The People's God: Sacrificing Trillions to Ascend

Xu Hai remained unfazed, showing no reaction despite the massive barrier having been utterly destroyed by Divine Hammer’s Hellforge. The outcome was entirely natural, as the Epistians had prioritized covering a vast area with their barrier, rather than focusing on its durability. As soon as the inflicted damage exceeded its threshold, the barrier was bound to shatter into fragments.

Though Xu Hai had noticed the little skeleton discreetly moving around the battlefield, he made no move to warn his units or stop it himself. He simply stood, calmly overlooking the battlefield with an air of confidence, as if victory was already within his grasp.

The locust swarm, led by the Dark Locust, fiercely attacked the Epistians. Their numbers were so staggering that each Epistian had to face 10,000 locusts by themselves. However, even with the numerical advantage, Han Wu was still worried that his locusts were too weak. He had raised them himself and turned them into inherent Elite units, but their individual strength still felt insufficient.

His fears came true, and after the first wave of attacks, he lost 500 million of his locusts, while a mere 1,000 Epistians had perished. The Epistians’ magic proved immensely powerful, but they were equally proficient in close-quarters combat. Equipped with top-notch gear, facing 10,000 locusts each was not too difficult for them.

Han Wu refused to let his locusts perish without cause, and he swiftly ordered them to retreat skyward to evade the incoming attacks. Then, recalling a portion of the locusts, he decided to use Controlled Mutation; it was the only method available to rapidly enhance the locusts’ strength.

Just as he was about to use Controlled Mutation, the Origin of Mutation sighed, showing a rare and surprising sign of defeat.

“Vessel, your opponent is several levels higher than you right now. I must conceal myself to avoid his detection. I’m afraid this means you cannot use Controlled Mutation or Gene Lock right now. We will meet again when it is safe.”

With those words, the Origin of Mutation went silent, and no matter how many times Han Wu called for it, it did not respond. Without the ability to use Control Mutation, Han Wu was left with no choice but to place his trust entirely in his skeletons to secure a win.

The little skeleton silently approached one of the fallen corpses and placed its small bone claws upon the body to summon a Skeleton Knight. Instantly, the Epistian’s flesh rapidly shriveled away, revealing its white bones beneath.

Just as a new Skeleton Knight formed, dense red runes suddenly and unexpectedly appeared on its white bones and violently detonated, turning both the skeleton and its gear into fine powder! Little Skeleton couldn’t even save a single finger bone.

Xu Hai chuckled and explained, “Han Wu, the undead race possesses many advantages, and their terrifying ability to increase their numbers as they fought and killed was the nightmare of several civilizations tens of thousands of years ago. However, those times belong to ancient history now.

“Nowadays, after extensive research conducted by the Divine Civilization, we have successfully developed many methods to counter the undead. Almost every God has some form of technique or method that prevents the undead race from using the corpses of their fallen units. I’m afraid you’re going to have a rather rough time in the future if you intend to rely on the skeletons’ ability to summon Skeleton Soldiers as your trump card.”

Xu Hai wasn’t gloating; he was actually educating Han Wu. At this point, seeing the sheer power of the kid’s army, Xu Hai had completely abandoned any intention of punishing him. Instead, he resolved to use the match as a teaching moment, believing it was better for Han Wu to experience defeat now than to risk facing death at someone else’s hands in the outside world.

Han Wu’s expression darkened as he recognized the severity of his situation. The locusts were simply too weak to be used for anything but distraction. Furthermore, since the skeletons were now unable to summon new units, both the little skeleton and the Osteomancer were rendered essentially useless. His remaining forces were limited to just 3,000 minotaurs and 1,000 Scorching Dwarves—nowhere near enough to fend off the Epistian army.

Han Wu suddenly felt like conceding, but he knew Lina wouldn’t stop the match unless Xu Hai was satisfied. Cornered, he had no choice but to continue the fight while trying to formulate another strategy.

While Han Wu was deep in thought, Steely and Sarman charged into the chaotic fray, immediately attacking with reckless abandon. The two Lords displayed their raw might, annihilating hundreds of Epistians with each blow. None within the Epistian army proved capable of stopping their rampage.

However, it wasn’t long before Han Wu noticed that the Epistian army had cunningly established a formation that effectively cut off the escape route for both Steely and Sarman. The enemy had chosen to wear down and eliminate the two Lords through attrition, a tactic that, to his dismay, seemed very likely to succeed.

Both the little skeleton and Divine Hammer faced the same fate. Among Han Wu’s Lords, only the Dark Locustman retained the ability to move freely around the battlefield. Desperate to rescue its trapped companions, it immediately summoned the Divine Longbow that Han Wu had previously gifted to it.

The Dark Locust then condensed the power of darkness into a single arrow, which it swiftly fired into the sky. The arrow transformed into a massive magic array, from which numerous black arrows rained down like a relentless, heavy downpour.

This was the Dark Locust’s strongest skill: Spectral Barrage. The arrows, made from condensed dark energy, were immensely corrosive, and their shadow aspect simultaneously immobilized any enemy they struck. Epistians hit by these projectiles either suffered rapid corrosion or found their movements completely frozen, buying time for the other Lords to breathe.

However, the Epistians quickly recovered and, not long after, managed to encircle the four Lords once more. This marked the first time Han Wu had encountered such a prickly opponent. He found himself utterly at a loss for a solution when, suddenly, something truly enormous passed through the gate connecting to his divine realm.

Alpheus soared through the skies with its massive wings. Han Wu had had no intention of involving it in the battle, since Alpheus was his contract partner and not one of his units. However, to his surprise, he could now discern a faint, yet undeniable, trace of Faith emanating from the majestic creature.

Alpheus, in this moment of crisis, had converted its faith and become Han Wu’s believer! It had also brought out the ten Cockroaches to aid Han Wu in the battle.

“My reliable partner, the great black dragon Alpheus is here to help you!”

Xiang Meng and the other two chattered excitedly. Ye Ling gripped Xia Tian’s arm and shook him vigorously. “Xia Tian, look! That’s a pure blood Great Dragon! It’s an actual black dragon! How did Han Wu obtain such a trump card?”

Xia Tian couldn’t believe his eyes either. Black dragons were one of the pure blood Great Dragons and were Heroic life forms from birth. They could effortlessly become Lord life forms with minimal effort, and with more dedicated work, they even possessed the potential to reach the High Lord rank. Xia Tian was slightly envious of Han Wu for possessing a Great Dragon.

Xiang Meng, on the other hand, was by this point completely numb. He realized once again the vast difference between their strengths. He was absolutely incapable of defeating Han Wu, even if he used all of his strength. Had he known about the sheer number of treasures his junior possessed, he would never have bothered coming to watch this match. It was genuinely frustrating to witness someone even luckier than him.

Xu Hai’s eyes lit up with surprise and joy the moment he saw the Great Dragon. Han Wu, a mere student on the reserve list, already commanded five Lord life forms and a juvenile pureblooded black dragon. Seeing his unlimited potential, Xu Hai didn’t want other teachers to claim him; he had to have Han Wu!

“Han Wu...” Xu Hai began, but his words caught in his throat as his attention snapped to the unfolding battle.

The ten Cockroaches were unleashing havoc, easily killing thousands of Epistians in mere moments with their barbaric and ruthless attacks. Their astonishing regeneration capabilities also vastly exceeded what any other life forms in their rank could possibly achieve. Clearly, these ten Cockroaches were proving to be even more troublesome than a Lord life form.

Xu Hai knew his army was doomed to be annihilated by those ten Cockroaches if the battle dragged on, further cementing his approval of Han Wu’s strength. With his decision made, he then said, “Han Wu, let’s end this match here.”