All Gods: Starting with Two Families

Chapter 96 The Staff of DeathIn the Void Realm, Zhou Zheng maintained the effect of the wondrous item ”Deception of Death,” keeping his aura perfectly concealed.

The Skeleton God, who was fully occupied with commanding his skeleton army to attack the Mechanical Calamity Plane, was completely unaware of this.

All of his attention was focused on the fierce battle before him.

Zhou Zheng cautiously observed from the shadows.

He saw an endless army of bone skeletons locked in fierce combat with a wave of cold, mechanical monsters.

Both sides possessed a certain degree of ”undead” characteristics: when skeleton soldiers were shattered, the scattered bones would click and reassemble themselves;

And even when the mechanical monsters were damaged or even split in two, their remains would jump about, attempting to Fusion and repair themselves, or be dragged back by rear units for recasting.

This battle was therefore exceptionally intense and protracted; before Zhou Zheng’s arrival, it had likely been going on for an unknown amount of time, leaving the entire Plane in shambles, almost unrecognizable.

As it stood, thanks to the sheer numbers of the skeleton sea, the Skeleton God had a slight upper hand.

Zhou Zheng’s thoughts raced, and he sent a divine oracle into his Divine Domain, directly issuing an order to the newly promoted Lv.5 ”Mechanist” under his command—this was a new profession specialized in designing and building machinery, distinct from the traditional Blacksmith.

The Nether Worker Ant with an exceptionally developed head received the instruction, its compound eyes flashing rapidly as it quickly observed, analyzed, and drafted designs based on the imagery transmitted back by Zhou Zheng.

Soon, a detailed blueprint was drawn up—it was a mechanical monster resembling a giant butterfly, with two sharp, guillotine-like forelimbs, identical to the native mechanical units currently fighting in the Plane.

Utilizing the standard parts reserved in the existing assembly lines, the factories within Zhou Zheng’s Divine Domain operated at full speed, quickly mass-producing a batch of these imitation mechanical bodies.

He quietly inserted this batch of ”fakes” into the intense battlefield.

The sudden appearance of reinforcements caused a moment of confusion in the native mechanical monsters’ programming, their sensors scanning these uninvited guests repeatedly, seemingly unable to determine friend from foe.

However, when they detected that these new ”peers” were also frantically hacking at the skeleton soldiers, their underlying logic eventually made a judgment—prioritize clearing Life units, and handle internal anomalies later.

The pressure on the skeleton army suddenly doubled!

Originally, those native mechanical monsters fought solely on instinct and simple programming, without any strategy.

But every single one of the imitation bodies that Zhou Zheng deployed was being precisely controlled by a Nether Soldier Ant!

They acted in an orderly fashion, coordinated with each other tacitly, and could even execute complex combined attacks and encirclement formations!

”Damn it!! Have these pieces of scrap metal evolved again?!”

The Skeleton God was both shocked and furious, unable to help but curse, ”This kind of evolutionary ability... it’s truly... an enviable talent!”

He had snuck out of the Necromancy God System’s crystal wall. During an exploration of a Secret Realm, he had obtained a powerful Death Law wondrous item—the [Staff of Death].

This staff could destroy ownerless Planes and extract a kind of pure Death energy from the ”Death” process of the Plane, which was used to strengthen his followers and grant them Death characteristics.

His skeleton army was more difficult to deal with than those of other gods of the same rank, which was the result of multiple enhancements.

Therefore, he had set his sights on these newly appearing Calamity Planes.

The previous few small Planes had gone very smoothly, yielding him a bountiful harvest.

But the Plane before him was exceptionally stubborn; he had been gnawing at it for a long time, consuming a huge amount of resources, yet he still couldn’t take it down.

”Damn it... the attrition of the skeleton soldiers is about to hit the warning line.”

The Skeleton God was anxious, ”Could it be that I have to give up? All the initial investment will have been for nothing!”

Just as he was feeling the pain of his losses and was almost determined to retreat, a turning point suddenly appeared in the battle!

Those few squads of exceptionally brave and tactically brilliant mechanical monsters seemed to have suddenly suffered a program glitch; their attacks became disorganized, and they even began to obstruct each other, their formation falling into chaos!

”There’s a chance!”

The soul fire in the Skeleton God’s eye sockets jumped violently.

Greed instantly overwhelmed caution.

He had already invested too many sunk costs; giving up now was truly unacceptable. What’s more, this Plane was so hard to fight, there might be some amazing treasure hidden inside!

Ultimately, greed completely triumphed over reason.

The Skeleton God decided to use the trump card that gods were most reluctant to use easily—True Body Descent!

Boom!

A vast and cold Divine Might suddenly descended!

A massive skeleton, incomparably huge, with bones shimmering with dark particles, stepped into the Plane!

Its pressure was so strong that the space of the entire Plane instantly twisted slightly, and all ”creatures,” whether skeleton or machine, paused in their actions!

The battle situation reversed instantly!

Zhou Zheng, hiding in the shadows, finally curled his lips into a cold smile.

After acting for so long, he finally took the bait!