Swallowed Star

Panda Novel

By the edge of Nine Smoke Marsh, there were multiple mini outbursts of fights among the law masters. There was no intervention by the true gods of either party because, to the two groups of top powers, such small-scale fighting among the law masters under their commands—right before the final battle—was actually a way of training these law masters.

To Nine Smoke Marsh and Xuan Yu Mountain, true gods were the true core combat power.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

A burly and imposing giant whose footsteps could cause the land to tremble charged toward the numerous beasts ahead in a frenzied manner. These giants, positioned about Universe Ocean, were the pillars of support for their races. Anyone placed within Universe Ocean was nothing less than a Beast God. Only a magical place like the World of Jin had a space stable enough to easily accommodate such crossfire. If these fights had occurred in the primal universe or in Universe Ocean, the entire space would have shattered and collapsed.

Peng!

There were beasts tumbling and rolling about with hissing sounds they bit, baring fangs that glimmered with icy-cold rays. Arms were waving as shouts were heard. Huge axes hacked unfailingly! The entire region was a crazy sight to behold as both parties fought one another.

“Retreat! Alliance Master has given orders for an immediate retreat!”

“Alliance Master has given orders for an immediate retreat!”

Three warriors led the rest of the tribe from Xuan Yu Mountain. Each carried a transmission token with them wherever they went. At that moment, the message with orders to retreat was transmitted to them. This caused the tribal warriors who were initially fighting like crazy to immediately change their course of action.

“Brothers, Alliance Master has given the orders to retreat!”

“Retreat.”

“Retreat.”

Following the orders, a large group of tribal warriors—half of them fighting and half retreating—speedily made their way into a battleship. Thereafter, they retreated into the distance at lightning speed. The beasts who did not make it into the ship fast enough were roaring with rage, as they had been left behind.

“Retreat!”

“Alliance Master has given orders! Retreat!”

“Retreat! Alliance Master has given orders! Retreat!

******

Almost at the same moment, everyone around the edge of the Nine Smoke Marsh, the great number of tribal warriors in their respective troops, were either in the midst of fighting or in the midst of hiding in ambush. They had yet to take any action but had all received the same command. These troops started to retreat discreetly and speedily. They left the area around Nine Smoke Marsh.

******

“How weird.” Luo Feng, who had been advancing as warily as possible to stay hidden from the troops, suddenly stopped. “Why isn’t there a single great being from Xuan Yu Mountain to be found?”

“Milky Way, Milky Way! How is it possible that we don’t even see a single great being from the Xuan Yu Mountain tribal alliance? If that is the case, how are you going to execute your plan? How are we going to sow discord?” Wu He asked anxiously.

Luo Feng lightly shook his head. He, too, was at a loss.

Based on their speculations, for so many small-scale conflicts, Xuan Yu Mountain must have sent at least a million law masters. This way, it would be impossible to put so many law masters through such a risk. There must have been true gods protecting them in the dark, just to prevent any unique situation from happening. And that was exactly what Luo Feng was looking for: a true god from Xuan Yu Mountain!

“Do we even need to talk about true gods when not even a single law master can be found?” Wu He was anxious yet helpless. “If this goes on, when will we even complete the mission assigned to us by the army? We are talking about 10,000 military credits!”

“Stop your nonsense.” Luo Feng was frustrated.

Earlier on, Xuan Yu Mountain’s groups of powers had been commonly seen, but now, all of them seemed to have vanished. This added on to Luo Feng’s frustrations. If Xuan Yu Mountain had decided to fully retreat and no longer be involved, then there was no way they could reap the benefits from the conflict between the other two parties.

******

“Why are they no longer fighting?”

“Earlier on, we discovered six incidences of crossfire between Xuan Yu Mountain and Nine Smoke Marsh in succession. How could they all disappear so suddenly?”

Around a dozen figures hid among the grass. The one heading the troop was a burly giant with curved horns. This was the captain and his troops. Previously, they had encountered six areas where melees were occurring. They had waited until the final moments. Then they had seized the timely opportunity to join the scuffle and defeat the other two parties. They had even disguised themselves as members of Xuan Yu Mountain to kill the law masters of Nine Smoke Marsh!

Xuan Yu Mountain was a super tribal alliance that was massive beyond reckoning. How many law masters were there, exactly? Even internally, there were law masters who did not know some of their fellow law masters even though they all belonged to Xuan Yu Mountain. So, all the more, the beasts from Nine Smoke Marsh would not be able to differentiate whether or not they were from the tribal alliance.

At first glance, they were humanoid. That meant it must have been a powerful tribal group. Kill!

“Captain, what should we do?”

“What should we do now? Continue to disguise ourselves as the tribal warriors of Xuan Yu Mountain and kill those beasts from Nine Smoke Marsh?”

The other warriors looked toward their captain and waited for him to make a decision.

The captain’s pair of gray eyes, beneath his large curved horns, seemed to bear no trace of emotional ups and downs as he said in a low voice, “No. We have not discovered any law masters of Xuan Yu Mountain for quite some time. Maybe… the law masters of Xuan Yu Mountain are starting to retreat. If we continue to pass ourselves off as them, with Nine Smoke Marsh presiding over the overall situation, they will discover that the countless previous conflicts all suddenly disappeared, leaving all but one left. This will definitely arouse their suspicion, and they will surely send out a team of true gods. By then, it will be too late for escape.”

One after another, his warriors nodded.

“Then what should we do now?” All eyes were on the captain.

“Wait,” the captain said in a low voice. “Xuan Yu Mountain and Nine Smoke Marsh are deeply involved in the war against one another, so even if they were to stop, there are bound to be ongoing, small-scale conflicts. On the contrary, the moment such conflicts cease altogether… that will seem strange.”

******

In a desolate space a few thousand light years away from Nine Smoke Marsh, numerous mighty figures were suspended in midair. Every one of them exuded a tyrannical aura. From a distance, there were at least a few thousand of them, and occasionally, a few true gods would fly over to join the crowd. At that moment, many small teams were continually gathering and merging. These were troops of law masters—law master warriors, to be exact—and they were so densely populated that they could be found all over the sky.

“Alliance master, all teams previously out to hone and train themselves have returned. All true gods have returned, too.”

Before the entire troop of great beings were three figures.

The entire Xuan Yu Mountain had a total of four major tribes. Xuan Yu Mountain, itself, was a tribal alliance. Each and every tribal leader was a true god of void space. These three figures released such boundless power that the void space surrounding the entire army seemed to have condensed and become completely isolated from the outside world. The master of this void space was the figure in the middle.

A cold voice dripping in overwhelming anger was heard resonating through the entire void space. “Nine Smoke Marsh has been provoking us, Xuan Yu Mountain, on so many occasions! Previously, they even dared to attack us at Xuan Yu Mountain. We must teach them that they are not worthy to create such provocations in Xuan Yu Mountain. We must mete out death sentences to them—to punish this Nine Smoke Marsh!”

Instantaneously, angry howls filled the air as all the warriors were filled with fighting spirit.

“Punish this Nine Smoke Marsh!”

“Punish this Nine Smoke Marsh!”

“Punish this Nine Smoke Marsh!”

The alliance master, with a face that resembled a rock, gave the order without further ado. “Let’s go!”

Hong!

A tremendous number of tribal warriors vanished into the void space.

******

On the periphery of Nine Smoke Marsh, Luo Feng and Wu He waited in the grass while brainstorming alternative solutions. Now, warriors from the powerful groups of Xuan Wu Mountain were nowhere to be found, so their initial plan had to be aborted.

“Do we have to resort to the method of going deep into the tiger’s den?” Luo Feng muttered to himself.

Going deep into the tiger’s den was a solution that Luo Feng would use only under the direst of circumstances. Other than his earthling original body, he had also brought Golden Horned Beast into the World of Jin. And Golden Horned Beast—while in the World of Jin—certainly belonged to the various beasts’ faction. It was perfectly capable of posing as a traveling beast that had happened to find its way into Nine Smoke Marsh. If it was a traveling tribal warrior, then it would not have dared enter Nine Smoke Marsh. But a traveling beast would definitely have the guts!

After entering Nine Smoke Marsh, it would wait for a chance. He believed that, within a short period of time, Nine Smoke Marsh would send troops over to join the army. By then, he would sneak his way into the troop. Being a law master himself, the troop would not guard against him. He just had to pray that that particular troop only had one true god leading the rest. When the troop was a substantial distance away from Nine Smoke Marsh, he would deal a deadly blow.

Get rid of that true god! Complete the mission ever so easily!

But the way of “entering deep into the tiger’s den” was fraught with problems. One, no one knew how many universe masters were going to join the army. If there were many of them, these universe masters would serve as a great threat. Two, no one knew how many true gods Nine Smoke Marsh would send to protect its troops. After all, Nine Smoke Marsh was much bigger and much more powerful than Dry Wilderness Tribe.

“A bait? To lure them out of the hole?”

“Sneak in?”

“Either that, or we painstakingly and gradually hunt these law masters down and spend almost a whole era to make up 10,000 of them?” Luo Feng was frustrated, too. These ideas all had the possibility of success but were all extremely dangerous.

The most effective and most efficient method was getting both parties to fight against one another so he could reap the benefits from their fray. So long as a true god of Nine Smoke Marsh was dead, he would immediately snatch the corpse and then run off without any delay! Given the might of the Boat of Mausoleum, he could definitely make a speedy escape…

“Huh?”

Just as Luo Feng was feeling frustrated, a thought suddenly crossed his mind as he raised his head.

He saw, far in the distance, a “black mass” that had suddenly appeared in the upper sky of Nine Smoke Marsh. There were numerous towering figures so massive that their sizes were counted in the tens of thousands of kilometers. At first glance, it would be a given that once the number of people hit 10,000, the crowd would be like a sea of people. And the tribal warriors all had towering builds like lofty mountains. Amidst the skies above, millions of tribal warriors gathered with such a mighty presence that they naturally created a scene akin to endless black clouds shrouding the entire sky.

“Ah!” Luo Feng’s eyes widened. He had never seen such a shocking scene before.

“A great war,” said Wu He beside him. He raised his head suddenly. His eyes were filled with surprise and excitement. “A great war. It’s a great war. The great war between Xuan YU Mountain and Nine Smoke Marsh. The one, true, final war. This is nothing like the small-scale crossfires of the past. Hahaha… So exciting. Since I came to Northern True Ocean, from birth until now, I have only seen such a large-scale, ultimate war once. Northern True Ocean was too powerful, so no groups of powers around us dared to provoke us. Wow! This is deeply satisfying. Those three at the front must be true gods of void spaces. Even true gods of void spaces are joining in this war. This is truly one great, final war.”

Hong! Hong! Hong!

Heaven and earth changed in color! Time and space transformed!

In the blink of an eye, the entire surroundings of Nine Smoke Marsh—including the peripheral area outside Nine Smoke Marsh where Luo Feng and Wu He were hiding—were enshrouded, too. Other areas of the same land, where the captain and his troop, Ku Fa and her troop, and Yu Luo and his troop were hiding, were similarly enshrouded.

The entire Nine Smoke Marsh! In an instant, the external region became a blurred void space. The upper skies, the surroundings, and the endless marshes at ground level all became a blurred void space. It was as though the entire Nine Smoke Swamp had been cut out and isolated.

“In one thought, the void space is formed!” Luo Feng mumbled to himself. “True god of void space…”

He had long heard of how terrifying a true god of void space could be. Every true god of void space was an overlord of a certain area within the World of Jin; placed in the context of Universe Ocean, every true god of void space would be able to transcend reincarnation to establish one’s own holy land universe. Then he would be able to ensure the everlasting existence of his own race.

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