Sovereign of the Ashes

Outside Typhoon Plane, the Holy Dragon King watched as Overgod Marduk drew farther and farther away. It could not help but growl under its breath.

“Damn it, he got away again.”

Blood trickled down Gongsun Wuji’s arm, dripping steadily onto the Son of Heaven Sword.

It was not just his blood. Mixed within it was Marduk’s overgod blood, Gongsun Wuji’s own overlord blood, and some of the Holy Dragon King’s dragon blood.

In Gongsun Wuji’s philosophy of battle, there was no such thing as a stalemate. No such thing as holding back.

Almost every move he made carried killing intent, forcing Marduk into a defense he could not fully maintain.

And it was in that battle against Gongsun Wuji and his allies that Marduk finally felt something he had nearly forgotten...

The sense of impending doom.

That was why he withdrew so quickly, fleeing back to his homeplane to fortify his defenses.

Marduk had spent far too long away from battles against opponents of his own caliber. His resilience had dulled, and his ability to endure pressure had weakened.

“Do we give chase?” Gustavo appeared before Gongsun Wuji and asked.

Although the overlord-level demon was far older than Gongsun Wuji, the Dawn Emperor remained the nominal commander of this battlefield. On certain military decisions, even Gustavo had to defer to him.

Gongsun Wuji watched as Marduk’s Ark rapidly vanished from the medium-sized plane battlefield. After a moment, he shook his head.

“Reinforcements from the Gallant Federation are already on their way. Forcing a pursuit now wouldn’t serve much purpose. Worse, it could leave us exposed to attacks from both fronts. Since Marduk has already been defeated, we should focus on claiming the spoils already within our grasp.”

He swept his gaze across the battlefield.

“Order all legions to quickly wipe out the remaining resistance around Typhoon Plane. That overgod gathered a large number of mid and low-tier forces to reinforce this place. He may have escaped, but the ordinary gods under him cannot!”

His voice turned cold.

“We’ll join the hunt as well. Let’s eliminate those god-level beings.”

When an overlord-level entity personally joined the hunt against beings below Rank Six, it was nothing short of a disaster for those god-level powerhouses.

During the Clash of Civilizations, no one had time to care about reputation. Bullying the weak? Taking advantage of the vulnerable? None of that mattered.

Only tangible spoils of war mattered.

The Dawn Empire had come to the battlefield of the Magus Civilization for two reasons.

One was to repay the debt of gratitude it owed the Magus Civilization from years past. The other was that the Dawn Emperor himself wanted to earn a little extra on the side.

As he watched one colorful divine relic after another being added to the Dawn Empire’s treasury, Gongsun Wuji, leader of the Martial Civilization, felt an inexplicable sense of peace settle over him.

Perhaps this was the unique joy of watching one’s savings grow.

“By the way, the Gallant Federation is about to send reinforcements to this star domain. Where are our reinforcements coming from?” the Holy Dragon King could not help asking as the mop-up operations on Typhoon Plane drew to a close.

Gongsun Wuji replied, “I haven’t received any notice yet, but Sister Bev told me not to worry. Our reinforcements will arrive soon as well.”

Gongsun Wuji did trust Bev to some extent. After all, they regarded each other as older sister and younger brother, and had spent a long time together during their childhood.

There was no way Bev would simply stand by and watch Gongsun Wuji fall here.

Besides, even if reinforcements from the Gallant Federation did arrive, it was not as if Gongsun Wuji and his forces were incapable of fighting back.

In terms of overlord-level combat power, the numbers were still three against three. There was no reason for the Dawn Empire to be afraid!

Although Gongsun Wuji appeared to be a gentle, refined emperor on the surface, deep down, he had a stubborn, unyielding streak.

That was something he had inherited from his father.

***

After the Florenza War ended, Sein quickly made his way to the medium-sized plane battlefield where Gongsun Wudi was.

The battle here had ended rather quickly too.

Sein had barely arrived when the fighting was already drawing to a close.

“I heard the Divine Descendants’ overgod fled back to his homeplane in a panic, causing the morale of the Divine Descendants World legions still holding the frontlines to collapse completely. Their defenses crumbled soon after?” Sein asked as soon as he entered Gongsun Wudi’s tent.

At that moment, Gongsun Wudi was studying the map before her.

The war on this medium-sized plane had long since reached a stage where she no longer needed to intervene personally.

During this battle, Gongsun Wudi had once again joined forces with several other Dawn Empire generals to eliminate two more Rank Six beings from Divine Descendants World.

The war in the Divine Descendants Star Domain had only just begun, yet so many Rank Six combatants had already fallen at Gongsun Wudi’s hands.

Looking at this heroic and spirited female general, even Sein could not help feeling a trace of awe.

Inside Sein’s laboratory, there was still a living White Jade Dragon that Gongsun Wudi had captured.

Most of that creature’s arrogance had already been worn away.

He wondered when Gongsun Wudi would come to claim that female dragon.

In response to Sein’s question, Gongsun Wudi shook her head.

“Many battle reports are exaggerated. They’re meant to boost morale. It was not quite a panicked retreat, but the Divine Descendants’ overgod has indeed withdrawn to his homeplane. As a result, we have made significant advances on every front. In such a short time, we’ve already captured nearly half of this vast star domain. Even we did not expect things to progress this quickly.”

“Moving forward, we need to press the attack as quickly as possible. Capture more planes, seize favorable terrain, and use our superiority in occupied planes to prepare for the Gallant Federation’s reinforcements,” she said to Sein.

She also took the opportunity to make the Dawn Empire’s objective clear. Before the Gallant Federation’s reinforcements arrived, they intended to occupy nearly two-thirds of this vast star domain completely!

The Divine Descendants Star Domain alone contained more than 1,600 complete planes.

If resource demiplanes with development potential and broken planes with strategic value were included, the total number would be higher!

Judging from Gongsun Wudi’s tone, they intended to seize more than a thousand complete planes in short order.

However, considering that nearly eight hundred planes had already changed hands, taking another two hundred or so before the Gallant Federation’s reinforcements arrived did not seem impossible.

Not with the current momentum of the war.

The Dawn Empire’s advance was simply too fast. Far faster than Sein had expected.

And the main reason for that was none other than the Divine Descendant Overgod, Marduk, who was truly quite the character.

At first, this guy had refused to join the battle at all. He simply holed up in his homeplane, doing who knew what.

Later, when he finally entered the fray, he was faced with a three-on-one assault from the overlords of the Magus Civilization. Not long after, he quickly retreated to his homeplane, even abandoning a large portion of the Divine Descendants World legions in the process.

An overgod like that was truly a rare sight... so rare that even Sein could not help wanting to meet him.

Could that guy be one of ours, hidden within the Gallant Federation’s ranks?

Sein had followed Gongsun Wudi throughout the campaign and had seen the general state of the war in the Divine Descendants Star Domain for himself. Even so, he could not help entertaining such an absurd thought.

Shaking his head with a smile, Sein asked Gongsun Wudi what she needed him to do next.

The legion under Sein’s command was considered a formidable force on the battlefields of the Divine Descendants Star Domain.

In terms of performance, when compared to forces of a similar size, it was in no way inferior to the elite Raging Tiger Army under Gongsun Wudi’s command.

Since Sein had initiated this topic, Gongsun Wudi did not hold back. In one breath, she assigned him three offensive missions across three different planes.

These missions were flexible. If Sein completed them quickly enough, there were still nearby planar battlefields where he could lead his forces to provide support.

Gongsun Wudi was intent on making full use of Sein.

Since the end of the Florenza War, Sein had not had a single moment to spare for his own experiments.

And judging by the current state of the war in the Divine Descendants Star Domain, he would not have much free time to pursue his own interests for a long time to come.