The five leaders returned to the second secret gate.
After reuniting with the main elite force, they spent hours running through plans, stratagems, and rehearsals, trying to find a way past the Golden Sword Giant’s guard and claim the ancient treasure beyond. Ancient treasure watched over by a deity — that much went without saying — would be a divine artifact at minimum. If they could obtain it, the power boost would be enormous. The problem was: how did you take anything from beneath the protection of a Golden Sword Giant?
That Golden Sword Giant possessed divine-level power. Within the inverted world, it moved freely, ignoring the laws of that space entirely.
A being that formidable was simply not something the five leaders could match by force.
Not even in combination.
On top of that, where exactly was the ancient treasure hidden? What method would it take to claim it?
Every aspect of the problem gave them a headache. Not only Ren Tiange — the other four were equally reluctant to leave. The Golden Sword Giant’s presence was proof enough that ancient treasure existed here. With treasure this close, how could anyone simply turn around and walk away? And the Dark Alliance had been dominant for thousands of years, suppressing the Angel Alliance to the point of barely being able to breathe. If an ancient treasure fell into their hands, it could be exactly the reversal they needed — an opportunity they absolutely could not afford to miss. Unfortunately, even the Silver-Eyed Great Sage — normally the sharpest mind among them — was frowning in silence, unable to come up with a workable solution.
“We need more people.” The infuriatingly handsome swordsman Qian Chong suddenly put forward a possibility: overwhelm through numbers. With enough bodies, surely even a deity could be worn down — or if not killed outright, at least held up long enough for something else to be done.
“The problem is, if we strip more fighters from the Angel Alliance camps to come here, our rear will be completely exposed.” Ren Tiange shook his head slightly.
“If the Dark Alliance learns of this and raids our main base, the consequences would be catastrophic.” The Silver-Eyed Great Sage also opposed the idea.
“If this won’t work and that won’t work — what if we just lure in a batch of Dark Alliance people and let them be our cannon fodder?” The demon-haired Hauge, thoroughly frustrated, suddenly blurted out this startling suggestion. It was entirely off the top of his head, but the moment the words were out, even he could see that if executed well, it was actually rather clever.
“Didn’t think a wooden-headed man could have moments of brilliance.” The masked Blue Demon, for once, agreed.
“This is worth considering — we get the treasure and eliminate enemies at the same time, killing two birds with one stone!” The handsome swordsman Qian Chong was delighted.
“It’s difficult. Those Dark Alliance people aren’t easily fooled, and one wrong step in the middle of the operation and they’ll know about the ancient treasure — which makes everything a great deal more complicated…” Ren Tiange, as great leader, had many concerns to weigh. Even the most promising plan required thorough examination to avoid unexpected reversals that could cause serious losses on their side.
While the five leaders were still going back and forth without landing on a best approach, a fast rider came galloping up with a report.
The moment they heard it, all five leaders felt as though they’d been struck by lightning.
Ren Tiange couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What did you say? All eight of the Dark Alliance’s great leaders are attacking? Ghost King Phantom, Skeleton King Golden Bones, Flayer King Blood Shave — those three constantly suspect each other, they’re in the same faction on the surface but enemies behind the scenes. How are they fighting together? How many are left of the holdout group outside? What — fewer than a hundred?”
Seeing Ren Tiange’s composure shaken by the news of the Dark Alliance assault, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage quickly stepped in to issue orders in his place. “Full formation — elites to the front, support personnel to the rear, hold advantageous terrain and defend.”
Once the subordinates had received their orders and departed, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage turned to steady Ren Tiange and the other three leaders. “Someone has definitely leaked information — otherwise the Dark Alliance’s eight great leaders wouldn’t be coordinating. But a ferocious enemy push isn’t the same as a guaranteed victory. If we hold together and sit back to watch the tigers fight, neither Ghost King, Skeleton King, Flayer King, nor any of the other five will be willing to take heavy losses forcing a frontal assault on us… Given the urgency, I suggest we simply make the news of the ancient treasure public. It may even be enough to turn the enemy against each other eventually.”
The moment those words reached them, the energy in the five leaders visibly surged back — confidence fully restored.
“Against a Golden Sword Giant of that power, Ghost King Phantom and the others can’t possibly fight alone — doing so would only drain them while letting bystanders profit. They have to want to use us. We can negotiate this confrontation — offer a temporary ceasefire. If that fails, we retreat into the inverted world, and if they dare follow, we fight them to the death right in front of the Golden Sword Giant. The warriors of the Angel Alliance would sooner be destroyed by a deity than slaughtered by the Dark Alliance!” The more Ren Tiange spoke, the stronger his conviction grew, fighting spirit fully reignited.
“We retreat to the third secret gate entrance, use the scheme we just discussed, and borrow the enemy’s strength to hold the Golden Sword Giant. As for who ultimately claims the ancient treasure — that will come down to fate.” The masked Blue Demon felt the luring scheme from earlier might now have a chance of actually working.
“It’s not perfect, but given where things stand, it’s what we have.” The Silver-Eyed Great Sage let out a quiet sigh.
Before the third secret gate.
The five leaders held position with the elite main force at their backs, the gate behind them.
The holdout personnel outside had been almost entirely annihilated — fewer than fifty had managed to reach the main force, including the seriously wounded. That much was owed to Ben and his people fighting to the last while the enemy, in classic fashion, left one side of the encirclement open and cut down the fleeing survivors from behind…
North the bull-headed man, Four-Limbs, and Fortune were still alive — and along with them, naturally, so was Yue Yang’s shadow double, which was indistinguishable from the real thing by anyone present. Created through the fusion of the Twin Masks, the Creation Domain, and the Phantom life-guardian war beast, the shadow double was not capable of the high intelligence of a real human — but it could speak simple responses without any problem.
In situations requiring it, the shadow double could even fight.
The downside was that its existence was brief — only about an hour — otherwise Yue Yang would have created a whole batch of them to confuse the enemy.
When Ghost King Phantom and his forces arrived, every face in the Angel Alliance line changed. If not for the five great leaders holding the front, the two thousand-plus challengers might have collapsed and scattered entirely. Ghost King Phantom and his colleagues had not built their fearsome reputations from nothing — those names had been written in the lives of countless Angel Alliance challengers over the centuries.
Phantom, Golden Bones, and Blood Shave — each had thousands of kills to their names.
By the time the Dark Alliance’s main force arrived, ten thousand elite Dark Alliance fighters rolled in like black storm clouds, the sheer pressure of their advance nearly suffocating the Angel Alliance’s challengers.
The gap between the two sides was simply too vast.
In leaders, in elites, in raw numbers of rank-and-file challengers — the Dark Alliance held an overwhelming advantage across the board.
“Well done, Ghost King Phantom — marching ten thousand fighters from this distance in a single stroke took real nerve. Ren Tiange has to give credit where it’s due.” Ren Tiange stepped forward in front of the defensive line and called out with a broad laugh. He was the Angel Alliance’s great leader and the backbone of the entire formation. If he faltered, the damage to the Angel Alliance would be irreparable. No matter what, he refused to let himself break.
“Enough with the flattery — we didn’t come all this way to listen to that.” Ghost King Phantom waved a cold, dismissive hand. “I’ve known about the ancient treasure for some time. Why didn’t I come for it before? The reason is simple — I’m sure you’ve already seen it and understand. Don’t mistake me for a fool, and don’t think you can use us against a ‘deity’ that can’t be beaten by force. That trick wouldn’t fool a three-year-old. Save it. On the contrary, if your people are willing to enter the fight voluntarily, I might consider sparing you. Honestly, Ren Tiange, personally speaking — I have no particular grudge against you or the Angel Alliance. We were both powerful figures in the Heavenly Realm before this. Ending up in the same place just put us on opposite sides. This isn’t a scheduled faction war, so there’s no need for excessive attrition on either side. I’m not Ji Wuri, that bloodthirsty lunatic. So you have two choices: one, take the initiative and engage the guardian; two, fight us to the death, no quarter given.”
“Do we actually have a second choice in that framing?” Hauge, the demon-haired axe-bearer, erupted in fury.
“You don’t get a say in this. Know your place — I’m not asking you, I’m asking Ren Tiange, who has far greater strength than you and stands as the Angel Alliance’s great leader!” Ghost King Phantom’s words left Hauge speechless.
“I won’t agree. Hauge’s words are my answer.” Ren Tiange, as a leader, knew the importance of standing behind his own.
“Then we fight.” Ghost King Phantom shrugged without particular concern.
“Wait—” Skeleton King Golden Bones suddenly stepped forward, laughing. “Fighting can be settled later, outside. Before we’ve even caught a glimpse of the ancient treasure, cutting each other down would be truly absurd. How about this, Ren Tiange — and you, Silver-Eyed Great Sage — I propose we join forces and give everything we have to deal with that guardian. The guardian is powerful, yes, but most of his power has been sealed, and who knows how many tens of thousands of years of degradation have taken their toll — he can’t be at even a tenth of his original strength. With our eight great leaders combined with your five, coordinated attacks from all sides, there’s a real chance we overcome the guardian — or at the very least, deal serious damage. Once the guardian is dealt with, we each go our own way in searching for the treasure, and let fate decide who claims it. In short: if we fight each other before the treasure even shows itself, we’re only making things easy for those who come after us.”
“I also agree.” Flayer King Blood Shave, the most bloodthirsty warmonger of the three, gave a nod of agreement to Golden Bones’s proposal.
“Very well. My patience is limited — if Ren Tiange refuses again, I won’t be holding back.” Ghost King Phantom, persuaded by the combined proposal of Skeleton King and Flayer King, reluctantly changed his position.
Ren Tiange held a quiet exchange with the Silver-Eyed Great Sage, then conferred with Blue Demon, Hauge, and the handsome swordsman Qian Chong.
At last, under pressure, they agreed to the other side’s terms.
Perhaps for the first time in Demon Valley’s history, the Angel Alliance and the Dark Alliance’s challengers chose to fight side by side — for the sake of ancient treasure. Even with both sides glaring at each other and itching to tear the other apart, a decision made by great leaders was not something those below dared defy. And nobody wanted to turn down the chance at ancient treasure — fighting each other now, before that treasure had even been found, really did seem impulsive.
More than two thousand Angel Alliance challengers entered the inverted world at the front, followed by over ten thousand Dark Alliance elite fighters pouring in behind them like a tide.
Both sides held themselves ready.
Because what they were about to face was not an ordinary opponent — it was the legendary “deity” they were about to challenge.
They’d heard countless stories of divine beings over the years, but none of them had ever seen one. Today, together with their enemies, they would jointly face a being out of legend. Excitement, exhilaration, tension, terror, numbness, cold-headedness, madness — every possible mental state surged through the challengers at once, battering at their resolve. Under the command of their great leaders, the twelve-thousand-plus challengers gritted their teeth, forced down their inner turmoil, held onto their reason, summoned every war beast they had before the deity even appeared, and unleashed their full strength — hoping that sheer weight of numbers might be enough to overwhelm a deity whose power had been greatly diminished.
“Attack, attack!”
Battle cries split the air.
Angel Alliance and Dark Alliance alike screamed at the top of their lungs, pouring every ounce of fighting spirit into the charge.
Challenging a deity was no simple thing — and it was also a supreme honor. How many of the Heavenly Realm’s greatest powers had ever had this fortune, to face a deity in battle?
“I just want to land one axe blow. Even just one — that’s all I need.” North the bull-headed man stood with his eyes closed, murmuring to himself in nervous prayer.
“Stay behind me. Whatever I do, you do the same. Did you hear me?” Four-Limbs was wiping sweat from his forehead, terror pressing down on his chest like a boulder, but still managing to split his attention enough to keep an eye on the directionally hopeless newcomer Yue Yang. He remembered his captain Ben’s parting instruction clearly: whatever happened, get this newcomer intact to the Silver-Eyed Great Sage.
“Huff huff, huff huff — I don’t want to die. I’m rich, I’m wealthy, I absolutely cannot die here. God of Fortune, please, please let your faithful servant survive this. I’ll be even more devout in your service from this day forward, I swear it…” The pudgy Fortune was in the middle of praying to a deity, apparently forgetting entirely that he was about to attack a different deity.
“……” The shadow double of Yue Yang adopted an attack posture too, though no one paid it any attention — its current maximum power was only Sky-rank tier one, with no powerful war beast to support it, making it completely negligible in the grand scheme of things.
In the far distance of the inverted world, a flicker of gold.
Without sound or warning, the Golden Sword Giant appeared before ten thousand people, radiating towering golden light in all directions, an authority pressing down on all of heaven and earth, making every living being unable to look directly at it.
Ren Tiange tilted his head back and roared to the sky, bringing his hand down in a decisive sweep across the empty air before him. “Full assault!”
On the other side, Ghost King Phantom, Skeleton King Golden Bones, and Flayer King Blood Shave took the threat no less seriously — holding nothing back and keeping nothing in reserve, they ordered their elite forces to charge as well, striking at the Golden Sword Giant with full force. To the left, the Angel Alliance’s five great leaders. To the right, the Dark Alliance’s eight. Both sides, for the first time, unleashed everything they had simultaneously against a single target: the giant holding the golden sword.
World-destroying force converged on the Golden Sword Giant — and beyond those thirteen streams of power, over ten thousand gathered energy streams came crashing in like falling stars. Three disciplined units of a thousand Dark Alliance fighters each had coordinated to generate three supercolossal energy spheres, driving them forward like battering rams.
“Those who profane the divine invite heaven’s punishment.”
The Golden Sword Giant gave a cold, quiet sound.
Without movement, without a sound, it vanished from where it stood.
Ghost King Phantom and Ren Tiange’s combined spatial lockdown had no effect whatsoever. The Silver-Eyed Great Sage’s spiritual chains and Skeleton King Golden Bones’s bone prison and Flayer King Blood Shave’s blood pool — every one of them found nothing, not a single strike connecting.
The Golden Sword Giant reappeared outside the main clash, directly behind both the Dark Alliance and Angel Alliance challengers.
The golden sword that judged all living things was raised high — and in the full, helpless sight of Ren Tiange and Ghost King Phantom, it swept down with absolute divine power.
Space shattered.
Between the inverted heaven and earth, a sword scar ten meters wide and ten thousand meters long hung in space, refusing to fade, the space itself unable to heal around it. And in that moment, everything stopped — every great leader on both sides, and every ordinary challenger caught in the Giant’s rear strike, all stood motionless, as if nothing had happened at all.
No one could say how long passed. A light wind drifted through.
Nearly ten thousand challengers and their war beasts were reduced to dust without a sound, dissolving into the sky.
Fewer than a thousand remained — along with several hundred war beasts from the outermost fringes, several hundred meters away — all howling in agony, rolling across the inverted world in anguish.
Not one left uninjured.
Including all thirteen great leaders, each wounded to varying degrees.
One sword strike, ten thousand killed — this was the power of a deity. This was the consequence of challenging a deity.
Seeing this, even figures as formidable as Ren Tiange and Ghost King Phantom couldn’t stop a look of despair entering their eyes. This hadn’t been a battle — it had been a march into certain death. Deities were simply not something you could pile people onto until it worked. The tragedy was that this lesson had come too late.
“Get out of here.” Ren Tiange and Ghost King Phantom locked eyes, and in each other’s gazes they saw profound fear, issuing their final command simultaneously: retreat. Whoever could escape, escape.
“Too late.” The Golden Sword Giant raised the sword upright, and within ten thousand meters, a golden dome rose into being.
Within that golden dome.
The deity’s domain power erupted.
Every person inside felt as though a mountain had landed on top of them — breathing became impossible, let alone movement.
It was over. This attempt to challenge a deity had not merely failed to achieve anything — it had brought death down on them all. In the presence of a true deity, there was only one outcome: complete annihilation.
Ren Tiange was just closing his eyes to await the end when he noticed something that stopped him cold.
An impossibly feeble newcomer was walking right out of there — carrying an injured bull-headed man under one arm and a four-armed creature under the other, with one foot casually kicking a ball-shaped pudgy figure along in front of him.
This newcomer appeared to be completely unaffected by the domain power of the golden dome, strolling out with utter ease.
How — how was that possible?
Not only Ren Tiange — even Ghost King Phantom, Skeleton King Golden Bones, and Flayer King Blood Shave on the Dark Alliance’s side stared in shocked disbelief and sudden, desperate hope. There was a way out. There seemed to still be a way out…
(End of Chapter)