Chapter 167 - 166: War Between Believers

Chapter 167: Chapter 166: War Between Believers

With the gathering of the Hidden Dragon Ranking’s Martial Artists on Fangcun Mountain a few days ago,

the duel agreed upon by Fang Can and Xiang Longtao under the watchful eyes of the crowd also began to spread.

With Fang Can and Xiang Longtao tying for first place, an epithet for the pair began to circulate throughout the Martial World.

Some in the Martial World started referring to them as "Can of the South, Tao of the North."

Now, all the nations knew. The two who had tied for first place in the great competition had made a pact: neither would break through to the next realm. They would fight using only the pure martial power of their Transcendent Bodies. This news was even more explosive.

Amidst the massive hype, countless casinos opened their books, allowing the public to bet on the outcome.

Beyond the gambling, the followers of both sides were also locked in a bitter struggle.

Great Derivation, for instance, was the home base for Fang Can’s followers, while most people within Great Chu’s borders were followers of Xiang Longtao.

In the other nations, the two camps of followers vied for supremacy.

On one side was the established "god" who had long dominated the Hidden Dragon Ranking; on the other, a rising new star.

At this critical moment, with their respective gods about to fight to the death, the followers were certainly not going to stand idly by.

When the two factions encountered each other, the lighter conflicts involved sarcastic barbs and trash talk. The more serious ones escalated to brawls at the slightest disagreement.

In just the last two days, crime rates in every nation had skyrocketed, mainly thanks to the scattered followers of the two rivals.

One day, you’d burn my banner; the next, I’d smash the statue of your god. Both sides were unreasonable and unforgiving.

But Xiang Longtao had, after all, held his spot on the Hidden Dragon Ranking for a full year. His established legacy was far more robust than Fang Can’s, and he had a crushing advantage in the number of followers in other countries.

In this fan war over their idols’ prestige, Fang Can’s side gradually began to lose ground.

The fact that they maintained a crushing momentum in the press for days on end sent the Xiang Pi into a state of ecstasy, and they began publishing taunts in newspapers across the nations.

[*Jianwen Post*]: A mere Fang Can dares to oppose our Xiang Army? We’ll take on the whole world!

[Dayan Daily]: What Great Competition of Nations? What Can of the South, Tao of the North? There is only one true god, and that is our Dragon God.

[Great Zhou Morning News]: If worst comes to worst, we’ll ruin the entire Great Competition of Nations. The Evil Gods you worship will eventually be crushed under the foot of a true god.

[Da Chu Newspaper]: A pack of upstart Evil Gods. How could they possibly have our god’s deep-rooted legacy?

[*Chi Kingdom Post*]: This Great Competition of Nations is nothing short of a war of the gods. Xiang Longtao, a single true god, is crushing a multitude of Evil Gods. It is the Year of the Dragon, after all.

With the support of their vast numbers, the followers from Great Chu began to form their own slogans: "Time, a blade that fells the brightest stars. Their dazzling path on the Martial Dao ends in a sigh!"

"Xiang is first among the Hidden Dragons; he is destined to suppress all foes."

"The ’Dragon’ in the Hidden Dragon Ranking stands for the ’Dragon’ in Xiang Longtao!"

...

Just as Fang Can’s followers were being so thoroughly suppressed they couldn’t even fight back, the situation began to shift, apparently because the taunts had become too far-reaching.

Due to their extreme arrogance, the Xiang Pi’s targets were no longer just Fang Can’s devotees, but had expanded to include everyone on the Hidden Dragon Ranking.

To draw an analogy from the modern gaming world, the rhetoric of the Xiang Pi was like issuing a declaration of war against every single fan group at once—insulting Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft fans, PC purists and mobile gamers, and the stans of every popular title from LoL and Dota to Genshin Impact—all at the same time.

The first sign of a turning point was a simple message on the front page of the Great Zhou Morning News:

"The Wang family may not have a legacy on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, but when faced with mockery, someone has to stand up. If we’re all ’Evil Gods’ now, then fine—we’ll bring about a twilight of the gods."

After this message, the narrative dominance once held by the Xiang Pi began to erode. More and more newspapers were being commandeered by different voices.

[Dayan Daily]: The Demon Dao calls for the methods of the Demon Dao. Watch as our Evil Sect refines all of you in an instant!

[Da Chu Newspaper]: Thirty years the river flows east, thirty years it flows west. Do not bully the young just because they are poor!

It seemed their previous arrogance had gone too far, and the followers of the other Martial Artists on the Hidden Dragon Ranking could no longer stomach it. As a result, several other "god-worshipping" factions began to unite against the Xiang Pi.

The battle was incredibly fierce, arguably the greatest fandom war in a century. The flame war was so intense it felt like the Great Dao itself was being worn away.

On street corners and in back alleys, you could see fans of the different followers engaging in real-life brawls.

But even as these followers were beating each other’s brains out, the officials of the various nations were actually delighted to see it.

At the very least, these people were spending real money to boost their idols’ rankings, which in turn stimulated the national economies.

As for the "gods" at the center of this worship, they remained completely oblivious.

With the Great Competition of Nations just around the corner, they were all in seclusion, desperately trying to make some last-minute progress in their cultivation. What kind of respectable person had the time to argue online all day?

And the followers wouldn’t have dared to disturb them. No matter how fierce the fighting got, it was an internal affair of the fandoms.

...

「Late at night. The Great Chu Imperial Palace.」

The current emperor of Great Chu, Xiang Hongtu, looked up at the bright moon and sighed. "In just a few days, my son will take part in the great competition."

Beside the emperor stood a handsome man in the white robes of a scholar. "Your Majesty," he said, "are you still worried about the curse from eighteen years ago?"

"It was a death curse from a Fourth Turn master, after all," Xiang Hongtu sighed. "Even though we were given a countermeasure, there’s no guarantee it will hold."

Everyone knew that eighteen years ago, at the celebration of his first month of life, Xiang Longtao had received the blessings of twelve shamans. But there was more to the story.

After eleven shamans had finished blessing Xiang Longtao, an uninvited guest arrived at the banquet.

A Fourth Turn shaman whose entire clan had been exterminated by Xiang Hongtu himself decades ago for rebelling against the court.

After the eleven shamans finished their blessings, the shaman who crashed the banquet sneered and cursed, "I ’bless’ Xiang Longtao to be defeated by the one chosen by fate in 18 years, and then, unable to accept it, to go mad and die!"

And as that shaman spoke the curse, the twelfth shaman immediately gave his own blessing.

Faced with a Fourth Turn curse, he couldn’t nullify it, but he could attempt to work around it.

And this shaman’s blessing was: "The Prince will indeed die, but he will perish at the Great Competition of Nations 18 years from now. And though he dies, he can be resurrected."

...

Lost in his memories of that day eighteen years ago, Xiang Hongtu unconsciously crushed the cup in his hand, leaving the imprint of his fingers in the metal.

"Rest assured, Your Majesty. The twelfth shaman used his word-magic to circumvent the curse. It will surely preserve the Prince’s life," the white-robed scholar said reassuringly, but Xiang Hongtu’s brow remained tightly furrowed.

"Fine," he finally said. "Let’s hope it is as the shaman said, and that my son’s life will be spared."

"If not, I will dispatch my army to Great Derivation, raze its capital to the ground, and personally take that whelp Fang Can’s life to have him accompany my son in death."

Xiang Hongtu spoke with grim certainty. He knew that as things stood in the Great Competition of Nations, only Fang Can posed a true threat to his son.

Therefore, it was a battle Xiang Longtao was destined to lose. All he wanted was for his son to survive it.

「Meanwhile.」

In his own residence, Fang Can was stretching his body.

Feeling the endless vitality coursing through his body, he knew. After this month of modification, the refinement of his perfect physique was finally complete.