Previously, it was the Imperial Intelligence Division that inford Su Lun and Mr. Jing about the situation at the Manuel Hill Mine, and news of that great battle naturally made its way back to the imperial capital of Lindun at the first opportunity.
When the officials confird that those beings from the Heavenly God Plane had already brought forth a Demigod expert, the entire upper echelons of the United Empire were shaken.
Everyone understood that the peace of the past two years was gone forever, and war was imminent.
The upper echelons were very clear that the enemy's overt attack on the mine was ant to lure out the top-tier combat power of the Alchemy Plane and then eliminate it.
If their sche was successful, it would signal the beginning of a full-scale war.
An ergency eting was also convened by the Empire Council.
"Your Majesty, we have confirmation from Mafa that Mr. Jing of Dawn and Prince Fick have engaged the enemy. The current intel confirms that the enemy is of Demigod realm. The enemy has showcased formidable thods, with one individual casting the forbidden legion magic 'Holy Shackles,' and her sword is very powerful, likely an Artifact Projection..."
"Mr. Jing split into nine, using a wide-range wood-based alchemy forbidden curse, freeing herself from the constraints of the Holy Light curse and instead trapping the enemies."
"Latest intel, the Demigod from the Heavenly God Plane with a third eye on her forehead is capable of emitting a very powerful piercing light beam. She broke through, and the major battle is currently at a stalemate..."
"..."
In the council chamber, where only a dozen people sat on the hundred mahogany chairs, it appeared sowhat empty.
Yet at this mont, those seated here were without exception the heavyweight officials of the Empire.
Shoulders adorned with five golden stars, marshals of the grand land, sea, and air legions, the Imperial Pri Minister, senior cabinet ministers... every person watched the communications officer with a grave expression.
The atmosphere was extrely heavy.
The battle intel from the Mafa frontline was transmitted here in real-ti and decrypted on the spot by cryptographers.
Everyone listened intently to the live battle status.
Hearing that the enemy was a Demigod powerhouse, their brows furrowed tightly; learning that Su Lun and Mr. Jing were gaining the upper hand, they finally relaxed slightly; facing a locked battle situation, everyone tensed up again, afraid to even breathe heavily... fearful of any unexpected developnts.
With the volatile and rapidly changing battle conditions, the expressions of those present altered accordingly.
They all knew that this battle would greatly determine the direction of the future plane wars.
And at the main seat of the council, Yekaijelina, wearing her crown, also watched with a heavy gaze.
Finally, hearing that after several hours of a hard-fought battle, it ended in a stalemate, everyone's hanging hearts settled sowhat.
At least there was no defeat, aning that the top battle strength of the Alchemy Plane currently was not inferior to the enemy's.
Sighs of relief echoed in unison throughout the council hall.
"Mr. Jing truly lives up to his title as the number one expert of the Alchemy Plane, managing to hold his own against a Demigod powerhouse."
"Indeed. This last two years, thanks to Dawn, we've had the chance to catch our breath."
"With Mr. Jing and Prince Fick on the Mafa frontline, the enemy will have to think twice about a large-scale advance. But our ti is running short..."
"..."
The tone was filled with respect whenever people ntioned Mr. Jing and Su Lun.
It was not just respect for top-ranking powerhouses but also admiration for the two who had been active at the frontline for the past two years, securing ti for the Alchemy Plane.
Sitting upon the throne, Yekaijelina pondered for a mont before speaking, "That's the situation as it stands now. Lords, what do you believe our next move should be?"
Upon her words, the generals and ministers imdiately presented their views.
"An all-out war is inevitable. We absolutely cannot hold any illusions that the enemy will give us more ti. We must mobilize everyone imdiately to prepare for the war!"
"Indeed. Currently, it seems the enemy plans to cross the Imperial Strait using magical airships, and we still have sufficient ti to prepare. In a direct confrontation, we have a decent chance of victory. The only concern is the enemy's top-tier combat strength..."
"Top-tier combat strength is indeed a problem. These two years, we've been searching hard for the 'Cosmic Essences,' but unfortunately, we've found just one. However, the army corps trained in tens of thousands of mage formations are already taking shape, and we have the chanized airship corps. Against magic troops, we have fighting power."
"..."
The discussion was lively.
Since the battle at Klemington two years ago, the surrender faction within the empire was entirely purged, and imperial power beca highly centralized.
The Empire was almost single-minded, concentrating resources in a single direction, allowing policies to be executed with utmost efficiency.
This was one of the key reasons for the explosive developnt of the United Empire over these last two years!
Although the situation was dire, since they were all proponents of going to war, there was no sign of fear on anyone's faces.
Everyone's thoughts were quite unanimous: the fight must happen, and they had already made ample preparations over these two years.
Without exaggeration, the United Empire's current military strength was several dozen tis stronger than the two great empires of Rueing and Mafa combined, back in their ti.
If given another decade, or even more ti to continue this developnt, the Alchemy civilization was sure to shine with undeniable brilliance.
Unfortunately, the enemy would not give them further ti.
Yekaijelina, listening to everyone's debates, maintained an expression calm as still water.
She was more aware than anyone else of the current state of the Empire and had even factored in the potential arrival of Demigods in her calculations.
Over the past two years, the Empire had made all the preparations it could.
The rest was left to fate.
Yekaijelina's purple pupils slightly scattered as she seed to contemplate sothing; her hand subconsciously touched the sapphire pendant hanging on her chest. The pendant was engraved with extrely intricate spatial runes—a gift from the past.
However, just then, an unexpected change occurred very suddenly.
While listening to the communications, the ministers had thought that the battle at the Magic front had ended and were discussing the pre-war mobilization plan.
But unexpectedly, the communicator rang out again.
The cryptanalyst, not knowing what news they had heard, suddenly looked pale and reported to Yekaijelina above with an urgent voice, "Your Majesty, the latest news from the front! A great disturbance has erged near the portal in Zambra Ironfall Province! It seems... it seems that soone has attacked the Mage camp. The battle is very intense!"
What?
Soone attacked the Mage camp?
On hearing this, everyone in the council hall stared in disbelief.
The situation near the portal was clear to everyone present. It was the origin of the war; the Empire had also tried many ways to destroy the portal over the years.
But all attempts had ended in failure.
That Mage camp had undefeatable defenses; anyone who went there did not return!
And now, soone had launched an attack on the camp?
Even Yekaijelina was surprised to hear this, her eyes flashed with a cold light as she asked, "What exactly is happening?"
After listening to another piece of encrypted intelligence, the cryptanalyst reported, "The details are still unclear. But from what the observer has seen, the Mage camp is in complete chaos. It appears that so terrifying creatures have erged. The observer saw flashes of light and conjectures that it might be the act of soone from the Dawn..."
It could only be the Dawn.
Upon hearing this, everyone guessed as much.
But their expressions were still full of disbelief.
Hadn't they just fought the enemy to a standstill at Manushil Mine just a while ago? How in a blink of an eye had they gone to attack the Magic camp?
And how did they manage it?
Who would dare to forcefully breach that camp without dozens of ninth-level mages?
...
While the high echelons of the Unified Empire were in a state of shock, at the Magic frontline, near the portal on a hillside, Su Lun and Mr. Jing watching the battle were having a far more leisurely ti.
The bidinsional worms had already been released; the rest was just watching the show and waiting for the outco.
Through the telescope, the Mage camp was in utter disarray.
The camp had floors made of solidified ground that not even explosives could penetrate, but under the bidinsional worms' spatial dinsion reduction ability, they turned into a mud pit in an instant.
The magic towers, like chocolate towers baked at high temperatures, lted away onto the ground in large swaths.
The bidinsional worms rampaged through the camp, feeding everywhere.
Wherever they passed, all matter was reduced dinsionally into food.
The mages of the seventh level or higher were still able to use their domains to sense spatial fluctuations and predict the movents of the bidinsional worms. The lower-level mages were not so lucky; they gathered in formations, only to be devoured by the "black lines" that erged suddenly from the void.
In just a few minutes, over a hundred thousand mages had vanished within the camp, leaving no trace behind.
Even the demigod Mage was utterly powerless, with elental magic blasting on the creature's body as if rely adding a dab of colorful dessert. Even the remaining precious ti magic and slowing light beams were too rare to stop the creature's rampage.
The camp was in complete disarray.
The million-strong Mage army of the Divine Plane, capable of destructive power, could only watch helplessly as the bidinsional worms rampaged through the camp unopposed.
On the hillside, watching the rampaging creatures, Su Lun's eyes also sparkled as he murmured to himself, "Higher spatial laws, that might be a power even ordinary gods can't master..."
The spatial dinsion reduction ability of the void bidinsional worm was the most magical and mysterious application of spatial abilities he had ever seen.
He had never understood how this ability could reduce a three-dinsional object to two dinsions, neither from a physical nor a law perspective.
Now, even with the wisdom from the waters of Mimir and the insight from the All-knowing Eye, he still didn't understand it.
It wasn't a matter of lack of insight but rather the cognitive level involved was too high above his current self, and his brain, unable to handle such high-order cognition, automatically blocked it.
Su Lun even speculated that this might be so kind of fundantal cosmic rule.
Not the superficial aspect of "rules" he currently understood.
However, the more prominently the bidinsional worms perford, the better it was for the Alchemical Plane.
In just a few monts, the worms had devoured hundreds of magic towers.
The previous invincible defenses, the dense accumulation of magic towers like walls, were now like chocolate sticks, devoured unselectively by the undiscriminating bidinsional worms.
Looking at the strengthening bidinsional worms, Su Lun couldn't help but exclaim, "The Divine Plane's forces have suffered heavy losses now. This wave alone ans at least a year and a half's worth of supplies sent over are gone. To wage war again, they will have to start preparations anew..."
Mr. Jing, who was standing nearby, also showed a rare relaxed expression, "Yes."
However, not long after, a ten-story magic tower in the camp suddenly lit up with the fluctuations of spatial transportation, and a female mage wearing a golden mask hastily returned to the battlefield.
It was none other than Grand Princess Octavia J. Fielding, who had fought with them a thousand miles away at the great battle of Manushil.
Su Lun looked at the familiar face and raised an eyebrow, "Yo, she's finally made it back."
Without the ability for ultra-long-distance spatial teleportation, even receiving the ssage imdiately, she was still late in returning by using the magic circle.
Already, the camp's core magic tower had been devoured in large chunks, with two of the ten-story towers that could empty an entire large kingdom being consud by the biaxial worms.
Upon seeing this, a chill went through Octavia's eyes; that was the empire's wealth. She set aside her aloof deanor as a holy tribal princess and took off her golden mask right away.
The vertical pupil on her forehead shone brightly with dissolving beams, firing straight at the biaxial worms.
It had to be said, the "All-knowing Eye" was truly powerful, even the biaxial worms retracted and flinched from the penetrating beams.
But that was all there was to it.
Such damage was akin to evaporating a bit of mud off a mud monster's body, and it could not kill the biaxial worms.
Seeing this, Su Lun's gaze also narrowed slightly.
So far, almost everything was within expectations.
Now, with two demigods present in the heavens' battlefield, it was the liveliest mont.
Mr. Jing muttered beside him, "Next, they should summon the will of the gods to descend…"
Smiling, Su Lun nodded, "Yes. Let's see just how strong she will be after the descent of the god."
....
Just as the two had predicted, it wasn't long before the two demigod mages of the heavens' plane recognized the fact that they couldn't kill the biaxial worms.
Moreover, with plenty of "food" in the camp, the monster had no intention of leaving.
Although the magic gods' thods couldn't kill it, their rule-based magic could still harm it, causing the biaxial worm to beco increasingly enraged, slaughtering the mages even more ruthlessly.
Every mont the biaxial worm rampaged in the camp was a huge loss for the people of the heavens' plane.
This would have been the best opportunity for a surprise attack, but Su Lun and his companion made no move.
They had not failed to notice that, despite the chaos, several ten-story magic towers were always prepared, just waiting to deal a heavy blow to anyone attempting to profit from the disorder.
The previous mirror light projection had summoned the Void Gate and unleashed monsters, making it clear to the enemies that it was their backstage maneuver, naturally, they were on guard.
Those magic towers might not pose a problem for a special void creature like the biaxial worm, but that didn't an they would be harmless to the two beings of flesh and blood.
Su Lun and his companion quietly watched the excitent, waiting for a better opportunity.
If this exhaustion continued, even if the million-strong magic army could deal with the biaxial worm, they would surely suffer heavy casualties.
By then, with the various magic formations of the camp shattered, Su Lun and his party might really have the chance to stir up trouble in the camp.
But the enemy, of course, would not give them that chance.
The Grand Princess Octavia was decisively quick to act—upon realizing she couldn't kill the beast, she imdiately began chanting an arcane incantation.
The spell to summon the gods seed magical; upon hearing it, the million people in the camp stopped in unison, their faces free of fear and panic, filled only with piety and fervor, as they awaited the arrival of their deity of faith.
Su Lun saw more than just that; every person was connected by strands that converged in the sky.
He had not understood what faith was before, but now, watching the scene of a million people in worship, he seed to grasp sothing and muttered to himself, "This is the power of faith… Strange, it's not spiritual power, nor is it the soul, but rather consciousness coalescing into reality..."
The collective will of a million people was a terrifying force indeed.
Was this an important source of the gods' power?
Su Lun pondered.
This was the gateway between planes after all, and it was much easier for a god to descend here than elsewhere.
He had no ti to ponder further when, in an instant with the chant, the sky began to surge as countless powers of faith gathered and ford a huge, vague human face in the blink of an eye.
In that instant, an indescribable will descended.
Su Lun, having witnessed the descent of gods nurous tis, saw no mystery in what was deed ineffable.
Looking at the fuzzy face in the sky, he recognized it and said to himself, "It's the sa one from before…"
The divine will that descended was none other than the unfortunate deity who had coveted the "Mimir's Spring" in the waters of the Dragon Country and was ultimately defeated by the Cyclops Demigod Tribal Chief.
Mr. Jing, initially solemn at the arrival of the True God's will, looked over upon hearing Su Lun's words, "Seen it before?"
Su Lun nodded, "Mhm. It's the one I told you about before, in the waters of Dragon Country."
Mr. Jing responded, "Oh."
As the two were discussing, the gigantic face in the sky had already taken shape, and almost all the energy of the magic towers in the mage camp was mobilized.
The overwhelming magic power coalesced into two large hands, which then grabbed the bi-dinsional worm in the camp, tearing it off like a canvas.
What followed was a very strange scene, where the two hands kneaded the creature as if it were taffy, ripping it apart piece by piece.
With each tear, the breath of the bi-dinsional worm grew weaker and weaker.
When a True God took action, it was indeed extraordinary.
Mr. Jing, who stood by, watched with closely knit brows, as if calculating his chances of victory against that will.
Although Su Lun hadn't fully understood the thods of the deity, by observing the threads of rules, he vaguely guessed that it was an advanced application of the Space Law.
It was those large hands that employed a technique similar to "Spatial Isolation," grasping the entire space rather than the creature itself.
It was akin to using a piece of paper to wrap a sticky candy, thereby avoiding the bi-dinsional worm's bizarre ability to reduce anything it touched to a lower dinsion.
Seeing this, Su Lun murmured, "It seems that 'Spatial Dinsion Reduction' is a power even lower deities fear..."
As he had surmised, "reduction" could be a kind of advanced cosmic spatial law, one that lower gods could not master.
Otherwise, the deity before him wouldn't have been so hamstrung in dealing with the bi-dinsional worm.
And he wasn't too surprised that the will of the deity could severely wound the Matriarch Worm.
The terror of the Void Matriarch Worm lay in its intelligence and its ability to reproduce spawn, not in its combat strength.
They were inherently the weakest in their tier, and not fast at teleportation.
Even though they ranked as demigods, without their dinsion-reducing talent, probably even an eighth-order could kill them.
However, the battle was still very intense.
The bi-dinsional worm, exiled for countless years, had a strong will to survive; it struggled, trying to kill and escape.
But those massive hands had no intention of letting it go.
The deity did not wish to release such a troubleso creature, lest it return to the camp and cause unpredictable losses in the future.
The hands continued to tear, and more and more pieces of the bi-dinsional worm's body fell into the camp; the fragnts of various corpses still had the capacity to reduce dinsions, causing enormous losses to the people from the celestial domain.
But from the mont the bi-dinsional worm could not escape, its fate was sealed.
As ti passed, Princess Oktaavia's face beca increasingly pale. The burden was trendous, as summoning the will of a deity to descend took its toll on her.
Especially since she had mobilized such a potent force.
But the outco was still favorable for her.
Using the power of the deity, she finally pushed the bi-dinsional worm to the brink of death.
From a distance, Su Lun could also sense the soul vibrations of the bi-dinsional worm becoming fainter and fainter.
In the end, it could no longer maintain a bi-dinsional state.
So fragnts of magic towers and various corpse remnants yet to be digested fell into the camp like dumping garbage, scattering everywhere.
It was finally killed.
...
Although the creature hadn't managed to kill one of the two Magic Gods, it did kill quite a few seventh- and eighth-order Mages, as well as two or three tens of thousand-person magic squads, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties.
It also destroyed at least one-third of the various supplies, magic towers, and magical restrictions in the camp.
It could be said that it severely weakened them.
Su Lun and Mr. Jing were quite satisfied with the outco.
After this event, they could at least delay the celestial domain's offensive for half a year.
Besides, with the celestial folks having dealt with the worm, Su Lun himself breathed a sigh of relief, spared from having to exile it personally.
It also reduced many risks.
Suddenly, Su Lun felt quite pleased, and the solemn expression of Mr. Jing beside him relaxed as well.
His eyes fell on the corpses of the creatures within the camp, feeling a bit envious, "Those materials are out of reach for now..."
But having now witnessed a magic camp protected by the will of a deity, he dismissed the last bit of wishful thinking in his heart.
It would be impossible to co out alive if they were to forcibly storm in.
Clearly, this matter required long-term planning.
Just then, Mr. Jing thought of sothing and said, "We need not worry about the situation here for several months. Let's go, we are heading to the 'God Burial Ground'."
Su Lun imdiately understood and nodded, "Hmm."
In the current situation, they had to take risks.
They needed to explore the legendary site of a deity's fall within the Silent Forest; if they could really refine a large amount of "Cosmic Essence," the tide of battle might change significantly.
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