798 Before the Destruction

Doomsday Thunder was the most powerful destructive weapon that humans on this planet could possess under the control of the immortals and Buddhas. Its maximum power was equivalent to a full-force strike of a thirty-third-tier Heaven Immortal, while its smallest yield was about the same as a 10-megaton nuclear bomb. When the fire pillar produced by a Doomsday Thunder towered into the sky on the moon, everyone knew that humans on this planet were completely insane.

In order to scramble for the few remaining resources, these humans fought a religious war in the name of the immortals and Buddha, killing each other with advanced technology while shouting the religious slogans. No matter how one looked at it, all one could see was an absurd comedy. But, none of the humans in the show could feel any joy. Their hearts were filled with only the fear of destruction and the endless darkness that came afterward.

And when someone threw out the first Doomsday Thunder...

Another fire pillar thrust hundreds of miles up from the moon's surface. A steel base with a population of several million melted within the blinding light. Wu Qi could clearly see millions of humans glow with dazzling light in the red flame, then dissolve into the smallest energy particles in a flash, which rushed in all directions amidst the violent blast wave.

He sent his divine sense into the fire pillar to observe the situation a mile within the heart of the explosion. The void there was distorted, and the temperature was hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius. It was a temperature only the heavenly fire in the Nine Heavens could have achieved, and no artifacts crafted by any Heaven Immortals could control a fire of such an incredible temperature. With the connivance of the immortals and Buddhas, the power the humans on this planet held had become too terrifying.

Buddha Futu sighed and looked at Ji Tao with a creepy smile, who was struck dumb with astonishment, as he said, "King Tang Qiu, I'm sure you can see that the cost and efforts we've paid are more than what I've just told you. You see, they are using their strongest power now, and they have caused great damage to the planet!"

Every planet that had been reaped of the power of faith and virtue would be devastated by war. As all the planets in mortal worlds were created with the bodies of those fallen ancient celestial fiends by immortals and buddhas, whenever a planet was damaged, they had to gather natural energy and all kinds of materials to repair it. It was an extremely complicated and tedious task.

Every mortal world was an exquisite world with its own laws. In order to repair a damaged planet, it took all kinds of precious innate-grade materials. And this was just to repair the physical damage. It would require Primordial experts to use their energy essence to reconstruct the damaged laws; otherwise, some unpredictable flaws would appear in the mortal world because of a damaged planet, and eventually lead to a catastrophe.

Eons ago, there was a Primordial Immortal guarding a mortal world who turned a blind eye to the damage of laws caused by the sinking of a continent on a planet, as he was reluctant to repair it with his own energy essence. As a result, within just a month, thousands of adjacent mortal worlds were struck by major natural disasters such as the sinking of continents and earthquakes, which killed and injured more than 10 trillion people.

The responsibility of such heavy casualties fell on that Primordial Immortal, of course, and the Heavenly Dao sent him a major calamity. While he was meditating, his mind was suddenly invaded by the mental devil, which caused his Dao foundation to be completely destroyed and turned him into a cripple. Then, within just three months, the hundreds of Gold Immortals, tens of thousands of Heaven Immortals, and countless disciples from the immortal sect he founded all died in various accidents.

With that as a lesson, no one dared to be stingy with their own energy essence while guarding their mortal worlds anymore. It took eons for a Primordial Immortal to condense a tiny wisp of energy essence from the laws of Heavenly Dao, which showed how costly it was to repair the damage of these little planets in the mortal worlds.

For this planet in front of them to smoothly develop to the present stage, at least seven Primordial-grade figures had been protecting and taking great care of it. Among them, the longest had been guarding here for 70,000 years, and the shortest for 7,000 years.

Grinning coldly, Buddha Futu looked at Ji Tao, who was clearly in shock. "Does King Tang Qiu still think these virtues are so easy to obtain?" he said lightly, "Seven Primordial experts have been guarding here to guarantee that you can smoothly harvest the virtue today, and ascend into the realm of Primordial without needing your own hard effort!"

He heaved a long sigh and said coldly, "Now, do you still think the virtue is really so cheap…so easy to obtain?"

Ignoring what King Tang Qiu was thinking, even Wu Qi felt his scalp go numb when he heard that. The immortals and buddhas had gone to a great length to obtain the power of faith and virtue, for it took such a great cost to grow a planet to the point where a peak-level Gold Immortal could easily harvest the virtue and break through the realm of Primordial.

On an average, it took half an eon for a planet to be mature enough for harvest. How many times in half an eon must hundreds of millions of mortal worlds fail, only to cultivate a planet to the point like the one here? And since there was only an opportunity to become a Primordial Immortal with this method every half an eon, many people must be fighting fiercely against each other for it.

Of all the Primordial experts, who did not have a few trusted personal disciples, or a group of descendants? One more Primordial Immortal among one's disciples and descendants made one more powerful. So, anyone who was capable of seizing the opportunity would certainly fight for it, even at the cost of their own lives.

And yet, this opportunity was given to King Tang Qiu. Wu Qi wondered what had he and his father, King Bai Shan, promised Liu Bang so that he was given the opportunity! Even though the cultivation technique of the human race was considered the fastest to master, there were few humans who had broken through the Third Pangu Heaven. One would need thousands of years of hard work and great luck to make the breakthrough. Therefore, King Tang Qiu was considered extremely lucky to have this opportunity.

Buddha Futu rambled on about how difficult it was to cultivate a planet perfectly qualified for harvest while King Tang Qiu wore a blank expression as if he was not listening. But clearly, those words had taken their effect, for he no longer asked Liu Bang for additional compensation.

Time passed swiftly amidst Buddha Futu's babble. As if by prior agreement, both warring sides on the moon had used Doomsday Thunders to attack each other, the terrible weapons capable of destroying their enemies and themselves at the same time. Columns of fire rose into the sky, hundreds of them; even the surface of the moon was distorted by the huge explosions.

Soon, it was unknown as to which side was the first who did it, but hundreds of Doomsday Thunders were launched from the moon's surface toward the planet. Some of them were intercepted in space, but some managed to break through the atmospheric layer and hit their targets. At least a hundred major cities were engulfed by towering columns of fire. As each city had a population of over ten million, the wave of attacks had claimed the lives of about a billion mortals.

Even far away in space, Wu Qi could feel a violent and despairing aura rushing out of the planet. In the next moment, thousands of Doomsday Thunders rose from all parts of the planet, shooting in all directions. No one knew who launched so many Doomsday Thunders, or where they were heading to. In any case, a few moments later thousands of cities were destroyed in the midst of the raging flames, and countless mortals were howling and weeping under the shadow of death.

A bright light flickered in space as someone suddenly made their appearance—three Buddhas, three Primordial Immortals, a Primordial-grade Fiend Immortal shrouded in black mists, and a large group of Bodhisattvas, Gold Immortals, and Fiend Immortals. At least tens of thousands of immortals and buddhas who had concealed their appearances from the mortals with magic hovered in space, watching the planet that was in flames with smiles on their faces.

The smiles on the faces of the seven Primordial experts were relaxed. After tens of thousands of years of hard work, they finally managed to get this planet into the final path they had planned. Although they did not have the rights to let their own disciples harvest the fruits of their labor and become a Primordial expert, all of them would receive a massive reward from the Heaven and the Buddhist League, and their status in each of the powers would increase significantly.

The three Buddhas would receive the seeds of the Eight Treasures Lotus Throne from Lord Buddha as the reward. After careful nurturing, each of them would have an innate-spirit-artifact-grade lotus throne that would have an amazing defense.

The three Primordial Immortals would be given a set of materials each, which they could use to craft a Primordial Artifact. In the process of crafting, they would be personally instructed by several almighty experts of the Daoist League, to ensure they could craft a powerful natal immortal artifact of their own.

As for the Fiend Immortal who had dominated a region in the Fiend Realm, he would be granted concessions from the Heaven and the Buddhist League to control one hundred small outer heavenly realms over the next period, during which and where he could freely kill any mortals and cultivators, and use their souls and blood essences to temper himself a supreme fiend body.

This was the reward they would receive for all these years of hard work in cultivating this planet. Working in mortal worlds was hard. The human race was too complex and fickle; so even in the mortal worlds, there were too many unpredictable factors that could ruin their efforts. It was fortunate for them to be able to grow a planet to its maturity and then be rewarded so handsomely.

All the immortals and buddhas were looking at the planet in war and flames with the glad eyes of an old farmer looking at the bumper harvest in the fields.

Just six hours later, the destructive attacks on the planet entered an uncontrollable state. The secret bases of the seven major powers from both sides simultaneously launched all their Doomsday Thunders, covering the entire planet's surface.

More than 200 billion mortals had been killed in the initial bombardment, and all the rest were left wailing and weeping in the flames of war.

Almost all the living people knelt on their knees, crying and praying for the help of their immortals and buddhas.

At that moment, the fear of impending death made these people's faith become extremely pious. The pure and vast power of faith swept across the planet's surface like hurricanes and tsunamis, wave after wave. Through his Chaotic Divine Eyes, Wu Qi saw that the power of faith had turned into a blinding light, stacking up into a wall of light that was hundreds of miles thick on the planet's surface. Before long, the thin light was compressed into sticky spirit fluid, and the power of faith was increased exponentially.

Tens of thousands of immortals and buddhas stepped on clouds in space, all wearing a relaxed smile. At Buddha Futu's call, King Tang Qiu strode toward the planet with a large bone talisman in hand, rushing toward the immense virtue and power of faith happily.