Chapter 1078: Endless Flames of War, Sevenfold Divine Rune

After the battle in the Wild Forest, the name of the Long Eared God transformed from obscurity to fame, and the power of the faction rapidly expanded!

In the first year after the war, his followers numbered over a million. Most were Ordinary Disciples who had cultivated a trace of Divine Power, along with twenty thousand Elite Disciples, three thousand Senior Disciples, and eight hundred Elders. The Long Eared God was revered as one of the Nine Great True Gods throughout Qing Country, with divine palaces springing up like mushrooms after the rain in every state and city.

In the second year, other fake gods began to rise, filling the void left by the fallen pseudo-gods like the Ear Wisdom God.

The growth rate of followers of the Long Eared God began to slow, yet by year’s end exceeded five million, after which Shen Mo initiated a divine war, starting to exterminate fake gods other than the Nine Great True Gods.

He intended to wipe out the remaining eight true gods as well, but the authority of the Long Eared God was somewhat thin, requiring other fake gods to fill roles in areas like war, wealth, harvest, and offspring; otherwise, the citizens of Qing Country might worship pseudo-gods from neighbouring countries, allowing stronger, harder-to-control pseudo-god forces to penetrate into Qing Country.

By the third year, few fake gods remained within Qing Country, leaving behind just over a hundred who revered the Long Eared God foremost, while the Immortal Corpse Fragments from fallen pseudo-gods were all collected by Guan Ling. The number of followers and disciples under the Long Eared God’s seat reached its peak, and growth speed hit a bottleneck, leading Shen Mo to set his sights on Ji Country across the Thorn Mountain Range.

After meticulous planning, the long-peaceful Qing Country and Ji Country erupted in war once more, with one hundred thousand troops from Qing Country crossing the Thorn Mountain Range to invade Ji Country.

By the fifth year, after a series of small-scale divine battles, countless small and large pseudo-gods in Ji Country fell, with only a few nameless gods surviving, similar to Qing Country. The capital was breached by the army, and the vast territories with millions of citizens were all annexed into Qing Country, leading countless disciples who lost Divine Power to shift allegiance to other fake gods, allowing the Long Eared God’s forces to expand rapidly once more.

Upon digesting Ji Country, Shen Mo set his sights on igniting war against the neighbouring Jin Country and An Country!

…

By the tenth year, Qing Country had consecutively annexed Ji, Jin, An, and three other neighbouring countries, expanding its territory several fold. The pseudo-gods within all these countries were utterly eliminated in one divine battle after another, with all revealed Immortal Corpse Fragments collected by Guan Ling. Shen Mo’s pledge had already been nearly completed.

The Long Eared God, or rather Shen Mo’s faction, had gathered over four hundred fake gods with weak “Divine Nature” and dense Divine Power, with disciples numbering in the millions.

Among them, over two thousand were contracted cultivators, who, after hearing that Shen Mo and others were kindred spirits and that offering the primal Essence and Qi of the Long Eared God resulted in minimal loss, vied to become disciples of the Long Eared God. Originally, their Vitality was extremely potent, capable of slaughtering relatively weak fake gods with mere physical prowess and martial arts and skill alone. After acquiring Divine Power to utilize various God Path means, they became exceedingly fierce.

Whether in divine battles among fake gods, conventional wars among mortal soldiers, or exterminating other fake gods within the national borders, this group of cultivators played a crucial role, with over ten thousand fake gods dying directly at their hands. When finally settling accounts, Shen Mo had to allocate a portion of the god-slaying credit to them.

As Qing Country aggressively invaded and seized territories, thousands of true gods and evil gods perished at a terrifying speed, prompting the remaining fake gods to band together.

Under their influence, over thirty large and small countries surrounding Qing Country formed an allied army, with divine path experts from over a hundred countries aiding, directly attacking the recently annexed Yi Country, and began advancing toward Qing Country. It was foreseeable that a divine war surpassing that which took place three hundred years ago, impacting the entire cultivation world, was about to erupt!

Shen Mo was not particularly concerned about this. The major trend had already been established, and regardless of the outcome of the divine war, as long as some more fake gods fell during the period, he could completely repay the god-slaying credit owed to Guan Ling.

What concerned him more were the mysterious Dao runes of this world, or rather the hidden biggest secret of this cultivation world contained in the Divine Runes.

Over the years, Shen Mo had gradually gleaned thirteen Sixfold Divine Runes and several multiple-layer divine runes from within other fake gods. Coupled with his deep accumulation of knowledge in divine runes, he attempted to deduce a Sevenfold God Rune composed of seven foundational divine runes. For this purpose, he repeatedly entered Guan Ling’s humble grass hut, using mana to protect his Mind Sea and soul from self-harm during deductions…

“Sizzle!”

Shen Mo’s fingertip brushed across the iron piece, emitting a piercing sound as if a sword cutting through, soon inscribing an incredibly complex and profound pattern.

This was one of the sixty-four “Sevenfold God Runes” he had painstakingly deduced, yet it had not been verified. If inputting Divine Power resulted in no reaction or direct disintegration, it would indicate that this “Sevenfold God Rune” did not exist in the cultivation world; only if Divine Power penetrated unobstructively and could trigger miraculous effects could the existence of this divine rune be verified!

Without surprise, when Shen Mo infused Divine Power into this rune, the entire fine iron token shattered instantly, due to a conflict between its two basic divine runes.

Shen Mo did not become disheartened but continued to validate the next “Sevenfold God Rune”, with each token either showing no reaction or the divine rune directly disintegrating into shattered pieces, until the forty-ninth “Sevenfold God Rune” when a change occurred!

As Divine Power was applied, this Sevenfold God Rune unexpectedly emitted a bright glow…

Shen Mo immediately became invigorated, knowing that the more complex the divine rune, the more Divine Power was required for complete activation. He incessantly infused Divine Power sourced from the “Self God” into it; over the past decade, the number of disciples under the Long Eared God increased tens of thousands of times, the Divine Power extracted by the Self God from it had grown immense to the point of frightening Shen Mo, fearing that a careless mistake might cause a backlash!

Such an immense amount of Divine Power surged into the divine rune like a river bursting its banks, endlessly flowing;

In the blink of an eye, a tenth of the total Divine Power was consumed, yet Shen Mo showed no sign of distress, his gaze growing increasingly fervent.

Simultaneously, the Sevenfold God Rune became extraordinarily radiant, until as three-tenths of Divine Power flowed into it, the blinding light reached an extreme, as if all colors and forms between heaven and earth had vanished, leaving only strange, twisted, profound patterns…

At a certain moment, Shen Mo suddenly could not perceive his own existence, unable to sense his physical body, soul, True Yuan Mana, Magical Powers or even thoughts, akin to transforming into the lofty will of heaven and earth—an experience he had once undergone when contemplating Water Ghost Evil Spirit and perceiving the Great Path.

After an indeterminate duration, the endless radiance gradually dimmed, and the token inscribed with divine runes evaporated completely, like vapor.

Shen Mo regained perception of his existence, slowly opened his eyes, and his gaze was full of astonishment!