The battlefield—the war—still raged on.
After Zhao's former strongest elites, the "Hu-clad cavalry archers," manifested through the power of the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens and descended through the warped light in the sky, they drove their warhorses around the Qin army besieging the city and drew the bowstrings in their hands. They were too densely packed to count, yet their advance and retreat remained orderly, restrained, and precise.
Through the power of ghosts and gods, Zhao, already on the verge of collapse, had gained several hundred thousand archers in an instant.
They were the Hu-clad cavalry archers of every generation of Zhao since King Wuling's reforms, the elites Zhao had raised across era after era.
Yes. These were elites in numbers possible only by stacking together generations of Zhao's accumulated strength.
Hu-clad cavalry archers were elites to begin with, and those appearing here were elites among elites, the personal troops of Zhao's kings. Even at Zhao's peak, their numbers would scarcely have reached ten thousand. Fine warhorses were difficult to find, and people truly skilled at mounted archery were even rarer. Gathering such a vast number of Hu-clad cavalry archers in a single era would have been impossible.
At this moment, the Qin army was not fighting the Zhao of the present.
It was fighting nearly a century of Zhao, beginning from the rise of Hu dress and mounted archery!
And yet the Qin army showed not the slightest cowardice, not the slightest hint of retreat. Because Zhao had a heavenly god—and so did they!
Moreover, their king had arrived, personally coming to the front line.
At that same moment, the sword of Great Qin entered Rovi's hand. Above the vault of heaven, he rose with a flick of his sleeve, and the sharpness drawn from the hands of countless Great Qin soldiers transformed into radiant brilliance in his grasp.
And in that instant, countless Qin soldiers surged forward, one after another.
The Hu-clad cavalry archers drew their bows and nocked their arrows, controlling their shots with consummate skill.
One arrow felled a man.
But another immediately threw himself forward, swinging his blade down to hack at the horse's legs.
The rider urged his horse up and charged into the Qin formation, only to be lifted by countless spears and pierced through in midair.
The Qin soldiers did not fear death.
The Hu-clad cavalry archers of Zhao were only projections. They did not know death. It was not that they did not fear death, but that they did not understand fear at all.
Qin did not fear death.
Yet they still revered Heaven and feared fate.
At this moment, Azure Heaven had borrowed a sword from the Qin army, and so the swords in the Qin soldiers' hands were equivalent to the sword of Azure Heaven itself.
"Great Qin—ten thousand years!" a young soldier roared as he rushed forward.
A soldier in the prime of his life spilled blood across the battlefield, yet only howled, "Great Qin, ten thousand years!"
"Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years!"
Several hundred thousand archers were, at this moment, utterly suppressed.
"To think the soldiers of Qin could reach such a point!" On the pass, Li Mu stood dazed for a long while before a look of defeat gradually appeared on his face. "Zhao has not lost unjustly!"
Faced with an army that held reverence in its heart yet did not fear death, who could face them and not be defeated?
"Do you know why Zhao was defeated?"
King Zheng of Qin gazed into the distance and asked Wang Jian beside him.
"Because..." From the perspective of military strategy, there were countless reasons to choose from. Because Qin's morale was powerful. Because its formations were strict and orderly. Because its soldiers dared to fight and dared to die. Because Qin had come with overwhelming force. Because the heavenly god behind Qin stood higher and stronger.
But for some reason, when the words reached Wang Jian's mouth, he suddenly choked on them.
It was not that he could not say them.
It was that he knew the true reason was not any of those things.
Nor were those the things the King of Qin was asking about.
"Zhao's defeat lies in the fact that they only know how to ask, not how to give. Before immortals and gods, they naturally stand at a disadvantage."
"And Qin's victory lies in the fact that when it asks, it also gives!"
"Even a heavenly god must borrow a sword from Great Qin—"
"Huhahaha!"
The King of Qin's laughter scattered through the night wind, and the shouts of the Qin soldiers rang out all the more across the vast world.
...
Above the vault of heaven, Rovi lowered his eyes. The sword in his hand grew ever more solid, and he laughed softly.
To revere Heaven and fear fate, yet not fear death—this was, in truth, the spirit once held by the ancestor gods of Huaxia. It was the bearing of Yan and Huang flowing through their bloodline. But many had already forgotten it. Many could no longer remember.
Only Qin, after passing through reform and striving for strength, had reclaimed the past.
That was why Yu Mei-ren, in her earlier evaluation, had subconsciously mentioned them in the same breath as the "Yan and Huang allied army" and the "Jiuli tribe."
Because this kind of spirit, this kind of bearing, could only have existed in that era.
The battlefield of the human world had already decided its victor.
Then next...
"It's my turn."
Rovi lifted the sword and slowly stepped forward. In everyone's eyes, it was that brilliant sun slowly pressing down upon the sky above Zhao, slowly crashing toward that indescribable Old Ghost of the Six Heavens.
The closer he drew, the more clearly the invisible whispers echoed beside his ears. Within that distortion, countless pupils could be seen, countless gazes focusing on him at once.
According to the information Yu Mei-ren had "handed" to Rovi, the Old Ghost of the Six Heavens hidden within Zhao was "Dijun," the chaotic aspect separated from Emperor Ku, who had once been a Heavenly Emperor of his age.
"Old One... companion?"
From within the chaos, such a will was faintly conveyed.
Just like the previous Donghuang Taiyi, the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens were not pure Great Old Ones, after all. They were the chaotic aspects the ancestor gods had separated from themselves. Thus, they were not entirely chaotic. Their scant reason also sensed the similar aura upon Rovi at the same time.
But that similarity, in the blink of an eye, became hostility.
A terrified, horrifying hostility.
Because Rovi had raised the Qin sword in his hand, the sword that gathered the will of the Qin army.
Because the Human Order of the state attacking Zhao made it feel threatened where it hid within Zhao's gaps.
Screeching. Roaring.
Within the twisted storm stirred up by layer upon layer of sound, Rovi stood unmoving, like an ancient great bell erected between heaven and earth, and slowly stepped forward.
DANG, DANG, DANG—!
The tolling of the bell spread outward, and its reverberating boom actually made that Old Ghost of the Six Heavens shrink back for an instant.
Its existence, occupied mostly by chaos, seemed to see a mass of "chaos" even vaster and more distorted than itself.
It was as though an invisible mist had extended endless tentacles, beating upon countless unseen drums.
Music hummed. Thin threads of whispers echoed.
"This guy seems different from before?" a slightly startled, doubtful voice sounded.
Tamamo-no-Mae, hidden even deeper in the gaps of Human Order than the place where the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens resided, stood within an endlessly resplendent hall and gazed at the scenery of the present world. A hint of gravity could not help but enter her golden eyes.
Though they were separated by a vast distance, she still noticed the change in Rovi.
It was not that he had become stronger. In terms of strength and scale, there had not been the slightest advance or retreat.
Rather, his form of existence—the shape through which he manifested—had changed.
After this change, the feeling he gave Tamamo-no-Mae was similar to the existence of the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens. But to be more precise, he was similar to the ancestor gods of Huaxia, who in ancient days had walked the path of merging with and then separating from the Old Ones in pursuit of a breakthrough.
Had he also set foot on this path?
Tamamo-no-Mae's red lips curved upward. She sat in a loft seat within that grand hall, her bare toes touching the floor while the soles of her feet tilted upward. Her slightly arched instep swayed like an exquisite jade ruyi. Her legs were crossed, soft fullness rippling; behind her, the nine tails extending from her lifted hips swayed lightly. Her deep blue robes fell over her, outlining the full curve of her chest.
She propped one hand on her thigh, rested her chin in her palm, and the fox ears atop her head twitched. Beneath her long orange-red hair, her beautiful face showed... surprise and stirring desire.
Surprise that Rovi had stepped onto this path, and stirring desire for what she sought: the act of conquering Rovi.
Although her conflict with Rovi had originally arisen entirely because Rovi had obtained the sun Authority through the Fusang Tree, causing an "Authority dispute" with Tamamo-no-Mae, after their previous meeting, Tamamo-no-Mae's goal had long since shifted to "conquering" Rovi.
Not only because of the dissatisfaction accumulated in her heart toward the ancestor gods of Huaxia, those ancient immortals and gods, but also because Rovi's existence was, in a certain sense, indeed worthy of Tamamo-no-Mae's affection—and enslavement.
He was strong enough, wise enough, and decisive enough... He dared to walk the path the ancestor gods had once walked, that road of nine deaths and one life.
Of course, there was one more point...
That bastard actually dared mock me for failing to find a "lover"!?
"Since you dared mock me, then I shall use you as the price..." Tamamo-no-Mae swept her gaze over the "present world," golden light blooming from her eyes.
She sat there, yet the robes on her body rose of their own accord, intertwining and merging with the nine fluffy tails behind her.
Her outstretched hand gently "caressed" the world she could see from deep within these pages of history, these gaps of Human Order.
Though she was acting from afar, at this moment, the sunlight falling upon the earth of the present world shifted.
Because of Rovi, Tamamo-no-Mae had failed to obtain the entirety of the sun Authority over the Divine Land.
But during this time, she had in truth gathered no small number of fragments.
By adjusting the state of her own existence, she could already influence the natural world upon the planet's surface.
And now, the celestial phenomena shifted by her movement brought changes to the earth as well.
Aside from Zhao's "Dijun," which had awakened from directly facing the pressure of the Qin sword, the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens, already gradually awakening due to Qin's march east, all awoke ahead of time at this moment because of the change in celestial phenomena.
The original lands of Chu were empty and void. The "Taiyi" there had already been dealt with by Rovi.
But in Yan, a faceless giant rose from the mountains, all four of its limbs extended as boneless tentacles.
In Qi, thousands upon thousands of manifesting "orbs of light" filled the entire sky, yet within those orbs seemed to hide countless "eyes" and "mouths."
In Han, a pitch-black "flower" edged with countless tentacles bloomed in the sky, a pair of eyes at its center shining crimson.
In Wei, yellow fog spread across the world, and a figure draped in yellow robes slowly walked out, countless sticky tentacles extending from the hem of that robe.
The Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens all revealed the shadows hidden in the gaps of Human Order, using them to interfere with reality and distort the Divine Land.
Without question, they were all the sealed chaotic aspects left behind by the ancestor gods worshiped by each state.
And now, one after another, they manifested under Tamamo-no-Mae's push.
Of course, Tamamo-no-Mae's goal was not actually limited to unsealing the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens.
What she wanted even more was to use the power of the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens to unseal the Great Investiture Array—the art formed during the Battle of Investiture, when Tianqi Supreme Jiang Ziya borrowed the planet's Counter Force to suppress endless chaos.
She wanted this world to fall completely into chaos.
Only then could she act as the mastermind behind the scenes, laying her plans step by step.
And obtain what she wanted...
"How will you break this, Donghua Dijun?"
Her palm lightly caressed the air, and Tamamo-no-Mae once again turned her gaze toward the front line where Qin and Zhao clashed, toward where Rovi stood.
Across the Divine Land, the ground trembled faintly. This subtle trembling was something mortals could not detect, but to Rovi, it was extremely obvious.
It seemed to have taken a long time, but in truth, all these changes had occurred in a single instant.
The Qin army was still attacking Jingxing Pass, using the force of a powerful state to strike Li Mu, the famous general of Zhao who stubbornly resisted to the end. Under such an enormous gap in strength, Li Mu's struggle could only be called a last stand.
Rovi also continued approaching "Dijun" step by step.
Above his head, an enormous shadow manifested. It was the shadow of his "immortal path"—at times a huge and ancient great bell, at times an endless vortex of chaos extending countless tentacles to beat upon the void.
That was the manifestation born after the seeds left by "Abigail" sprouted through many Old Ones at once. It was a chaos even vaster than "Dijun."
Like one stood above and the other below.
And even more like the principle that "Mystery fails before more ancient Mystery."
He advanced, and "Dijun" retreated.
Retreating without end.
They were clearly not in the same dimension, not on the same layer. Its true body was clearly still curled up within the gaps of Human Order, and what had been revealed was merely the projection of its existence.
Yet Dijun still kept retreating, kept moving backward.
Farther and farther back...
Until it struck the boundary of the dimension and had nowhere left to retreat.
It was at this moment that an inexplicable unease surfaced in Tamamo-no-Mae's eyes.
Because Rovi still had not made his sword stroke.
He still had not swung the "Qin sword" in his hand, forged by borrowing Qin's military momentum and gathering Qin's Human Order.
He had not swung it not because he did not know how.
It was more like he was waiting for the right moment to swing it.
Waiting for... his true target.
"Found you—Tamamo-no-Mae!"
The voice exploded beside the nine-tailed fox's ear. Endless indescribable whispers could no longer be suppressed. She let out a cry of "miguu" and toppled backward.
Across the vast human world, star-rain scattered down. Rovi flicked his sleeve and swung his sword.
This sword was not aimed at "Dijun" before him, nor at the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens that had begun manifesting in the other states.
It was aimed at the fox who had been peering at the earth all along, coveting him.
Other things were harder to say.
But as a Machine God, Rovi's perception had always been extremely sharp—no probing for information could easily escape a Machine God's calculation model.
So he had long since discovered Tamamo-no-Mae's gaze.
From the moment he stepped out of Qin Pass, before he became involved in the war between Qin and Zhao.
But he had not moved.
Instead, he feigned the appearance of focusing on dealing with "Dijun."
All to lure her into acting.
To lure her into revealing the power she used to interfere with the present world.
And then—let him calculate where she was.
Rather than dealing with the Old Ghosts of the Six Heavens one by one...
It was better to strike straight at the dragon's den.
To strike straight at the true mastermind behind the scenes!
The raised sword, amid the exploding tentacles spreading from "Dijun," cut straight through the gap in Human Order.
A streak of flowing light appeared.
The vast, blazing sun crashed straight toward the heights.
"Tamamo-no-Mae, we've finally met properly!"
Both feet touched the ground. Rovi gazed at Tamamo-no-Mae before him, who had fallen to the floor in panic, and smiled.
"Mi... miguu!?" Tamamo-no-Mae was both shocked and furious.
---
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