Chapter 582: Treating the Symptom, Not the Cause

For Divine Kingdom Wars below the greater god level, large-scale slaughter was mainly carried out by mortal troops, but things were different at the greater god level.

As far as the greater gods were concerned, they themselves were already powerful enough to spread their laws throughout most of the world, so they didn't need the mortals' help at all.

No matter how seamlessly the mortals could cooperate, how could they compare to the greater gods' laws, which act according to the owner's wishes?

Gu Nan was doing this right now.

He continuously eroded the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom with his laws. Even with Austin and Daisy joining forces on defense, the number of inhabitants was still decreasing. Some died at Gu Nan's hands; some ran away because their faith wasn't all that strong to begin with.

This phenomenon was very normal and had nothing to do with realm or strength. After all, there were too many places to protect; no one could create a perfect defense.

Moreover, the invasion of a Divine Kingdom was not a war. Lost land could still be reclaimed, but it was impossible to resurrect dead inhabitants.

As the Divine Kingdom's residents died one after another, the power of the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom continuously weakened, also reducing Boswell's own power.

Although he was still constantly condensing his laws and trying to hit Gu Nan's stigma, the frequent failed attempts bewildered Boswell slightly.

He began to understand why Baal resolutely bet his entire Divine Kingdom earlier just to create a flaw on Gu Nan.

Such an enemy was too hard to deal with!

Even if there was already a major weakness, the other party still used various methods to hide the weakness and relied on his own strengths to counter it.

It was hard to imagine just how despair-inducing a perfect Evil God must be.

As the oldest greater god in the world, the Ruler of Ashen Cyan unexpectedly became distracted for a split second, so at this instant, Gu Nan suddenly punched Boswell!

Boswell's divine body exploded, and Austin couldn't help giving a small sigh from the side. He knew that it was no longer possible to save the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom.

Boswell decided to fully devote himself to research many years ago and hadn't paid much attention to combat since.

Although he still had his combat instincts honed over the years, he couldn't keep up with the rhythm of such a high-intensity battle at all and was led on a wild goose chase by Gu Nan.

As Austin expected, losing his divine body yet again dealt heavy damage to Boswell, almost causing him to lose control of his Divine Kingdom. The Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom soon fell.

Once again, their attempt failed. No one imagined that Gu Nan could still forcibly eat away at the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom while being imprinted with the Stigma of Life and Death.

But that was also the end of it, because Gu Nan had no chance of destroying the remaining two Divine Kingdoms.

Be it Daisy or Austin, both wielded absolute authority over their Divine Kingdoms and could easily hit the Stigma of Life and Death.

Oh, that's right, there was also a Ruler of War Eugene who still managed to keep an intact Divine Kingdom, but no one had time to care about him right now.

As for Boswell and Baal, they'd already gone to the Light and Darkness Divine Kingdoms respectively.

Now that the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom had already fallen, Austin and Daisy could also stay inside their respective Divine Kingdoms. With the owners there, there was no safer place than those two Divine Kingdoms.

On the other hand, Gu Nan had already withdrawn from the World of Gods after destroying the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom.

As an experienced player who finished the Third Round before, Gu Nan knew very well that the closer the god-slaying journey was to the end, the stronger the enemies' defenses.

Of course, these difficulties were nothing for Tier 14 players. However, the Stigma of Life and Death caused some trouble for Gu Nan.

He wasn't in a hurry to continue the invasion after forcibly erasing the Ashen Cyan Divine Kingdom, and finding Fu Cheng was also not a pressing concern.

What he currently needed was a surefire strategy to neutralize the flaw of the Stigma of Life and Death—if it couldn't be completely removed, then even treating the symptom, not the cause, was fine.

And there just happened to be a temporary solution in the Myriad Heavens.

...

"I want Fa Kong's life," Gu Nan directly stated his goal without any hesitation.

There was no expression on Jiu Po's face. Although part of his laws were directly left behind in the World of Gods, he didn't completely lose his combat effectiveness.

Lu Wen looked at Gu Nan in slight amusement. "Why?"

He also followed Jiu Po over earlier, but he ultimately didn't show himself. His absolute strength was insufficient, and his original intention was to lurk in the shadows for a chance to sneak attack the gods, but he didn't expect to never even get the chance to attack.

Gu Nan answered calmly, "I need an item that can reduce law attack damage. Fa Kong's śarīra should be able to do this."

A normal cultivator definitely would not use strange descriptions like "item" and "attack damage reduction", but neither of them found it strange when it came to Gu Nan.

Gu Nan wasn't a very normal person to begin with.

"I thought it was because Fa Kong offended you back then, and you're finally planning on taking revenge now." Lu Wen shook his head.

At first, Monk Fa Kong regarded Gu Nan as an evil demon, so he joined forces with Dream Immortal, Huo Kui, and Song Fei to gather the power of four Unified Dao figures to seal Gu Nan.

Ultimately, at the cost of substantial loss to Dream Immortal's laws and the destruction of Monk Fa Kong's personal treasured weapon, most of Gu Nan's laws were finally sealed.

But the result was that a short five years later, Gu Nan took his fully-regenerated body to Three Buddha Heaven to retrieve his laws.

"Fa Kong's śarīra can indeed be used to make a defensive weapon." Jiu Po said, "But do you know how to refine weapons?"

"No," Gu Nan replied matter-of-factly. "You powerhouses have all lived for tens of thousands of years. There must be someone among your ranks who can refine weapons, right?"

Lu Wen laughed again and said, "There's indeed a weapon refinement grandmaster among the Unified Dao cultivators, but he may not necessarily be willing to help you."

"Who?"

"Song Fei."

Gu Nan thought for a moment. "He'll help me."

...

Three Buddha Heaven.

To be precise, it should be the ruins of Three Buddha Heaven, because it was already wrecked. After the war came to an end, only a few Buddhist disciples gathered here again.

Gu Nan returned from the World of Gods after single-handedly destroying a major Divine Kingdom; his achievements were once again spread throughout the Myriad Heavens.

People personally witnessed his rise from obscurity to fame, to attaining Unified Dao, and then to the top of the world.

With Gu Nan's current strength and status, he was an apex existence even among the Unified Dao bigshots. This could be seen from the fact that his astral world was still perfectly intact.

Monk Fa Kong had a deep understanding of this, so when Gu Nan appeared before him, he'd already given in and apologized without even waiting for Gu Nan to speak.

"Amitabha. What happened back then was due to this humble monk's impulsiveness." Monk Fa Kong clasped his hands together. "Benefactor…"

"There's no need to apologize. I just came to get something from you today." Gu Nan's figure slowly stepped out of the void and stopped in front of Monk Fa Kong.

Monk Fa Kong started to have a bad feeling, but he still forcibly calmed himself. "Benefactor is now fighting powerful enemies for our Myriad Heavens. If you want to borrow some items from this humble monk, please feel free."

"I'm not borrowing it." Gu Nan emphasized, "I'm taking it. I won't give it back to you."