Chapter 257: Victory

Divine Power was being consumed, and Zhang Ji’s Primordial Energy was also being drained at a frantic pace.

They bombarded each other violently, but actually breaking through each other’s defenses was proving difficult.

The Divine Emperor had once held his Divine Country aloft, forging a True Divine Body that was indestructible through myriad tribulations.

Zhang Ji possessed the Limitless Extraordinary, combining it to form an immortal body that was indestructible in the void.

Their struggle against each other was truly a case of meeting one’s match.

Ultimately, however, the Divine Emperor was a step weaker. He had once been struck a heavy blow by another True God, and now, not even a tenth of his true power remained. He was in a crippled state.

Furthermore, his Divine Power was a finite resource, depleting with every use. His endurance couldn’t compare to Zhang Ji, who had the Hope Starship inside him, constantly converting the void’s energy into power.

But even so, it was truly difficult for either side to claim victory in a short amount of time.

In the frenzied exchange of energy, Zhang Ji’s defenses were finally breached. Numerous scars also appeared on the Divine Emperor’s divine body—wounds left behind after being burned by Divine Flame.

BANG~!

The Divine Emperor’s divine body shattered, only to recover in the next instant.

CRACK~!

Zhang Ji’s chest and abdomen were smashed apart by the Divine Emperor’s punch, disintegrating, but the particles of his body reassembled in a flash.

Both possessed a powerful form of immortality. Under normal circumstances, it was difficult for them even to die if they wanted to.

If they were to step into a higher realm and dabble in the domain of time and space, their information would be preserved in a higher dimension. What mortals perceived as death would be nothing more than a special state of weakness. As long as a trace of their information remained in spacetime, they would never truly die.

Zhang Ji’s Primordial Energy consumption was excessive. He began to use only the Cosmic Four Source Attraction, drawing on the Four Elements constantly being generated within the Hope Starship. He repeatedly gathered this power within his body and bombarded the Divine Emperor with it. An ultimate move capable of destroying an entire continent was now being used by Zhang Ji like a basic attack.

The Divine Emperor also used his Divine Power to clash with Zhang Ji, causing Zhang Ji’s body to disintegrate several times.

But Zhang Ji could easily repair himself and felt no fear at all. The Divine Emperor’s Divine Power, however, was nearly depleted. He tried to draw upon faith. The core of his Divine Country was operating, and some faith was transmitted directly through the void, but the amount was minuscule.

Every Rusted Moon Monastery was under the control of the Saint King Council. Of the believers who could truly provide him with faith, few were currently able to pray. The power of faith he could absorb was far too little.

The Divine Emperor could only try to draw energy from the void.

His Divine Body had already undergone a preliminary transformation and had the ability to absorb void energy.

But it was the same problem. Without the aid of his Divine Country, the energy he could absorb was still too scarce.

Zhang Ji was different. He had the Hope Starship and the World Tree. He could absorb void energy after it was converted, a simple and easy process. The amount was not insignificant, either.

The Divine Emperor’s Divine Country had been destroyed long ago, and his adult World Tree had been burned to charcoal. He couldn’t sustain himself like Zhang Ji.

From a certain perspective, it was as if Zhang Ji was bullying a disabled person.

But Zhang Ji was not some pure martial artist who lived for battle, loved to challenge the strong, and would fight to the death. Therefore, he didn’t care in the slightest.

In fact, one could say he had orchestrated this entire situation himself, with the specific goal of fighting the Divine Emperor at his weakest.

The Divine Emperor’s divine body disintegrated and reformed once more. The punches he threw grew weaker and weaker, no longer able to breach Zhang Ji’s defenses.

Zhang Ji, in the midst of this high-intensity battle, had grown even stronger.

With his extraordinary talent and the “advance-only” bonus from his [Limit] plug-in, Zhang Ji’s chances of winning were always extremely high in a stalemate against an evenly matched opponent.

“Four Sources, Chaos Creation Realm!”

In Zhang Ji’s palm, the Four Elements collided, actually creating a bubble of space—a nascent miniature universe.

After countless uses, he had taken this fledgling (legendary) combat technique to the next level. The wisdom granted by his [Prajna Stance] allowed him to easily achieve what Delator had once only theorized was possible.

That universal bubble didn’t last long in the turbulent void before it burst. The Divine Emperor’s body became even more damaged, and this time, it couldn’t be easily reconstructed.

His armor was in ruins, and the seven-colored jeweled imperial crown on his head was incredibly dim. Not a single trace of Divine Power could be squeezed from the core of his Divine Country.

The Divine Emperor gazed at Zhang Ji, but his eyes held no hatred—only regret.

Regret that this revival had been so brief, that it was about to end and return to deathly silence once more.

Regret that he had failed to find the Moon God and take his revenge.

And even more regret that he had failed to truly create an eternal Divine Country for his countless believers.

And… Yilin Bona, his Goddess Queen…

That love could never be returned now.

Just like that, the Divine Emperor’s aura dissipated.

His divine body floated in the boundless void, devoid of any life force.

Perhaps he was dead. Or perhaps, just like before, he had merely fallen into a kind of deathly stillness, waiting for the right moment to return again.

Zhang Ji reached out. A dark purple energy surged from his palm, pierced the Divine Emperor’s chest, and pulled out the core of the Divine Country. The orb, which had turned pitch-black from absorbing too much desperate faith, now returned to its golden color.

This was its original appearance.

Looking at the Divine Emperor’s corpse, Zhang Ji raised his hand and gathered the Cosmic Four Sources again.

This time, the energy of the Four Sources he gathered was greater than any time before.

It was enough power to shatter a small asteroid outright.

Then, Zhang Ji unleashed it all upon the Divine Emperor’s corpse.

He had no desire to see this fellow suddenly rise from his deathbed again.

‘If you’re going to die, then die completely.’

Under the impact of the Chaos Energy, the Divine Emperor’s body was annihilated, disappearing and disintegrating bit by bit.

In the void, the Divine Artifact, the Spear of Conquest, appeared, only to be swept up by the Chaos Energy and smelted into a golden mass.

With quick hands and sharp eyes, Zhang Ji snatched it.

‘This thing’s material is extraordinary. Maybe I can use it later to help Origin Star upgrade its tech tree.’

‘Actually, the Divine Emperor’s crown and his battle armor are also quite extraordinary.’

However, during the battle, Zhang Ji had developed a measure of respect for this powerful expert. In the end, he allowed him to keep some dignity and didn’t go too far.

Once the Divine Emperor’s body was completely destroyed, Zhang Ji turned and flew back toward Lan’er World.

The world barrier they had shattered had already begun to repair itself in that short time and was about to finish.

The self-healing ability of a world was just that powerful; otherwise, it would never have been able to exist in the void.

Zhang Ji’s figure quickly passed through the world barrier and vanished without a trace.

…

「Within Lan’er World.」

The seven Demigods and a group of top-tier experts were still cleaning up the aftershocks from the battle between Zhang Ji and the Divine Emperor.

Although the terrifying clash of Divine Artifacts had taken place in the Divine Realm, the scattered aftershocks alone were more than enough to give the entire mortal realm a hard time.

Fortunately, while the Demigods were no match for experts like Zhang Ji and the Divine Emperor, they were still able to quickly quell some of the aftershocks.

Upon his successful return, Zhang Ji immediately announced their victory.

With that, the Saint Silver Church Country was declared completely fallen, to be officially taken over by the Saint King Council.

For the common people at the bottom, this could only be a good thing.

The attitudes of the Arcane Federation and the Mechanus Heart Empire were complicated, but in the end, both decided to send envoys to offer their congratulations.

Leaving some warriors and armed forces stationed there, the remaining Starships began their return journey.

This allowed the people of the Arcane Federation and the Mechanus Heart Empire to breathe a sigh of relief.

The Divine Realm was mostly destroyed, and the seven Demigods were busy cleaning up the mess. Zhang Ji went to chat with them for a bit, expressed his regret for the consequences of the battle, and offered to help rebuild.

The seven Demigods readily agreed.

After the reconstruction, the Divine Realm wouldn’t just have the temples of seven gods. It was only natural that Zhang Ji should also have a place there.

In fact, he would likely hold the dominant position.

With his power, he was a Divine King in all but name.

—

「Origin Star, Supreme Capital.」

The Saint King Council convened once again.

This time, there was one more Saint King at the table.

The chief of the Crown of Sin and Thorns, Mikhail Andrews.

This Sword Saint’s power was no less than that of Ling Xuzi or Dugu Yunfeng. In terms of his realm, he might even be slightly superior.

Moreover, he was now a complete Zhang Ji fanboy.

With his Dao heart shattered, his mind had been scrambled by Zhang Ji’s conversion aura.

He was now considered the primary person in charge of Lan’er World.

Related activities going forward would be handed over to him.

It was now the post-war debriefing, and they were asked to share their thoughts on the battle.

“What other thoughts could there be? The Supreme got MVP! We just got carried!” Giles retorted.

He could feel the commotion from Zhang Ji’s battle from a thousand miles away. He even went to personally inspect the traces left behind by the fight afterward.

With that kind of might, he had reason to believe that Zhang Ji alone could blow up the entire world.

“Giles, don’t be ridiculous. It’s impossible for me to rule such a vast territory all by myself,” Zhang Ji said.

“I’m eating a banana.”

Giles peeled a giant banana that had been nourished by Spiritual Qi and began to eat it.

“Regarding this cross-world campaign, I think we might have overprepared,” Ferguson said. “The Saint Silver Church’s strength was actually quite backwards. Their legendary-tier experts were mediocre, and they didn’t mount any effective resistance. Our battleships didn’t even have time to fire a single shot. Their war chariots and magitech armies were too slow. They were just target practice. The battle was over before they even arrived.”

“That’s true, but for a first inter-world war, it was handled very well. Our overall mobilization capability can be called excellent,” Cyril said.

He was very proud.

It hadn’t been long since the Saint King Council was formed, but what they had accomplished was nothing short of a grand achievement.

In the future, history would remember their contributions.

They might even become as eternal as history itself, continuously leading civilization forward as pioneers.

This was what he strived for, and now that it was slowly being realized, he was naturally overjoyed.

“The Starship technology has been preliminarily mastered,” Zhuge Mingyuan said. “We can still build a few more Starships with the World Tree materials, but the engines need improvement. Also, I think the large battle armors from the Crown of Sin and Thorns could be used in future wars. A simplified version could also be used as engineering mechs. I asked Beto Reck—his Super Giant Breaker can be operated by ordinary people, though it’s not as agile. If we add a corresponding Artifact Spirit, it would be equivalent to an S-class expert capable of autonomous combat.”

Zhuge Mingyuan was focused on technology, and that large puppet had been on his mind for a while.

The Celestial Essence Realm actually had the means to create large Spirit Puppets, but they were considered impractical, so that technological path had been abandoned.

But Beto’s Super Giant Breaker had excellent performance in all aspects. It was definitely a technology that could be adopted and upgraded. Zhuge Mingyuan was very interested. If they had a couple more puppets like that, the construction progress of the Celestial Essence Realm’s Qiankun Nine Heavens Void Tide-Inducing Array could be greatly accelerated.

“What about the rest of you? Anything to add?” Zhang Ji asked, looking at those who hadn’t spoken.

“I want some material from the World Tree to forge a sword,” Dugu Yunfeng said.

“You can arrange that yourself. As a Saint King, you get a share of almost all resources,” Zhang Ji said.

Tran had nothing to express. He just wanted the meeting to end so he could go see Melia. He hadn’t seen his great-great-granddaughter in some time.

As for Mikhail, his eyes burned with fervor. He had no doubt that Zhang Ji could achieve even greater glory. The only thing he wanted to say was to praise the Supreme’s might.

The council meeting soon ended. After a victory comes a celebration.

After this battle, a considerable amount of benefits would be distributed among the Saint Kings. They were all about to enter a period of rapid growth.

This was also what Zhang Ji wanted to see.

He alone was far from enough to handle the many changes the future held. Standing on high, he also needed sufficiently powerful subordinates to help carry out his orders. Only then could he draw upon countless resources to aid his own growth.