

This was a fight to the death, a war to utterly annihilate the enemy Pantheon’s foundation.

There was no longer any room for holding back.

The hearts of the assembled Divine Spirits trembled. With their Divine Formats, they possessed immense lifespans and naturally feared death.

But they were attached to their respective Pantheons, and leaving would come at a great cost—perhaps even requiring them to abandon their Divine Formats and cast aside their status as gods.

Thus, they could only fight to the death.

"ROAR!"

"KILL!"

"For the glory of Frost Winter (Gale)!"

After a brief, deathly silence, an even more savage and brutal eruption of violence followed.

All the Divine Spirits’ eyes turned red. They no longer held anything back or made any probing attacks.

They burned their Divine Power recklessly, pushing the might of their Divine Arts to the absolute limit.

The clash between frost and gales escalated in an instant.

The explosive light of colliding domains flared up one after another, each blast like a miniature sun rising over the ice plains.

The earth cracked and groaned in agony, while the sky was torn to shreds by the rampant energy.

Swathes of Icefield Barbarian Warriors and Wind Cavalry fell like harvested wheat, only to be swallowed by the next wave of soldiers surging forward.

Life became impossibly cheap at this moment. Only the will of the Divine Spirits and the power of the Laws now reigned over the destruction.

Xu Yunfan weaved through the chaotic torrents of energy.

He avoided the apocalyptic battlefield of the Upper-Rank Gods; if he were to kill Bosse now, the other Divine Spirits of the Gale Pantheon would most likely scatter and flee.

His targets were the Middle-Rank and Lower-Rank Gods who were trapped in bitter fights, their Divine Power heavily drained, or who were already injured.

’Truly, it was like reaping chives—each effortless sweep brought a new harvest.’

The Star Spirit Banner’s spectral light flickered intermittently. Each time it flashed, it meant another divine remnant soul had been silently drawn into the banner, becoming nourishment to strengthen the All Heaven Star Formation.

It reaped from friend and foe alike.

He remained hidden in the shadows, using the Cause and Effect Secret Technique to conceal himself, slightly warping the perceptions of the Divine Spirits on the battlefield so they couldn’t detect him.

He precisely and efficiently harvested the fruits of this Divine War he himself had ignited, while the Immortal Golden Nature within him slowly but steadily accumulated under the operation of the Divine Sky World Refining Cauldron.

With every Divine Spirit that died, he could harvest, more or less, a sliver of elementally pure Immortal Golden Nature.

The amount of Immortal Golden Nature he had refined within his body was also increasing.

Seventeen slivers, twenty slivers, twenty-three slivers...

As time passed, with Rockman fighting in a crazed, desperate frenzy, the cyan radiance around Bosse fluctuated violently, like a candle flickering in the wind.

His senses swept frantically across the chaotic icefield battlefield. The dozens of auras belonging to the Middle-Rank and Lower-Rank Gods of the Frost Winter and Gale Pantheons, which had been clashing intensely just moments ago, were now vanishing one by one in a short span of time, as if devoured by an invisible, giant maw.

Not defeated, not critically wounded, but utterly annihilated.

Their very imprints, including their Divine Formats and Divine Souls, were erased from the network of Laws in the Aitira World, leaving only the fading aftershocks of a god’s death cry to dissipate at the level of Law.

"No, this is impossible, Rockman!"

Bosse shrieked, his face formed of storms twisting in utter shock.

He snapped his head around and finally caught sight of the figure weaving ghost-like along the edge of the battlefield.

Tatus... no, it was the one disguised as Tatus!

He watched as a shadowy banner flashed from the figure’s sleeve, and the last struggling Lower-Rank God of the Gale Pantheon was sucked into it like a wisp of smoke, without so much as a ripple.

The entire battlefield at the divine level fell silent. The only exceptions were the two Upper-Rank Gods, Rockman and Bosse, still locked in a fierce struggle, and the Believer Legions below, who fought on by instinct, completely unaware of what had transpired.

The thirty-some Middle-Rank and Lower-Rank Gods from both sides—the long-standing core of the Gale Pantheon and the Eternal Freeze Royal Court, along with the cannon fodder from the Frost Winter Pantheon that Rockman had driven here—had all been reaped in such a short time.

A terror he had never before experienced seized Bosse’s heart.

His opponent’s methods completely surpassed his understanding of a Divine War.

’This isn’t a war!’

’This is a hunt targeting Divine Spirits!’

He didn’t even have time for anger; the instinct for survival overrode everything else.

’The core of the Gale Pantheon is me, Bosse.’

’As long as I live and escape this place, I can spend long ages rebuilding my Pantheon. The gales will one day sweep across the Northern Plains again!’

He didn’t even have time to leave any threatening last words.

The thought flashed through his mind, and the wind pressure around Bosse contracted abruptly. He instantly transformed into a streak of cyan divine light that almost merged with the spatial turbulence, preparing to tear through the void and escape.

However, just as he channeled his Divine Power...

"All Heaven Profound Dome Locking Array, activate!"

Xu Yunfan’s voice rang out.

BUZZ!

The world went dark.

Countless profound runes, sketched out by violet-gold lightning, suddenly lit up from the void’s focal points around the icefield battlefield. They linked together, instantly weaving a massive, three-dimensional net that covered an area dozens of miles wide.

The sky was forcibly twisted and solidified, as if it had been cast in a layer of invisible, violet-gold thunder-bronze.

The cyan divine light that was Bosse slammed hard against the invisible barrier of the Array, erupting in a blinding flash and a dull, tremendous BOOM. He was forcefully knocked back to his original position, his Wind Divine Power scattering in all directions.

"What?!"

Bosse was horrified beyond belief. He struggled to stabilize his dissipating Divine Power, staring incredulously at the violet-gold cage around him, which pulsed with destructive Thunder Patterns.

’This is definitely not the power of the Aitira World!’

’An Array that seals space... its core Law and logic are completely incompatible with the authority of the divine path!’

What shattered his courage completely was that Rockman had silently ceased his assault. He had retracted his Frost Winter Divine Power and now stood with his head bowed to the side of the figure who had been reaping Divine Spirits from the shadows, adopting a nearly servile posture that Bosse had never imagined possible—like the most obedient slave.